One day passed since the start of the [Golden Star Academy Entrance Examination], and most people were already used to fighting monsters now.
As said before, the examination would last a week, and until then, no one was allowed to leave the tower.
Of course, they could log out, but that would simply mean going back to the real world.
In the meantime, Alex was still in the fifth floor, trying to find those dragons.
[Current points: 47670]
[Position: 1st]
At this point, he wasn’t even sure if they were real anymore, since the canyon was just too big in comparison to the other levels.
“Grrr…” and he could hear Alphox’s groans from within the [Shadow Pet Space], urging him to find them.
He tried his hardest not to fight any monsters, but the teachers should already know about him thanks to their observation panels.
Still, he didn’t want to show that he was TOO powerful, or that he was a threat.
That way, they could place him into the “huge potential” category rather than the “eliminate immediately” one.
[Extraction activated: +Behemoth Horns (Epic Material), +28 Strength, +17 Vitality, +19 Spirit]
Plus, his [Skill Evolution] was yet again available, and so he evolved one of his skills again.
Ding!
[You have evolved “High-Defense Wall” (High-Tier) to “Impenetrable Fortress” (Max-Tier)]
[Impenetrable Fortress; Create a sturdy barrier that can block up to 1,000,000 damage at once; costs 150,000 mana; 1-minute cooldown.]
“I need more skills,” he mumbled.
Even with his [Extraction] ability, he hadn’t gotten the option to pick lots of skills among all of the monsters. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
“Legendary and above skills would perfect, but too expensive and even finding one is hard…”
He was already grateful Arceus granted him one in addition to the [Mask of Concealment].
Though, the Grand Mage did tell him that he had 4 other [Skill Books] to give him as a rewards for completing tasks as a student, meaning Alex needed to work harder.
All of his skills were maxed out except two too.
[Skills: Fire Meteor (Max-Tier), Crimson Cataclysm (Max-Tier), Rock Crash (Advanced), Impenetrable Fortress (Max-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), Arc of Divinity (Max-Tier), Demonic Spear (Max-Tier)]
Other than [Rock Crash] and [Chains of Restraint], everything had already reached its maximum possible form right now.
Meaning that rather of focusing on quality, Alex needed to focus on quantity.
Though, of course, he wouldn’t pick just any skills he found, he still had standards.
“Any ideas, Alphox, Undead King?” he called out while walking, eyeing his surroundings in case of an ambush like last time.
“No,” Alphox groaned, “Just find those dragons.”
“Maybe,” Undead King shrugged, “Only if you upgrade the undead, though.”
“Oh?” Alex was surprised at the Undead King’s response though: it meant that he possibly had an idea as how to upgrade the skills, but didn’t want to say it, “If I rank them up to S-Level, will you tell?”
“Hm…” The Undead King thought for a bit, “Yeah, why not.”
“Nice.”
If the Undead King himself had ideas on how to get powerful skills, then they would surely be above [Legendary]!
With that done though, Alex spent the rest of the day navigating the canyon, sometimes defeating bosses if he saw them, or if they were too annoying to avoid.
After a while, he sat against the ground and pulled out two pieces of meat from his [Divine Cobra’s Backpack].
Remember when he extracted several meat types from those wolves in the [Double Experience Zone] and [Cave of Oblivion].
He took one [Thunder Wolf Meat] and one [Poisonous Serpent Meat].
The first would give temporarily give resistance to lightning attacks and stuns, and the second would give him a massive agility boost in exchange for receiving a poison debuff.
It was the first time he would ever cook something, as usually the food from his past life that gave buffs was extremely expensive.
“Grab some for me too, human,” Alphox demanded, materializing beside him. The dragon stretched its wings lazily. “I’ll guard the area while you work.”
Though Alphox didn’t need to eat often, his appetite for quality meat was insatiable.
“Fine,” Alex sighed, pulling out five additional pieces of each type for the dragon.
He laid the twelve chunks of meat on the ground, spacing them evenly.
Just like everything else in the game, food was separated into five different ratings after it was cooked, indicating how delicious/well-made it was and thus enhancing the power of the buffs it gave.
The ratings were: Horrible, Average, Good, Delicious, Perfect.
Food that gave a good buff but had a [Horrible] rating could completely cancel its perks.
On the other hand, food that had a [Perfect] rating would usually have an increase in the power of its perk.
Alex began the cooking process with focused determination.
He set the first two pieces of meat on a flat stone and held his staff under them.
Alex summoned a small flame at its tip, the gentle glow illuminating the canyon.
He carefully placed one piece of meat over the fire and began cooking.
The process wasn’t as simple as he expected.
Despite his meticulous efforts, both attempts resulted in meat rated [Average]—far from extraordinary.
“Ugh. This isn’t working,” Alex muttered, eyeing the remaining meat.
“Let me try,” Alphox offered with a toothy grin.
With a shrug, Alex stepped back, watching as Alphox stepped forward.
The dragon opened his mouth, summoning a vortex of black flames.
The temperature around them plummeted as Alphox unleashed [Shadow Flames], enveloping the meat in an eerie, flickering fire.
The cooking process was mesmerizing.
The shadowy flames licked at the meat, swirling in hypnotic patterns, while a faint mist formed around the edges of the blaze.
When the flames finally subsided, the canyon filled with the aroma of perfectly roasted meat.
[Cooked Thunder Wolf Meat (Perfect)]
[Cooked Poisonous Serpent Meat (Perfect)]
“What the hell?” Alex gaped as he examined the results.
Every single piece of meat had achieved either the [Perfect] or [Delicious] rating.
Alphox smirked, already eyeing his share. “Time to dig in. You can have the [Average] scraps.”
Before Alex could protest, the dragon dove into the pile, tearing into the perfectly cooked meat with unrestrained enthusiasm.
“Fine,” Alex said with a resigned shrug, taking one of the lesser-rated pieces for himself. Even so, the buffs would be worth it.