Jake ignored Frank’s question and instead checked his health points.
He had lost quite a lot of hit points during the battle with the chaser. His health had never dropped to 0%, so he wasn’t certain what would occur if it ever did. Would reaching zero hit points mean certain death? The immediate answer that came to his mind was a resounding yes.
However, there might be more to it than just that. Since there was no precedent to refer to, it was hard to be sure about the consequences of losing all his HP. After all, he was very different from humans now. The mana stored within his strange body was able to heal extremely severe wounds at a remarkably rapid pace compared to human standards.
On the other hand, his health dipping to 0% might mean that his body had sustained too much damage to be repaired. In that case, the remaining mana might not be enough to heal his wounds, which would result in his death.
Anyway, Jake was determined to do everything possible to prevent his health points from plummeting to 0%. Self-preservation was his primary instinct.
Slowly but steadily, his health increased as the mana stored within him was hard at work patching him up. Still, due to the significant amount of damage his body had suffered, it would be a while before he was back to full health. Over the next few hours, he would need to rest to let his body solely concentrate on the healing process.
Unfortunately for him, the survivors behind him had other plans.
“Hey, I’m talking to you,” Frank growled.
Jake heard the approaching footsteps but made no move to turn around. The two survivors posed no threat to him. Instead, he focused on examining the reward he had received. Closing his eyes, he summoned the Boost Menu with a single thought, and it immediately materialized in his mind.
Enhanced Regeneration
Increased Movement Speed
Acquire: Insufficient MP
Acquire: Insufficient MP
Acquire: Insufficient MP
Increased XP gain (x2)
Acquire: Insufficient MP
Requirement: Kill 100 ex-human walkers.
(*) Tip: To unlock additional boosts, you need to upgrade the Boost Menu to the next rank by fulfilling the requirement.
Jake read through the information. The available boosts seemed like they could come in handy in certain situations. While he didn’t currently feel the urge to enhance his strength, agility, or speed, he acknowledged that they might be useful later on. The XP boost was what truly excited him. Among all the available boosts, this one stood out as the most appealing to him. While he couldn’t obtain it right now, he made a mental note to acquire it at a later time.
He also couldn’t help but notice that the list of boosts was not exhaustive. Once he upgraded the Boost Menu to rank 2, additional ones would become available. To upgrade the Boost Menu, he needed to kill one hundred walkers. He had taken down plenty of them so far, but it seemed those kills didn’t count. Only the walkers he defeated from that moment onward would be tallied. That was okay. Taking out a hundred low-level walkers wasn’t a problem for him and shouldn’t be too time-consuming.
For the time being, he opted to obtain the enhanced regeneration boost so that the wounds from the recent battle would heal faster. Next, he summoned the menu showing his active status effects, which currently only displayed one.
Enhanced Regeneration: 59 minutes, 57 seconds left
Jake then checked his mana count. He had more than ten thousand mana points before starting the tower-climbing challenge. Now, he was left with just over a thousand.
He remembered that most of his mana had been drained in his attempt to write a single word, “Yes,” and the first letters of his name on Isra’s PDA. Once again, he felt frustrated by his inability to write. Even crafting a simple word demanded an immense amount of time and effort, leaving him depleted. Moreover, the act of writing even the simplest of words consumed significant amounts of mana, further fueling his frustration.
And now the remaining mana points were diminishing at an accelerated rate because of the enhanced regeneration boost. Checking his mana count again, he noticed it was not only decreasing faster than it did normally but also consuming significantly more MP than it should. So, the enhanced regeneration boost came with additional mana consumption.
That was unfortunate. He wondered if he would have any mana points left once his body was fully healed. He recalled that when low on mana, his body would temporarily limit its ability to move swiftly and agilely to conserve mana. It was a kind of safety mechanism, using the remaining mana to maintain essential bodily functions. Perhaps, the same safety measure was also applied to the enhanced regeneration boost.
Still, just to be on the safe side, he needed to locate and use some mana consumables.
“Hey, have you gone deaf?” Frank barked at him.
“Don’t get too close to him,” Isra warned her companion.
Jake opened his eyes, and all the info immediately vanished. He looked at his body. As expected, the wounds were healing at an increased rate.
“Answer me, dammit,” Frank yelled from behind him.
Jake finally turned around to face the two survivors. The group leader stood over a dozen yards away from him, while Isra remained farther away, at the door to the staircase. Frank frowned as he locked eyes with Jake.
“Where’s our reward?” he asked.
Jake simply stared at him, without making any movements or gestures to allow his body to focus on healing.
“I told you so, Frank,” Isra said firmly. “There’s no reward for us. He may already have gotten his reward, but it wasn’t meant for us. We were just tools for him, nothing more. He only needed our help because of the time limit. There was never any kind of reward in store for us. We risked our lives for him for nothing.”
Frank’s face flushed with anger as he finally accepted the fact he had been used and discarded once his usefulness had ended.
“Is it true?” he asked, his voice trembling with rage.
Jake simply stared at him, remaining completely motionless.
“You bastard,” Frank growled as he began to lift his assault rifle.
Jake shook his head, cautioning Frank against making the biggest mistake of his life. The group leader refused to heed his advice. Bringing his weapon up, he aimed at Jake and pulled the trigger.