Undying Warlord

"Kath, can you help me upgrade [Thunder Step]? I need you to strike me with a Lightning around…20 times!" Dilan calculated and spoke with a bright smile on his face.

He kept walking through the base to reach the outside. There was something he wanted to take a look at in the alloy factory but he recalled the [Thunder Step] upgrade requirements when he heard Yvonne's request.

"I also need Tier-1 Lightning Essence crystals. Maybe we can combine hunting strong beasts for Yvonne's Origin ability with grinding for Tier-1 Lightning Essence crystals?" He proposed.

"I'm in!" Victoria shouted out in joy before jumping at Dilan, who stepped aside to avoid the naughty Vampire. Victoria pouted when she noticed that Dilan evaded her 'attack' but she didn't fret about it for long. Her eyes were still marine blue and she could control her emotions, even if that was a bit regretful right now.

'I will make you mine…hehe~' She could only think before Victoria realized that another ball of death mana and a bolt of lightning shot toward her.

Dilan smiled when he noticed this but he averted his focus to the sister-duo to see what they would answer.

"I can help you. I need to kill a bunch of monsters with my [Compressed Lightning Strike] ability before I can even think about upgrading it, either way. My plan was to go out and help Yvonne with her Origin ability, but I think if we have a numerical advantage it would be easier to upgrade all of our abilities!" Kathrine said with a calm voice. Her expression resembled a poker face and only her fiery eyes that darted at Victoria revealed that Kathrine was giving her best to restrict herself and not explode.

Dilan was satisfied with that answer and he turned to Yvonne, who nodded her head as well. It was a bit annoying for them that Victoria was now an important member of their group and tail Dilan wherever he went but it was not as if it was impossible to control the Vampire.

Yvonne and Kathrine were slowly getting to know ways to control Victoria, which was much easier when Dilan was not around. After all, she was extremely similar to a normal human being as long as her psychotic ways were restricted.

"So we need to kill loads of powerful monsters and find a place where Tier-1 Lightning attributed monsters habituate. That won't be easy," Dilan mumbled as he thought about it. In the end, many semi-permanent Gates had appeared in and around Shiron during the last few days.

These semi-permanent Gates had been manifested way before the temporary Gates, ranging from three days up to an entire month. However, they were not comparable to permanent dungeons, and the isolated dimension behind them was quite interesting.

However, Dilan had yet to venture into any of the semi-permanent dungeons and his information about them was also restricted. He hadn't been able to update his knowledge until now.

"How about we take a look at the Bulletin Board of the Gates?" Kathrine suggested while shrugging her shoulders because she was also not sure which Gate would be best to enter.

The Bulletin Board of the Gates was located near the training grounds of the Ascenders and their small group of four approached it without hesitation.

When Dilan saw the Ascenders sparring with each other a faint smile emerged on his face. He liked the fact that everyone was trying hard to become stronger. The Ascenders were giving their best even during spars, which was something Dilan found to be extremely important. He looked at them like a proud father who was happy to see his kids trying hard to improve themselves.

However, his expression changed a bit when he looked at all the magnificent, elegant, and mighty abilities. All of them looked very complex and extremely powerful, even if the final result was not as exceptional as their awe-striking appearance suggested.

"I wonder what kind of ability I should bind to myself…Would it be intelligent to find an ability that decreases my health stat temporarily in exchange for a boost in another stat?...That should increase my combat prowess and it should help me to injure myself severely and fulfill the requirement to upgrade my Origin ability…" Dilan mumbled as he looked at the spectacular sight in front of him.

All kinds of unique abilities were unleashed thereby creating various effects. Dilan felt he was being a bit childish because he thought that it would be nice to have an impressive-looking ability to make a bigger impact when fighting with a numerical disadvantage.

He wanted to upgrade his Origin ability but that would be quite difficult considering that he could hardly injure himself even with the Thunderbolt Daggers. Dilan would have to pierce into one of the relatively soft spots on his body to actually inflict injuries upon himself, or use his entire strength to cut himself lightly.

That was why a new ability was necessary…

"My abilities are not really something to show off. I'm just plain powerful…" Dilan laughed out the longer he looked at the situation ahead.

"Is that a bad thing? Flowery abilities or the abilities that look extremely elegant, mighty or whatever are easy to look through," Victoria muttered out loud. She didn't think that it would be a problem if Dilan's abilities were 'simple', which was also why she added,

"If plain and simple is enough to kill your opponent, so be it!"

"I also think that plain and simple is fine. My [Compressed Lightning Strike] might look impressive but the short moment it needs to charge up is still a disadvantage. Your abilities don't require to be charged up, or anything like that," Kathrine declared, trying to console Dilan, even if she was not sure if that was necessary.

Dilan looked quite nonchalant when he spoke about the 'trouble' of him not owning a single ability to show off.

"I also saw that stats-switching abilities existed. I'm just not sure if that will help you, after all, it will be restricted to switching your Health stat with a single other stat. Using up one of your two remaining active ability slots for such a simple ability, where you cannot even freely decide which stat to increase or decrease is not of much use…in my opinion," Yvonne shared her view that was different from the others and she didn't shy away from revealing that.

"Alright, I will think about what to do…" Dilan hoped that he would figure it out in due time. He then averted his focus from both the training Ascenders and the Bulletin Board of the Gates.

He looked at two holographic screens where a list of the Taurus Shop and the sales appeared.

"Hmm…what am I going to choose…efficient, simple but a great combination if used with my other abilities….something I can use in the future as well, and something that helps me injure myself by lowering my Health temporarily…Does something like that even exist?" Dilan laughed out again but nobody paid any attention to him.

Even Victoria was able to tell that Dilan was a bit irked by the fact that his abilities didn't improve as quickly as he wanted them to. He wanted to upgrade his Origin ability as quickly as possible to fight in the most-crowded area when the Vampires attacked.

Dilan didn't want to be bothered about caring about his Health but he wanted to slaughter his opponents to make sure that he could protect those important to him. He felt that it was necessary for him to give his all in the fight against the Vampires and to make use of the opportunity, especially because he would need much longer than most others to advance to Tier-2.

Altogether, Dilan could tell that he would always need longer than others to advance…as long as he was in possession of the Cursed Blessing [Will of the Primordial].

It was a frustrating Cursed Blessing, and something he actually hated a lot because it did little to help him and paved more obstacles in his way to progress. What was the use of having a higher stat limit if he needed ten times longer to marginally improve his stats? Dilan's stats would probably reach a base of 100 Units when others in his group had long since advanced to Tier-2.

By that time, his stats may not even be the highest anymore.

Dilan felt that this was even more frustrating than the attack of the Vampires because it would mean that the balance in his group would be destroyed. Maybe some would even question if Dilan was the right person to stay as a leader. This was not actually important for him because he could give up his position as a leader but the problem was that internal conflicts would happen either way.

"Oh…what is that?!" Dilan suddenly mumbled as his eyes brightened up.

"An ability like that exists?"