Finally gaining the talent, Max was ecstatic. He rushed to check its effects, not waiting for even a second after receiving the notification.
[D Talent - Physical Resistance]
[Talent Description]
[Even with a low talent grade and singular effect, it is still one of the most valued in the world. Its extraordinary effects let the user bypass even the power of gods]
[Talent Effect]
[1. Gives owner of talent 15% physical resistance]
While some people may be a bit unappreciative of the talent after its massive build-up, Max realised exactly how powerful this talent can be.
Every time Max received damage, it would decrease by 15%.
While this may seem insignificant, the description hadn't gone past him. It clearly stated that even gods weren't able to bypass these rules, showing him once again the omnipotence of talents, no matter how low their tier is.
Now that he had this talent, Max was ready to go hunting again.
So he ventured forward once again, attempting to find more monsters. He started checking all of the caves he could find, wishing to see more groups of slimes, and soon, he found another.
This group was exactly the same as the previous one, and it was even easier for Max to kill them all, even getting a bit more proficient with illusion magic.
Max pulled the same trick on them, luring them away while whittling down their numbers, only to have them jump into a fire trap.
He then did the same thing to 4 more Giant Slime groups before he met a harder challenge.
This time, there was no surprise mob; instead, what he found was a massive cluster of slimes. By massive, what Max meant was a group that had 30 slimes.
While Max was confident in his prowess, he recognised his limits, and Max knew that killing these guys would require massive amounts of planning and foresight, so he planned.
Max considered every possible scenario, trying to devise a foolproof plan, and 30 minutes later, he believed he was ready.
Max realised they were so clustered that his earlier strategy of luring them one by one would become obsolete. Instead, Max needed to create a way to kill all of them at once.
He considered just attracting and killing them while they were chasing him, much like what he did with the Giant Slimes until he was confident enough to kill them all at once; however, one look at his stamina reserves, and he immediately disregarded it.
The next plan on his mind was to create illusions and disorientate them from their surroundings, however, he didn't know if this strategy would be effective in actually killing them, as controlling the surroundings for each slime would require a lot of focus that he couldn't give while killing them, making it bound for there to be holes in his magic and the plan being unfeasable.
Finally, Max decided on an idea and walked towards the slime cave.
He sent a fireball towards the group, and instead of immediately running away, he did the complete opposite.
-174
Standing still, Max looked as if he had accepted his fate of dying and was just trying to accelerate it.
The slimes leapt towards him, eager to end the man who dared attack them; however, as they were moving, they met with another fireball, from a completely different direction, leading to the death of a slime and lessening the horde to 29.
Now the slimes were confused, for they saw another image of Max from where the fireball came. The slimes quickly adapted and started bouncing towards the 'new' Max and kill him.
However, not even 5 seconds later, the group was hit by another fireball, along with an image of Max from where it came.
The slimes were pretty much screwed at that point, as they were slowly being eradicated as a consequence of their low perception and intelligence. Not the stat, but real intelligence.
Both of Max's plans had their downsides, so Max decided to combine the two and create an easy way to kill the 'slime gang' as he dubbed it.
He would send out a fireball and keep a clone there while blending himself into the surroundings and sneakily leaving. He would then go to a different position and do the same thing, while destroying his previous illusion.
This plan would let him slowly whittle down the slime gang, while also keeping him from being exposed to virtually any danger.
He didn't even have the problem of focus, as he only had to concentrate on blending himself with the surroundings, with his clones doing the rest for him.
So Max killed all of the slimes rather easily, with them not even standing a chance against his ploy.
Max had expected to get a Talent Plunder(TP), but was only to be disappointed, with his luck at a low.
This encounter made Max finally get serious about increasing his luck.
Max was in no dire need for any particular stat, and he had 15 unassigned ATP, giving him a backup even if he needed more for 1 stat.
The selling point for Max was the comparative increase when compared to other stats, as while 10 points was worth a lot, it wasn't that much when added to a singular stat compared to luck, which was getting doubled.
So, after careful deliberation, Max used his 10 points to increase his luck to 2.
Max effected something dramatic, anything really. Maybe a system notification congratulating him for his investment, yet he got nothing.
'Oh well, maybe I shouldn't buy more luck next time.'
Max was disappointed, yet shrugged it off, forgetting about it and focusing more on his next hunt.
As expected, Max soon found another group of slimes, this one with 35.
While there may be 5 more slimes, Max wasn't worried at all, as he still had plenty of MP potions waiting to be consumed.
So he used the previous plan, with it working like a charm and not deviating from his previous result at all.
After killing his first slime, Max had expected to achieve a TP, yet was let down by the system and his high expectations of the luck stat.
However, as he killed his 28th slime, he received a notification he was almost desperate for.
[You have plundered talent, Physical Resistance (D)]
[2 talents compatible with each other detected]
[Physical Resistance (D) is merging with Physical Resistance (D)]
[New Talent Gained - Greater Physical Resistance (C)]
[C Talent - Greater Physical Resistance]
[Talent Description]
[This is one of the only talents at C grade to only have 1 effect, and yet no one has disagreed with its worth, keeping it as one of the high-tier talents of Earth.]
[Talent Effect]
[1. Gives owner of talent 25% physical resistance]
Max was mildly unhappy with this upgrade, as he had been used to a qualitative change with each tier upgrade, and this talent had been one that had a singular difference.
However, he still knew and appreciated its power, almost saddened for all the melee enemies he'd meet in the future, taking only three-quarters of the damage he was supposed to.
He remembered the annoying face of KingMadwinner and was suddenly extremely thankful towards the slimes, for this was the perfect tool for revenge.