At the higher grades and levels of power, the scaling of survivability and damage output was not balanced. Killing an F-grade human as another F-grade human was easy. Just stab them in the heart, and they died.For an E-grade, you had to stab them a few times in the heart and maybe land a few more blows before they went down for good. D-grade, it got even harder, and nothing short of blowing off the head of another man would work as an instant kill. And even then, many could survive losing their head, depending on their skills and stat distribution.C-grades losing their head rarely meant death. The Soulshape became stronger and easier to regenerate, and each part of it was less vital than in prior grades. Even the functions of the brain were all gone by C-grade, allowing one who had lost their head to keep moving. Sensory organs still mattered, and regenerating the brain and head was a huge burden, but most humans could overcome it.Now, this was humans. Beasts were even harder to ki

Jake was rubbing his hands as he looked forward to seeing Villy in a perilous situation that forced him to escape. Entering the vision, he was not sure what to expect. Maybe Villy getting beaten up? Him waltzing into the territory of some far more powerful monster, making him tuck his tail between his legs?As the vision appeared, it was neither of those. He saw Villy flying through an odd area with purplish mist everywhere. Comet-like balls of ice flew all around him—some of them several kilometers across, while others were far smaller. Jake also saw that sometimes space itself seemed to crack, and small vacuums opened up, sucking in mist and some of the smaller comets.He had a hard time figuring out what was going on. Villy was in his C-grade Wyvern form and looked incredibly distressed as he dodged comet after comet. It was like he flew aimlessly. A few minutes passed before a giant comet suddenly exploded, only to reassemble into a vaguely humanoid form. Villy did not hesitate to

It had only taken Sandy about a day to find good prey for Jake, and it wasn’t even guarding that good of a natural treasure according to the worm, heavily insinuating he should feel thankful.His opponent had been this weird, wooly thing that he couldn’t quite figure out, but it had bled and suffered from necrosis the same as everything else, and with it only being level 201, Jake had quickly taken it down. Quickly being a relative term, as the damn ball of wool had still been damn tanky. Anyway, with it finally dead, the last level came.*’DING!’ Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 180 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*And it was skill-selection time.*Avaricious Arcane Hunter class skills available*Jake was naturally excited. These last skill selections always felt special, and this profession skill had not disappointed with his freakish soul mutation skill. Jake did not necessarily want a similar skill for his class, but something more directly related to c

Jake breathed heavily as he stared out at the vast landscape before him. The remnants of the battle. An area the size of a semi-large city was scorched and burned, and in the middle of it all lay a giant beast, its very blood only adding to this environmental destruction. Even in death, its blood burned the ground, having retained the same destructive properties.The final attack of the bear had been quite something. It had exploded and released an attack reminding him a bit of the Scorched Plains attack from the bow he’d lost when the Sword Saint cut it in two at the finale of their duel.Seeing this destruction made him reflect a bit. During the vision with Palate Jake had seen, Villy and the C-grade fighter had ended up destroying a massive city and the surrounding environment, and Jake did have to confess he had wondered why he felt so far from being able to do that despite approaching C-grade himself.This fight gave a bit of insight into how close he was actually getting. If he

Countless factions dominated the multiverse, but few were as unique as the Risen. They were the living dead, and that came with both bonuses and demerits. Some bonuses included a natural lifespan equal to your True Soul’s natural lifespan, meaning you would live as long as possible, and aging would only come to pass due to the person wanting it. Combat-wise, they truly did not have many differences from other enlightened races, aside from some changed natural affinities and stats. They were neither stronger nor weaker, and history had also shown that their natural average level of talent was roughly comparable to that of humans and elves.As for demerits, the largest inherent one was probably their inability to procreate naturally. Two Risen could not simply make a child. Instead, it took a far more complicated process. It was possible, mind you, but not as easy, and it required a specially created item that both would-be parents poured a part of their essence into. Even then, it wasn