Chapter 7 - End Of The Hunter Exam
"I need to give up some things," said Wayne and he sighed. "I should have bought a storage bag. It might not be as safe as the system storage but it is better than nothing…" Wayne regretted not buying any storage bag.
Wayne decided to abandon many of the blue python's parts. He only took the skills, technique, and essence he extracted from the monster. As for the meat, he would eat them immediately. "The meat will go bad if not frozen. What a waste…"
Once Wayne finished with the body, he took out something from his storage box. It was a plain colorless gem. If someone did not touch it, the gem would look a lot like a plastic gem. The gem on Wayne's hand was the cultivation gem, an item dropped off the monster.
When Wayne killed the blue python, the python dropped the cultivation gem and it immediately entered Wayne's storage.
What is a cultivation gem? Cultivation gem was an item dropped from a monster. The gem was used to fill the cultivation points in the cultivation map. Based on the rank of the gem, once absorbed, the status would increase based on the cultivation technique learned by the hunters or explorers.
Cultivation gem was crucial to all hunters and explorers to advance their power. The rank of the gem they could absorb was based on the cultivation technique they learned.
In Wayne's case, his perfect body cultivation technique was a silver rank technique after it unlocked four locks. The technique also had 25 locks which could be used for a long time. Due to the technique at silver rank, he could absorb silver rank and below cultivation gem.
Learning the best cultivation technique was important for hunters and explorers if they wanted to become strong.
The cultivation gem had a 70% chance of dropping from the monster. The gem was a bit fickle that only those that kill the monster could use it. If other people tried to steal the gem, they could not use it because of the limitation.
This was the reason why many hunters and explorers refused to develop many talents. In this case, the more talents they developed the more monsters they needed to hunt by themselves.
In the case of a team fighting the monster, the one that inflicted the most damage would get the gem. The one that deals the final blow would not get anything if he or she did not deal a lot of damage. So, kill stealing was hard for someone to do.
Other than the cultivation gem, the monster would also drop skill book, cultivation technique book, magic equipment, and monster soul.
The skill book had a 60% chance of dropping. The tier, rank, grade, and lock of the skill was random but most of the time, the same skill had the same tier, rank, grade, and lock. Rarely would someone get the same skill with better tier, rank, grade, and lock.
The cultivation technique had a 50% chance of dropping. Same as the skill book, the cultivation technique's rank, grade, and lock were random but most of the time, they were the same.
The monster would also have a 5% chance of dropping magic equipment. The magic equipment they dropped was not superior to the magic equipment forged by a human.
Even so, the dropped equipment was unique because it usually took the shape or had some sort of semblance to the monsters they came from. These dropped equipment would usually be picked up by collectors because they were rare and unique. Rarely would hunters and explorers use them in battle because they were not any better than the one forged by a human.
The soul had a 1% chance of dropping. It was the rarest and precious drop item. Similar to the essence, the soul could give a talent to someone when consumed. Not only that, but it could also be used to increase potential which was impossible to increase without any specific treasure.
Moreover, the soul could give the consumer a chance to inherit the monster's bloodline. With the bloodline, any skills related to the bloodline would get a boost in power. Not only that, but the descendants of the bloodline would also have the bloodline as well as the talent once they awakened.
Other than that, the soul could also be used to create special equipment called the soul equipment. This equipment was special as well as much more powerful than the magic equipment. Soul equipment contained a soul that would boost the equipment's ability by many folds. Furthermore, the equipment would sometimes have consciousness making it extremely unique.
Wayne held the cultivation gem in his hand. "If I want to pass this test with flying colors, it is better to absorb this gem," thought Wayne. Since he could absorb silver rank cultivation gem, the normal rank gem was not that appealing.
Even so, he had just started his career and any resources were important to him. At the moment, he needed to increase his power the most. The dungeon was a normal rank in which the strongest monsters would have an average level of 10. His status average level was 1 and he would need more than that to survive the dungeon.
Other than that, the monsters in the normal rank dungeon would not drop silver rank cultivation gems because they were not silver rank. If Wayne wanted to get a silver rank cultivation gem, he would need to kill silver rank monsters which were impossible for Wayne.
If normal rank monsters could have the maximum average level of 10, the silver rank monsters could have the maximum average level of 100. The level difference was so huge that he couldn't kill one without increasing his strength.
"Let's absorb this," said Wayne. He decided to absorb the normal rank cultivation gem. He would need an hour to absorb the gem. The gem had a fixed absorption time based on the rank of the gem. Normal rank cultivation gems would need one hour to absorb no matter the cultivation technique the hunter or explorer learned.
"…You did well fighting the blue python earlier and now you make this beginner mistake. Minus mark. This is a dangerous place and you decide to absorb the gem here without looking around?" The hunter guarding Wayne shook his head.
He knew that they needed to absorb the gem to survive the dungeon. Even so, Wayne did not even bother to check if the area was safe especially after causing commotion fighting the blue python. This was an absolute mark deduction.
"Sigh~ Now I need to guard him while he cultivates. If he is interrupted during the cultivation, he will get a backlash. Since this is his first absorption, he will not have any power to counter the backlash," said the hunter. The hunter guarding Wayne mumbled as his work increased because of Wayne.
Wayne sat cross-legged and put the cultivation gem on the ground in front of him. He closed his eyes and used the perfect body cultivation technique to absorb the normal rank cultivation gem. When he activated the technique, the body talent map in his soul sea shone. The first cultivation point in the map shone the brightest.
After that, the cultivation gem on the ground shone too. Mana poured out of the gem and entered Wayne's body. Wayne felt a warm sensation flowing through his body and concentrated on the first cultivation point in his cultivation map.
As the mana kept pouring into his body, the cultivation point kept shining the brightest. The phenomenon continued for an hour. The hunter sat nearby and kept guarding Wayne. He had a boring face.
An hour later, the cultivation gem stopped pouring out mana. After that, the gem broke into pieces. The first cultivation point in the cultivation map shone lightly and it was filled to the brim with mana, unlike the other cultivation points which were empty.
Wayne's body was filled with warm energy and his system gave Wayne notification that his status had increased. He opened his eyes and could feel that his overall status had increased through his body. He checked his status and was surprised to see that all his status increased by 11 grades.
"…" Wayne was speechless. "How?" Wayne thought properly and he remembered that it was due to the SSS+ grade perfect body cultivation technique. He was not sure before but upon seeing his status, he confirmed that the cultivation technique would affect the increased status.
He had read in a book that the cultivation technique would affect the status added when absorbing cultivation gems. He thought that it would add a small amount but it was more than he expected.
Even so, Wayne was happy with this because he could get a lot of status increased whenever he absorbed a cultivation gem.
Name: Wayne Weller/Furiose
Age: 15
Lifespan: 150 years
Potential: B+
Talent
1. Body – B+
Status
Health: A- (Level 1)
Energy: B+ (Level 1)
Strength: B+ (Level 1)
Endurance: B (Level 1)
Dexterity: A- (Level 1)
Magic: B (Level 1)
Luck: B+ (Level 1)
Wayne's status increased a lot. Not one grade but eleven in one go. Not only that, due to the nature of the perfect body cultivation technique, all his status also increased by eleven grades.
The status increased depending on the type of cultivation technique. Wayne's perfect body cultivation technique covered all parts of the body and thus, all his status got an upgrade. If Wayne used the hand cultivation technique, only strength and dexterity would increase when a cultivation gem was absorbed.
The eleven grades that Wayne got were mainly contributed by his cultivation technique. The technique gave him 10 grades while the normal rank gem gave him 1 grade. All in all, Wayne gained a lot and all of this was thanks to Precious Touch.
"I will need to create more SSS+ cultivation techniques when I decide to cultivate another talent," thought Wayne. "The benefit is massive. I will get to level 2 if I absorb two more normal rank cultivation gems," Wayne smiled.
He lost his mother. He was scared of meeting his real family. He had no one to guide and help him. Even so, the system gifted him with an overpowered special skill. "My unfortunate life is slightly compensated with this special skill," said Wayne while smiling.
With his increase in power, Wayne's confidence increased. Not much but it was enough for him to get through the test. Wayne made his plan to absorb three to four more normal rank cultivation gems perhaps until his average status increased to level 10. After that, he would absorb iron rank cultivation gems.
Wayne stood up and realized something. "… Oh no… I must have lost a lot of marks," Wayne stared at his surroundings and there were corpses of five blue pythons. He forgot that he needed to keep his surroundings safe before he absorbed the cultivation gem.
"Urm… This is a good lesson," said Wayne while he scratched his head. He dismantled the tent and decided to evacuate the land. Due to the blood of the blue python, more of them would visit the area. Even so, he did not forget to extract the skills, techniques, and essence of the dead blue python.
Wayne immediately evacuated the land. He made a big blunder and he must have lost a lot of marks. Wayne shook his head and searched for another area.
Day after day passed by and the test continued without much problem.
56th Winter Year 2500.
Ten days had passed since the third test began and it was finally the tenth and last day of the test. For the past few days, Wayne had gone through a lot of things. He had been in many fights but he did not encounter any problems from the fights.
Wayne had not encountered any mutant blue python and he concluded that it was part of the Hunter Association arrangement. Even so, he did encounter a small problem when he was attacked by three blue pythons at the same time.
The fight was harder but luckily, the monsters were brainless. Wayne did fight the three monsters. Even so, the monsters fought each other too. They were not in the same group and they were enemies to each other too.
The fight was chaotic but Wayne managed to seize a chance to kill them all due to their scuffles. Other than that, he had not encountered any problem.
After the blunder he made the first day of the test, he never made that mistake again. Wayne did not want to attract more monsters to his resting area and thus, he went out to hunt the python further from his tent.
He was safe every time he decided to absorb the cultivation gem. At the moment, Wayne had absorbed five normal rank cultivation gems including the first gem he absorbed the first day of the test. His status increased by two levels and the difficulty of the dungeon decreased quite a bit.
Thanks to his increase in status, Wayne's usage of skills became easier. His jab was easier and not as demanding to use as before. He got used to the blue python attack pattern and had only used the water flowing step and jab. He never used his other skills.
For the past ten days, Wayne had killed almost 50 blue pythons. He killed them all with only one skill, jab. He harvested a lot of things from the python. Skill books, technique books, and essences. He wanted to combine them all but stopped that urge because a hunter was keeping an eye on him.
Wayne got 35 normal rank cultivation gems. He absorbed five of them while he used the other 30 gems to upgrade his storage. His storage was now 4 cubic meters huge. He could store more things now. Even so, he only stored the skill books, technique books, essences, and monster core. The skins, bones, and meat? He threw them all. It was a waste but there was nothing he could do.
The hunter guarding Wayne was sure that Wayne's jab was not normal. Not only that, but he also believed that Wayne used a powerful cultivation technique because Wayne's power increased a lot with only absorbing five normal rank cultivation gems which was impossible.
The hunter also checked on the scoreboard and Wayne were the top 20 examinees in the group to kill the most monsters. He was also in the top 100 examinees for the whole test. "This group of examinees is good or maybe the monsters are too easy for them?" The hunter thought.
"Today is the last day!" Wayne was excited. "Let's slow down a bit today," he decided to take it easy. He had no intention of becoming the best examinee for the hunter exam and thus, he made that decision. He thought that the mark he currently had might be enough for the individual test.
Other than the blunder he made on the first day, Wayne did not make any glaring mistake like that after that. He did make some small mistakes but it was not as bad as the first day. Wayne was excited to end the individual test.
Wayne dismantled the tent and decided to travel around the area until the time ends. Even if it was winter in the real world, it did not affect the dungeon. The blue python dungeon had a warm climate all the time and thus, it was not cold inside.
Wayne did not need to worry about the cold when he traveled to the swamp. The only problem was water and mud. Wayne was determined to get the water talent after this so that he would stay dried even if he encountered water.
After he finished dismantling his tent, he got out of the land into the swamp. He slowly traveled in the swamp and met a few blue pythons. He killed them all easily and stored all the things he could store.
Even though he killed the python easily, that did not mean he was the strongest in the dungeon. All the python he killed had the same power as the first python he killed. Some of them were slightly stronger.
Wayne did not know how the dungeon worked. Even so, from his observations, there was an area where only certain levels of monsters could be found. Wayne deduced that he was in the level 2 area where he could only find level 2 and a small number of level 3 blue pythons.
Since all his status was level 3, he would not encounter any problem in the level 2 area. He could beat them easily. However, if he was in a higher-level area, he might have a hard time.
A few hours later, it was almost time for the test to end. Wayne continued forward and killed a few more blue pythons. The hunter guarding Wayne followed closely far from Wayne's location.
"Hmm?" The hunter suddenly felt something.
Wayne was walking forward when he stopped as he saw a blue python was coming fast towards him. "What the? That blue python is fast!" Wayne was shocked. He had killed more than 50 blue pythons but he never met a blue python as fast as the one approaching him.
Wayne prepared for battle and the blue python saw him. Even so, the blue python suddenly disappeared and Wayne was stunned.
'Clash!!!!' The blue python appeared in front of Wayne out of nowhere and opened its mouth wide to eat Wayne. Wayne was extremely shocked and he could not evade or run away from the python as it was too fast.
"Am I going to die?!!!" The thought appeared naturally in his mind.
'Boom!!!!" A huge explosion appeared and Wayne was thrown away by the blast. Wayne fell on the water and he immediately got up and looked at the super-fast blue python. Wayne saw a hunter with a massive blade looked extremely serious.
He also got to see the super-fast blue python and he could feel that something was wrong with the python because it emitted white fumes as if it was coming out of hot water. The eyes of the blue python looked erratic like it was crazy and Wayne felt chill when the blue python vanished once again.
Even so, the hunter waved his massive blade like it was a paper smashed to the ground causing a massive wave of water. The super-fast blue python appeared once more but it was blown away by the wave.
"Huargh!!!!" The hunter screamed and a magic circle floating behind him and at the center of the magic circle were many shining points arranged in the shape of a blade. That was the visual of the hunter's cultivation map. When Wayne used his skills after he started absorbing the gem, the same magic circle appeared behind him too.
The massive blade in his hand suddenly enlarged and a 10 meters long massive blade appeared. Wayne was looking at the spectacle with his mouth wide open. He could feel the massive power contained inside the massive blade.
The hunter did not wait until the blue python fell on the ground and he swung the massive blade and killed the blue python in one hit. After that, the massive blade shrunk and the hunter suddenly appeared in front of Wayne and he lifted Wayne.
"What?" Wayne was shocked. The hunter ignored Wayne and he activated his comms and said, "End the test now! Madness located," said the hunter. After that, with Wayne on his shoulder, the hunter dashed away from the area.
"Madness?" Wayne thought in his mind. He looked behind and he was stunned when he saw many blue pythons as crazy as the blue python killed by the hunter was coming fast towards them.