Fusing skills
Ling Xu observed the second floor in detail and saw a familiar scene to where he first began.
While he had on the first floor four paths to choose from, now he had two paths and a door in front big enough for two people to enter at the same time.
It seems that after knowing of its existence he didn't need to search for the door anymore.
He could enter the paths leading to both sides anytime.
But he looked at the door.
This one had a timer showing a countdown too.
But this time he had almost an hour remaining.
He decided fast on which way and went to the left.
He walked for a few seconds and encountered a second level adult ferocious rabbit.
…
After a short while, Ling Xu had killed seven adult ferocious rabbits.
Then, he encountered a horned rabbit.
Ling Xu had no problem evading its horn having experienced a one-sided fight against it already.
Thanks to his skill which accelerated his perception, as if it slowed down time, he could see the horned beast running at him much slower.
He ended it in one hit.
Then he checked his personal status noticing some progress on both his realm and cultivation technique.
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 2nd stage of Blood Qi (37,5%)
[Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (proficient 32%), Existence (Shadow Will 1,75%)
[Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade)
Feeling that coming to the second floor didn't help him much in the progress of his realm or cultivation technique, Ling Xu didn't feel satisfied at the changes in the status panel.
He still didn't know what his progress amounted to compared to the rest of the world as the only person he had met was killed by him.
So, he hunted faster without time to rest.
…
Ling Xu found three pathways he could enter.
Entering the third one after completing the first two in no time he didn't meet any beast stronger than the previous ones.
"Is this it? It doesn't seem to be that difficult" he felt the difficulty wasn't that high after clearing the first floor alone.
Even when he encountered at the end of the last pathway a group of three horned rabbits.
Having a huge advantage with his enhanced vision and other senses, he could be in complete control of their every move. As they weren't able to cooperate, and thanks to their big sizes they could attack only two at a time. So, Ling Xu killed the group of three very fast.
...
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 2nd stage of Blood Qi (52,5%)
[Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (proficient 32%), Existence Shadow Will (2,05%)
[Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade)
Ling Xu cleared the whole path on the left killing a total of thirty two rabbit beasts, with six of them being in the third stage of blood qi.
He didn't find any table with rewards as he did on the first floor, so there was no reward for clearing the whole path even though he killed dozens of beasts.
Although he felt a bit tired, as the difficulty wasn't that high, Ling Xu didn't feel unsatisfied after seeing his realm and cultivation technique had made significant progress.
Even though he progressed much faster just circulating and refining his body with his blood qi, it was another sensation to become stronger while defeating beasts.
…
After clearing the path on the left, Ling Xu had yet to explore the right one before going through the door.
Fortunately, he had managed to kill dozens of beasts in just a few minutes, giving him more than enough time before the countdown ended.
He arrived at the entrance of the floor and took the right path.
"It looks so different."
When Ling Xu entered, he noticed that this path was actually a small entrance to a big room.
The cave had the shape of a circle, though not perfect as it seemed naturally made.
It had natural carvings on the walls and ceiling made by the deterioration of time.
Inside the cave there were three noticeable ponds, separated by the ground made of hard soil and rocks.
When he delved deeper into the cave, he noticed four lizards with a length of two meters each on two of the deep water tanks.
Noticing they wouldn't leave their place, he approached right away the pond to his left when he saw three of the four lizards on the tank coming out.
He used his blood qi to activate Swift Steps and Enhanced Synapsis right away.
Seeing them in more detail, the first thing he noticed was their tough looking skin.
It seemed hard to cut through.
But he was confident in his middle grade short sword capable of cutting low grade beasts as chopping vegetables.
After all he felt their aura wasn't as strong as the horned rabbit.
Ling Xu had to first severe the tails of the three lizards as they persistently attacked him with them, blocking off the paths to attack their bodies and killing them.
After doing so he observed the end of the severed tail starting to grow back.
Fortunately, it didn't seem capable of regenerating right away as their speed would only allow them to grow back after a few hours.
Still, it was impressive as Ling Xu had never seen such regenerating ability before.
Severing their tails didn't take more than one slash of his sword.
Although they were tougher than the rabbits, having a middle grade weapon probed to make the difference.
After taking their form of long-rage attacks, the lizards tried to kill Ling Xu by throwing acid projectiles from their mouth.
But that made it even easier for him as he could see them clearly.
...
[You have killed a Copper Lizard (3rd stage of Blood Qi).]
[You have killed a Copper Lizard (3rd stage of Blood Qi).]
[You have killed a Copper Lizard (3rd stage of Blood Qi).]
As Ling Xu killed three of the four lizards, he realized that one stayed hidden at the water tank.
He approached the tank and poked the lizard trying to make it come out.
The copper lizard didn't want to die but he wouldn't stay still if he was provoked.
So, Ling Xu managed to irritate it easily as he made the copper lizard come out enraged by his mate's deaths and such a cheap provocation.
[You have killed a Copper Lizard (3rd stage of Blood Qi).]
[Copper Lizard (3rd stage of Blood Qi) has dropped a skill.]
[Do you want to learn it?]
"What?" he didn't expect he would get another skill so soon.
Ling Xu said yes instantly and heard the notification.
[You have learned Copper Skin (middle grade).]
Suddenly, he felt his body changing.
Ling Xu had to grit his teeth as he felt his skin as if a group of ants were gnawing at it.
Fortunately, it didn't take that long for his body to completely adapt to the skill.
After the pain was gone, Ling Xu noticed his hand looked different.
He looked at his reflection in the water and saw his skin color had become a little darker.
Ling Xu looked carefully at his hand again as he noticed something.
"It's actually a protective layer which made my skin look that way, this should be the effect of the skill."
Ling Xu didn't care that much about the difference in color, but something came to his mind so he tried it right away.
He then tried to remember the sensation of the skill activating.
"If I can't make it transparent, it should be possible to hide it under the skin."
He thought of that as he remembered the feeling that came when the copper skin came to form and his mind moved.
As he concentrated on it for a few seconds he saw the copper color starting to fade and merge into the skin.
Still, once his body was attacked Ling Xu would stop hiding the copper skin and would put it back out to protect his whole body.
He then used his blood qi, feeling his body getting tighter.
When Ling Xu acquired the skill, he realized that he could feed it blood qi to increase the defense of this protective layer even more.
But it seemed that once the blood qi he fed the copper skin was used, it would turn back to its normal state. Making it not viable to maintain this use of blood qi unless he urgently needed to resist an attack.
"Let's see how hard my skin has become."
Ling Xu then took out his small dagger of the lowest grade and pressed it hard in his left hand.
He felt almost no pressure even though he ended up using all his strength.
After taking out the dagger he saw a dent barely noticeable to the eye.
"This is what I needed, a skill that can finally give me some life protection."
Ling Xu felt relieved about gaining such a useful skill. That way he wouldn't be so insecure against sneak attacks.
He felt very satisfied with the result of testing his new defensive layer.
After a minute or so Ling Xu cleared the second pond.
There he killed four copper lizards of the third layer as the ones before.
He even had to do the same trick as it seemed one still remained hidden deep within the water.
Having the third and last mass of water to clear, he went directly.
As he got closer, he could gradually see more inside the tank.
Ling Xu felt surprised at the depth of the last pond which looked like a small lake.
Finally able to see the whole tank, Ling Xu saw an impressive lizard resting at the bottom of the pond.
He felt weird that it didn't come out even while the rest were being killed and he was left alone.
But just when he landed his eyes on it, the lizard finally moved.
It opened its eyes and saw a strange species he hadn't seen before. It looked at it and saw it as food right away.
It came out of the pond right away with its eyes showing the eagerness to eat something he had never tasted before.
But when its eyes landed behind Ling Xu and looked at the other water tanks it realized that all his fellow species had been killed by the man in front.
As it remained under water, and because of the depth it had, it couldn't sense any sound or vibration while Ling Xu killed them.
The big lizard beast felt enraged right away and its eyes looked ferocious.
Ling Xu also noticed a ray of light inside the water mass at the end of it while the lizard was distracted.
But before he could see clearly what it was, the lizard attacked using its long three meters tail.
"Danger!" he saw as the tail moved there was the sound of the wind being cut by a sharp blade which was a part of the end of it.
Ling Xu didn't feel confident that he could withstand a blow from the tail as it not only had quite the momentum but its blade looked able to cut through his body.
Even after getting Copper Skin, Ling Xu wasn't confident he could resist the impact.
So, he stimulated his blood qi to strengthen his copper skin.
His arm's hair stood on end seeing the tail flying at him.
Fortunately, he avoided the first attack that came.
Ling Xu's shoes then activated as he fed them his blood qi and he used his Enhanced Synapsis to see the fast paced attacks of the big lizard's tail.
He exploded with a charging speed far surpassing his realm as he was using his skill and shoes to increase it to another level.
The big lizard was taken by surprise as he became as fast as its flying tail or even more.
It became extremely dignified as its eyes could barely trace him.
Ling Xu swung his short sword on its torso but he only made a small wound.
But he didn't despair.
The lizard threw its tail again as Ling Xu took a step back and the lizard's tail missed.
He became more wary as he saw the blade on the tail move faster than before.
Though he had an amazing reaction speed thanks to his vision, his body didn't have the same ability.
So, he had to be extremely careful and use his vision to see every movement the lizard made to avoid the attacks pouring down every second.
Fully concentrated he avoided every attack that came to him.
Then he left another wound in the same place as before.
Ling Xu started to see the wound get deeper and even saw a slim part of its bone exposed.
The lizard was feeling a lot of pain from the wound which made it worried and start to get nervous.
Ling Xu had to retreat again, standing up right where he first began the fight.
He decided to charge forward trying to end the fight with one last blow.
He went forward and when the tail came, he used the Wind Blood Shoes to jump very high and fast. He jumped in an angle which made it so he didn't jump as when he crashed into the ceiling when he first got the shoes.
"Now is my chance."
Ling Xu fell above its body and pounced with his short sword on the deep wound using both arms.
The lizard started to swing its tail desperately as it felt the pain.
Ling Xu avoided a few of them while the rest didn't even pass by.
He pushed deeper the sword on the wound as the lizard dropped to the ground.
Seeing the beast trying to resist but unable to stand up, he cut its throat with some effort to end its suffering.
He got off its body as he heard.
[You have killed an Adult Copper Lizard (4th stage of Blood Qi).]
[Adult Copper Lizard (4th stage of Blood Qi) has dropped a skill.]
"Another skill? I'm so lucky."
Ling Xu's face showed joy as he answered to the system that he wanted to learn it.
[You have already learned Copper Skin (middle grade).]
"I got the same skill?"
Ling Xu felt strange.
"What am I going to do with the same skill?"
As if to answer his question, the system jumped again with a message.
[Do you want to fuse the skills?]
Ling Xu stood frozen in place.