He walked on the border of the village and found out that there were human-head fireballs roaming in places where he cleared before. Lu Chen couldn't help but question himself.
But he couldn't be blamed for doubting himself. No matter who it was, everyone would be as discouraged as him after finding out all his efforts clearing the Evils made no difference to the situation.
Fortunately, the true reason I kill Evils is to earn Mastery Points, not for the safety of the village.
Lu Chen finally understood why the village wasn't willing to clear the Evils around them. It wasn't because they weren't willing to, but because it was an exercise in futility.
The situation was definitely not friendly to the village, but it was ideal for Lu Chen.
I still thought I had to go and find some other Evils when the human-head fireballs are all taken out, but now it seems like I don't have to do that anymore.
Soon, after his body fully recovered, Lu Chen started his hunt again.
He found a human-head fireball in the proximity and stepped out of the border, waiting for it to approach him.
The human-head fireballs were unintelligent, they only knew how to charge heedlessly into their targets and that made it easy for Lu Chen to crush them in one swing. Then, they would gather together, which of course would not be successful. Lu Chen, who had been prepared for a long time, would break them again when the fireball was about to gather.
In the third time, the fireball would gather around Lu Chen in an attempt to enter his body.
Lu Chen's choice was to resist it with his strong Vigor.
The fireball would usually be vaporized away before getting anywhere close to Lu Chen.
That was how Lu Chen handled the human-head fireballs.
But this time, something was different. After he crushed the human-head fireball for the first time, Lu Chen was waiting for it to gather back together again.
Usually, when the fireball was crushed, it would try to gather and rekindle very quickly.
But this time, it didn't. Instead, it disappeared in the dark night.
What? Did it run?
Just when Lu Chen was dumbfounded by the situation, the system message sounded in his ears.
[System Message: Host has killed a Broken Soul and earned 20 Mastery Points.]
It's dead, it just died? What is going on?
Lu Chen was puzzled, then, he noticed the changes in the system message.
Not only that, but the Mastery Points awarded to me also reduced to only 20. This is definitely not because I've grown stronger.
Lu Chen was clear about it as he had just killed a few of the human-head fireballs. Although the rewards from killing them were lesser than yesterday, the difference in rewards was not too big. Therefore, Lu Chen understood that as his levels increase, the Mastery Points awarded to him will also reduce accordingly.
But he was sure that the difference would not suddenly reduce to half of the initial amount, this was not normal.
Thinking about it now, no matter how many Evils he killed, they would not reduce in numbers. But every time after he killed them, they would become weaker and the awarded Mastery Points would also become lesser. A conjecture rose in Lu Chen's mind.
The Evils are difficult to kill, but there is something else I still don't know about them. After the Evils were killed, they will still respawn back into this world, only with weaker prowess.
Perhaps, they grow stronger in this world as time progress or after they have consumed a human's essence.
Because he only knew so little, Lu Chen didn't have any evidence to prove his conjecture.
But he has a feeling it was the truth.
Of course, it didn't take long until Lu Chen gave up thinking about it.
I am still too weak now. It's the future me that will have to think about the truth of this world. Right now, what I need to do is to become stronger faster.
After that, Lu Chen stopped thinking and started patrolling around the border again.
Because the human-head fireballs had grown weaker, it only took one swing for Lu Chen to eliminate them. He only spent a small amount of Vigor to kill a dozen of them.
However, even though Lu Chen still had some Vigor left in him, there were no more human-head fireballs in his vicinity anymore.
Lu Chen wasn't upset about it and even heaved a breath of relief.
Sure enough, the human-head fireballs' spawns are not unrestricted. This world, it's on the edge of falling, but it's not giving up fighting back yet.
It was true that Lu Chen would gain the most benefits if the human-head fireballs could spawn endlessly into this world.
But when he thought about it carefully enough, he realized that it was a complete terror if that was the case. If the Evils could spawn into the world endlessly without any restrictions, it was only a matter of time before the world fell into the hands of the Evils. There was no way humans could fight back the Evils that could respawn endlessly.
When the world fell, when humans were annihilated, there was no way Lu Chen could survive on his own no matter how strong he became.
Fortunately, it seemed like Evils couldn't respawn endlessly.
Lu Chen was happy to find out the Evils were unable to respawn endlessly. But when he stared into the dark night where no human-head fireballs were around, he quickly felt awful.
But the easiest Evil to handle are gone!
Should I go further away or to the other patrol teams' places?
He was planning out his next step but didn't come to a decision immediately. Instead, he reserved the leftover Vigor and returned to the side of the village. He wasn't there to rest, but he was ready to level up.
He called out the system page, ignored all other information and looked at his Mastery Points.
[Mastery Points: 809]
After leveling up to Level 2 Swordsman in the day, Lu Chen was left with 298 Mastery Points. In the night, Lu Chen killed some human-head fireballs with each of the victories awarding him with 50—60 Mastery Points, totaling up to some 300 Mastery Points.
Then, Lu Chen cleared another round of respawned human-head fireballs. He killed a dozen of them but because they were weaker, they were only worth 10—20 Mastery Points each. In the end, Lu Chen's Mastery Points didn't hit his goal of 1000.
Although it didn't hit 1000, 800 some is still good enough.
System, level up Swordsman class.
With the order given, his Mastery Points started to plummet to a certain point and his system page suddenly shuddered. Then, golden light glimmered out from the system page and shone on his body.
Lu Chen felt a warm sensation overtaking his body and at the same time, his body shape grew even more smooth.
[System Message: Host spent 300 Mastery Points and leveled up Swordsman class to Level 3.]
[System Message: Swordsman class leveled up to Level 3. Agility +1]
[System Message: Host spent 400 Mastery Points and leveled up Swordsman class to Level 4.]
[System Message: Swordsman class leveled up to Level 4. Strength +1]
Soon, the level ups were completed. At the same time, Lu Chen's body cells were giving out calls for energy as the leveling process used up a lot of his energy.
Thankfully, Lu Chen was prepared for that. He picked up the jar beside him and drank all of the herbal soup.
The herbal soup was quickly digested by his strong body. In just a few moments, he had digested all of the herbal soup and his body returned to its peak state.
So I'm right about it. Ordinary leveling without drawing any skill will not consume too much energy from me. But if a skill is drawn, especially a powerful skill, I will have to prepare a lot of nutrients beforehand.
Lu Chen was happy as he knew more about the system's leveling protocol.
After that, he turned his glare away and looked to the outside of the village while murmuring, "Evils, here I come."