Chapter 53

The last remaining skeleton warrior charged forward, immediately raising the bone sword in its hand as it approached the humans, sweeping it toward Cheng Yang’s defensive line. With its attack power, the first warrior it hit would inevitably be knocked away.

Liu Hao, standing at the forefront, instantly moved, pulling the warrior who was directly facing the skeleton warrior away, then shouldering his shield to meet the bone sword head-on.

A loud “Bang…” echoed, causing the eardrums of those nearby to ache.

Liu Hao, as the one directly involved, also didn’t feel good. Although he was fighting with all his might, the opponent’s strength was evident, with overall attributes twice his own. Fortunately, he had a shield that could negate attack power, barely managing to hold his ground and not be knocked away.

The skeleton warrior seemed surprised that someone could withstand its attack. Its jawbone moved up and down, and the bone sword was quickly withdrawn, stabbing at Liu Hao’s abdomen at a tricky angle.

Don’t assume that just because the opponent was a skeleton, it was clumsy. On the contrary, this guy was even faster than Liu Hao. When the sword stabbed over, Liu Hao wanted to dodge but it was too late.

Just as Liu Hao was about to be injured by the skeleton warrior’s sword, two magic missiles instantly hit the skeleton, immediately depleting its life strength, turning the once lively skeleton warrior into a pile of bones.

“Haozi, well done!” Cheng Yang finally said a word. One of those two magic missiles was shot by him.

He wasn’t exaggerating. If the warrior in front had been knocked away by the skeleton, he would have fallen into the formation of the combatants, likely causing chaos. The outcome would have been predictable.

Liu Hao also chuckled, saying, “Thank you, Lord, for saving my life.”

They laughed, but their hands didn’t stop, continuing to attack the target in front of them.

The battle quickly turned into a stalemate. Although the human warriors were powerful and their shields could ignore damage, one shield couldn’t block the simultaneous attacks of several skeletons. As time passed, the front-line warriors began to take injuries.

The summoners were also very busy. The spectral wolves they summoned fought alongside the warriors at the front. Although they weren’t as surrounded as before, they still took damage. Except for the spectral wolf summoned by the ox soldier, none of the others could last a minute. After the spectral wolves died, the summoners were left with nothing to do.

The number of skeleton soldiers was constantly decreasing, and the human side’s consumption was also becoming more severe. This was not only a consumption of potions but also of the front-line warriors’ stamina.

Suddenly, a warrior was hit in the leg by a skeleton soldier. Although his legs weren’t severed, the immense force made him lose his balance and fall to the ground. In front of him were countless skeleton soldiers, and falling there meant he wouldn’t get up again.

Cheng Yang, quick to react, instantly rushed over, pulling the other person to the back. At the same time, several bone clubs hit Cheng Yang’s back.

Although Cheng Yang was wearing a black iron-level magic robe, it only provided magic defense, not physical defense. Moreover, Cheng Yang was currently using the Skill Transfer skill, which reduced his physical defense from 4 to 2 points. The attacks from four skeleton soldiers instantly took away 12 points of his health.

Cheng Yang had over eighty health points, so this damage wasn’t significant. He immediately took the warrior’s position and continued attacking the skeleton soldiers.

As the saying goes, "Ants can kill an elephant." The constant attacks from the skeleton soldiers still caused Cheng Yang considerable trouble. Every few seconds, he had to drink a health potion to replenish his health. A health potion that could restore 220 health points on Cheng Yang only managed to restore 60 points before being interrupted by the skeleton soldiers' attacks.

After about ten more seconds, the battle finally ended, and all the skeleton soldiers were killed.

On Cheng Yang’s side, no one died, but the front-line warriors were in no better condition than beggars, their clothes tattered and covered in blood.

Fortunately, these were just surface injuries. Once they took health potions, the blood would disappear. Of course, the damaged equipment needed repair, but there were no repair shops in Luofeng Village yet, so this had to be put on hold. Fortunately, most people were using beginner equipment, which didn’t break.

After that, no more skeleton soldiers reformed in the canyon, and the battle came to an end.

While the others sat to recover, Cheng Yang began to clean up the battlefield.

During the battle, the frequency of the skeleton waves was so high that Cheng Yang barely had time to pick up items on the ground. Except for the first wave, the subsequent three waves of skeleton soldiers each dropped an item from their leader-type skeletons.

Since this was the first run of the Necropolis Canyon, Cheng Yang had high hopes for these items. Moreover, this was a medium-sized dungeon, much harder to clear than a small dungeon, so it was expected to drop some good items.

Sure enough, when Cheng Yang picked up the items, he found six black iron-level pieces of equipment and one scroll.

Cheng Yang wasn’t interested in the six black iron-level pieces of equipment because none of them were suitable for a mage’s off-hand. The other items were of no value to him. He casually set them aside and opened the scroll.

It seemed fate was against him. The building blueprint he had been hoping for didn’t appear; instead, he held a skill scroll.

Damage Absorption (Level 1): Grants a damage absorption state, absorbing 100 points of damage. The state lasts for 3 minutes, with a 5-minute cooldown. Higher skill levels increase the amount of damage absorbed. Learning requirement: Apprentice-level Warrior.

A very practical skill, Cheng Yang was quite satisfied. For Cheng Yang, this skill couldn’t compare to Skill Transfer, but Skill Transfer’s value was most evident in the gap between Cheng Yang and others. This skill, however, genuinely absorbed 100 points of damage.

Unfortunately, only warriors could learn this skill, so Cheng Yang could only sigh in disappointment.

Cheng Yang decided to give this skill to Liu Hao. Among the high-level managers in Luofeng Village, only Liu Hao and Li Wanshan were warriors. Although Li Wanshan had S-level talent, one of his talents was inclined toward managing the territory. In terms of combat, his growth potential was slightly worse than Liu Hao’s. Moreover, Li Wanshan didn’t participate in this battle, so Liu Hao had the right to choose the skill scroll.

Afterward, Cheng Yang didn’t rush into the canyon to find the final treasure. Instead, he had everyone distribute the loot from the dungeon. This wasn’t a complicated process. They simply put up each piece of equipment for auction using spirit energy points, then evenly distributed the points among everyone.

After the six pieces of equipment were distributed, Cheng Yang received five spirit energy points. Although he didn’t value these points much, it was a fair representation of the team’s efforts, so he accepted them.

After completing this, Cheng Yang had everyone rest on the spot while he walked alone into the depths of the canyon. Liu Hao and the others wanted to go with him, but he declined. The dungeon was already cleared, so there was no longer any danger.

Liu Hao and the others didn’t insist, especially the warriors, who had lost a lot of health and needed to sit and recover. Using health potions was only for emergencies; in general, they preferred to recover by sitting.

Cheng Yang walked about 200 meters and reached the end of the canyon, where there was a platform. On the platform was a crystal-clear orb, emitting a faint blue light, making one feel a chill from the depths of their heart.

"Indeed, it’s this thing!" Cheng Yang was excited.

In his previous life, the first run of this dungeon wasn’t completed by a team from Xiangcheng City, so the orb had no connection to Xiangcheng City. However, the Russian combatant who obtained it spread the news, allowing Cheng Yang to learn about it.

Whether it was the Priest Statue from the Blood Altar dungeon’s first run reward or the orb from the Necropolis Canyon’s first run reward, both made the high-level combatants in Xiangcheng City feel deep regret. After all, these dungeons existed in Xiangcheng City, but they failed to complete the first run, missing out on the treasures. How could they not be heartbroken?

Cheng Yang climbed the platform and picked up the orb.

Frost Spirit: Integrate the Frost Spirit into the Mage Statue to add a special class slot for an Ice Mage.

The description was simple, but one word was crucial: Ice Mage.

Undoubtedly, in this world, anything related to special classes was far superior to ordinary items. For example, the Skill Transfer skill Cheng Yang learned was incredibly powerful, causing shock.

Whether mages or warriors, they had no class branches at the apprentice level. However, once they broke through to the squire level, they needed to choose a branch. For mages, there were four major magic systems: earth, fire, water, and wind. However, these four systems were all ordinary classes.

Special classes, like ordinary classes, required a class change at the altar. However, special classes required items to add, and generally, one item could only add one special class. Once a combatant with a special class died, the slot was permanently occupied.

Cheng Yang was well aware of the power of special classes. The Frost Spirit was the only item he knew that could add a special class in the area around Xiangcheng City, which was why he chose to become a mage from the beginning.

Actually, calling the Ice Mage a special class might be a bit of a stretch. It was more like an advanced form of a water mage. If a mage had already reached the squire level, they had to be a water mage to become an Ice Mage. However, if they hadn’t reached the squire level, there was no such restriction.

PS: Yesterday was a black Wednesday, and the increase in favorites was indeed slow. Can we do better today? Let’s perk up a bit.