The four Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards climbed back up to recover their health.
Carlos looked at the skeleton warrior beside him. The soul fires in its eye sockets were now blazing high—it had accumulated enough death energy for advancement.
"Good. The stronger the monster, the richer the death energy released after death. Just over 400 was enough to meet advancement requirements."
Without hesitation, he immediately took out a Purple Thornblade Clan Sword and placed it in the pre-drawn advancement formation. The skeleton warrior was also positioned within it, having already learned Bone Swordsmanship earlier.
Activated the formation... Fire Bug corpses became energy... a brilliant light pillar shot skyward...
The fifth Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard was born!
"Go forth and unleash your power!"
Right after birth, Carlos required it to go down and slaughter Fire Bugs. Number 5 naturally had no objections.
"Creak! Creak!"
It was very obedient, honestly climbing down the thick rope and beginning the slaughter.
After finishing all this, Carlos sat back down at the table, eating and drinking while looking down from above, appreciating Number 5 Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guard's battle.
At the cliff bottom, Fire Bugs were being bloodily slaughtered one after another. The scene was fantastic!
When the other 4 Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards finished recovering their health, Carlos immediately sent them into battle.
The 2,000+ Fire Bugs below began decreasing at a visibly rapid pace again.
[Spiritual essence +0.7]
[Spiritual essence +0.6]
[Spiritual essence +0.8]
...
The 5 Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards were tireless war machines, becoming five bloody meat grinders at the cliff bottom, frantically slaughtering the Fire Bugs.
The Fire Bugs showed no signs of retreat either, constantly trying to kill the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards.
That's because dark mist monsters only had the desire to kill and knew nothing of fear.
If they had normal intelligence, they probably would've scattered and fled long ago.
This round of battle lasted about 10 hours, with all Fire Bugs finally slaughtered.
"Ugh, still halfway short."
Carlos checked his status panel.
[Mental: 3 (Spiritual essence: 1560/3000)]
The spiritual essence progress bar was just over half. To level up, he'd need to kill over 2,000 more Fire Bugs.
"No rush. There are Flame Beetles ahead, and if that's not enough, there's still the boss Infernal Beetle!
The boss will provide at least 1,000 spiritual essence."
Carlos recalled the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards who'd completed their objective and quietly waited for them to recover to full condition...
...
With condition fully restored and Carlos well-fed, the skeleton guards carried him down the cliff.
"Creak!"
"Step step!"
The familiar formation:
Number 1 scouting ahead, Number 2 watching the rear, the remaining three Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards protecting Carlos on all sides, with one holding a glow stone to light the path.
Carlos stepped on the cliff bottom where monster limbs were scattered everywhere. A thick bloody smell hit him.
His boots felt like they were walking on muddy roads, leaving footprints with each step. Looking closely, this was scattered flesh and blood piled in thick layers.
Occasionally there were Fire Bug compound eyes left along the path, bloodshot and scattered in the bloody mud.
Carlos's expression remained calm.
As a former top Death Herald pathway player, these were all small scenes.
The limbs became fewer and fewer. Walking out of the Fire Bug slumber area, the temperature was slowly rising, and the surrounding rock walls changed color, gradually turning red.
After walking for about twenty minutes, Carlos's vision suddenly turned bright red. Several fiery red rock caves appeared in his view, like giant beasts opening countless abyssal maws, ready to devour anyone.
"Passages leading to the depths of the nest."
Among these passages, only one led to the Infernal Beetle's slumber nest. The rest were dead ends leading to the bottomless volcanic depths.
Fortunately, Carlos knew which was the correct passage.
Otherwise, finding the right passage would take a very long time.
"Go to the third passage on the left."
Number 1 entered first, with the other Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards following closely behind...
The passage wound downward, and you could clearly feel they were walking downhill.
Carlos mentally estimated they'd been walking for about 5 hours.
Suddenly, the view opened up dramatically. A somewhat spacious lava cave came into view.
On the pitch-black ground, Flame Beetles were slumbering.
Their appearance was quite similar to Fire Bugs, but they were obviously much larger, especially their shells, which had flame-like patterns.
At the center of their back shells was a dark, protruding hole.
This was what Flame Beetles used to launch their most powerful attack skill: "Flame Ball!"
Flame Beetles: Mental 9, max attribute 6.
Carlos estimated there were about 500+ Flame Beetles ahead—quite a number.
Behind the Flame Beetle swarm was a reddish-brown cave entrance—that was where the boss truly slumbered.
Guarded by 500+ Flame Beetles.
Looking across this lava cave, it was very flat with no obstacles to block monsters.
"The number is within expectations. We can kill them all in one go."
This time he didn't need to find a safe place to rest.
If one round couldn't finish them all, Carlos would have to fight while retreating, which would be quite troublesome.
"Numbers 3, 4, and 5, go kill them!
Numbers 1 and 2 stay by my side and clean up any Flame Beetles that get through!"
Even with sufficient combat power, Carlos remained cautious.
He wouldn't easily put himself at risk. With his current attributes, he could at best go 50-50 with one Flame Beetle.
"Creak!"
Sharp creaking sounds echoed in the spacious lava cave as 3 Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards charged forward, immediately awakening the Flame Beetles.
Rustling sounds arose as Flame Beetles swung their massive scythes and attacked!
The Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards had killed so many of these insect monsters that they'd unconsciously learned which parts were easier to cut.
Their sharp greatswords swung out,
Striking the Flame Beetles' shells like cutting tofu, easily slicing them in half as scalding insect blood scattered through the air...
"Rustle! Rustle!"
Seeing the terrifying enemies,
Some distant Flame Beetles activated the fiery red patterns on their back shells, with wisps of flame emerging from their dark holes.
"Watch out for Flame Balls!"
Carlos had been paying attention. Although he expected the fireballs wouldn't pose much threat, he still reminded the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards who were frantically slaughtering, just to be safe.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
Small Flame Balls shot toward the three Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards, showing no regard for their companions currently fighting them.
The Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards naturally saw them coming. Wielding their greatswords and using Purple Thornblade Bone Swordsmanship, they easily slashed and exploded each incoming Flame Ball!
The explosion aftershocks caused no damage whatsoever to the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards.
Seeing this, Carlos was completely at ease.
During this time, some Flame Beetles noticed Carlos at the cave entrance and charged over, but were easily killed by Numbers 1 and 2.