Furious at the World Orb, he was starting to get tired and he wanted to sleep. But he still needed to do a few things.

First, he checked his updated status.

Status

● Name: Not Yet Given

● Gender: Male

● Level: 17

● Class: Shadow Lord

● Strength: 9 (+8)

● Agility: 31 (+12)

● Vitality: 9 (+14)

● Stamina: 16

● Spirit: 17 (+10)

● Endurance: 10 (+6)

● Equipment:

historical

○ Storage Ring

○ Ring Of Minimal Strength.

○ Ring Of Minimal Strength.

○ Ring Of Dark Spirit.

○ Ring Of Speed

○ Shadow Lord Set

■ Hood Of Shadow Lord

■ Hidden Blade Of Shadow Lord

■ Sharp Sword

■ Vambraces Of Shadow Lord

■ Clothes Of Shadow Lord

■ Trouser Of Shadow Lord

■ Shadow Lord Boots

■ Black Sash

■ Black Gloves

Suddenly his expression turned ugly as he remembered the embarrassment he felt from his name. He would have to postpone the advancement quest. He was still too weak and he needed more strength. Agility is good and all, but strength was undoubtedly equally important. For now, he would erase his shame and give himself a name. Realizing that he didn’t have to choose his real name he pondered for a moment and thought, ‘Shadow Lord..Lord Shadow? It’s simple. It’s powerful. It rolls off the tongue? Okay maybe not, still Lord Shadow it is.’

“I want to name myself,” he said aloud.

What is your name?

“Lord Shadow”

A slight pause and the system’s voice followed.

Lord Shadow is registered. Congratulations on taking a name. As a reward for completing this task, The World Orb will grant you 5 additional stats points.

‘5 additional stats points!’ Azief sighed regretfully. ‘I should’ve named my character earlier. I might have already been on my way towards my village if I had known. Honestly what a shitty game.. Shouldn’t the World Orb implement a tutorial?’

“Hello, World Orb? I’d like to lodge a formal complaint about your system..” he joked.

No response.

Whatever at least he knew where to spend these points.

He had just lost half of his strength. If not for his items his strength would’ve returned to where it was before the Fall. ‘All to strength,’ he commanded decisively. Still, his strength paled in comparison to before his class change.

He now had one last thing to do. He needed to check his skill books. Starting with the first one:

Skillbook: Body Fortification

● A passive skill that permanently increases endurance by 2. At level 20, it will increase by 2 again. This continues every 10 levels after and is capped at level 40.

● Would you like to learn the skill?

“Yes,” Azief said, causing the book to disappear and his body to grow stronger. Azief was currently in need of passive skills which wouldn’t cost him SP and could increase his stats.

One down, six to go.

Skillbook: Heal

● You can use 10 SP to heal 5 HP.

● Cooldown: 30 seconds

● Would you like to learn the skill?

“Yes.”

‘Healing, huh? At least I can restore my HP, though it costs a bit of SP to use.’

5 to go.

Skillbook: Beast Tamer

● Using this skill, you can tame world orb beasts. To tame, use the skill on one of the beasts and keep them, for the indicated amount of time, inside the beast portal. Activating a beast portal requires 10 SP per hour. The cooldown depends on the beast tamed.

● Would you like to learn the skill?

Wasn’t this skillbook useless? He had already learned this before. Just as he was about to try another book, he had an interesting thought.

“Yes,” Azief said, curious about the results.

You have upgraded “Beast Tamer” to level 2.

● Using this skill, you can tame world orb beasts. To tame, use the skill on one of the beasts and keep them, for the indicated amount of time, inside the beast portal. Activating a beast portal requires 5 SP per hour. The cooldown depends on the beast tamed.

○ Strong Fist Badger Taming Time: One Week

“Hoh! It upgraded my taming time. It even reduced the SP used for taming. Furthermore, it appears that you can level up skills by using the same skillbook. Or maybe there was another way.. Hmm..” At any rate, Azief was satisfied with the discovery.

4 left.

Skillbook: Precision

● Passive skill that helps increase your accuracy.

● Would you like to learn the skill?

“Yes,” he said somewhat disappointed. It seems that there was a limit to his luck. That said, precision was also pretty good. If he ever needed to use a projectile, this passive skill would come in handy.

3 more.

Skillbook: Slashing Wind

● An active skill that produces a slashing energy directed at your opponent. Increases your strength by 5 and agility by 2 after activation. The buff lasts for 5 minutes

● Activation Cost: 15 Sp

● Cool Down: 10 Minute

“What a good attack skill! If I unexpectedly increased my strength by 5 in the middle of a battle, that would really throw my enemy off..” Azief mused.

There were 2 left.

Skillbook: Perception

● A passive skill that detects mutated sapiens within a distance of 100 meters of you.

● Would you like to learn the skill?

“Yes,” Azief said. This would be a very useful skill to have.

And then there was 1.

Skillbook: Light Steps

● A passive skill which increases agility by 5.

● Useful for getting away, jumping, and running. makes your body light as the clouds and fast as the winds.

● Would you like to learn this skill?

“Of course,” Azief said. With his current agility, he could completely outrun an Olympic athlete. If he increased it any further, wouldn’t he be on the level of a car at least? Thinking about it, Azief realized that might have underestimated the usefulness of agility. Strength and speed. Raising just one of them to the peak would make you uncontested within the realms.

“I’m done,” he sighed tiredly as he looked at the variety of items on the bed and stored them all inside his storage ring.

His items ranged from clothing to blades and Azief intended to arm Tan with them tomorrow.

With his speed and strength, as long as he didn’t run across a high-level beast, he could pretty much guarantee his safety. He couldn’t, however, say the same of Tan and therefore needed him to grow his powers fast.

His advancement quest had a one-month time limit. That was enough time for him to return to his home before coming back to fight the aliens. He sensed that without the unique class he wouldn’t be able to become someone in this chaotic world.

‘Still, I can leave that all for tomorrow’s me,’ he thought drowsily as he stripped out of all of his clothes, preparing to sleep half-naked.

Crashing his body into the comfortable, puffy bed, he was knocked out within minutes.

Outside, the zombies were still prowling the streets, searching for any signs of life. The moon slowly sunk into the horizons as a new dawn arose. And with that dawn, rose the curtains to the Grand Guignol’s next act.

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