Under the moonlight, the white frame of the skeleton had turned half red from the blood. Especially the lower half, which most of it was red, clacked its jaws, asking for more prey to kill. It looked creepy for sure, as the remaining six people were whimpering in fear. Even though the skeleton was weaker than them, they could not move now.
If the Skeleton happened to target them, then they would die tragically, just like their friend.
"Wait, just sit there for now!" Tang Shaoyang ordered the Skeleton as he pointed at the bloody boulder. The man's blood gave red color on the boulder, and the Skeleton followed his order by sitting there, like a good kid waiting for candy.
Tang Shaoyang ignored the six people begging for their lives as he opened the notification he had just received. After killing the man, he heard consecutive notifications from the system, telling him that the Skeleton had leveled up. He opened the Skeleton's status window and found something interesting with Skeleton.
[Your {Skeleton} has met the condition for the advancement!]
[Do you want to proceed {Skeleton} advancement? {Yes} {No}]
Tang Shaoyang tapped yes. This was what made him interested in the Skeleton project. Just like the other players, the Skeleton could get stronger by advancing, and maybe he could create skeleton armies this time. On top of that, the Skeleton had a higher stat compared to a normal human as well. He was eager to explore more things about the Skeleton.
[Please choose your Skeleton's advancement: (Evolution) (Class)]
"I see. It's no different than the beast's advancement." He concluded after seeing the option of advancement. The beast could evolve into the beastmen and get a class. The only difference was that the Skeleton had access to the class from the start. "Any idea which one shall I choose first? Is it better to get the class first or let the Skeleton evolve first?"
Tang Shaoyang asked his spirits for their opinions, but none of them could give him a definite answer.
—We are not sure. First, there are a lot of us who are not familiar with the system. Second, even though the other spirits have experienced the system, this is their first time encountering something . There's nothing we can do but do some experiments.
That was Zaneos' answer. Just like he said, not all the spirits had gone through the Game like him. Tang Shaoyang nodded his head and looked at the remaining six people. "We have the right amount of soul for another summoning here. I can kill five of them to get five souls and summon a new Skeleton."
After doing a quick calculation, Tang Shaoyang tapped the (Evolution) option. He wanted to try evolution first before trying class advancement.
[Please choose the advancement for your Skeleton: (Elite Skeleton) (Steel Skeleton) (Earth Skeleton)]
Tang Shaoyang was not expecting another surprise from the system. He did not think that he got to choose the advancement. He thought the system randomized the evolution, or the Skeleton had a fixed evolution. "Hmmmnn. The last two options are self-explanatory. Those bones may turn into steel or earth if I choose one of them, but what about the Elite Skeleton?"
Tang Shaoyang looked at the cracked finger bones on the Skeleton. The bone cracked after it tried to kill the man by punching it. "The safe choice is Steel Skeleton, but I am curious what the other two will offer to me."
"Let's go for Steel Skeleton instead. I can try the other two when I summon another skeleton." After some time, he chose Steel Skeleton. Right after that, the Skeleton who was sitting on top of the boulder was shrouded in bright light. The Evolution did not last that long as the light dimmed in the next ten seconds and showed the Steel Skeleton.
[Your summon, Skeleton, has evolved into Steel Skeleton!]
Just like Tang Shaoyang thought, the white bones transformed into grayish steel. It looked shiny under the rain of the moonlight, and instead of making a "clack clack clack" noise, it made a "clank clank clank" noise now. The Skeleton realized that it had evolved and was quite excited.
"Alright, stop it. It's pretty annoying in my years, too noisy." Tang Shaoyang waved his hand at the excited Steel Skeleton. The latter immediately stopped and returned to the boulder, behaving like an obedient kid. However, the Steel Skeleton kept glancing at the six people who laid down on their blood. They were wriggling their way from Tang Shaoyang.
Tang Shaoyang came over as he formed [Slayer Blade] and beheaded five people. He could feel the disappointment from the Steel Skeleton, and that feeling channeled directly onto him. He was not bothered by that as he checked the grade of the souls he harvested. It was surprisingly the same Grade B Soul.
"This is actually good so that I can compare both Skeletons' growth because they get summoned from the same grade souls."
The second Skeleton looked around in confusion for a moment before looking straight at the person who summoned it. It looked at Tang Shaoyang with its empty socket and spoke. "Clack clack clack…." After that, the Skeleton knelt toward him. This one was more respectful than the first Skeleton.
Tang Shaoyang picked the sword on the ground and threw it to the Skeleton. "Take this and kill that guy!" He pointed at the last person. A wave of emotion streamed toward him from the first skeleton, and it was sulking? He glanced at the first Skeleton, who was still sitting on the boulder, and he was sure it was sulking because he let the second Skeleton kill the seventh person.
The second Skeleton did not care about the first Skeleton's feelings as it headed toward the last man. The man was wiggling hard in the pool of blood while screaming, "No!!!" Of course, the Skeleton did not have empathy with him as it thrust the sword to the man's head. The sword went straight to the skull and brain as more blood poured out onto the ground.
The second Skeleton then returned to his front and knelt again. It put the sword on the ground beforehand, right before his feet. "Clack clack clack…."
'I have killed the man, Master.' Tang Shaoyang could understand the meaning of noise. People might call him crazy, but he could interpret what they were saying. 'It's the same like Li Na understands what Moon says, but I don't.' He thought to himself.
Tang Shaoyang opened the second Skeleton's status window and proceeded with the advancement.
[Your {Skeleton} has met the condition for the advancement!]
[Do you want to proceed {Skeleton} advancement? {Yes} {No}]
[Please choose your Skeleton's advancement: (Evolution) (Class)]
[Please choose the advancement for your Skeleton: (Skeleton Warrior) (Skeleton Archer) (Skeleton Mage)]
"Since I have a frontline, this time, let's choose for support." It was between Skeleton Archer and Skeleton Mage, but he chose Skeleton Archer instead. He had a lot of people good with magic, but he barely saw a decent archer. Cao Jingyi was a decent archer, but the others were just average.