19: Crazy upgrade!

The power of Nine Heavens Thunderclap was indeed formidable, but more than half of the energy in his body had been consumed.

Not only did casting skills consume energy, but maintaining the Demonic Bone Armor also consumed a lot of energy.

While Xia Qi was casting skills, these Treants were not foolish; countless ground spikes pierced towards Xia Qi, and although they were all defended against, the energy consumption in his body increased exponentially.

Because of this, although the map clearing speed was quite fast, his energy would quickly deplete, forcing him to stop and rest.

"For now, I'll use Frenzy Lightning; the consumption is a bit too much."

Taking a piece of bread from his storage space and gnawing on it, Xia Qi's guess was also confirmed.

As skill Ranks increased, their power increased, and their consumption also increased.

The Intelligence attribute became very important.

The energy within his body was directly linked to the Intelligence attribute.

After finishing the bread, he walked deeper into the area.

Unbeknownst to him, Xia Qi had already advanced over two hundred meters.

At this point, the monsters appearing were no longer limited to Rank 10 Treants; Rank 11 Shadow Treants and Rank 12 Poison Treants also began to appear.

However, after reaching Rank 8, Xia Qi could easily kill these monsters.

At most, it was just a matter of casting a few more lightning bolts.

With his Talent and attributes, it was very difficult for a Treant to attack Xia Qi, unless Xia Qi stood still and unleashed a powerful ultimate skill.

Over an hour later, Xia Qi successfully leveled up to Rank 9.

It took him several tens of minutes longer than leveling up to Rank 8, precisely because those two uses of Nine Heavens Thunderclap consumed too much, forcing Xia Qi to rest and allow his energy to recover somewhat.

After reaching Rank 9, Xia Qi's damage became even higher; wherever he went, not a single monster survived.

By noon, Xia Qi's experience had reached Rank 9 (99.0%), just one step away from Rank 10.

At this moment, all the Twisted Treants within a thousand-meter radius had been killed, creating an artificial clearing.

"Once I reach Rank 10, I should be able to learn some skills, and at Rank 10, I can undergo a professional Awakening, after which I won't be considered a rookie anymore."

"Currently, it seems I can only use my Talent skills for now; they're strong enough and sufficient."

Not all Talents had Talent skills; Xia Qi had already tested this point. Other B-Rank and A-Rank Talents had not granted him any skills so far.

Even the S-Rank Instantaneous Movement did not allow Xia Qi to comprehend new skills.

It seemed that only elemental-type Awakening Talents would come with skills from the very beginning.

This point was very important.

In the future, when replicating Talents, Xia Qi could pay more attention to elemental Awakeners.

However, even without skills, Awakeners could learn skills every 10 Ranks.

There were three ways to learn skills: first, by being taught by a professional mentor; second, by learning through skill books; and third, by self-comprehension.

Although there were three ways, the third was extremely difficult to achieve, so the common methods were finding a professional mentor or buying skill books.

However, whether finding a mentor or buying skill books, learning skills required a significant amount of money.

The drop rate for skill books was very low; ordinary monsters generally didn't drop them, and if they did, they were relatively common skills.

Skill books could be purchased in the trading market; Elementary skills below Rank 20 generally sold for around 100,000 yuan.

Finding a mentor was a good option; it only cost 50,000 yuan to learn the same skill.

However, learning skills would take some time; those with strong learning abilities might barely master it in three to five days, while those with average learning abilities might need a month or so.

Spending time or spending more money, everyone's choice was different.

At least in Xia Qi's opinion, he would definitely buy skill books.

"It seems I still need to earn more money."

While contemplating, Xia Qi looked at the Materials in his space; he had collected over a dozen elemental attribute herbs along the way.

All things considered, it probably wouldn't amount to 50,000 yuan, which was still a drop in the bucket.

This was also because Xia Qi had the Good Fortune Talent; otherwise, it would be difficult to encounter even a dozen.

One could imagine how difficult it was for other professionals to earn money.

He casually eliminated a few Treants, and the light of leveling up shone again.

His Rank finally reached Rank 10.

【Name: Xia Qi】

【Profession: None】

【Rank: 10】

【Strength: 100】

【Agility: 100】

【Intelligence: 100】

【Physique: 100】

【Equipment: None】

【Talents: Congenital Double Pupils lv1, S-Rank Thunder Control, S-Rank Instantaneous Movement...】

【Active Skills: Frenzy Lightning (Rank 3), Nine Heavens Thunderclap (Rank 3)】

【Passive Skills: None】

【Nine Heavens Thunderclap: Ten directions of Thunder descend, annihilating all within a square inch. The range of Thunderfall is 100 meters in radius.】

Looking at his attribute panel after reaching Rank 10, all his stat allocations remained stable; each level-up would increase all attributes by 10 points.

Regarding attributes, Xia Qi had looked up a lot of information last night. Different Talent Ranks resulted in different attribute points gained per level-up.

For example, a B-Rank Talent would gain five attribute points per level-up.

Similarly, an A-Rank Talent would gain ten attribute points per level-up.

And an S-Rank Talent would normally gain twenty attribute points.

But Xia Qi was clearly not a normal S-Rank Talent, because he gained forty attribute points every time he leveled up. After searching through numerous sources without success, Xia Qi could only attribute it to the uniqueness of his Double Pupils.

Because he was a natural Awakener, he might be different from others.

Information about natural Awakeners was scarce online, with almost no substantive content. To uncover the secrets of natural Awakeners, he would probably have to wait until he entered university and searched for clues in the library.

【Killed Rank 10 Twisted Treant, Experience +300】

【Killed Rank 11 Shadow Treant, Experience +380】

【Obtained Hardened Wood Block.】

....

Xia Qi, having collected his thoughts, resumed clearing the map. After Rank 10, his skills had all reached lv3, and their power naturally increased again.

Watching the prompts constantly scroll like a screen refresh, his experience points also grew rapidly.

As his skills improved, Xia Qi once again felt the efficiency of high-speed map clearing.

Now, killing a Rank 10 Twisted Treant only required two lightning bolts to completely shatter it.

His monster-killing speed had clearly doubled, and he estimated that with further progress, he would be able to instantly kill them.

His efficiency had improved significantly, but from Rank 10 onwards, the experience points required for leveling up also increased dramatically, by nearly three times.

Leveling up became increasingly slow.

Calculating at this speed, Xia Qi estimated that he would need to kill at least five thousand Treants to level up once.

This was a bit terrifying.

Five thousand Treants; he had only cleared less than four thousand Treants in the four to five hours he spent before.

Now, having to kill five thousand to level up would definitely be exhausting.

Although his efficiency had doubled now, it seemed like he could level up in just over two hours.

But Xia Qi sighed, his energy simply wasn't enough!