This isn't a souls-like game at all.

"So, this person was killed by the prophecy demon."

Ye Yiyi tossed the sky shell up and down, and turned his head to look at the ruins on the side.

"It seems there's a demon here."

I have to say that this is good news. After all, in Ye Yiyi's current eyes, invaders like evil spirits are just fortune-bringing boys who come specifically to give away magic/weapons/protection gear.

Putting aside the incident with Norsley, the last time Ye Yiyi met the prophetic demon spirit was his old acquaintance, the tower keeper Augustus.

"As for this Sky Shell, keep it for now. I'll find a chance to exchange it at the Gossipmonger's Altar later."

In the game, the "Tattletales" covenant is a faction for online play.

When invading another world with this oath equipped, it will appear as the Prophecy Spirit.

After killing and eliminating the world master, that is, other players who have started the online game, you can obtain a "Prophecy Sky Shell".

After collecting a certain number of Prophecy Sky Shells, you can exchange them for various pledge rewards at the Tongue-Pulling Altar.

In Ye Yiyi's impression, the rewards for the Gossipmonger's Oath include three kinds of magic, an ornament, and a magic catalyst.

There are five rewards in total, which are obtained in a fixed order. Each redemption requires 10 Prophecy Sky Shells, and a total of 50 Prophecy Sky Shells are required for redemption.

It is worth mentioning that the third-tier reward, the magic catalyst "Cursed Crystal Wand", is the magic wand with the highest intelligence bonus and spell bonus, and is also the graduation weapon of the pure intelligence mage school.

The "self" I met at the bathhouse in Campbell City before was using that magic wand.

Therefore, even someone like Ye Yiyi who doesn't play PVP has to invade with his nose held high, and take all the rewards in addition to the sky shell obtained during the plot.

After all, the game's achievements include "collect all spells" and "collect all accessories".

If you want to achieve all platinum achievements without cheating, then online invasion becomes a must.

But now the game has become a reality, and the invasion gameplay in the game has turned into a real bloody fight.

In this way, the prerequisite task of invading and eliminating an unknown hero NPC character in our camp in order to obtain the "Tattletale" oath has also changed from a plot requirement to an actual act of betrayal.

It’s okay to be a traitor in the game, but Ye Yiyi doesn’t intend to play that game in reality.

But he was not sure whether he could exchange the Prophecy Sky Shell for rewards without signing an oath.

"If that doesn't work, then I can only go find the real bodies of those demons and snatch the rewards from them."

Ye Yiyi narrowed her eyes and thought so.

"But these are uncertain at the moment, and I know where the Tongue-Pulling Altar is. Perhaps we can skip the pre-quests and go there directly."

He thought for a moment and put away the Prophecy Sky Shell in his hand. Then he looked around and walked towards the ruins of the building next to him, holding the Gray Scale Contract.

Before heading out to face the demon, he planned to explore the surrounding area first.

Around the ruins of the building in the center, there are still many broken walls covered with moss and crystals.

Although they have long since collapsed over the years and their original forms are no longer recognizable, it is not ruled out that there are things worth taking inside them.

Entering a crumbling stone archway, one arrives at an open hall without walls or ceiling, with several crystalline arches standing on moss-covered bluestone tiles.

Ye Yi looked around and found many skeletons around the crystal arch pillars.

"Are these all mercenaries? Could it be that they were all killed by the Prophecy Demon Spirit?"

He frowned slightly and walked towards the nearest corpse.

"bite,!"

Suddenly, a crisp bell rang from the corner, and six deep blue magic meteors quietly emerged, circling around the arch like snakes, winding towards them.

"Buzz buzz!!"

Before Ye Yiyi could react, the dung beetle spread its thin wings, jumped out from his shoulder, and transformed into a crystal dung beetle, rushing towards the oncoming magic meteor.

"Clang clang clang!!"

The dung beetle did not dodge or evade, and used its shining crystalline body to continuously catch three deep blue magic meteors.

With only three crisp sounds, the incoming meteors completely disintegrated and dispersed on the crystalline shell.

The dung beetle was still soaring in the air, its body intact, and then it rushed towards the illusory existence in the corner with great energy.

"A phantom of the past?"

Ye Yiyi drew out the Moonlight Spear with his backhand and swung it. The blue spear body composed of the eternal moon magic immediately shot down the remaining three dark blue comets.

He turned his head and saw the dung beetle holding a giant magic arrow and stabbing its sharp horns straight into the chest of a phantom wearing a black robe and a black wide-brimmed pointed hat.

“Bang!!”

A surging white spiritual fire suddenly burst out from the phantom's body, turning it into a blazing pillar of fire.

The phantom fell backwards to the ground, and disappeared into the air along with the burning spiritual fire.

Soul Echo +863.

Current soul echoes: 186552.

"It's actually the magician's phantom from the past. Was this ruin once the magician's territory?"

Ye Yiyi was slightly surprised, then looked at the prompt that popped up on the simplified light screen.

"The echoes of 863's soul are more numerous than the past apparitions of the Fire Sparrow Monk, but not by much... Well done, Dung Beetle."

He rubbed the dung beetle that was excited to take credit, then went to the place where the phantom disappeared, bent down and picked up a white stone the size of an egg from the ground.

"Crystallization again?"

He frowned slightly, then looked at the light curtain.

【Focus on crystal beads】

Item Description: A magical crystal that is extremely active and has a slight sense of concentration.

Direct use can eliminate fatigue and restore some concentration.

One of the results of Zhige Hall's research on crystallization.

Seal various substances through crystallization.

An item obtained after special magic refining.

It will only be distributed to outstanding magicians.

After reading the item description, Ye Yiyi was a little surprised.

"This is actually a prop-type substitute for blue medicine? Has the Palace of Stopping War even developed something like this?"

Then his expression darkened and he asked a soul-searching question.

"Then why isn't it in the game?"

Although there are recipes in the game that can be used to restore the mana bar as an alternative, that thing still requires collecting materials, which is far less convenient than this kind of mana medicine that can be dropped by monsters directly.

"Forget it, I don't lack mana at all now anyway."

With the addition of various characteristics, he not only has no shortage of mana, but can also use magic that can cause continuous damage to fill up the mana bar.

After putting away the crystal beads, he walked back to the corpse and bent over to take a look, but only found a rusty sword covered with crystals.

After using sublimation magic to remove the crystals on its surface, the light curtain popped out.

【Mercenary Longsword】(Damaged)

"Pure garbage."

Ye Yiyi shook his head and used the universal cauldron to decompose it, harvesting two pieces of ordinary raw iron ore.

Continuing to explore other skeletons, Ye Yiyi quickly deduced their time of death based on the degree of crystallization of the bones, and discovered that they were not a team that had embarked on a joint expedition.

In other words, all the skeletons here are lone wolf mercenaries.

They are all the fools that Doss mentioned, those who are hoping to get rich overnight with a fluke mentality.

The body of the idiot who died the latest was not completely rotten yet, and you could even see fat and tender white maggots crawling back and forth on his corpse.

"I could clearly see the bones scattered all over the ground before entering the door, but in the end, I was blinded by the profit and died in the sneak attack of the phantom of the past."

Ye Yiyi shook his head slightly, then picked up a bulging cloth bag from next to the corpse.

When he opened it, Ye Yiyi suddenly retracted his head and avoided the bite of a venomous snake covered with black crystalline scales.

"Buzz!!"

The dung beetle waiting nearby swooped down at high speed, and its large horns acted like scissors, cutting off the snake's triangular head.

Ye Yiyi grabbed the headless snake body that was gushing blood, pulled it out of the bag and threw it on the ground.

"Awesome, there's actually one hiding in here."

He couldn't help but sigh as he watched the headless snake dancing on the ground, and finally losing its life force and collapsing to death.

"This explorer is truly not someone you can call an ordinary person. He's incredibly difficult to defend against with all sorts of subtle attacks. If you're not careful, you'll end up with nothing more than a pile of bones."

When he opened the cloth bag again, he saw, as expected, several crystallized snake eggs lying quietly among the scattered coins and jewelry.

"Even the eggs are crystallized?"

He took one out curiously and took a look at it, and a light curtain popped up.

【Crystallized Cone-Horned Snake Eggs】

Item Description: Live eggs incubated by cone-horned snakes.

One of the recipe ingredients used to make a dish.

It can also be used for artificial incubation.

Obtained a young Crystalline Cone-Horned Snake infected by magic.

The cone-horn snake is pitch black and can secrete a terrifying, acute, and highly venomous poison.

Therefore, he is favored by killers and spies.

After being crystallized due to magic erosion.

Its venom also has the strange effect of corroding souls.

"This egg can actually hatch?"

Ye Yiyi was shocked. He thought these eggs had become dead after being eroded by magic.

And this snake venom can also corrode the soul?

This effect is a bit outrageous. Why do humans only turn into crystallized people after being eroded by magic, while these animals can gain various enhancements?

"Why is that? Are we unworthy?"

He muttered, trying to collect the eggs into the fourth-dimensional chrysanthemum.

I don’t know if it’s because these eggs can jump out of the light curtain, but Ye Yiyi successfully collected six snake eggs into the four-dimensional chrysanthemum.

Logically speaking, eggs are living things, but dung beetles cannot store them in four-dimensional chrysanthemums, even if they are crystallized.

"Maybe it's because dung beetles aren't considered props?"

He thought for a moment, then dismissed this rude idea amid the dung beetle's protest. He then found a flatter place and poured out everything in the bag.

"bite,!"

Before he could check, he heard another bell ringing from another ruin outside the hall.

The dung beetle suddenly rushed out, its crystallized body rushing towards him, but it paused slightly in the air, as if it had smashed something out of thin air.

"Invisible magic arrow??"

Ye Yiyi narrowed his eyes and felt the magical fluctuations of the concealment magic.

Turning his head again, he saw a shadow flash in the corner and disappear under a wall out of thin air.

"The phantom of the magician from the Hidden Palace?"

This is really unexpected. Just now, someone from the Star Palace came, and now someone from the Hidden Palace appears.

Will I be able to see magicians from the Gold Casting Palace and even the Palace of All Living Beings later?

Ye Yiyi thought to himself, then raised the Moonlight Spear and silently released the [Stargazing]

His magically enhanced eyes looked around and instantly saw through the phantom's disguise.

A magical comet flew through the ruins at high speed, piercing straight through the towering crystal arch pillar in the corner.