Mastery

Golden City!

After coming down from the pyramid, Liu Zhi could not help but sigh.

Two days had already passed, and he had roughly sorted out the situation outside the pyramid.

Although the pyramid in Golden City had not been completely destroyed like everything in the Underworld Palace, the prompts that had appeared at nearly every step before were now gone. The entire city stood empty, like a deserted city without people or sound.

It had taken Liu Zhi a full two days to walk through the inside of the pyramid. He had seen many things in the pyramid's murals, but none of them were useful. The information had nothing to do with skills; at most, it had taught Liu Zhi some of the city's history.

The gold hidden in the corners of the pyramid, however, had convinced Liu Zhi that the city's name was well deserved: Golden City.

The various gold ornaments made it clear just how much the city's former residents had loved gold.

Among those ornaments were quite a few snake-shaped designs. From pendants to rings to armlets, practically every imaginable accessory came in a snake-shaped form.

But that was not what Liu Zhi wanted. He was willing to spend time searching here partly to find the knowledge hidden within the city, and partly to find a way to survive here.

After all, he still had nearly five months to spend here. He had no food and no place to live. Although he could temporarily sleep in the pyramid, it was not somewhere he could stay for long. He had to make proper preparations.

Besides, Liu Zhi had not forgotten that a competitor was still being generated. That competitor might have arrived too late, but the danger he brought had not vanished. Liu Zhi had to ensure his own safety.

If he had not been forcibly assigned here by the mission, Liu Zhi might even have considered taking the gold he had found and leaving Golden City for the nearby port.

There, he would have plenty of things to learn and practice, such as cooking skills or finding someone to help him train his swordsmanship.

How could it be like now, where the only way he could train his swordsmanship each day was by fighting his subordinate, the Corpse Soul Naga?

Speaking of which, after taking the job, Liu Zhi discovered that being a necromancer was not as good as he had imagined.

The biggest reason was that he lacked mana.

As a necromancer, his mana-to-spirit ratio was 1 to 10. In other words, under normal circumstances, he would only have 33 mana. But among the necromancer's three-piece set, the crystal skull doubled his mana, so he currently had only 66 mana in total.

And as the Master of the Underworld, he had to provide the Underworld Palace with 30 mana every day to ensure that it would not disappear.

One could imagine that without the mana-doubling effect, after providing the Underworld Palace with its daily mana support, he would only be able to summon three Undead Servants.

At that point, let alone organizing some undead army, he would have to think carefully even before sending out two or three Undead Servants to do something, wondering what he would do if he ran out of mana.

He could not really become the sword saint-type mage he had imagined, could he?

What left Liu Zhi even more speechless was that the Corpse Soul Naga was not an ordinary Undead Servant. One mana could summon the Corpse Soul Naga out of the Underworld Palace, but sending her back actually cost another mana point.

That was not even the worst part. If he did not send the Corpse Soul Naga back, he had to spend 3 mana each day to replenish her mana.

When the Corpse Soul Naga was injured, he also needed to use mana to maintain her. Calculated this way, just one Corpse Soul Naga required around 5 mana for basic upkeep. If a major battle was expected, he had to reserve at least 10 mana for her.

That left Liu Zhi with only 26 mana that he could freely use.

For a mage, what could that little mana accomplish? A somewhat more powerful spell might drain it all in just two casts.

So Liu Zhi helplessly realized that, until he mastered skills that could further increase his spirit, he would probably have to rely on swordsmanship and items like Lightning Coral to survive.

"Seriously, this is clearly a city full of mystery and curses. Why can't I find a single new skill?"

Just as Liu Zhi was complaining, the Corpse Soul Naga slithered out from the nearby jungle.

At this point, the Corpse Soul Naga's four arms were no longer empty. Her two upper arms respectively held Liu Zhi's poisoned longsword and the dagger taken from Mr. York.

Meanwhile, during her swordsmanship practice with Liu Zhi, the Corpse Soul Naga had already learned [Sailor's Basic Swordsmanship], [Indigo Chasing Wind Swordplay], and [Z-Secret Sword]. Although he could not tell her swordsmanship level, whenever they sparred, Liu Zhi felt that she used those sword styles even better than he did.

This dealt a serious blow to Liu Zhi's confidence. He had thought he was quite talented with the sword, but now it seemed he was merely ordinary.

But Liu Zhi quickly regained his confidence. He found that when he sparred with the Corpse Soul Naga, his swordsmanship experience still improved, and the rate was not particularly slow. Every so often, +1 or +2 notifications would pop up.

If Liu Zhi had not been trying so hard these past few days to search for hidden magic or mysterious knowledge in Golden City, he might have spent a long time practicing with the Corpse Soul Naga.

While Liu Zhi searched for and analyzed the contents of the various murals, the Corpse Soul Naga would voluntarily explore the surrounding area to see whether there was any food to be found. After all, Liu Zhi was still alive, and he needed to eat.

The Corpse Soul Naga had returned with some leaves freshly cut from trees in her empty main arms. According to Liu Zhi's Jungle Survival Knowledge, these were edible plants.

This had been Liu Zhi's food for the past two days.

Taking the leaves from the Corpse Soul Naga, Liu Zhi could not help asking, "Didn't you find any other creatures? Even a rabbit would do."

The Corpse Soul Naga shook her head.

"What about the river? No fish either?"

The Corpse Soul Naga shook her head again.

"Forget it. Go keep watch again. Pay attention to the exit. If the giant snake comes back, remember to warn me."

The Corpse Soul Naga glanced at Liu Zhi and prepared to leave.

At that moment, Liu Zhi suddenly noticed something. He called out, "Wait."

The Corpse Soul Naga stopped and stood motionless before Liu Zhi.

Liu Zhi stepped forward and examined the Corpse Soul Naga. Before long, he sighed. "I knew it. Free is the most expensive."

Then Liu Zhi raised his hand, and 1 mana entered the Corpse Soul Naga's body.