Chapter 11 - Analysis
Bendy stared at Wayne and he waved his hand and said, "Thank you for the offer but, I am fine with what I have," Bendy drank some water. He glanced at Wayne and could see that he was disappointed.
Bendy had a feeling that Wayne wanted to befriend him too much that he made that offer which Bendy thought that Wayne was lying. Considering Wayne's background, he couldn't possess a good cultivation technique.
Even if Wayne did have a good cultivation technique, it might not be better than the technique he currently had. Also, they had just met and Wayne trusted him enough to give him a good cultivation technique for free. Either Wayne was too kind or was fishy.
"… Oh, okay," Wayne replied disappointingly. Wayne also realized that he was too much when he offered better cultivation techniques without thinking about the consequences. He wanted to keep his Precious Touch a secret but he ended up trying to show off what the technique could do to a stranger.
If by chance Bendy accepted the offer and got the SSS+ grade, 25 locks cultivation technique, he would get suspicious and wonder where Wayne got the book. There would be a lot of unpleasant scenarios that could happen after that.
'I will just post the technique to him after I get home later,' thought Wayne. He intended to give Bendy the technique but not directly like what he did earlier but through the mail. Either Bendy would use it or not, that would not be his choice.
They continued eating and the atmosphere was silent. Wayne decided to ask, "Are you going to continue increasing your power or go straight to level 5 area?"
"I want to absorb more gems first before finding the Drumming Gorilla. I want to at least have my strength and dexterity reach level 10 first," said Bendy and Wayne nodded. "Even if my other status is low, my high strength and dexterity are more than enough for me to defeat the gorillas."
Wayne nodded. He agreed. Wayne's Perfect Body Cultivation Technique made him an all-rounder in his status. His status' average level might be 5 but he had no status he excelled at. All his status was around the same.
On the other hand, Bendy's cultivation technique made him excelled in strength and dexterity but his other status was low. Be that as it may, it was not a problem because focusing on the two status was good enough.
As long as Bendy did not get hit, his other low status would not hinder him to become stronger. He could move fast with his high dexterity and deal high damage with his strength. If he moved fast enough, he did not need to worry about being hit and endure the damage with his low endurance and health status.
Not only that. Bendy was a member of the Ducant Family, an SS rank noble family. Someone from that family would normally use good equipment. Bendy might be in possession of soul equipment too.
Even so, Wayne did not believe that Bendy would have soul equipment because Bendy's target was the Drumming Gorilla to find material for a weapon. The best equipment Bendy might have was the magic equipment.
They talked for a bit more before they decided to head to the level 3 area. Wayne had enough of level 2 area and wanted to see the power of the level 3 Thumping Gorilla. Bendy was the same too, so they agreed to head to the level 3 area.
Bendy wanted to see Wayne's capability too. Since Wayne wanted to help Bendy, Bendy deserved to know Wayne's ability especially when Wayne wanted to get close to Bendy. After walking for an hour, they arrived at the level 3 area.
"So, who wants to fight first?" Bendy asked while smiling.
"Let me do it first," Wayne replied.
"Okay. Let's search for the gorilla," said Bendy and they moved together to find a Thumping Gorilla. A few minutes later, they saw a 3 meters black fur creature sitting on a tree sleeping. The duo looked at each other and they smiled.
Wayne walked forward and took a small stone on the ground. He held the small stone, took a deep breath, and threw it towards the sleeping Thumping Gorilla. Bendy had run away and hid behind a tree. He had no intention of interfering in this battle.
The reason? Bendy could see that Wayne was confident. Perhaps Wayne was stronger than himself. If his reasoning was correct, there was no need for him to interfere which he was 90% sure.
The small stone hit the gorilla and the Thumping Gorilla jolted slightly. It opened its eyes and looked around before it saw Wayne standing under the tree it was sleeping staring at him. 'Yawn~' the gorilla was too sleepy to mess with Wayne and decided to continue sleeping when another stone hit him.
(`皿´＃) The gorilla jolted again and it looked around dissatisfied because someone trying to mess with its sleep. However, when it looked around, there was no one. It saw Wayne again but his stupid reasoning of wanting to sleep more thought that Wayne might not be the one.
The gorilla decided to sleep when suddenly, a massive stone was hurled towards it. "How dumb can this gorilla be?" Wayne decided to sneak attack the gorilla. He wanted to fight the gorilla face to face but the gorilla wanted to sleep more and decided to finish the gorilla fast.
The massive stone hit the gorilla and "ROAR!!!!" the gorilla roared and it got mad. Wayne did not waste much time and used monkey jump and leaped towards the angry Thumping Gorilla. The gorilla saw the incoming Wayne and roared towards him.
Wayne ignored the roar and his fist shone lightly. 'Focus energy!' Wayne used focus energy. A support skill that lets him concentrate his energy in a certain part of his body to strengthen that part. He could use it on his whole body but he wanted to give the gorilla his jab so the focused energy was in his fist.
The gorilla saw the incoming fist and decided to throw a fist too. The two fists met and the gorilla was pushed back by a few meters and fell on the ground. "ROAR!!!" The gorilla was angry and roared towards Wayne again.
The gorilla lowered its body and launched towards Wayne. The gorilla was moving abnormally fast. 'Launch Jumper!' Wayne exclaimed in his heart. This skill was one of the four troublesome skills the Thumping Gorilla had.
Wayne had seen the Thumping Gorilla use this skill once but at that time, the gorilla was trying to run away using the skill instead of attacking Wayne. This time, the skill was used to attack Wayne.
Wayne was shocked to see that the skill made the Gorilla super-fast but he did not panic. 'Water Flowing Step,' Wayne used the skill and sidestep gracefully and opened his palm for a Palm Strike.
The gorilla missed his target but suddenly felt its body moving sideways. After that, intense pain filled the gorilla's body and it was thrown away by Wayne's palm strike. The gorilla rolled on the ground for a few meters and it roared again.
The gorilla tried to get up but felt intense pain on its ribs. "ROAR!!!" The gorilla roared at Wayne once again and stared at Wayne menacingly. Wayne looked at the gorilla and suddenly vanished from the gorilla's sight.
The gorilla was shocked when Wayne suddenly appeared in front of it and his palm was opened for another palm strike. The gorilla had no time to block and was hit right on its face. The gorilla was once again blown away by the palm strike.
Wayne moved that fast because he used the Dash Plus skill. If he used it before, he might get tired easily but he was level 5 and could use the skill a few more times. Once Wayne's level was at 10, he could use all his skills without worry.
Wayne did not wait for the gorilla to stand up again and used dash plus once more to close the distance. After that, he launched his most basic and weakest skill, jab and focus energy, and kept punching the gorilla.
After about twenty punches, the gorilla's body was filled with holes. A cultivation gem appeared as the item dropped and Wayne put it in his storage. He also sneakily extracted the skills, technique, and essences of the gorilla and put it in his storage.
Bendy was looking at Wayne behind a tree with (°ロ°)! surprised look. He never thought that Wayne was this strong.
"His status did not look that high but his skills are not normal tier 1 skill. That dash, palm strike, and jab were unusually strong," Bendy analyzed the battle. He was educated with all the skills Wayne had used.
"Are the skills not of normal rank but iron rank? But…" Bendy had some hesitation in his analysis. "Jab and Dash have no lock to rank up to iron rank… Did he find a jab and a dash skill book with a lock?"
Unbeknownst to Bendy, he was mostly wrong. Wayne's skills were all at normal rank. Furthermore, the grade of skills was abnormally high. Wayne did not find the skill books but he created them.
Wayne walked towards Bendy and saw Bendy's shocked look. Bendy saw Wayne and immediately regained his composure. Wayne smiled at Bendy.
"I am done. Next is your turn," said Wayne while smiling. He knew why Bendy was shocked. Everyone who knew of the skills would be shocked too. 'Maybe I should control the power of the skills more in the future,' thought Wayne but he shook his head.
'I need to become stronger and make my name known to many people. With fame and strength, when I reveal my identity to my family, they can accept me better,' thought Wayne. He decided to show off what he could do but not in an excessive way.
If Wayne shows off his power and keeps beating people without restrain, his family might not accept him too. He needed to do it moderately. He could show off his power but with restraint. No need to instill grudge and jealousy towards other people.
"You are strong," said Bendy. "What is your average level?" Bendy had a feeling that Wayne's strong skill might be attributed to his status. Though from what Bendy had seen, Wayne's status might not be high. Even so, Wayne might be suppressing his true power and only used them when using his skills.
"Level 5," said Wayne while smiling but Bendy was shocked and then, he frowned.
'An average level 5 will not strengthen the low-grade tier 1 skill like jab that much. Perhaps, his strength is sky high and all his other stats are low,' thought Bendy. 'But… My average level is two and he is 5… How many gems has this guy absorbed?'
"Well then, let's search for another gorilla. I will show you my power," said Bendy. He was confident with his power. The duo continued moving forward in the forest and they met another Thumping Gorilla a few minutes later.
This gorilla was wide awake and was looking for something. Maybe looking for food. Bendy moved forward and said, "Equip!" His body shone and a second later, he had changed his outfit. He now wore a full-body silver armor with a sword on his hand.
The full-body silver armor was filled with mana and Wayne could feel it. Not only the armor, the sword too. "Magic equipment," said Wayne but he was not surprised. It was normal for a member of the noble family to use magic equipment.
Magic equipment was common too. As long as someone had the materials, they just needed to find the best possible blacksmith and hoped for that blacksmith to create magic equipment.
There were four known types of equipment. The first was the normal equipment where it was as normal as a kitchen knife but they were much more durable than a commonly made item.
The second was the magic equipment. The equipment had mana inside them and it would have a status like an attack, defense, speed, and many more. Furthermore, some of them had special effects like burning effect, poison effect, and many more.
The third was the soul equipment. The equipment had soul inside them. Similar to the magic equipment, soul equipment had status and special effects but the user can also use the soul inside the equipment. Once the soul was used, certain strengthening would happen to the equipment.
The last types of equipment were spirit equipment. This equipment was the rarest equipment ever because the equipment had an intelligent soul. The equipment could only be used by those the equipment deemed worthy.
Not only that, but spirit equipment could also only have one owner. Once the owner died, the spirit equipment perished too. Other than that, the spirit equipment was upgradable. All it needed was monster souls.
Bendy looked serious and he ran towards the Thumping Gorilla. Suddenly, Bendy disappeared. "Dash…" said Wayne but he immediately knew it was the normal dash. The broken dash. The unfixed dash. The flaw dash. Even so, Bendy was fast because of his level 7 dexterity.
Before the gorilla even realized it, it was beheaded. "A normal slash? Or maybe another type of slash?" Wayne had no idea but he saw what Bendy did.
Bendy used the speed of dash and his dexterity to gain high speed. Depending on the speed, he used the slash skill and beheaded the gorilla.
Wayne scratched his head and shouted at Bendy, "Bendy! That was boring! Let the gorilla resist a bit. I am not impressed," said Wayne and he grinned. Wayne indeed felt nothing from that fight… it was not even a fight.
Not only that, but Wayne also got more worried about looking at all the inferior skills and techniques his cousin had. Bendy might be fine now but as they progressed forward, it would be a waste of time and money when the skill became unusable.
Finding good skills was hard. One of the difficulties faced by hunters and explorers was finding the skills they could use. Though the skill book drop rate was not low. However, for them to drop a good skill was low. Having high status but useless skills would lower the capability of a hunter and explorer.
Bendy was Wayne's cousin and he wanted Bendy to use good skills and cultivation techniques. He especially wanted to help Bendy because Bendy was the first person in his family he got closed to.
Bendy could rely on equipment and that was what many hunters and explorers did. Due to their inferior skills they had no choice but to rely on their equipment to become strong. Not that it was wrong but the equipment was unreliable.
What would happen when they lose their equipment? They would need to rely on their skills. What happens when the skills are inferior? They would need to rely on their status. What happens when they use an inferior cultivation technique? Their status would be inferior. What happens when their status is low? They would not be able to defeat the monster.
What happens when they could not defeat the monster? They died. What happens when they die? Humanity lost another potential human. What happens when humanity loses potential humans? Humans became weaker. What happens when humans become weaker? The monsters would rule the world.
'I need to find some way to distribute the fixed skill books' thought Wayne. He could ignore all of this but after he met the Madness, he had been having a bad feeling. Even the hunter guarding him tried to escape. Not only that, but the dungeon was also immediately closed and proved that humans did not have enough ability to deal with the madness.
In the future, if humans kept being this weak the Madness would break out of the dungeon and wreak havoc in the world. Since Wayne had the Precious Touch, he decided to use it for the good of the world without anyone noticing him.
"Fine, fine. I will show you an exciting fight," said Bendy. They continued forward and met another thumping gorilla. Bendy decided to attract the gorilla's attention. He slashed a tree and the tree fell attracting the attention of the gorilla.
The gorilla stared at Bendy and it roared. The gorilla ran towards Bendy and raised its arm to punch Bendy. The gorilla punch Bendy but thanks to his dexterity, Bendy easily evaded the punch and slashed the gorilla's arm.
Even so, the gorilla's arm did not get cut. Bendy did not use the slash skill. He simply slashed with the sword but due to the high status of the magic sword, it left a huge injury on the gorilla's arm.
The gorilla roared once more and gave Bendy another punch. Bendy did the same and slashed the gorilla's other arm. The same thing happened a few more times and Bendy was bit by bit gasping for air.
"His endurance, health, and energy are too low. He already feels tired. He is not suitable for a long fight. The earlier fight is the most suitable for Bendy. He needs to raise his endurance, health, and energy or he would be in trouble if there are more monsters here," said Wayne and he sighed.
Bendy felt like he had fought long enough to show off to Wayne and decided to end the fight. He used the dash to get behind the gorilla and used slash to behead the gorilla. The fight ended and Bendy took out a potion from his storage to replenish his energy.
"Well… If he relies on the potion, I guess he will be fine," said Wayne.
While drinking the potion, Bendy thought, 'Why am I trying to show off to Wayne?' Bendy had no idea but the truth was he had viewed Wayne as his rival. Especially after he saw how strong Wayne was.
For someone who was part of the SS rank noble family, he had his pride. Seeing that a commoner like Wayne could be this strong, he could not lose. He wanted to prove to Wayne that he was strong too. He did not want to be left behind by Wayne. More so after he knew that Wayne's average level was 5 while he was still a level 2.
Luckily, Wayne did not activate his cultivation map. If Wayne's cultivation map was activated, Bendy might lose his confidence when he saw Wayne had more cultivation points as well as less filled points but Wayne had already had an average level of 5.
Moreover, out of 11 gems Wayne had absorbed, six of them were iron ranks. That would be proved that Wayne had killed iron rank monsters though, in reality, he did not. Be that as it may, most people would have the same thought as Bendy if they were to see Wayne's cultivation map.
There was more of that. Wayne's cultivation map had silver color due to his silver rank Perfect Body Cultivation technique. Imagined if people saw a newly awakened had a silver rank cultivation technique, he would attract a lot of unwanted attention.
Wayne was oblivious to this problem and he needed to find out about it soon. If he suddenly activated his cultivation map in public and people saw it, his life might turn out horribly. Many would try to pry on his secret and once they knew what he had, Wayne would be in danger.
Bendy looked at Wayne and said, "How is it? I am awesome right?" Bendy was grinning. He felt like he did his best and would amaze Wayne.
Wayne smiled and said, "Yeah, you are good. Our hunt for the Drumming Gorilla will be smooth. Let's train together for a few days and then, we will search for Drumming Gorilla. There might be an unexpected thing that can happen. Let's prepare properly before we find our target."
"Sure. Let's take a turn when fighting the Thumping Gorilla," suggested Bendy and Wayne nodded. After that, they continued moving into the forest and searched for more Thumping Gorillas.