Chapter 10: Advancement to Intermediate Soldier
Blade length eighty centimeters, blade width three centimeters, handle length fifteen centimeters, weighing about two kilograms.
The entire blade is slender and elegant, the edge gleaming with a cold light.
A pity it came without a sheath; otherwise, its appearance would be even more striking.
“Identification.”
[Traditional Straight Sword] (Black Iron Grade)
Category: Weapon
Description: A finely crafted short weapon forged by traditional methods, the material locally enhanced to possess remarkable sharpness and corrosion resistance. It can inflict considerable damage on most Grade E mutants, except for a few with exceptionally high defense.
Status: Sharpened
Durability: 500/500
...
Perfectly shaped, astonishingly sharp, corrosion-resistant, with durability boosted fivefold.
A divine weapon specifically designed to kill scythe owlet larvae—what more could one ask for?
Gripping the straight sword tightly, Lu Ming swung it repeatedly, aided by his basic swordsmanship skills, completing the familiarization within minutes.
Retracting the blade, Lu Ming's appraisal of the sword soared.
Though he wondered whether maintaining such tension while expending energy to kill four scythe owlet larvae would prove exhausting.
After several minutes of swinging, he felt somewhat thirsty.
Glancing at the purified water lying in his backpack, he weighed his options and decided to endure for the time being.
After dismantling a few larvae corpses and stockpiling some specialized crystals, he could upgrade the purified water to a sports drink, enabling him to linger longer in this shop.
As for why he wanted to stay here, it was naturally because this storefront was uniquely advantageous.
Familiar with the environment, every corner could be utilized, making it an excellent high-speed aggregation point for hunting scythe owlet larvae.
With a slight smile, Lu Ming opened the glass door again, adjusting the gap and carefully pulling up the rolling shutter.
Clang!
The scraping of metal and the shaking of the shutter alerted every larva within a thirty-meter radius of the shop.
They sluggishly writhed toward the door but were obstructed by the size of the entrance and the height of the shutter.
In the end, just like the first wave, one larva squeezed through the glass door gap, followed closely by four others, crowding around and completely blocking the path for their kin behind.
Meanwhile, Lu Ming no longer needed to stand on a chair to perform downward attacks.
He simply activated the Eye of Truth, stationed himself by the glass door, and waited until a larva crawled halfway in before swiftly cutting off its head, then striking again to shatter its core, completing the kill efficiently.
“Collect.”
No response; the corpse remained.
Lu Ming was puzzled, then suddenly realized and silently whispered: “Greed.”
[Successfully dismantled a scythe owlet larva corpse, obtained specialized crystal *2, high-purity mutant protein *2.]
Alright, unlike skill evolution, function evolution even altered the incantation.
But the effect was undeniably stable, doubling the output of specialized crystals, and the odd masses of materials could be ignored for now.
The rest was just assembly line work: larvae squeezing through the door gap, Lu Ming severing their heads, smashing their cores, and finishing dismantling.
[Successfully dismantled a scythe owlet larva corpse, obtained specialized crystal *2, high-purity mutant protein *2.]
[Successfully dismantled a scythe owlet larva corpse, obtained specialized crystal *2, high-purity mutant protein *2.]
[Successfully dismantled a scythe owlet larva corpse, obtained...]
Notifications came in rapid succession as the number of specialized crystals Lu Ming accumulated visibly rose to thirty.
Now, consuming just ten crystals would allow him to evolve from a junior soldier to a higher rank.
However, not fully understanding the evolution process, he played it safe.
If something went wrong during evolution—if he became immobile or suffered pain, impairing his actions—he’d be at a complete loss.
The sword in his hand was swift and precise; in less than fifteen minutes, the second wave of scythe owlet larvae pulled in was entirely wiped out.
In his backpack lay 88 specialized crystals and 92 lumps of high-purity mutant protein.
In total, he had slain 44 larvae.
The straight sword’s durability stood at 478/500.
By calculation, it only consumed a fraction of durability—about one point per two larvae killed—attesting to its genuine quality.
Even conservatively subtracting fifty points for possible dulling, the remaining durability could still support hunting over eight hundred larvae.
Shaking off the green slime from the blade with a swing, Lu Ming felt an endless brightness ahea