Chapter 43: Skills and Quests

Early the next morning, Liu Zong was preparing to head out to complete his task when Zhu Yan stopped him.

Zhu Yan said to Liu Zong, “Can you finish today’s task quickly? There’s something that might require everyone’s help.”

Liu Zong looked at Zhu Yan with some surprise, but finally nodded in agreement. After all, he was invited by Zhu Yan; fulfilling tasks was only natural.

Seeing Liu Zong agree, Zhu Yan breathed a sigh of relief. In her original plan, the tasks assigned to Liu Zong and Liu Chun were the most crucial, and she’d been worried about what would happen if they couldn’t finish in time.

Now that Liu Zong had agreed, it meant he was confident he could complete his task and still join in the upcoming action. This moved Zhu Yan deeply.

She nodded to Liu Zong and was about to leave, when she noticed him fiddling with a bone in his hand, resembling a chicken leg bone.

It wasn’t large—about the length of a finger—already processed by necromantic magic. Liu Zong held it between his fingers, and as he manipulated it, the bone slowly shifted from a pale gray to a light metallic hue.

Whether it was due to Liu Zong’s imperfect control or some other reason, the bone would swell as it transformed, eventually bursting apart.

Whenever that happened, Liu Zong would toss away the fragments and start again with another bone, as if practicing some technique. This method was something he’d found in the memories of soul fragments: practicing with the most common bones, and only switching to advanced materials once he’d mastered the process, so as not to waste resources.

Zhu Yan never questioned anyone about their practice routines, and as long as it didn’t interfere with the tasks, she didn’t care if they trained during missions.

She glanced at Liu Zong before quickly departing, while he headed outside the stronghold.

In fact, Liu Zong was practicing what the fortune-telling old woman had taught him. After consulting her, he confirmed that her technique could be used on bones other than fangs.

The method involved injecting metal powder and liquid metal into the bone marrow, then using vibration to replace the bone’s original calcium or chitin with metal from the inside out.

However, the old woman’s method was too absolute, resulting in a fully metallic bone that didn’t suit Liu Zong, who specialized in the dark arts and planned to pursue the path of necromancy.

Fortunately, among the materials Liu Zong had brought to study, there was a technique that complemented the old woman’s. It was also used by necromancers to strengthen bones, making the skeletons they controlled harder, thicker, and longer—as though the bones were growing.

The process was similar: inject materials into the bone marrow and use internal vibration to embed them into the bone. The difference was this method didn’t reject the original material but fused and assimilated it.

Liu Zong discovered that the two techniques could be combined, resulting in living, metallic bones that retained their necromantic properties, becoming tougher and capable of gradual 'growth.'

This discovery delighted Liu Zong, but there was a problem: the materials injected needed adjustment, as did the vibration speed and technique.

Since preparing all the materials last night until this morning, Liu Zong had tried more than thirty times without success—either the materials wouldn’t fuse or the bone would explode.

But Liu Zong wasn’t worried. He’d prepared a large supply of chicken bones and resolved to experiment whenever he was traveling or resting, determined to master the proper ratios and vibration techniques before returning from the task.

That day, after finishing his task and handling the main control center, Liu Zong glanced at the sandy ground. He noticed the negative energy within the sand had grown quite strong; by tomorrow, some corpses buried beneath the sand would likely awaken from the negative energy’s stimulus. Soon, an undead army capable of attacking the stronghold would form.

But Liu Zong didn’t concern himself with that. He had no interest in what would happen to the others after he left.

Task complete, Liu Zong headed to the gathering point Zhu Yan had mentioned. Since she said the task required everyone, it was surely important.

Liu Zong had wondered what Zhu Yan needed from them, but upon arrival, he realized his speculation had been too simple.

The gathering place was beside the ruins of a toppled skyscraper, half-buried in yellow sand, providing a vantage point over the surroundings.

Not far away, the sand-laden sky pressed lower, and Liu Zong immediately noticed a pair of enormous eyes emerging from the sand.

Those eyes were immense, like two giant hot-air balloons, appearing and disappearing in the shifting sand, as though searching for something.

Centered on the eyes, the sand gathered in an organized manner, seemingly forming a humanoid shape.

Upon seeing this, Liu Zong instantly understood: “It’s a boss-level elemental creature.”

Indeed, those eyes belonged to a boss-level elemental creature on the verge of forming. Such entities tended to appear in all maps: where a certain element accumulates unchecked, elemental creatures arise naturally.

As their numbers grow, elite-level elementals appear, followed by boss-level entities.

But this one was different. The area had already been cleared by players; even with wind elements, a boss shouldn’t appear.

Moreover, this boss had arrived without launching an attack or gathering minions, clearly summoned as part of someone’s quest.

At this moment, Zhu Yan arrived. Seeing everyone present, she distributed detailed information about the boss.

“Confused Wind Elemental”
“Race: Elemental Creature”
“Level: Lv0 (12-star) Boss Template”
“Attributes: Strength 6, Agility 9, Constitution 6, Spirit 1”
“Description: A wind elemental appearing in the sandstorm, never knowing its purpose, only aware it contains countless winds and sands. Besides fierce winds, it can also wield some earth power…”

“This is the key to our current mission. Originally, it was just an elite wind elemental, but for some reason, after finishing the prior quest, it transformed into a boss-level creature. Without its core, we can’t complete the next stage, so I hope everyone will work together to defeat this wind elemental.”