Chapter 26 Exceeding Expectations
Looking at Oliver, Dilan nodded his head.
“Ascender…sounds nice.” He remarked before Sarah turned around to Oliver, and waved her hand at him.
“Oliver! Come here, Dilan woke up!”
When Oliver heard his name, he looked in the direction of Sarah, and his eyes fell on Dilan.
This made him smile as he hurried over.
“You look great, Dilan! Maybe you will be fit in a week or two? Your injury was quite bad after all…”
Dilan was not sure why Oliver was so excited to see him, but he simply smiled in response, unsure of being able to fully recover in a day or so.
His mana refilled quite quickly, and he was trying to figure out how to perceive the mana in the surroundings to hasten up the process even further.
But before revealing anything, he wanted to test out a few things, which was why he didn’t speak about his experiment.
“I heard that the front corridor on the second door has been broken. Are there many zombies outside, or is it still safe to make use of?”
Oliver wanted to know more about Dilan’s condition and force him to rest, but that was not what Dilan seemed to plan.
Thus, he could only smile weirdly before he answered,
“It is a little bit more complicated because there are more zombies than expected, but most of them are still level 0. That made it a little bit easier for me to help the others to get their first kill.
But some zombies have leveled up, and it is quite difficult to differentiate between them at the first glance. So we almost had a few casualties yesterday.-.
We also reached the second floor and tried to block the front corridor, but the others didn’t want to continue because the sounds coming from the left corridor were a little bit odd.”
Getting to know that some zombies had already leveled up and that the left corridor was having some issues, Dilan could tell that he had to hasten up his recuperation.
With that in mind, he immediately made use of his Origin ability.
Afterward, he took a glance at the Log of the Ancient, where he noticed a big exclamation mark on the upper right side and pressed it out of curiosity.
[[-[Lesser Immunity] Ungraded ★★★-
1) Essence of ’30’ infected monsters has been absorbed
2) Health property of -4- has been reached
Upgrade to Ungraded ★★★★]]
‘I knew that I was forgetting something.’ Dilan thought before disregarding his immunity ability once again.
It was a passive ability that didn’t really change much about his physique or anything around that.
The only upside was that he knew that he wouldn’t get an infection due to the bullet hole, which was quite good for the healing process.
Keeping his own ability in mind, he recalled the three abilities that belonged to the three men Jack had killed.
“Alright. If it’s quite complicated right now, how about we figure out how to distribute the three ability crystals after everyone is here?”
Upon hearing Dilan’s question, Oliver’s eyes gleamed in excitement. He had been the gatekeeper of the three ability crystals. As such, he knew what the abilities were.
He was eager to get one but knew that it had to be distributed with everyone’s agreement. Otherwise, the already shaky and wavering trust within the survivors would completely disappear.
With that in mind, Oliver jumped up before he called everyone.
“Guys, we would like to start with the distribution of the three remaining ability crystals. Everyone is here, right?”
Everybody stopped doing whatever they were and gathered around Dilan.
All of them greeted Dilan, which made him feel quite awkward.
He nodded in return, but that was already everything and he didn’t say anything further.
The others had not expected him to suddenly start speaking to them either. Hence, they felt good to see that he hadn’t changed much.
Giving some space for everyone to see what was going on, they formed a big circle as Oliver placed the three ability crystals in the center.
Nobody was pouncing at the crystals, even though some looked at them with a faint shimmer in their eyes.
However, none of them was greedy enough to take all of them.
After all, this would mean that they had to fight more often, in order to make good use of their abilities.
“Can someone hand me the crystals? I want to see what kind of abilities they’re and if one of them is useful for me!”
Dilan would have moved by himself, but he wanted to heal as quickly as possible. Thus he tried to move as less as possible and not let the wound tear open.
Oliver, who was just about to sit, jumped up, but Ailee leaned forward to pick up the three ability crystals.
She was seated near Dilan and handed him the crystals without hesitation.
With a nod, he thanked her before averting his focus on the grayish crystals.
[Arts of Cooking(Passive)] Ungraded ★★★★★
-Provides knowledge about various delicious dishes. Some may even reward special gifts or additional points to the Log of the Ancient!-
[Basic Archer Mastery(Passive)] Tier-0 ★★
-The memories of the teaching, and experience of an Archer will be imprinted in the Host’s mind!-
[Violent Strike(Active)] Tier-0 ★
-1 Unit of mana will be used to issue a powerful strike. Enhances strength property by until the strike has been issued!-
“Recipes that boost our stats? Doesn’t that mean they use ingredients filled with Essence?” Dilan mumbled wondering if one had to use specific Essence crystals to make the food, or if it was just the meat of certain beasts.
They had yet to test cooking the meat of mutated animals, but Dilan was pretty sure that it was edible. Not the flesh of zombies, and probably not the rats either, but the python from days before might have been edible.
Continuing to read, Dilan thought about it for a few seconds before he returned the ability crystals to Ailee.
“I don’t need any of these abilities. You guys can decide on your own.”
Dilan knew that the memories of an Archer might help him to gain more combat experience. It might even help him to improve his accuracy with the spear.
But thinking about it on a long-term basis, he felt that it would be a waste to learn the passive master ability of a weapon he wouldn’t want to wield.
His Origin ability [Regeneration] and his passive [Lesser Immunity] clearly hinted that he should fight in the front, which was exactly what he planned to do.
As such, the [Basic Archer Mastery] ability would just waste one of his four remaining passive ability slots.
Not knowing whether the number of abilities could increase in the future, Dilan felt that the Archery mastery ability would be a waste.
He felt exactly the same about the Violent Strike ability.
Dilan had no intention to learn to replace one of his two empty active ability slots for an ability such as [Violent Strike].
It might be a decent ability, and it would only grow stronger over time, but Dilan felt no desire to learn the ability because its basic enhancements were simply not worth it in his opinion!
His decision astonished the others.
But after seeing everybody’s expression, Dilan felt the need to explain his reasoning.
“Please only choose the cooking ability if you are ready to cook all the time. These special rewards could save our lives in the future, so don’t waste your ability and try to improve it.
As for the archery ability, please don’t change your weapon of choice later, and take a bow, or crossbow once we get our hands on one.
Meanwhile, please keep in mind that we have only two active skill slots.
I think it would be really suited to initiate one-hit kills against powerful opponents if used properly. Its use can be altered and is compatible with many different fighting styles.”
Dilan was not even sure if the others were able to understand him. As such he decided to keep it at that.
There was far more he wanted to say about the abilities, and how they should be distributed.
But at the end of the day, it was not his decision to choose them for others.
Thus, he quieted down and observed how the others went ahead with the distribution.
What he didn’t know was that everyone had subconsciously listened to and thought hard about Dilan’s words.
Their knowledge about the Primordial Ascension, and everything revolving around it was limited.
However, Dilan had taught them a lot in these past few days, including the information Jack had told them on the day of Dilan’s arrival.
Because of his honest words, the Survivors showed their interest only in the abilities they truly wanted.
If the ability held no value for them, they didn’t show interest in procuring it just for the sake of having more than the others. Jack had been a good example of what greed could turn them into.
It was quite important and a big step in the right direction, which was something that made Dilan feel quite satisfied.
‘This group is far more disciplined and humane than I expected it to be!’