The second volume is called "One Heart" Chapter 39: Ultimate Difficulty (3)
I was speechless for a moment. Although what he said seemed to make some sense , I couldn't swallow this anger. Besides, I had no chance of winning against thirty skeleton warriors. If I couldn't defeat them, I would never be able to advance. What a "genius" and "star of hope". They were all boastful and promising. But not only did they not take care of me, but they set up so many obstacles for me. If I had known this, I would not have done this "evil" necromancer.
I sighed. I was about to come up with a few words to refute, but suddenly I lost interest and didn't want to say anything more. It was impossible to defeat these old foxes no matter what. I had to accept the reality in the end. There was no need to struggle in vain. The mistake had been made and it was irreversible. I could only do my best and leave the rest to fate.
I turned and walked towards the entrance of the "Battle Space". Since I'm here, I'll go in and challenge myself. If I lose miserably, I'll leave. With my current ability, I can still help Afeng and Tongxin League for a short period of time. When my strength is not good enough in the future, I'll sell my artifacts and return to real life. After all, I'm just an ordinary person, with neither extraordinary qualifications nor super abilities. I've made it to where I am now with my luck, which is actually pretty good. There are so many game players, but how many of them are really successful?
"Although 'Summon the Dead' is the most powerful skill of the Necromancer, it does not mean that you cannot fight without it. Don't let it become a burden to you. You should know that the Necromancer is first and foremost a magician profession, and the basic fighting methods are the same. Don't ignore other skills just because you are used to relying on 'Summon the Dead'. An excellent magician may not have no chance of winning against thirty skeleton warriors. What's more, you are not just a pure magician..."
Old Mason's deep voice rang in my ears again. My heart was shaken suddenly, but my steps did not stop at all, and my figure slowly disappeared into the dark entrance.
Am I too dependent on "Summon the Dead"? Probably. Every victory in battle was directly or indirectly achieved by relying on a large group of undead. Apart from it, only "Knight of the Dead" was used more often when escaping. The other skills were practiced only to reach a three-star proficiency and meet the conditions for promotion. Deep down, I never expected to use them to defeat the enemy. I seemed to have forgotten my identity as a magician. When fighting, I regarded myself more as a thief who could use the "Summon the Dead" skill.
In the circular arena, the lighting was similar to that in the "Dead Space". On the other side, thirty skeleton warriors were neatly arranged in three rows. To me, a necromancer, they all had well-proportioned bodies and solid skeletons. I could tell at a glance that they were carefully selected elites.
As I was looking at them, the neat formation suddenly dispersed. Thirty skeleton warriors formed a fan, holding knives in their right hands and shields in their left hands, and rushed towards me aggressively, not giving me any time to buffer.
What can I do? Run away. Fortunately, the space is not too small and their speed is not fast. I can use "One Rider, One Dust" to easily avoid their attacks for the time being. It is the first time for me to face so many enemies alone and find ways to defeat them.
The skeleton warriors were not as fast as me, but they were still persistent in chasing me, brandishing their swords and shields. They were numerous and powerful, and I dared not delay for fear of being surrounded. I could only keep looking for opportunities to shoot "rotten bone arrows" while moving, hoping to kill a few of them quickly. However, since I had more brothers, I had been lacking practice in this area, and my hit rate in mobile warfare was really terrible, with little effect.
Now I finally realized my huge advantage in mental power, which is enough to support continuous consumption. I frequently use the "One Ride Away" which consumes double the mental power, escape the siege of skeleton warriors time and time again, and blindly shoot "Corrupted Bone Arrows" everywhere. A large black mass pounced on me. How can I calm down and aim at a target to attack when I am in a panic?
After a long battle, they couldn't do anything to me, and I didn't kill many of them. The situation was at a stalemate, but the continuous running consumed a lot of my physical strength, and I was already a little out of breath. My innate physical strength was not good, and I needed to sprint back and forth continuously, which consumed much more than they did. Looking at the more than 20 skeleton warriors who were still tirelessly chasing me, I smiled bitterly in my heart. Without the "Summoning of the Dead", I had no attack power at all, and this alone doomed me to failure.
As my strength slowly depleted, my movements became slower and slower, and I was finally surrounded by the skeleton warriors. Although I resisted with all my might and shot and killed two skeleton warriors, my health quickly dropped to the limit after a flurry of sword attacks.
After returning to the undead hut, I slowly walked towards the door. I had killed only six out of thirty skeleton warriors. How could I possibly complete the ultimate "actual combat test" with such a result? My mental strength was enough, but my weak physical strength was not enough for me to fight endlessly. Getting rid of them in a limited time was not something I could do at the moment.
Old Mason sat motionless in the middle of the cabin, his eyes slightly closed. He didn't look at me and was completely indifferent to my actions, as if everything had nothing to do with him.
I have reached the door. If I lift my leg again, I can leave here forever. I moved my arms to push the door open, but it felt so heavy that I couldn't lift it. Am I willing to give up? I asked myself, no, I am not willing to give up, but what can I do? There are not five, not ten, but thirty skeleton warriors. Even if I stand still, it will take a while to kill them all. Wanting to destroy them in battle, isn't this just a foolish dream?
I turned around and glared at Old Mason with resentment. If he hadn't been playing tricks there and tricked me into making the wrong choice, I wouldn't have ended up like this. If I choose a normal difficulty based on my strength, there is still hope that I can defeat ten skeleton warriors.
"The most important thing for a person is to have confidence in himself and know what to stick to. If your heart has given up, it will be difficult to succeed no matter what you do." Old Mason didn't look at me, but suddenly sighed.
Confidence? Do I have confidence in myself? When I could cast "Summon the Undead", I was absolutely confident. I was not afraid of even the Level 5 Three-Headed Flame Wolf, and I had narrowly defeated the Millennium Corpse King in a one-on-one duel. Now facing thirty skeleton warriors, am I afraid? Yes, the situation this time is different. Without the help of my brothers, I am outnumbered. Even with the artifact in hand, I can only deal with one at a time. I am not able to deal with a group attack. I have already been timid before the battle. My strength has been greatly reduced. How can I win?
Give up? Persist? I was wavering in my mind, and after saying that, old Mason continued to close his eyes and rest, refusing to make any further comments. I really couldn't figure out what he was planning.
Looking back on the past, I have given up too many times and made countless decisions, but few of them were able to stick to. Is it because of this that I have still accomplished nothing and am living in a daze? Is it because I am simply not capable of it, or do I lack the belief to persevere and stick to it?
I took a deep breath, turned around and sat aside, waiting for my health and strength to recover. This was a difficult challenge, not only for the virtual undead wizard A'dai in the game, but also for the real Li Dai. Maybe I had no ability, or bad luck, but at least I should have an unyielding heart. If the heart has given up, what else can a person do?
After entering the "battle space", thirty skeleton warriors rushed towards me again. This time, I tried my best to keep calm. While dodging their attacks, I focused on one target and continuously released "rotten bone arrows". I no longer randomly shot without purpose like last time, killing the enemy by accident. This really improved the efficiency of the attack. Skeleton warriors began to fall into a pile of messy bones. However, my weak physical strength was still not enough to support me to eliminate all the skeleton warriors. After killing thirteen, my physical strength reached the limit again, and I was killed by the skeleton warriors again.
Although I failed again, it was a great improvement compared to the first time. At least it proved that my fighting method was correct. The only thing I had to do now was to find a way to improve my attack efficiency, strive to hit the target with every "rotten bone arrow", and kill a skeleton warrior in the shortest possible time. Only in this way could I kill all thirty opponents before my physical strength was exhausted and pass the ultimate "actual combat test".
I failed again and again, and continued again and again, killing fifteen, seventeen, eighteen... I was slowly improving, gradually adapting to the magician's fighting style. Maybe at the beginning I still remembered that I was a magician, but when I had a large number of undead minions to command, I gradually ignored other magic skills and forgot the normal fighting mode. Now I am awakening those lost memories.
How long did I persist? About twenty hours, right? How many times did I fail? I can't remember. I went in to challenge again after I recovered. The closer I got to success, the harder it was to kill a skeleton warrior. Every progress required hard work, trying every way to improve combat efficiency, and using the quickest and most labor-saving means to kill every enemy.
I was no longer able to dodge, so I shot and killed the skeleton warrior in front of me, and then fought with the last skeleton warrior with a bone knife. Not only was my right hand releasing "Corrupted Bone Arrows", but my left hand was also not idle. I grabbed the thief's dagger and stabbed wildly. Even if the damage was not great, the more I could fight, the better in a critical moment.
Fortunately, the continuous bloody battles made my fighting nerves tougher. My mind remained calm, and the several "rotten bone arrows" I fired in succession all missed the target. I finally got the upper hand and killed the last skeleton warrior, and had the last laugh of victory.
Accompanied by a blinding black light, I was teleported exhausted to the center of the undead hut. Although the chair was within reach, I really didn't have the strength to move and could only sit on the ground helplessly.
Old Mason, who had been silent all this time, suddenly appeared in front of me. Facing my miserable state of being limp like a puddle of mud, he showed no intention of coming forward to help me. He just straightened his body and shook his ugly face cheerfully, "Junior Undead Wizard Ah Dai, congratulations on successfully passing the ultimate difficulty of the 'Practical Test' task and obtaining the qualification to advance to the Intermediate Undead Wizard."
I glared at him fiercely and ignored him. Although the final result was in my favor, being teased by these old guys all the time would make even a clay man angry. I had secretly decided in my heart to listen and watch more, and to avoid talking to them unless necessary, so as not to get caught up in it again by accident.
Old Mason encountered such a setback, but he did not get angry. He turned around and sat on a chair next to him, still looking at me with a smile, waiting for me to recover my strength.
Barely able to move, I struggled to kneel in front of the statue of the dead old man, and began the promotion ceremony under the guidance of Old Mason. Because I passed the ultimate promotion task, this time it was the dead old man who personally gave me new power. The feeling was much stronger than the last time. I seemed to sense the existence of the dead old man. At the end of the ceremony, his hateful smile emerged in my mind.
My job title changed to Intermediate Undead Wizard, and my badge changed to yellow. I checked the attribute values. My strength value, which had been stagnant, finally increased a bit and turned into medium red. My agility value also increased slightly, and the light orange color became a little darker, with a tendency to transition to medium orange. These two attributes are not important to most magicians, so the increase is not much. What surprised me most was that my health and stamina values actually skipped the heavy red and turned directly into dark red. It really gave me a surprise. If I could reach this level earlier, I wouldn't have to fight so hard.
The spirit value should be the biggest beneficiary, and it has jumped two levels and reached the light green standard. The progress is very fast. Xue Wuxia and the others have only shown heavy orange so far. Even if they are promoted to intermediate magicians, they will never reach my current level. But after all, I belong to the magician profession that relies on mental power to fight, so this is also expected.
A new third-level skill I learned is "Undead Shield", which is a protective magic. Once cast, it can transform into a circular shield with a diameter of about half a meter that flies around the body and blocks attacks against itself. The duration and strength of the shield depend on the caster's mental strength. It is an extremely practical skill, and it can still provide good protective effects even at a higher level in the future.
Old Mason congratulated me once again, but I dared not be careless in front of him anymore. I dealt with him carefully, exchanged a few words of greeting, and then hurriedly said goodbye and left. The interactions with these old guys of the Undead Clan only left me with "painful" memories. There was no need for me to have anything to do with them anymore.
