Chapter 89: Silver-grade Skeleton Mage, Ant Nest
Under Lin Moyu’s gaze, the cold light exploded.
In an instant, ice and rain poured down together.
Large chunks of ice shot down like raindrops.
The originally scorching desert was instantly frozen over.
The ice storm lasted a full 10 seconds before ending.
It covered a 10-meter radius area.
An area attack skill with great power.
24,000 spirit power was not just for show.
As a skill that could only be mastered at level 20, it was normal for skeleton mages to be a bit stronger than skeleton warriors.
The two types of skeletons each had their uses.
However, skeleton mages also had a drawback - they consumed too much spirit power.
Summoning one skeleton warrior only required 500 spirit power.
But summoning one skeleton mage took 1500 spirit power, three times that of a skeleton warrior.
If not for wearing the spirit equipment set, Lin Moyu’s base 1300 spirit power couldn’t even summon one level 20 skeleton mage.
But it made sense - who could train a newly acquired skill to level 20 at level 20?
That basically didn’t exist.
Looking at the few remaining desert fruits,
Most were consumed in the latter half of leveling the Summon Skeleton Mage skill.
Especially after level 15, consumption was extremely fast.
Almost every few summons would use up one desert fruit.
"If only I could take these out of the dungeon."
Unfortunately, desert fruits couldn’t be preserved or taken out of the dungeon.
They had to be consumed within 5 minutes of picking, or they would lose effect.
Otherwise, Lin Moyu really wanted to come back several times and take out large amounts of desert fruits.
"Can’t waste these remaining ones. Might as well fill up the skeleton mage slots."
He now had 125 skeleton warriors, 1 skeleton mage, and 74 empty slots in his summoning space.
While there were still some desert fruits left, Lin Moyu planned to fill all those slots.
He ate a desert fruit, then summoned 5 skeleton warriors.
Bringing the total skeleton warriors to 130.
Then he focused on summoning skeleton mages.
The attributes of summoned skeleton mages were random, not controlled by Lin Moyu.
Cold winds blew as various elements stirred.
Fire... Wind... Lightning...
Skeleton mages of different elements were summoned one after another, appearing beside Lin Moyu.
There were mages of all elements.
No matter the element, all skeleton mages had the same attributes. The only difference was their skills.
Fire Skeleton Mage: [Skill: Explosive Flame]
[Explosive Flame: Deals fire elemental damage to the target. Attack power based on spirit.]
Ice Skeleton Mage: [Skill: Ice Storm]
[Ice Storm: Forms an ice storm in an area, dealing ice elemental damage to targets. Attack power based on spirit.]
Wind Skeleton Mage: [Skill: Tornado Storm]
[Tornado Storm: Forms a tornado storm in an area, dealing wind elemental damage to targets. Attack power based on spirit.]
Lightning Skeleton Mage: [Skill: Five Thunderbolts]
[Five Thunderbolts: Deals lightning damage to the target. Attack power based on spirit.]
The fire and lightning mages had single-target skills.
The ice and wind mages had area-of-effect skills.
With silver-white bodies slightly shorter than skeleton warriors, the soul fires in their skulls burned more vigorously.
Elements flowed in their palms, displaying powerful strength.
Lin Moyu felt his skeleton mages could instantly kill mages of the same level.
By the time the desert fruits were completely consumed, he had finally filled the long-empty summoning space.
130 skeleton warriors, 70 skeleton mages.
A total of 200 skeletons formed a skeleton army.
Lin Moyu felt he could steamroll through same-level dungeons.
Nightmare difficulty was no problem at all.
Even Hell difficulty wouldn’t be an issue.
Like the current Tyrant Desert, a large dungeon requiring 40 people, he could solo steamroll it.
The skeleton army was far stronger than 40 career professionals.
"Next time I come, I’ll train other skills."
There were other skills to train besides this one, like Bone Armor and Slow Curse.
As long as he had enough spirit power, those two skills weren’t difficult.
The hardest was Corpse Explosion, since there weren’t that many corpses.
Monster corpses in dungeons disappeared quickly after death.
And he couldn’t use it excessively, needing to save some spirit power for emergencies.
Training skills took about 4 hours.
Lin Moyu had been in the dungeon for over 8 hours.
By now the ant nest terrain had been preliminarily explored.
The skeleton warriors had scouted the caves within a 2000-meter range.
Lin Moyu found that no matter which entrance he used, they were all interconnected inside.
This was very similar to Spider’s Nest.
The ant nest was much larger than Spider’s Nest. The 2000-meter explored area was just a small part.
As Lin Moyu entered the caves and got closer, the skeleton warriors started moving again.
They quickly traversed the caves, scouting the terrain for Lin Moyu.
The ant nest was a complex maze of winding tunnels.
Like a huge labyrinth with no end in sight.
Lin Moyu could only choose one direction to advance.
[Killed Level 26 Desert Soldier Ant, Experience +36000]
[Obtained Ant Fang x5]
Suddenly he received an unusual notification.
Soldier ants had appeared somewhere in the caves.
Based on ant colony division of labor, worker ants were laborers, while soldier ants were warriors.
Soldier ants guarded the queen and wouldn’t stray far.
Finding soldier ants meant the queen wasn’t far.
Lin Moyu immediately headed towards the soldier ants.
The other skeletons all turned in that direction as well.
As the ant nest was gradually explored, more and more soldier ants appeared.
Lin Moyu entered an extremely spacious cave.
Large numbers of soldier ants were awakening inside, only startled by Lin Moyu’s entrance.
Over a hundred soldier ants woke up simultaneously, shaking their bodies and emitting hisses as they charged at Lin Moyu.
"Soldier ant barracks," Lin Moyu thought of the term.
When ants build nests, soldier ants gather in their own barracks.
This must be one of them.
And there were surely multiple barracks.
The skeleton warriors charged to meet them, followed by the skeleton mages.
This was the skeleton mages’ first battle.
Skill: Explosive Flame!
Skill: Ice Storm!
Skill: Tornado Storm!
Skill: Five Thunderbolts!
70 skeleton mages attacked simultaneously.
Elements erupted as spells flew everywhere.
The cave echoed with rumbling as colorful lights flashed.
Lin Moyu was dazzled by the sight.
By the time the skeleton warriors reached the soldier ants, many were already dead or injured.
24,000 spirit power gave the skeleton mages extremely strong killing power.
Far surpassing career professionals of the same level.
Even level 30 career professionals couldn’t match the damage output of these skeleton mages.
In just over 10 seconds, the hundred-plus soldier ants were completely slaughtered.
Though not as fast as Corpse Explosion, it was effortless.
Lin Moyu didn’t even have to move, just stand there and watch the fireworks display.
Indeed, it was quite beautiful, something Corpse Explosion couldn’t compare to.
With the soldier ant barracks appearing, Lin Moyu felt he must be on the right track.
The team continued advancing, discovering several more soldier ant barracks.
Each barracks was larger than the last.
Experience was rising at an astonishing rate.
It had now reached 32%.
The team steamrolled ahead without obstacles, finally entering the depths of the ant nest.
A buzzing sound was heard.
As the skeleton warriors turned a corner, they suddenly encountered a group of flying ants.
[Desert Flying Ant (Super Enhanced Elite Monster)]
[Level: 27]
[Strength: 6000]
[Agility: 3000]
[Spirit: 3000]
[Constitution: 7000]
The skeleton warriors reacted extremely quickly, immediately engaging the flying ants.
Their overwhelming attribute advantage was evident.
With 12,000 strength, they could deal massive, almost fatal damage to the flying ants.
Meanwhile, the flying ants could barely damage the skeleton warriors.
Their constitution was too high, the flying ants couldn’t break through their defense.
In moments, this group of flying ants was killed.
[Killed Desert Flying Ant]
[Obtained Flying Ant Wing x2]
Lin Moyu’s eyes lit up. Flying ant wings were one of the mission items for Tyrant Desert.
Each flying ant wing was worth 5000 gold coins.
With flying ants appearing, Lin Moyu was now completely certain he was on the right path.
Flying ants could be considered the queen’s royal guards and wouldn’t stray far from her.
And in an ant colony, there weren’t that many flying ants.
At least not as ridiculously numerous as soldier ants and worker ants.
The team encountered more flying ants as they advanced.
But unlike soldier ants with barracks, flying ants mostly moved in groups of three.
The skeleton warriors pushed forward, killing group after group of flying ants.
Before he knew it, Lin Moyu had been in the ant nest for nearly 2 hours when he finally reached the end.
A huge ant appeared before his eyes.
This ant was 10 meters tall, somewhat bloated and clumsy-looking.
It had three pairs of huge wings on its back, occasionally flapping and making an unpleasant noise.
In front of it were four more ants.
These four ants were also large, over 6 meters tall with wings for flight.
Their legs were like giant scythes, looking terrifying.
"Is this the final dungeon boss?"
Lin Moyu felt it didn’t quite fit. With some doubt, he used Detection.
The skeleton warriors also charged out.