Chapter 317 Upgrading
Dilan’s clothes were burning, while his entire body was enveloped in purple lightning bolts. He had been viciously attacked from the back and was currently facing the consequences of speaking his mind.
“You’re a weirdo…how the hell can you smile when your entire body is on fire?!” Kathrine gasped in shock, feeling uncomfortable when she saw that Dilan was smiling brightly which made her lower her hand.
The electricity currents around her hand dispersed and Dilan slumped to the ground. He had cut his finger to make it easier for Kathrine to attack him. Yet, contrary to the first time when Kathrine had ‘attacked’ him with her [Compressed Lightning Strike], Dilan’s body had become much tougher.
A bolt of lightning created with a single unit of Mana was not enough to be counted in the upgrade requirement of the [Thunder Step] ability. Thus, Kathrine had been forced to increase the amount of mana that she had used to activate her ability. The lethal power of her attack had increased manyfold, inflicting severe damage on Dilan and his organs.
Kathrine hated to see Dilan hurt but whenever she stopped using her ability, he asked her to attack him once again.
Their plan of upgrading Dilan’s ability seemed to be working but Kathrine was definitely not happy about it. Unfortunately, Dilan couldn’t care less about that, especially now that the final lightning strike had hit him.
[[Thunder Step] Tier-0 ★★★★★] has been upgraded to [Thunder Step] Tier-1 ★! Congratulations!]
[[Thunder Step(Active)] Tier-1 ★??
-Enhances [Agility] by 30% for 90 Seconds per 1 Unit of mana!-
-For each additional Unit of Mana used, Agility increases by 1.2%!
Once activated, it creates an ear-piercing noise, and shrouds feet in electricity currents!]
Dilan flashed a vibrant smile when he finished reading through the notifications that had appeared in front of him.
They had been out hunting for the whole day and it hadn’t been long since they had returned. Upon returning, Dilan made a quick stop at the trading hub, where he found out that more than 300 Lightning-attributed Tier-1 Essence crystals had been exchanged.
With the Lightning Essence crystals he had already absorbed during the entire day, 300 Tier-1 Lightning Essence crystals were more than enough to upgrade [Thunder Step]. He only had to survive more lightning strikes impacting on him, which was something very easy to achieve with Kathrine by his side.
“Please change the mission board from Lightning Essence crystals to ‘Infected’ Essence crystals. I need all types of ‘Infected’ Essence crystals, including ordinary Tierless and Bronze Tierless Infected Essence crystals,” Dilan advised when he finished his business at the trading hub. He didn’t need anymore Lightning attributed Essence crystals for the time being.
He changed his focus to the [Immunity] ability which had to be upgraded as well. [Immunity] was currently the only passive ability he could upgrade. Dilan had no idea about the upgrade requirements for both [Nightvision] and [Language comprehension].
The latter was not actually important to upgrade for the time being but [Nightvision] was a useful passive ability that enhanced his night vision and his overall eyesight. If he could upgrade it, even abilities such as [Eagle Eye] might not be much more superior.
Unfortunately, he had yet to find out the upgrade requirements, which was why he had to pick the few abilities he could already upgrade instead of running behind the unknown requirements.
Half an hour after they left the trading hub, Dilan and Kathrine had met up to finish upgrading his [Thunder Step]. Everything worked out perfectly fine and Dilan ended up becoming much stronger than before.
Now that his [Thunder Step] was much stronger than before, his Agility was certainly not a problem anymore.
In fact, Dilan had never actually worried about his Agility, especially since he had two active abilities that were related to boosting his Agility.
Dilan went to sleep when he was done for the day and for the first time in several days he slept soundly. With [Switch], the following days were bound to become much easier, that was something Dilan was certain of.
There was no time to waste because the Vampires would soon initiate their first attacks but that was something Dilan would be worried about after a few days only.
The following 96 hours were probably the most important and Dilan was ready to sleep peacefully one last time before he would give his all to become the strongest version of himself.
When the sun was well above their heads, Dilan woke up from his deep slumber. He stretched his body, washed up and put on a new set of clothes.
“Four days…that should be more than enough,” Dilan mumbled before he left his room to look for someone.
He sighted Victoria soon after but didn’t pay too much attention to her.
“Have you seen Kira?” Dilan asked, resulting in Victoria’s expression freezing all of a sudden. She had been overjoyed to see Dilan the first thing in the morning. However, he completely ignored her which soured her mood.
“Do you have another new woman?! Just how many women do you want to add to your harem??” Victoria complained with a cute voice as she began to pout. Dilan lifted his eyebrow when he saw this and he was a bit flabbergasted, not knowing what to say.
“I already have a harem? Sounds shady…” He mumbled just to shake his head. There were more important things to take care of.
“So…where is Kira, you know…the Paladin with several auras?” Dilan asked, not allowing his mind to be tarnished by Victoria. However, the Vampire continued to sigh. She looked deep into Dilan’s eyes before she shook her head.
“I don’t know where she is,” She answered, which resulted in Dilan grasping Victoria’s wrist.
“In that case, you will have to replace her. Follow me!” Dilan instructed, dragging her behind him without telling her what she was supposed to do.
After they left the building, Dilan let go of Victoria’s wrist. This caused her to respond by trying to grasp Dilan’s hand to hold it tightly. To her misfortune, Dilan dashed out of the base before she could get hold of him.
Victoria was left behind in the dust Dilan’s sudden movement stirred up. She frowned but followed him while stomping her feet.
‘How unsensible can someone be?!’ Victoria could only think in her mind as she removed some dust her hair had caught.
With her Blood-Ice, cleaning herself could be done in an instant but that didn’t change the fact that Dilan was a bit rough.
“Well…it’s not like I dislike it rough~” Victoria mumbled all of a sudden when she turned into a flash as well, following Dilan, who had been waiting for her.
Dilan dashed in a specific direction and her cheeky smile turned into a frown when she realized where they were going. A minute passed and her prediction was proven to be correct.
“Why….would you want to enter that shithole?” Victoria suddenly asked, while her earlier excitement to be alone with Dilan had scattered like pollen in the wind.
She looked at the Gate they had reached and couldn’t help but sigh deeply.
[Permanent Gate to (Niclan Spider Queen’s Nest). No entry requirement]
“I cannot enter the Pagoda of Time with you because your level is too high, and the number of spiders in the Queen’s nest are extremely high as well. To upgrade [Switch], I need loads of Essences!” Dilan answered with a serious expression.
However, a crafty smile formed on his face when he noticed that Victoria was displeased. She didn’t have a phobia of spiders but she was also not happy about the possibility of facing tens of thousands of them.
“Can I…search for Kira…?” Victoria asked all of a sudden so as to wriggle out of the situation but Dilan just shook his head.
“We don’t have any more time to waste. Take these Blazing Molotov Daggers and have some fun…hahaha,” Dilan was quite satisfied with Victoria’s expression, which made it difficult not to laugh.
He handed Victoria a batch of Blazing Molotov Daggers and patted her back.
“Let’s have some fun with a few spiders!” Dilan said in an encouraging tone before they entered the Gate. Victoria followed him as her earlier enthusiasm of spending some alone time with him dissipated into thin air.
‘I…hate spiders…’
Several hours passed until they returned covered in dirt, spider innards and torn clothes.
“I….really…hate you…” Victoria quietly mumbled as she glared at Dilan, who just could not stop laughing.
“I know you don’t, silly.”