Chapter 57 - Absorbing Ability Cores!
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After the expedition to the outskirts of Sector D, the teacher announced a special test with questions regarding what they saw and learned from this trip, which would be done next Monday, as the weekend was finally coming after today's classes.
"As if good grades were to even matter at this point… Really, this whole thing is a ridiculous façade," sighed Noah, walking back to his room alongside his party.
Whenever he walked with all of them, Fernand would never target him, and would simply watch him from afar rather annoyed, even he knew that it would cause too much commotion to attack a group of 6 people only with his two lackeys.
Reaching his room, Noah closed the door as he sat down on his bed.
"Very well. Now that we are done with the day, let's distribute the Attribute Value Cores we acquired, I will take enough to max my Attribute Values to E-Rank, most of you should also be close to that, I imagine," said Noah.
The entire group nodded, most of them were nearing 75 in one or more Stats, which is the needed number to be considered beginner E-Rank.
They needed just a few more Cores to reach one of such stats to 75, whichever the stat was, they would be counted as E-Rank already.
However, Noah wanted them all to be maximize their stats, so getting 75 in all three of them was the best way to do it.
After chatting for a while about what they were going to do this weekend, which included traveling to Arthur's family territory and get to know their new manor where they would make their hideout and also their Guild HQ, Noah absorbed enough Cores to reach the required stats in every of his Attribute Values.
Checking his Attribute Panel, he also noticed that some Skills proficiencies had increased a lot.
[Noah]
[Bloodline: Vampire (Awakening)]
[Vitality: 75]
[Mind: 75]
[Force: 75]
[Skill Points: 0]
[Skill(s): [Blood Progenitor: - (SSS)], [Undying Body: 67 (A)], [Blood Claws: 73 (C)], [Blood Manipulation: 86 (D)], [Blood Projectiles: 66 (D)], [Champion's Great Perseverance: 58 (C)], [Telepathy: 59 (D)], [Blood Soul: 37 (A)], [Blood Flow Acceleration: 39 (C)], [Blood Sacrifice: 34 (C)], [Blood Retribution: 32 (C)], [Vampiric Eyes of Hypnosis: 18 (C)], [Poisonous Blood: 21 (C)]
"With this… I am E-Rank in strength! And only it has been a week since I acquired these powers… Now, we should be able to begin hunting E-Rank Dungeons from now on, although some of you might not have all attribute values maxed into 75, most of you already have at least one of such attribute values at 75, so all of us are E-Rank at this point, the F-Rank Cores we got in that cave were very useful," said Noah.
"Indeed… I never thought I would be able to reach E-Rank this soon in my life…" said Arthur.
"This is indeed a good thing, we need to grow even stronger to manage to fight all the threats we'll have in the future," said Timassa.
"However, we still need some more Cores if we want to max all our attribute values to 75…" said Iris.
"E-Rank Dungeons also drop F-Rank Cores, the same goes for higher Ranked Dungeons, they always drop Cores from Rank below them, so we can immediately begin grinding in those," said Noah.
Now that all the attribute value cores, which were around 40, were spent, Noah glanced at the Ability Core she had.
Among the Attribute Value Cores given in the underground caves, there were also Ability Cores, which he distributed with his party, acquiring two F-Rank Ability Cores for himself and Emerald's Ability Core.
Now that Noah had these Ability Cores, he had decided to convert them into Skill Points!
Especially an A-Rank Ability Core, which would net a large number of Skill Points!
However, before that, Noah wondered something.
"Do any of you possess Skill Trees?" asked Noah.
His party seemed confused, they didn't know what Skill Trees were.
"No… I don't think I have ever found any like that," said Arthur.
"Me neither…" said Timassa.
"Not me either," said Iris.
"No…" said Jon.
"Skill Trees…?" asked Adamantine.
"So the ability to convert Ability Cores into Skill Points and exchange them for Skills within a Skill Tree is something only I have…" muttered Noah.
"It's obvious, that's because it is something related to the Blood Core, none of your subordinates possess a Blood Core, so it's obvious they don't have Skill Trees!" said the Blood Progenitor.
"Oh, so you woke up already, Dracula," said Noah.
"Shut up…" muttered the Blood Progenitor, mildly annoyed.
"Noah-sama you possess such an ability as Skill Trees?" asked Iris curiously.
Noah sighed as he had now told them, so he would have to explain to them what it really was…
After a few minutes of explanations, everyone came to understand a little bit how Noah's Skill Trees worked.
"Amazing… It is as if you possess your own Skills, you don't even need to gamble them in Ability Cores…" said Arthur.
"To be expected of our progenitor," said Timassa.
"Actually, I wish you could all have such ability as well, it would make it easier for you to grow stronger as well and become more useful…" said Noah, as he decided to ask something to the Blood Progenitor.
"Could it be possible for them to acquire Skill Trees too?" he asked.
"Hmph, now you ask me? And it is impossible! …Or maybe it is not? Well, such powers come from the Blood Core, if you could find a way to either share them or give them some kind of artificial Blood Core for themselves… Perhaps some kind of lesser yet similar result could be achieved… But all of this is only speculative…" said the Blood Progenitor.
"The ability to create a Blood Core… Do you know some way? You lived in a world filled with Vampires after all, and they even seemed to do something called Cultivation," said Noah.
"Grr… I… May know a way… But why would I even tell you!? You keep disrespecting me and calling me Dracula or whatever! Why would I help you?!" asked the Blood Progenitor.
"Oh? Do you want to resist? You are now my own power… Don't deny such knowledge to your master," said Noah.
"Tch! I don't give a damn anymore!" roared the Blood Progenitor, as his consciousness hid within their combined souls.
"What a pain… Well, I might be able to discover such things myself as I uncover the power of the Skill Tree…" thought Noah, as he absorbed the Ability Cores he had on his hands.
Ding!
[Do you wish to exchange [Ability Core (A)], and [Ability Core (F)] for 105 Skill Points?]
[>YES NO]
"So an A-Rank Ability Core gives me 100 Skill Points, that's quite good, although not as much as I imagined, it is good enough!" thought Noah, selecting the 'YES' option.
Flash!
The Ability Cores turned into bright light, shining iridescently until they exploded into particles of light and embraced Noah's body, fusing themselves with him and giving him a new surge of strength and energy.
Ding!
[You acquired 105 Skill Points!]
"This… With this, I should be capable of getting quite a good amount of Skills… My Skills are pilling up a lot though, but I use all of them on the battle, as they all combine excellently in battle, something that other people don't get to enjoy as easily as me, seeing how the power to get new Skills is locked behind random Ability Cores…" thought Noah, glancing at his Skill Tree as his party sat down near his room and snacked on whatever he had in the fridge, emptying his reserves.
He was rather annoyed by this, but he felt like his vampires were his responsibility, and he was rather busy now, so he decided to pay no mind for now.
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