"Good. That speed and strength are very nice..."
Agnus had a smile satisfied as he felt the ease with which he had killed the zombie.
Soon, he bent down and picked up a blue card that was floating 30 centimeters off the ground and watched it with interest.
On the front of the blue card was a picture of a zombie similar to the one he had killed. Just above it was written: Level 1 Attribute Card of 0 order, and just below the photo: Strength +10, Agility +10, Dexterity +10, Constitution +10, Magic +10.
Seeing these attributes, Agnus suddenly seemed to remember something: "Why is there no mana in attributes when there is magic?" Again, he just casually asked, but the system still responded.
[Mana is related to the level of the evolved. The higher the level, the greater the amount of mana stored in the mental and spiritual condition. Therefore, when using your abilities, you will feel which one has the highest consumption of both energies and how many times they can be used until your mental and spiritual condition is consumed]
"What is the difference between mental and spiritual condition?"
[Mental condition is closely related to soul strength, and spiritual condition is energy primarily used to manifest incorporeal skills]
[For example, your 3rd order skill, although strong, you don't have enough mental or spiritual strength to use it at this point, as it is through mental strength that it will be formed and condensed into an incorporeal energy bar with the manipulation of spiritual energy]
[This is the main reason that separates evolutions from one order to another, as to ascend a new order, one needs to integrate a soul card to complete the soul transformation and this will significantly increase the mental and spiritual power of the evolved]
"Now I understand... It seems that I must carefully choose the soul cards in my future evolutions. Preferably, all must be divine..."
Putting his thoughts aside, he picked up the blue card and was about to put it into one of the available attribute card slots when he seemed to remember something: "Wait... it looks like I saw something like card synthesis..."
"System, you have the function of synthesizing 1st order cards. Can I also synthesize 0th order cards?"
He couldn't help but ask, but without much anticipation, after all, he clearly remembers that the system had said before that these were junk cards and could not have a Rare rating or higher and could only rank as Common.
[Yes, you can synthesize them]
Surprisingly, these garbage cards could be synthesized. If he could evolve them into divine cards, how strong would he be?
Thinking about it, her heart began to beat with excitement.
However, that joy quickly cooled with the system's next words: [It's true you can synthesize them, but they won't evolve into rare or higher-ranked cards. They will be promoted to 1st order common cards]
"That... Well, whatever. After all, this still looks good, as it means that in the future, I can evolve many 0th-order cards into 1st-order common cards. Later, they will be promoted from commons to rare..."
"I have no choice but to use you for now." He didn't hesitate any longer and filled the available slot with the 0th order attribute card that quickly increased all his attributes to +10.
He also found a page that only shows his general stats.
Evolved: 0 order [Level: 1 (5/100)]
Combat Power: 500 kg
Magic Power: 2,100
Total Agility: 40
Total Dexterity: 120
Total Constitution: 120
Total Magic: 210
Free Attribute Points: 10
"I still have 10 free attribute points. Where should I use them?" He couldn't help but wonder in doubt.
In your considerations, magic is the most important attribute and will be your focus of evolution.
"Magic is clearly the most important attribute and should be prioritized... However, what good is having a lot of magic now if I don't have enough soul strength to use skills casually?"
"Also, my weapon and armor provide more than enough magic bonuses for now..."
"In the early stages, I believe that strength is the most important attribute, as the first orders with strong soul power won't appear for a while yet. Agility can also determine the winner in a battle, but my Void Aura ability me allows to increase gravity by 2x within a radius of 10 meters and this is the same as increasing my speed indirectly..."
Without any further hesitation, he assigned the 10 free points in strength.
"Good. With that 600 kg of strength, I feel more confident to go to the Barão Castle outside the city..."
It only took a few seconds for him to decide what to do next when he walked over to his single bed and lifted a white pillow revealing a cell phone.
"As expected, there is no signal..."
Seeing that the phone line was not working and there was only 5% battery left, he removed the chip and broke it. Then he threw the cell phone and the broken chip out the 6th-floor window.
"You never know... What if someone decides to check out things they shouldn't see?"
He couldn't help but laugh wryly at the thought of how easily he had integrated himself into this body.
Even though he was acting like everything was fine when it really wasn't, he could only move forward. After all, what else could he do? Sit in a corner and cry? He is facing an unknown world that is experiencing an apocalypse. If he doesn't quickly adapt to these changes, he won't even know how he died.
Being now in the kitchen, he opened his fridge, took two bottles of water, and put them in his school bag: "This could be my last time having a soda, who knows..."
Soon he opened a can of soda and the took it all in one breath.
Shortly after, he took two packets of cookies from his locker and placed them in his backpack which already contained some utensils. With his current strength of 600 kg, he could carry a lot of luggage on his back, but he decided to carry little utensils.
There was a noise as he dragged the table to allow the door to be fully opened.
Taking one last look at the two young zombies who lay on the ground with half their heads cut off, he couldn't help but sigh: "Fate is so unpredictable... Who knows how many beautiful girls these young men would have dated in their teenage years? However, look at what end they came to..."
Shaking his head regretfully, he left his room with only his school bag on his back.
As soon as he left, he couldn't help but be vigilant as he stopped in his tracks and began to observe his surroundings cautiously.
"Oddly, everything is very quiet around here. Have the zombies left this floor yet?"
He was suspicious of how quiet the 6th floor had become, as until recently there was still a lot of beats and screaming noises. However, now there were only pools of blood scattered along the narrow hallway while the bedroom doors of other dormitories were open and smeared with blood.
"Probably, the zombies on this floor were attracted by the noise of the floors below or they went after those who tried to escape..."
"Who?" Suddenly, he was abruptly interrupted from his thoughts when a strange crawling noise reached his ears.
Looking around, he hadn't found anything and even suspected he had actually heard something.
"Something is wrong..."
He didn't know exactly what was wrong, but after his overall strength had evolved, his senses had been enhanced and he felt like he was being watched by something or someone from somewhere. Also, his Dark Heart passive skill was warning him that he was in danger and he started to feel anxious.
After looking around and finding no one, finally, he seemed to have thought of something: "Unless..." His body went rigid when something wet fell on his shoulder and after seeing that it was a gooey liquid, he slowly raised his head to the ceiling.
"Damn! Ugly thing, who do you want to scare to death?"
He got a big shock when he saw that on the ceiling there was a black spider at least 1 meter in diameter. She was all hairy and had 4 huge paws on each side and 2 smaller paws in her jaws.
Furthermore, she had 4 red eyes, two of them on each side as they looked sinisterly at Agnus.
"What kind of demonic spider is this and how can it be so big? Don't tell me this has already evolved into a 1st order?"
Cold sweat started running down Agnus' forehead with the thought of that possibility as he quickly took a few steps back to face her with a scowl. At the same time, he quickly took a small handkerchief out of his pocket, cleaned his shoulder, and threw the handkerchief away in disgust.
He was still undecided whether to fight this hideous creature or whether it would be better to run as far as possible when, suddenly, the spider let out a strange squeak. While flailing her jaws, she quickly condensed what appeared to be a small ball of black fire and hurled it swiftly at Agnus.
Agnus didn't hesitate for even a second when he summoned his armor covering his entire body which in addition to the small holes for his eyes, behind his helmet had a small circular opening allowing his long hair to flow down to his waist.
His armor could adapt to his body's physical measurements while adjusting proportionately.
Soon, his scythe appeared in his right hand and he quickly ran down the hall and entered the first room with the open door he found. He wasn't running only for his life, but he needed to find a space he could take advantage of, as he didn't dare fight in a narrow hallway with his massive scythe just over 2 meters long against a spider that could move freely across the ceiling.
Although he felt he could throw his scythe and kill her with just the force of inertia with the weight of 10 tons increased by the throwing force, his weapon was a scythe and not a spear after all. Also, this battle style felt too barbaric and was not his fighting style as it would not give him combat experience.
The black fireball hit the ground just beyond where Agnus was and made a big impact as it broke the ground into a small hole while small black flames still burned the broken floor with no sign of weakness.
Strangely, this spider also had sharp blades in its paws and the crackling sound of crawling came from them as it left several small holes in the ceiling through which it crawled.
She had surprising speed and quickly entered the room hissing as she launched a spider's web that opened within a 1-meter radius in an attempt to capture Agnus who quickly dodged.
"This ugly thing is very fast. I didn't even have time to think right and she had already caught up with me..."
The ceiling was at least 3.5 meters high and he could attack this spider easily if he matched his height to the length of his scythe, but he hadn't dared to attack earlier due to the hallway being too narrow. This could be a dead end under unpredictable circumstances. Now that he was in a 40-square meter room, he didn't hesitate any longer and activated his Void Aura ability.
[1st-order Void Aura]: When activated, within a 10-meter radius, gravity is increased by 2x.
As soon as he cast this ability, his body seemed to have gotten lighter and although he felt that his mental and spiritual strength had been consumed, it hadn't been much and he could still cast some thunder shocks.
[1st order Thunder Shock]: Fires a small ball of thunder at an enemy dealing damage and stunning them, reducing their speed depending on the evolved level, user and opponent.
The demonic spider had a little gooey drool running down its jaws as it looked eager to taste its new prey just as it had done with everyone who had previously occupied this floor and not even the zombies had escaped their meal.
She had a vague recollection of how small and insignificant she was when she hid in the darkest crevices in fear of these giant-looking humans who could crush her to death at any moment, just as she witnessed many of her kind being crushed simply because they left their dens.
However, somehow, she had undergone a drastic transformation after feeding on a small fly that had been hooked in her web trap. So, a series of changes happened after her next meals until she had stopped eating small insects and started eating zombies followed by humans.
Seeing this new human before her that looked appetizing, she was about to launch another one of her abilities when she felt her body get heavy and, as she had been taken by surprise, she fell from the ceiling by the force of 2x increased gravity.
"Do you like throwing fireballs? Receive my thunder ball."
Seeing that the spider had lost its balance as it fell from the ceiling, Agnus quickly released the thunder ball that he had started to conjure in his left hand shortly after activating Void Aura.
By the way, he was surprised at how easily he was activating his magic spells, as all it took was one thought of his and the skill cards contained in the Gricard's slots would glow dimly when activated.
Agnus couldn't see it, but the Gricard was floating inside his soul space while with each activation of an ability, the pages would flip to the location of the activated card.
He could only witness such scenes if he closed his eyes and focused on the inside of his soul. However, he was in the midst of a battle right now and couldn't afford to watch how spells were formed through his Gricard.
A ball of purple thunder the size of a football had been condensed that crackled with radiant lights and was quickly hurled at the demonic spider which was still trying to adjust and regain its balance from its fall when its body was hit and a large hole opened in her stomach spilling large amounts of black blood.
She had been badly injured and couldn't help but let out a hiss of pain, anger, and fear at the same time. Her eyes went totally crimson and she looked frantic with thoughts of devouring this human.
Puff...
However, before she fully recovered from her confused state, a glint of cold metal sliced through the air as the scythe's blade descended in an arc from top to bottom cutting it in half.
Soon, his body dropped dead along with 2 spiritual cards, one blue and one red.
"It seems that I underestimated my magic power... Also, the combination of these two skills is really perfect. While one increases gravity leaving the target's body heavy, the other further reduces their speed leaving them in a small state of confusion..."
As he thought about the results of his battle, a ball of white energy left the spider's body and quickly disappeared upon entering its body.
[You killed a Crimson Pupil Demonic Spider of level 4 and gained +3,000 of energy]
[You were promoted to level 3 and got +20 free attributes points]