New Talent, New Skill

"Exploration of the Old Shadow complete."

"Exploration rating for the Reflected World: Above Average."

"Acquired: Old Dust x500."

"Rest period granted: 10 days (early entry possible; Old Dust can be spent to extend)."

"Additional spoils detected..."

Zhang Anzai was quite surprised; he hadn't expected to receive an Above Average rating this time, though upon reflection, he felt it was only natural:

"It seems most high-difficulty beginner instances are like this. As long as you have the chance to figure out the mechanics and find the flaws to clear it, and you're careful not to get injured, you can secure a high rating.

On the other hand, the advanced instances that follow aren't so simple. You need both raw strength and exploration capability; you can't just solve a puzzle or two to get through them..."

Of course, despite saying that, the instance he had just experienced remained quite unique.

"I can't even imagine how one would escape this instance with only minor injuries... It feels like you either succeed in running away, or you die."

To administrators like them, such instances were like hitting the jackpot. Players either gave up their lives here for nothing, gave up after putting in the effort, or, if they actually cleared it, it proved they were truly top-tier players.

"Looking at it this way, I suppose I'm quite the expert at instance exploration myself," Zhang Anzai thought, feeling rather proud.

Now, the expert was ready to review his exploration rewards.

As for Old Dust, he hadn't spent much to begin with, and after completing this mission, his total had jumped from nearly 700 to almost 800.

The remaining days meant nothing to him; unless some accident occurred at the company, he wouldn't wait that long before entering another instance.

Thus, the most important things were the additional rewards.

"You discovered that while active in the twisted Reflected World, your body seemed to be influenced by certain factors. In such an extreme environment, your actions can significantly alter your physical form."

This was the first prompt. Zhang Anzai wasn't particularly surprised; instances dropping experience to improve their talents and skills was a standard setting.

Having guided so many players, it was impossible for him not to know this.

Therefore, as long as one successfully survived the game, surpassing ordinary people was inevitable. Stronger players often possessed a long list of Grade D or even Grade C talents.

"This time..." Zhang Anzai was curious about what he had improved.

"Your brain and consciousness have received extensive training..."

Standing on the River of the Past, Zhang Anzai gave his full approval to the system's words: Deducing Chen Xing's mechanics and using the ghost's traits to stall that Road-Blocking Demon for so long—my intellect is truly...

Then, the full prompt popped up: "Most importantly, your hands have received significant training. You have acquired a new talent:

"[Dexterous] (Grade D): You are more adept at manual labor and other activities requiring the use of both hands. You can even perform two different delicate tasks simultaneously without expending significant mental effort."

"Tch, are you mocking me?" Zhang Anzai felt rather helpless, as if the game system were teasing him.

However, this was a good thing regardless; no matter the talent, growth was always welcome.

Besides, given his performance in this instance, what talent could be more fitting than the description of Dexterous?

For over an hour, he had cut through nearly two notebooks' worth of paper. By the end, he didn't even need to look to mass-produce paper ingots.

If it weren't for the fact that even Grade D items were far sturdier than any modern industrial product, he felt he might have broken the item he had just acquired.

Following this, there were no other talent changes, but several material gains followed.

"No special rewards were extracted from this instance, but your exploration yielded the following unexpected spoils:

"[Blood-Stained Burial Soil] (No Grade Material: Foundation soil from a certain place, stained with the putrid blood of corpses that evolved into ghosts. Contains dense resentment.)

"[Road-Blocking Demon Bone Fragments] (No Grade Material: Fragments of a deceased soul's bones hidden in the soil in a semi-degraded state. Contains faint soul fragments of a Road-Blocking Demon.)"

Materials were essential resources for upgrading their Old Legacy professions. Simply put, while they were materials, they could also be used as experience books.

Coincidentally, both were related to souls and burials, which should be perfectly suited to his Past-Time Shovel.

But the moment Zhang Anzai saw these two items, his first reaction was one of vigilance.

"So, the pile of dirt I dug up actually had bones buried in it? That's a bit creepy.

And these materials look ominous. Even if I use them now, I feel like it could easily lead to trouble."

Indeed, things from an instance didn't just function within the instance; players weren't entirely safe in reality either. They could still be affected by the instance, and these instance products were the most common medium.

However, Zhang Anzai didn't dwell on it; he immediately summoned his legacy.

Detecting that he had once again completed an instance, the Past-Time Shovel, hidden within his shadow, instantly appeared in his hand.

The shovel head was as mottled as ever, and the long wooden handle remained smooth and unchanged.

He didn't rush to start drawing rewards, but instead reached out with the shovel, hovering it over the two materials floating on the River of the Past.

He was still in the very early stages; aside from upgrading his legacy, he had no use for materials. For him, letting the shovel devour them was the best way to make use of them.

"Your legacy [Past-Time Shovel] is devouring materials."

Zhang Anzai saw this prompt, and then he watched as the rust covering the surface of the shovel head seemed to diminish slightly, and the faint cracks on the wooden handle seemed to knit together.

On his personal panel, the completion percentage next to Old Legacy began to rise slowly.

This was the game's upgrade method. Game experience only applied to their skills and talents; to upgrade a legacy, one had to devour materials, items, or even the legacies of others.

The completion percentage was the level. Every 5% could usher in a new skill or an upgrade to an existing one.

This kind of basic material naturally could not help him directly raise his inheritance to 5% completion.

Generally speaking, materials do not provide much of a bonus, ranging from a fraction of a percent to a few percent; as for items, Grade D can only increase it by 1%, while the highest Grade A can only increase it by 10%.

The most important factor is compatibility; if the compatibility is insufficient, it cannot be absorbed at all.

Because of this factor, absorbing an inheritance might only yield a fraction of a percent, but when encountering a very rare, highly compatible inheritance, it is possible to increase completion by over ten percent at once, creating a massive gap between the lower and upper limits.

"In the very early stages... everything is about pinching pennies. There isn't enough money to buy the right materials for consumption, so you have to scrape together upgrades bit by bit."

As an administrator who enjoys browsing forums, Zhang Anzai was all too familiar with this situation, as it was exactly what he was currently facing.

"0.98... 0.99... 1.03!" Watching the pile of soil stained with a bit of blood, along with the few bone fragments he had set aside, slowly vanish, his inheritance completion had finally broken past 1%.

This was not strange; inheritances naturally increase faster at lower levels. Later on, to gain that same 1%, one might throw dozens of materials at it without success, not to mention the bottlenecks that require breakthroughs.

Of course, those things were irrelevant to Zhang Anzai for the time being. What he needed to pay attention to now was that when an inheritance reaches 1% completion, it unlocks the first true inheritance skill, after which it begins a cycle of increasing every five percent.

Therefore, the second ability that appeared now was the complete form of his novice state.

"Ability acquired: [World-Breaker Excavation]."