Soul Snatch Upgrades, the Whole Team Soars

Gan Ming had not gone far.

Behind a tilted concrete slab, a grayish-brown mass was curled up in a corner.

Another Rustclaw Hound.

It was exactly the same as the one from before.

Gan Ming could not even be bothered to examine the panel closely.

Ambush!

A boar-shaped phantom condensed as he launched himself forward.

Before the hound could get up to fight, Gan Ming slammed it flying.

Bang!

Its back crashed into the concrete slab, sending fragments flying.

Stunned for 2 seconds.

One slash.

Two slashes.

Three slashes, Fanged Charge!

-145!

The hound howled as it woke from its stun.

It had just begun activating Swift Dash, its hind legs only halfway through pushing off the ground.

Gan Ming's second round of attacks had already arrived.

Then came the third round, the fourth round...

But before the second slash of the sixth round could land.

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

Not bad. It had been one round faster than the previous one.

Gan Ming flicked the blood from his sword and crouched down.

Soul Snatch.

[Soul Snatch successful!]

[Skill acquired: Swift Dash (A high-speed short-distance charge that deals physical damage to the target. Cooldown: 10 seconds. Mana Cost: 8.)]

[Skill acquired: Bite. Duplicate acquisition converted into Talent Proficiency.]

[Skill acquired: Beast Scent (Passive). Duplicate acquisition converted into Talent Proficiency.]

Nice. All three had hit.

Two of them were duplicate skills, directly converted into talent experience and absorbed by Soul Snatch.

A new notification appeared on the panel.

[Innate Talent "Soul Snatch" has leveled up! Level 4 → Level 5]

[Active slot limit increased: 6 → 7]

Seven active slots!

And Soul Snatch reaching Level 5 meant every skill he had acquired could be enhanced by another level.

Fanged Charge +5, Bark Armor +5, Ambush +5, Beast Scent +5, Rotten Root Entanglement +5, Potential Stimulation +5.

Even the inactive skills in his reserve pool had risen with them.

Gan Ming stored the hound's corpse in his ring and stood up.

Looking at the newly freed seventh active slot, Gan Ming considered which skill to activate.

He currently had four options: Woodland Affinity, Gluttonous Recovery, Bite, and Swift Dash.

Did he even need to think about it?

It had to be Swift Dash!

An incredible life-saving skill!

After equipping Swift Dash, Gan Ming took a deep sniff of the air.

After Beast Scent rose to +5, its detection radius expanded by another circle.

The bloody stench scattered throughout the ruins became clearer, and his sense of direction became more precise.

To the southeast, two hounds were close together.

The smell was strong, and they were not far away.

Gan Ming gripped his sword, turned, and headed that way.

There was not much worth recounting about the battles that followed.

The two hounds were right beside each other, and Beast Scent +5 had marked their positions with perfect clarity in advance.

Gan Ming circled to the downwind side and confirmed there was no human scent within eighty meters.

He made his move.

Ambush knocked aside the one on the left.

He dealt with the one on the right that had not been stunned first.

Three slashes and one Fanged Charge. Within three rounds, he would definitely take out most of its health.

Just as the hound on the left woke from its stun and regained its footing,

the hound on the right had already been killed.

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

Awoo!

The one on the left pounced at Gan Ming.

Perfect timing.

Gan Ming met it head-on and drove his sword into its mouth.

Thirty seconds later.

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

Soul Snatch!

Both attempts yielded duplicate skills, all of which were converted into Talent Proficiency.

Gan Ming put away the corpses and continued deeper inside.

Before every fight, he followed the same process.

First, sniff.

Confirm the target's type, number, and location.

Then sniff again.

Confirm whether there was any human scent within seventy meters.

Finally, lure them over.

Gan Ming never fought where he found them.

Every time, he first found a broken wall or a half-collapsed floor slab for cover, lured the monsters over, and only then made his move.

It was not because he feared he could not beat them.

It was because he feared being seen by passersby midway through.

An eighth-level Awakened in gray gear killing an eleventh-level monster in under twenty seconds.

If any passerby saw that scene, they would develop the kind of curiosity they should not have.

In a fallen zone, curiosity could get people killed.

After clearing out another three lone hounds, Gan Ming reached Level 10.

Then his nose caught an unfamiliar scent.

It was not the foul, fishy stench of the hounds.

It was a dry smell heavy with rust and oxidation.

Gan Ming slowed down.

He moved beneath a section of collapsed elevated highway.

Above him were slanted concrete slabs, while broken bricks and rusted rebar littered the ground beneath his feet.

The scent was ahead and slightly to the right, less than forty meters away.

Gan Ming pressed himself against a fallen cement pillar and peered over.

Well, well. It was a scorpion about the size of a medium-sized dog.

Its six legs were half-buried in rubble as it lay motionless atop a pile of stones.

Its carapace was covered in dark-red, rust-like Hard Shell, blending into its surroundings.

Its two pincers were folded together before it, while its tail was raised high, its tip gleaming iron-gray.

The Soul-Stealing Panel appeared.

[Soul Snatch target: Monster]

[Species: Rust-armored Scorpion]

[Level: 13]

[Skills (3): Venomous Tail Sting, Hard Shell (Passive), Pincer Crush]

Gan Ming scanned them one by one.

[Venomous Tail Sting: A charged tail stab that deals 110% physical damage and inflicts Poison (loses 4 HP per second for 5 seconds). Cooldown: 15 seconds. Mana Cost: 12.]

[Hard Shell (Passive): Reduces physical damage received by a flat 8 points.]

[Pincer Crush: Clamps the target with both pincers, dealing 130% physical damage and reducing the target's defense by 15% for 5 seconds. Cooldown: 18 seconds. Mana Cost: 14.]

Venomous Tail Sting dealt damage over time, while Pincer Crush could reduce defense.

Its skill combination was clearly a level above the hounds'.

Then Gan Ming's gaze stopped on the second skill.

Hard Shell.

A flat reduction of 8 points.

It was not calculated by percentage, but by a fixed value.

No matter who attacked it, every hit would first lose 8 points of damage.

Against high-attack enemies, that was barely worth mentioning,

but against weak, low-attack monsters, it practically crippled their damage output.

A good skill.

Bark Armor's percentage-based defense stacked with Hard Shell's flat damage reduction.

The two layers would hold together.

Of course, there was also Soul Snatch's enhancement.

Slurp.

He could not think about it anymore. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted it.

Gan Ming looked around and confirmed there was no human scent nearby, nor the presence of a second scorpion.

He made his move.

Ambush!

A boar-shaped phantom condensed as his figure shot forward.

Bang!

He slammed head-on into the scorpion's carapace.

Clang!

A metallic collision rang out.

Unlike the dull, heavy sound of hitting a hound,

the feedback from this strike was more like... slashing an iron bar.

Ding!

-58!

It was ten points lower than when he struck the hounds.

Hard Shell's flat 8-point damage reduction, stacked with the scorpion's own defense.

It really was tough.

But that did not matter.

If he could not ram it to death, he would slash it to death.

The scorpion was knocked onto its back.

Its six legs flailed in the air while its tail whipped wildly.

[Target struck by "Ambush +5" and stunned for 2 seconds.]

Gan Ming stepped forward.

The scorpion's exposed underside had the thinnest shell.

One slash!

Crack!

-62!

Its belly armor was much softer than its back shell, and the damage rose sharply.

Second slash.

-69

Third slash, Fanged Charge!

-133!

Pfft!

A section of its belly armor was cleaved apart, and gray-white fluid splattered out.

The scorpion righted itself from its daze, spreading its pincers as it snapped them toward Gan Ming's calf.

Gan Ming took a step back.

The pincers closed on empty air.

Then the scorpion's tail stabbed down from above.

It was fast—half a beat faster than a hunting dog's bite.

Gan Ming tilted his head aside. The venomous stinger grazed his shoulder guard, leaving a white mark on the leather armor.

It missed.