Sterling had no family backing and was penniless himself; after his death, not a trace of his belongings remained.
Howard couldn't care less, heading straight to the corpse of the Dual Blades Mantis to collect all the gold coins and spoils of war.
[Ding Dong! Congratulations, awakened Howard, you obtained: 17 gold coins!]
[You obtained: 1 sharp mantis blade]
[You obtained: 1 mantis wing]
[You obtained: 1 Death Dragger]
[You obtained: 1 S-level skill book]
Howard's eyes lit up at the sight of the skill comprehension book.
Materials could only be sold for money, and equipment might only be useful for a while, but skills were the precious companions one could have for a lifetime!
Not to mention, this was an S-level skill!
Without any hesitation, Howard took out the S-level skill book to check its attributes.
[S-level skill book (Special consumable): Upon use, allows the awakened to randomly comprehend one S-level skill]
"Random comprehension?"
"Phew, an S-level skill is still far superior to other skills!"
Howard chose to use the book straightaway.
[Ding Dong! Congratulations, awakened Howard, you have successfully learned the S-level active skill — Blink]
[Blink (S-level skill)]
Level: 1
Effect: After a charging period, allows one to traverse space. Within a charge time of 1 second, teleport within a range of 100 yards; with a charge time above 3 seconds, teleport randomly within a range of 100 to 1000 yards.
Cooldown: 1 second
Consumption: 50 MP
Proficiency: 0/100
Seeing the skill's effects, Howard couldn't help but reveal a look of joy... this skill was nothing short of a godsend for the magus class!
As a magus, what he lacked most was the ability to preserve his own life.
If approached by a melee fighter, perhaps Howard wouldn't even have the opportunity to summon the fire dragon before being killed.
But with the Blink skill at his disposal, Howard could easily maintain distance from his enemies.
A magus who could attack from afar was a terrifying entity, revered as a sorcerer supreme.
Taking another look at the equipment, it was quite remarkable as well.
[Death Dragger]
[Level: 30]
[Tier: Gold]
[Equipment attribute enhancements:]
[Attack power +1800]
[Strength +500]
[Agility +300]
[Critical hit rate +5%]
[Skill: Hunt (Upon killing a target using this skill, it will reset its cooldown time)]
"A pretty decent piece of equipment."
After inspecting its attributes, Howard nodded slightly, unhesitatingly adding the dagger to his inventory.
Maguiwere capable of wielding dagger-type weapons, utilizing them for close-combat self-defense.
The attributes of this dagger were commendable, and coupled with the presence of the Hunt skill, it might prove useful in the future.
Having collected all the spoils of war, Howard looked around, finding himself at a crossroads, uncertain of the next course of action.
The Dark Mausoleum was a high-level map.
While Howard could rely on the fire dragon to survive here, there remained a looming danger should he get besieged by multiple high-level monsters or alert bosses above level 80.
Regrettably, the distance to the Silent Forest was too great. To return there, Howard feared that it would take several hours of travel time.
"Damn it, fortune favors the bold. The danger here is palpable, but the experience points garnered from the monsters are significantly higher! Perhaps, just one night here could catapult me to level 15, or even higher!"
With a resolute glint in his eyes, Howard grasped his wand tightly, venturing deeper into the ominous corridors of the Dark Mausoleum.
Whoo...
Whoo...
Whoo...
Cold gusts of wind swept incessantly, making the hairs on his arms stand on end.
As Howard ventured further, eerie sounds echoed sporadically, piercing the pervasive silence.
Thump—
In the midst of walking, the ground suddenly split open without warning, and from the chasm emerged a hand that abruptly seized Howard's ankle.
Fortunately, Howard had been on guard all along, aware that the monsters here were associated with ghosts and corpses, and was not frightened.
On the contrary, he grabbed the Mana Drainer and smashed it down on that skeletal palm.
Bang!
A crisp sound echoed.
Despite being a magus, Howard could still muster notable physical attack strength when wielding a high-level weapon, causing the skeleton hand to tremble and release its grip.
Seeing this, Howard quickly retreated, brandishing the Mana Drainer and chanting incantations.
"Roar!"
A blaze of fierce heat burst forth as the fire dragon was summoned once again.
While on the move earlier, Howard couldn't trigger the mana draining effect of the Mana Drainer, lacking sufficient MP to sustain the existence of the fire dragon. (Although the protagonist has an F-level talent allowing him to recover 10% of MP per second, his current MP upper limit is too low to maintain the fire dragon's consumption rate.)
But now encountering a monster, Howard was not worried, directly unleashing his powerful spell.
Crack– Crack–
The ground broke apart, revealing skeleton figures emerging one after another.
"Roar."
With soulless eyes, they continued to advance, marching towards Howard to kill him.
"Fire dragon, attack!"
Following Howard's command, the fire dragon hovering in the sky instantly breathed out streams of flame, or hurled blazing fireballs.
Boom–
When a fireball hit the ground, it caused a loud explosion.
The terrifying force instantly sent numerous skeleton creatures flying.
The flames rained down furiously, covering even the skeletons that were blown away, and scarlet damage numbers continuously surfaced above their heads.
"-1781!"
"-2128!"
"-2114!"
"..."
The damage numbers were not low, but the HP of that group of skeletal monsters didn't change much.
Seeing this, Howard couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart, hastily checking their attributes...
[Skeletal Wraith]
Level: 60
Rank: Gold
Description: The sacrificial offerings buried in the Dark Mausoleum, resurrected to become the protectors of the wraith guardians with the advent of the bizarre strength.
Health: 33600
Attack Power: 3100-3677
Defense Value: 1900
Skills: Power of Wraith, Wraith Blade
Upon seeing the level and attributes of the Skeletal Wraiths, Howard realized why the damage inflicted was so low.
The level gap was too wide!
This was not just a simple game world; besides attributes, both level and equipment also offered additional bonuses.
When the level disparity was too great, the damage dealt would decrease by a certain percentage.
If the gap spanned hundreds of levels, it might even become impossible to breach the opponent's defense, resulting in every attack being a MISS!
Thankfully, possessing the Mana Drainer weapon allowed Howard to convert the damage inflicted by the fire dragon into his own MP, sustaining the dragon's presence.
Even though the damage was somewhat reduced, the high attack frequency of the fire dragon more than made up for it.
Burning Ground Flames transformed the nearby area into a sea of fire, inflicting continuous burning damage on any Skeletal Wraith that ventured too close.
The Fire Rain Meteor, Meteor Shower, and Inferno Pulse skills all had substantial range, inflicting AOE damage and hitting multiple monsters simultaneously.
Even if a Skeletal Wraith approached Howard, the newly mastered Blink skill proved its usefulness.
Howard could traverse space and reappear elsewhere before the Skeletal Wraith could land a hit.
In contrast, under the relentless assault, the HP of the Skeletal Wraiths slowly dwindled as they gradually darkened.
Boom!
With another flourish of flames that burned a Skeletal Wraith to death, the remaining ones followed suit, dying one after another.
They turned into white lights and dissipated, leaving behind a plethora of equipment and coins.
The crisp sound of system notifications constantly echoed in Howard's ears.
[Ding! You have killed a LV60 Skeletal Wraith and gained 2000 experience points!]
[Ding! You have killed a LV60 Skeletal Wraith and gained 2000 experience points!]
...
It must be said, surpassing level 50 to grind monsters rewarded an especially generous amount of experience points.
Howard could clearly see his experience bar surging dramatically.
In just a brief moment, as the Skeletal Wraiths fell, Howard had once again leveled up, reaching level 10!
Ding! Congratulations awakened Howard, you have leveled up to level 10, gaining the following attribute growths:
1. You gain 100 HP and 250 MP attribute growth!
2. You gain 2 points of strength, 2 points of constitution, 1 point of agility, and 5 points of spirit attribute growth!
3. You gain 2 individual attribute points and 1 skill point attribute growth!
Upon reaching level 10, Howard remembered that he had not used the individual attribute points gained from leveling up when he killed the Dual Blades Mantis earlier.
He quickly allocated them to spirit, and in an instant, his attributes saw a considerable increase.
Yet, Howard's focus remained on the spoils of war before him.