Worldwide Class Change: Minimal Effort, Maximum Reward!

By midday, his level counter had moved to 158 and the EXP bar was progressing steadily toward 159. He paused on a transit island to eat from the wilderness ration packs in his inventory, standing while he did it because sitting felt unnecessary, and reviewed the panel.

Then he moved to the next cluster.

The target was at the far end of the fourth cluster’s largest island. He had spotted it from the transit position, the system scan registering it as a single entity rather than a group, which at this island level meant something that operated alone because it could.

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[Celestial Dreadhorn]

Threat Level: 129

HP: 134,500 / 134,500

Physical Attack: 2,340–2,780

Physical Defense: 2,100–2,460

Magic Resistance: 1,780–2,040

[A rare elite-class monster that has developed beyond the standard elite classification through prolonged exposure to the Allheaven Expanse’s concentrated energy currents. Its horn channels compressed celestial energy that it releases in directed burst attacks. Its physical defense is extraordinary. Its weak point is the base of the horn, where the energy channel meets the skull structure. Targeting this point disrupts its burst attack charging cycle and creates a brief window of reduced defensive output.]

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Level 129. HP 134,500. Physical defense approaching the upper limit of what his current attribute values engaged comfortably without technique optimization. He studied the weak point description. Base of the horn. Energy channel disruption. Defensive reduction window.

The engagement took longer than the standard elites. Seventeen exchanges, the Dreadhorn’s extraordinary physical defense requiring consistent targeting of the horn base rather than allowing opportunistic strikes to other locations. Each time his blade connected with the weak point, the burst attack cycle disrupted and the defensive reduction window opened, giving him two seconds of elevated damage output before the cycle reset.

The pattern was demanding in the way that required actual attention rather than automated execution. He found that engaging. This was the level of challenge that produced something useful, a calibration of technique against meaningful resistance rather than the mechanical repetition of overwhelming overmatched targets.

On the seventeenth exchange, the Dreadhorn’s HP reached zero.

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[Celestial Dreadhorn Defeated]

[EXP Gained: +38,600]

[Reward Amplification Triggered — ×1000]

[New EXP Gained: +38,600,000]

[Level Up! — Level 158 → Level 159]

[Level Up! — Level 159 → Level 160]

[UNUSUAL DROP DETECTED]

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The system notification that followed was formatted differently from standard drops.

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[Unusual Drop — Celestial Dreadhorn]

[Set Attribute Core (Epic Rank)]

[A compressed core of refined attribute essence. When assimilated by a hunter, enhances all four primary attributes simultaneously. Additionally amplifies all equipped weapons with the same attribute bonus.]

[Bonus per assimilation: +350 to Strength, Agility, Constitution, and Spirit]

[Equipped weapon attack power bonus: +350]

[Standard value: Epic Rank — Enhancement grade exceptional for classification]

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He looked at the item. The Spatial Storage Token absorbed it automatically, but his attention stayed on the notification. A Set Attribute Core. Not a single attribute enhancement. A core that applied a flat bonus across all four primary attributes simultaneously and extended the same bonus to his equipped weapon.

Epic rank. Plus 350 to everything.

Then the secondary notification appeared.

[Reward Amplification Applied to Item Drop]

[Set Attribute Core — Epic Rank → Mythical Rank (Evolved)]

[Set Attribute Core (Mythical Rank)]

[An attribute core of unprecedented refinement grade, evolved through amplification beyond standard classification limits. When assimilated, enhances all four primary attributes and all equipped weapons at mythical enhancement scale.]

[Bonus per assimilation: +4,500 to Strength, Agility, Constitution, and Spirit]

[Equipped weapon attack power bonus: +4,500]

Then....

[Celestial Lord Blade — Current Attack Power: 405]

[Post-Assimilation Attack Power: 4,905]

He read the numbers twice. Not because he doubted them. Because the scale of the change required a moment to place properly. His Strength was currently 1,124. Post-assimilation it would be 5,624. His Celestial Lord Blade’s attack power would move from 405 to 4,905, a twelve-fold increase from the core alone.

The Greater Qilin was watching him. It had been watching since the Dreadhorn fell, its evolved awareness tracking the drop notification the same way it had tracked the celestial jade token, with the focused investment of something that understood significant events when they occurred.

"Later," Lin Yi said to it. He would assimilate the core when he had cleared this cluster. Assimilation during active hunting was inefficient.

The Greater Qilin’s gaze moved back to the island ahead, apparently satisfied with the answer.

He moved to the next target.

The cluster continued.

[Voidclaw Ravager ×2 Defeated]

[EXP Gained: +36,800]

[Amplification: +36,800,000]

[Level Up! — Level 160 → Level 161]

[Starborn Predator Defeated]

[EXP Gained: +26,200]

[Amplification: +26,200,000]

[Gravestone Colossus ×3 Defeated]

[EXP Gained: +42,600]

[Amplification: +42,600,000]

[Level Up! — Level 161 → Level 162]

[Level Up! — Level 162 → Level 163]

By the time he cleared the fourth cluster and moved into the fifth, the panel showed level 163 and the secondary drop notifications had added four more items to the Spatial Storage Token alongside the Set Attribute Core.

Four Skill Cores.

Unlike skill books, which contained a single skill that could be learned by a hunter who met the prerequisites, a Skill Core was a different category of item. A single Skill Core could host multiple skills simultaneously, the skills stored within it in a compressed form that could be transferred to the assimilating hunter in their entirety at the moment of absorption. The limiting factor was the core’s grade, which determined both the quality and quantity of skills it could contain.

These were Epic rank. Each one had been amplified.

[RARE DROP DETECTED — ×4]

Skill Core (Epic Rank) ×4 → Mythical Rank (Evolved) ×4

[Mythical Rank Skill Core: Contains multiple skills of varying grades compressed within a single absorption matrix. Upon assimilation, all contained skills transfer simultaneously to the assimilating hunter, bypassing individual prerequisite checks and transferring at the hunter’s current attribute scaling.]

Contents of each core are sealed until assimilation begins. The core reveals its contents only to the hunter who absorbs it.

Four mythical-grade skill cores. Each one containing an unknown quantity of unknown skills that would transfer simultaneously upon absorption. The warning at the bottom was the system’s acknowledgment that the change would be permanent, that whatever was inside each core would become part of him the moment the assimilation completed.

He looked at the four cores sitting in the Spatial Storage Token’s accessible display alongside the Set Attribute Core.

The cluster was cleared. The sun, if the Allheaven Expanse had a sun, had moved across whatever sky this was toward the late afternoon position of the ambient light. He had been moving for most of the day.

He found a stable island on the cluster’s far edge, large enough to sit without the edge dropping off into the void, with a clear view of the surrounding terrain that would give him advance notice of anything approaching. He sat down. The Greater Qilin settled beside him with the patient stillness of something that had decided this was where they were stopping for now.

He took out the first Mythical Rank Skill Core.

It was warm in his hand. Not heat exactly, more like the specific sensation of something that contained a significant amount of compressed energy maintaining itself at stable pressure. The surface was smooth, dark with a faint internal luminescence that pulsed in a pattern that didn’t match his heartbeat but aligned with the Eternal Spirit Core’s regeneration rhythm in a way that suggested compatibility.

The assimilation prompt appeared when his intent made contact with it.

[Mythical Rank Skill Core — Assimilation Ready]

[Seal will release upon confirmation.]

[Proceed?]

[ YES ]　　　[ NO ]