Alchemist In The Apocalypse: Rise Of A Legend!

[Third Person POV],

Ace was able to level up to level 40 thanks to the primordial records he obtained from eliminating many mutant rats. This allowed him to kill mutant rats that were 6–7 levels below him, but even this just made it slightly simpler for Ace.

Even though Ace was just one level beneath Andrew Dawn, this did not indicate that he was on a par with Andrew Dawn or even remotely equal to him because Ace was still unranked.

Even when he was four levels or above Andrew Dawn's men, his physical powers were still slightly incomparable to theirs.

What separates a ranked creature from an unranked creature are jobs, the grade of the jobs, and the enhancements they provide to the owner when and after evolving.

For one, Ace lacked any of these, therefore the only edge he had over some highly ranked species was the level difference, and even this was simply to prevent him from getting terribly beaten.

In terms of strength, he was somewhat similar to species with common jobs in that he just needed to be two to three levels higher to have the same amount of power.

For rare grade jobs, he needed to be at least 6 to 7 levels above them to have the same level of physical strength, and for jobs above rare grade, having levels above them did not entail being able to stand with them in equal power.

For instance, Andrew Dawn. He had the ability to use both soul magic and lightning magic to attack. Although he did not have the physical strength Ace had when he had first evolved, he did not need it to kill Ace since he could instead target Ace's soul.

Of course, this was for rare cases like Andrew Dawn, but even for those with epic grade jobs that were distinct from his, it was still beyond the capabilities of a powerful unranked specie.

Aside from having more powers and a better body, when one takes a job and evolves, many things change in them.

One is that they live longer and experience improvements in other areas, such as the soul, for instance. Even though the majority of rank one creatures cannot utilise their souls to attack or use them, evolving makes one's soul more strong, and after evolving again several times, it becomes finally powerful enough to be used.

Evolving several times can also help one realise the dream of living for thousands of years, but the humans who came from Ace world were unaware of this.

Well, most of them.

Therefore, even though Ace was already level 40, it only made it a little bit easier for him to kill the mutant rats, who were virtually on par with rare grade monsters.

There were moments when he had to utilise explosives to escape his predicament at the time while he was killing the mutant rats.

Luckily for him, Andrew Dawn's men were freed from their grip and came to help him—or rather, he was able to band together with them to kill the mutant rats.

With their assistance, he was at least able to breathe.

One of the two men was an earth mage, while the other was a wind mage.

They were both mages, which made them less effective in close combat, and even though they were still physically stronger than some species with common jobs, it did not change the fact that close combat was not their forte. When they finally spotted an opportunity to have someone take over close combat, they seized it.

Due to the two mages, Ace was reminded that he could also utilise elements, but he forgot in the heat of combat, and since fire magic only dealt limited damage to the mutant rats, he only used the earth element.

Due to the fact that none of the mutant rats would give him a moment to focus and the fact that using the same strategy he did when he encountered the cat race would only allow them to surround him first and make it hard for him to escape even after creating magma, he decided not to try using it.

Andrew Dawn was still fighting the dragon phantom solo, and the last time Ace saw them fight, he noticed that the dragon phantom's scales were cracking and becoming more translucent.

This demonstrates how much damage Andrew Dawn was able to do to it, but Andrew Dawn himself also sustained injuries during the fight. Actually, Andrew Dawn was worse as he had the appearance of a "blood man."

Ace even questioned whether Andrew Dawn was treating the fight—which, in all honesty, was a life or death battle—as such, since his own body was coated in blood.

Slamming the ground as he circulated the earth mana in his body to make the earth in front of the mutated rat rushing towards him more unstable together with the den shaking, Ace ran up to it and separated its head from its body.

Before Ace could turn to hunt for a weaker mutant rat to kill, an earth wall suddenly appeared to his left, only to be broken later by a punch from a mutant rat that was sneaking up on Ace.

Fortunately, Ace had time to jump away from the earth rat and turn to give Andrew Dawn man control of it before the monster could attack again.

Since the specific mutant rat was only four levels below him, Ace decided against fighting it and instead changed his target.

Fortunately, the earth mage was able to respond quickly; otherwise, Ace would have had to use another basic health pill to heal himself.

In the battle against the mutant rats, he had also sustained numerous injuries, but thanks to his pills, he was still able to fight. Speaking of pills, Ace discovered that ever since the Andrew Dawn men consumed their first pill, they had never brought another one out to take.

They both initially exhibited jealous looks on their faces when they witnessed him taking other pills, but they took no more action after that.

It could be because they didn't want to do anything or because the contract they signed with Andrew Dawn's magic stopped them from doing anything, but Ace was still the only one in the den who appeared to be alive if one was to overlook the blood on his body.

Ace gave some of his basic health and mana pills to his temporary teammates since he couldn't let them die on him.

Both mages did not inquire about the pills, nor did he give the impression that he had enough for them to keep asking for more.

They decided not to ask not because they lacked curiosity but rather because they did not have the time to start asking questions where anything may happen at any moment.

Andrew Dawn was the only person Ace wasn't able to give a pill to because he trying to even approach was suicidal, and Ace was not going to do that regardless of how crucial Andrew Dawn was to his survival because, if he did manage to give the pills to Andrew Dawn and died as a result, what was the point of doing so in the first place?

Ace could not risk his life in that way, but he could not deny that Andrew Dawn needed assistance, and for someone like him, the only assistance he could give Andrew Dawn was his pills.

"If I had known this was going to happen, I would have given him some of my pills," Ace muttered as he thought of Andrew Dawn.

But, just as he was about to strike the mutated rat in front of him, a bell-like sound suddenly appeared in his head, almost causing him to make a mistake, but because he had heard the familiar sound so many times in the previous few minutes, he was able to avoid making a mistake and successfully slayed the mutated rat.

Seeing as there was no mutated rat too close to him, Ace quickly called out the primordial chronicle in his head as a blue panel appeared in front of him.

Ace was startled not by the notification sound, but by its sudden appearance, because he did not expect it to ring in his head having killed nothing, which had been ringing in his head for the past few minutes.

Ace was quite curious to what he was because he knew the notification that appeared was not because he killed a mutated rat, and when he turned to check it, it was actually a message from Andrew Dawn.

.....

[Andrew Dawn],

I didn't expect to need it, and I forgot to ask for it, but do you have any of the healing medicine you gave Celeb when he was hurt?

...…..

'Seems like he actually told the emperor about it,' Ace reasoned.

He had already predicted that Celeb would tell his king about it, so Andrew Dawn finding out about it was not unexpected, but since this was not what he should be thinking at the time, Ace quickly responded when he saw a mutated rat charging at him.

......

[Ace Blaze],

Yes I do have some pills here that can heal and ever recover some mana and stamina but how do I give you?