Cipher rushed toward the monsters, his sword cutting through them with ease.
Selene watched from behind, not interfering much with the battle.
One monster jumped toward her from the side, and she extended her hand, grabbing it mid-leap. She crushed it in her grip without effort, then observed the dark miasma dissipating from her hand.
She turned to look at Cipher. "Looks like he won’t be needing my help," she thought as she walked over to join the action herself.
As Cipher cut down another monster, he turned to check on the situation with the others. The hero was still fighting against the boss monster, and the rest of the crowd was being protected by some of the stronger members of the group.
He turned his attention back to the monsters before him, slashing one down. Stepping back, he opened his Cheat Shop. He didn’t want to miss any shop reset upon leveling up, since he didn’t have a hundred points to spend just to reroll it.
This shop, just like the previous one, didn’t have what he was looking for.
He dodged a web attack from a monster, stepping to the side. He then grabbed the web and pulled the monster toward him, using his sword to stab through it.
[You have slain E-rank Demon (Level 17)]
[+14,000 EXP]
[+20 Cheat Points]
Now that he was D-rank, every E-rank he fought gave him half the exp needed to level up. Meaning he had to kill two of them to advance a level. He wasn’t particularly disappointed by this, since he could now gain forty cheat points per level up. Another thing was that, since E-ranks were much weaker than him, he could check out his Cheat Shop without huge risk to himself.
As Selene finished off another monster, she glanced at Cipher. She wondered what was up with him - he seemed to be checking his system screen every time he killed a monster. She wondered if this was a quirk of the All-Rounder class.
She decided to ignore it.
Although doing this in battle wasn’t ideal, he seemed to know what he was doing.
...
A few minutes later, the hero managed to slay the boss monster. He raised his sword high.
The sword let out a bright golden light that tore through the cocoon surrounding them. Strings of golden light began spreading from the blade - hundreds of them burst forth, each one finding a remaining arachnid monster and exploding it into nothingness.
Cipher and the team watched the display in amazement. Everyone except Selene, who had seen the scene before.
The hero’s crowd instantly got back to chanting.
"Let’s keep moving forward," Zero said, and began moving again. The others followed, chanting even louder.
"Let’s keep moving, but remember to have your guard up," Selene said to the team. "Monsters will keep getting stronger from here on out."
As they continued the walk, Cipher summoned his status screen:
[Name: Cipher]
[Level: 32 (8,000/32,000)]
[Species: Human]
[Class: Cheater]
[Health: 2000/2000]
[Mana: 120/230]
[Stamina: 20]
[Agility: 20]
[Intelligence: 23]
[Stat Points: 12]
4
[Cheat Points: 220]
[Skills (5/8): Mana Manipulation (A), Aura (D), Voice Transmission (D), Assassinate (E), Mana Recovery (E)]
[Cheats: Cheat Shop (Max Level), Absolute Appraisal (Max Level), Infinite Inventory (Level 1)]
[Owned Cards: Merge (2), Soul & Blank]
This was a really good farm location.
In just that little time, he was able to slay twelve E-rank monsters, increasing his level six times - from 26 to 32 - and gaining twelve stat points in the process. He decided to distribute them right away, putting two into Intelligence to make it 25. For the remaining ten, he put five into Strength and five into Agility.
During the fight, he had also gained tons of cheat points - 240 of them to be exact. That, plus the initial 80 points he had, made 320. But he’d managed to encounter another Merge card in the shop and bought it, bringing his total points down to 220.
As for the Fork card, he still had yet to come across it.
He was beginning to wonder if he should buy another Mod card to apply an edition to the Mana Recovery skill before he forked it. Since Fork made duplicates - including any editions on the skill - it would be more efficient.
"If I find another Blank, I’ll take it," he thought. Though he wouldn’t be bothered if he didn’t find it, since he could always apply Blank to the skill once it was merged and advanced.
Another thing was that he had experienced another major level up, meaning he could roll for another cheat. He opened the Cheat Shop and pressed the button.
...
[Congratulations! You have awakened a cheat]
[Cheat: ESP (Level 1)]
[Type: Passive]
[Description: Extrasensory Perception. Sense and visualize surroundings beyond normal perception. Creates a mental map of the environment, detecting objects, creatures, and structures within range. Current range: 10 meters.]
Cipher was amazed at the description, but suddenly, he felt a sharp pain shoot through his head.
"Is everything okay?" Selene, who had been observing him, asked.
Cipher held his head with one hand, disabling the ESP cheat. "Yeah, everything is fine. Just feel a little lightheaded is all," he said.
"Be careful not to push yourself too hard. Tell me if anything happens," she said.
"Alright," Cipher responded.
He then opened up his ESP menu. Although it only worked within a ten-meter radius, the number of details it showed was enough to overwhelm him - showing even specific leaves, tiny ants, and grains of sand.
If he wasn’t careful, he would have entered an overloaded state and passed out.
He began customizing the ESP, checking only the necessary boxes. For now, he chose "Draw Creatures" and selected "Above Level 1." This would help him always be aware of the awakened creatures around him.
He had finally found a replacement for the deleted mana sense. Combine this with Absolute Appraisal it would be pretty much impossible to ambush him.
Another use he saw for this was looking for valuables, but it wasn’t as easy as just selecting "valuables" in the menu. After all, value was subjective. The only way he could draw valuables was if he encountered a specific valuable and added it manually into the filter.
Another way was to just allow ESP to draw everything - which was an easy way to die.
He dismissed the thought. He would think of a better way to handle this. If he could easily draw valuables, with his Appraisal and Infinite Inventory...