Chapter 258 - 148: Triple Enchantment
The Demonized Desert Grey Rat was, after all, at the bottom of the food chain. Even after becoming a Skeleton Desert Grey Rat, it still wasn’t very impressive. Its internal Magic Energy was limited; if it activated a single Magic Pattern, it could last for about half an hour before its Energy ran out. If all three Magic Patterns were activated simultaneously, it could only last for about five to ten minutes.
The duration was indeed a bit short, but it didn’t matter. When Li Ziyu created the Demonized Desert Grey Rats, he never intended for them to engage the enemy head-on. Five to ten minutes was more than enough time to spread the Plague.
This was a Plague, not some single-target attack or Magic. It was a Plague that would spread and propagate continuously—a wide-area, damage-over-time Skill. And... it didn’t distinguish between friend and foe.
Li Ziyu had it all figured out. He would be cautious when using the Skeleton Desert Grey Rats. The Undead were immune to the Plague, so he would only send the rats onto the field when his forces consisted solely of Undead. That way, the enemy would be poisoned while his own side would be unharmed.
However, for the Skeleton Desert Grey Rats to become a truly effective fighting force, they would need numbers to back them up. Just one or two would be pretty much useless.
Rubbing his hands together, Li Ziyu decided to press his advantage. While he was channeling his inner Emperor of Europe, he would create a batch of Skeleton Desert Grey Rats first.
’Right, I shouldn’t get too carried away. Best be cautious. I’ll start with 10.’
Skeletons were prepared, and Li Ziyu clicked to summon.
Result... all failed...
Li Ziyu’s expression soured.
Tsk. ’It’s fine. I can’t give up. Again.’ Another 10 Skeletons were prepared.
Summoning... all failed...
Li Ziyu’s face darkened slightly.
’I refuse to believe it! Another 10!’
Summoning... all failed...
Li Ziyu’s face went completely black. ’Dammit, I’m being played! You dogshit dev!’
He couldn’t care less about the Demonized Desert Grey Rat Skeletons, but he cared a great deal about the consumed Mutated Soul Energy and Soul Energy. In just a short while, 360 units of Mutated Soul Energy and Soul Energy had vanished, and he had nothing to show for it.
’It was on purpose! That first successful Skeleton Desert Grey Rat was definitely a setup by the dogshit dev, just to bait me into summoning more! Otherwise, why would the very first one succeed, and then the next 30 all fail? It makes no sense!’
’Dammit, I got completely carried away. Wasn’t all that Soul Energy just wasted for nothing?’
Li Ziyu grabbed his hair in frustration and, on impulse, prepared another 10.
Failure.
Still failure. Li Ziyu took a deep breath and queued up another 10, thinking to himself, ’If this batch fails too, I’m just going back to making regular old Skeleton Beasts. This is just too much of a loss.’
Summoning... success!
Just one.
Li Ziyu was expressionless as he watched the Skeleton Desert Grey Rat cautiously poke its head out and emerge from the Alien Tomb. He felt mentally and physically exhausted.
’Fifty! A whole fifty of them! It cost 600 units of Mutated Soul Energy and Soul Energy, just to successfully summon one!’
’Dammit, has anyone ever been ripped off this badly?’
’How am I even supposed to play this game? I was dreaming of building a whole army of Skeleton Desert Grey Rats just to spread the Plague, but now it looks like I was getting ahead of myself. It’s completely impossible!’
’With the resources it would take to build a rat army, I might as well just summon an army of Skeleton Beasts instead. It would save money, effort, and hassle. A head-on fight... wouldn’t that be better?’
’This single Skeleton Desert Grey Rat is worth the same as 60 Skeleton Desert Wolves. How can I not feel like a total sucker?’
’For that matter, it would have been more reliable to just enchant them with a single Plague Rune. I could have summoned 300 Skeleton Desert Grey Rats and wouldn’t feel the slightest bit of pain even if they dropped dead after unleashing their plague.’
’I was tricked! I fell right into the dogshit dev’s trap!’
The only thing that brought Li Ziyu any comfort was that at least he hadn’t used the bones of Demonized Minotaurs for this experiment. If he had, he’d probably want to kill himself right now.
’Whatever, I’ll just endure it.’
Huh?
’Wait, what’s this?’
Li Ziyu suddenly noticed a small exclamation point. Unable to contain his curiosity, he clicked on it and saw a progress bar.
[100% "Triple Enchantment" Success]
Below it, the progress bar was half full.
Li Ziyu’s mouth twitched. He cursed inwardly again, ’Dogshit dev!’