The heavy blow landed on a skeleton's head. As its bones crumbled apart, a white speck of light appeared before Xiao Yang, making him let out a surprised gasp. He seemed to have never seen a light like that before.
Picked up.
It was a skill.
Heavy Blow Quality: White Type: Skill Effect: Deals an attack that inflicts double damage. Description: Bring it down hard. That's right, just like you imagined—bring it down hard!
The skill was pretty interesting. It was the first time Xiao Yang had gotten a skill from one of these skeletons. He learned it right away, then tried it out on the air in the dim corridor.
It felt quite strange. The moment the thought crossed his mind, Heavy Blow activated. There was no casting time and no cooldown. If he had to describe it, it was just like the skill's description said.
Bring it down hard!
In the empty corridor, Xiao Yang swung the Wilderness Hatchet in his hand and brought it down with a fierce whoosh.
It was only a white-quality skill, but it was pretty useful, and Xiao Yang was pleased with it. He just had to be careful. Though the blow required no casting time and had no cooldown, it consumed stamina. And when it struck something, the force would rebound, leaving him briefly staggered. He couldn't use it carelessly in a fight; he had to pick his moment.
After using Heavy Blow several times in a row, Xiao Yang was starting to run out of stamina. He walked a few steps forward, found a corner to sit in, and set the Dark Dispelling Lantern at his waist down in front of him. Placing it there would let its effects work better.
These peculiar items weren't simply a string of numbers on a panel when it came to actually using them.
He was nearly done exploring this area.
After chopping down a good number of skeletons, Xiao Yang was close to leveling up.
This God Game really demanded a lot of grinding. Xiao Yang had been crawling around the Skeleton Dungeon for six or seven days, and he still hadn't even passed level five. If this were some ordinary online game, could you imagine? Come on, even if he'd just left the game running, he'd have ground his way to Grand Unity by now.
Bathed in the Dark Dispelling Lantern's warm light, Xiao Yang's stamina soon recovered. He got up from the corner, and just then, Little Bone came running out from somewhere and stopped in front of him, raising both its little hands high.
Xiao Yang spotted a glimmer of gold: two or three coins.
"Are those for me?"
Xiao Yang asked Little Bone, and it nodded.
The coins weren't equipment. It seemed Little Bone had noticed Xiao Yang collecting them earlier and had gone out of its way to find some for him. Xiao Yang didn't let its kindness go to waste. He took the coins, patted its little head, and praised it with a smile.
"What a good kid. Such a good kid!"
Little Bone seemed a little embarrassed. It lowered its head and vanished from before Xiao Yang.
That little interruption lifted Xiao Yang's spirits considerably. People were social creatures, after all. He had wondered if choosing the rusty hatchet and the sickly-sweet cake in his first round of three choices might have been better.
But he quickly put those thoughts aside. If he hadn't had the company of this adorable little fellow in the dim dungeon over the past few days, he probably would have gone crazy, muttering to himself.
All right. Only one last section of the western area remained. Xiao Yang picked up the Dark Dispelling Lantern and hung it back at his waist, ready to press deeper into the dungeon.
Xiao Yang had a bad feeling about this. In the final unexplored part of the western area, he'd come across something strange: a straight slope descending at an angle, with candles along its edges suddenly lighting up all at once.
The setup immediately reminded him of something he didn't want to think about.
"I've got a bad feeling about this..."
The thought had barely crossed his mind when a creak rang out. The iron door behind him suddenly closed on its own.
That wasn't all. The ceiling slowly opened, and a huge, spherical object began descending from above. Xiao Yang instinctively cast Probe Skill at it, but all he learned was its name and a brief description.
Bone Ball
Description: It's a ball.
Yes, it was a ball—a ball made of a huge pile of skeletons. The skeletons piled together were still alive. Souls flickered in and out of view within the mass of bones, and the skeletons even reached their hands out from the Bone Ball, groping wildly like tentacles.
The sight was enough to make anyone lose their appetite, but Xiao Yang had little time to gawk. Run! Run, now! He was on a slope, and the Bone Ball was a ball. A ball. What did that mean? It meant it could roll.
"This is really bad!"
There was no time to hesitate. He had to run!
The clatter of bones scraping against the ground behind him was chaotic and grating. The end of the sloping passage was already right in front of him, and a sturdy Stone Tablet stood not far away.
He didn't even need to look back. Xiao Yang was sure he'd die if that ball rolled over him!
Damn it! Who came up with this awful sloping trap?!
Quick, quick! Think of something! He was going to die! He was going to die!
There! There it was! Xiao Yang spotted a way out: an old, broken chandelier tangled up in a frayed rope.
Maybe if he broke that rope, the chandelier hanging down from above could save him. But—but there was no way he could precisely break the rope while sprinting!
At this critical moment, Xiao Yang didn't have time to worry about anything else. He shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Little Bone!"
In a situation like this, only someone with the Skeleton Rogue title might be able to do it.
Little Bone didn't let Xiao Yang down. It emerged from the darkness and, amid the clatter of its bones, hurled the broken little knife in its hand with all its strength. The throw was dead-on. The knife struck the rotten strands of rope tangled together across the ceiling like a spiderweb, revealing a way out.
With an ear-splitting creak, an old chandelier dropped from above. Behind Xiao Yang, the Bone Ball was about to catch up and crush him beneath it. In this dangerous moment, Xiao Yang leaped high and grabbed the swaying chandelier, lifting himself into the air.
His weight made the creaking even louder, but the old chandelier, suspended from rusty iron chains, held.
Xiao Yang was saved, but Little Bone was left behind. Every time the little fellow emerged from its hidden shadow, it seemed to need some time before it could hide again.
After throwing the broken little knife, Little Bone stood there, dazed and motionless.
It didn't seem like a big deal. Little Bone was a summoned creature, after all; Xiao Yang could summon it again after a brief cooldown. The little fellow was about to be crushed beneath the terrifying Bone Ball.
Just then, a figure flashed by, and a large hand suddenly reached out.
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