Soul Whisperer Qiao Rui
Over time, the valley where the Dragon's Tomb was located became a taboo, leaving only a legend in the Northern Frontier.
This legend persisted until three hundred years ago.
King Tiberon the Lionheart rose to power, allied with the Seven Grand Dukes, and embarked on a campaign to unify the Aaron Continent. The legendary knight-lord Kevindes, tasked with conquering the Viking Kingdom of the Northern Frontier, finally captured the Northern Frontier Capital, Northshire City, after a bitter struggle.
Grand Duke Kevindes had also heard the rumors of the Dragon's Tomb. Unlike the other adventurers, this grand duke not only possessed Greed and curiosity, but also formidable execution capabilities. He led the first generation of the Lionheart Empire's invincible legion into the Dragon's Tomb, slaughtering the Dragonkin creatures guarding it and taking away a large amount of dragon treasure.
To Kevindes, the valley where the Dragon's Tomb is located is called "Kevindes Valley".
Scattered groups of adventurers followed, hoping to snag some leftovers left by Grand Duke Kevindes. Like a gold rush, some lucky ones found overlooked treasures, but most came up empty-handed.
Although the Dragonkin monsters were severely weakened and fled in droves, they were not all wiped out. After several decades of reproduction, they returned to this graveyard.
By this time, the Dragon's Tomb had lost its appeal to adventurers, and due to the resurgence of Dragonkin monsters, it was gradually forgotten.
Dragon bones are quite rare in the Dragon's Tomb, as most of them have been taken away by Duke Kevindes ' army. Dragon bones are a high-grade material for making armor, and if it weren't for the fact that ancient dragon bones are unsuitable for making armor, there wouldn't be a single dragon bone left here.
In the various battles fought here, countless Dragonkin creatures, imperial soldiers, and adventurers have perished, their remains making up the majority of the bodies. Therefore, Kevindes Valley is also known as the "Burial Grounds," meaning that it is the burial place of many homeless Vengeful Spirit.
Kevindes Valley.
The heavy snowfall blanketed the valley in a silvery white. The Great Rift, thousands of meters wide and seemingly endless, was completely covered by thick ice and snow.
The White Phoenix Squad followed the Undead Legion led by Goliya, advancing through the vast rift valley ice plains. After nearly ten hours of trekking, they finally arrived at the Burial Grounds.
To avoid attracting too much attention and to save time, the number of the Undead Legion in this operation was greatly reduced. Only agile, fast-moving, and inconspicuous undead were brought along, such as Ghost, Spider Demon, and other agile Elite Tier, all of whom had the ability to become invisible.
Bai Xiaowen deeply felt that this A+ level Elite Tier side quest was no ordinary task, because the more than thirty carefully selected Elite Tier undead would assist him in completing this mission! With such a powerful force at his disposal, and the fact that it was given an A+ Elite Tier difficulty rating, the danger of the Dragon's Tomb was unimaginable.
As for the other undead monsters, they slumbered in a hidden ice cave at the foot of North County Monastery under Goliya's orders.
During their journey, the three members of the White Phoenix Squad exchanged information about each other's abilities to facilitate cooperation. Qiao Rui, in particular, had to Yi-Yi her strengths and weaknesses to Bai Xiaowen.
What interests Bai Xiaowen most is Qiao Rui's "Soul Melody," a weakening skill that reduces all of the enemy's attributes by up to 25%, making it incredibly powerful.
Qiao Rui's Hero Class- specific equipment is actually the weapon she wields: the Soul Flute. And like Bai Xiaowen's Black Soul Stone, the Soul Flute comes with a "skill tree" called Sonic Strike Array.
The first level of the Sonic Strike Array is Destructive Sound Scale". It has low damage but a very short cooldown and very low Divine Might consumption, making it equivalent to a basic mental attack spell.
Sonic Strike Array, Second Tier: Forbidden Sound Scale. This is a field skill that requires advance preparation. After an enemy enters the range of the Imprisonment Melody, the caster can choose whether to trigger it, which has a stun effect on the enemy.
Sonic Strike Array, third level: Soul Melody. This is a powerful support skill, but its cost is also staggering.
When activating Soul Melody, Qiao Rui needs to consume 10 points of Divine Might first, and then continuously consume Divine Might —1 point of Divine Might per second for the first three seconds; every three seconds the Soul Melody lasts, the Divine Might consumed will increase by 2 points per second, accumulating throughout the battle.
The specific effect of Soul Melody is: During the performance, it applies 1 stack of Weakness to surrounding enemies every second, for a total of 5 stacks. Each stack reduces the opponent's all attributes by 5%.
Based on this calculation, with Qiao Rui's current 68 points of Divine Might, she can only maintain the Soul Melody playing state for a maximum of ten seconds. If she interrupts it during this time and has to restart the playing, she will need to deduct an additional 10 points of Divine Might, which will further reduce the playing time.
Fortunately, even if the playing stops, the weakening effect applied to the enemy will last for a full 10 seconds before disappearing.
Based on this, Qiao Rui had already summarized the technique of playing intermittently. After playing for the first 5 seconds to stack 5 layers of weakness on the enemy, she could pause for 10 seconds, and before the weakness disappeared, she could consume 10 points of spirit to play again, playing for only 1 second, and then pause for another 10 seconds...
This means that the enemy can be kept in a fully stacked weakened state for nearly forty seconds, which is quite effective in actual combat. During the pause, Qiao Rui can also reposition, deal damage, and provide additional crowd control for the team.
However, when facing Advanced Boss or lords, intermittent playing techniques are not very effective, as the opponent possesses resilience skills, and once they stop playing, the duration of the weakened state will be greatly shortened.
Below is the fourth layer of the Sonic Strike Array: Annihilation Rest. This is a rare instant-death skill. The activation conditions are very demanding, not to mention that even if the activation conditions are met, it still requires a check of all four attributes. At least two of the checks must be successful, plus the total attribute check must be successful, in order to inflict instant-death on the target enemy. The cost is that the Soul Flute will be unusable for the rest of the battle.
Currently, Qiao Rui has only unearthed four layers of the Soul Flute skill tree, but this is equivalent to giving her four extra top-tier skills! This is the reason why Hero Class with exclusive equipment Overwhelming Crush ordinary Hero Class without exclusive equipment.
Bai Xiaowen had already witnessed Qiao Rui's combat skills in previous league matches: the single-target control skill Mind Cage, and the healing skill Life Healing could be used on both single targets and groups. In addition, Qiao Rui also had two other skills: Mass Dispel and Force Wave, but she didn't use them very often. To be honest, it was because Soul Melody's mana consumption was too high, which limited the scope for Qiao Rui's other skills to be used.
Qiao Rui's profession is "Soul Whisperer," and she has the special ability to communicate with souls. Her profession skill is "Soul Whisper."
[Soul Whisper: Passive. Every dead person nearby (friend or foe) restores your Divine Might. The amount and duration are related to the target's level. Actively activating Soul Whisper grants you the Soulwalk effect (ignores obstacles, terrain, and collision volume; cannot be targeted, but requires continuous Divine Might consumption).]
The active effect of the professional skill "Soul Whisper" is amazing. "Soulwalk" is basically the strongest survival skill Bai Xiaowen has ever seen, unlike Li Shuyi's "Void Ring".
The Void Ring allows the user to enter a state of Intangibility, making them nearly immune to physical attacks, but the side effect is that the magical damage they receive is almost doubled.
Soulwalk makes the user "untargetable"—meaning they won't be targeted by single-target attacks or skills, but will only be affected by area-of-effect (AOE) skills. Compared to single-target skills, AOE skills are still relatively rare.
As for the passive effect of "Soul Whisper," it's also very strong, similar to the Butcher's Slaughterhouse passive, only a mana-regenerating version.
In summary, Qiao Rui, as Soul Whisperer, possesses strong survivability and support capabilities. Moreover, thanks to the "Annihilation Rest" effect of her exclusive equipment, the Soul Flute, Qiao Rui also has a certain ability to solo kill, provided that the target's attributes are Suppression by her.
Because her passive ability allows her to regenerate mana from fallen enemies, Qiao Rui is better suited for large-scale battles, where a constant stream of fallen enemies helps her restore her Divine Might.
Bai Xiaowen already had several different tactical ideas in mind, but they still needed to be tested in actual combat.
"I can sense that there are many dead souls here," Qiao Rui whispered to Bai Xiaowen.
"Well, this place is called the Burial Grounds after all, so it's basically just a big graveyard," Bai Xiaowen grinned. "Look, Goliya seems to have found her destination."
The group was standing on a huge frozen lake, a kilometer in circumference. However, the lake was covered with a layer of snow, making it look no different from an ice field.
Goliya crouched down gently, and with her right hand, encased in dark blue armor, she lightly brushed away the snow from the surface of the frozen lake.
Goliya's icy voice rang out. "We've arrived. I can sense the ancient, powerful corpse awaiting awakening... Dio, before I awaken it, no one is to disturb me. All these troops under my command are yours."
Bai Xiaowen nodded. "Yes, sir."
Bai Xiaowen gradually realized that Goliya was probably not the same Goliya as before, so his words and phrases also gradually changed.
Goliya stood up, gripped the Skeleton Greatsword with both hands in a reverse grip, and plunged it into the ice.
A notification message regarding the Spirit Realm Rules has arrived:
"A+ Rank Elite Tier Mission: Dragon's Tomb has officially begun, countdown..."
A string of numbers representing time flashed in Bai Xiaowen's vision: 119 minutes and 59 seconds...
At the same time, Bai Xiaowen also received the second hint of the Spirit Realm Rules, granting him command over the twenty Ghost and seventeen Spider Demon before him. Unfortunately, his Divine Might enhancement and the Spirit Channeling's enhancement could not be applied to these creatures.
Bai Xiaowen attempted to connect his Divine Might with these newly acquired Elite Tier creatures and discovered that precise manipulation was still achievable. He commanded these undead creatures, skilled in stealth, to Stealth, serving as Zhi Qi Hide around Goliya.