Chapter 96: Rune Evolution
Gusu City.
Bai Qi's family.
Secret place.
A dozen skeleton soldiers were neatly lined up in a row, motionless. Only the soul fire that kept beating in their eye sockets proved that they were not sculptures.
"No wonder the Federation attaches more importance to the Undead Scourge than other disasters. The suppression effect of high-level Undead on low-level Undead is really too great."
Looking at the skeleton soldiers who were as obedient as little white rabbits under the Alpha Deterrence skill, Bai Qi finally understood the distinct class gap between the undead creatures.
"Fortunately, Alpha understood the power of deterrence before fighting Zhang Kai, otherwise he might not be a match for that Violent Ape of Death."
Bai Qi felt somewhat relieved, then he put on his rune glasses and walked towards the first skeleton soldier holding the rune carving knife.
"Shuke, you are responsible for collecting the experimental data. Alpha, remember to suppress these guys."
On the day he returned to Gusu City, President Qin sent Bai Qi fifteen skeleton soldiers and asked him to try them out himself. Bai Qi was happy to have free test subjects and accepted them all without hesitation.
"Well, let's try the first set of runes."
Bai Qi pushed his glasses, picked up a carving knife and started carving on the body of a skeleton soldier.
Compared with the Red Flame Iron, the skeleton soldiers' bones were obviously much more fragile, and Bai Qi hardly felt any resistance.
However, Bai Qi also noticed that when he was carving with the chisel, his mental power unconsciously flowed along the chisel into the runes.
"In addition to the energy of the pet, can the beastmaster's mental power also be used as an energy source?"
Bai Qi had a vague guess, but because of this distraction, he moved his hands a little too heavily, and the rune that had been drawn was completely ruined.
As expected, carving runes is a delicate job. Only someone like Alpha can be so focused and spend the whole day carving.
Bai Qi let out a breath, calmed down and started carving again.
There was no problem this time, and a brand new rune quickly took shape in Bai Qi's hands.
"Mm-hmm, it flows smoothly like a master."
Looking at the first work in his hand, Bai Qi nodded with satisfaction.
"Universal Rune: Hardening, Similarity: 67%. Beastmaster, you still need to work hard."
Just when Bai Qi was feeling self-satisfied, Shuke's cold electronic voice suddenly rang out, bringing Bai Qi back to reality.
"Tsk... that's the bad thing about mechanical life forms. They're not sensible enough."
Bai Qi smacked his lips, glared at Shuke with some disdain, then looked at Alpha and said, "Alpha, let it guide the energy to activate the rune and see."
Crunch.
(OK.)
Alpha nodded and walked to the front of the skeleton soldier. The fire of soul flashed in his eyes. The skeleton soldier shook his head and looked at the runes on his arm with some confusion, and then he did not take the next step.
Crunch.
(Master, it seems it doesn't understand your instructions.)
Bai Qi remained silent after hearing this. The intelligence of this skeleton soldier was too low. He couldn't even guide the energy value?
From this perspective, Alpha is quite smart.
It's just a little boring at ordinary times.
"Forget it, Alpha, you help activate it."
Bai Qi sighed helplessly and walked aside to let Alpha activate it instead.
Alpha nodded, grabbed the skeleton soldier's arm, and carefully injected a trace of energy. The hardening rune suddenly lit up, and the skeleton soldier's arm was slowly covered with a faint light.
This is almost identical to the pet's hardening skill.
"Shuke , test the hardening effect and record the duration."
Bai Qi asked Alpha to cancel the energy transfer and asked Shuke to step forward. After a round of knocking and hitting, Shuke quickly gave feedback.
"It's basically similar to the effect of the Hardening skill, but the strength is very low. If the Beastmaster can achieve 100% similarity, it should be able to improve it to the effect of entry-level proficiency."
Are you just starting out in proficiency?
Bai Qi couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Hardening is a universal skill that many pets can master through training. If it only has an entry-level proficiency effect, it would be a bit useless.
"Forget it, at least it proves that runes can be popularized on skeleton creatures."
Bai Qi comforted himself and then began to try the second rune.
This time, in order to avoid the embarrassing situation before, Bai Qi practiced on the wooden board several times in advance, and only started writing after confirming that there were no problems.
"Shadow Rune: Concealment, similarity is 89 percent, very high similarity, congratulations Beastmaster."
Hearing Shuke's praise, Bai Qi nodded with satisfaction, and then signaled Alpha to step forward and activate it again.
boom!
The moment Alpha injected his energy into the concealment rune, the skeleton soldier's bones immediately cracked and then exploded into countless pieces.
Crunch.
(Boss, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it.)
Seeing the skeleton soldier explode in his hands, Alpha immediately lowered his head and apologized to Bai Qi somewhat aggrievedly.
"It's okay, there must be a problem somewhere else."
Alpha's control over energy is quite accurate, so there won't be a situation where the energy value is too high. The so-called problem should be with the runes.
Bai Qi patted Alpha's head, looked at the debris on the ground and pondered for a moment, then came to another skeleton soldier and carved another concealment rune.
"Alpha, try again."
Alpha nodded and carefully injected energy into the skull.
This time, the skeleton did not explode again, and its body slowly merged with the surrounding shadows.
If it is not a problem with the attributes of the rune itself, then it can only be a problem with the number of runes.
Bai Qi took out the carving knife and carved hardening runes on the second skull again, and then asked Alpha to activate it.
As expected, the skeleton soldiers were blown into pieces.
"Can it only bear one rune? No, it should be that it can only bear one rune at a time, and it should also be related to the level."
Alpha had used multiple runes in actual combat before. In the battle with Gushan, he even engraved explosive runes on the four bone cages. If it was just a simple quantity limit, Alpha would have exploded long ago.
However, in this case, Alpha will need to be careful when using runes in the future.
Thinking of this, Bai Qi summoned two skeleton soldiers again and tried again. The result was the same as he expected. The skeleton soldiers could only withstand one kind of rune. If they exceeded one, they would cause unbearable damage to themselves.
However, if the growth level and bloodline level are improved, the amount that can be endured should be increased. Alpha is the best proof of this.
"Finally, I have discovered something, but the consumption is a bit high."
Four skeleton soldiers were worn out in just ten minutes. Bai Qi seriously doubted that these skeleton soldiers would not be able to hold on until he had lunch.
"Let's try to see if runes with other attributes can take effect first."
Looking at the remaining eleven skeleton soldiers, Bai Qi temporarily gave up trying the shadow runes and began to turn to runes of other attributes.
"Let's try the ice attribute rune first."
Bai Qi selected from the runes provided by the Rune Cube and finally chose a relatively simple ice rune: Low Temperature.
Bai Qi has tried this rune and found that it can lower the temperature within a certain range. As for the effect, it can only be used as an air conditioner.
After carving several runes in succession, Bai Qi obviously got the hang of it. The speed and quality of carving improved significantly, and he soon carved ice runes on every position of the skeleton soldiers.
"Alpha, let's see what the skeleton soldiers can bear this time."
Alpha nodded, and the azure ice energy spread along his fingers to the skeleton soldiers, lighting up the first rune, then the second, and the third...
Soon, all the runes on the skeleton soldiers' bodies lit up, and a chill began to emanate from the originally ordinary skeleton soldiers.
Done!
Seeing that the skeleton soldiers successfully demonstrated their ice-attribute abilities, Bai Qi nodded with satisfaction.
Originally he was worried that the skeleton soldiers did not have Alpha's ice ability and could not activate the ice runes, but now it seems that he was thinking too much.
Crunch.
(Master, this skeleton soldier seems to be actively absorbing my energy. Should I interrupt it?)
Just when Bai Qi was about to further try high-level ice runes, Alpha suddenly sent a message.
"It actively absorbs your energy? Will this thing backfire?"
Bai Qi frowned slightly and was about to ask Alpha to stop the energy supply, but Shuke suddenly stopped him.
"The energy of the Skeleton Soldiers is running very steadily, and seems to be undergoing some changes. I suggest that you wait and see, Beastmaster."
Shuke's mental power swept across the skeleton soldiers and immediately grasped their conditions. He then projected a graph of the skeleton soldiers' energy value changes into the air.
"The equipment I have is still too rudimentary and cannot monitor more detailed data. I suggest that the beastmaster hurry up and buy materials. I need to upgrade it."
"oh……"
Bai Qi nodded woodenly, and suddenly felt uncomfortable.
Who is the beastmaster?
Soon, the skeleton soldiers stopped absorbing alpha energy. An ice-blue energy slowly seeped out from the rune, gradually covering the skeleton soldiers' entire bodies, and the temperature around the skeleton soldiers also dropped rapidly.
If it was just the fresh-keeping layer of the refrigerator before, it should have reached the freezing layer now.
Click.
The frost dissipated, revealing the figure of the skeleton soldier, but his whole body was no longer the pale white color before, but turned into a light blue, and the runes carved before also disappeared.
Bai Qi was a little surprised when he saw the skeleton soldiers in front of him spewing out cold air. Shuke also gave the skeleton soldiers' current data in a timely manner.
【Name】：Ice Bone
[Attributes]: Ice, Undead
[Bloodline Level]: Medium Servant
[Introduction]: Undead born in frost, their attacks can carry freezing power.
"Is this, evolved?"
Seeing the data given by Shuke, Bai Qi couldn't help but exclaim.
Runes can actually promote the evolution of skeleton soldiers?
