"Clearing out all the 'Fire Bugs' will probably take at least 3 days."
With that much time, he couldn't just sit there watching his guards 'grind monsters,' right?
Carlos thought briefly, then set up his tent and sat down cross-legged.
He also took out a table and arranged various meats on top.
Finally, he placed the first glow stone on top of the tent to illuminate the nearby area, and hung the second one partway down the cliff to light up the bottom.
After finishing all this, Carlos waved his hand grandly and declared quite boldly:
"Go forth, warriors!
Go and slaughter to your heart's content!
Offer blood and glory to me!"
The 4 Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards followed orders, climbing down the cliff using 4 sturdy ropes. They reached the bottom in no time and charged toward the Fire Bugs!
"Slash!"
The Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards had Strength attributes as high as 9 points, plus they wielded greatswords transformed from light gold quality equipment. Facing a bunch of monsters with attributes far below theirs, they were like tigers among sheep—unstoppable!
The guards attacked incredibly fast, their greatswords cutting through the air with piercing whistles, like chopping vegetables. Each attack could kill one, even several Fire Bugs.
Before long, the ground was covered with Fire Bug corpses, insect blood pooling into puddles, with a thick bloody smell filling the air.
This further triggered the bloodthirsty nature of the remaining Fire Bugs. They became even more frenzied, waving their crimson scythes, fearless of death.
But the power gap was too huge. The Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards swung their greatswords, easily cutting them in half!
The slaughter continued. The Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards performed exceptionally fiercely, each attack clearing a Fire Bug's health completely. In a short time, they'd cleared out an entire area.
But soon, the thick bloody smell attracted more awakening Fire Bugs. Instead of decreasing, the Fire Bugs around the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards actually increased...
[Spiritual essence +0.7]
[Spiritual essence +0.7]
[Spiritual essence +0.8]
...
Notification sounds kept ringing in his mind.
"As expected from node monsters—they provide so much spiritual essence."
While listening to the beautiful symphony in his mind and enjoying the lawn-mowing battle below, Carlos's appetite couldn't help but grow. He happily took out a piece of meat and took a big bite, filling his rumbling stomach.
If other Psionics knew about this scene, they'd can't help but wonder:
Is this really something that could happen in the dark mist region where you need to stay alert every moment and danger is extreme?
Must be dreaming!
Carlos would say:
This is just the 'tiny insignificant' benefit that comes from following the extreme individual skeleton advancement route.
"Come back up."
Although the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards' health was still dropping 'slowly,' the rate was nearly double compared to when they were 'grinding monsters' outside.
Visually, the time to reach the half-health warning line was cut in half compared to outside.
"Monsters with innate skills really are different."
The four Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards grabbed the ropes and climbed back up.
Their bones were stained with a thick layer of meat chunks, giving off a burnt smell.
These meat chunks were naturally from the Fire Bugs.
The burnt smell was naturally due to the Fire Bugs' innate skill "Fire Blade"!
Once activated, their front limb scythes would turn red-hot, radiating high temperature.
Flesh and blood touching them would definitely get burned.
But Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards were different—their entire bodies were bone, and this level of heat wasn't enough to damage their sturdy skeletons.
"Excellent! Excellent!
Killed nearly a third in one day—a full 1,500 Fire Bugs!"
Carlos opened his status panel. This round of killing had increased his spiritual essence by a full 1,120 points.
[Mental: 2 (Spiritual essence: 1720/2000)]
"One more round of killing and my Mental can advance!"
Carlos felt even more convinced that his decision to come to this node was absolutely right.
Including the 2 days of travel, he'd be advancing in less than a week.
If he'd been grinding those regular monsters, it would've taken at least half a month.
Once the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards' health fully recovered, Carlos sent them down to the cliff bottom to slaughter again...
[Spiritual essence +0.7]
[Spiritual essence +0.8]
...
[Spiritual essence accumulated 2000, Mental +1]
[Gained attribute points +1, skill points +1]
The familiar Mental advancement sound came, and Carlos skillfully added 1 point to Strength and 1 point to Skeleton Revival.
This brought his Strength to 6 points.
With Child of Nature's enhancement, Constitution also reached 6 points.
Skeleton Revival reached (3+2) level, gaining another revival slot.
"How do I keep skeleton warriors safe?"
With a new revival slot, he naturally needed to use it promptly.
Carlos began thinking about how to let fragile skeleton warriors safely grind monsters in this place.
Looking around, there were no special positions like the big boulder. The Fire Bugs were all below—he'd have to send skeleton warriors down to join the fight.
But with those pathetic skeleton warrior attributes, without the Skeleton Enhancement skill boost, they couldn't even survive one hit from a Fire Bug.
After thinking briefly, Carlos came up with a simple solution.
"Don't kill the Fire Bugs directly. Just chop off their scythes and legs, then throw them up here!"
If you don't have the right conditions, create them! The end result would be the same.
The command was given, and the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards randomly picked a Fire Bug to work on.
With a few swift cuts, a bare 'big hemisphere' was created. Fiery red insect blood gushed wildly from the severed limbs, and its health was visibly dropping.
Then the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard hurled it forcefully upward!
"Thud!"
The continuously bleeding Fire Bug crashed heavily onto the cliff ledge, immediately losing a large chunk of health and clearly about to die.
Carlos drew his white quality greatsword and finished off the last sliver of health.
"Skeleton Revival!"
A pale white skeleton warrior creaked to life from the Fire Bug's remains.
"Continue!"
Another low-health Fire Bug was thrown up.
Under Carlos's command, the newly born skeleton warrior frantically slashed with its broken bone blade, finishing off the nearly dead Fire Bug, finally accumulating its first wisp of death energy.
"The plan works!"
Carlos felt confident. He wouldn't need to worry about the rest.
One after another, low-health Fire Bugs were thrown up, and the new skeleton warrior quickly finished them off, its soul fire gradually growing brighter...
However, this method wasn't without drawbacks.
To completely sever the Fire Bugs' limbs while keeping them temporarily alive, the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards had to hold back their strength and fight with restraint.
The result was less tight defense, taking considerably more attacks.
Especially when picking up low-health Fire Bugs and throwing them up—this series of actions required the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards to endure surrounding attacks head-on.
It was only because the Fire Bugs' attributes were more than double lower than the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards' that the damage was still within acceptable limits.
Otherwise, Carlos would definitely abandon this method.
Capturing alive took several times longer than killing.
After this round, the four Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards only threw up 500, and their health reached the half-blood warning level.
Yesterday's round had eliminated a full 1,500.
"Come up and recover."
Carlos decisively ended this round of slaughter.