"This Assault Master is even less useful than the previous Heavy Cannon Master; that one might have been slightly useful if chosen, but this one is indeed completely useless."

If it had been the initial stages when Zhang Yanhang's strength was lacking, he might have settled for an Assault Master. Now, however, for someone who single-handedly boasts a Strength of 652 tons, it's genuinely unnecessary to use light weapons.

"So, I choose Option Three, Remote Attack Power +60%. Indeed, it's this kind of most practical Additional Attributes that are better." After reviewing all three options, Zhang Yanhang quickly made his choice, and the Time Pause disappeared accordingly.

After leveling up Gun Mastery to LV.MAX, Zhang Yanhang immediately began to examine its Skill Effect.

[Gun Mastery LV.MAX (Passive)]

[Skill Effect: Increases Remote Attack Power by 200% (+80%), improves proficiency in firearms and related remote combat abilities.]

[Additional Attributes: Remote Attack Power +150% (+60%).]

"The increase in benefits provided by Gun Mastery after jumping directly from LV.6 to LV.MAX is truly significant. The basic Remote Attack Power Bonus went from 120% to 200%, an increase of 80% in Attack Power Bonus.

Furthermore, the Additional Attributes' Attack Power Bonus increased by another 60%, from the original 90% to 150%.

As a result, the total Remote Attack Power Bonus has increased from the original 210% to 350%, adding another 140% in Attack Power Bonus, which is an overall increase of almost two-thirds."

Previously, Zhang Yanhang could only deal triple damage with the bonuses provided by Gun Mastery. Now, he can deliver 4.5 times the damage with a Normal attack, which is significantly stronger than the rate of extra attacks and Critical Strike Multiplier.

Of course, these three can all be stacked. You can first inflict 4.5 times the damage with a Normal attack, then trigger a 325% extra attack to deliver almost fifteen times the damage, followed by a 385% Critical Strike Damage to unleash 56 times the damage.

Whereas before, the same calculation would have yielded only 38 times the damage, which is an increase of 18 times the damage.

But under normal circumstances, extra attacks do not always trigger, so just calculating the always active Critical Strike Damage would amount to about 17 times the damage.

"Now that I think about it, it suddenly makes sense why a mere Cannon bullet with Double Strike could penetrate four hundred meters of rock layer—under such high Attack Power Bonuses, it would be a shame if the Six Roots Pure Soul Passage Spear couldn't break through..."

And Zhang Yanhang hasn't even factored in a whole bunch of other related Attack Power Bonuses, such as those provided by achievements, equipment, Three-Headed Six-Armed Skill...

Zhang Yanhang guessed that if all these were included, a Double Strike would inflict at least a hundred times damage, and these are all Passive bonuses. If he were to activate Active bonuses, such as Spiritual Qi Blessing, Spell Blessing, Indestructible Golden Body, Three-Headed Six-Armed, he felt that achieving "One-hit County Annihilation" might not be impossible.

But such a scattershot attack would at best be bullying ordinary people and seems somewhat ineffective against the subsonic Third-Tier monsters he now faces and the starting-speed Fourth Tier Monsters he will encounter in the future.

Take earthquakes, for example. You might expect an earthquake to kill an elephant, but could you rely on an earthquake to kill a Tyrant? Unless the Tyrant happened to be above a fissure that directly caused its death by falling or crushing, it's obviously unrealistic.

And if Tyrants, who are Second-tier Monsters, can scarcely be killed by earthquakes, Third Tiers are even less likely, unless it's an underground earthquake like in a Crimson Iron Ore Vein. But in that case, if there really was an earthquake, Zhang Yanhang would certainly be buried too.

Besides, even if it were possible to kill other monsters, the time spent picking up Treasure Boxes in the solid environments post-earthquake would likely be much greater than during a normal hunt.

Therefore, Zhang Yanhang usually isn't fond of using wide-range attacks that are purely for the sake of range—they're pointless.

However, he does like powerful area-of-effect attacks like Thermo-baric Bombs, which boast both range and destructive power.

"Choose! Skill Level up!" Having reviewed the effects of Gun Mastery LV.MAX, Zhang Yanhang quickly proceeded to further level up, and Time Pause swiftly descended again as a familiar array of text option boxes appeared in front of him.

...

October 29, Thursday, four days after the Double Ninth Festival and the first day Zhang Yanhang entered Ashen World. 9:16 PM, Ashen World, Crimson Iron Ore Vein, Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano, Central Region.

After four consecutive upgrades of the Fighting Master Skill from LV.6 to LV.MAX, Zhang Yanhang had just ended one Time Pause when he immediately triggered another. At the same time, options related to the additional attributes appeared before him.

[You have acquired 'Fighting Master LV.MAX' and are randomly drawing Additional Attributes.]

[Do you wish to choose the Additional Attributes for 'Fighting Master LV.MAX'?]

[Option One: Fighting Master (Choosing Fighting Master will add a suffix 'Fighting Master' to 'Fighting Master LV.MAX' and specialize the skill's enhancement effect to a certain degree.

Specific specialization includes but is not limited to a slight decrease in Melee Attack Power bonus effect, a moderate increase in determinants like 'Empty-handed attack,' 'Preemptive Attack,' 'Weakness Attack,' and an additional 'Fierce Battle Intent' effect...)]

[Option Two: Exotic Weapon Master (Selecting Exotic Weapon Master will completely mutate the 'Fighting Master LV.MAX' into 'Exotic Weapon Master LV.MAX.'

Specific mutations include, but are not limited to, a moderate decrease in Melee Attack Power Bonus when unarmed or using ordinary Weapons, and a significant increase in Melee Attack Power Bonus when attacking with exotic weapons such as Locking Scythe, Scythe, Chakra, Fist Tiger, Curved sword, Double-headed Blade...

A moderate increase in determinants like 'Weakness Locking,' 'Disabling Strike,' 'Body Destruction'...)]

[Option Three: Melee Attack Power +60%]

"This Fighting Master thing...well, it seems like a bare-knuckle brawler would be more fitting for me since I'm a brute who fights with gloves, but the fact that it only enhances empty-handed attacks makes it a bit unsuitable."

Zhang Yanhang felt that the Fighting Master skill was slightly different from what he imagined, the kind who traded blows with gloves. It seemed more adept at sneaking attacks, and as a 200-pound powerhouse of the Empire, he really looked down on such underhanded tactics.

"But the effect of Fierce Battle Intent does seem quite interesting. It looks like it provides an extra boost based on how long the fight lasts, suited for prolonged battles. Sadly, I always fight quick, lightning-fast battles where I knock out an opponent with just a few punches, or even a single punch. This kind of status increase over time is also not very useful to me."

Overall, Zhang Yanhang didn't think the Fighting Master skill warranted giving up part of his Attack Power Bonus.

"As for this Exotic Weapon Master, this is indeed the first time I've come across it." After examining it closely, Zhang Yanhang felt that the Exotic Weapon Master was about using whatever strange weapon was at hand, the stranger the better.

Even among the listed weapons were some Zhang Yanhang didn't recognize, such as Chakra.

"What in the world is a Chakra? A wheel? A circular blade? Is it similar to a Blood-Drop or more like a hula hoop?"

If it weren't labeled as a weapon, Zhang Yanhang might even have thought "Chakra" was some special term from a cultivation system—something like igniting chakras to concentrate Spiritual Qi, opening orifices, and connecting the grand Spiritual Qi Cycle in the body, or perhaps some phrase about the fusion of spirit and flesh becoming the universe.

"I don't even know what a Chakra is, how can I possibly choose this Exotic Weapon Master." Moreover, Zhang Yanhang thought that even if he knew what a Chakra was, whether he'd ever be able to find one in a treasure box in this lifetime was a complete mystery, as it was indeed quite obscure.

"And this Exotic Weapon Master does enhance Fist Tigers, but it doesn't enhance gloves. It really wouldn't be useful to pick it. Although Weakness Locking, Disabling Strike, and Body Destruction sound cool, my punches already turn enemies into mincemeat, so these enhancements add little value."

Zhang Yanhang felt what he really wanted was a Grandmaster that could enhance the power of his gloves. If that were an option, he'd definitely choose it, but as for this Exotic Weapon Master, forget it.

"So, I choose Option Three, Melee Attack Power +60%." After Zhang Yanhang made his decision, Time Pause instantaneously ended, and he immediately began to review the effects of the now-maxed Fighting Master Skill.

[Fighting Master LV.MAX (Passive Skill)]

[Skill Effect: Increases Melee Attack Power by 200% (+80%), enhances proficiency in hand-to-hand combat and related melee fighting abilities.]

[Additional Attributes: Melee Attack Power +150% (+60%).]

"Even though it's already been raised to LV.MAX, the description after the Skill Effect is still entirely unchanged. It would be nice if they could churn out a few cool Ultimate Skills for me sometime, like Sky Splitting Seven Great Resentments, Destruction Reincarnation Fist, Taichu Annihilation Palm or the like. Okay, I'm just daydreaming."

The Fighting Master skill was, after all, simply a passive skill, and Zhang Yanhang's requirements were indeed completely unattainable; it was already quite good to provide him with bonuses and melee techniques.

"This time, my basic melee attack power has once again increased by 80%, and the additional attributes have increased attack power by 60%, for a total increase of 140% in attack power, bringing my total melee attack power bonus from the original 210% up to 350%, which is about the same increase as from the Gun Mastery.

In other words, I can now deal about seventeen times damage with a melee attack under critical strike damage."

On this, Zhang Yanhang's evaluation was: A brawler who loves close combat, with a normal attack at seventeen times power and even capable of triggering extra attacks and double strikes, do you love it?

"Now that the Indestructible Golden Body, Gun Mastery, and Fighting Master skills have all been upgraded, only Heavenly Earth and Alchemy remain to be upgraded. However, Alchemy needs to wait until after clearing the Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Tarano and obtaining an Ashen Treasure Box, so next up is only improving the Heavenly Earth skill."

Zhang Yanhang felt that it should be fairly easy for him to gather the last three million; after all, even after consecutively upgrading three skills, he should still have around two million, close to three million soul points left. Afterwards, he just needed to gather a little bit more to meet the requirement for these soul points.

With this thought, Zhang Yanhang immediately opened his soul points balance to check.

[Soul points: 2723404 (-9216000)]

"This round of upgrading the three skills has consumed a total of 9216000 soul points from me, decreasing my soul points from an eight-digit number of 11939404 to a seven-digit number of 2723404, but indeed very close to the next three million."

Zhang Yanhang was about thirty-five thousand soul points short of gathering the next three million and upgrading the last upgradable skill. This number of soul points might be hard to gather at the second tier but would be quite easy at the third tier.

After all, including both treasure box earnings and killing proceeds, he had gained a total of nearly nine million two hundred and seventy thousand soul points, nearly reaching ten million soul points. Gathering another thirty-five thousand soul points would naturally be quite straightforward, probably only requiring the killing of less than a thousand Large Crimson Iron Ants.

"I have only cleared two hundred and fifty square kilometers of the Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Tarano, yet I am almost finished upgrading all the soul points. Based on this rate, the remaining four hundred square kilometers should at least allow me to gain another eight-digit sum of soul points.

That's to say, for my subsequent promotion to the fourth tier, I'll have an eight-digit number of soul points for use."

Zhang Yanhang was quite interested in this aspect; after all, the more soul points he had, the faster he would develop in the initial stage of the promotion, the quicker the pace to reach the peak rank, and similarly, the speed for the next rank promotion would also increase, fostering a large positive cycle overall.

In Zhang Yanhang's ideal scenario, he would instantly raise his Profession Level to LV.40 right after promotion and then also upgrade the Limitless Universe Skill to Fourth Tier LV.MAX, which conservatively estimated, would require tens of millions of soul points.

"Tens of millions of soul points... it feels like the Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Tarano may not be worth that many soul points, so this ideal situation is probably hard to complete."

Of course, compared to soul points, what Zhang Yanhang now wanted to obtain even more was the Ash Source, since advancing to a higher rank was always the best channel for becoming stronger.

But that being said, a surplus of soul points was always beneficial, and he would certainly continue to actively acquire them, or in other words, he definitely still needed to actively hunt monsters to advance to the next rank more swiftly.

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