Targeted Airdrop (Third Update)

"The Black Soul Stone's current growth rate is 310/300, and it possesses 200 points of Soul Essence."

"You can upgrade your exclusive equipment: Black Soul Stone to level 4."

"Upgrade?"

Bai Xiaowen chose yes without hesitation. The Spirit Realm Rules sent another message:

"The Black Soul Stone has successfully upgraded to level 4, with a current growth rate of 10/1000 and 200 points of Soul Essence."

"The Black Soul Stone's additional skill [Return of the Dead] now has a new effect: Targeted Airdrop."

"The fourth layer of the Black Soul Stone Enhancement Blueprint has been activated."

Bai Xiaowen first checked the skills for Targeted Airdrop.

[Targeted Airdrop: When using the Return of the Dead skill, you don't have to summon all creatures at once. Instead, you can precisely summon one or more of them and arbitrarily set their spawn locations. Note: The spawn location of the summoned creatures must not be more than 10 times your Spirit in a straight line from you.]

Bai Xiaowen read through the description of the "Targeted Airdrop" effect and said with a smile, "So when the Black Soul Stone is upgraded to level 4, it also has additional effects, just like skill levels and equipment enhancement levels. This Targeted Airdrop effect is very useful."

"Is it really that useful? The attributes and the number of summoned creatures haven't been enhanced at all," Li Shuyi, somewhat puzzled. "At most, it's a little more convenient; when you only need one summoned creature, you don't have to summon them all at once."

Bai Xiaowen shook his head and said, "The essence of this special effect lies in the word 'fixed point.' My understanding is that you can use summoned creatures to block some crucial skills... For example, if I am suddenly attacked and cannot dodge, I can summon a Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier to block the enemy's attack path. Trading a Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier for a crucial enemy skill is still very worthwhile."

Li Shuyi understood and nodded.

Then, Bai Xiaowen opened the fourth layer of the Enhancement Blueprint and checked the enhancement options.

[Enhancement Option 1: Added Corpse Demonfolk race, ' Stitched Monster '. Stitched Monster has Elite Template and requires 150 Soul Essence.]

[Enhancement Option 2: Added Bonefolk summon ' Skeleton Champion '. The Skeleton Champion has Elite Template and requires 150 Soul Essence.]

[Enhancement Option 3: Added Soulkin summon creature ' Vengeful Spirit '. The Vengeful Spirit has Elite Template and requires 200 Soul Essence.]

[Enhancement Option 4: Increases all of your Skeleton Mage's attributes by +4. Requires 150 Soul Essence.]

[Enhancement Option 5: Increases your Zombie 'Life Value by 100. Requires 100 Soul Essence.]

There are five enhancement options in total, but the required Soul Essence has not increased significantly and is still within Bai Xiaowen's tolerance range.

The first three options are to add new creatures, while the last two options are to enhance existing creatures.

Bai Xiaowen first ruled out the seemingly cheap enhancement option 5 (Zombie Doctor:...), while enhancement option 4 was quite good, giving the Skeleton Mage a +4 to all attributes. With Bai Xiaowen's Spirit Channeling skill upgrade and his inherent increase in Divine Might, the effect would be even more outstanding.

Moreover, Bai Xiaowen's Black Soul Stone contains the souls of several Yellow Turban Army Thunder-Summoning Warlock. In addition, Maki, the Redleaf Fief Lord who was just absorbed, is also a mage proficient in lightning magic.

The Skeleton Mage hasn't devoured the souls of these powerful mages, probably because its own strength is too weak. Once all attributes are increased by +4, it should be able to devour the souls of Leader Tier powerhouses, at which point it will receive an additional boost. An example of this can be seen in the evolution of Skeleton Warrior into Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier. Bai Xiaowen's Super Brain is quite adept at drawing inferences from one instance to another.

In addition, Bai Xiaowen was also very curious about the newly added "Vengeful Spirit" option in enhancement option 3. This option is the most expensive of the five, requiring a full 200 points of Soul Essence. In other words, according to the Spirit Realm Rules, the strength of Vengeful Spirit is beyond that of an ordinary Elite Tier.

According to Bai Xiaowen's judgment, there are two possibilities for the Vengeful Spirit: one is a highly agile assassin, similar to Elite Ghost; the other is a highly intelligent ghost mage, skilled in mind control spells. Moreover, the latter is more likely, since there are already Ghost among agile assassins.

The importance of control spells is undeniable. Bai Xiaowen's team has never had a Heroic Tier tank, yet they have been able to repeatedly kill Boss Tier. The reason is that he has a lot of control skills, and they have a high priority!

However, the above is just Bai Xiaowen's speculation. He is not sure about the definition and type of the "Vengeful Spirit," and 200 points of Soul Essence is indeed expensive. He does not want to take the risk.

The addition of "Stitched Monster" and "Skeleton Champion" highlights the importance of "Stitched Monster" to Bai Xiaowen; it's definitely a level above.

Judging from their names, both of them are melee types. The Stitched Monster is probably a tank with a strength bonus, while the Skeleton Champion is likely a melee DPS with a strength bonus.

Choosing one of these two creatures would take up a melee position, meaning that during a boss fight, summoned creatures or Li Shuyi would be stuck watching from the sidelines, unable to get a spot. Fortunately, Bai Xiaowen's [Return of the Dead] skill has been modified, allowing him to reserve one or two Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier to help himself or his teammates block crucial enemy skills. This frees up a melee attack position.

The Stitched Monster is a meat shield, which is a plus. It's just a pity that this kind of slow-moving Elite Tier meat shield is not only inferior to the tank-type awakened Hero Class, but also far inferior to Elite Tier tanks like Han Xu -- but, it's good enough that it's useful.

Therefore, Bai Xiaowen's priority is to first select enhancement option 1 "Stitched Monster," and then after accumulating more Soul Essence, to unlock enhancement option 4 "Skeleton Mage All Attributes +4." As for the remaining three options, they can be selected later depending on the situation.

Upgrading Black Soul Stone from level 4 to level 5 requires a whopping 1000 growth points! If you were to kill intermediate (level 4-6) Boss Tier monsters to absorb their souls, you would need to kill around 20 of them to complete the upgrade.

Don't think that 20 Boss Tier are easy to deal with. If it weren't for a chaotic and violent small world like King of Fighters, Boss Tier couldn't be killed indiscriminately. Even if you had the strength to kill Boss Tier, the bigger trouble it would cause would be unbearable. The most common problem is that if you kill the younger ones, the older ones will come out. If a lord suddenly appears to protect his own and seek revenge, you'll probably be expelled from the Spirit Realm prematurely.

For example, in this Kane Plane, Bai Xiaowen painstakingly completed a Heroic Tier side quest, only to kill three Boss Tier. Later, Job and Ferdinand appeared, and they were also Leader Tier. Would Bai Xiaowen dare to touch them? His reputation among the Human Allied Army would plummet more dramatically than an avalanche, and Prince Nicholas would turn against him on the spot.