The next morning—
Sunlight pierced through the clouds, dyeing the sky in a warm shade of gold as soft light poured over the land.
It was the fifth dawn since the onset of the calamity.
Outside the safe zone, many buildings bore varying degrees of damage—windows shattered, walls cracked or missing bricks.
Occasionally, a Dragonfang Soldier swooped past, stirring up a chill breeze in its wake.
Bai Qiu opened his eyes and first checked his stats and skills.
Spirit Power: D-
So that fruit’s limit only went this far.
It wasn’t as simple as eating a high-grade item to boost a stat to the same level.
For instance, even after consuming more than a dozen Redstem Grass, his attributes and skills had not increased further.
Fivefold Arcane Crystallization Eyes (Grade D)
Can freely switch vision between ×1 and ×100 magnification; allows manual adjustment of filters, focus, and diffusion.
Greatly enhanced dynamic and mana-particle detection; gains an additional ability—Slow Motion.
Active Skill [Slow Motion]: Slows all movement in view by tenfold for two seconds.
Cooldown: 6 hours.
(Note: Using this skill consumes spirit power and strains the eyes.)
Night Vision: Grants daytime visibility even in darkness.
Fog Piercing: Allows sight through fog or similar obstructions.
(Note: No cooldown. The skill can be toggled freely, but each activation consumes spirit power and mana equivalent to maintaining it for 30 minutes.)
The Fivefold Arcane Crystallization Eyes were exceptionally powerful, but their energy demands had increased compared to the threefold version—consuming not just mana, but also spirit power to process the incoming information.
He hadn’t chosen to learn the Sevenfold Arcane Crystallization Eyes, believing he wouldn’t be able to handle a C-rank ocular art.
Its active skill tier was still beyond him, especially with his current spirit power sitting only at D-.
For now, using the D-rank version suited him just fine.
Even so, he refrained from activating [Slow Motion]—his intuition warned him that it likely carried side effects.
The rest of his attributes and skills remained unchanged.
Closing his personal status screen, Bai Qiu opened a message from Zhang Shiyao.
6:57 AM
Zhang Shiyao:
“I’ve decided not to use my Noble Phantasm for now, brother!”
“I’ve noticed a lot of people rush to use their Noble Phantasms as soon as they hit level ten.”
“But when they use it again after their first [System Auto-Execution], the power drops drastically—some can’t even draw out twenty percent of their original strength!”
“So I’ve decided to hold off and take my time before using it again. When the time comes, I’ll ask for your help. For now, just focus on your missions! I’ll be thinking of you! (?ò?ó?)♡”
Bai Qiu scrolled through the Cross-Zone Chat and found related discussions.
Come On, Lory:
“Damn it! I forgot my chant the first time I activated my Noble Phantasm, and now the second time the power’s way lower—maybe only a tenth of before!”
Come On, Sertu:
“I memorized my entire chant and even perfectly recreated the same gestures and timing—but the power’s still only half of what it was! Is this a bug?”
“+1 It’s confirmed—second activation always weakens the Noble Phantasm. The reduction seems to depend on personal aptitude. Even Ning Xingxue from Zone 2243 could only retain eighty percent of the power!”
Same Camp:
“Eh, it’s fine though. Even weakened, it’s still a huge boost! I think I can take on an elite monster now—EX Curry Stick one-shot! Just imagining it feels great!”
As Bai Qiu scrolled through the posts, he wondered how much of his Noble Phantasm’s power he could retain upon reuse.
His earlier theory had been right: to draw out an Noble Phantasm’s true potential, the first use must be done with complete focus and deep understanding of its essence.
The more clearly one grasped its nature, the more power they could maintain in future activations.
He replied to Zhang Shiyao:
“Got it. Just call me if you need help. But be careful—once someone obtains an Noble Phantasm, it’s basically their trump card. Try not to get into conflicts with others.”
After sending the message, Bai Qiu closed the chat and headed to the bathroom to wash up.
Time was of the essence.
By now, the top players had already reached level ten.
After unlocking their Noble Phantasms, many of them could instantly kill elite monsters.
That meant his mission’s difficulty had quietly increased—if all the elite monsters on the map were cleared, his only choice would be to hunt inside dungeon realms.
But he wasn’t sure if dungeon elites would count toward his quest objectives.
Although the failures of the first wave had served as a warning to everyone else, preventing reckless Noble Phantasm use, most players were now gathering intel and planning carefully—trying to preserve as much of their Noble Phantasm’s original power as possible.
————–
“Heehee…” Zhang Shiyao let out a soft laugh, her face showing clear exhaustion as she finished reading Bai Qiu’s reply.
Hugging her pillow tightly, she drifted into a deep sleep.
No one knew how many Dragonfangs she had earned the previous night.
Her level had already reached 13.
Inside the Sanctuary Black Tower, in front of Guinelia’s Potion Shop, a crowd of players had gathered.
They were murmuring in confusion—why wasn’t the cute bunny-eared girl opening the shop to sell potions today?
“Where’s Bunny? Why isn’t the shop open?! Our entire Zone 2233 got rich off those healing potions!”
“Yeah! She kept the shop open even when nobody could afford to buy before!”
“Damn it! I spent all my Sanctum Coins buying potions just so I could go out and hunt monsters. Now I can’t even earn money selling potions—hell, I can’t even heal myself when I get hurt!”
Inside the shop, Guinelia lay peacefully asleep in her bed.
On her nightstand sat an empty vial—the remnants of a Sleeping Potion.
Human adaptability was truly remarkable.
In just five short days, everyone had begun forming small groups, organizing themselves to hunt Dragonfang Soldiers around the outskirts of the safe zones.
Some of the stronger individuals, whose physical abilities had improved with their rising levels, even started banding together to explore further regions beyond the safety perimeter.
After all, there were simply too many people around the outer edges of the safe zone.
Sometimes, an entire group would fight over a single monster.
Anyone who wanted to level up efficiently had to venture farther out.
Now that pain, bleeding, and death were all real consequences, players had grown far more cautious.
Those who used to show off flashy mechanics in games were almost nonexistent now—everyone had realized that stacking defense and heavy armor was the true meta.
Bai Qiu happened to see three fully armored players accompanied by two Archers pushing steadily outward.
The three armored ones had shields and took turns taunting and tanking while the Archers stood safely behind, firing nonstop.
All three tanks were level 9, and the two archers were level 8.
Yet their combat results were better than most level-10 players—mainly because they were already more than two kilometers away from the safe zone.
Their lineup was extremely durable, but their damage output was painfully low; it took them nearly ten minutes to kill a single wave of four or five Dragonfang Soldiers.
Bai Qiu shook his head slightly and moved on.
To avoid unnecessary conflicts, he always chose to hunt monsters in unpopulated areas.
Today was no different.
He drew out his Frost Staff, channeled mana into it, and prepared to test its basic attack pattern.
— The end of the Chapter–
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