Chapter 336: Refined Skills (1/2)

As Zac once again started up his slaughter he shot a glance at his surroundings. The second floor looked mostly the same, though slightly larger. The same green crystals studded the walls, and the same frenzied critters were already charging him. He even noticed the same type of hole leading to the next floor on the other side of the cave. It almost felt like he was in an illusion world because of the similarity, but the fact that he kept gaining energy was undeniable.

The miasmic haze once again spread out as Zac methodically killed one battleroach after another. He had three days to complete the quest, and he believed the easiest method was to simply rush down and kill the Roach King. But he had no idea how strong it was so he wanted to gain as many levels as possible before confronting it.

He also had no idea how many floors this place had, but if he started to run out of time he would skip killing the beasts and jump down one floor after another until he reached the bottom. Worst case he would have to fight a bunch of extra battleroaches along with their boss if they jumped after him, but better that than getting locked in this cave for a year.

As he kept fighting Zac started to enter a rhythm, almost a dance based on the moves he had recently learned from [Bulwark Mastery]. His feet moved across the cavern following a precise pattern as he weaved a trail of carnage with his axe. His shield was quickly becoming an extension of his body, allowing him to control where and when he was attacked by the rabid beasts.

Order was quickly being forced upon the chaotic swarm of battleroaches and Zac realized that he was steadily decreasing his Miasma consumption without lessening the pace that the insects died. As he started to incorporate the teachings of his skill in battle he also started to more actively work with [Deathwish].

It was possible to simply keep the skill running, but Zac realized his way of using it had been too wasteful. Not every strike against him warranted a retaliation, as the reflected attack would sometimes bring fewer benefits than the cost of Miasma warranted. So he started to control which strikes to counter, and which one to simply endure. It reduced the number of specters appearing around him by half, but the number of kills was almost the same.

Efficiency was something that Zac once excelled at, something forced upon him due to overindulging on cosmic water before he knew any better. But as his powers grew he had slowly forgotten this important lesson, instead opting to fight like a brute because of his massive pool of attributes.

But Zac realized that such a mindset stifled growth, and stopped him from pushing himself to the limits. It also wasted a lot of time. Perhaps not through the battle itself, but most of his time on the last floor had been spent recuperating his expended Miasma. He was not a Cultivator who could rapidly restore his reserves, so he needed to make use of every smidgeon of Miasma in his body.

He slowly got the hang of splitting his attention between striking the weak spots with his axe and manually controlling [Deathwish]. But he felt his work still wasn’t done. He started to change the way he moved slightly, forcibly stopping the impulses to avoid getting hit in certain spots. Slowly the attacks from the battleroaches started to center on his belly or his head more and more.

Zac’s idea was simple. The spectral projections from [Deathwish] assaulted the attacker in roughly the same area that Zac was attacked in. That meant if he made sure to get hit in the areas that were weak spots of the roaches the lethality of the projections would increase without any increase in Miasma consumption. It did require more precision though. He needed to make sure his thick skull was hit rather than his vulnerable throat or eyes for example.

More wounds dripping ichor soon adorned Zac’s body, but he was slowly getting hang of it. And his efforts were quickly rewarded as a prompt told him that [Deathwish] just reached Middle mastery. The effect was immediately obvious, as the continuously appearing spectral projections turned slightly grade more corporeal, and hazy fractals adorned their bodies.

They had also become stronger, noticeably so. Zac had already measured that the power of the specters from [Deathwish] was roughly around 10%-15% of the original strike’s power, meaning that it usually took a couple of tries until they managed to kill or grievously wound their enemies. Zac couldn’t be sure exactly how strong the specters were now, but after using the skill for a few minutes he felt that the power had increased by at least 50%.

But that wasn’t the most interesting change in the skill. After upgrading [Deathwish] he realized that he suddenly had limited control of the specters as they appeared. Each time a ghost was summoned he felt as though he had grown a new appendage, and with some effort he managed to manipulate the specter.

The effect was extremely limited at the moment though. He only managed to slightly alternate the trajectory of their retaliatory strike. But that slight adjustment could be the difference by hitting a thick chitinous plate or a weak joint, and if Zac could learn to naturally control the specters as they popped up he would truly increase the lethality of the skill by a notch.

Flush with success Zac immediately started to investigate means to improve his other skills as he whittled down the number of battleroaches in the cave. But finding other quick upgrades didn’t come as easy. He didn’t have any control over [Fields of Despair], so he couldn’t figure out any means that might help him move to a higher mastery.

The same went for [Indomitable] that he kept running just in case something down here could use mental attacks. That only left [Immutable Bulwark], the fractal wall he currently used to block out all attacks from behind. He knew that he wasn’t using it to its full potential since currently it only worked as a blockade, rather than utilizing the large spikes that covered its front.

During his rampage in the caverns beneath the Eastern Trigram Sect he had used the bulwark like a bulldozer, putting it in front of his body as he rushed forward. The more vulnerable of the beasts had been crushed into meat paste from his charge, turning the skill into a competent offensive Skill.

But after a few tries he had to give up on that approach against the battleroaches. While the shells of the insects weren’t as sturdy as some other species, they were still quite durable. That’s why [Deathwish] rarely finished its enemies in one swing, and why he had to utilize [Verun’s Bite] to properly cut the critters apart.