Chapter 257: Easter Egg Talent Extraction

Chapter 257: Chapter 257: Easter Egg Talent Extraction

Reading the description, Lance’s breath hitched.

This Effect was ridiculously strong!

The check value for his Royal Armory was 3.

Combined with the mandatory two-point reduction to an enemy’s Resistance Threshold...

This meant that when facing enemies below Excellence Level in the future...

...aside from a few rare pieces of extremely high-quality equipment...

...the weapons and items held by most ordinary Professionals would be completely unable to resist him.

’From this day forward, call me the Dungeon Bandit.’

Lance gloated to himself.

However, the smile on his face froze when his eyes fell on the second Effect’s description.

[Achievement Effect 2 - Mark of Hatred: The Underground City’s chaotic will has reached its limit for your shameless behavior! Any Lord Level or Elite Level Demon that senses your presence will immediately ignore all existing aggro mechanics and be forced to lock onto you as its highest-priority target for elimination.]

’Is the will of this damned Underground City really this petty?’

Lance pursed his lips, speechless.

But after carefully mulling over the mechanic, he let out a gleeful laugh.

For an ordinary Adventurer Team with a weak lineup or insufficient strength...

...this forced aggro mark would be an absolutely fatal debuff.

You could just imagine the scene.

A team’s Mage is comfortably dishing out damage to a Lord from the backline.

Suddenly, the Lord goes berserk, abandons the tank up front, and charges straight into the backline to one-shot the squishy Mage. Who could possibly handle that?

But for Lance, with his incredible solo combat prowess and Unlimited Stamina, this was a godsend.

If a rival team was painstakingly fighting an Elite Demon...

...and he just happened to swagger by for a stroll...

...the monster would drop everything, its eyes turning red as it chased after him.

The mere thought of it was deeply satisfying.

This Effect truly lived up to the fearsome name "Dungeon Villain."

But unlocking this new section also made him realize something.

The absurd speed at which the Grand Guild teams and top individuals on the leaderboards earned points wasn’t just because of their high monster-killing efficiency.

Like him, they must have discovered and mastered certain hidden achievements through trial and error that massively boosted their point gains.

Reining in his wandering thoughts,

Lance closed the new Underground City achievement panel and began to seriously take stock of his earnings from the Mad Slaughter Silver Crown state.

Thanks to Nieve’s powerful support, his clearing efficiency today was a marked improvement over yesterday’s.

He had only been fighting with full concentration for a little over an hour today.

The number of Demons that fell to his fists, not counting the ones Nieve killed...

...was already far greater than his total from over two hours of fighting the day before.

However, he had focused on filling his Illustrated Guide today...

...so he’d intentionally targeted the corresponding Low Level Demons.

Even so, his experience gain was still substantial, totaling over two thousand points.

He glanced at his Main Profession’s progress bar.

[Main Profession: Pale Guard Level 1 (4391 / 5000)]

He was about to reach Level 2.

He had bridged the gap from Level 1 to Level 2 in just two days.

If word of his leveling speed got out, other Adventurers would think he was a madman or a liar.

A Professional with ordinary aptitude at this stage would typically need to spend at least a month in life-or-death combat to slowly accumulate enough experience.

Of course, this exponential growth was entirely thanks to the bonus from the Summer Crown’s special property.

And a large part of the credit was due to having a combat partner today.

With a Magic Tank up front coordinating and pulling aggro, killing Elite Monsters became much easier.

This morning, he had encountered roughly five Elite Demons and two rare Mutated Demons.

He had successfully obtained four Satori Essences.

He also acquired two Skill Distillation Fragments, which could be used to upgrade Specialties.

Furthermore, while killing the final Blood and Flesh Mutant Slime, Lance had his first encounter with another rare Underground City item: a "Mutating Catalyst."

This type of Catalyst didn’t need to be collected in multiples.

As soon as you obtained one, you could use it to mutate a Specialty you had already mastered.

Each Catalyst provided a completely different direction for enhancement.

For example, since this Catalyst was dropped by a Mutated Slime, its properties leaned more toward Constitution enhancement and health regeneration.

But the results of the enhancement were completely unpredictable.

It could cause an Ordinary Specialty to undergo a qualitative leap, but it could also trigger a freak mutation with severe side effects.

Lance planned to wait until he had learned more Specialties before seeing if he had a marginal one suitable for a mutation experiment.

But what excited Lance the most today...

...was his progress on the Biological Research panel.

The research for a full two Low Level Demons was complete, meaning he could extract their Talents at any time.

One was the Bomb Goblin, and the other was the Ghoul.

These were the main targets he had focused on killing today.

Lance stood up from the rock and forcefully stretched his somewhat stiff shoulder and back muscles.

His bones let out a series of crisp pops.

"Nieve, stop playing with those rocks and come here for a second."

Lance beckoned to Nieve, who was still diligently arranging things in a corner.

"Did you need something, Lance?"

Nieve immediately patted the dust off her hands and trotted over.

"Give me two of the Stamina Potions you brought out this morning."

Lance extended his wide palm.

Nieve did not hesitate, immediately taking out two Crystal Bottles from the leather pouch at her waist and placing them steadily in Lance’s palm.

But Lance didn’t open them right away.

Instead, he gestured with his chin toward her small leather pouch.

"You take one and drink it too."

Nieve froze for a moment.

Then she shook her head like a rattle drum, her long, ice-blue hair whipping back and forth.

She stood ramrod straight and refused with a serious expression.

"Nieve doesn’t need to drink."

"Lance is the main fighter; he’s the important one. These Potions should all be saved for Lance to use when he’s in danger."

"The two I have are enough to cover what’s coming next,"

Lance said patiently, his tone softening.

"We’re a team that trusts each other now."

"If you use a Potion to recover now, it will increase our farming efficiency later. Understand?"

Seeing that she was still being stubborn,

Lance took a step forward, his hand reaching for the small pouch at her waist.

He deftly pulled out a pale gold Potion and uncorked it one-handed with a flick of his thumb.

Then he brought the mouth of the bottle directly to Nieve’s soft lips.

Nieve raised her head, looking into Lance’s serious, concerned eyes.

She then obediently leaned forward and, guided by Lance’s hand, drank the expensive Potion in a single gulp.

She immediately felt a warm Energy flow to every corner of her body.

The dull ache in her Sea of Consciousness, caused by casting too many Spells, was soothed and replenished.

"I need you to keep watch for me now,"

Lance said, getting down to business now that she had finished the Potion.

"If any stray Demons spawn, just take them out with your Spells."

"After I take my Potion, I’ll need some quiet time to absorb it. I can’t be disturbed."

After Nieve gave him a solemn nod of assurance,

Lance was completely at ease.

Without any hesitation, he uncorked the Potion in his hand and tilted his head back, downing the contents.

As the Potion went down, the Ethereal Melting Furnace in his body immediately roared to life.

Lance decisively opened the system panel and locked his gaze on an icon.

[Demon: Bomb Goblin (Inferior) Level 4 (Racial Talent Extraction Available)]

[Analyzing target’s genes...]

[Warning: Detected species is a byproduct of the ’Underground City’s Chaotic Rules.’ It lacks a complete biological evolutionary Sequence!]

[Special Easter Egg Talent extraction mechanism triggered!]