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With the skeletons guiding them in their stiff but precise manner, Gu Su and his group soon arrived at the place where they had clashed with the goblins earlier.
He swept his eyes over the surroundings and immediately concluded that this dilapidated street corner was the goblins' lair.
This had once been a street corner. The roots of trees had long since shattered the concrete underfoot, and cracks packed with rotting leaves and dirt crunched beneath their feet.
The manhole cover by the roadside had long since vanished, leaving only a pitch-black hole.
Stench mingled with the smell of blood poured out of it in waves, burning their nostrils.
Within half a meter of the sewer entrance, the weeds had been roughly cleared away, exposing bare concrete.
Near the entrance, crooked pieces of wood and tough vines had been lashed together into a crude fence, which barely counted as a defensive fortification.
Beneath a tree outside the fence, a simple fire pit ringed with stones blazed brightly.
The flames licked at the grill above, where half the corpse of a humanoid creature with a dog's head had been skewered.
Blackened flesh sizzled and dripped with grease, giving off a strange, charred aroma.
It was a kobold, a race renowned for its weakness in the Western fantasy world.
Beside the fire, five goblins sat in a circle, clutching bones gnawed full of holes.
When Gu Su appeared at the end of the road with seven armed skeletons, they froze like rats caught by the tail, their faces filled with shock and panic.
The tall goblin the skeletons had specifically pointed out was especially striking.
It stood a head taller than its kin, wore a ragged animal hide, and clutched a red banner in one hand.
The goblin chief's tiny eyes held none of its earlier arrogance now—only naked fear.
Its green pupils shrank to pinpoints as it stared fixedly at the line of skeletons standing in formation behind Gu Su.
The meat on the grill continued to sizzle, but the atmosphere had already turned icy.
"Take them out!" Gu Su's low command had barely fallen when the seven skeletons surged forward.
The four skeletons wielding spiked clubs charged at the front. Their thick bony arms swung their weapons with a whistling rush, and they slammed the clubs into the nearest goblins.
A dull thud and the goblins' piercing shrieks and curses erupted at once. Two goblins were knocked to the ground, struggling to get back up.
One goblin was killed outright.
[Your skeleton (summon) killed a goblin (Level 1). You gained 2 experience points, and your summon gained 4 experience points.]
Seeing this, the tall goblin chief leapt to its feet.
It raised the red banner high in both hands. The cloth snapped in the wind as it twisted and began to dance a bizarre, eerie dance. Faint red light shimmered along the edges of the banner—it was clearly trying to use its resurrection ability to revive its fallen underlings.
But Gu Su had been prepared. The three skeletons guarding the rear immediately changed direction and closed in from three sides, moving faster than the goblin could have imagined.
Taking advantage of the opening, Gu Su fixed his gaze on the charred, grease-covered kobold corpse on the grill. Pale gray necromantic energy gathered at his fingertips, and he called out in a deep voice, "Raise Skeleton!"
[You successfully used Raise Skeleton and obtained a skeleton (Level 0). Raise Skeleton gained 1 experience point.]
Pale gray energy instantly enveloped the kobold corpse. Its charred flesh dissolved at a visible speed, leaving behind only a set of bones marked with grill lines.
The newly created skeleton had barely crawled up beside the fire before Gu Su ordered it to charge at the goblin chief, who was being held at bay. It stumbled forward, the wooden stick skewering it still stuck through its body.
The goblin chief had no idea that an attacker would suddenly appear behind it.
The new skeleton slammed into its back, sending it hurtling forward and throwing it off balance. The red banner nearly slipped from its grasp as it crashed onto the gravel-strewn ground.
The encircling skeletons seized this fatal opening. They raised their wooden sticks, stones, and spiked clubs and brought them crashing down on the fallen chief.
After just a few blows, the goblin chief's head was smashed like an exploding watermelon. Red and white fluids splattered across the ground, staining the surrounding stones.
[A skeleton (summon) killed a Goblin Shaman (Level 1). You gained 3 experience points, and your summon gained 9 experience points.]
As soon as the system notification sounded, the three remaining goblins lost all their fighting spirit.
They stared at their chief's corpse and let out shrill, terrified screams. Without even thinking of fighting back, they turned and fled in a frenzy, one toward the sewer entrance and the others toward the depths of the ruins.
Under these circumstances, how could the skeletons let the goblins get away so easily?
Before Gu Su could give another command, the skeleton squad had already formed a pincer movement on its own.
Several skeletons hurried around to block their path while the others chased close behind, giving the fleeing enemies no chance to catch their breath.
After only a few exchanges, the three panicked goblins were cornered. A few screams later, all three had fallen to the skeletons.
[A skeleton (summon) killed a goblin (Level 1). You gained 2 experience points, and your summon gained 5 experience points.]
[A skeleton (summon) killed a frail goblin (Level 1). You gained 1 experience point, and your summon gained 3 experience points.]
[A skeleton (summon) killed a weak goblin (Level 1). You gained 2 experience points, and your summon gained 3 experience points.]
Only after all the goblins had fallen into pools of blood did Gu Su take two slow steps forward. He glanced over the five goblin corpses strewn across the ground, raised his hand toward them, and called out in a deep voice, "Raise Skeleton!"
With a series of sharp cracks, all five goblin corpses burst apart at once.
Pale gray necromantic energy churned around the bone fragments. Three new, yellowish skeletons slowly crawled out from the pile of corpses. Faint ghostly flames flickered in their hollow eye sockets as they obediently bent down and awaited orders.
[You used Raise Skeleton (Level 1) 5 times and succeeded 3 times. You obtained 3 skeletons (Level 0). Raise Skeleton proficiency +5.]
As the three new skeletons rose, Gu Su's gaze settled firmly on one of them.
It was the skeleton transformed from the Goblin Shaman's corpse. A shallow star-shaped mark was etched into its forehead, a faint light moving through the grooves—the distinctive sign of a spellcaster skeleton.
[Skeleton (Level 0, summon): Experience (0/100), Attack 1, Defense 1, Health 10, Mana 5, Skills: None]
A glint appeared in Gu Su's eyes, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
Skeletons with spellcaster potential were relatively rare—rare finds indeed.
At the very least, there was no doubt it could eventually grow into a suitable skeleton mage.
This haul cheered Gu Su up considerably. Still, he understood that the success rate of raising skeletons on a battlefield couldn't match the success rate of using a graveyard together with Raise Skeleton.
No wonder everyone wanted a golden-finger talent.
The difference between having one and not having one was enormous.
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