Chapter 70

Keith woke up on a medical stretcher, feeling a strong sense of weakness.

Looking around, he found himself in the middle of a camp not far from the hive. There were rows of other people either sleeping or resting on similar stretchers.

Upon seeing Keith awake, a nurse approached and handed him a steaming bowl of soup filled with vegetables. A quick cast of Inspect revealed it was a Mythic-grade soup capable of increasing the rate Stamina regenerated. After Keith thanked the nurse and devoured the soup in record time, a blinking notification drew his attention.

Warning: You’ve acquired Mana Sickness from using more Mana than your body could handle. -20% to all stats. Duration: 2 weeks, 1 day, 22 hours, 13 minutes, 58 seconds.

“Huh,” Keith muttered. He had never heard there was a drawback to spending Mana. But why did he feel so hollow and empty? Losing stats shouldn’t make him feel like this, so was there some hidden modifier at play?

Thinking about it for a few minutes, Keith couldn’t figure it out. His thoughts turned to the raid.

Fighting alongside a well-rounded and experienced army was an enriching experience. The power of two people working together wasn’t as simple as one plus one, much less a whole group.

While Keith recalled the battle, a large chunk of the hive broke apart, causing a loud boom when it hit the ground. He looked over and saw a massive mining project underway, with several thousand people chipping away at the hive. No doubt they were gathering the Life Essence Honey it was made of.

The sight made him recall the rewards the System was supposed to hand out when the event ended. Growing excited, Keith opened up the event panel and gasped at what he saw. Rank #4? That was way above his expectations!

Besides that, below Keith’s rank was a massive rectangle full of icons. Each icon represented an item awarded to him and had a colored border according to its grade – blue, purple, orange, and red.

Keith paused.

There was one more color: brown.

That meant one of the items was Ancient grade, and more importantly, there wasn’t just one. There were nine brown-colored icons.

Keith couldn’t remain calm upon realizing what that meant.

Wait.

Were they resources, equipment, special items, or skills? If they were simply resources, that would be a huge letdown. Keith didn’t want Ancient grade ore or wood. He wanted equipment and skills!

Unlike in the Innate Dimension, where Mythic grade was pretty common, Ancient grade and above were notoriously hard to acquire. Keith hadn’t even found one yet. That was why he’d feel depressed if all nine Ancient grade items waiting for him to check turned out to be resources.

Keith closed his eyes - the next moment would determine whether luck was on his side. After taking a deep breath, his eyes snapped open to inspect the first Ancient grade item.

His jaw dropped.

It was a skill!

And not just any skill.

It was a skill Keith had fantasized about for years.

[Ancient] Flight

Description: Allows the user to fly by consuming Mana. Intelligence and skill level determine flight height, speed, and Mana consumption. Intelligence Scaling: A.

Requirement: Level 500.

The only people who could fly without a flying monster pet were Yara, Ska’dur, and Markus. When Keith asked his grandmother why Markus and Ska’dur could fly, he learned Yara had given them the two Flight skill books she had in her inventory long ago.

While he didn’t know how many Flight skill books dropped from the raid, he guessed there wouldn’t be many. Even if there were 100, it still couldn’t satisfy the market’s demand, so it went without saying Keith could sell the Flight skill book for a fortune, yet no amount of money could compare to having the ability to fly. Flying was the dream of many, and now, Keith was one of the few lucky ones who could.

Without hesitation, Keith activated the skill book and added the Ancient grade skill to his repertoire. It was sure to be the first of many to come.

Keith glanced around.

Although he wanted to test the Flight skill immediately, too many people were here. He didn’t want to draw undue attention. That said, Keith settled his emotions and moved on to the next Ancient grade item. There were eight left; hopefully, he didn’t use all his luck already.

As if he was taking a stealthy peek at a beautiful lady, he looked at the loot panel from the corner of his eye. His excitement dropped upon seeing the second item. It was Carapace Bee Chitin, an Ancient grade material used to make equipment. The following four items were also materials.

Right when Keith thought his luck had run dry, the sixth item turned out to be a consumable – it was an Ancient grade version of Life Essence Honey!

[Ancient] Royal Life Essence Honey

Description: Consume to permanently increase Health by 100, Mana by 100, and a random primary stat by 25. Effect decreases the more it's consumed.

It was several times more effective than the Mythic grade version and was sure to sell for a sky-high price. But things like this were sought by all, and while Keith desperately needed gold, he still wouldn’t sell something like this.

Keith didn’t waste a second.

Withdrawing the Royal Life Essence Honey from his inventory, a small vial containing viscous orange liquid appeared in his hand. Pulling the topper off, he downed it in one gulp.

“Ahh,” Keith released a pleased groan which drew some strange looks from nearby. Ignoring the deliciously sweet taste, the vigorous life force flowing through Keith’s body soothed his nerves and muscles. The elixir upgrading his very being left him profoundly relaxed, which caused him to release that embarrassing groan.

Keith had never felt so awkward and tried to explain his actions by saying, “That soup was amazing, huh?”

The people on the stretchers adjacent to Keith looked down at the bowls in their hands with raised eyebrows. They collectively labeled Keith as a weirdo.

Wishing he could find a hole to hide in, Keith continued browsing through his loot panel and found two more Royal Life Essence Honey which he promptly consumed. This time, he made extra sure not to make any strange sounds.

Finally, only the last Ancient grade item was left.

At this point, Keith was pretty satisfied with his haul and wouldn’t be disappointed if he looted another material. Yet, his luck seemed to overflow today, as the last item was a piece of equipment, a weapon no less.

[Ancient] Spark Managloves – Level 550

Description: A pair of gloves engraved with complex arrays that increases the wielder’s defense and adds lightning damage to all their spells, among other effects.

Spell Damage scaling based on Intelligence: B++

Physical Defense scaling based on Intelligence: D-

Elemental Defense scaling based on Intelligence: B-

Adds the following stats: +4,000 Health, +20,000 Mana, +300 Intelligence, +10% Mana Regeneration rate.

Passive skill 1: Adds lightning damage to the wielder’s attacks. Lightning Damage Scaling based on Intelligence: F+

Remark 1: Takes both the weapon and glove slot.

“Wow,” Keith gasped, his eyes shining as he read the equipment’s information. This was the first time he saw equipment where its Physical and Elemental Defense stats scaled off Intelligence, not Vitality or Endurance. Not only that, the passive skill the Spark Managloves came with was unheard of.

Clearly, the Grandsky Realm opened up new possibilities with regard to stats and modifiers, leaving Keith with a sense of wonder and curiosity. What else was out there waiting for him to discover?

A moment later, Keith removed the Spark Managloves from his inventory and put them on, at which point they promptly changed shape to fit his hands perfectly. Tiny motes of lightning floated around the blue-shaped gloves, giving them a magical appearance.

Now that Keith had gone through the best loot, he gave the rest of his rewards a cursory glance. In the end, Keith planned on adding it to his Collection Grimoire, save for the elixirs.

With all his rewards sorted out, Keith opened up his stats panel and felt a wave of satisfaction. Compared to three years ago, his growth was astonishing.

[Keith Walker]

Level: 566

Age: 21

Titles: Philanthropist, Born With A Golden Spoon, Troublemaker, +10 others

Health: 94,600 -> 152,800

Mana: 138,300 -> 293,100

Strength: 3192 -> 3559

Agility: 3211 -> 3677

Intelligence: 5189 -> 6483

Vitality: 3562 -> 4095

Endurance: 3578 -> 4124

Skills: Sensory Link, Mind Enhancement, +253 others