Undying Warlord

"Wait…the number of lightning essences which I have absorbed is not increasing…" Dilan mumbled.

"The numbers on the [Thunder Step] ability's upgrade requirement won't increase if I don't absorb the Lightning Essence crystal in its entirety?" Dilan mumbled, feeling slightly disappointed.

Only now did he realize that he had to separate absorbing Essence crystals for [Switch] to be upgraded and for the second upgrade requirement of the [Thunder Step] ability to increase.

It would have been much easier if he could absorb Tier-1 Lightning Essence crystals to do both at the same time but as it was impossible, Dilan ended up focusing his attention on fulfilling [Thunder Step]'s second requirement because it required the specific Essence crystals they had come for.

[17 <Ordinary>, 21 <Bronze>, 18 <Silver>, and 7 <Gold> Tier-1 Essences have been absorbed→ +0.3 Strength, +0.6 Health, +0.4 Stamina]

His stats didn't increase by much but that didn't matter because he killed the monsters to accelerate upgrading [Thunder Step] to Tier-1.

It wouldn't be long before this ability would reach Tier-1 and Dilan wanted this to happen before the Vampires arrived, especially because he had no idea what the upgrade requirements for [Second Acceleration] were.

[Switch] could grow by absorbing Essence crystals, which meant that it was actually not necessary to pay too much attention to it. Conquering the Pagoda of Time once and providing it with all the Essence crystals was probably more than enough to upgrade it several times.

Dilan wanted to do that, which was another reason for him to like entering and conquering the Pagoda of Time. It could be used greatly to abuse the masses of monsters that were spawned inside the Pagoda whenever someone raided it.

If others were to make use of the Pagoda of Time, they would become much stronger than they had ever been but many were afraid of entering it, let alone braving the challenges inside it.

Fear was something humane and it was perfectly normal. As long as one could make use of their fear and become stronger by being more motivated to fight their fears it was great, but if one was incapable of moving due to the fear that spread through one's entire being it was detrimental.

Kathrine, Yvonne, and Victoria could make use of their 'fears' as a catalyst for positive change, which was why they were bound to become much stronger than the average human.

"I will search for the next group of monsters," Yvonne declared once she replenished the tiny bit of mana she had used up. Without waiting for the others' response, she soared into the air again. Once she raised the required height, she used her enhanced senses and her great sight to see and sense all the monsters in her surroundings.

"She is so excited, that is cute~" Victoria clasped her hands together as she exclaimed. It looked like Victoria was thoroughly enjoying her time. She looked at Dilan a moment, and licked her dry lips, only to pout the moment she saw that Kathrine jumped in front of her with squinted eyes.

Kathrine could clearly tell what Victoria was up to and she didn't like it. The Vampire was definitely too naughty in all possible ways, which was also why Kathrine felt like throwing her in a garbage bin every now and then.

Victoria had fully integrated into the group and if it wasn't for her crimson eyes and her occasional outbursts, nobody would believe that this woman was a Vampire. A psycho…yes, but certainly not a Vampire.

"By the way, there is something I'm curious about, Victoria…" Dilan suddenly started speaking when he recalled something he had been meaning to ask her from the moment he got to know his first Vampire.

"What is it?~ I can tell you everything, even my three sizes~" Victoria said in a seductive voice as her head peeked over Kathrine's shoulder. Victoria was tightly embracing Kathrine from the front, pushing Kathrine's head in her chest.

She smiled brightly while Kathrine was suffocating, and trying hard to push the Vampire away from her. Victoria's smile only widened while Kathrine began to throw a tantrum.

"How many active and passive abilities do Vampires have when they're still Tierless? And did you guys start with all your stats at 1 as well?" Dilan asked, dumbfounding both Kathrine and Victoria.

Kathrine had finally wriggled free of Victoria's grasp and gave her an angry glare before she stared at Dilan in confusion.

She could tell why he was asking this specific question. It was quite important to figure out how strong Vampires were. Dilan thought that it was quite important to know the exact number of abilities Vampires could possess in order to have an advantage over them while fighting them.

If there was an extremely strong Vampire he would have to face, Dilan wanted to have as many pieces of detailed information as possible to plan his attack strategy accordingly. He wanted to be at an advantage over his opponent!

But asking that question now, on the Thunder Plateau, all of a sudden was a bit weird.

"Eh…that's your question?" Victoria asked in disappointment. She had hoped that Dilan would ask a somewhat naughty question, but he was as serious as always, which was why Victoria could only feel a bit frustrated. She had hoped that he would reciprocate her feelings towards him a bit more.

However, she could also understand his question and his concern.

'Maybe I should get a bit serious as well…when we would have survived everything and I have contributed the most for our win, Dilan might as well thank me in every way I want him to thank me~' Victoria thought in excitement.

Her cheeks turned red and she began to breathe heavily at the thought of Dilan 'thanking' her in special ways. Both Dilan and Kathrine looked at her with complex expressions before they stared at each other for a moment.

"She is thinking about something naughty again, isn't she?" Dilan asked with a wry smile on his face.

"That's a sure thing," Kathrine answered, returning the same smile. Victoria was both cheeky and funny but she was definitely one of the people, who required the highest maintenance in their entire group as long as she was close to Dilan or thinking about him.

"We have two free active ability slots and two passive ability slots while being tierless.

Of course, this will increase the moment we get our hands on our Occupations but that is something you know better than anyone else," Victoria revealed when she regained her senses, returning from the lands of her daydreams and wishful thinking.

"Only two passive abilities?" Kathrine asked in doubt. She was sure that Victoria wasn't lying to them but it sounded weird.

However, Dilan nodded as if he could understand this quite clearly. He didn't say anything and simply looked at Victoria while he patiently waited for her to continue speaking.

"And we also start with average stats of one unit. Of course, this doesn't really mean that our strength decreased to the average strength of one human. Maybe the system made a mistake, or the starting stats make no difference, at all," Victoria shrugged her shoulders, showing that she had no idea what the system actually thought when giving them the same stats as humans, even if they were much stronger from the beginning!

Dilan smiled when he saw that Victoria was clueless about the system. It seemed like he understood the system more than Victoria but that was only obvious. He had invested far more time in figuring out the system and creating loopholes.

He hadn't come across any special loopholes yet but he could make use of the system pretty well. At least, Dilan thought so.

"The starting stats make sense because it is your Race that created the huge divide of power between humans and Vampires before the Primordial Ascension. The Primordial Ascension and the system are probably trying to prevent a particular race on Milarn from getting too strong in fear of them overpowering others.

They attempt to make a 'fair' competition and equal opportunity for every single race, I guess. The Vampire race has supernatural regeneration, which is why they're considered Immortal in some tales. Their senses are exceptional as well, and they can see exceptionally well in the dark….oh, and I forgot their supernatural strength…

These are their natural 'passive' racial traits. Thus, they have received less passive abilities to create some sort of balance, I guess," Dilan opined, clarifying why he was not actually surprised to hear that Vampires started with less passive abilities.

It made things a lot more interesting, especially since humans were able to turn the tides and become stronger than Vampires as long as they chose the correct passive abilities.

'Things are about to get interesting!'

**

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