Translator: Simple MTL Editor: Simple MTL
There were strict requirements for players to level up, which was good news. It meant players were not able to level up from simply reaching the level requirement and completing the advancement quest.
Instead, monsters needed to be constantly hunting to obtain higher attribute templates at lower levels.
The higher the attribute template, the greater the bonus to a player’s, or monster’s, attributes.
To put it simply, Bates’ current attribute template was the basic template; Level 1 and at the bottom of all monsters.
However, if his attribute template was upgraded to lord, or even legendary, level 1 attributes would be enough to crush a level 30 or even level 40 monster.
This was the reason why a level 50 slime could not defeat a level 10 legendary dragon.
If someone lacked attribute templates, it would cause them to lack life levels too!
Secondly, Bates had finally got rid of his minor levels, when he became level 1.
There was also an additional status bar that displayed his health and mana.
The appearance of the attribute template, as well as his health and mana points, meant that he had officially become a monster in the game world!
This benefitted him greatly as, due to the game’s rules, he would not die as long as he kept his health stat above zero!
However, the basic attribute template did not have any specific bonuses, and his health and mana points were only calculated by multiplying his energy and spirit values by ten.
Nevertheless, it had greatly increased Bates’ survivability.
Finally, his four attributes had also increased: strength – 0.8 to 1.5, agility – 0.6 to 1.2, energy – 0.6 to 1.8, and spirit – 1.4 to 2.5.
According to his attributes, Bates was still classed as a bottom-level monster, but in reality, his strength was more than 100 times what it was in the beginning!
He could easily kill a level 1 slime now!
Bates thought, ‘I should be able to choose a skill now, right?’ Straight after, a familiar voice immediately sounded in his head, a voice he now recognized as a system notification.
“Ding! Second evolution successful. Congratulations master for obtaining a chance to draw a skill. You can choose one of the following skills as your own.”
The following skill options popped up:
[ sickle: passive skill. By choosing this skill, your first pair of legs will transform into the shape of a sickle, becoming stronger. When facing an enemy, you will have a stronger attack power. ]
[ regeneration: passive skill. By choosing this skill, you will have a powerful regeneration ability. Your broken limbs and body can be slowly regenerated. By consuming your energy points, you can greatly increase the rate of regeneration. ]
[ underwater breathing: passive skill. By choosing this skill your skin and a part of your limbs will be modified. You will gain the ability to breathe underwater. ]
[ acidic mucus: active skill. By choosing this skill your mouth will be modified. When you encounter an enemy, you can choose to consume 5 mana points and spray acidic mucus that has a weak corrosive nature to attack the enemy. ]
Four skills, three passive and one active.
Bates was in no hurry to choose, and fell into deep thought.
After having experienced two evolutions and different skill extractions, Bates could guess what kind of skills would become available to him. He figured out that the types of skills given to him, could be related to the genes of the creatures he’d previously fused to his body when he had evolved.
During his first evolution, he had only devoured insects, therefore only insect genes had fused into his body.
After that evolution, the three skills that appeared were: [ sickle ], [ enhanced armor ], and [ charge ]. All of which could be found in the prototypes of insects.
Out of the four skills that were just shown to Bates, both [ sickle ] and [ regeneration ] still corresponded to the insect genes.
However, [ underwater breathing ] clearly corresponded to the frog gene, while [ acidic mucus ] corresponded to the slime gene.
‘If I wanted to obtain any skill, I only needed to hunt the corresponding monster and obtain its gene points. When the time came for evolution, it was likely that I would be able to choose the skill related to that specific monster!’ Bates had cleverly figured it out, and he knew he could use that to his advantage.
“Choose [ regeneration ] skill!” he answered.
After choosing the skill, he felt his entire body being filled with heat once again.
Just as Bates was about to close the attribute panel, he stopped. He’d noticed something unusual at the bottom of the panel.
Unknowingly, a new row of data had appeared there:
[ soul points ] : 1
[ soul bonus points ] : Soul Talent, effect unknown, unable to be analyzed
Bates shifted his gaze to the talent for soul bonus points. The system’s description of this talent had not changed much, and it was still unable to be analyzed.
However, when Bates looked at the one soul point, behind his attributes and passive skills, there was an extremely tiny ‘+’ sign.
It seemed that as long as he was willing, he could add this soul point to his attributes or skills at any time.
‘Free attribute or skill points? Or a combination of the two?’ Bates wondered.
Monsters were not humans. They couldn’t understand the concept of free attribute or skill points.
Every time a monster leveled up, its four attributes would be increased according to the attribute template it had.
Normally, because Bates had the basic attribute template, every time he leveled up, it would increase his four attributes by one. As for skills, they could only be upgraded when the attribute template was upgraded.
If this soul point was really a combination of free attribute points and skill points, then he had gained another way to become stronger than other monsters!
Wanting to use his new soul point, he thought about whether it was better to combine it with an attribute or a skill.
He did not need to worry too much about increasing his four attributes, as they grew every time he leveled up and evolved.
Therefore, he shifted his attention to the five passive skills that he had: enhanced fangs, enhanced armor, heal, regeneration, and basic poison resistance. Other than one passive skill that was offensive, the rest were survival-type.
Bates pondered for a moment and decided to add his soul point to the strengthened fang skill.
The next second, the soul point disappeared!
The description of the strengthened fangs skill gradually blurred until it disappeared.
Suddenly, a brand new passive skill materialized, replacing the [ strengthened fangs ] skill!