Modification, Acquired Trait: Aberrant Hunter

Modification, Acquired Trait: Aberrant Hunter

"Roar... roar!" The bearman collapsed to the ground. A horrifying wound ran from its lower abdomen to its chest, practically gutting it open, and a mass of internal organs spilled from the gash.

Lu Xingshi also climbed up from the ground. That strike had indeed dealt the bearman a fatal wound, but when it lunged at him, he had endured the corresponding impact as well.

Being able to gut the bearman was all thanks to the Yellow Sand Heavy Saber. It truly was a treasured blade, likely capable of slicing through iron like mud.

In Gao Li's hands, it had even cut off the bearman's paw. What was so strange about it cutting through the creature's skin now?

Lu Xingshi pulled out the Yellow Sand Heavy Saber and cautiously approached the bearman. The bearman stared at him, vicious light rising in its eyes, but its injuries were too severe for it to resist at all.

"Twice. You tried to kill me twice. I already paid you back with one slash earlier. Now I'll send you on your way, and we'll be even." With that, Lu Xingshi raised the Yellow Sand Heavy Saber and chopped toward the bearman's neck.

The first strike did not sever it. The blade got stuck in the bone.

That was a little awkward.

"Ahem, it's my first time beheading something. Forgive me." Lu Xingshi heard the bearman's miserable howl, then delivered another slash. Using the original wound, the second strike finally cut clean through.

Hidden Achievement: Hunting Aberrants

Reward: 10,000 Primary Attribute Experience

A notification for completing a hidden achievement appeared before Lu Xingshi's eyes.

He looked at the reward: ten thousand Primary Attribute Experience.

"Trash reward..." Lu Xingshi grumbled.

If he did not have the Peerless Genius trait, those ten thousand points of Primary Attribute Experience would have been useful. But now, his Three-Dimensional Attributes required one hundred thousand points of Primary Attribute Experience to rise from 10 to 11. For a level cap of 100, this little bit was barely enough to fill the cracks between his teeth.

"Wait, what happened to you?"

Lu Xingshi suddenly realized that he was missing ten thousand Gold Coins.

"Holy shit, you used my Gold Coins to issue the reward???"

Only then did Lu Xingshi understand. So he had to pay for the reward himself, too.

"My heart is exhausted. Being stuck with something like this is just..." Lu Xingshi went numb.

There were more achievements to come. He would have to keep handing out rewards to himself.

Still, that was normal. Expenses could not appear out of thin air; they could only be paid by Lu Xingshi, the Game System.

He had thought he could freeload the Innate Trait slot reward from Just Starting Out. Now it seemed that even if he completed it, he would still have to spend Gold Coins to make the reward materialize.

"This is like taking off your pants just to fart..." Lu Xingshi complained.

However, he did not forcibly disable the achievement system. He inspected the Hunting Aberrants achievement and found that there was actually more to it.

The conditions were not displayed, but killing nine more different Mutants would complete the Aberrant Hunter achievement and reward him with an Acquired Trait.

"Then why the hell would I bother completing it? I'll just spend money."

Ninety thousand Gold Coins vanished in a rush, and Lu Xingshi completed the achievement directly.

Lu Xingshi looked at the pair of hidden achievements in his achievement list. He had to trigger a hidden achievement first; only with the prerequisite could he modify the subsequent chained achievements.

As for the Hunting Mark, it could probably sense the marked prey's location, distance, and condition, while his attacks would deal an additional 10% damage.

"Let's see if I can alter the restriction..." Lu Xingshi knew that the Mutated Hunter Acquired Trait was indeed rather useless.

The Hunting Mark could only affect Mutants. What use was that?

How many Mutants could there even be in this world?

Besides, Mutants were incredibly powerful. He had only been able to pick up the scraps after First-Rate Expert Gao Li severely wounded this bearman, and he had relied on Gao Li's saber as well. If it were another Mutant, how could he fight it at this stage? "No, that's the core logic of this Acquired Trait. If I change it, the entire Acquired Trait will collapse." Lu Xingshi found that regrettable.

"What a pity."

"Forget it. Whether there are dates or not, give the tree three shakes. Maybe it'll come in handy someday."

Unlike Innate Traits, Acquired Traits had no limit on their number.

"Next is the bearman. As a Mutant..." Lu Xingshi looked through the bearman's innards and found its Bear Gallbladder.

He could forget about the bear paws. You needed to know how to eat those things. But the Bear Gallbladder was different; it had attributes.

Mutant: Bear Gallbladder

Physical Constitution +1 after consumption (only effective below 15 points; can only take effect once)

"Good stuff." Lu Xingshi smiled. As expected of a Mutant—and one with the highest Physical Constitution attribute. Killing monsters could even drop items.

"Store it first. I'll eat it later." Lu Xingshi tossed the Bear Gallbladder directly into the Inventory.

It was effective below 15 points, so he could wait until his Physical Constitution reached 14 before consuming it. That would save him a huge amount of expense.

The higher an attribute point was, the greater the cost to raise it.

As for what came after that, he would deal with it later.

"Looking at it this way, the Aberrant Hunter Acquired Trait isn't completely useless. I could totally..." Lu Xingshi suddenly fell silent halfway through.

One million Gold Coins could max out a primary attribute. Did he really still need to risk his life?

If he got this Game Villager of his killed while Hunting Aberrants, he would have to spend another hundred million Gold Coins to make a new one.

"Greedy for small gains, only to suffer a great loss..." Once Lu Xingshi realized that, he wanted to slap himself. For such sesame-seed-sized profits, wouldn't doing it be an enormous loss?

"I need to find an opportunity and spend thirty million Gold Coins... No, I should add points gradually and monitor the changes in myself. I can't max out all three attributes in one go."

With the precedent of losing Health Points while training martial arts, he intended to treat modifications to his Three-Dimensional Attributes cautiously as well.

After that, the Village Chief arrived with the others. When they saw the headless bearman with its entrails strewn all over the ground, everyone finally let out a sigh of relief.

"I did not fail my mission. I killed the bearman before it reached the village." Lu Xingshi handed the Yellow Sand Heavy Saber to the Village Chief.

This saber truly was useful, but it was not his. It belonged to Desert Saber Gao Li. Though he coveted it, he was not about to keep it for himself.

As for killing its owner, Lu Xingshi had never entertained such a thought. He was not some utterly heartless madman.

Besides, he did not use a saber. Keeping it would only waste such a fine blade.

Once he joined a famous great sect or a Hidden Sect, he would surely find something better and more suitable for himself.

"Thank you, Young Hero Lu, for your aid." After taking the Yellow Sand Heavy Saber, the Village Chief thanked him sincerely. If the bearman had truly charged into the village, the consequences would have been unthinkable. Fortunately, Lu Xingshi had killed it halfway there.