Chapter 7: Undead Creatures

The atmosphere on the second floor of the mine was completely different from the first.
If the visibility on the first floor was still mostly unaffected, the second floor could be described as completely dim.
Although torches were still stuck into the walls, the flames on them were much fainter than on the first floor, looking as if they were flickering precariously and could go out at any moment.

Moreover, despite being in a mine, a chilling wind would blow through from time to time, making it the ideal environment for a haunted house.

Mo Ming first glanced at the white-quality bracer he had just gotten—it only added 3 defense points, with no other stats, and required level 6 to equip.

As for that green hat… better to just forget it.

Unsure if the Essence of Holy Light was effective just by being in his bag or if he had to hold it, Mo Ming decided to simply hold it in his hand.
In any case, the Novice Sword was a one-handed sword, so holding the Essence of Holy Light in his other hand wouldn’t be a problem.

After preparing himself, Mo Ming strode directly into the second floor of the mine.

“Clatter… clatter…” Mo Ming hadn’t walked far before he heard a strange sound up ahead.

Looking in the direction of the sound, a skeleton was wandering about slowly.
The “clatter clatter” sound Mo Ming had just heard was the sound of bones knocking against each other.
Combined with the gloomy atmosphere, the sight was a bit creepy.

However, this moving skeleton was not a human skeleton… Mo Ming had no expertise in skeletons, so it was hard for him to judge.
But considering the monsters he had encountered on the first floor and the size of this skeleton, it had to be a rat skeleton.

“So this is the legendary skeleton soldier, huh?” Mo Ming remarked to himself, then charged forward with his sword held high, walking with a swagger.

However, perhaps because it had lost its flesh and, along with it, its sense of the environment, this skeleton did not notice Mo Ming’s approach.

“Clang—” Mo Ming’s Novice Sword struck the white skeleton fiercely, leaving a crack on it.

【-3】 This was the first time Mo Ming had dealt damage that broke through a defense since entering 【Horizon】.

And the moment Mo Ming attacked the monster, its stats were displayed… although they were displayed, it was practically the same as not being displayed at all.

【Mine Skelerat Level: 6

????】

Although Mo Ming had already reached level 3, he still couldn’t see the attributes of a level 6 monster.

However, one thing surprised Mo Ming a little—he had originally thought that the monster levels would increase upon reaching the second floor of the mine, but they were still level 6.

Although it had no flesh, that didn’t mean it was a training dummy.
After being attacked, the Mine Skelerat immediately turned around and counterattacked with its small bony claws.

Due to the complete absence of muscles, the Mine Skelerat’s movements were a tier slower than the Mine Rat’s… If it had been Mine Skelerats blocking the entrance to the lower level earlier, Mo Ming would have just lured them out a bit and rushed in.

Lifting his foot to dodge the Mine Skelerat’s claws, Mo Ming swung his sword twice more, taking away 3 of the Skelerat’s health… one strike dealt 2 damage, the other didn’t break its defense.

“…” Seeing these two damage numbers, Mo Ming thought for a moment, then swung with all his might at the Mine Skelerat’s spine.

【-8!】

This attack landed a critical hit, and the Mine Skelerat’s health bar dropped by a small chunk… Compared to the Mine Rats on the first floor, the Mine Skelerats on the second floor had less health.

‘As expected, when the output is enough to break defense, the force of the attack affects the damage… whether it affects critical hits is unclear.’ After confirming his guess, Mo Ming frowned again in confusion, ‘This monster probably only has a little over 100 health… why so little?’

According to the usual tropes in games, the monsters on the second floor should be stronger than those on the first.
And in most cases, a monster’s health could indicate its strength.

While Mo Ming was pondering this, his attacks didn’t stop.

Because his attacks could break its defense, Mo Ming’s damage output was much higher than before.
Coupled with the Skelerat’s slow movements, his opportunities to attack also increased—in less than a fifth of the time it took to kill a single Mine Rat, this Mine Skelerat was already on its last legs.

After dodging another one of the Mine Skelerat’s attacks, Mo Ming stabbed his Novice Sword directly into its eye socket.
The plain Novice Sword pierced straight through the Skelerat’s skull, the tip emerging from the other side.

【-36】 A huge yellow number floated up from the Mine Skelerat’s head.

With the appearance of this damage number, the Mine Skelerat lost its second “life” and immediately crumbled into a pile of bones.

‘That was… fatal damage?
From hitting a weak point?’ Staring at the pile of bones at his feet, Mo Ming was momentarily stunned.

No matter how he looked at it, damage as high as 36 points didn’t seem possible with his attack power… Thinking about the lore he had seen about skeleton soldiers before, there couldn’t be any other possibility.

“Speaking of which, the experience is so low… it’s only a third of the living creatures upstairs,” Mo Ming couldn’t help but complain after bending down to pick up a single copper coin that had dropped.

Although the experience from the Mine Skelerat was a bit low compared to the Mine Rats upstairs, for Mo Ming, fighting these skeletons was much more worthwhile than fighting the rats.
Plus, now that he had discovered their head weak point, in the time it took to kill one Mine Rat, Mo Ming could kill six Mine Skelerats, and he could even fight two at the same time without affecting his damage efficiency.

However, Mo Ming’s main objective was to complete the quest, so he didn’t go out of his way to grind monsters, only striking down the Mine Skelerats he couldn’t bypass.

Compared to the monster density on the first floor, the distribution of these Mine Skelerats on the second floor could be said to be much denser.
Not only did he encounter monsters more frequently, but he also began to see groups of two or three Skelerats together.

But with the Essence of Holy Light nullifying the level suppression, the skeleton-type Mine Skelerats, which were already at the bottom of the attribute ladder among same-level monsters, appeared extremely fragile in front of Mo Ming.

When one is highly focused, time often seems to pass by especially quickly—Mo Ming, who had now reached level 4, only just noticed that it was almost 6 PM.

Even though he had tried to restrain himself, with the dense monster distribution on the second floor of the mine, Mo Ming had still leveled up.
So, Mo Ming had to stop attacking.
Even when encountering Mine Skelerats he couldn’t avoid, he chose to lure them out and then go around them—the quest he was on had a level requirement.
Not knowing what lay ahead, it was better to keep his level in check.

Seeing that the two Mine Skelerats ahead were unavoidable, Mo Ming walked up with his sword as before, intending to pull them over and then bypass them—Mine Skelerats weren’t fast, so shaking them off was relatively easy.

Just as Mo Ming had drawn the aggro of the two Mine Skelerats and was backing away, something unexpected happened—from the ceiling of the cave, in a dark spot untouched by the torchlight, a white shadow suddenly shot down, heading straight for Mo Ming like a bullet.

Mo Ming, who was in the middle of retreating, could only helplessly turn his body and swing his sword at the white shadow… Delayed by that white shadow, Mo Ming was almost bitten by the pursuing Mine Skelerats.

【-4】

The white shadow was sent flying by Mo Ming’s sword, tracing a parabola before crashing to the ground.
Mo Ming spared a moment to glance at the thing he had knocked away—this time, the attacker was a bat.

Of course, this bat’s race was the same as the Mine Skelerat’s—it was a skeleton bat.

【Mine Skelebat Level: 7

????】

As a skeleton-type undead creature, the Skelebat naturally possessed all the traits of the skeleton family—such as ignoring pain.

After being knocked to the ground by Mo Ming’s sword, the Mine Skelebat immediately flipped over, got up, and flapped its small wings to take to the air, pouncing at Mo Ming again.

As a flying unit, although it was a member of the skeleton family, the Mine Skelebat was extremely fast.
And for Mo Ming, speed meant a high threat level.
With his health, against a level 7 monster, even one hit could be fatal… Mo Ming had no intention of using his own body to test whether the Mine Skelebat could one-shot him.

Under the attack of one Mine Skelebat and two Mine Skelerats, Mo Ming’s situation looked exceptionally difficult, as if he could be hit at any moment.
However, although his situation looked precarious, he was not hit even once.
All three monsters’ attacks were either parried or dodged by Mo Ming.
While dodging, he didn’t miss a single opportunity to deal damage.

If any other player were here to watch, they might have mistaken Mo Ming for an NPC.

Because he was surrounded by three monsters, Mo Ming couldn’t run at full speed and thus couldn’t shake them off… but after the initial panic, Mo Ming, having stabilized his position, was no longer afraid.

Although the Mine Skelebat was fast, it was still barely within Mo Ming’s manageable range.
As Mo Ming intentionally focused more of his attacks on the Mine Skelebat, its already scarce health seemed even more fragile under his assault.

After a battle that lasted several minutes, Mo Ming finally managed to slay the Mine Skelebat.
With the greatest threat gone, the remaining two Skelerats naturally posed no threat to Mo Ming at all.

Although he wanted to keep his level in check and not kill monsters casually, Mo Ming was clearly not magnanimous enough to spare the two monsters that had been chasing and attacking him for several minutes.
In just 3 minutes, the two Mine Skelerats handed over their loot and became two piles of broken bones.

These three monsters dropped a total of 5 copper coins and a pair of white-quality shoes—it seemed the undead monsters on the second floor didn’t drop materials.

Since he didn’t meet the level requirement for the equipment, Mo Ming still couldn’t wear it and could only toss it into his backpack—in addition to the 2 pieces of equipment he had gotten earlier, in these past few hours, including this pair of shoes, Mo Ming had obtained 2 more pieces.
But they were all for level 6 and above, so they were of no use to him.

For the rest of the journey, Mine Skelebats began to appear more frequently.
Sometimes they would come to trouble Mo Ming alone, sometimes they would be with a few Skelerats, but they never appeared in groups of two or three.

Because the Skelebats were fast and had a wide aggro range, Mo Ming killed them on sight.
Otherwise, accidentally pulling another one would be quite troublesome for him.

Fortunately, the experience provided by the Skelebats was low, and after he reached level 4, the bonus experience from killing higher-level monsters was reduced, so Mo Ming didn’t level up to 5; he was only at level 4 with 76% experience.

If others knew of Mo Ming’s level, they would probably suspect him of cheating—the currently known highest-level player was an American server streamer, and his level was only 3, with just over half the experience bar filled.
The gap between him and Mo Ming was simply enormous… and this was with Mo Ming not even intentionally grinding monsters.

After all, although the experience from Skelerats and Skelebats was low, that was only in comparison to the Mine Rats on the floor above.
As level 6 monsters with a one-tier level gap, the experience reward for killing them at a lower level was naturally very generous, much higher than that of monsters below level 6.

Coupled with the Essence of Holy Light nullifying the level suppression and his knowledge of the Skelerats’ weak points, Mo Ming’s efficiency in killing these undead creatures was naturally very high, not inferior to even a level 6 player… it was just that Mo Ming himself was unaware of this.

Even with his low initial attributes, nothing could stop this Transcendent Being from shining.