Ashen God
Chapter 278 - 277 Permanent Skills

Chapter 278: Chapter 277 Permanent Skills

"Although achieving this effect would indeed greatly enhance my strength, the upgrade of Indestructible Golden Body to LV.6 increased the stamina consumption it requires, from a minimal amount to a small amount," he said.

Zhang Yanhang felt uncomfortable about the increased stamina consumption, primarily because he thought that the Indestructible Golden Body Skill might become a permanent skill like the Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil Skill, which would be used whenever he hunted monsters.

After all, now that the Indestructible Golden Body had been upgraded to LV.6, its coverage had expanded to his limbs, leaving only the torso and head part uncovered. But given the current situation, he projected that once the Indestructible Golden Body reached LV.MAX, it would definitely be able to cover the whole body.

By then, once the Indestructible Golden Body Skill covered the whole body, Zhang Yanhang’s energy shield would enjoy a corresponding defense bonus, so, because it would cause the energy shield to also enjoy this defense bonus, Zhang Yanhang thought that the Indestructible Golden Body might become a permanent skill.

Indeed, a defense bonus like that is quite appealing, but becoming permanent means Zhang Yanhang would have an additional large stamina consumer on his body, leading to a reduction in his endurance time.

Thus, the stamina consumption of the Indestructible Golden Body Skill determined the extent to which Zhang Yanhang’s endurance time was reduced.

If the stamina consumption of the Indestructible Golden Body Skill was low, then the reduction in his endurance time would naturally be just a little, but if it was high, it would significantly shorten the endurance time, such as by an hour or two, which is quite normal.

"Forget it, I’ll stop thinking about this for now. There will be ways to deal with it when the time comes. The worries of now might not matter at all in the future.

Besides, I don’t really need to maintain the Golden Body effect throughout. If I’m not hunting high-level monsters capable of penetrating the energy shield’s defenses but just ordinary monsters like the Crimson Iron Ants, there’s absolutely no need to use the Indestructible Golden Body Skill to boost defensive power.

After all, the defense provided by the energy shield alone is more than sufficient, to an extent that ordinary Crimson Iron Ants cannot breach."

Thinking of this, Zhang Yanhang immediately felt better. He noticed that with this upgrade, the defense bonus related to Indestructible Golden Body had once again increased by 25%, and the attack power had also increased by 5%, which he found quite favorable.

But to Zhang Yanhang, the most crucial aspect was the increase in the limit of his life value. This time, after upgrading to LV.6, the Indestructible Golden Body again increased the life value limit by 5%, and Zhang Yanhang immediately checked his life value limit.

[Shield Value: 2874/2874 (Life Value Limit × 150%, Recovery Speed: 20% per second.)]

[Life Value: 1916/1916 (Constitution × 20, Body has now been fully datafied, Life Value Recovery Speed, 15 points per hour.)]

[Energy Value: 855/855 (Intelligence × 15, Body has now been fully datafied, Energy Value Recovery Speed, 42 points per hour.)]

"After this increase of 5%, the life value limit increased by 73 points, while the shield value accordingly increased by 109 points. Though the base and the increase percentage were the same, there was a difference when actual numbers were implemented,"

Zhang Yanhang remembered that last time he increased the life value limit by 5%, it resulted in an additional 74 life value limit points and 111 shield value limit points. But this time, the life value limit decreased by one point, and the shield value limit decreased by two points.

Considering these occurrences, Zhang Yanhang felt it was quite normal, because long ago, he had noticed the mechanism of Ashen World in this respect. Although all relevant data were integers, this was because Ashen World calculated this data according to a specific calculation pattern.

Based on his current experience, generally if the decimal was higher than 0.5, it would round up, adding an extra point to Life Value, if it was below 0.5, then the decimal part would temporarily be discarded until the next time the figure rose above 0.5.

Indeed, this particular calculation rule was the most basic rounding, and Zhang Yanhang found the Ashen World’s settings in this regard quite satisfactory. After all, if even the Life Value Limit and Energy Value Limit had decimals like Acid Resistance and Special Attack Bonus, it would be somewhat annoying.

"1916 points of Life Value Limit, getting closer and closer to two thousand points, while the towering 2874 points of Shield Value is steadily advancing towards three thousand points, but the Energy Value Limit still remains in the three digits.

Although this time the Energy Value Limit also increased by fifteen points due to the increase in Intelligence Attribute, the gap with the Life Value Limit widened again."

Unfortunately, Zhang Yanhang was currently inside the Crimson Iron Ant Nest and temporarily unable to go to other areas, otherwise he would have liked to search for artifacts that could increase the Energy Value Limit, as his current Energy Value Limit, compared to the Life Value Limit, was really too lacking.

Although it hadn’t reached the level that would affect Zhang Yanhang’s speed of strength progression, it was still unbearable.

As a profession with evenly developed attributes in Strength, Intelligence, Agility, and Constitution, Zhang Yanhang thought the famous barrel theory might somewhat apply to him, as the Energy Value Limit was already subtly becoming the shortest plank among his attributes.

Of course, strength enhancement was not as simple as filling a barrel with water. Although the Energy Value Limit indeed did not restrict the growth of Zhang Yanhang’s strength, it did place a restriction on how he used Multiple Choice.

Because the Energy Value Limit determined the upper limit of strength for the choices Zhang Yanhang could make, he felt it was absolutely necessary to increase the Energy Value Limit.

Currently, for enhancing the Energy Value, Zhang Yanhang’s solution was still the previous simplest and crudest method; he wanted to find a type of artifact like the Yellow Medicine Grass that could be consumed directly to increase the Energy Value Limit.

Preferably, it would be the kind without usage limits, only limiting the Attribute value limit. In that case, he could replicate the situation in Raccoon City, blatantly using a large amount of related artifacts to quickly enhance the Energy Value Limit.

After being promoted to Second Tier, Zhang Yanhang had not yet managed to make the relevant choice for seeking such monsters as, according to his experience, such relevant choices would only be responded to by Multiple Choice in the Ashen World. But his current location was special, and even if there was a response, it wouldn’t help.

Thus, he planned to immediately tackle the issue of the Energy Value Limit the next time he went to Raccoon City because this issue could no longer be delayed.

Moreover, mainly because after being promoted to Second Tier, Zhang Yanhang gained certain confidence in his current autonomous choices, feeling that there was a good chance that he could solve this problem.

"Now that I’ve sorted through the treasures from the treasure box and upgraded all the skill levels, what should I do next?" Zhang Yanhang thought carefully and felt that apart from continuing the Crimson Iron Ant Nest clearing plan, there seemed to be nothing else he needed to resolve.

Since everything was resolved, Zhang Yanhang opened his data panel to take a look.

[Name: Zhang Yanhang (Second Tier)]

[Race: Human]

[Gender: Male]

[Age: 20]

[Profession: Heavenly Destiny Master]

[Level: LV.13 (0/6000)]

[Soul points: 79 (-800)]

[Shield Value: 2874/2874 (Life Value Limit × 150%, Recovery Speed: 20% per second.)]

[Life Value: 1916/1916 (Constitution ×20, current body officially digitalized, Life Value recovery speed, 15 points per hour.)]

[Energy Value: 855/855 (Intelligence ×15, current body officially digitalized, Energy Value recovery speed, 42 points per hour.)]

[Strength: 48 (+3)]

[Agility: 47 (+3)]

[Constitution: 50 (+3)]

[Intelligence: 47 (+3)]

[Charm: 25 (+15)]

[Luck: ??? (This attribute is a hidden attribute)]

[Talent: 1. Multiple Choice (???). 2. Longevity Mountain and Fortune Sea (SS-Tier). 3. Power of Bull Demon (A-Tier).]

[Skills: 1. Limitless Universe Skill [Second Tier] LV.5 (Passive/Active). 2. Alchemy (Active skills). 3. Gun Master LV.MAX (Passive Skill). 4. Fighting Master LV.MAX (Passive Skill). 5. Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil LV.MAX (Passive/Active). 6. Technique Immunity Skill LV.MAX (Passive Skill). 7. Death Wave Skill LV.MAX (Passive/Active). 8. Supreme Will LV.3 (Passive Skill). 9. Indestructible Golden Body Skill LV.6 (Passive/Active).]

"I remember after the last skill upgrade, I seemed to have 74 soul points left, but this time it’s 79. It’s increased by 5 compared to the last time. Somehow, it feels like the leftover soul points are increasing each time recently.

But like now, such two-digit balances will probably not be so common anymore. Once I upgrade the Supreme Will and Indestructible Golden Body Skills to LV.MAX, the normal state of my soul points balance should remain in the five digits."

Next, Zhang Yanhang planned to significantly upgrade his Indestructible Golden Body Skill, and in order to do that, he first needed to hunt monsters to obtain more soul points. After a brief check of his data panel, he directly closed it and decided to rush into hunting monsters.

Zhang Yanhang packed some miscellaneous items on the bed, along with the large bed itself, into his waist bag. Standing in the passageway emitting a faint red glow, Zhang Yanhang once again activated the Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil Skill to scan his surroundings. However, this time, just like before, he still couldn’t sense any Crimson Iron Ants.

"If that’s the case, then I should proceed to the second stage of the Crimson Iron Ant Nest clearance plan. I divided the second stage of the Crimson Iron Ant Nest plan into ten areas, but before sleeping, I only cleared seven areas. Now there are three areas left to complete the second stage of the clearance plan."

Because the Death Wave Skill had been upgraded to LV.MAX, Zhang Yanhang felt that his efficiency in clearing monsters would probably increase again—perhaps he could now clear an area of one square kilometer in half an hour, though previously forty minutes to clear one square kilometer left him somewhat unsatisfied.

Before sleeping, Zhang Yanhang had created a simple seal on the cave using Alchemy, but clearly, he did not need to use Alchemy to remove the seal.

Bang!

Zhang Yanhang punched, penetrating the seal wall which was tens of centimeters thick and cracking it around the impacted area. The fragmented rocks carried a tremendous kinetic energy and made a piercing noise as they struck the surrounding Crimson Iron Ore walls.

After the punch, Zhang Yanhang simply tugged at the cracked area, creating a hole in the seal wall large enough for people to pass through.

Following the hole in the seal wall, Zhang Yanhang quickly ran toward the eighth area of the second stage of the Crimson Iron Ant Nest clearance plan, which was only a few hundred meters away—a completely unexplored new area.

Based on Zhang Yanhang’s hunting experience, he estimated that there would be at least two hundred Crimson Iron Ants in that brand-new area.

......

Zhang Yanhang stood quietly in the eighth area, using the Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil to scan his surroundings at full power. "Is there a problem? Why doesn’t the eighth area have even one Crimson Iron Ant? I haven’t cleared this area yet..."

In fact, halfway there, Zhang Yanhang had already preemptively sensed the nearby environment using Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil, but he was surprised that the new area, which should have been swarming with Crimson Iron Ants, did not have a single one.

Before he reached this area, he had begun suspecting that there might be something wrong with his Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil, so upon arriving at the eighth area, he immediately restarted the Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil and scanned multiple times.

However, the scan results made Zhang Yanhang feel very disappointed because even after scanning multiple times, he still found nothing. The eighth area was as clean as if a sleepwalking him had cleared it.

"This situation is a bit too outrageous, isn’t it? What exactly happened that would cause there to be not a single monster left in the eighth area?

Could there be other Awakeners who also found the transmission channel to the Crimson Iron Ant Nest? That should not be, as the transmission channel in the East River District should be the only channel leading to the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu...

But if it wasn’t other Awakeners, what else could have caused the local Crimson Iron Ants to disappear collectively? Could the Crimson Iron Ant Queen have finally reacted? Is she coming to surround and kill me? But wouldn’t they send out some Crimson Iron Ants first to locate my tracks?"

Zhang Yanhang pondered, unable to think of a reasonable explanation for the situation he was encountering.