Absolute Death Game

Strictly speaking, Xiao Buli didn't take yesterday's incident to heart. Perhaps for Liu Xing, yesterday's opportunity was a once-in-a-lifetime stroke of luck, missing out on which would have meant regret for a lifetime. However, for Xiao Buli, it was not so enticing.

After all, learning Swordsmanship from the Sword God definitely wouldn't be as quick as learning Basic Swordsmanship from the militia captain with a flash of gold, and one would certainly need to go through the process of accepting a master, completing sect tasks, comprehending Swordsmanship, and so on.

It would probably take at least a week to finish, which wouldn't be a problem under normal circumstances, but it was a bit troublesome for him given the time constraints he faced.

Not to mention, he already had Mystic Hollow Palace as his sect. Joining another might be subject to restrictions, and in terms of sect ranking, Mystic Hollow Palace was obviously higher than the sect represented by the Nameless Sword Guest. Navigating a maze was much more difficult than solving his riddles.

In other words, even if the Sword God had chosen him and allowed him to follow, Xiao Buli might not have actually gone.

So, Xiao Buli wasn't really disappointed about missing out on yesterday's chance. At most, he felt a bit sorry for Liu Xing. It's understandable — for someone who's experienced serendipity before, a near-miss serendipity is much less attractive.

However, receiving a gift now could be considered making up for the loss to an extent.

Equipped with the Soul Slayer's Blade, Xiao Buli returned to Nine Dragons City. With several hours left until the afternoon's raid, he planned to grind some Attribute Points first. This time, he chose to boost his Spirit Attribute, as that is the most important attribute for Mage Professions.

According to the list, Spirit Attributes needed to be increased through Professional Skills like tea ceremony and chess, which are known for having no output and requiring a tuition fee. Moreover, they could only improve one attribute at a time — truly a luxury for the rich. Previously unable to afford to learn these Life Skills due to lack of money, Xiao Buli could now do so since he had the means.

Upon arriving at a teahouse, he chose to learn the Way of Tea and started training after paying a gold coin for the tuition. But before he began his training, Xiao Buli consumed a Soul Refining Pill.

Soul Refining Pill: Increases the efficiency of Spirit power points gained through Life Skills for the next 24 hours.

Normally, raising the tea ceremony skill to LV10 would increase Spirit by two points, but after taking the Soul Refining Pill, it could increase by three or even possibly four points.

Sure enough, by noon when Xiao Buli had increased his tea ceremony skill to LV3, a system notification suddenly chimed in.

System Notification: After a prolonged dedication to the art of tea ceremony, your Spirit has increased by one point.

Xiao Buli figured that if he continued to pull an all-nighter, he should be able to get his tea ceremony skill to LV10 before the effects of the pill wore off, ensuring an increase of three Spirit points at the least.

After lunch at noon and continuing to upgrade his tea ceremony in the afternoon, by 3 PM, his tea ceremony skill had reached LV5. It was also the agreed time to group up for the instance.

The five members of the second group gathered at the tavern, discussing which instance to tackle first.

"We should start with the Corpse King Ancient Tomb. The other two instances are within the city, right under our noses, so no one would dare to steal them. We can go any time. But the Corpse King Ancient Tomb is far from imperial reach. If an outside guild discovers and steals it, we'd have nowhere to plead our case."

Xiao Buli wondered, "You can steal instances too? Isn't it said that the Rushing Bull Plains area is Qilin Hall's territory?"

Wu Tao explained from the side, "That's indeed the case, but these things still happen occasionally, given that there are not enough surveillance measures."

Xiao Buli thought to himself that it made sense, "Then let's head to the Corpse King Ancient Tomb, but first I need to buy a horse."

Xiao Buli then spent 50 silver coins on a Traveling Horse.

Traveling Horse: Riding difficulty 1, speed increase of 150%.

The speed wasn't very fast, but since most of the others in the group also rode Traveling Horses, he wouldn't have to worry about being left behind.

A party of five rode their horses towards the mine where the Corpse King Ancient Tomb was located. After half an hour, they entered the region of Falling Iron Mountain, the largest ore production area near Nine Dragons City. Another ten minutes passed, and the group stopped in front of a half-collapsed mine.

"This is it," said Liu Xing, consulting the map. "The entrance to the Corpse King Ancient Tomb is inside this mine."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The horses couldn't go into the cave, so the party dismounted and walked inside. The mine was pitch-black, and even a torch could only illuminate a small area nearby.

Xiao Buli suddenly remembered he had equipment that allowed him to see in the dark, so he put on his 'Betrayer's Dark Vision.' Although the screen turned black and white, he could see the dark surroundings as clear as day, which was much better than complete darkness.

Shortly after entering the mine, they encountered zombies roaming around. These were just minor monsters with white names, with low attack power and sluggish speed, making them easy to defeat. The only difficulty came from the zombies' passive skill called 'Undead Fortitude,' which provided resistance against physical damage, causing physical DPS-focused teams to struggle.

Although Yaoyao and Liu Xing both had high attack power, their typical strikes only dealt around ten points of damage, requiring half a minute to kill even a minor monster.

"This won't do. It takes so long to kill a minor monster; what will we do when we encounter a boss?"

No worries, I have a method," Xiao Buli said, casting Fire Blade Skills on Liu Xing.

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Fire Blade Skills (Instant Cast Spell): Enchants a unit's weapon with Flame Power, causing it to deal an additional 10 points of fire damage with each hit against an enemy, lasting for 30 seconds, consuming 10 Mana points, with a range of 15 meters.

Liu Xing's weapon instantly glowed red hot as if it were a branding iron, looking quite impressive.

With a casual swing of his sword, Liu Xing saw a -23 damage number flash up, nearly doubling the damage since fire damage was unaffected by the zombies' resistance.

"Hey, that's a nice skill you've got there," said Liu Xing as he activated his Gale Sword Skills and unleashed a barrage on a zombie. Xiao Buli cast another Fire Blade Skills on Yaoyao, whose attack was weaker, but her attack speed was faster, the daggers flew up and down as she fought. In less than ten seconds, their coordinated assault floored the zombie.

However, the downside of the spell quickly became apparent. After killing two zombies and when the third zombie's health was halfway depleted, the Fire Blade Skills on Liu Xing's weapon faded.

And just as they felled the third zombie, Yaoyao's Fire Blade Skills effect also disappeared.

The 30-second duration was ultimately quite short for a battle that demanded constant reapplication to maintain maximum effectiveness. Fortunately for Xiao Buli, his current Mana was nearly 300, which meant he could keep casting for a while.

They soon arrived at the entrance to the Corpse King Ancient Tomb, which was a gap in a dug-out tomb wall. As they faced the white light barrier sealing the entrance, the group paused.

Suddenly, Liu Xing said, "We're about to enter the dungeon. Who's going to lead this time? I must say, I know nothing about commanding."

"Let Wu Tao do it," suggested Yaoyao. "Haven't you been with a Great Guild before? You should know how to command, right?"

Wu Tao nodded proudly upon hearing this, ready to agree, but when he glanced at Xiao Buli, he choked back his response. The Great Guild he had boasted about was actually the Qingyang Guild where he used to work in a studio, occasionally tasked with leading newbies to explore low-level team dungeons.

He did indeed have some experience in commanding, but it was nothing compared to Xiao Buli, who routinely led Pioneer Corps. He was very much aware of his own limitations, thinking it best not to show off, so he casually asked, "Old Xiao, have you ever commanded before?"

Xiao Buli caught Wu Tao's glance and instantly understood his intention. He wasn't planning on hiding his abilities, and he nonchalantly said, "I've commanded a few pioneer attempts before, nothing much really."

"Then you do it."

Xiao Buli nodded. As a former leader of a Great Guild, his strengths were analysis and command. Previously, his analysis had been limited due to a lack of understanding of the game, and apart from a slight foray during the Forgotten Ones' Cave adventure, his commanding skills had been largely unused. Now, taking up the role of commander, he felt a certain eagerness to test his abilities.

PS: Please favorite and recommend. There will be another chapter tonight.