CH 42

Du Tao was the first to take action, as he took out the goblin horn from his side and stimulated the magic power inside it. An invisible force gradually condensed into an elite goblin warrior holding a shield and a short spear. Han Kexin, Jiang Xiaowen, and the others thought it was pretty intriguing and couldn’t help but take a second look. Meanwhile, Du Tao picked up the horn again and put it in his mouth before blowing it vigorously. The horn’s low pitch sound reverberated instantly, causing all of the giant wolves nearby to pause their actions.

One of the goblin horn’s functions was to drive away wild animals. Xiao Yu initially thought it to be a completely useless and cheap ability. He didn’t expect it to have some small effects right here.

The forest wolves were affected by the sound of the horn, and the elite goblin warrior was actually the one to charge up first. The wooden shield on its hand knocked a ‘blood wolf’ into the air, and then it followed by a short spear attack and pierced through the body of another, easily killing it. After the beast died, all the energy was naturally absorbed by Du Tao. 

Suddenly, the previous blood wolf recovered and rushed up towards the elite goblin warrior, but before it could pounce on the latter, a bright flaming arrow pierced right through its body, and its fur was scorched black all of a sudden. Moreover, the arrow’s body was half submerged inside, as the internal organs of the beast got severely damaged.

It was clear who the shooter was—the newly evolved Yun Yun. She was holding a short, delicate bow in her hand and had a quiver on her back that contained twenty to thirty makeshift arrows. She had a beautiful appearance and a slender figure, with a pair of sharply pointed ears, as she stood far away quietly. Her slender fingers slowly stretched the bowstring back, making her look like the elf archers from the legends, she concentrated as another three arrows were fired in quick succession, but only one of them hit the target. Her archery techniques would seem to have a big room for improvement.

The elite goblin warrior took the opportunity to kill the fallen down wolf with a single spear stab. The beast was actually in the late elementary stage, and Du Tao absorbed the majority of the essence released by this powerful being before he killed another blood wolf. And then, Du Tao, whose strength had already reached a threshold, actually advanced immediately!

The pack of wolves with only one last blood wolf amidst their ranks finally charged up together. Neither Xiao Yu nor Han Kexin made a move, but with the help of the elite goblin warrior as well as Yun Yun, an elementary expert with a strong innate skill, the battle was overwhelmingly on the humans’ side. The wolves were apprehended in the blink of an eye while one of the taller students killed the pack’s last blood wolf as he also managed to advance toward the elementary realm.

In this swift battle, two more humans advanced.

Everyone was overjoyed, as more and more people were on the verge of evolution in their ranks, some only needing to kill one or two elementary monsters. Xiao Yu expected that they would all become elementary warriors shortly after, and when the number of elementary beings grows in the team, those individuals will, in their turn, assist others in entering the elementary stage faster, allowing the team’s overall strength to snowball.

In about five minutes, the evolution phase was finished.

However, Du Tao and the big guy have not changed much from before the advancement. After asking, they found out the former had obtained “brainpower enhancement”, and the big guy who was called Zhao Dahai had obtained the talent of “strength enhancement”.

Xiao Yu was a little disappointed, but he shrugged it off immediately. After all, very few people can get those powerful innate skills. In contrast, more than 90% of the survivors would only get talents such as “brainpower enhancement”, “strength enhancement”, “agility enhancement”, “physical body enhancement” and the like….This kind of enhancement talent is just an increase in strength, which belongs to the passive category as it’s not a skill that can be actively used. It was a common talent that most people had, with no special use to it, and people very seldom accepted it as a skill since this type of talent could simply be considered an outcome of advancement.

After giving it some thought, Xiao Yu felt at ease. After all, powerful innate abilities were scarce. He already expected Yun Yun and Han Kexin to materialize them because of their previous lives. Yet, Jin Shi, Wang Chao, and Jiang Xiaowen’s innate skills came as a surprise. Nevertheless, Du Tao’s “brainpower enhancement” was also a relatively rare talent, which can significantly enhance the brain’s computing power and processing ability. For most people, this was a bland talent that served little purpose in combat, but it was incredibly more useful in Du Tao’s hands.

Du Tao lacked combat talent and wasn’t suited to be a fighter. Hence it would have been much better for him to get this talent instead, as he was better suited for other roles like becoming a manager or a strategist.

When Zhao Dahai heard that his talent was very mediocre, he couldn’t help but feel bitter about it.

Xiao Yu patted him on the shoulder and said: “No need to worry; people with strength enhancement talent will be much stronger than others of the same level as they continue evolving, becoming stronger and stronger as their power grows. Ultimately, their abilities can reach a level where even Wang Chao’s berserk skill can’t compete. Who can stop you if your strength is powerful enough to obliterate the ground with your punches? “

Zhao Dahai’s eyes lit up, and the simple and honest big guy nodded his head repeatedly.

Xiao Yu took out the two-handed sword from his space ring and threw it at him, “It’s useless to keep this weapon with me; It is best suited for your use.”

“Thank you, thank you, Xiao Yu…Boss!”.

Zhao Dahai’s face was flushed with excitement. He had long envied Xiao Yu and the others’ magical weapons that could cut through iron like its mud, so how could he be unhappy now that he also had one all of a sudden? Even the other guys enviously looked at him.

The wolves did not bring them any new harvest, so Xiao Yu stopped searching and instructed Du Tao and Zhao Dahai to lead a group of people each to stay nearby and keep watch while the rest went in search of supplies.

Unconvinced, Wang Chao approached him while they were walking down the road: “So, boss, is my ‘rampage’ skill really not as powerful as that ‘strength enhancement’?”

Xiao Yu shook his head and explained: “Technically, yes. After the second order, in terms of pure strength, people with strength enhancement can surpass those who are also in the second order and enters the berserk state. Of course, their speed is much lower. But the key point here is that you materialized the berserk skill only at the elementary realm, and you have yet to show your true potential, so you don’t have to be discouraged.”

He didn’t bullshit either of them because, in his previous life, it was not uncommon for people to rank among the top echelon with only ordinary talents. And although Wang Chao’s skill was widespread, that did not imply it was weak. After all, compared to skills acquired through crystals of inheritance, the most distinctive feature of innate skills is that they improve with the increase of strength and can even evolve into other skills. The critical thing to note is that any type of skill or talent is equally powerful when used to the extreme as long as the individual’s strength is sufficient.

Wang Chao looked in a daze at a half-collapsed internet café shop and suddenly grinned, “Hey, Stone, Xiao Yu, don’t you guys miss this place. I still remember how not long ago, we played World of Warcraft here all night. By the way, this place has not been totally wrecked. So should we move two computers back? Even if we can’t play, it’ll be good as a souvenir.”

“Hey, you retard.” Jin Shi glared at him, “stop acting suspicious, and get to work quickly.”

Wang Chao shrugged, “You’re really no fun!”

Everyone immediately went their separate ways to look for supplies. Xiao Yu led more than a dozen people into the supermarket located before the school gate. Goblins have passed through this location several times already. They’ve left evidence of their outings, which could be seen from the piles of trash and broken furniture thrown all over the place. However, they were still a predatory race, and being only interested in raw meat, they left most stuff unharmed. Despite that, there was still plenty of sealed canned meat left untouched by those dumb monsters. Which meant plenty of supplies to help sustain their group during these difficult times.

They found all kinds of high-calorie food, such as chocolate, candy, potato chips, juice, canned food, instant noodles…

And all kinds of basic cooking ingredients like cooking oil, rice, salt, soy sauce, vinegar…

These few past days, with so many dangers to worry about, the group was always on the lookout for signs of illness or injury, and even when it came down to food and water, they were always careful not to overindulge. Although there were wild fruits in the woods, most were not fully ripe, so they tasted sour and bitter. Occasionally, they enjoyed barbecued meat, but it’s not something they often do since most people don’t have the skills to grill meat, and there was no oil and no seasoning to boot, so it was not very appetizing. Plus, the meat was often overcooked or half-baked, making the crowd hate it over time.

Now that a large amount of food and daily necessities were right in front of them, everyone had drops of tears in their eyes. These things were far too important at the moment; their lifestyles could finally be improved.

The contents in Xiao Yu’s space ring had been emptied, and he filled in a lot of oil, salt, canned food, biscuits, chocolate, and then some pots, bowls, cutting boards, etc. After the space ring was completely full, Xiao Yu found two more backpacks, each filled with a variety of essentials, and he carried four backpacks in total with his hands, and a lot of things were hanging from his body, trying to bring back as much as he could at a time.

Jiang Xiaowen used the green spear as a makeshift shoulder pole and managed to hang in a lot of things. She carried two barrels of edible salt in her hands and carried in a big bulging backpack, where she filled two stocks of northeast rice, several large bottles of juice, and lots of snacks. The total weight of the bag was at least a few hundred catties, but with her current strength, that was nothing.

Han Kexin, Wang Chao, and the others also gathered what they were tasked with from various places. There was a branch of the famous common people’s hospital inside the university and two pharmacies on the street outside. Han Kexin was mainly responsible for collecting some commonly used medicines, while Wang Chao and Jin Shi brought with them many barrels of gasoline and gas tanks, and lastly, Yun Yun and Huang Jianmin searched and brought back different practical tools.

……

“Team leader, we got very lucky this time. We actually found another pile of ruins. There must be a lot of goods in all of these stores. This is a great achievement. The boss may even reward us with some nice beauties this time around!”

While everyone was scattered around, all busy with their task at hand, nobody noticed a group of thirty to forty haggard men suddenly appearing from the forest. These men were all battle-hardened, as they were all covered in dirt and blood. They must have encountered many fierce fights throughout their journey here. The ability to survive in the forest and sustain your life was no simple matter. Apart from great luck, it also takes incredible strength and courage to do so.

“Looks like someone was ahead of us.” A young man with half an ear missing looked at the corpses of several forest wolves scattered around and said after a pause: “Sun Daxiang, take a closer look; there are only wolf corpses on the ground and no human corpses. It shows that the opponent’s strength is not weak. In my opinion, it is better to report to the boss first and let him decide our course of action.”

The Sun Daxiang he was talking to was a strong middle-aged man who served as the team leader of this bunch. His power ranked as the strongest among them, reaching the middle stage of elementary level. He immediately snorted and said mockingly: “Xu Li, you know shit, if we just go back and report to the boss, it will be at least a few days before he brings someone over. Who knows if there will be anything left for us at that time? Moreover, if we solve the trouble ourselves, we will get more rewards. Actually, these wolves may have also been slaughtered by other monsters, or they just fought against each other; needless to say, brothers, follow me.”

Xu Li’s expression was a bit ugly, and he snorted and said, “No good. I think at least a few people should be left behind, so in case something happens, they can leave and report back.”

Sun Daxiang was a reckless man who relied solely on brute force to accomplish things, so he waved his hand impatiently: “alright, alright.”

(TN: Wang Chao’s rampage is the skill’s name, they only prefer to call it berserk)

(TN: obviously, strength enhancement and the likes are not skills but more like passive skills, so I’m calling them talents from now on)