As an NPC, having a lot of skills is quite reasonable, right?

After seeing Gray off, Moen returned to his bedroom, locked the doors and windows, and collapsed onto the soft bed.

"We can finally take stock of our gains."

He rubbed his hands together excitedly. This trip to the Sulfur Cave, combined with the players' previous frantic farming, had brought his inventory to an unprecedented level of abundance.

[Fragment of Mortal Essence: 617]

[Sacred Ritual Fragment: 18]

Pale Life Stone: 1

【Azure Life Stone: 1】

[Violet Life Stone: 1]

Moen's consciousness sank as he entered the familiar long corridor lined with countless statues.

In addition to the original Snow Mammoth, Stitched Corpse Puppet, and Exploding Bat, four new statues have been lit up this time.

"Come on, let's see what good stuff we have."

Moen first looked at the [Boiling Blood Red Salamander].

Aside from the unremarkable stacking heat poison skill, another ordinary skill called [Smooth Skin] caught his attention.

This skill has a chance to halve the physical damage received. Although the probability is not high, it may have a surprising effect, and it only costs 50 Mortal Shards.

"A decent survival-oriented embryo, cheap and affordable." Moen secretly noted it down.

Moen put that aside for now and looked at the next one, the [Melting Shell Turtle].

I've seen its skills before: one is to summon a delayed pillar of fire at the enemy's feet, and the other is to shrink into its shell.

However, the skills underwent an adaptive change when it came to Moen.

When cast, it forms a continuously flowing lava armor by covering the body with high-heat magic, during which the user's dual resistances are increased by 100%, and half of the damage received on the first hit is reflected.

However, this skill has a drawback: you cannot move while casting it.

Moen stroked his chin. "Although I don't like being a sitting duck, spending 100 mortal fragments as fusion material is absolutely amazing, especially with that damage reflection mechanism."

After a brief moment of thought, Moen did not rush to exchange for it, but instead looked at the skills of the [Mist Demon] next to him.

As a rare elite monster, it has many more skills, a total of four.

However, Moen had already decided which skill to exchange for, mainly because that skill was too useful.

[Skill: Misty Shadow Veil]

[Rank: Mortal]

[Consumable: 50 MP]

[Cooldown: 20 seconds (after leaving combat)]

[Description: You have created a perfect disguise by adjusting the refractive index of light and the wavelength of magic around you.]

[Skill Effect]

【Perfect Mimicry: Can specify and mimic a humanoid creature within sight (or create a face from memory). 100% accurate appearance, simulates voice by vibrating the air near the vocal cords, and can also simulate the characteristics of the opponent's magical energy fluctuations (limited to Mortal level, cannot simulate the aura of a Saint level powerhouse)】

[Ruin: The disguise will be lost when taking damage or performing a violent attack.]

This skill is very effective, but the exchange price is also very expensive, costing as much as 120 Mortal Fragments.

As for the exploding bats, they have two skills. One is to reduce fire resistance and leave behind magic crystals that increase self-destruct damage. The other is an auxiliary skill called echolocation, which can detect units up to 30m away in a fan-shaped area in front of them.

The former requires 60 mortal fragments, while the latter requires 50 mortal fragments.

Since Moen doesn't possess the self-destructing characteristic inherent in self-destructing bats, the only bat statue that can be considered is the latter.

Moen is currently thinking about the skills that synergize with the Life Stone [Furnace]. Skill fragments are also in very short supply, so he plans to continue keeping Bat on the bench.

Finally, Moen's gaze fell upon the final statue, [Lord of Boiling - Molten Throat].

The three mortal elements are [Acid Rain], [Earth Vein Surge], and [Furnace Meltdown].

One of the skills had "furnace" in its name, which instantly caught his attention.

By simulating the internal structure of the Melting Throat's body, a prison is constructed to trap enemies and deal damage based on their maximum health!

Moen immediately decided that this was one of the skills of the Life Stone Fusion. As for the Holy Ritual skill that Molten Throat had not been used, it was a bit far from Moen's reach.

[Skill: Sulfur Purgatory]

[Rank: Sacred Ritual]

[Description: This is the power of Molten Throat as the ruler of the area. Through a 5-second channeling process, you connect with the ley lines, forcibly rewriting the surrounding environment into a boiling inferno.]

[Consumable: 200 MP]

[Cooldown: 200 seconds]

Duration: 20 seconds

[Skill Effect]

[The moment the skill is activated, scorched earth rapidly spreads outwards from you, covering a circular area with a radius of 20 meters.]

[Environmental Rewrite - Scorched Earth: Deals (100 + Arcane * 1.8) points of Fire Burn damage per second to all ground units within the area except the caster (whether friendly or enemy).]

[Vision Deprivation: Dense sulfurous fumes reduce the field of vision of all creatures within the area to 3 meters.]

【Suffocation and Compression: Except for the caster, all units that inhale the poison gas will enter the 【Severe Poisoning】 state after remaining in the area for more than 5 seconds, losing 1% of their current health per second (this damage can be blocked by shields, but cannot be cleansed unless they leave the area)】

[Exchange Price: 20 Holy Ritual Fragments + 800 Mortal Fragments]

As expected of a boss in a hidden map, this Holy Ritual skill is a bit too overpowered.

Unfortunately, he was instantly defeated by Gray and didn't get to witness the skill's power. After glancing at the price of the skill, Moen could only sigh.

Let's look at the mammoths in the distance, my friends.

I haven't redeemed the Snow Mammoth's [Wrath of Winter] yet; this equally powerful crowd control skill only costs 12 Holy Relics + 300 Mortal Essence.

Moen is now considering exchanging for another Holy Ritual skill, since there are still two empty slots in the Holy Ritual skill bar, and exchanging for it would increase his immediate combat power.

After some calculations, Moen overturned his previous idea and decided to exchange for [Wrath of Winter], [Melting Furnace], and [Lava Armor]. He felt that the latter two skills were a perfect match for the Life Stone, and as for the other skills, he would have to wait for the next opportunity.

The three skills require a total of 12 Holy Ritual Fragments and 600 Mortal Fragments to exchange. After the exchange is completed, Moen will only have 17 Mortal Fragments and 6 Holy Ritual Fragments left.

"It's like going back to square one in an instant." Moen looked at his empty balance, wondering when he would be able to open up his skill slots again.

After a brief moment of melancholy, Moen entered the fusion interface and placed the [Furnace Digestion], [Lava Armor], and Furnace Life Stone into it. This time, the interface turned a dark red like lava, and even the success rate indicator had a lava effect.

[Compatibility: Extremely High]

Success rate: 95%

[Recommendation: This combination exhibits directional resonance and could be a priority for integration]

If the fusion fails, the Life Stone, as the main material, will shatter, and the skill will undergo an irreversible and malignant mutation.

What else is there to say? Open up!

The viscous sound of magma flowing filled my ears. Fiery red lava surged from the slot in the Life Stone, swallowing and dissolving the two skill crystals. Then, a roar resounded, and a brand new red skill stone shot into the sky from the magma.

【Calamity Heart (Passive)】

[Rank: Mortal - Unyielding]

[Description: You have implanted a dormant volcano into your heart. Normally it remains dormant, protecting you with thick lava armor. But if you are on the verge of death and the restraints break, the surroundings will transform into a purgatory that melts everything in its path.]

[Skill Effect]

[Lava Armor: You gain a layer of dynamic armor and significantly reduce the effects of pain. The lower your current health, the higher your damage reduction. For every 5% of health lost, your physical and magical resistances increase by 10% (up to 100%).]

[Purgatory: When your health drops below 40%, a "Lava Domain" will automatically activate within a 3-meter radius centered on you. Enemies within the domain will take true fire damage per second equal to 2% of your lost health.]

[Meltdown: When receiving fatal damage, forcibly locks health for 1 second (health is capped at 1 point) and triggers "Firestorm" (reflects 50% of damage). This effect has a fixed cooldown of 180 seconds.]

[Overload Penalty: Within 60 seconds of triggering the meltdown, the furnace core enters a shutdown state. During this period, the "Lava Armor" and "Inferno" buffs provided by this skill are completely disabled, and the user's dual resistances are reduced by 50%.]

[Entry already included: Unyielding]

[Martyr class development progress: 4/5]

First of all, this skill is passive, which is undoubtedly a huge buff because it does not take up a skill slot. Even better, its stats match the Martyr system.

The first two effects are some changes to the fusion skill. The most important one is the melting effect brought by the Life Stone, which gives you a chance to avoid death every three minutes.

Although you might not be able to wait for a second recovery during combat, and it doesn't grant invincibility like some other items after being triggered, making it useless against continuous damage, considering it's just a mortal passive skill, what more could you ask for?

Moen is just one more related entry away from unlocking his class. Although it still seems like a long way off, and we don't know what the next life stone will be like or whether we can fuse it to create the relevant skills, at least there is hope. The class characteristics and attribute bonuses that a class brings are a huge boost.

His mortal skill bar remains unchanged, with three combined skill attributes: [Bloodstained Frost Robe], [Adversity Holy Cleansing], and [White Thorn Blossom].

In order to trigger the triple passive [Desperate Struggle], Moen has not touched these three skills.

Then, the remaining two slots were used by Moen for the mobility skill [Frosty Wind Shadow] and the slot without a fixed skill was now filled with [Crystal Web] to supplement control.

As for the Ritual slots, they are [Mirror Warp] and [Winter's Wrath].

After this massive amount of thinking, Moen felt a bit dizzy and lightheaded. It was around 8 p.m., and Moen fell into a deep sleep while thinking about his next plan.

At this time, most of the lights in the border town of Nohanville had been turned off, with only a few scattered firelights dotting the landscape.