Chapter 7: Chapter7-Level UP!
John fell silent for a second.
Then, he pulled out the Withered Staff from his backpack and glanced at his character panel.
[Class]: All-Class Magus (god-tier)
[HP]: 100
[MP]: 600
[Attributes]: Strength 9, Stamina 10, Spirit 30, Speed 13
[Talent]: Divine Favor Tome (SSS-level)
[Skills]: Spring of Soul lv10, Mana Recovery lv10, Pyrokinesis lv10, Aquakinesis lv10...
[Equipment]: Withered Staff (iron-tier lv1)
Seeing his panel, John's heart settled into a sense of security.
Indeed, only power could give him that feeling of safety!
He walked briskly through the ruins of the city, his eyes constantly scanning for any sign of monsters.
At this moment, John was itching for a fight with a creature.
His expectations were soon met.
Not long into his journey, John encountered his first monster on the roadside.
[Name: Blood Rabbit (common monster)]
[Level: 3]
[HP: 300]
[Strength: 18]
[Stamina: 15]
[Defense: 10]
[Speed: 25]
[Skill: Gnaw]
True to its name, it was a blood-red rabbit.
When John spotted it, the creature was burying its head in a pile of rotting bones, its body twitching continuously, the grating sound of bones scraping together piercing the air.
John didn't approach.
He extended his hand, focusing his thoughts.
"Pyrokinesis, activate!"
In an instant, a serpent of fire as thick as a wrist and over a meter long burst forth from John's hand, racing towards the blood rabbit!
"Boom!!"
After a thunderous explosion, a three-digit red number rose into the air.
"-434!"
The blood rabbit didn't even have time to let out a cry before it disintegrated into tiny specks of light.
An instant kill!
[You have slain "Blood Rabbit lv3", earning 300 Exp!]
[Current Level: lv1]
[Exp: 300/2000]
The commotion even startled John himself.
He hadn't anticipated that his Pyrokinesis would obliterate the creature in one hit! NewW novels updates at novelhall.com
This was, after all, a two-level jump!
The power of an SSS-level talent was indeed extraordinary!
John reckoned that with his current damage output, even level 5 monsters might not withstand a hit!
With this in mind, John began to move towards the area where level 5 creatures were known to roam.
Each level-up granted him a basic increase of 5 points in all four attributes.
For spirit attribute, he received an additional 5 points, a class bonus specific to magus.
Without hesitation, John allocated all 10 free attribute points to his spirit.
The spirit attribute not only enhances a magus class's magical attack power and MP recovery speed but also subtly boosts a magus's perception and reaction skills, making it the most crucial attribute for them.
However, most magi need to distribute their attribute points across various skills and can't afford to invest them all in spirit.
John was different.
Possessing the SSS-level super talent [Divine Favor Tome], he didn't need to worry about skill enhancement, allowing him to use his attribute points extravagantly.
Now, with the boost from his Withered Staff, his spirit attribute had reached 50 points, and the basic skill damage had increased to 500 points.
With the full-level Spring of Soul augmenting his magic damage by 50%, John's final damage output had soared to 750 points!
For creatures like the recently encountered decayhound, John could almost achieve a one-hit kill.
The palpable rush of power from such a visible improvement in strength was indescribable.
John's eyes blazed with excitement as he gripped his staff, ready to delve deeper into the Phantom Ruins.
Just then, his gaze caught a faint black shimmer at the spot where the decayhound had dissipated, conspicuous even in the darkness.
Intrigued, John walked over and looked down. As expected, the decayhound had dropped equipment!
[Equipment]: Hound Paw Necklace
[Type]: Accessory
[Level]: lv5
[Tier]: iron-tier
[Quality]: common
[Attributes]: Wisdom +5, Speed +5
[Skill]: None
Seeing the equipment's attributes, John's eyes lit up.
He hadn't expected a rare-tier accessory to drop, especially one of common quality!
Accessory equipment is the second hardest to drop after weapons.
Even though the Hound Paw Necklace was just a level 5 iron-tier item, it was enough to delight John.
It was a pity, however, that he couldn't wear it yet due to its level restriction.
But John figured that with his rapid leveling speed, it wouldn't be long before he could.
Picking up the equipment from the ground, he stored it in the storage ring Scarlett had given him yesterday and continued deeper into the ruins.
As John ventured further into the Phantom Ruins, the monsters became denser and more powerful, and he began to feel the strain.
It wasn't a matter of damage; the main issue was his mere 200 HP.
A single touch from these monsters could leave him severely injured or even dead, so he had to remain completely focused, which was mentally exhausting.
After some thought, John decided to find a place to level up.
His primary goal was rapid leveling, and proceeding further seemed too risky.
Finally, he stopped outside an abandoned parking lot.
Inside, there were numerous shabby, rotting walking corpses, mostly between levels 6 and 8.
They were strong but slow, making them ideal for leveling up.
John found a good spot to climb up, lit a cigarette, and then started hurling his Pyrokinesis and Aquakinesis around as if they cost him nothing.
With his maxed-out Pyrokinesis and Aquakinesis, which were instant cast, and the added benefits of max-level Spring of Soul and Mana Recovery, he had no worries about running out of MP.
Streams of fire and orbs of water slammed into the walking corpses, skyrocketing John's Exp like a rocket!
[You have slain "Walking Corpse lv6," earning 623 Exp!]
[You have slain "Ghoul lv7," earning 720 Exp!]
[You have slain "Rotten Corpse lv8," earning 789 Exp!]
...