Chapter 15

The battle was brutal, especially when both sides were evenly matched. After the fight, only Liu Siyi and Lei Ying remained, the others lying in pools of blood.

The battlefield, now calm, only seemed so on the surface; at least that was what Liu Siyi believed. At this moment, he was being stared at by the blood-soaked Lei Ying. The eagle's eyes conveyed a mix of anger, sorrow, killing intent, hesitation, and gratitude, emotions that Liu Siyi never thought a bird could possess. Moreover, Lei Ying, having experienced so much slaughter, exuded a pervasive killing aura, giving Liu Siyi a premonition of death.

Although Lei Ying appeared to be severely injured, with only one leg able to stand, he could not be underestimated.

After all, Lei Ying was a fifth-tier elite unit, while Liu Siyi was only a first-tier unit. Despite the Lightning Rune's enhancement, Lei Ying was also a lightning-based unit, and the effectiveness of lightning attacks on him was unknown.

"Lightning Speed!" Liu Siyi accelerated himself again. As long as Lei Ying couldn't fly, he shouldn't be able to outrun him on the ground. Moreover, if the eight tigers could hold him off for a while, even if they couldn't kill him, escaping would be no problem.

Would Lei Ying, the guardian of the nest, abandon the nest to pursue him relentlessly?

Liu Siyi silently chanted a spell. This time, he didn't intend to use lightning-based magic but instead a third-tier fire magic, Chain Fireballs.

His remaining mental and magical energy was just enough for one Chain Fireball. If he couldn't kill Lei Ying, at least he could take out the dwarf hero, providing some solace.

"Charge!" Through the mental link, he issued the command. The eight tigers instantly leaped out, emitting low growls as they charged at Lei Ying.

Using the tigers as the main attack, the best outcome would be to kill Lei Ying, but if that wasn't possible, they would at least restrict him, allowing the Chain Fireballs to unleash their full power.

Liu Siyi truly didn't believe Lei Ying could survive this.

As a lightning-based unit, Lei Ying would naturally suffer less damage from lightning. After all, this wasn't a game where damage could be precisely calculated. No one could guarantee how much damage lightning would inflict on him.

"Powerful hero, please accept my surrender."

Just as the tigers were about to pounce, and Liu Siyi's Chain Fireballs were almost ready to be released, Lei Ying suddenly spoke, his voice deep and resonant, nearly causing Liu Siyi to fail and suffer a magical backlash.

"Accept!"

"Stop the attack!" Sensing the mental link from Lei Ying, Liu Siyi immediately ordered the tigers to halt, preventing an unexpected incident.

The moment Lei Ying surrendered, Liu Siyi, through his inheritance, understood the reason. It was the rules of this world at play.

In this game world, each race had its unique language, but there was also a divine language created by the gods, understood by all creatures. Not every unit could speak this language, but they could understand it from the moment they were born. Races that relied on verbal communication, such as humans, orcs, elves, and dwarves, could speak the common language. Other races, like dragonflies, griffins, and Lei Ying, could not speak it at birth but would gradually learn as they gained strength or intelligence.

What if you couldn't defeat the opponent? You ran, of course. But if you couldn't run, there were two rules in this world to resolve the issue: surrender and allegiance.

Surrender was simple. Even if you couldn't speak, lying on the ground and giving up resistance was a form of surrender.

Surrender was unconditional. If you accepted it, the opponent would never betray you, at least not as a unit. If the opponent was a hero, that was a different story.

Allegiance was different. Like surrender, it also prevented betrayal, except for heroes. The difference was that the opponent might follow you due to your strength, your help, or the need for gold. In any case, you would have to pay gold for each unit that followed, though the amount varied.

Another significant difference was that if you didn't accept a surrender in the wild, the result would be either one side fleeing or continuing the battle. With allegiance, if the hero didn't agree, no battle would occur unless one side attacked.

Liu Siyi understood all this instantly, but he was still confused about when he had become a hero.

Becoming a hero required at least a two-tier advancement, which he hadn't achieved. Heroes also had their own storage space, which he didn't have.

Of course, he couldn't be a hero. The Advanced Reconnaissance Skill had already determined he was a high-level variant elite first-tier unit.

Elite units could only lead subordinates under specific conditions, such as Lei Ying guarding the nest and commanding the thunderbirds, or leading troops under a hero's orders to clear wild monsters.

The key was the mutation. There were many conditions for mutation, but there were roughly two types. The results of mutation varied widely, from increased size, additional heads or tails, to skill mutations, and so on.

Thinking about this, Liu Siyi was at least certain that his mutation had given him the ability to lead troops, like a hero.

The ability to accept surrender proved that even if the mutation didn't grant him the exact hero ability, it was something similar.

Mutation involved higher-level rules, which Liu Siyi couldn't fully understand. Regardless, he had somehow become a hero in Lei Ying's eyes, possessing some of the abilities of a hero in this world, such as recruiting units.

What he didn't know was whether he had also gained other hero abilities, such as occupying nests, castles, and resource sites, and then recruiting units...

If so, he could develop his forces and increase his power sooner.

While Liu Siyi was still thinking, the battle ended because all the dwarves were dead, and Lei Ying had surrendered. Light orbs of light green, light yellow, and orange floated from the corpses. Some were absorbed by Lei Ying, visibly healing his wounds. Others entered Liu Siyi's body, causing him to level up again. The rest dissipated into the air, as those who could have absorbed them were already dead.

The rules were clear: a unit could only generate a certain amount of evolutionary power, which was distributed based on the contribution to the kill.

A surge of power flooded Liu Siyi's body, making him feel incredibly comfortable. But as the light orbs disappeared, the tingling and pain from the body's evolution returned. As a mage, the physical pain wasn't too severe, but the mental strain was intense. This time, Liu Siyi knew it was just the feeling of leveling up and wouldn't cause his head to explode.

The leveling up was rapid, and soon Liu Siyi's body emitted a faint blue glow. With this glow, a wonderful feeling of being full of energy and refreshed returned. Not only did his physical strength increase, but his mental and magical power also grew significantly.

The evolutionary power, after enhancing his physical and mental strength, condensed into new skills. However, due to the insufficient evolutionary power or the creation of two skills, the skills were only at the intermediate level.

Intermediate Intelligence: Increases mental strength by 40%.

Intermediate Magic Recovery: Increases magic recovery speed by 40%.

Which intermediate skill should he choose?