Chapter Sixteen: The Innate Tree Unlocked

  Black and white light crossed in the air, bursting out bright sparks.

  "Ugh!"

  Roth swiftly retreated, the pure white sword blade trembling incessantly, a massive shockwave transmitted from the sword body, causing his upper body to feel a dull ache.

  Just like Rod's memory, the 15-level gargoyle was indeed not easy to deal with, especially two of them. The only good thing is that these guys still have some combat wisdom, although this would not be a good thing if it were in peacetime, but now, the extra artificial intelligence makes their movements less threatening. Especially the gargoyle who had just been hit by Rod's Shattered Blade and saw the white light emanating from Rod's sword immediately screamed and retreated, while the other one, although not having been attacked, also hesitated after seeing its companion's movement, giving Rod a chance to breathe.

  But this is only temporary.

  With a firm grip on the Star Scar, Rod gazed up at the two stone statue ghosts floating in the sky. He gritted his teeth, knowing that although the statues wouldn't dare launch another fierce attack due to their fear of his Shattered Blade, they also wouldn't let him off so easily. The current stalemate between them couldn't last forever. When Rod reached level 8, he had already maxed out the proficiency of Moon Shadow Sword Technique to 4/4. Although the consumption of spiritual power by Shattered Blade had decreased somewhat after leveling up, frequent use would still cause problems. Moreover, this wasn't the final battle; Rod needed to reserve some strength for potential future emergencies. As the only one among the three with combat ability, if he exhausted all his power here, it would be extremely troublesome.

  And the two stone statue demons did not stare at Rod with big eyes, on the contrary, they came and went, stretching out their sharp claws to attack Rod. Once they found that he had the intention of counterattacking, they immediately left. This wheel-like battle required a high demand for physical strength, but for two completely magic-driven alchemy bodies, it was not an obstacle.

  But for Rode it was completely different.

  Sweat beads slowly appeared on Rod's forehead, his body had gradually become tired from the repeated defenses just now. But Rod couldn't back down, he knew that with his current abilities, it was basically impossible to single-handedly take on two stone golems at once, so he could only place his hopes on Lige, after all, there wasn't anything particularly worth defending in the church...

  I think I forgot to remind them to pay attention to the defensive formation?

  But after some thought, Luo De shrugged his shoulders and refocused his attention on the stone statue in front of him.

  It won't kill you anyway.

  "Oh no!!"

  Accompanied by a shrill cry of despair, Mais fell to the ground, his entire body convulsing uncontrollably.

  "I'm going to die! Help! Save me!"

  "It was just a shock! You're not dead, Mr. Mace."

  Lilith rummaged through the dusty and cobweb-covered old table, searching for the unrecognizable trinkets that had been eroded by time. Meanwhile, she casually cast a healing spell on Mace without even turning her head, soothing his pain, before diving back into her search.

  Although a general law enforcer would normally cast numerous protective spells in their own room to protect their secrets, this church has been "neglected for years" after all, and with the passage of time, the power of the defensive spell array has also weakened by about 70-80%, so there won't be any particularly great threat.

  As a half-angel, Lige's resistance to magic was not weak either, so these weakened defensive spell arrays didn't have much effect on her. Those traps that would normally trigger flames and lightning only flickered with a faint magical glow before disappearing under her hands. It was the tragic Mr. Meis who gave these traps back some confidence, after all, as an ordinary person he had no resistance, and his performance made these defensive spell arrays pose a threat to him to some extent.

  "This, this damn place is really hateful..."

  Mays patted off the dust on his body and slowly got up, muttering to himself while secretly observing his surroundings.

  In the dimly lit church, only Lijie's sacred radiance quietly floated beside her, illuminating this originally pitch-black world. However, these scenes made Mais look terrified, and under the illumination of that light, he could clearly see the dark, strange magic arrays on the floor and the eerie white bones. These were enough to make Mais' legs go weak, not to mention the bloodstains on the walls, which scared Mais so much that he almost fled in an instant. If it weren't for Lijie's extremely calm demeanor making him feel ashamed, plus considering there were two more realistic dangers outside the door, perhaps the fat merchant would have escaped long ago.

  But now he had no choice but to stick around and search for the "Control Center" with Lige, who didn't even know what it looked like.

  This place is so messy, how can I find that strange thing?

  Mays patted the dust off his body and muttered to himself, but seeing Lijie's serious expression, he didn't say anything else and continued searching with his head down.

  But at this moment, Rode was also not easy.

  “———！”

  The stone statue ghost screamed and pounced, Rod's body slightly turned, barely avoiding the opponent's attack. However, this time the stone statue ghost did not immediately leave like before. On the contrary, it turned its body, and its thick tail swung down instantly!

  Terrible!

  Hearing the sound of wind coming from behind him, Rod's heart sank. He quickly turned around, and at the same time, the long sword in his hand immediately blocked in front of himself.

  Roth's reaction was not slow, but the gargoyle's attack was even faster. He had just turned around when he felt a huge impact force transmitted through the sword body, and the powerful force not only made Roth's white sword body bend, but also directly knocked him flying out. After rolling on the ground for several laps, he finally stopped.

  "Ugh!"

  Rod got up, feeling dizzy and his blood boiling, even half of his body was numb, almost dropping the sword in his hand. He originally wanted to shake his head subconsciously to regain his composure, but a faint voice from behind made Rod tense up immediately.

  "Hmm..."

  Accompanied by this faint and imperceptible voice, a cold breath emerged from behind Rode, and Rode instinctively rolled to the ground without thinking, barely avoiding the opponent's attack. When he looked up, he found three ghostly figures slowly approaching him.

  The stone statue's previous blow didn't cause any harm to Rode, but it sent him flying from the front of the church to the edge of the barrier. The ghosts were unable to approach the church due to the barrier's influence, but they didn't disperse and instead wandered around the invisible shield, waiting for an opportunity with their instincts.

  Now, the opportunity has finally come.

  Rode, of course, did not intend to give these ghosts a chance. Facing the encircling enemies, he gritted his teeth and had no choice but to abandon the idea of conserving his strength. The long sword in his hand suddenly burst out with a white light, flying forward.

  A brilliant white light blade burst out from Rode's sword, spinning and dispersing, heavily striking one of the ghosts, tearing apart its defenses. Then Rode didn't hesitate to immediately pounce forward, his longsword drawing a perfect arc in the air, piercing into the ghost's core. Just as that unlucky ghost let out a miserable scream and turned to dust, Rode had already passed through its body, returning once more within the protective range of the seal.

  What's next?

  Just as Luo De was thinking about this issue, a line of system prompts appeared in front of him, making him stunned.

  Experience points 4000/1800, can be upgraded, talent tree can be opened, level 8

  Have I already reached level 10? But wasn't I only at level 8 before entering the Fog Ruins?

  Rod was taken aback for a moment, and then he remembered that after that, he had indeed seen a system prompt that his experience was enough to level up. However, at that time, he was ambushed by the stone statue ghost, so he didn't pay attention to it. Now it seems that the experience of those ghosts he killed along the way is also enough for him to level up again. This is not surprising, after all, this is a five-player dungeon, and almost all the monster experiences are obtained by Rod alone. Moreover, his level was originally low, and there were bonus rewards for killing monsters above his level, so it's normal that he can reach level 10 - perhaps the only strange thing is that there is still experience value in the real world.

  But now is not the time to worry about these trivial matters. Rode quickly opened his own attributes and made a choice, knowing that this might be his only chance to gain an advantage.

  Experience points 4000/1800, can be upgraded, talent tree can be opened, level 8

  Experience points 2200/2000, can be upgraded, talent tree can be opened, get skill point 1, level 9

  Experience points 200/2500, can unlock talent tree, obtain skill point 2, level 10

  Is the talent system enabled?

  "Open!"

  Without any hesitation, Luo quickly made a response, and in less than one second, three different talent tree diagrams appeared before his eyes.

  In the Dragon Soul continent, each profession has three talent choices after level 10. They can choose one as their main force or choose other talents' attributes and skills to assist. These talent attributes are also obtained through skill points. This makes players feel confused at first. Because characters only gain one skill point per level up, not to mention the talent tree, including swordsmanship, magic, and other skill proficiency upgrades that require a lot of skill points. This limits the skill points available for allocation in the early stages. Fortunately, after entering the middle tier, players can obtain excess skill points through "Awakening Scrolls" and completing high-difficulty tasks to upgrade their skills.

  Rod's Summoner also has three different talent lines - "Summon Master", "Soul Envoy" and "Hell Lord".

  "Summoner's Master" can increase the number of spirits that the holder can summon with each level up. "Soul Envoy" strengthens the power of summoned spirits. As for the special power held by "Hell Lord", after killing non-human creatures, there is a certain probability that it can be converted into its own summoned spirit, limited to undead attributes.

  It can be said that the three talents have their own strengths and weaknesses. The "Summoner" relies on quantity to win, while the "Soul Envoy" focuses on quality. However, considering the rarity of the beast and the high price of the Soul Core, the "Hell Lord" is also a very good choice.

  If it were an ordinary person, they would probably have hesitated long ago, unable to give up any of them. However, for Luo De, this was not a problem at all. After all, he had been manipulating the Summoner profession for seven years and all his research on Summoners' skills and techniques had already become classics among many players. Even in the game, almost two-thirds of the players who chose to be Summoners were based on Luo De's skills and techniques to create their characters. So, this difficult choice that many new players found hard to make was decided as soon as Luo De saw the talent tree.