19 The Devil's Broken Claw.
{You have acquired an epic-grade weapon, Devil claw}.
{Devil's Broken Claw}: (epic)
Strength: 30.
Agility: 20.
Control: 0.2.
Defense: -5.
Weight: 30.
Durability: 70/70.
Skills: Fear, Bloodthirsty.
{Fear} (passive): Release a malevolent aura akin to a devil, inflicting fear onto your opponent. Decreases opponent movement and attack speed by 5%.
{Bloodthirsty} (passive): Consume the blood and flesh of fallen enemies to increase the power of the Devil's broken claw. For every 100 enemies slain and absorbed, attack power increase by 1%, but weight increases by 10kg. Effectiveness of {Fear} also increases by 0.1%.
'That's what I'm talking about!'
Although it reduced his defenses a bit, he wasn't too concerned about it.
Not only was the blade epic ranked, but it also added more extra stats than his beloved {Bloody katana}. The blade was extremely long and shaped like a nodachi. It was also raven black, with a devilish-looking eye on the hilt. The blade came with a scabbard that looked just as menacing as the blade itself, with plenty of devilish runes inscribed onto it.
Cain attached the scabbard to his waist and drew the blade.
SHLING!
The blade didn't seem to reflect any light whatsoever. It was engraved with the same type of patterns as its scabbard.
'It's heavy as well.' It's weight was three times that of the {Bloody Katana}, but its durability made up for that, being double that of the {Bloody Katana}.
A grin slowly expanded across his face as he examined the blade. It was not pleasing to look at at all, and some might even find it scary. However, Cain saw only how much potential the blade had to give.
He got into a stance, holding the body of the blade perpendicular to the ground. With the precision of a machine due to his high control stat, he drew the blade across the desk. The blade had no resistance at all when it made contact with the desk and was easily divided into two halves.
Cain performed even more swings with the blade, marveling at how perfectly suited it was for him. The weight of the blade was perfect, and the grip was even more perfect. The grip of the blade was long enough for him to wield it as a two-handed weapon. That way, he was able to either wield it with one hand or both his hands.
'Poison resistance as well... I wonder how that will help me in the future.'
Maybe because the mana shard came from a devil, but its effects were not as satisfying to Cain as opposed to that of the devil orb.
Cain brought his status screen up to analyze his current stats;
Name: {Cain Lenosi}
Level: 15.
Strength: 60 (30).
Agility: 74 (20).
Stamina: 0/49.
Vitality: 32.
Defense: 22 (-5).
Control: 3.4 (0.2).
Perception: 2.5.
HP: 50/3,200.
MP: 0/2,100.
Magic: 42.
Resistance: Poison- 5%.
Skills: Golden blood, Mana Blade, Lightening Edge, Blade Mastery Lvl. 2, Burst Step, Metal Creation Lvl.1, Golden Severance, Metal Manipulation, Fear, Bloodthirsty.
Titles: Champion of Ashur (locked).
Free attribute points: 10.
System points: 0.
{Inventory}. {Shop}.
{Golden blood level.1}: Upon activation, multiply all physical stats by 2. Consumes 100 MP, and costs 1 point of stamina per second to maintain. Puts the body of the user under great strain. (1000/10000 SP). This is an internal skill, hence, it can be upgraded.
{Mana Blade}: Coat the surface of your blade with destructive mana to deal an extra 200% damage when attacking. It Consumes 5MP per second to sustain. Note:This is an external active skill, and cannot be upgraded.
{Lightening Edge: Increase attack speed by 100%. Critical rate increases by 5% when the skill is used. Cost 100MP to activate.
Cooldown: 1 minute.
{Blade Mastery lvl. 2.} (passive): Increases attack power and speed with bladed weapons by 30%. Increases critical chance and rate by 5%. (500/9,000SP).
{Burst Step}: Expell mana from beneath the feet, creating propulsion that allows the host to change trajectory abruptly when in motion. Increases movement speed by 30%.
Costs 5MP per activation. No cooldown.}
{Metal Creation Lvl 1.}: Gather the Metal elemental attribute mana to create constructs of metal. The effects of the skill are influenced by the host's magic and control stats, as well as imagination. (0/5,000SP).
{Golden Severance}: Condense an immense amount of metal attribute elemental mana into a concentrated beam of world light, capable of splitting anything it comes in contact with only for a single attack, and increases attack power by 500%. The attack consumes 500MP upon usage.
Cooldown: 5 minutes.
{Metal Manipulation}: Grants the ability to freely control metal of weight that does not exceed 1 ton. Skill is leveled up simultaneously with the {Metal Creation} skill.
{Fear} (passive): Release a malevolent aura akin to a devil, inflicting fear onto your opponent. Decreases opponent movement and attack speed by 5%.
{Bloodthirsty} (passive): Consume the blood and flesh of fallen enemies to increase the power of the Devil's broken claw. For every 100 enemies slain and absorbed, attack speed and attack power increase by 1%.
He had become so powerful in just two days. Imagine how powerful would become in a week, or more. He was probably strong enough to punch a hole through a wall made of reinforced concrete with how high his strength was. He had around 9 times the strength of his former self, which is equivalent to each hand having almost one ton of force behind every hit. However, with his control stat so high, he was able to perform normal actions without any inconvenience or difficulty.
"I should probably get going."
Once Cain was sure he was done with his preparations, he left the classroom.
***
Cain met up with the others in the hallways in front of the doors to the hall where he had his fight with the {Miasma Devil}. He could see that the others were looking at the zombies that lay sprawled out in front of the staircase. They all had varying expressions on their faces as they looked at the corpses of those who were once humans. They left the corpses there because they were scared of getting infected by whatever caused the deceased to turn into zombies.
"Sigh... We all have to be careful, or we might end up like those on the ground." David said as he looked at the corpses on the ground with sad eyes.
"How the hell did this even happen?" Vincent asked as he squinted, the fat on his turning his eyes into slits speaking lengths of his seriousness.
"If I have to guess, this was most likely caused by the devil Cain defeated," Hunter said, his cold eyes analyzing the corpses.
"Why do you think so?" Vincent asked curiously.
"There are many reasons why, but the most obvious reasons are that Cain and the devil had fought in the main hall. That is where we last saw those below us alive."
"Oh?... But that still doesn't prove-"
"They also smell the same," Hunter said as he covered his nose to block out the offensive odor of the corpses.
"Well, if it was the reason for all these people turning into zombies, why didn't it infect Cain during their fight?" Susan asked him with raised brows.
"If my suspicions are correct, it most likely has something to do with the cooldown of the skill. Perhaps the duration of the fight was longer than the time it took for the cooldown to elapse."
As they were all engrossed in analyzing the dead zombies, they didn't even notice him approaching...
"Ehem... I'm here."
Cain let out a cough, signaling his arrival.
Heads turned towards him...
"You are here!" Susan exclaimed.
"Yeah... Sorry, I took a bit of time getting prepared."
"That makes all of us. We should get going." David said once everyone in the group had been accounted for.
"Let's go!"
***
Staring into the sky, Cain couldn't tell if the night was approaching, or not. The atmosphere was tainted with gloominess, as the grey clouds above didn't seem to have any intentions of leaving.
Taking a deep breath, he exhaled a white cloud of steam, telling of how low the atmospheric temperature was.
"Brrrr! Why is It so freaking cold outside?!" Vincent said while gnashing his teeth as he rubbed his palms together, trying to generate some modicum of heat.
"It's been like this for a while now. It's been getting more and more freezing by the day." David said.
Cain observed the group before him...
Vincent the fatty held a rifle gun on his shoulders. The gun was covered in many runic patterns giving it all sorts of mystical vibes.
Blaze held unto a long spear that was even taller than himself. The spear affected the surroundings around him, causing the temperature to be a bit higher. The spear was also covered in crimson runic patterns. Coupled with his serious face and blazing red hair, he looked very handsome and heroic.
Manny was armed with a pair of identical bastard swords, stark green in color, with wings at the hilt. A smirk was playing at the corner of his lips, as they rested on his shoulders, giving him an air of wildness.
Steve held a wooden staff that had a multi-colored gem embedded on its head, and David had a decorated iron shield as well as a short axe as his weapon. The shield he held was different from the one he had used when they fought the {Bladed Devil}. Susan held onto a pure white long bow, while Hunter held onto a red short bow. As for Dan, he didn't hold onto any weapon, but he did wear a pair of fighting gloves.
Together with Cain's pitch-black blade, they were quite the colorful group...
"Cool sword!" Vincent gazed at the blade attached to Cain's hip with sparkling eyes.
"Yours isn't bad either."
Cain was surprised to see the fatty holding a gun. He had previously thought the only weapons available to them were cold weapons, but apparently, he still had much to discover...
"Let's get going. It'll get even more freezing by nightfall."
