[Spiritual essence accumulated 1000, Mental +1]
[Gained attribute points +1, skill points +1]
[Child of Nature special enhancement improved: Constitution +1]
Without hesitation, Carlos added the attribute point to Strength and the skill point to Skeleton Revival.
According to Carlos's plan, most of the equipment he'd need later required Strength and Constitution. Constitution was covered by Child of Nature's powerful passive ability, so adding Strength was the most suitable choice.
His status panel updated as follows:
[Name: Carlos Valois]
[Pathway: Death Herald Pathway]
[Mental: 2 (Spiritual essence: 0/2000)]
[Health: 250 (Constitution×50)]
[Psionic Energy: 50 (Mental×10+Mental×10)]
[Attributes: Strength 5/Speed 3/Constitution 5/Mental 3/]
[Skills: Child of Nature max level (Constitution increased by Mental×1), Skeleton Revival (2+2) level]
[Remaining Skill Points: 0; Remaining Attribute Points: 0]
"Hope the spiritual essence requirement doesn't double."
Carlos glanced at the spiritual essence progress bar showing 0/2000.
"The Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards' killing efficiency is pretty fast."
With a quick calculation, even under Carlos's orders where each Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard had to return and rest when health dropped to half, they could still slaughter over 400 monsters each day.
[Spiritual essence +0.05]
[Spiritual essence +0.05]
[Spiritual essence +0.1]
...
Advancement notifications kept coming, but each monster was providing less spiritual essence.
Carlos's mouth twitched. He'd almost forgotten about the 'experience penalty' mechanic.
Due to the essence condensation rule from low-Mental spiritual essence to high-Mental spiritual essence, the higher one's Mental attribute, the less high-Mental spiritual essence could be condensed from low-Mental monsters, until it became practically negligible.
So trying to slowly accumulate spiritual essence by mass-slaughtering monsters far below your own Mental level was nearly impossible.
"You go kill monsters too!"
With Carlos's command, the 3rd Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard leaped up, gripping its greatsword, and charged into the distance to fight for Carlos's spiritual essence.
"Whew! Here we go again!"
With Skeleton Revival at level 4, the revival slots reached 4, so Carlos could summon new skeleton warriors again.
"Skeleton Revival!"
Carlos listlessly activated his Death Herald ability and numbly began a new cycle...
...
A week later, the familiar light pillar erupted, and Carlos's fourth Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard was born!
Carlos looked at the spiritual essence progress bar on his panel: 600/2000, still way short.
"At the current monster grinding rate, one Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard can gain about 20 spiritual essence points per day, so four would be 80 points.
To reach the next Mental level, I'd need another 15 days."
If the outside world knew that Carlos had gone from Mental 1 to Mental 2 in just 3 weeks, and that going from Mental 2 to Mental 3 would take only a bit over 3 more weeks, they'd go crazy.
Regular Psionics measured Mental advancement in years.
"If I'm just grinding monsters until the next Mental increase, that'll take a while.
Might as well clear that hidden 'node' first."
Even 15 days felt too long to Carlos.
Calculating his combat power, four Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards comparable to low-tier Psionics should be enough to handle anything at the node.
"Everyone return!"
The command went out through their soul connection, and the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards who were frantically slashing Black Beetles outside all stopped simultaneously, each quickly converging toward the boulder...
"They're back."
Before long, three streams of Black Beetle swarms appeared in Carlos's vision, continuously surging toward his location.
At the front of each Black Beetle swarm was a Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard.
No need to guess—these Black Beetles had been lured by the Purple Thornblade Guards.
"Speed really is their weakness!"
Once the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards entered his sensing range, he immediately recalled them into his summoning space.
The Black Beetle swarms, having lost their targets, quickly dispersed as Carlos expected, breaking into smaller groups and flowing in different directions.
Problem solved!
Carlos re-summoned the three Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards.
Instantly, a thick bloody smell hit him. Each guard's bones were stained with black insect blood, covered in thick blood foam.
You could tell how many Black Beetles they'd killed.
Carlos clicked his tongue in admiration, very satisfied with them.
"Number 4 on watch, Numbers 1, 2, and 3 recover quickly."
While they recovered their health, Carlos pulled out his sleeping bag and crawled in, resting simultaneously—talk about maximizing time efficiency.
...
The boulder was quiet.
The 4th Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard held its greatsword like a door guardian, firmly guarding the only entrance to the massive boulder.
The other three focused on absorbing surrounding death energy, their already minimal health losses rapidly recovering...
...
The red sun set, the blood moon rose, then gradually disappeared, and the sky brightened again...
"Ah! That's better!"
Carlos crawled out of his sleeping bag, stretched, and looked up at the sky.
"Did I really sleep for a whole day?"
He felt his spirit had completely recovered.
Those three Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards had also returned to perfect condition.
"Rest complete."
Carlos squinted and gazed into the distance.
After a moment, he determined the direction of the 'node.'
"Right there!"
Under the protection of four Purple Thornblade Guards, Carlos slowly descended from the massive boulder.
But he didn't set off immediately. Instead, he took something strange from his storage space.
An iron seat positioned between two parallel iron rods.
This was the vehicle he'd commissioned craftsmen in Ember City to build.
Similar to a litter from his past life, but without a cover. Carlos called it an 'Iron Palanquin.'
Besides this, his storage space actually contained a more comfortable 'litter,' but considering monster attacks, the open-air iron palanquin was more convenient.
"Numbers 3 and 4, come here."
At his command, Numbers 3 and 4 positioned themselves front and back to slowly lift the iron palanquin.
Carlos comfortably sat on the iron palanquin.
"Head west!"
With one command, they set off toward the 'node' in Carlos's memory.
The formation was orderly: Number 1 scouted ahead, the iron palanquin in the middle, and Number 2 guarded the rear against sneak attacks from behind.
...
Carlos sat on the iron palanquin, swaying gently.
Like a young nobleman out for pleasure, he casually enjoyed the withered landscape they passed through—quite a unique experience.
"Comfortable!"
Can't help it—that's player nature. No matter how harsh the conditions or poor the environment, you've got to find ways to create more comfortable 'gameplay'!
.....
Along the way, thanks to his familiarity with the Withered Lands, Carlos avoided most monster concentration areas.
Of course, they inevitably encountered some monsters, but Number 1 easily dealt with them all. Carlos didn't even need to get off his iron palanquin.
Carlos couldn't help but feel satisfied—all his effort in choosing the Undead Armored Cavalry route was paying off!
After two days and one night of travel, they finally reached a silent volcano.
"This is it—straight to the crater!"
This volcano wasn't very tall, more like a small hill.
It took less than an hour for the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards to carry Carlos to the circular crater at the peak.
The crater was pitch black inside, bottomless. Ordinary people couldn't tell whether this volcano was dormant or completely dead.
But Carlos knew that if nothing had changed, this volcano had been completely dead for thousands of years, becoming one of the dark mist's 'nodes.'
It only had the appearance of a volcano—inside it was completely hollowed out, a monster paradise housing the strongest monster boss in the Withered Lands: the Mental 15 Infernal Beetle!
The Infernal Beetle had 8 points in Strength and a whopping 20 points in Constitution. More terrifyingly, its innate skill was extremely powerful.
Yet the highest Mental level human Psionics could reach in the Withered Lands was only 9 points.
Even forming multiple teams wouldn't be a match for it.