Chapter 22 - 22: 022 The Second to Empower the Target Selection
Atop the high platform of the Bone Throne in the Land of the Wraith.
Skeletons charged continuously from all sides.
Dean McKenzie canceled the summoning of Doggy Three, causing it to vanish into thin air.
Such cancellation could potentially spell a lifetime farewell for Doggy Three. The usual “Skeleton Summoning” is disposable. Once used, it’s gone, and the next summon may not necessarily bring forth the same skeleton.
Yet, Dean McKenzie’s dogs had a natural bond with him due to their enhancement by his talent.
As long as Dean McKenzie didn’t sever this bond, he could keep summoning them.
Dean McKenzie’s cancellation had two modes: one allowed re-summoning after cancellation.
But in this instance, Dean McKenzie’s cancellation was a way to sever the connection.
This was pretty much akin to giving up on Doggy Three that he had raised.
He had decided to do this because Doggy Three, having used up its arrows, was not much stronger than the usual Pale Skeleton.
Keeping it would inevitably lead to its death.
It would either be used as cannon fodder by Dean McKenzie, or be torn apart by the charging skeletons.
Even though it had no intellect, Dean McKenzie still found it difficult to let the skeleton he had raised for a while die just like that.
After all, its death would be like watching ten silver coins shatter before him, hence Dean McKenzie would rather cancel the summoning of Doggy Three and let himself off the hook.
“Goodbye, hoping there’ll be a chance to summon you in the future!”
After briefly lamenting the loss of ten silver coins, Dean McKenzie raised his hand the next moment, used “Skeleton Summoning”, and summoned a level 4 “Pale Skeleton”.
Showing no particular attachment to the newly summoned skeleton, Dean McKenzie directly used it as cannon fodder.
“Charge!”
At his command, the skeleton launched a suicide attack.
It leaped and rolled down from the stairway of the high platform.
The stairway itself was quite steep, so a skeleton rolling down was somewhat of a shock to the ones climbing up.
However, the shock wasn’t significant. The incoming skeletons would have easily withstood it under normal conditions.
Yet as he commanded the skeleton to jump downwards, Dean coordinated his bone strikes.
Before his skeleton collided with the climbing skeletons, his bone strike successfully hit the foot bone of a skeleton, offsetting its balance, and then the skeleton Dean commanded to jump accurately hit it.
Suddenly, the two skeletons tumbled down together, knocking down the skeletons nearby and clearing all the skeletons on the staircase, rolling like a snowball.
It must be said, Dean McKenzie’s move was truly remarkable.
The skill was sophisticated, the mastery over the timing of the strike was precise, a feat not easily accomplished by most people.
Of course, the price was that the skeleton sent by Dean McKenzie was torn apart as soon as it descended.
However, summoning a skeleton in essence was a skill to summon cannon fodder.
The death of the skeleton didn’t impact Dean McKenzie greatly, he even found that his proficiency in “Summon Skeleton” had significantly improved.
“Could this be the correct way to use this skill?”
Dean McKenzie commented while summoning another skeleton.
Subsequently, he successfully held his position on the high platform using this tactic, clearing the stairway repeatedly.
He even dispatched quite a number of skeletons.
Dean McKenzie, who had just leveled up to five, saw his experience points progress by one-sixth.
His proficiency in the Summon Skeleton skill also soared.
The situation was so good that he started to believe he could easily hold out for 10 minutes.
But the good times didn’t last long.
Soon, his tactic failed.
An Elite Monster had appeared.
At first, Dean McKenzie didn’t recognize it as an elite monster until his ordered skeleton and his bone strike both landed and were repelled, with the skull of the skeleton imploding. Only then did he realize something was wrong, and swiftly used his Appraisal Skill.
Name: Bone Hardening Skeleton Warrior
Level: 7
Attributes:
Strength: 2.5, Agility: 1.5, Physique: 6 points
Attack: 2.5
Defense: 6 points+6
Spirit Power: 10
Skill: Bone Hardening (level 1) (Passive) (Passively increases defense cap by
Physique x 1 to 10)
Skeleton Heavy Strike (level 1) (Consumes 3 points of Spirit Power, increases the next attack by Strength x 1 plus 5)
This monster basically has the second highest attributes Dean McKenzie has faced directly.
Right, the strongest is the Skeleton Mage.
Yes, that guy is stronger than the current one, but it was unlucky. Before it could demonstrate its full fighting strength, it was killed at close quarters. This Elite Monster in front of Dean is not as easy to deal with.
Upon seeing the attributes of the enemy, Dean knows he can’t stall its movement.
He gives up directly on struggling.
He gives up on preventing the enemy from coming up.
However, although Dean has given up the struggle and prevented the enemy from approaching, he does not completely resign himself.
Dean feels that there is still hope, and he could still save the situation.
So, while giving up the struggle, he forcefully consumed two Mana Potions. He had already consumed two during the battle, leaving only four of the ten Mana Potions he brought in.
After consuming the two potions, Dean fiercely used the Extraction on the Skeleton corpses underneath the platform.
[You have successfully used Extraction on the Fragile Skeleton Warrior, you gained 0.2 Attack!]
[You have successfully used Extraction on the Fragile Skeleton Warrior, you gained 0.3 Strength!]
In one fell swoop, Dean used the Extraction eight times, relying on the two potions in his body and a Mana Ring.
Luckily, every attempt was successful, and even triggered critical strikes each time.
The least gain was 0.2 Attribute Points.
After eight attempts, Dean successfully gained a total of 2.1 Attribute Points in various attributes.
Combined with the previous sporadic Extractions Dean used and the 1 Attribute Point obtained from the Skeleton Mage at the beginning, Dean’s total Attribute Points extracted has reached around 4.
While counting his attributes, Dean was retreating, directly retreating to the side of Doggy Two’s Bone Throne.
While retreating, Dean also opened his Talent page.
At this point, it was time for Dean to use the last Grant Quota he had left over.
The problem was, how should Dean use this new Grant Quota?
Should he add it to Spirit?
If Dean could add all 4 points to Spirit, it would be quite noticeable. Dean would have an additional 40 Mana, Bone Fang’s damage would increase by 4.4, and Bone Shield’s defense would increase by 6 points.
The problem was, out of these 4 points, only 0.5 were added to Spirit.
If added, Dean would only gain 5 Mana, and the increase of Bone Fang and
Bone Shield could only be described as negligible.
So, under the current circumstances, instead of adding to Spirit, directly enhancing the skill might be more immediate.
The problem was which skill to enhance?
Should he enhance Bone Fang or Bone Shield?
“It should be defense, if I add to Bone Fang, the 4 attribute points, not to mention whether they can solve the Elite Monster on the opposite side, even if they can, there are countless Skeletons behind. With my Mana and casting speed, offense is definitely not going to work. I can only go all out on defense now!”
Having said that, Dean jumped onto the Bone Throne, stood in front of Doggy Two, and made the choice to grant Talent.
[Your second Talent Grant target selection is complete, the chosen target is the Skill – ‘Bone Shield’!]
[Please note, since your selected target is a Skill, the Grant method will be different from before.
For the Skill, within 2 Skill levels, you can only open an Attribute Grant for a duration of 5 minutes.
During this time, you can freely enhance this Skill. After the Grant duration, until Bone Shield’ reaches Level 3, you will not be able to enhance this Skill through Grant..]