Ashen God
Chapter 596 - 595: Increased Physical Recovery Speed

Chapter 596: Chapter 595: Increased Physical Recovery Speed

"Thinking about it that way, the Life Rhythm Talent has become even more important for me. After all, even though the Charm attribute is not a main attribute, it’s still very useful to me. At the very least, just the fact that it can add to the fixed damage limit of the Death Wave Skill makes it quite valuable."

Zhang Yanhang remembered how he had looked down on the Charm attribute value when he was at the First Tier, feeling that improving such a sub-attribute was useless and couldn’t directly enhance his strength like other main attributes. The fact that his perspective had shifted to what it is now could only be attributed to the sheer power of the Death Wave Skill.

After equipping the Gray Mane Arm Guard +2, Zhang Yanhang realized he seemed to have run out of things to do. "The equipment fusion is complete, and the Talent has been upgraded. With not enough Soul points to upgrade my Profession Level, it’s time to officially start the Demonized Swamp cleanup plan."

But before he began hunting monsters, Zhang Yanhang first 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.18 (0/16000)]

[Soul points: 5575]

[Shield Value: 5485/5485 (Life Value Limit ×210%, Recovery Speed: 20% per second.)]

[Life Value: 2612/2612 (Constitution ×21, the body has now been officially dataized, Life Value Recovery Speed, 15 points per hour.)]

[Energy Value: 2720/2720 (Intelligence ×21, the body has now been officially dataized, Energy Value Recovery Speed, 48 points per hour.)]

[Strength: 50 (+6[-7])]

[Agility: 50 (+6[-6])]

[Constitution: 50 (+6[-6])]

[Intelligence: 50 (+6[-11])]

[Charm: 47 (+19)]

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

[Talents: 1. Multiple Choice (???). 2. Longevity Mountain and Fortune Sea (SS grade). 3. Bear Power (S grade). 4. Mature Scroll Dragon [Bloodline Purification] (SS grade). 5. Biological Rhythm (C grade).]

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

"Raising the Heavenly Destiny Master Profession Level from LV.18 to LV.19 needs 16000 Soul points. I feel that gathering these sixteen thousand Soul points before sleeping shouldn’t be too difficult. After all, I already have 5575, and it should probably take no more than an hour to finish."

Speaking of the matter related to the Demonized Swamp cleanup, Zhang Yanhang suddenly recalled something—the Gray Mane Arm Guard +2 provided him with a 15% Physical Recovery Speed Bonus.

Although this 15% Physical Recovery Speed Bonus certainly won’t turn his remaining endurance duration from one hour to two hours as he initially estimated, its effect should theoretically still be significant, especially since it is 15% after all.

As for how much of an impact this 15% Physical Recovery Speed Bonus will have, that’s something he’ll only know after actually experiencing it during the cleanup process. Besides that, he also has to experiment with the specific effects of the reduced negative side effects provided by the Biological Rhythm Talent.

The reason Zhang Yanhang went to Raccoon City to test the speed was also related to this. He wanted to test the objective speed there before hunting monsters, then test the actual speed in the Demonized Swamp to see if reducing negative side effects could indeed minimize mobility-related downsides.

"Suddenly realizing that all five of my attributes are about to hit the fifty-point Second Tier limit, although increasing the Charm attribute to fifty points doesn’t actually hold much practical significance, at least it will be very satisfying to see all five attributes neatly at fifty points."

Before entering the Demonized Swamp, Zhang Yanhang always felt that there was no need to fill the remaining points for Charm at the Second Tier and that it wouldn’t make any difference if he waited until the Third Tier. But now it seems there’s no avoiding it; as he continues to improve the Talent Quality of Biological Rhythm, he’s bound to keep enhancing the Charm attribute bonus.

"Speaking of this C-grade Biological Rhythm Talent, it’s quite conspicuous among the sea of S-grade and SS-grade Talents. Although, technically, C is just half of S, it’s indeed necessary to upgrade the Talent Level quickly. Only by doing so can I receive more Movement Speed bonuses and subsequently increase my hunting efficiency."

While it may be troublesome for Zhang Yanhang to upgrade Biological Rhythm directly to SS-grade, getting it to S-grade should certainly be quite simple. After all, the number of Talents needed for subsequent upgrades aren’t many, all below three digits.

In fact, it’s not impossible to upgrade Biological Rhythm to A-grade before sleeping, since upgrading to B-level only needs nine Prehistoric Giant Beast Talents, and upgrading to A-level also just needs twenty-seven Prehistoric Giant Beast Talents, the difficulty of which is not high.

"Next up, it’s time to officially start the Demonized Swamp cleanup plan, or rather, to begin the first stage of the cleanup plan."

Even though it’s only the first stage of the cleanup plan, due to the large area of the Southern Forest, spanning ninety square kilometers, Zhang Yanhang feels that even after waking up, he might not be able to clear it all at once. There is a high probability he will need to rest again partway through to fully clear the first stage of the planned Southern Forest.

Fortunately, this is not a major issue. While Zhang Yanhang’s time is not abundant, it should at least be sufficient. After all, when he initially planned the Demonized Swamp cleanup, he didn’t have the Biological Rhythm Talent. Now with this Talent that can increase his Movement Speed, he believes the leeway included in the cleanup plan will significantly increase.

Moreover, in addition to the hunting efficiency that increased with movement speed, another point that increased his leeway was the reduction in rest time.

This time, relying on the Grey Mane Arm Guard +2, he had increased his physical recovery speed by 15%. In other words, if he originally had to rest for eleven and a half hours after working the same amount, now, although he still worked for eleven and a half hours, he only needed to rest for ten hours when it was time to recover.

He could save roughly an hour and a half of free time, and with that, his leeway naturally increased significantly.

After checking the data panel, Zhang Yanhang immediately began to scan his surroundings with Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil, and rushed towards the monster closest to him.

...

October 25, Sunday, Double Ninth Festival, and also the first day Zhang Yanhang had been repeatedly jumping back and forth between the Main World and the Ashen World, 2:43 AM, Demonized Swamp, Outer Zone, the very edge of the Southern Forest.

Zhang Yanhang saw a Demonized Maned Beast suddenly leap out from the bushes, charging rapidly towards him. He casually picked up a tree about as thick as an adult’s waist and, using the close-combat skills provided by his profession, Fighting Master, he accurately smashed it with the crown of the tree like a baseball bat hitting a home run.

However, perhaps because the Demonized Maned Beast’s body was too fragile, its head—which was supposed to play the role of the baseball—was instantly shattered by the branches on the tree crown.

Its body, barely maintaining a somewhat complete shape, was flung away like a torn sack, heavily crashing into a prehistoric tree that could be embraced by two adults, suspected to be a poplar tree.

The corpse of the Demonized Maned Beast instantly broke the ancient tree, which had grown for who knows how many years, in half. After breaking the tree, it continued to fly backward for a distance before heavily crashing to the ground, with dark red, weird blood containing dark energy splashing from its body cavity.

[Successfully killed a First Tier Three Star Monster ’Demonized Maned Beast (Common)’×1, Soul points +9.]

But this was not the end, because what Zhang Yanhang was facing was a rare group attack, one after another, Demonized Maned Beasts pounced on him like hungry wolves.

Along with a series of thuds from collisions, complex sounds with mingled bone-cracking and whimpering noises continuously arose, the area right in front of Zhang Yanhang had already been smashed through by his flung Demonized Maned Beast corpses, toppling four trees in a row.

[Successfully killed a First Tier Three Star Monster ’Demonized Maned Beast (Common)’×1, Soul points +9.]

[Successfully killed a First Tier Three Star Monster ’Demonized Maned Beast (Common)’×1, Soul points +9.]

[Successfully killed a First Tier Three Star Monster ’Demonized Maned Beast (Common)’×1, Soul points +9.]

...

After throwing around seven demonized maned tooth beasts into the air in a row, the canopy portion of the tree trunk in Zhang Yanhang’s hands was already snapped off most of its branches, and the remaining part was all smeared with some odd, indiscernible fragments of organs and various types of flesh and tissue.

Zhang Yanhang looked at the still fairly intact root section of the tree trunk in his hands, thought for a moment, and then reinserted it back into its original position. Compared to "uprooting willows," putting it back was indeed much easier; after all, the hole was already there, even though pulling it out wasn’t that difficult either.

After successfully taking down these seven demonized maned tooth beasts, Zhang Yanhang stood in place, quietly waiting for the drop treasure box to refresh, as he looked at the pile of demonized maned tooth beast corpses stacked like a hamburger with three layers of meat patties in the distance.

Unfortunately, after waiting for several seconds, Zhang Yanhang still did not witness the refresh of any treasure boxes; on the tree trunk in the distance, there were only the bodies of demonized maned tooth beasts nailed by wooden spikes and canopy branches.

However, Zhang Yanhang wasn’t at all disappointed about not getting any drop treasure box, after all, although he had taken down seven demonized maned tooth beasts this time, the normal treasure box drop rate meant that you had to defeat about twenty beasts to get one drop treasure box, so it was entirely normal for the seven demonized maned tooth beasts not to drop any.

In the half hour before, Zhang Yanhang had taken down a total of about two hundred demonized maned tooth beasts, and these seven were the only remaining demonized maned tooth beasts in the vicinity. After taking them down, Zhang Yanhang had successfully cleared an area of three square kilometers.

During this half-hour hunting process, Zhang Yanhang had fully experienced to what extent his hunting efficiency had improved. It’s just that, although there was indeed an improvement, it wasn’t that significant.

After all, the relationship between movement speed and hunting efficiency isn’t a completely linear progression. Other factors also need to be considered, such as the most important waiting time for the treasure box to refresh.

Because of this, the 30% movement speed bonus provided by the C-tier talent Biological Rhythm half an hour ago did not immediately increase Zhang Yanhang’s hunting efficiency by thirty percent, reducing it from the original ten minutes to seven minutes; it only decreased by roughly a minute and a half.

That is to say, according to Zhang Yanhang’s actual test results, his current cleaning speed per square kilometer in the demonized swamp has simply decreased from the original ten minutes to eight and a half minutes.

Moreover, this reduction wasn’t entirely achieved by the increased movement speed; a part of it was also contributed by Ability Three, which is outdoor sports. Of course, even though outdoor sports did play a part, movement speed certainly still held the dominant position.

After all, although the ground in the demonized swamp did have some effects on Zhang Yanhang, these effects were actually not that significant overall, at most only reducing his movement speed by ten to twenty percent.

So, after recovering 80% of that one or two percent, Zhang Yanhang was essentially available to move at full speed even in an environment like the demonized swamp. According to Zhang Yanhang’s own experiments, it was only a few meters per second slower than the objective data from Raccoon City; the gap was almost completely negligible.

Furthermore, the remaining small gap could probably be completely erased with just a few more upgrades of the Biological Rhythm talent level according to Zhang Yanhang’s estimation. After all, if the initial effect gave an 80% reduction in negative effects, he believed that subsequent increases couldn’t be small.

Even if each upgrade of the quality only increased the reduction of negative effects by 5%, then once he reached the SS-tier, he would definitely be able to completely eliminate 100% of the negative effects.

"But although I’ve cleared a three-square-kilometer area, I’m still far from clearing the entire demonized swamp. And, to say nothing of the demonized swamp, I’m still far off from clearing the Southern Forest planned for the first phase; my progress in the first stage of the clearing plan is only about 3.3%.

Sigh, if only I had the ability to cheat and clear everything in one click like in video games, then the efficiency of clearing the demonized swamp would be much higher than it is now. Even clearing one square kilometer in five minutes wouldn’t be impossible, but unfortunately, those gaming cheats don’t exist in the real world."

Zhang Yanhang couldn’t help but silently exhale a sigh.