Banshee Delifa

The class-change mission had gone smoothly. All he had to do next was head to the Frozen Ancient Tomb and collect 100 points of soul energy to complete the class change. The Hero Class was within reach.

However, Bai Xiaowen was acting strangely. Rather than racing against time to carry out the mission as before, he entered Wolfheart Tavern in Spiked Helm City.

For three days straight, Bai Xiaowen lavishly spent the coins he had looted from the Imperial Army outpost. He drank himself into a stupor every day, called a group of burly Vikings his brothers, and became the most popular man in the tavern.

Even with eight of the ten-day deadline already gone, Bai Xiaowen continued doing as he pleased, as though he did not care about the matter at all.

On the evening of the eighth day.

As usual, Bai Xiaowen sat before the large bonfire, drinking Northern Frontier mead with two Resistance Army soldiers until his tongue was starting to feel thick.

A small, thin man quietly slipped through the crowd and approached Bai Xiaowen.

"Dio, I've got a lead on the information you asked me to investigate."

Bai Xiaowen laughed and waved to several drinking companions, then followed the thin man out and into his room.

Once the door closed, the drunken haze vanished completely from Bai Xiaowen's face.

"Go on." Bai Xiaowen took out a jingling money pouch and tossed it onto the table. "As long as your information is detailed enough, it's all yours."

The thin man opposite him, nicknamed Mole, swallowed. He was one of the most famous intelligence brokers in Spiked Helm City; this was his trade.

"Just yesterday, a group of strangely dressed people snuck into Spiked Helm City. Every one of them was covered from head to toe. My men pretended to be patrol soldiers and went to question them," Mole said. "Following the questions you designed, I asked whether they were Vampires. The result... they reacted strongly, as if they had suffered some unforgivable insult."

"They?" Bai Xiaowen repeated.

"That's right, they were all women. They were wrapped up so tightly that not an inch of skin was exposed. Even an idiot could tell they were a group of nuns." Mole revealed a lewd grin.

"Good." Bai Xiaowen gestured toward the money pouch on the table. "It's yours. Mole, I hope you'll uphold professional ethics and keep this a strict secret."

Mole immediately put on a solemn expression. "Of course, Dio. I swear on my grandfather's beard that I keep every client's information absolutely confidential."

Naturally, Bai Xiaowen did not believe an intelligence broker's guarantee. So-called confidentiality merely meant someone else had not offered a high enough price. He waved a hand and left the room with Mole, one after the other.

Bai Xiaowen went straight to the stables to fetch a horse, moving decisively and efficiently, completely unlike his previous lazy demeanor.

Ten minutes later, Bai Xiaowen vanished into the vast snowy wilderness north of Spiked Helm City.

Frozen Ancient Tomb.

It was a huge, desolate graveyard. Broken gravestones lay everywhere, and through the thin mist, several skeletons could vaguely be seen wandering in the distance.

Gusts of sinister wind blew through the area, cold enough to pierce the bone.

Bai Xiaowen cast Insight on one of the skeletons.

[Skeleton Warrior]

[Race: Undead Species/Bonefolk]

[Attributes: Strength 5, Agility 4, Constitution 5, Spirit 1]

[Skill 1: Hollow Skeleton: Skeleton Warriors are immune to bleeding and have a 10% chance to evade small piercing attacks.]

"Fifteen total attributes and only one passive defensive skill. Skeleton Warriors like this should be the weakest kind, only comparable to the Zombie Rats I encountered in the Plague Rat Burrow."

Bai Xiaowen curled his lip. To his dismay, he realized that in a head-on fight, he might not even be a match for a Skeleton Warrior...

Their Strength was equal, and his Agility was 2 points higher, but his crucial Constitution was 3 points lower! That represented a full 30 points of maximum Life Value and a 3-point difference in base armor.

There was no other choice. He had to fight dirty.

Bai Xiaowen hunched over behind a gravestone, aimed at a wandering Skeleton Warrior, and loosed an arrow with a whoosh!

He missed.

Bai Xiaowen's mouth twitched. Moving targets at long range were much harder to hit than stationary ones.

The whistling arrow alerted the Skeleton Warrior. It noticeably quickened its wandering pace, scanning left and right as it searched for the source of the attack.

Bai Xiaowen could only patiently keep firing. The second arrow struck the target and successfully drew the Skeleton Warrior over.

A burly pile of bones charged at him with a battered shield and short sword. Its burst speed was surprisingly fast; an ordinary rookie would have panicked to death.

But Bai Xiaowen's nerves were rock-solid. He had already calculated that, based on the Skeleton Warrior's running speed and the distance between them, he had enough time to fire two more arrows before it reached him.

Both arrows hit their mark.

Seeing that the Skeleton Warrior's health bar had dropped by more than half as it rushed up to him, Bai Xiaowen threw aside the White Birch Hard Bow, pulled out his small dagger, and slashed at it.

To prevent the Skeleton Warrior's 10% evasion ability from coming into play, Bai Xiaowen did not use the dagger's most common stabbing motion, but chopped instead.

After two slashes, the Skeleton Warrior's health bar emptied. It collapsed to the ground with a clatter, and the soul fire in its deep eye sockets slowly went out. However, before it fell, the battered short sword in its hand still managed to leave a wound on Bai Xiaowen, deducting 5 points of Life Value.

Bai Xiaowen's mouth twitched. Five points of Life Value was a quarter of his total health. If a Skeleton Warrior hit him twice, his health bar would already be below half. If it landed a critical hit or a Vital Strike, he would be finished.

"Charging this is really hard." Bai Xiaowen touched the Soul Stone tied at his waist and sighed.

A wisp of invisible, chilling energy drifted toward him, and Bai Xiaowen received another prompt:

"Absorb the Skeleton Warrior's soul energy?"

Without hesitation, Bai Xiaowen chose no. He picked up the White Birch Hard Bow and hunched through the broken gravestones, searching for his next target.

Bai Xiaowen's Advanced Shooting Specialty and Advanced Weaponry (One-Handed Sword) Specialty were both slowly gaining proficiency.

However, Bai Xiaowen ignored all the soul energy that drifted out after killing Skeleton Warriors, selecting no every time.

Suddenly, the Soul Stone began to tremble.

The image of a Banshee appeared on the surface of the Soul Stone.

"Why aren't you absorbing this soul energy? We are very hungry. We need to feed!"

The voice was very weak.

At first, Bai Xiaowen was startled and looked around. Only then did he realize that the disturbance was coming from the Soul Stone.

"Who are you?" Bai Xiaowen frowned. "I've seen you before, in the Plague Rat Burrow... when I first obtained the Soul Stone." He remembered that this Banshee had once tried to confuse his mind.

What Bai Xiaowen did not know was that the mysterious blood-red eyeball in his left eye had dealt the Banshee a brutal blow. Even now, Delifa's gaze remained somewhat evasive, and she did not dare look Bai Xiaowen in the eyes. "My name is Delifa. I was once a countess, and now I am the spokesperson for the wills of the many dead within the Soul Stone."

Bai Xiaowen was not frightened by those words. He knew very well that whether she was Banshee Delifa or Countess Delifa, she was merely an empty consciousness and posed little threat to him, so his tone remained relaxed.

"Oh my, so it's Miss Delifa. What wind blew you out here? Ever since your attempt to control me failed last time, haven't you been hiding in the Soul Stone without showing your face?"