Chapter 8: A Brand New Panel
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 8: A Brand New Panel
"Bang!"
Smoke and dust billowed in every direction.
There was almost no time to react.
The members of the Chaos Church had fled immediately after detonating the device. Aside from their opening remarks, they hadn't wasted a single breath on pointless chatter.
"Cough... hack!"
A slightly disheveled Roland looked at the scene in disbelief.
"This is bad... the Great Calamity from the prophecy has arrived after all. I must return and report to His Majesty at once."
Realizing that the awakening of the Void Insect Hive was now inevitable, Roland beat a hasty retreat.
Left behind in the wake of this sudden turn of events, Xie Bai stood alone amidst the chaos of the Void Insect Hive, her mind reeling.
"Is this a scripted event?"
Xie Bai had every reason to suspect that this was a catalyst event arranged by the game to kick off a major expansion. Whether it was the dialogue or the plot progression, it fit the classic mold of a version update intro perfectly.
"Whatever. I suppose this works out in my favor."
Xie Bai drew Funeral Rites and turned to face the gradually awakening Void Insect Race.
[Void Soldier Insect Lv.80]
[HP: 100,000 / 100,000]
[Strength: 220]
[Constitution: 580]
[Intelligence: 1]
[Agility: 860]
[Talent: Voidification]
[Skills: Insect Race Consciousness Lv.1, Void Corruption Lv.1, Bite Lv.5...]
[Void Heavy Armored Insect Lv.80]
[HP: 500,000 / 500,000]
[Strength: 220]
[Constitution: 3,090]
[Intelligence: 1]
[Agility: 260]
[Talent: Voidification]
[Skills: Insect Race Consciousness Lv.1, Void Corruption Lv.1, Heavy Armor Lv.5, Overrun Lv.5, Bite Lv.5...]
[Void Flying Insect Lv.80]
[HP: 80,000 / 80,000]
[Strength: 480]
[Constitution: 320]
[Intelligence: 1]
[Agility: 1,380]
[Talent: Voidification]
[Skills: Insect Race Consciousness Lv.1, Void Corruption Lv.1, Void Missile Lv.5, Bite Lv.5...]
Looking at these Void Insects whose health didn't even reach a million, Xie Bai raised her hand and activated Echo. The moment she deactivated her Spirit Form, she swung Funeral Rites in a swift arc.
Vroom!—
A massive shockwave tore through the air, ruthlessly sweeping through everything in its path.
-2,741,620
-2,741,620
-2,741,620
-2,741,620
...
[Killed Void Soldier Insect Lv.80]
[Killed Void Soldier Insect Lv.80]
[Killed Void Heavy Armored Insect Lv.80]
[Killed Void Flying Insect Lv.80]
[Killed Void Soldier Insect Lv.80]
...
With a single, effortless attack, Xie Bai had slaughtered nearly thirty million Void Insects, reaping a harvest of terrifying proportions.
Under normal circumstances, the experience cap for killing a mob higher than one's level—excluding bosses—was one thousand points.
However, Xie Bai possessed the ten-fold multiplier from Sloth's Blessing.
A single kill granted her ten thousand experience points.
Ultimately, those thirty million insects provided Xie Bai with a staggering 328 billion experience points.
The constant ding-ding-ding of level-up notifications was so loud it made her ears ring.
Immediately after swinging Funeral Rites, Xie Bai re-entered her Spirit Form and vanished from her spot.
The remaining Void Insects outside the attack's range, alerted by the commotion, swarmed toward Xie Bai's previous position. It was, however, an exercise in futility.
Having flown to another clearing, Xie Bai began to analyze the gains from that single strike.
Activating Echo just now had consumed 130,000 Mana, but due to Sloth's Curse, the effective value was only 13,000 Mana.
The resulting massive area-of-effect damage had a radius of nine thousand meters, wiping out roughly thirty million Void Insects. Yet, even a range that vast only covered about seventy to eighty percent of the entire hive.
Still, those thirty million insects represented the hive's accumulated reserves; the rate at which new Void Insects were emerging had slowed significantly. Xie Bai estimated it would take the hive three days of recovery to replenish those thirty million.
After a long while, the level-up notifications finally ceased.
[You have leveled up to Lv.96!]
[Obtained Free Attribute Points 200, Skill Points 100, Gold * 96,000]
[Current Level Progress: Lv.96 (56,889,389,900 / 70,000,000,000)]
Even though the 300 billion experience points had given her some mental preparation, seeing the actual level still left Xie Bai in shock.
Reaching level 96 in a single day—not even a rocket could move that fast.
At level 96, she could use Pride's Blessing to pin Roland to the ground and beat him senseless.
"Right, there are the level-up rewards too."
With that, Xie Bai checked her accumulated attribute and skill points. Thanks to the ten-fold reward multiplier from Sloth's Blessing, she had amassed a significant amount.
[Free Attribute Points: 8,380]
[Skill Points: 4,210]
"If I remember correctly, the gold from level-up rewards is affected by both Sloth's Blessing and Greed's Blessing, meaning it's multiplied by a hundred."
"But the Void Insects also drop gold. One drops a hundred gold... factor in the ten-fold increase from Greed's Blessing and the double drops from Funeral Rites, and that's two thousand gold per insect. So, for thirty million insects..."
Unconsciously, Xie Bai checked her gold balance with a hint of trepidation.
[Gold: 65.606 Billion]
"How... how much?"
"Over sixty-five billion?!"
Well, Xie Bai could certainly afford to smile now. With over sixty billion gold, there was virtually nothing limiting her damage output. She couldn't even imagine how much gold she would have by the time her single-hit damage reached the sixty-billion mark.
Aside from the gold, Xie Bai noticed that her Spirit Mass hadn't increased. Not a single one of the thirty million Void Insects had triggered Soul Capture.
Combined with the fact that the Barbarians hadn't dropped any Spirit Mass either, Xie Bai surmised that only Boss-tier units dropped the stuff.
"Whatever. I'm not lacking in damage right now. I'll find time to enhance Funeral Rites later."
Returning to the matter of leveling up: jumping from level 38 to 96 meant an increase of fifty-eight levels. This meant Funeral Rites would provide an additional 5,800 Strength and Intelligence.
As for Constitution and Agility, Xie Bai wasn't too worried about her HP, considering low-level enemies couldn't even touch her. After some deliberation, she decided to go all-in and dump all 8,380 attribute points into Agility.
Just as she was about to open her panel to assign the points, she suddenly remembered something.
"Wait... did I forget something...?"
"Right, Gluttony's Blessing!"
Xie Bai suddenly recalled that while she was slaughtering the thirty million Void Insects, the notifications for Gluttony's Blessing had been ringing incessantly. Since the Void Insects generally had attributes over a hundred, almost every kill granted her a few points in a corresponding attribute.
A few points per kill... multiplied by thirty million...
Realizing something was very "wrong," Xie Bai immediately looked at her attribute panel.
[Xie Bai Lv.96]
[Class: Reaper]
[HP: 43.624 Billion / 43.624 Billion]
[Mana: 3.4761 Million / 3.4761 Million]
[Strength: 100,606,412]
[Constitution: 436,240,851]
[Intelligence: 347,611]
[Agility: 273,334,366]
[...]
Xie Bai: "!!!"
The sudden appearance of these terrifying numbers caused her pupils to dilate instantly. For a moment, she was speechless.
Ultimately, faced with such exaggerated attributes, Xie Bai couldn't help but bow her head in "repentance."
I'm sorry, Gluttony. I was wrong to think you were useless and only good for filling the gaps between my teeth.
It wasn't that you were useless; it was that I was useless.
Right now, you are simply invincible...
After a brief moment of awe, Xie Bai decided to keep those eight thousand attribute points unassigned, treating them as a memento. Then, she turned her attention to her skill points.
[Skill Points: 4,210]
"Echo, max it out. Soul Capture... well, let's see. There are new skills unlocked."
Xie Bai spent five hundred skill points to max out Echo, then selected four of her newly unlocked skills and maxed them out as well. In the end, 580 points remained from her original 4,210, which she decided to save.
After her adjustments, Xie Bai was left with a brand new and utterly absurd character panel.
[Xie Bai Lv.96]
[Class: Reaper]
[...]
[Charm: 99]
[Luck: -1]
[Talent: None]
[Skills: Soul Capture Lv.1, Echo Lv.13, Spirit Form Lv.13, Terror Lv.1, Bloodlust Lv.1, Daybreak Lv.13, Judgment Lv.13, Shadow Return Lv.13, Annihilation Lv.13, Acting Cute Lv.13]
[Equipment: Ring of Seven Curses (■■), Funeral Rites (Divine Artifact)]
[Time until Closed Beta begins: 89d 1h 14min]
---
[Echo Lv.13]
Consumes any amount of Mana to empower your weapon. Your next basic attack will deal additional True Damage in a radius equal to (Mana Consumed * 120%) meters. This additional damage is equal to 100% of the total damage of the basic attack.
Cooldown: 30s
[Terror Lv.1]
When attacking an opponent, increases the duration of the target's debuffs by 1s.
Passive Skill
[Bloodlust Lv.1]
When you kill a unit, restore HP equal to 10% of the killed unit's Max HP.
Passive Skill
[Daybreak Lv.13]
Designate a target within line of sight. For the next 60s, your damage against them is increased ten-fold, and they cannot leave a 50-meter radius around you.
Cooldown: 60s / Cost: 50,000 Mana
[Judgment Lv.13]
Designate a unit with a lower level than yours and execute them. You gain Spirit Mass equal to (Target Level * 10).
Cooldown: 6h / Cost: 100,000 Mana
[Shadow Return Lv.13]
You can enter the shadow of any person and emerge from the shadow of anyone whose shadow you have previously entered.
Cooldown: None / Cost: 1,000 Mana
[Annihilation Lv.13]
You can choose an area with a radius of up to 100 meters and completely annihilate it, or restore an area that was previously annihilated.
Cooldown: 48h / Cost: 300,000 Mana