Free Web NovelChapter 19: 19 | MASSIVE Rewards & 100x Upgrade!
Dexter stood in front of his gate.
Dark Hound corpses covered the ground around his house. A few still twitching in their final moments of death.
As the smell of blood filled the air with a faint small of sulfur coming from Dexter’s body.
Righr now, Dexter’s shirt was torn, revealing deep claw marks the 6-Star Hound had left on his back.
Blood was caked under his fingernails and his arms were streaked red from wrist to elbow.
In his left hand, was a steel rod he used to kill the last beast after the knife snapped inside a 5-Star’s skull.
From far away, the wail of emergency sirens cutting through the night, getting closer.
Heroes in proper combat gear were already engaging beasts in the streets and he could hear the crack of abilities activating, the crash of bodies hitting vehicles, the sharp reports of gunfire from the Association’s armed response units.
Dexter exhaled slowly. He let himself lean against the gate post a she breathed in.
He looked around the neighborhood. The fighting was concentrated on the eastern side of the street.
But here, on his side of the block, something didn’t add up.
Directly to his left, a blue house with a cracked driveway was untouched and also to his right, a cream-colored two-story with a garden fence was also untouched. Across the street, two more houses, the same thing.
Then he looked at Tessa’s house, the same thing to.
Dexter frowned as he stared at the four houses.
The Dark Hounds had swarmed this neighborhood like a flood.
But those four houses? The surrounded his bungalow were not affected.
’What is this situation?’
It was like the beasts didn’t dare go near them.
---
They arrived 30 seconds later.
The Silver-rank response team moved through the neighborhood quickly dispatching the monsters around.
The team slowed as they approached Dexter’s yard. The house was almost thoroughly destroyed. With beast corpses in the kitchen, the yard and the living room.
There was blood everywhere, claw marks in the wall and the kitchen window destroyed.
And in the center of it all, was a young man, covered head to toe in blood.
The Silver-rank team leader was a tall woman in polished silver armor. Her eyes went from the corpses to Dexter. He was clearly a Tier 4 awakened. How had he killed a 6 star beast?
One of her team members leaned in and whispered something. The woman’s eyes widened slightly as she recognized who he was.
The bastard who married the cripple.
That guy did ’this’?
"You...did this?" she asked.
Dexter met her eyes. He was tired. His body was failing. But his voice came out flat and clear.
"Yes."
She stared at him for a long moment.
Then she brought her fist to her chest and saluted a hero’s salute that’s not meant for civilians.
Dexter blinked. He hadn’t expected that.
"Name?" she asked. "For the report."
"Dexter Ashford, awakened Hero. Tier 4."
"Get the medic over here," she called over her shoulder. "This man has a dozen open wounds."
The team medic rushed forward, already pulling supplies from his kit and started working on Dexter
---
The Hero Association secured the neighborhood within 20 minutes. The remaining Dark Hounds were either killed or driven back toward the breach zone, where higher-rank heroes were working to seal the Gate instability.
Dexter was escorted to a medical tent set up at the edge of the evacuation zone.
Finally alone, he opened his system notifications.
They’d been piling up for the last hour. He’d been too focused on survival, but now, in the silence of the tent, he let them flood in.
[Investment Multiplier System Activated]
[Investment Detected: Physical, Mental, Emotional, Security]
[Current Multiplier: 100x]
[Calculating Returns...]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Return 1: Compressed Cultivation — One Year]
A wave of energy slammed into his chest. Dexter grunted in pain and pleasure as he grabbed the edge of the cot as mana flooded through his body.
His mana core expanded, his meridians widened, and he broke through to Tier 5, Tier 6, Tier 7 before the wave finally subsided.
[Return 2: Mana Affinity Upgraded — C-Rank → A-Rank]
Instantly started to flowed through him like water through an open pipe. The difference was staggering. He could feel mana in the air now without the need to concentrate and meditate.
It was everywhere, and for the first time, it was actually his to use.
[Return 3: Talent Upgraded — E-Rank → D-Rank (Enhanced Hearing)]
The range of his Enhanced Hearing doubled, and the clarity improved in ways he couldn’t quantify yet.
[Return 4: Bloodline Upgraded — Royal Grade → ORIGIN GRADE]
[New Bloodline: Berserk Flame Demon Bloodline (Origin Grade)]
Dexter’s eyes widened.
Top 100,000 bloodlines — Mutated Grade. Common people have this grade of bloodlines.
Top 10,000 — Royal Grade. It’s typically rare and Wealthy and powerful families built legacies on these.
Top 1,000 — Origin Grade. Had never been found.
And his had just jumped from Royal to Origin.
[Berserk Flame Demon Bloodline — Origin Grade]
[Passive: Fire Resistance increased to 50%. Flame Will now generates ambient heat that weakens nearby enemies.]
[Active: Scorching Fury — Strength increase upgraded from 50% to 80%. Duration extended to 5 minutes.]
[Active: Flame Burst Step — Speed increase upgraded from 300% to 500%. Duration extended to 2 seconds.]
[Active: NEW — Berserk Form — When health drops below 20%, enter a controlled rage state. All stats increase by 100%. Pain receptors shut down. Duration: 10 minutes. Cooldown: 48 hours.]
[Active: NEW — Flame Demon’s Wrath — Unleash a concentrated blast of demonic fire in a 15-meter radius. Damage scales with missing health. The less health you have, the more devastating the attack.]
[LOCKED: Flame Demon Transformation — Requires higher cultivation level to unlock.]
Dexter’s hands were trembling in pure happiness.
But that wasn’t all.
[Return 5: Culinary Rank Advanced — Rank 1 Master Chef → Rank 2 Grandmaster Chef (Early)]
[Effect: All meals prepared by host now contain strong special effects. Enchanted Meals will be significantly more potent. Meals can now actively accelerate healing, boost cultivation, and purify toxins.]
[Return 6: Martial Art Acquired — "Extreme Slaughtering Demon Body" (Tier 3)]
[Description: Transform mana into slaughter energy to temper the body. Progressively strengthens muscle fiber, bone density, and skin toughness through combat. Upon perfection, body becomes impervious to all weapons. Physique doubles. Power of any weapon used is doubled.]
[Return 7: Grade 3 Restoration Pill ×1]
[Effect: Randomly heals a single injury in the body. Can restore damaged nerves, fractured bones, or severed meridians. One-time use.]
Dexter’s heart stopped. "Restore damaged nerves." His mind immediately went to his three wives. But he only had one pill.
[Return 8: Type 3 Macro-Splicing Saber
═════ Macro-Splicing Saber ═════
Relic Grade: Type 3
Category: Saber
Durability: 300/300
Attributes
+35 Strength
+25 Agility
+20 Vitality
Special Effects
• Macro-Splice
Slices through large targets with unnatural precision. Greatly increases damage against armored enemies, fortifications, and colossal monsters.
• Spatial Cleave
The blade releases a compressed crescent slash that travels up to 25 meters before dissipating.
• Structural Severance
Attacks identify and exploit structural weak points, reducing an enemy’s defense by 30% for 5 seconds.
• Edge of Ruin
Each consecutive strike increases blade sharpness and damage by 8%, stacking up to 5 times.
• Relic Rend
Deals 40% bonus damage against relic armor, magical barriers, and summoned constructs.
Ultimate Skill
◆ Macro Dissection
Consumes a large amount of mana to unleash a single overwhelming slash. Everything within a 50-meter line is cut apart on the molecular and magical level, ignoring 60% of physical defense and destroying weaker barriers instantly.
Passive
• Unbreaking Edge
The saber never dulls and automatically repairs minor damage over time.
A real weapon. A Type 3 weapon. The kind of relic that Silver and Gold-rank heroes spent fortunes to acquire.
[Return 9: Type 3 Protective Amulet]
[Effect: Wearer receivesa passive barrier that absorbs damage up to Peak Super Hero Regenerates over 24 hours after breaking.]
[Return 10: Type 3 House Protection Talisman]
[Effect: When placed on a dwelling, creates a barrier that repels all entities below Superhero Rank at will. Monsters and hostile individuals below this threshold cannot invade the protected area. Duration: Permanent until destroyed.]
Dexter stared at that last one. A permanent house barrier. The kind of protection that would have stopped the Dark Hounds from ever reaching his door.
If only he’d had it a week ago.
[Return 11: D-Rank Talent Card — "Echo-Location"]
[Effect: Emits high-frequency sound pulses that create a three-dimensional map of the surrounding environment. The user can perceive terrain, walls, obstacles, moving targets, and hidden objects even in complete darkness or through smoke, fog, and similar visual obstructions.
[Return 12: D-Rank Talent Card — "Mana Arms"]
[Effect: Construct up to 4 additional arms using solidified mana. Each arm has 10% of user’s physical strength. Duration scales with mana reserves.]
[Return 13: D-Rank Talent Card — "Telepathy"]
[Effect: Speak directly into the minds of others. Can also read the surface thoughts of individuals whose cultivation level is below the user’s.]
Four extra arms. Telepathy. Ground-based sonar. These ar the things that could assist his wives!
[Return 14: Type 3 Chain Pain Ring]
[Effect: Temporarily transfer any ill effect, status condition, or debuff from the user to a target. Can also be used in reverse]
[10,000x Investment Multiplier System— Upgrade Notification]
[Confirmed Kills: 16/100]
[Threshold reached: 10 kills]
[Multiplier Tier UP: 10x → 100x]
[All future Investment returns will now be calculated at 100x multiplier.]
[Kills remaining until next upgrade (1,000x): 84]
"This is slightly too much."
