Skill Enhancement

"Big Bro?" Seeing Yu Xian suddenly halt, Little Nora asked in confusion. Meanwhile, Yu Xian's expression grew worse and worse. His sense of smell had always been terrifyingly keen; though it had been somewhat dulled after entering the Zhen Realm, it was still far sharper than that of an ordinary person. This had been proven earlier when he detected invisible class users by scent alone. Now, that terrifying stench was growing more and more pronounced. The fact that Yu Xian had resisted the urge to retreat this long was already a testament to his willpower. But once Little Nora spoke up, he decisively grabbed her hand and backed away. "We can't go down there. It's a cesspool up ahead." Yu Xian explained as he retreated, and having said that, he turned and led Little Nora away without hesitation. He decided to place his trust in Ximen Wangcai and Situ Xingye. The two of them could surely handle a mere Combat Chief. If they couldn't, it would only prove what useless bums they were. The two quickly ascended to the first floor and exited through the base's entrance. Since the Combat Chief had been left to Ximen Wangcai and Situ Xingye, the rest was basically taken care of. Yu Xian immediately ordered all the skeleton soldiers into the remaining caves to attack the monsters that had fled inside earlier. Then, for safety's sake, he led Little Nora up the mountain, finally stopping on a cliff overlooking one side of the valley. "Big Bro, is everyone really going to be all right?" Little Nora asked. Yu Xian said with conviction, "Have faith in them. Everyone can definitely deal with all the monsters." In any case, just don't make him go down there and fight some cesspool freak—even though he had no idea what kind of abomination that foul-smelling cesspool monster actually was. However, Yu Xian had a hunch. There was a high probability that Ximen Wangcai would flee, and might even kite the monster up here. After all, though the guy looked upright and serious, deep down he wasn't proper in the slightest; it was just that under most circumstances, he managed to keep up appearances. After some thought, Yu Xian retrieved the skill enhancement stone. For safety's sake, he felt he needed to get an upgrade in right away. His mind cycled through his six skills, contemplating which one to enhance. Actually, he was close to assembling a skill enhancement stone himself. The first time he fought an enhanced beast, he had gotten a skill enhancement stone shard, and after a few more encounters with enhanced beasts, he obtained another shard. As long as he got one more shard down the line, he could fuse them into a complete skill enhancement stone. He weighed his options and decided to use this skill enhancement stone on Chaos Shield. In all heaven and earth, safety reigned supreme. As long as enemies couldn't break his shield, even if he couldn't defeat them, he would remain undefeated. That was what mattered most. With a thought, the skill enhancement stone in his hand instantly dissolved into light and merged into his body. [Chaos Shield, Enhanced +1: Consumes mental power to construct a stable material shield for oneself, acquiring its physical properties. When attacked, reflects orbs of light with random attributes to strike back at enemy targets.] Well, holy crap. Yu Xian inspected his attributes. When he saw the changes to Chaos Shield +1, his eyes widened. This had completely transformed into an entirely different skill, and it was obviously far stronger than the original Chaos Shield. It was hard to imagine what it would become if it kept being enhanced to +2, +3, +4, or +5. So far, he had used two kinds of enhancement stones. The character enhancement stone boosted his own attributes while also granting greater mastery over his skills, whereas the skill enhancement stone directly evolved a skill into an upgraded version. Suddenly, he felt a surge of anticipation for the class enhancement stone. Would it evolve his class into another version as well? This Zhen Realm was truly fascinating—full of all sorts of bizarre wonders, endlessly entertaining. Next, Yu Xian activated Chaos Shield. The moment he activated Chaos Shield, a marvelous sensation welled up inside him. It felt as though he could convert his mental power into any substance—provided it was something he understood. In a thousandth of an instant, he thought of the spatial bubble, the thing he had played with most and understood best. When it came to spatial bubbles, he dared say no one knew them better than him, no one understood spatial bubbles more. He was the undisputed master of spatial bubbles. In a flash, he was encased and protected by a spatial bubble shield. Little Nora froze at the sight. Weren't outside abilities supposed to be suppressed in the Zhen Realm? "Hahahaha, so it can work like this! Fun, this is way too fun!" Yu Xian sat inside the spatial bubble. Floating up according to his thoughts, it truly possessed every single property of a spatial bubble. The only issue was that he could only create one spatial bubble, meaning he couldn't use multiple bubbles to teleport back and forth. Even so, this was still exceptionally useful—already fantastic. At the end of the day, this spatial bubble was a spatial bubble shield spawned by Chaos Shield; its essence was a shield, nothing else. Furthermore, it possessed a trait the original spatial bubble lacked: damage reflection. And the reflected damage dealt random-attribute damage. However, since it was a spatial bubble... Yu Xian pressed his hand against the spatial bubble shield and continuously channeled mental power into it. Sure enough, the bubble shield expanded slowly, while its barrier grew thicker, granting an immediate and substantial boost to its defensive capability. He reached out, pulled Little Nora inside the bubble, and grinned once more. A Chaos Shield that originally could only protect its caster now, because it bore the characteristics of a spatial bubble, could accommodate others inside, turning it into a pseudo-group shield. "Let's go, Little Nora, we're going to back up Wangcai and the others." Yu Xian then pulled Xielina into the bubble as well, having changed his mind. With the spatial bubble, he had nothing to fear from the stench, and so his conscience returned. Right now, Ximen Wangcai and Situ Xingye might already be in dire straits, perhaps even desperately needing reinforcement. Yu Xian immediately steered the spatial bubble toward the base entrance. Sure enough, with the spatial bubble shield, all his confidence had returned. ... ... Three levels down in the base. Ximen Wangcai and Situ Xingye were sprinting for their lives, with Shikelang hot on their heels. "I can't take this anymore! Let's get out of here and leave it to the Leader!" Ximen Wangcai cried in agony. He didn't care about saving face anymore. Either way, he absolutely refused to face this cursed thing called Shikelang any longer. It was too foul, too disgusting—completely unplayable. "Agreed!" Situ Xingye nodded with a pale face, fully agreeing that this monster was rightfully Yu Xian's fight. After all, Yu Xian was currently the highest-leveled class user in the Sparkle Troupe. It was only right and proper to leave both bosses to him; the fact that they had stalled this long was already a tremendous feat. At worst, they would just forfeit their share of the loot. Yu Xian could take every single drop. They didn't want anything anymore. Right now, all they wanted was to run, to draw a single breath of fresh air. "Little bugs, don't run!" Because of its heavy exoskeleton armor, Shikelang's movement speed was rather slow. Watching the fleeing pair pull further and further away, it could only roar in impotent fury. Then, pursuing the two closely, it dashed toward the passageway leading to the upper level.