Chapter 62: Second Stage Skills

I don't know how long it has been, but I do know that the durability of the blue leather gloves and the original white leather gloves on my hands has already dropped to zero. The gloves I am currently wearing are the ones that dropped from a hungry corpse not long ago. The white hat and the originally tattered traitor hat on my head have long since stopped working, and now my head is completely unprotected. Fortunately, a pair of leather boots and a round shield dropped later, so my defense has actually increased rather than decreased.

The weapon in my hand has now been replaced with a white long dagger, with an attack range of 3-9, slightly higher than the original military knife. The only drawback is that the durability is only 20. The golden leather armor, when its durability was down to 3 points, was promptly replaced. The white super-strong leather armor I put on again has also been scrapped, but it doesn't matter. The last time I killed an elite fallen mage, a blue cloth armor dropped, which I haven't used yet. Although its defense is slightly lower than the leather armor, it adds 2 points of vitality and 4 points of mana, which is quite acceptable.

In addition, my inventory contains a mix of good and bad items, but these are no longer important.

Because I have finally reached level 12.

"Ah..."

I stood with bloodshot eyes, roaring at the top of my lungs, tears streaming uncontrollably. The pain, loneliness, monotony, numbness, helplessness, and even despair of these days, along with the current excitement and joy, all mixed together and were released in this roar.

"Sniff..."

After roaring, I finally couldn't hold back and burst into tears. At this moment, I truly didn't know how to vent the bitterness, sweetness, and pain in my heart. If it weren't for this level-up, which made my emotions burst out, I was really afraid that the negative emotions accumulating in my heart would drive me mad.

If learning the Venomous Vine and the Werewolf Transformation gave me the ability to protect myself, and killing Bisubasu gave me confidence, then now, obtaining the second-stage skills is the beginning of my strength, the capital to truly stand on the Dark Continent.

"Sss..."

The Venomous Vine circled around me, occasionally rubbing against me with its slimy body, as if to comfort me. The raven, who is a bit of a rogue and likes to slack off, also stood obediently on my shoulder, occasionally pecking my hair with its black, hard beak. The strong emotional fluctuations in my heart, which are connected to my summoned creatures, were sensed by them to some extent.

After a long time, my crying gradually stopped. The emotions that had been suppressing me for many days, making me irritable, annoyed, and even hateful, were all released. My bound heart was liberated. I placed the long dagger in front of me, looking at my reflection on it. Those eyes, though still dark, no longer had the brutality, gloom, and numbness. It had been so many days since I noticed the change in my eyes, and I hadn't had the courage to look at myself in a weapon for so long!

After examining for a long time, I rubbed my red eyes and turned around happily, looking at the Venomous Vine and the raven that had been with me all along.

"Are you worried about me? It's okay, I'm much better now."

I touched the Venomous Vine coiled around me; the sticky slime didn't seem as disgusting as I imagined. I then patted the smooth, black head of the raven.

"Little guy, since you did well today, I won't use you as cannon fodder anymore."

"Quack quack..."

The lazy raven seemed quite unhappy with my actions, shaking its head vigorously and then cawing proudly, flying off my shoulder and flapping its wings.

After comforting these two little guys, I took a deep breath and opened the skill menu.

Each stage has 5 skills, and I have been saving my skill points since level 6. Now at level 12, I have accumulated 6 skill points, more than enough to learn these 5 skills.

I clicked through all the second-stage skills in one breath, then tried hard to suppress my excitement and examined each of these second-stage skills.

Bear Transformation (Level 8)

Strength +46% (25% at level 1, +3% per level)

Health +131% (20% at level 1, +8% per level, +55% from transformation bonus)

Defense +60% (25% at level 1, +5% per level)

Damage +90% (20% at level 1, +10% per level)

Attack Speed -15% (fixed)

Duration 220 seconds (40 seconds + 180 seconds from transformation bonus)

Powerful, no wonder it's a second-stage skill, with much higher attribute boosts than Wolf Transformation. However, Wolf Transformation has its own advantages and should be chosen based on the situation.

Molten Boulder (Level 8): Summons a rolling flame boulder that crushes enemies in its path, finally exploding into fragments of fire and creating a small fire sea within a 10-meter radius. Mana cost: 15.

Arctic Storm (Level 8): Fires a series of freezing torrents that burn enemies with frost power. The range of the freezing torrents is 5 meters, with a minimum mana cost of 4, and can be sustained, consuming 6 mana per second.

Oak Sage (Level 8): Increases health points for you and your allies. Health: 185, radius: 30 meters, health +65%. Mana cost: 22.

Summon Ghost Wolf (Level 8): Summons a ghost wolf with teleportation ability to fight for you. Health: 71, maximum number of summonable wolves: 5. Mana cost: 15.

Holy shit, these are too overpowered. I stared at these overpowered skills, my mouth wide open in amazement.

However, these skills are just the basics. To truly unleash their power, they need to be practiced. Unlike in games, where skills are just a set of programmed routines, here, they can be freely modified. The only limit is your imagination and ability. Akara's words came to mind.

"Each class has 30 skills on their soul imprint. These skills can be learned and improved by reaching a certain level and spending skill points. But have you ever wondered why there are only these 30 skills and not others?

Because these 30 skills are the essence of the Dark Continent, accumulated over thousands of years. They are the foundation of all other skills. If you think many of these skills are useless, it just means you are the one who is useless.

But don't think that learning these skills means you can just follow the book and be fine. These skills, while the essence of the Dark Continent, are still just the basics. They are rough, like unprocessed gemstones. Their main purpose is to help you understand and develop your own unique abilities. You need to practice and understand these skills, then find the most suitable way to use them."

Akara was right. There are no useless skills, only useless people. The three skill lines of the Druid—Elemental for magic control, Shapeshifting for combat techniques, and Summoning for mental communication—are all powerful in their own ways. The key is how well you can master them.

Creating new skills from these is still far from my reach. My current goal is to familiarize myself with these skills and improve them, maximizing their effectiveness.

For example, Molten Boulder. I tried it once, and the boulder rolls at a speed of about 3-5 meters per second. In the Dark Continent, anyone with slightly higher agility can dodge it, making it seem useless. But what if I could control its explosion time? It could have surprising effects. For instance, if my target dodges to the side, thinking they are safe as the boulder passes by, and it suddenly explodes, causing massive damage. Or, in close combat, I could make the boulder explode in my hand, and no one around me could dodge it. (One rule of the Dark Continent: your own skills cannot harm you, otherwise, I would have been poisoned when I touched the Venomous Vine.)

Arctic Storm also has a lot of room for improvement, but that will come with practice. Thinking too much about it now is pointless.

Bear Transformation, with high attack and defense, is excellent, but the attack speed is reduced, and there is no movement speed bonus, making it less effective against fast enemies.

Oak Sage is a great skill, but it needs to be controlled carefully. If it wanders around, it could get killed without you knowing. It costs 22 mana to summon, which is almost a third of my total mana.

Summon Ghost Wolf is actually one of my favorite skills, and I think it's even better than the Dire Wolf.

Why? The Ghost Wolf's attack, defense, and health are all lower than the Dire Wolf's, right?

Look at the description. Many people seem to overlook the teleportation ability. In games, this might not be useful, but this is reality, and teleportation is a skill that mages can only learn at level 36!

Before coming to the Dark Continent, I was a passionate gamer. Although my skills weren't great, I had seen many game strategies. One famous tactic, developed by Blizzard, is the drop-and-encircle strategy in StarCraft and World of Warcraft. By dropping soldiers around the enemy, you can immobilize them and then surround and kill them. If I can control the Ghost Wolf's teleportation, then in the future, high-agility, high-mobility enemies will no longer be a threat. Even if the enemy is too strong to encircle, I can still stop them for a moment, especially with the Venomous Vine's chance to immobilize enemies. This is perfect for a sneaky playstyle.

This is why I value the Ghost Wolf more than the Dire Wolf. If used properly, a low-level skill can be just as effective as a high-level one. And my summoned creatures can evolve, so if all five wolves evolve, they might not be much worse than a Dire Wolf.

If I can master this skill before facing the Blood Raven, she won't stand a chance!

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End of Chapter 62