An Unscrupulous Sneak Attack!

The Level of these Skeleton Warriors was much higher than those on the first floor of the Skeleton Dungeon, almost all around Level 10 or 12, with particularly outstanding Defense and other balanced stats.

Surrounded and ganged up on by such monsters, an ordinary Level 8 Player would absolutely have a hard time dealing with them, but unfortunately, Xiao Yang was already showing signs of becoming a "stat monster."

Despite enduring the barrage of arrows just now, Xiao Yang's Health was still in good condition, having lost only 22 Health, about a tenth of his total.

A green number popped up again, indicating that the small amount of Health Regeneration was still ongoing, recovering about 1 Health every ten seconds, and this regeneration could happen during combat.

This bit of Health Regeneration made even the Dark Dispelling Lantern's out-of-combat healing feel less appealing. As for the World Membrane (Health), its effects would only become more significant once Xiao Yang's Health increased.

It was likely that his Health would replenish on its own before long, but now was not the time to get distracted. Xiao Yang's battle with the Skeleton Warriors before him was imminent.

With a fierce strike of Justice's Condolence on the Skeleton Warrior in front of him, Xiao Yang initiated the attack. Leveraging the effect of the Heavy Strike skill, he dealt 10 damage, battering the Skeleton Warrior and causing its Soul Flame to flicker.

Justice's Condolence in Xiao Yang's hand barely paused as he pushed through the attacks from the two Skeleton Warriors behind him to aggressively assault the one in front.

One hit! One hit, and another hit! There were no fancy maneuvers, just simple, unadorned consecutive blows.

And so, this Skeleton Warrior was brutally beaten to death by Xiao Yang's straightforward assault.

Justice's Condolence wasn't particularly effective against these Skeleton Warriors. To be more precise, the three Blackrock Prison equipment pieces that Xiao Yang was currently using as his main gear were not very effective against Undead.

This was partly because some Undead were resistant to mental debuffs, coupled with Justice's Condolence being a typical debuff weapon that was weak against high-defense enemies. For instance, the Skeleton Warrior Xiao Yang was aggressively attacking remained unfazed until it was beaten to death.

But as they say, brute force works wonders. Although Xiao Yang didn't have suitable equipment, many skills, or a profession yet, he had the stats!

A true "stat monster," his basic attacks were terrifyingly powerful, making him seem unbeatable.

With that, enduring the onslaught of attacks and landing his blows, Xiao Yang quickly reduced the three Skeleton Warriors to piles of bones.

During the battle, Xiao Yang realized something that made him speechless: it seemed that even the common monsters on the second floor were comparable to the final boss of the first floor, the Skeleton Warrior.

"So, the bosses of early-game maps are just stray dogs in later maps, huh?"

He understood power creep, but wasn't this escalating a bit too quickly?

After clearing out the few faster Skeleton Warriors around him, the large group of Skeleton Warriors behind them closed in.

Xiao Yang glanced back and saw a Skeleton Knight clad in rusted plate armor, wielding a chain hammer, mixed within the horde of skeletons.

He immediately turned and ran. This was not a fight he could afford to take. The end of the corridor ahead was the brightly lit Safe House. The Skeleton Warriors were hot on his heels, proving that maxing out Agility was the right choice.

Xiao Yang was now running at full speed!

He dashed into the Safe House and quickly pulled the iron door shut, locking the bolt. Instantly, the Skeleton Warriors' movements halted.

They seemed to have lost their target, freezing in the corridor.

The pause caused them to bump into each other. The faster Skeleton Warriors at the back slammed into the ones who had stopped, and with a crash, bones scattered everywhere.

They seemed unable to detect the Safe House's presence, though this wasn't absolute. The Skeleton Knight was repeatedly patrolling the corridor.

Its intelligence seemed higher than that of ordinary Skeleton Warriors.

As the Skeleton Warriors around it gradually retreated, the Skeleton Knight continued to pace back and forth in the corridor.

Xiao Yang noticed this. He was currently peeking outside through the observation window on the Safe House door.

This seemed like an opportunity. The Skeleton Knight and the other Skeleton Warriors were separating. He might be able to take advantage of this chance to focus on killing the Skeleton Knight first.

However, there was a problem: the Safe House wasn't far from the small plaza. If he initiated combat and failed to defeat the Skeleton Knight smoothly, it would inevitably trigger another massive Skeleton disturbance.

[Skeleton Knight
Rank: Normal
Level: 20
Health: 200
Damage: 21
Defense: 48
Agility: 13
Traits: Undead Mind, Minion Summon, Undead Command, Heavy Weapon Mastery, Heavy Armor User, Knight's Instinct]

This was the Skeleton Knight's status panel.

Its Defense stat was extremely exaggerated. Xiao Yang's current regular damage was only 12, with 8 from Justice's Condolence and 4 from the Blackrock Prison Guard Regulations' Strength conversion.

Even if the Skeleton Knight was staggered, the Blackrock Prison Guard Badge activated, and the Heavy Strike skill doubled the damage, facing such exaggerated Defense would still be a struggle.

Truly a frustrating set of numbers!

And this was the best-case scenario. In reality, Xiao Yang might struggle to even trigger a proper stagger, even if he swung his club until it smoked.

However, it wasn't impossible to try.

Xiao Yang still had the Elite Killer's 5 points of unavoidable damage and the Undead Slayer (Skeleton)'s 2 extra damage.

After a brief moment of thought, Xiao Yang made his decision, but he still had to wait for the Skeleton Warriors to completely clear out.

During the wait, Xiao Yang downed a Health Potion. He still had many Health Potions left from his last big shopping trip. If he had time, it would be safer to craft some Unstable Life Entanglers, but he likely didn't have enough time now.

The Skeleton Knight began to turn back, exposing its rear to Xiao Yang.

The opportunity had arrived! Since such a chance presented itself, he absolutely couldn't let it pass. He had to seize it!

The instant the Skeleton Knight turned back, exposing its rear, with a piercing creak, Xiao Yang violently yanked open the Safe House door and lunged out. He immediately initiated a backstab, plunging Justice's Condolence fiercely into the back of the Skeleton Knight's head.

Please continue reading, friends!