Under Shi Feng's control.
The two level-52 Tier 3 demons quickly cleared out all the Petrified Giant Rats in the stone chamber hall.
With a crisp system notification, a golden glow emanated from Shi Feng's body—he had finally reached level 36, gaining an additional 10 free attribute points. Shi Feng dumped all 10 points straight into Agility, making up a bit for the 25 points of Agility he'd lost to the penalty.
The Petrified Giant Rats were level-60 Elites, and their drops were quite good. Besides materials, they dropped quite a few pieces of normal and Bronze Equipment for level 50-plus characters. If he were out in the wild, who knew how many monsters he'd have to grind to get his hands on this kind of loot.
"Huh? A Tier 2 Skill Book!" Shi Feng picked up a book inlaid with silver threads from the ground, a flicker of surprise crossing his face.
Most basic class skills in the Divine Realm were learned from instructors. The decent ones came from completing quests, but high-tier skills were generally exchanged for with system-awarded Heritage Skill Points.
Zero-tier Skill Books could generally be found in the field and in Dungeons, but first-tier Skill Books barely dropped at all—the difficulty of obtaining one shot up dramatically.
Most first-tier Skill Books that dropped from monsters could actually be exchanged for using Heritage Skill Points. But if you had the Skill Book itself, you could unlock the skill without spending any Heritage Skill Points, saving quite a few in the process—points that could be used to learn other skills instead.
Keep in mind, learning an ordinary first-tier skill typically cost two Heritage Skill Points, and players only earned one Heritage Skill Point every three levels. Two points meant grinding six full levels.
That was for first-tier skills. Second-tier skills were out of the question.
Even the most basic second-tier skill required four Heritage Skill Points to learn. That meant twelve levels of grinding for a single skill, so in the Divine Realm, Skill Books were worth a fortune.
On the current market, an ordinary first-tier Skill Book was priced roughly on par with a level-30 Gold-grade equipment piece. As for powerful first-tier skills—those related to survival, AoE damage, crowd control, debuff removal, or burst damage—forget a level-30 Gold-grade weapon; you couldn't even trade for one with a level-30 Dark Gold weapon.
Weapons and armor would eventually be outclassed as levels rose, but Skill Books never lost their value.
You could never have too many skills. Nobody was going to complain about having too many tricks up their sleeve.
First-tier Skill Books had roughly a 2% drop rate in large Hell Difficulty team Dungeons.
But in large Hell Difficulty team Dungeons for level-50-plus content, the drop rate for second-tier Skill Books didn't exceed 3%. Getting one to drop was pure luck.
So Shi Feng was genuinely shocked. He hadn't expected the Petrified Giant Rats to actually drop a second-tier Skill Book.
He checked the Skill Book. It was a second-tier melee universal skill called Shadow Phantom.
Upon activation, the user split into four, each dealing damage simultaneously. Each clone possessed 100% of the original's damage output. Duration: 4 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes. Tier Requirement: Tier 2 class or above.
"I remember this Shadow Phantom Skill Book used to trade for a half-decent Epic-grade item back in the day. I can't believe it dropped here." Shi Feng clicked his tongue in amazement.
Universal Skill Books were worth even more than class Skill Books because they added far more versatility in combat.
Shadow Phantom in particular was a showstopper. Split into four—who would dare get close after that?
That was why this universal skill ranked quite high among the second-tier universal skill rankings and was coveted by countless melee players. Pulling it out at the right moment could turn the tide of battle entirely.
"Too bad I'm still only Tier 1. I can't learn it yet. I'll have to wait until I reach Tier 2." Shi Feng stowed the Shadow Phantom Skill Book with satisfaction and continued directing the Tier 3 demons forward.
The second underground level of the Dragon Throat Hammer was like a massive labyrinth. Even with a map in hand, navigating through it was extraordinarily difficult.