The moment that the skill appeared on the system panel, Bob began the upgrade. The feeling of upgrading the skills was so exciting to Bob, especially considering that he did not need to spend any skill points, as he had infinite skill points.
Basic spear wielding was upgraded to Disciplined Spear Wielding technique. This upgrade led to an increase in positioning, stance control, and reduced the amount of stamina consumed while executing the technique.
Bob did not stop at that, as he continued improving the technique, upgrading it to Martial Spearmanship. This rare tier technique allowed free switching of attacks, and can lead to someone easily switching between offense and defense.
This spear technique focused mostly on adaptability rather than brute strength.
The next upgrade led to the Epic tier Spear Mastery being born. This technique had a master's presence, the moment that it was unleashed, it would suppress others who used spear techniques, but of a lower tier.
The strikes by this technique would lock onto a person, making it difficult to evade. And more than that, it had a restraining effect, preventing the enemy from closing in.
After absorbing all the memories that had appeared in his mind about the new technique, Bob finally focused on the last scroll. For this scroll, Bob did just as before, and on the system panel, Basic Unarmed Combat appeared.
The upgrades began immediately, leading to the Uncommon tier Disciplined body. This improved muscle memory, striking position, and defensive reflexes.
Simply put, unarmed combat was a fighting technique that combined both use of fists, palm strikes, and kicks, including other body parts. In simple terms, the body was being used as a weapon.
Flowing Combat Art, the Rare tier technique allowed for a continuous unarmed chaining between attacks, dodging and grabbing. This enabled the fluidity between offense and defense.
Additionally, it allowed a person who wielded this technique to be able to fight against armed opponents, as it had the effect of hardening the body slightly. This way, the body was capable of handling the attacks from weapons. But of course, the body was weaker than a weapon, unless it was forged using a body technique.
As he thought about the body technique, Bob decided that he would try and find it. By this point, he had already realized that some good techniques might not be found among the common techniques, but instead, could only be found among higher tier techniques.
This was something that he had not yet verified, but he would venture into the market the following day to confirm.
The final upgrade led to the technique being upgraded into Human weapon. The technique by this point would lead to a slight advancement in the physique of the user of the technique. The more the technique was used, the more the body would be refined.
On the other hand, by mastering this technique, the user would be able to strike easily at the vital points and joints of an opponent. Simply put, it allowed for the detection of weaknesses of the enemies.
Additionally, due to the enhancement of the physique, the body would be capable of handling higher grade weapons, and the Epic tier technique could allow the user of the technique to be able to contend against Uncommon tier weapons!
This piece of information shocked Bob. He had not anticipated that his physique would be able to reach such a level. But of course, for that to really happen, he would need to continuously use this technique, as that would lead to the refinement of the body.
Regardless, just the physical body being stronger than Uncommon tier weapons was already enough. One had to know that the spear that Bob had bought the previous day was only an ordinary weapon, only slightly enhanced, and had not even entered the category of Common tier weapons.
Bob was not sure about how hard the Common tier weapons were, but he believed that they were quite sturdy.
Bob finally glanced at the system panel, after completely analyzing the information that he had received. This time, two new techniques had appeared on the system panel.
[Name: Robert Milton
Age: 20
Power Level: Level 1 Captain
Techniques: Crimson Vortex Sutra (Epic), Spear Mastery (Epic), Human Weapon (Epic).
Skills: Phantom Veil (Epic), Phantom Thrust (Epic)
Divine skills/abilities:
Current skill points: ∞]
It seemed that the system panel had began getting lengthier. Bob was wondering, if he mastered over a hundred techniques, how would the system panel look like?
Just thinking about it, Bob could not help but anticipate the future. At the moment, he could feel that just the two techniques that he had advanced to the Epic tier had enabled his combat strength to improve by quite a huge margin.
Additionally, different techniques allowed for versatility, which would enable him to be able to handle different situations in different ways.
But there was something that Bob had noticed. It seemed that the advancement of the techniques was not mainly focused on the base technique that was being upgraded. Instead, it seemed to be a little random.
While the new upgraded technique would not go on a different path when compared to the initial technique, but it seemed that they were kind of unrelated.
For example, the Basic Unarmed combat was a technique that taught people how to fight. It only included some basic moves and so on.
But for the current Human Weapon, it was more like a body refining technique, which included fighting moves and an ability of spotting the weak points of a target that he was fighting against.
'Time to focus on improving my power level. By tomorrow, let's see how strong I will be after spending the entire of the remaining day and night in improving my power level by absorbing the energy.' Bob thought to himself.
But before that, he went ahead and prepared a meal for himself. He would not get stronger on an empty stomach. It was a good thing that he had purchased quite a good amount of grocery the previous night, so, he did not need to go and buy them.
But one thing that Bob had noticed was that, it seemed that his appetite had increased as compared to before. If he tried eating the same amount of food that the previous Bob had been eating, he would undoubtedly starve to death.
After eating, Bob immediately focused on getting stronger. And as he began absorbing the arcane energy in the air, he noticed something. It seemed that the speed at which he was absorbing the energy had reduced, even though the amount of energy that he was absorbing had increased.
In any case, Bob did not pay much attention to this, considering that the reduction was very small, almost negligible.
….
Stronghold number 7, inside a conference room.
There was a long rectangular table inside the huge conference room. All the chairs around this conference table had been occupied, with all those people sitting around this table possessing formidable auras.
The atmosphere was currently solemn, implying that the reason for this gathering was something serious.
"What is the report of the current situation?" A young man who was sitting at the head of the table asked in a low voice that was filled with authority.
The moment that he spoke up, everyone around tensed up. Still, they all fixed their gazes towards a lady that was sitting to the right of the person who had just spoken.
This lady, just like the young man, was also quite young in appearance. She possessed blonde hair and gray eyes, but the aura around her was quite formidable, stronger than anyone but the young man and the person that was sitting to the left of the young man who had spoken.
"The situation is getting tense. Things are starting to get out of hand, and the ruins are no longer getting easy to explore. The presence of the demons is affecting the exploration of those ruins, as high level demons have begun appearing at low level ruins.
Considering what can be found in those low level ruins, it is impossible for those strong awakened ones to visit those ruins, as the gains would not match the dangers involved." The lady spoke in a cold voice.
As she said those words, the people around the conference room could not help but frown. They began whispering to each other about the situation. It was not that they were receiving the information for the first time, it was just that they had not anticipated that things were getting out of hand now.
They had noticed that about 14 years ago, stronger demons had begun appearing at the low level ruins. At first, it was not a problem at all, considering that only one or two would appear, which could be easily wiped out by a strong awakened one, passing by.
But the problem was that, the number of stronger demons kept on increasing, and the dangers of exploring the ruins kept on increasing, with the casualties also increasing.
Those that would explore ruins, and the ones that could be noticed by this group of people, the number was quite low. The ruins that they really cared about were some of the biggest ones, considering that they were the ones that had the most benefits.
The Common and Uncommon skills, techniques and so on did not really matter that much to this group of people. After all, in the long run, those that wielded the skills and techniques of such a tier could not make any impact in the battle against the demons.
So, if accessing the high level ruins was getting troublesome, then the development of the human race would get slower. And with stronger demons continuously entering this world, the human race would be wiped out very soon.
"Lord, what about those from the floating city? Is there any response from them?" One of the people suddenly asked, plunging the entire conference room into silence, with only the sound of breathing being heard.