Chapter 11: Stage
In the dead of night, the valley was sent into aplete frenzy!
The constant chirping of birds and the sound of howling echoed in the night sky.
Giant insects wereing from all directions of the valley flying and crawling about, rushing madly towards the smallke right at the center of the valley.
The loud rumbling from the earthquake-like tremor from before still reverberated throughout the valley.
Lin Ming paused for a bit until he was sure his culm and roots would not be growing anymore. He calmed down.
The great changes brought on by his evolution made him feel a boundless energy coursing through his body, as if a heart was pumping racing blood around his veins.
Adorable Little Snake and the seven wolf pups had immediately rushed back to his side when the transformation began. Now that Lin Ming knew it was safe, he lifted them safely up to a top branch.
"Check the personalized dashboard."
Lin Ming summonsed the System, only to find that it had also changed with thistest evolution.
[Lineage: Mutated Moso Bamboo]
[Evolution Points: 20]
[Stage: Rank-1]
[Abilities: Level-2 Razor Leaves (300 daggers). 100-meter Area of Effect Range, 30 Attack Effectiveness (evolvable), 200-meters/second Attack Speed (evolvable), can be deployed at the same time, can deal either single-target damage or ranged damage.
Level-2 Mutated Bamboo Whips (100 whips). 20-meter Area of Effect Range, 100 Attack Effectiveness (evolvable), wherever the whip points will be barren!
Spiritual Fluid: Boosts the evolution speed of dependents.]
[Learnable skills:
Ultimate Regeneration: Able to recoverpletely even when severely injured. Evolution Points required: 1000
Aura Concealment: Hides own spiritual aura and blocks aura detection. Evolution Points required: 2000]
Oho.
Lin Ming did not expect such a tremendous change from the dashboard he previously had. That old thing had three lines that barely even covered ten words.
Now, he could properly quantify his own strength and not simply rely on spection or estimation.
As for the new words like ''Stage'' and ''Rank-1'', this exined why the man-eating catfish had beenbeled with simr words after he killed it.
That Colossal Man-Eating Catfish was ''entering Grade-2''. If he were to theorize this on a ten-point scale, it made sense to think that for Rank-1 he would be at Grade-9 just before the evolution, and now had increased to Grade-10. At Grade-2, that fish was simply no match for him.
Taking this all into ount, would there be a Rank-2, Rank-3, and so on in the future?
Before the evolution, he only knew his own levels and the levels of others through System notifications.
Did this now mean he had been given a clear goal of working towards achieving immortality?
If that was the case, then he could have some fun with things.
In terms of his abilities, it seemed both the power and attack ranges of the Razor Leaves and Bamboo Whips could still be increased. The dashboard even used the word ''Level-2'' to describe it, like in video games.
Lin Ming knew that if he was to maximize his abilities to the highest skill levels, they would be unstoppable lethal weapons.
The description of the ability of Spiritual Fluid confirmed what Lin Ming previously suspected as well.
Looking up at Adorable Little Snake, its own personalized dashboard soon popped up.
[Lineage: Albino Bamboo Viper]
[Stage: Entering Grade-2]
[Ability: Lethal Venom Level-1. Fangs can instantly kill opponents several timesrger than oneself.]
[Special Ability: Charm Fragrance Level-1. The body will emit a wonderful fragrance that can incapacitate enemies. However, it may asionally cause some trouble.]
Adorable Little Snake was unexpectedly a good venom user, but it was only at Grade-2 and still quite weak. Even whenparing him to the giant catfish which was also Grade-2, it wasn''t much of a match.
Its special ability did exin why the hunters had previously mentioned a fragrance the snake was giving off, but couldn''t see any of its effects yet.
After all, the little guy was currently still barely holding his own with some small animals. If this Charm Fragrance ended up provoking anyrge enemies, Lin Ming would undoubtedly have to step up and deal with them.
ncing at the little wolf pups, he eyed one of therger ones amongst the pack.
[Lineage: Wild Forest Wolf]
[Stage: Entering Grade-5]
[Abilities: Diamond Fangs Level-5. Their toughness can crush rocks with just a bite.
Howl Level-2. Used to call forpanions or to intimidate enemies. Its sound is capable of rupturing eardrums, but its effect is limited.]
[Special Ability: Wolves of Septenary Level-5. When operating jointly withpanions,bat effectiveness is increased by 50%.]
Looking at the other wolf pups, they all possessed more-or-less simr strengths. Their ability to crush stones with their fangs definitely confirmed they were not ordinary animals. Whenpared to Adorable Little Snake, these little wolf pups were even ''transcendent'', with their increased abilities.
If they fought collectively, it would increase theirbat effectiveness. That was quite a good skill to have.
However, honestly speaking, both the pups and the snake were still very limited in what responsibilities they could take on.
With this in mind, Lin Ming rolled the bamboo branch with Spiritual Fluid over and ced it by Adorable Little Snake and the little wolf pups. Now that the System had confirmed it would help them evolve faster, the more they drank, the better.
Looking once more at his personalized dashboard, he was contemting between the two new skills presented to him.
Both ''Ultimate Regeneration'' or ''Aura Concealment'' allowed him to do things he previously desired to do.
He still had self-awareness, after all.
He knew that there was no other creature as conspicuous as him standing in the center of this valley beside the Spirit Lake.
Especially after the recent evolution, he had grown even taller and loftier. It was as if his presence had been exaggerated, and he stuck out even more like a sore thumb when no other bamboo trees were nearby.
If human beings like those hunters came by again, they would unquestionably be interested in a gigantic mutant bamboo like himself.
How should he protect himself, then?
In the face of humans wielding either cold weapons or hunting rifles, Lin Ming was a thousand percent confident that he could win by andslide.
However, if they came in with a methrower or another lethal weapon, there was simply no mutated nt that could withstand that.
If the time came for him to face such a weapon, even a Superior Level Razor Leaves and Mutated Bamboo Whip ability would probably still be of no use.
That made the two new skills he could learn all the more useful.
Ultimate Regeneration. Just from the name itself, one could perceive the nature-defying uses of the ability.
The exnation that came with the ability made it sound all the more powerful. Just think about it! Even if he were to bepletely decimated, with just one lowly capiry root left of him, he could still restore himself to his original, current state.
Aura Concealment, on the other hand, was much more low-key. As the saying goes, ''the best disguise is no disguise''. In this valley full of spiritual auras, he could conceal his own, leading any humans that found him to believe he was just arger-than-average mutated bamboo.
If this n worked out and he was careful to not draw much attention to himself, all would be well!
However, the most pressing issue now was that a rtivelyrge number of Evolution Points would be needed to learn these two abilities a thousand for one, and two thousand for the other.
Killing an insect would grant him 1 Evolution Point, basking in the sun for ten minutes would earn him another 1, and killingrge creatures like the man-eating catfish could earn him 50 points.
How many other mutated creatures could be in theke, though?
It seemed to him like it would not be quick to learn these two skills.
Until, that is, he received a blessing in disguise.
A ravaging swarm of insects was rushing towards him at top speed!