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"Different abilities could be stacked, but too bad the same ones couldn't be exploited like a bug."

Looking at his new Stealth: Aberration skill, Tao Yu couldn't help reflecting on it.

Thanks to the flaw insight in Basic Combat: Enhanced and Basic Weaponry Refinement, which could be stacked by doubling the cost, Tao Yu had learned that some overlapping parts of Deification skills could indeed be stacked.

The Willpower Tails and Willpower Mouths from the dozen or so Aliens had brought Tao Yu over three hundred units of Willpower in total. Meanwhile, the information carried by the Alien tails had successfully come together to form the Stealth: Aberration skill.

After deifying it, Tao Yu discovered that its effects were much like the Giant Python's Deification of Stealth, but stronger in every way, at the cost of four hundred and fifty Willpower.

Most importantly, all the effects of the two Stealth skills could be stacked!

After stacking the two skills, his shadowy transformation became much more extensive when he melded into the shadows. Now, when he passed through grass in the shadows, he no longer "bumped" into it.

The price of stacking their power was greater expenditure of stamina and mental energy. Fortunately, he could adjust the degree of stacking by varying how much he expended.

Having already tasted the benefits of Stealth - Modified, Tao Yu was quite satisfied with this skill.

With the reflexes granted by Bullet Time, as long as he had enough stamina, he could even use the skill to dodge some attacks.

He had taken another step toward becoming an Assassin...

One slight disappointment was that, after eagerly collecting another Giant Python's tooth, Tao Yu found he couldn't gain the Giant Python's ability again. So much for exploiting bugs.

He absorbed another Alien's Willpower Mouth and closed his eyes to sense the new skill that had yet to take shape.

Unlike the Giant Python, whose two skill imprints were both in its teeth, the Alien's were split between its tail and mouth. But Willpower Mouths appeared far less often after death than Willpower Tails, so Tao Yu still hadn't completed the new skill.

From the scattered fragments of information, he could roughly tell it might be some kind of ambush ability, one that increased the damage of sneak attacks...

"An Assassin it is, then. This environment seems pretty well suited to the job, and my physical abilities aren't improving too slowly, either."

Tao Yu flexed his biceps.

He used to be scrawny, but after coming here, the accelerated progress from his Breathing Technique and all the meat he'd eaten had given him a powerful body.

Especially after he'd lavishly eaten dozens of Blood Orchids to enhance his abilities, Tao Yu could vaguely feel that his body had reached, or even exceeded, the limits of an ordinary person!

What was more, as his blood and energy coursed through him, he could feel that his potential had increased somewhat. He could keep developing his remaining potential with Basic Breathing Technique.

The Breathing Technique and Blood Orchids both increased his potential, and their effects could be stacked.

"It was a bit extravagant, but it was necessary."

Tao Yu knew he could get a high price for the Blood Orchids if he sold them back home, but he didn't think investing in his own strength was a waste!

Selling them might attract all sorts of trouble. Better to eat them himself.

For now, staying alive was what mattered!

Still, Tao Yu kept five Blood Orchids tucked away.

He could either sell them if he got the chance to take them back, or use them as high-energy food to quickly replenish his stamina and mental energy in a pinch.

Apart from that, his backpack was packed with the remaining snake teeth.

Those teeth couldn't provide new skills, and he didn't lack the three or four hundred Willpower he'd get from absorbing them. Unlike the Blood Orchids, they also couldn't directly and quickly improve him.

If he urgently needed it, Tao Yu would absorb them, of course. But if he got the chance, he could also take them back to sell. They formed a complete set of skills, after all, and they were new skills from the New Frontier.

The fact that Winuo had gone out of his way to gather people for this showed that the skills were pretty good even for some pioneers. As a complete set, they might be worth several times, or even ten times, as much.

His parents' income for a whole year, without spending a cent, was only three or four thousand. After deducting everyday expenses and scrimping and saving, they'd need years to put that much away!

"No wonder Inner City kids can casually bring a hundred thousand units of Willpower with them from the start. Their equipment and belongings are probably worth just as much. The income gap is absurd."

Tao Yu tightened his backpack and, standing in the valley, looked up toward the opposite bank.

"But Inner City kids don't get hauls like this every time, either. Otherwise, Winuo wouldn't have gathered people and waited for them.

"So Yosef must care quite a bit about the three thousand Willpower he lent out, right?"

At that thought, Tao Yu's gaze grew pensive.

"The interest is way too steep. I need to settle the debt as soon as possible."

Then he didn't take the path that led out of the valley along the bank. Instead, he climbed toward the opposite bank, where Yosef had jumped across, in the direction the Alien Giant Python had pursued him.

The Aliens climbed with their claws, scrambling up with a clatter, but Tao Yu had to scale the rocks like a climber.

Fortunately, his physical abilities were already quite good. Even with a backpack weighing dozens of pounds, he climbed without too much trouble.

He didn't have any formal climbing skills, but his physical strength made up for that shortcoming.

Moonlight poured over him. Thanks to the passive dynamic vision granted by Bullet Time, the darkness didn't affect Tao Yu's sight at all.

Once he climbed the cliff on the opposite bank, the dark rainforest before him looked perfectly clear. He could even make out the tracks of the Giant Python Alien as it moved through the trees.

He glanced at his Stealth - Modified and Stealth II - Modified skills, and his confidence surged.

One Stealth skill had been enough to fool the Aliens before. With two stacked, there was no reason to be afraid!

Besides, even without actively melding into the shadows, the passive stealth from stacking the two skills gave him decent concealment. No one would notice him easily.

Passive stealth wasn't as good as melding into the shadows, but it didn't cost anything...

"Actually, my body's pretty strong, too. I climbed up carrying all this stuff over such a steep slope without even getting winded."

Tao Yu looked back at the cliff, which had been much steeper than the way down, and felt a little proud.

When he'd first crossed over, even after using his Breathing Technique to strengthen himself, climbing a tree had left him panting. The difference was obvious.

But even a body at the limits of an ordinary person still wasn't enough to face monsters like Aliens and Giant Pythons.

Compared to the boosts from his skills, his body was still far too weak. He was badly lopsided.

"The body is the foundation of everything."

Musing to himself, Tao Yu headed into the dark rainforest ahead with a gun in hand and his backpack on his back.

He couldn't sleep soundly while owing someone money. He needed to settle his debt.

It didn't matter if the others had scattered. But he had to find Yosef and repay him properly...

An Alien crouched in a tree, its mouthparts constantly sniffing at the trunk. Drool dripped from its mouth, making it look disgusting.

Its long, slender tail whipped back and forth, radiating a deadly menace.

The next moment, it seemed to hear a noise below and pounced onto the thick carpet of leaves. Following the sound, it crept toward the trunk of a Giant Tree ahead.

It suddenly thrust its head forward, its tail poised to strike at any moment.

But then it discovered that there was nothing behind the trunk. Nothing at all.

It lowered its head and stared at a small stone that had just stopped rolling. Slowly, it extended its mouthparts as if it wanted to sniff at something again.

A flash of snow-white light passed by, and the Alien went rigid. A moment later, its head slid slowly downward, severed from its body.

Splurt—

Only after its head hit the ground did the green acid blood gush out, staining everything nearby green as it sizzled and ate away at the ground.

When the Alien's body had stopped moving completely, a figure emerged slowly from the shadows, taking shape amid a puff of black smoke. He looked at the Alien tail gathering Willpower and curled his lip.

"Another tail. What a pain."

Tao Yu shook the somewhat damaged boomerang in his hand, folded it back up, and tucked it behind his back. Then he checked how much strain his body had taken.

With both Stealth skills charged up, Bullet Time, the blood and energy from his Breathing Technique, and the stacked charges of Explosive Burst - Modified and Basic Weaponry Refinement, he'd used Winuo's alloy boomerang to decapitate an Alien. It had been as smooth as slicing through butter, taking him just an instant.

But this test had left him with mild strains in the muscles and tendons running from his thighs to his waist and arms, along with nearly forty percent of his stamina spent and roughly twenty percent of his mental energy.

"Compared to the last time I fought the three snakes, this is much better. At least I've only got strains, nothing torn. Healing them takes less, too. Another ten percent of my stamina will fix the injuries, and I still have some left. But I still can't keep this up for long."

Tao Yu stuffed a few plump tree grubs into his mouth.

Now that he'd deified some auxiliary abilities, he was much bolder about what he ate.

But when he saw the Alien corpse ahead, with the words "poisonous" hovering over it, he still couldn't bring himself to take a bite.

Better to stick to bugs.

"Yosef's pretty good at hiding, too. The Alien that came this way clearly hasn't found him yet. He must have some other ability he hasn't shown."

After stowing the Alien's tail spike, Tao Yu realized his backpack couldn't fit it. He hesitated briefly, then absorbed it on the spot.

These skills only became drastically more valuable as a complete set. Incomplete, they were better absorbed as ordinary units of Willpower.

Ordinary people couldn't ignore the mental shock from the disordered information, so they needed far more pieces than he did. It would be hard to put together a complete set of Alien skills that an ordinary person could handle and take home.

Absorbing the Willpower could also help him recover from injuries in an emergency, so it was the safer choice...