Desperate Fight

"Shadow Hide!" Soren's figure gradually blurred into the darkness. Gritting his teeth, he tore a strip from his tattered clothes and tightly bound it around the wound on his leg. This could temporarily suppress his injuries and slightly ease the pain of movement. However, he had to remove it soon, or the injury might worsen further.

"Allocate all experience to Rogue levels!"

Soren calmly drew his longsword and began allocating his experience points.

This Slaughter Experience was a form of Soul Energy, as well as the highest-grade form of experience. It could be used to raise any class level, including multiclassing, class changes, advanced classes, and more. It could also be used for Sacrificial Rituals, summoning rituals, equivalent Alchemy exchanges, and so on. Under normal circumstances, no one would casually use Slaughter Experience, because there were simply too many future uses for it. But for Soren, if he did not stake all his cards now, he might never have a future again.

A row of information appeared before his eyes:

"Rogue class increased to Level 4."

"Gained 24 * 0.5 Skill Points. Hit Points increased by 10 * 0.5." "Gained 1 free attribute point."

A trace of color returned to Soren's pale face. The 10 Hit Points gained from raising his Rogue level had pulled his injury from a 'Heavy Injury Condition' back to 'moderate injuries.' This meant his reflexes had not been weakened, while the rate of physical exhaustion had been reduced by half. For now, there were no signs of his injuries worsening.

He allocated all his Skill Points to Stealth, raising the skill to 102 points in one go.

His figure gradually faded further into the darkness.

After Soren's Stealth skill exceeded 100 points, activating Shadow Hide already produced a Spell-like effect similar to Blur.

Only someone who carefully watched and listened might notice his presence.

As for that precious free attribute point, Soren gritted his teeth and assigned it to Constitution. There was not much difference between 20 and 21 points of Superhuman Dexterity. Unless he raised it above 25 points in one go and awakened a Legendary ability, assigning that free point to Constitution was the only way to ensure his greatest current chance of survival. A Constitution close to the Superhuman Constitution threshold meant his wounds would not become infected or continue deteriorating. As long as he raised his Constitution by another point, he would gain an effective special ability. This was an essential ability for high-tier wilderness Adventurers!

The extra point of Constitution made Soren feel that much of his strength had returned. He carefully shifted his feet and began sneaking toward the bend.

There could still be traps nearby.

Without the appropriate Feat, he could not continue taking risks and moving forward.

He had to kill that Abyssal Marilith!

Only then would he have time to slowly recover from his injuries. Otherwise, given an Abyssal Fiend's regenerative ability, his situation would likely become increasingly dangerous.

"There's no smell of gunpowder in the air!"

Soren advanced inch by inch, constantly analyzing the situation based on his past experience as he gradually approached the blasted passage. "It should have been an Explosive Trap using a Magic device. There might have been a Fireball Magic Circle installed."

Without the necessary skill, Soren could not sense the elemental power in the air.

But experience-based judgment was still useful!

He saw the Marilith in the distance. Its massive body had become utterly miserable, and the ground was littered with exploded flesh and scales. With a body weighing over 600 pounds, the Marilith had had no way to Dodge inside the passage. The Explosive Trap had practically detonated right beside its body. If it had not possessed the powerful Fortitude Saving Throw of Demon-kind lifeforms, it would probably have been blown into scraps of flesh on the spot. Even so, its current condition was terrible. Pale bones could be seen at its waist, a section of intestines had fallen onto the ground, and its spine was nearly completely shattered. If not for the characteristics of a Superhuman lifeform, it could never have endured until now.

"Hiss!"

The snake-like creature let out a hiss. The Marilith spotted Soren in an instant and turned a hateful gaze toward him.

Low-tier Mariliths did not possess much language ability. Their species dictated that only females possessed higher intelligence. Those below Four-Armed Mariliths only mastered low-level Abyssal, while Spellcasters with priestly abilities understood human Common and other languages. It wanted to kill the culprit who had summoned it, attacked it, and reduced it to this state. The Slaughter instincts of an Abyssal Fiend made it disregard its injuries as it forcibly twisted its long snake tail, attempting to approach Soren once more.

Clang!

The Marilith's physical strength had greatly declined under its Heavy Injury Condition. It continuously let out painful growls as it moved its body.

Facing the longsword chopping toward him, Soren easily sidestepped it, then thrust backhandedly toward his enemy's chest, where many scales had already been blown apart.

Squelch!

A stream of scalding blood splashed out.

Most snake-like creatures were cold-blooded, but many Abyssal Mariliths lived in lava regions.

"Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!"

Some of the blood splashed onto Soren, quickly causing a burning sensation.

His expression changed slightly as he swiftly pulled back, saying gravely, "Acidic blood?"

The places struck by the blood already bore slight wounds, as though they had been touched by diluted sulfuric acid. This was a characteristic of Demon blood and Dragonkind blood.

The Marilith before him was likely the descendant of some high-tier Demon!

The longsword piercing its chest made the Marilith's injuries even worse. It attacked madly as though in a final burst of life, but it still could not hit the enemy before it. The exhaustion of its physical strength reduced its power, while its bodily injuries severely affected its Dexterity. In its dying state, its combat ability was less than thirty percent of what it had once been.

"It's over!"

Soren dodged the Marilith's slash once more, then took a deep breath and roared. His figure leaped into the air as he gripped his longsword with both hands and stabbed straight toward its heart!

"Die!"

Soren's eyes were bloodshot.

A Demon's skull was exceptionally sturdy. Unless he held a Supernatural Weapon, the head was not its most fatal weakness.

The Marilith's huge body stiffened for a moment!

Then, as Soren pulled out his longsword, the body weighing more than 600 pounds crashed to the ground. Streams of blood poured out, soaking into the nearby earth.

"Whew!"

Soren collapsed onto the ground in a miserable heap. The consequence of forcing himself to fight was that the injury on his leg had worsened.

An explosive state consumed a great deal of physical strength. Before Constitution reached 20 points and entered the Transcendent Realm, almost no creature could maintain high-intensity combat bursts for more than half an hour!

Not even Giants, Demons, or Dragon creatures could manage it.

Only after Constitution exceeded 20 points and entered the Transcendent Realm could the expenditure and recovery of physical strength sustain prolonged combat.

Soren used his sword to cut away the tightly bound strip of cloth, then sliced off the mangled flesh around the wound that could no longer heal. It was an extremely painful process, but it would ensure a faster recovery.

A row of information appeared:

"Leap Slash successfully hit!..."

"An additional 2 points of Strength damage bonus!... Dealt 13 points of piercing damage to the target!..."

"Target dead."

"Successfully killed an Abyssal Marilith!... Extracting target Soul Energy!..."

"Gained 1800 Slaughter Experience."

An indescribable warm current surged into Soren's body. It was the Soul Energy of the target he had killed.

There had once been a theory that the heroic class templates possessed by Players had been fixed with the ability of a Child of Slaughter, inheriting a trace of Divine Power from some god of Slaughter. That was why they improved so much faster than the native inhabitants of the story world. This theory had never been confirmed, but Soren remembered one thing: after mastering abilities related to Slaughter, souls, death, and the like, the Slaughter Experience gained from killing enemies could receive a 10% to 20% bonus.

After a brief rest,

Soren began collecting his spoils once some of his physical strength had recovered.

Abyssal Fiends rarely carried money, but they could yield some Supernatural Equipment. For example, the weapons used by the Marilith; Soren immediately picked up the two longswords.

"Item Identification."

Soren held the longsword and examined it. It was around one and a half meters long, with a blade ten centimeters wide. The hilt bore snake-like patterns, along with a strange Rune. The blade faintly glowed crimson, and touching it with his fingers gave him the impression of a faint scorching heat. Its edge was extremely sharp, and its steel was superior to ordinary Military Weapons, but it was also much heavier than other weapons. It felt distinctly weighty in his hand.

A row of information appeared:

"Item Type: Marilith Longsword +1

Item Grade:

Item Description: A longsword forged from Abyssal Magma Rock. It possesses powerful slashing and piercing effects, and additionally deals 1 point of fire damage.

Equipment Requirement: Strength 14 or higher.

Special Effect: Treated as a Large weapon against Small and Medium creatures. Strength requirement +2."

His Strength Value was insufficient!

That was Soren's first thought after picking up the longsword.

Since this longsword had been made for a Marilith, its size and weight far exceeded what an ordinary human could use.

Although Soren could lift the longsword, he clearly felt that it was too heavy when he swung it to slash. It affected his combat performance. It was like how an ordinary person could lift an object weighing a hundred pounds, but could not fight with a weapon weighing a hundred pounds. By the time you raised it, someone else would have already cut you countless times. If one's Strength Value did not meet a weapon's requirements, it meant physical exhaustion doubled while using it in battle. Attack speed and lethality would also noticeably decline.

A Dagger could leave afterimages in Soren's palm!

But when he swung this longsword, his slashing speed was less than half of what it had been.

"Damn it!"

"There's actually a Strength penalty!"

After only swinging it a dozen times, Soren felt his arms growing sore and numb, while much of his stamina had already been consumed.

In some respects, War of Gods was extremely demanding. An ordinary person could walk for twenty kilometers, jog for only ten, and sprint at full speed for less than one or two kilometers. Things like that were perfectly simulated in War of Gods. For a time, Players cursed their mothers over it. So when that sore, exhausted feeling appeared, Soren immediately knew that he suffered a Strength penalty while using this weapon.

Although there was no information displayed right now,

Soren could calculate the formula for the Strength penalty in his mind: Accuracy -4, Damage -4, Attack Speed -4, Physical Exertion +200%.

A burst battle that he could originally sustain for ten minutes would now probably not even last two.

A bitter smile.

Soren smiled bitterly and put down the Marilith Longsword. It was a weapon used by an enemy weighing more than 600 pounds, practically equivalent to a greatsword for humans. His current small frame had sufficient Constitution and fairly good stamina, but if his Strength was insufficient, forcing himself to use this weapon would be worse than simply wielding an ordinary Dagger.

A normal longsword weighed only two or three kilograms. This sword weighed at least fifteen kilograms.

The two of them weighed thirty kilograms.

With a little more refined steel, that was about the weight of a young woman.

Without his former heroic class template, he could not allocate his Strength Value above 18 points. Soren's current 12 points of Strength could only support the use of standard human weapons.

After all, fighting under a Strength penalty meant he could not even use half his true ability!

"Looks like I can only find a way to sell them."

Soren slung the two Marilith Longswords over his back. The thirty kilograms of weight made him feel as though his entire body had sunk, making him feel even more keenly that his current 12 points of Strength were insufficient. Still, he had to carry these spoils out. Tier 1 Supernatural Weapons generally sold for over 100 Gold Dalers on the market. Marilith Longswords belonged to the greatsword category, increasing their value by around 20% to 50%. In other words, these two Tier 1 Supernatural Longswords were worth roughly 300 Gold Dalers.

Selling them would immediately let him live comfortably.