This Soul Snatch Was So Worth It

Hah!

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First sword.

The blade skimmed across the hound's shoulder blade and cut into the muscle.

The feel was incomparably smooth, nothing like chopping pigs that morning.

That iron short sword from the morning had felt like banging a blunt weapon against an iron barrel when he chopped pigs.

This sword cut cleanly and decisively.

-68!

Seeing the number, Gan Ming nearly failed to suppress the upward curl of his lips.

With 85 physical attack, after deducting the hound's defense, the net damage was 68.

Compared to scraping away at pigs ten-odd points at a time that morning...

This was what the fuck it meant to kill monsters!

The second sword came down right after, striking from another angle and slashing into the hound's lower back.

-72!

Awooo!

The hound let out a miserable cry as it woke from its stun.

Third sword.

Fanged Charge triggered.

A surge of brute force flowed from his sword arm into the blade.

This slash struck the hound's spine.

-155!

Splurt!

A gash split open from its shoulder to its waist, and a spray of blood splattered across half of Gan Ming's arm.

Three swords had dealt nearly 300 damage!

"Awesome!"

The Rustclaw Hound let out a shrill howl and struggled to stand.

Its hind legs trembled, and the gash on its back was deep enough to expose bone.

But it did not run.

Its instinct to fight for its life made it instinctively open its jaws and bite at Gan Ming's chest.

Crunch.

Its bite landed on the leather armor.

Gan Ming looked down.

There were only two shallow tooth marks on the surface of his breastplate.

He had not even lost any health.

Zero.

Huh?

That was it?

After the 120% defense boost from Bark Armor +4,

Gan Ming's defense was only 57.

An imposing level 11 hound could not even bite through the outer layer of his leather armor?

"You're kind of weak, aren't you?"

Before it could release its bite, Gan Ming raised his hand and swung. The blade came down onto the hound's nape.

-68

The hound's body shuddered, and its jaws reflexively loosened.

It retreated two steps, preparing to pounce again.

Second sword!

Gan Ming stepped forward first, aimed the sword tip at the top of the hound's head, and thrust straight down.

Splurt.

-75

Then came the third sword—Fanged Charge!

Pfft!

-165!

Thirty seconds later.

The hound collapsed.

A kill notification popped up on the interface.

[You killed a Rustclaw Hound (Level 11) and gained 280 experience.]

Gan Ming stood beside the hound's corpse and wiped his sword against it a few times.

From start to finish, it had taken less than a minute.

He had killed a level 11 monster in seven rounds.

"Looks like its health was around 2,200," Gan Ming muttered.

Gan Ming looked at the Edgesteel One-Handed Sword in his hand.

Blood droplets still clung to its blue-green edge, gleaming coldly beneath the afternoon sun.

Thirty-five Contribution Points, fucking well spent!

He crouched and pressed his right hand against the hound's corpse.

Soul Snatch.

[Soul Snatch successful!]

[Skill acquired: Bite (Launches a biting attack against the target, dealing 120% physical damage and inflicting Bleed for 3 seconds, causing a loss of 5 health per second. Cooldown: 12 seconds. Mana cost: 12.)]

[Skill acquired: Beast Scent (Passive): Detects the presence of living creatures within a 50-meter radius and can distinguish scent types and approximate directions.]

Nice!

He got two in one shot!

Gan Ming looked at the two notifications that had appeared.

Bite was an active attack skill that dealt 120% physical attack damage and inflicted Bleed.

Beast Scent was a passive scouting skill.

Both were useful.

But the active slots...

Gan Ming opened the skill management interface.

[Currently Active (6/6): Fanged Charge +4 (Passive), Bark Armor +4, Woodland Affinity +4 (Passive), Ambush +4, Rotten Root Entanglement +4, Potential Stimulation +4 (Passive)]

They were full.

There were six slots, and not one was empty.

To activate a new skill, he had to replace an old one.

Which one?

Gan Ming looked over the six skills and ultimately selected Woodland Affinity.

This skill was highly effective: +10% defense and 1% health recovery per second.

In the Woodland, it was the core passive that gave Gan Ming virtually endless endurance.

But the problem was its activation condition. He had to be in a Woodland environment.

Yet he was currently in the Ruins Zone.

Broken bricks and shattered tiles lay in every direction.

There was not even a proper tree within a kilometer.

Woodland Affinity could not take effect here.

He removed [Woodland Affinity] and activated [Beast Scent].

[Currently Active (6/6): Fanged Charge +4 (Passive), Bark Armor +4, Beast Scent +4 (Passive), Ambush +4, Rotten Root Entanglement +4, Potential Stimulation +4 (Passive)]

[Available Pool: Woodland Affinity +4 (Passive), Gluttonous Recovery (Passive), Bite]

The instant the replacement was complete,

an indescribable stench rushed straight into his brain. Gan Ming's vision went black, and he nearly toppled over.

The smell of rust, rotting meat, dry dust, and the foul stench leaking from some unknown sewer...

The scents, once so faint they were almost undetectable, were amplified dozens of times the instant Beast Scent activated.

"Urgh—"

Gan Ming immediately began dry-heaving.

Covering his nose, he bent over and took nearly a minute to slowly adjust.

After its level 4 Soul Snatch enhancement, Beast Scent's detection range had expanded from 50 meters to 71 meters.

Its effect had also become more refined.

Not only could he smell scents, he could roughly distinguish their intensity...

A strong scent meant that it was close or large; a weak scent meant it was distant or small.

Gan Ming sat there for a full two minutes before raising his head and attempting to take a deep breath.

With that breath, an invisible map appeared in his mind.

To the northeast, around seventy meters away, was a rank, musky smell identical to the hound at his feet.

North by northwest, about sixty meters away, was the same scent, though fainter.

To the southeast, more than sixty meters away, were two overlapping canine scents.

Farther away, there were several other animal smells whose species he could not identify.

What was certain was that they were not canines. Amid the metallic oxidized smell drifting over was a dry, astringent scent.

Six canine presences.

Two or three unidentified ones.

The distribution of living creatures within a seventy-meter radius had been mapped out by his nose.

Gan Ming looked around.

Visibility in the Ruins Zone was terrible. Broken walls and piles of rubble chopped up his line of sight, and he could see only twenty or thirty meters at most.

But walls could not block smells.

"Great skill. Saved me another ninety Contribution Points."

Gan Ming sniffed around where he stood and confirmed that there were no Awakened scents within seventy meters.

Humans smelled different from monsters.

There was the scent of soap, the greasy smell of metal armor, and the warmth unique to living humans.

But in this area, there were only him and the monsters.

As for the Bite skill he had just acquired, Gan Ming had no intention of replacing anything with it for now.

The reason was simple.

Bite consumed 12 mana.

He only had 33 mana in total.

One Ambush plus one Bite would cost 22 mana.

That left 11, not even enough to cast Rotten Root Entanglement, which required 15.

And what was Rotten Root Entanglement?

A control skill.

When two monsters flanked him, he could use Rotten Root Entanglement to hold one in place and focus fire on the other.

That was a means of survival, not something he could trade away for an attack skill.

Bite?

Its 120% physical attack effect was no better than him swinging his sword one extra time. It was not worth spending mana on.

His mana pool was only so big. He had to reserve it for the skills that mattered most.

Weighing trade-offs was what people short on resources did best.

Gan Ming stored the hound's corpse in his ring, raised his head, and sniffed twice toward the southeast.

Sixty meters.

The nearest one.

He drew his sword, stepped over the broken bricks, and headed in that direction.