Chapter 118

  In the several days following the helicopter crash, Jake stuck to his routine: sging the city for mana at night, starting right after the usual world reset and farming XP during the day in the underground tunnels. So far, this strategy had proven to be the most effective way to gain both mana and XP, and for several days, he was fully focused on that.

  After evolving into Stage 2 and acquiring many new skills along with upgrades, Jake’s body ed signifitly more mana on a daily basis than before. Despite this, he mao accumute a substantial amount of MP over the past several days, thanks to the Mana Vision perk. As soon as the System refreshed the world, he would begin his hunt for mana, utilizing Mana Vision to locate ables. He no longer even bothered pig up smaller items like marbles and beads and focused only er ones like shards and ks instead. On a few occasions, he was even fortunate enough to find crystals, each taining a whopping 5,000 MP.

  Despite colleg a substantial amount of MP, Jake hadn’t acquired any new abilities or skills yet. He first wao obtain all avaible upgrades for his existing skills. Several of his skills hadn’t received a single upgrade, so it was high time he addressed that. During the st few days of active XP farming, he leveled up several times. All the skill points he gained during that period were spent on acquiring the upgrades for the skills that had that time: Enhanced Reflexes, Enharength, Enhanced Regeion, Feral Instincts, and Enhanced Durability. Since all of these skills were of on rarity, each of them currently had only three upgrades avaible.

  Skill: Enhanced Reflexes

  Upgrade Options

  1 - Improve rea time, allowing instantaneous respoo threats and enabling swift dodging of attacks.

  2 - Gain the ability to anticipate an oppo’s movements, allowing for preemptive strikes and evasive moves.

  3 - Develop superiility, further enhang acrobatieuvers.

  The first two upgrades made Jake even more dangerous in bat than he’d been before. Even fast and agile ex-humans like chasers and sshers struggled to nd a hit on him now. The third upgrade improved his acrobatic abilities, allowing him to climb more easily and perform more powerful jumps than before.

  Skill: Enharength

  Upgrade Options

  1 - Boost raw physical power, allowing for lifting and carrying heavy objects with ease.

  2 - Signifitly increase pung and striking power.

  3 - Achieve greater damage resistahout increasing the mana ption.

  The first upgrade was supposed to help him handle heavy objects with ease, but it wasn’t all that useful to him because he hardly ever o lift something heavy. Still, he was sure that at some point, this upgrade would e in handy.

  Despite having learned Smashfists a few days ago, Jake didn’t use them very often. Being more aced to cws and swords, he mostly relied on those two in bat. While he hardly ever punched his ehe sed upgrade increased his overall striking power, allowing him to deal more damage with his cws and swords.

  Skill: Enhanced Regeion

  Upgrade Options

  1 - Accelerate healing of minor wounds and cuts within seds, allowing for rapid recovery in battle.

  2 - Gain the ability to recover from severe injuries at an accelerated rate without increasing the mana ption.

  3 - Develop much greater resistao various elemental damage types.

  All the upgrades for this skill were extremely useful. The first one allowed his body to heal minor injuries right during bat. Sure, thanks to the upgrades he’d acquired for Enhanced Reflexes, along with all the ility and speed-reted skills and upgrades, he was hardly ever wounded when fighting ex-humans, but when he did get hurt, his minor wounds healed in no time ft thanks to the first upgrade.

  He hadn’t been severely wounded in the past several days, but if—when—it happe some point, the sed upgrade for Enhanced Regeion would be a great help. The same held true for the third upgrade: he hadn’t yet sustained any elemental damage, but when it eventually happehe third upgrade would reduce the elemental damage dealt to him.

  Skill: Feral Instincts

  Upgrade Options

  1 - Sharpen awareo quickly evaluate the distand dire of a threat.

  2 - Heighten danger perception to identify the nature of an impending threat.

  3 - Gain the ability to sehe emotional states or iions of nearby humans and pick up on their potential hostility.

  All three upgrades for this skill were extremely useful as well, helping him react to potential dangers in time to avoid them. The third one articurly iing, but so far he hadn’t seen it in a yet, because during the days following the helicopter crash, there were no more iions with humans.

  Skill: Enhanced Durability

  Upgrade Options

  1 - Increase resistao physical damage, redug the impact of blows and falls.

  2 - Develop a tolerao extreme temperatures, enhang survival in harsh ditions.

  3 - Gain a tougher outer yer that absorbs minor impacts and abrasions.

  All the upgrades for Enhanced Durability were also highly useful as they improved his body’s overall resistao damage.

  Jake was currently perched on the edge of a high-rise building’s roof. It was te evening. During that day, he’d mao level up two times, gaining 10 skill points in total. He decided to use all of them to increase his stats.

  Body: 30 → 32

  Mind: 27→ 30

  Magick: 25 → 30

  S the days following the helicopter crash, Jake had leveled up five times from 33 to 38. He’d obtained all the upgrades for all his skills, and when he leveled up again, he was going to do the same for the three of his abilities: Bded Tentacles, Mind Reader, and Smashfists. The first one currently had only one upgrade—reduced transformation time—while the other two didn’t have any upgrades at all yet. After that, he would acquire some new skills and abilities with the MP he’d gained during the st several days.

  Jake wao review his current stats, but he suddenly heard some noise. He immediately opened his eyes, and all the information vanished.

  He was currently perched at the er of a high-rise building’s roof, croug down and holding on to the edges. It was dark, and heavy rain poured oy. The noise he’d just heard came from the streets below. His Feral Instincts remained silent, indig he wasn’t in any kind of da the moment. heless, curiosity made him lower his gaze to see what was happeniories beh him.