Absolute Death Game

System Notice: Player Xiao Buli has changed profession to 'Coachman', learning the professional skill -- animal taming. You can view the details of this skill in your skill bar.

When he opened the skill bar, sure enough, there was a new skill. Xiao Buli moved his cursor over it.

Animal Taming: A skill that involves understanding the habits of animals and taking care of them with feeding and training to ensure they can grow and be trained in a human-controlled environment. Current skill level LV1.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

It seemed this skill was a bit different from breeding—it looked somewhat more advanced. As Xiao Buli pondered this, he went to the military camp's stables to start his work for the day and soon discovered that the job of a coachman was indeed much more complicated than that of a herdsman or swineherd. It was still a mini-game, but now he had to play two at once.

For the first mini-game, it involved clearing horse manure. Every so often, the horses in the stable would drop some manure, which would accumulate over time. If too much piled up, the horses would get angry, so it had to be cleared before reaching that point.

The second mini-game was about feeding the horses. The feed in the manger would decrease as the horses ate, and if it ran out, the horses would also get angry. So, it was necessary to refill it before it was exhausted.

Neither of these mini-games was particularly difficult, but the problem was that he had to do both simultaneously. Luckily, Xiao Buli had sharp reflexes, and after such a long time gaming, he had adapted to this sort of gameplay. By the end of the morning, Xiao Buli had leveled up his horse rearing to level three without any slipups.

Come lunchtime, Xiao Buli finally had a chance to begin executing his own plan. The first thing he wanted to do was to find Hua Yueying and ask about upgrading his Taoist Heart.

"You want to know how to upgrade your Taoist Heart? That could be a bit troublesome," Hua Yueying said casually while munching on a hamburger.

"What do you mean? Doesn't the advancement to Exorcist require a certain level of Taoist Heart?" Xiao Buli asked.

Hua Yueying nodded, "That's definitely true. To advance to Exorcist, you need a Taoist Heart LV2, a Demon Subduing Heart LV2, and 25 points of spiritual power. The problem is, I'm not quite clear on how my Taoist Heart was upgraded. It just happened suddenly while I was meditating one day."

"Upgraded suddenly while meditating?" Xiao Buli repeated Hua Yueying's words, finding it somewhat unbelievable.

"Are you sure about that?" he asked, somewhat skeptically.

"Of course. Why would I lie to you?" Hua Yueying seemed somewhat discontented with Xiao Buli's questioning. Enjoy exclusive chapters from empire

"Then, did anything unusual happen during your meditation?"

Hua Yueying's face took on a contemplative expression, and after a moment, she shook her head. "Doesn't seem like it. You should just try it for yourself. Spend more time meditating, and maybe you'll suddenly level up. Though I suspect it'll require a bit of patience."

Seeing as there was no clear direction, Xiao Buli decided he should just focus on improving his swordsmanship.

In Xiao Buli's ideal scenario, the role of God Descending Master was too elusive, and the best profession was the pure magic system of Immortal Skill Master. If he had ample time for slow and meticulous study, he would definitely choose this profession as his advanced profession. But now, he was facing a life-or-death trial in just one month, and this danger was sure to be greater than the last.

Without sufficient strength, he might not even know how he died.

Moreover, it was unlikely that he would be allowed to remain unadvanced forever, so unless he had a stroke of incredible luck and his Taoist Heart leveled up continuously within a month to meet the standards for advancing to Immortal Skills Practitioner, he would have to settle for second best and choose between Cursed Swordsman and Sword Control Master.

Both of these professions undoubtedly required a high level of swordsmanship, so taking advantage of the lunch break, he found Liu Xing and inquired about how to obtain the titles of Sword Master and Sword Grandmaster.

"You want to learn swordsmanship? Don't tell me you were inspired by the power of those two Ultimate Skills I used the other day. But you should know that even for big moves like Ultimate Skills, if your basic attributes like strength and speed aren't high enough, you won't be able to unleash much power, and you can only use each Mystic Skill once per day.

So, it's best not to have too high hopes," Liu Xing said.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Buli remembered, "Right, how exactly did you come to understand those two 'Ultimate Skills'?"

Liu Xing didn't withhold any secrets, "It's quite simple, actually. Raise a Cultivation Technique class skill to LV10, and you would naturally comprehend a Mystic Skill. By Cultivation Technique class skills, I mean skills like Swordsmanship, Knife Skills, Spear Skills, etc. I currently know three sets of sword techniques: Gale Sword Skills, Cold Moon Sword Skills, and Green Abyss Sword Technique.

When my Gale Sword Skills reached LV10, I comprehended the 'Mystic Skill – Wind Rolls The Scattered Clouds', and when my Cold Moon Sword Skills reached LV10, I comprehended the 'Mystic Skill – Moon Shadow Trace'. As for the Green Abyss Sword Technique, I ran out of combat experience, so it's only at LV5 for now and I haven't yet grasped the final Mystic Skill."

So that's how it is, Xiao Buli thought to himself, this is much simpler than upgrading the Taoist Heart.

Xiao Buli, hearing this, suddenly remembered another question, "Does that mean you've already obtained the title of Swordsmanship Master?"

Liu Xing nodded with a smile, "Of course."

"What are the requirements for becoming a Swordsmanship Master then?"

"It's quite simple. You need to defeat a Swordsmanship Master at Longquan Sword Pavilion using only Sword Skills, or battle with one for 10 minutes without being defeated."

Xiao Buli said with a laugh, "That sounds rather easy."

"Swordsmanship Masters are high-ranking elites. Do you think it will be easy? It took me quite an effort to achieve it."

Xiao Buli nodded and then asked, "What about a Swordsmanship Grandmaster then? Surely it doesn't involve fighting a silver-tiered boss NPC, does it?"

Liu Xing nodded, "That's right, exactly. That's also my next goal, but I dare not think about it for the short term. Above a Swordsmanship Grandmaster is the title of sword saint. The master of Longquan Sword Pavilion is a sword saint—a golden-named grand boss. I can't even contemplate taking him on, but I still plan to level up to Swordsmanship Grandmaster.

As long as I can last 10 minutes without defeat, and if my equipment is good enough and my qinggong high enough, I should have a chance."

Just as Xiao Buli was about to leave, he suddenly remembered the most important question, "Where did you learn all these sword techniques then?"

"The Green Abyss Sword Technique was dropped by a boss, and the Gale Sword Skills and Cold Moon Sword Skills were both learned at Longquan Sword Pavilion. They teach various levels of sword technique skills there, and you can learn as long as you have money and meet the attribute requirements, but the tuition is not cheap."

Xiao Buli nodded, indicating he understood.

Next, he was going to ask about Basic Attributes, something he planned to discuss with Wu Tao.

Wu Tao was sitting at a table not far from Liu Xing. Xiao Buli walked over, greeted him, and then began to inquire about Basic Attributes. Although he knew that leveling Professional Skills could improve Basic Attributes, he wasn't sure to what extent they could be enhanced.

After hearing his question, Wu Tao said, "For Basic Attributes, it's generally okay to boost the less important ones to 20."

Xiao Buli asked, "Why is that?"

"Because it gets harder the further you go. In the early stages, leveling a Life Skill to LV10 usually increases two attributes by two points each, which is a total of four Attribute Points. But once any of your attributes exceeds 20 points, you'll only gain a one-point increase for two different attributes, doubling the time spent, which is quite inefficient.

That's why people usually stop leveling less critical attributes after they reach 20 and focus on the most important ones—for tank-type professions, that'd be physique; for burst-damage types, Strength; for agile types, speed or agility. As for Mage Professions like yours, it should mainly be Spirit.

You don't engage in close combat, so I think if you raise your physique to 20 and leave the rest, it should be fine."

Xiao Buli nodded with a smile but did not reveal his actual intentions.

Then let's level all the Basic Attributes to 20.

It takes about 20-30 hours on average to level a Professional Skill to LV10. Previously, at eight hours a day, it would take three to four days to max one out. In preparation for the fight a month from now, Xiao Buli decided to play for sixteen hours a day so that he could level all his Basic Attributes in about ten days.

However, he certainly wasn't planning to just work and do nothing else for those ten-plus days. During the following month, he decided to spend five hours each night on leveling Professional Skills, which was a good time considering that it was too dangerous to go out hunting monsters and collecting gear.

If he got tired, he'd rely on meditation to recover his Physical Strength and try to comprehend the second level of Taoist Heart. During the day, he planned to learn Swordsmanship and fight in dungeons.

Once he had everything planned out and had eaten lunch, Xiao Buli headed over to Longquan Sword Pavilion during his afternoon gaming session.