023 The Goblin Slayer of Bones (Green Cap)

Kaido Calendar, April 23, 1874.

This day marked exactly two months since Karen had crossed into the continent of Kaido, and it had been one month and twenty days since she eliminated the Green Cap. One month and twenty days—fifty days in all. With the territory energy trickling in at twenty points per day, Karen should have accumulated a thousand points by now. But when she opened her attribute panel, she discovered that reality was not so simple.

...

Karen (Wu Qi)
Age: 16
Race: Human
Strength: Tier 1 (Normal) (140/200)
Skills: Swordsman’s Basic Swordsmanship (Lv.3) (Max Level) (Battle Qi Seed not activated)
Heavy Slash Lv.9 (199/200) (Increases slash power by 200%)
...

Karen (Lord)
Owned Territory: Untitled
Territory Level: 1
Territory Energy: 1120
Territory Buildings: Small Graveyard (1), Small Tomb (1)
Owned Undead: Decayed Goblin {Tier 1 Trash} (4)
Decayed Goblin Mage {Tier 1 Elite} (1)
...

These were Karen’s current attributes. Over the past month, although her Battle Qi Seed remained dormant, thanks to the daily automatic gain of five personal energy points, her strength had soared dramatically. Tier 1 normal strength, combined with Level 9 “Heavy Slash”—Karen wasn’t sure exactly how powerful she had become, but she imagined she could easily defeat her former self from a month ago.

As for territory energy, she now held 1120 points. Twenty of those came from slaying the Green Cap; another hundred had been earned over the past month. And how did she earn them? Naturally, through the hatchet—she hadn’t been idle when it came to killing!

With 1120 points of territory energy in hand, Karen could easily convert all the corpses in her territory into undead. However, for the past while, Old Jack had been staying in the village, and Karen herself had been busy managing the integration of two waves of new villagers into her territory, so she hadn’t found time to spend those points.

Coincidentally, today Old Jack was off to fetch some people, and Karen had nearly finished her own work. She decided to take advantage of the lull and use up her 1120 points of territory energy. Of course, Karen wasn’t foolish enough to go in alone—waiting until Old Jack left and then entering the Goblin Forest by herself would have been far too suspicious. So, before Old Jack departed, she told him that she intended to take the villagers into the forest to hunt small animals.

This wasn’t the first time Karen had used this excuse in the past month, so Old Jack paid it little mind. Thus, after Old Jack left, Karen led the villagers into the Goblin Forest. Once inside, she quickly found a pretext to split off from them, heading alone to the graveyard.

Not wanting to draw attention, Karen planned not to linger. Upon arrival, she immediately began converting all the corpses in the graveyard into undead.

[Ding! You have successfully used the “Small Graveyard” “Undead Conversion” function. Please choose the direction for undead conversion!]

“Conversion direction? That wasn’t here last time,” Karen muttered, startled, as she stared at the suddenly appearing panel.

Perhaps because the corpses had been buried for over a month, apart from the Green Cap, the eight goblin corpses were much more decayed than before. Now, when converting undead, Karen had an additional option: she could transform them into Goblin Skeletons.

The panel showed the attributes of Goblin Skeletons, which Karen promptly opened to examine.

...

Goblin Skeleton
Type: Bone
Strength: Tier 1 (Trash) (0/100)
Skill: Bone Claw Lv.1 (Active skill, increases attack by 50% and inflicts mild poison)
...

“The skill is active—looks stronger than ‘Decayed Goblin’!” Karen remarked, and she converted one Goblin Skeleton to test it.

Upon study, Karen found that the Goblin Skeletons had slightly less resilience than Decayed Goblins, but their attacks were stronger. The difference between the two wasn’t substantial, so without much concern, Karen converted the rest of the goblins into Goblin Skeletons.

Once done, she spent another hundred territory energy to build two Small Tombs for them.

With a wave of her hand, 260 points of territory energy were spent—and that was only the beginning. The real expense was the Green Cap; converting it into an undead would require five hundred points.

Karen had already committed this energy, and the Green Cap’s transformation was underway. Now, she had only to wait.

The Green Cap’s undead conversion proceeded much slower than usual, even slower than the goblin mage’s transformation. Karen waited over ten minutes before the process was finally complete.

[Ding! You have successfully converted one “Tier 1 Exceptional” undead!]

As the system prompt sounded, the Green Cap emerged from beneath the earth.

Karen was stunned at the sight—the difference between the Green Cap before and after the conversion was profound. Now, it stood a bit taller, nearly one and a half meters, its flesh entirely gone, replaced by green bones. The skeleton seemed larger, and green flames flickered in its eye sockets.

What drew the eye most was its right hand—etched with dense, mysterious, blood-red runes, dazzling in their intricacy. Its appearance was striking and menacing; a single glance sent chills through Karen, and it looked far more magnificent than its previous goblin guise.

Karen couldn’t resist and opened the Green Cap’s attribute panel.

...

Skeletal Goblin Hunter (Green Cap)
Type: Bone
Strength: Tier 1 (Exceptional) (0/500)
Intelligence: Medium
Skill: Bone Claw Lv.3 (Active skill, increases attack by 150% and inflicts poison)
Talent: Power of Sacrifice Lv.1
Power of Sacrifice: A unique talent born from the fusion of mysterious forces.
Talent Effects:
Effect 1: Can strengthen itself by sacrificing a heart.
Effect 2: ???
Ps: Though only a low-tier undead, both its strength and talents are exceedingly rare, possessing considerable combat power—easily capable of defeating some Tier 2 foes.
...

Karen’s lips curled into a smile as she studied the Green Cap’s attributes. Especially when she saw the creature emerge, look around with its head cocked, then bound excitedly toward her, green flames flickering in its eyes—her smile only grew wider...