What appeared before Su Li was none other than a twisted, rotting tree-shaped creature.
It looked like a mass of countless moldy chunks of rotten flesh and dead tree roots forcibly kneaded together. Its skin was a sickly grayish white, covered in nauseating pustules and Rotten Moss.
It gripped a huge rotten wooden staff that might have been one of its own limbs—or a weapon.
[Corrupted Avatar (Area Elite), Level: Lv25] [Quest Triggered: Three Hundred Rounds of Battle] [Description: The Revered Corrupted Skeleton has encountered a Corrupted Avatar. Should you show it respect, or should the brave triumph when foes meet on a narrow path? It's time to prove what you're made of.] [Option One: You look like nothing but a head on a pike!] [Description: You're just a rotten log—how dare you block my way? Use your wits and skill to smash it to pieces! Difficulty: B, Reward: Strength +10, Faith +5, Experience +1000.] [Option Two: Don't shoot, I'm one of you!] [Description: Try to pass yourself off as one of the Corrupted and sneak by. Difficulty: D, Reward: Strength +3, Faith +1, Experience +200.] [Option Three: You go on ahead!] [Description: The enemy is too strong. Time to get out of here! As long as the green hills remain, there'll be no shortage of firewood. Difficulty: E, Reward: Agility +1, Experience +100.]
"What the hell? Just because I'm a Revered Corrupted Skeleton, I'm supposed to respect this thing?" Su Li grumbled as he quickly scanned the three options.
"Option One is only difficulty B?" Su Li mused.
"What does that mean? It means I can not only fight this thing, but I've got a great chance of winning!"
Having figured that out, Su Li's eyes instantly took on the calm of a professional gamer facing a boss.
"Pipi Dragon! Target straight ahead—charge!"
"Roar—!"
Tina Sanks could barely contain her fighting spirit. She drove off with all four limbs, darting forward like a bolt of lightning.
The Corrupted Avatar across from them was clearly enraged, too. A mere little skeleton saw it and chose to charge instead of running away?
It raised its enormous wooden staff and swung it down at Su Li.
"Whoosh—!" The massive staff whipped up a terrifying blast of air. If that blow landed, Su Li and Pipi Dragon would both be turned into mush.
"Too slow!"
Su Li didn't panic in the slightest. He silently counted down the windup of the enemy's attack.
"Three, two, one... Hard left!"
At the instant the staff came down, Pipi Dragon—whose mind was linked with his—performed a ninety-degree drift that defied the laws of physics.
"Boom!!!"
The staff slammed into the lake, sending red waves surging skyward. But Su Li had already steered Pipi Dragon around to its flank.
"Now! Flame Prayer!" Su Li swept his left hand across the blade.
"Vmm!"
The patterns on the Revered Corrupted Dragon Sword lit up. In an instant, a fan of flames shot out with Su Li's swing.
"Sizzle—!"
The flames touched the bark, coated in grease and rot, and burned furiously, like a hot knife slicing through butter.
The Corrupted Avatar began to thrash violently.
"Got it! Pull back!" Greed got rookies killed, and Su Li knew it well.
The Corrupted Avatar angrily swept its staff sideways, but Pipi Dragon's 70 Agility was no joke. A nimble leap carried it clear of the attack.
"Come on, chase me! If you catch me, I'll let you—hee hee hee."
For the next few minutes, a textbook marathon battle played out on the Corrupted Lake.
Su Li rode Pipi Dragon as they ran, while the Corrupted Avatar chased them but could never catch up.
At the sight, Su Li couldn't help reciting a poem: "Swallow, how can I live without you, Swallow!"
The Corrupted Avatar's strength was terrifying, but its slow turning speed left nothing but openings in Su Li's eyes.
"Right side! Blast it!"
Pipi Dragon opened its mouth and unleashed a torrent of Nether Breath.
The bitter cold instantly froze one of the Corrupted Avatar's legs at the root. Su Li's Flame Prayer followed right after.
The extreme cold and heat alternated, making the tough bark crack apart and burst into a shower of wood chips.
"Roar!!!" The Corrupted Avatar was completely losing its temper.
It suddenly stopped chasing and drove its staff hard into the ground.
"Gurgle, gurgle..."
The surrounding Corrupted Lake Water began to boil violently. Then countless sharp Corrupted Ground Spikes burst wildly up from the lakebed.
"An area attack? I know this one!"
Su Li narrowed his eyes. "Pipi Dragon, Brutal Charge!"
"Roar!" Tina Sanks tensed her Bone Armor and activated [Brutal Charge].
But it wasn't to attack. It was to unleash a burst of speed at just the right moment!
Like a semi-truck with no brakes, it barreled out of the attack zone before the spikes could rise.
"That was close. I nearly got skewered like a candied hawthorn." Su Li looked at the Corrupted Avatar, then jumped down from Pipi Dragon.
"You've used your big move, so now it's your vulnerable phase, right?"
After unleashing its ultimate attack, the Corrupted Avatar was briefly immobilized.
"This is the final round! Pipi Dragon! Death Roll!"
Pipi Dragon suddenly leaped into the air, its enormous body curling into a ball. Like a rapidly spinning, toothed wheel, it hurtled toward the Corrupted Avatar's chest.
The Corrupted Avatar seemed to sense the danger. It struggled to raise its staff to block.
"Trying to defend? Did you ask me first?! Fus—Ro!!!" Second Stage Dragon Roar! Unwavering Force!
"Boom—!!!" A translucent shock wave slammed into the Corrupted Avatar's massive body.
The blow didn't send it flying, but it interrupted its defense and threw it off balance, making it stagger backward.
Then Pipi Dragon, curled into a spinning wheel, crashed straight into its chest.
"Crack!!!" Wood chips flew everywhere as a huge section of the trunk in the Corrupted Avatar's chest was smashed apart.
The immense impact sent it toppling onto its back and crashing heavily into the Corrupted Lake.
"Strike while you're down! I'm ending you!" Su Li leaped into the air, his sword point aimed straight down.
"Burn to ash for me!!!"
"Shnk!"
With Flame Prayer blazing along its length, the sword pierced the golden-glowing core in the Corrupted Avatar's chest with pinpoint accuracy.
"Boom!" Flames flooded in and instantly ignited the rotten structure inside its body.
The Corrupted Avatar struggled violently, then dazzling firelight shone through from within.
A few seconds later, the Corrupted Avatar, which had been entrenched underground for who knew how many years, began to slowly dissipate.
[Congratulations! You have slain the Corrupted Avatar! Experience +2500, Strength +5, Faith +5, Constitution +5] [Quest Complete: Three Hundred Rounds of Battle] [Reward Received: Strength +10, Faith +5, Experience +1000]
Golden light flashed over Su Li again and again.
[Strength: 47 → 50 (Current Rank Limit Reached), Constitution: 39 → 44, Faith: 8 → 18, Experience: 5700/6200]
"Huh? The cap is 50?"
He'd originally thought the game's attributes could be stacked without limit. As long as he had experience and equipment, reaching 99,999 wasn't out of the question.
"Does that mean that without a second evolution, each of my attributes can only reach 50?" Su Li rubbed his chin.
System notifications continued to appear:
[Strength attribute exceeds limit. Automatically converted to Free Attribute Points: 12]
"I can get a refund? What a generous system!" Su Li was delighted.
"How should I distribute the points?" Su Li stared at his character panel, lost in thought.
"More health is always better! What kind of man can't last?" Su Li swept his hand through the air and filled his Constitution without hesitation.
[Constitution: 44 → 50 (Current Rank Limit Reached)]
With those six points added, his Constitution had reached 50 as well. Su Li felt like his bones were harder than hell.
"Six Free Attribute Points left..." Su Li inspected the remaining stats.
[Spirit: 41, Faith: 18, Agility: 18]
"My Spirit is enough for now. Dragon Roars and skills don't use much mana, and 18 Faith is enough for basic prayers."
"That said, this Agility..."
Su Li thought back to the battle. Though Pipi Dragon's mobility had let them show off against the whole field, he'd clearly felt a step behind when he jumped off its back to land the finishing blow.
If the Corrupted Avatar hadn't been stunned so badly, things could've gone very differently if his sword thrust had missed or he'd failed to land steadily.
"As a Magic Swordsman who has to fight at close range, I can't afford to be slow!"
"In martial arts, speed is everything! All points into Agility!"
[Agility: 18 → 24]
Once he'd allocated the points, Su Li instantly felt much lighter.
"Nice!" Su Li rolled his joints, which cracked crisply.
Now he had maxed-out Strength and Constitution, a good amount of Spirit, and a boost to Agility. He was a true six-sided skeleton!
After finishing his allocations, Su Li looked toward the spot where the Corrupted Avatar had disappeared.
A treasure chest giving off a faint golden glow lay there quietly.
"Holy crap? Golden Legend?"
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