Even though the BOSS's strength had increased dramatically, it hadn't mutated any abilities that made Chen Mo feel particularly troubled. This relieved Chen Mo considerably, as it meant the BOSS could still be killed! The only pity was that the over 30,000 layers of corpse poison he had previously stacked were cleared during the BOSS's mutation. Now he had to Stack poison all over again.
With another wave of the Magic Wand in his hand, Chen Mo immediately summoned another 500 invisible Skeleton Monsters. Because Chen Mo had hidden quickly enough when the BOSS mutated, there were no targets around when it finished its transformation, leaving it momentarily stunned. This gave Chen Mo another chance for a sneak attack. He had the Ranged Skeleton Monsters encircle the BOSS as widely as possible. As for the melee ones, he simply had them stack together for a swift attack to break their invisibility. Of the 500 Skeleton Monsters summoned this time, 350 were melee Skeleton Monsters, and 150 were Ranged Skeleton Monsters. At Chen Mo's command, the Skeleton Monsters immediately launched their assault on the clueless Master of Mutation, who was still standing dazedly in place.
Just as The Master of Mutation was getting bored and preparing to move, it felt the same pinpricking sensation as before its mutation. When its vision cleared, it saw a dense crowd of Skeleton Monsters materializing. Surrounding it was already a large group of Skeleton Monsters wielding Crossbow Magic Wands. A coordinated volley of attacks solidly inflicted 500 layers of corpse poison. This immediately triggered five instances of poison explosion damage! Without Resistance Expert, the mere five instances of poison damage were only enough to provide one-twentieth of the Experience required to increase its Poison Resistance Level to 1. It was nowhere near enough to help it raise its Poison Resistance Level. So, all the damage landed at its full potential.
However, after the mutation, although the BOSS had lost its Resistance Expert, it gained a troublesome passive Skill. It was the demon armor! This passive Skill reduced all damage by 30%, which naturally included poison damage.
A somewhat troublesome passive skill.
It's a pity I currently don't have any debuff abilities. If a team were to confront this BOSS, they could stack various debuffs on it while applying buffs to themselves. The BOSS's 30% damage reduction wouldn't matter; the team could negate it entirely and even amplify the damage the BOSS received. That was the power of team collaboration.
When Chen Mo thought about this, he lamented that none of his Skeleton Monsters knew professional Skills. If some of them knew how to apply debuffs, wouldn't the damage skyrocket?
But after all, these were Skills upgraded from the initial Skills of his initial profession. It was already fortunate to be able to synthesize some special abilities unavailable on the market. Abilities like Bomb and corpse poison, for instance, were not traits found in any normal summoning skills available to a Skeleton Mage. These were hidden effects that only he, a five-star Alchemist, could synthesize. Whether continued synthesis could produce Skeleton Monsters with actual Skills remained unknown. But Chen Mo guessed it was probably not possible. Because those belonged to the Elite Undead Summoning Skill line. Elite Summoning typically focused on quality over quantity, summoning only one undead at a time. This single undead possessed professional-level capabilities and considerable strength. Furthermore, its duration differed from the swarms of Skeleton Monsters Chen Mo was currently summoning. It could exist permanently. The maximum number that could be summoned depended on the Skill's rank and the professional's Level. Chen Mo currently didn't have access to this series of summoning Skills; he needed to reach Level 20 and undergo a class advancement to learn them. In his current profession, he couldn't learn more than five Skills. After a class advancement, the profession would evolve and its star level would increase, thereby unlocking a wider variety of learnable Skills.
For now, Chen Mo could only diligently summon ordinary Skeleton Monsters to stack layers of corpse poison.
Although the mutated BOSS's fighting style hadn't changed much, the attack range of its two-handed giant axe and dual short axes was incomparable to before. A casual swing of its giant axe could now cover an area several times larger than before. Because Chen Mo had chosen to stack his attacks, the melee Skeleton Monsters appeared clustered together, providing the BOSS with a perfect target. With one axe in each of its hands, the BOSS struck, and these Skeleton Monsters lost even their second lives granted by Revival. All 350 Skeleton Monsters were wiped out in an instant.
But while the melee skeletons were easy to eliminate, the ranged ones weren't so simple to wipe out in a single go. Besides, it had lost two long-range Skills after its mutation. However, its newly acquired long-range Skill wasn't bad either. The snake-head-like tip on the BOSS's tail suddenly swelled. Then, the BOSS spun rapidly in a 360-degree turn, spraying a large cloud of dark green venom that perfectly covered all the Skeleton Monsters in the surrounding area. As soon as this dark green venom fell on the Skeleton Monsters, their bones immediately began to emit wisps of green smoke; the venom was so potent it could even corrode bone. Between the giant axes and the potent poison, all 500 Skeleton Monsters were wiped out in an instant.
That's fierce! The poison can be sprayed in a circle! He's got moves! I underestimated him. After mutation, he is indeed incomparable to before! I can't be greedy for striking while invisible anymore; I need to change to a restraining style!
Seeing his Skeleton Monsters die faster than their Skill Cooldowns refreshed with this approach, Chen Mo immediately decided to change tactics. Although stacking poison would be slower, at least it was stable.
However, just as he was contemplating his next battle strategy, the BOSS mysteriously looked in his direction.
No way, has he noticed me?
Not good, Chen Mo thought. In the next instant, black fog surged from the BOSS, and it assumed a preparatory stance for a charge. Chen Mo had seen this preparatory move when fighting the non-mutated BOSS before. This was the preparatory action for its Charge to Kill Skill. Previously, when it executed Charge to Kill, it had been like a mad bull, ramming back and forth among the Skeleton Monsters five times at nearly instantaneous speed. The ground had been torn up as if by a plow, leaving several deep gouges! And now, it was about to unleash the enhanced version: Charge to Kill—Extreme! This version was more destructive, faster, and had a wider range!
This is bad!
If it managed to unleash this devastating charging Skill while targeting him, Chen Mo felt he likely wouldn't escape in time and would be ground into mincemeat.
In this life-and-death moment, he immediately activated the Space-Time Pearl hidden in his backpack!
In an instant, spacetime within an 80-meter radius froze. Whether it was the leaves and grass that had been floating with the wind, or the dust that the BOSS had stirred up when it killed the Skeleton Monsters, they were all frozen as if the pause button had been pressed!
The Space-Time Pearl could forcibly halt everything in the vicinity for three seconds. Chen Mo didn't even have time to marvel at how amazing the world looked with time paused; his only thought was to escape.
Taking advantage of the split second when time stopped, he immediately left his current position and quickly ran to another, more concealed hiding spot nearby!