32: Iron-level skills

In Jia Hu's eyes, Xu Shian was truly being a bit ungrateful.

The first time, he had killed him because he had a loose tongue, and that was that.

You were killed and sent back to the Novice Village. Since I had a decent impression of you, kid, I could have let you off the hook.

But you can't just push your luck, can you?

You killed someone else right out in the open, and then dared to walk into the village just as openly?

Don't I have any dignity?

Jia Hu stared fixedly at Xu Shian as he approached.

As long as he stepped one foot into the Novice Village's range, today he would find out why the flowers are so red!

Xu Shian realized something was wrong...

The looks in the eyes of Jia Hu and the two Militia Team members were off!

Both militiamen were level 20 experts, and Jia Hu was the 40th-level muscle of the Novice Village!

Xu Shian silently stepped back a few paces, circled behind a tree, and activated the 【Stealth】 state.

He hadn't even gotten close yet, and three pairs of eyes looked over again!

Jia Hu's hand was already gripping the hilt of his blade...

Xu Shian began to retreat again. Because of Stealth, his speed was extremely slow!

Back behind the large tree, Xu Shian opened his skill bar, preparing to start allocating points using his lifespan.

If one wants eternal life, it's not the case that the more extra lifespan you hoard, the better!

There is an old saying in the Xia Kingdom: "You need a life to earn it, but you also need a life to spend it..."

Killing monsters three levels above your own grants rewards, but killing monsters lower than your own level yields no gains whatsoever!

Experience, extra lifespan, nothing at all!

Therefore, your strength must keep up. You need to maintain a crushing advantage over the monsters, and you must also ensure you don't die, in order to continuously obtain new lifespan!

Thus, how to balance the allocation of extra lifespan and the conversion of original body lifespan is a very delicate matter.

Especially for those players with little lifespan remaining, they were already facing a predictable death.

But then they arrived in this game world, and hey, would you believe that playing a game could increase your lifespan?

At this point, if you tell me to use the life I need to extend my own existence to allocate points and upgrade skills?

Sorry, can't do that...

While normal skills are still useful for now, since there is this requirement to allocate points, subsequent difficulties will surely follow one after another.

Without allocating points, it's likely difficult to maintain a continuous advantage over monsters.

Xu Shian had no such worries!

With 252 years of original body lifespan, he didn't need to worry about his remaining lifespan at all.

After all, this is a game world, a digital world.

Here, those with an original body lifespan of less than thirty years will begin to show signs of aging.

And those with more than fifty years will maintain their appearance at their peak state...

In other words, Xu Shian would remain forever young for 200 years! Why the hell would he hesitate then?

Spend life to allocate points!

【Ding, please confirm whether to spend 5 years of extra lifespan to upgrade the skill 'Stealth' to Black Iron Tier?】

"Confirm!"

【Ding, you have successfully upgraded the skill 'Stealth' to Black Iron Tier, deducting 5 years of extra lifespan, with 27 years and 238 days remaining.】

Xu Shian opened his skill panel to check the Stealth skill.

【Stealth: Level 1】 Black Iron Skill

【Upgrade Condition: Stealth time reaches 100 hours, 3.7 / 100】

【Requirement: Must be used out of combat.】

Usage: Makes you enter the Stealth state, movement speed reduced by 50%, the effect lasts until cancelled or an attack is initiated.

Black Iron Effect: Causes you to enter deeper shadows, making it difficult to be detected by ordinary reconnaissance effects.

Cooldown: 10 seconds.

Xu Shian's face darkened a bit. Why is the movement speed still reduced by 50%?

Could it be that only upgrading the skill can increase movement speed?

It requires 100 hours of Stealth. It seems no one among the current newcomers has heard of anyone being able to level up the Stealth skill!

The key is that while in Stealth, except for a few skills like Search and Sap, once you use a skill, you will be forced out of the Stealth state.

Sigh, I'll try to see if I can sleep while in Stealth tonight...

If only I could exploit a bug!

Since he had already started allocating points, he might as well go all the way and upgrade the Contract Summoning skill too!

【Ding, please confirm whether to spend 5 years of extra lifespan to upgrade the skill 'Contract Summoning' to Black Iron Tier?】

"Confirm!"

【Ding, you have successfully upgraded the skill 'Contract Summoning' to Black Iron Tier, deducting 5 years of extra lifespan, with 22 years and 238 days remaining.】

【Contract Summoning: Level 4】 Black Iron Skill

【Upgrade Requirement: Kill creatures of the same level or higher, 128 / 200】

Skill Effect: You can contract a wild unit (Beast race) whose life level is not higher than yours!

Level 4 Skill Bonus: Summon quantity + 1, Health + 150, Attack + 30, Physical Defense + 15, Magic Defense + 15.

Black Iron Effect: Increases the effect of your summoned creature's attribute points by 1.5 times!

Xu Shian didn't quite understand?

What does it mean to increase summoned creature attribute point effects by 1.5 times?

What does that even mean?

Xu Shian pulled up the panels of the four tyrants of Sheep Village to check.

【Happy Sheep (Beautiful Sheep, Lazy Sheep, Boiling Sheep), pets of player 'Shi Chuan'】

【Level: 3】

【Experience: 298 / 3000】

【Strength: 12+2.8】

【Agility: 17+2.3】

【Constitution: 20+1.4】

【Health: 642+150】

【Physical Attack: 44.4 + 30】

【Physical Defense: 18+15】

【Magic Defense: 10+15】

【Skill: Charge: Initiate a straight-line Charge at a target ten meters away at extreme speed, dealing 180% damage and stunning for one second, cooldown is ten seconds!】

So that's how it is...

Xu Shian pretty much understood the situation with this Black Iron attribute bonus.

To put it simply, the original four attribute bonuses for the summoned creature were the same as the player's.

1 point of Strength = 2 points of Physical Attack.

1 point of Constitution = 20 points of Health.

Now with the Black Iron trait, 1 point of Strength = 3 points of Physical Attack, and 1 point of Constitution = 30 points of Health...

This kind of bonus is more significant the later it gets; after all, the more attributes you have, the more the extra bonus adds up!

It is worthy of being a Black Iron trait that he spent five years of extra lifespan on.

It is indeed decent, although it didn't solve the limitations of the Contract Summoning skill.

But after all, it can be considered a significant boost.

Of course, this bonus didn't give Xu Shian a decisive enhancement.

After all, when it comes down to it, everyone can do this kind of life-spending point allocation...

Having sorted out this core skill, Xu Shian tried to see how much extra lifespan was needed for a Bronze Level upgrade.

【Ding, do you want to consume 10 years of extra lifespan to upgrade the skill 'Contract Summoning' to Bronze Level?】

"Cancel, cancel!"

For the Novice Village, Xu Shian's current Level 4 Black Iron Tier skill is already perfectly sufficient.

Moreover, after killing a few dozen more wild monsters of the same level, he would be able to upgrade the Summoning skill to Level 5.

Upgrading to Silver Tier is something that only needs to be considered after leaving the Novice Village.

He entered Stealth state again and slowly crept toward the Novice Village.

This time, the two level 20 guards didn't react at all.

Jia Hu, on the other hand, kept looking around in suspicion, searching for something.

Xu Shian cursed inwardly, "I'm at least ten meters away from you, and you can still sense something is wrong? Do you have to be so ridiculous?"

Is this level suppression?

Xu Shian maneuvered around Jia Hu and successfully entered the Novice Village at the maximum distance.

Once inside the village, he felt much more at ease!

Ordinary villagers wouldn't meddle in other people's business.

Catching people is the Militia Team's business; what does it have to do with us common folk?

At the mailbox in front of the Auction House, Xu Shian collected the mail from the Auction House.