Chapter 777: Chapter 777. Experience Point Limit?

When Liu Shu began reviewing the System Messages, she noticed something very odd. This was something that she had not expected in the slightest, but something that made her feel somewhat... cheated.

[Experience Points Calculations Ongoing... Error. The number of same-level creatures has reached a limit.]

Liu Shu almost slapped the System. "What do you mean by a limit!? Are you trying to cheat me on the Experience I very much earned through my sap, bark, and leaves!?"

[System Note: Creatures of the same level... Error. To explain, the <System> needs permission to reveal the essence of <Experience Points>.]

[Calculating...]

[The current situation is not a special case. Permission granted.]

[System Note: Creatures of the same level can only perfect a creature’s essence to a certain degree. Experience Point Gain is usually not affected by this peculiarity as individuals Level Up as they gain Experience Points without killing too many other individuals.]

Liu Shu frowned at these messages. Still, she held back from reacting. "Alright then... continue."

[System Note: A creature that absorbs too much essence of the same level will eventually become immunized to it. This problem occurs increasingly often as Levels increase.]

"Why is that?"

[System Note: As Levels increase, the essence each creature has becomes a powerful accumulation. As a Level 1, killing other Level 1 creatures gives between 1 and 100 Experience Points. As a Level 100, killing other Level 100s gives thousands. And Level 200s receive tens to hundreds of thousands.]

"Hm..." Liu Shu frowned. "But the Experience Point requirements also scale up with Level, don’t they?"

[System Note: The Experience Point earning is not highly exponential. Otherwise, by Level 200, the system calculates that the Experience Points needed would be in the trillions. Further increasing to ridiculous numbers the higher the level.]

"...Trilions."

Liu Shu felt a chill in her heart. Looking at her current Level Up requirements, the numbers were a bit over 10 million. Comparably, the Experience Points needed to Level Up are not that many.

Even then, earning Experience Points was not that easy. At least, without large wars like this one, Experience Point earning was something that could be earned with ease. Adding the bottlenecks explained why individuals took so long to Level Up.

"But... if that was the case, people wouldn’t need thousands of years. As long as you kill creatures a bit over your level, won’t you be able to level up in just a few years? Level 150 creatures, for Level 150 beings, give around 10,000 Experience Points each."

With these numbers, the number of deaths needed is only around one thousand. Even if you just killed one creature a day, you would Level Up in less than four years.

Doing these simple calculations, Liu Shu could tell where the System was going. "Are you saying that the Experience Points I gained at Level 160 are too many, and my body can’t really absorb them all?"

[System Note: That’s a partially correct assumption. However, more than being unable to absorb, it is more correct to say that your body has gained resistance to the essence from <First Ascension> creatures. To put it in human terms, your body has gained resistance to medicine after ingesting too much of it.]

Liu Shu sighed, feeling a bit troubled. "Alright, tell me, without this... Essence resistance, how many Experience Points would I have gained?"

[Calculating...]

[Experience Points earned would’ve reached 27,026,219,708.]

"T-Twenty-seven BILLION?"

The number was so brutally large that even her real eyes opened in pure surprise, her face showing utter bewilderment.

For reference, Liu Shu would have "earned" 2,700 times the amount of Experience Points needed to Level Up. Without the highly exponential Level Experience Increase, Liu Shu calculated that she might’ve jumped to Level 600 in one go.

"...Alright, now you are making sense."

She raised her branches in defeat. If she truly could earn 27 Billion Experience Points in one Level 150 war, that would be unreasonable.

Suddenly, Liu Shu became quite curious and asked, her eyes shining. "Still, I am curious. How did you calculate that number? Show me the details!"

[Showing details...]

[Experience Points for killing creatures under Level 150 on average: 1,459. Number of deaths: 2,255,870.]

[Experience Points for killing B+ Tier and below creatures between Level 150 to 159 on average: 11,366. Number of deaths: 408,673.]

[Experience Points for killing B+ Tier and below creatures between Level 160 to 169 on average: 16,068. Number of deaths: 272,448.]

[Experience Points for killing B+ Tier and below creatures between Level 170 to 179 on average: 21,749. Number of deaths: 34,056.]

[Experience Points for killing B+ Tier and below creatures between Level 180 to 189 on average: 29,067. Number of deaths: 3,406.]

[Experience Points for killing B+ Tier and below creatures between Level 190 to 199 on average: 37,150. Number of deaths: 1,703.]

[Experience Points for killing A- Tier and above creatures between Level 150 to 159 on average: 27,158. Number of deaths: 272,448.]

[Experience Points for killing A- Tier and above creatures between Level 160 to 169 on average: 38,902. Number of deaths: 139,630.]

[Experience Points for killing A- Tier and above creatures between Level 170 to 179 on average: 53,321. Number of deaths: 14,985.]

[Experience Points for killing A- Tier and above creatures between Level 180 to 189 on average: 72,369. Number of deaths: 2,081.]

[Experience Points for killing A- Tier and above creatures between Level 190 to 199 on average: 93,549. Number of deaths: 307.] 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

[Total Experience Points: 27,026,219,708.]

"...Alright. I admit it. It would be quite absurd to gain... how much...? 3,291,314,343 Experience Points from beings below Level 150."

Here, she suddenly paused, and then she quickly counted the numbers. "Are you telling me that I actually killed 3,405,606 individuals during this war?"

[Incorrect: The number of deaths is 3,405,607.]

"...You could’ve said that you didn’t take Rhazor’s death into account instead of being such a smartass about it."

[...]

"Alright, so... How does the Experience Point penalty work?" Speaking of him, she brought up the message she received back then.

[Congratulations! You’ve defeated <Moon Slicing Human Level 230>. You’ve earned 932,265 Experience Points!]

"Almost one million by himself. That’s like... a twenty-seven thousandth of the entire army I slaughtered? No wonder the System says that with levels, the experience points each individual gives become quite outrageous. Of course, if I were also Level 230, he wouldn’t have given this many Experience Points."

Thinking up to this point, she sighed and prepared to receive the punch to the core. "Alright, tell me, how many Experience Points did I gain in the end after reductions?"

[Calculating...]

[Tianlian Liu Shu will receive 7.5% of the total Experience Point pool.]

"ARGH!"

[Congratulations! You’ve gained 2,026,966,478 Experience Points.]

"Mah heart... it hurts so much... 25 Billion Experience going puff right in front of my eyes. QAQ!"

[Incorrect, it is 24,999,253,230 Experience Points.]

A vein bulged in her forehead. "...Alright. Now you’ve done it."

Liu Shu grabbed the System interface by its roots and began beating it to a pulp without a single shred of mercy. If she weren’t limited, she would’ve blasted it with three <True Suns> onto it!

[...]

"YEAH! THREE DOT ME! I AM GOING TO BEAT YOU UP UNTIL YOU SHOW A QAQ FACE! ARRRGHHH!"

[QAQ]

Liu Shu froze, and then, she saw red. "No... you... YOU ACTUALLY HAVE THE CHEEK TO TRY AND ESCAPE PUNISHMENT! COME HERE!"

[...]

Only after five minutes of straight-up beating did Liu Shu start feeling better. Still, when she saw that last message about losing 25 billion, she almost coughed up blood again.

"Alright... At least this amount of Experience Points can level me up quite a lot, I guess."

Here, she paused. Her eyes turned somewhat peculiar as she looked at a certain <Passive Skill>.

<World Tree Wisdom (SSS Rank Level MAX)>.

"I remember checking the Experience Points for this skill in the past and seeing too many zeroes, receiving a scare... System. Do you think you can distribute the lost Experience Points into this skill and upgrade it?"

[Wisdom: Sadly, that’s not possible.]

"Oh? Wisdom? Why not?"

[The Experience Points need to pass through you before they reach me. Therefore, you only have what you gained.]

"Well... But I have 2 billion now. Couldn’t I rank you up? System, how much do I need?"

[Calculating... For <World Tree Wisdom (SSS Rank)> to be enhanced to SSS+ Rank, Tianlian Liu Shu needs 50,625,000,000 Experience Points.]

"GAH! F-FIFTY BILLION!? WISDOM! YOU ARE TOO GREEDY! QAQ!"

[Wisdom: ...]

Liu Shu wondered if it would ever be more economical to Rank Up Wisdom instead of pouring those numbers into her Levels. That was double what she gained in this war without reductions!

She sighed, and Liu Shu decided to take a deep breath and relax. Today, she had been working with too many large numbers, making her little heart pound with many emotions.

After taking a few moments to regain her cool, Liu Shu pondered how to assign her Experience Points. "The first thing I need to do is to calculate how many Experience Points I need, more or less, to bring all my A+ Rank and below skills to the S- Rank. After all, that’s a big qualitative jump for any skill."

Liu Shu got to work, also taking into account the new skills that she would take from the Skill Merchants. ’Since I had some time, I never really stopped grinding skills with Harmonixia and the others. I now have three B Rank, one B+ Rank, and one A- Rank sexual skills for exchange. With this, I should be able to buy what I want.’

Liu Shu’s plan was to buy a <Passive Skill> that boosted each of the basic <Stats>. So, one for <Aether>, <Anima>, <Physique>, and, if possible, <Destiny>.

Those were four expensive skills, so she would take them as low-ranked.

Then, she needed some sort of detection skill. Something that would help her detect those that managed to slip past her active surveillance. For that, a <Talent> was better than a <Passive Skill>.

The next thing on her checklist was a skill that would create some sort of defensive armor for her main body. While Liu Shu didn’t mind being as she was, she had been quite intimidated by Xakira’s and Rhazor’s battle. Defense for her main body was a must!

In this way, she could also get rid of Verdantia’s and the rest’s nagging about being semi-naked. ’Hmph. I am a World Tree. Why would I need clothes other than for my avatar? Also, it’s not as if I am not using my hair to cover the important parts!’

As she pouted, Liu Shu’s eyes suddenly flashed. ’Ah... Why not get a hair-control skill? I can use it for a dress, defense, and even short-range offense!’

Liu Shu, being a World Tree with a head and hair, could learn more humanoid-type skills. However, since these skills require body movements most of the time, they weren’t really appropriate. However, if she could get a hair-control skill, something that allowed her to expand, contract, harden, and move it around, Liu Shu would find it quite nice.

"Alright, that makes six skills. Is there anything else that I am missing? If not... the final Experience Point I would need without reductions, counting existing and new skills, is... Oh. 339,155,880..."

Why did she suddenly feel that 2 billion Experience Points were not that many? QAQ! No wonder people take so long to Level Up...