244: Chapter 245 The Ominous Girl

Clearly, the blue-haired maiden who descended from the forest-white summoning circle this time, while showing no direct hostility towards Lin Muyang, who was her Summoner, displayed clearly visible vigilance and detachment in her ice-blue eyes when facing the numerous young ladies—Lilia, Su Daji, Gui Wanwan, and others—who crowded around, all possessing different yet extraordinarily powerful Auras.

Her petite body tensed slightly, and her fingers tightened imperceptibly on her bone-wood staff, as if she were a small beast that had stumbled into a strange herd, rapidly assessing the threat level of every presence around her.

"Are you the Summoner who summoned me here?" She lifted those eyes, which looked as if they were frozen with ice crystals, and looked at Lin Muyang again. Her voice was ethereal and calm, but if one listened carefully, a trace of imperceptible caution could be detected.

"That is correct." Lin Muyang nodded. He could feel the instinctive vigilance on the maiden, which likely had to do with her past experiences. He did not deliberately adopt an enthusiastic posture, but responded to her with a peaceful gaze, his tone equally calm: "Hello, my name is Lin Muyang. And you? How should I address you?"

The blue-haired maiden did not answer immediately. She was silent for a moment, seemingly confirming the authenticity of Lin Muyang's words, or perhaps hesitating. In the end, she did not speak her name, but made a move that slightly surprised Lin Muyang—she took two steps forward, came before Lin Muyang, and then closed her eyes slightly.

The next moment, a faint yet clear mental fluctuation emanated from her body, precisely connecting to Lin Muyang. Immediately after, a semi-transparent status panel that only Lin Muyang could clearly see appeared in his consciousness like a projection. The design style of the panel was ancient and mysterious, carrying a hint of a sinister Aura. The text on it was not the common language of Blue Star, but a kind of twisted, ancient rune, yet Lin Muyang, as her Summoner, could understand it without obstruction.

"This is sharing the status panel directly?" Lin Muyang felt a stir in his heart. This maiden's style of doing things was crisp and decisive, the type to use actions instead of words. Her cautious and taciturn personality likely had everything to do with her past upbringing. Lin Muyang did not dwell on it, focusing his attention on the panel before him.

【 Name: Jialiya (Ominous Maiden) 】

【 Class: Necromancer 】

【 Level: 1 】

【 Talent: SSS-Rank Talent · Undead Dominion 】

【 Talent Effect: Greatly increases the summoning limit, control, and enhancement effects for Undead creatures. All Undead units summoned or converted by oneself gain a 300% increase in all attributes and receive the "Undead Grace" effect (Damage Reduction +20%, Damage to Living Units +15%). Can forcibly conscript biological corpses within line of sight that have been dead for no more than 24 hours and whose souls have not completely dissipated, converting them into Undead units under one's control (conversion quantity and success rate are related to Spirit attributes and the target's strength before death). 】

【 Status: World Rule Suppression (All attributes weakened, some high-level skills temporarily sealed) 】

"Jialiya... Ominous Maiden?" Lin Muyang looked at the note after the name, lost in thought. This name, whether she chose it herself or it was bestowed by her parents, carried a heavy sense of not being accepted. Combined with her class, "Necromancer," everything seemed to have an answer.

Necromancers, beings who manipulate death and the undead. In the vast majority of civilizations and worlds that revere life, light, and nature, such professionals are usually regarded as heretics, blasphemers, and symbols of ill omen, lonely travelers walking on the edge of taboos. They keep company with corpses, skeletons, and ghosts, studying the mysteries of death that all living beings avoid. Such an identity is destined to be difficult for ordinary society to accept, and they may even have suffered exclusion, fear, and even persecution from a young age.

"Necromancer..." Lin Muyang whispered the class name, his gaze sweeping over the description of her talent and skills on the panel. Her SSS-Rank Talent 【Undead Dominion】 had quite formidable effects and was the absolute core of an Undead army. And her basic skill, 【Summon Skeleton】, had the following effect description: Consumes a small amount of mana and spirit to summon basic Undead skeleton warriors/archers/mages. Summoning limit = own Spirit attribute / 2.

"Summon Skeleton... One skeleton can be summoned for every 2 points of Spirit attribute." Lin Muyang did a quick mental calculation and looked at the blue-haired maiden before him, who was petite but stood straight and exuded stubbornness. "Then, as long as your Spirit attribute can be raised to a level similar to these young ladies around me..."

A scene quickly appeared in his mind: calculating based on the Spirit attributes of Lilia, Su Daji, and the others, which were generally over 400,000, if Jialiya could reach the same level, it would mean she could simultaneously summon over 200,000 skeletons! Although they were only the most basic skeleton soldiers, that quantity of 200,000, combined with her talent bonuses, plus other potential high-level Undead summoning skills... What a terrifying Undead Scourge that would be? Truly, a one-person army!

Of course, that was just the ideal state. Lin Muyang noticed that Jialiya's status bar currently showed World Rule Suppression. Her original level was 47, and her Spirit attribute was as high as 12,500, which should have been considered decent strength in her original world. However, after being summoned to Blue Star, her level was suppressed back to level 1, all attributes were significantly weakened, and more importantly, many of the high-level Necromancer skills she had mastered were currently in a temporarily sealed state and unusable because the power systems involved were not fully compatible with Blue Star's rules, or her level was insufficient. This meant her actual combat power was extremely limited; she probably couldn't even beat an ordinary 20th-level Class Transferee.

This sudden disparity in power, as well as being in a completely strange environment with vastly different rules, would undoubtedly bring a strong sense of insecurity and crisis. Lin Muyang could clearly feel that the maiden before him, while maintaining a calm exterior, had slightly tensed shoulders, vigilant eyes that subconsciously scanned the surrounding environment, and fingers gripping the staff too tightly, all of which betrayed her inner nervousness and anxiety.

"In our world, you don't need to be this nervous." Lin Muyang slowed his tone, looked into her eyes, and said with as peaceful and affirmative a voice as possible, "This is my home, and it is also where you are now. With the strength of myself and these companions of mine, in this world, there is currently no one who can threaten our safety, and naturally, that includes you. You can treat this place as a relatively safe new starting point."

Lin Muyang's words were not empty claims. The Eternal Garden had top-tier magic barrier protection, the young ladies under his command were all astonishingly powerful, and he himself possessed various heaven-defying means. In the current Blue Star, it was indeed difficult to find any existence that could threaten them. He hoped that through these words, he could first give this maiden, who seemed to have had a rough life and lacked a sense of security, some peace of mind.

Jialiya's ice-blue eyes looked quietly at Lin Muyang, seemingly judging the authenticity of his words. After a moment, she nodded almost imperceptibly, and her tensed shoulders seemed to relax by a tiny fraction. She did not speak, but the vigilance in her gaze seemed to fade just a little. She slowly shifted her gaze again, starting to observe more carefully the decorations and layout of this magnificent hall, as well as the appearance, temperament, and faintly emanating energy fluctuations of every young lady in the hall. Her observation was very meticulous, as if she were constructing a preliminary file about this new environment and these new companions in her mind.

"I still have some secret realm scrolls I collected earlier on hand." Lin Muyang broke the brief silence and said to Jialiya, "The most urgent task is to first take you to level up. In this world, the fastest way to increase strength is to enter special spaces called secret realms or Dungeons, kill the monsters inside, and gain experience points. When experience points accumulate to a certain level, your level will increase, your attributes will grow accordingly, and your sealed skills may gradually be unsealed."

"Level up? Grinding monsters?" Upon hearing this, a trace of confusion flashed in Jialiya's ice-blue eyes. These two terms seemed somewhat strange to her, but combined with Lin Muyang's explanation, she could roughly understand the meaning—it was to fight, to kill, and thereby become stronger. This sounded different from the way she improved her strength in her original world through cultivation, meditation, and researching necromancy; it was more direct, and perhaps more violent?

"Yes, that's exactly it—grinding monsters to level up!" The lively Elf Princess Lilia could no longer hold back; seeing Lin Muyang begin to explain, she immediately approached with a grin, reached out quite naturally, and grabbed the arm Jialiya was not using to hold her staff.

Jialiya's body visibly stiffened, and she almost subconsciously wanted to break free. She could feel the rich Aura of nature and life emanating from this Elf Maiden, which made her feel somewhat uncomfortable. The essence of a Necromancer's power leaned towards death and silence, which was, to some extent, an opposing attribute to the vibrant natural energy. Moreover, she was not at all accustomed to such sudden intimate contact.

However, her attempt to pull back her arm proved futile under Lilia's embrace, which appeared casual but actually contained terrifying strength. She felt as if she had been entangled by a flexible yet indestructible vine and simply could not break free. A trace of astonishment and helplessness flashed in Jialiya's ice-blue eyes, but soon, she realized that there was only pure enthusiasm and friendliness on Lilia's face; although the arm holding her was strong, it held no malice, and was more like a way of expressing closeness.

"In my original world, if everyone wants to become stronger, they have to rely on day-after-day of bitter cultivation and meditation; it's so tiring!" Lilia paid absolutely no attention to Jialiya's momentary stiffness and chattered on, a brilliant smile on her stunningly beautiful face. "But it's different here on Blue Star! As long as you find suitable monsters and defeat them, you can gain experience and level up in a flash! Attributes rise so quickly! Of course—"

She changed the subject and stuck out her tongue: "The prerequisite is that your strength must be strong enough. Otherwise, if you can't beat the monsters and end up getting killed by them instead, you're done for! The monsters in the wild on Blue Star are fierce; many are even stronger than human Class Transferees of the same level!"

"However, as summoned beings, even if we are killed, we will return to our original world; it's just that we'll have to wait a while before we can be summoned over again."

Held by Lilia and listening to her enthusiastic yet somewhat jumpy explanation, Jialiya's facial expression remained unchanged, but the vigilance in her eyes dissipated by another fraction. She could feel the innocence and kindness of this Elf Maiden, although that overly exuberant vitality made her instinctively want to keep some distance. She silently accepted the state of having her arm held, though her body remained somewhat stiff.

"Then... with my current strength, I'm afraid I can't kill any monsters." Jialiya shook her head, stating a fact in a cold, clear voice. She felt the nearly exhausted mana within her, as well as her pitifully suppressed Spirit attribute. The only skill she could currently use was the most basic 【Summon Skeleton】; with her current 150 points of Spirit attribute, she could only summon at most 75 skeletons.

And because her attributes were too low, the skeletons she summoned probably wouldn't be much stronger than an ordinary adult, with extremely limited attack, defense, and speed. With such little combat power, facing the fierce Blue Star monsters that Lilia spoke of? She would likely be crushed at the first encounter. In her original world, she relied on a massive sea of skeletons, combined with various necromantic spells and curses, to contend with or even defeat strong enemies. With this amount of troops now, they wouldn't even be enough to serve as cannon fodder.

"Oh, don't worry! You don't need to do it yourself!" Lilia, hearing this, smiled even more happily and shook Jialiya's arm vigorously. "We'll handle the monster grinding! Brother Lin Muyang, and Sister Aila, Feng Ling, Sister Qingyan... they are all so, so powerful! As long as you follow us into the secret realm, even if you don't make a move, as long as the monsters are killed, you can still share in the experience points! That's the benefit of teaming up!"

She blinked her large, deep blue eyes, her tone full of temptation: "And with Brother Lin Muyang here, once his Aura is activated, the grinding speed is so fast! In a few minutes, at most ten or so minutes, your level will shoot up! Your attributes will skyrocket along with it! Who knows, it might not take long before you can become even stronger than you were in your original world!"

"A few minutes... to become stronger than before?" Jialiya's ice-blue pupils contracted slightly, and for the first time, a clear emotional fluctuation finally appeared on her face—it was undisguised skepticism. In her own world, which was full of danger and hostility, she had struggled bitterly, hidden carefully, and cultivated constantly, spending over a decade just to raise her Spirit attribute to over 10,000 points, mastering numerous necromantic spells, and possessing enough power to protect herself and even make some small factions wary. Now, this strange Elf Maiden was telling her that here, she only needed to follow others to grind monsters for ten-plus minutes to surpass her decade of effort?

How could this be possible?

This completely contradicted her understanding of power accumulation! How could there be such an easy, such a fast way to become stronger in the world? If it really existed, then what did all the hardship, danger, and loneliness she had experienced in the past amount to? A strong sense of disbelief rose in Jialiya's heart, but looking at Lilia's sincere and excited eyes, and the other young ladies around her—including that seemingly cold and powerful Dragon Maiden, that charming and dangerous Succubus, and that quiet and mysterious scythe-wielding maiden, all of whom looked like it was a matter of course—a faint, weak glimmer of hope that she herself hadn't even noticed involuntarily mixed into her skepticism.

What if... what she said was true?

In this strange world, beside this mysterious Summoner, it seemed that all common sense could truly be broken?

Lin Muyang took in all of Jialiya's changing expressions, knowing she needed some time to digest and accept the rules of this new world. He smiled and didn't offer much explanation. Facts speak louder than words. Once he took her into a secret realm and she personally experienced that rocket-like leveling speed, she would naturally understand.

"Let's go, there's no time to lose." Lin Muyang took a secret realm scroll from his storage space, the level of which was just right for bringing along a newcomer.

"Yay!"

"Go, go, go! Let's take the new little sister to level up!"

"I'll go take a look too~"

the young ladies responded one after another, and the atmosphere instantly became lively.