Then he smiled.
It wasn't a boisterous laugh, but the kind where the corners of his mouth slowly curled up and his eyes narrowed slightly.
If Shen Man were here to see this smile, she would definitely say, “What kind of trouble are you cooking up now, kid?”
【Sands of Time】. A three-meter radius. A 10% to 30% slow.
It might not sound like much—at a 30% slow, the blade meant to hit you would still hit you, and the fireball meant to blast you would still blast you.
But Lin Yuan had killed over a hundred monsters in the wilderness over the past ten days; he understood one truth very clearly.
In battle, the difference between being a hair faster or a hair slower was the difference between life and death.
If that Tier 2, Level 5 rune master could have been slowed by 30% when condensing his light ball—
He wouldn't have even needed to dodge that red-haired guy's light ball.
Furthermore, 【Sands of Time】 was an area-of-effect ability, not a single-target one.
This meant that as long as anything entered the three-meter radius around him, whether it was a person or an attack, everything would be slowed down together.
Combined with the speed advantage of the lightning system... If he was fast and everyone else was slow, how massive would the gap become?
Most importantly, this combat technique belonged to the space-time system.
No one knew he possessed a space-time ability.
Everyone assumed he was just an E-rank lightning user who had, at most, achieved Nine Rounds of Bone Tempering.
They wouldn't be on guard against the space-time system; they wouldn't be prepared for these invisible “sand grains.”
Lin Yuan opened his eyes and focused his mind.
【Sands of Time】, activate.
There was no sound, no light effects, and no visible changes to the naked eye.
However, he could feel the air within a three-meter radius around him become slightly “viscous.”
This bit of resistance was almost negligible to him, but for an enemy entering this range, it would be an invisible speed bump.
After five seconds, the effect automatically vanished. The cooldown was thirty seconds.
At the Entry level, 【Sands of Time】 provided a slow of roughly 10% to 15%, with a three-meter range and a five-second duration.
Once its proficiency increased, the potential of this technique would be immense.
Lin Yuan leaned Purple Lightning back against the wall and sat cross-legged.
He glanced at the proficiency of 《Thunder Walk Through Nine Heavens》 on the system panel. It was at Practiced (Nearing breakthrough), just a hair away from reaching “Proficient.”
There were six levels of proficiency: Entry, Practiced, Proficient, Master, Perfection, and Ultimate Intent.
His 《Thunder Walk Through Nine Heavens》 had been stuck at the “Practiced” stage for several days now.
While a Practiced level of the technique allowed him to dominate within Tier 1, the spear technique's power was somewhat lacking when facing Tier 2 enemies.
Just a little bit more...
After a moment of thought, Lin Yuan pulled his phone from his storage bag, opened the official Ability User Association app, and searched for “Monster Distribution around Hangzhou.”
A map popped up on the screen.
There was a hilly region outside the Hangzhou West Suburbs marked as a “D-rank danger zone.” The monster density was moderate, consisting mainly of Tier 1 and Tier 2 monsters.
It was about a twenty-minute drive from the city center.
He checked the time—4:30 PM. There were about two and a half hours left until dark.
That was enough.
Lin Yuan shouldered Purple Lightning, walked out of the training room, went upstairs to change into more flexible clothes, and then hailed a maglev taxi at the hotel entrance.
“Ma'am, to the entrance of the west suburbs monster area.”
The driver was a woman in her forties. She glanced at him in the rearview mirror, then at the dark purple spear on his shoulder.
“Young man, hunting at this hour? It's almost dark.”
“I'll just kill a few and come back.”
The woman shrugged and started the car. The maglev vehicle rose silently and slid into the flow of traffic.
...
Twenty minutes later, the car stopped at the entrance of an area enclosed by wire fencing.
Warning signs were hung on the wire, reading “D-rank danger zone, no unauthorized entry” in black letters on a yellow background.
There was a small registration station at the entrance, where an older man in camouflage sat behind a computer with a stack of registration forms.
Lin Yuan walked over.
“Registering.”
The man looked up, his gaze lingering on Lin Yuan's young face before shifting to the Purple Lightning in his hand. His nonchalant expression turned into one of slight interest.
“How old?”
“Eighteen.”
“Alone?”
“Alone.”
The man fell silent for a second before pushing a registration form over.
“Sign it.
Write your exit time on the back. You must be out before dark. It's not safe in there at night.”
Lin Yuan signed and pushed the form back.
The man glanced at the signature and suddenly spoke: “You're here for the college entrance exam, aren't you?”
Lin Yuan paused.
“Every year before the exam, examinees come here for some last-minute practice,” the man said flatly as he tucked the form away.
“I've seen plenty above Tier 1, Level 4, but not many who come alone. Most form teams of three to five so they can look out for each other. You, coming alone with just a spear...”
He paused.
“Don't go too deep. Just kill a few on the outskirts.”
Lin Yuan nodded and walked through the entrance with his spear on his shoulder.
...
The hilly terrain of the west suburbs was an entirely different landscape from the wilderness of Donghai City.
The hills of Hangzhou were rolling mounds covered in dense broadleaf forests and thick thickets.
Monsters could be hiding behind any tree or within any patch of brush.
This terrain placed higher demands on one's perception.
Before he had even walked two hundred meters into the woods, Lin Yuan encountered his first monster.
A Tier 1, Level 6 Thorny Boar charged out from a thicket.
Lin Yuan stepped aside to dodge the tusks, spun Purple Lightning half a turn in his hands, and tapped the spear tip against the Thorny Boar's front leg joint.
A flash of lightning erupted.
With a crack, the joint shattered. The Thorny Boar's front leg buckled, and its entire body tumbled to the ground, sliding over two meters from its own momentum.
It tried to struggle back up, but Lin Yuan's second strike had already pierced its throat.
【Killed Tier 1, Level 6 monster Thorny Boar, Ability Points +38】
Clean and efficient.
Lin Yuan flicked the remaining drops of blood off the spear tip and continued deeper into the forest.
Over the next hour or so, he encountered five more monsters.
Two Tier 1, Level 7 Blue-maned Wolves, one Tier 1, Level 6 rock-armored lizard, and two Tier 1, Level 8 Iron-spined Boars.
Ability Points earned: 38+42+38+45+45=208 points.
Combined with the previously remaining 347 points, he now had a total of 555 points.
As the sky began to darken, Lin Yuan was preparing to pack up and head back when he suddenly heard a heavy set of footsteps coming from behind the hill to his left.
They weren't human footsteps; they were the sounds of something much larger stepping on fallen leaves and dry branches.
Lin Yuan gripped Purple Lightning tightly, lightened his steps, and crept toward the source of the sound.
Cresting the small hill, he saw the monster.
A Tier 2, Level 2 Rock-armored Great Bear.
The beast was over three meters long, with a shoulder height approaching 1.8 meters.
The Rock-armored Great Bear was currently digging in the dirt next to a fallen tree, searching for something unknown.
Every time its massive forepaws struck the ground, the earth shook slightly.
Tier 2, Level 2.
Rate on N.U.
