White Bone Dungeon was a dungeon created with the Intersection Lands as its template. Any injuries the Awakened suffered inside, along with lost Spirit Energy and energy reserves, were real, which was why their Combat Expertise and skill proficiency could improve.
Of course, Awakened possessed extraordinary physiques. Once they left combat, minor injuries quickly healed as their Health Points recovered. The higher their endurance, the stronger their recovery ability. Bai Pu, for instance, no longer felt pain from his cracked breastbone.
"I'm not resting." Bai Pu refused decisively. "I want to claim the rewards quickly, especially the skill books, so I can study and comprehend them properly."
"Sigh, you really are a newcomer, full of energy." Qilin said with a smile. "I used to be just as passionate."
"What about now?" Bai Pu was curious. An Awakened's strength was fully quantified; even the slightest improvement could be seen. What could motivate someone to strive harder than visible progress? Qilin scratched his head. "I've gotten a little lazy... Can't help it. My strength has been improving too slowly, and it feels like I've hit a bottleneck. After training hard for half a month, the proficiency of all my combat skills only rises by around ten percent..."
Black Tiger said, "You still need to go to the real Intersection Lands or the Spirit Realm if you want to improve quickly enough. Earth's Spirit Energy Particle strength is only 1.1. It's still a bit too low."
After the two explained it, Bai Pu also understood what the world strength of 1.5 for Flesh Plague: Origin Plane had meant.
World strength represented the Spirit Energy Particle strength of a Plane World. It usually indicated the general strength of the natives, as well as the danger posed by the world's beasts and ruins. Even the density and weight of mountains, rocks, and flowing water, along with the Energy Strength contained in plants and fruits, were affected by world strength.
Earth's world strength was around 1.1. High-Level Awakened among humanity could split mountains and sever rivers on Earth; a casual strike could make the ground tremble, while a powerful leap made them as light as birds, as though gravity barely existed. Yet in Spirit Realm Planes with higher world strength, such exaggerated superhuman feats were impossible.
Bai Pu finally understood why the rocks in Flesh Plague: Origin Plane had seemed heavier and harder than those in reality.
According to Black Tiger, training in places with high Spirit Energy Particle strength, or world strength, allowed one's strength to improve faster.
Qilin sighed. "I'm not like you. A berserker can take hits and dish them out, and can thrive as a lone wolf. I'm a support-type Word Spirit Master. Everything I've learned is for support, control, and protection. The Spirit Realm isn't somewhere I can just go whenever I want."
Su Xiaoxiao interrupted Qilin's grumbling. "All right, all right. Little Bai Pu, let's talk business. How are you planning to allocate your rewards? Any virtual rewards you don't need can be exchanged for Honor Points."
Bai Pu said, "Can I see the description for Unstable Shield?"
"Ooh, a rare skill." Su Xiaoxiao said with a smile. "You didn't originally have the clearance for it, but now that you've obtained it as a reward, you naturally have permission to view it. You can look it up on your terminal yourself."
Bai Pu glanced at his personal information terminal. It projected a red beam for iris recognition, and it unlocked a second later.
"Hello, Master. Your Intelligent Assistant is at your service..."
Since it was his first time starting it up, some setup was unavoidable. Bai Pu named the Intelligent Assistant "Little Bai."
Then Bai Pu issued a command. "Little Bai, search for information on Unstable Shield."
The light screen projected by his personal information terminal quickly displayed the relevant information.
The following information was found in the 'God Strategy Army Quartermaster Exchange List' based on your access permissions:
Unstable Shield: Two-star skill. Creates a shield to protect yourself for 10 seconds. After a 3-second delay, you may detonate your shield, dealing concussion damage equal to the shield's value to all nearby enemies.
Offense and defense in one! An area-of-effect skill! Concussion damage!
Bai Pu had an exceptionally strong ability to extract information. At a glance, he keenly spotted the advantages of this two-star skill.
Concussion damage belonged to the "physical damage" category and could be mitigated by armor. However, concussion damage had one benefit: affected enemies would be slowed or even stunned! It effectively came with built-in crowd control.
"Holy shit, that's a great skill."
Black Tiger and Qilin both crowded over, their eyes filled with envy.
A skill's star rating only determined its priority. It had no direct relation to the practicality of the skill's effects. Of course, the chance of a three-star skill being outstanding was far greater than the chance of a one-star skill being outstanding. That was also true.
"You got this skill from a level-three virtual treasure chest?" Black Tiger was eager to try. "Which monster dropped it? Next time I enter White Bone Dungeon, I'll give it a shot too."
"It was a skeletal warhorse." Bai Pu had nothing to hide.
"A skeletal warhorse? Holy shit, that was Nightmare. You actually managed to kill Nightmare? That horse was a level-three Reinforced Elite, and its master, the Black Knight, was even stronger. He was the gatekeeping boss of White Bone Dungeon's third floor!" Black Tiger's eyes widened.
"I got lucky. The Black Knight wasn't there, and the horse happened to wander near the entrance," Bai Pu said.
"Then I'll try my luck next time too..." Black Tiger muttered. "I'm already level four, so I count as an intermediate Awakened... Mm, dealing with a level-three Reinforced Elite shouldn't be a problem."
"Stop dreaming. Even if you kill Nightmare and get a level-three virtual treasure chest, the odds of opening a rare skill are very low." Su Xiaoxiao mercilessly crushed his hopes. "Dungeon rewards take the challenger's strength into account. Little Bai Pu was a level-one newcomer on his first venture into White Bone Dungeon, which was why his drop rate was so high."
Ignoring Black Tiger and Qilin's envy, Bai Pu exchanged a few words with Su Xiaoxiao and explained how he intended to allocate his rewards.
He would redeem the two-star skill Unstable Shield and the one-star skill Leaping Strike. As for the other rewards, he would redeem anything useful. Everything else he did not need, such as standard equipment for duplicate slots and skill books with mediocre effects, would all be exchanged for Honor Points.
In the end, Bai Pu spent all his Honor Points, then used an additional debt allowance of 300 Honor Points to exchange another two-star skill from the quartermaster—Whirling Throw.
This skill had a ranged interruption effect. Its cooldown was the same as Leaping Strike's, two minutes, making it extremely practical.
He chose skills rather than equipment mainly because he was considering how best to improve his combat power. A comparison between Leaping Strike and the Charge skill attached to the Iron Thorn Shoulder Guard made it obvious: Leaping Strike had a mere 120-second cooldown, while Charge required a full twelve hours! Rather than spending over 1,000 Honor Points on an ordinary elite-grade piece of equipment, it was better to exchange them for a highly practical two-star skill book.
Of course, the number of skills an Awakened could learn was not unlimited.
According to Su Xiaoxiao, although the Spirit Realm Will did not limit how many skills an Awakened could learn, skill books had a "comprehension success rate"! If comprehension failed, the skill book would not be returned.
The more skills an Awakened had learned, and the stronger those skills were, the lower the success rate for comprehending a new skill. Generally speaking, learning three skills was the limit for a low-level Awakened. If they wanted to learn a fourth, they might waste several skill books without succeeding.
This was also related to an Awakened's hidden attribute—comprehension. The higher one's comprehension, the higher the success rate under equal conditions. Of course, comprehension could not allow an Awakened to learn unlimited skills either.
Therefore, Bai Pu decided that, for the time being, he would learn only three skills: Leaping Strike, Unstable Shield, and Whirling Throw.
Aside from the comprehension success rate, there was also the matter of biting off more than one could chew. Learning too many skills would make skill proficiency rise very slowly.
More importantly, using combat skills consumed Class Energy!
Under normal circumstances, an ordinary Awakened with a standard template had enough Class Energy in a battle to support three or four one-star skill casts before they could no longer keep going.
As someone with a Reinforced Elite class, Bai Pu's Class Energy, Blood Battle Qi, was roughly twice as abundant as that of an ordinary Awakened. However, both Unstable Shield and Whirling Throw were two-star skills, so their consumption was higher.
With Su Xiaoxiao, the quartermaster supplies administrator, bustling about to help him, Bai Pu quickly obtained the three skill books he wanted.
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