The second was He Jijun. Although he was the oldest among them, he was the most experienced in battle. Moreover, his hidden ability was "old but vigorous," so there was no need to worry about his combat strength declining due to age.
The third was Wei Zhenguo, one of Wang Tao’s earliest acquaintances and a friend whose character and strength were both recognized by Wang Tao.
The last was Han Rui, who was the second person to follow Wang Tao, and her own strength was certainly strong enough.
After confirming the candidates, Wang Tao had them start fusing with the Ascension Crystal Cores. Each of them had four abilities, so they needed a total of 16 Ascension Crystal Cores.
All these Ascension Crystal Cores were of Excellent and Epic quality. Without any accidents, all four of them succeeded in the fusion.
Next up was the fusion with the Awakening Key. Just like with the Crystal Cores, they placed the Awakening Keys in their mouths, and the fusion was quickly completed.
"I think I can feel the Awakening Key…"
Lan Yulian spoke in amazement.
She could clearly "see" a light point in her body resembling a star. It seemed that with just a thought, she could begin the Awakening!
Hearing Wang Tao’s words, the four immediately chose to Awaken!
They instantly felt the Secret Keys inside their bodies disappear, and then their HP limits began to plummet. 110,000 HP dropped to 10,000 in the blink of an eye!
Wang Tao had previously had them fuse with HP Enhancement Crystal Cores, so their HP limit was 110,000.
"One of my abilities disappeared!"
Lan Yulian exclaimed.
After the two of them spoke, they felt very tired and immediately laid their heads down on the table.
The remaining Wei Zhenguo and Han Rui glared at each other.
"My ability is still there…"
Wang Tao said somewhat helplessly,
"Then it seems you two have failed."
The onlookers nearby were all stunned.
Although Wang Tao had said that there was a 50% probability of failure on the first Awakening, seeing two out of four people fail right before their eyes made their hearts sink instantly. This was really a 50% failure rate!
Moreover, after a first failure, further Awakenings would become more difficult, and the success rate would decreasingly become even less, eventually dropping to 10%!
Wang Tao was also quite helpless. It was said to be 50%, and indeed it was 50%; out of the four, only two had succeeded...
Seeing Wei Zhenguo and Han Rui appearing somewhat out of spirits, Wang Tao went over and patted their shoulders, saying,
"Don’t be too sad about it, failure is nothing to worry about. We still have chances, and as I told you before, there is a way for an Awakener to increase the success rate of others’ Awakenings, but that method requires time to accumulate. In other words, as long as we have enough time, everyone will be able to Awaken!"
The method Wang Tao was talking about was that after accumulating 100 Awakening Keys, one could extract an Advanced Awakening Secret Key. An Advanced Awakening Secret Key had a 70% success rate.
However, an Advanced Awakening Secret Key required the collection of 100 Awakening Keys to work, which meant having to kill 100 Level 4 Lords!
Wang Tao currently only had 12 keys, which was far from enough. But if zombies and monsters of Level 4 Lords become more common in the future, his collection speed would increase rapidly...
"It’s okay, it’s just Awakening! No big deal! You all Awaken first, and then you can just protect me later, haha!"
Wei Zhenguo first sighed, then laughed.
He was somewhat disappointed, but not heartbroken.
If they could Awaken, that was best; if not, there was no need for excessive disappointment. Wei Zhenguo felt fortunate just to be alive, considering each additional day as a bonus. He just felt a bit guilty for wasting a few of Wang Tao’s Crystal Cores and Awakening Keys.
Compared to Wei Zhenguo, Han Rui was very upset.
She wanted to quickly improve her strength to help Wang Tao, but now it seemed she was more likely to hold him back... After all, she would need two Awakening Keys for her next try, and her Awaken probability had also decreased to 40%. Logically, it was not suitable for her to attempt Awakening again; it would be better to give this chance to someone else.
Seeing Han Rui biting her lip, tears welling up in her eyes, Wang Tao kissed her forehead.
"Alright, don’t worry about it. Even if you fail again in the future, I’ll still protect you!"
Wang Tao didn’t realize that his words only made Han Rui feel worse.
She couldn’t bear the thought of being the only one to remain at Level 3 while others succeeded in their Awakenings, still needing Wang Tao’s protection...How was she any different from being useless?
Han Rui burst into tears and buried herself in Wang Tao’s arms.
"...If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all!"
Ding Yuqin gave Wang Tao a look, then quickly took Han Rui into her arms to comfort her.
Wang Tao shrugged his shoulders and then said,
"Take Old He back to his room. By this time tomorrow, we’ll know what they have Awakened into!"
Wei Zhenguo and the others carried He Jijun away. Wang Tao, meanwhile, carried Lan Yulian to his own room.
He was very much looking forward to Lan Yulian’s Awakening; after all, a significant increase in her strength was akin to an enhancement of the team’s overall strength under Wang Tao.
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At two o’clock in the afternoon, Cui Sheng came over again.
"Mr. Wang, the City Hall has decided to open some of the meteorites this afternoon to assess the situation. Do you have time to be there?"
Cui Sheng was quite an interesting man. Despite having Wang Tao’s contact information, Cui Sheng never reached out but would always come in person for any matter.