Skill Basics Guide

As the fifth day drew to a close, Su Luo strolled leisurely into the forest to check the fishing trap he had set by the stream.

But all that remained was a pile of broken branches, violently torn apart.

Su Luo looked around, heartbroken.

"The local fish have no manners!"

"The trap's destroyed. I no longer care who was right or wrong!"

With that, his expression turned solemn, and he held his breath and concentrated. The Magic Power surging around him poured into the earth beneath his feet like a flood bursting through open gates!

Crack... rumble... With a low roar, the streambed slowly rose, forcibly cutting this stretch of water off from the reaches upstream and downstream. The trapped fish darted about in panic, but there was no way out.

Su Luo slowly raised his right hand. A gigantic fireball, nearly as tall as a person in diameter, suddenly formed before his palm, radiating terrifying heat and blazing light!

"Go," he said softly. The enormous fireball slammed into the trapped water at the speed of a cannonball!

Boom—!!! With a tremendous blast, water and countless silver fish were hurled more than ten meters into the air. For a moment, the sight was spectacular.

The fish: What the fuck? Can't you play fair?

"Wind!" Su Luo chanted softly once more. A whirlwind sprang into being as if it had a will of its own, precisely catching every fish in the air and depositing them in a neat pile at his feet.

Yes, [Gale Step] was indeed a movement skill.

But how could wind be so limited?

Satisfied, Su Luo tossed the dozen or so fish into his carrying basket, planning to improve on the diet of nothing but fruit he had eaten for days.

He deftly gutted the fish, cruelly skewered them on sharpened branches, and set them over the fire to roast.

Only then did he take his time opening his chat with Song Shige and begin writing a summary and key points for getting started with [Flame Attachment].

Yes, he had learned it in ten minutes, but he had deliberately waited most of the day before teaching it.

If he didn't pretend it had taken tremendous effort, how would the other man remember the weight of the favor?

After he sent the long message, the reply came almost instantly.

[Song Shige: Thank you, Consultant Su!!!]

[Su Luo: Ask if you don't understand. I'll answer when I see it.]

After sending that, Su Luo wolfed down two and a half grilled fish in one sitting. Content, he found the most comfortable position he could under the warm sun and fell fast asleep.

He was awakened by the grand, cold system announcement. Opening his eyes, Su Luo felt a flicker of regret.

He hadn't remained lucid in his dream this time, so he had wasted more than two hours of "study" time.

[Survival Log updated: day five]

[Current region (Zone 76) survival rate: 70.05%]

[Based on an assessment of survival data from the past five days, further adaptation of regional rules is complete]

[Monster Tide vanguard has arrived: the Monster Tide's advance forces have arrived. For the next 24 hours, monster activity will rise to 150%, aggression will increase significantly, and spawn frequency will increase by 50%. All survivors, prepare to make a stand at your Sanctuaries!]

[Sanctuary offense and defense system activated: all Sanctuaries automatically receive temporary "Simple Defensive Fortifications" (wooden fences/low stone walls/..., depending on Sanctuary level). Resources may also be spent to modify and reinforce them and install buildings.]

[Building system unlocked: blueprints for various functional buildings (Arrow Towers, Mana Totems, Healing Springs, etc.) have been added to chest rewards, Elite monster drops, and leaderboard reward pools.]

[Leaderboard rewards upgraded: starting with this settlement, the top 100 on each leaderboard will receive an additional [Random Building Blueprint Chest (common–Fine)]]

[Do everything you can to survive]

Su Luo listened to every word of the announcement, but still heard nothing that benefited a "homeless" person like him.

"Sigh!"

He sighed, casually answered a few questions Song Shige had sent him, then turned his sorrow and indignation into strength and immersed himself in the ocean of knowledge once more.

Ye Xu stared expressionlessly at the settlement leaderboard, numb inside.

"This Song Shige... could he be a cheater too?"

For the first time, he had serious doubts about his status as the "protagonist."

On the third day, his Talent had randomly given him Ammunition Boxes.

[Ammunition Box (Fine)]

[When opened, grants ammunition for the corresponding firearm. The quantity depends on rarity.]

He had a full thousand of them!

Firearms were rare to begin with, and their quality was guaranteed to be Fine at minimum. Ammunition was even scarcer. Ye Xu could guarantee that all the other survivors in the region combined didn't have as much ammunition as he did.

Unlimited firepower gave him confidence. Any monster would fall beneath the firepower he unleashed.

"But... why?! Why can't I get to the top even with all this?!"

Furious, he kicked another stone table to pieces, grabbed two assault rifles, and rushed outside, unleashing a storm of bullets at the monsters in the darkness.

After a completely one-sided slaughter with a foregone conclusion, Ye Xu returned to his Sanctuary, panting, and used his Talent for the day.

Then he stared for a long time at the gleaming little stones piled like a small mountain on his new stone table.

"Exemption Stones... a thousand of them. What am I supposed to do with so many?"

"And they're all bound!"

Ye Xu grabbed a few and threw them away. He knew they might be important later, but right now he had no idea what use they were.

"Wait..."

Ye Xu suddenly remembered a post someone had made on the forum earlier and hurried back to search for it.

After a while, he slowly raised his head, a thoughtful look in his eyes.

"Learning skills on your own... classes... Exemption Stones..."

By now, a post had sent the forum into an uproar.

[Eat my Fireball!]

Opening it revealed a system screenshot.

[Fireball, level 10 (527/1000)]

[You can fire three large fireballs with "Burn," "Ignite," and "burst" effects.

Burn: inflicts damage over time for ten seconds on hit.

Ignite: when the Burn effect ends, there is a small chance of igniting three nearby targets, including the original target.

Burst: can be controlled at will to burst a large fireball into several small fireballs.]

Immediately below was a first-person combat video:

The poster stood alone, facing more than a dozen roaring monsters. He raised his hand and cast [Appraisal] on the massive monster at their head.

"Appraisal!"

The poster had also included its stats below.

[Iron Corpse (Elite)]

[Level: 2]

[Strength: 9]

[Constitution: 9]

[Spirit: 2]

[Skills: Berserk, Critical Strike, Lifesteal, Iron Arm]

It was a powerful monster. With its skills, it could easily beat many level-three monsters.

Yet instead of running, the poster struck first!

"Fireball!"

Three huge, ferocious, roaring fireballs formed in an instant and slammed into the monster pack like Meteorites!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Iron Corpse at the front took a fireball square in the face. It howled in pain and staggered backward.

The other two fireballs landed precisely where the monsters were most densely packed, instantly wiping out several level-zero monsters. The remaining level-one and level-two monsters sizzled in the clinging flames, screaming again and again.

The poster then switched to a crossbow, calmly picking off the wounded monsters and using Fireball to finish them off and keep them suppressed.

In the end, only the Iron Corpse remained. It had activated [Berserk] and was using [Iron Arm] to shield its head and face, making it difficult for the bolts to penetrate its defenses.

Without panicking, the poster switched to special armor-piercing bolts and fired three consecutive fireballs to blast apart its guard. He followed up with several bolts that struck its vital points precisely, then finished it with three more fireballs, blasting it to death!

[As you can see, all I can say is that I'll never dare look down on Fireball again!]

[Novels are all lies. A single, simple Fireball can actually blast an ordinary person to bits!]

[Praise Fireball! I'm joining the Fireball Sect and backing the great Su Luo as its leader!]

[Note: my Talent is Fire Element Mastery. It gives me a naturally high Magic Power stat and a percentage bonus to Fireball experience.]