Because Bai Qiu needed to upgrade the item card level of his Holy-Demonic Body, it wasn’t easy for him to find suitable base item cards at the moment.
In the end, Zhang Shiyao synthesized two Mana Cards (C Rank) and handed them to Bai Qiu.
Bai Qiu then took out two fusion cards and infused each Mana Card with ten Dark Crystals.
Thankfully, he had killed enough Lord-class monsters—otherwise, gathering twenty Dark Crystals would have been quite difficult…
After all, under normal drop conditions, each cavalry-type sovereign undead would only drop one Dark Crystal…
Finally, the Mana Cards underwent their ultimate transformation…
[Mana Card C++]
After equipping:
Permanently increases Mana by 288%, greatly increases mana recovery speed, greatly enhances dark-element mana affinity, and moderately increases mana intensity.
All dark-element magic power increases by 30%.
Looking at such an outrageous single-attribute boost, and then at the level 1 Undead Hero, Bai Qiu hesitated.
“Are you sure it’ll be fine if it uses this?”
After all, when he had upgraded his own enhancement card to C+ before, he was already level 11—and even then, he had almost overloaded.
This guy’s base attributes were so low—giving it a C++-rank card right away… wouldn’t it just explode?
After thinking it over, Bai Qiu handed the Mana Cards to Zhang Shiyao, letting her decide whether to use them.
Zhang Shiyao, however, had no such concerns.
If it couldn’t handle even this much, then its B-rank growth potential would be pretty disappointing.
Fortunately, perhaps due to the difference between undead and human physiology, it didn’t suffer any overload despite the sudden surge in power.
It calmly equipped both C++-rank Mana Cards.
Its base Magic jumped from E+ to D-—and it hadn’t even leveled up yet…
Even so, it was still quite weak.
Bai Qiu and Zhang Shiyao had no intention of letting it fight just yet.
After forming a party and adjusting the experience distribution, they began grinding monsters to level it up.
After reaching level 10, the skeleton hero actually awakened a Noble Phantasm…
Noble Phantasm: Dark Banner (D+ Rank)
Upon activation, consumes 50% of its mana. The user becomes unable to move, creating an enhancement field with a radius of 750 meters, granting a buff to all allied [Undead] units within range.
Effects:
- +20% to all base attributes
- +10% mana recovery speed
- Restores 10% of max HP per second
- Reduces skill cooldown by 10%
Duration: 1 minute
Cooldown: 30 minutes
They continued grinding like this until 8:30 PM, finally raising the Undead Hero to level 20.
Bai Qiu and Zhang Shiyao then decided to give it a name.
“How about calling it Xiao Jin?” Zhang Shiyao suggested.
Bai Qiu nodded in agreement. “Not bad. Works for me.”
Xiao Jin: “……”
Xiao Jin — Level 20
Strength: D++
Magic: C
Endurance: D++
Agility: D++
Dark Energy: D++
Noble Phantasm: Dark Banner
Weapon: None
Equipment: None
Item Cards: Mana Card C++, Mana Card C++ (Slots: 2/3)
Skills: None
…
As for equipment and weapons, Bai Qiu decided to take Xiao Jin back to a safe zone for custom crafting.
As for skills, he would simply give it the Undead Grimoire and let it learn on its own—there was no need to waste skill slots.
Unless, of course, they came across a skill book that suited it exceptionally well.
That was the current plan for Xiao Jin.
Bai Qiu and Zhang Shiyao then brought it back to Zone 2233.
Of course, Bai Qiu didn’t return openly.
Otherwise, he would likely get swarmed by players again, so he deliberately avoided them—first grabbing dinner, then heading over to Li Zhu’s place.
By this time, Li Zhu was just about to close for the day.
But when he saw that it was Bai Qiu, he immediately stopped what he was doing and said, “Yo! Out this late—don’t tell me you’re here to order equipment or weapons?”
Bai Qiu nodded. “Yes… and I also have something else I want to ask you.”
“Oh? Then come inside and talk,” said Marta, stepping out from behind the workshop door with a faint, teasing smile.
Bai Qiu nodded and walked in without much expression.
He had already noticed Marta’s presence earlier.
Although he didn’t know why she was always hanging around the blacksmith shop, it worked out—there were things he could ask both of them.
“My, what sharp eyes you have, honored adventurer. You’ve truly seen right through me—how upsetting,” Marta said in a sarcastic tone.
It seemed that her failed little scheme hadn’t humbled her at all—instead, she sounded almost annoyed.
Perhaps she was confident that Bai Qiu would soon need something from her, which made her act so boldly.
Li Zhu, confused, scratched his head and asked, “What’s going on? Why does the atmosphere feel so off?”
Ignoring Marta, Bai Qiu fell silent for a moment before asking, “Do you know about the Dark King, Gilshak?”
“Who’s that?” Li Zhu asked curiously.
Marta didn’t say anything, but from her expression, it was clear she didn’t know either.
Without replying, Bai Qiu took out his heavily damaged Dragon Slayer Set (MAX) and placed it in front of them.
Li Zhu sucked in a sharp breath.
This armor set was extremely close to C-rank equipment, and it had triple the defensive power against “Dragonfang” type monsters compared to normal gear.
Even Lord-class monsters would have a hard time breaking through it!
Not to mention that Bai Qiu could fully bring out its performance—yet in just a few days, it had been damaged to this extent?!
That didn’t make sense!
At this stage, there shouldn’t be any monsters capable of destroying it like this…
Marta also grew serious, her tone turning sharp as she asked, “Does this have something to do with the ‘Dark King, Gilshak’ you mentioned?”
Bai Qiu nodded. “That’s right. The damage to this armor was entirely caused by a Monarch-class monster—Gilshak, the Dark King. These are the materials it dropped after I killed it.”
As he spoke, he took out a purple-black orb that radiated a transcendent aura.
This time, not only Li Zhu, but even Marta widened their eyes in shock.
They stared at Bai Qiu as if they had seen a ghost.
“Monarch-class?! You actually killed it!?”
After receiving Bai Qiu’s confirmation, they remained stunned for a long time, unable to calm down.
Only then did Bai Qiu voice his real concern:
“The tide is less than thirty-five hours away. What I want to ask is—how large is the scale of a typical tide? And will Monarch-class monsters appear?”
Gilshak was absolutely something that normal players and safe zones at this stage could not handle.
If not for Bai Qiu having the highest attributes and the best equipment available, no one would have been able to deal with it!
If not for him, Safe Zone 2225 would have already been wiped out.
And if monsters of Gilshak’s level appeared in the tide… then out of these fifty safe zones, the number that could survive could be counted on one hand.
This wasn’t Bai Qiu exaggerating—it was the most accurate judgment he could make after careful consideration of the current strength of most people!
Someone like Zhang Shiyao—there probably weren’t even a few like her across all fifty districts.
Not to mention how outstanding her Noble Phantasm was.
Yet even so, it would still be impossible for her to defeat a Monarch-class monster on her own.
Even facing a King-class monster alone wouldn’t be easy for her!
“That’s impossible… At this stage, how could Monarch-class monsters even appear? Logically speaking, even King-class monsters shouldn’t be showing up yet…” Marta fell into a panic, muttering to herself.
On the other hand, Li Zhu—who had been loud and casual before—now wore a serious expression and said in a deep voice:
“According to the intelligence we have, the first tide will bring a large number of Lord-class monsters and one King-class monster. Only by killing that King-class monster will the tide channel close…”
“No Monarch-class monster should be able to manifest at this stage. If one does, no safe zone would be able to stop it! This must be a system error!” he continued, looking at Bai Qiu with uncertainty and shock.
Bai Qiu nodded, feeling slightly relieved.
To be honest, if the difficulty jumped this drastically and Monarch-class monsters could appear in numbers, then not just ordinary survivors—even he wouldn’t be able to protect himself!
At the same time, this confirmed a suspicion of his—Gilshak, having reached Monarch rank, didn’t lack skills.
Rather, it had been restricted.
After all, the items monsters dropped were highly likely things they originally possessed.
In other words, that Undead Grimoire had belonged to it.
But the skills within it were difficult for it to fully utilize, so it could only bring a limited number of abilities into the current world.
And it was precisely because of this limitation that Bai Qiu had a chance to defeat it.
Otherwise, given its intelligence and hidden trump cards, even if Bai Qiu had already reached the transcendent level with a B- rank mana attribute, he still might not have been able to win…
Bai Qiu then recounted everything that had happened that day, allowing Li Zhu and Marta to understand the full sequence of events.
Even though he glossed over most of the details of the battle, they could still imagine just how perilous it had been.
Their expressions toward Bai Qiu became increasingly filled with admiration.
It had only been a few days since everything began, and yet such a powerful individual had already emerged.
Fortunately, someone like him was in their region—this made things much more reassuring!
With Bai Qiu around, passing the upcoming tide would be almost effortless.
As for the unexpected appearance of a Monarch-class monster, Li Zhu and Marta weren’t overly worried.
After learning that such beings couldn’t exert their full strength, they concluded that some higher entities must have paid a price to force their way into this world through loopholes.
But the system wasn’t something to be trifled with—any attempt to break the rules and manifest, even through bugs, would result in suppressed power.
Bai Qiu looked at Zhang Shiyao.
She nodded and took out all the transcendent materials.
He then turned to Li Zhu and Marta and said:
“The main reason I came to you is to ask—at this stage, is it possible to create equipment… or weapons… that surpass C-rank?”
— The end of the Chapter–
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