Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Explosion sound? (2/5)_1 Damage effects also have corresponding resistance levels, but unlike control effects, they do not have temporary resistance levels. Damage effects only consider your accumulated resistance level. For example, if you are afflicted with a bleed effect, you might lose 100 health points per second. While losing health, you accumulate bleed resistance. Once you accumulate 100 points of bleed resistance, your bleed resistance reaches Level 1. Subsequently, if you suffer another 100 points of bleeding damage, the damage you take will be reduced by 10%, meaning you only sustain 90 points of bleeding damage per second. The same principle applies to poison, burn, and frost damage. Regardless of the type of special damage, each instance of damage taken grants 1 experience point. The corpse poison effect of Chen Mo’s Skeleton Monsters only triggers a poison explosion damage every 100 stacks. This is different from typical poison effects that deal damage over time, so an opponent’s poison resistance accumulates very slowly against it. However, if the opponent possesses the Resistance Expert trait, it’s a different story. With this trait, they can accumulate 100 relevant experience points from a single instance of damage, effectively increasing their resistance leveling speed by 100 times. Still, Chen Mo wasn’t overly concerned. After all, the higher the resistance level, the more difficult it is to increase. Reaching Level 1 from Level 0 only requires 100 experience points. But progressing from Level 1 to Level 2 requires 500 points, from Level 2 to Level 3 requires 2,000 points, and from Level 3 to Level 4 requires 6,000 points. Even with a 100-fold increase in experience accumulation speed, reaching the maximum level wouldn’t be easy. Besides, even at the maximum level, one isn’t completely immune; at most, they are immune to 99% of the damage. Of course, if immunity reaches such a high level, dealing damage becomes considerably slower—a truly agonizing prospect! After examining The Master of Mutation’s information, Chen Mo didn’t identify any abilities or Skills that posed a particular threat to him. He decided to act immediately! Although the BOSS’s Active skills were potent, none were strong enough to instantly annihilate him and his five hundred Skeleton Monsters. As long as a single Skeleton Monster remained alive, Chen Mo, relying on the Shared Fate effect, could remain Immortal! And if Chen Mo was Immortal, Skeleton Monsters could be summoned endlessly, eventually wearing down this BOSS. As Chen Mo waved his Magic Wand, the nomad turned its head towards him. Naturally, as an archer, its eyesight was excellent, especially considering the alarming six eyes on its face. The sight was unnerving. Just as it was preparing to charge at Chen Mo, it keenly sensed something was amiss in its surroundings. Before it could react, it felt a sharp sting! 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦 A deluge of damage figures erupted above its head: -902! (PS: A special note—this story uses a custom attack and defense algorithm. Damage is not a simple subtraction of defensive power from attack power. According to this algorithm, when defensive power is approximately three times greater than attack power, the damage dealt approaches zero. Therefore, this story will adopt the setting that no damage can be inflicted if defensive power is more than three times the attack power; if it’s not more than three times, corresponding damage will be dealt.) -910! -895! -1,858! (critical hit) -930! ... -10,000! (Poison Blast) -36,000! (Poison Blast) (Level 1 Resistance) -81,000! (Poison Blast) (Level 1 Resistance) The Resistance Expert trait proved quite useful. After taking poison damage once, the nomad immediately gained Level 1 Poison Resistance. However, upgrading to Level 2 wouldn’t be so easy. As the damage numbers appeared, a large group of Skeleton Monsters armed with various weapons materialized beside the nomad. Simultaneously, another wave of needle-like pricks assaulted it, and a fresh stream of damage numbers appeared above The Master of Mutation’s head! -450! (Solid Skin) -465! (Solid Skin) -387! (Solid Skin) (Demolish Magic) ... -144,000! (Poison Blast) (Level 1 Resistance) -225,000! (Poison Blast) (Level 1 Resistance) With the appearance of these damage numbers, another contingent of Skeleton Monsters, wielding crossbows and Magic Wands, materialized in the distance. In an instant, Chen Mo’s five hundred summoned Skeleton Monsters had applied five hundred stacks of corpse poison to the nomad. However, this time Chen Mo didn’t deliberately arrange them in formation. Instead, he let them take advantage of their invisible mode, during which they had no collision volume, to stack together and deliver a powerful first strike before being revealed. As the attack broke their invisibility, the Skeleton Monsters, who had been stacked together due to their lack of collision volume while in invisible mode, suddenly materialized. They jostled against each other, spilling outwards and causing many to topple over in a chaotic mess. Chen Mo wasn’t bothered by this. This BOSS would take a significant amount of time to grind down anyway, and it possessed no abilities that threatened him. There was no need for him to meticulously plan the Skeleton Monsters’ movements. A mindless charge from them would suffice. As the Skeleton Monsters became visible, the nomad finally found targets for its rage. After the painful, needle-like attacks, it naturally initiated retaliation the moment it found the culprits. The axes in its two hands began a swift slaughter, each swing felling a Skeleton Monster. Its other four hands weren’t idle either; even bare-handed, it could easily crush a Skeleton Monster with two punches. However, with each Skeleton Monster’s demise, a continuous series of explosions echoed—BANG! BANG! BANG!—endlessly. Each Skeleton Monster now boasted 4,950 Health. The explosion damage was a type of fixed damage. Fixed damage, much like true damage, can bypass defensive power. But unlike true damage, fixed damage is affected by damage reduction effects. Fortunately, the nomad had no abilities to reduce fixed damage, so each dying Skeleton Monster inflicted the full 4,950 points of fixed damage! In the first exchange, the Skeleton Monsters dealt approximately four to five hundred thousand damage with their regular attacks alone. The five hundred stacks of corpse poison, culminating in Poison Blasts, knocked nearly four hundred thousand Health from the BOSS. Adding to this the continuous self-destruction damage from the Skeleton Monsters quickly slain by the BOSS, empowered by Revival, Chen Mo had dealt nearly one and a half million total damage to the nomad in this initial clash. One and a half million might sound substantial, but for a BOSS possessing over seventy billion Health, this amount of damage was as insignificant as losing a single strand of leg hair. Of course, this was merely the beginning! Once the Skeleton Monsters began to Stack poison, their true power would only grow over time! 「As Chen Mo began the battle...」 Shen Bingbing, who had already fled to the edge of the rule barrier, suddenly glanced back towards the forest. "Did you guys hear an explosion?" she asked. "An explosion? Why would there be an explosion out of nowhere?" "Are you hearing things?" Due to the great distance, muffled by layers of trees, any explosions in the forest’s center would have been too faint for most people to hear. As a four-star professional, Shen Bingbing had higher attributes, and her senses were somewhat sharper than others’, allowing her to barely catch a sound. While professionals don’t have specific attribute points allocated to senses, their sensory abilities improve with their overall attribute values, though the rate of improvement diminishes at higher levels. The improvement is more significant in the early stages. For instance, Chen Mo’s five senses were now at least 50% sharper than those of people like Fang Datong. Since everyone else said they hadn’t heard anything, Shen Bingbing could only conclude she had misheard. She looked towards the forest and said, "Why hasn’t Chen Mo come out yet? Didn’t he say he was just going to take a look?" "Maybe he’s tired from running, just like we were. After all, this forest is so big. It’s a long way to go in and come back out, so it’ll take a while," Fang Datong said, thinking there was nothing to worry about.