"Skeletons! Why are there so many skeletons!"
"Ancestors! Someone, please save us!"
Wherever the skeleton army passed, wails of agony followed.
But soon, silence returned.
The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon, and the skeleton army had already swept through all the pigmen towns at the border, their numbers reaching 70,000.
Ahead was no longer the territory of the pigmen, but that of the imperial tigermen.
The endless stretch of city walls showcased the tigermen's prestige as the imperial race.
According to the textbooks, the tigermen had ruled this continent as the imperial race for a thousand years.
The other nine races—pigmen, bearmen, dogmen, catmen, snakemen, hawkmen, elephantmen, bullmen, and ratmen—had been plundered by them for a millennium.
The walls encircling the tigermen's borders were the most naked display of their power.
"Let's skip the tigermen for now. We'll cross the mountains and have some fun with the snakemen first."
The skeleton army immediately set off, running toward the mountain range in unison.
...
"Hmm? Did a house collapse somewhere? Why is the ground shaking so much?"
A snakeman, naturally sensitive to vibrations, suddenly noticed something was wrong.
"How could that be? Our snakemen houses aren't like those of the bulky bullmen or elephantmen. Even if one collapsed, it wouldn't make such a commotion," another snakeman retorted.
"It couldn't be an earthquake, could it? Wait! You... look! What is that massive white patch to the west?!" one snakeman cried out in shock.
"Skeletons! So many skeletons! What are those things!"
"Stop staring! It's an enemy attack! Everyone, hide!" The snakemen instantly fell into chaos.
The sun was already high in the sky, and the skeleton army had nowhere to hide.
【Raise Skeleton (Level 17): Summons a skeleton. If a corpse is consumed for the summoning, an extra bonus is granted based on the quality of the corpse. Current enhancements: Cold Enhancement. Current hero units: Bone Guard One (Level 9)】
With Level 18 skeleton soldiers and a terrifying count of 70,000, Chen Xu finally had the strength to stop hiding.
Additionally, Bone Guard One was at Level 9, right at the threshold of Ascension.
Normally, the experience provided by the system would have pushed him far past Level 9, but hero units were similar to professionals; they faced an Ascension every ten levels.
Passing an Ascension granted extra improvements, such as evolving from a common class to a rare one or obtaining powerful exclusive skills.
Bone Guard One's current mission was:
【War and Death: As the first skeleton hero under the command of the great Lord of the Undead, you must use a grand war to proclaim your heroic name and announce the greatness and terror of the Lord of the Undead to all living beings. (There must be no more than one day between each battle.)】
As his first hero unit, Chen Xu placed great importance on Bone Guard One's Ascension mission.
However, they had already crossed the mountains and reached the snakemen's territory. Turning back would be a waste of time.
So, Chen Xu decided to start with the snakemen and sweep through the lands in a counter-clockwise circle, eventually surrounding the tigermen in the center. He would use the land of the Decagon Hegemony to witness Bone Guard One's rise to heroism.
"Bone Guard One, go. This will be your path of witness. I will continuously provide you with soldiers from the rear. I hope you don't disappoint me."
"Bone Guard One shall spread my Master's terror across this land!"
A halo lit up around Bone Guard One, and the speed of the skeleton soldiers within its range increased dramatically.
In an instant, several thousand skeleton soldiers charged toward the snakemen town like cannonballs.
"Is this the power of Vanguard's Courage? The bonus is absolutely ridiculous!"
Chen Xu opened his panel to check the new skill Bone Guard One had gained at Level 5.
【Skeleton Hero: Bone Guard One (Level 9)】
【Skills: Command, Hold Fast, Shield Bash】
【Command (Level 9): The skeleton hero can lead 9,000 skeleton soldiers and slightly enhance their attributes. Simultaneously, the skeleton hero gains attribute boosts based on the number of soldiers commanded.】
【Hold Fast (Level 9): During stationary battles, the skeleton hero and nearby skeleton soldiers receive extra defensive attributes.】
【Shield Bash (Level 9): Strikes a target with a shield. Guaranteed to stun units smaller or lower-leveled than the skeleton hero.】
【Vanguard's Courage (Level 5): Deploys a halo that grants commanded soldiers extra speed and defense. When charging toward an enemy, their pace will not be slowed by non-lethal injuries.】
Boom!
A series of deafening crashes pulled Chen Xu's attention back from the panel.
He saw the thousands of soldiers led by Bone Guard One acting like a giant heavy truck, ramming through the snakemen town from west to east.
Every building and snakeman in their path was crushed to pieces.
"...What is this? A combined technique called Heavy Truck Collision?" Chen Xu was speechless.
The snakeman corpses run over by the skeleton heavy truck could only be described as puddles of meat. He wasn't even sure if he could still use Raise Skeleton on them.
Chen Xu approached one of the meat puddles and cast Raise Skeleton. A skeleton soldier immediately stood up.
"Fortunately, they're still usable... but this makes them impossible to transport. Isn't this just increasing my workload, Bone Guard One?"
He summoned a cleaner skeleton soldier and climbed onto its back. Chen Xu began his recruitment efforts once more.
His top general was out front creating his own epic, so as the boss, he couldn't afford to be lazy and hold him back.
As the skeleton army ran past, more skeleton soldiers rose from the ground.
He kept a few hundred by his side and ordered the rest to follow Bone Guard One, placing them under his command.
...
"How many tens of thousands of skeleton soldiers is that? Can a Level 1 Necromancer's mental energy even accommodate that many summons?" an admissions teacher asked in confusion.
"It shouldn't be possible, right? I remember a Necromancer a few years ago who only reached 10,000 skeleton soldiers at Level 10. They had to summon new ones as the old ones were consumed in battle."
"At Level 10, that was likely because a portion of their mental energy was occupied by newer summons. But even so, being able to summon tens of thousands of skeleton soldiers at Level 1 is terrifying."
Xia Qiming didn't say anything. Instead, he took out a small notebook, flipped to the page with Chen Xu's name, and added a few words:
Fast skill growth, fast hero unit growth, a bit lazy, extraordinary mental energy.
Then he took out his smart terminal and dialed a number.
"Director, it's me, Xia Qiming. I've found a promising candidate here in Linghai. I wanted to give you a heads-up."
He then proceeded to introduce Chen Xu's file and his performance in the initial dungeon.
"Tens of thousands of skeleton soldiers... he could probably clear those low-level dungeons all by himself," City Lord Mo remarked with a sigh.
...
Inside the initial dungeon, Chen Xu had been riding on a skeleton soldier's back for an entire day.
He had gone from discomfort to eventually getting used to it, becoming numb to the bumpy skeleton mount.
Chen Xu tracked Bone Guard One's path, constantly casting Raise Skeleton behind him.
Even so, Chen Xu couldn't keep up with Bone Guard One's speed. That skeleton heavy truck didn't even slow down when it encountered the snakemen's capital; it simply ran over it a few more times.
To be honest, when he saw the tall corpse of what was likely the snakeman clan leader—with eyes full of confusion and disbelief—Chen Xu felt a brief flash of pity.
But that pity lasted only a second. Bone Guard One was like a maddened bull that couldn't stop.
With no living beings left in the snakemen's territory, the skeleton heavy truck began heading north toward the lands of the ratmen and bullmen.
Ascension was a strange thing. You could choose not to ascend and simply level up normally.
But once you chose to begin the Ascension, it was like stepping onto a highway. Your body, your will, and everything about you would instinctively drive toward the goal.
It was the most primitive, instinctive biological desire for evolution.
As the master Bone Guard One served, Chen Xu could only stay up late and work overtime, providing a constant stream of troops.
"Dammit, it feels like I'm back to that 996 lifestyle again."
Chen Xu, bobbing up and down on the skeleton's back, complained helplessly.
Rate on N.U.
