Chapter 23 - Leveling up the skills

[ Day 21 ]

After killing for the whole day, Jayden returns to the tower. He estimated the number of zombies left inside the city to be around 7,000. One more day and the city will be empty.

Jayden sat down and opened his status window and also the kill counts.

[ Kills Left: 196,821/1,000,000 ]

******

[ Name: Jayden XXXXX ]

[ Race: Blood Vampire ]

[ Class Vampire Infant ( level 296 ) ]

[ Blood Points: 547,843 ]

[ Hunger Points ]: [ 19,790/21,000 ]

______

[ Basic Vampire Abilities: ]

[ Super Speed ]

[ Super Strength ]

[ Fast Healing ]

[ Stronger Senses ]

[ Charm ]

[ Bat Transformation ]

[ Mist Transformation ]

[ Telekinesis ]

_______

Innate Ability:

[Memory Manipulator] { Level 1 [0/10,000] BP }

[Description] : (You can peek into people's memory, erase them, steal them, or replace them by looking directly into their eyes. The stronger the opponent, the longer it will take to manipulate their memories.)

[Cost: 2 H.P.]

______

Primary Ability:

[Time Manipulation] { Level 1[0/1,000,000] BP }

[Description] : ( Time Is the only thing that could bend 'fate' in front of it. Nothing could stand in against it; nothing could surpass it; nothing could stop it.

Even the one who created it perished along with it. Time is God's legacy, the strongest of all. )

1. [Allows you to stop time for 2 minutes.

Cost: 4,000 HP ]

2. [Allows you to see 30 minutes into the future.

Cost: 2,000 HP ]

3. [Allows you to go back 30 minutes into the past.

Cost: 2,000 HP ]

4. [Allows you to steal other's entire existence.

Cost: 20,000 HP ]

______

[Obtained Ability ]:

[ Fake Aura ] [ Level 1 (0/10,000) BP ]

[ Skill description ]: After stealing and absorbing the enemy's killing intent, you can release an aura of someone of a level higher than yours. Decreases enemy speed and makes them dizzy, while those below its current level freeze or pass out within a diameter of 40m.

( Requires 50 Hunger points to maintain 'Fake Aura' active for 1 min. )

[ Current aura level: 132 ]

______

[ Battle Styles ]:

[ Karate ]

[ Boxing ]

[ Jujutsu ]

[ Ashura's-footwork (incomplete) ]

[ Ashura's weapon styles (incomplete) ]

______

Alter Egos { Level 1 [0/10,000 ] BP }:

[Happy Ego]: Carefree, joking, loving, and friendly.

(Increases Charm by 10%)

[Cunning Ego]: Calculative, clever, sly, planning master.

(Increases senses and thinking ability by 10%)

[Psycho Ego]: Sadistic, cruel, battle maniac.

(Increases strength and agility by 10%)

[Arrogant Ego]: Indifferent, egotistical, disdainful.

(Increases strength of aura around you by 10%)

______

Equipment:

[ Andrea's Will ] { Level 2 [0/1,000,000 ] BP }:

[ Genis's care] { Level 2 [0/1,000,000 ] BP }:

******

Jayden observes his status; he has accumulated a lot of blood points; although he couldn't upgrade his primary ability, 'Time Manipulation' yet, he could upgrade others to level 2 now.

He could now upgrade 'Memory Manipulator', 'Alter Egos' and 'Fake Aura'. After seeing that 30,000 BP would be reduced, he wasn't the least bit upset. After all, they were points well spent, and it's not like he couldn't get more points; he was surrounded by mindless points walking all around him, after all.

After calming his heart, he excitedly selects the skill 'Fake Aura' to evolve; he puts 10,000 BP into it and waits patiently for the process to end. As soon as Jayden selects to upgrade it, messages start to pop in front of him.

[ Condition for evolving Fake Aura fulfilled ]

[ Evolving Fake Aura ]

.

.

.

Just after those messages appeared, Jayden's body got covered by a thick layer of the aura, a thick blue aura whose surface had turned solid due to its high concentration.

Jayden felt a blue fire burning all around his body, which made him panic a little; when he upgraded Andrea' will, he felt immense pain as if his body was burning, so he expected a similar pain.

But, to his joy, the suffering he expected didn't come, and as time passed, the fire around him got stronger and stronger. He sat still for the whole process and observed every single change in and around him.

After a short while, a few more messages popped in front of him, and he excitedly read them all.

[ 'Fake Aura' Evolution completed]

[ Obtained 'Nether Aura']

******

Jayden read the message and felt ecstatic. Even its name sounds awesome, he thought; he hurriedly opened his status window and read the skill description.

...

[ Nether Aura ]

[ Skill description ]: Steal other's killing intent, and you could unleash a strong nether fire that could burn a person's soul and mind, but use it too much, and you will find yourself to be the one burned instead. It is nearly impossible to extinguish the Nether fire.

Your natural aura combined with Nether Aura could unleash an attack that could turn the opponent into your slave, who could never betray you, but only if the opponent's aura isn't too much higher than yours.

{Current level: 132}

]

...

After reading the skill description, Jayden was feeling euphoric; he got a soul attack ability. Soul attacks are considered quite rare, and they could also affect the mind; that's a deadly combination. If he uses it along with his Memory Manipulator skill, he couldn't imagine the scope of things it could do.

Jayden found out many things after reading it; he didn't need to use the hunger Points to use Nether Aura now, but that didn't mean that he could use it infinitely. As mentioned in the skill description, he could get hurt instead if he uses the Nether fire too much.

He also noticed that now he could turn someone into his loyal slave; after reading this, some evil thoughts appeared in his mind, but he instantly shook his head and cleared his mind.

" Control! Evil begone. Be virtuous, and don't choose the path of depravity. "he muttered to himself as he made a cross sign with his hand dramatically. He looked really funny, if Anna had been there she would have died from laughter.

He forcefully calmed his racing heart and thought about testing his new skill, and he just couldn't hold it in. He abruptly stood up and ran towards the zombies. As soon as he reaches a zombie, he gets to work without wasting any time.

[ Nether Aura activated ]

He activates his new skill and uses the nether fire on a level 116 zombie. As soon as the zombie comes in contact with the fire, it starts to scream and wail in pain.

Even if the zombie doesn't have a mind, it still has a soul, the zombie feels excruciating pain, and within a couple of seconds, the zombie falls to the ground with a thud.

[ You have killed a zombie, level 116 ]

Just as the first zombie dies, he moves towards his next targets and continues his experiments.

...

With these experiments, Jayden noted a few things; he could use the Nether fire from a long distance of around 150 meters. After using it a single time, Jayden didn't feel any discomfort; the zombie died so easily and quickly. And even after using it around 10 times, he didn't feel much different, just a very slight heaviness in his head

As soon as the zombies die, the Nether fire around them disappears. Jayden observed it for some time and then moved back to the tower and sat back with a satisfied look on his face. But he noticed there was no option to upgrade it further; maybe, like last time, it would reveal the upgrade requirements when some hidden conditions are met, he thought.

Even so, he got more than he had asked for; with this skill, his strength has increased significantly. Now to level it up, he would need to take others' killing intent; only then will its level increase.

Putting all thoughts away, he focused his attention on the second skill or whatever it was. He waited for a few moments and selected the option to upgrade 'Alter Egos'.

Just as the 10,000 BP disappeared, messages started to pop in front of him.

[ Condition for evolving fulfilled ]

[ Evolving Alter Egos ]

.

.

.

Jayden felt a strange sensation inside of his head, he didn't know what was happening, but he didn't feel any kind of pain. He closed his eyes and felt the changes in his mind; he felt it to be changing somehow, but he couldn't put his finger exactly on the type of change his mind was going through.

After more than half an hour, the messages he had been expecting for quite some time finally showed up.

[ Alter Egos evolution Complete ]

[ Obtained 'Alter Egos' Level 2]

...

Jayden held his breath and opened his status window again to see the changes in the skill; he was a bit nervous as the status window popped in front of him.

Jayden slowly started to read the description and was surprised by what he saw. The evolution of Alter Egos went to the way he didn't expect.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>-