Cyberserk

Chapter 24 - Skeletons Veterans

A new day of life in a new world began with a pleasant discovery. The friends set out on a walk along the river in search of new adventures. The marching schedule was set by the wicked wolves. Dan had no time to tire when they got into the aggression zone of these animals. At the wolf's howls from the woods came the helpers of the evil predator. The ravens were happy to swoop down in a flock of uninvited visitors to their home zone.

Two players and two hobbits proved to be a good squad to deal with a group of wolves and a flock of birds. Five to seven wolves attacked from three directions. A flock of ten to twelve blackbirds tried to attack from the sky. The hobbits always got orders to shoot the crows first. Dan and Tom fought off the attacks of the evil wolves. Hobbits rarely died and Raven managed to gain 15 mana points by sacrificing two hobbits. 

A pleasant surprise was getting the first trophy with a level 7 skill for a swordsman. The skill surprised the player with its power and complexity.

[Righteous Strike. 

Required level: 7

Requirement: School Knight. Knighted Strike level 7. School of Water Magic. Healing Spell level 7.

Mana cost: 3. 

Applying the spell adds +7 points of damage to the attack and restores 3 health points. 

Cooldown: 3 seconds.

The Righteous knight bravely enters the battle against the forces of Evil. The sword of the Righteous knight is his main support in the battle. The Righteous knight can heal his wounds during the battle with the forces of Evil!]

"What a beautiful and useful skill, " Dan immediately learned the new ability and placed the skill symbol in the quick access bar. "Knighted Strike was a normal damage increase with no additional effects. At level 7, paladins would be happy to learn such a useful skill."

"Knighted Strike is completely useless. Level 1 skills have no cooldown. It is useful to use the skill Powerful Blow, which throws the enemy off," Tom agreed with his partner. Then the clone added his opinion. "But when fighting zombies, you don't have to throw them off. You can pound them with your sword nonstop."

"If you push an enemy away, you've distanced danger from yourself. Powerful Blow is a cool skill," Dan countered. "Note that our weapons do not increase damage well with level. Only skills give a powerful boost to attack! You don't have to spend points on Strength and develop the Body so you don't have to worry about losing health. Do you want to be renewed? Then you'll know a new skill."

"No need, I don't take much damage. Fifty-seven points from an attack are no big deal. The important thing is that in this game, a decrease in health doesn't affect your ability to fight. Let's run ahead before the local animals revive."

Dan ran and regained his health. The man agreed with the phantom on this point. You should always have a full supply of health! Wasting mana doesn't matter.

Dan looked at the symbol of the new skill and saw that the effect of the ring reduced the cooldown to 2.6 seconds and increased the damage and healing power. The player thought it was necessary to develop the ring to level 7. In new dungeon must enter prepared to meet any enemy. Of course, you can always get out of the dungeon and kill level 7 monsters to collect experience. But this game was starting to drag the player's hunger to see new adventures.

Dan Raven knew he was lucky. First, he got the Phantom skill. Then the phantom helped him get an epic artifact. With that kind of advantage, he could have no fear of the dangers that are appropriate for the level of the player. They killed the small boss Spider Queen! Dan wasn't intimidated by the encounter with the guards of the new dungeon. Level 8 skeleton warriors? Hahahahaha. Level 8 skeletons mean more experience and trophies! In a dungeon, it is possible to find completely different valuable trophies!

The young man saw that he could already summon new brave hobbits. He immediately warned his partner.

"Tom, time for another fight!" 

"Fine, summon the bragging hippies," laughed the phantom and stopped on the riverbank next to a huge tree trunk. The clone had time to sing a few strings of a song while he waited for the wolves to attack. "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.

If you're going to San Francisco, you're gonna meet some brave hobbits there."

Dan grinned at the new nickname for shaggy guys with incredible narcissistic talkers and sharp eyes. He summoned the hobbits and gave the familiar order.

"Hide behind our backs. Kill the ravens in silence! Attack the ravens first and only then the wolves."

The player struck the wolf with his sword and saw the little helpers' stones fly into the sky. Black feathers sprinkled from the flock of blackbirds. b****y damage numbers flew toward the clouds.

By noon the friends had reached the limits of the new location.

The clone laughed.

"No imagination on the part of the game's creators. The skeletons veterans are level 8. They didn't have the imagination to create more original monsters?"

"These will be fine for us. They have armor. Surely they have good fighting skills. Attack the one closest to us in the chain. 

I summon the hobbits," Dan ordered.

The phantom jumped up to the skeleton who was armed with an ax and a shield. 

"Hobbits, attack the skeleton!" Raven gave a new order and began to fight off the two wolves who had long been chasing the players.

Soon the skeleton fell to the ground from the attacks of the three opponents. Tom managed to hit the wolves and knocked a pair of ravens out of the sky. At that moment an arrow struck the phantom's shoulder!

"I have to kill the archer! I ran! Can you do it alone?" Tom took his time and struck at the last wolf in the group of angry pursuers.

"Ravens aren't the problem. Goodbye hobbits!" Dan sacrificed his helpers and began to fight off the three big blackbirds. 

Phantom quickly ran up to the skeleton archer and began to strike hard with his katana and dagger at the remnants of the leather armor and the dead man's skull. The clone was pleased to see that the skeleton drew his dagger and became a weak enemy. The important thing was that now this enemy could not do any damage to Dan!

Raven destroyed the ravens and even managed to grab a new trophy box from the ground. He quickly learned a new skill. The player saw that the place was comfortable for a long battle.

The cliffs towered a familiar impregnable wall in front of the players. The peculiarity of this place was that the trees with huge trunks came close to the river. Two trees grew side by side and between them was a narrow passageway behind which you could see the water of the river. Dan ran into the gap and knew it was the perfect place for a battle. 

In this place, two players would be able to meet an attack from a pair of enemies who could pass through the passageway between the trees without danger. Ravens would cause annoying nasty attacks from the sky. But the ravens could not do much damage. The armor saved them from the blows of these nasty noisy birds.

"Nice quiet place," exclaimed the clone. "I like this position. I don't like the involvement of skeleton archers in our party. The bastard knocked my eye out while I was running toward him. If skeleton warlocks show up, you might get hurt by a strong fireball."

Dan immediately renewed the clone. Tom rushed quickly to put on his samurai armor. 

Owoooo.

From the woods came the howl of an evil wolf. 

Caw. Caw. Caw.

The raven's caw warned of the resurgence of a new adversary. 

The new skeleton made no loud noises as it approached. Armed with a spear and a shield, the dead man approached the players leisurely. Dan and Tom had already realized that these monsters were very fast and strong opponents.

[Skeleton Veteran (Undead).

Level 8. 

Brutal dead creatures only seek to kill their victims. Skeleton Veteran, move faster than skeleton warriors and have a special mastery of the weapon. These bony troops are found with swords, clubs, bows, and even armor and shields. Dangerous are the skeletons that have the same weapons with which they died. Even more terrifying are the Remnants of Wizards. They can prove that even the dead can wield the powers of magic!]

"I meet a veteran attack. Try not to get hit by it. The creature breaks through defenses and deals about 20 points of damage," Tom warned.

"I'll hit wolves and ravens. We'll have to hold out without the hobbits. It'll be a lot easier to fight back with them," the young man cursed the skeleton with a Slowing spell. The player was pleased to see that this was excellent support for Tom. The clone was now able to easily dodge the blows of the spear. Tom managed to leap up to the skeleton and delivered a series of swift blows to the bones that were not covered by shield and armor.

Dan remembered with what sadness he saw the new requirements for ring development.

[My Precious. (Ring, Rank 6 - Epic).

Level 7 - Level 100. Developed: 0/32900] 

But the overall increase in special skills from the ring reached 16%. Particularly pleased with the reduction of the skill cooldown to summon hobbits. Instead of 30 minutes, the wait time is now down to 25 minutes! This was a great boost for the two adventurers. 

They easily fought off several enemy attacks. The veteran skeletons were showing off their moves. The life of the new bone enemies reached 100 health points. Base damage increased from 8 to 24 points. Skills allowed veterans to pierce the defense of any piece of equipment and the clone took heavy damage if he did not have time to parry the blow with his sword or dagger. For each skeleton killed, Dan gained 100 experience points. The player did not sit behind the clone for a long time. Veteran skeletons were fast and agile enemies. Dan gladly went into battle with these opponents to test his skills. The curse of Slowing down at level 10 worked wonders. It seemed to the player that enemies not only lost mobility but even moved slower. But they weren't. Every mistake the veteran made was punished with a swift and deft blow to the head. With these knuckles, you can't relax! Dan saw that veterans could move very quickly. The eye did not have time to track the experienced enemy. Den did not have time to react to most of the skeletons' attacks. The attributes of these monsters did not exceed those of the player. But these creatures were relentless and unemotional. The veterans grinned their rotten teeth and smirked at the newbie who was trying to deal with the attacks of experienced warriors. After each fight with a veteran, Dan spent mana to fully restore his health.

The hobbits were unhappy with the new conditions of battle. When they ran out of stones these guys started whimpering and rushing into battle with their daggers. Dan reacted in cold blood and immediately sent the hobbits to unknown places to get 15 mana. Unfortunately, the development of the ring did not increase the amount of mana per sacrifice of brave hobbits. There was no perfection in this world.