"Ding-dong, congratulations to the player of Stone City for discovering the Black Stone Tower, increasing experience by 2000 and reputation by 20."
As per the system's prompt, the scenery before me suddenly underwent a massive transformation. What was just a moment ago a blue sky, white clouds, and green grass, now turned into a desolate landscape of gray sand and a blood-red sky that made one feel extremely uncomfortable.
The entrance to the Black Stone Tower was just beneath a protruding boulder in the sand. Gigantic skull-shaped stone sculptures flanked the entrance, exuding infinite mystery, occasionally emitting eerie sounds.
Right at the door of the Black Stone Tower, five or six skeleton soldiers brandished their black longswords, wandering back and forth, their bone-clashing footsteps emitting a "creak, creak" sound.
A glimpse with the Insight spell:
Skeleton Soldier: Level 18, 1000 HP, Skill: Heavy Strike. The bones of those who die on the battlefield are infected with magic, forming mindless and bloodthirsty monsters that love to make "creaking" sounds.
The monsters in the Black Stone Tower were pretty tough. Even the lowest-ranked skeleton soldier at the door was Level 18. Without a certain level of strength, one would definitely not dare to approach them lightly.
Although I was a bit of a maniac, I was still wearing Level 5 equipment and had no idea of the situation's depth. So I carefully approached a skeleton soldier and used it to test my blade.
-150, -170. With the "Heavy Strike" skill, I made two slashes, and a series of numbers appeared above the skeleton soldier's head. However, the skeleton soldier's response was quite quick, and it immediately turned around and attacked me.
Heh heh, not bad for a knight. Defense is strong.
Damage of -25, -30 appeared on my head, but the skeleton soldier's attack didn't seem that impressive. I could easily withstand it, and my attack speed was twice as fast as the skeleton soldier's. Thus, I spent less than 100 HP and easily dealt with the skeleton soldier.
"Ding-dong, congratulations to the player of Stone City for collecting bone ash, increasing proficiency in gathering skills."
Bone ash: Bones with magic that can be used to refine poisonous potions.
Defense is still good, but the attack is a bit low. If I had a Level 10 blue weapon, these skeleton soldiers would be no problem at all. However, my current state was still acceptable, and a single skeleton soldier was not too difficult to handle.
Fighting monsters that were above my level was the way to go. As soon as I defeated a few skeleton soldiers at the entrance of the Black Stone Tower, my experience increased by 3%.
The Black Stone Tower has been sealed, and theoretically, the monsters should not be able to come out. However, there are active skeleton soldiers at the entrance of the Black Stone Tower now, which seems to be a problem. I will go and investigate.
But just as I was about to teleport into the Black Stone Tower, the system issued a prompt:
"Ding-dong, Stone City, you have been in the game for 9 hours. Please take a break and protect your physical health. If you don't log out for 10 consecutive hours, the system will automatically log you out."
Gosh, what a thing to happen! I was just getting into the game, and the system had to issue a warning. However, no matter what, good rest is the key to success, and it is time to rest.
I don't have to worry about other players catching up to me because everyone needs rest. We all have the same amount of time to play the game.
I quit the game and looked at the time. It was already midnight, time to rest.
After taking a hot shower, I went to bed and the "Imperial God Technique" in my body quickly started to operate.
The "Imperial God Technique" was an ancient secret technique that I accidentally obtained while traveling out of town before graduating from college. After a year of cultivation, I have achieved significant results.
The "Imperial God Technique" is mainly divided into four realms: Foundation Building, Domineering, Kingly, and Divine. Each realm has five levels, and I have now cultivated to the fourth level of Foundation Building.
To be honest, when I first started to cultivate the "Imperial God Technique," progress was slow because it was my first time learning martial arts. Therefore, I was clueless and didn't have much effect.
But after persistently practicing for half a year, the "Imperial God Technique" finally entered the first level of Foundation Building, and my speed suddenly increased. It was like everything fell into place, and in five months, I entered the fourth level of Foundation Building.
However, just as the "Imperial God Technique" entered the fourth level of Foundation Building, I encountered a problem with cultivation. The true Qi in my body no longer increased at all, and there was no progress. No matter how hard I tried or studied the "Imperial God Technique," there was not much effect. It seemed that I had reached a bottleneck in my cultivation.
Despite my tremendous effort and long study of the "Imperial God Technique," there was still no progress. There was no other way but to let nature take its course.
The "Imperial God Technique" is definitely not an ordinary martial art, and its power is immense. I am very certain of this.
Although I have only just entered the threshold of the "Imperial Emperor's Technique" with my cultivation at the fourth level of foundation building, my inner energy allows me to jump five meters in the air, cut through steel, shatter boulders with my fists, and even remotely control basketballs within ten meters, just like a martial arts master from a TV drama.
I am often amazed at the effectiveness of the "Imperial Emperor's Technique" at the lowest level of foundation building. It makes me wonder how powerful it would be at the higher levels, just like those legendary immortals.
As I lay in bed, the familiar "Imperial Emperor's Technique" immediately flows through my meridians endlessly. Although it no longer increases my true energy or power, it gives me the equivalent of one hour of sleep for every three hours of sleep an ordinary person gets.
I wake up early the next day and jog for half an hour around the Huaxia University, which is only a 10-minute walk from my house. As a nationally renowned garden and art university, the campus is beautiful and natural. My morning jog has become an essential part of my daily routine.
Entering the game, a beam of light flashes and I appear next to the entrance of the Black Stone Tower where I logged out yesterday. I unsheathe my steel sword, equip my shield, and bravely stride toward the tower.
"Ding Dong, Stone City, this is the first floor of the Black Stone Tower. Do you want to enter?"
"Yes."
In a flash, I enter the first floor of the Black Stone Tower.
The black marble and dim lighting, coupled with the occasional "creak creak" sounds, make me feel a bit oppressed. Luckily, there are some oil lamps on the stone walls that light up the passage, otherwise I would hesitate to move forward.
The Black Stone Tower is quite straightforward, with a few passages leading to three spacious halls, filled with clacking skeleton soldiers mechanically swaying and wandering like puppets.
"What a great place to level up!" I couldn't help but exclaim as I rushed towards the skeleton soldiers in the left hall.
These non-aggressive skeleton soldiers are my delicious lunch, brushing them down one by one, watching the experience points soar, what could be more exciting than this?
After clearing out the skeleton soldiers in the left hall, I moved on to the central hall. Just as I killed two skeleton soldiers, a towering skeleton with a halo under his feet and a big sword in his hands came at me aggressively.
What is this? It looks tangible.
Using "Insight":
Skeleton Captain: 23rd level common boss, 2000 health points, skills: bone spikes, can reflect attacks, heavy strike, has stun effect, the leader of skeleton soldiers, likes black stones.
Isn't this the skeleton captain that the merchant Wang Wu said stole his Kuikou necklace? It seems to be the boss of the first floor of the Black Stone Tower.
"Attack!" I shouted loudly and rushed towards the skeleton captain.
When I was level 9, I didn't even bother with a 20th level, 5000 health point silver boss like the Black Bear Chalala, and even killed a weakened 30th level Golden Bear Chalala evolved from the Black Bear Chalala. So, why should I fear this little boss? Besides, I have already changed my job, and my ability has greatly improved.
Using the "Heavy Strike" skill, -120, -100 damage appeared above the skeleton captain's head, while the skeleton captain could only cause me more than 40 damage.
The attack power may still be somewhat lacking, but our attack speed is not slow. In addition to the high agility bonus to attack speed, we also have the attack speed bonus from the Doo-Doo Rabbit mask and the "Almost There" skill, as well as the high critical hit and stun effects triggered by the abnormal Lucky skill. After a back-and-forth struggle, and at the cost of three bottles of medium red potions, the level 23 Skeleton Captain reluctantly fell under the level 13 Knight Stone City's sword, dropping two pieces of equipment.
"Ding dong, congratulations to player Stone City for leveling up to level 14, with an increase of 10 in both health and magic points, and 5 attribute points to distribute."
Ha ha, leveled up again. The Skeleton Captain provided so much experience, and I will continue to allocate points to Strength and Constitution in a 3:2 ratio.
"Ding dong, congratulations to player Stone City for killing the Skeleton Captain, reputation increased by 30."
I just used the "Collection" skill on the Skeleton Captain's corpse. I must make the most of all available resources.
"Ding dong, congratulations to player Stone City for obtaining Black Crystal, proficiency in Collection skill increased."
Black Crystal: a medium-level material with various uses.
Now let's take a look at the two pieces of equipment dropped. Ha ha, I'm happy to see that one of them is a gold-level helmet:
Skeleton Helmet: a gold-level equipment, requires level 20, effect unknown, cannot be applied yet.
It requires level 20 to use, so I'll have to wait until then to identify its effects. But I remember the high appraisal fees and can't help but feel a little worried.
The other piece is not simple either. Although it is a blue-level equipment, it is actually a ring.
Rings, necklaces, and accessories are all difficult items to obtain.
Black Crystal Ring: a blue-level equipment, requires level 15, attack power 10, reduces damage from undead monsters by 5, additional effect: defense +10.
The Black Crystal Ring is definitely a good item. The damage reduction effect means that if an undead monster deals 10 damage to you, wearing the Black Crystal Ring will reduce the damage to 5.
Imagine wearing four Black Crystal Rings, I could probably rampage through the Black Stone Tower.
Unfortunately, it requires level 15 to use, and I'm only level 14 now. I need to level up one more time before I can use it. Alright, let's work hard to level up!