Chapter Six: Mastering the Skill

With a single slash, he killed the Roc, then turned his blade back to the warrior named Rock. In that brief opening, two spells from the distant mages struck him as well. Each magic orb exploded with force no less than a hundred points of damage, and in an instant, his health dropped to around 1,500. Li Ren grinned bitterly. He watched the ranger's attack carefully, and just as the ranger landed a blow on him—a bright red 100 floating up—Li Ren spun around and slashed his own sword at the man.

To his dismay, the blade was harshly blocked by what appeared to be an ordinary leather armor, the awkward, dragging sensation of the cut filling him with discomfort. It was clear this stroke would not be enough to kill the hateful fellow, and if he failed to finish the job now, another chance might never come. Claiming the man's weapon was proving to be anything but easy.

Just as Li Ren was feeling a twinge of regret, before he could even finish sheathing his sword, a sudden system notification brought him delight: “Dagger skill has increased to Level 2. New skill acquired: Triple Slash.” Instantly, a foreign memory flooded his mind. Still in the motion of sheathing his sword, he smoothly drew it again, unleashing three rapid thrusts before stopping.

When he halted, his MP dropped by more than 500, and the ranger before him was now dead beyond all doubt.

The remaining group began to panic. Li Ren, of course, would not let such a golden opportunity slip by. He pivoted and felled the last warrior with a swift strike, leaving only Rock at his side, whose defense was solid but whose offense was sorely lacking.

The two mages in the distance continued to wave their staffs, casting spells at him. But since Li Ren's attacks all ended in instant kills, the beautiful priestess had little impact—she could only slowly heal Rock, whose health was only whittled away bit by bit each time.

In the next moment, however, the priestess changed tactics. Whether someone advised her or she decided on her own, she chanted a spell under her breath, and a pillar of holy light descended from the sky, striking Li Ren squarely on the head. A blood-red 300 appeared above him, startling him to the core.

He had known that holy magic would surely restrain him, but never expected the counter-effect to be so overwhelming.

In his panic, Li Ren abandoned all pretense. He reached into his pack, drew out his bow, completely ignored the taunting skills Rock was spamming at his side, and fired an arrow straight at the little priestess. Without even looking, he let loose a second arrow. After two consecutive shots, he put away the short bow, drew his dagger, and charged at the trio.

His sudden rush startled the two mages and the priestess. If Li Ren reached them, they would be heading home free of charge.

All three retreated in unison, but how fast could the mages run? Li Ren ignored everyone else, single-mindedly pursuing the priestess. Amidst her shrill screams, he delivered a gentle slash that sent her directly back to the city.

Wiping imaginary sweat from his brow, Li Ren surveyed the two remaining mages and Rock, the warrior. With a sly grin, he drew a staff from his pack and started an all-out magic duel with the mages. The outcome was obvious: neither in HP nor MP did the mages hold any advantage.

In no time at all, both had surrendered and returned home in defeat.

Seeing there was no hope, Rock quickly retreated. Li Ren considered chasing him, but the man didn't seem likely to drop anything worthwhile. If he stubbornly fought Rock, he might still be at it when the others revived. It hardly seemed worth the trouble.

Letting Rock escape, Li Ren began inspecting his spoils. As expected, he claimed the ranger’s sword without hesitation and chose a staff from one of the two mages, replacing his own. After gathering the loot, he converted each of the fallen into blood crystals and absorbed them one by one.

His experience bar, originally at level 12, shot up at a dizzying pace, so fast he almost went mad from joy! Each player provided him with nearly 30% of a level’s worth of experience. After absorbing just two blood crystals, he shot straight up to level 13, his HP and MP instantly restored to full upon leveling up.

“It seems I can even recover during battle like this. No matter how many attack me, as long as you provide enough experience, there’s nothing to fear. In fact, you’ll only lose attributes and gear for the privilege of being thrashed by me. What fun,” Li Ren mused wickedly, all the while continuing his actions.

After tossing the remaining five blood crystals into himself, he leveled up again to 14. His HP now stood at 2,400, and the five crystals had all provided him with at least one attribute point each, making him grin from ear to ear.

As for those who lost out, he could not be bothered to care about their tears.

“Looks like absorbing player blood crystals really does greatly increase the chance of gaining attribute points,” Li Ren thought. This must be a benefit the system had granted him. Otherwise, with his original attributes and slow growth, he would have been bullied mercilessly by players.

From then on, peace never returned to the outskirts of Calf Village. Countless players lamented being slaughtered by a mysterious skeleton boss, and some even found their attributes permanently diminished, with no clue as to why. Each time they encountered the skeleton boss again, it seemed even more powerful than before.

Many players began to complain on the forums, gradually drawing the community’s attention. Everyone speculated about the mysterious boss’s attributes. Some players who had lost attributes demanded answers from the developers, but the official response was that everything in the game was now handled by the company’s super-processor, beyond human intervention since launch, and all secrets must be discovered by the players themselves.

This answer, unsurprisingly, was met with resounding boos, yet the number of players around Calf Village only increased.

Li Ren, oblivious to the forum chatter, only knew that there were once again more victims to torment nearby. This was the life worthy of a powerful skeleton warrior!

Gradually, word of his exploits spread: a skeleton who looted equipment, had a chance to lower players’ attributes upon killing them, and grew stronger with each fight, had made the area around Calf Village a nightmare for thousands.

The truly high-level players, hearing these rumors, only sneered. A mere skeleton? They were now farming groups of skeleton warriors. A low-level, unremarkable field boss, dropping nothing of value, was beneath their notice.

Only the casuals, late starters, or those unlucky enough to be assigned to this impoverished, backward, and remote village were “honored” to be slaughtered—and to feed him experience again and again.

Li Ren was so pleased these days he could have laughed himself awake in his sleep—if he ever needed to sleep.

His attribute points soared at breakneck speed. Where he once struggled against ten players, he now could massacre forty or fifty at a time with ease. His rapidly rising level spoke for itself.

After all, the monsters around a newbie village were only so strong, and the players who lingered there were seldom above level 10. Any with higher levels had either moved on or already been thrashed by him; those who had lost attributes dared not return, while the lucky few who hadn’t lost any sometimes tried their luck again. And then there were the truly bored, who kept coming back regardless.

Li Ren had no idea what went through the minds of such players, but he welcomed them.

There were even some who, despite being killed again and again and losing attributes each time, kept coming back to “donate” more, deleting their characters when there was nothing left to lose, only to level up a new one and return for more.

Really, with such dedicated “helpers,” Li Ren almost wanted to recruit them as his minions.

Every time he saw them charging in naked, delivering free experience and attributes, his heart felt warm. With enough attributes, he never felt anxious anymore.

Truth be told, they never contributed much—low base stats meant he could only absorb a little at a time, and luck was a factor, too. After enough deaths, they became numb to the loss.

His experience bar was now rocketing toward level 21. Li Ren began to consider whether it was time to return home for a look.

It was worth mentioning that after countless massacres, his miserable, cursed luck finally improved, clambering back up to -3—a considerable achievement.

He’d also discovered, after some experimentation, that he no longer tripped over nothing or had boulders fall on him and shatter his bones as he walked. With his progress blocked at level 20 by the free advancement skill, system messages indicated he would have to return to unlock it.

Having made up his mind, Li Ren left the beloved newbie village behind and set out for his birthplace—Skeleton Mountain.

It’s also worth noting that those persistent attribute-donors found, no matter how many new characters they created, that their stats never seemed to amount to much ever again.