Chapter 023 – Real job
...
"That druid who showed hostility towards me just now, he's not from the Moonlight Society, right?"
In the water-filled underground passage.
Matthew rolled up his pants and asked.
"Of course not, he's from the Earth Society. I haven't seen him before, but I guess Samantha invited him to help."
Ella said thankfully:
"Thank goodness Samantha stopped him!"
Matthew smiled:
"That's right."
Ella obviously didn't catch Matthew's implication.
She chattered on about the story of 'Ancient Tiger Eli'.
...
"Eli is an orphan. A long time ago, his parents got into trouble with their enemies and were chased to the Storm Valley near Guardian Heights.
Eli's father died halfway to buy time.
And Eli's mother carried him in a swaddle and climbed into the tiger's den to hide from their pursuers."
...
"Unfortunately, his mother was injured and was also on the verge of death after climbing into the cave. At the moment of her death, she saw a fierce but exhausted tiger.
Eli's mother said to the tiger, 'Eating me will satisfy your hunger, please spare my child!'
So the tiger silently ate her.
Throughout the process.
She didn't make a sound—perhaps she fainted from the pain, or perhaps she was already dead.
In any case, Eli, who had childhood memories, witnessed this whole process.
It's hard to imagine how he felt when he later recalled this!"
...
"After eating Eli's mother, the tiger carried Eli deeper into the cave, where Eli found two newborn tiger cubs.
That's right.
The mother tiger had just given birth, she was weak and desperately needed to replenish her energy.
If it weren't for Eli's mother, she would probably have left the den to find food. Even though the Storm Valley was the tiger's territory, it would still be dangerous.
The mother tiger, who had regained her strength, began to nurse the cubs.
Eli also had a share.
You can probably guess the rest of the story. Eli was raised by the mother tiger and gained the favor of the Earth God in the process.
His first wild transformation was into a tiger, and later, through various adventures, he mastered the transformation of 'Sabertooth Tiger' and the legendary creature 'Ancient Tiger'!
His combat power is extremely terrifying, and cannot be measured by normal third-order standards. So people gave him the honorary title of 'Ancient Tiger', which is only worthy of fourth-order shapeshifters!"
...
After listening, Matthew nodded:
"A very difficult life."
"Did he later seek revenge for his parents?"
Ella thought for a moment and said uncertainly:
"I don't know, maybe."
"Anyway, he's very powerful. If you encounter him underground in the future, it's best to stay away."
Matthew remained silent.
His eyes stared ahead.
All the skeleton soldiers stopped in their tracks.
"Drip! Drip! Drip!"
The sound of dripping water from the left cave was annoying and disturbing.
And in that dead silence.
The air from all directions suddenly became restless!
"Matthew!"
Ella belatedly exclaimed:
"They're coming!"
But before she could finish her words.
Matthew's robe instantly swelled up and then contracted.
The next second.
He turned into a raven and flew away!
"Hey, Matthew, wait for me!"
Ella's urgent voice became hoarse.
She followed Matthew's example and landed on a horizontal stone pillar above.
Looking down.
She saw one after another 'Frenzy Larva', each the size of a rat, surging out of the darkness.
They crawled like worms, with purple or green pus on their bodies, and they were faster than ordinary people!
"Matthew—!"
Ella couldn't help but scream:
"The most terrifying thing about Frenzy Larva is their parasitic infection. As long as they have a slight wound, they can parasitize any living creature!"
"We're done for!"
The situation below became even more chaotic.
Each skeleton soldier was surrounded by dozens of larvae, eyeing them!
Just as Ella was in a panic.
Matthew finally spoke:
"Besides parasitic infection, do they have any other abilities?"
Ella was stunned:
"Isn't that terrifying enough?"
Matthew looked at her with a dumbfounded expression:
"It is indeed terrifying for living creatures, but all my summons are undead!"
"Can these bugs parasitize skeletons?"
As if to confirm Matthew's words.
A sudden 'plop!' sound came from below.
The two looked down.
A fist-sized larva crawled onto the knee of a skeleton soldier.
Its body quickly shriveled.
At the same time.
A large amount of pus emerged from the larva's body, tightly covering the bones.
"Squeak..."
A mouse-like sound came out, and more larvae gathered around.They eagerly rushed towards the flowing pus.
But in the next second.
A sharp sword descended from the sky.
Swoosh!
The blade sliced through the larvae's bodies like cutting tofu, causing the pus to burst like juice!
The Skeleton Soldier didn't need any skills.
It simply slid its sword back and forth in the area where the larvae gathered, and a large number of larvae perished!
After finishing, it even touched its knee.
After wiping off the pus.
Its bones were as bright as new.
...
"Hint: Your summoned creature is immune to the infection of Frenzy Swarm!
...
Your summoned creature 'Skeleton No. 3' killed 13 Frenzy Swarms, and your XP+13 (experience has been accumulated...)"
...
The fight below was lively.
Matthew sat on the sidelines.
While his lackeys fought, he snacked on melon seeds and AFKed. This was the greatest pleasure of being a Necromancer!
Moreover, since the first Skeleton Soldier raised its sword, the outcome of this encounter had already been determined—
As Ella said, the most terrifying aspect of the Frenzy Swarm was its ability to infect anything it came into contact with.
In the face of this infection, even high resilience might not be enough to resist it, and even higher immunity might be needed!
This creature was a nightmare for all living beings.
But it was different when facing undead creatures.
You couldn't parasitize a skeleton.
And without the greatest threat, Frenzy Swarms were essentially no different from slightly larger rats.
Even if the Skeleton Soldiers reacted slowly, they could still take out several of them with one swing when facing a group of swarms.
What was even more interesting was that Frenzy Swarms lacked intelligence. They seemed unable to assess the situation on the battlefield and could only act on instinct.
Even though the battle was already one-sided, they continued to throw themselves at the Skeleton Soldiers one after another.
So, after just fifteen minutes.
The ground was littered with the corpses of hundreds of Frenzy Swarms!
And Matthew's Skeleton Soldiers were almost unharmed—when I say "almost," it's because one Skeleton Soldier twisted its ankle into a dislocation while slashing the bugs too forcefully.
But it was a skeleton.
So Matthew just twisted it back into place afterwards.
After this battle.
Matthew discovered that the soul fires of most of the Skeleton Soldiers had become more solid!
Undead creatures could also enhance their own strength through battles and killings, but the progress was less noticeable.
Matthew was busy planting trees every day, so the Skeleton Soldiers naturally spent their days in the cold palace.
Now they finally had a chance to show their skills, and the results were quite satisfying to Matthew.
...
"So, this is the goddess's plan? It seems that undead creatures have a natural restraint against the Frenzy Swarm that caused the withering and decay of this place!"
Matthew thought so.
He didn't stay here for too long. After a short rest, he ordered Sodie to continue leading the way deeper into the cave.
Meanwhile, Matthew himself flew above with Ella, observing and commanding.
They had a smooth journey.
Except for encountering two Frenzy Infected who had been transformed from humans on the third level.
The Skeleton Soldiers eliminated all the enemies without any injuries and cleared out all the nests along the way!
Although there were no major spoils, the occasional drop of dozens of gold coins and XP that could quickly level up the Skeleton Soldiers made Matthew feel that this trip was not in vain.
As for the two Frenzy Infected.
One of them was ambushed by Sodie at their first encounter, and the latter cut him in half with a dagger, instantly rendering him powerless.
The other one fought fiercely with a Skeleton Soldier. The Frenzy Infected's strength was astonishing. By the time Sodie and the other Skeleton Soldiers arrived, the Skeleton had already been dismantled.
This was also the first battle damage Matthew encountered while exploring this cave.
...
"What should we do? Matthew, you're missing a Skeleton Soldier. Should we continue forward?"
Ella asked nervously.
They were now close to the entrance of the fourth level.
According to Ella's explanation.
Starting from the fourth level, this type of Frenzy Infected would become more common—of course, not all of them would be humans transformed into Infected, but various types of animals.
Frenzy Infected possessed the infection ability of the larvae, as well as powerful strength and decent melee skills, making them a formidable opponent recognized by other Druids.
"Where did I lose a Skeleton Soldier?"
Facing Ella's question.
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Matthew smiled lightly, then took out his withered wooden staff and began to chant softly towards one of the Frenzy Infected.
Soon.
Under Ella's astonished gaze.
A stumbling Skeleton Soldier stood up from the pool of blood, red and green mixed together.
"So, as long as there are corpses, you can continuously summon Skeleton Soldiers, right?"
Ella widened her eyes.
"More or less." Matthew added in his mind: It still depends on the limit of the summoned creatures.
"Well, let's just consider it as using evil to defeat evil..."
Ella muttered.
Matthew silently watched her.She hurriedly said:
"Let's hurry to the next level!"
Matthew shook his head:
"No, that's it for today's mission."
Ella was taken aback:
"Why? Did I offend you with what I just said? I'm sorry, Matthew, I apologize. I now finally understand the wisdom of the goddess, a Necromancer is indeed more suitable for exterminating bugs than a Druid!"
Matthew yawned:
"No, it has nothing to do with that. There are only four hours left until dawn, I need to rush home to sleep, I have to get up early tomorrow!"
"Get up early? For what?"
Ella was puzzled.
"To plant trees!"
Matthew said confidently.
"You can't possibly not know that's my real job?!"
……
The next day at dusk.
Matthew bluntly turned Ella away at the door.
He sat down by the bed.
Sodie's figure gradually appeared in the corner of the room.
Matthew checked the progress of his tree planting task.
He had been working overtime fiercely this past week, planting a total of one hundred and four trees, which naturally corresponded to ten enhancement opportunities.
Without hesitation, he threw them all on Sodie!
Ten beams of light flashed in succession, and Sodie's level rose by three, reaching LV9!
There were also a full seven new keywords.
Four of them were blue sky and white clouds.
……
"Your summoned creature, Sodie, has gained the keywords: Shadow Strike (Blue) / Poisoning (Blue) / Farming Skills (White) / Cub Rearing (White)"
……