Upon returning to the surface, crimson flames immediately began to assault them both. However, before they could even touch the corner of their clothes, the Bronze Bell flew out of Bai Zemin's pant pocket and floated above his head, releasing a faint glow that surrounded the two of them.
Bai Zemin began to run madly forward without stopping, surprising Shangguan Bing Xue by his frightening speed but at the same time easing her worries.
She unconsciously sighed in relief and the tension in her body disappeared, causing her to relax on his back as she looked at the crimson world around them; no matter where she looked all she could see was a blazing fire.
Earlier, after killing a First Order beast alone for the first time, Shangguan Bing Xue noticed that the fire had surrounded the forest from the south to the east and then spread to the northern area, practically sealing off the exit. With no other choice, she remembered the water lake and returned to the place to seek cover.
Although the Bronze Bell had power remaining, with her current Agility it was impossible to close the distance between the center and the exit of the forest in less than a minute and she would be stranded halfway.
Fortunately, Bai Zemin's Agility was just enough to get out unscathed with the support of the magic barrier.
* * *
Outside the flaming mutated forest, Chen He waited anxiously beside Liang Peng.
After collecting the treasure orbs and also a few skill scrolls that had been transmuted by the Soul Record from the Soul Power of the First Order creatures killed earlier, Chen He had not stopped looking in the direction of the burning forest.
"Damn it, can you stop moving?" Liang Peng couldn't help but curse as he looked at Chen He, "You've been walking back and forth and it's only been two minutes since you came here. You're getting on my nerves!"
Chen He did not respond to him nor did he seem to listen to what Liang Peng said. He was only worried about Shangguan Bing Xue and no matter what anyone else said it was not going to change by mere words.
"Tsk." Liang Peng clicked his tongue and muttered something that only he could hear but they were obviously not too nice words.
Bang!
Suddenly there was a bang from within the flames and when the two men looked over they arrived just in time to see two people surrounded by a thin layer of yellow energy in the air.
"They finally came out!"
Chen He was extremely happy to see that both of them had returned. Of course, he was happier for Shangguan Bing Xue but he was also glad that Bai Zemin had not encountered any problems holding him back.
Liang Peng looked at him and wanted to say something seeing how close those two seemed but in the end, he swallowed his words not wanting to ruin the mood. After almost two weeks of living together and working as a team, everyone was starting to get closer to each other.
Bang!
The ground broke out and dirt flew everywhere as Bai Zemin fell back down from over ten meters high, planting both feet firmly on the ground. His face was slightly pale and his forehead was covered with sweat as his agitated breathing constantly made his chest rise and fall.
"Bing Xue, are you okay?" Chen He hurried over and looked her over from head to toe, still not noticing by the close contact they were having.
"You don't need to worry, I'm fine. But he..." Shangguan Bing Xue got off Bai Zemin's back and looked at him with a frown before asking, "Are you okay?"
Bai Zemin waved his hand without replying and walked with heavy steps over to the corpse of one of the Jiao-Lao Snakes to sit on it.
Why... Why am I so tired? Bai Zemin was dumbfounded.
With his Stamina, he should be able to fight for several hours without tiring and although the battle to the death against the small army of First Order beasts was fierce, it had not been to the point of consuming so much Stamina as to leave him in such a miserable state.
[Bai Zemin -
Status Points: 52
Level: 35
Race: Human
Job: Blood Berserker (Blood Will mode)
Title: One Hit to Kill
Strength: 161 (+30) / Agility: 186 (+5)/ Health: 158 (+5) / Stamina: 202/282 (+5) / Mana: 292 (+40) / Magic: 249 (+60)
Skills: Blood Manipulation (First Order) Lvl 5 / Special Forces Soldier (Unranked passive skill) Lvl 5 / Stone Heart (Third Order passive skill) Lvl 5 / Health Boost (Unranked passive skill) Lvl 3 / Bronze Skin (First Order passive skill) Lvl 1 / Throwing (Unranked passive skill) Lvl 5 / Regeneration (First Order) Lvl 5 / Blood Will (Second Order passive skill) Lvl 5 / Crimson Blood Judgment (Third Order) Lvl 5 ].
In fact, he still had a lot of Stamina. However, Bai Zemin frowned and realized that he had lost 80 Stamina points in a matter of four or five minutes, which was completely unnatural.
The reason he suddenly felt so tired was precisely because of such an abrupt loss of almost 1/3 of his total Stamina in such a short time!
Bai Zemin's status window had practically changed completely after evolving to First Order as he had finally made the first little big step. However, what caught his attention the most was the words 'Blood Will mode' next to his job Berserker Blood.
[Blood Will (Second Order passive skill) Lvl 5: Going into combat mode awakens the desire for the battle that slumbers in your veins. You gain 0.1% additional attack power for every living enemy 100 meters around you and 1% for every enemy killed The effect is limited to a maximum of 50%. The effect lasts 5 minutes and the timer resets to 0 for each enemy update. Secondary effect: Consumes 20 Stamina points every 50 seconds as a consequence of the abrupt increase of power. The side effect is canceled when the user goes out of combat mode].
Bai Zemin sighed and finally understood the reason why he had lost so much Stamina abruptly.
"Don't get so depressed." Lilith tapped his shoulder and smiled brightly, "Blood Will is an incredibly powerful skill to be just classified as Second Order, of course it would have some side effect or it would be nonsense. You should know that even I don't have a skill that increases my power by 50%!"
Bai Zemin nodded and said nothing to avoid being looked at as if he had gone mad but looked at her with grateful eyes. If it wasn't for Lilith's moral support, he might not be able to stand as firmly as he did now.
Besides, even though Blood Will had an annoying side effect, it wasn't as if he had no way to fight it. Although he could not solve the problem in its entirety, he could lighten the consequences to a great extent.
After all, Bai Zemin had acquired the First Order Regeneration skill. This skill allowed him to consume Mana to obtain Stamina in return, which was perfect for cases where he had to fight to the death and did not need to use magic skills or the effects of magic were not as efficient as was the case with the First Order Anti-Magic Zombie.