Book 2 - Chapter 84 (Patreon)
Content
[+42088 XP]
[Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] x2
He felt a sense of accomplishment he had almost forgotten about. It had been way too long since he had leveled up. More important than his feelings, he gained twenty unused attribute points. It was timely.
William delayed studying his stats to deal with the Stone Puppet’s broken body. And to figure out why it was so easy to kill it.
The long, grueling fight he had expected was cut short in an almost disappointing manner. The Stone Puppet's confidence at the start made it seem as if he would be bruised and battered before the fight ended.
Instead, all the dead Stone Puppet left on his body was a deep cut on his foot. The wall caused more damage than the puppet ever did, and he was embarrassed for it.
William replayed the fight in his mind, trying to pick out details he might have overlooked in the heat of the moment.
He was right about the Stone Puppet being slow, but the difference was so vast that he might as well have been fighting against a Qi Gathering Realm opponent. With Qi-based attacks, the Stone Puppet had a respectable quickness, but when speaking of its physical quickness, it shouldn’t even be mentioned.
Another was the sudden void of Qi-based attacks it used against when in melee range. The very last time the Stone Puppet’s jade veins activated was when he was a few feet away from it.
The moment William was in arm’s reach, the Stone Puppet stopped using Qi-based attacks all together. Instead, it resorted to an ineffective defense that he could casually work around, or rather, walk around.
The Stone Puppet was ridiculously weak against someone who specialized in close combat. Someone like him.
That was William's conclusion, but it didn’t mean the Stone Puppet was something to write off as easy experience points.
Individually, that was definitely the case, but if they were in small groups, he could see himself in a world of hurt. The Stone Puppet’s ranged attacks would be near impossible to deal with if there were multiple at the same time. He would likely resort to [Force Multiplier] simply to escape the situation.
William peered into the enlarged hole and wondered why the Stone Puppet wandered over here in the first place. Or perhaps it was sent here by the corrupted avatar to get him moving.
He shook his head and pulled the spirit beast egg from his spatial stone. “Do you want this?”
William was surprised when he felt the egg’s excitement. He expected the corpse to be useless since the system mentioned it was an automaton.
“Alright, then,” he shrugged, not questioning the gift given. “Eat up, but avoid everything else in the space.”
William returned the egg to the spatial stone and pulled the Stone Puppet’s body into it right afterward. He made a cursory check on the egg and saw it was doing as commanded.
He glanced at the hole before turning his attention to his stats.
Name: Wei Liang (William)
Age: 14
Level: 119
Experience: 13090/14875
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Early Stage)
Health: 2010/2100
Spiritual Energy: 956/1130 (20% per Hour)
Spirit: 226
Strength: 240
Stamina: 110
Agility: 240
Luck: 150
Points: 22
William could use Healing Qi to recover his health, but he wasn’t sure if the cost was worth it. Spiritual Energy was worth more for him at the moment, and the hundred and eighty it would take to fully recover was significant.
There would be around forty minutes of waiting to get the Spiritual Energy back, on top of the forty already needed with the current deficit.
William shook his head and walked to the broken wall. He needed to get an idea of where he was and what he needed to do. Kae hadn’t been forgotten, but unfortunately, his fellow disciple was a lower priority.
It was by necessity. He would be of no help if he got himself killed.
He stared into the large hole and noticed new details with how close he was. The level of rot and decay was consistent with the hall behind him, but he could tell that this seemed to have been a waiting room.
William stepped into the smaller room, over the broken wall, and instantly saw where the Stone Puppet had come from.
A broken path into the depths. He could see nothing but pitch-blackness at the bottom. However, his eyes were able to pick up some details on the path closer to him.
It was tiled long ago, and perhaps even stairs in place, but that was long gone, replaced by smashed stone with dirt ground below. He could see the imprints from the Stone Puppet’s heavy feet from when it walked up.
William grabbed a large stone from the rubble and tossed it down, half expecting to see a sudden abundance of flaming green eyes looking at him from below. That didn’t happen.
Instead, the stone landed with a sharp sound near the edge of what he could see before rolling into the darkness. He could hear it continue for nearly a minute until the sound was too faint to carry back to him. However, even if it was no longer audible, there was no doubt it was still rolling down the path.
William’s goal had been accomplished. He had an idea of how deep the path went—really deep—and whether any beasts or automatons would wake. There wasn’t.
He pushed his Qi into the spatial stone to sense what the egg was up to and was glad to see it had finished up the Stone Puppet’s body. Unfortunately, there were no physical changes or a change in its basic status.
William was disappointed the egg didn’t advance, but he supposed that would be too easy.
He pulled it out of the spatial stone again, interrupting the egg’s contentment after the good meal.
“Time to earn your keep, Little Egg,” William pointed at the depths of the path, feeling a little silly, pointing for something that didn’t have eyes. “We’re going down there. You have the same job as before. Warn me if you sense anything moving other than me. Understand?”
If this was a spirit beast in his hand instead of an egg, William had a feeling it would squirm in unhappiness while protesting loudly. He sweetened the offer with something he intended to do anyway.
“If you help, I’ll let you have anything I kill. They’ll be just like the body you fed on.” William chuckled at the near vibration he felt from the egg. “Let’s get you something tasty.”
He tucked the egg in its usual spot when he carried it, the crook of his left arm, and steadily descended the path.