Mixed Blessing System

After some time in that first level of the cave, Lothur gathered the valuable parts of all the dead scorpions and stored them in his spatial ring.

With that done, he took no time to prepare an antidote for the venom of those creatures to use on Annaliese in case she needed it later.

Recovery potions could solve poisoning problems, but the course of action this took was somewhat different from that of antidotes. Furthermore, the combined effect of the two substances produced better effects, so he had better have such a thing, even considering his sister-in-law's recovery potions.

With that done, realizing that Annaliese had already recovered some of her energy, Lothur beckoned to her for them to continue toward the second level of this cave.

"Let's go there. Be careful further on. On the second level, there must be more enemies or insects stronger than these we face here." She commented to him, seeing him holding an ax.

Lothur agreed with her and moved on, ignoring the system's warnings regarding small advances he had made in that previous 'training.'

So, after walking for 15 minutes through one of the tunnels in that human excavation cave, the two arrived near a large chamber, where more sounds of insects eating departed.

"It seems that some of the mercenaries who came here before us are still serving as food for these beasts..." He commented as he looked back after seeing human parts being 'savored' by a giant scorpion.

Unlike humans and other humanoid races that could learn cultivation techniques and cultivate free spiritual energy in the atmosphere and on earth, beasts had a distinct way of cultivation.

These beings could also become stronger by absorbing precious medicines and resources, just like humanoid beings. But the standard cultivation method of these beings was not the use of techniques but the devouring ability that each of them had!

That is, they basically became stronger by devouring their opponents, be they of different species or even members of the same race!

And by a twist of fate, just as certain beasts could taste magnificent to the human palate, humans could be a delicacy enjoyed by some beast races!

Hence, it was not strange for, as in the current situation, beasts to slowly devour human bodies, savoring as much as possible of this hard-to-get delicacy.

Annaliese saw that from afar and felt disgusted, seeing the still whole head of that human. "How awful!"

The brain was the favorite part of the human body for these scorpions, so they naturally devoured it last.

Lothur silently watched that for a few moments, noticing that the spatial rings of the dead victims were still there. 'Great!'

'I'll gain some resources from these guys!'

The scorpions there had not noticed them yet, but the two of them had already noticed the levels of these beings. Each one of them was at level 6, stronger than those of the previous level.

"Anna, let's attack first. This group is smaller than the last one, but things will be harder here." He commented as he prepared to move.

Annaliese readily agreed with him as she prepared to deal with these opponents.

She had not thought she would have to use much of her strength coming to this place, but after arriving there, she realized that this would be a good challenge for her to prepare for the Province Conference.

So, she was solemn, and after seeing Lothur's attack movement, she followed him without hesitation, forcefully launching an attack against the first opponent in her path.

Pow!

She kicked with all her might at the creature's head, but she could not hit it with full force due to the quick reaction of that scorpion.

However, even though beasts had slightly better senses than humans, their level difference was not slight, so the beast suffered from that blow.

Boom!

Such a creature was thrown into the air until it crashed into one of the walls, making a great noise and alerting everyone else on that level.

As Annaliese began to mess up the area, Lothur had already severed the post-abdomen of his first target before using his daggers to attack the creature's eyes.

[Mastery advance detected!]

...

[Assassin Code] [Rank: Iron]

[Mastery level: Adept]

While retrieving his daggers from the already dead creature, Lothur saw the system notifications and smiled in satisfaction at achieving such a thing.

He had not advanced his fourth technique during his training with the soul fragment the previous week as this was his newest technique, which he had trained several hours less than the others.

But he had already advanced a lot in understanding such a technique in that situation, and only a tiny stimulus was missing for him to achieve such a breakthrough.

Thus, by struggling intensely at the first level of this place and now at the second level, he finally achieved the majestic breakthrough of comprehension of such a technique!

And with that, he soon realized his flaws in movement, quickly improving his gestures and killing on his way.

That soon gave him a sense of frenzy in which he lost any sense of fatigue. He skillfully transformed himself into a killing machine for the insects in that shaded area, from time to time, illuminated by defective lamps.

Annaliese noticed the improvement in Lothur's condition and smiled as she saw him getting stronger while she continued to kill her opponents with ease.

She had more experience than him and was also stronger and faster in her movements. Because of this and the fact that she was also Adept in her techniques, she soon killed the last of her opponents, outnumbering her brother-in-law by four dead enemies.

[+0.1 in all physical attributes.]

[+0.1 in AGI.]

[+0.1 in WIL.]

[+0.1 in DEX.]

Lothur saw the system warnings, a little different from the first level, but on average, added 0.3 points to each physical attribute and his Will.

[EVF: 0]

But as he took a hasty breath, he looked at his EVF attribute and felt like someone had thrown a bucket of cold water on his back. 'Could I absorb the vitality of these beasts?'

'Damn it!'

​ 'Why didn't I realize this possibility before? I wasted two floors of beasts!' He felt the frustration of realizing something important too late.

"What is it, Lothur? Are you hurt?" Annaliese asked in a sighing tone, more tired than on the previous floor.

Lothur had made an ugly expression, and his face had turned pale. Then this sister-in-law of his naturally worried about the worst and ran towards him.

This silver-haired man looked into this woman's brown eyes and bitterly smiled. "Remember the skill I used to save Elke? I could have used that to kill those enemies..."

"Oh?" She opened her mouth in surprise, realizing why he was so sad after killing all those enemies.

"But don't worry, Lothur. I think we'll have more enemies in the next level." She smiled comfortingly at him. "You'll be able to use your bloodline in that other place. I'm sure it will work out!"

"Sigh!"

"All right, let's hope the enemies are at our limit." He said in a sighing tone as he looked at the remnants in his surroundings. "Now, let's collect these things and get ready for the end of this place."

"I believe there is something unusual on the top floor." He solemnly commented as he observed the humanoid silhouettes he had seen earlier.

...