9: Additional skills, terrifying poison damage effect

A flash of white light, and Ye Xiao appeared in a Dense Forest enveloped by a miasma.

Upon entering:

"Ding! You have been afflicted by Miasma, current Miasma stacks: 1"

He glanced at his health.

No change.

Ye Xiao breathed a sigh of relief. If even this didn't work, he would have no choice but to temporarily give up.

Thankfully, it wasn't in vain that he spent over 40,000 eternal coins to stack his poison resistance to over 6,000.

Suddenly, a buzzing sound came from the forest not far away.

Ye Xiao's gaze swept over, and before him was a swarm of fist-sized monsters.

---

"Poisonous Bee"

"Level: 20"

"Health: 800"

"Attack: 150"

"Defense: 50"

"Skill: Poison Sting Shot"

---

According to past records, the monsters in the Miasma Hidden Forest were not particularly strong in terms of attributes.

However, they shared one common point: these monsters all came with poison damage. Once hit, the Professionals would have their Miasma status stacked by one layer.

Just like the dense swarm of Poisonous Bees in front of him, a rough count showed at least 30 of them.

A moment of carelessness could easily stack forty or fifty layers of Miasma status.

This was the most fatal aspect.

But Ye Xiao was not flustered in the slightest.

He raised his hand and cast a Fireball.

Instantly, 25 Fireballs, like a Gatling gun, bombarded the bee swarm.

---

"You killed a Poisonous Bee, gaining 1100 experience points."

"You killed a Poisonous Bee, gaining 1100 experience points."

..."Ding! You have leveled up to 21, all attributes +1, health +20, mana +10, free attribute points +5"

---

On average, three Fireballs killed one Poisonous Bee.

Relying on his 50% cooldown reduction, the Poisonous Bees in front of him were all annihilated before they could even get close to Ye Xiao.

Ye Xiao gained a total of 33,000 experience points.

And unlike the Novice Realm,

the monsters here dropped items upon being killed.

Under Ye Xiao's extremely high item drop rate, these Poisonous Bees also dropped a large pile of items after their death.

Ye Xiao picked up and sorted all the scattered items on the ground.

First, there were 10 Realm Token fragments.

100 Realm Token fragments could be pieced together to form a complete Realm Token.

And this Realm Token, along with the Realm Key from the Realm Guardian, who was the boss,

as long as one possessed these two items and achieved an S-rank or higher evaluation, they could gain the Realm's recognition and become the Realm Lord.

But don't think these Realm Token fragments were easy to collect.

A normal person trying to collect 100 fragments sometimes needed to enter the Realm multiple times to achieve it.

Of course, in addition to these token fragments,

what pleased Ye Xiao the most was that these Poisonous Bees actually dropped 13 Venomous Assault Skill Stone.

---

"Venomous Assault (Normal): When activated, consumes 10 mana per second, causing your skills to apply one stack of poison effect, dealing 5 poison damage per second for 10 seconds, stacking up to 10 layers. Duration resets upon stacking."

"Note: This skill is an auxiliary skill and cannot be used independently."

---

Judging by the skill alone, the max stack effect was only 50 damage per second, with a theoretical maximum damage of 500 over 10 seconds.

But it was completely disproportionate to its mana consumption.

It was truly somewhat mediocre.

However, this was for others.

In Ye Xiao's eyes, this skill was like adding wings to a tiger.

Aside from anything else, just one of his Fireballs could directly trigger 25 poison effects.

This meant that within 0.5 seconds, Ye Xiao could stack the poison effect of Venomous Assault to ten layers.

It invisibly increased his damage by a significant margin.

Furthermore, with the experience from Fireball, Ye Xiao knew that the effect of Venomous Assault would definitely not be as simple as described.

Even if the skill was truly garbage,

it could still provide him with 13 Intelligence and 2600 Health.

---

"Ding! You have learned Venomous Assault (Normal)..."

"Ding! You have learned Venomous Assault (Normal)..."

...---

After learning them,

Ye Xiao couldn't wait to test them out.

Just then, another swarm of Poisonous Bees attacked.

Fireball!

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

However, the effect of Venomous Assault wasn't tested, but instead, Ye Xiao gained 8 more Venomous Assault Skill Stone.

For a moment, Ye Xiao didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

He could only blame these Poisonous Bees for being too fragile.

Next, Ye Xiao encountered several more waves of other monsters.

Unfortunately, they were still instantly killed.

After this series of battles,

the effect of Venomous Assault wasn't tested, but instead, Ye Xiao's Venomous Assault stacks reached 120.

At the same time, his Realm Token fragments were successfully collected to 100.

And his level also reached 30.

Ye Xiao opened his character panel.

---

"Name: Ye Xiao"

"Level: 30"

"Profession: Mage"

"Free Attribute Points: 0"

"Attributes: Strength 72; Constitution 79; Agility 73; Intelligence 799"

"Health: 89840 / 89840; Mana: 10290 / 10290"

"Skills: Fireball, Mana Spring, Experience Surge... (Expand)"

---

Setting aside the skill effect of Venomous Assault, the attribute increase alone was extremely impressive.

At this point, the monsters in the forest had been cleared by him.

However, Ye Xiao was not in a hurry to leave.

After collecting the token fragments, they had automatically merged into a Realm Token.

Besides being a symbol of the Realm Lord's identity, the Realm Token also possessed a map function.

Following the guidance on the map,

Ye Xiao soon arrived before a calm lake.

At this moment, the calm lake water suddenly became turbulent.

Immediately after, a colossal creature flew directly out of the lake.

Ye Xiao quickly looked over.

What appeared before him was a red fleshy ball covered in bumps, with two pairs of disgusting fleshy spines growing on its back.

In the center of the fleshy ball, a pitch-black eye stared intently at Ye Xiao.

---

"Plague Source Grub (Boss)"

"Level: 20"

"Health: 50000"

"Attack: 1000"

"Defense: 500"

"Skills: Life Tide, Black Eye Gaze, Venom Spit, Abyssal Corrosion"

---

This boss was the Realm Guardian of the Miasma Hidden Forest.

As long as he defeated it, he could obtain the Realm Key from its body.

Thus becoming the true Realm Lord.

As soon as the Plague Source Grub appeared, it launched a fierce attack on Ye Xiao without a word.

Ye Xiao naturally wouldn't sit idly by.

He retreated while casting Fireball.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

---

- 87

- 92

...- 120 (Poison Damage)

---

It was clear that this boss's magic resistance should not be very high.

Ye Xiao's Fireball dealt over 2000 damage.

At the same time, the Venomous Assault effect that Ye Xiao had been thinking about finally showed its power.

Its effect greatly exceeded Ye Xiao's expectations.

Under the blessing of his transcendent Talent, all Venomous Assaults were triggered at the first instant.

This meant that Ye Xiao's single Fireball came with 120 layers of poison effect.

And the maximum stack count directly piled up to 1200 layers.

The maximum damage that could be dealt over 10 seconds was an exaggerated 60,000.

And the mana consumption for 120 Venomous Assaults was still 10 mana per second.

For Ye Xiao, whose mana exceeded 10,000, this was a drop in the ocean.

But the effect was incredibly pleasing.

Looking at the 1200 layers of poison status instantly stacked on the boss, if it weren't for the boss's extremely high poison resistance itself,

it would be questionable whether this boss could last 10 seconds just relying on the effect of Venomous Assault.