CHAPTER 17: CHAPTER 11: BEAST TAMING

[Name: Zhang Chen]

[Skill (Tier 2): Light of the True God (0/5000)]

[Skill (Unranked): Dragon Qi (0/2000)]

[Points: 1100]

Zhang Chen stared at the new skill Dragon Qi, completely stunned. When he upgraded the Mysterious Golden Light back then, it only needed fifty points, but now the new skill Dragon Qi requires two thousand points to level up?

"Could it be that each skill needs a different number of points for upgrading?" Zhang Chen pondered while looking at his new skill Dragon Qi: "It makes sense, considering the strengths and levels of skills vary."

Zhang Chen’s eyes were fixated on the skill Dragon Qi on his Golden Finger Interface, deep in thought about its purpose. As his thoughts flickered, suddenly he saw a Golden Light shooting out from the Golden Finger Interface, a dragon-shaped shadow roared, seemingly shaking the four seas and eight directions, then it suddenly plunged into Zhang Chen’s Primordial Spirit. Zhang Chen felt as if an inexplicable piece of information emerged in his mind, as if he was born with it, understanding it naturally.

[Dragon Qi (Unranked): Can control all unranked beasts within a hundred meters for one hour, cooldown: one day.]

Zhang Chen inexplicably understood the information about Dragon Qi and couldn’t help but laugh: "This skill is great! This skill is great! It’s actually a group skill, able to control all unranked beasts within a hundred meters. This is a super buff for hunting in the mountains. If beasts hide in caves, I can control them to come out and die. This is practically a Divine Skill. Why bother hunting in the mountains when I can directly control the beasts to trap themselves?"

"This skill is quite overpowered, able to control all beasts within a hundred meters. A walk in the mountains could lead to gathering a beast tide army... No, there’s a flaw: it can’t last over an hour and has a one-day cooldown." Zhang Chen frowned as he looked at the new skill. It was good, but too limited. An hour could accomplish a lot, but there were far too many things it couldn’t do.

If he encountered an opponent, did he have to gather a bunch of beasts from the mountains to chase the enemy?

Moreover, he also had to consider escape time. Controlling those dangerous beasts, he had to leave himself some time to escape, right?

"A one-day cooldown is too long." Zhang Chen looked at the skill interface, not quite satisfied.

At this moment, Zhang Chen closed his eyes, and suddenly, within a hundred meters, projections of animals appeared in his perception.

"Hmm? Ants, and snakes? But there are too many snakes here!" Zhang Chen shivered, feeling the animals around him, his eyes filled with shock. Within a hundred meters, there were densely packed thousands of snakes, like a snake den. The snakes were coiled in the surrounding soil, seemingly hibernating in the frozen ground.

"Why are there so many snakes? I acquired Dragon Qi, and so many snakes gathered here; there must be a connection." Zhang Chen’s expression turned serious.

There were many snakes, some as thick as water barrels and over ten meters long, looking like giant pythons, terrifying indeed. As for the small snakes, they were as thin as chopsticks, lurking around the frozen soil in hibernation.

Zhang Chen belatedly realized and quickly looked toward the stone monument: Why did this stone monument drop skills? And it’s even dropping experience points?

Zhang Chen stared at the stone monument, seeing it clean and new, with no trace of dust, like freshly carved. Most importantly, the bloodstains he smeared yesterday were now gone without a trace.

"This..." Zhang Chen looked at the stone monument in shock, inhaling sharply, a chill running from his feet to his head. He’d already sensed the strangeness of the burial chamber, but didn’t expect merely unearthing a monument would lead to such bizarre events.

"This stone monument?" Zhang Chen silently activated the Light of the True God for defense, carefully watching the monument for any abnormalities but found none, feeling reassured:

"This stone monument can drop skills, which is good for me. If it could drop more, wouldn’t I be thriving?"

Zhang Chen recalled smearing his blood on the stone monument yesterday. Could the skill drops be related to this?

Zhang Chen squatted in front of the stone monument, feeling the burial chamber was strange, but he was unwilling to give up due to the allure of experience points and skills.

Without continued excavation, where would he get experience points to upgrade skills?

After a brief contemplation, Zhang Chen decided to dare the unknown risks and continue digging.

Zhang Chen took out a hammer, continuing to dig in the frozen ground, unaware a white fox had arrived outside the cave. The fox stood at the cave entrance, eyes peering into the dark depths, hesitating, eyes fixed there for a long time, before turning away.

A day passed in a flash, Zhang Chen wrapped in animal skin, his excavation lasting much longer this time.

[Experience Points +18]

[Experience Points +7]

[Experience Points +16]

[Experience Points +32]

[Experience Points +77]

[Experience Points +15]

[Experience Points +9]

...

At a certain moment, Zhang Chen stopped digging, shaking off the dirt, eyes on his Golden Finger Interface:

[Name: Zhang Chen]

[1 Skill (Tier 2): Light of the True God (0/5000)]

[2 Skill (Unranked): Dragon Qi (0/2000)]

[Points: 1500]

"Today’s harvest of four hundred experience points is really good news; if I gather five hundred experience points more, I should be able to upgrade Dragon Qi. Now, I face two choices: one is to accumulate five thousand experience points to upgrade my Tier 2 skill, Light of the True God, to Tier 3. The second is when I have two thousand skill points to upgrade the second skill to Tier 1, which would also be a great enhancement." Zhang Chen thought while looking at his Golden Finger Interface.

Light of the True God can exorcise evil, especially countering soul-level malevolent forces. The second skill directly affects the body of animals. If I increase its level and control the Fox Spirit, wouldn’t it mean I can have the Fox Spirit serve me, doing chores?

Zhang Chen pondered: "But it’s hard to determine the level of the Fox Spirit; it’s at least Tier 3, right? Because I can’t even see its depth. Overestimating is always safe, while underestimation could lead to a miserable death!"