HC:Pacifist | Ch. 200 - Energy Pool

Badger form!

Your intelligence is over 550.

[Inner Awareness] has been upgraded to [Strengthened Neurons].

Strengthened Neurons (Stat Bonus)

Bonus description: Your neurons have become exceedingly fast and resilient, granting you a powerful intellect.

Bonus effects:

+5000 energy;

+20 ep regeneration.

Restrictions: 550+ intelligence.

Your intelligence is over 600.

[Timely] has been upgraded to [Timeless].

Timeless (Stat Bonus)

Bonus description: Due to your great mental strength, the shackles of time can not restrain you.

Bonus effects:

+20% cooldown reduction;

Status effects caused by your skills are slightly strengthened.

Restrictions: 600+ intelligence.

Roth looked in panic as his energy bar reached almost six thousand points, and still wasn’t nearly enough to activate this skill. Not even the combined effects of his [Forest Lambswool] set and its 10% intelligence bonus with his [Stat Prodigy] title were enough to bring his intelligence up to the required level.

“What did you do?”

Roth looked at the old man who had taken a step back and looked at him warily. “What do you mean?”

“Your power level just spiked. What skill is this?”

“It’s a racial skill,” explained Roth.

In the meantime, ColdHand had reached Roth and watched his new badger-like look with no expression. “What’s the matter?”

“I don’t have enough energy to activate the skill.”

Instead of berating him, ColdHand calmly collected data and worked on solving the problem. “How much is needed to activate the skill?”

“10k energy points,” answered Roth, embarrassed.

He heard the old man next to him whistle and saw ColdHand's brow raise slightly. The slight twitch in the man’s expression was the most expressive thing he’d seen him do all day. “How much energy do you have?”

“6000, give or take.”

“Come again?” asked ColdHand, as if he’d misheard. “You mean six hundred. Correct?”

“No. 6k. Six thousand.”

“What? But you’re only level 31,” said the old man. “How can you have more energy than I do?”

“OK. We can still make it work.” ColdHand said. This looked like the kind of leader who never lost his cool, no matter what. He gestured toward the medics, making a beckoning gesture toward Griffin.

The guild leader of the Griffins walked toward them as if a model on a catwalk. She had a graciousness to her that made it look like she didn’t walk but glided.

“What’s up, ColdHand?”

“Do you have [Energy Pool]?” he asked calmly.

“I do,” she said matter-of-factly. “It’s an essential skill for medics.”

“I need you to use it on ticket boy.”

“Does the teleportation gate cost that much energy?” she said, immediately finding the crux of the problem.

“He needs 4000 thousand energy. Do you have that much?”

“Sure,” she said smugly, “You know I have one of the highest energy bars in the game.”

Jaw-Long, to the side, snorted, and Griffin looked at him quizzically. “What’s so funny?”

“Never mind,” interrupted ColdHand. “Please, go for it.”

The lady stretched out her hand toward Roth. “Take my hand,” she said. Roth grabbed her hand. Her skin felt incredibly soft, and he felt his cheeks flush. Griffin, however, didn’t seem to share Roth’s embarrassment.

Energy Pool!

Griffin’s hands shone blue.

You can use Griffin’s energy bar to cast skills.

Roth looked at his energy bar and saw how, from 6000 ep, it had climbed up to 11,000. Part of the energy bar was in the usual yellow, while the added 5,000 were in gray. He sighed in relief. Thank goodness that he could still open the portal.

“Thanks!” he said excitedly. Looking up from his stats to the lady, he could hardly recognize it. Her face was twisted in a terrified expression that aged her decades.

“How on earth do you have this much intelligence?! You’re 20 levels below me! You have a bigger energy bar than I do!” she shrieked.

Jaw-Long, to the side, chuckled at the sight of Griffin stupefied.

“Is that enough?” calmly asked ColdHand, ignoring the yelp of the medic.

“Yes. Thank you.”

Jaw-Long commented: “Another flustered old fox. This is a good day,” he said. Griffin gave him an annoyed look. For some reason, it looked like the old man was having fun watching these top players interact with Roth.

“I’m glad you’re having fun,” said Roth.

He kept holding hands with Griffin, who watched him as if he were a new pair of shoes she wanted to buy. “You must tell me how you got your energy bar so high.” Roth could feel a headache coming. Something told him that these guild leaders would dissect him and steal all his secrets if they could.

“I’m sorry. It’s a unique skill. Even if I told you, it wouldn’t help,” he lied.

“I want to know anyway. I’m willing to pay you good money for it.”

“Let’s go, ticket boy,” spoke ColdHand from the side, interrupting Griffin.

Roth gave him a grateful look, and Griffin recoiled, still looking at Roth greedily. Before she could resume her interrogation, Roth spoke. “Here we go.”

The skill began channeling. The system took over, making him take an impossibly deep breath. Its inhalation provoked a breeze that rustled the leaves. The breeze picked up strength and quickly became a howling wind. The never-ending long breath made Jaw-Long’s dark robes and Griffin's white dress flutter madly like flags in a hurricane. He had seen Zion do this before and knew what was coming. The wind became a windstorm that cut branches from the nearby trees and made the trees crack and groan.

Then, suddenly, all went still.

Lion’s Breath!

You’ve unlocked a new title: [Energy Tycoon].

Roth released an earth-shattering roar. The pent-up air was all released in a blast that fractured the reality in front of the hunting party, cracking the air and revealing a silver portal big enough for two people to walk through side-by-side.

Roth watched as 10,000 energy points left his energy bar. Had he unlocked a new title because of the high energy cost of this skill?

Energy Tycoon (Rare)

Description: What energy crisis? You have access to vast energy reserves, and you’re not afraid of spending it.

Title effects:

+5 intelligence;

+200 energy points.

Conditions to unlock [Energy Tycoon]:

To use a skill that costs at least 5000 energy points {complete};

Or to complete a relevant quest.

This, in itself, was already a valuable hidden reward for completing the quest issued by the Table. He would never have used such a demanding skill were it not for it.

“MountainTop. Go in.” He read ColdHand’s command on the party chat.

The Lizardman marched toward the shiny crack in the air, but nothing happened.

“What’s wrong?” asked ColdHand.

“It says that the first person to enter has to be Pax. Who’s that?”

*

Ten days had elapsed since Loki triggered the ‘Rise of the Hive King’ event.

The day before, he had finally reached level 80. He was the first in a game with a player base of hundreds of millions to ever accomplish this feat and he got a legendary title to prove just that.

Level Pioneer (Legendary)

Description: You brave new frontiers and are ahead of the pack.

Title effects: After each level up, gain 5% free XP.

Conditions to unlock [Level Pioneer]:

To be the first player to reach the level required for a job advancement.

Once he got the title, he finally understood how Jaw-Long leveled up faster than anyone else. The old geezer hid his name from the ranks, but he knew full well that the old man’s discretion was the only reason why Zin was the highest-level player in the game.

In higher levels, 5% of an XP bar was a huge advantage over the opponents. Sometimes, players didn’t get that much from spending a full day hunting. Jaw-Long had beaten everyone else to reach levels 10, 30, and 50, but Loki had finally caught on and reached level 80 before that old monster.

The amount of experience necessary to level up from 79 to 80 was mind-boggling. It was almost as much as all the combined experience required to level from 70 to 79. Loki was the pioneer in reaching such a stage of the game, and he now knew that this would be a major bottleneck for players. He couldn't wait to get his third job advancement in his profession. But it required seeing a special NPC in the capital to do that.

He didn’t dare to leave the safety of the Dark Abyss, though. Even if there weren’t millions of players who had chosen the human side, from the moment he became the alien king, he would never be welcome again in the capital or any other human city. So, for now, he stayed put.

The key right now was to squeeze every drop of potential from his privileged position. He knew that these good times wouldn't last forever. There was no way that the game developers would allow him to stay so far ahead of the others. Being level 80 when the second-highest level player in the game was still in the early 50s was a major gap. He was sure that they would eventually find him and terminate him. There was no way this event would go on forever. When the time came, he would have to pay a terrible price. So, for the moment, Loki tried to make the most of his privileged position and amass as many benefits as possible before these good times ended.

His two priorities, while he was the hive king, were getting his guild ahead and amassing resources to restart his account in case he had to delete it.

He wasn’t the one who ranked how powerful guilds were. Pegasus had been stuck in 10th place for a long while, but the next time gaming networks released a ranking, he was sure there would be a huge reshuffling, and Pegasus would climb several places. Based on Loki's intel on the other guilds and how much stronger Pegasus had become since the event started, he could safely say that his guild was now within the top three in the game.

The only guilds he wasn’t sure he could overtake were number one and two in the rankings. The Phoenixes were a tricky bunch, and the Dragons even more so. They ventured into maps that were unexplored and very difficult to access, and the amount of data on them was limited. On top of that, there was Jaw-Long. That old monster’s strength couldn't be measured by the same standard as others. Despite Loki’s overwhelming strength, high level, and the amount of stats he could provide to many of his guild, he still wasn't sure if he could overtake the old man and his army of freaks.

But even if Pegasus hadn’t become the strongest guild, one thing he was sure of: They had become the richest. Every time a player joined the alien side, Loki got one gold in his coffers. He looked in the direction of the guild’s vault that was hidden inside the observatory. He had amassed millions of gold in there.

Pegasus was so rich right now that he could clad even 3rd tier members in the highest-geared equipment without making a dent in his finances. Of course, that wasn’t how this money would be spent. Everything had been decided already, and he would use the money to buy the best thing that money could buy: more money.

He already had the investments ready to go once the event ended. Those would solidify Pegasus's spot at the top, and he would finally overtake those greedy guilds that monopolized the game and looked down on everyone else from their lofty heights. It was time for a fresh start, a change, and he was the one who would bring it.

But there wasn’t just money in that vault. No, there were treasures inside that not even the top 10 guilds knew existed, things that money couldn’t buy. Before the event, Loki had Zin scout the Dark Abyss and find every dungeon and wild boss he could. Pegasus had been crossing names off that list, running dungeons, and hunting wild bosses as if there were no tomorrow.

If the boss was level 60 and Loki's presence prevented its appearance, he just sent a squad of Pegasus players bolstered by his stats, and they hunted it for him. If it was level 70 and above, he personally led the charge, and, using his high-level and unique racial skills, he steamrolled through the obstacles.

Pegasus was getting the first clear in several dungeons and wild bosses. Most players weren't aware of this, but the rewards for a first clear, or first blood, were incomparable to those afterward.

Items that only had a 1% chance to normally drop in a normal wild boss hunt or dungeon run would always appear the first time someone ran it or hunted it. Whereas subsequent completions only yielded three to five items, first blood yielded fifteen to twenty! That was especially true for the prize Loki sought the most, the secret to climbing back up to the top after the event was over: consumables that permanently increased stats.

Ch. 199 - Energy Crisis

INDEX

Ch. 201 - Abyssal Bolt