Nom! Nom!
Alex popped the fruit into his mouth without hesitation.
It wasn’t as flavorful as the last artifact-level fruit he’d consumed, but it wasn’t unpleasant either. He swallowed it quickly, not giving the taste much thought.
As he finished, a familiar sound echoed in his ears.
Ding!
[Please choose the talent effect you want to gain a new perk for.]
[Talent Effect #1: Upon defeating a monster, you are able to extract an item/attribute/skill/talent/skill points from them, with a 20% chance of the prompt appearing.]
[Perk #1: Description Check, you can now check the descriptions of the items before selecting them.]
[Talent Effect #2: Defeating monsters will grant you “Extraction Points”, which you can use later on to enhance your talent or buy items.]
[Talent Effect #3: Potential Extraction; You can use this to extract the full potential of an item and thus enhance its powers.]
[Perk #1: Skill Evolution; You can now use your effect on skills to evolve them once every week, for example, you can evolve “Explosive Fireball”, which is from the advanced-tier, to it’s high-tier evolution.]
[Talent Effect #4: Synthesis; Combine items, skills, or abilities to create something stronger]
…
He had 4 talent effects right now, which was remarkable, considering most players still only had one, and even those who managed to unlock a second talent were considered lucky.
Unlocking a new talent effect anytime soon seemed unlikely, but his current set was powerful enough to keep him ahead of the curve.
Those he currently had already did all the work anyway, so he didn’t really need to care that much about it, right?
After a bit of thinking, he decided to select the [Talent Effect #1] as he wanted to see what kind of perk he could get.
Perks, he knew, didn’t alter the base talent effect, his 20% extraction chance would remain the same. Instead, they added supplementary abilities that could make a talent much more versatile.
A golden aura surrounded him as the system processed his choice. Warmth coursed through his body, and moments later, another notification appeared.
Ding!
[Talent Effect #1 has been selected.]
[Perk #2: Double Extraction; Every extraction has a 5% chance to trigger the “Double Extraction” perk, meaning you can select two items out of the three available instead of one.]
“Oh!” Alex’s lips curled into a smile, “Not bad.”
While the 5% chance seemed low, the potential to double his rewards could turn an ordinary battle into a treasure trove.
It wasn’t as consistently useful as perks like Description Check or Skill Evolution, but it was undeniably powerful in the right circumstances.
His thoughts were interrupted by another notification.
Ding!
[Your “Undead King” curse has suppressed the effects of the fruit.]
“Huh,” Alex muttered, surprised. “Looks like I didn’t need Alice to step in after all.”
The curse, bestowed upon him by the [Undead King], was proving to be far stronger than even artifact-level items.
[Try your new perk on the angel.]
“Hm.”
Alex approached the angel’s body again, which was surrounded by undead beings now.
“So did anything happen? Don’t tell me you’re going after a corpse?!” Alice gasped.
“What?” Alex raised his eyebrows, “I just want to try my new perk, I got no side effects.”
“Oh…” Alice looked a bit sad as she heard that, but quickly recovered.
Her talent, [Star Archer], was SS-Level, but even then it hadn’t truly unlocked all of its potential.
[Talent: Star Archer (SS)]
[Talent Effect #1: Gives the ability to use [Star Arrows] instead of normal, which deal thrice as much damage as others, as your talent upgrades, these arrows will become increasingly more powerful.]
It was difficult for anyone to gain a new talent perk at this stage of Universal Descent, Alex was just the ultimate exception.
Alex crouched down, putting his palm on the angel, and this time a panel actually appeared before him.
[Choose something to extract.]
[Angel Wing (Divine)]
[Description: A single wing from an angel. Useless on its own as angels require two wings to fly. Cannot be utilized by other races.]
[Heavenly Arc (Legendary Skill)]
[Description: A crescent wave of divine energy unleashed from a blade, capable of cutting through multiple enemies in a single strike.]
[Karma Point (Taken)]
[Description: ???]
The third option, Karma Point, was grayed out, likely because he had already acquired it before.
Selecting two items out of a single monster was actually so much better than he believed.
He truly didn’t comprehend why the extraction prompt wouldn’t appear against overly powerful opponents sometimes, forcing him to use extraction closely and thus getting a random item.
But maybe there were truly some rules he didn’t know of?
“Well, this is an easy choice,” Alex said, selecting the Heavenly Arc skill.
Ding!
[You have extracted “Heavenly Arc” (Legendary Skill) from “Seraphiel, Angel Tribe Member.”]
[Heavenly Arc Level 1: Unleashes a crescent wave of divine energy. Deals 250,000 base damage + 100% Spirit. Mana Cost: 75,000. Cooldown: 1 minute.]
Alex’s eyes lit up. It was a perfect skill for him, blending both magic and melee capabilities.
“This is incredible,” he muttered. “And I can actually use it.”
Angels typically combined magic and melee in their combat style.
For most players, angelic skills were difficult to use without dual professions, such as a Mage-Warrior hybrid. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
Fortunately, Alex’s unique build allowed him to bypass those limitations entirely as assassin was also considered a melee class!
However, the mana cost was steep, 75,000 per use.
And even though the cost was cut by half thanks to his [Unparalleled Mage]’s class mana reduction, it was still expensive, meaning that upon evolving it, it could become impossible to use.
Alex glanced at his skill points.
[Skill Points: 318]
“Time to put these to good use,” he said, opening the skill menu.
[Skills: Fire Meteor (Max-Tier), Crimson Cataclysm (Max-Tier), Rock Crash (Advanced), High-Defense Wall (High-Tier), Rain of Fire (Max-Tier), Bleeding Strike (Max-Tier), Fury of Thunder (Max-Tier), Chains of Restraint (Advanced), Poison Resistance (Passive), Aura of Death (Undead Skill), Aura (Passive), Shadow Veil (Unique), Shadow Strike (Unique), Divine Arc (Basic)]
Alex had a lot of Skill Points to spend, and it was better to just use them on something as using [Skill Evolution] on a [Basic] rank skill was stupid.
Ding!
[You have used 10 Skill Points to upgrade “Heavenly Arc” to Level 10.]
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At max level for its tier, the skill was now significantly more potent.
Ding!
[Do you want to consume 10 Skill Points to evolve “Heavenly Arc” (Basic) to “Radiant Arc” (Intermediate)?]
“Yes,” Alex confirmed without hesitation.
The process repeated, with the skill evolving to its Intermediate form and then being leveled up to level 10 once more.
[You have used 20 skill points to upgrade “skill” to level 10.]
As said before, the higher the rank, the more skill points it took, which is why people relied on [Skill Upgrade Orbs] or [Skill Books] to become stronger.
Ding!
[Do you want to consume 50 Skill Points to evolve “Radiant Arc” (Intermediate) to “Divine Arc” (Advanced)?]
[Divine Arc Level 1: Unleashes a larger wave of divine energy from long-range. Deals 500,000 base damage + 150% Spirit. Mana Cost: 300,000. Cooldown: 30 seconds.]
Alex smirked. The skill was now devastatingly powerful, but the mana cost had also risen sharply.
Yet somehow, thanks to his mana reduction and +5000 attribute points increase, he was now actually able to use it!
[Spirit: 16583 + 10000 (Demonized Staff)]
Which means he has 165,830 MP, more than enough for [Divine Arc]’s 150,000 mana points cost!
With his new perk tested and his skills upgraded, Alex felt ready to take on the next challenge.
The SSS-Level Grand Mage Student Quest required him to reach Level 300, and the path ahead promised to be grueling.
“I hope you’re ready, Alice,” Alex said, his tone confident.
Alice nodded, her determination mirroring his own.