Chapter Ten: The Warrior Form

“Ugh~ That’s so disgusting…” Pixie covered her mouth, staring at Zhao Tianhe as he sliced open the center of his forehead and let blood drip into the dish.

Today he was making duck blood vermicelli, and adding a bit of human blood seemed just as fitting.

“But vermicelli made from this kind of flour tastes so much better! It’s way better than the ones back home!” Zhao Tianhe exclaimed, gazing at the noodles in his hand with heartfelt admiration. “Let’s keep lunch simple—with pork stewed with noodles!”

This was Zhao Tianhe’s fourth day of bloodletting. Relying on his innate abilities, he hunted an elite monster on the second floor each day, leveling up again to level four, and his agility had increased to nine.

If nothing else, his skills with tossing pans and chopping ingredients had become even smoother. Even with an extra set of cookware, Zhao Tianhe could effortlessly manage several dishes at once, easily doing the work of several people.

An increase in agility didn’t boost attack or defense; it wasn’t an upgrade to the body’s hardware, but rather an all-around enhancement of the nervous system and cognitive ability, allowing for more precise and fluid control of one’s movements. If agility were raised to extreme heights, it could even influence endocrine functions and emotions. In combat, agility and strength complemented each other, both indispensable; for ranged archers and battle-mages, agility was often more important than strength.

To Pixie, Zhao Tianhe vanished and reappeared—off to complete another task.

“Whew~ Finally… it’s over!” Zhao Tianhe, tears streaming down his face, held up his empty bowl.

The hidden bloodletting quest was finally completed!

Artoria’s state: fully released. Affection level 3, 7/400.

Support mode, Warrior mode.

Both modes could be freely selected. Upon selection, a cooldown period began—24 hours before another choice could be made.

Warrior form could summon “Artoria Pendragon (Warrior),” lasting one hour.

Artoria Pendragon (Warrior) was a physical entity; if she died, she could not be summoned again in any form.

Her attributes were as follows:

Artoria Pendragon

Race: Phantom/Spirit

Base attributes (affection grants +3 to all stats):

Strength: 18

Agility: 13

Constitution: 13

Spirit: 23

Basic attributes omitted.

Class system not unlocked (0/5000) (Artoria’s warrior form can share experience points acquired by the main body’s system; distribution ratio can be adjusted, up to half).

Talent system not unlocked (0/5000) (Experience points can be injected into either the talent or class system, or split proportionally).

Innate passive skills:

Mana Armor lvmax

Mana is transformed into armor covering the body; armor strength increases with mana capacity. Every 10 points of mana grants 1 point of armor defense; every 100 points of mana grants 1 extra base defense. Consuming mana instantly repairs damaged armor.

Wind King Barrier lvmax (cannot be released)

A special barrier to conceal Excalibur, extremely effective at blocking and negating various spells, but consumes some mana.

“This… has some risk… wait, nonsense!” Zhao Tianhe suddenly recalled the level of the slime caverns. With Artoria’s stats, running roughshod through the first or second floors, the only real issue was time, not strength!

“And this Mana Armor actually boosts base defense…” Zhao Tianhe was well aware of what base defense meant.

For holders of the Hero system, every piece of armor and weapon could be quantified for defense, but that usually referred to the equipment’s durability; equipping it didn’t increase your own base defense.

Because once the equipment’s defense was breached, it became useless. But base defense meant the toughness of your flesh. Quantified by the Hero system, it could grant your eyeballs the same defense as your fingernails.

Ordinary people stabbed by a knife would easily suffer fatal internal bleeding if it reached their organs. But with the Hero system, your organs gained the same strength as your muscles and bones. This meant heroes gained immense resistance to blunt force and shock. For warriors with high strength, as long as the armor shell wasn’t breached, they could ignore most impact forces.

Such flawless constitution made them more monstrous than monsters themselves, breaking all the usual rules.

This was the true power of the Hero system.

And likewise, it was the strength of Artoria’s Mana Armor! As long as mana was high enough, the Mana Armor was an invincible golden body!

However, it seemed Artoria inherited Zhao Tianhe’s Earthling spirit stat bonus—one point of spirit equaled ten mana points…

“If only, like the elves in this world, one point of spirit gave fifty mana, I’d drag Artoria straight to clear those stinky E-rank dungeons without hesitation!” Zhao Tianhe thought with regret, then chose Warrior mode.

Of course, Zhao Tianhe wouldn’t summon Artoria unless he encountered an elite monster on the second floor. He had to make the most of that one hour and grind as much as possible, and he even had an idea…

With that, Zhao Tianhe opened his newly purchased oven, cracked eggs, and kneaded dough…

Eating snacks with Pixie as they walked to the cave entrance, he handed his phone to Pixie, the professional grinder, and entered the cave himself.

Pixie was too weak; if she were splashed by slime acid, she’d almost certainly die. So no matter how risky the second floor was, Zhao Tianhe wouldn’t let her take any chances.

He cleared out the dozen or so slimes on the first floor with ease; with his increased agility, he never missed a strike.

Stepping into the second floor, after walking for a while, he encountered only some ordinary elemental slimes—not difficult to kill.

Creak… creak…

A strange scraping sound echoed from the left fork, and Zhao Tianhe’s keen senses let him estimate the opponent’s size and weight…

“Earth-type slime, with metallic spikes—a real nuisance, probably can’t even break its defense. So…” Zhao Tianhe pointed at the approaching figure, anticipation in his voice. “Come forth, Saber!”

In the next moment, a pale blue silhouette appeared before him.

Artoria, clad in blue and white knight’s armor, stood before Zhao Tianhe, invisible sword raised. A breeze swept her ahoge, giving her a valiant aura…

The earth-type slime emerged in the passage. Its core was less than half a meter tall, about the size of a normal slime, but its body was covered in irregular stone spikes, resembling a sea urchin; the tips of the spikes were laced with metal.

Its movement wasn’t by wriggling, but by rolling on its spikes. Overall, though it looked bizarre, it was quite fast and extremely aggressive—Zhao Tianhe would be doomed if he faced it alone.

But Artoria advanced with effortless grace, sliced off a cluster of spikes in two swings, then split its body with a single strike and leapt back in time.