Little Drill Wind Improves Again
SS-rank.
HP: 168,000, attack 14,200, defense 8,400, and agility 12,800.
This is almost identical to Little Drill Wind's base stats when it was at SSS level.
But Su Mu frowned slightly as he looked at the panel.
Still a little short.
The White Bone Spirit has now reached this level at SS rank, but the description says "high compatibility" instead of "perfect".
In other words, it hasn't reached SSS level yet.
Su Mu thought for a moment.
In the original story, the White Bone Spirit undergoes three transformations.
The first image was of a young girl, the second of an old woman, and the third of an old man. He has only recorded the young girl's face so far; he still needs two more.
"Do I need to collect two more masks so she can transform into an old woman and an old man?" Su Mu muttered to himself.
He looked at Thousand-Faced Skin.
This card currently only has one image recorded, but theoretically two more can be recorded.
However, Thousand-Faced Skin is a D-grade equipment card, which can only hold a limited number of appearances, and each appearance requires Soul Power to be entered.
More importantly, he didn't have a second "Thousand-Faced Skin" card.
However, there is another direction that can be adjusted.
White Tiger Ridge.
Su Mu looked at the mountainside of White Tiger Ridge.
The mountain is now just bare rock and soil, and has no connection to the name "White Tiger Ridge" except for the stone tablet.
Although the original novel doesn't describe White Tiger Ridge in great detail, it conveys a fierce and menacing atmosphere of "a desolate and treacherous place, littered with corpses."
He recalled the piles of white bones he had found in the Land of Buried Bones.
The combined normal and hard difficulty dungeons have filled a large area at the foot of Lion Camel Ridge with his fixed bone materials. But those are all "fixed" in Lion Camel Ridge, not White Tiger Ridge.
With a thought, Su Mu transferred a portion of the unfixed bone material to White Tiger Ridge.
He only fixed about half of it, which cost him 10 points of Soul Power.
Along the mountain path of White Tiger Ridge, grayish-white fragments of bones and remains are spread out, stretching from the foot of the mountain all the way to the mountainside.
Bone dust covered the ground, and piles of broken bones lay scattered. Several complete skeletons leaned against the rocks, their empty eye sockets facing the sky.
Su Mu looked at the White Bone Spirit's interface.
Nothing has changed.
He frowned and waited a few more breaths. Still, nothing changed.
"Is it too little?" Su Mu looked at the White Tiger Ridge, which was already half full.
The mountain path was a sea of white, a sight that would be considered "mountains of bones" in any undead dungeon. But the White Bone Spirit's attributes remained completely unchanged.
Su Mu remained silent for a while, then suddenly realized.
He was too immersed in it.
In his mind, "White Tiger Ridge" should be covered with bones, because the White Bone Spirit is a "Corpse Demon," and the surrounding area should be littered with corpses. However, the original text does not describe White Tiger Ridge in this way.
He recalled it carefully.
In the original novel, White Tiger Ridge is just a "high mountain" with wolves, insects, tigers, leopards, miasma, and poisonous fog, but there is no description of "mountains of white bones".
The White Bone Spirit is a skeleton that cultivated itself into a spirit in the mountains; her true form is that skeleton, not the skeletons of the entire mountain.
These skeletons, placed on White Tiger Ridge, have no direct connection to the concept of the "White Bone Spirit".
Having figured this out, Su Mu shook his head, removed the bones from White Tiger Ridge, and fixed them to Lion Camel Ridge instead.
At the foot of Lion Camel Ridge, grayish-white skeletons spread out like a tide.
Broken bones, skulls, bone powder, and remains piled up from the foot of the mountain to its waist, blending seamlessly with the original rugged terrain of Lion Camel Ridge. From a distance, it resembled a demonic mountain buried in corpses, with bone powder flying everywhere when the cold wind blew, and the air filled with the sweet, rotten stench unique to the dead.
Su Mu looked at the panel of Little Drill Wind.
[Name: Little Drill Wind]
[Rank: SSS]
[Level: 13]
[Blood: 282000/282000 → 338400/338400]
[Attack: 24400 → 29280]
[Defense: 14400 → 17280]
[Agility: 21800 → 26160]
[Combat Index: 237000 → 284400]
[Skills: Intelligence Perception, Mountain-Patrolling Steps, Lion Camel Ridge Glory, Call for Aid]
[Note: The Lion Camel Ridge Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood. Little Drill Wind, as Mountain-Patrolling Lesser Yaoguai of Lion Camel Ridge, benefits from the terrain's amplification, resulting in a 20% increase in all attributes.]
It increased by a full 20%.
Su Mu stared at the numbers on the panel and remained silent for a few seconds.
Little Drill Wind is already SSS-level. In this world's system, the growth curve of SSS-level cards has basically reached its limit, and further improvement can only be achieved through external means such as leveling up, equipping gear, and skill books.
But simply laying a layer of bones on Lion Camel Ridge caused all its attributes to surge by 20%.
And this is only part of the "Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood".
The original text describes Lion Camel Ridge as "a mountain of skulls, a forest of bones."
Human hair was matted into felt, and human flesh rotted into mud and dust. Human tendons were wrapped around trees, dry and shiny like silver. It was truly Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood, and indeed, it was stinking and disgusting. He had only laid out the bones so far, and the elements of "human hair," "human skin," and "human tendons" were still missing. If all of them were added, Little Drill Wind's attributes would increase even more.
The horror inherent in the Journey to the Journey to the West theme has far exceeded the world's comprehension.
Su Mu took a deep breath, suppressing the shock in his heart. He looked at the slender figure of the young girl on White Tiger Ridge, and a plan formed in his mind.
The White Bone Spirit's attributes are now almost as good as Little Drill Wind's.
The SS-rank White Bone Spirit has 168,000 HP and 14,200 attack, enough to sweep through any dungeon below level 20. However, its weaknesses have not yet been fully addressed.
The Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven on Flower-Fruit Mountain remains an unmovable and unbreakable rock.
Although the White Bone Spirit is powerful, she is standing on White Tiger Ridge, which is some distance from Flower-Fruit Mountain. If the monsters split up and launch a surprise attack on Flower-Fruit Mountain, she may not have time to return to defend it.
There is only one way to truly solve this problem.
Turn the stone into Sun Wukong. At least into Stone Monkey, capable of movement and attack, able to protect itself when its core cards are threatened.
Su Mu glanced at the number of times he had used the Years Like a Blade today.
He has used it nearly fifty times since leaving the city.
Forty of those times were used on the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven, raising the proficiency level to level two.
The second level of Years Like a Blade, catalyzing two years for non-living units at a time. In other words, today he has accumulated sixty years of "age" for the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven.
Moreover, the Years Like a Blade can only further enhance one's abilities.
At the current pace, the transition from level two to level three won't take long. After level three, the catalytic time will double, possibly to four, eight, or even more years.
This time was much shorter than he had previously estimated.
Su Mu looked at the grayish-white vortex at the entrance to the Land of Buried Bones.
Nightmare Book.
After clearing the Hard difficulty, the Nightmare difficulty will be unlocked.
With Little Drill Wind's current stats, he can definitely handle Nightmare difficulty. Moreover, the monsters in Nightmare difficulty are stronger, more numerous, offer more experience, and he gains Momentum Points much faster.
He needs more Momentum Points to increase his proficiency in the "Years Like a Blade" skill, more experience to level up, and more drops to replenish the materials in the dungeon.
As for the nearly one hundred points of Soul Power he had left, Su Mu did not spend them immediately.
There are still twenty-four hours until tomorrow. If you acquire anything good along the way, you can save it for emergencies. If all else fails, you can use this Soul Power closer to tomorrow to expand Lion Camel Ridge or replenish the Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood within Lion Camel Ridge.
He stood up and stretched his shoulders.
The crowd had mostly dispersed, leaving only a few scattered individuals watching from a distance.
Su Mu ignored him and prepared to walk towards the entrance of the Land of Buried Bones.