Awakening: Reincarnating With the SSS-Level Extraction Talent

But before doing that, he made sure to use his [Skill Evolution] perk.

Ding!

[You have evolved "Fire Tornado" (High-Tier) to "Rain of Fire" (Max-Tier)]

[Rain of Fire; Deals 500% of your spirit to enemies in a large area and has a chance to deal the "Burn" effect; consumes 250,000 mana; one-minute cooldown.]

"Hm..." Alex, for the first time, even though he had gotten such a powerful skill, was perplexed.

His [Spirit] attribute was at 8313, meaning that he only had 83,130 MP, and so even with the 50% reduction for mana cost, the cost was still too much for him to cast it.

And to make it even better, or worse, who knows.

Ding!

[You can synthesize "Rain of Fire" with one of your other skills.]

It didn\'t take him long to figure out which one it was.

[Rain of Fire (Max-Tier) + Fire Meteor (Max-Tier) = ???]

A skill that merged these two would indeed be immensely powerful, but the mana cost would be too much for him to handle.

He decided not to do it.

And so without wasting time, he immediately took everything he needed, and left the comfort of the [Fox Tribe Village] with Alice.

"See you later," Alera waved at him, confident that not only him, but Alice too would need her help with Alex\'s curse.

"Cya," Alex nodded before disappearing behind a tree.

...

[You have entered the "Mystical Forest"]

He had only sent his undead scavenging for "Magic Crystals" before, meaning that he had never truly entered this area.

Going through the forest was fairly easy for him, as any monster that he met was instantly killed using his spells or [Bleeding Strike].

It had only 5% of chance to cause [Bleed] to an enemy, but every time it did, Alex would focus on his [Art] and try to control it.

[Blood Arts (Low Mastery): Able to control your blood, as well as those of allies and monsters, to create weapons, skills, and summons to aid you.]

As the description says, it is possible to control the blood of monsters to create the [Blood Blades].

Though, whenever he tried, their blood wouldn\'t even move.

Slash!

He would sometimes slash his own palm to make sure his powers were good to go.

And as expected, he was able to summon a certain amount of [Blood Blades] based on how much blood poured out from his wound.

-2,000!

Though that meant dealing damage to himself.

To master the ability to control the blood of others, he would have to test it on people close to him, and he categorically refused to force Alice or Alera to do that.

He would just need to deal with it himself, like he always did.

After a few hours, and dozens of extractions, both [Attribute Points] and [x18 Magic Crystals] for later use, something strange happened.

Rustle! Rustle!

He heard a sound in the distance, and though at first he believed it was monsters, he heard actual voices.

"So the demons expect us to find that shithole in the middle of this forest?" a rough voice could be heard.

"I say we give up, it\'s not even worth it." another proposed.

"I agree, who even cares about the foxes, they\'re weak compared to the other beast tribes," a third added.

Alex hid behind a tree, holding his hand over Alice\'s mouth in case she wanted to speak.

He couldn\'t afford to be seen or heard.

Because...

[Orc Tribe Members - Tier 6 - Level 400]

These 2 meters tall beings with green skin and big muscles were insanely strong, basically, they shouldn\'t be in this forest.

"..." Alex observed, making sure not to interact with them.

Even with his powers, he wasn\'t sure he could beat tier 6 beings like these.

Plus, listening on them could grant good information.

"I\'m too lazy, let\'s just tell the others we found nothing," the orc leader among the three, wearing some sort of bone necklace, groaned.

"Seriously, asking us to come all the way here for a bunch of foxes, who even cares about them when they won\'t even be able to do anything during the [Competition]."

"Let\'s go."

The three orcs were finally fed, and walked in the opposite direction, probably attempting to leave the forest.

The fact they were here, and by their simple dialogue, Alex instantly figured out they had tried to find the [Fox Tribe Village]. .net

A tier 5 demon attack was something when said demons were level 300, but if it was a tier 6 orc attacks, not even Alera would win.

There are dozens upon dozens of races in [Universal Descent], and as the game went on, more would be revealed.

The [Demon Clan], [Fox Clan] and [Orc Clan] were a few of those, though there were more advanced ones like the [Devil Clan], [Angel Clan] and [Spirit Clan].

The fact orcs were here meant that the demons have hired them to check on what happened with the attack, noticing that none of the demons sent were responding.

"No chance the demons could have lost against a bunch of foxes, right?"

"Yeah, I think someone else helped them, as otherwise this should have been an easy victory."

Orcs don\'t work under Demons, don\'t get it twisted, in fact, they are enemies that will, as the game goes on, have many wars between one another.

But right now, both their clans were neutral, meaning that they had no hostilities against one another.

After the orcs left, Alex let out a sigh of relief.

"Those bastards," he gazed at their backs with pure hatred in his eyes, "Didn\'t expect the demons to try something else, even though their leader said he wouldn\'t attack anymore if they survived."

The latter that the fox tribe had been sent clearly stated this:

[Our great demon king "Asmodeus" has decided that an attack will occur on your village a month from now on.]

[Asmodeus is a fair demon, and he informed us that if you survive this attack, he wouldn\'t attack anymore for a while.]

[Though I\'m sure you already know that winning isn\'t possible, and neither is escaping.]

The second line clearly stated that the demons wouldn\'t attack for a while if they survived this encounter.

Yet here they were, sending other clans to do the job.

Though thankfully, they sent the worst clan to do it.

Orcs were powerful in battle, but when it came to everything else, they were extremely lazy.

They hadn\'t even reached the center of the forest that they already gave up!

"Let\'s keep going," Alex nodded after making sure the orcs were gone.

There was a risk of meeting orcs since these three were probably not the only group sent, but it was fine.

Ding!

[You have reached level 121!]

He had gained 7 levels during the expedition, and it was the same for Alice, who held her ground fairly well thanks to her new [Blood Arrows].

Eventually, Alex reached the end of the [Mystical Forest], and as expected, he noticed a massive wall of fog close to it.

"That must be it," he smiled, approaching it.

Ding!

[Do you want to enter the area: "Mystical Temple"?]

[Infernal Difficulty - Level 300]

[Yes] [No]

"Yes!"

Alex stepped cautiously through the dense mist surrounding the [Mystical Temple], Alice close behind.

The atmosphere was thick with unease, the fog pressing in around them like unseen hands.

It didn\'t take long for the air to clear, revealing the structure ahead.

"Here we go," Alex smiled, ready to see what all of this was about.