Big Hand Holds Little Hand, No Fear of Slipping

Looking down, he saw that it was not a corpse's hand at all, but a huge palm covered in coarse grayish-white bristles, with several fingers!

Like a gigantic spider, it had been lying in ambush beneath the soil. Now it suddenly burst out, clamping tightly onto Su Li's shinbone. Its fingertips exerted force, intending to crush the passing little skeleton to pieces.

"F-Fingercreeper?!"

As a seasoned victim, Su Li had deeply ingrained PTSD toward this creature. That night at Kalia Fortress had taken away his youth.

A chill shot up his spine and straight to the crown of his head.

"Let go, damn it!!" Fear at its extreme became ultimate fury.

Without a second thought, Su Li swung the Corrupted Iron Sword in an arc through the air and stabbed down like a crazed sewing machine!

"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!" In an instant, Su Li thrust at least ten times!

"Die! Die! Die!"

[Crimson Corruption triggered!]

The red crystals on the blade suddenly lit up with crimson light.

The Fingercreeper convulsed violently. Huge patches of Dark Red blotches instantly spread across its formerly grayish-white skin.

The wounds pierced by the sword no longer bled. Instead, they gave off a foul stench, as though its life force were rapidly draining away.

The grip on Su Li's leg bone instantly loosened.

"Perfect!" Seeing this, Su Li kicked the Fingercreeper's wrist, leaped backward with the momentum, then gripped his sword with both hands and viciously stabbed at the execution point from his memories!

"My sword's huge, bear with it!!"

"Pfft!" The Corrupted Iron Sword plunged deep in, pinning the Fingercreeper to the muddy ground like a specimen.

The Fingercreeper struggled violently a few times. Its dozen or so fingers curled together in agony before finally falling still, red corruption fumes continuously rising from its body.

[Mutated Finger Bug killed. Keep Touching Tata-Kai quest completed.]

[Experience +30 (140/200)]

[Attributes gained: Spirit +1, Strength +2]

[Basic Swordsmanship proficiency +10]

"Phew..." Su Li pulled out his sword and looked at the disgusting lump on the ground, still emitting red smoke. The lingering fear remained.

"Spirit +1? Why did killing this thing increase my Spirit? Was it because it looked so SAN-draining that beating it meant overcoming my psychological trauma?"

Still, this battle had proven the worth of the [Corrupted Iron Sword].

"Sure enough, for a little skeleton with weak-ass stats, Throwing Shit Style is the right answer. One hit with this sword, and Crimson Corruption alone is enough to make it suffer. If I can get some Shit Pots to go with it later, I'll be the 'Shit Throwing Machine' of the Aiseland Continent... Pfft, that title sounds awful."

Just as Su Li lamented that he was about to embark on a road of no return—

"Clack, clack..." The corpse on the ground suddenly twitched.

Su Li warily stepped back half a pace. "What does that mean? It isn't fully dead yet?"

The Fingercreeper, which had clearly died, actually turned itself over again.

But this time, its state had changed.

Its formerly grayish-white skin had completely turned Dark Red, and it emitted corruption aura from the same source as the iron sword in Su Li's hand.

It did not attack Su Li. Instead, it lay docilely on the ground, tapping its fingers lightly against the earth like a little dog awaiting orders...

[Passive activated: Corrupted Enslavement]

[Current servant: Rotten Finger Bug (Lv4)]

"Huh? That extremely low-probability enslavement effect actually triggered?"

Su Li examined the ugly-yet-cute monster, and much of the disgust in his heart faded.

"Turn left!" he issued a tentative mental command.

The Fingercreeper immediately obediently shuffled two steps to the left.

"Spin around! Do a handstand! Make a V-sign!"

Watching the Fingercreeper clumsily attempt to form a "V" with its fingers, Su Li grinned.

"It's a little ugly, but it's excellent Cannon Fodder. You'll handle scouting and stepping on traps from now on, Pipi Finger!"

Su Li was in high spirits, feeling that he had taken another step toward the "Undead Calamity."

However, he did not let himself get carried away.

"Since there's one Fingercreeper here, and these things usually live in groups..."

Su Li nimbly climbed a nearby Withered Tree and looked out from his elevated vantage point.

What he saw made his scalp tingle again.

Not far away, dozens of Fingercreepers of varying sizes crawled densely across the ground.

At the front, a colossal Fingercreeper as large as a car moved slowly forward. Its bloated giant hand even wore a purple ring, and deep furrows were pressed into the ground wherever it passed.

"Eugh, so disgusting..." Su Li instantly chickened out.

"With this disgusting mob group, charging in with my current little body would be like delivering myself to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Even if I'm just a skeleton, they'd slurp me clean until not even marrow remained."

Of the thirty-six stratagems, retreat was the best.

"Pipi Finger, let's go! Big hand holds little hand, no fear of slipping."

Su Li jumped down from the tree and directed the enslaved Fingercreeper to scout ahead, while he sneakily followed behind and skirted around the dangerous area.

After feeling their way through the post-rain forest for about twenty minutes—

A field of jagged rocks appeared ahead, and the deathly aura in the air became noticeably thicker.

[Map area successfully explored: Nameless Burial Mound]

[Experience +50 (190/200)]

"Just 10 more experience to level up!" Su Li's eyes lit up.

Mass Grave—just hearing that name felt comforting! For undead creatures, it was practically like coming home.

And a place like this was bound to have plenty of low-level undead wandering around.

His gaze swept over the area, and he soon spotted a dilapidated cave entrance among the rocks.

Weathered bones lay scattered around the entrance, giving it an ancient air.

"Time to raid a tomb!" DNA known as "Zhua Genbao" awakened within him.

"This environment, this atmosphere... it feels like I'm back in the draugr crypts of Elder Scrolls 5. Hopefully I can loot a dragon shout... Ah, no, some grave goods."

Su Li tightened his grip on the Corrupted Iron Sword and entered the cave with Pipi Finger.

The cave was cold and dry. Extinguished torches had been wedged into the walls long ago, and broken bones covered the floor.

He had only taken a few steps.

"Clack-clack-clack-clack..." A teeth-grating sound of bones scraping together came from ahead.

A tall figure emerged from the shadows. It was a skeleton warrior a full head taller than Su Li.

It held a damaged battle-axe, and its bones had yellowed from the erosion of time, but they looked much sturdier than Su Li's newly formed bones.

Its empty eye sockets swept around the area, its gaze stopping on Su Li for a second.

Then...

It scratched the crown of its skull in confusion and did not attack.

By its logic: That was bones, and it was bones too, so that meant they were on the same side.

Though this ally had a strange hand following beside him, that exceeded the processing capacity of its pitiful brain.

So it turned around and continued deeper with stiff steps, leaving its flaw-filled spine exposed to Su Li.

"Hehehe, perfect opportunity!" Looking at the utterly defenseless skeleton's back, Su Li let out the sinister chuckle of a villain.

As a player who had carried the spirit of a "treacherous foreigner" to the very end in every Soulslike game, how could he possibly miss such a perfect chance for a backstab?

He ordered Pipi Finger to stand by, then tiptoed behind the big skeleton like a ghost.

Then Su Li raised the Corrupted Iron Sword with both hands, aiming at the fragile connection point in the big skeleton's cervical vertebrae.

"Sorry, brother. I need to borrow your experience!"

"Eat this—Sticky History Supreme Sword!!!" Su Li roared inwardly.

"Whoosh—Smack!!" The Corrupted Iron Sword crashed down onto the back of the big skeleton's head with tremendous force.

"Crack!!" A crisp explosive sound rang out.

The poor skeleton warrior did not even have time to turn around and see who had so shamelessly violated the rules of honor before its entire skull was sent flying.

Without its head's control, its tall skeleton frame swayed, then collapsed with a clatter into a heap of broken bones.

"One-shot! What more is there to say?" Su Li stylishly sheathed his sword.

"Sure enough, skeletons like this are as weak as I am... Wait, did I just insult myself too? That hurts."

[Lv4 Wasteland Tomb Skeleton killed]

[Experience +15]

"Uh, why didn't I get any attributes? Was it because it was too weak?"

Though he gained no attributes, his experience bar was finally full.

[Congratulations, level up! Lv3 → Lv4 (5/400)]

[Free Attribute Points gained: 2]

"Level four!" Su Li looked at his newly increased stats, feeling delighted.

"As for these 2 Free Attribute Points..."

He glanced at Pipi Finger, which had run incredibly fast during the fight just now, then thought of that terrifying group of giant Fingercreepers.

"No matter how high my Strength is, if I can't win, I still have to run. No matter how high my Constitution is, it only means I can take a couple more hits."

"As a cautious player, when facing an invincible enemy, you need enough speed to maneuver around them—or... make a strategic withdrawal."

Su Li waved a hand grandly. "Put them all into Agility!"

[Agility: 5 → 7]

After allocating the points, Su Li felt much lighter. The stiff sensation of his bones rubbing together as he walked had also eased considerably. Now, he could probably run faster than an average wild dog could walk.

"Yoshi, I'm in perfect condition."

Su Li looked at the unfathomably deep tomb passage, and his ghostfire flickered.

"If there's already a Lv4 guard monster at the entrance, there has to be a treasure chest inside, right?"

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