Chapter 5: Alex Slayer's Path through the Novice Wilderness
When he came across the woman's body, Alex Slayer placed his palm on her...
Om~!
A white light flashed!
[Endless Extraction success! Acquired E-level talent - Speed Enhancement!]
[Speed Enhancement: Doubles speed talent!]
Nice!
Another talent!
Speed enhancement equals agility enhancement.
Thanks to this talent, his agility index now matched an adult's at 22 points, twice what it was.
This significantly boosted his strength!
Alex then approached the fat man's body.
The man wore chef's clothes, likely a chef in his previous life.
Alex placed his palm on the fat man...
Om~!
[Endless Extraction success! Obtained F-rank talent - Enhanced Sense of Smell!]
[Enhanced Sense of Smell: Smell tenfold enhancement!]
This time, he extracted the lowest level of talent, enhancing one of his six senses.
But Alex was ecstatic upon receiving this information.
Enhanced sense of smell greatly benefitted him.
The grassland was vast, making it difficult to find all types of corpses.
With his sense of smell now ten times stronger, locating corpses using the scent of blood became ten times easier.
Moreover, he could detect the scent of beasts, preempting potential dangers.
Thus, the enhanced sense of smell proved invaluable.
Soon, Alex finished clearing the battlefield.
He retrieved the steel knife knocked away by the giant rat...
He picked up two novice knives from the deceased, wrapped them in the fat man's chef uniform, and slung them over his back.
These items were resources to barter with others.
Afterward, he checked his stats again, greatly relieved.
In less than an hour, his strength and agility indices had reached adult standards, and he had acquired three innate abilities.
Today, on the surface, his combat power rated one star.
With various innate abilities, his overall strength could reach two stars, potentially pushing the limit of two stars.
After all, combat power assessment only accounted for four-dimensional indices, excluding talents.
Talents were variable and thus not calculated.
Therefore, the combat power evaluation by Heavenly Voice could only serve as a reference.
Such references accurately gauged beast strength but often underestimated humans.
Especially humans like Alex with multiple talents, who were grossly underestimated.
After reviewing his data, Alex exited the personal information page.
At that moment, his expression subtly changed as he glanced in a specific direction.
His heightened sense of smell caught a faint whiff of blood, drifting rapidly toward him from that direction.
Could it be an injured beast approaching?
As the thought crossed his mind, he heard footsteps and distant voices.
"Damn it! Our luck's terrible! We ran into two giant rats at once, and one of ours got killed!"
"Yeah! Everyone's injured, and Lucy Lark and Wilson Yates died right there."
"Thankfully, Mr. Hugh was smart. We fought and retreated, luring one giant rat into a pit for the kill."
"Enough chatter! The other rat was badly hurt and might've escaped."
"Let's hurry! Don't miss it!"
"Move!"
With that, their footsteps quickened.
Alex was alarmed.
From their words, they hadn't missed the other giant rat.
There were seven in their group.
Earlier, they encountered two giant rats.
After a skirmish, one rat was severely injured, resulting in casualties and injuries.
The survivors tactically retreated, eventually trapping and killing the rat they pursued.
Now, they were returning to finish off the injured rat.
Sensing the danger, Alex quickly slunk into the grass and stealthily departed...
He had no intention of conflict; it served no purpose.
Moreover, taking advantage of others was unnecessary.
With the speed talent, Alex moved with extreme agility and swiftness.
Enhanced smell helped him anticipate routes in advance.
In moments, he stealthily slipped away from the scene.
Soon after, roars echoed behind him.
"Who's there! Who leaked our location?!"
"Damn it! Curse that person!"
In the distance, Alex heard the shouts and suppressed a laugh.
He wasn't a saint.
In this brutal world, kindness only led to ruin.
Survival depended on seizing resources by any means necessary.
Alex ignored them and continued his search for corpses...
A quarter-hour later, guided by his keen sense of smell, he found a blood-toothed rabbit's body.
Endless extraction yielded two more strength attributes, leaving him solemn...
He continued his search...
Thus, in this novice plain, more than two hundred groups struggled, slaying various level 1 beasts.
Alex did nothing but scour for corpses and extract attributes, a rather comfortable endeavor.
In the blink of an eye, three hours passed.
He found over a dozen fierce beast corpses consecutively.
There were blood-toothed rabbits, giant rats, prairie gray wolves, wild boars, and poisonous nine-ring snakes...
He discerned a pattern.
He could only extract each level 1 beast thrice indefinitely.
Each time yielded two attribute points.
A fourth extraction proved ineffective.
By now, he'd extracted from the blood-toothed rabbits, giant rats, prairie gray wolves, and wild boars three times, ceasing further searches.
He'd encountered the poisonous nine-ring snake just once.
Moreover, seven more humans had perished during this period.
He found only one corpse, from which he gained F-rank talent - visual enhancement, a notable gain.
Now, in a thicket...
Alex accessed his personal information to assess his progress.
[Name]: Alex Slayer
[Level]: Level 1 (30/100)
[Strength]: 20
[Agility]: 21
[Physique]: 18
[Energy]: 30
[Talent]: Endless Extraction (SSS Grade), Super Strength Enhancement (D Grade)
Speed Enhancement (E Grade), Enhanced Sense of Smell (F Grade)Visual Enhancement (F Grade)
[Skill]: None
[Combat Strength Evaluation]: 2 stars
"At last, combat evaluation has reached two stars."
After reviewing his data, Alex felt elated.
This was just combat evaluation.
Factoring in his various talents, his overall strength could potentially peak at three stars, even four.
With his current strength, he could single-handedly take on a level 1 beast.