[Detected that you are the first being that managed to kill an opponent ten levels higher than you. As a reward, blank skill points are allocated again, a total of ten, one for each level you managed to cross.]
[Detected that you are already eligible to invoke the system interface. Now launching… Complete]
After the series of notifications, a screen, different from the previous ones, appeared in front of Azrael, this one showing his name, along with the information regarding himself.
[Azrael Dragomir]
[Level: 1 (0/100)]
[Talent: Cellular Hypertrophy]
[Strength: 50]
[Agility: 50]
[Vitality: 50]
[Stamina: 50]
[Mana: 50]
[Aptitude: 50]
[Skill/s: Basic Scan, Mixed Martial Arts, Throwing, Technician]
Looking at the stats displayed in front of him, Azrael couldn't help but smile as he saw that he was now starting at a much higher level than the level he started with before he regressed. Not to mention the effects of the talents, just his base attributes at level one alone are more than enough to compete against existences higher than level ten, something that should've been impossible for anyone to achieve, given the fact that a normal human only has an average of ten points each attribute at level one.
Before he could gather himself, though, he realized that he had yet to check the rewards for his first kill as well as the level up. Clicking the bell button in the top left corner of the floating screen, he was greeted by multiple lines of notification that pop out on a different screen, the rewards of his efforts making him think that going through all that trouble is worth it.
[Congratulations on your first kill, took the essence of the Grove Hivemind + 10 all attributes (unallocated)]
[You level up. Reward +5 all attributes (unallocated)]
[As the first human to level up on the planet, you are rewarded with + 10 all attributes (unallocated)]
Looking at all the notifications, he noticed that there's an additional line of text at the bottom-most part of his status now, the thing written there being:
[Unallocated stat points: 25(All attributes) Unallocated skill points: (12)]
Clicking on the stat points, Azrael was greeted by another prompt.
[Do you want to allocate all the points to your stats? Y/N]
Not even hesitating for a second, Azrael clicked the yes button, the moment he does so, a warm current start flowing all across his body, as if reinforcing, or even recreating it, the warm comfort lasting for only a few seconds before it disappears, the only thing getting left behind as a proof of its authenticity being the welling strength that Azrael feels within his body, as if his punch is more than enough to shatter the remains of the tree in front of him.
[As an effect of the talent: Cellular Hypertrophy, the effects of the additional attribute points are also doubled]
After inspecting his status again, he continues upgrading and decides to put all his unallocated skill points towards his mixed martial arts in order to improve his combat efficiency.
[Mixed Martial Arts Lvl 0 upgraded]
[Mixed Martial Arts Lvl 1 upgraded]
[Mixed Martial Arts Lvl 2 upgraded]
[Mixed Martial Arts Lvl 3 upgraded]
…
[Mixed Martial Arts Lvl 10 reaches its limits. Would you like to spend 2 skill points in order to upgrade it into Intermediate Mixed Martial Arts? Y/N]
Clicking the yes button once again, knowledge of proper technique utilization as well as other methods on how to further improve his combat arts appeared in Azrael's mind, the pack of information getting digested quickly as he starts to practice it immediately, his movements even more refined than his previous practices, each strikes he performs making him gather more and more momentum, until he got enthusiastic enough to try the old scroll's exercises, trying to see where his current limit lies.
As he continues the movements according to the old scroll, he eventually enters a weird condition where his mind is in a meditative state while his body continues moving as per the instructions in the old scroll, his mind feeling like he's comprehending the exercise in the scroll even better than before.
After getting into a trance as he practices for a while, he snapped out of the marvelous state as he felt the high noon rays of sun shining down his face, fatigue enveloping his body as he saw the puddle of sweat he produced just from moving around, something more than enough for passerby to think that there was an isolated rain in this specific area.
[You practice a part of True Life Sutra for twelve hours, +12 talent xp]
Reading the notification, it is only now that Azrael found out what the name of the old scroll is, something that he never knew despite being quite the experienced man in his previous life. As he read it again, he was pleasantly surprised by learning that it is only a part of a whole, making him anticipate just what kind of benefits it would give him should he acquire the other pieces of this sutra as well.
'I will eventually come across them definitely, if not, I can spend some effort to search for them once my power spread across the new world' he thought to himself while walking down the empty street, playing around with his bat as he occasionally throws small knives here and there, breaking open the skulls of the undead he spotted as the sweet sound of notification of him gaining xp makes him enjoy the current situation, unfortunately for him however, there's no bonus attributes he can acquire from these undeads given the difference between his and their strength.
While walking down the empty streets, Azrael, who's now starting to get bored with simply walking around, thought of a brilliant idea that would not only give him enough pressure to train himself, but also give him enough exp so that he could level up quickly.
Looking around, he found himself an undead, slashing it swiftly with the knife in one of his hands, he severed all the lower limbs of the person before pressing it down on the ground, stepping on the back of its head as he made it scream, the sound travelling far from his location, given the silent surroundings.
'Back then I would never even try to look at these things' remembering the times where he tries to avoid them as much as possible as his naïve self back then still considers them as living beings, Azrael looks down on his foot, the pity he show this things in his previous life now completely gone, stepping on a head with a body that continues to struggle trying to reach him, the guttural sound coming from the creature enough to catch the attention of the other undead in the surrounding, encircling Azrael's location as more and more of them were pulled by the loud sound.
"Thanks for your service," he muttered as he raised his foot before it quickly came crashing down, smashing the head of the student turned undead, his eyes looking at the twitching body coldly as if what he just did was nothing significant to him.
"Time to farm some sweet xp." After cleaning up the dead body, Azrael dashed towards the mass of undead approaching him, wielding a bat and a long kitchen knife in his hands, his dauntless figure as if an Ashura descending to the battlefield.