After the acid slime died, Michael felt a surge of power flood through him.
His mind sharpened, his strength increased, his defense tightened, and his speed quickened.
Michael thought happily.
Unlike the previous level-up, where he only felt pain, this time he could clearly sense the changes that came with leveling up.
And since he leveled up twice in a row, the boost in strength was even more pronounced.
Excited, Michael immediately checked his status to see the results.
[Name: Michael Norman]
[Class: Necromancer Apprentice]
[Strength: 2.2(0.6^)]
[Constitution: 4.0(0.6^)]
[Intelligence: 7.5(2.0^)]
[Attribute Points: 13]
[Skills: Undead Summoning, Undead Revival, Detect, Basic Shot]
[Talent: Infinite Evolution]
[Class Skill: Contract Slot{0/8}]
[Gift: Mark Of Origin]
Seeing his newly updated status, Michael felt a surge of emotion.
In just a little over an hour in the Land of Origin, he had transformed into someone monstrous by human standards.
What thrilled Michael most was the increase in his attribute points, the foundation of his power. The sight of 13 attribute points filled him with joy.
'13 attribute points. Including the one I saved from my previous level-up, I gained six from levelling up to level 3 and another six from reaching level 4.'
'Should I use them now?'
Michael was a bit conflicted, like having a sudden windfall without knowing where to spend it, even though the possibilities were endless.
Considering how he might leverage these points for another power boost, Michael paid attention to his stats.
'My strength is now twice that of an average human. Even though it's my weakest stat, it's still very strong. For now, I don't need to increase it since I haven't felt the need.'
Strength wasn't a priority for a necromancer, but without any undead under his command, Michael was still essentially operating as a fake one.
Then, there was his agility.
'It increased by an entire point, bringing my agility to nearly six times that of an average human. I'm probably not inferior in speed to most level 8-10 monsters, unless they're specialised in agility.'
Michael felt confident in his assessment. Since monsters lacked attribute points and relied solely on their race for stat boosts, even a level 5 monster specialised in speed might barely edge him out in agility—if at all.
'For one, I haven't seen any monsters other than slimes in this building. For now, I don't need to increase my speed since it's already sufficient,' Michael thought, moving on to the next stat—his constitution.
Without hesitation, he added one point to his constitution, raising it to five times that of an average human.
The reasoning was simple: more vitality meant he'd be harder to kill. Plus, seeing his attribute points at even numbers was visually satisfying.
There wasn't much to say about his intelligence stat. For now, it remained largely useless.
One intriguing aspect of stats was that, when a stat related to one's class reached increments of 20 points, there was a 50% chance of gaining a new skill.
Sometimes, one could even gain skills related to other, unrelated stats for every 20-point increase.
However, a 50% chance didn't guarantee a skill every 40 points.
One could potentially accumulate 100 points in a stat without receiving any skill.
With his 13 attribute points, Michael could have invested in intelligence to try unlocking a skill, but it would be a risky gamble. If he failed, there'd be no undoing it.
"Even though necromancer Awakeners are rare, I doubt I'm the first whose starting location has made it inconvenient to have an undead. There should be a solution on the Supers Association forum—I'll check it out once I'm back."
Ultimately, Michael decided to save his attribute points for later when he'd truly need them. His current strength was already sufficient.
Closing his panel, he approached the 'corpse' of the acid slime. Unfortunately, the only loot he found was the acid slime core—no spirit crystal this time.
Michael wasn't too disappointed; he'd anticipated it. If spirit crystals were common, they wouldn't be so precious.
Stashing the acid slime core in his Mark of Origin, Michael set off in search of more monsters.