The Second Template

"This sense of power... is this the strength a Heroic Spirit should have?"

Mo Shuying clenched his fist, astonished by the unfamiliar sensation.

With a raise of his hand, a longbow appeared. Three arrows materialized in Mo Shuying's hand. He drew the bow and nocked the arrows with the practiced ease of someone who had repeated the motion countless times, firing three shots within a second! Three black arrows streaked out in succession!

"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"

"Roar!"

The manticore that had just leaped out from the intersection was sniped. Three arrows protruded from its body as it let out an angry roar. Looking up at Mo Shuying atop the high-rise, it roared as black flames ignited around its four feet! Then—

"Roar!"

The over-three-meter-tall manticore actually leaped up and began running up the wall! The nearly vertical wall of the high-rise was as flat ground to it! It raced upward at incredible speed.

Mo Shuying did not retreat when he saw this. Instead, he took a step forward and jumped out, drawing his bow repeatedly as he descended! The black arrows flashed through the night and arrived in an instant!

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

However, most of the arrows were blocked by the scorpion tail. Just as the man and beast were about to collide, the longbow in Mo Shuying's hand vanished! In its place appeared two black-and-white short swords!

"Clang!"

Mo Shuying crossed his twin swords to block the scorpion tail's attack, using its force to flip away.

"Roar!"

The manticore shattered the wall beneath its foot and pounced! Its gaping maw could bite Mo Shuying's body in half! But Mo Shuying flicked both hands! The two short swords stabbed into the manticore's mouth first! Then Mo Shuying raised one hand!

"Buzz!"

A petal-shaped light shield appeared, blocking the manticore's charge. Mo Shuying continued drifting backward and landed atop a slightly shorter high-rise.

"Buzz~"

The longbow appeared again, along with a spiral sword.

The sword rapidly shrank after appearing in his hand. Mo Shuying drew his bow and aimed at the manticore, which was falling because it had nowhere to gain leverage.

"Pseudo Spiral Arrow!"

"Boom!"

It was hard to imagine that the sword was fired like a cannonball!

Trailing blazing fire, the spiral sword struck the manticore squarely in the chest! It did not stop in the slightest, instantly piercing through it and blasting a hole more than half a meter wide through its chest.

"Roar!"

"Boom!"

The manticore crashed heavily to the ground, its aura plummeting at once. It was clearly badly injured.

Mo Shuying leaned over to look down and continued drawing his bow.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Arrows formed entirely of magic power shot out as though they cost nothing, until a notification sounded beside Mo Shuying's ear.

"Ding~ Congratulations on killing the intermediate magical beast manticore. You have gained 1,500 experience points. Your experience meets the requirements to level up. Level increased."

"Ding~ The host has reached the required level and has obtained the second template. The second template has been activated."

A flash of light swept across Mo Shuying's body. His depleted stamina and magic power were instantly fully restored and increased somewhat.

Mo Shuying showed a trace of confusion upon hearing the second notification and asked aloud.

"What does this second template mean?"

"Ding~ The second template is the host's secondary template. It can hold one Class Card and grant the power of that class. When using the power of the secondary card, the power of the main card will not stop or weaken. Skills are shared."

"This!"

Mo Shuying truly wanted to loudly praise the system. It really was worthy of being a system! Just minutes ago, he had been worried that using Dream Summon would cause his original attributes to vanish and his skills to stop, but after gaining a level, the problem had been solved.

He carefully sensed his body. Sure enough, the second card had originally caused a slight feeling of rejection within him, but that sensation had now completely vanished. The two cards had fused with his body as one.

Of course, Mo Shuying could also sense that if he wanted to switch his secondary card, he could take it out at any time.

"This makes me feel even farther from the path of Assassin."

Mo Shuying sighed. After trying the combat power of other Heroic Spirits, he really did look down on assassins a little.

But Mo Shuying also understood that the attributes, skills, and growth potential of the Assassin template were limitless. As long as he was given enough time, his future would absolutely be an invincible path. As long as he lived long enough.

"Let's see what it dropped."

Putting away the Class Card, Mo Shuying jumped down.

The massive manticore was already dissipating, fragments of light scattering through the air. The scene was somewhat beautiful.

Soon, the manticore vanished, leaving behind a pitch-black stone and a dagger. If the stone had not looked so out of place against the surrounding ground, no one would have noticed it even if it were tossed into a pile of coal.

Mo Shuying picked it up, and information entered his mind.

[Enhancement Stone]

After use, randomly increases the level of any innate skill by +1. The higher the skill's level, the lower its chance of being selected.

The instant he received the information, Mo Shuying gripped the stone tightly without hesitation.

"Use!"

"Whoosh~"

In an instant, the black stone turned into drifting sand in Mo Shuying's hand, and one of his skills improved.

"What a pity."

Mo Shuying stared intently at his status panel. Unfortunately, neither Gathering Storm nor Indestructible Object had improved.

In the end, Intentional Blast Punch flickered, changing from C+ to C++.

This change made Mo Shuying understand something. The so-called level +1 from enhancement did not raise a skill by an entire rank, but only added one +. Looking at it that way, it was still acceptable.

The improved Intentional Blast Punch had gained considerably more power and range, while the maximum Heroic Spirit Value had increased by half. This meant that both Intentional Blast Punch's power and shield value had increased as well.

It was acceptable enough.

"Fine, let's look at this dagger."

Mo Shuying picked up the black dagger.

[Scorpion Sting C+]

A dagger coated in deadly poison. Even an elephant will die from the poison within five seconds if it draws blood. Remember: do not lick it casually.

"..."

Who would have nothing better to do than lick a poisoned dagger?!

Mo Shuying carefully held the dagger. This thing had no antidote—if he accidentally injured himself, would he not drop dead in minutes? And it would be suicide, too. Who could he even complain to about that?

It was a good item. That assassin girl who used poison would definitely like it, but he tossed it straight into his storage space. He probably would not need it.

Just then, the clock tower in the distance, one of the rare structures still standing, rang out the bells of midnight. Mo Shuying knew it was time for his daily Check-in again.

"Check-in."

"Ding, the host has successfully checked in and obtained Life Potion x3."

Life Potion: instantly restores 1,000 health points, then restores a total of 3,000 health points over the next 10 seconds.

Mo Shuying's usual Check-ins did not always give skills. In fact, most of them gave potions like these.

Life Potions, Mana Potions, Corrosion Potions, Iron Potions, Witchcraft Potions, Rage Potions... he had collected more than a dozen bottles here and there, though he had no idea when he would get to use them.

The customary event after Check-in was naturally a monster attack. Mo Shuying had already figured out the pattern: regardless of other times, the first magical beast attack of every day always appeared within ten minutes after midnight.

Sure enough, a pillar of light unfolded in the distance, and a large number of unfamiliar presences appeared.

"There may not be much to their auras, but there are so many of them."

As Mo Shuying marveled at the sheer number of monsters, he took out caster's Class Card and pressed it to his chest.

When it came to area attacks, who could compare to caster?

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