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— — High-level energy received
— — Energy source attribute confirmed
— — Transferred profession confirmed
— — Transferring profession initiated
"Ahhhhhh!!!!"
The noisy prompts of the Skill Tree rang in Kevin's ears, but he could no longer make out what the Skill Tree was saying.
The power stone's energy surged fiercely into his body, the purple energy wantonly destroying his physique.
But within Kevin's body, another force emerged to compensate for the damage the purple energy inflicted on Kevin.
Destroying…
Repairing…
Kevin's body became a battlefield where two forces clashed, and he felt as if his body was being torn apart.
The power stone was already in hand, and the profession transfer was successful, so should he let go of the power stone?
Kevin wanted to, but the power stone seemed to be stuck to his hand, impossible to shake off.
It wasn't until a purple crystalline substance rose from beneath his feet that Kevin felt the power stone's stickiness lessen.
The purple crystalline substance, like a slowly weaving cocoon, wrapped around Kevin in circles.
When the purple crystalline substance had covered half of Kevin's body, Kevin was finally able to shake off the power stone, which had been continuously pouring power into him.
The moment the power stone left Kevin's body, the crystal instantly formed, completely encasing Kevin within the crystal cocoon.
But along with it came a strange drowsiness that rushed into Kevin's mind, causing his consciousness to gradually fade.
Before his consciousness was lost, Kevin instinctively looked at the Skill Tree.
The Skill Tree was now a chaotic mess, all skills mixed together, turning into a large mass of green, blue, and red, as if something new was brewing.
His consciousness lingered there, and finally… it vanished.
Inside the crystal cocoon, Kevin's figure was vaguely visible, but he had lost consciousness and fallen into the deepest sleep. From the outside, he looked like a butterfly preparing to break free from its chrysalis.
…
"Kevin?! Kevin!! Hey!! Can you hear me, buddy?! Hey!!"
Thump thump thump —
Outside the crystal cocoon, Star-Lord pounded on the cocoon encasing Kevin.
He had seen Kevin's last effort to throw the gem back to its original position, so he naturally knew Kevin was inside this crystal cocoon.
But the problem was, Star-Lord didn't know if Kevin inside the cocoon was dead or alive.
"Don't bother! Don't you understand? His goal all along was to get his hands on this power stone! If it weren't for that maid just now, he would have been the first to touch the power stone!"
Gamora put the power stone back into the cosmic orb. She just roughly closed the cosmic orb to prevent the power stone from escaping, then put it into her pocket and said to Star-Lord:
"Now we should go back and give this thing to the Nova Corps!"
"What about Kevin?!"
"Forget him! Since he dared to do this, he'll definitely be fine!"
Gamora rushed out of the Collector's room and said to Star-Lord:
"I must have been blind to think Collector could control this thing. He has absolutely no control over it!"
"Why are you still holding it?!"
Rocket, whose life was saved by Groot bringing him out earlier, shrieked when he saw Gamora still holding the cosmic orb containing the power stone.
Gamora repeated what she had just said to Star-Lord:
"This thing is too dangerous; it absolutely cannot fall into Ronan or Thanos's hands! We have to give it to the Nova Corps!"
"Are you out of your mind?! We're still wanted by the Nova Corps! And what does this thing have to do with us? If Ronan wants it, just give it to him!"
Rocket shouted, pointing at the cosmic orb.
He didn't want to be blown to ashes by this mobile bomb.
Star-Lord, however, had a different opinion: "Give it to Ronan, and this universe is doomed!"
"If it's doomed, it's doomed! Quill! You're not some hero, you're a criminal! What does the universe being gone have to do with us?!"
"Because we're living in this damn universe!!!"
Star-Lord and Rocket argued non-stop, but Gamora was not in the mood to talk to them.
She tightly gripped the cosmic orb in her hand, slowly raised her head, looked at the sky, and murmured:
"…It's over, Ronan is here."
"Huh?!"
Star-Lord and Rocket simultaneously stopped arguing and looked up at the sky. Sure enough, they saw Ronan's warships descending one by one from the sky, heading their way.
And on the ground, Drax, holding two daggers from who knows where, excitedly shouted at the sky:
"Hahaha! Ronan, your death is nigh!"
"It's our death that's nigh!! You idiot!!"
Star-Lord couldn't help but roar at Drax:
"You actually sent Ronan a message?! Is your head full of shit?!"
"Peter, I have to run, I must run!"
Unlike Star-Lord's anger, Gamora knew they had to escape now.
First, they couldn't possibly defeat Ronan, and second, they absolutely could not let Ronan get the cosmic orb!
…
Kevin felt as if he was floating in the The Deep.
In the very deep The Deep, he could only see faint specks of light filtering down from above through the endless seawater.
His body no longer felt the initial pain; instead, a special force was warming his entire being.
That feeling was like returning to his mother's embrace.
Kevin, it seemed, had become a son of the sea.
However, Kevin knew he wasn't in any The Deep; he was undergoing a profession transfer in Knowhere. Since his consciousness was clear now, he probably succeeded in the transfer.
Thinking this, Kevin slightly opened his eyes.
A bit of light entered his vision. Pale green light formed a grid in front of him, creating a tall tree with a single point as its base.
Kevin knew this was his Skill Tree, a brand new Skill Tree.
He had indeed successfully transferred professions.
The Skill Tree did not immediately send Kevin back to The Boys world. Kevin had the right to choose to remain in Marvel World, and this Marvel World would become another world where Kevin could come to train at any time.
With just a few skill points in exchange, Kevin could travel between the two worlds.
This was what the Skill Tree told him.
Furthermore, the profession [Supe] had disappeared, replaced by the profession [The Deep Fighter], and the Skill Tree had also been completely renewed.
The skills from before [The Deep Fighter] still existed, but the transfer icons for [Ocean Mage] and [Ocean God's Emissary] were gone.
And some skills had undergone slight changes.
The four skills [Accelerated Self-Healing], [Underwater Sprint], [Supe Cardiopulmonary], and [Supe Physique] all transformed into a new skill after the transfer.
[Fighter's Body].
And it was directly at LV4 Fighter's Body.
This level of physique was basically equivalent to Kevin's previous Level 5 Supe Physique, even slightly surpassing it.
And after Fighter's Body, the Skill Tree no longer required lighting up a skill to know the next stage's skill.
All of [The Deep Fighter]'s skills, including the next profession transfer, were clearly displayed before Kevin.
After Fighter's Body, two skills were connected: [The Deep Heart] and [The Deep Immortality].
Parallel to Fighter's Body was the [Fighter's Combat Arts] skill. The extension of [Combat Arts] was [Fighter's Dance] and two major systems: [Swordsmanship] and [Magic Runes].
After these two major systems were active skills based on them.
And only after that was the icon for the next profession transfer.
[Profession: Ocean Lord]
[Transfer Conditions:
1. Fully master all skills in either the Swordsmanship or Magic Runes system.
2. Master a second profession.
3. Obtain a key item from the mission world.]
"After the first transfer is the second… This is so much like Dungeon Fighter Online…"
Looking at the second transfer skill icon, Kevin couldn't help but complain.
But complaints aside, Kevin was quite satisfied with one revision of the Skill Tree after the official profession transfer.
That was the addition of detailed skill descriptions, skill categories, and the ability to see the maximum level of each skill.
The Skill Tree was divided into two types of skills.
One type was [Basic Skills].
[Fighter's Body], [The Deep Heart], [The Deep Immortality], [The Deep Combat Arts], and later [Swordsmanship] and [Magic Runes] were all considered Basic Skills.
These skills strictly followed a skill point distribution of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64.
The maximum level was seven; seven was the peak.
The other type was active skills extended from various skills, similar to [Water Sword] and [Fighter's Dance].
Skill points for these were upgraded according to a distribution of 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 7 skill points.
A maximum of ten skill points would be consumed, and the number of skill points would no longer increase. The maximum level for each level was ten.
In addition to these, the Skill Tree also added a very thoughtful feature.
The mission function.
The Skill Tree would generate missions that could earn skill points based on Kevin's interactions, and Kevin could choose whether or not to do them.
Doing them would guarantee at least one skill point. Not doing them would result in no loss for Kevin, but also no gain.
"Having it is better than not having it. At least now there's a stable way to get skill points… Oh, right, how many skill points do I have left now…?"
Kevin looked at his skill points.
Because [Fighter's Body] encompassed many of Kevin's previous skills, and Kevin had allocated skill points to these skills, a portion of the skill points were returned to Kevin after merging with [Fighter's Body].
The number wasn't large, only three, but it was better than nothing.
These three, plus the three Kevin had saved before, made a total of seven skill points, which could be used to…
Hmm? Wait a minute.
Seven??
Kevin initially thought he had misread, but after rechecking, it was indeed seven skill points.
"…So, if I participate in this world's plot and change it, I can also get skill points? That's good news."
Previously, to avoid changing the plot too much and thus failing his profession transfer, Kevin had mostly followed the plot, and even if there were changes, they weren't significant.
He had thought he wouldn't gain any more skill points in this world, but he didn't expect such an unexpected bonus.
Given this… Kevin might be able to visit this world often in the future to try and gain more skill points.
Unlocking a second profession and undergoing a second transfer both required a large number of skill points, and this Marvel World was just right.
"I've sorted things out enough; it's time to go out."
Stretching, Kevin's bones made a crisp cracking sound.
He didn't know how long his profession transfer had taken, but he figured the Guardians of the Galaxy's plot outside should be nearing its end.
After he went out, he could go check and see if he could snag a skill point or two.
Shattering the crystal encasing him, Kevin had just stepped out of the crystal cocoon when a communicator fell in front of him. It seemed this thing had been hanging on Kevin's cocoon all along.
"This is…?"
Kevin tentatively picked up the communicator, and as soon as he did, Rocket's angry roar came from inside:
"Oh my god! You sleeping beauty, you finally woke the hell up! Now that you're awake, hurry to Xandar to help! Thanos is going to destroy this place!!!"
Listening to Rocket's voice, Kevin could instinctively imagine the angry expression on Rocket's little raccoon face.
He chuckled softly, about to speak:
"It's just Ronan, you shouldn't be…"
As his voice faded, he suddenly felt something was amiss:
"…Wait, who did you just say was going to destroy Xandar?"
"Are you still groggy from waking up?!
"Alright, I'll repeat! It's Thanos!! Gamora's old man! The most vicious criminal in the universe, Thanos!! And it's Thanos who got that damn gem!
"Do you understand now?! If you understand, hurry up and come help us! Otherwise, you'll only be able to come collect our corpses!!"
With a barrage of gunfire on the other end of the communicator, Rocket hung up.
Kevin still held the communicator, even after Rocket hung up, he couldn't recover for a long time.
If this was the Guardians of the Galaxy plot, then the one who should be attacking Xandar next should be Ronan, who had obtained the power stone, so how could it be Thanos?
How could it be Thanos?
This… shouldn't be, right?
Kevin felt lost for a moment.
(The traveler from an unknown universe finally realized at this moment that the development of events seemed to have deviated slightly from the history he knew.)
As Kevin felt bewildered, the chaotic sounds he had heard on the way earlier rang out again.
But unlike before, when he only heard a jumble of garbled noise.
This time, Kevin heard it very clearly.
Someone was indeed speaking in his ear.
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