It was as though his body held some power beyond mortal ken, lending a hint of danger to his petty-thief air.
"Hehehe, keep it low-key, low-key."
Ma Lou looked so smug that his grin nearly stretched to his ears.
He eagerly opened his skill panel, then sucked in a sharp breath when he saw the two newly unlocked icons.
"Guys! I've got skills! One offensive, one defensive-absolute god-tier stuff!"
[Ji Luo] and Bossy Guy hurried over.
"Quick, post the descriptions in the group chat! No, just read them out!"
Ma Lou cleared his throat and read with outrageous swagger:
"The first skill is called [Ashen Missile]."
"It consumes a tiny amount of Mental Power to launch a missile of black smoke flecked with sparks."
"And it can deal minor damage to both physical entities and spirit-type horrors like the ones last night. On impact, it instantly explodes into a cloud of ash that briefly blinds the enemy!"
After hearing the description, Ji Luo raised an eyebrow. "Works on physical enemies and spirits? And blinds them? Isn't that basically a fucking little fireball spell, plus a smokeless lime-powder attack?"
"What about the second skill?" Bossy Guy asked earnestly.
"The second one's even better. It's called [Ashen Shaping]."
Ma Lou excitedly waved a hand through the air. "I can control nearby ash and shape it into whatever I want."
"For example, when I'm in danger, I can gather ash in front of me to block an enemy's attack."
"Or if my spear breaks, I can form a sword or spear out of ash right in my hand and fight with it!"
"But the system says the weapon's hardness and duration depend entirely on how much Mental Power I have."
"Holy shit, that freedom is insane!"
Even the normally impassive Jiahao couldn't help turning toward him. The bangs covering his left eye swayed slightly, and his gaze brimmed with interest.
"Reshaping matter with Mental Power... that's already touching on the idealist laws underlying this world. It's just so... you know?"
"Talk is cheap. Ma Lou, fire one at that dead tree and show us what it can do!"
[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] impatiently gave him a shove.
"You got it! Watch me show you some high-level magic!"
Ma Lou took a deep breath, imitating the way anime protagonists cast spells.
He extended his right hand like a claw and aimed at the dead, dried-out trunk of a Blackwood Tree thirty meters away. Narrowing his eyes, he went full chunibyo and shouted at the top of his lungs:
"Perish! Kamehame... wait, no! Ashen Missile, go!"
As he shouted, a wisp of pitch-black smoke suddenly rose from the black mud.
The smoke rapidly gathered in front of Ma Lou's palm, eventually forming a fist-sized ball of ash flecked with orange-red sparks.
"Whoosh!"
With a faint whistle, the Ashen Missile traced a black streak through the air and struck the dry trunk dead on.
"Boom!"
The smoke projectile exploded instantly, spreading a cloud of pitch-black ash and scattered flames across the trunk.
A scorched crater the size of a washbasin appeared in the dried-out trunk. Black smoke billowed, and a few nearby dead leaves even caught fire.
"Nice! That's way stronger than hitting things with sticks!" [Passing Pure-Love Warrior] bounced excitedly on the spot.
"Come on, try [Ashen Shaping] next!" [Ji Luo] urged.
With his first attack a success, Ma Lou's confidence soared.
He walked over to the pile of Blackwood Tree ash left by the blast, held out both hands in a Harry Potter spellcasting pose, and chanted:
"O ash, heed my command and become an endless sword of light!"
Under his control, the ash and debris on the ground began writhing like a slime, creeping up into his palms. Soon, they formed a crooked black short sword.
"Holy shit, that's badass!" [Ji Luo] had just exclaimed.
But Ma Lou didn't even get three seconds to look cool.
The newly formed black short sword suddenly seemed to lose its cohesion, scattering back into a lifeless heap of black ash.
At the same moment, Ma Lou shuddered violently.
His face turned deathly pale. Clutching his head with both hands, his knees buckled, and he dropped straight to the ground.
"Ow, fuck... my head feels like it's going to explode. Who's drilling into my temples..."
Ma Lou groaned in pain.
Everyone blanched and rushed over to help him up.
"Ma Lou, what's wrong?"
"Your health bar hasn't dropped. Why do you look so fucking drained?"
Holding his head, Ma Lou weakly pointed at his stat panel.
"Empty... my Mental Power's completely empty! The system flashed a red warning saying I'd severely depleted it."
[Ji Luo] hurriedly checked his panel data, frowning slightly.
"Let's see. You cast one [Ashen Missile] and formed an [Ashen Short Sword] that lasted less than three seconds, and that emptied your mana bar?"
"Yeah... using those two things sent me straight into sage mode."
Ma Lou pulled a miserable face. "And the system says it'll take about half an hour for my Mental Power to recover fully on its own."
"So that's how it works. This game's still hardcore. There's no chance of spamming skills endlessly."
[Ji Luo] rubbed his chin as he analyzed it. "Based on Ma Lou, our first test case, a level 1 player's Mental Power can support at most three basic skills in a row."
"After three casts, you need a half-hour cooldown to recover your mana."
"So we absolutely can't throw these skills around in combat. We need to save them as our trump cards!"
"But that makes sense."
[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] pursed his lips, taking it in stride.
"If we could spam skills endlessly, wouldn't we be invincible? How would that qualify as a hardcore survival game?"
"Come on, guys, let's keep grinding mobs! I want to level up too! I'm gonna be a White-Haired Explosive Mage!"
For most of the rest of the day.
Among the dry grass on the outskirts of the Black Forest, the five-man squad's teamwork grew increasingly seamless.
Under the direction of their tactical mastermind, Ji Luo.
Lu Ziye's Pimple Mace initiated fights, staggering enemies with physical blows;
Bossy Guy used his sturdy build to rush in, controlling monsters with chokeholds and throws;
Ji Luo thrust his Flint Spear into every opening, pouring on the damage.
Meanwhile, Ma Lou, who had already reached level 1, fell back to the rear and became the team's crucial "wild card."
Whenever they encountered two or more mobs, or a teammate was about to get hit by a skill, Ma Lou would launch an [Ashen Missile].
The instantly exploding black smoke and ash blinded the monsters for three to five seconds.
While the monsters couldn't see, Lu Ziye and Ji Luo rushed in and unleashed a furious barrage, paying them back with interest and finishing them off.
As for Jiahao.
Since he had the weakest constitution, he stayed to the side, throwing stones to kite the enemies. Once a mob died, he deftly dug through its corpse with his hands, trying to find some materials.
An entire day of frenzied grinding.
The tier-zero Corrupted Villagers at the edge of the Black Forest suffered devastating losses at the hands of these five bandits in boxer shorts.
By evening, as the familiar bells rang out from the direction of the Church once again.
"Hum! Hum! Hum! Hum!"
Four bursts of deep, ashen light erupted in succession among the dry grass.
The four players besides [Even Monkeys Have Dignity] lit up one after another with dark-gray level-up effects, all successfully reaching First Tier, level 1.
Five true "Ash Apostles" had officially been born!
Meanwhile, on the altar, Lin En watched the Faith Points skyrocketing in the system backend, his grin already stretching almost to his ears.
"These workers... they're seriously sooo useful!"
Before you continue