Dante did not waste time placing his hands on its corpse and using his now F rank Absorption Superpower. Unfortunately, the rules stated that one kept the same superpower from when they first descended, but it would be reset to the F rank.
A greenish light mixed with red hues emerged from the Yao Guai's corpse that flowed into Dante's body through his hands like electricity, causing him to moan slightly. He was not ashamed by this, as he knew the addictive effect of using this particular superpower.
However, Dante naturally cared more for the actual effect.
Player Name: Dante
Player Race: Human
HP: 125/125
Strength: 10.7 -> 12.1
Agility: 10.7 -> 11.3
Dexterity: 10.7 -> 10.8
Intelligence: 10.7 -> 10.74
Constitution: 10.7 -> 12.2
Vitality: 10.7 -> 12.5
Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)
Radiation Index: 0% (Safe)
Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.?
Dante wanted to roar to the sky as he was filled with excitement at his newfound power. This was how it should be! Even though the free gene treatment was helpful, Dante knew he would always be behind if he relied on it.
It was only like this could he have a chance to catch up to and surpass the denizens of this universe in terms of stats. With more diverse superpowers and his base Quantum Entanglement becoming stronger, he would also have more ways to surpass the Eternal Universe in terms of technology, military power, and whatnot.
Like this, Dante picked up the E Rank Mutation Core from the monster's shriveled corpse and then pocketed it. He already knew that it was unlike to find another E Rank monster nearby unless he moved to a new territory.
According to the forums, the Apocalypse World was very simple and could be split into grids. Every grid was 10 kilometers and apart from human-controlled territories which spanned tens of grids, every individual grid was controlled by one E-rank monster and hundreds of F ranks.
Every 10 grids, which was every 100 kilometers, was controlled by a D-rank monster that had 10 E-rank monsters below it and countless F-ranks. Every 100 grids - which was every 1000 kilometers - was the territory of a C-rank monster, and so on.
In the whole Apocalypse World, there were 10 EX Rank monsters who ruled over all, 100 SSS Rank monsters who were their commanders and elders, 1000 SS Rank monsters who were their colonels and deacons, 10000 S Rank monsters who were the majors as well as instructors.
As for the 100,000 A Rank and below, they were just different levels of fodder to those above for the gap between A Rank and S rank was steeper than the gap between F rank to A rank.
Dante was currently located in an E-rank grid. If he traveled towards the south, he would soon reach the nearest outpost close to his city, as players always descended close to the city. So less than 10 kilometers away was the destination he was looking for.
Dante dashed over at crazy speeds, his feet leaving afterimages as they moved rapidly. Despite this, he did not leave any visible footprints on the ground, especially for something very slight to show that he did require a solid platform to maintain his movement.
He was already at the edge of the outpost in a matter of minutes. He slowed down to a more humane speed and then sized up the small town-like establishment. Like the other time, he greeted the guards and stated his identity, winning himself some looks of pity.
They then set him up but he didn't bother to go and rest like before or meet the pet he was given. He went straight to the armory of this outpost's military and exchanged his E Rank Mutation core for weapons and armor.
This time, he chose lightweight kevlar armor that would not hamper speed or movement, one sniper rifle which was still the Barrett 50.cal, and one halberd that was more like a naginata than an extended poleaxe.
He then spent the rest of his money on buying a bit of ammo for his weapon, more medicine for radiation or mutation, and a watch that displayed his location in real-time. Of course, the armory straight-up told him that for the watch to work, they would be monitoring him at all times.
That was kinda obvious, and Dante did not care since NPCs did not interfere too much with players. Even if they did, he was not scared of them at all. In fact, he welcomed it, since the more of a 'ruckus' he caused, the higher his score.
Instanced Worlds usually had a fixed goal for you to achieve and your score was calculated based on how well you achieved it and the steps you took to achieve it.
ραΠdαsΝοvel.cοm Shared Worlds were 'alive' and did not have a plot or storyline mission for you to complete, so you were graded based on many things, mostly how much of an impact you made during your time.
Dante rushed out of the outpost at full speed. For him, every second of the next 30 days was crucial and apart from sleeping or eating, he planned to be 'hard at work'.
He disappeared into the bushes to the shock of the guards, who shared looks of dismay. Was this fellow on drugs or was he a descendant of that old comic hero?
Dante entered the wild and moved into a new grid from the Yao Guai, aiming to kill the E Rank monster here. On his way, he naturally found many F-rank monsters to kill and he only swung his naginata a few times in order to dispatch them.
He stopped to suck their essence and collect their cores. After accumulating ten, he naturally crushed and absorbed them to raise his Absorption Superpower back to the E Rank he was familiar with.
[Superpower Name: Absorption
Superpower Rank: E
Superpower Description: Allows the user to absorb the energy of a defeated foe, increasing their own SDI by a moderate amount.]
That was a 20% gain on all stats, so he was definitely going to get more for his money's worth.
Unfortunately, the issue was that Dante would struggle to get Absorption above the A Rank. Just like with monsters having a huge gap between the A and S ranks, superpower players had a huge issue getting through the A Rank.
No one, NO ONE, in the history of the Eternal Academy, had reached the S rank for their superpower. The majority did not even reach the C grade, much less get to the A Rank and consider breaking through this limit.
Most of those who got to the A-rank were Unique Batch students like Dante with two superpowers. Using their real superpower and the world-given one, they could barely match A-Rank monsters in battle.
The reason for this was simple. Players or students had an SDI of 1 point in all fields unless they had a superpower that boosted one stat, like Harold's extremespeed that bumped his Agility and Dexterity to 40 points at the F Rank, or Lucian who enjoyed a 15 SDI boost to his Intelligence at the F rank.
As they rose in Rank with their superpower, these boosts and their sub-abilities would increase comprehensively, but so too would monsters. Monsters already had SDIs of 1-10 when at the F Rank and 10-30 at the E Rank.
Imagine those at the A Rank. Would their SDIs be in the thousands?
Even if you had two superpowers that gave you great power, your SDI was still 1 point in reality. How could you shoot a fireball or create an earth shield when your foe is no different from the flash in your eyes?
You'd then wonder, what about superpowers like Absorption? Absorption was just a facet of the Devouring superpower that was more in tune with nature since it only extracted corpses. There were variants in reality that could be extracted from living things and even inanimate objects, so what about those?
Are you saying that students who descended with this superpower were not able to rise?
Far from it. Devouring and its kin were rated as one of the best superpowers for this particular setting, and allowed one to raise their SDI slowly to match or surpass monsters of the same Rank.
The issue lay in the fact that monsters did not just rely on their raw stats to survive and dominate this world. Just like the Withering Irradiated Zombie which had the ability to stun with its roar, monsters of each Rank above the F Rank had their own 'superpower'.
That wasn't fair! How was anyone supposed to clear this world then if things were so heavily skewed against players?
Pfff…. Hahaha!
My Brother In Christ, that is exactly the point, they don't want you to clear this world, not even close.
Otherwise, wouldn't you be able to sleep in the Black Land every day given the advantages that were given players coupled with the higher payout per score achieved?
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)