A piece of good news and a piece of bad news.
The good news is that Lucas has finally confirmed the source of free attribute points.
Free attribute points are indeed obtained by slaying elite-tier monsters.
However, when Lucas was at the advanced tier, slaying a single elite monster would grant him 1 free attribute point. Now that he has reached the elite tier, he needs to slay at least two elite monsters to gain 1 free attribute point.
As his strength increases, the free attribute points provided by elite monsters will gradually decrease.
By the time he reaches the champion tier... perhaps only champion-tier monsters will be able to provide him with free attributes.
Of course, this doesn't mean that as long as he doesn't advance, elite monsters will always provide him with free attribute points. His level-ups, attribute improvements, and even skill enhancements all affect the gains from free attribute points.
The emergence of free attribute points...
Seems to encourage Lucas to continuously challenge higher-tier entities!
The eight skeleton warlords provided him with 4 free attribute points, which is good news.
The bad news is that a skeleton commander has appeared.
The skeleton warlords and skeleton legions Lucas hunted all belonged to the Skeleton King.
When he hunted the first and second skeleton legions, the Skeleton King didn't react. But when the number of skeleton legions he hunted reached seven or eight...
Perhaps due to an order from the Skeleton King, or perhaps from the skeleton commander, within a radius of several hundred kilometers, no lone skeleton legions could be found.
All skeleton legions under the Skeleton King's command were gathered under the skeleton commander's leadership!
And under the skeleton commander's command... they began searching for Lucas's trail!
With the loss of those easily defeated skeleton warlords, Lucas naturally lost his source of free attribute points, which is certainly bad news.
However, Lucas's original plan was to hunt champion-tier skeletons to prepare materials for his next job change.
Now that the skeleton commander has taken the initiative to attack...
Shouldn't that also count as good news?
......
In the wilderness.
Lucas stopped and waited for the skeleton commander's arrival.
While waiting, he opened his status panel.
After hunting eight skeleton legions in a row, even though most of the advanced-tier skeletons were enslaved, the experience points Lucas gained from these eight consecutive battles allowed him to level up twice more.
At this point, his four attributes had reached: Strength 134, Agility 85, Constitution 178, and Spirit 24.
Such attributes might not match those of a champion-tier skeleton, but they weren't far off.
Against elite-tier skeletons, he could kill them in a single strike!
Lucas wasn't worried about the elite skeletons under the skeleton commander's command. Even without the help of his skeleton minions, with his current strength, he could come and go as he pleased.
The only thing he needed to consider was how to slay the skeleton commander within the vast skeleton horde!
After some contemplation,
Lucas focused his attention on the 4 free attribute points he had.
His four attributes were already high, and investing 4 free attribute points into them would barely make a difference. His job template was already at the elite tier, and until he obtained enough champion-tier job templates, there was no need to use free attribute points.
Skills.
At this point, only by upgrading his skills could he enhance his strength without changing his stats!
Both of his skills were active skills.
"Skyrend Slash" was an area-of-effect skill, suitable for clearing mobs. "Gale Slash" was a single-target skill, capable of delivering three strikes in an instant, dealing three times the damage of a normal attack.
Considering the upcoming battle, "Gale Slash" was naturally Lucas's first choice.
Shifting his gaze to the "Gale Slash" skill, Lucas's mind stirred. After consuming 1 free attribute point, the skill's level increased from the default level 1 to level 2.
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"Gale Slash: Active skill, level 2. Consumes one-third of stamina to unleash four light blades in an instant, dealing 70%, 90%, 110%, and 130% of normal attack damage respectively."
Stamina consumption decreased slightly.
Damage increased from three times to four times the normal attack.
Not bad.
After the first upgrade yielded good results, Lucas immediately invested the remaining 3 free attribute points into the "Gale Slash" skill.
Once all 4 free attribute points were consumed, "Gale Slash" reached level 5.
"Gale Slash: Active skill, level 5. Consumes one-sixth of stamina to unleash seven light blades in an instant, dealing 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%, 120%, 140%, and 160% of normal attack damage respectively."
Stamina consumption was significantly reduced.
At level 5, the total damage of the seven light blades unleashed by "Gale Slash" reached seven times the damage of a normal attack!
A true ultimate skill!
If Lucas had any doubts about whether he could defeat the skeleton commander before, with "Gale Slash" at level 5, he now had absolute confidence in slaying that champion-tier skeleton!
All that remained was to wait for the skeleton commander's arrival!
......
Time passed slowly.
With the clues Lucas deliberately left behind as guidance, it only took a few hours for the enemy he was waiting for to arrive.
The first thing that caught his eye was a sea of pale white.
After eight skeleton legions were crippled and devoured, the skeleton commander, possessing a certain level of intelligence, naturally wouldn't be careless.
When it appeared before Lucas, it brought with it a fully-manned skeleton legion!
What did it mean for a champion-tier skeleton commander to lead a fully-manned skeleton legion?
From the moment the skeleton commander appeared, a dense sea of skeletons began spreading from the distance, filling the entire wilderness within sight!
Looking around, at least four to five thousand skeletons of various types had appeared in this wilderness.
At the forefront were still skeleton soldiers.
However, compared to the skeleton legions led by skeleton warlords, the number of skeleton warriors mixed among these skeleton soldiers had increased several times! Almost every twenty skeleton soldiers had a skeleton warrior as their captain, serving as the skeleton commander's command points for the entire legion.
Behind the skeleton soldiers were the archers.
There were both skeleton soldiers wielding bone bows as archers and advanced-tier skeleton archers who had truly taken up the archer profession!
The number of skeleton archers... numbered in the hundreds!
At the center of the skeleton horde were still several dozen skeleton mages!
Skeleton soldiers.
Skeleton archers.
Skeleton mages.
These three units formed interlocking rings, protecting a tall skeleton clad in rusted armor in the middle. This skeleton... was the skeleton commander!
Of course, besides the skeleton commander and the three units, there were many other elite-tier skeletons in this legion.
For example, the elite variant of skeleton archers, the bone archers; the elite variant of skeleton mages, the dread mages; the elite variant of skeleton guards, the skeleton sentinels, and so on.
Not to mention the most numerous elite skeletons, the skeleton warlords.
All in all, in this legion of over four thousand skeletons, the number of elite skeletons alone... exceeded a dozen!
On Lucas's side...
Lucas himself was an elite-tier heavy skeleton swordsman.
Thanks to the bug-like [Erosion] talent, even at the elite tier, he possessed strength comparable to a champion-tier entity.
Apart from him...
There was only one elite skeleton.
Fewer than a hundred advanced-tier skeletons.
The rest... were all skeleton soldiers!
Both were skeleton legions, but the gap between them was as vast as heaven and earth!
