When Sophie had said she would sow seeds of chaos within the ranks of the skeletons, Gabriel had never expected it to be literal seeds.
Her hands glowed faintly beneath the sleeves of her green dress, and then…
Shhhk!
Four small seeds materialized in her palm, swirling with wild energy.
Gabriel narrowed his eyes. From the mana emitting from the four green seeds, he could easily tell it was a skill!
But what kind of skill was this? It was the first time he was seeing something like this in both lives.
Naturally, he would have liked to ask questions, but it was impolite—and it wasn't in his personality to pry.
With a smooth flick, the Lady of Bloom tossed the seeds into the midst of the approaching skeleton army.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
The moment the seeds hit the soil, the ground trembled as if it were the prelude to an earthquake, followed by a loud cracking sound.
Under Gabriel's astonished eyes, vines with a fluorescent glow burst out like snakes—but these vines weren't normal.
They were thick, thorny weeds shrouded in beige-green flames, twisting violently as they erupted outward, lunging at the nearest skeletons.
The nearest skeleton didn't even have time to raise its bone shield before it was snatched.
SHRRRIPP!
The vine wrapped around its body and devoured it like a hungry beast until the only thing left was shattered bones.
The rest of the skeletons panicked—as much as soundless undead could. They began to scatter, but it was useless as Gabriel charged into the battlefield.
As for Sophie, she didn't charge in. She needed intense focus to perfectly control the vines.
Cassie's face was pale as she continued to expend more mana to keep her skill active. Despite her level, she wasn't a combatant, so it was the job of the others to protect her.
At the rear of the skeleton soldiers, the skeleton mage's green eyes burned with rage as it saw its subordinates being destroyed by the demonic vines and the red-haired human.
BOOOM!
At the same time, Grizzlenaught collided with the skeleton mage. The shaman was caught off guard, not even seeing when this new enemy had arrived. It raised its staff to chant, but the spectral beast swung its claw outward with the intention of tearing it apart.
The shaman flinched back and fired a bolt of dark energy at Grizzlenaught.
Swish! Swish!
Gabriel charged forward. Even though he didn't activate his movement-type skill, his speed didn't fall behind much due to the additional 30 points in Agility and his abnormal stats. He carved a path through the ranks of the skeleton warriors like a ghost.
His sword-wielding arms shook as his blade flashed with monstrous precision. The heads of all the unfortunate skeletons separated from their necks.
"He's actually keeping up with my devouring vines." Sophie's eyes widened in surprise as she watched Gabriel zigzag through the midst of the enemies.
Even though she was a level 43 mage, she could barely keep up.
Shortly after, Gabriel and Sophie had dealt with all twenty skeleton warriors. They turned their focus to Grizzlenaught, who was giving the skeleton mage a run for its money.
They could almost feel the shaman's frustration from here. Naturally, mages' Strength and Agility stats were severely lacking. They mostly relied on magic skills, so their stats were focused on Intelligence.
Therefore, it was difficult for it to keep up with a Grizzlenaught who excelled in Strength and Agility.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
While the shaman's attention was focused on fending off the annoying red bear, it failed to notice the presence behind it.
When it did, it was already too late. Its head flew into the air as its headless body collapsed to the ground, followed by the skull.
"Good job," Gabriel praised his summon as he placed his Voidsting blade away.
Grizzlenaught let out a soft growl as it returned to the ground.
"You... how long have you been an adventurer again?" Sophie asked with furrowed brows as she approached.
Even Cassie was amazed by Gabriel's fighting skills—but of course, she would rather die than express it. In her mind, he was still an overconfident prick.
"This is my second day," Gabriel replied smoothly. "But I've been training for a couple of years."
"That still doesn't explain your speed for your current level." Sophie frowned, then waved it off. "Never mind."
Just like him, she respected others' privacy as well.
"Oh, look what I found," Cassie called out to the others when she found a loot item that had dropped from one of the skeleton warriors. Her voice sounded quite excited, which was understandable—loots were very rare.
The loot happened to be [Wailing Skill Pendant], a silver-rank treasure that boosted mana regeneration by 5%. It came from the skeleton devoured by Sophie's vines, so it naturally belonged to her.
Sophie wanted to give it to Gabriel, but after remembering his earlier rejection, she decided to store it away.
Naturally, Gabriel didn't care about the loot. He had a talent that guaranteed constant drops as long as he had sufficient EP.
From the battle, he leveled up three times to level 18 and gained about 40 EP from defeating eight out of the twenty skeleton soldiers, who were around level 12–15.
Because he had dealt the killing blow to the mage, he received a large sum of experience points, which pushed him very close to level 19. Furthermore, he also received 21 EP, bringing his total EP to 77.
Gabriel approached the staff of the shaman and picked it up.
[Mageborn Staff (Bronze)]
[Description: A basic staff crafted for apprentice mages. It slightly enhances mana flow and spellcasting speed. Grants +20 Intelligence.]
He stored it away, and spending 16 EP, proceeded to use Extraction Talent on the skeleton mage.
[Intelligence +20]
[Dark Flame Orb]
[Mageborn Staff]
When Gabriel saw the last option, his eye couldn't help but twitch. It was exactly the same staff the shaman wielded.
In the end, he selected the Dark Flame Orb.
[Dark Flame Orb Lv.1]
[Rarity: Rare]
[Description: Summon a condensed orb of dark flame. Upon command or contact, the orb detonates, dealing high fire-based damage in a small radius. Cost: 20 MP]
After learning the skill, he proceeded to the other corpses, using extraction on the higher-level monsters, as they tended to drop better rewards.
'So I don't need to put my hand on the corpse,' he thought inwardly. He just had to be within a certain distance from the target.
With that, Gabriel moved from corpse to corpse, using extraction—only stopping when his total EP reached 41.
[Extraction Summary: Boneplate Shield (Bronze), +8 Perception, Bone Shard Throw (Uncommon), Bonepiercer Arm Blade (Silver)]
Satisfied, he felt it was enough. He had noticed that using extraction repeatedly on the same type of monster tended to yield the same loot.
Suddenly, he felt a pair of eyes staring at him intensely.
Gabriel looked in the direction and noticed Sophie and Cassie both staring at him with stunned expressions.
And that's when he realized something—but it was already too late.