A dozen-odd blood-drenched shapes were drawing near him, silent and slow. These were skeletons — with a skeleton’s body but no skeleton’s head, and from those necks, which seemed to be spraying blood, a long red tongue extended, hanging all the way down to the chest.

Ye Tianxie instinctively took a step back, his scalp prickling all over, nearly bringing up last night’s dinner. He hadn’t the faintest desire to check these skeletons’ information, and all but sprinted for the deeper reaches of the cavern.

Oh, for crying out loud… So it really is wrong to lie to children, and you really shouldn’t say whatever comes into your head… This is divine retribution, isn’t it? This is divine retribution!!

Ye Tianxie had run barely a dozen steps when a fresh commotion rose around him, and a great mass of skeletons — motionless in their slumber until now — came clattering up out of the ground. The Skeleton Cavern’s first level held far more than that simple dozen from before; countless skeletons lay hidden here, and they stirred only when a living thing drew near.

Ye Tianxie grasped this quickly, but didn’t stay to tangle with them. He layered on Frenzied Battle Intent, summoned the Blood-Sweating Steed, and at top speed left their sensing range before they could ready their attacks, riding straight ahead in search of the entrance to the second level.

Before long, a pitch-black hollow appeared dead ahead in that dim green world — the shape of another cave mouth. Ye Tianxie charged straight in without a second thought and dismissed his mount. Before coming here, he had questioned the surviving city guard closely, the one who had penetrated deepest into this place. The Skeleton Cavern had five levels; the first four connected in a straight line, while the fifth split in two. One of those branches was where the blood phoenix roosted. The other… should be where the Undead Sovereign was gestating.

He had barely entered the second level when the creak, creak came at him head-on. From the chaos of the sound, Ye Tianxie judged instantly that these were the footfalls of at least seven or eight skeletons… and compared with the lowest-grade skeletons of the first level, the second level’s would certainly be a cut above.

He learned at once just how far above.

The shapes behind those footfalls finally appeared at the edge of his limited sight, skull faces emerging before him. Unlike the plain skeletons of the first level, these wore battered armor and battered helms, and each held a rust-eaten sword in its right hand and an ancient shield in its left…

Sword-and-Shield Skeleton Soldier — Level 24. HP: 1,800. A combat-type undead spawned with the bones of warriors fallen in battle as its vessel; it carries the dead warriors’ will to fight and their guardian souls, and will attack any intruder without mercy.
Talent — Undead Body: Automatically restores health in darkness or in the presence of undead energy, and is immune to 70% of death-element attacks.
Skill — Double Strike: Thrusts twice in an instant with its sword, the two attacks dealing 70% and 80% of normal attack power respectively. Activates frequently.
Skill — Heavy Shield Bash: Strikes the enemy with its shield for 80% of normal attack damage, with a 25% chance to inflict 3 seconds of stun. Activates at moderate frequency.

Behind the Sword-and-Shield Skeletons, several pitch-black shapes drifted slowly like ghosts — three cloaked skeletons floating with their feet off the ground!

Undead Skeleton Mage — Level 24. HP: 1,200. A magic-type undead spawned with the bones of guardian mages fallen in battle as its vessel; possesses powerful undead attacks and healing ability.
Talent — Undead Body: Automatically restores health in darkness or in the presence of undead energy, and is immune to 70% of death-element attacks.
Skill — Undead Elemental Bolt: Gathers the breath of death to attack a single target within six meters; requires no incantation in an undead environment.
Skill — Undead Healing: Summons the breath of death to restore 600 HP to all undead creatures nearby; triggers immediately when any companion’s health drops below 20%. Cooldown 5 seconds.

Level 24 monsters… and two kinds of them!

Monsters above Level 20 were a whole tier above those between 10 and 20 — not only were their attributes stronger, their skills were more developed and their attack patterns more varied. And the moment he read the Undead Skeleton Mages’ information, Ye Tianxie shifted his target… With that accursed Undead Healing in play, there was no question: to deal with these undead, the three mages had to fall first.

The dozen-odd Sword-and-Shield Skeletons closed fast, their once-chaotic steps gradually falling into unison, more like a trained skeletal squad. In both overall strength and numbers, these skeletons far surpassed the twelve Level 10 three-star elite Frenzied Fierce Oxen he had faced on the third gate of the Abyss trial — and while he had been Level 10 then and was Level 14 now, his lack of a class meant his strength had scarcely changed. Which meant that wiping out the enemies before him would be far harder than the oxen had been.

The Hour of Eternal Fate, half-raised, tightened in his grip. His plan would have to change.

“Wah, wah… They’re here, they’re here, more of them… Waaah… So scary!” Having seen the skeleton squad, Guoguo’s shrieking started up again, setting Ye Tianxie’s eardrums ringing. Staring at the enemies bearing down on him, he said helplessly, “If you’re scared, go back inside the Hour of Eternal Fate. Then you won’t see anything at all.”

After a brief silence…

“Aaaaaaah… Master, why didn’t you say so earlier! Guoguo hates you!”

With a hum, Guoguo became a small ball of white light, melted into the Hour of Eternal Fate in his hand, and went utterly still — leaving Ye Tianxie standing there, thoroughly speechless.

The Sword-and-Shield Skeletons reached him, and Ye Tianxie finally moved. He stepped back once, then surged forward, threading through the largest gap the squad had left open. The slow-witted skeletons brought their swords down and cleaved nothing but a lingering afterimage.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Three Undead Elemental Bolts, glowing a conspicuous grey even in the darkness, flew at his running body from three directions. Ye Tianxie didn’t look back; from the faint whistle of their passage and the movement of the air, he determined instantly the flight path of all three and the time each would take to reach him. His feet checked, and his forward course changed — from a straight charge into a direct rush at one of the Undead Skeleton Mages that had just thrown a bolt. The Hour of Eternal Fate cut through the darkness, thrusting straight at its target.

All three bolts struck empty air, and Ye Tianxie’s attack landed unerringly on the Undead Skeleton Mage…

MISS. MISS…

Ye Tianxie: “…”

His attacks had missed entirely as well. A full ten-level gap had gutted his accuracy. He hesitated no longer, wheeled around, and bolted deeper at the fastest speed he could manage. Everywhere he passed, more Sword-and-Shield Skeletons and Skeleton Mages roused — but fortunately, these heavy-bodied skeletons couldn’t outpace him. The magic bolts from the mages came one after another all the same, and Ye Tianxie, tracking them by sound alone, evaded every one without expending much effort, running clear to the far end of the second level.

Had he been any other Level 14 player, sprinting the length of the second level and emerging unharmed would have been extraordinarily difficult — impossible, really. But… from the City of Heaven’s Stars to remote Guping Town, Ye Tianxie had crossed no end of dangerous country, and had even passed through the territory of the Level 70 Golden-Armored Earth Dragons… without a scratch. By comparison, escaping a pack of Level 24 monsters that couldn’t even one-shot him was far simpler. From the front of the second level to its end he had shifted position who knew how many times, yet remained entirely at ease, without a trace of tension or caution.

Another patch of darkness appeared ahead, and Ye Tianxie plunged into it without hesitation.

The clamor of pursuit and the whistle of undead magic bolts fell away behind him, and everything went quiet again. But the view before him had changed enormously: unlike the green glow of the first and second levels, the light here was white… though certainly not a normal, lustrous white. It was a deathly, lifeless pallor.

And the source of that white light… was the bone-white ground beneath his feet.

The Skeleton Cavern, third level… the Skeleton Bone Road. As the name suggested, a road paved with the bones of skeletons. Such a road sent threads of chilling cold through Ye Tianxie despite himself. But thanks to that white light rising from the ground, his field of vision had widened somewhat.

Ye Tianxie advanced a few careful steps and at last roused the sleepers here. And the moment the skeletons of this place appeared, his pupils contracted slightly…

An enormous skeleton was walking slowly toward him… slowly only in the frequency of its steps, for its speed was not slow at all — each of its strides covered nearly three of the earlier skeletons’. This skeleton stood a full five or six meters tall. Its body bore no armor of any kind, yet was without filth or grime or discoloration, and that stark bone-white, lit by the pale deathly glow, was terrible to behold.

Giant Skeleton — Level 38. ????

The level gap exceeded ten, and Detection could not read its details at all. Level 38 — a level Ye Tianxie could not possibly defeat.

Perhaps because of their sheer size, the Giant Skeletons here plainly spawned in small numbers; Ye Tianxie had roused only this one. He glanced around and, as before, charged straight at it.

(End of Chapter 99)