There's a skull dungeon attached to my basement

As the countdown concluded, the sky completely darkened. Without the guidance of the Divine Game, Xiao Yang roughly knew where his challenge lay.

There was one hour left until New Year's Eve.

A deafening tiger's roar echoed from the forest behind Xiao Yang's house, and the Divine Game's prompt appeared at this moment.

【Defeat the Mountain Lord to complete the assessment】

Stepping out of the house, Xiao Yang raised his head. In the distance, he saw a pair of eyes appearing in the darkness, a pair of aloof and indifferent eyes.

Xiao Yang was sizing it up, and it was also observing Xiao Yang.

The Mountain Lord was a ferocious tiger.

This assessment fell upon Xiao Yang's forte: combat.

As a new player, he hadn't had time to learn too much in this short period, but that didn't include combat.

Drawing his weapon and hacking was currently his best skill.

The opponent was a Mountain Lord, a ferocious tiger, a powerful inhuman beast, but Xiao Yang was no slouch either. Raising his head, Xiao Yang put on his helmet. The red light effect emitted by the Dragon Slayer Helmet made him appear even more ferocious at this moment.

After thinking about it, a poisoned longsword might be more suitable for dealing with such inhuman beasts, but in the end, Xiao Yang chose the Justice Retribution. Xiao Yang was really comfortable using this black short stick.

Holding the short stick and taking down the shield from his back, instead of setting the battlefield down the mountain in a more open area, he went straight into the forest with the short stick in his hand.

It had been a long time since he had entered the bamboo forest behind the mountain. Fallen bamboo leaves piled up thickly on the ground, giving a light and airy feeling when stepped on.

He climbed upwards swiftly, until he reached the summit. A large, hard rock, mostly exposed from the soil, appeared at the top of this small mountain, and upon it, a huge, striped tiger was coiled.

This tiger was exceptionally large, merely standing there seemed to occupy all the line of sight in front of him, tall and high above, it looked down at Xiao Yang.

Its eyes were unlike those of a wild beast, indifferent, cold, dangerous, with a hint of divinity.

But this was not enough to scare Xiao Yang. Even when facing a mountain-sized dragon that seemed truly alive, Xiao Yang had never flinched, let alone facing this striped tiger.

It couldn't crush Xiao Yang.

Bearing the tiger's condescending gaze, Xiao Yang advanced step by step with his shield raised. The Mountain Lord looked down at Xiao Yang, and Xiao Yang was also staring at the Mountain Lord.

Not only staring, but with each step, Xiao Yang's eyes were also becoming more and more dangerous, more and more sharp.

"He will kill this tiger!"

Indifferent, cold, dangerous eyes—this was not the look of the tiger looking down on Xiao Yang, but Xiao Yang's own expression now. With each step, Xiao Yang's expression gradually became closer to, and even resembled, that of the Mountain Lord.

Until finally, that bit of divinity also appeared in Xiao Yang's expression, and he also began to seem less like a human.

This transformation completely enraged the Mountain Lord coiled on the rock. With a deafening roar, it pounced towards Xiao Yang.

Xiao Yang did not hold back, and also let out a similar piercing roar towards the Mountain Lord.

But for some reason, Xiao Yang found that he couldn't defeat this huge tiger no matter what. That ferocious head was stuck in front of Xiao Yang, stuck outside the Dragon Slayer Helmet, with drool flowing out, a foul stench, heavy breathing, and that exaggerated blood basin mouth.

No matter how Xiao Yang swung the Justice Retribution in his hand, this Mountain Lord seemed indifferent to Xiao Yang's attacks, getting closer and closer, those scarlet eyes staring fixedly in front of Xiao Yang.

The Lesser Dragon Flame burning on Xiao Yang ignited this winter bamboo forest. Starting from this battlefield, this mountain forest began to burn, flames, raging flames, were gradually devouring everything.

After another entanglement, Xiao Yang roared and pushed the ferocious tiger away.

He gasped for breath, exhausted, his eyes stained with a hint of scarlet.

His mind was constantly slipping, and everything in front of him was changing. Xiao Yang didn't notice, didn't notice that his panting was becoming rougher and rougher, louder and louder, more and more like the tiger's roar.

And the tiger fighting him in front of him began to shatter, shrouded in shadows, growing tentacles and pale arms.

Faint whispers echoed in Xiao Yang's ears, ringing out.

"Isn't it good to embrace power, to embrace your most authentic self?"

"Come, come, throw yourself into my embrace, pursue power, transform into a beast, this is you."

In a daze, these words became clearer and louder in Xiao Yang's ears. Xiao Yang raised his hand, and now, he finally realized the terrible truth.

His hand had unknowingly turned into a thick paw.

"No! It shouldn't be like this!"

Xiao Yang subconsciously wanted to refute.

But not only his hand, but even his voice had turned into that hoarse roar.

His advancement seemed to have been invaded by some terrifying guys lurking in the shadows, and things suddenly went wrong.

The situation was getting worse, and it was going to get even worse.

Fortunately, there was still something that could save him. A bit of golden light suddenly lit up in front of Xiao Yang, and the illusion in front of him began to shatter in a daze.

No flames, no beasts, no strange shadows and whispers, there was only a messy bamboo forest, there was only that silent night.

Suddenly, a firework was launched into the sky and exploded, the colorful firelight lighting up in the darkness.

This firework seemed to be a signal. With its rise, sparse fireworks were constantly launched into the sky from the town below the mountain.

Xiao Yang's restless heart gradually calmed down in this firework.

It was past twelve o'clock, it was already New Year's Eve.

The strange whispers still wanted to make a final effort.

"Embrace power!"

But now Xiao Yang had his own answer to those bewitching words.

"Even if I embrace power, I will not turn into a beast!"

In the decisive answer, the Divine Game's prompt popped up, even seeming a little too eager.

【Life, Strength, Defense, Agility, Spirit break the limit, gain a special attribute, Constitution, player advancement successful】

【Detecting the interference of an Evil God, starting to dispel it, dispelling, dispelling successful】

【Congratulations to the player for gaining an increase in rank, current rank: Elite】