Chapter 18 Bone Kodos

Nie Yan brought along two Bone Kodos, clearing out the Bone Kodos that spawned nearby while occasionally casting the Undead Sacrifice skill, trying to summon more Bone Kodos. Obviously, the success rate was very low, but it was worth a try.

Since the Bone Kodos didn’t spawn in groups, but were scattered around, Nie Yan crushed them one by one with his two Bone Kodos, and after taking down more than ten, he successfully summoned another one.

Three Bone Kodos would already meet the requirements of this quest.

Tang Yao was dumbfounded by the three summoned Bone Kodos.

“How much experience do you have now?” Nie Yan asked.

“57%.”

“You’ll level up soon. I have things to do later, so once you reach Level 8, turn on experience sharing exclusively for the Arcane Sprite! I’ll get the Arcane Sprite to Level 2, and then I’ll help you find a leveling spot,” Nie Yan said. Leveling up the Arcane Sprite from Level 1 to Level 2 was quite easy, but leveling up from Level 2 to Level 3 required a hundred times more experience, and Level 3 to Level 4 and Level 4 to Level 5 was even more absurd. This was also why Arcane Sprites were so difficult to raise.

“Okay,” Tang Yao nodded. Although he wanted to level up a few more times, he didn’t want to bother Nie Yan since he had things to do. There would be plenty of opportunities to level up together in the future. Leveling up with Nie Yan was just too awesome.

“Where will I level up?” Tang Yao asked, surprised. With his strength, leveling up here was practically suicide.

“There’s an area to the east where Level 19 Skeleton Soldiers spawn. You can level up there. I’ll take you there later, and you’ll see,” Nie Yan said.

Tang Yao was a little puzzled. Could he really grind Level 19 Skeleton Soldiers with his level? But since Nie Yan said so, there must be a reason.

Nie Yan bulldozed his way through with three Bone Kodos, sweeping everything in his path. After a while, a system notification sounded, and he leveled up as well.

Level 10 was the perfect time to allocate stat points. Nie Yan opened his character panel, which showed seven free stat points and two free skill points.

To be able to equip the Sogoth's Shadow Cloth Boots as soon as possible, Nie Yan didn’t hesitate to put all seven stat points into Strength.

He looked at his Strength, which was now at 53 points. Although 130 points seemed far away, it was actually within reach. There were many ways for him to increase his Strength. The reason he chose to get the Chapter of Freedom earlier was also because it added a significant amount of Strength. If he could equip Sogoth's Shadow, that would be awesome.

As for the two free skill points, Nie Yan put them into Intermediate Shooting and Basic Dexterity. Intermediate Shooting allowed the Thief to deal more damage when using crossbows, with a 1% chance of armor penetration. Basic Dexterity allowed the Thief to switch dagger attack modes nimbly, backhand, forehand, and the like, increasing additional damage by 2%. It also gave an extra bonus to the Steal skill.

As a skill that increased income for Thieves, Steal wasn’t very useful to Nie Yan when leveling up, but there were several quests related to the Steal skill that were quite interesting. Since they were exclusive quests for Thieves, the rewards were top-grade items for Thieves, and the quest rewards were so generous that most Thieves would be envious. Once Nie Yan got the Chapter of Freedom, he could do them.

Since there were two free skill points every five levels, Nie Yan’s allocation of points was quite casual. As long as the skill was useful, he could allocate skill points to it.

After a while, Tang Yao’s level increased to Level 8, and he turned on experience sharing exclusively for the Arcane Sprite.

The Arcane Sprite’s experience points began to skyrocket.

The undead spawning areas in the entire Calore City weren’t many. After Level 20 or 30, there were basically no suitable undead grinding areas. If he could raise the Arcane Sprite now, then have Tang Yao increase his arcane damage and learn a large number of high-damage arcane spells, the Arcane Sprite-wielding Arcane Mage’s output could be described as terrifying, and leveling up would definitely be fast.

Nie Yan grinded monsters with Tang Yao for nearly half an hour, and the Arcane Sprite finally reached Level 2. Leveling up from Level 1 to Level 2 was still very simple, but leveling up from Level 2 to Level 3 was difficult.

“What are the Arcane Sprite’s stats now?” Nie Yan asked Tang Yao.

“Magic recovery speed +300%, magic cooldown time -40%, magic casting time -40%, spell damage +10%, ignore monster level difference +2,” Tang Yao paused when he read the last stat.

“Great, that’s it! Ignore monster level +2, then you should be able to grind Level 19 Skeleton Soldiers,” Nie Yan said. The reason he wanted to help Tang Yao get the Arcane Sprite to Level 2 before letting Tang Yao grind monsters alone was because of this.

So, Nie Yan had already calculated everything.

He led Tang Yao to the east, where there was a continuous stretch of sand dunes, with many Skeleton Soldiers roaming below.

“I’ll send you up the sand dune. You can level up there. Don’t come down. The Skeleton Soldiers won’t be able to attack you,” Nie Yan said. Skeletons were weak in mobility and couldn’t climb sand dunes at all. “Leveling up there isn’t slower than leveling up with me. You can level up there for a few more levels, but it’s best to share all the experience to the Arcane Sprite first. After all, the Arcane Sprite is too important to you. Those Skeleton Soldiers are Level 19, and you’re only Level 8. Grinding monsters 11 levels higher gives a terrifying amount of experience, and the experience bonus caused by the level difference will directly go to the Arcane Sprite. Grind for three days, and your Arcane Sprite will be able to advance.”

The way Arcane Sprites gained experience was slightly different from players. Grinding monsters of a higher level was the fastest way to level up Arcane Sprites. If they leveled up Arcane Sprites like ordinary players, even if they shared all the experience with the Arcane Sprite, it would take at least a month to level up the Arcane Sprite, and it was hard to say what would happen in that month.

In his previous life, someone used a similar method to grind for a month and get their Arcane Sprite to Level 4. When leveling up from Level 4 to Level 5, no matter how much they grinded, they couldn’t level up because when the Arcane Sprite leveled up from Level 4 to Level 5, it didn’t need grinding experience but PK (Player Killing) points.

However, most Arcane Sprites that were grinded out were eventually killed by the Arcane Mages’ enemies. Those who walk by the riverbank are bound to get their shoes wet. Even the strongest people could be gang-banged or killed.

“This place is good. I’ll get the Arcane Sprite to Level 3, so we can grind monsters and level up together,” Tang Yao said. The Level 2 Arcane Sprite already had such strong bonus stats, so the Level 3 Arcane Sprite would definitely be even more terrifying.

Ordinary Arcane Mages would have to reach at least Level 40 or 50, or even higher, to have a Level 3 Arcane Sprite. If he grinded out a Level 3 Arcane Sprite now, it would be like equipping an item that was way ahead of its time, and its power would be quite amazing.

“You can level up here first. With the Arcane Sprite, you shouldn’t lack mana. I’m leaving. Contact me when you want to go back,” Nie Yan said. He looked at the cooldown time of the Bone Kodos. The first Bone Kodo he summoned had less than an hour left.

“Okay, don’t worry. I’ll definitely complete the quest within three days, but don’t look for me within five days,” Tang Yao said. If he wanted to get the Arcane Sprite to Level 3, he would have to level up here for a while longer, to boost his level.

“Your equipment is a bit behind, but with the spell damage bonus from the Arcane Sprite, it’s not a problem to level up to Level 15 before getting new equipment. I’m leaving.”

Tang Yao went up the sand dune and started throwing spells at the Skeleton Soldiers below. Most of his spells were single-target skills, with only Heavenly Fall dealing significant damage, but even so, the leveling speed wasn’t slow because he was constantly outputting damage, never stopping!

Nie Yan said goodbye to Tang Yao and walked away with three Bone Kodos.

Nie Yan’s figure gradually faded away, eventually disappearing into the vast desert. Tang Yao glanced at Nie Yan’s back and began to grind monsters non-stop.

He would spend the next three days in this sand dune area.

“Life is lonely,” Tang Yao sighed, opened the chat list, and started looking for beauties.

“Hey, beauty, what are you doing?”

“Leveling up.”

“Chat with me.”

“No time.”

“I told you I’m really a pro. I’m leveling up in a Level 20 grinding map. I’ll take you back with me.”

“Yeah right.” The beauty hung up the voice call, and a busy tone came from the voice call.

Tang Yao smiled wryly. Why did no one believe him when he told the truth? He continued to click on an avatar, harassing the next beauty. Leveling up, harassing beauties, entertaining himself, while listening to the sound of the Arcane Sprite bubbling beside him, he was quite happy and didn’t find the time difficult to pass. To become a real pro, you have to be able to endure loneliness.

Nie Yan gradually went deeper into the Black Hems Desert. The wind carried yellow sand, flying wildly. There was almost no vegetation that could survive here.

The sky was as dark as ever, and the monotonous scenery made it difficult to tell the direction.

Nie Yan looked at the coordinates. His memories from his previous life were a bit vague, but the direction should be right.

After walking for more than ten minutes, Nie Yan finally saw the endless graves among the yellow sand. Countless tombstones, either lying down or broken, were densely distributed in the desert, stretching endlessly, and he couldn’t see the end.

This desolate graveyard didn’t know how many years it had been through, telling the world about the loneliness of death.

Looking into the distance, a dilapidated building stood among this graveyard in the endless yellow sand. That was the passage to the underground tomb.

That was the tomb of the Necromancer Abraham, the terrifying demon who once controlled the undead army to rush out of the ground, bringing death, fear, and plague to Greenland. After his body was purified by the archangel, it was forever sealed in this barren land.

Thieves had tried to enter this tomb and steal Abraham’s necklace, but they had failed, but they had left the Chapter of Freedom in this graveyard.

When Nie Yan tried to approach this tomb area, a dark power spread out like water waves, little by little, in the sky. One, two, hundreds, thousands, densely packed skeletons dug through the soil beside the tombstones and crawled out of the ground.

Endless, boundless, all Skeleton Soldiers, like a sea.

At this moment, Nie Yan understood what was meant by an undead army. He could vaguely imagine the magnificent ancient battlefield.