Chapter 38: Endurance

Until they reached the destination, Karamon still refused to communicate with them.

The other two knew little as well, it was said that Donna was the daughter of a wealthy merchant and had provided the Sun Crystal Karamon lacked during his Fourth Stage Spiritual Power advancement ceremony, helping him pass the graduation trial and become an official combatant. Their acquaintance and the swift one-sided love affair followed.

Just as Karamon was preparing to spend the rest of his life with her, he was abruptly kicked to the curb.

Though the information was sparse, it clearly didn't tally with the description of the governing official Alex.

Rod inquired indirectly if they had ever seen the governor of the Outer City District's second largest area. All three said no, except Karamon grumbled something about him seeming to be a bearded man, but when asked for details, he claimed he couldn't remember.

The situation seemed somewhat eerie.

Rod decided to wait until after the patrol to ask Karamon about his girlfriend alone, by that time he should have recovered.

Their current primary task was to kill monsters and collect souls.

The four of them began their patrol along the same route as the day before.

Their pace was neither fast nor slow; according to Reslin, it was the most standard speed recommended by the textbook: complete a patrol in half a clock hour, speeding up at the beginning and end, slowing down in the middle.

Statistics showed that this patrol method had the highest rescue rate.

Luck was on their side today; they had just started their patrol when they encountered three groups of Grey Level monsters, incredibly numerous, at least two hundred of them.

Rod fired ten shots, obtaining 51 "Dust-like Souls," prompting Reslin to exclaim in admiration,

"Truly wealthy."

Egger reminded him, "These ash-like monsters spawn and perish in an instant; using consumables to attack them is very uneconomical."

Rod also felt it, the Grey Level monsters were indeed weak, just as the blind old Mo'er had explained in class, their Soul Waveform was like a straight line, very flat, with hardly any glimpses of Spiritual Energy flashes.

And True Silver indeed was a very precious Spiritual Material.

Any material that could react with Spiritual Energy was referred to as a Spiritual Material; they had a variety of uses and were humanity's most important resource.

True Silver with a purity of over thirty percent was regulated and not allowed for free trade.

A single True Silver Bullet containing less than one tenth of a gram of True Silver cost seven silver coins; it was indeed uneconomical to use them to eliminate some easily cleanable dust.

But he was a novice with no other choice.

Rod had a total of 55 bullets on him; after firing ten shots, he was left with 45.

And tonight was indeed a bit different, the monsters were visibly more numerous, probably due to what the scar-faced defense chief called "Dark Moon Night."

The long night stretched on, and at this rate, 45 bullets would definitely not be enough. And firing a spirit gun every night, even if he sold himself to Kashan as a meat slave, he couldn't afford it.

After paying off debts and buying new bullets, he had only three hundred silver coins left in his pocket.

If he was not careful, the thousand silver coins borrowed from Kashan just now would disappear in a flash.

Rod thought for a moment and pushed a slider on the gunstock upward.

With a click, "Raven" was switched to Strong Strike mode. The Spirit Gun's energy storage time extended to six seconds, the required Spiritual Energy jumped from 40 to 150, but the Spiritual Energy enclosed within the True Silver Bullet also doubled, greatly increasing its power.

The key was, it saved bullets.

This was personally taught to him by Big Sister Mina.

There were many functions in the "Raven," but it seemed that Lauren thought he didn't need them, so he did not tell him.

Seeing this move, the three turned their heads, their tone full of surprise.

"Rod, do you know how to use a heavy gun?"

"Is your Spiritual Energy enough? I tried when I was at First Level Spiritual Energy, and after exchanging three shots, I became exhausted."

Rod felt a bit perplexed, "Didn't I fire dozens of shots yesterday? Even if the Spiritual Energy required quadrupled, firing seven or eight shots shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Karamon chuckled, "Rod, I always forget you are a one-year new student."

Egger seriously explained, "Spiritual Energy is not a reservoir; our Souls are not filled with Spiritual Energy. The way we use Spiritual Energy is like squeezing water from a sponge. You know about sponges, right? They are a special product from Thousand Lake Town. Even if it's soaked with water, no matter how much you squeeze, there will always be a little bit coming out."

Reslin said with a smile, "To put it simply, using Old Blind Mo'er's words, Spiritual Energy is like our strength. If you use it sparingly, you can use it for a long time, but if you carry a heavy burden and use it with high intensity, you'll quickly become exhausted."

"Our estimated total amount of Spiritual Energy is a very rough value; its fluctuation is very big, basically not much reference value."

This explanation quickly made Rod understand but also left him somewhat confused. He had tried the heavy gun and firing ten shots in a row was no problem. At that time, Mina had even complimented him on his endurance, and Rod had thought it was just a kind gesture.

"Maybe I'm extraordinarily gifted?"

Rod thought and curiously asked, "So what is generally used as a reference for the strength of Spiritual Energy?"

Reslin said, "The most important indicator is the Spiritual Power Level, followed by the highest Spiritual Power Strength. However, Spiritual Energy is affected by many factors, so these indicators are also only of general referential value."

Egger laughed, "Just as Old Blind says, Spiritual Energy, well, there's always some if you squeeze."

The three burst into laughter.

This also allowed Rod to completely understand the relationship between Soul and Spiritual Energy.

"I didn't expect to learn so much more knowledge here."

Rod's mind stirred, and he quickly repeated what Old Blind Mo'er had said in class during the day, hoping to hear more in-depth content.

And seemingly, the urge to teach is simply ingrained in human genetics. One might only think of napping during learning, but become excited when teaching others.

Particularly Karamon, who really wanted to redeem his failed image in front of Rod, so he explained in great detail.

"Old Blind's explanation was too abbreviated; he underestimated you guys."

Karamon sharply critiqued this teacher who had left a deep impression on many students.

"In addition to the main level, monsters also have different ranks. Just looking at the Soul Waveform is not accurate; you need to combine Spiritual Power Level, the monster's Attribute, type, and abilities to accurately gauge its approximate Strength."

Karamon then went into detail about how to discern a monster's strengths and weaknesses, how to devise tactics against them, and even advanced content on how to assign personnel and arrange positions.

Egger was licking grass potato jam sweetened with honey, occasionally interjecting a few words.

Reslin was single-handedly battling against a group of Shadow black dogs up front, frequently positioning his back towards the majority of enemies, his front shielded tightly with a knife and shield.

"Are you guys done talking?"

The more they killed, the more monsters appeared, causing a rather frantic reaction from the somewhat lacking in attack strength, Reslin.