Chapter 28: Chapter 28 – A Week’s Progress

It's been around a week since I was ambushed by the Mandrills. 

In this last week, a lot of things happened. The first real change was the disappearance of the Mandrills, they had just vanished. I went to their territory and even found the place they used to occupy, but I found nothing. 

It seemed like they ran away from something, but it didn't bother me one bit. If there is one thing this dark forest isn't short of, it's ferocious strong monsters. 

In this period I've encountered all sorts of magical creatures dark horses that can blend into the darkness, cockroach-like monsters with outstanding speed and vitality, man-eating plants that use illusion to bait their prey and once it enters their range gets entangled with all sorts of steel like branches. I even saw a dragon-like monster, I think it was a drake it had dark brown sturdy scales and has the craziest control over earth elements I've ever seen. 

However, the monster that left a deep mark was a white bat. Its appearance was so ordinary but that sense of ordinary was exactly what terrified me the moment I laid my eyes on it.

If there is something that seems too ordinary and out of place in this death-filled forest, then it's without a doubt the most terrifying.

Unsurprisingly, I was right! Originally, I was flying and sensed it, through that I was able to get a general idea of the size and the figure and I immediately knew it was an ordinary bat, other than color nothing seemed different. The energy it gave off was of someone below Body Refinement.

Yet, the moment I probed it with my sense, it locked onto me and rushed in my direction with unimaginable speed.

Without a single thought, I put all the free Stats points I had at that moment in Agility, raising it to a 61 base coupled with my title boost, my passive skills, and Sky Dash which reached a whopping 203. Then, I activated the biggest Predator's Warcry with 200 SP and ran in the opposite direction with all of my might!

Fortunately, it wasn't able to catch up. I have no idea how strong the white bat was, I only knew that it was able to kill me.

The biggest reward in this last week of hard work was Karma Points!

I noticed that for a quest to be triggered, there needs to be someone or several creatures going through intense emotional turmoil, and of course, for them to be in my area. So, I kept flying all over the place triggering random quests!

My Karma Points have reached a huge 900! 

I've saved all kinds of unique monsters with remarkable intelligence, relationships, and emotional depth. Life-long bird partners, two wolf sisters, and their cubs, a herd of black deer, an ox-like monster with wings who was giving birth, and an intelligent beehive community from a giant bear! 

Unfortunately, I couldn't finish every single quest. Some of them died miserably, they were mostly the quests that involved the attacks from a Foundation Establishment monster. 

That was also how I encountered the white bat, I received a quest about four chicks that were left unattended but were attacked by a vicious monster. I noticed that the reward was high, a huge 200 Karma Points. I didn't think much of it at first, only after I barely escaped from the bat that I understood the high reward.

Thanks to constant hunting and quest rewards I leveled up from the previous level 23 to level 27, which gave me a staggering 42 Stats and 16 Skill Points.

I couldn't save up my Stats points because I was constantly fighting and used them in emergencies. I assigned 10 to Spirit, 20 to Intelligence, 10 to Agility, and finally 2 to Vitality.

I've also been cultivating daily thus breaking through from Mid to High Body Refinement. Strangely, even though I've been cultivating a lot only my physical attributes got a big boost from cultivation, that's why I had to use Stats points to raise my Spirit, Intelligence, and Agility.

I need to get my hands on that Divine cultivation quickly, this one is complete trash. I could even feel my body getting tainted by some elusive kind of filth which isn't good.

'Status Window'

[~Status Window~

Host: Zed - Umbra Storm Eagle.

Titles: {Blazing Heart}, {Truth Seeker}, {Dauntless Spirit}

Level: 27
Experience Points(Exp): 31750/49500

Rank: Body Refinement(High)

Health Points(HP): 285/285
Magic Power(MP/Mana): 344/344
Spiritual Power(SP): 391/391

Magical Resistance: 36(25)
Physical Resistance: 28(19)
Spiritual Resistance: 31(37)

Vitality: 57(85)
Strength: 48(72)
Stamina: 51(76)
Intelligence: 75(112)
Agility: 61(91), Dark: +18, Nearby Enemy: +15, Sky Dash: +18.
Spirit: 71(142)

Available Stat Points: 0
Available Skill Points: 16

Karma Points: 900

[Skills]
[Quests]
[Shop]
[Map]
[Party(Locked)]

]

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Perfect, everything is going according to plan, now I need to think of the best way to use my Skill Points.

I've also gained new bloodline skills thanks to my constant consumption of high-quality monsters. My size has also grown considerably, which is giving me a headache. I'm too eye-catching! I can easily carry several people on my back. How crazy is that?

My height is around two meters now, my wings are so wide I can't even estimate how wide, Just huge!

[Dark Clone(Active): Creates a clone with 50% of the user's damage attributes that lasts for 30 seconds. Cost(100MP) |Beginner|]

[Shadow Dive(Passive): The user is able to hide in the shadows of living beings. |Beginner|]

Dark Clone as the name suggests creates a clone that has the same appearance and energy as me. The first time I created it I was shocked because my mind split into two. There was no difference between my main body and the clone, even for me it was hard to tell the difference. It doesn't have the same attack damage as me of course, but resistances and agility are all the same. It doesn't help that much in combat and it needs 100 MP which is a lot, but it can definitely save my life while running away.

Shadow Dive on the other hand is amazing, it has a lot of limitations such as if the target is aware of my existence in their shadow I'd be forced out of it immediately, if the target comes into contact with someone with high Spirit they can easily sense me, and the target can only be a living being I'm not able to enter the shadow of a tree even though technically it's living being much less that of houses or whatever. Still, a great skill!

Damn, I'm having a major episode of analysis paralysis over here. 16 Skill points are just too much, I'm suffering from a severe case of abundance. Poor me...

After cultivating and thinking about it for a couple of hours I was still puzzled, maybe there are no perfect things to upgrade and I should just focus on what I need right now.

I opened my Skills Menu and started upgrading!

I started with Sky Dash directly raising it from Intermediate to Advanced thus spending 2 points.

[Sky Dash(Active): Grants +40% Agility for 20 seconds while above ground. Cost(20MP) |Advanced|] -2 Skill points.

After boosting my speed, I needed to enhance my attack damage because it was not enough against Foundation Establishment. So, I raised wind blades from Mastery to perfecting thus spending another 5 points.

[WindBlade(Active): Creates a magical wind blade that has a range of 300 meters, Deals Intelligence(x3) in damage. Cost(10MP) |Perfection|]

Unfortunately, the damage didn't increase. However, the range improved to a huge 300 meters that's just mind-boggling, and its cost was reduced to 10MP. To be frank, I was quite disappointed. How great would it be if it increased directly to Intelligence x4?

After that, I upgraded Fiery Charge for the very first time. My strongest offensive skill, yet I couldn't take good advantage of it due to my low mana pool. But now it's different, thanks to my now improved Intelligence I have 344 Mana.

I allocated to it three Skill points raising its proficiency to Advanced directly 

[Fiery Charge(Active): Once activated the user will be set in flames of their main element for 8 seconds. Deals Intelligence(x4) in damage in a 8-meter radius. Cost (150MP) |Advanced|]

Wow! The results definitely did not disappoint, I was not expecting any damage boost it's already x4. Its duration increased from 5 to 8 seconds, its range went from 5 to 8 meters, and most importantly its cost was reduced to 150MP. Sweet!

A huge overall improvement, yet I still had 6 Points. After thinking for a while, I decided to raise both of my new skills from Beginner to Advanced, thus spending all of my undistributed points.

[Dark Clone(Active): Creates a clone with 60% of the user's offensive attributes that lasts for 2 minutes. Cost(50MP) |Advanced|]

[Shadow Dive(Passive): The user is able to hide in the shadows of living beings. |Advanced|]

I was not wrong! That was a well-spent 6 Skill points. Especially Dark Clone, a damage increase from 50 to 60%, an increase in duration from a measly 30 seconds to a full two minutes, and most importantly a cost reduction!

I didn't notice any change on Shadow Dive, the skill description is still as vague as ever. I would have to test it later.

Increasing skill proficiency is a great way to power up, I've been practicing my skills tirelessly these past couple of days, yet I was not able to improve any skill. I did notice that I was able to wield them more efficiently and far quicker, so not an absolute loss.

It's also worth mentioning that I have only slept two times for a couple of hours each time in this past week, my guess was correct. I could still function perfectly without any sleep for up to three days, I just have to rest and cultivate then I recover to my peak form. However, more than that and things start to go south, my reactions become sluggish, my ability to launch skills becomes a bit impaired, and inability to think clearly.

I looked at the still sleeping tiger cubs, I don't even think they're cubs anymore, they're way bigger than what they used to and they've also broken through to Mid Body Refinement. I take them to hunt every once in a while, their mom is dead so someone should have filled that role. Unfortunately, it landed on me.

But I don't mind it that much, they've grown on me in this last period. They love when I create Umbra Hands to play with them, the current hands I'm able to create are big, strong, and durable they can even fight them with all their might yet not manage to bring them down.

Kali started flying a couple of days ago, The Mama bird takes care of her and teaches her what she needs to know. Even now they were nowhere to be seen, sometimes they disappear for days. Leaving the poor tigers alone, but they can fend for themselves if they work together, they can easily hold their ground against a High stage monster.

I spread open my wings and I flew south, I haven't continued my exploration south because I noticed that the monsters are far weaker there and I needed to level up so I put it on hold.

I'm absolutely certain that the way out of The Still Hollow Forest is south!

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