Chapter 67: 11000!
"Doesn’t the system say that now it will be a fixed percentage increase to my base stats?" he muttered under his breath.
He glanced again at his higher Intelligence stat, the numbers flickering faintly across his vision.
"The more I level up, the more disparity in stats..." he murmured, brows knitting.
He sat still for a mont, quietly analysing every line in his Status panel.
"From the looks of it, my stamina will be left very much behind in just a few levels, and my agility will skyrocket. It’s like I will be the second Shyra," he chuckled. Obsidian Panther Cubs were infamous for their agility.
Shyra lifted her head from the ground, eyes half-open and curious, then lazily dropped it again with a soft huff.
"No! I need to bring all my stats into balance before any level up. That way, I’ll maximize the benefits."
Then he sighed, shoulders slumping a little.
"Sigh... this should have been from the start. Would’ve saved so trouble." He grimaced, mind running through every thod he knew to raise stats artificially—herbs with bitter aftertastes, grueling training, potions that burned down the throat, even artificial asures—when an unexpected system response flashed before him.
Leo blinked, taken aback by the sudden reply... and then it clicked. If he had levelled twenty tis on his base stats alone, his attributes would’ve pushed near 3400 by now, around a High 4-star’s strength.
He glanced toward the corpses of the Soilworms lying beside him, the earth around them still cracked and unsettled. A short laugh escaped him.
"Basic instincts... hahaha. Yes, basic instincts. That’s what saved twice when they split the ground beneath my feet."
He checked the remaining unassigned stat points.
"12, huh... let’s try to even things out."
Vitality: 21.9 → 22.9 [57.9]
Strength: 18.1 → 23.1 [58.1]
Agility: 25.1 [60.1]
Stamina: 16.9 → 22.9 [57.9]
Intelligence: 37.4 [72.4]
Unallocated Stat Points: 12 → 0 —> Deleted
"Well, it is what it is. Looks like in the future I’ll be a mana monster." He closed the Status panel with a flick. "I wonder if there are treasures like the Elasian Bloom that help raise strength, agility, or stamina."
His attention shifted to the two huge corpses beside him. The scent of murky, tallic blood wafting from them made him wrinkle his nose.
"Let’s get so points real quick."
He tapped the tal plate against each corpse.
Shu! Shu!
Both bodies vanished, leaving behind two cores and two mana crystals.
"Hm? No soul crystal this ti, I guess."
He slipped the two mana crystals into his spiritual space with practiced ease and examined the cores in his palms—their veiny red and brownish patterns giving them a grimy, almost diseased appearance.
"I didn’t notice it earlier, but Niri seed to have gained weight after the rank up..." he said absently as he stroked her red, leafy hair, which had drooped over his face like soft vines.
As if insulted, Niri’s ruby eyes snapped open, giving him a sharp, offended glare.
"No! I must be tired from the fight. She’s perfectly fine," Leo corrected himself imdiately.
Niri closed her eyes again—but not before lightly smacking him.
Definitely a girl, Leo thought.
---
After a bit of contemplation, he decided to feed the Peak 2-star core to Shyra and the High 2-star core to Niri. It was basically an experint—to check whether Shyra would jump directly from Low 2-star to Peak 2-star.
He first fed the core to Niri, but contrary to his expectations, there was no visible reaction. Or rather... There was.
She seed to have gained a little bit more weight.
Leo didn’t dare voice that thought. He didn’t even let it fully form in his mind, afraid that Niri might sohow sense it. When she continued lying there without any dramatic change, he let out a small sigh of relief.
Next was Shyra.
The mont he tossed the core toward her, she lazily cracked open her jaw. The core dropped in, and her teeth clamped shut—the crisp snap of shattering crystal echoing around them.
Then her eyes flew open.
A brilliant white light exploded from her black body, forcing Leo to squint. Her silhouette expanded inside the glow, limbs stretching, spine lengthening. Her panther form swelled until she stood nearly four ters tall and seven ters long.
When the light finally dimd, Shyra’s new form erged—majestic and imposing. Raven-black fur rippled like liquid shadow across her fra, and her violet slit pupils glead with a sharp, predatory nace. The aura rolling off her made the tiny hairs on Leo’s arms rise.
Then the system chid.
Ding!
Shyra [Obsidian Black Panther Cub] – Low 2-star → High 2-star (Noble Bloodline)
Ding!
Status Updated – Feedback Received
Vitality: 22.9 [57.9 → 67.9]
Strength: 23.1 [58.1 → 68.1]
Agility: 25.1 [60.1 → 70.1]
Stamina: 22.9 [57.9 → 67.9]
Intelligence: 37.4 [72.4 → 82.4]
Mana: 6516 → 7416
{Shyra – High 2-star – 50-70% stats → 20}
{Niri – Peak 2-star – 50-70% stats → 25}
{Total Feedback Stats = 45}
"It works!" Leo exclaid, excitent bursting out of him. "She is so big now, Damn! I need to ride her and roam around this forest."
From this small experint, he concluded that feeding lower-grade beast cores slightly enhanced a tad beast’s strength—but the effect beca negligible when the rank difference was too big. However, when a significantly higher-ranked core was fed, there was a real chance to skip an entire minor rank stage, just like Shyra had done. But the rank-up would not be exactly that of core; the core energy would deplete and only allow his beast to reach the rank till the energy is supported. Leo could feel it, Shyra was barely of High 2-star rank, maybe stats around 30 to 33.
Leo was ecstatic, practically basking in the feeling of being a chosen one, when the tal plate in his hand gave off a faint glow and then dimd.
Frowning, he checked it.
A new section had appeared beneath the number, displaying his points scored.
It read: 11,000.
---
---Thalor City---
Middle-aged n and won, along with elders of all ages, stood gathered in a massive clearing beside the great city wall of Thalor City. The area stretched wide—much wider than any training ground—divided into nurous sections marked with floating number plates, similar to candidate numbers. A huge translucent board hovered overhead, shimring faintly in the morning light.
"Why are we here so early? Do you really think those brats will start rampaging the mont they land on the ground?" a man grumbled, rubbing his sleepy eyes.
"Shut it, man. Don’t cry like a kid. If not for those old fossils, even I wouldn’t have co," another muttered.
"Absolutely. What are these ashes even thinking? I bet for the next five days, not a single compartnt will fill up for us to empty."
"But don’t we require fresh blood and flesh? Guess that’s why they’re whining so much."
"Tsk. Oi, look. Soone actually killed sothing."
"Huh?" The first man squinted toward a compartnt in the distance.
"What’s that? Is it a rabbit...? Fuck. These kids really only know how to hunt shit."
"Heeeh, at least soone sent a corpse. I thought most of them would sit around for twenty days and hide in fear. Even a rabbit gives a single point. Look, the tal plate number... RUi906. He’s actually the first to kill and gain a point in the whole trial. First person with one point. Pretty good, right?" Both of them burst into laughter.
But then, a sudden bright flare lit up one of the distant compartnts, and a wolf corpse tumbled through the shimring blue veil. They leaned closer to see the number.
URc611 — 20 points.
"Ooo, not bad... High 1-star, huh. And from a core city? Must be a good candidate. Note his number."
Before the murmurs settled, the enormous scoreboard flickered again.
KEo311 — 5000
For a heartbeat, the entire clearing fell silent.
"...Outskirts?"
Then, as if pulled by the sa string, every gaze snapped toward the farthest compartnts—those belonging to Outskirts City candidates. So had to squint hard; the outer-city sections were nearly at the end of the massive field.
Through the bluish flare, a colossal segnted body crashed down—
First 4 segnts.Then another single segnt.Then the remaining eight, all mutilated and torn apart, slamd down one after another until the entire allotted compartnt was filled edge to edge.
Silence.
And then the chaos erupted.
"Soone actually killed a Peak 2-star beast!"
"Ay look! It’s soone from the outskirts!"
"What the hell! Soilworms are one of the toughest beasts in this trial"
"Note that number! Note that number!"
Amid the uproar, Brant stood quietly at the side, fingers stroking his beard as he stared at the mangled monster parts.
"You were actually sent directly to a Peak 2-star monster," he muttered under his breath. "Really... only a girl brings doom to a man’s life."
Brant sighed heavily.
He had known from the start—soone was trying to get rid of Leo by sending him straight into a high-ranked monster’s territory.
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