Chapter 98: CHAPTER 97 - Coin distribution.

[Stats:

→ Strength – Level 10 (Tier 1)

→ Defense – Level 10 (Tier 1)

→ Agility – Level 10 (Tier 1)

→ Stamina – Level 10 (Tier 1)

→ Mana – Level 10 (Tier 1)

]

Alex sighed as he looked at his stats.

6000 coins—that's how much it took for Alex to get his stats up to level 10.

But then he clenched his fists, feeling the power within his body, and his eyes squinted, a flicker of delight passing through them.

*Woosh*

He threw a straight punch at the air, causing an afterimage of his movements to be left behind.

He didn't stop there, though.

*Swish*

With a swift twist of his body, he pushed his dagger out of the sheath strapped to his waist, causing it to get launched up in the air, but he didn't just catch it.

With his eyes sharply staring at the surroundings, he waited—he waited for the dagger to reach closer to the ground.

The surroundings grew quiet as if wanting to see the ongoing performance's ending.

*Flip*

Just then, a leaf, out of nowhere, flew right in front of Alex—just one single, green leaf—and his eyes squished before...

*Tap**Slash

With a light push of his feet, Alex pushed the dagger that was about to hit the ground up and, without delay, held it in his hand before he slashed the leaf.

"...."

The air stilled, and the leaf, without a scratch, fell to the ground.

Alex, however, just placed the knife back in the sheath, walking ahead, as if satisfied with whatever he had done.

If someone looked at the leaf again, then they would notice the leaf that fell to the ground was now divided into two perfectly equal parts.

It was as if the leaf itself was, for a while, confused about whether it had even been cut, only to realize it after it fell apart.

For the first time, when Alex wasn't actually fighting and simply showing his skills, his mastery over the dagger became apparent.

The sovereign of all weapons—the only mythical ranked skill that Alex had—gave him such mastery over every weapon, which included the dagger, adding to his mastery over it.

Alex, on the other hand, didn't even bother looking back. He knew that he had slicked through the leaf; he heard the sound clearly, feeling it was just another thing.

His gaze, however, turned toward the remaining coins...

[6306]

From these coins, 1000 were supposed to be saved for emergency use only, leaving him with 5306 for the skills or to further upgrade his stats.

He was much more inclined to do the former one, as the latter might not be the best thing to do right now. S~eaʀᴄh the NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Why?

Because going up from level 5 to level 6 cost him 200 coins for each stat, which was double of what he had to expend to get his stat up to level 5 from 4.

After level 6, it was not much different, as it was 220 for level 7, 240 for level 8, 260 for level 9, and 280 for level 10.

Only an increment of 20 at every level, but now that he had reached level 10, Alex could somehow guess what was going to be the cost of the next level per stat.

'Double.'

That's what he thought—double the coins required for level 10, which would be 560 coins per stat.

Alex went quiet as he heard the AI's words; they were the truth, and he couldn't deny it.

The game system was unpredictable.

No matter what it was, Alex needed coins right now, as the danger looming over his head hadn't lessened; it had just increased with the new bounty quest and the new zones that had been added.

Yes, new zones.

There were now new zones with levels 15, 20, and 25 marked on the maps.

From that alone, Alex could tell that the level cap of this time was probably level 20 since last time, with the level cap of 5, the highest leveled zone was 10.

This time, even the AI thought the same, as that was the most logical conclusion.

'Are you sure that the increase in the level of my skills would give me more profit than the increase in my stats?'

Alex, who had been confused as to what he should invest his coins in, questioned the AI.

The AI was the one that knew more about the skills, so Alex wanted to know what it thought.

The AI's reply was instantaneous, but that was all it could say, and that too was just what it could come up with after analyzing the skills.

Alex, who heard the AI's words, frowned with a contemplating expression.

This just turned harder.

He wanted to go with the long-term plan, as it would help him a lot, but with so many immediate dangers, he couldn't ignore the stats, which would give him an immediate boost.

But as if sensing his worries, the AI spoke again.

<With the coins you have right now, I don't think you will be able to upgrade your stats to level 15 while still saving 1000 coins.

So, why not just upgrade the skills?>

Just upgrading his stats from level 5 to 10 ate up 6000 of his coins, and since he wanted to have 1000 coins in his emergency stock, he could only use 5306 coins, which wouldn't be enough to get him to level 15.

That means he would still be in danger if he were to meet a level 15 beast, much less the higher ones, so what's the use of delaying the skill upgrade?

'...'

Alex, on the other hand, paused for a second when he heard the AI's words before he started walking while looking at the skills in his status window.

Then...

*Click**Click**Click*...

His fingers kept dancing on the status window, upgrading the skills he had.

Sometimes his eyes would widen as if not wanting to believe the number of coins that a skill could ask for a single upgrade, but that surprise would soon turn into realization.

His fingers, however, didn't stop, nor did his feet; he kept inching closer to the smilodon's habitat with his vigilance upped to the maximum, not wanting to be taken by surprise.

Be it ??-ranked ability, mythical-ranked, or even common-ranked, he upgraded all of them even if just by a level.

He wanted to see the difference or at least make it so that the AI could get a better idea of which ability was improving faster than others.

But soon his gaze hardened as he found himself standing right where he had jumped down into the river.

The broken trunk of the tree was still there, but Alex could also see the destruction caused by the huge wave of water from before.

Many trees around the riverbank were destroyed, and they fell on the ground instead of standing tall like they were supposed to.

Alex's eyes, however, were gleaming with a frosty light as he squinted his eyes, staring deep into the forest.

He was here again, back to fight the same beast he had run away from.

The only difference this time was that he wasn't running away but toward them.