Kill one monster, stack one poison, and I alone will poison my way across the world!

The old woman placed the purple clay teapot on the stone table and said slowly and deliberately:

"Take your most frequently used summoning skill, for example... it's called Corrosive Serpent Guard, right?"

Su Chen nodded.

"The mechanics of this skill are: survival time of thirty seconds, cooldown of fifteen seconds."

The Poison Granny narrowed her eyes. "Theoretically, as long as you have enough mana, you can indeed achieve unlimited sustain and keep the maximum number of Snake Guards on the field at all times."

"However, its flaws are too fatal."

The poisonous old woman held up three fingers.

"First, its range is limited."

"These snake guards might be enough in low-level battles."

"But when you encounter high-level professionals who know how to kite and maneuver, they might only be able to figure out the attack range of your Serpent Guards. Some archers can even attack from hundreds of meters away. What will you do then, bypassing the Serpent Guards to attack you directly?"

"Secondly, it cannot be moved."

"This is the dumbest design ever."

The old woman mercilessly commented, "A summon that can't move is just a sitting duck. Once others figure out the attack range of your snake guards and leave that area, your skill will be mostly useless, and you'll only be able to passively take hits."

Third, single-target attacks.

"It deals single-target poison damage once per second, which is too slow for clearing mobs and inefficient when facing group attacks."

The old woman lowered her hand and looked at Su Chen.

"You're still in the beginner stage, and these weaknesses aren't obvious as you rely on overwhelming damage."

"But once you level up and encounter a true master, these weaknesses will be magnified infinitely, and they won't just stand there and let you hit them."

"Therefore, you need to evolve your skills from these three perspectives."

Su Chen stood there, completely stunned.

His brain began to work at lightning speed.

If the serpent guards could exist for a very long time, or even become permanent...

Then I won't have to summon them frequently every time I enter battle. I can fill the area with Serpent Guards in advance, which saves me the trouble of casting animation and mana consumption!

Even... you can set up a few snake guards in the wild where you're farming monsters, and just wait to harvest your loot every day.

Su Chen's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

If the Serpent Guard could move...

The moment this thought crossed Su Chen's mind, he felt his heart skip a beat.

This can be said to have perfectly solved his biggest pain point.

When he was grinding monsters in the wild or dealing with the projections of those senior students in the Tower of Babel, what annoyed him the most was that others figured out the Snake Guard's 15-meter range and then stood outside the circle to annoy him.

This forced him to constantly summon new units and rearrange the formation, putting him in an extremely passive position.

If you can move, then you've really become a summoner!

A scene flashed through Su Chen's mind:

More than 10,000 corrosive snake guards, their bodies glowing green, were no longer dead logs stuck in the ground, but rather like a real swarm of snakes, overwhelming and chasing after the enemy.

That scene was absolutely beautiful...

Not only that.

If they could move, the more than 10,000 snake guards could easily split up and launch an attack!

A full-scale tactical maneuver: sweeping searches, encirclement, and cutting off retreat routes!

Su Chen licked his slightly dry lips.

As for the third point mentioned by the Poison Granny, turning single-target attacks into area-of-effect (AOE) damage...

After thinking about it for a moment, Su Chen immediately rejected this idea in his mind.

No need.

AOE damage is indeed very appealing.

But what he has no shortage of is quantity.

As long as the snake guards can move, he can easily distract them to attack different targets separately.

Su Chen glanced at his mental attribute, which was as high as 8066 points on his panel.

The Spirit attribute not only affects mana and magic damage, but also determines a class changer's calculation ability and multitasking ability.

With his current mental strength, he can control thousands of snake guards simultaneously for precise single-target kills without any pressure.

The old woman put down the purple clay teapot and tapped her fingertips lightly twice on the stone table.

"Now that we've figured out the limitations of the Serpent Guard, let's move on to your second skill."

"All Poisons Explode and Die".

Upon hearing the name, Su Chen immediately snapped out of his fantasy about a swarm of snakes.

The Poison Granny looked at Su Chen and slowly said, "Judging from the damage description alone, this skill is terrifying. It can unleash the accumulated poison damage in an instant to kill high-health targets; it's practically a divine skill."

"However, its weaknesses are just as obvious as your snake guards."

The old woman raised her finger again.

"First, it needs to be released proactively."

"In the ever-changing high-level battlefield, every extra casting action increases the risk of being countered or instantly killed. You have to be distracted to press this switch."

"Secondly, single-target skills."

"Detonate the poison on a single enemy. Against a horde of beasts, or those high-ranking lords with their own clones or summons, this skill can at most kill one unit, and the remaining monsters can still tear you apart."

"Third, the cooldown time is a bit long."

"Fifteen-second cooldown. In an encounter, you usually only have one chance to attack. If the opponent dodges this attack with an invincibility skill, you'll lose a trump card for the next fifteen seconds."

After the old woman finished speaking, she fell silent and simply looked at Su Chen quietly.

At this moment, Su Chen's mind was already racing.

Active skill, single-target burst damage, long cooldown...

While the damage is high, the margin for error is too low, and the operation is cumbersome.

If it could evolve...

Su Chen took a deep breath.

What if we change 'active release' to 'passive triggering'?

The moment this thought crossed Su Chen's mind, he felt a chill run down his spine.

He doesn't need to manually detonate it; instead, each of his attacks, or the snake guard's attacks, automatically triggers a small portion of the 'Ten Thousand Poisons Explosion' effect...

Even if each trigger only detonates half the damage, it's still invincible!

Because what he has no shortage of is attack frequency.

While the poison damage is high now, it requires one tick per second.

If the Serpent Guard's attack can also trigger the Thousand Poison Explosion, then it can cause tens of thousands of poison explosions in an instant!

Once his active ultimate skill is turned into a permanent passive skill, combined with his "All Things Corrupt" trait, it will truly be a nuclear explosion.

The second point is that single-target attacks are now transformed into area-of-effect attacks...

Su Chen swallowed.

If detonating a target could cause the same or a reduced version of splash damage to surrounding enemies?

One explosion can cause a huge uproar.

Detonating just one monster can instantly clear out a screen full of mobs!

A divine skill for clearing away debris!

This is what a mage should be like: one kill, and the whole horde is wiped out.

As for the third point, shortening the CD...

Su Chen looked at the glaring [Cooldown Time: 15 seconds] on the panel.

15 seconds is indeed too long.

If the time can be reduced to ten seconds, or even five seconds, the margin for error will be greatly improved.

Or... how about just refreshing the cooldown with a kill?

The skill cooldown is immediately reset as long as a target is killed by the Poison Explosion.

Wouldn't that mean we could just bomb them all the way through?

Passively triggered.

AOE splash.

Reduce cooldown or refresh upon kill.

Any one of these three upgrade paths, once achieved, will transform [Ten Thousand Poisons Explosion] from a cumbersome finishing move into a truly powerful crowd control skill.

Su Chen raised his head, his eyes fixed on the Poison Granny.

"Mother-in-law, only children make choices. I want all three."