Chapter 256: Chapter 255: Counterattack Part III
Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED
After having a pretty big dinner with the Myth Guild soldiers who had helped me out for an entire day, I headed straight for the Section 35’s Center D store. I was pretty excited. I had 12 skill points to use and more than enough golden rings to spend after buying all the Stat points I would need. I could learn whatever I wanted.
For now, I decided to learn another burst damage skill like Judge’s Gavel, and at least two more AoE skills. The reason I wanted to learn two AoE skills was simple; with my power, they could do just as much damage as a burst single-target damage skill. In short, I could pretty much lay waste to my enemies. Sure, Ripped Advance played a huge part, but it still didn’t change the fact that I was arguably the strongest on this Continent.
I arrived at the Store in no time while thinking about what skills to learn.
“h.e.l.lo and welcome to Section 35’s Center D skill store.”
“Show me your skills.”
“Right away, sir.”
==[Physical tree, Magical tree, General tree, Random Skills (1)]==
I was met with a surprise when the skill store menu came up, but I wasn’t sure if it was pleasant. I had only had a marker next to the Random Skills tab once before, and that was when I learned the Shaman Ko’s Selfish p.r.i.c.k skill.
“Is it even possible to learn more than one Random Skill at a time?” I never heard about anyone learning two or more Random Skills. There could have been some out there who managed to keep it a secret, but I couldn’t attest to that. As far as I knew, having only one Random Skill was the norm.
I clicked on the Random Skills tab. If the system had another Random Skill for me to learn, what reason did I have to turn it down? I was really nervous as I clicked it, however. My best skill, Selfish p.r.i.c.k, was a Random Skill. It trumped Unrivaled, Mana Conversion, and even Judge’s Gavel. It also gave me access to other people’s exclusive or Random Skills. It truly was overpowered. “I don’t need something as good as Selfish p.r.i.c.k. I’ll be satisfied with something as half as good.”
==[Lee Jiwon can learn a Random Skill.
If this Random Skill is not learned within the next 24 hours after being revealed, the Skill will disappear.
Time left to learn: 23 hours 58 minutes 22 seconds]==
==[Remove Skill Cooldown (1/1), (Pa.s.sive)
Grants the ability to remove the cooldown of a learned skill.
Can only work on skills with cooldowns of 1 day or longer, and can lower cooldowns by at most 1 day at a time. However, 1 skill point is required per day. (Lowering a 5-day cooldown to 1 day will require 4 skill points.)
Skill points required to learn: 1
Golden rings required to learn: 1]==
“Huh…” It was an unbelievable skill indeed, but it didn’t really appeal to me. Probably because I had clicked on it while thinking about Selfish p.r.i.c.k. “I don’t like. I don’t like it at all. It costs 1 skill points to lower cooldown by a day.” I could only think about how disappointed I was with the skill, and just when I was about to close the skill’s description, I remembered one skill. Ripped Advance had a cooldown of 10 days. It doubled my Stats for 24 hours at the cost of losing at most 100 Stat points. It was no doubt one of my strongest skills, even with a penalty.
“If I lower its cooldown from 10 days to just 1…” I shivered. I could use it as much as I wanted to if I did that. I would still lose up to 100 Stat points every time, but that was so little compared to the Stat points I did have. Besides, Stores sold Stat points now.
“Hah… It’s almost as if the system wants me to spend almost all of my skill points on this skill.” I had twelve skill points to use. Learning this skill cost 1, and using it so Ripped Advance would cost 9 to lower its cooldown to one day. That was a total of ten skill points for one skill. I had never heard of a skill that required ten skill points to learn. It almost didn’t seem worth the ten skill points, but my hand kept inching towards the Learn b.u.t.ton. The enemy was still out there, and there were more than two billion of them. I was definitely going to need the extra Stat points. “Ah, screw it!”
==[You have learned the Random Skill, Remove Skill Cooldown.]==
“Activate: Remove Skill Cooldown.”
==[Remove Skill Cooldown can lower the cooldown of 3 of your skills.
Please select one of the following:
Ripped Advance: 10 days
Create Critical Weakness: 30 days
Death’s Harrier: 30 days]==
“Select: Ripped Advance.”
==[You have selected Ripped Advance.
This skill’s cooldown can be lowered by, at most, 9 days.
1 day costs 1 skill point.]==
I changed the skill’s cooldown to one day.
==[You have chosen to lower Ripped Advance’s cooldown to 1 day.
This action requires 9 skill points. Are you sure you wish to proceed?
Yes/No]==
“Yes!” I shouted with my eyes clenched shut. I had just spent ten skill points on one skill when I had come here ready to learn at least four more skills. Actually, it didn’t even count as a real skill. All it did was change a skill’s cooldown!
But I was still satisfied. I kept wishing I could use either Ripped Advance or Critical Weakness more often and now, I finally could.
“It’s fine. It’ll be worth the ten skill points.” I couldn’t bring myself to spend my remaining two skill points just yet, as I wasn’t sure what to expect for next time. I hurriedly left the skill shop and entered the general store to buy 1,000 more Stat points.
—
Section 115 of the Judge’s Continent…
Claudia had called a meeting of Croot’s strongest deities, known as the High Council. This meeting, however, had eight empty seats this time. Not coming to a High Council meeting could only mean one thing to the deities. But the biggest issue to them was that two of the missing were Rocky and Ashio, two of the strongest deities of the High Council, and the seconds in command to Skyla and Claudia, respectively.
“I’m sure all of you are aware,” Claudia started in a quiet voice, her anger clear. “Our enemies from World 1455 have dealt us a heavy blow. We have lost one of our Sections and many of our comrades.”
The members of the High Council frowned. They had called each other comrades only once before, when they had taken over their world and enslaved the devas. They had been rivals and sworn enemies every other time, but no one said anything. It was true they were losing the war.
“We should take our revenge, shouldn’t we, Skyla?” Claudia singled out Skyla, because she now knew why the enemy had entered Croot’s territory uncontested and unannounced. Skyla had kept to herself the fact she had faced the enemy before and lost. Claudia had no intention of pressing the issue any further, but wanted Skyla to know just how disgusted she was with her.
Skyla just smiled as if nothing was wrong, even though she could hear every drop of venom in Claudia’s voice. “Of course we should. It’s the prime time to retaliate, as the enemy should be in a celebratory stupor.”
“That’s right.”
“We incurred heavy losses. Now it’s their turn.”
The other members of the High Council voiced their agreements.
“Very well. We’ll begin our preparations right away. Our first invading force will consist of one million soldiers. The army’s commander will be…” Claudia trailed off and scanned the room before resting her eyes on a single man, “Angel.”
Angel was quite possibly one of the five strongest members of the High Council. He was also a neutral member of the Council and did not a.s.sociate himself with the three factions as much as he could.
“Is it wise to leave such an important duty to someone like me?”
“I want to show the enemy that we do not have a shred of mercy in us. I think there’s no better choice.”
“Hahaha. I see. You’ve made a very wise choice, indeed. I understand. I’ll take on the role with honor.”
After that, one vice-commander was chosen from each faction, and six deities to guard the front lines were asked to join as well.
“We will invade in seven days. In seven days, Angel will lead the army and invade the enemy’s Section 3.”
“Understood.”
—
Section 35’s Center D Store…
“Welcome to Center D’s general store.”
“Show me your wares.”
“Right away, sir.”
Once the shop menu came up, I navigated my way straight to the Stat points. I needed exactly 957 points to get have 8000 extra Stat points.
==[Stat Point (No Rank)
Buy this item to gain extra Stat points.
1 extra Stat point costs 1,000,000 golden rings.]==
It really was expensive, but I paid the 957 million golden rings nonetheless. It was easy for me to get more golden rings; I just didn’t want to lose out on becoming the first to reach the Stats milestones.
-Where should I invest the points?-
That was the toughest decision to make right now. Should I go for STR, or I get AGI and VIT to 30k first? I glanced in my inventory to check how much golden rings I still had left. I still had about 11 billion and when I saw that, I made my decision. I was going to raise all three Stats. I put the 8000 Stat points I had right now into VIT.
==[Your base VIT has surpa.s.sed 30,000 points.
Your total VIT points: 37,501
Your base VIT points: 30,000
VIT points increased by items: 7200
VIT points increased by skills: 300 (King-Emperor’s Grand Dignity), 1 (Kiran’s Stat point.)]==
==[You will be awarded a bonus for surpa.s.sing 30,000 points in VIT before anyone else.
VIT will be increased by 2000 points.
This bonus is awarded to the first person to accomplish this achievement.]==
==[You have obtained a Grand Achievement.]
You have reached 30,000 points in two Stats (STR, VIT,) before anyone else.
You will be awarded a bonus of 1,000 extra Stat points.
This bonus is awarded to the first person to accomplish this achievement.]==
Thanks to the Grand Achievement, I had 1,000 more Stat points to spend. I spent 7 billion golden rings and bought another 7,000 Stat points. In less than a minute, I had 8,000 Stat points again and I invested all of those into AGI. I received the message telling me that I had reached 30k with AGI and gained 2,000 more AGI points.
==[You have obtained a Grand Achievement.]
You have reached 30,000 points in three Stats (STR, VIT, AGI) before anyone else.
You will be awarded a bonus of 2,000 extra Stat points.
This bonus is awarded to the first person to accomplish this achievement.]==
I invested the 2,000 points into STR. Now, my base STR was 44,000. I didn’t have enough golden rings to finish up, but I didn’t mind. It wouldn’t take me long to earn the remainder, and I was already satisfied with my new Ripped Advance. I was leaving the Store with a smile on my face when my Comm Link rang.