Player A: "..."
Player B: "..."
A Whale Player Has Infiltrated Our Ranks!
Any player who had spent some time on the forums was familiar with the troop system, treasure tiers, and the like.
"Remnant Soul (Random)"
"Description: Using this item can randomly recruit one troop. There is a 90% chance of recruiting a Common One-Star troop, a 9% chance of recruiting a Common Two-Star troop, and a 1% chance of recruiting a Common Three-Star troop."
This was the most common type of Troop Remnant Soul, also known as the Gambler Remnant Soul.
Although the vast majority of players could only recruit crippled-grade troops with this kind of Remnant Soul, many players still chose to take a gamble.
Where there were Random Remnant Souls, there were naturally also Remnant Souls guaranteed to recruit a specific troop.
For example, "Remnant Soul (Little Skeleton)," "Remnant Soul (Goblin)," and "Remnant Soul (Militia)."
Random Remnant Souls were more expensive than Remnant Souls for Goblins and Little Skeletons, but were far cheaper than two- and three-star Remnant Souls such as "Remnant Soul (Skeleton Soldier)," "Remnant Soul (Archer)," "Remnant Soul (Guard)," and "Remnant Soul (Centaur)."
Three-Star Troop Remnant Souls were not only expensive, but also extremely scarce.
A veteran player complained:
"I was wondering why the price of Three-Star Troop Remnant Souls had kept rising lately, even surpassing that of rare battle souls. So it was you people who had driven the price up!"
"The might of Whale Players is truly terrifying."
"Poor people like me can't compete at all. We can only honestly rely on our own diligence and hard work."
Mu Yuan sighed.
He also wanted to compete for a place in the trial rankings.
Even the Game Second Generations coveted the trial ranking rewards, let alone an ordinary person like him. He had to seize every opportunity he could.
"But those Game Second Generations probably already have a dozen or even dozens of Three-Star Troops. I only have one Skeleton Soldier, Deathbone, so the gap is still quite large."
He was still too weak. He had no power.
Although Deathbone was not the same as a normal Three-Star troop.
Mu Yuan switched back to the game.
"Notice: Your Skeleton Soldier 'Deathbone' has reached Level 2 of Tier Zero."
While he was browsing the forums... no, while he was diligently gathering information, Deathbone had also been working incredibly hard. Not only had he been figuring out how to use his skills, he had also been continuously absorbing Soul Sand. At last, he had raised his level to LV2.
At Level 2, Deathbone's strength, speed, and energy reserves had all increased, though the increase in combat power was nowhere near as great as that from evolution.
"It consumed about 3g of Soul Sand."
He had obtained a total of 8.8g of Soul Sand earlier. Half of it had been used to restore the Little Skeletons, while the rest had been concentrated on Deathbone.
Deathbone had lived up to his expectations and leveled up quickly.
"I heard that troops absorb Soul Sand at different speeds, and Deathbone... took about six hours. He's undoubtedly among the faster ones."
This was a troop's Hidden Talent.
Mu Yuan was not surprised. He had to say it again: My son Deathbone has the Appearance of an Emperor.
"From this point onward, the amount of Soul Sand required for each level will multiply, and so will the time required. So raising a troop to Level 9 of Tier Zero before advancing it to Professional Grade won't be easy."
"After all, Professional Grade is practically the domain of veteran players."
"However..."
After browsing the forums for so long, he had also seen several players brimming with confidence and determined to rank on the Novice Trial leaderboard. These players seemed confident that they could advance a troop to Professional Grade before the trial began—in other words, within a month.
"That means that if I want to obtain the additional, generous Heaven and Earth Gift as well, I'll need to raise at least one Professional Grade troop. To be safe, I should raise three, four, six, seven, eight, or nine of them."
"It's time to set out into the vast world."
Mu Yuan silently focused on the Evolution Points, and a faint box appeared before him.
"Skeleton Evolution Points: 1.03"
He had roughly calculated that ten Little Skeletons could produce one unit of Evolution Points in six hours. That amounted to evolving four Three-Star Skeleton Soldiers in a day, which was not a slow rate.
However, that was the maximum rate with the Little Skeletons working at full capacity.
Quite a few Little Skeletons had been injured earlier, with missing arms and broken legs, so their rate of accumulating Evolution Points was naturally slower. They had only gathered enough for evolution from noon until now.
Soon, Mu Yuan evolved a battered but highly accomplished Little Skeleton into a Skeleton Soldier.
He named it "Bone Two."
Bone Two learned the skill Cleave during its evolution as well, proving that this was not an isolated case, but one of the effects that came with the power of evolution.
Even among Common Three-Star troops, the difference between having a skill and not having one was like heaven and earth.
However, Bone Two's intelligence was far inferior to Deathbone's. It was still a foolish, dull-witted skeleton, and even after learning Cleave, it still could not use it for a while.
Pathetic.
If you're bad, practice more.
Bone Two did not understand the commands Mu Yuan entered, but that did not matter. He had Deathbone relay them, and Bone Two gradually understood. With Deathbone's guidance, this dumb skeleton would sooner or later be able to use its skill.
Mu Yuan did not keep Deathbone there to continue giving guidance.
Now that he had evolved a second Skeleton Soldier and the other Little Skeletons had mostly recovered, it was time to take the first step in his campaign across the Sea of Stars.
He glanced outside. The sky over Baijiang City had already gone completely dark, and the real-world time had reached exactly eight o'clock.
A day on the Eternal Continent was also twenty-four hours, and the time zone of the game region where he was located was similar to that of the Xuan Kingdom. However, the Eternal Continent had longer daylight hours, and the sky was still bright at eight in the evening.
That was the basic condition for going out.
He was still a complete newbie. If night had already fallen, he might as well wash up and go to sleep.
The coverage of a Novice Territory was roughly one to two hundred meters in diameter.
Everything within its range was visible at a glance to Mu Yuan, who sat before his computer, but this god's-eye, wide-angle, bird's-eye view was limited to the territory.
Farther away, white mist slowly churned, appearing as a pitch-black area on the map.
Mu Yuan began to conduct a Troop Review.
He definitely had to bring the Undead Bone General. Besides that, he personally selected three utterly ordinary Little Skeletons. Their main purpose, of course, was to protect this weakling of a lord.
He did not want to leave the territory, either.
But once a troop stepped outside the territory, the lord could no longer control it remotely and could only have the troop follow its previous orders.
Therefore, taking troops out to battle was standard practice for new players.
Deathbone already possessed self-awareness and had the foundation for acting independently. But letting him travel far away alone was still too much for Father Mu to bear.
He really had worried himself sick over his skeleton.
Soon, one human and four skeletons arrived at the edge of the territory, where dense white mist churned before them.
As Mu Yuan stepped forward, the drifting white mist began to recede, and the scene beyond the territory gradually became clear.
At the same time, Mu Yuan's field of vision was shrinking.
The view from high above slowly descended into a third-person perspective.
"Notice: You have left the territory."
Wisps of white mist drifted around towering trees more than ten meters high. Fallen leaves lay piled up, the road was rugged, and the enormous paw prints of ferocious beasts could occasionally be seen. They added a hint of terror to the silent forest.
Mu Yuan had already familiarized himself with the precautions for going outside, so he was not surprised by the change in perspective. But the field of vision, reduced countless times over, still made him feel unaccustomed and unsafe.
No wonder the strategy posts advised players without confidence to simply stay inside their territory and not venture out.
There was a huge difference between fighting inside and outside the territory.
He grew increasingly cautious.
Deathbone walked at the front, pushing aside the bushes.
Mu Yuan stayed firmly in the middle of the three Little Skeletons. This formation was more favorable for issuing commands. Unfortunately, the Little Skeletons were still too short, and their bones let in the wind. Replacing them with three Skeleton Soldiers would have been about right.
The bushes suddenly began to shake, accompanied by a rustling sound.
Deathbone's soul fire flickered as he stared fixedly at the patch of grass.
A wild Gray Wolf had appeared!
They had barely taken a few steps, yet they had already encountered a monster? Judging by the movements of these Gray Wolves, they were probably planning to attack his territory.
They had brought about their own deaths!
There were fewer Gray Wolves than in the previous group, only seven of them. However, the leading Gray Wolf had glossy fur and was noticeably more robust than the others.
"Gray Wolf (Common ★): Level 4 of Tier Zero."
It was a Level 4 Wolf King!
The Wolf King's gaze was vicious as it pounced.
Deathbone showed no fear whatsoever. He drew his battle blade, and strands of black light coiled around it.
Boom—!
The power of Cleave surged forth, smashing through the Wolf King's sharp claws with overwhelming force. Its momentum undiminished, the attack slammed into the Wolf King's vicious head, cutting through fur, flesh, and bone. The force was so tremendous that the wolf's entire body was crushed into a grotesque shape.
Deathbone's blow crashed down from above, slamming the Wolf King into the earth.
The remaining force scattered outward.
The ground cracked apart.
At the center of the cracked earth lay an unrecognizable lump of flesh—the Wolf King, already dead.
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