CHAPTER 44: CHAPTER 13: GROWTH

The Glazed Group prepared a space tool for each squad, and the seventh squad emptied the items originally stored in the tool to barely fit the tiger bone inside.

The hunters of the seventh squad crowded into two items-filled vehicles, fortunately still able to move; otherwise, if they encountered demons along the way, they might find it difficult to counterattack.

"I’ll take the lead; just follow me."

Yan Luo quietly injected himself with a stimulant, pressing down the symptoms of intoxication magic.

As everyone knows, he is a person with an extremely low adaptability to magic power, theoretically unlikely to suffer from intoxication magic.

Yan Luo knew that he needed to spend some time absorbing the recently ingested magic power, during which time he was not suitable for continuing abyss activities.

Therefore, the abyss hunting was terminated.

Yan Luo got on his motorcycle, guiding two armored vehicles to follow him, heading towards the signal tower of the Red Two Entrance.

While driving on the road, the seventh squad’s people suddenly had time to spare.

People exchanged glances, starting to discuss how to handle the posthumous affairs of the captain and others.

The captain, deputy, and Uncle Li’s bodies all vanished in the explosion Uncle Li caused, so even if they wanted to bury them, it was impossible.

It looked like they could only erect a cenotaph, but such a fate is often seen among hunters: they live without being seen and die without leaving a body.

Following Yan Luo’s lead, the seventh squad hardly encountered demons on their way back to Crimson No.2.

This amazed the squad members because hunters from Crimson No.2 usually have to fight their way out to other areas of the Crimson Abyss. Yan Luo’s ability to evade most demons was something only a few veteran hunters familiar with the environment inside the Abyss could achieve.

But Yan Luo had been a hunter for less than half a year!

Clearly, Yan Luo was exceptionally knowledgeable, and even more impressively, he could relate his knowledge to reality and apply what he had learned.

When returning to Crimson No.2, Yan Luo was almost at his limit.

He had injected himself with another stimulant on the road, but stimulants can’t be used frequently in a short time, so he only gave himself two shots, not daring to go for a third.

Yan Luo didn’t even go to the guild to consign his loot from this abyss journey, instead hurrying home, removing his exoskeleton, and tossing himself onto the bed without even washing.

He slept like a log, waking up from a haze to find himself dizzy, evidently having overslept.

He didn’t even know how many hours he had slept.

Yan Luo sat groggily on the bed, dazed for a while before letting his mind reconnect with his body, then turning over and getting out of bed, donning his goggles.

As soon as he put on the goggles, he saw numerous messages from friends.

Upon opening them, Yan Luo realized that the news of the Crimson Abyss’s anomaly had already reached Lingquan City.

Guo Xu, Wang Lingyu, and others had heard this news, so they quickly sent messages hoping he could respond once he returned from the abyss.

In their view, Yan Luo was still an ordinary person whose combat power was probably only slightly stronger than theirs, given his robust stature.

An ordinary person’s combat power can’t compare to an engraver’s, even a hunter with just one engraving possesses extraordinary abilities.

For instance, engravers carrying the [Strength] engraving can lift nearly a ton of weight upon activating it.

No matter how knowledgeable Yan Luo was, he couldn’t handle demons that could fight against engravers.

The saying goes, crossing industries is like crossing mountains, and the news of Yan Luo, as an ordinary person, hunting deadly demons only circulated within hunter circles, with some hunters mentioning it to their family and friends, but the news wouldn’t spread.

Yan Luo had never told Guo Xu, Wang Lingyu, or the others about his life-and-death encounter with a deadly demon, not wanting to worry them.

That’s why they reacted this way.

Yan Luo assured his friends of his safety, then went into the bathroom to freshen up.

He glanced at the time and found that twenty-two hours had passed since returning from the abyss.

Yan Luo had slept for twenty-two hours straight without waking up.

Now he no longer felt symptoms of intoxication magic, but needed detailed checks to determine how much of the magic power he had absorbed.

With this thought, Yan Luo immediately ordered an instrument online to measure magic power levels, which was a bit expensive, but he could afford it now.

Before finishing his breakfast, a drone delivered the package.

The drone landed on the balcony, dropped a box, and flew away.

Yan Luo stuffed the last few mouthfuls of porridge into his mouth, got up, and walked to the balcony to bring the box inside.

Opening the package, he found a wristband-shaped instrument inside.

After taking the magic power measuring device into his hands, the first thing Yan Luo did was forcefully shut off its networking functionality, then secure the device to his wrist.

Beep beep!

[Measurement Result— You possess 4235 Qi of magic power within you.]

It’s not fully absorbed yet.

Yan Luo estimated that his peak magic level prior was likely between 8000 to 8600 Qi, far exceeding limits.

Could sleeping for twenty-two hours have absorbed so much magic?

Or did the magic simply dissipate without being absorbed?

After breakfast, Yan Luo didn’t immediately start testing his limit strength; instead, he took out a grip trainer, set the resistance to maximum, his arm muscles tightened suddenly, he pressed the grip trainer strongly.

The grip trainer Yan Luo purchased was specifically for [Strength] engravers, capable of withstanding 250kg of force.

Yet when Yan Luo exerted his strength, he successfully compressed the grip trainer.

Soon, Yan Luo received the test results.

— Right hand 234kg, left hand 228kg!

No matter which hand, the scores were much better than before.

Right-hand grip increased by 15kg, left-hand by 17kg.

Not just grip strength—

Putting down the grip trainer, Yan Luo opened his palm, then clenched tightly.

Even with such exertion, his joints showed no signs of soreness.

Undoubtedly, his body has been strengthened once again!

Once he completely absorbs the remaining 4235 Qi of magic power, he might become a humanoid monster.

However, even with all his efforts, he could only match the level of a Sequence 5 engraver.

Many hunters at Sequence 5 avoid participating in deadly demon hunts, but he, an ordinary person, not only took part in the hunt for two deadly demons but also hunted one alone.

Yan Luo wondered whether his physique was heaven’s punishment or a gift.

Sitting on the chair pondering for a moment, Yan Luo sighed, got up, walked to the bench press, connected his goggles to the bench press recorder, and began testing his limits.

After a series of tests, Yan Luo finalized his limit strength at 504kg.

Twenty-two hours only increased by over twenty kilograms; it seems the magic he consumed either dissipated or mainly strengthened other aspects.

Finishing the limit strength test, Yan Luo sat gasping on the chair, quickly noticing the soreness in his arm was rapidly fading, roughly ten seconds later, he felt no more soreness.

Not only has the strength enhanced, but recovery ability also strengthened.

Yan Luo squeezed his arm’s muscles, suddenly realizing, perhaps he didn’t have standout qualities but had achieved balanced development with no shortcomings.

Using gaming terminology—others are characterized by extreme stats while he has averaged stats.

Although others have limited stat points, he can acquire them indefinitely.

Continuing to grow like this, his combat power would likely be incredibly fearsome.

Thinking this, Yan Luo smiled.

Beep beep!

Just then, Yan Luo received a message.

Opening it, he found it was from Wang Lingyu.

[Yan Luo, Yan Luo, I met a great senior at university, our department has decided to send people to investigate the Crimson Abyss’s anomaly, and the senior will be going too; can you help look after her?]

Looking after a college student, ensuring she isn’t bullied by hunters.

It’s no trouble, Yan Luo readily agreed.

How hard can it be?