13: Chapter 13 The Powerful Golden Legendary Talent!

[hand of kezhi (Legendary)]: Defense +20, Strength +9, Endurance +9, Agility +6, Required Rank: 6

Lu Yang stared at this row of stats, the corners of his mouth curling up uncontrollably, feeling extremely excited.

As expected of Legendary-tier equipment!

Compared to Excellent-tier equipment, these stats were like night and day!

It was just a pair of scale mail gloves, yet it actually had a full 20 points of Defense!

Not only that, but it also boosted three attributes, adding up to a total of 24 attribute points!

Compared to Excellent-tier gear, the attribute point increase was several times higher!

Of course, the reason why the hand of kezhi granted so many stats was also related to the equipment's Rank.

After all, it was Rank 6 equipment.

Fortunately, after Lu Yang killed Kezhi, he gained a massive amount of experience and had just reached Rank 6.

Otherwise, he would have had to just stare helplessly at the good stuff without being able to use it.

Lu Yang's glove slot was currently empty, so he equipped it right away.

With a thought, the [hand of kezhi] transformed into a dark luster that covered his hands.

The gloves were pitch-black on the outside with wood-grain textures, fitting snugly and allowing his knuckles to move freely, as if fusing into his skin.

After putting on the gloves, Lu Yang casually dumped all the attribute points gained from leveling up into Strength.

Just adding a piece of equipment and gaining one Rank caused Lu Yang's stats to undergo a huge change once again.

His Health Points surged by over a hundred, reaching 297 points!

His Mana also reached 100 points.

His Attack even reached as high as 52 points, which boosted the damage and range of Lu Yang's Flame Aura once more.

With a Flame Aura spanning a full 52 meters, his monster-farming efficiency would be even faster from now on.

As for Defense, it had also been significantly increased.

Of course, for Lu Yang, whether he had Defense or not didn't really matter; in fact, having none was better.

After all, without Defense, the damage Lu Yang took would be higher, and the counter-damage from Thorn Skin would also be higher.

It would be great if he could just increase Health Points without increasing Defense.

Of course, this wasn't up to him.

Advanced-tier equipment would definitely have higher Defense boosts; this was unavoidable.

Not everyone was like him, completely unafraid of death.

If other professionals died out there, they were truly gone for good, so for them, the higher the Defense, the better.

Lu Yang pulled his mind back and opened the skill book.

[Mighty Strike (Excellent)]: Learn the Mighty Strike skill upon use. Learning requirement: Melee class.

Judging by the name, it really was a melee skill!

Lu Yang's eyes lit up, and without another word, he tapped to learn it immediately.

The next moment, the skill book transformed into a warm yellow streak of light, gently flowing into the space between his eyebrows.

Immediately after, a stream of information unfolded in Lu Yang's mind, as if something was being carved directly into the depths of his memory.

[Mighty Strike (Excellent)]: Rank 1. Channel your entire brute strength into your weapon to launch an unstoppable heavy strike, dealing (150% * Attack) damage to the target. (Note: This attack generates an additional 50% threat value, suitable for stabilizing aggro.)

Cost: 30 Mana.

Cooldown: 15 seconds

It had to be said that this skill was quite strong; at Rank 1, it already had a full 150% damage multiplier.

As an Excellent-tier skill, it could be upgraded to Rank 3.

Maxing it out would probably give around a 250% damage multiplier.

Among Excellent-quality skills, it was considered quite formidable.

The only flaw was that the cooldown was a bit long, taking a full 15 seconds.

But it didn't matter; to Lu Yang, this skill was just used to supplement his damage output.

His true means of dealing damage were never skills, but aura and reflection!

He moved his gaze away from the skill bar and landed on the Soul Talent column.

After reaching Rank 6, Lu Yang could choose another Soul Talent.

He rubbed his hands together in excitement and opened the selection interface.

Prismatic light flickered across the panel a few times, and three options slowly emerged.

This time, the instant Lu Yang's eyes swept over the three options, his pupils contracted sharply.

His heart rate accelerated, and his eyes were filled with pleasant surprise.

Among the three options this time, one was ordinary white, one was green, and one was actually golden.

Golden Legend!

This was the first time he had rolled a golden-quality Soul Talent!

[War Frenzy (Golden Legend)]: For every enemy killed, Attack, Defense, Health, and Movement Speed are increased by 5% for 60 minutes, stacking up to 100 times.

Lu Yang stared at the text on the panel, his pupils trembling, and his breathing involuntarily slowed down.

A comprehensive buff effect lasting 60 minutes, and it could stack up to a full 100 times!

That meant Attack, Defense, Health, and Movement Speed would all be boosted to 500%!

As long as the battle didn't stop, this buff could keep snowballing!

Is this the power of a Golden Legend Soul Talent?

This Soul Talent might only be a bit harder to use in the early phase.

After all, at the start, stats weren't strong enough, so monster-killing speed was limited.

But once the stacks snowballed, it would be a true dynasty-warrior-style rampage!

A full five-fold boost to all stats—was this a joke?

Lu Yang didn't hesitate for a second and immediately chose this talent.

If he had had this War Frenzy talent earlier stacked up to 100 layers, he definitely wouldn't have died so many times fighting Kezhi!

But the only question was: would the War Frenzy buff disappear after dying?

He would find out when he tried it later.

Lu Yang took a deep breath and stepped across the clearing ahead, which had been battered and pitted from the boss fight.

The remains of withered trees lay crisscrossed in the pale gray dust, the jagged edges of broken branches sticking out, while a mixture of burnt and decaying scent lingered in the air.

At the end of the clearing was only a narrow passage, with withered trees on both sides pressing tightly together, their branches intertwining into a crooked archway.

Lu Yang slipped through sideways, and the feel of the ground beneath his feet suddenly changed.

It was softer and paler, as if soaked through with something and then air-dried; the rustling sound of stepping on it carried a hint of stickiness.

A decaying scent seeped up from under the ground, not strong, but constantly hovering around his nose.

As far as Lu Yang could see, the trees had also thinned out.

His gaze could reach far through the gaps in the withered branches, but all he saw was more pale gray soil and empty daylight.

And among those sparse withered trees, something was moving.

Lu Yang walked forward a few steps and quickly saw clearly what it was.

Skeletons clad in tattered leather armor, scale mail, or cloth robes.

Some carried rusty daggers, some dragged longswords and battleaxes, and others held staves with tiny clumps of eerie green light floating at the tips.

They wandered among the dead trees with erratic steps, their foot bones treading on the soft gray soil, giving off faint clicking sounds.

This was the latter half of the Withered Forest.

From here on, all the monsters were undead bone creatures.

The lowest Rank was Rank 6, and even ordinary elite monsters had close to four hundred health points.

But to Lu Yang, this was basically meaningless.

He didn't even stop his pace and charged straight over.

Flame Aura opened silently, a ring of scorching waves rippling outward with him as the center.

Within a fifty-meter radius, clusters of orange-red flames ignited almost simultaneously on all the bone monsters.

The flames licked at the withered yellow bones, making faint crackling sounds that were extraordinarily striking in the hazy gray forest.

Those skeletons turned their heads in unison.

The eerie green flames in their eye sockets flared up suddenly, as if ignited by the same fuse.

The next second, they pounced toward Lu Yang from all directions.

Before the fastest-charging Skeleton Warriors could reach him, the Skeleton Archers in the rear had already fully drawn their bone bows, and the tips of the Skeleton Mages' staves began gathering eerie green light orbs.

The attacks arrived in an instant!

With Lu Yang's current Agility, dodging these elite monsters' ranged attacks was actually doable.

But he didn't dodge; after all, he could reflect damage.

Damage numbers floated up one after another from above Lu Yang's head.

-12!

-8!

-20!

The physical-type Skeleton Archers only dealt pitiful single-digit damage.

The damage from the two Skeleton Mages was slightly higher.

After a round of attacks, Lu Yang lost less than a fifth of his health.

Of course, because the damage Lu Yang took was so low, the reflection damage from Thorn Skin was likewise very low.

All single digits across the board!

In front of this group of elite monsters with nearly four hundred health points, it was akin to scratching an itch.

But Flame Aura was different.

-49! -49! -49!

Waves of burn damage popped up neatly above the skeletons' heads.

It had to be said that the counter-attack skill worked wonders against bosses, but against ordinary trash mobs, its effect wasn't that great.

Fortunately, Flame Aura worked well against trash mobs.

Lu Yang ran forward without pausing, trailing a long line of burning skeletons behind him; the clicking sound of bone joints rubbing together mixed with the crackling of fire, drawing out a long echo in the forest.

Seven.

Eight.

Ten.

Fifteen...

More and more!

He skillfully ran in circles, wrapping all the bone monsters he could pull along the way into the aura's range, the tumbling torrent of skeletons behind him looking as if pulled along by an invisible rope.

Train-pulling officially begins!

...

Meanwhile.

Inside the dungeon chamber, it was unnaturally quiet.

All the novice professionals held their heads up, staring straight at the ranking stele, without a single person speaking.

In the second-floor observation room, the higher-ups of Yunmeng Star likewise fell into silence.

Feng Lide's hand unconsciously gripped the edge of the table tightly.

Zhu Changye crossed his arms, his brows furrowed deeply.

The frivolous smile habitually hanging on Robert's lips had long since vanished without a trace.

Advisor Jiang Lan still leaned against the table, but her arms folded across her chest unconsciously tightened.

The eyes of every single one of them were fixed dead on the name ranking first.

Lu Yang!

Just a moment ago, a Hero-template monster had appeared in his kill log!

What did this mean?

In Nightmare difficulty, a Hero-Rank monster was already a boss!

Lu Yang had just killed a boss!

This novice professional from an ordinary background, without any support or Advanced-tier gear, had killed a Hero-Rank boss in just over two hours after entering the dungeon!

And what's more, the kid fucking soloed it!

What kind of monster was he?!