Absolute Death Game

Chapter 98 Midnight Terror

8000 experience points, plus the over 1000 experience points previously amassed from running dungeons, Xiao Buli now had a total of 9000 experience points. Finally, he could level up his skills. Xiao Buli spent 3500 experience points to upgrade his Gale Sword Skills to LV10 in one fell swoop.

System notification: After a long time of dedicated research and practice with Gale Sword Skills, you have perfected the set to a masterful level. You have comprehended the Ultimate Skill — Wind Rolls The Scattered Clouds and have unlocked the Heart of Mysteries system.

Looking at the Heart of Mysteries icon that had appeared under his character, Xiao Buli felt a surge of elation. Having a powerful move really was different. He just wasn't sure how formidable the skill would be when he unleashed it from his own hands.

Checking out the remaining 5500 experience points, Xiao Buli hesitated over which skill to boost next.

Ethereal Armor was doubtlessly the most useful, though Resurrection Skills could heal, the amount was minimal, and it was necessary to max it out as well. That way, as support, he would virtually have no pressure during healing.

He upgraded both Resurrection Skills and Ethereal Armor to LV5 in one go, spending the 5500 experience points in a flash, after all, magic system skills did require more experience.

But it was completely worthwhile. Looking at the upgraded effects of these two skills, they were totally transformed.

The Protective Shield provided by Ethereal Armor had its durability increased from 100 points to 300 points, almost as much as his own health points. If he were to don this protection in critical moments, even the strongest attacks could be withstood.

Moreover, the healing effect of the Resurrection Skills had grown from just over thirty health points to over seventy. Now, his health could be fully restored after only three uses, making it even more effective than elixirs.

It was rather unfortunate that his magic skill class could only be upgraded to LV5. Otherwise, they would certainly become even more powerful.

Three skills had drained all of his experience points. Looking at it this way, the experience points he had were still not enough, and he would have to continue grinding.

With this thought, Xiao Buli began to ponder over potential grinding locations. The wilderness at night, although home to occasional Wandering Ghosts and Wild Spirits, offered too few to be worth the effort, necessitating a location where many had died. Opening the map, Xiao Buli searched for other Mass Burial Mounds.

Thanks to the shared guild map, the entirety of Bull Rush Plain was revealed, and Xiao Buli quickly found three Mass Burial Mounds. Despite being protected by Nine Dragons City, Bull Rush Plain was hardly a peaceful place, littered with the dead.

Riding a travel horse with a speed of 150, Xiao Buli began to go from one Mass Burial Mound and graveyard to another, relentlessly harvesting these Wandering Ghosts and Wild Spirits. To ordinary people, these ethereal monsters that were invisible and intangible were unsolvable mysteries.

Although the ghosts individually had low attack power, attracting too many due to carelessness could easily lead to death. Not to mention the pitch-black night that made it impossible to see the surroundings, severely impeding one's abilities. This was why people preferred to stay within the city walls at night.

However, to Xiao Buli, these ghosts were merely clumps of experience waiting to be harvested. The pitch-black night posed no threat in the face of "Betrayer's Dark Vision," so he went from place to place, cleansing the Mass Burial Mounds one by one. By the early morning, he had cleared three additional Mass Burial Mounds, earning over 26,000 experience points, plus an additional 60 Merit Points.

He now had 180 Merit Points in total. In fact, his efficiency was even higher than that of an Exorcist, who needs to meditate to restore Mana after Casting spells to kill. Xiao Buli didn't need to; he just had to keep slashing.

Aside from skills like Taming Skills and Riding Skills, which couldn't be leveled up with battle experience, he had managed to max out all his other skills. Even Basic Swordsmanship, which he had always considered somewhat mediocre, Xiao Buli upgraded in one go to LV10. However, this swordsmanship did not reveal any Ultimate Skills when it reached max level, but he discovered other benefits.

System notification: After lengthy practice with Basic Swordsmanship, you have completely assimilated it. Basic Swordsmanship has transformed into a Passive Skill, and its use no longer requires any additional Physical Strength consumption.

Now this was good news. Considering that only one set of Swordsmanship could be activated at a time, now that it had become a passive skill, the additional effects of this swordsmanship were essentially layered directly on top.

Looking at all his skills at LV5 and LV10, and his remaining experience points being less than 1000, Xiao Buli wondered whether he should take a break. After a moment's hesitation, he decided to continue grinding experience. Although his skills were now maxed out, if he learned new skills in the future, he would inevitably find his battle experience insufficient.

It's better to grind earlier than later, as one can never have too much of this stuff.

However, the Mass Burial Mounds no longer had any ghosts to harvest, so he searched the map and found only one last place left to grind—

Discover more content at empire

The Rushing Bull Plains Ancient Battlefield: A great battle once took place here, where the Golden Dragon Legion ultimately defeated the Black Dragon Legion, seizing control of Nine Dragons City. To this day, countless bones still lay buried here.

If Mass Burial Mound were considered fast-food hamburgers, then this ancient battlefield definitely qualified as a grand feast. When Xiao Buli arrived, he was overwhelmed by the sight of Wandering Ghosts and Wild Spirits as far as the eye could see.

So many ghosts! Xiao Buli did a rough count and estimated there must be at least a thousand. Even if each gave only 50 experience points, a thousand would still amount to 50,000 experience points, more than all four Mass Burial Mounds combined.

He looked closer and noticed among the ghosts an Elite Ghost Boss with a silver name, alongside a dozen or so Elite Ghosts with light or dark blue names, each clad in armor, likely the ghosts of generals and high-ranking officers who had died in battle.

The ghost boss with the silver name was particularly striking, looking just like a general from his living days with the name 'Soul of Meng Zhao—Spirit Devouring Evil Ghost'. Compared to the other fuzzy, translucent ghosts, this one seemed much clearer, and a mass of black energy radiated from his whole body, clearly not someone to mess with.

Xiao Buli, no matter how confident he was, didn't dare to approach. He thought it was better to harvest some minor monsters from a distance instead.

Luckily, the ancient battlefield was extremely vast, and the silver boss only occupied a small area. Xiao Buli took a wide detour to avoid the Soul of Meng Zhao and started harvesting the wandering ghosts and wild spirits that aimlessly floated around.

In addition to wandering ghosts, there were also monsters like walking corpses and corpse-eating dogs on this ancient battlefield, but naturally, Xiao Buli didn't take them seriously.

His summoned Rune Soldier, having leveled up to LV5, and with his enhanced spiritual power, had improved in attack, defense, and health points comprehensively—even without skills, it could easily deal with these minor monsters, and he didn't need to lift a finger.

These monsters also provided a bit of experience. Although far less than what ghosts could offer, it still counted as a little extra supplement.

He had been grinding for an hour when suddenly a somewhat vague voice sounded from behind, "Hehe, this kid is still not done."

"Not yet done, he's probably going to pull an all-nighter again," another voice replied.

These two voices were very low, a bit as though they drifted in from afar, indistinct and unfamiliar, but the night was so quiet that Xiao Buli still heard them.

With a puzzled look, Xiao Buli glanced behind him. He didn't know when, but the Green Dragon Group members had all logged off to sleep, leaving him alone in the spacious internet cafe. Most of the energy-saving lights were turned off, leaving only the one above his head on, casting a dim light around him.

He looked at the door to the internet cafe, which was ajar, and guessed it must have been people outside talking.

He didn't pay much attention to it and turned back to his screen.

He continued to grind, Chain Sword Strike! Another ghost was torn to shreds. Xiao Buli, watching the screen glowing with a blue light, suddenly froze. Using the screen's reflection, he saw a figure standing behind him, appearing unfamiliar, but the emblem of an Azure Dragon rising from water on his chest clearly told him that this person was a member of the Green Dragon Group.

Xiao Buli was stunned. The room was supposed to be empty except for him, so where did this person come from? Just as he was about to turn around, he noticed another semi-transparent figure materializing behind him, quickly taking the shape of someone in sportswear, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the previous figure.

Confronted with this scenario, he immediately thought of a possibility—could it be a ghost?!!!

"Eh, what's wrong with him?" the first ghost spoke, and this time Xiao Buli saw that the speaker was him.

"He's probably tired and thirsty," the second ghost said casually.

"No, it seems he's seen something," a third ghost floated down from above, revealing a girl in a down jacket. She leaned over just behind Xiao Buli, only a few centimeters away from him. Suddenly, Xiao Buli felt as if he was drenched in cold water, chilled from head to toe. Whether it was psychological or something else, he suppressed his fear and pondered over what to do.

The female ghost leaned over Xiao Buli's computer, staring at the screen for a moment.

"Nothing's there," she said, turning her head just in time to make eye contact with Xiao Buli.

"Ah-oh! The kid seems to have seen us!"

Instantly, all three ghosts scattered, whirling around the room like deflated balloons, then ducking away into some unseen corner. Xiao Buli's hands and feet turned ice-cold, uncertain of what to do next.

(Don't be scared, don't be scared—you're not new to seeing ghosts.) He reassured himself and glanced at the screen again, the buff from Ghost Eye now painfully evident.

The reason he could see ghosts was probably because of that, damn it, he should have realized it sooner.

Just as he was about to exit the game and leave, the door suddenly opened and Bai Yunfei walked in, humming a tune, holding two steaming cups of coffee and a bag of popcorn.

"Good evening, Old Xiao. Calling it a day so early, are we?" (