Chapter 5 – Going all in
Oh, the experience counts as mine too?
Wonderful, simply wonderful!
Watching the level-two Iron Fist Rabbit pummel its own teammates while his experience bar rocketed upward, Lin An couldn't help but grin.
By the time the fourth rabbit breathed its last, the experience gauge finally hit one hundred percent!
[Ding! Experience is full. Level up now?]
Yes!
Lin An didn't hesitate, and the instant he clicked confirm a warm current surged through his body.
[Congratulations! All attributes +1, and you've gained 1 free attribute point!]
Sweet!
Not only had he grown stronger, but the fatigue from his journey vanished; his status was completely restored!
Glancing at the remaining free point, Lin An didn't waver—he dumped it straight into Spirit.
After all, even with that extra point the other stats were still far below a level three Pseudo-human's; better to go all-in on Spirit, since Hallucination was his only skill anyway.
Going all-in is a form of wisdom!
With a thought, Lin An called up his status panel.
[Player: Lin An
Level: 2
Experience: 0%
Body (constitution): 6 (+1)
Energy (Primordial Power): 1 (+1)
Spirit: 10 (+2)
Status: Healthy!]
With Spirit in double digits he felt clear-headed, his thoughts sharper than ever.
He could also sense a faint warmth circulating through his body—probably the Primordial Power the panel mentioned.
"pseudo-energy, beast-energy, primordial power—this game has quite the variety of energies."
Pondering this, Lin An turned his gaze to the nearby Iron Fist Rabbit.
The level-two rabbit had just finished off its last minion, but this time no experience notification popped up; apparently, killing low-level mobs after leveling yielded nothing.
Not surprising—if farming trash mobs still granted experience, he'd become the Sword God of Ten-Mile Slope.
With a thought, he began reshaping the Illusory Realm.
At ten points of Spirit, Hallucination became markedly stronger.
Against These little monsters, which had no intelligence, it worked every time; they probably didn't even know what an Illusory Realm was.
Bang!
A thunderous crash rang out as the Iron Fist Rabbit slammed its beast-energy-charged fist into a boulder and collapsed.
[Iron Fist Rabbit slain. +10% experience.]
He disassembled the rabbits into his inventory, then checked the time.
It was 3 p.m.; roughly three hours until sunset.
After more than an hour he'd found only this one level-two rabbit. Finding and killing nine more in the remaining time was impossible, never mind the trek still ahead to reach Novice Village.
With that, Lin An turned back.
Meanwhile, on the forest path he'd left earlier,
a thin, straggling man trudged forward, so exhausted each step felt like death, yet knowing that stopping meant certain doom.
Even with blistered, bleeding feet he dared not halt.
The next moment, however, he froze.
Two faceless figures wielding long sabers now blocked his way.
"Pseudo-humans!!"
The man clearly knew of these horrors; he screamed and tried to flee, but his spent body refused.
"Boss Lu's plan works like a charm,"
one Pseudo-human chuckled darkly, watching the helpless human.
Its face melted into a gaping maw that swallowed the fallen man whole.
Once the meal was done, the Pseudo-human morphed into the man's exact likeness—voice included.
"Not bad, my talent's improved a bit."
"If I find a few more groups of Refugees, leveling up won't be far off…"
Before it could finish, a long saber flashed!
Shhk!
The blade cleanly severed its legs.
The maimed Pseudo-human shrieked, staring in disbelief at its companion.
"Have you lost your mind?!"
It couldn't fathom why its partner had struck—until it saw a black-cat-faced figure striding toward them.
"What the hell is that thing?"
"A monster—there's a monster here!"
Lin An: "…"
Watching the Pseudo-human's horror, he was speechless.
The tables had turned; a monster was calling him a monster.
Shaking his head, Lin An picked up the fallen saber and leveled it at the creature's forehead.
[Pseudo-human – Chen Wei
Level: 2
Body: 6
Energy (pseudo-energy): 2
Spirit: 6
Talent: Disguise
Skill: Rapid Recovery (can rapidly regenerate any non-lethal damage by expending energy)]
Back on the path, Lin An had arrived just in time to see it devouring a human.
No wonder Lu Cheng hadn't cared about stragglers—they had accomplices to mop up the exhausted.
Shhk!
Without a word, Lin An drove the saber through its skull.
A Pseudo-human's body was nothing like a human's—no bones, no blood—making it oddly easy to cut.
The stab reverted it to its original faceless form.
Yet even with its head pierced, no kill notification appeared.
"Head isn't the weak point—how about the neck?"
Impressed by its resilience, he slashed again.
Since the panel hadn't listed a weakness, trial and error was the only way.
"Neck's not it either—then here?"
To the dismembered creature, his calm voice sounded like a demon's whisper; its remaining flesh trembled in terror.
It swore this was the most frightening "monster" it had ever met.
It almost wished he'd just finish it off.
Thud!
A final strike to the heart stilled the twitching body.
[Level-two Pseudo-human slain. +10% experience.]
"So the heart's the weak spot—and even softer than a human's."
With that insight, he plunged the saber into the second Pseudo-human's heart, still trapped in its illusion, and gained another 10%.
A thought brought up the disassemble prompt.
[Ding! Acquired: pseudo-core x2!]