29: Chapter 29: Tianming's Skill Tree Unlocked!

Xu Qin squatted in front of the handmade campfire, placing a piece of wild beef onto the grill.

Grease dripped down, sizzling.

He turned the meat skewer with his left hand while tapping open the command panel with his right.

The resources Tian Ming brought back had all been deposited into the bone vault.

5,800 wood, 5,100 stone, 72,000 soul energy...

As he looked down the numbers, Xu Qin felt more and more satisfied.

Until he saw the line for [Magic Crystal Fragments], and his smile froze.

"Only... 46?"

Yes, the quantity of Magic Crystal Fragments was only 46.

Xu Qin rubbed his temples.

He remembered clearly that when upgrading the Graveyard from level 3 to level 4, it consumed 60 Magic Crystal Fragments alone.

Then what about level 4 to level 5?

One hundred?

Two hundred?

Regardless of how many, 46 was definitely not enough.

"It's over."

Xu Qin's expression turned grim.

Magic Crystal Fragments were a rare byproduct of mining, not something that could be collected in bulk like iron ore.

Usually, if you got 1 for every 9 units of iron ore, you were considered lucky.

At this production rate, wanting to accumulate enough to upgrade to level 5 before the newbie protection period ended... was basically impossible.

Xu Qin irritably poked the fire.

However, he only felt depressed for a moment.

"Forget it, if I can't upgrade, I can't."

He flipped the meat.

The largest monster group in the surrounding strongholds was only a few dozen strong, while he currently had over five thousand undead.

Even without a level 5 Graveyard, this force was enough for the newbie period.

Besides, he definitely wasn't the only one stuck.

Those other lords probably hadn't even touched the level 4 core building yet.

No rush.

Xu Qin stood up and beckoned an Acolyte over.

"You, come here."

The Acolyte approached, its hollow eye sockets staring at the grill.

"Keep turning this, don't stop. If you burn it, I'll hold you accountable!"

The Acolyte took the skewer and began turning it clumsily but steadily.

Xu Qin watched for a few turns, confirmed there was no problem, and turned to walk toward the bone melting furnace.

Since there was no hope for a level 5 Graveyard for now...

those Magic Crystal Fragments were a waste just sitting there.

Might as well dump them all into technology.

...

Xu Qin arrived at the bone melting furnace and opened the technology panel.

The bone melting furnace had already been upgraded to level 3, unlocking the upgrade permissions for level 3 technology.

The reason he hadn't upgraded it immediately was because he had saved all his resources for the level 4 Graveyard upgrade and hadn't touched it.

Now...

[ Bone Armor Tempering (Level 3) ]

Effect: All Undead units Defense + 2

Cost: Bone × 300, Stone × 250, Iron Ore × 50, Soul Energy × 800

[ Soul Fire Infusion (Level 3) ]

Effect: All Undead units Attack + 3

Cost: Magic Crystal Fragments × 15, Iron Ore × 120, Soul Energy × 1200

[ Skeleton Reshaping (Level 3) ]

Effect: All Undead units HP + 10

Cost: Meat × 800, Bone × 400, Soul Energy × 1000

Max everything out!

Click, click, click!

[ Enhancement Complete! ]

[ All Undead units Defense + 2! ]

[ All Undead units Attack + 3! ]

[ All Undead units HP + 10! ]

Very good. Xu Qin opened the unit panel and casually clicked on a Sand Jackal's stats.

[ Undead Sand Jackal · Tier 1 ]

Attack: 21 (+ 9) (Physical - Rend)

Defense: 9 (+ 6)

HP: 55 (+ 30) / 85

Loyalty: 100 / 100 (Eternally Loyal)

After dealing with the furnace, Xu Qin turned and walked toward the nearby Dark Altar.

The level 2 Altar had finished upgrading while he was sleeping.

Xu Qin tapped open the altar panel, his eyes lighting up.

[ Hero Slots: 2 / 2 ]

[ Occupied: 1 (Tian Ming · Undead Archlich) ]

[ Free: 1 (Can promote new hero) ]

As expected.

Each time the altar leveled up, it unlocked one hero slot.

Xu Qin glanced at the promotion requirements...

[ Undead Hero Promotion · Consumed Materials: Soul Energy × 5000, Bone × 500, Magic Crystal Fragments × 25, Meat × 500 ]

He silently closed the page.

Another twenty-five Magic Crystal Fragments.

He had 31 left now.

"... Not bad, just enough."

Xu Qin didn't rush to promote a new hero, instead turning his attention to another function of the altar: [ Hero Enhancement ].

He opened Tian Ming's skill panel.

Behind the four existing skills, the "Upgradable" sign lit up on all of them.

[ Upgrade Conditions: Soul Energy × 3000 + elite soul core × 1 (per skill) ]

Xu Qin calculated in his mind...

Four skills, needing 12,000 Soul Energy plus four elite soul cores.

"Not much, I can handle it easily."

He continued looking down.

Hm?

Holy crap?

[ Level 2 Altar Unlocked: Hero Skill Tree Expansion ]

[ New Skill Unlockable (Currently 1 option): Shadow Bolt. ]

Xu Qin hurriedly clicked it.

A complete skill tree unfolded before him.

Among the dozen or so skill icons, except for the first one which was lit up with an unlock sign, all the others were in a locked state.

But the name and introduction of each one were clearly visible.

[ Shadow Bolt (Unlockable): Gathers shadow energy to fire, single-target ranged attack, hit inflicts silence. ]

[ Shadow Barrage: Fires three consecutive shadow projectiles, locking onto different targets one by one. ]

[ Shadow Cage: Weaves a cage with shadows, imprisoning the target so they cannot move or cast spells. ]

[ Mind Flay: Bypasses all physical armor, dealing pure damage directly to the target's soul. ]

[ Mana Detonation: Selects a target, igniting the remaining mana within them; the more mana, the more violent the explosion. ]

[ Shadow Rift: Tears space in a specified area, continuously sucking in all units within range. ]

[ Plague Spread: Inflicts a transmissible corrupting plague on the target, spreading layer by layer to surrounding living beings. ]

[ Soul Chain: Connects the souls of multiple targets; if any target takes damage, the others share it. ]

[ Death Domain: Deploys an ultra-large-range death force field; all living beings within the area continuously lose life. ]

[ Undead Hegemony: Greatly boosts all attributes of all friendly Undead in a large range, doubling combat power for the duration. ]

...

By the time Xu Qin finished reading the fifth skill, he was already laughing out loud in excitement.

Mana Detonation: Igniting the mana value inside the target?

Then if he encountered mage-type monsters or lords...

wouldn't they die faster the higher their mana was?

This was practically a decapitation skill tailor-made for magic-type enemies!

He looked further down.

Shadow Rift, tearing space?

Soul Chain, shared damage?

Undead Hegemony, doubling the whole army??

Xu Qin felt like he was looking at the skill list of a max-level main character.

"My Ming Ming..." he tsked a few times, "Are you going to become a god?"

Alright, don't get excited yet, do the important things first.

Xu Qin clicked Shadow Bolt.

[ Unlock Shadow Bolt (Level 1)? ]

[ Confirm! ]

[ Shadow Bolt Level 1 Unlocked! ]

[ Cost: Soul Energy × 3000, elite soul core × 1 ]

[ Shadow Bolt (Level 1): Gathers shadow energy to fire at a single target, dealing 35 Shadow damage, range 30 meters. Cooldown 3 seconds. Mana Cost: 40 ]

Then, Xu Qin upgraded the four existing skills and the newly unlocked Shadow Bolt all to level 2.

Five skills, each costing 3,000 Soul Energy and one elite soul core.

His fingers tapped [ Confirm ] repeatedly.

[ Death Wither Level 1 → Level 2 ]

[ Wither Level 1 → Level 2 ]

[ Undead Tide Level 1 → Level 2 ]

[ Legion of the Dead Level 1 → Level 2 ]

[ Shadow Bolt Level 1 → Level 2 ]