My starting summon is a small skeleton

Quan City, Lu Wu's house.

After getting home, Lu Wu had Dudu take his little sister, Little Douding, back with her.

Yes, he really treated Dudu like a little wife, assigning her the chores of laundry, cooking, and babysitting, and yet the girl seemed to enjoy it.

This drove Dudu's dad absolutely nuts!

He was already conflicted knowing his daughter had been out for half a month, especially because she had gone with that jerk Lu Wu.

And now, she even brought a kid back with her, almost giving Dudu's dad a heart attack.

Was it really so fast? A kid in just half a month?

Thankfully, he soon realized the child was Lu Wu's sister, which allowed Dudu's dad's heart to keep beating.

But then he thought about how his daughter didn't come straight home after half a month away but went to do chores for Lu Wu instead, and Dudu's dad felt the urge to grab a knife and have it out with Lu Wu.

Unfortunately, before he could act on it, Dudu's mom strongly suppressed that idea.

In the end, Dudu's dad had no choice but to curl up in a corner and sulk, clutching his chubby self that resembled Dudu's physique.

Meanwhile, over at Lu Wu's place.

He was still busy.

It was already 11 p.m., about the time to write his diary.

But what Lu Wu was busy with at the moment wasn't the diary; he was struggling with something on the internal network.

Lu Wu opened up his personal page on the internal network and glanced at his account.

...

Account: I Want to Be a Sea King (Lu Wu)

Account points: 1655

Account Voucher: One Skill Training Plan Voucher

Account Level: 1

...

Looking at his points, Lu Wu frowned.

"1655 points. I have no idea how long that will last. Right, both upgrading Little Skeleton's quality and his evolution require materials. I also need to get an apple for Dudu. Adding it all up, I wonder if these points will be enough!"

Although Lu Wu was good at earning points, he was equally talented at spending them.

Not to mention the previously stated needs, just his study-related points expenditure in the past half month had cost him more than two hundred points.

This mainly had to do with Lu Wu's brain.

He was quick at memorizing and analyzing, and the more he used his brain, the better it got.

The plans regarding Little Skeleton were deciphered by Lu Wu in just half an hour.

So, within a half-month, he had transformed all the classification plans for Little Skeleton into his own.

The gains were significant, but so was the money spent.

Well, it's just the troubles of having a sharp mind.

With such a brain, points clearly weren't enough.

"This can't continue, I'll run out of money sooner or later."

Lu Wu was a bit worried. Life boils down to the essentials, but he felt he needed to find a way to make money since his points were down to just a thousand or two.

"How about I upload the training manuals of Little Skeleton 12345 and all the Little Skull Soup recipes?"

This was the best method Lu Wu could think of to generate revenue right now.

It sounded good and creative.

However, once Lu Wu actually started on it, he realized it wouldn't work!

No, it wasn't that it couldn't work, but the overlap in the plans was too high. They were obviously abbreviated versions, and uploading such versions wouldn't bring any additional profits.

However, when Lu Wu did upload Little Skull Soup 5, it was accepted and quickly earned him a 100-point optimization award.

This reward made Lu Wu feel even more distressed at having given it.

"Damn, such a loss. If I had known this, I wouldn't have uploaded the optimized version first. I should have uploaded the initial version and then optimized it step by step.

That way, I could have earned a few hundred more points."

Rounding it off, Lu Wu felt he had lost a whole world!

But there was no way to fix this situation, and he could only blame his own naivety.

After swearing to exploit the internal network fully in the future, Lu Wu rebounded and began shopping on the internal network.

Lu Wu needed quite a few things to further enhance Little Skeleton's quality.

This time, there was no Professional Center to foot the bill; Lu Wu had to spend his own money.

Also, Lu Wu planned to look for an apple for Dudu on the internal network. After all, Dudu wasn't Lin Jianying; she was his wife. Lin Jianying's problems could be ignored, but Lu Wu had to manage his wife's weight.

Half an hour later, Lu Wu had purchased all the materials needed for Little Skeleton's advancement, spending 220 points and dropping his assets to 1535.

However, Lu Wu could never find the apple for Dudu.

Most things on the internal network were intended for Summoned Beasts, and there was basically nothing useful for human consumption.

Even when Lu Wu searched using the keywords "Human" and "Edible," what came up were items that looked completely unsafe.

Lu Wu just didn't have the courage to buy them for Dudu to eat.

After all, he could mess with anything, but he only had one wife!

"My account level is only at level 1, and my permissions are insufficient. I can't search for higher-level items or find anything suitable. It seems the matter of Dudu slimming down will have to be postponed."

Realizing this, Lu Wu felt particularly down.

"Getting thin once is so hard, not to mention keeping it continuous…"

Thinking this, Lu Wu felt the whole world darken.

"Time to sleep!"

...

The internal network was exceptionally efficient.

The order Lu Wu placed last night was delivered first thing the next morning to Li Kai's shop, containing all the items required for Little Skeleton's quality enhancement.

When Lu Wu arrived with Dudu holding Ni Ni, Li Kai and Wang Dashan had already been busy dealing with the materials.

Seeing Wang Dashan present, Lu Wu was a bit confused.

Li Kai helplessly said, "He's clinging on here, and no matter what I do, I can't drive him away!"

Wang Dashan immediately explained, "It's not like I have anything to do if I went back, so I thought I'd stay and give Li a hand, and earn my meals here."

That silly man, he even learned how to lie.

You're just here because you're greedy, Lu Wu, why make so many excuses.

After observing the interaction between Li Kai and Wang Dashan, Lu Wu more or less understood the situation between them.

After all, Li Kai had been secluded for years, playing single-player games, and now that he finally had someone to join him online, despite verbally complaining and calling it a nuisance, his actions said otherwise.

Li Kai was willing to keep Wang Dashan around, and naturally, Lu Wu had no objections.

A single sheep needs herding, and so does a flock, plus one more sheep means more soup to stew, doesn't it?

Soon, Lu Wu integrated himself into the preparations, but he was startled the moment he pushed open the door of the workshop.

"Huh, Uncle Li, did you expand your workshop?"

"Yes, I bought the space next door and knocked through to create what you see now."

Li Kai spoke with particular pride.

Taking advantage of Lu Wu's trip to the Secret Realm, he had expanded the workshop.

The workshop, now 80 square feet, not only had all kinds of equipment but also had a ventilation system installed.

From now on, he would never miss Mr. Lu's experiments because of a small workspace.

This workshop could comfortably fit twenty people dancing, and they wouldn't even break a sweat.

Lu Wu didn't think much about it, just briefly marveled at Uncle Li's hidden depths, and then dived into work.

In fact, Dudu was the happiest about the expansion of the workshop.

Before the expansion, the workshop was small and cluttered with various items, only allowing two people inside at a time.

So Dudu could only wait outside every time Lu Wu worked.

Now, with the larger space, she could come in and watch Lu Wu during his working hours.

There she was, as Lu Wu started working, Dudu brought a small stool, holding a pig in one arm and Ni Ni in the other, completely engrossed in watching Lu Wu work with focus.

Hmm, Lu Wu looked especially cool when serious, Dudu was very happy and said she could sit and watch him all day.

But she soon realized she celebrated too soon, as she wasn't alone today; she had brought the kids along.

Ni Ni was three years old and very lively; how could she want to be held by Dudu and watch Lu Wu work all day without moving?

Quickly, the little girl started rebelling, and Dudu, afraid she would disturb Lu Wu's work, reluctantly took her out of the workshop.

On Lu Wu's side,

With the help of Li Kai and Wang Dashan, he finished improving Little Skeleton's quality once again within half a day.

But this enhancement did not quite satisfy Lu Wu.

After discovering that Little Skeleton's framework had the potential to wield attributes it shouldn't have been able to, he wanted to use this enhancement to eliminate the remaining two weaknesses completely.

But the result wasn't as Lu Wu had hoped.

…

Name: Little Skeleton

Power: 3 stars (Ordinary)

Quality: Bronze (Enhanced)

Attribute: Undead, Thunder

Companion Equipment: Little Skeleton's Electric Bat

State: Disappointed (Little Skeleton soaked again, but it seems no stronger)

Skills:

Melee Skills: Charge (Master), Block (Master), Dodge (Master), Heavy Slash (Master)

Special Skill: Charging (Skilled)

Weakness: Light, Fire

Description: Overall, while this enhancement somewhat mitigated the effects of light and fire, there was no significant breakthrough.

ps: The stuff in Little Skeleton's framework seems a bit activated; its sensitivity to energy seems enhanced.

…

"Just as I thought, in this form, Little Skeleton's potential is pretty much tapped out; if it doesn't evolve, even with quality enhancement, the gains are minimal," Lu Wu surmised, clearly having anticipated this outcome.

Therefore, he could still accept the properties of Little Skeleton now.

In fact, when he read the final ps, he was somewhat surprised.

This occurrence boosted Lu Wu's confidence, assuring him in managing Little Skeleton's imminent evolution.

Speaking of evolution, the evolution direction for Little Skeleton had basically been determined on Lu Wu's end.

Although the currently known routes—Mage, Warrior, and Archer—were not very satisfactory to Lu Wu, with no other choices but to pick one of the three, he had to let Little Skeleton take the path of a Mage.

Having raised Little Skeleton for such a long time, Lu Wu had to admit that this type of Summoned Beast was somewhat subpar.

Taking the Warrior path, it didn't grow as robustly as others.

No matter how much it enhanced its strength, it was no match for a giant standing five meters tall with a single punch.

The Archer path? Little Skeleton's aim was poor; the last time it hit someone was when they accidentally ran into its shot.

After much consideration, Mage was the only option.

One reason was that Little Skeleton possessed the Thunder Attribute, and secondly, it was exceptionally good in this area.

Despite Lu Wu being a person of integrity who had never cheated, he had no choice but to properly train and guide Little Skeleton, which was breaking the rules.

…

Well, isn't this getting a bit long? The next chapter should be up by 18:00, and I'll try to extend it a bit more in this one.