Upon seeing the Dark Hunters, Wind's expression turned somewhat wistful.
"Should we eliminate them, or head directly to the Cold Plains?"
Yang Tao drove straight towards the more than ten Dark Hunters: "Get ready to get out of the car and deal with them."
They were now monsters.
For safety, Yang Tao didn't ram into them directly; these dozen or so monsters could easily flip the car.
If he tried to show off and ended up making a fool of himself, it would truly become a joke.
Getting out of the car, Yang Tao took three corpses from his backpack and threw them out.
"Raise Skeleton!"
Three bone-white skeletons crawled out of the corpses, brandishing their stone swords as they charged towards the Dark Hunters who were also rushing over.
Yang Tao thought for a moment and decided to put the skill point he gained from the quest into Skeleton Mastery.
For now, four skeletons were enough. If there were more, his mana would be hard to sustain. Instead of summoning a group of cannon fodder, it was better to improve their individual strength.
Skeleton Mastery +1
From the outside, the Skeleton Warrior didn't change much, only its health increased slightly.
Wind wasn't idle either, directly summoning a Poison Creeper and a Ghost Wolf. He also took a wooden staff from his backpack and charged towards the Dark Hunters.
"Don't rush so fast, together!"
Yang Tao called out to Wind, which almost made Wind stumble and fall. He turned his head to look at Yang Tao, his face saying, 'Are you kidding me?'
You, Necromancer, are telling me to wait for you?
Shouldn't you honestly stand far away and wait for the skeletons to hack the monsters to death?
Could it be that you want to use that 'Equality of All Beings' thing?
While he was momentarily stunned, Yang Tao, wielding a staff no smaller than a wooden stick, had already rushed past him.
"Hurry up, let's go together!"
"No, buddy..."
Wind quickly caught up, only to see Yang Tao run behind a Dark Hunter, skillfully raise the wooden staff in his hand, and strike it hard on the opponent's head.
The fire and poison damage, plus the staff's own damage, directly reduced the Dark Hunter's health by two-thirds, and it was still rapidly decreasing due to the poison.
This move almost made Wind's eyes pop out. He quickly used the wooden stick in his hand to strike another Dark Hunter.
-6
The overall health bar decreased by a quarter. A Dark Hunter's health was around 25 points, making it a relatively low-health creature. Its biggest threat was its tendency to appear in groups.
"Are you really a Necromancer?"
Yang Tao dodged the opponent's scimitar, swung the staff in his hand, and struck the opponent. This already low-health Dark Hunter immediately fell to the ground.
A soul-piercing scream rang out, and a white soul flew out from the Dark Hunter's corpse.
Just as the soul was about to float into the sky, Yang Tao subconsciously reached out and grabbed it back.
By the time he came to his senses, the Rogue's soul was already in his hand.
"..."
Damn, how could I forget that fallen Rogues have souls after death?
Yang Tao looked at the soul in his hand, unsure whether to let go. Just then, screams rang out one after another. These thin-skinned creatures couldn't withstand the Skeleton Warrior's attacks at all.
In an instant, six or seven souls flew up.
He hesitated only briefly.
Yang Tao immediately intercepted all these souls and stuffed them into the Warp.
'This... should count as loot, right?'
Besides dropping equipment from monsters, dropping some souls also seemed reasonable.
Wind looked at the few remaining Dark Hunters, stopped attacking, and asked hesitantly, "Just now, that..."
"Souls, the souls of these Dark Hunters."
"I know they are souls. These Rogues, infected by Hell's aura, will be forever imprisoned in their bodies... even death cannot free them. But were those souls just now pocketed by you?"
Yang Tao was still thinking about how to trick this randomly matched teammate when he suddenly heard the phrase "pocketed," which made him unable to hold back his laughter: "Pocketed..."
"Alright, it was indeed pocketed, just like this."
Yang Tao reached out, pulled the remaining Rogue soul over, then kneaded it into a ball and put it into his pocket, mysteriously whispering, "I'll tell you, I'm actually a god, with the ability to resurrect them. I plan to resurrect these Rogues tonight and secretly keep them for myself!"
Wind: "Σ(ŎдŎ|||)ﾉﾉ"
"You Necromancers play so fancy? You don't even let souls go?"
Rather than believing Yang Tao was a god, it was easier to believe that as a Necromancer, Yang Tao had a special way to retain these souls.
Little did he know, Yang Tao snatching these souls was essentially stealing food from Andariel, one of the Four Demon Lords. If an ordinary Necromancer were to do this, they probably wouldn't even know how they died.
Yang Tao smiled and threw all the Dark Hunters' corpses into his backpack. The gold coins scattered on the ground had already made Wind forget his previous thoughts.
"This... how is this possible?"
There were plenty of Dark Hunters! How could they drop so much money?
Sia, who had been throwing darts from a distance, also walked over at this time and glanced at the gold coins on the ground, and even two potions.
"This... is this a naturally awakened professional???"
This was simply unfair.
Yang Tao collected the gold coins and potions from the ground, roughly calculated how many gold coins would normally drop, then took out 22 coins and a minor healing potion and handed them to Wind, saying, "These are for the two of you."
Sia stepped forward and took the gold coins, but didn't take the potion: "These already exceed our previous gains..."
Yang Tao put the potion in her hand and smiled, "If it were the same as before, what would be the point of you guys clinging to me?"
"If you really feel bad about it, then consider the next few days as your way of treating me to meals as thanks."
Sia was silent for a moment upon hearing this, then put the potion into her backpack.
The three got into the car and continued forward.
Soon, another group of Dark Hunters appeared in sight. Yang Tao and the two others stopped and went, and finally arrived at the entrance of the Burial Grounds near dusk.
Under the cold moonlight, the originally neat graves were now crooked, and the owners of the graves had now turned into wandering monsters.
In the middle of the courtyard, there was a large tree, and many corpses hung from its withered branches. A gust of wind blew, and these corpses swayed gently with the wind.
Some black ravens silently circled in the sky above the courtyard.
Everything had an indescribable sense of horror.
However, Yang Tao's assessment was that it was not as good as the Dyed Blood Forest and the Forest of the Skeleton Queen; it lacked a certain eeriness.
It was fine that the moon wasn't red.
But the big tree in the courtyard should at least be alive, right?
'Bad review!'
"It's too dark now, let's rest first, then we'll go to the Mausoleum below, and clear the Burial Grounds tomorrow."
Wind now looked at Yang Tao with eyes full of admiration.
Especially when he saw Yang Tao beating a giant beast with his bare hands, he was completely convinced.
One punch was one gold coin, one punch was one gold coin!
"I'll listen to your arrangements. Brother, I'm begging you, try hitting me twice..."
Seeing Wind, who was originally fine, turn into such a masochist, Yang Tao felt he had an inescapable responsibility.
"Don't even think about it. If I could hit you to drop gold coins, I wouldn't do anything else. I'd just guard the Rogue Encampment city gate. Even if a dog came out, I'd give it two slaps!"