Chapter 264: A Major Attribute Boost, Gagaran Appears (
crimson light of the Magma Sea reflected in Tang Zheng's pupils. He understood all too well the significance of the job skill, 「Transcendental Technique」.
"Isn't this just another form of class respec?"
In the game YGGDRASIL, there were many skills and magic spells that required experience points to use. Once a player ran out of stored experience, these abilities became unusable.
Tang Zheng remembered that if a player wanted to perform a class respec, they normally had to do so by dying and losing levels.
However, this had a disadvantage: the lost levels would be deducted first from a high-tier job class or the last class the player had leveled up.
This made it extremely difficult to use death to respec out of job classes acquired early on. Otherwise, how would they sell pay-to-win items?
But Tang Zheng could actively choose which job to drop a level in.
"This skill, 「Transcendental Technique」... I initially thought it was just an alternative method of spellcasting to increase my sustainability and have more options in reserve. I never expected it to be this broken."
"However."
Looking at the experience in his [Experience Bar: 1/510000], he saw that after dropping the level, the value had reset directly to one point. He had assumed it would only subtract the consumed experience, not wipe it clean.
To be precise, only one point of experience remained.
"So, is this some kind of penalty for using a skill to drop a level?"
Tang Zheng mused to himself. As expected of a special job class with a higher acquisition difficulty than even [Valkyrie].
"The [Ninja] class still has two levels left."
"Attribute Stats!"
A thoughtful expression appeared on Tang Zheng's face as he willed it.
...
[Ability Stats]
Innate Ability: [Player]
Comprehensive Level: 48Lv
[Experience Bar: 471356/510000]
Skill Points: 66
(PS: Specific ability information has been updated in the comments section.)
...
[Attribute Stats]
Karma Value: 23[Neutral]
HP: 580→725→710 (55%)
MP: 263→538→523 (40%)
Physical Attack: 373→518→503 (39%)
Physical Defense: 280→380 (29%)
Agility: 213→418→403 (31%)
Magic Attack: 293→523 (40%)
Magic Defense: 295→525 (40%)
Overall Resistance: 445→465 (36%)
Specialty: 440→670 (52%)
Total: 362%
(The first number does not include the stats from the [Ninja] and [Magic Transcender] job classes.)
...
Even without looking at the increased stats, Tang Zheng could feel the surging magic power and physical power within him. A single special job class had brought a comprehensive boost and enhancement.
Furthermore, the "Power of Magic Transcendence" added an extra 130 points each to his MP, Magic Attack, and Magic Defense stats.
"Based on the current information, my skill points remain unchanged after a level drop, but the stat increases from the [Ninja] job are gone."
Tang Zheng noticed that four of his base stats had each dropped by 15 points.
"There are still a few things I can't confirm."
"If a job is completely lost, will its skills or passives disappear with it?"
These were the two questions that concerned Tang Zheng the most. It was precisely because of these concerns that he had chosen to expend levels from his [Ninja] class.
He hadn't chosen [Sword Saint] or [Shaman Mentor], two of his intermediate job classes, because he had considered these two problems.
His [Sword Saint] level was too high; experimenting with it would be an excessive waste of experience points.
[Shaman Mentor] was only at level one, but it was tied to the 「Totem Imbuement」 skill. Tang Zheng could be indifferent about other things, but he had spent a great deal of effort on the 「Body Armament」 ability.
If he lost [Shaman Mentor] and the skill disappeared along with it, there would be no point in crying.
The [Ninja] class was low-level, so the experience cost of experimenting was also low. Even if he lost it completely, he could just reacquire it from Tia and Tina.
As for Dougui Jieluo, his grave had likely been overgrown with grass for a while now. He was nothing but a skeleton, and even Seventh Tier Resurrection Magic might not be enough to bring him back.
"Good thing my level isn't too high right now, so I can experiment a little." Thinking of this, Tang Zheng still couldn't help but feel a pang of regret at the cost.
*Swish!*
Tang Zheng reached out and grabbed the air. A crimson fish scale half the height of a man was retrieved from his item box. It was a scale from the Sun Anglerfish.
With its innate fire resistance, the Sun Anglerfish scale was the perfect test subject for his next skill.
"「Word of Elemental Collapse」—"
Tang Zheng first flicked his wrist, tossing the massive scale into the air. Then, using the passive ability of his [Mad Mage] class, he converted a Third Tier Lightning Ball into a fireball.
"Fireball!"
*Thump!*
In that instant, a phantom appeared before Tang Zheng. It looked like a miniature fire dragon, about three meters in size and wreathed in flames.
Magic power surged!
A dazzling crimson fireball condensed in the mouth of this miniature fire dragon phantom before being spat out.
A streak of red light tore through the sky.
It struck the airborne scale with perfect accuracy.
*BOOM!*
The flames exploded. The scale, which originally possessed fire resistance and even nullification, was instantly burned to ashes by the flames released from the fireball.
The entire process seemed slow, but it was actually completed in the blink of an eye, not much different from a normal spellcasting speed.
"Is that a fire dragon?"
Tang Zheng snapped back to his senses, staring blankly at the fire dragon phantom as it began to dissipate.
"No, this form is closer to a lizard. Is it the fire elemental, Salamander?"
This was no ordinary phantom, but a representation of an elemental spirit, one of the masters of the Four Great Elements!
The Water Elemental Spirit, Undine.
The Fire Elemental Spirit, Salamander.
The Wind Elemental Spirit, Sylph.
The Earth Elemental Spirit, Gnome.
"Using the spirit that governs an element to ignore resistances of its own kind... how fitting. A pity the cooldown is 100 hours. It can't be used as a conventional skill."
He calmed his surprise.
"The effect is very strong. Used unexpectedly, it could easily grievously wound or even kill an opponent."
Tang Zheng's gaze shifted to the trump card skill of the [Magic Transcender] class. The description alone revealed how terrifying this skill was.
"Kali..."
Tang Zheng softly chanted, preparing to cast magic. But after uttering just a few words, he stopped abruptly. His brow furrowed slightly, and he remained silent for a long moment.
"Who are you?"
A phantom of flowing water condensed to Tang Zheng's left, forming a female figure with hair like rippling waves, a graceful upper body, and a lower body of splashing water.
"You are fire."
The figure of the Fire Lizard, which had just vanished, reappeared, materializing before him, its flaming wings beating gently.
"You are wind."
A translucent phantom of a whirlwind materialized to his right like a storm, gradually condensing into a humanoid, elf-like shape with two pairs of wind-aspected wings.
"You are earth."
A massive, brown, rock-like phantom appeared behind Tang Zheng, taking the form of a rock giant with crimson eyes.
Four phantoms of varying sizes circled around Tang Zheng. Although they were all illusory, they exuded a suffocating, heart-pounding pressure that spread continuously.
Even the raging Magma Sea below seemed to be affected, calming down.
"You are the void."
The four phantoms shot upwards, colliding above Tang Zheng's head. A brilliant light flashed as they merged.
"At the end of days, all returns to chaos, until you create once more."
Tang Zheng uttered the final line of the prayer.
The four phantoms representing the elemental spirits fused completely. An ethereal, profound phantom, neither black nor white but flowing with starlight, crossed its hands over its chest.
"Sigh..."
A barely audible sigh echoed in Tang Zheng's ears.
The next instant...
Half an hour later.
Tang Zheng sat expressionlessly on the edge of the red-hot cliff, staring silently at the lava below, which had vanished by a height of several dozen meters.
"This skill... is a little terrifying."
Tang Zheng took a breath of the hot air. The skill's effect was just as described.
All elemental magic became unusable and ceased to exist—not just the four primary attributes, but also their derivatives like the lightning and sand attributes.
Even compound elemental summoning was completely nullified.
What remained unaffected were powers that did not belong to the four elemental attributes, such as holy and negative attributes.
The non-elemental 「Magic Arrow」 was not affected, but it could no longer be converted into other elements via the [Mad Mage]'s passive.
Skills like 「Hot Spring」 and 「Silver Knight's Lance」, which were related to water or derivative elements of the earth element, were directly nullified.
Interestingly.
The 「Gold Arrow」 skill from the [Five Elements Master] job was not affected.
"The Five Elements Master job system is based on the five attributes of Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. It seems the 'Gold' attribute here is independent, not the 'metal' derived from the Earth element."
Tang Zheng fell into thought. The complexity of YGGDRASIL's job build system was truly beyond imagination.
On second thought.
Given that even a Cthulhu system existed, it wasn't strange to have such detailed abilities.
In short.
「Kali's Cessation」 was definitely a game-changing trump card, but one that required analyzing the opponent's power set. Otherwise, it was less useful than 「Word of Elemental Collapse」.
Against the Bone King, the effect of 「Kali's Cessation」 would be quite limited.
In that respect, it was a bit like 「Death Bell」. It was powerful, to be sure, but if the opponent wasn't an elemental spellcaster, its usefulness was limited.
Next.
Tang Zheng spent another day familiarizing himself with his newly acquired power and various passive abilities. Apart from the "Magic Master" passive, which he had no clue about, he had figured out all the others.
The speed at which 「Mana's Blessing」 restored his magic power far exceeded his expectations.
Before, his magic power recovery rate was one point every ten minutes. Now, in a non-combat state, the time had been reduced to one point of magic power recovered every minute.
Tang Zheng himself was shocked.
His current MP was 523 points. It would take less than nine hours to fully recover, which was a qualitative leap compared to his previous recovery speed.
Of course, he couldn't compare to the Bone King, whose 1900-plus MP could be fully restored in just six hours. But for Tang Zheng, this was already a massive breakthrough.
After all, excluding the nullified job from the [Genius] conversion, he only had two spellcaster classes.
"There are still three years. Plenty of time to fight!"
Tang Zheng stood on the edge of the cliff in the lava zone, straightened his back, and stretched his arms wide with a big yawn. A fiery passion flashed in his eyes as he gazed into the distance.
He currently had two special job class builds.
[Curse Knight] · [Valkyrie]
[Mad Mage] · [Magic Transcender]
He didn't have many leads for what to do next, but experience was still the main problem.
Upper Water Month, the twelfth.
Five days had passed since he left the Royal Capital on the eighth.
He had spent two days in the Abelion Hills searching for the Blue Maggot Tribe, and another day in the lava zone familiarizing himself with his increased power.
Tang Zheng first returned to the 「Free Will」 squad to confirm the adventurer team's position and their distance to Ye Yiwuer.
Then, he used teleportation magic to return to the Abelion Hills.
This time, he didn't head directly to the territory where the Blue Maggot Tribe resided in their underground caverns and pits.
Two days remained of the three he had mentioned before, so there was no rush. The strongest within the Blue Maggot Tribe was their so-called "king."
The Blue Maggot Tribe wasn't among the Ten Evils of the Demi-Humans, so this "king's" power was likely around the level of Fourth Tier magic.
In the lush, dense forest.
The chirping of birds and insects echoed throughout the woods.
Although it was still winter, the Abelion Hills, like the Holy Kingdom, were much more temperate. This was due to their geographical proximity to the sea and the mountain range to the north that blocked the cold.
The entire hills area had not been affected by the cold temperatures of winter, making it an extremely habitable place.
It was for this very reason that it could support so many demi-humans and heteromorphic races.
As a thick-skinned troll.
Gagaran had high adaptability to the climate, but he didn't particularly like the Empire's winters. If the temperature was too cold, it would affect a warrior's movements.
Several shattered, thick tree trunks lay collapsed on the ground, surrounded by a mess of broken branches and leaves.
The scent of blood hung in the air.
A great battle had clearly just taken place here. Yet, despite the bloody scent, no wild beast or monster dared to approach.
Gagaran sat on a broken tree trunk, his rough palms forcefully rubbing a sharpened branch, using the ancient method of drilling wood to start a bonfire.
His thick, heavy spiked club weapon, the "Enchanted Metal Club," was placed by his side, leaning against the tree trunk as well.
It was stained with specks of blood.
Upon closer inspection, one could see that many of the spikes on the front of the club were chipped, and some were even worn down.
This was weapon damage left by prolonged combat without the chance for careful maintenance.
Gagaran stared at the large elk gradually roasting over the bonfire. He tore off a piece of meat with his rough hand and began to eat it in large mouthfuls.
As his teeth clamped down, droplets of blood spattered out.
In truth, eating it raw would have been more convenient, but Gagaran was not an unenlightened troll. His long life of luxury in the Empire had long since caused him to abandon the savage troll habit of eating raw meat and drinking blood.
A faint wisp of white mist drifted through the dense forest in the distance, causing only a few leaves to tremble slightly.
Gagaran chewed the roasted meat in his mouth, his eyes still fixed on the elk over the bonfire, but his gaze had turned icy. "You've been tailing me for two days. You'd better scram before I get angry!"
His cold voice echoed through the forest.
The air fell silent, with only the crackling of flames consuming the branches.
(end of chapter)