Nolan was also somewhat surprised by the range of the Dark Wave's influence, then he grinned.
Stomp!
Nolan's foot stomped the ground, his body instantly vanished from his original spot, and in a blink, he appeared in front of the petrified lizard that was attacking the Flame Archangel.
His arm swung, and the iron sword's blade aimed at the petrified lizard's neck and chopped down!
Puff!
Foul-smelling blood gushed out, and the massive head was directly severed.
Bang!
The petrified lizard regained its ability to move, but its headless body uncontrollably toppled over, falling heavily to the ground.
"Experience gained: 723"
[Experience Slot: 10355 / 10000]
"Is the experience from petrified lizards that low? Or is it due to the influence of the curse?"
This thought flashed through Nolan's mind as he pivoted his ankle and charged towards another petrified lizard.
Crack!
The iron sword shattered.
Another iron sword appeared in Nolan's palm, and he swung it down.
"Experience gained: 539"
Whoosh!
Nolan continued to switch swords, his figure moving rapidly in the darkness, each shattered iron sword representing a slain petrified lizard.
The "Dark Wave" ability left these monsters completely unable to resist, only able to stiffly await death in place. Unless they possessed the ability to counter "Fear" and "Weakness Curse," the Dark Wave was an excellent crowd control skill.
While gaining experience,
Nolan also more clearly noticed the increase in the curse power within his body.
The curse power contained within these petrified lizards was clearly far greater in magnitude than that of the monsters he had encountered before.
However, Nolan had not yet figured out what purpose this absorbed curse power served; its intensity didn't seem to have changed.
In a moment,
All dozen or so petrified lizards were slain.
Crack!
Casually tossing the cracked sword hilt to the ground, Nolan's gaze swept over the experience on his panel.
[Experience Slot: 16789 / 10000]
More than ten petrified lizards caused his experience points to soar, already meeting the conditions for another level up. "A good harvest."
A smile appeared on Nolan's face as he walked towards the unconscious Duo Gan. When he saw that half of the other party's skin had already rotted, his brows furrowed.
In this situation,
He had no means to resolve it; only by finding the source might there be a way.
Nolan reached out and lifted the unconscious Duo Gan, then swung his arm, sending two Flame Archangels to clear the path ahead.
Time passed little by little.
Nolan suffered a few more attacks from fully rotted monsters and easily dealt with all of them.
[Experience Slot: 17520 / 10000]
Unfortunately, these monsters had low corrosion strength due to the curse power, but they yielded a considerable amount of curse power energy.
As he delved deeper, the fully rotted monsters gradually disappeared, and the number of white bones on the ground began to increase.
After walking for about 20 more minutes in the dark valley,
Then,
A massive mountain wall blocked the way ahead.
"No more road?"
Nolan walked to the rough mountain wall, raised his hand, and knocked hard, producing a dull sound.
It was solid!
Something was wrong.
A thought flashed through Nolan's mind, and he had the Flame Archangels move around the entire stone wall, acting as searchlights.
Although he wore a "Night Vision" magical item on his left eye, it couldn't fully reveal subtle details like true daylight.
After carefully checking and confirming that there were no gaps in the stone wall in front of him, Nolan then directed the two Flame Archangels to continue exploring the stone wall above.
It wasn't until the two Flame Archangels ascended about ten meters that they discovered a hidden gap where the stone wall met the left rock wall.
Nolan had one Flame Archangel carry him up, and indeed, he saw a broken opening.
Judging by the size of the opening,
It should have been dug open by monsters like the petrified lizards.
"The curse power is becoming increasingly active. It's indeed in here."
Nolan expressionlessly directed the other Flame Archangel into the cave entrance. After waiting for a moment, nothing happened, so he then entered the stone cave.
The walls inside the cave were covered with fine scratches and dust, indicating that it had existed for quite some time.
A moment later,
The exit of the dark cave came into view, illuminated by the light emanating from the Flame Archangel that had entered ahead.
Nolan stood at the entrance of the cave, looking down.
This was a space similar to a crevice between mountain walls; its area was not large, and the light emanating from the two Flame Archangels was enough to illuminate the entire space.
"That is——" Nolan's eyes narrowed, having discovered something.
Thud!
Dropping from a height of about ten meters, Nolan's figure landed heavily on the ground, causing a vibrating sound to echo throughout the narrow space.
An invisible, dense curse power surged within this confined space.
Nolan first looked ahead.
It was a human skeleton, propped against the rock wall. The surface of the bones was grayish-white, and the joints connecting the limbs had long since decayed.
There wasn't even the smell of decay in the air, clearly indicating that it had been dead for a very long time.
Most striking of all!
In front of this human skeleton was a massive scale, about a person's height, and it was jet black!
Visible black curse energy was slowly seeping out from this scale, dissipating into the air.
"What on earth is this?" Nolan couldn't help but widen his eyes, looking at this enormous scale.
He had speculated on various possibilities, but he never imagined that the source of the curse power would be a scale?
And who was the human skeleton before him?
According to the timeline, ordinary human bones couldn't possibly exist for so long, especially in a space filled with curse power.
Walking forward quickly, Nolan's magic power flashed: "Item Appraisal!"
Item: Mysterious Scale Level:?
Description:?
Nolan was slightly stunned; this was the first time he had encountered a situation where no information could be appraised.
Judging by the size of this scale, it should belong to some giant creature.
The curse power within his body became unusually restless.
Subconsciously,
Nolan raised a finger and lightly touched the black scale.
Boom!
In an instant, the black curse energy slowly dissipating from the scale, as if finding a vent, surged into Nolan's body.
The curse power, which had already accumulated quite a bit, reached a certain bottleneck in a short period!
[Cursed Knight: 1Lv → 2Lv]
The information about his profession advancement appeared on the attribute panel, bringing a look of astonishment to Nolan's face.
And this process was still not over!
The curse power within the mysterious scale continued to pour in, and even the curse power gradually dissipating in the air converged with the energy from the mysterious scale.
This process lasted even longer.
Therefore, Nolan was able to feel the changes in the curse power within his body more clearly.
The profession information on the attribute panel refreshed again.
[Cursed Knight: 2Lv → 3Lv]!
By this point, the curse power contained within the mysterious scale was completely exhausted, and the originally jet-black surface of the scale began to show grayish-white patterns.
"Profession——advanced?"
Nolan looked at his experience slot, then at the [Cursed Knight] which had already advanced to level three, his expression both dazed and full of disbelief.
It was as if he had discovered a new continent.
All this time,
Regarding profession level advancement, Nolan believed there were only two ways: either like people in other worlds, specifically cultivating that profession, but that was clearly too time-consuming.
The other was to advance the profession by consuming experience points. But now, a third way to advance profession levels had appeared!
"Absorbing profession-related energy can actually advance profession levels?"
Nolan muttered to himself in surprise, then thought of something else and shook his head.
This method did not seem to be universal.
For example, the "Sword Saint" profession could not be advanced this way and could only be improved through cultivation.
"What an incredible discovery!" Nolan's eyes sparkled with an unusual light.