Chapter 117: Bones Department

After failing six or seven times and losing dozens of skeleton warriors, Nie Yan still hadn’t succeeded.

It seemed that the success rate of Necromantic Ritual was also affected by level differences. Nie Yan searched the official website for information about the Necromantic Ritual and surprisingly found some data, which was quite rare. There was a list indicating that when commanding undead of the same level, the estimated success rate was 20%. For every level the undead exceeded the player’s level, the success rate dropped by about 1%. Encountering leaders or elites further reduced the success rate. If the undead were more than 20 levels higher than the player, success was practically impossible.

Since this was his first encounter with such a skill, Nie Yan wasn’t very familiar with it. It seemed that checking the official website had its benefits after all.

Hai Gu Ke Duo was a level 23 leader, so a low success rate was quite normal.

If he couldn’t successfully recruit Hai Gu Ke Duo, Nie Yan’s subsequent plans would be impossible to execute.

Time passed slowly, and Nie Yan’s heart began to stir with a hint of frustration. The only consolation was that his experience was steadily increasing; training here wasn’t a bad idea.

Nie Yan had already lost count of how many skeleton warriors he’d summoned—was it the twenty-seventh or twenty-eighth? He kept commanding the skeleton warriors to draw Hai Gu Ke Duo’s attention while he circled around from behind to perform the Necromantic Ritual.

Another skeleton warrior slowly approached Hai Gu Ke Duo and charged forward, swinging its battle axe.

Provoked and enraged, Hai Gu Ke Duo lunged at the skeleton warrior.

With a crash, the skeleton warrior was knocked flying.

Necromantic Ritual!

Nie Yan cast the Necromantic Ritual on Hai Gu Ke Duo. Habitually, he started to retreat, but suddenly noticed some changes in the Hai Gu Ke Duo ahead. Had he succeeded? Nie Yan quickly opened the system prompt, which indeed confirmed success.

Nie Yan tried commanding Hai Gu Ke Duo, and the creature moved slightly before walking toward him!

Finally, success!

With his first Hai Gu Ke Duo, it was a good start.

Since commanding Hai Gu Ke Duo might take some time, Nie Yan decided to stay and level up here.

“Where are you?” Nie Yan sent a message to Tang Yao.

“I’m leveling with Yu Lan and others,” Tang replied. Recently, he had become quite close with Yu Lan and his group. Occasionally, they would clear a dungeon or two. With Nie Yan’s guidance, Yu Lan’s team had gradually improved their equipment and sometimes even ventured into the Sorcerer Camp.

“Return to the city,” Nie Yan said. He could only bring Tang Yao alone; he couldn’t possibly take Yu Lan’s entire team.

“Okay, I need to tell them first,” Tang replied.

A few minutes later, Tang sent another message: “I’m in the city now. Where are you?”

“Go to the teleportation array and teleport to Heims at the Deadlands Gate. The teleportation fee is 20 silver coins. Do you have enough money?” Nie Yan asked.

“The Deadlands Gate Heims? Isn’t that a level 20 map? What are you doing there?” Tang was shocked. Going to a level 20 map at their current level was practically suicide.

“Just come here!” Nie Yan said.

“Fine. I don’t have enough money yet, wait a moment.” Since Nie Yan insisted, there must be something important going on. Trusting Nie Yan, Tang didn’t ask further.

“If you don’t have enough money, I can have someone send some over,” Nie Yan offered. If necessary, he could borrow some from Fox Half Awake temporarily.

“No need. I’m just short a little. I can borrow a bit from my father’s subordinates.”

“Alright, come quickly then.”

Nie Yan continued searching for the next target, still using skeleton warriors to distract Hai Gu Ke Duo while commanding it. If Hai Gu Ke Duo No.1 were to take the front line, the fight would end too quickly, making it impossible to perform the Necromantic Ritual for an extended period.

Without dozens or even hundreds of attempts, the chance of successfully commanding a Hai Gu Ke Duo was very slim.

Necromantic Ritual!

Distracted by the skeleton warrior, Hai Gu Ke Duo didn’t notice Nie Yan approaching from behind. He successfully cast the Necromantic Ritual again.

To his surprise, this attempt was successful. Probability was unpredictable—sometimes it took dozens or hundreds of tries without success, while other times it worked within just a couple of attempts.

Nie Yan successfully controlled a second Hai Gu Ke Duo. The two massive Hai Gu Ke Duos resembled ancient dinosaurs, with thick limbs, large skeletons, three horns atop their heads, and green ghostly flames flickering in their eye sockets.

With two giant Hai Gu Ke Duos, Nie Yan’s leveling speed significantly increased.

“I’m at Heims. Where are you?” Tang asked via message.

“I’ll be there soon,” Nie Yan replied, heading toward the teleportation array with two Hai Gu Ke Duos and two skeleton warriors.

After a while, Nie Yan spotted Tang waiting beside the teleportation array.

“Wow, these are all your summoned creatures?” Tang was shocked when he saw Nie Yan’s two Hai Gu Ke Duos and two skeleton warriors.

“Yeah. Come on, I’ll take you leveling.”

“No wonder you level up so fast. You’re already level 9! You scared me when you first came here. I thought these Hai Gu Ke Duos were monsters. Leveling with these big guys must be super fast,” Tang said excitedly.

“Not bad,” Nie Yan smiled. His fast leveling wasn’t just because of the Hai Gu Ke Duos.

“Where’s your Arcane Sprite?”

“It’s behind me. It’s a bit shy.”

Only then did Nie Yan notice a blue little sprite following Tang. Plump but agile, with a round head like a little boy, it was very cute, surrounded by swirling blue light particles.

“Blu, blu,” the Arcane Sprite occasionally blew out some blue bubbles that floated in the air.

As long as an Arcane Mage protected their Arcane Sprite from being killed, they could draw infinite magic power from it, which was extremely convenient, especially when using high-damage spells. They could cast spells without worrying about mana and experienced significantly reduced skill cooldown times.

However, during duels, the Arcane Sprite often became the enemy’s primary target. Therefore, raising an Arcane Sprite to level 3 was already impressive. Reaching level 5 required not only the player’s skill but also the absence of powerful enemies.

“What are the stats of a level 1 Arcane Sprite?” Nie Yan asked.

“Magic regeneration rate +200%, all magic skill cooldowns -30%, all spell casting times -30%.”

“That’s pretty good,” Nie Yan replied. In fact, he was quite surprised; the Arcane Sprite was indeed powerful. “Try to avoid PvP as much as possible. If the Arcane Sprite dies, it’ll be a big loss.”

Tang thought for a moment and nodded, “Got it.” But in his heart, he was thinking that he’d only participate in PvP if he was sure of winning. Fighting against weaker opponents was fine. Having such a powerful tool like the Arcane Sprite but not being able to PvP would be too tragic; he’d be itching to fight.

Nie Yan smiled wryly. He understood Tang Yao’s personality. Although Tang Yao appeared to agree readily, he likely didn’t truly think the same way internally. The only solution was to help Tang Yao enhance his strength as quickly as possible, enabling him to protect himself and retreat safely even when facing formidable opponents.

“Let’s go,” Nie Yan said. They headed to the Hai Gu Ke Duo spawning area. Nie Yan had his Hai Gu Ke Duos draw aggro while he occasionally cast the Necromantic Ritual from the side. If the ritual failed, he would simply kill the Hai Gu Ke Duo directly.

System: Your party has defeated the Hai Gu Ke Duo leader. Experience bonus for defeating a higher-level monster: 2300%. You gained 28,290 experience points.

Seeing a significant jump in his experience bar, Tang was stunned. He had barely done anything while following Nie Yan. Nie Yan commanded the two massive Hai Gu Ke Duos and quickly defeated a wandering Hai Gu Ke Duo. His experience bar jumped from 62% directly to 73%.

This speed was incredible.

When he was leveling with Yu Lan’s team using the Meteor skill, it took nearly half an hour to gain just 6% experience.

“Don’t stay too far from me,” Nie Yan said, picking up the loot dropped by Hai Gu Ke Duo and continuing to command the Hai Gu Ke Duos to search for the next target.

“Wow, leveling is so fast. What dropped?”

“A Lucky Gem.”

“Wow, good luck.” A Lucky Gem was worth five silver coins. In Tang’s eyes, this was already a significant fortune. The 20 silver coins spent on teleporting from Carol City to here still bothered him, leaving him almost broke.

Suddenly, Nie Yan remembered that Tang didn’t seem to have much money left, but this trip should earn him quite a bit.

“You can collect all the loot. Just give me the items I need, and you can sell the rest,” Nie Yan said. He didn’t need this small amount of money and found managing equipment troublesome.

“You don’t want any of it?”

“I don’t need the money.”

“I know you’re rich, so I won’t be polite then,” Tang laughed. As childhood friends and close buddies who had shared diapers, being too polite would only make them feel distant.

After a while, a beam of white light fell upon Tang, indicating he had leveled up.

“Damn, this leveling speed is like riding a rocket,” Tang said, checking his experience bar, which had jumped to 5% of level 7. Spending a couple of days here, he could probably reach level 9 without a problem.

“Did you get anything good?”

“A level 20 Silver-grade item, a Paladin skill book, I wonder how much it’s worth, plus two silver coins and a Lucky Gem,” Tang replied after checking.

“Give me the Lucky Gem. You can sell the rest,” Nie Yan said. Looking at the skill book, it was “Silence.” “Sell this Silence skill book, but don’t part with it for less than 50 silver coins.”

“That valuable?” Tang was surprised. Selling this skill book would earn him a lot, and he wanted to split the proceeds with Nie Yan since 50 silver coins was a fortune.

“No need,” Nie Yan smiled casually. “Only 50 silver coins.” It wasn’t even enough to floss his teeth.

Only 50 silver coins! The previous 20 silver coins had nearly drained him. How much money did Nie Yan actually have?