"Nice work."
Carlos said in a low voice.
Hearing the praise, the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards stayed the same as always—no reaction whatsoever.
He knew these Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards didn't have much upstairs yet.
"Clank! Clank!"
Walking through the passage into the boss Agony Beetle's den, the scene inside came into view.
Fierce Bug monster parts were scattered all over the floor, with corrosive insect blood pooled everywhere.
Deep inside lay a 13-foot-long giant bug with the typical beetle shell—nothing particularly special about it.
The most mind-blowing thing was the massive brain that took up nearly half its body.
This was the Dark Mist node boss Agony Beetle, packing extremely high Mental stats.
Dark insect blood flowed from countless wounds in the corpse—clearly the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards' handiwork.
Carlos walked closer with interest to check it out.
The huge insect brain had three pairs of compound eyes, wide open and bloodshot, and he could actually see the rage in them.
"Crack!"
With a swift motion, Carlos lopped off the giant insect head and stuck it in a prepared sealing box.
This was the money shot of the boss Agony Beetle—premium material for Arcane practitioners to forge equipment.
"The rest of the bug carcass isn't worth jack."
Not all beetle monsters were like the Infernal Beetle from the previous node, with scythes that could compete with spirit equipment.
After bagging the Agony Beetle's brain, Carlos spoke again in a low voice:
"Skeleton Revival!"
A new skeleton soldier popped up.
After recalling it to his summoning space, Carlos didn't rush to bail but started exploring the Castle of Agony based on his memories.
"Castle of Agony—an ancient castle from some mystery era, sealed until now.
Besides monsters, there are quite a few treasure chests with the castle owner's stash—some seriously valuable ancient gold coins inside."
Carlos went to the castle's bedroom and cracked open a hidden compartment, revealing an iron treasure chest.
With the passage of time, the protective arcane arrays on the iron chest had long since croaked.
Carlos easily popped it open to find a pile of ancient gold coins covered by a layer of dust from books that had turned to powder.
He picked up one coin and gently blew away the dust, revealing weird patterns underneath.
Each coin had identical patterns—shaped like a city wall, but on closer inspection, made up of tiny shield pattern designs.
"Two hundred and twenty coins."
Carlos moved to the next hidden compartment.
"Two hundred and fifty-six coins."
...
"One hundred and seventy-two coins."
Carlos cleaned out all 6 treasure chests in the castle, scoring a total of 1,832 ancient gold coins.
Carlos played with a few coins, excitement lighting up his eyes.
"Who would've thought these ancient gold coins are the real jackpot in this node, aside from Fantasy Equipment."
The real name of these ancient gold coins was 'Ersbah Coins'—forged by the legendary Shield Era powerhouse, the Ersbah United Kingdom.
Made with tons of precious materials, the coins themselves had crazy high value.
But the true purpose of Ersbah Coins wasn't circulation in regular markets.
Actually, they were basically merit badges from within the Ersbah United Kingdom.
They could be traded at Ersbah Merit Exchange Centers for various alchemical potions, knowledge, and even spirit equipment.
"Even though the Ersbah United Kingdom got wiped out ages ago, and the Shield Era itself is just legend,
Plenty of precious goodies from that era are still kicking around today."
As the top dog of its time, one of the Ersbah United Kingdom's core buildings—the Merit Exchange Center—still existed today.
"Too bad that ruin isn't ready to open yet."
Once the ruin opened, Carlos could use these Ersbah ancient coins to score powerful spirit equipment.
The Undead Armored Knight evolution path was sick, but each evolution required precious spirit equipment of specific types.
Carlos didn't want to use bargain-bin spirit equipment that would tank his Undead Armored Knights' combat effectiveness,
So he couldn't miss any shot at getting high-quality spirit equipment.
A full eighteen hundred coins—used smart, he could snag at least a dozen light gold quality spirit equipment pieces.
Getting his head back in the game, Carlos carefully stashed away these Ersbah ancient coins.
Both objectives of this trip had been nailed perfectly. There was nothing left here worth Carlos's time.
"Let's bounce."
Without any second thoughts, he quickly bailed from the ancient castle and headed back to the easily defended boulder.
...
Ten days later,
The eleventh Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard was born.
Meanwhile, through the massacre by his other Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards, his Spiritual Essence had stacked up to 1818/7000.
"There aren't many monsters with Spirituality 7 or higher nearby. Spiritual Essence farming has hit a wall."
Carlos had to send his Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards to hunt in more distant areas.
Once again using Sun Emperor's Court Swordsmanship to clear out monsters in every direction, Carlos fell back to the boulder to recharge,
His eyes showing a hint of satisfaction.
[Sun Emperor's Court Swordsmanship Level 4 (Max Level 10)]
[Special Bonuses:
(1) +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, +2 Speed, +2 Mental
(2) +1.5% x4 damage with sword weapons
(3) Additional +1.5% x4 damage against dark creatures]
The badass Sun Emperor's Court Swordsmanship had leveled up again.
Focusing briefly, Carlos sent the rally command through his soul link.
"Everyone get back here!"
This time, he was going to clear the last and most brutal Dark Mist node in the Withered Lands: the Four-Section Beetle node!
...
Two days later, a team radiating killer vibes pushed straight through monster groups.
The monsters let out hissing roars, one after another charging at this group, trying to shred these enemies who dared invade their turf.
But greatsword after greatsword brutally and savagely chopped apart every attacking monster...
"Why is this happening so damn often?"
At the formation's center, on the Iron Palanquin, Carlos frowned slightly, sensing something was off.
Although his group was pretty obvious, based on the usual monster group density, attacking monsters shouldn't be coming this fast and frequently.
"Could be those traitors stirring up trouble!"
His mind racing, Carlos felt the changes in monster group behavior had to be tied to that traitor camp.
"After I clear the last Dark Mist node and evolve the final Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard, I'll settle the score with you!"
Carlos figured that clearing the last node would be enough to bump his Spirituality up another notch.
That way, the last—the twelfth—Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard could be born.
Twelve Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards working together could steamroll any Non-tier (1-9) Psionics. Carlos didn't believe that traitor camp could stand up to them.
What's more, once he fired up the 12 Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards' synergy effect,
For one hour, all Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards would gain +12 Strength and Constitution. Even if there were any curveballs, he could bulldoze right through!
"Step on it!"