Chapter 65: Oner

"Quack! What on earth is that weapon of yours?!" Xiao Mo pointed at the sword-blade bow in Lin Zheng's hand with a look of astonishment. Lin Zheng smiled faintly and replied, "I have a skill called Forced Assembly, which allows me to combine two swords into a single sword-blade bow. This bow was put together using that skill! And it can be taken apart, too!" As he spoke, the sword-blade bow separated into two distinct swords, and the Star-Shattering Moon promptly reverted to its original length.

Xiao Mo's eyes sparkled with stars as she exclaimed excitedly, "What a fascinating skill! I wish I knew how to do that! I'd get two swords myself and assemble them whenever I wanted to shoot arrows—how convenient would that be?"

"This skill is exclusive to Sword Fighters!"

"..."

Hmph—Xiao Mo threw a tantrum again! Looking at her spoiled and willful demeanor, she was utterly adorable! Lin Zheng quickly averted his gaze, chanting constantly in his heart: *Must not look! Must not look! Any longer and this sprite will steal my soul away!* To distract himself, he picked up the final skill book. The tome emitted a grayish glow, looking somewhat eerie!

Shield of the Dead: No restriction, summons 4 shields of the dead to protect the caster, capable of absorbing a portion of damage while converting it into HP.

*What an amazing item!* Lin Zheng let out a sigh of admiration, instantly drawing Xiao Mo's attention back over!

"Here, take this. With this skill, grinding mobs will be much safer for you!" With that, Xiao Mo was handed the skill book. Still feeling gloomy over the top-tier equipment she could only look at but not use, she didn't refuse; she snatched the skill book and learned it immediately without even glancing at its description! Lin Zheng smiled—the girl was still holding a grudge!

"Do you even know what skill you just learned?!" Lin Zheng asked.

"It's a good thing, that's all that matters!" The girl answered with full righteous confidence. However, seeing the look on Lin Zheng's face as if he were about to explode, she felt a twinge of guilt and checked what she had actually learned:

Shield of the Dead: Level 1, proficiency 0/1000, summons four shields of the dead to guard the caster. The shields absorb 20% of damage and convert 10% of damage into HP. Magic shield durability is equal to 300% of the player's HP, mana cost 400, cooldown 120 seconds.

After reading the skill description, Xiao Mo's eyes lit up. Without a moment's hesitation, she summoned the Shield of the Dead. Accompanied by a series of mournful wails, four gray-black skull shields appeared around her, slowly revolving in orbit. The combination of a beautiful woman and the undead exuded a mysterious and decadent aesthetic! Xiao Mo summoned a female player's exclusive dressing mirror and examined herself surrounded by the skull shields, smiling with immense satisfaction! But Lin Zheng could not smile at the sight. This young lady was clearly treating the skill as a decorative accessory rather than something meant for combat! Instantly, Lin Zheng felt a strong sense of misplacement, wishing he had just learned it himself!

"Alright! We have about ten minutes left, let's hurry to the final stage and see what kind of wretch that damned Necromancer Oner is!" Xiao Mo closed the dressing mirror, looking in high spirits!

"Wait! Let me figure out the effects of my newly acquired special techniques first!" Lin Zheng quickly opened his skill interface and located the special techniques section. There they were!

Power of Star and Moon: Cannot be upgraded, resets the cooldown of all skills except this one, cooldown 60 minutes.

Star-Shattering Moon: Cannot be upgraded, consumes all mana to immobilize a designated target, hurls the weapon to attack, directly reducing the target's HP by 30% and dealing light-attribute damage equal to 10 times maximum physical attack to enemies within a 20-meter radius, cooldown 40 minutes.

Soul Severing: Level 1, proficiency 0/1000, unleashes undead sword qi to sever the target's soul, dealing 200% dark-attribute direct damage. Sword qi maximum extension distance 10 meters, consumes 1/3 current mana, cooldown 5 minutes (Unequipped).

*Power of Star and Moon resets cooldowns?* Lin Zheng was overjoyed; this skill arrived right when he needed it most! His two major trump cards—Ghost God and Freezing Aura—were currently on cooldown! Challenging the final boss Oner under those conditions would have been completely useless. But things were different now. As long as he reset his skill cooldowns, taking down Oner was well within reach! However, Lin Zheng didn't reset his cooldowns immediately because he had another absolute trump card now!

*Star-Shattering Moon*, what an overpowered skill! It directly shaved off 30% of the target's HP and additionally dealt light-attribute damage scaling with 10 times his physical attack! Using this skill, resetting the cooldown, and firing it off again would instantly wipe out over 60% of a target's HP. What a formidable skill combination—it was practically a divine skill for fighting bosses! He finally possessed a powerful ability that could rival Yang Qi's Golden Crow Slash, and his heart surged with excitement!

"Let's go! Let's find the boss right now and test out my new ultimate move!" Lin Zheng excitedly grabbed Xiao Mo's hand and headed toward the portal. Xiao Mo's cheeks flushed slightly, and for once she didn't pull her hand away, allowing him to lead her straight into the portal.

Stepping through the portal, the two of them instantly froze in place! They had expected the final boss Oner to inhabit a filthy, evil place reeking of corpses, but instead, what they saw was a beautiful garden filled with a starry sky! They exchanged glances, seeing a deep sense of confusion mirrored in each other's eyes.

According to the quest log hints, only Oner needed to be eliminated in this final stage! Soon, the two found Oner in the magnificent garden. He stood guard in front of a crystal coffin, seemingly unaware of the two intruders. Oner was surprisingly quite handsome! Except for a somewhat pale complexion, he gazed mournfully at the woman inside the crystal coffin, wearing the expression of someone deeply and hopelessly in love—making it genuinely difficult for Lin Zheng and Xiao Mo to strike! Very well! Let's hold off on attacking and scout him out first!

Necromancer Oner: Level 65 Dark Gold Boss, physical attack 450-780, magic attack 4820-5540, physical defense 1150, magic defense 1800, HP 780,000. Skills: Arcane Missile, Sea of Skeletons, Corpse Explosion, Black Knight Summon, Undead Frenzy, Weakness Curse, Dark Ritual, Summon Bone Dragon! Oner was once a prominent Western aristocrat. In order to resurrect the woman he loved, he fell into depravity, becoming an evil necromancer who was ruthless and slaughtered the innocent. Eventually hunted down by Western angels, he fled to the East and secretly enslaved commoners to build his wizard tower. Long-term erosion by undead power had stripped Oner entirely of his humanity, leaving behind only the obsession to resurrect his beloved!

After reading Oner's profile, Xiao Mo immediately drew her sword, looking ready to charge in and start hacking. Lin Zheng blinked and asked with a smile, "What? Isn't this kind of tragic romantic precisely the type of figure you young girls sympathize with most?"

Xiao Mo shot Lin Zheng a charming yet contemptuous look, and retorted sweetly, "What's there to sympathize with about a guy like this? If he committed suicide out of grief, I might feel a twinge of pity, but instead, he pursues some illusory resurrection and slaughters a bunch of people for his experiments. How is someone like this any different from those bastards who used to shout about prosperity spheres while slaughtering and mutilating civilians? They're all just inventing pretty excuses for themselves!"

"Well said! That's a remarkably sound analysis!" Lin Zheng nodded in deep admiration. Excellent, they now had a valid reason—and a completely clear conscience—to take Oner down! Who told this fellow to pull the exact same stunts as those scoundrels? He deserved to die!