80: Chapter 80 Stitched Skeleton Beast - Multi-Source Fusion

The skeleton of this Bone Beast was pieced together from the bones of twelve different creatures.

The lower body consisted of the sturdy leg bones of a Minotaur, which supported the entire frame.

The forelimbs came from a Rift Guard, while the spine was an interwoven fusion of the bones of a Troglodyte and an Orc.

"Holy crap."

Xu Qin looked up at this five-meter-tall monster.

Its body possessed the structural characteristics of six different creatures, yet they were fused with surprising harmony.

It was not a simple assembly, but a brand-new species.

The panel popped up.

[Stitched Bone Beast]

Attack Power: 142 (Physical - Bite/Crush/Shadow Erosion)

Defense: 68

HP: 2400/2400

Loyalty: 100/100 (Eternally Loyal)

Morale: None

Characteristics:

Multi-Source Fusion (Passive): Fuses the bones of six or more creatures to gain the "Multi-Source Resonance" buff. All attributes +12% extra, and any single instance of damage received does not exceed 15% of maximum HP (excess damage is nullified).

Abyss Erosion (Inherited · Erosion Beast): Attacks inflict an additional 10 Shadow damage (ignores defense) and mark the target for 6 seconds, during which they take +20% Shadow damage.

Underground Travel (Inherited · Troglodyte): Can move quickly through soft strata at 80% of the speed of surface movement.

Tough Physique (Inherited · Minotaur): When HP is below 30%, Defense is doubled.

Rift Stomp (Inherited · Rift Guard): Jumps and slams the ground, dealing 55 Physical damage within an 8-meter radius and stunning for 2 seconds. Cooldown: 12 seconds.

Bone Spike Burst (Mutation · Newborn): Every time HP drops by 25%, the bone spikes on its back eject once, dealing 30 Piercing damage to all enemies within a 5-meter radius. Can be triggered up to 3 times per battle.

Regenerative Bone Armor (Mutation · Newborn): Automatically repairs damaged bone armor structures every 10 seconds, restoring 3% of maximum HP.

After reading the long list of skills on the panel, Xu Qin swallowed excitedly.

Four inherited skills, two mutations, plus the Multi-Source Resonance passive bonus.

Especially this [Multi-Source Resonance]; it's practically a damage-capping skill!

"Is this the kind of stats you get just from tossing twelve skeletons together?" Xu Qin's eyes were filled with disbelief.

He walked around the Bone Beast.

This thing's size was a size larger than a Rift Guard.

"It can even move underground? It can even inherit the racial talent of a Troglodyte."

At the bottom of the panel, there was a line of small text.

[Mineral Essence Enhancement Cost: 12 pieces / 100 units]

"12 pieces to enhance 100 units... not bad, not too much, quite reasonable." Xu Qin nodded after calculating.

For him, who currently produced thousands of Mineral Essence per hour, this cost was practically negligible.

However, Xu Qin did not immediately start mass production.

He closed the Bone Beast attribute panel and brought up the building function list.

The Lords Hall had just reached Level 6, while all other sections were stuck at Level 5.

Since his resource reserves were abundant now, he would upgrade everything first.

He clicked on the upgrade interface for each section in turn and clicked [Upgrade] one by one.

[Hall of Valor is upgrading...]

[Forging Area is upgrading...]

[Magic Zone is upgrading...]

...

[descent platform is upgrading...]

[Combat Readiness Platform is upgrading...]

After clicking all eight sections.

Xu Qin took another look at the treasury.

Resources like wood, stone, and iron ore were all running critically low.

"Good grief, one wave and I'm back to square one."

Xu Qin leaned back in his bone chair, watching the time required for each section to upgrade.

Upgrading all eight sections to Level 6 would take anywhere from 12 to 24 hours.

In other words, in one day, the Floating City would be able to upgrade from Level 6 to Level 7.

Xu Qin opened the Lords Hall interface and found the requirements for Level 7.

[Lords Hall: Level 6 → Level 7]

Requirements: 20,000 Wood, 15,000 Stone, 12,000 Refined Iron Ore, 100,000 soul energy, 10,000 Bones, 5,000 Magic Crystal Fragments...

Upgrade time: 72 hours

Xu Qin looked at these numbers.

soul energy, Bones, and Magic Crystal Fragments were easy to handle.

It was the basic resources like Wood, Stone, and Refined Iron Ore that were in urgent need.

"In other words, the Source Crystals in the mineral vein must be mined on a large scale."

Xu Qin paced back and forth in the hall with his hands behind his back.

"I must have the resources prepared before the sections finish upgrading."

"Otherwise, a one-day delay might cause me to fall behind other lords."

"Everything must be pushed to the limit."

Thinking this, Xu Qin opened the hero panel to check the Mineral Essence enhancement cooldown.

Tian Ming, the Minotaur heroes, and some Troglodyte units still had 6 hours remaining.

"In other words, the second round of hero enhancement can be done as early as this afternoon."

"This time cannot be wasted."

He stopped pacing.

"Since the unit cooldown still has six or seven hours, let's integrate the troops first."

Xu Qin came to the Resurrection Platform, brought up the full army list, and began large-scale fusion operations.

First was the three-in-one for low-tier units.

The Resurrection Platform flickered with blue light as a batch of low-tier skeletons walked in.

Batches of larger, thicker-boned Elite Fused Entities walked out.

Then it was the Stitched Bone Beast.

Xu Qin took out a large amount of bones from his inventory.

Troglodytes, Orcs, Earth Spirits, Minotaurs, Sand Jackals, Erosion Beasts... twelve per group, tossed into the Resurrection Platform.

One after another, five-meter-tall Bone Beasts stepped out.

Three hours later.

Excluding the number of bones reserved for hero resurrection, Xu Qin began using Mineral Essence to enhance the fused units.

In the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of Mineral Essence were invested in the enhancements.

Not only that, those 2,530 +20 Troglodytes were also fused into Elite Troglodytes and continued to be fed Mineral Essence.

This state of total concentration reminded him again of the first two days after arriving on this continent.

Although the scale was thousands of times larger now, that feeling of pioneering hadn't changed.

Two hours later.

Fusion and enhancement were all completed.

Xu Qin sat up from his bone chair, stretched, and opened the latest unit statistics.

Total: 13,000+ units

After adding and subtracting, the total number of units was compressed from over 15,000 to 13,000.

The number looked a bit smaller, but...

Xu Qin stared at the Stitched Bone Beast column.

"Let's test it out."

...

Underground Space.

Pit Number 10.

A +20 Stitched Bone Beast jumped into the pit.

At the bottom of the pit, a newly resurrected Mineral Vein Guardian stood on its six legs, its crystallized shell glowing with an orange light.

The moment the Bone Beast landed, the Guardian charged.

Bang!

The two behemoths collided.

The Guardian's articulated limbs slammed hard against the Bone Beast's chest.

-360! (Reached maximum HP limit)

The Bone Beast took the hit, its feet not moving an inch.

Immediately after, the Bone Beast opened its large mouth.

Roar!

Crunch!

It bit down on one of the Guardian's articulated limbs.

-168!

-10! (Shadow Erosion)

The Guardian shook its body, trying to break free.

The Bone Beast released its bite and raised its forelimbs.

[Rift Stomp]!

Boom!

-55!

After being shaken, the Guardian stumbled once and then lunged again.

-360! (Reached maximum HP limit)

-360! (Reached maximum HP limit)

The Bone Beast's HP bar dropped by a large chunk.

At this moment, 10 seconds had passed.

The cracks in the Bone Beast's dorsal bone armor automatically closed.

+72 (Regenerative Bone Armor)

"What a great frontline tank!"

Xu Qin turned to Tian Ming and smiled:

"Tian Ming, we can start digging!"