It was as if some power beyond mortal understanding had been sealed within his body, adding a hint of danger to his petty, thief-like demeanor.
“Hehehe, keep a low profile, keep a low profile.”
Maluo was so smug that the corners of his mouth nearly stretched to his ears.
He couldn’t wait to open his skill panel.
When he saw the two newly unlocked icons, he couldn’t help but gasp.
“Brothers!
We have skills!
One attack and one defense—purely divine skills!”
[Ji Luo] and Big Boss hurriedly gathered around him.
“Quick, send the skill descriptions to the group chat—no, just read them out loud!”
Maluo cleared his throat and read them with exaggerated solemnity:
“The first skill is called [Ash Missile].”
“By consuming a trace of mental power, I can fire a black smoke missile carrying sparks.”
“Moreover, it can deal weak damage to both physical entities and spirit-type anomalies like the one we encountered last night.
Upon striking an enemy, it instantly explodes into a cloud of ash, putting the target into a brief state of blindness!”
Hearing the description, [Ji Luo] raised an eyebrow.
“Effective against both physical and spiritual entities?
And it can blind them?
Isn’t this just a magical version of a fireball combined with a smokeless lime bomb?”
“What about the second skill?” Big Boss asked honestly.
“The second one is even more awesome.
It’s called [Ash Shaping].”
Maluo waved his hands excitedly.
“I can control the surrounding ash and condense it into any shape I want.”
“For example, if I encounter danger, I can gather ash in front of myself to forcibly block an enemy’s attack.”
“Or, if the spear in my hand breaks, I can use ash to condense a sword or spear and keep fighting!”
“However, the system says the weapon’s hardness and duration depend entirely on the amount of mental power I use.”
“Holy shit, the possibilities are endless!”
Even Jiahao, who had always been rather indifferent, couldn’t help turning his head.
The bangs covering his left eye swayed slightly, revealing eyes filled with anticipation.
“Reshaping matter through mental power…
This has already touched upon the underlying idealistic laws of this world.
It’s just…
you guys understand what I’m saying, right?”
“Enough talk.
Action speaks louder than words.
Maluo, hurry up and fire one at that dead tree.
Broaden our horizons!”
[Passing Pure Love God of War] impatiently shoved him forward.
“Alright!
Watch Bro perform a high-tier spell!”
Maluo took a deep breath and imitated the spell-casting pose of an anime protagonist.
He extended his right hand forward in a claw-like gesture, aiming at a withered black tree thirty meters away.
Narrowing his eyes, he suddenly unleashed a wave of chuunibyou spirit and shouted at the top of his lungs:
“Perish!
Kamehame…
Ah, no!
[Ash Missile], go!”
As his voice fell, a wisp of pitch-black smoke suddenly rose from the black mud beneath his feet.
The smoke rapidly condensed in front of Maluo’s palm, eventually forming a fist-sized mass of ash mixed with orange-red sparks.
“Whoosh!”
With a faint sound of tearing through the air, the [Ash Missile] traced a black arc through the air and slammed precisely into the withered tree trunk.
“Boom!”
The smoke bomb instantly exploded.
Pitch-black ash mixed with scattered sparks spread across the trunk, leaving behind a scorched crater roughly the size of a washbasin.
Black smoke rolled from the wound, and several surrounding dead leaves even caught fire.
“Nice!
That’s way stronger than beating it with wooden sticks!”
[Passing Pure Love God of War] jumped excitedly.
“Come on, try [Ash Shaping] too!” [Ji Luo] urged.
After successfully landing his first attack, Maluo’s confidence skyrocketed.
He walked over to the pile of black ash left behind by the explosion, extended both hands, and struck a dramatic Harry Potter-style casting pose.
“Ash, heed my command!
Transform into endless lightsabers!”
Under his control, the ash and residue on the ground began writhing like slime, crawling upward along his palms before rapidly condensing into a crooked black short sword.
“Holy shit, that’s actually pretty badass!”
[Ji Luo] had barely finished speaking when—
Before Maluo could enjoy his cool moment for even three seconds, the newly formed black short sword suddenly seemed to lose its cohesion.
It collapsed into a pile of lifeless black ash.
At the same time, Maluo’s entire body trembled violently.
His face instantly turned pale.
He clutched his head with both hands, his knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground.
“Ow…
holy shit…
My brain hurts like it’s about to explode.
Who’s drilling into my temples with an electric drill…?”
Maluo groaned in agony.
The others were startled and immediately rushed over to support him.
“Maluo, what’s wrong?”
“Your health bar hasn’t dropped.
Why do you look like you’re dying?”
Maluo covered his head and weakly pointed at his attribute panel.
“Empty…
My mental power is completely empty!
The system just gave me a red warning saying my mental power is severely depleted!”
[Ji Luo] quickly checked Maluo’s panel, his brows furrowing slightly.
“Let’s see…
You only used one [Ash Missile] and condensed one [Ash Short Sword] that lasted less than three seconds, and your entire mana bar is already empty?”
“Yeah…
After using those two skills, I went straight into Sage Mode.”
Maluo grimaced bitterly.
“And the system says it’ll take about half an hour for my mental power to naturally recover.”
“I see.
This game really is hardcore.
It doesn’t give you unlimited skill casts.”
[Ji Luo] rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“Based on Maluo’s performance as our first test subject, a Level 1 player’s total mental power can only support roughly three consecutive basic skill uses.”
“After that, they’ll need about half an hour for their mana to regenerate.”
“So these skills absolutely can’t be thrown around recklessly during battle.
They have to be saved as trump cards!”
“But that’s reasonable.”
[Passing Pure Love God of War] shrugged, taking the limitation in stride.
“If we could spam skills infinitely, wouldn’t we be invincible?
What kind of hardcore survival game would that be?”
“Let’s go, brothers!
Keep farming mobs!
Laozi wants to level up too!
I want to become a white-haired burst mage!”
For the rest of the day…
In the patches of withered grass along the outer edge of the Black Forest, the five-man squad’s coordination grew increasingly seamless as they fought together.
Under the command of [Ji Luo], their tactical master:
Lu Ziye’s pustule-covered spiked club was responsible for initiating fights and staggering monsters with physical attacks.
Big Boss relied on his sturdy physique to rush forward, restrain monsters with chokeholds, and slam them to the ground.
[Ji Luo] used his flint spear to exploit every opening, unleashing a relentless barrage of attacks.
Maluo, who had already reached Level 1, stayed at the rear of the formation as the team’s most important surprise attacker.
Whenever they encountered more than two monsters, or a teammate was accidentally hit by a skill, Maluo would immediately launch an [Ash Missile].
The black smoke and ash that erupted upon impact could plunge the monsters into blindness for three to five seconds.
Taking advantage of the blinded enemies, Lu Ziye and [Ji Luo] would rush forward and unleash a furious burst of attacks, quickly finishing them off.
As for Jiahao…
Because his physique was the weakest, he stayed on the sidelines, throwing stones to kite the monsters.
Once the mobs died, he would expertly rummage through their corpses with his bare hands, searching for useful materials.
An entire day of insane grinding.
The Tier 0 Corrupted Villagers at the edge of the Black Forest suffered a devastating assault at the hands of these five bandits in oversized wooden crates.
By early evening, the familiar tolling of the church bell once again echoed from the distance.
“Hum!
Hum!
Hum!
Hum!”
Four consecutive deep-gray lights erupted from the withered grass.
Except for [Maluo Also Has Dignity], the other four players simultaneously lit up with dark-gray leveling effects.
All four successfully advanced to Tier 1, Level 1.
Five genuine [Ash Apostles] had officially been born!
Meanwhile, on the altar, Lynn watched the rapidly rising faith value in the system’s backend.
The corners of his mouth had already stretched almost all the way to his ears.
“This group of migrant workers…
is truly too useful!”