Indeed, Bai Zemin had become stronger than he was several days ago.
His physical or magical stats had not changed in any way and he had not leveled up either since he was currently in a vortex which once completely overcome he could evolve into a more powerful existence but in the meantime, he could not acquire any power boosts. In fact, he had not even used his available status points in any way to boost his natural stats.
However, in this world there were many ways to become stronger without leveling up, without acquiring Soul Power or stats; even without treasures or obtaining skill scrolls.
One of those ways was to learn and use what one already had in the most optimal way possible. Bai Zemin was training precisely to become stronger in this way and although he still had a long way to go, it was undoubtedly a breakthrough compared to the past.
In addition, Bai Zemin had also been practicing other types of attacks using the skills he had along with his treasures, creating amazing effects. In fact, the previous attack was just an improvised Blazing Blood Spear... But he had planned something much more powerful by making use of those two skills and adding something else as an intensifier.
[You have acquired the Soul Power of First Order Platinum Ape level 37. You cannot level up or obtain additional stats before you get the First Order job].
[You have learned Unclassified Passive Skill level 5 'Throwing'].
Three glowing orbs filled with Soul Power came out of the lifeless body of the First Order Platinum Ape and went into the bodies of Bai Zemin, Shangguan Bing Xue, and Chen He respectively, the size of the orbs being quite similar to each other with barely any almost indistinguishable difference.
In addition, another message flashed in Bai Zemin's retina. Although he was somewhat surprised, the surprise was not that great since he had somehow expected something like this to happen. The reason? Of course, the beautiful and seductive Lilith; she had explained to him more about the world of skills, and thanks to that now Bai Zemin's knowledge had increased as a consequence.
A person could not only learn skills by training but could also learn through skill scrolls after defeating enemies and skills could evolve. However, there were exceptions to this rule.
Ignoring the world around him, Bai Zemin took a look at the new skill as this was something he was looking forward to because this skill would be of great help for his evolution to First Order.
[Throwing (Unclassified Passive Skill) Level 5: When throwing an object with your bare hands you have a 20% probability of dealing a critical hit to the enemy. This skill has reached its maximum point and cannot evolve on its own].
To some extent, it was also something that he already expected. However, the impossibility of evolving alone was something that surprised him and now he finally understood several things that Lilith had explained to him about the Soul Record and the skills.
Apart from the individual stats, there were also other stats that were not displayed in the window of each person or intelligent creature. An example of this was the critical hit statistic, defense, attack damage, etc. To acquire these stats one needed to obtain certain skills or certain items that were usually not formed after the defeat of an enemy and the intervention of the Soul Record in the Soul Power of the loser.
For example, a blacksmith or artifact maker could create weapons, armor, accessories, which increased physical damage or defense but did not increase stats such as Strength or Stamina and Health that treasures created from Soul Power could increase.
Lilith said that the Higher Existences referred to these statistics as 'tracking statistics' as they could only constantly track these statistics by looking at one's skills and equipment.
This was precisely the reason why such jobs or classes were considered a rarity and prized on all worlds since the Soul Record was a righteous entity that allowed anyone who had talent and used it in the right way and with the right materials to become powerful; even someone who did not have the courage to fight powerful enemies could become empowered as long as they knew or possessed a class of artifact crafting or blacksmithing and similar.
Bai Zemin sighed as he realized how many things he had yet to know and how many other things he had yet to come into contact with. Although he might seem extremely strong, even though it was true that Lilith's advance information was very helpful to him... The reality was that all this also had a counterproductive side effect and that was that he started to realize early on that what weighed on his shoulders was bigger and bigger than he had imagined at the beginning.
"Bai Zemin, are you okay?"
"Em?" Bai Zemin snapped out of his daze and looked back with a casual smile, "Why wouldn't I be? I didn't even face that ape head-on and all I did was deal the final strike."
"...Is that so...?" Shangguan Bing Xue furrowed her eyebrows slightly before nodding, "If you say so."
For a moment she had seemed to see him depressed, which had struck her as peculiar considering the overwhelming strength he had just demonstrated and how easily he had claimed the life of the First Order Platinum Ape; even if it was true that the beast had been largely exhausted by her and Chen He previously, a First Order existence was still a First Order existence tired or not. But she soon rejected that thought after hearing his reply and took it as a wrong thought of hers.
Bai Zemin bent down and picked up the three objects dropped by the Platinum Ape. Surprisingly, the First Order beast had dropped three items; a skill scroll, a red orb, and a orange orb.
"Chen He, is it okay if we divide these three treasures and then tell us what happened?"
"Yes." Chen He nodded with a serious expression and said in a deep voice, " Leaving the university might be more difficult than we thought, and those three treasures regardless of how weak they are we will certainly need them."
Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue looked at each other for a moment before looking back at Chen He with a frown.
Apparently, things were much more complex than they had previously expected...
"A normal treasure, a rare treasure, and a skill scroll. Let's see what kind of skill it is." Bai Zemin put the victory loot on a large pile of rubble that had collapsed and grabbed the skill scroll to see what skill it was before passing it to the rest.
[Regeneration (First Order Active Skill) Level 5: Regenerates Stamina according to the Mana consumed. Every 2 Mana points regain 1 Stamina point].
Bai Zemin couldn't help but frown hard at the sight of the skill that had formed after the sublimation of the Platinum Ape's remaining Soul Power. This was something he definitely did not expect and honestly, the skill looked quite weak compared to his Blood Manipulation even though they were skills of the same level and Order.
Flash! Flash!
After two small squeezes, the two orbs burst into flashes of orange and red light before two new objects appeared on the pile of rubble.