Annihilation
Brandon was cleaning five cores of crickets, this time he didn't have much trouble catching them. If he used his skills well, he could hunt up to 10 low-level crickets at once.
Brandon looked at the cricket bodies and could only shake his head. The bodies could be sold for a good price, as they were used to make potions, weapons, armor, and other useful things.
However, he couldn't carry the bodies of the creatures he killed, as he had nowhere to store them. "Why didn't that damn school give us a backpack modified with dimensional space?"
He had the bag he had obtained from the body, but he couldn't use it as the amount of energy it needed was too much for his current self, and it was encrypted.
Brandon finished cleaning the cores and started to eat them. They had a different flavor than medium-level cores, although they tasted good, they didn't taste as delicious as the cores of higher-level beasts.
[Giant Cricket Level 1 (Low) Core Consumed]
[1 to 10 attributes will be obtained]
[+2]
[Giant Cricket Level 1 (Low) Core Consumed]
[1 to 10 attributes will be obtained]
[+2]
...
He got a total of 8 attribute points.
These cores didn't give him enough points because the energy they had was of a lower grade, and his body would slowly adapt to the energy these cores had.
He decided not to use the points he currently had and to keep hunting.
The further he went, the more crickets he found. "I'm getting closer to their lair."
He kept running between the trees, and from afar, he could see many crickets. There were many blue ones and a few red ones.
He observed the crickets and then decided to retreat to the treetops. He would be careful not to encounter flying beasts.
Jumping from branch to branch, he arrived at a large, wide branch. "I'll settle here until dusk. That's when they get the most distracted and start to sing."
He opened his backpack and started eating while taking stock of the cores he had. He had 13 low-level cores and 1 medium-level core. This time he was careful when he fought the medium-level cricket.
So, he ate the cores to boost his power and face off against the crickets.
[Giant Cricket Level 1 (Medium) Core Consumed]
[1-10 Attributes will be Obtained]
[+7]
[Giant Cricket Level 1 (Low) Core Consumed]
[1-10 Attributes will be Obtained]
[+3]
...
This time he got 31 points from the crickets he killed.
He quickly decided to distribute them to energy, strength, health, and agility. Unlike video games, all attributes complement each other here, so it's good to have them balanced.
"Database"
════════Data Panel════════
Name: Brandon Sanchez
Race: Human
Lower Class
Awakening: Digitized (29%) [...] Thunder (1.7%)
══════════Attributes══════════
Health: 10 (500)
Strength: 15
Agility: 15
Resistance: 10
Energy: 19 (380)
Control: 30
Attitude: 99
══════════Skills══════════
Cold Mind Level 2 (7%)
Lightning Manifestation Level 0 (3%)
During these battles, his cold mind ability had silently leveled up. That's why he had maintained composure in most battles.
Energy ran through his body, making modifications to his body structure. Now he looked a bit more toned and strong.
He punched the air and could see how his body was more flexible. He needed to become stronger too. He couldn't rely solely on the power of his ability.
"Now I'll definitely get a sugar mommy with this hot bod," he thought to himself jokingly.
Night fell.
Brandon was in the top of a tree with a mask in his hand. He put it on and looked down where he could hear the chirping of many crickets.
The crickets were gathered in one place while singing. One could hear a symphony in unison of "Cri."
"I won't be able to take them all down by myself, but I do rely on fighting them head-on." He smiled.
His two hands raised to torso height and lightning began to accumulate in both. A small light could be seen at the treetop.
Brandon started to descend, jumping between branches, while gathering energy in both hands and compressing it. Two distorted lightning balls were forming in his hands.
As he approached, some of the crickets saw the shine and began to scream in his direction. When the others tried to see what was happening, a large amount of electric currents overwhelmed them.
Brandon didn't have enough imagination to create area attacks, so with Luzbel's help, he devised a way to attack most of them at once.
"I'll call it an electric snake bomb," Brandon said, smiling at the power of his currents.
He had compressed half of his energy into both bombs, which, when exploding, would not cause destruction but instead disperse energy in electrical discharges.
He didn't have enough energy to make this deadly current, but he had enough to paralyze the crickets for a while.
Brandon didn't waste any more time and began to run towards the crickets, killing those who were suffering spasms.
Some of the mid-level ones who were far away moved to attack, although they suffered from electricity, it was not enough to paralyze them.
Brandon moved from left to right, dodging and killing some low-level crickets that were lying around. This made the mid-level crickets even more angry.
Brandon activated his eye ability and attacked to the right, connecting with one of the mid-level crickets, causing it to fall injured.
While continuing to dodge and kill low-level crickets, he took out his unused pistol and fired at the cricket he had previously hit.
The fight lasted a while, and Brandon's energy was almost depleted. With wounds on his body and green blood smeared all over, he shot a cricket under his foot.
"Last one," he said.
The ground was covered in green blood. Brandon leaned against a tree, exhausted after the fight.
He could only smile and couldn't stop doing it. Sometimes he thought he was in a dream and would wake up without his abilities.
He sat there for about 5 minutes, ready to flee if any monster appeared. He no longer had the energy to spend, if he continued like this, he would faint.
So he started opening up the bodies and extracting the cores, then storing them. It took a while since there were quite a few bodies and the cores weren't always in the same place.
Feeling his body weighed down, he gathered enough strength to sink a little into the ground and jump to the top of a tree.
He counted the cores and currently had about 53 cores. 8 intermediate cores and 45 basic cores. He was surprised not to find a high-level beast, it seemed that there wasn't one among the crickets.
He cleaned the 8 intermediate cores and 12 low-level cores. He wouldn't eat them all today since he was tired and wanted to sleep, but he would have to continue getting stronger since he didn't know what could happen.
[Consumed medium-level Giant Cricket Core Level 1]
[1 to 10 attributes will be obtained]
[+1]
[Consumed low-level Giant Cricket Core Level 1]
[1 to 10 attributes will be obtained]
[+1]
...
[+2]
...
He obtained a total of 61 points, but a problem occurred with the last two low-level cores. These did not give any energy.
This was something that Brandon expected, but he did not expect it to happen so soon. "Could it be because I ate too many intermediate cores?"
The problem is that when you consume a certain number of cores from the same species, they gradually stop giving points, and you would have to hunt the stronger ones of the same species, or hunt elsewhere.
He decided to save the remaining 33 cores to sell them in the market. They were small enough to fit in his backpack.
Brandon lay down, using one side of the backpack as a pillow. Tomorrow, he would have to find a new hunting area and allocate his points.
...
[Unassigned Points: 61]