Michael just stood there for a moment shifting most of his weight to his right foot and the wrench he had sent down to use as a crutch. The amber drop just sat there hovering right in front of him, but Michael was too tired to bend and swipe his hand through it. It was like he had just run sprints to the point of exhaustion, and this was just from dipping beneath 10 SP. With nothing pushing him to fight for his life, he would rather just lay down in rest.

It did not take long for his SP to creep back up over 10. It was around the same time he was ready to move. Still winded he limped forward a step wincing before he swiped through his first amber drop. As far as he was concerned it was not a fortunate find of a rare drop, but something that had been earned. The ghast had by far been the most dangerous enemy he had faced. Perhaps it was not just due to being a different species from the other tier 1’s he had faced, although that might have been some of it. But it was also likely that the ghast might have developed its strength further into the tier than the other tier 1’s that he had come across.

He had already seen examples of it and it had even been mentioned in the last announcement. The queen wasp had been on the cusp of becoming a tier 0 among thousands of others throughout the map. She had clearly been stronger than the other drone wasps. Then there were some tier 0 zombies he had encountered, who appeared to perhaps be a step faster or stronger. All these monsters had different rates of development. The only question was how much further had the ghast been. Was it still in the early stages, whereas the tier 1 ghouls had been at the very beginning? For all he knew the ghast was still relatively weak for a tier 1.

As far as why there was a ghast amongst a bunch of ghouls. Either the creators had put it as a unique boss monster, or there were chances that the ghast had evolved from a ghoul. Perhaps there was a chance for monsters to develop into higher level beings as they evolved. Time would tell.

A minute later he finally found the bat and the other wrench. When he got to the green drop, he was just going to rest, but he wanted his main weapon back. God forbid something attacked him at this point. The wrench went back in storage and Michael hobbled to the back wall. Sure enough a green emerald ball hovered behind the final tank. Michael hobbled to it and sat down. A second later he was already opening the drop, eager to see what he got.

[Secondary Attribute unlocked: Pulse: Energy contenders can send out of their bodies. Once unlocked, contenders can use pulse to enact certain abilities or enact certain skills. (Warning: it will cost 3 primary attribute points to add 1 point to a secondary attribute.]

[Basic pulse ability Shaping unlocked: Shaping is the basic ability for manipulation of pulse.]

Michael leaned his head back against the wall, smiling. Unlocking a secondary attribute had been exactly what he had wanted. He had been hoping for Ki, but pulse had been a close second. Similar to what he had experienced after equipping the Wasp nettle bracer, Michael now had in instinctual knowledge on how to use his new ability. He pulled up his interface. Pulse now had a 10/10 on his home page.

After a second of focus a white ball of light flickered into existence over his finger. Michael watched it and his screen. He felt a slight pull of energy flowing from his body to the ball. He could also feel the energy gathered in the ball of white light. After 10 seconds, his pulse status dropped down to 9 of 10.

Michael then moved the ball in an orbital pattern around his finger. It dropped down to 8 of 10 perhaps a second earlier than if the ball was just sitting there. It was hard to tell, so Michael increased the ball of energy's orbit till the ball formed a circle in the air with after images. The effort strained Michael, but it paid off. This time the point drop was obviously a couple seconds shorter.

Michael moved to the final thing the shaping ability had imparted from him. The color of the white ball became light yellow in color. Michael felt the energy pull increase, and the ball of energy’s power output increased as well. His status ticked down to 6 and then to 5 a few seconds after. Then the ball became a darker amber and his points burnt to zero in a second. The ball winked out, leaving Michael back in the darkness.

Michael felt drained, a sort of hollow feeling. He had nothing left to give. It probably was not as bad as if he had bottomed out his SP, but it was definitely not a good feeling. Michael just sat there for a minute. A minute because that was how long it took to regain a single point. Michael grimaced. The energy seemed to burn through pretty quick. He would have to practice with it later and see how it could be used in actual combat. Still it would take a full minute to regain a point

Michael thought about it for a few minutes before he decided to review the battle. He had killed 11 Tier 0’s and 4 Tier 1 ghouls, in addition to the Tier 1 ghast. Taking down five tier 1’s and twice that amount of tier 0’s by himself was pretty impressive, and the battle had certainly paid off with drops other than snagging the green drop. He had received 11 crowns and had 5 new stat points to allocate. It would be a major haul for a battle that had lasted only minutes.

The downside was that he was all busted up right now. Not like he would be able to run around the district and collect a whole lot more after this with his ankle and other injuries. It was not even 0700 and his gains for the day might be already done. Not that he could complain. Surely the secondary attribute would be useful… right?

“Well if nothing else, it will give me a good light source in dark places,” Michael joked.

Now what to do with his stat points. Burning three stat points to increase a secondary by 1, would be a tough pill to swallow. While his brief demonstration had not impressed him, it was clear that the secondary attributes would be extremely important.

Michael flipped to status and then his special abilities page.

Primary Attributes

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Strength: 20

Endurance: 10

Dexterity: 17

Agility: 13

Vitality: 10

Toughness: 10

Secondary Attributes

Ki: –

Pulse: 1

Spirit: –

Special Abilities page

Shaping (pulse basic) ability lvl 1

Now that he had an ability, Michael decided to encyclopedia what abilities and skills.

[Ability: the means to be able to do something.]

[Skills: abilities with determined results. Can be increased through practice or through skill upgrades.]

Based on what he experienced and the encyclopedia entry, it appeared that the shaping ability basically unlocked a new facet of his existence, a new 6th sense. Skills were like a subset of an ability. The ability might be useful by itself, but perhaps a skill would make it more so?

Damn, whatever, he was going to do it anyway. There was no sense in trying to pretend otherwise. Michael bumped up the pulse attribute to 2. He would need more pulse to get any use out of it. It might just be something he could use in a burst to take down the most powerful enemies, but even that would be something. If he had been able to take the ghast and a few other enemies quickly that battle might have been noticeably less difficult. It would be good to have another trump card other than the bracer.

Real question was what to do with his two remaining points. It was clear that his dodge everything approach would not work for ever. Neither would strength be enough to instantly bash through every defense. He would eventually get hit. Fights would be more grueling and last longer, and he would be onset by status effects like bleeding, poison, or paralysis.

Michael thought about it for a while. Not like he was in a hurry. He even had a midmorning snack of soup and crackers. Finally he decided to throw both into toughness. Taking less damage and resisting status effects seemed to give two benefits instead of just getting more HP with constitution or SP with endurance, and endurance could wait, as long as he was careful the SP he had should be sufficient for now.

As soon as Michael had allocated the 2 points, he felt a power welling up from the core of his being. It was uncomfortable but after a half minute it was gone and he got a new notification.

[Tier 1: Congratulations, you have reached Tier 1. You have received a five star rating. Rating based on timeline, enemies faced, areas visited, and challenges undertaken. 10 Stat points have been allocated. (Warning: this is the only Tier that can be reached without a contender finding their own method.)]

Awesome, a five star rating sounded like top marks. Unless they were using a 10 point rating scale, and if that was the case Michael did not want to know what it would take to get top marks in the evaluation. After all, he had killed several different types of monsters including six at a higher tier than himself. Hitting 3 districts and making it to tier 1 in a little over 3 days was not too bad. Obviously the catalyst was him using his 25 stat point increases. He had figured that something like that might be the case. It was a bit frustrating that the 3 points for a secondary stat apparently still counted as three toward the total.

If that was the case then there was a real limit on strength per tier, and advancing secondary attributes significantly could mean taking a serious cut in the amount that he could boost his primary attributes. Well that was assuming that a specified quantity of stat points remained one of the requirements for tiering up. Hopefully, special point awards like the 10 he just got would not count against him, or perhaps it just put him 10 points closer to hitting the next threshold. So much for his dream of being super overpowered for his tier.

Michael pulled up his status page.

Primary Attributes

Strength: 25

Endurance: 10

Dexterity: 20

Agility: 14

Vitality: 10

Toughness: 12

Secondary Attributes

Ki: –

Pulse: 3

Spirit: –

Ten stat points had been added, and as expected they had flowed to reinforce the areas that he had placed his point. Half of the points had gone to his highest stat, strength bringing it up to 25. Three had been added to dexterity rounding it out to 20, and one point had gone to agility. The tenth point had gone to pulse bringing it up to 3.

What a boon, he had still got 10 stat points, but only one of the bonus points had been required to bring his secondary attribute up, so it was as if he had gotten 12 stat points instead of the 10 that he had. Michael immediately thought what would have happened if he had added more to the secondary attribute. Perhaps he could have gotten more of the tier up stat points to flow there.

It was probably pointless to think about. He was already tier 1 now. According to the interface, the benefits they got from hitting tier 2 and the tiers after that, would be based on what method they used to get there. Hitting tier 1 was a quick stepping stone that most if not all contenders would probably have completed by the end of the first week, so even getting full marks probably would pale in comparison to what he could get if he found a good method to evolve up to tier 2. It was likely that reaching tier 2 would take notably longer.

It gave Michael a lot to think about. Even two very good evolution methods could be more or less beneficial to him based on what he was trying to build himself up to be. Not only would I have to find an evolution method. He would have to find the right method for him, but neither could he dally since the monsters would get stronger and stronger. Not to mention, some people would evolve as quickly as possible, meaning even if Michael held off to get the most out of every tier, he could fall behind someone who was doing the opposite and pushing forward without abandon.

At some point he would have to use the best method that he had access to to prevent falling behind. He would have every reason to keep his nose to the pavement, since there could always be something better out there awaiting discovery. Not that he had planned any different. He checked his home screen. His SP was full. His HP was still down at 83, and his ankle was swollen.

Would taking a day off allow his ankle to improve quicker allowing him to get more in the long run, or would it be better to push through the pain. He might not be able to gather much hobbling around, but it would be more than nothing. Injuries did seem to improve faster than they would normally, already the wasp stings from day 1 were practically non-existent. Perhaps if he had increased vitality, they might heal even quicker. Perhaps he should have thought about that before throwing them into toughness. Talk about additional benefits.

Regardless, Michael decided. He could not stay here. He was not going to stay in ghoul central. Perhaps after walking about a little bit, the ankle would not feel so bad.