In the next several days following the helicopter crash, Jake stuck to his routine: scavenging the city for mana at night, starting right after the usual world reset and farming XP during the day in the underground tunnels. So far, this strategy had proven to be the most effective way to gain both mana and XP, and for several days, he was fully focused on that.
After evolving into Stage 2 and acquiring many new skills along with upgrades, Jake’s body consumed significantly more mana on a daily basis than before. Despite this, he managed to accumulate a substantial amount of MP over the past several days, thanks to the Mana Vision perk. As soon as the System refreshed the world, he would begin his hunt for mana, utilizing Mana Vision to locate consumables. He no longer even bothered picking up smaller items like marbles and beads and focused only on larger ones like shards and chunks instead. On a few occasions, he was even fortunate enough to find crystals, each containing a whopping 5,000 MP.
Despite collecting a substantial amount of MP, Jake hadn’t acquired any new abilities or skills yet. He first wanted to obtain all available upgrades for his existing skills. Several of his skills hadn’t received a single upgrade, so it was high time he addressed that. During the last few days of active XP farming, he leveled up several times. All the skill points he gained during that period were spent on acquiring the upgrades for the skills that had none at that time: Enhanced Reflexes, Enhanced Strength, Enhanced Regeneration, Feral Instincts, and Enhanced Durability. Since all of these skills were of Common rarity, each of them currently had only three upgrades available.
Skill: Enhanced Reflexes
1 - Improve reaction time, allowing instantaneous responses to threats and enabling swift dodging of attacks.
2 - Gain the ability to anticipate an opponent’s movements, allowing for preemptive strikes and evasive moves.
3 - Develop superior agility, further enhancing acrobatic maneuvers.
The first two upgrades made Jake even more dangerous in combat than he’d been before. Even fast and agile ex-humans like chasers and slashers struggled to land a hit on him now. The third upgrade improved his acrobatic abilities, allowing him to climb more easily and perform more powerful jumps than before.
Skill: Enhanced Strength
1 - Boost raw physical power, allowing for lifting and carrying heavy objects with ease.
2 - Significantly increase punching and striking power.
3 - Achieve greater damage resistance without increasing the mana consumption.
The first upgrade was supposed to help him handle heavy objects with ease, but it wasn’t all that useful to him because he hardly ever needed to lift something heavy. Still, he was sure that at some point, this upgrade would come in handy.
Despite having learned Smashfists a few days ago, Jake didn’t use them very often. Being more accustomed to claws and swords, he mostly relied on those two in combat. While he hardly ever punched his enemies, the second upgrade increased his overall striking power, allowing him to deal more damage with his claws and swords.
Skill: Enhanced Regeneration
1 - Accelerate healing of minor wounds and cuts within seconds, allowing for rapid recovery in battle.
2 - Gain the ability to recover from severe injuries at an accelerated rate without increasing the mana consumption.
3 - Develop much greater resistance to various elemental damage types.
All the upgrades for this skill were extremely useful. The first one allowed his body to heal minor injuries right during combat. Sure, thanks to the upgrades he’d acquired for Enhanced Reflexes, along with all the other agility and speed-related skills and upgrades, he was hardly ever wounded when fighting ex-humans, but when he did get hurt, his minor wounds healed in no time flat thanks to the first upgrade.
He hadn’t been severely wounded in the past several days, but if—when—it happened at some point, the second upgrade for Enhanced Regeneration would be a great help. The same held true for the third upgrade: he hadn’t yet sustained any elemental damage, but when it eventually happened, the third upgrade would reduce the elemental damage dealt to him.
Skill: Feral Instincts
1 - Sharpen awareness to quickly evaluate the distance and direction of a threat.
2 - Heighten danger perception to identify the nature of an impending threat.
3 - Gain the ability to sense the emotional states or intentions of nearby humans and pick up on their potential hostility.
All three upgrades for this skill were extremely useful as well, helping him react to potential dangers in time to avoid them. The third one was particularly interesting, but so far he hadn’t seen it in action yet, because during the days following the helicopter crash, there were no more interactions with humans.
Skill: Enhanced Durability
1 - Increase resistance to physical damage, reducing the impact of blows and falls.
2 - Develop a tolerance to extreme temperatures, enhancing survival in harsh conditions.
3 - Gain a tougher outer layer that absorbs minor impacts and abrasions.
All the upgrades for Enhanced Durability were also highly useful as they improved his body’s overall resistance to damage.
Jake was currently perched on the edge of a high-rise building’s roof. It was late evening. During that day, he’d managed to level up two times, gaining 10 skill points in total. He decided to use all of them to increase his stats.
So during the days following the helicopter crash, Jake had leveled up five times from 33 to 38. He’d obtained all the upgrades for all his skills, and when he leveled up again, he was going to do the same for the three of his abilities: Bladed Tentacles, Mind Reader, and Smashfists. The first one currently had only one upgrade—reduced transformation time—while the other two didn’t have any upgrades at all yet. After that, he would acquire some new skills and abilities with the MP he’d gained during the last several days.
Jake wanted to review his current stats, but he suddenly heard some noise. He immediately opened his eyes, and all the information vanished.
He was currently perched at the corner of a high-rise building’s roof, crouching down and holding on to the edges. It was dark, and heavy rain poured on the city. The noise he’d just heard came from the streets below. His Feral Instincts remained silent, indicating he wasn’t in any kind of danger at the moment. Nevertheless, curiosity made him lower his gaze to see what was happening ten stories beneath him.