Age of Ascension: Forging an Immortal Realm from Nothing

A soft voice, a beautiful woman's whisper.
In the dead, dark silence of the mist, it was the most terrifying sound in the world. The whisper of the reaper.
The monster froze. Suddenly, there was a person standing in front of it.
When? Who is she? How did she get here?
Intelligent undead were rare, but not nonexistent. Right now, this skeletal behemoth was utterly baffled. It had been observing for so long, and it hadn't seen this human even once.
And then… oblivion.
Its massive body was torn to pieces. The monster never even knew what hit it.
One-shotted.
From their position, Qin Keqing and the Vanguards saw the whole, insane spectacle. To them, a horrifying monster had appeared from nowhere… and then, before the sense of dread could even register, it was instantly vaporized by a suddenly-appearing Lin Daiyu.
They didn't see her move. She was too fast. A flicker, a cascade of after-images, a single flash of white light—and the monster was gone, reduced to chunks.
The first-ever use of Gulp Down the Heavens, and no one even got to see it.
Far away, on the wall, Wu Chi also noticed the shift on the battlefield. The most obvious sign was that the Skeleton Summoners had become a disorganized rabble, no longer a cohesive unit. The once-terrifying undead sea had devolved into chaos, and the pressure on his defenses lessened immensely.
He let out a sigh of relief, hastily patched up the wall, restocked his towers, and began the clean-up operation.

Yes. Clean-up.
With his heroes and soldiers rejoining the fray, the battle turned into a one-sided slaughter. {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} Skeletons were shattered into dust and devoured by the Void. An hour later, Wu Chi was panting, leaning against the wall's railing for a much-needed rest.
The battle… was over.
…
Campaign Complete!
Calculating results...
…
[Campaign Summary]:
Enemies: 1,800 Lv 12 Skeleton Knights, 900 Lv 15 Elite Skeleton Knights, 2,000 Skeleton Summoners, 1,000 Elite Skeleton Summoners, 1 BOSS [Shadowy Wither-bone].
Evaluation: SSS-Rank.
Base Reward: 5,701 Void Essence Stones.
Bonus Rewards: 15,000 Void Crystals, 10,000 Void Essence Stones, Equipment [Sword of Shadows], Territory Building [Lightning Enchantment: Stone Wall], Territory Building [Bathhouse].
…
"Aaaah… that hits the spot." Wu Chi stretched, then took a closer look at the summary.
It seems only the actual enemies counted towards the rewards. The tens of thousands of summoned skeletons didn't count for jack shit. It was a shame; if they had, he would've made a king's ransom. Even the loot chests dotting the battlefield only came from the original monsters.
"Makes sense, I guess. It'd be way too broken if summons gave individual rewards."
"But… an SSS-rank!" A grin spread across his face. He glanced at the huge injection of crystals and essence stones and felt the financial pressure ease off. "The rating must be so high because of that boss."
He stroked his chin. The battle had been intense, and by his own estimates, he was expecting an S-rank at best, maybe an A on a bad day. SSS could only mean one thing: there was a major external factor. That [Shadowy Wither-bone] boss. He never even got a look at it, couldn't even use appraisal on it, and it just… died.
"Haha, what an unlucky bastard of a boss," Wu Chi chuckled. He examined the three special rewards and took out the equipment first. It was a longsword carved from bone, with strange black patterns crawling all over it. The unsettling part was… the patterns were moving, twisting and writhing like living things.
…
[Sword of Shadows]
Type: Equipment
Quality: Gold Legendary
Level: 11
Base Damage: 150 + (Constitution x 10%)
Additional Shadow Damage: 100 + (Constitution x 10%)
Attribute 1: Constitution +50, Spirit +50
Attribute 2: Spirit +50
Attribute 3: Minor Shadow Resistance
Requirements: Constitution 100, Spirit 200
Description: Only the strongest of minds and wills can resist the shadow's corruption.
…
"So that's shadow energy!" Wu Chi's face twitched as he looked at the squirming patterns. He'd read about it in textbooks. It was a power that originated from shadowy planes and dimensions throughout the myriad realms. Its primary trait was corrosion. It didn't just corrode physical matter; it could corrode the elements, the soul, and even a person's will. That's why shadow-aspected gear always had such high attribute requirements, especially Spirit.