43: Chapter 43 Full Armor, The Final Countdown

Xu Qin opened the extended hero skill tree interface.

The third new skill unlocked by the level four altar was located beneath the four hero avatars.

He clicked on Tian Ming first.

[ Shadow Cage (Active - Control/Single Target): Weaves a cage of shadows to imprison the target, preventing movement and spellcasting for 4 seconds. During imprisonment, Shadow damage taken by the target increases by 15%. Range: 30 meters. Cooldown: 25 seconds. Mana Cost: 100 ]

Xu Qin nodded repeatedly.

"Yes, this is exactly it."

Tian Ming currently has damage reduction, slows, and fear, but it lacks a hard crowd control ability.

Shadow Cage directly fills this gap.

When encountering a melee elite charging in on the battlefield, he can trap it in a cage, and Tian Ming can stand at a distance and use Shadow Bolt and Chain Shot to turn it into a sieve.

"Learn!"

After saying this, Xu Qin switched to Bull Battle King.

[ Taunt Roar (Active - Control/Area of Effect): Forces all enemy units within a 12-meter radius to lock onto and attack Bull Battle King for 5 seconds. During this period, damage taken by Bull Battle King is reduced by 20%. Cooldown: 25 seconds. ]

Previously, when fighting, Bull Battle King relied entirely on charging into the pile of monsters to attract fire.

With Taunt Roar, it can directly force surrounding monsters to change their targets.

Combined with the damage reduction from Indomitable Bones, the healing from Wind of Recovery, and the reflect damage from Bone Spike Counter...

"The picture is truly beautiful."

Xu Qin switched to Blade Guard.

[ Split Light Slash Shadow (Active - Attack/Area of Effect): Swings the long blade, dealing 3 rapid slashes to all enemy units in a fan-shaped area in front. Each slash deals 45 physical damage. If all three slashes hit the same target, the third strike applies an "Armor Break" effect, reducing the target's defense by 30% for 5 seconds. Cooldown: 18 seconds. ]

A triple slash?

Three slashes per cycle, up to 135 physical damage to a single target, and it even includes Armor Break?

He glanced at Blade Guard's current panel.

Attack power: 38.

Coupled with the Bone Erosion set he was about to equip, the physical attack power would increase further.

This skill is different from Bone Blade Storm.

Bone Blade Storm clears mobs in 360 degrees, while Split Light Slash Shadow is high burst damage in a fan-shaped area.

With both skills spinning together, Blade Guard would be a meat grinder beside Bull Battle King.

"Good, good, good."

Finally, Jackal Hunter.

[ Hunters Mark (Active - Single Target/Support): Marks a target, exposing it to the perception of all friendly undead, revealing invisible units, and increasing the damage dealt to it by all friendly undead by 15% for 15 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds. ]

"What a powerful support skill."

15% damage increase, shared by the entire army.

If cast on a boss, the damage dealt by all undead to it will increase by another notch.

Plus, it can break invisibility.

In the future, if he really encounters a lord playing an assassin route, he can just cast Hunters Mark, and any stealth or assassination attempts will be dragged out into the open.

He finished reviewing all four new skills.

Xu Qin scanned his elite soul core balance: 27.

To unlock all four skills and upgrade each to level 4, it would take four elite soul cores per skill, totaling sixteen.

More than enough.

"Unlock all, max them out!"

He tapped his finger repeatedly.

[ Shadow Cage has been upgraded to level 4! ]

[ Taunt Roar has been upgraded to level 4! ]

[ Split Light Slash Shadow has been upgraded to level 4! ]

[ Hunters Mark has been upgraded to level 4! ]

[ Consumed: Soul Energy × 48,000, elite soul core × 16 ]

Ding, ding, ding, ding!

Four notification sounds rang out in succession.

Xu Qin closed the altar panel and let out a long breath.

He still had 11 elite soul cores left.

"Next, equipment."

Xu Qin opened his inventory.

Three sets of equipment were neatly arranged in the first few slots.

The three-piece Bone Erosion armor set for Blade Guard.

The three-piece Crushing Rock armor set for Bull Battle King.

Jackal Hunter's Bone Erosion armor only had the chest piece.

The remaining two pieces were still being crafted.

Xu Qin took out Blade Guard's set first.

"Blade Guard, come here."

Blade Guard walked up to him.

Whoosh!

He equipped the three pieces.

[ Bone Erosion armor set (3/3) · Set effect active: ]

[ 2-piece effect: Attacks have a 15% chance to trigger "Bone Erosion", reducing the target's defense by 20% for 4 seconds. ]

[ 3-piece effect: Physical attack power +15%, melee attacks gain 5% life steal. ]

Blade Guard's panel refreshed.

Attack power jumped from 38 to 44.

And that wasn't even counting the triple slash from Split Light Slash Shadow.

"Not bad." Xu Qin nodded with satisfaction.

Next, the three-piece Crushing Rock armor set.

"Bull Battle King, this is yours."

Whoosh!

The set was equipped. A layer of gray bone armor wrapped around Bull Battle King's already massive skeletal frame.

[ Crushing Rock armor set (3/3) · Set effect active: ]

[ 2-piece effect: When taking fatal damage, there is a 20% chance to negate that damage. ]

[ 3-piece effect: Defense +20%, all damage taken reduced by 10%. ]

Bull Battle King's defense skyrocketed to 53. His health points also increased to 825.

Xu Qin stared at Bull Battle King's panel and said after a long while.

"As long as I look at you, I feel incredibly reassured."

Finally, Jackal Hunter.

Only the Bone Erosion chest piece was finished.

Xu Qin walked over and equipped it.

"No rush, wait a bit."

He looked back at the forging queue.

Bone Erosion Vambraces (Jackal Hunter): Forging, 1 hour 22 minutes remaining.

Bone Erosion Boots (Jackal Hunter): In queue.

Combined, it would take at least three more hours.

Xu Qin glanced at the countdown for the newbie protection period.

[ Remaining: 32 minutes. ]

Thirty-two minutes.

There was no way to finish Jackal Hunter's remaining two pieces of equipment in time.

Seeing this, a trace of unease welled up in his heart.

Every time he played a strategy game, the end of the newbie protection period was always a hurdle.

The game would usually throw some "surprises" at this point.

At best, a siege by wild monsters; at worst, it would trigger a scripted battle directly.

What if...

"I hope I'm just scaring myself," Xu Qin muttered.

He didn't dwell on the equipment issue any longer.

Now, all he could do was convert the resources he had on hand into combat power.

He turned and walked to the Cursed Temple.

As soon as he opened the level four temple interface, a function caught his eye.

[ High-Level Lich Advancement: elite soul core × 5, Soul Energy × 10,000 ]

"Upgrade!"

The moment he pressed the upgrade button, the temple flashed with purple light.

Ding!

[ High-Level Lich advancement successful! ]

[ High-Level Undead Lich · Tier 2 ]

Attack Power: 36 (Magic - Shadow)

Defense: 15

Health Points: 130

Mana: 450

New Skill Slot: Shadow Barrage (Short-range, multi-stage Shadow damage)

Not bad, the attack power has nearly doubled.

Xu Qin clicked on [Curse Research].

Three curses available for research.

[ Weakening Touch: Magic Crystal Shards × 80. Reduces target's attack power by 15% ]

[ Soul Tremor: Magic Crystal Shards × 120. 15% chance to stun. ]

[ Shadow Erosion: Magic Crystal Shards × 150. Continuous Shadow damage. ]

Researching all three would cost a total of 350 Magic Crystal Shards.

"Only 350? Who are you looking down on?"

Xu Qin didn't even look at his inventory and started clicking.

If he didn't have enough, he could just refine more; with the forging factory's 6:1 conversion efficiency, he had plenty of skin and meat.

Ding, ding, ding!

The three curses were researched and immediately distributed to all Undead Lich for learning.

After finishing all this, Xu Qin finally stopped.

Remaining soul cores: 6.

He still had plenty of Soul Energy, and enough bones.

Everything that needed to be done was done.

He looked up at the countdown.

[ Remaining newbie protection period: 14 minutes. ]

"That's about it."