Waldo chuckled coldly. At the sound of his voice, the Wade siblings immediately snapped back to reality. At the same time, a look of fear appeared in their eyes. Had they just lost their composure due to the aura of the mysterious being, even though it hadn’t yet appeared? What kind of entity could be so terrifying?

Thankfully, Waldo was there to pull them back from the brink. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable. As the siblings were still reeling in shock and confusion, the figure of the mysterious being in the depths of the palace finally began to emerge slowly.

It was a terrifying stone man, over four meters tall, resembling a small mountain. Unlike the bloody puppets, this stone man was much larger, not even on the same level. Most importantly, its surface was covered with a layer of magma, flowing and emitting intense heat.

Thud! With each step it took, the ground trembled slightly, causing the eyelids of WadeMallin and the others to flutter. "Is this a stone man? Does it have any relation to the bloody puppets we encountered earlier? Or, are those puppets and this stone man of the same kind?"

Waldo raised an eyebrow. He had thought the stone man should have been another form of bloody puppet, but now it seemed there was a significant difference in appearance. Then, he shook his head. These questions were not important. Whether it was bloody puppets or a stone man, in essence, they were similar, with no substantial difference.

To complete the first task, it was clear that they needed to kill this stone man. Otherwise, the system would not have left them without any hint. "The battle has just ended, and now a more formidable challenge has arrived. Excellent, just what I wanted!" Waldo licked his somewhat crimson lips. His eyes were bloodshot, and an extremely intense will to fight erupted within them. It was like a surging, raging flame, or fireworks exploding across the sky, dazzling and brilliant. At this moment, Waldo’s fighting spirit reached its zenith.

...

Essentially, Waldo was a person who thrived on combat. From the very beginning in the land of trials, he had walked a path of slaughter and battle. The number of lives that had perished at his hands was in the thousands. His hands, stained with blood, could never be cleansed. Once, he was the nightmare of many, feared and revered by countless. All of this, Waldo had fought and earned through real battles. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

However, since arriving in the Eternal Kingdom, especially after coming to the chessboard world, Waldo hadn’t experienced a single significant battle. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to fight, but rather, he no longer had any worthy opponents. When he topped the black list, Waldo had some expectations, hoping to encounter someone who could match him in battle. Unexpectedly, no sooner had he reached the top of the black list than he was pulled into the rulers’ palace, forced to complete the task of unlocking the rulers’ legacy.

Now, seeing for the first time in a long while an opponent that made him feel pressured, Waldo finally got serious. "Come on, I, Waldo, have never been afraid in my life!" Holding his axe, his fighting spirit was formidable. The axe, dark and emitting a strong aura of menace, also conveyed a sense of profound heaviness.

At the edge of the axe, a dark light flowed, signifying the exceptional sharpness of the weapon. Even the hardest stone in the world would easily shatter under its blade, and a small mountain might not withstand a direct hit.

Thud! Waldo dragged his axe, his aura erupting fiercely like a mountain rising from the earth. Ignoring his recently recovered but still weak body, he clashed head-on with the stone man.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Explosive sounds turned the palace upside down. Thunderous blasts echoed, creating an intimidating atmosphere. On the battlefield, one side stood tall and immovable like a mountain, while the other, like a wild bull, charged and collided relentlessly.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The sounds of explosions were incessant. Figures intertwined on the battlefield, clashing countless times in a moment. The spectacle was grand and dizzying.

The stone man’s true combat strength was too formidable for Waldo to overcome quickly. After the first round of combat, his hands ached with a tearing sensation from the direct confrontation. As a being of flesh and blood, Waldo was at a disadvantage against the stone man, made of rock. It was fortunate that his hands were not completely ruined.

Even so, Waldo’s condition was dire. Already weak, he had been hanging on by a thread thanks to the Apple Pills, and now, he had overexerted himself in the fight. He felt utterly exhausted and out of breath.

"This won’t do. My strength is insufficient to deal with this stone man. Its combat power must be at least seven hundred, and trying to kill it with less than a thousand combat strength is somewhat difficult," Waldo muttered, shaking his head slowly, his gaze heavy with concern.

Waldo felt immense pressure:

"The stone man’s body is made of rock, naturally possessing thick armor. Simply having a slightly higher combat strength than it is not enough. I need to be significantly stronger to kill it easily."

"My current combat strength is just over five hundred, and it seems to have increased somewhat after several consecutive battles. But it’s still not enough."

"There are two ways to rapidly increase combat strength. First, change equipment. I need more pseudo-axes to enhance the power of my axe." Currently, Waldo’s axe provided him with an increase of over two hundred in combat strength. That meant his peak combat strength was close to seven hundred. However, that was still not enough to kill the stone man. This level of strength only allowed him to fight back and forth with the stone man without suffering significant losses.

"Besides this method, there is another way, which is to concoct pills. The chessboard world has the elemental powers of wood, fire, metal, water, and earth. With the right formula, it’s possible to make pills that increase combat strength!" Waldo thought to himself.

He now had some regrets. Initially unaware of the importance of the wood elemental power, he had rashly used it to create puppets. Now, it seemed he had not yet utilized the puppets. Frankly, he felt that the puppets were of little use in actual combat. For ordinary opponents, Waldo could kill them directly. Even when facing groups of enemies, he could use poison for mass damage. Against formidable opponents like the stone man, the puppets were even less useful...