Wu Yuyan's face flushed crimson, too shy to gesture anymore.
Late at night, Arlo lay in bed. Sensing that his parents had fallen asleep, he entered the Dreamscape.As soon as he entered, Caiyi flew to Arlo's head. "Master, you're finally here! I've been waiting for you for so long!""Haha, Caiyi, you missed me that much? But I don't have any candy for you," Arlo chuckled."Hmph, I don't eat candy!" Caiyi tugged on Arlo's hair."Ouch, ouch, ouch…" Arlo quickly covered his head, annoyed. "Caiyi, can you please stop pulling my hair?""Only because Master always teases me," Caiyi huffed, flapping her colorful wings and flying up. "Master, are you going to fight monsters and level up now? Or practice butchering?""Let's fight monsters first. Little Huang is almost level 4. With his help, leveling should be much faster," Arlo said, releasing Little Huang from the pet space.Seeing Arlo, Little Huang happily hugged Arlo's leg, nuzzling against it, acting completely subservient.Arlo patted Little Huang's skull and sighed. "Little Huang, you're just too short. When will you grow taller?"Little Huang opened its mouth but couldn't say anything, scratching its head anxiously, at a loss."Caiyi, do you know what Little Huang wants to say?"Asking Caiyi about everything had become a habit for Arlo.Caiyi giggled. "Of course, I know! Master, Little Huang is a growth-type pet. Every ten levels is a growth threshold. When Little Huang reaches level ten, he'll grow to the size of a regular skeleton monster.""Oh, is that so?" Arlo clicked his tongue in wonder, tightening his grip on his cleaver. "Alright! I'll level up Little Huang to level ten and see what he'll become!"Little Huang was still short of level 4, so Arlo still chose to kill skeleton monsters. First, there were many skeleton monsters, making them easy to kill. Second, it seemed that as Little Huang's level increased, he had some kind of deterrent effect on the skeleton monsters, making it much easier for Arlo to kill them. Because of this, Arlo wanted to see if the skeleton monsters would be even more cowardly if Little Huang leveled up again.Little Huang was already close to level 4. After Arlo killed monsters for more than ten minutes, golden light surrounded Little Huang, and he successfully reached level 4. After Little Huang reached level 4, Arlo indeed felt it was even easier to kill skeleton monsters. When facing Little Huang, the skeleton monsters were even too scared to resist, being easily taken apart by Little Huang.Another two hours passed, and Little Huang leveled up again, reaching level 5. Arlo also reached level 6 with 45% experience. With the increase in level, Arlo found it increasingly difficult to level up. In a normal online game, two hours would be enough to reach level 10 and leave the novice village, but he had fought for twenty hours and was only level 6. This showed how difficult it was to level up in the Dreamscape.After Little Huang reached level 5, the skeleton monsters here simply froze in place, not daring to resist, allowing Arlo and Little Huang to slaughter them. Although they gave less experience, there were many of them, and they didn't resist, so Arlo's experience bar still increased at a visible rate, making Arlo grin from ear to ear.With so many monsters killed, many pieces of equipment were dropped. Arlo's inventory was filled with cleavers, hand axes, shields, leather boots, and other equipment, but they were all common items. Gradually, Arlo became too lazy to pick up any more equipment.When Arlo finally reached level 7, Little Huang also reached level 6. The two bronze pieces of equipment in Arlo's inventory were both level 8 equipment. He would be able to equip them after leveling up once more.Looking at the skeleton monsters cowering on the ground, Arlo shouted, "Kill!"The cleaver in his hand slashed at the defenseless skeleton monsters. It was truly a one-sided massacre! But for level 7 Arlo to kill these level 5 skeleton monsters, the experience gained was too little. After killing for more than an hour, he only gained less than 10% experience. Arlo's arms and legs felt weak, and he couldn't help but complain, "Killing monsters like this is too tiring. Caiyi, when can I learn area-of-effect skills?"Caiyi sat on Arlo's hair and giggled. "Master, keep going! Monsters can drop skill books.""I've killed at least tens of thousands of monsters. How come I haven't even seen a single one?" As he spoke, Arlo砍倒another skeleton monster."Master, monsters below level ten rarely drop skill books unless you encounter a boss. The last boss dropped two bronze pieces of equipment and Little Huang. Master, if you encounter a boss again, you might get a skill book!""If bosses were that easy to get drops from, that would be great. Yesterday, I almost lost my life. If it weren't for the Regeneration Necklace, I would have lost a level yesterday.""That's true!""You…"Just as Arlo was complaining about how hard it was to get boss drops, perhaps because he and Little Huang had killed too many skeleton monsters, after another respawn, a skeleton monster holding a skeleton staff suddenly appeared."Master! Master! A boss! A boss appeared! It's an elite skeleton mage!" Caiyi was the first to see the skeleton mage and tugged on Arlo's hair to remind him.Arlo didn't care about the pain from his hair being pulled. He looked up and indeed saw a skeleton mage holding a skeleton staff appear in the skeleton horde. Because of Little Huang, the ordinary skeleton monsters were all prostrate on the ground, not daring to move. Only the skeleton mage could barely withstand Little Huang's pressure and stood upright.The skeleton mage seemed to recognize Arlo. It pointed its skeleton staff, and two green lights flashed in the eye sockets of the skull on the staff. Then, a patch of green mist appeared, instantly surrounding Arlo."Master, that's poison mist. You're currently poisoned and will lose 5 health points per second," Caiyi anxiously reminded him."What!?" Arlo was startled. Currently, at level 7, he had 380 health points. But if he lost 5 health points per second, he would die in 76 seconds."Damn it, this skeleton monster can actually use poison!" Arlo immediately rushed towards the skeleton mage. But when the skeleton mage saw Arlo charging over, its skeleton staff emitted another white light.A skeletal hand suddenly appeared under Arlo's feet, tightly grabbing his ankle. Because of the forward momentum, Arlo fell face-first onto the ground."Ouch! What the heck is this?" Arlo raised his cleaver and slashed hard at the skeletal hand. The skeletal hand, being just bones, broke easily under the cleaver. Arlo immediately got up and charged towards the skeleton mage.This time, Arlo had learned his lesson. Seeing the white light reappear on the skeleton mage's staff, Arlo immediately dodged to the left. Sure enough, a skeletal hand appeared from the ground at his previous location."Luckily I dodged quickly!" Arlo, no longer hindered, finally reached the skeleton mage. He raised his cleaver and slashed at the skeleton mage's neck.Having reached level 7, Arlo's strength had reached 45 points, and his attack power, with the equipment bonuses, had reached a terrifying 105 points. With this slash, the skeleton mage's neck snapped, and its skull rolled to the side.But the skeleton mage was still alive even with its head severed. Seeing the staff about to glow again, Arlo slashed his cleaver at the skeleton mage's wrist, directly cutting off the hand holding the staff. With this, the skeleton mage's greatest attack method was completely gone. After that, it became easy prey for Arlo.A few seconds later, the skeleton mage turned into a pile of broken bones. Unfortunately, this boss didn't evolve and didn't drop a large amount of items like the first boss.Even worse, the skeleton mage's poison mist was very powerful. Arlo drank two health potions before the poisoned status disappeared. Arlo calculated that the poison mist could last for one and a half minutes, which was incredibly powerful. If it dealt 5 damage per second, it could inflict 450 damage in one and a half minutes. Especially since the poison mist was an area-of-effect skill, it was definitely a powerful weapon!"Master, quickly check if the poison mist skill book dropped!" After Arlo's poisoned status disappeared, Caiyi quickly reminded him."It can't be that easy, right?" Arlo rummaged through the items dropped by the skeleton mage. "If skill books were that easy to get… dropped… dropped…"Arlo looked at the skill book in his hand and shouted, "Holy crap! It actually dropped!"Fatal Poison Mist (Area of Effect): An active skill that uses the Skeleton Staff as a medium to release a deadly poison mist within a ten-meter radius. Those poisoned lose 5 health points per second for 90 seconds.A Skeleton Staff?Arlo quickly glanced at the other dropped items. The very same Skeleton Staff lay there, awaiting a new owner.He snatched it up and checked its stats.Skeleton Staff: No level requirement, Bronze equipmentSpirit: +10Arlo threw his head back and roared with laughter. "Wahaha! I'm set!""Master, learn the skill already!" Caiyi urged."Right!" Arlo reined in his excitement. "Caiyi, how do I learn it?""Just tap the book," she replied."Like this?" Arlo gave the skill book a firm tap. It shimmered, then dissolved into motes of light that flowed into Arlo. A moment later, a message appeared in his mind: Congratulations, Arlo has learned the skill – Fatal Poison Mist!"It's that easy? Wahaha! The Dreamscape is so convenient!" Arlo chortled. Seeing no other drops, he stowed his cleaver and, clutching the Skeleton Staff, charged into the skeleton horde. "Fatal Poison Mist!" he yelled.The green mist billowed out from the staff, engulfing everything within a ten-meter radius. Hundreds of skeletons were instantly poisoned. Just over twenty seconds later, they had all crumbled into piles of bone. Arlo's experience bar jumped up by a full five percent."Wahaha! A killer! A real game-changer!" Arlo whooped, running to another cluster of skeletons to unleash the mist again. He repeated this, moving from group to group, poisoning them all. In just over ten minutes, golden light enveloped him—he had finally reached level 8! Now he could equip the level 8 bronze Iron Armor and Frost Iron Spear.