Chapter 58: The Picky Frost (Extra!)

[Prompt: You obtain 1,000 Soul Points.]
[Successfully killed the soul of the Level 20 Epic BOSS "The Forgotten - Franklin". Extra 70% experience bonus gained, Experience Points +12.75 million.]
[Congratulations, player "White Night", your level has increased to Level 20. All four attributes +1, skill point +1, free attribute points +15.]

Before Su Mubai and Frost could react, Franklin's soul fire had already been completely devoured by the [Death Codex].
It wasn't until a golden light flashed that Su Mubai snapped back to reality.
He flipped his hand and put away the [Death Codex], a hint of confusion in his eyes.
Doesn't [Soul Extraction] absorb the creatures killed by oneself?
It hadn't even started fighting yet, so why was it absorbed directly?
And why wasn't the soul force of that undead bone dragon absorbed earlier?
Su Mubai rubbed his chin, still unable to figure it out.
However, he quickly cast this matter to the back of his mind. His journey across the myriad realms had just begun, and he would eventually find out in the future.
The most important thing right now was that he could open the [Death Codex] once again!

Su Mubai didn't rush to open the [Death Codex] because the system prompt hadn't finished yet.
[You have completed the hidden quest "Rhodes's Request", Experience Points +10,000,000, Gold Coins +1,000.]
[Prompt: Current exploration rate 100%]
[You have completed the epic quest "Situ Ji's Trial", please return to East Sea City to claim the reward from Situ Ji.]

The quest "Rhodes's Request" could only be considered a bonus, and the rewards were very simple, consisting only of experience points and gold coins.
Regardless of whether this quest existed or not, Franklin was a target Su Mubai was bound to kill.
Having a little extra harvest now could be considered a good thing.
It was just that Rhodes's remnant soul had completely dissipated in order to open the phylactery.

As the system prompts ended, Su Mubai's newly upgraded experience bar also instantly jumped up by a large margin, reaching 46%.
The experience required to level up from Level 20 to Level 21 only increased by 2 million, bringing the total needed to 22 million.
At the same time, a portal opened beside him, with a 10-minute countdown floating above it.
This was clearly the portal back to East Sea City.

"10 minutes? That should be enough."
Su Mubai glanced at Frost resting on his shoulder. Previously, in order to reach Level 20, he had changed the experience distribution method so that he would acquire 100% of it.
Now that he had reached Level 20—surpassing other players by an unknown amount of time—it was time to raise this little guy's level as well.
A mythical-grade creature, once grown, would also be a major combat force!
However, when he saw the experience points required for Frost to level up, he was dumbfounded.

[Frost]
Level 0
Experience Points: 0/10,000
(Experience points can also be increased by devouring materials of various elements. Ice-type materials have the best conversion efficiency, followed by death-type.)

"A hundred times?!"
He vaguely remembered that when players leveled up from Level 0 to Level 1, they only needed 100 experience points.
Yet, thinking of Frost's terrifying attributes, Su Mubai suddenly felt that a 100-fold experience requirement was still somewhat low.
Originally, he had planned to distribute experience points evenly in the future, but now it seemed that won't be necessary.
Su Mubai decided to keep exclusive rights to the experience points for himself. As for Frost, it would level up by devouring materials.
Anyway, he could exploit materials for upgrades for free, and with a supply of various high-grade materials, Frost's leveling speed definitely wouldn't be slow.
This way, it wouldn't drag down his own leveling speed either.

Even though he had already far surpassed other players, in Su Mubai's mind, players were never his rivals.
What he needed to do was increase his level at the fastest possible speed, and gain the strength to establish a foothold in this God-Forbidden Land as early as possible!

Thinking of this, Su Mubai took out the materials dropped by Regi from his backpack.
[Death Qi Bones] × 10
[Soul Remnants] × 10

Both were dark gold-grade materials that Su Mubai hadn't yet upgraded for free.
Frost merely glanced at the two types of materials and said, "Master, these materials are too low-level and are useless to me."
"You're a picky eater?"
Su Mubai raised an eyebrow.
The vision of a mythical-grade creature was indeed high; even dark gold-grade materials couldn't catch its eye.
What about epic-grade ones then?
A thought flashed through Su Mubai's mind.

[Cataclysm]!
[Target: Death Qi Bones]
[Prompt: Please select the upgrade tier, Tier 1 / Tier 2 / Tier 3.] (Click to view details)

Su Mubai checked the consumption required for the sublimation; each Death Qi bone required 10,000 soul coins, a currency he simply didn't have.
Helplessly, he carried out the free upgrade together with the [Soul Remnants].
[You obtain Epic-grade material "Bone Dragon Skeletons" × 10.]
[You obtain Epic-grade material "Large Soul Remnants" × 10.]

Not stopping there, Su Mubai once again took out the 10 bone dragon skeletons dropped by Carkus.
[Cataclysm]!
[You obtain Legendary-grade material "Giant Dragon Skeletons" × 10.]

Beside him, Frost watched this magical scene with wide-opened pupils, the soul fire within its eye sockets leaping wildly.
Was this the kind of power the master used to enhance it earlier?
It was simply too magical!

"Are these any use?"
Su Mubai pointed at the pile of materials and asked. Frost nodded repeatedly.
"Useful!"
"Master, are these all for me?"
"Eat to your heart's content, there will be plenty more in the future!"

Just as a smile appeared on Su Mubai's face, he saw Frost revert to its original size and directly swallow all the materials in one gulp.
The entire process took less than a second.
The next moment, Frost shrank back down, crawled onto Su Mubai's shoulder, and let out a burp.
"Burp~"
"Thank you, Master. I'll need some time to digest this."
...
Wasn't your action a bit too fast?
Su Mubai twitched the corner of his mouth: "Alright, take your time digesting."

Glancing at Frost's continuously leaping experience bar, Su Mubai finally turned his gaze toward the location of the phylactery.
After Franklin's soul fire was absorbed by the [Death Codex],
this phylactery seemed to lose its power and directly disintegrated.
In its place were a pile of gold coins and items.
These were the things dropped by Franklin.

Su Mubai immediately spotted the pitch-black staff and an exquisite skill book with a corner sticking out from the pile of gold coins.