The three captains keenly seized the opportunity, utilizing a new tactical approach.
They followed behind the Giant Puppet, swiftly eliminating the monsters that slipped through its defenses, methodically slicing through the creatures besieging the Giant Puppet. The efficiency of the battle greatly improved, and the chances of the warriors being injured significantly reduced.
Auntie Youse had waited in the base for a long while without seeing a soul, and driven by sheer boredom, she finally ran to the front line to join the fight.
Auntie Youse’s combat strength was directly proportional to her size, with her colossal Spiritual Energy gathering in her fists. With one punch, even the thickest of White Bone would be smashed to smithereens.
And whether it was Giant monsters or soulless skeletons, none could inflict effective damage on her.
She charged through the horde of monsters like a tank, leaving everyone stunned.
Rod was completely overwhelmed, and some monsters just had to be left to the warriors to kill.
A little Pollution, as long as it was purified in time, posed no issue.
The rate at which "Awakening" was used was much faster than expected. By his own calculations, Rod should have been able to use "Awakening" around a thousand times, but this did not mean he had a thousandfold Spiritual Energy.
In reality, after thirty uses, the Spiritual Energy he gained would start to rapidly diminish.
After three hundred uses, "Awakening" essentially had little effect in restoring Spiritual Energy anymore and could only delay the arrival of the Void.
By now, the Giant Puppet, under relentless attacks, was depleting its Spiritual Energy at a rapid rate, with Rod needing to use it every few hundred seconds.
At this rate, there was a chance he might explode tomorrow.
Rod wanted to slow things down, given that the Puppet Giant was exceedingly expensive and impossible to replace in a short period.
Once the Spiritual Energy was exhausted, the Puppet Giant would instantly collapse.
But seeing everyone so fervently engaged, even Molly’s voice softened with warmth, he couldn’t bear to stop.
Well, slaying quickly was also good; otherwise, those Mahara merchants still wouldn’t believe in my ability, Rod thought to himself.
Recruitment of miners could only rely on the merchants, but when Molly gave a hint yesterday, the Mahara thought she was joking.
To ensure smooth cooperation, she did not continue on the subject.
Convincing the merchants that he wasn’t messing around by achieving a stunningly good result soon was also beneficial.
The battle lasted until dusk, and Rod’s hands were almost numbed from exertion.
After Noon, a Heavenly Phenomenon indicating an atypical catastrophe emerged, significantly strengthening the monsters, but they did not stop.
The people had wanted to continue fighting, but Molly stopped them. After dusk, the sun’s strength greatly diminished, the power of darkness markedly increased, and combined with the abnormal Heavenly Phenomenon, fighting became perilously dangerous.
But Rod could not return. Even immobile, the Puppet Giant would continuously deplete Spiritual Energy and could not be too far from its master.
Leaving it like that overnight was undoubtedly wasteful. Rod had no choice but to continue the fight by the light of his Spirit Lamp.
Molly had left him the brightest Spirit Lamp and then led everyone back to the base.
Indeed, fighting at night proved much more difficult than during the day.
Even without the sight of the sun, moon, and stars, the distinction between day and night was still quite clear.
At night, the Black Fog grew far thicker than during the day, reducing Rod’s visibility from two thousand yards down to a few hundred yards. The monsters seemed to have gone into a frenzy, their movement speed and Spiritual Energy visibly growing stronger, sometimes to the point where even the Puppet Giant couldn’t kill them with a single blow.
The battle became much more onerous, and the rate of Spiritual Energy consumption accelerated.
Rod sat atop the Puppet Giant’s head, eyeing the deeper darkness swarming up from the gloom with some foreboding.
In his mind, the Book of Knowledge suddenly imparted a suggestion.
"You could try burning a soul."
"Would that work?" he asked.
"Yes, the puppet is your soul’s Summoning, your Enhancement can extend to it."
Rod immediately entered the Dream Realm.
On the Soul Altar, there were about a hundred complete souls, all sealed within the Crystal Walls, resembling a large patch of grey Shadows.
Rod asked, "Which soul should I burn, Book?"
The Book of Knowledge wrote, "The soulless skeletons, their defense ability is quite effective, but relatively weak. You need to burn ten at a time."
Rod asked with concern, "Does asking such questions deplete your Spirituality?"
"No, it’s just the answer I determined based on the knowledge I possess, not something I learned through my characteristics."
Rod stepped onto the Altar and extracted ten souls from the Crystal Wall.
They were like a tangled mass of Mist, the size of a human head when layered together, constantly rolling in his hands.
Rod lifted the souls, and with a thought, the ten souls suddenly ignited. Golden flames burst forth from within, burning them from the inside out to ash, which then whisked into his body.
The Book of Knowledge wrote, "You temporarily have the characteristic of proliferating White Bone defense, but it will only last half a day."
"Wasn’t it a week?" he asked.
"Special souls last a week; hurry back!" the Book indicated.
With a thought from Rod, a sense of weightlessness came over him, and in the blink of an eye, he was back in the Material World.
Rod felt an unusual sensation in his soul and infused it with Spiritual Energy.
Sure enough, White Bone began to emerge on his body, rapidly extending until it covered the entire Puppet. The wooden Puppet Giant was now clad in White Bone Armor.
Could this actually work?
Rod felt a surge of joy in his heart.
The consumption of Spiritual Energy indeed reduced significantly. The White Bone Armor protected the Giant from much harm, and the efficiency of slaying monsters greatly increased.