Lin Mu commanded his army of skeletons.
They skirted around the lake that gave off an eerie, dark green glow.
Then they stepped onto the land on the other side.
The passage ahead grew darker and deeper.
The stench of rot hanging in the air was almost tangible.
It was nauseating.
Huge holes riddled the rock walls.
Strange rustling sounds came from deep within them from time to time.
"Hiss—"
A monster much larger than the Ghoul Elite he had encountered earlier,
its body covered in glossy black carapace,
a fearsome creature resembling a giant cross between a scorpion and a centipede,
suddenly charged out of a cavern ahead!
[Dark Magic Insect] (LV.9, Elite Monster)
[Health: 1500]
[Traits: Hard Carapace, Venomous Tail Sting, Acid Spray, Burrowing Ambush]
Lin Mu's eyes narrowed at the sight.
He raised a hand and cast [Grasp of Bones]!
"Rumble!"
A huge, deathly pale skeletal hand
burst through the ground right beneath the [Dark Magic Insect] and clamped down hard!
Caught off guard, the [Dark Magic Insect] stumbled.
A "-23" damage number appeared above its head, and its charge was forcibly halted.
Lin Mu immediately swept his hand out, sending three [Bone Tooth] attacks whistling forward!
Each [Bone Tooth] contained a full hundred razor-sharp teeth.
They streaked forward like three dense streams of white,
slamming into the [Dark Magic Insect]'s hard carapace!
"Clang-clang-clang-clang—"
A dense series of metallic clashes rang out, sparks flying everywhere.
The [Dark Magic Insect]'s head was instantly buried under a flurry of "-2" and "-3" damage numbers.
There were so many that the numbers even piled up into dark red patches.
The insect's carapace really was incredibly tough.
The combined damage from all three [Bone Tooth] attacks still hadn't been enough to kill it!
Lin Mu raised an eyebrow.
He couldn't be bothered to use his talent to alter any descriptions.
He willed it, and the dozens of Steel Skeletons beside him surged forward.
Their cold steel blades glinted, like the sharpest cutting machines.
In an instant, they engulfed the [Dark Magic Insect].
Under the frenzied hacking and slicing of countless steel blades,
the [Dark Magic Insect] didn't even get a chance to use another skill.
In less than three seconds, it was completely dismembered,
leaving behind a heap of shattered carapace and mangled flesh.
[Necromancer Lin Mu has reached LV.6!]
A huge wave of experience flooded in, raising his level once again!
He quickly spent his five newly earned free attribute points, allocating three to Intelligence and two to Constitution.
He also gained one precious skill point, which he set aside for now.
After killing the [Dark Magic Insect],
Lin Mu glanced at the dungeon information out of habit.
[Time in Dungeon: 01:05:47]
[Current Rating: B]
"Only a B? I guess elite monsters don't add that much to the rating."
Lin Mu rubbed his chin.
Looking at the ninety Steel Skeletons before him, all standing tall and imposing, he suddenly felt a little bored.
A bold idea struck him.
"Since that's the case, why not... let them farm monsters on their own?"
Lin Mu immediately left ten Steel Skeletons behind to guard him.
He split the other eighty skeletons into ten small groups.
Each group had eight skeletons, with one serving as squad leader.
They headed off on their own through the cave's maze of branching paths.
Free to hunt and kill as they pleased!
And collect equipment...
Meanwhile, he found a relatively clean rock to sit on.
He closed his eyes to rest.
Through his mental connection, he simply kept track of the skeleton squads' movements.
For a while,
the depths of the entire [Wailing Cavern] seemed to become an efficient, automated slaughterhouse.
"Your Steel Skeletons killed [Cave Lurker] ×3 and gained experience..."
"Your Steel Skeletons killed [Venomous Lasher] ×2 and gained experience..."
"Your Steel Skeletons encountered a [Small Corrupted Wolf Pack] and wiped them out, gaining experience..."
Similar kill notifications rang through his mind nonstop, like a constant flood of messages.
Lin Mu's experience bar surged at an astonishing rate.
Amid the steady stream of notifications, his level rose twice more.
He reached LV.8!
The dungeon's rating had also quietly passed A rank long ago.
It had reached the astonishing rank of S!
This effortless way of leveling
once again made Lin Mu keenly aware of just how overpowered the Necromancer class became with the [Description Tamperer] talent.
Just as Lin Mu was about to fall asleep from the boredom of waiting,
a notification unlike the others suddenly rang through his mind!
[Your Steel Skeleton has died! Killer: [Cave Lord] (LV.10, Lord-rank BOSS)!]
Lin Mu's eyes snapped open, a glint flashing in them!
"Finally. The real master of the [Wailing Cavern]!"
He immediately used his mental connection
to call back the other nine skeleton squads roaming the area and have them regroup with him.
At the same time,
following the mental imprint of the fallen skeleton,
he hurried toward the site with the ten guardian skeletons at his side.
The cave passages twisted and turned like a maze.
But with the terrifying ninety-two-meter range of perception granted by the [Silent Black Stone Necklace], getting lost wasn't a possibility.
Before long,
he arrived at a vast underground stone hall.
At the center of the hall,
a fearsome monster five meters tall, clad in heavy bone armor,
wielding a huge bone axe wreathed in ghostly blue flames,
was locked in a fierce battle with seven Steel Skeletons (one nearby had already been reduced to a pile of scrap metal)!
[Cave Lord] (LV.10, Lord-rank BOSS)
[Health: 9700/10000]
[Traits: Lord's Pressure, Bone Armor, Despair Roar]
The [Cave Lord] seemed to have lost its temper with the unbreakable metal nuisances.
It threw back its head and let out a deafening roar!
"Wooooar—!!!"
A powerful shockwave of negative energy, thick with despair and rage,
burst outward from it!
A "-50HP" damage number appeared over each of the seven Steel Skeletons surrounding it.
Their movements also visibly slowed for a moment.
The [Cave Lord] seized the opportunity.
Its massive body leaped into the air.
The Ghost Flame Bone Axe in its hands whistled through the air,
coming down hard on the head of one Steel Skeleton with little health remaining!
"Crack!"
The grating sound of breaking bone rang out.
"-453!"
A huge damage number appeared.
The Steel Skeleton was split in two by the blow and crashed to the ground!
"Not bad."
Lin Mu's gaze sharpened, but he didn't panic.
The Steel Skeleton squads that had gone out to clear monsters had all returned.
They had also brought back seven or eight pieces of equipment.
Most of it was white, with only two green pieces and one blue.
He waved a hand.
The returning skeleton squads set down the equipment, leaving only the skeletons guarding his side behind.
Then they surged forward like a tide.
They surrounded the [Cave Lord] in layer upon layer, leaving it no room to move.
Countless steel blades hacked wildly at it.
However,
the [Cave Lord] was enormous.
The skeletons around the outside couldn't reach it at all.
The battle instantly became a war of attrition: skeletons in the front ranks were shattered one after another,
while those in the rear quickly moved up to take their places.
Lin Mu also spent a little mana from time to time
to summon new Steel Skeletons to join the fight.
He maintained the numerical advantage of the skeleton sea.
"Tsk. I wish I had some ranged summons to back them up right now."
Looking at the battle, Lin Mu couldn't help sighing.
Even so,
thanks to the fearless, unending tide of skeletons,
the [Cave Lord]'s seemingly sturdy health bar continued to drop at a considerable rate.
Now and then, Lin Mu got bored and fired a [Bone Tooth] at the [Cave Lord].
Unfortunately,
the BOSS's defense was too high.
Even a hundred bone teeth could only deal consecutive "-1" hits through forced damage—better than nothing.
Just like that,
under the Steel Skeletons' relentless assault, the [Cave Lord]'s health soon fell to around half.
Just then!
The [Cave Lord] let out an even more shrill and violent roar.
Its bone armor shattered piece by piece.
An aura far more terrifying than before erupted from within it!
It had entered its second form!
Before you continue