Any spell that required a Magister to chant two sets of syllables or more was incredibly powerful. However, it likely wasn't Forbidden Magic. Large scale offensive Forbidden Magic required at least 30 sets of syllables.
After Xie Yao chanted out the last syllable, a white portal opened up in the sky. Two angels with spotless, white wings flew out. A dazzling holy radiance poured down toward the earth, enveloping everything within a 50-meter radius. All the skeletons caught in the spell were instantly exorcised, vanishing without a trace. Meanwhile, the skeletons that were outside the range trembled in fear, not daring to move.
After a while, the two angels disappeared, and the portal closed up.
This was Nie Yan's first time seeing such powerful Advanced Magic. Despite not being Forbidden Magic, some Advanced Magic could only be learned after advancing to a Magister. Few ordinary players would be able to cast it. In the previous timeline, Nie Yan hadn't met many Magisters. The him of back then was a far cry from being qualified to associate with such experts. In the few times that he did meet one, he had been beaten like a mutt.
"Not bad, that spell is pretty powerful," Nie Yan remarked. Right as these words left his mouth, Lil' Gold lit up with a golden radiance—a level up!
Nie Yan quickly pulled open Lil' Gold's stats page. All of his stats, including health, defense, attack power, and so on, had risen sharply. At present, he already had more than 260,000 health. On top of that, he had the Dragon armour type, which granted high damage reduction to both physical and magic attacks.
Lil' Gold had a high Growth Rate. For every level up, he gained over several times more stats than ordinary pets. After reaching Level 100, this difference became all the more clear. According to rumours, the guild leaders of God Executioner Sword and Penumbra Empire had spend a great many resources acquiring Golden Dragons of their own. Despite being the same type of creature, theirs simply couldn't hold a candle to Lil' Gold and were far weaker. Though their Golden Dragons looked quite intimidating and scary, they didn't amount to much in actual battle.
Apart from the boost in stats, Lil' Gold obtained a new skill called Dragon Fear which could inflict the fear status effect on all creatures within a 30-meter radius. Also, most of his skills received an upgrade, including Explosive Counter which rose to Rank 10. When it activated, it dealt three hits instead of one, and its area of effect was much greater than before.
At present, Lil' Gold was equivalent to a Rank 6 creature. He could easily crush any ordinary monster.
Lil' Gold's frame expanded to six meters in height while his scales now had a violet gold luster to them. It was a beast without equal; it stood unrivalled.
Seeing the change in Lil' Gold, the Thieves from God Executioner Sword broke out in a cold sweat. He had grown even more powerful than before!
After reaching Level 100, Nie Yan could feed Lil' Gold ordinary Life Cores. When a Life Core was fully digested, his stats would see a modest increase.
Nie Yan planned to continue nurturing Lil' Gold and the Darkwing Dragon. Both these creatures had high Growth Rates. As their ranks rose even higher, they would become all the more powerful.
After levelling up, Lil' Gold became even more invincible. He left a trail of raging flames on the ground wherever he passed. When the skeletons behind him entered these flames, they were burnt to ashes. As for those who did manage to close in, they never amounted to enough to surround Lil' Gold. Nevertheless, fearless they struck him after getting in melee range, only to be blasted into smithereens by Explosive Counters. The Rank 10 Explosive Counter was even more frightening than before. Previously, it only dealt one hit. But now it dealt three, meaning it dealt triple the damage in the same time frame. In the blink of an eye, piles of bone fragments littered the ground.
The endless waves of skeletons swarming over couldn't get past Lil' Gold and Xie Yao's attacks. As for the 30 Paladins, Nie Yan was still looking over their stats. Each of them had their own strengths and weaknesses, and not all their skills were the same. Naturally, they all had the most basic Paladin skills.
While Nie Yan's group was crazily sweeping up the skeletons, a large group of skeletons had gathered together in an area roughly 1,000 meters away. There were 100 altogether, 70 Elites, 28 Lords, and 2 Variant Lords.
Normally, the greater the number of players a skeleton killed, the more they would progress. According to rumours, when powerful Lord- or Variant Lord-class skeletons were purified back into ordinary players, the killers would receive a large stats reward, causing their stats to rise by a good chunk. However, this was for later.
Out of every 1,000 to several thousand skeletons, only one Lord-class skeleton might appear. For Qin Han to gather all these Lord- and Variant Lord-class skeletons together showed just how much he wanted Nie Yan dead!
Once these skeletons finished their preparations, under the cover of the ordinary skeletons, they started setting out towards the direction of Nie Yan's group. Even though they were much taller than ordinary skeletons and were easily recognizable, with so many skeletons attacking from everywhere, they weren't easily discovered.
Normally, Lords were already quite powerful, let alone Variant Lords. A Level 100 Variant Lord was roughly equivalent to a Level 150 Lord.
A hundred skeletons composed of Elites, Lords, and Variant Lords was enough to pose a threat to Nie Yan's group.
Nie Yan, Xie Yao, and Tang Yao were oblivious to the approaching danger. They were still clearing away the ordinary skeletons.
Nie Yan glanced at their levels. All three of them had reached Level 103. This was an excellent place for a power-levelling session, far surpassing any other levelling spots.
"Check your kill counts. Xie Yao, what are you at?" Nie Yan asked.
"About 3,000," Xie Yao replied.
"I see. What about you, Tang Yao?" Nie Yan asked. He believed Tang Yao probably had the highest kill count out of all of them.
"Almost 5,000-" Before Tang Yao even finished speaking, he quickly corrected himself, "I'm already at 5,000."
Nie Yan checked his kill count. All the skeletons Lil' Gold killed counted as his. Like Xie Yao, it was also over 3,000.
"I just received a quest." Tang Yao raised an eyebrow. After his kill count broke past 5,000, a notification popped up.
"What kind of quest?"
"It's called Save the Viridian Empire. The first quest in the chain asks you to kill 5,000 skeletons. I've already completed it. The next quest wants me to kill 20,000. Damn, that's a lot," Tang Yao said in a gloomy tone. After grinding for so long, he had only killed 5,000 skeletons. Yet the second quest actually wanted him to kill four times as much.
"Does this quest have any special requirements or conditions you have to follow?" Nie Yan asked. He didn't recall hearing about this kind of quest in the previous timeline. However, thinking about it, when the Vengeance of the Undead event was underway, the number of players who killed more than 5,000 skeletons definitely didn't exceed five. So, information about this quest not spreading was quite normal.
"It seems like even if you don't complete the quest line, you can still go and receive a reward from the Elder Council of the Viridian Empire. This quest is issued out by them," Tang Yao said after reading through the quest info.
The Elder Council was finally making a move. Nie Yan wondered if his prediction of the Vengeance of the Undead event would count as a successful prophecy. If it did, he might receive the Great Prophet title. He thought for a moment. He couldn't go back now. He would go and check later. After all, haste makes waste.
If this quest only gave experience, it wouldn't really be worthwhile. Nie Yan hoped it would give some other rewards. A quest on such a grand scale should at least give a piece of Sub Legendary-grade equipment.
Nie Yan and Xie Yao's kill counts hadn't reached 5,000 yet. They could only wait and see later.
Tang Yao continued killing the skeletons with Flame Wall. Compared to other AoE spells, Flame Wall was quite cost-effective. All he had to do was continuously cast it. The Flame walls could kill all the skeletons that came charging over, not to mention its cast time was super quick.
15 minutes later, Nie Yan received a notification That should be the same quest Tang Yao got. As he glanced at his kill count, he realized it was only at 4,800 and still hadn't reached 5,000.
Eh, what's going on? What was that notification about then?
Nie Yan opened up the notification with a look of doubt, as dazzling rays of golden light flashed out from his body.
After looking it over, he discovered his Advanced Devil Slayer had evolved.
Your Advanced Devil Slayer title has become Junior Adjudicator of Light.
Nie Yan glanced at the properties of Junior Adjudicator of Light. This title actually ranked above Luminous Dancer. It was also a title related to the Temple of Light, and it was extremely prestigious, allowing him to wield even more authority within the temple. With regards to the title's properties, Extreme Intimidate and his other skills all saw some improvements. He also gained a new skill called Junior Adjudicator Aura, which dealt persistent purifying damage to all undead within a 25-meter radius. At the same time, it also boosted the attack of all nearby allies by 30%.
This Junior Adjudicator Aura was definitely an amazing skill!
No matter how many active skills a player had, if they weren't used properly, they would be useless. On the other hand, passive skills gave you a boost no matter what. For any player, the more passive skills, the better. Players with more passive skills had an innate advantage over others on the battlefield. This held especially true for Warriors, who had many powerful passive aura buffs to support them and further raise their defense.
Nie Yan was pleasantly surprised by the evolution of his Advanced Devil Slayer title. Still in ecstacy, he glanced over the battlefield, at the ready to jump back into the fray. It was then he noticed something off. Several large skeletons had braved past Tang Yao's flame walls, endured Xie Yao's holy magic, and came charging over. Xie Yao and Tang Yao's attacks dealt a little under 10,000 damage to them.
Nie Yan inspected one of the large skeletons with Transcendent Insight. It was three meters tall with pitch black bones.
Variant Skeleton King Apbadas (Variant Lord): Level 100
It was actually a Variant Lord, and it wasn't just one. There was also a large number of Lords and Elites around it. Nie Yan's heart sank. He guessed Qin Han had sent over these skeletons to kill them.