Endless Extraction in a Game-Like World-Chapter 10: Reputation leaderboard out

[Level 1: 188/200 EXP]

"29 EXP from a single monster." Caelus was overjoyed.

In the Origin Ascension Domain, the more you killed something of the same type, the less experience you started getting from them.

For example, if Caelus just continued hunting the same Level 1 boars, eventually he would reach a point where he would no longer get any experience. Furthermore, if he reached Level 2 and hunted down Level 1 monsters, he would not get any experience from them either.

All the fierce beasts at the Iron I Rank dropped roughly the same amount of experience. It was usually within the range of 10 to 16 EXP.

However, if you killed a monster stronger than yourself, you gained significantly more experience. But the condition was it should be two levels higher than you.

Of course, even then, if you repeatedly killed the same type, the EXP will go down more and more.

He needed to diversify his targets.

It was almost like this game directly took a beast’s powers and gave it to you, and like medicine, you gained immunity to it.

Caelus saw this as a sign; the Origin Ascension Domain was not just a simple game after all.

Shaking those thoughts, he stared at the system screen. He had also completed the quest to get ten kills, earning himself a bonus 80 EXP.

Adding the additional EXP he got from killing the low-leveled snakes, he was effectively close to reaching Level 2.

"Now then, it is time to extract before they all disperse."

Caelus excitedly walked toward the corpse of Aron.

He immediately placed his hand on the body and used extraction.

[System: Extraction Successful...]

[System: You have obtained C-Rank Dexterity Talent]

"A C-Rank Dexterity Talent?" Caelus was pleasantly surprised.

The instant he extracted it, his body began making popping sounds as it rapidly adjusted his skeletal structure and muscle memory.

Dexterity was related to how one handled oneself. It was the ability to skillfully use one’s body to perform complex tasks. Usually, this was something people developed after gaining immense combat experience over years.

But he didn’t expect he would receive a C-Rank Dexterity Talent right off the bat.

With this, he would finally be able to bring out the full potential of his D-Rank Body Enhancement passive talent.

"This is great. Now I won’t humiliate myself, and my combat won’t feel sluggish anymore." Caelus was all smiles as he moved over to Arnold’s body.

He was particularly interested in Arnold’s talent.

"That was the Weapon Manifestation Talent, wasn’t it?" Caelus mused as he began the extraction process.

[System: Extraction Successful...]

[System: You have obtained D-Rank Talent: Weapon Manifestation]

"Yep, it was Weapon Manifestation." Caelus almost jumped in joy.

This talent allowed one to manifest the essence of their weapon as a projectile at the cost of mana.

It could be used as a long-range attack. Depending on how fast you could move and cast, you could send out multiple waves.

Of course, the problem was that it required mana.

And he, Caelus, had poor mana affinity.

[Talent: Weapon Manifestation - Consume 15 Mana to unleash a wave of weapon energy]

"It is not as bad as I thought." Caelus heaved a sigh of relief.

Weapon Manifestation was available in the form of a learnable skill as well, but the cost was completely based on mana affinity. If you had D-Rank affinity, you needed 15 Mana to unleash it. If you had C-Rank, you only needed 12. B-Rank cost 10, A-Rank cost 7, and S-Rank cost 5 and this scaled with the tier of the skills.

If he had learned this as a skill with his E-Rank affinity, it would have easily cost him 25 Mana or more per attack. But luckily, this was a Talent. Therefore, he only needed to expend 15 Mana, just like someone with a natural D-Rank mana affinity.

The world was significantly unfair, so if he wanted to survive here, he had to use every setting to his advantage.

"Oh well, I will take it." Caelus sighed and walked to Riya to begin extracting.

[System: Extraction Successful...]

[System: You have obtained D-Rank Talent: Fire Manipulation]

[System: You have learned the Common 1-Star Skill: Fireball]

"Oh? She surprisingly had Fire Manipulation?"

"I will definitely take that."

[Talent: Fire Manipulation - Manipulate and produce fire using Mana. Base cost per use is 15 Mana]

[Skill: Fireball - Use Mana to form a fireball. Cost: 8 Mana]

"So the common skill reduces the mana cost." Caelus nodded in satisfaction.

"Not bad." Caelus smiled.

Skills in the Domain operated on a strict, dual-layered hierarchy: Star Grade and Rarity.

The Star Grade dictated the base rank. 1-Star skills were meant for the Iron Rank, while 2-Star skills pushed into Bronze.

Within those grades, skills were further divided by rarity: Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythical. The difference in power was absolute. A Common skill gave you a basic fireball. A Rare skill offered refined control, allowing the caster to mold flames into deadly shapes. Epic skills escalated to massive, area-of-effect devastation.

Legendary and Mythical skills, however, were in a league of their own. Rumors said that simply executing one of these fabled skills could directly and explosively multiply a player’s raw Combat Score.

Still, that aside, to think he would easily learn the Fireball skill along with the D-Rank Manipulation talent.

It was normal for high-ranking mages to have this. From what he knew, someone with an Upper A-Rank Fire Manipulation talent had a massive arsenal of fire-related skills they could unlock one by one as they reached certain thresholds.

With the D-Rank talent he now held, he could spark a small fire and throw small fireballs at people.

In this world, your combat score meant nothing if your mana affinity couldn’t back it up. D-Rank was the dividing line of respectability. If you had D-Rank affinity, your skills hit with the full force of your baseline combat score, scaling slightly higher if you had a specialized fire talent.

But E-Ranks were treated like trash for a reason. The disparity between E and D was a massive, unfair chasm. For Leon, burdened by an E-Rank affinity, his power was heavily suppressed. No matter how much effort he put in, the raw attack power of his fireball would only ever equate to a combat score of 4 despite it being 6 that was the case for Weapon manifestation too.

"But, I can use it to quickly kill low-level mobs for now." Caelus mumbled as he finally went toward the giant snake.

[System: Extraction Successful]

[System: You have obtained 20kg of Snake Meat]

[System: You have extracted the Ruby Serpent’s Essence]

[Combat Score: 6.0 -> 6.30]

There was something Caelus noticed while extracting essence. With each extraction, the effect of gaining Combat score weakened. From what he understood, it was likely due to the essence no longer having an effect on his body, similar to gaining immunity to medicine just like levels.

The goal remained the same. He needed to diversify his hunt of beasts to gain more essence and his combat score drastically.

But he still gained a .30 increment from the level 3 monster which means this was an amazing extraction, so it wasn’t bad.

"Not bad." Caelus stretched as he took the monster core from the snake’s forehead and stored it in his inventory before heading back to the tree trunk.

With the snakes eliminated, he restarted his fire.

He had received a lot of meat from the snakes just now. It would be a waste not to cook it along with the other boar meat and then store it away in his inventory.

Everyone’s inventory had 25 slots at the start. Right now, four of Caelus’s slots were already occupied. One slot could hold a stack of 64 of the same item.

10kg of meat was considered 1 item unit. He planned on cooking them all so he didn’t have to sit around cooking food later when he should be hunting.

He gathered several sticks from the forest and began to make skewers from all the meat.

One thing about the Origin Ascension Domain was that every meat in this world tasted incredible.

It was so good that people had made several successful businesses buying meat out of the Ascension Domain to sell in the real world.

Time ticked by rapidly.

While waiting for the meat to roast, Caelus opened the server chat.

[Marcus: Hey everyone, several players just died all around the Newbie Plains. I am getting scared to go out and hunt now. I have been hiding.]

[Maru: I am safe for now. I recently encountered the party of the B-Rank Talent Powerhouse, Ren. He managed to come to my party’s rescue.]

[Kate: Lucky. I heard Ren is almost close to Level 2.]

[Alex: So fast.]

[John: I mean, of course. Ren is someone from the Special Class. To him, novice fierce beasts are useless.]

[Maru: There is also his B-Rank Talent.]

[Ren: Hey everyone, is there any skilled Material Specialist who specializes in dismantling and cutting the meat of dead animals?]

[Ren: Our party is running out of stamina and mana rapidly. We need someone who can cut and cook the meat of the beasts here.]

[Maru: I really wish I had taken meat cutting classes back in school. Sigh... I could have accompanied Young Master Ren with his party.]

[Alex: On that note, we need some cooked meat too.]

[Kate: I mean, don’t we all?]

[Marcus: I can cut meat and cook it, but I don’t think I can do it for a lot of people. It is really hard to get a huge bulk for everyone. My party and I are running from a pack of boars that has been hunting us down. We have no time for that.]

[Alex: By the way, how come nobody has set up a trade inside the trade system?]

Just then, a server notification rang out.

[System: Two hours have passed.]

[System: Reputation System is active.]

[System: Player 555 has added a trade.]

[System: Player 555 is the first person to trade.]

[System: Player 555 has received +1 Reputation Point]

[System: Reputation points are important. Players, gather as many Reputation points as possible.]

Just as quickly, another notification rang out.

[System: Player 555 is the first person to complete the Network Issued Quest.]

[System: Player 555 has received +1 Reputation Point]

[System: Leaderboard has been updated]

[1. Player 555 - 2 Points]

[2. None]

[Marcus: Who is this???]

[Kate: Two reputation points already!]

[Alex: This can’t be Ren, right?]

[Maru: The other party has hidden their name.]