[Time Traveler: Morgan] [Race: Human] [Creature Level: Tier 1] [Soul Power: 7] [Attributes: Strength LV1; Constitution LV1+; Agility LV2+; Spirit+] [Abilities: Common Tongue; Muay Thai LV2; White Crow Swordsmanship LV2; Archery LV3] [Talent: Intimacy (Special Skill)] [Current World Exploration Progress: 0.46%] [.]
"Seven Soul Power!"
"How come I only have seven Soul Power in total?"
As the pale screen flickered before him, Morgan's eyes widened when he saw the figure in the Soul Power field.
After checking several times to make sure he wasn't seeing things, Morgan quickly furrowed his brow.
It had only been this morning since his last enhancement.
But everything he'd experienced today had been more thrilling and dangerous than any day in the two months since he'd arrived in this world.
First, he'd run into three giant Trolls early that morning.
After the Company had gone to great lengths to kill them, they'd taken the opportunity to raid the Trolls' cave.
He'd gotten a high-elven sword and a small bag full of all kinds of gems.
Although they'd fought as a team, he'd essentially taken care of all three Trolls himself. He must have contributed more than anyone else in the Company.
Then the Orcs had caught up with them as they headed for the temporary camp.
In that battle, he'd killed at least five or six Orcs and Wargs combined.
Then, when Gandalf had led them toward that vast Stone Forest,
a large force of Orcs had spotted them and given chase, and he and Kili had drawn their bows to cover the others.
That encounter didn't exactly count as a battle, but he'd still killed an Orc and a Warg.
The spoils from all three fights added up to quite a lot, even without counting the Trolls.
There'd been seven or eight Orcs and Wargs alone.
At one point of Soul Power each, that should have been seven or eight points.
And then there were the Trolls. Given their size and strength, each giant Troll was far more powerful than an Orc.
The facts had proved it.
Even if Trolls counted for the bare minimum, surely each one was worth at least one point of Soul Power.
Add in the Orcs and Wargs, and he should have had around ten points.
But now the system said he had only seven.
Last night, when the Orcs attacked, he'd killed about six or seven of them and gotten six points of Soul Power.
Today's tally was clearly much higher than last night's, yet he'd only gained one more point.
That was way too little. What the hell was this, a system designed to mess with him?
But Morgan's system wasn't some intelligent, cute girl who could offer personal answers—or even keep him company in bed like other systems.
His system didn't even come with an instruction manual. He had to figure everything out for himself.
"Glug, glug."
Frustrated, Morgan could only sink his head beneath the steaming water and soak.
After holding his breath for a long while,
Morgan surfaced and wiped the water from his face.
Setting his frustration aside,
he turned his attention back to the Virtual Panel before him, which looked like something out of a movie.
Combining his earlier theories about Soul Power
with his results from last night and today,
Morgan felt he'd gained an initial understanding of how his system awarded Soul Power.
For now, the only way he'd discovered to obtain Soul Power was by killing other living beings. He hadn't found any other method.
The conditions for gaining Soul Power were strict, too. He couldn't get it by killing just any creature. He had to kill something whose overall strength exceeded his own or matched it.
That was clear from the fact that, during his first month in this world, he'd killed countless creatures of all sizes but hadn't earned his first point of Soul Power until he'd managed to kill that Giant Bear.
Also, the difficulty of obtaining Soul Power changed as Morgan grew stronger.
For instance, last night he'd gotten one point for killing an Orc.
But today, he had to kill two or three Orcs to earn one point.
Why? Because before his enhancement last night, Morgan's strength had been clearly different from what it was after his enhancement this morning.
The system adjusted the difficulty of earning Soul Power to account for changes in Morgan's own strength.
That was the conclusion he'd reached after comparing the figures just now.
Otherwise, he couldn't think of any reason why killing the same number of Orcs would earn him such a different amount of Soul Power in less than a day.
Of course, it was possible the system had miscalculated—or was simply cheating him.
But Morgan knew that was impossible.
"Huff."
He let out a long breath.
Morgan stopped dwelling on it. Getting into a spat with the system wasn't worth it.
His gaze returned to the Virtual Panel.
He began considering what to enhance next.
Seven points of Soul Power wasn't as much as he'd gotten last night, but considering he'd earned it in less than a day, it was still a lot.
Morgan's gaze first settled on the Abilities field.
There was no point looking at Common Tongue; it couldn't be enhanced.
Muay Thai LV2 was something he'd brought with him from his previous life. It wasn't much use right now, so there was no need to enhance it for the time being.
White Crow Swordsmanship LV2 had just reached LV2 that morning. Morgan was working hard to learn and master it, but he hadn't had enough time to build up his proficiency. The enhancement could wait.
Archery LV3 had also just been upgraded that morning. It was now the main source of Morgan's strength.
Although LV3 Archery was harder to master, Morgan's understanding of archery had been deep enough at LV2.
Compared to White Crow Swordsmanship at LV2, he was confident he could master Archery at LV3 faster.
His proficiency wasn't high enough yet, and LV3 Archery had temporarily reached a bottleneck. The next enhancement would cost three points of Soul Power.
So Archery could be put off as well.
He didn't need to enhance any of his abilities for now.
Morgan's gaze soon shifted to the four attributes representing his body.
He'd enhanced three of them that morning. Only Spirit remained untouched.
Morgan frowned as he recalled the plot from memory. The next time a battle occurred in the story was probably in the underground Goblin Kingdom.
And it was there, deep in the mines beneath the Underground Kingdom, that Bilbo would take The One Ring from that cunning, evil, yet pitiful creature, Gollum.
"So it's already this close?"
Morgan suddenly realized how near he was to the Ring that would stir up all of Middle-earth.
He'd spent all this time training and figuring out the system, and every day had been exhausting but fulfilling.
On top of that, the successive battles and desperate escapes of the past two days had left him with little time to think.
Only now did he realize how close he was to the Ring that would throw all of Middle-earth into turmoil.
And to take the Ring, he first had to meet one requirement.
His Spirit—in other words, his willpower—had to be strong enough.
Otherwise, even if he got the Ring, he'd only fall into corruption and await his doom!
Looking across the entire span of Middle-earth, through the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, which together covered more than sixty years,
only Bilbo, with his naturally cheerful and kind heart, had been able to resist the evil temptation of The One Ring. Even Gandalf couldn't withstand its allure.
Morgan didn't think he had a heart like Bilbo's.
With that thought, Morgan immediately looked at his Spirit attribute and enhanced it without hesitation.
[This enhancement will consume 1 Soul Power. Enhance?] Spirit LV1 Spirit LV2 Spirit LV3
Thanks to "Yun Ruocheng" and "Inner Mongolia Fatty" for their rewards. I'm very grateful!
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