He vaguely remembered the succubus's whisper in his ear. But none of that mattered now. What mattered was figuring out how to survive this Aiolos' Wind.

  He suppressed the unease in his heart and made his bones flatter.

  [Toughness] and [Tough Bone] kept strengthening his skeleton, while his arms guarded his chest to prevent the soul flame inside from being extinguished.

  [Self-Heal] kept repairing the tiny notches on the surface of his bones, worn away by the wind. The soul flame within him kept compressing, becoming incredibly dense so it wouldn't be blown out.

  But even so, his bones looked like they'd been gnawed by countless ants, pockmarked and uneven. Around him, white bone powder mixed with the wind, constantly battering his body.

  Eric realized the importance of resistance skills.

  Last time, if it hadn't been for [Fire Resistance], he probably wouldn't have made it through the [Fire Slurry]. This time, he was really screwed...

  The wind stopped. All that was left was a tattered skeleton standing in place, with a tiny blue flame burning in its chest, looking like it was about to go out at any second.

  Lucia even thought for a moment that the skeleton was dead. But the next second, the dark blue flame in its chest flickered and roared back to life. The hollow eye sockets seemed to ignite as well, burning with flame once more. It was alive.

  Eric shook his body and barely stood in place. But Lucia clearly wasn't done with him. She waved her hand, and two succubi stepped forward to hold up Eric's tottering body. Then she walked up to him.

  A pale blue crystal, different from the one last time, appeared in her palm. It was a bit smaller than the one before.

  This confirmed Eric's guess: Lucia was choosing the size of the crystal based on how the skeletons performed in the first round. This amount was just enough to kill a skeleton. If he wasn't mistaken, she was testing how different attribute crystals killed skeletons.

  "Give this a try," she said without hesitation, stuffing the crystal into the flame burning in Eric's chest.

  The moment the crystal touched the flame, it burned fiercely, as if it had met an accelerant.

  The flame turned from dark blue to pale blue, covering his body like a pale blue gale. It was like a hurricane, scouring his body. In just a few breaths, Eric's bones became thinner all over.

  White bone powder flew up.

  This was probably karma for grinding his colleagues' bones into powder the other night, Eric thought with a wry smile.

  Soon, his teeth started falling out one by one, his skull was scoured down to a thin layer, and the next moment it was riddled with holes.

  The dark blue flame flickered inside the holes but stubbornly refused to go out. His ribs were snapped and fell off one by one. His arm and leg bones were blown down to the thickness of a pinky finger, and his finger bones fell off one by one. His entire body was on the verge of collapsing.

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  But Eric's consciousness remained clear. It was only when his body reached the brink of collapse that he controlled his status panel and added the free attribute point to Constitution.

  [Self-Heal] and the self-healing power from the Constitution point sounded the counterattack. His bones seemed to glow as they kept repairing the broken skeleton. Meanwhile, Lucia stared wide-eyed at Eric's self-healing skeleton.

  "The same as last time," she muttered, stroking her smooth chin. "Is this skeleton's special talent, super self-healing ability?"

  Then she looked away. She had already determined that the remaining power wouldn't break this skeleton, so she stopped paying attention. The skeleton's self-healing ability was strong, but it wasn't worth too much attention to her.

  "Next one," she said.

  Eric finally made it through the wind and collapsed on the ground, looking at the floating status panel in front of him.

  [Ding, Constitution +1]

  [Acquired skill: Wind Resistance LV1]

  He waited for a long time, but he didn't see the [Wind Magic LV1] he had been hoping for. Damn it, where was the wind magic? He was so looking forward to it!

  Eric was frustrated but had a pretty good idea why. It was probably because the wind crystal Lucia had stuffed in was too small. But if it had been bigger, he'd probably be dead by now. Damn it, he was really screwed. If he'd had [Wind Resistance], he wouldn't have been in such a sorry state.

  Eric got up from the ground and wandered around, pretending to be clueless.

  There were four elemental attributes: fire, water, earth, and wind. Lucia had already experimented with fire and wind, so the next one would probably be earth or water.

  Just in case, should he collect [Earth Resistance] and [Water Resistance] to avoid any mishaps?

  By the end of the experiments, he'd be the only cool guy left standing. He silently mourned his colleagues, who had all been good skill libraries. He was honored to have known them.

  The succubi's eyes swept over Eric, probably thinking how incredibly tough this guy was, having survived two rounds of skeletons.

  There was nothing he could do; he was just born this way.

  The third batch of skeletons was quickly replenished.

  Eric was more skilled this time. He found a skeleton with [Stealth] and swapped [Toughness] for it.

  Then, taking advantage of the night, he quietly knocked out his cute colleagues.

  Two a night, sometimes three, getting more and more proficient. The succubi who scattered bone ashes didn't fly around much anymore, seemingly bothered by the high-altitude particle pollution.

  Eric's level had reached LV5, almost LV6.

  But tonight, he didn't plan to make a move. He'd been too bold lately.

  When he hung around the succubi during the day, he overheard them saying that there seemed to be fewer skeletons than last time, and the plaza felt pretty empty.

  The succubi didn't suspect that one skeleton was taking out the others. Faced with the succubi's trust, Eric felt a bit proud that he could earn the trust of his enemies.

  The next day, Lucia came back again. Eric's skills had been swapped to [Earth Resistance], [Water Resistance], [Toughness], and [Self-Heal].

  After all, he didn't trust the succubi's intel anymore.

  Lucia had the succubi pull Eric out of the pile of skeletons again. Damn it, this demon was really eager to kill him. He had been hoping his colleagues would take the hit first.

  "This time it's water attribute. You have to make it through," she said with a smile, even though she didn't hesitate to use a skill that could kill him.

  Streams of water were condensed from the void, wrapping around Eric and forming a spherical water prison floating in the air.

  The water pressure kept increasing, and the water scoured his body. Under the pressure, his bones bent one by one.

  But with the boost from [Toughness], Eric managed to handle the water prison with some ease. He had 9 points of Constitution to spare.

  Lucia's face lit up with excitement, and then she took out a deep blue crystal, even bigger than the fire crystal from before, and stuffed it into the flame in the skeleton's chest. Another round of sheer agony, but he made it through by adding points to his Constitution.