Chef in the Apocalypse

Jayce only returned to the riverbed after scrubbing every inch of his body. Despite instinctively knowing that the cleaning out of impurities was a good thing, he could not handle the smell of the filth.

Now that he was finally clean and without the throbbing pain in his arm, he could finally process what had just happened. He now noticed that there were a few notifications that were flashing in front of him from the system.

[10x Critical Strike!]

[Congratulations, you have learned Critical Strike]

Critical Strike (passive): Player has a small chance to land a Critical Strike, dealing 4x normal damage.

Jayce frowned, scratching his head in contemplation. What was with this disparity? He had executed a 10x Critical Strike, so shouldn’t the new skill reflect something similar?

It wasn’t even guaranteed, being relegated to a passive skill which only had a small chance to activate during a regular attack. This wasn’t something that he could rely on in the future.

He got to his feet and summoned the Bloodfang Dagger, staring at the nearest tree with a glint in his eyes. "Let’s see what ability the system has given me."

As he had done previously, Jayce closed his eyes and focused his senses on the mana flow within his meridians. Stepping forward, he began to slash at the tree once again.

The mana reacted similarly to how it did previously, ebbing and flowing without his input. 10 strikes, 20 strikes, 100 strikes... Jayce kept raining blows upon the tree, his focus purely on his mana flow.

Suddenly, upon the 101st strike, the mana condensed and began shooting towards his arm like an arrow let loose from a longbow. Jayce’s eyes lit up, doing his best to fully absorb what he was currently feeling.

The Dagger cut down upon the tree, sending bark and splinters flying in every direction. However this time, the tree did not collapse.

[4x Critical Strike activated!]

Jayce quickly sat down, trying to hang onto the feeling he had just experienced. His mind began to work in overdrive, trying burning the sensation into his body.

After a few minutes of intense focus, he opened his eyes, allowing a small grin to form on his face.

The system had shown him the most optimal way to time and use his mana to augment his attacks. Jayce’s previous attempts could be likened to a child hammering haphazardly at a nail, not caring about the damage to its surroundings.

Whereas the system had used a condensed and controlled burst of mana to recreate the Critical Strike. While it had lacked power, it was certainly more efficient and less damaging than what he had been doing previously.

Now that he had been shown the efficient way of using his mana to augment his attacks, it would only be a matter of time before he could turn this ability into something he could use at will.

Jayce’s smile widened. Just imagining a scenario where his regular attacks were all Critical Strikes filled him with excitement.

However, there was a problem. Would his meridians be able to keep up with the constant pressure and crashing of the mana against it? Probably not.

If he was not able to heal his meridians in the middle of the fight, he could potentially cripple himself. This was out of the question.

Although Jayce wanted strength, it was purely to help him and his friends to survive. He would not be able to achieve this if he crippled his meridians.

Therefore he needed to find a way to increase the strength of his meridians, otherwise using this method of getting stronger would be useless.

Jayce sat in contemplation for a while, thinking about what his options were. While his Vitality stat was tied to his body’s strength and stamina, it did not have a great effect on one’s organs, so he immediately rejected the idea of boosting this stat.

Another few minutes passed, yet he was still pulling a blank. Out of habit, Jayce reached up to his forehead and wiped away the non-existent sweat. It was then that his eyes lit up, suddenly having an idea.

"Impurities..." he mumbled.

He quickly focused his senses on the meridians in his arm, willing his mana to explore the channels. He especially looked at the places which had been torn in his last exchange.

"Oh?" Jayce exclaimed in surprise as he took a closer look.

The meridians which had been healed looked pure, as if they had been refined by something. They contracted and expanded seamlessly, looking a lot more pliable and resilient than the rest of his channels.

"Is it because I beat the impurities out of them?"

Jayce opened his eyes once more, raising his hand to his chin in contemplation. "Do I just need to destroy my meridians over and over until they’re pure?"

Just thinking about the tremendous pain such a feat would inflict on him made him shudder involuntarily. After a while, he got up from the ground and dusted off his backside.

"F*ck... No pain no gain I guess." He grumbled. Despite feeling like this was a crude method, he really could not think of another way to refine his meridians.

"Ahhh... I just gotta do it." Jayce slapped his face a few times and jogged on the spot, pumping himself up. He summoned his Bloodfang Dagger and dashed towards another innocent tree.

He began slashing away at the tree, all the while trying to attune his mana. Rather than use his previous forceful method, he chose to kill two birds with one stone and use the systems method.

Jayce condensed his mana together, yet instead of only using a little, he increased the amount by about 2 times. Then, as he began his next strike, he fired the condensed mana towards his arm, aiming for the correct timing.

However, it was not in time. The mana arrived just after the dagger had struck, causing the mana to crash upon his meridians with no outlet. Jayce winced in pain, feeling the sting of his meridians tearing a little.