163. The Veiled Minotaur
As Yun Ling gripped the sword hilt, the extra information in his mind seemed to become clearer gradually.
He subconsciously swung the novice longsword in his hand, the surrounding vegetation bending under the invisible sword energy.
『Congratulations on creating a skill. Please name your skill.』
The game's system notification appeared.
"A self-created skill?" Yun Ling scratched his head; he thought it was a built-in skill in the game.
"Never mind, according to my memory, I'll call it 'Taixu Sword Qi'."
『Naming successful. Skill 'Taixu Sword Qi' learned. 'Entry-level proficiency 0/100.' Cooldown and power depend on the user's proficiency and attributes.』
Seemingly, because it was a self-created skill, there was no description.
Yun Ling used 'Taixu Sword Qi' again, but the proficiency did not increase.
"This must involve fighting monsters, let's give it a try..."
Yun Ling, dressed in beginner gear, headed towards the tower.
The monsters on the first floor were slimes. The slimes opened their mouths to devour Yun Ling the moment they saw him.
Yun Ling calmly dodged the slime's attack, then used the skill 'Slash'.
This seemed to be an innate skill for everyone; it only reduced the slime's health by about a quarter.
He then attempted to use 'Taixu Sword Qi', barely glancing at it before shattering it into pieces.
The system notification read, 'Taixu Sword Qi Proficiency +1'.
Seeing its immense power, Yun Ling immediately began his slaughter on the first floor.
Soon, his beginner gear was upgraded to level five slime armor, but he still wielded a beginner longsword.
It wasn't that no new suitable weapons had been found, but rather because...
None of those weapons could withstand Yun Ling's 'Taixu Sword Qi'.
Every piece of equipment has a 'durability' stat. When Yun Ling used 'Taixu Sword Qi' on other longswords, their durability would rapidly decrease.
Only the beginner longsword, which had no 'durability' and could be used indefinitely, so Yun Ling continued using it.
Yun Ling allocated his free attribute points gained from leveling up in a 3:1 ratio to attack and agility—one to compensate for the weapon's lack of attack power, and the other to facilitate his movement.
He could sense a high degree of freedom in this world. Perhaps due to his considerable gaming talent, after entering this world, he felt all his senses had become incredibly sharp.
His prediction of attack landing points and calculation of health points were also extremely precise. The only drawback was that his body couldn't keep up with his thoughts.
Yun Ling suspected that his 'Agility' was limiting his performance. After adding a few points to Agility, he could clearly feel his body becoming much lighter.
Unconsciously, Yun Ling found himself in a huge room, where a gigantic Slime King appeared before him.
"This must be the boss those people were talking about," Yun Ling murmured.
The Slime King roared and leaped high into the air, intending to smash Yun Ling into a pulp.
"Taixu Sword Qi - Sword Opening Style - Sky Rift!"
The high attack boost instantly split the Slime King in two.
But the two halves of the Slime King didn't die; instead, they attacked Yun Ling simultaneously.
"Sword Opening Style: Sea Severance!"
A sword qi slashed out, splitting the two charging Slime Kings in two again.
The Slime King was now split into four.
"This is never going to end..." Yun Ling frowned.
Fortunately, after the Slime King split into eight again, it didn't split further.
No wonder those people warned him that teamwork was best; if he didn't have a skill like 'Taixu Sword Qi' that could break through defenses, he'd be stuck in the middle of nowhere.
After collecting the loot dropped by the BOSS, Yun Ling headed upwards.
In just two days, Yun Ling had already reached the tenth floor, while the main force had only just reached the seventeenth floor.
After two days of fighting, Yun Ling's proficiency with 'Taixu Sword Qi' had advanced from beginner to expert.
There was still a proficiency stage in between, which he reached in half a day.
His current proficiency is '1145/10000'.
Besides the 'Opening Sword Form' he had just learned, he had gained three more different sword forms in his mind: 'Transforming Sword Form', 'Guarding Sword Form', and 'Sword Opening Form'.
This made him more flexible and versatile in battle.
He had gradually adapted to life here, but had also learned some things about the outside world from others.
It was indeed 2044 outside. The old MOBA games were long outdated, replaced by virtual reality games.
However, Yun Ling also noticed some differences between himself and others.
One was hunger. In this world, hunger was a status statistic.
Low hunger would add some negative buffs, but otherwise had little effect on the player.
But Yun Ling was different; he could genuinely feel hunger.
Moreover, after using 'Taixu Sword Qi' for a while, he would clearly feel 'tired,' but his status bar showed no abnormalities.
It was as if... he was living in this world.
This was even more absurd than if he had transmigrated, and he subconsciously dared not think in that direction.
The second was self-created skills. He had never heard anything about self-created skills from anyone else, though the possibility of them being concealed couldn't be ruled out.
The game does offer some skill learning, but after experiencing it firsthand, Yun Ling felt the gap between these skills and the 'Taixu Sword Qi' was simply enormous.
Whether it was power, casting animation, or attack range, none could compare to the Taixu Sword Qi.
This made Yun Ling feel like he was playing a game with cheat codes.
But this somewhat compensated for his lack of equipment; after all, fighting the tenth-floor boss with a beginner's longsword was a bit ridiculous.
After a simple lunch, Yun Ling continued his ascent towards the tower.
The tenth level consisted of minotaurs wielding giant axes. Yun Ling moved effortlessly among the monsters with his agility.
"Help! Run!!!"
A voice rang out. Yun Ling looked up and saw an incredibly fast figure running towards him, followed by a large group of minotaurs.
Suddenly, she tripped and fell flat on her face—a scene straight out of an anime!
The girl's eyes were filled with terror. It was all over, and she'd dragged the others down with her...
Yun Ling lunged forward, his sword flashing wildly among the minotaurs.
As Yun Ling sheathed his sword, all the minotaurs behind him vanished in fragments.
"Wow! You, how are you so amazing?!" The girl's eyes shone with admiration as she looked at Yun Ling.
"It's just that the level is higher," Yun Ling explained.
He always killed monsters alone, without sharing experience with anyone else, so using his high level as an excuse was perfect.
"Um... please help me, boss!!" The girl grabbed Yun Ling's hand, looking at him with pleading eyes.
"...What's your name?" Yun Ling silently withdrew his hand and asked.
"Reporting, boss, my name is Susannah!"
...