Chapter 79: Newfound Powers

After learning about the amount of malfunctions the system was suffering from, notifications like these no longer surprised or bothered Arthur.

He deactivated the effects of his bloodline for they had begun to exhaust him, and patiently waited for the recalibration process to finish, but as the minutes passed, his indifferent expression gradually turned into a frown, for he noticed that the loading bar had not moved.

"This is very slow." Watching the loading bar was pointless, so he set the messages screen aside, and summoned the main system interface again.

He carefully examined the rest of the features, and after confirming he had not missed anything, he went over the details of the new skills and effects he had acquired.

Little by little his spirits returned, and by the time he was done, there was a wide smile filling his face.

’This is amazing. With the help of these skills, no creature of the same rank as me will be able to defeat me, even if I face several enemies at the same time I can manage them. I am practically undefeatable.’

This intense confidence of his was not coming from nothing, for he had obtained a powerful defensive skill, and now had low-rank poison immunity, his sense of pain had also decreased by approximately 30%, and his eyes could now identify the weak points of his enemies.

In addition to that, he had obtained several effects that could only be activated in certain situations. For example, the "Horde of One" effect increases all his attributes by 15% when facing enemies of the same rank who outnumber him three to one.

Of course, this was not everything, for the real reason that made him describe himself as "undefeatable" was a single skill. Because of how powerful it was, he could not stop himself from rereading its information.

[ Last One Standing (S): The Primal Predator does not fall no matter how many enemies it faces. The battlefield is its home, blood is its passion, and the more it is wounded, the stronger it becomes.

– Effects –

– Desperate Frenzy: When HP drops by 85%, all base Attributes increase by 55% for 45 seconds.

– Final Awakening: When HP drops by 98%, all Attributes increase by 200% for 7 seconds.

Warning: When this effect expires, you will receive an extremely violent backlash.

Note: The Final Awakening effect can be used once per month. ]

His gaze stopped for a brief moment on the Desperate Frenzy effect, and since it was an upgrade of the Primal Predator’s supreme instinct effect that had saved his life several times, he felt great satisfaction.

While on the other hand the Final Awakening effect brought him conflicting feelings, for although he admired its power, he was fully aware of the severity of the consequences of using it.

His smile dimmed, and with a hint of coldness he murmured to himself: ’If I end up one day having to use this effect I will most likely not live to see the following day. This is not a life-saving effect but merely a last stand for a dead man.’

This was the bitter reality, for the only reason that might force him to use this effect—no, this final solution—would be to face an enemy of a higher rank. In this case even if he won or escaped somehow, the violent backlash he would subsequently receive would kill him.

’Having my HP drop by 98% is not a trivial matter. If only I possessed some kind of items or fast-acting healing methods, things would change greatly then.’

There was no need to think about this matter much, for he did not intend to use this effect any time soon, and even if he found himself in a difficult situation, he would weigh his options wisely before acting.

’Today was full of powerful shocks, but, on the whole, I now have a better understanding of my situation and the state of the system, not to mention the many other gains I obtained.’

He sighed at length, then directed his attention to the messages screen that was hovering to the side, at which point he noticed that the loading bar had not moved at all and remained stuck at 0%.

He furrowed his brows in confusion, or more precisely, his forehead twitched for a moment. Unfortunately, wolves did not possess forehead muscles like humans, so Arthur was unable to properly display many human expressions.

In truth, he had only realized this matter recently, for when he had been staring at his reflection on the water three weeks ago he discovered that his senses had been misleading him.

For example, when he felt displeased, he would automatically get the impression that his expression had turned into a frown, while in reality his face was still as it was with some strange twitches here and there.

This reminded him of a medical condition he had read about called "phantom limb syndrome," which is a neurological condition that affects people who have lost part of their bodies. Someone whose hand had been amputated might sometimes still feel an itch in it despite it no longer being there.

After a short moment of contemplation he asked: "System, did the recalibration process fail?"

[ No. ] The system replied with indifference.

"Is the process just very slow? Or is there some problem?"

The system did not answer this time. Arthur waited for several more minutes, and when no change occurred he dismissed the screen and decided to ignore it for a few days before checking it again.

He yawned at length and stretched his stiff body, then took a short nap.

With the coming of sunset he was awakened by the sounds of hundreds of large bats that were coming out of the depths of the dark cave in waves.

’It seems they are heading out to hunt, thinking about it, I also need to find something to eat.’

The "Regeneration" skill had consumed most of the energy in his body to treat his injuries.

His empty stomach rumbled, begging for some food, all he could do was steal glances at the bats passing above him quickly. They were all rankless and had barely any meat on their bodies.

He felt a little disappointed, and when he was about to lose interest in them he spotted a large F-Rank bat flying with great arrogance amid the swarm.

In that moment, he bared his fangs and without any hesitation pounced on it. His legs exploded with astonishing power, propelling him upward with his mouth wide open like a shark.

On the other side, the bat’s echolocation detected an indistinct figure flying upward at great speed, and before it could do anything, several sharp fangs embedded themselves in its abdomen, then it was pulled downward while screaming and flapping madly.

Its voice was high-pitched, powerful, and sharp, which prompted Arthur to deactivate a large portion of his hearing strength so his eardrum would not burst.