Slaying the Elite Monster and Clearing the Battlefield

"Bang!"

A loud crashing sound rang out.

The Necrotic Arrow slammed fiercely into the Kite Shield.

Zong Shen, bracing the shield from behind, felt a massive impact surge through his arm.

His stance instantly became somewhat unstable.

Fortunately, he managed to withstand the attack of the Necrotic Arrow in the end.

Equipped with the [Primary Heart of Strength], Zong Shen's strength attribute had reached 18 points—just 3 points away from catching up to Colby—which was why he was able to endure the impact of the Necrotic Arrow.

This was one of the advantages of choosing a strength-based build at the start.

Compared to those lords who chose their backgrounds based on personal preference, Zong Shen possessed much greater combat effectiveness in the early stages.

[-52]

[Blocked]

Two notifications popped up one after another above his head.

This strike left the already dented shield looking even more battered.

Although he hadn't taken any damage, the durability of the shield had dropped by two-thirds.

It made Zong Shen feel a pang of heartache.

"Lord..."

Behind him, Tie Zhu seized the opportunity to stand up, his eyes welling with tears as he looked at the lord who had stood before him, shielding him from the attack.

He was moved to tears.

[Due to your selfless rescue]

[Tie Zhu's loyalty to you has increased by 2 points, current loyalty 100]

[Loyalty has reached its maximum value; Tie Zhu will unconditionally execute any of your orders, even sacrificing his life]

Tie Zhu's favorability had been maxed out instantly.

He had become the first subordinate under Zong Shen's command to reach maximum favorability!

However, the situation on the field did not allow them time for idle chatter.

Zong Shen leaped to his feet, raised his shield, and charged.

"Tie Zhu, don't just stand there, charge with me!"

As he spoke, he took the lead and rushed right in front of the Necromancer.

The longsword in his hand struck forward like a bolt of silver lightning.

[-3]

[-20]

[-23]

The remaining two bone shards shattered one after another.

Zong Shen's longsword cleaved into its skull, carving out a deep gash.

It revealed the dark gray, shriveled flesh beneath.

At the same time, it dealt 23 points of overflow damage.

By this time, Tie Zhu had also arrived.

The daggers in his hands worked from left to right, leaving two gashes on the Necromancer's head.

[-37]

[-37]

Having lost the protection of its bone armor, the Necromancer could no longer cast spells with ease.

Surrounded and attacked from both sides by Zong Shen and Tie Zhu, it found it even harder to fight back.

After this brief delay, the three Wolf Cavalry had also finished off both Skeleton Warriors and the Shortsword Undead.

They circled around.

The gang-beating mode began.

After each person landed a strike, the Necromancer was left with only a sliver of health.

Then, Zong Shen swung with all his might, delivering the final blow.

[-46]

Following a flash of green light, the Resentful Necromancer vanished, leaving behind several white and green orbs of light on the ground.

[Killed lv11 Resentful Necromancer (Green)]

[Obtained 380 experience points]

[Your soldiers will receive half the experience]

With a flash of white light, Tie Zhu leveled up again, reaching lv3.

As an assassin, Tie Zhu allocated his attribute points into Agility.

Since he is not a hero-tier unit, these soldiers do not possess twenty-four passive skills like Zong Shen; they only have the four main attributes and class skills.

However, as their levels increase, their four main attributes will rise, and their class skills will gradually grow stronger.

It is a pity that after killing so many undead, the three Wolf Cavalry show no signs of leveling up.

Zong Shen is now level 5 and requires 900 experience to level up; reaching level 10 will surely require several thousand experience points.

Thinking about it carefully, there is indeed no need to rush.

Because of his level up, Tie Zhu's health has been fully restored once again.

Every level up is equivalent to a status reset.

As for the three Wolf Cavalry, their overall condition is still fine.

Each of them has only lost twenty or thirty points of health.

Moreover, now that they have exited combat, their health is slowly regenerating.

This is because Zong Shen's [First Aid] skill has reached level 2.

It can increase the team's health regeneration speed by 40%.

"Stay alert in position!"

Zong Shen issued the order.

As for himself, he began to collect the rewards dropped by the undead.

He started cleaning up the battlefield.

Zong Shen's [Item Management] has reached level 2, granting him 32 personal inventory slots.

Coupled with the 24-slot [Kodo Beast Leather Backpack], he has transformed into a mobile warehouse.

Zong Shen collected everything.

Zong Shen took a rough glance and discovered that these undead dropped mostly white-tier weapons and leather armor.

Other than that, there weren't many good items.

The stats of these weapons and leather armor were only slightly better than the tattered equipment given at the start.

They were about the same as the equipment obtained from killing the bandits earlier.

Zong Shen prepared to return to the territory to process them all at once, picking out a few pieces with decent stats to keep as spare armor for his soldiers, while listing the rest for sale or dismantling them directly once the [Blacksmith Shop] was built.

Only a few items could be considered good.

Zong Shen began to examine them one by one.

[Soldier Strengthening Bead (White) ×3]

[Can be used on any soldier to randomly strengthen 1 point of base attributes]

(Soldier strengthening item; if they are good, you are good too)

[Soldier Strengthening Bead (Green) ×1]

[Can be used on any soldier to randomly strengthen 3 points of base attributes]

(Use good steel on the blade; powerful soldiers can even hold their own. Think about it, think about it carefully)

[Pet Contract (Green) ×1]

[Can be used to contract any non-humanoid masterless creature. The success rate fluctuates based on the target's state, with a base success rate of 20%]

(Become a pet master, starting today)

[Bone Scepter (Green) ×1]

[One-handed]

[Quality: Fine]

[Magic Damage: 30~33]

[Blunt Damage: 17~19]

[Chanting Speed: +8%]

[Durability: 150]

[Skill: Summon Skeleton lv1, Bone Armor lv1]

[Requirement: Intelligence 16]

(That's right, this is the weapon of that Necromancer. It's not bad, I'll keep it.)

[Tier 1 Infantry Training Manual ×3]

[After building a Tier 1 Barracks, you can consume a certain amount of resources and training manuals to train your Farmers into Tier 1 Infantry.]

(An essential item for training Farmers into soldiers.)

Next up is a wave of resources.

[Primary Elemental Crystal ×4]

[Iron ×9]

[Mithril ×3]

[Copper ×3]

However, the item that caught Zong Shen's eye the most was the final one.

[Necromancer Recruitment Scroll]

[Commune with great mysterious powers to immediately recruit a powerful Tier 3 mage-type warrior, a Necromancer.]

[Occupies 2 points of Command]

[Default aptitude is Excellent, level is 10, and can be promoted or strengthened later.]

[Click to use]

(A powerful Necromancer, a warrior who manipulates life and death.)

A Necromancer Recruitment Scroll!

Zong Shen had just experienced its power firsthand.

As a mage class, as long as they have companions to protect them, they can provide sustained output.

It will further increase the strength of his group of fighters.

However, just thinking about the Necromancer's shriveled face made Zong Shen hesitate as he clutched the recruitment scroll.

If he really recruited such an ugly thing, wouldn't he have nightmares every single day?