A series of job advancements had significantly enhanced Arlo's abilities across the board, especially his resistance stats. Except for Light Resistance, which was only 35%, the other five elemental resistances had reached 55%. Even more astonishing, his Dark Resistance had hit 105%. What did this mean? It meant that whenever Arlo faced dark magic attacks, not only would he take no damage, but 5% of the would-be damage would actually restore his health—making him the bane of all dark magic creatures.Additionally, a new Poison Resistance had emerged, reaching an impressive 100%. This essentially meant Arlo could now treat venomous creatures as snacks, rendering him completely immune to poison."Master, each of the five jobs comes with its own set of skills. You can explore them slowly. In future battles, you can choose different skills depending on the enemy," Caiyi said, stretching comfortably atop Arlo's head."Ha! Skills, you say? I've been waiting for this moment! Let me take a look…" Arlo eagerly examined the skill sets of his five professions. However, the sheer number of text-based skills made his head spin. Frustrated, he quickly closed the interface, rubbed his eyes, and muttered, "So many skills, but they're hard on the eyes. I'll review them later."Caiyi chuckled, "Master, you're so lazy.""This isn't laziness; it's strategic delegation. Besides, I'm not ignoring them—just pacing myself," Arlo defended himself before putting away his Skeleton Staff and drawing his Level 8 Bronze Frost Iron Spear. With this weapon, his attack stat increased by another 50 points, reaching 1110. As a Shura, Arlo possessed mastery over all types of weaponry, making the spear feel like an extension of his arm. He effortlessly twirled it in a dazzling display, as natural as eating or drinking."Ha! Am I a spear master now?" Arlo glanced at the respawned giant pythons in the distance, gripping his spear tightly. "Alright, let's see what I'm capable of now!"With his spear in hand, Arlo charged toward the group of pythons. Compared to his pre-advancement self, his body felt significantly lighter, his speed having multiplied several times over. Covering the hundred-meter distance took him a mere two seconds. As he entered the midst of the pythons, his Frost Iron Spear swept through like a blade, causing a series of damage indicators reading "-800" to pop up over the heads of over a dozen pythons.One-shot kills! Absolute one-shot kills!Arlo didn't stop there. He continued sweeping through with relentless strikes. Within just ten seconds, the group of over thirty pythons lay dead, each felled by a single blow.When the final python collapsed without any resistance, Arlo planted his spear into the ground and let out a triumphant laugh toward the sky. "Hahaha! I'm invincible now! Absolutely invincible!"Caiyi tugged at Arlo's hair and said, "Master, stop being ridiculous. With your current stats, you can handle Level 30 monsters. There's no need to gloat over killing Level 10 pythons.""Uh…" Arlo scratched his head awkwardly. "Fair point. Caiyi, are there any Level 30 monsters nearby? I'd like to give them a try.""There aren't any nearby. Monsters are distributed in descending order of strength, so weaker ones won't coexist with stronger ones. If they did, the weak ones would've been wiped out by now," Caiyi explained."That makes sense." Arlo sighed, then proceeded to skin, butcher, and extract the gallbladders from the thirty or so pythons, storing everything in his inventory. This earned him over 1000 gold, bringing his total loot from the pythons to over 20000 gold. However, despite the impressive haul, the group of pythons only granted Arlo a mere 1% experience. Doing the math, he realized he'd need to kill over 3000 pythons just to reach Level 11. The steep leveling curve of the Dreamspace made Arlo feel a wave of helplessness.The ease of killing them also took away the thrill of battle. Arlo sighed and said, "Caiyi, you used to say I wasn't strong enough to capture a mount. Now that I've gotten this much stronger, surely I can tame a wild horse?""Absolutely, Master. With your current strength, you can handle Level 30 monsters, and wild horses range from Level 18 to 35. As long as you're cautious, capturing one shouldn't be a problem. Plus, your new Beastmaster job makes taming easier. If you tame a few more, they could serve as your summoned beasts in battle. Additionally…" Caiyi sat cross-legged on Arlo's head, calculating, "If Master levels up to 100 over the next ten years, and captures 1000 beast monsters annually, you could amass an army of 10000 beasts. By then, you'd have a solid chance of taking down the Dark Demon Dragon."Arlo's eyes lit up. With a sly grin, he said, "Caiyi, I thought I was shameless, but you're even craftier! This plan… it's genius.""Hehe, birds of a feather, Master. I call it 'rubbing off on each other,'" Caiyi teased as she flew high into the air, scanning the surroundings. She spotted a herd of wild bulls to the west and returned to report. "Master, there's a herd of Level 15 wild bulls about three kilometers west of here. There are around 500 of them.""500 wild bulls…" Arlo's eyes sparkled. "That's beef!""Beef, here I come!" Arlo exclaimed, charging westward at full speed. At his current pace, it only took him a minute to cover the three-kilometer distance.The scene before him was breathtaking: a verdant plain, a broad river, and a herd of fierce wild bulls grazing on lush grass and drinking from the clear water. Each bull was massive, standing at least 2.5 meters tall and nearly 4 meters long, their jet-black bodies radiating intimidation.Arlo couldn't help but drool. These imposing bulls would make formidable summoned beasts. A charge of 500 bulls would annihilate anything in their path!Before becoming a Beastmaster, Arlo might have simply turned these bulls into steaks and sold them. But now, with his taming skills and their incredible potential, these bulls had been spared from such a fate.Stopping at a safe distance, Arlo opened his skill menu and found a new ability.Tame Beast: Active skill. Allows the user to tame any beast. If a beast's health drops below 30%, this skill can be used to tame it. Success rate depends on level.
Lower-level beasts: 80% success rateSame level: 50% success rate10 levels higher: 30% success rate20 levels higher: 10% success rate30 levels higher: 0% success rate
"What a god-tier skill!" Arlo's eyes gleamed. With the bulls being five levels higher than him, his success rate was only 30%. However, his Luck stat of 32 would subtly increase his chances.Arlo gripped his spear and asked, "Caiyi, what are these bulls' health and defense stats?"Yawning, Caiyi replied, "HP 1500, Defense 150, Attack 300.""Hm…" Arlo calculated. With his current attack of 1110, he could pierce through 150 defense and deal 960 damage in a single strike, leaving the bulls with about 40% HP. A second strike, however, would kill them outright."Damn it!" Arlo scratched his head in frustration. "My attack power is too high! I can't lower their HP to 30% without killing them outright. What now?""Tsk, Master, you're such a dummy!" Caiyi flew down from his head, giving him a disdainful look."Uh…" Arlo perked up, rubbing his hands sheepishly. "You must have a solution, right?""Of course!" Caiyi waved her tiny hands dismissively as if swatting away flies. "Master, your Necromancer job has curse skills to reduce the bulls' defense and health. Or, you could summon skeletons to help in the fight. Also, the Shura job has a buff skill that increases attack power by 20%, making a one-shot attempt feasible. Alternatively, your magical attack is 280, and the Swordmaster's sword aura skill could deal damage too. Worst case, let Little Yellow out to help chip away at their health. Honestly, Master, you're hopeless.""Uh…" Embarrassed, Arlo wiped the sweat from his brow and chuckled nervously. "Well, even geniuses have their moments of oversight. Let's go with your plan!"Arlo browsed his Necromancer skills and found four: Amplify Damage, Venom, Bone Cage, and Summon Skeletons.Amplify Damage (Single target): Level 1. Costs 10 MP. Increases damage taken by 20%.Venom (Single target): Level 1. Costs 10 MP. Inflicts poison, reducing HP by 10 per second for 10 seconds.Bone Cage (Single target): Level 1. Costs 10 MP. Traps the target in a bone cage for 3 seconds.Summon Skeletons: Level 1. Costs 10 MP. Summons three skeletons to assist in combat.
"Hm…" Arlo stroked his chin. If he'd gotten these skills at Level 0, he would've been ecstatic. Now, however, they felt underwhelming compared to his current abilities. Fortunately, all of these skills were upgradeable."Alright!" Arlo gripped his Frost Iron Spear tightly. "Let's see what these upgraded skills can do!"He activated Summon Skeletons, and three humanoid skeletons crawled out from the ground. They were little more than a pile of bones, far less intimidating than the Level 5 skeletons he'd fought before—those at least had weapons.