Skeleton's Vitality Blade Technique

The skeletons spawned far from the cellar exit, allowing the Thin Dog and the Demonic Fox to escape without being attacked.

Upon emerging, the ground was empty.

The Raiders had been outsmarted and hadn't returned.

The two of them ran back to the large rock they had previously hidden behind.

The Demonic Fox held a Health Potion in his hand, ready to drink it at any moment.

Thin Dog: "Slurp slurp~"

The Demonic Fox observed behind them and noticed the skeletons stopping at the cellar entrance. They lingered for a moment before going back down, not pursuing them.

If they were on open ground, the two of them really couldn't outrun these two agile skeleton warriors.

The Demonic Fox breathed a sigh of relief: "Good thing, otherwise we would have had to use our healing potions."

Thin Dog: "Yeah, slurp slurp~"

The Demonic Fox sat down to rest and analyze the situation.

"Based on the recent battle, those skeletons seemed to appear out of nowhere. They aren't intelligent creatures. Our enemy might not be the skeletons themselves, but someone who can control them. Perhaps this person is the mysterious individual the Lord asked you to find earlier."

Thin Dog: "I think so too, slurp slurp~"

The Demonic Fox took out his jade stone and rubbed its smooth surface. "And this mysterious person wants this item we have. Since they couldn't get it, they immediately tried to kill us, proving that this jade is very important to him."

"But one thing I don't understand is why, the first time we rescued the Lord, this mysterious person controlled skeletons to help us kill the Raiders? Today, he didn't show himself and just tried to kill us directly."

Thin Dog: "Hmm, I think it's a matter of importance. The situation when rescuing the Lord might have been something this mysterious person did casually to help. But today, we are carrying the precious jade, which might have special meaning to him. So, without asking for it and without understanding what we were saying, he controlled the skeletons to snatch it. That's probably the logic, slurp slurp~"

The Demonic Fox snapped his fingers.

"That makes sense! I mostly understand now. Clearly, this is a plot point deliberately arranged by the game designers. This mysterious person helped us before and is trying to kill us today, proving he's a neutral faction character. Our choices might determine the direction of his future storyline."

Thin Dog: "Ah, yes, yes, yes, slurp slurp~"

Demonic Fox: "At the same time, I have a guess... but I'll have to see when we go down again. I say! Thin Dog, can you stop smacking your lips all the time!"

The Thin Dog, who was eating beans, froze: ∑(O_O;)

"Eating replenishes stamina, and only then can my health recover. My health is full, who can eat beans without smacking their lips! Try it yourself, here!"

The Thin Dog took off two rings and a necklace and threw them to the Demonic Fox.

After putting them on, the Demonic Fox's health began to recover rapidly at a rate of 6 points per second, his physical condition improving as if his own blood-producing cells had entered 6x speed.

A pang of hunger hit him!

The Demonic Fox took out a handful of beans: "Slurp slurp~ Slurp slurp~"

Demonic Fox: (⊙_⊙;)

Two minutes later, the Demonic Fox, fully healed, returned the equipment to the Thin Dog.

With both of them at full status, they entered the cellar again.

In the cellar corridor, the two skeletons were still standing there.

The Thin Dog activated [Armor Piercing Aura], and a faint yellow glow covered him and the Thin Dog's long spear.

"Focus fire on this one!"

The two skeletons probably didn't expect the two of them, who were already severely injured, to return. They were immediately hit with two golden critical strikes by the Thin Dog and the Demonic Fox, one strike each!

[African Thin Dog dealt a critical hit to Skeleton Warrior! HP-403!]

[Ghost Face Demon Fox dealt a critical hit to Skeleton Warrior! HP-337!]

The two of them directly extinguished the two wisps of ghost fire in the skeletons' skulls.

Snap

This skeleton scattered into a pile of bone fragments.

[Jointly defeated Skeleton Warrior, Experience +8]

The experience entered his body.

The remaining skeleton, although it began to counterattack, no longer posed a threat to the two of them.

After familiarizing themselves with the skeletons' combat methods and rhythm, the two could now dodge some attacks through prediction. In one minute, the Demonic Fox lost 240 health, while the Thin Dog only lost 154 health before taking down the skeleton.

[Jointly defeated Skeleton Warrior, Experience +8]

In this short time, the two of them had each gained 32 experience points.

They were one step closer to leveling up.

"If the skeletons could keep respawning, wouldn't we be able to reach level 2 today?"

"Makes sense! This game is good in every aspect, except for the slow leveling speed. If this really is a fixed infinite monster spawn point, that would be excellent."

"The experience required to go from level 1 to level 2 is 500 points. If the two of us work together, we only need to defeat 63 skeletons."

They've already defeated 4, so will 63 be far behind?

For people like the Thin Dog and the Demonic Fox, who were all hardcore gamers, this was just a light grind.

As the two chatted, four red lights simultaneously appeared on the other side of the passage.

The Demonic Fox bent down and picked up the four skull heads from the ground. "Let's retreat for now!"

They weren't at full health, and fighting two fully prepared Skeletons at once would be too difficult, requiring them to waste Health Potions.

Returning behind the large rocks again, the two Skeletons chased them to the end of the cellar and stopped coming out.

The Thin Dog stated with certainty, "The monsters' aggro range is the cellar entrance! Once we're outside this range, we can reset their aggro and break their lock-on. This is much safer than farming Raiders."

The Demonic Fox looked at Lin Tang, who hadn't returned from luring the Raiders yet, and nodded in agreement.

"Raiders, they just chase you relentlessly until you die."

The Thin Dog looked curiously at the four skull heads in the Demonic Fox's hand, somewhat puzzled. "You think these things... are valuable?"

"I'm not sure, but the Skeletons' bones were all shattered, with only their skulls remaining intact. All four were like this... This might be a clue. The designers wouldn't include useless elements."

"Especially top-tier game designers like Sentinel, who designed 'Apocalypse OL.' Do you really think he doesn't know how to make games?"

Tossing the skull heads behind the large rocks, the two each replenished their beans and used three pieces of equipment to restore their health before heading back into the cellar.

Crackle!

With neither side having active skills, they exchanged a flurry of basic attacks.

Gush!

During the fight, a Skeleton Warrior's bone blade slashed across the Demonic Fox's arm, drawing a long trail of blood.

[You have taken Vitality Damage from a Skeleton Warrior, HP -93]

[You have entered the Vitality Decay status, your HP is continuously decreasing, HP -10]

"Ouch! My arm!"

The Demonic Fox's arm was injured, making it impossible to hold his weapon. The Thin Dog quickly covered him as he retreated.

This round, they came out without defeating a single Skeleton.

The Demonic Fox's clothes were torn by the bone blade, revealing a deep, bone-revealing gash. The flesh around the wound was gradually withering.

His life force was draining at a rate of 10 HP per second.

The Thin Dog quickly put all three of his equipment pieces on the Demonic Fox, which slowed the HP reduction rate to 4 per second.

The withering speed of the wound noticeably decreased.

After 10 seconds, the [Vitality Decay] status disappeared. The flesh around the Demonic Fox's arm wound began to slowly recover, resuming its 6x healing speed.

The Demonic Fox also breathed a sigh of relief.

"I was just armor-broken... It's probably because the armor on my arm was too low. This Skeleton's blade is strange. It's a new type of damage, following physical, piercing, and radiation. The description sounds like it can strip away life itself. Luckily, we both wore two pieces of equipment before coming here, otherwise, we might have been killed by that Vitality Blade Technique."

Each of them wore a top and pants looted from Raiders. The material was unknown but exceptionally tough.

Although they were ordinary quality equipment, they significantly increased the armor value for both of them.

"Looking at it this way... Raiders are truly treasures all over. They drop potions, accessories that restore health, gems that increase Attack Capability, and crucially, armor. We need to kill more. Let's each get a full set of Raider gear."

Seeing the Demonic Fox's injuries gradually healing and the withered flesh regaining its vitality, the Thin Dog also relaxed.

"Next, when we farm Skeletons, we need to protect our weak points and try to direct all attacks onto our armor. Let's go! Let's keep hacking!"

The Demonic Fox grabbed the Thin Dog. "Wait! We've been having fun, but what about Lin Tang?"

The Thin Dog froze.

"Oh~ I forgot."

"Let's go, we'll follow the coordinates on the map to find him. We can farm together after dealing with the Raiders. It'll be much easier with three people."

The two gradually moved away from Raider Camp 1.

From within the cellar, a sigh of relief could faintly be heard.

Daily update of 5K words, more coming early morning, but the update time is too unsociable, don't wait up.