Although the active skill of the giant mutated ape was undoubtedly powerful to the point that it could make an enemy despair after a close and hard battle, it was also a skill that consumed a great deal of Mana and probably Stamina as well. At least this was the conclusion to which Bai Zemin himself had come to after studying every sign shown by the beast after the activation of the skill.
The monster's body was no longer firmly standing, its limbs trembled slightly, its breathing was agitated to the point where steam was coming out of its nostrils, etc. These were all signs of exhaustion.
However... Bai Zemin narrowed his eyes and realized that Chen He only had about three or four arrows in his quiver, which meant that he could no longer continue fighting. Furthermore, Shangguan Bing Xue herself had exhausted quite a bit of Mana and although she could still stay in battle, her chest was also rising and falling somewhat erratically with each of her breaths.
Although they could not defeat the mutated giant ape, if it were another beast the odds of being victorious would probably be higher or lower depending on the type of enemy and its skill. The problem with First Order creatures was that you never knew what you were going to face until you faced it.
The giant ape suddenly turned and began to run south. Considering its height and its human-like and even more flexible mobility it was only a matter of time before it disappeared from everyone's sight.
Shangguan Bing Xue's face turned ugly as she saw her prey about to flee. She had expended 70% to 80% of her Mana but she was confident of overcoming; however, if the giant mutated ape wanted to flee she had no confidence in being able to stop it.
"Chains."
An indifferent voice sounded from the back, near the entrance to the subway parking area.
Chen He and Shangguan Bing Xue did not need to turn around to know who the owner of that voice was after having lived and spent so much time together for almost half a month.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!...
Suddenly, the blood that the giant mutated ape had lost during the battle moved strangely and as if they were snakes with a will of their own they rose from the ground and began to surround the beast's limbs.
Two red chains that glowed like rubies coiled tightly around the upper limbs while four chains clung tightly around the lower limbs of the giant mutated ape, sealing its movements.
Roar!
The beast looked towards the source of Mana's movement required for magical activation and roared with bloodshot eyes as it struggled with all its strength, causing the blood chains to begin cracking violently.
However, the current Bai Zemin was no longer the same Bai Zemin from before who barely had any knowledge about Mana and his skill.
"Reinforce." Bai Zemin muttered under his breath and the blood on the ground merged with the already formed bloody chains, repairing the cracks and making them stronger.
For the past few days, Bai Zemin had been practicing control over Mana and his Blood Manipulation practically non-stop, only stopping to sleep and to eat his daily meals. The rest of the time was spent by him using zombies as a source of training.
At first, it was difficult and extremely frustrating to see how his efforts were worthless. Then, he couldn't help but think in Shangguan Bing Xue and noticed that every time she created something out of ice she would say the name of her creation out loud or when she sent the ice bullets flying she would wave her hand.
It was then that an idea flashed in his mind and, copying her ways, he began to train by saying the name of what he was imagining every time he used his Blood Manipulation skill. In doing so, Bai Zemin was pleasantly surprised to realize how much easier it made his task as he could divert more of his focus to the Mana within his body to resonate with that of his surroundings and the activation of his skill consumed significantly less effort and Mana than normal.
After approx approximately three days of virtually non-stop training, the fruits of his efforts began to slowly manifest and at this point he was shining.
Seeing Shangguan Bing Xue and Chen He fighting, Bai Zemin realized that both of them, especially her, were strong; strong to the point of being geniuses. But in fact, the difference with him was still quite large... With such a difference in power, there was no need to hide his power so much, and the more he showed the better it would be as the less they would dare to plan against him in the future.
He threw a bottle of blood into the air and stretched his hand upward as he slowly said: "Spear."
Bang!
The bottle exploded and the liquid blood was surrounded by a wave of Mana. In less than a second the blood coalesced and hardened, taking the shape of a firm, pointed spear over two meters long. This spear even had a faint red glow around it since he had consumed over 80 Mana points to make it; one could imagine the hidden power of the weapon.
When the blood spear fell into his hands after descending, Bai Zemin brought his right hand with the spear as far back as possible just above his shoulder and with his left foot he took a big step forward, turning his body 360 degrees and after finishing the turn the spear shot forward at full speed. However, before the spear completely left his hand, the Blazing Ring in his right hand flashed and a crimson flame covered the spear in its entirety.
Boom!
With almost 100 Strength points and having expended almost the same amount of Mana, the spear created with the Shadow Tiger's blood raised a small boom as it went beyond what the surrounding air pressure was able to withstand.
A crimson line filled with burning heat closed the distance in a second and before the giant ape could react the spear had firmly penetrated its head. But that was not all.
Boom!
The spear filled with fire-like energy blasted and the beast's head exploded into countless pieces. The pieces of burnt flesh and the smell of blood floated in the air.
The blood chains holding the beast upright vanished and the practically headless body fell noisily to the ground, collapsing onto a pile of rubble and raising a cloud of dust in the process.
Chen He's eyes and mouth were wide open comically and the disbelief in his gaze expressed how great was the shock he had received.
Tap... Tap... Tap...
Shangguan Bing Xue turned her head slightly towards the source of the sound of light footsteps and her blue eyes shivered for a moment as she saw the relaxed smile on the face of the young man behind her.
Bai Zemin had a casual smile and even rested his free hand comfortably inside his pants pocket as if what he had just done was no big deal.
He became stronger in this week! Was the thought of Shangguan Bing Xue and Chen He as they recalled what they had just witnessed, both feeling complicated emotions.
Indeed, Bai Zemin had become stronger than he was several days ago.
His physical or magical stats had not changed in any way and he had not leveled up either since he was currently in a vortex which once completely overcome he could evolve into a more powerful existence but in the meantime, he could not acquire any power boosts. In fact, he had not even used his available status points in any way to boost his natural stats.
However, in this world there were many ways to become stronger without leveling up, without acquiring Soul Power or stats; even without treasures or obtaining skill scrolls.
One of those ways was to learn and use what one already had in the most optimal way possible. Bai Zemin was training precisely to become stronger in this way and although he still had a long way to go, it was undoubtedly a breakthrough compared to the past.
In addition, Bai Zemin had also been practicing other types of attacks using the skills he had along with his treasures, creating amazing effects. In fact, the previous attack was just an improvised Blazing Blood Spear... But he had planned something much more powerful by making use of those two skills and adding something else as an intensifier.
[You have acquired the Soul Power of First Order Platinum Ape level 37. You cannot level up or obtain additional stats before you get the First Order job].
[You have learned Unclassified Passive Skill level 5 'Throwing'].
Three glowing orbs filled with Soul Power came out of the lifeless body of the First Order Platinum Ape and went into the bodies of Bai Zemin, Shangguan Bing Xue, and Chen He respectively, the size of the orbs being quite similar to each other with barely any almost indistinguishable difference.
In addition, another message flashed in Bai Zemin's retina. Although he was somewhat surprised, the surprise was not that great since he had somehow expected something like this to happen. The reason? Of course, the beautiful and seductive Lilith; she had explained to him more about the world of skills, and thanks to that now Bai Zemin's knowledge had increased as a consequence.
A person could not only learn skills by training but could also learn through skill scrolls after defeating enemies and skills could evolve. However, there were exceptions to this rule.
Ignoring the world around him, Bai Zemin took a look at the new skill as this was something he was looking forward to because this skill would be of great help for his evolution to First Order.
[Throwing (Unclassified Passive Skill) Level 5: When throwing an object with your bare hands you have a 20% probability of dealing a critical hit to the enemy. This skill has reached its maximum point and cannot evolve on its own].
To some extent, it was also something that he already expected. However, the impossibility of evolving alone was something that surprised him and now he finally understood several things that Lilith had explained to him about the Soul Record and the skills.
Apart from the individual stats, there were also other stats that were not displayed in the window of each person or intelligent creature. An example of this was the critical hit statistic, defense, attack damage, etc. To acquire these stats one needed to obtain certain skills or certain items that were usually not formed after the defeat of an enemy and the intervention of the Soul Record in the Soul Power of the loser.
For example, a blacksmith or artifact maker could create weapons, armor, accessories, which increased physical damage or defense but did not increase stats such as Strength or Stamina and Health that treasures created from Soul Power could increase.
Lilith said that the Higher Existences referred to these statistics as 'tracking statistics' as they could only constantly track these statistics by looking at one's skills and equipment.
This was precisely the reason why such jobs or classes were considered a rarity and prized on all worlds since the Soul Record was a righteou righteous entity that allowed anyone who had talent and used it in the right way and with the right materials to become powerful; even someone who did not have the courage to fight powerful enemies could become empowered as long as they knew or possessed a class of artifact crafting or blacksmithing and similar.
Bai Zemin sighed as he realized how many things he had yet to know and how many other things he had yet to come into contact with. Although he might seem extremely strong, even though it was true that Lilith's advance information was very helpful to him... The reality was that all this also had a counterproductive side effect and that was that he started to realize early on that what weighed on his shoulders was bigger and bigger than he had imagined at the beginning.
"Bai Zemin, are you okay?"
"Em?" Bai Zemin snapped out of his daze and looked back with a casual smile, "Why wouldn't I be? I didn't even face that ape head-on and all I did was deal the final strike."
"...Is that so...?" Shangguan Bing Xue furrowed her eyebrows slightly before nodding, "If you say so."
For a moment she had seemed to see him depressed, which had struck her as peculiar considering the overwhelming strength he had just demonstrated and how easily he had claimed the life of the First Order Platinum Ape; even if it was true that the beast had been largely exhausted by her and Chen He previously, a First Order existence was still a First Order existence tired or not. But she soon rejected that thought after hearing his reply and took it as a wrong thought of hers.
Bai Zemin bent down and picked up the three objects dropped by the Platinum Ape. Surprisingly, the First Order beast had dropped three items; a skill scroll, a red orb, and a orange orb.
"Chen He, is it okay if we divide these three treasures and then tell us what happened?"
"Yes." Chen He nodded with a serious expression and said in a deep voice, " Leaving the university might be more difficult than we thought, and those three treasures regardless of how weak they are we will certainly need them."
Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue looked at each other for a moment before looking back at Chen He with a frown.
Apparently, things were much more complex than they had previously expected...
"A normal treasure, a rare treasure, and a skill scroll. Let's see what kind of skill it is." Bai Zemin put the victory loot on a large pile of rubble that had collapsed and grabbed the skill scroll to see what skill it was before passing it to the rest.
[Regeneration (First Order Active Skill) Level 5: Regenerates Stamina according to the Mana consumed. Every 2 Mana points regain 1 Stamina point].
Bai Zemin couldn't help but frown hard at the sight of the skill that had formed after the sublimation of the Platinum Ape's remaining Soul Power. This was something he definitely did not expect and honestly, the skill looked quite weak compared to his Blood Manipulation even though they were skills of the same level and Order.
Flash! Flash!
After two small squeezes, the two orbs burst into flashes of orange and red light before two new objects appeared on the pile of rubble.
The objects that had appeared after the disappearance of the two flashes of light were two treasures that until now Bai Zemin had not seen appear from orbs and therefore did not possess.
The treasure that came from inside the orange orb was a kind of dress that looked more like a robe such as the immortal women wore in light novels but not as extravagant.
Curious, Bai Zemin touched the tip of the deep blue dress and, apart from the softness of the material, the information of the object flowed into his retina automatically.
[Combat Robe (Rare Grade Treasure): Full body dress capable of blocking normal edged weapons and even smaller caliber bullets. When wearing it all stats +5 automatically].
Basically, the Combat Robe was a somewhat similar extension of his Full Coat except that it was more geared towards women in this case. Although there are some differences in the description of the treasure, Bai Zemin thought that the differences were probably not that big.
The second treasure was, surprisingly, a crossbow that glowed with a metallic hint at the sun's rays that bathed the material this treasure was created from whatever it was.
[Quick Crossbow (Normal Grade Treasure): A crossbow that can load up to 5 bolts or arrows in the chamber and shoot twice per second. When equipped it automatically increases Agility by +5 points and Strength by +2 points].
"So..." Bai Zemin looked at the two people beside him and asked while scratching his head with one hand, "How do we divide these things...?"
Shangguan Bing Xue and Chen He looked at each other for a moment before looking at the three objects on the pile of rubble, falling into a deep state of contemplation.
After several minutes, Chen He shook his head and pointed at the crossbow, "I really need a better weapon at the moment... Even if I know I will change it sooner rather than later, I need to survive until then, or else what sense would everything else have?"
Bai Zemin looked at Shangguan Bing Xue and noticed that she was looking at him with narrowed eyes. More precisely, she was not looking at him; she was looking at his coat.
"Cheap for you, Bai Zemin." Shangguan Bing Xue sighed and pointed at the Combat Robe, "As Chen He said, although I really want that skill since as weak as it looks it definitely can't be that simple, I need to survive first to then have a chance to find out, and although it's frustrating, I still don't possess enough power to feel 100% confident."
In fact, both Chen He and Shangguan Bing Xue were tempted to choose the First Order skill max level Regeneration. After all, the reality was just as Shangguan Bing Xue had said; a skill of such a level and Order definitely could not be simple in any way no matter how useless it seemed and it was most likely that in higher Orders it would shine and show its splendor. Unfortunately, neither of them felt comfortable with their current strength and their confidence in surviving greater challenges was not very high as it was still difficult for them to kill First Order existences, and every time they compared themselves with Bai Zemin they felt worse; this was especially true for Chen He.
By acquiring the Combat Robe, the stats obtained by Shangguan Bing Xue would be the equivalent of 5 levels considering that each level up granted 2 status points and, more importantly, safety from smaller caliber bullets and bladed weapons such as knives and the like. Meanwhile, by acquiring the Quick Crossbow, Chen He would not only get a weapon much more suitable for combat but would also receive a total of 7 stats; especially his Agility stat, a stat which was technically one of the most important for him.
"Then I'll be rude." Bai Zemin nodded with understanding and took the scroll to himself with an indifferent expression.
"Good for you, little Zemin." Lilith, who floated a short distance away, congratulated him. Her gaze was fixed on the scroll in Bai Zemin's hands and her eyes had a strange glint in them.Bai Zemin said nothing and after wishing the scroll disappeared from his hands and a rune began to form deep in his soul. The rune was yellow in color and had strange cracks that he could not understand what they meant. Soon, the rune had fully formed and Bai Zemin had finally acquired his second active external skill since the arrival of the Soul Record on Earth.
The Regeneration active skill was extremely weird. At least, what Bai Zemin expected from a skill with that name was that it would grant the ability to heal wounds or increase Health considering that was its function when the Platinum Ape used it. Obviously, the skill scroll had nothing to do with the Platinum Ape's skill except, perhaps, the name.
Regenerating Stamina was actually extremely useful because if a battle between two existences went on too long due to identical or too equal strengths, the winner would be the one who could stand for the longest amount of time without faltering in their attacks. However, temporarily it was something that Bai Zemin did not need and even less so considering his high natural Stamina which, in fact, was his highest body stat leaving aside stats like Mana and Magic.
I'll look at the evolution requirements of this skill later. Bai Zemin thought before looking at Chen He and saying, "Let's go to the parking lot and talk there. From your words earlier it seemed to be serious."
Che He nodded with a serious expression, "I agree."
With nothing more to say, the trio walked underground again.
* * *
When Bai Zemin returned to the subway parking lot together with Shangguan Bing Xue and Chen He, none of the three expected to see such chaos.
Liang Peng, Fu Xuefeng, Cai Jingyi, Zhong De, and Kang Lan were moving all over the place beating up several people and throwing them aside before moving on to the next person to perform the same action.
Some survivors even seemed to have been possessed by some kind of mindless spirit as they even forgot who Liang Peng and the rest were; they actually dared to try to attack them! It was as if for a moment they had forgotten that they were evolved people and not existences that they, normal people, could deal with!
"What...?" For a moment, Shangguan Bing Xue looked so shocked that she didn't know what to think about it.
Especially seeing the more than five obviously lifeless bodies that had been trampled beyond recognition that looked like they had been stampeded by a pack of wild beasts.
Bai Zemin didn't understand what was going on either... It had only been five minutes at most since he had left but how did things turn out like this...?
"At the end of the day, humans are animals too, Bai Zemin." Lilith appeared beside him and spoke in an indifferent voice: "In the face of the fear of death, even cats are willing to fight dogs, let alone beings with intelligence who are even more aware that death means the end. The fact that this Lower Existence named Chen He showed himself incapable of defeating that ape caused many people to fear for their future and they began to cause chaos, letting out their inner demons..."
"What will you do now?"