Apocalypse: Master of Soul Beasts

The new Soul Strike had an effect that Wen Yu was extremely satisfied with. Not only did it cancel the original restriction where a large gap in physical stats would render it ineffective, it also boosted its damage output by a huge margin.

He took a casual glance over the other five skills.

Soul Battlefield (Species-specific Esoteric Level, Active Skill), Pitch-dark Dominator (SSS-Class, Passive Skill), Pitch-dark Divine Light (SSS-Class, Active Ability), Revenge of the World (Species-specific Esoteric Level, Passive Skill), Soul Abiogenetic Creation Skill (Species-specific Esoteric Level, Active Skill).

The five abilities had not changed at all. Wen Yu’s Skill System was basically finalized; even a purely support-type Pitch-dark Dominator (SSS-Class, Passive Skill) had an effect that was more than acceptable, so naturally there was no need to change anything.

...

Wen Yu briefly checked his own skills, then on a whim started looking through the skills on his soul pets.

Seeing a neat row of SSS-Class and Esoteric Level skills, an immense sense of satisfaction rose in Wen Yu’s heart—this was, over the last five years, his greatest harvest aside from physical stats!

First was Cyclops. In terms of growth over these five years, Cyclops could be considered the second among Wen Yu’s five soul pets. With Wen Yu harvesting massive amounts of Demon Beast Corpses, he naturally didn’t forget Cyclops, the earliest one to follow at his side. Right now Cyclops was in charge of managing the mutant beast packs on the African Continent; as long as it was a mutant beast anywhere in Africa, it counted as Cyclops’s underling. Running all over the place every day, it was thoroughly enjoying the thrill of being the boss!

Its physical stats had skyrocketed, already a bit over 1,150,000, and its species innate talent had reached as high as 21.3. This amount of species innate talent was even stronger than that of normal divine beast species—because Great Feast could increase species innate talent! This Attribute was abnormally rare. Aside from Almighty Demon Vine, World Heart Shards, Life and Death Battle Execution, and Star’s reserved seventh skill True Dragon Golden Body (Species-specific Esoteric Level, Passive Skill), Wen Yu had never seen any other skill or item that could increase species innate talent.

Not a divine beast species, yet better than a divine beast species—that was roughly Cyclops’s true portrayal at the moment.

Aside from that, Cyclops’s appearance had undergone an earth-shattering change. Thinking of how Cyclops looked now, Wen Yu couldn’t help but shake his head with a wry smile—fortunately Cyclops’s looks had changed so much that it had formed reproductive isolation with normal canines, otherwise over these five years he would’ve picked up quite a few little Cyclopses...

As for the skills on Cyclops, since its combat style and Skill System had already approached perfection, there were no changes other than level.

Ultra Mortal Combat was originally an SSS-Class skill and, as Cyclops’s core ability, with no Esoteric Level skill upgrade scroll available there was naturally no way to raise it further. Great Feast (Species-specific Esoteric Level, Passive Skill) and Blood and Flesh Balance Scale (Species-specific Esoteric Level, Active Ability) likewise had not changed in the slightest.

The remaining three abilities had all been raised to SSS-Class skills.

Blood and Flesh Badge (SSS-Class, Passive Skill): A mysterious power floods the host’s body. Your body will have no vital points, and once battle begins your sense of pain will disappear! When the body is damaged to the point of losing more than ninety percent of its body mass, Blood and Flesh Badge’s effect fails and the host dies!

Blood and Flesh Badge had been raised from S-Class to SSS-Class; not only did it completely erase pain, it also lowered the death line to ten percent. After the skill was upgraded, Cyclops had tested it. The current Blood and Flesh Badge, when paired with Ultra Mortal Combat, was enough to raise Cyclops’s physical stats by more than a hundredfold. Combined with the accumulation from Great Feast over the last five years, it was no exaggeration to say that once Cyclops went berserk, aside from Wen Yu there was basically no one who could stop it!

Flames of Tyranny (SSS-Class, Active Ability): Ignite black Devil Flame and bring fear and destruction to everything in this world!

Flames of Tyranny had also advanced to an SSS-Class skill, but apart from increased killing power and reduced consumption, it didn’t have any other new features.

As for the final ability—Wild Nature Augmentation—Wen Yu didn’t choose to abandon it. Instead he upgraded it to SSS-Class. After the upgrade, Wild Nature Augmentation’s effect was outstanding; more importantly, it synergized well with Cyclops’s Skill System, so it was not a waste of an SSS-Class skill upgrade scroll.

Wild Nature Augmentation (SSS-Class, Passive Skill): Savage power strengthens your body. All physical Attributes of the skill holder are increased by eighty percent, and they also gain high-speed regeneration, exceptional curse resistance (below SSS-Class), exceptional negative status resistance (below SSS-Class), and high-level Psychic Attack resistance (below S-Class).”

What is there to fear? The power of the wild is with you!

Cyclops’s combat style was similar to a Berserker in online games, and the biggest effect of Wild Nature Augmentation was immunity to Control. This skill, which Cyclops had automatically awakened upon reaching Level 6, matched its master’s affinity and combat style extremely well.

...

Compared to Cyclops, Star’s improvement wasn’t nearly as terrifying—Wen Yu had plenty of Demon Beast Corpses, but the Mountain Observing Technique (Species-specific Esoteric Level, Passive Ability) wasn’t as simple and crude as Great Feast.

Star needed mountain ranges, and also needed to observe great mountains; what it boosted wasn’t necessarily the upper limit of physical stats.

After dealing with Tang Haofei, Wen Yu had sent Star to the Himalayas Range, but even while observing the world’s greatest mountain range, Star’s improvements were still unhurried.

Physical stat upper limit: 371,562, and its species innate talent was still the original 8.21. However, the ”Wonderful Rewards” provided by the Mountain Observing Technique had given Star an inexhaustible number of additional combat effects.

For a normal Breakthrough Achiever, these five years of progress would basically be at Star’s pace. In other people’s eyes—even in the eyes of Yanjing’s Demigods—the might of the Giant Dragon was still as terrifying as ever. But in Wen Yu’s view, this was indeed a bit low. He’d also been considering whether to swap Star’s Limit Breaking Abilities for something else—however, for Wen Yu, Limit Breaking Abilities weren’t something you could get just because you wanted them, and not every random Limit Breaking Ability would necessarily be stronger than the Mountain Observing Technique.

In terms of Limit Breakthrough Level effects, Mountain Observing Technique could be considered middle of the road—Wen Yu’s Almighty Demon Vine, Cyclops’s Great Feast, Tang Haofei’s True God Dominant Body and Life and Death Battle Execution, those were what you called abnormal. Not to mention that Mountain Observing Technique could also provide additional combat buffs. After picking and choosing for five years, Wen Yu still hadn’t found a Limit Breakthrough Level ability more suitable for Star than Mountain Observing Technique.

On the other hand, Star’s Dragon Flame (S-Class, Active Skill) and Demon Dragon Armor (S-Class, Passive Ability) had both been upgraded to SSS-Class.

Dragon Flame (SSS-Class, Active Skill): A Dragon Race-exclusive skill. It looks similar to ordinary magma, but it is infused with the origin power of the Dragon Race and possesses extremely powerful destructive force!

Demon Dragon Armor (SSS-Class, Passive Ability): The scales and flesh of the Dragon Race grant them powerful defense capabilities. The more heavily the body is injured, the stronger the defense capabilities!

The descriptions of the two skills hadn’t changed much, but as their skill levels rose, their actual effects had indeed improved significantly.

Looking at Star’s Skill System, Wen Yu frowned in thought, yet still couldn’t find a way to make Star grow stronger quickly—no matter how skilled the cook, she couldn’t make a meal without rice. He could only hope that Star would encounter some kind of fortuitous opportunity in the future.