The final blow landed hard on a Skeleton Crossbowman's head, sending its skull flying. Its Soul Flame went out, and its body crumbled apart, leaving bones scattered across the ground.
The Skeleton Crossbowman dropped the crossbow it had been holding: an ordinary Soldier's Crossbow. Xiao Yang decided to keep it. The Skeleton Archers he'd rushed up to and beaten had already dropped quite a few bows and arrows.
But he wasn't very good at using them. Bows and arrows weren't easy to handle. Crossbows were a little easier by comparison.
Still, neither weapon could compare to charging in and wildly swinging Justice's Condolence.
While furiously grinding through Skeleton Warriors, Xiao Yang had raised his Heavy Strike skill to Level 5. That was the skill's limit. Its damage multiplier wouldn't increase any further, but using the skill now cost far less stamina than it had at first. There was also Thrust: the skeleton spearmen dropped Skill Scrolls for it, too.
But the long-armed skeletons didn't make up a particularly large portion of this skeleton army. By the time Xiao Yang had cleared the entire force, he'd only raised Thrust to Level 3. It could now deal five points of damage that bypassed defense.
The spoils didn't end there. Next came a pile of battered leather armor and broken shields. With enough enemies, the drop rates for all kinds of equipment went up.
Xiao Yang completed his Adventurer's Five-Piece Set: Adventurer's Wide Hat, Adventurer's Armguard, Adventurer's Boots, Adventurer's Linen Trousers, and Adventurer's Breastplate. He'd gotten the hat, breastplate, and trousers while grinding through Skeleton Warriors.
A question suddenly occurred to him: why were these Skeleton Warriors dropping Adventurer's gear?
After a brief moment of thought, he came to a rather grim conclusion: adventurers had died at the hands of these Skeleton Warriors, then become Skeleton Warriors themselves.
He didn't equip the Adventurer's Wide Hat, but he did put on the Adventurer's Breastplate and Adventurer's Linen Trousers. At last, he was rid of that bizarre look. He now had the bearing of a capable adventurer—at least, below the neck.
The Adventurer's Breastplate gave him two points of defense and one point of agility. The Adventurer's Linen Trousers gave him two points of agility. It was a shame the Adventurer's Five-Piece Set had no set bonus. Otherwise, Xiao Yang would definitely have taken off the Wraith Helm and gone for a full, authentic adventurer look.
Xiao Yang's attributes now looked like this.
Level: 8 Health: 200(200) Strength: 13(13) Defense: 26(15) Agility: 27(20) Remaining Talent Points: 3
He was still fifty experience points short of leveling up. Xiao Yang pursed his lips at the slow pace. The experience decay in God Game was ridiculous, and each level required far too much experience. If he wanted to level quickly, God Game offered only one path: fight across a large gap in level and rank.
When Xiao Yang defeated the Dungeon Guardian, he'd gone up three levels at once.
But elite bosses in their normal state were no easy opponents. Finding a Dungeon Guardian in such a severely worn-down, weakened state was practically like winning the lottery.
What a headache.
Maybe Xiao Yang had simply been leveling too quickly. After all, it hadn't even been two full months since he'd become a God Game player.
After completely clearing out the Skeleton Warriors, Xiao Yang had the small plaza to himself. Following a satisfying, fierce, and almost deadly bout of grinding, he could finally spare some energy to take a proper look around the plaza, which had been packed with Skeleton Warriors not long ago.
Once the Skeleton Warriors were cleared, a rope bridge that didn't look particularly safe came into view behind them.
Fortunately, even the Underground Crevasse hadn't managed to tear the bridge apart. It had only left it somewhat dangerous.
"Just a little dangerous, right?"
The rope bridge connecting the two sides was stretched taut. Most of the wooden planks laid across it had fallen away, leaving it suspended over the darkness below. Xiao Yang couldn't help swallowing.
If he had a choice, he wouldn't take this route. But there was no other option; it was the only way across. Besides, he wasn't ready to enter the next area just yet.
The small plaza wasn't empty at all. In fact, it was full of supplies: bundles of arrows, heaps of bottles and jars, iron plates for repairing armor, and even a massive iron anvil. Was this some kind of outpost?
Thinking it over, Xiao Yang searched the plaza by torchlight. The effort wasn't wasted. After a thorough search, he found some useful things.
An iron chest. When Xiao Yang opened it, he received a stack of Incendiary Grenades.
A Stack of Flame Grenades Quality: Fine Effect: Can be split into three Incendiary Grenades. Description: "Just like I said, throw them out, then watch those guys howl in the flames!" A pyromaniac had made this remark while being burned alive. Flame Grenade Quality: Fine Effect: Creates a field of flames, dealing ten points of continuous burn damage per second to creatures inside it.
Xiao Yang could put these to good use. He could toss a few at the Corpse Mushroom later. Other than that, he found a map carved into the Stone Tablet in the plaza, along with a line of text that had grown somewhat indistinct.
The crude, crooked map had a few names on it: Windmill Town, Blackwater River, Kingdom Post Station, and one name circled in a large loop—Blackstone City.
Xiao Yang couldn't make much sense of the map, but he recognized the names Windmill Town and Blackstone City. Windmill Town was the home the Wandering Grudge had longed for, while Xiao Yang had three pieces of equipment related to blackstone.
Clearly, the story behind the Hidden Map was closely connected to the Skeleton Dungeon where Xiao Yang now found himself.
But what exactly had happened here in the past?
There still wasn't enough information to make a reasonable guess. Perhaps he'd find more clues deeper in the dungeon and in the hidden areas ahead. With that thought, Xiao Yang turned his gaze to the faded words carved beside the blurred map.
I will stake everything I have to defend this place until you return!
Knight: Hadden
In the light of the Dark Dispelling Lantern, Xiao Yang read the words. They seemed to be an oath. He seemed to have learned the name of that Undead Knight. Though he didn't know what had happened here, the knight named Hadden had certainly kept the oath he'd made.
He had indeed stood guard here until the day he died.
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