"Although the promotion to a higher rank finally unlocked the requirements for further skill upgrades after reaching LV.MAX, it’s totally not something to be excited about. Just raising a first-tier professional skill costs two hundred thousand soul points; there’s no way I can gather that many in a short period of time."
Looking at the lengthy list of upgrade requirements before him, Zhang Yanhang quickly set a short-term upgrade plan.
He planned to first raise Death Wave, Supreme Will, and Indestructible Golden Body to LV.MAX and then start upgrading first-tier professional skills. During this process, Zhang Yanhang would decide whether to upgrade the Limitless Universe Skill based on the situation.
In comparison to the professional skills of Heavenly Destiny Master, Limitless Universe Skill was quite cheap to upgrade, only requiring 2,100 soul points to advance to the second tier.
"Speaking of which, it’s amazing that upgrading Death Wave, Supreme Will, and Indestructible Golden Body only requires fifty soul points each. I remember the initial professional skill of the first tier also needed only fifty soul points. Could it be that these second-tier skills also maintain the same soul point requirement as the first-tier skills?"
Zhang Yanhang thought it over carefully; if the upgrade really only required that level of soul points, it would be quite favorable for him, already promoted to the second tier.
"So, I choose option seven, raising the Death Wave skill level to LV.2." If the upgrade cost for the second-tier abilities was the same as before, then the remaining one thousand plus soul points could unexpectedly level up several skills.
After consecutively upgrading the Death Wave skill several times, Zhang Yanhang reexamined its skill effects.
[Death Wave LV.5 (Passive/Active)]
[Passive effect: Weaken enemy’s defense by 5% (+4%).]
[Active effect: Upon skill activation, inflicts 125 (+100) + 2.5 (+2.0) × 42 (Intelligence) + 2.5 (+2.0) × 16 (Charm) = 270 points (+224 points) of fixed damage to everyone within coverage.
Coverage radius 250 meters (+200 meters), can only inflict damage once per target within 24 hours. No cooldown time, consumes a small amount of physical strength.]
"Indeed, with each upgrade, the increase is almost exponential. Just 750 soul points spent, and it boosted the fixed damage by 224 points, and the coverage range also shot up to 250 meters..."
Zhang Yanhang noticed that, aside from the initial 125 points of fixed damage, the Intelligence and Charm coefficients had also increased significantly with the upgrades, jumping from the original 0.5 to 2.5. Updates are released by NoveIꜰire.net
"If the addition coefficients are of this magnitude, then upgrading Charm would be quite beneficial. Even though the increase from Charm is only 40 points now, if I raise Charm to a level close to Intelligence, then the bonus effect from Charm could at least be over a hundred points."
Zhang Yanhang felt that if Charm could bring an additional hundred points of fixed damage, it would be quite impressive, especially since a first-tier two-stars Licker’s maximum life value was only 150 points.
"After raising Death Wave to LV.5, the fixed damage increased to 270 points. With this kind of fixed damage, I can directly use Death Wave to one-shot the majority of first-tier monsters, especially since even a first-tier three-stars Gamma Type Hunter has only 225 life points..."
Zhang Yanhang was planning to clean out the Crimson Iron Ant Nest next, where the majority were first-tier monsters. The Death Wave skill should prove to be very effective there.
After upgrading Death Wave, Zhang Yanhang opened his soul point balance to have a look.
[Soul Points: 394 (-750)]
After upgrading Death Wave to LV.5, Zhang Yanhang confirmed something – the upgrade requirements for Death Wave were indeed the same as first-tier period skills.
Upgrading to LV.2 consumed fifty soul points, LV.3 consumed one hundred points, LV.4 consumed two hundred points, and LV.5 consumed four hundred points, together precisely using seven hundred and fifty soul points.
"If the consumption is only to this extent, then perhaps I can use the remaining 394 soul points to upgrade Indestructible Golden Body some more."
Zhang Yanhang thought for a moment, deciding that since he only had 394 soul points left, which served little purpose undeployed, it would be best to use them to upgrade Indestructible Golden Body.
"Choose! Increase skill level!" Along with Zhang Yanhang’s own choice, Time Pause descended once again.
After quickly upgrading Indestructible Golden Body, Zhang Yanhang immediately checked the skill effects.
[Indestructible Golden Body LV.4 (Passive/Active)]
[Passive effect: Life value +20% (+15%)]
[Active effect: Upon skill activation, the body parts covered by Golden Body effect gain +100% (+75%) defense power, +20% (+15%) attack power, currently covers the following parts: both arms and feet. No cooldown time, consumes a tiny amount of physical strength.]
"A 20% increase in the maximum life value, that’s great. Although I haven’t checked how much my current maximum life value is, an increase of at least 20% should add several hundred points to my life value limit.
And, the covered range has significantly increased. It was just the hands before, but now it’s both arms and feet. If I upgrade a few more times, I should definitely be able to cover the whole body. What’s more critical is that the defense bonus has shot up to one hundred percent, an incredibly significant increase."
Zhang Yanhang valued the passive effect that increased the life value limit, as an apparent 20% lift in life value actually implied a 30% increase in the Shield Value Limit.
After reviewing the effects of Indestructible Golden Body, Zhang Yanhang checked his soul point balance again.
[Soul Points: 44 (-350)]
"44 points, I’m just six soul points short of being able to upgrade Supreme Will again. But all my Treasure boxes have been opened, not a single one left. Since I’ve finished upgrading the skills, what should I do next?"
Zhang Yanhang thought carefully, then opened his Life Value to check.
[Life Value: 1649/1649 (Constitution × 20 (+5), current body has been officially datafied, Life Value recovery speed, 14 points per hour (+9 points).)]
"It’s risen so much, almost doubling compared to before." Zhang Yanhang remembered his previous life value limit was only 849 points, but now it had risen to 1649 points, an increase of 800 points.
"After this rank promotion, the maximum life value conversion coefficient has risen by five points, from the original fifteen to the current twenty..." Zhang Yanhang meticulously calculated, of the 1649 life points, 900 came directly from the basic Constitution Attribute.