Desolate World

It was a skill crystal. 

"Whoa!!!" Ace exclaimed. He was really surprised to get this thing. As he had reached level 20 for almost 2 weeks, he had killed dozens of monsters, but somehow he had never gotten even a skill crystal. It was really a rare thing.

He thought he must kill a monster with a level of more than 20 to get a skill crystal. But, it seemed it wasn't the case. The vampire that he had killed was only level 15. So, he concluded that it was not about the level of the monster, but it was more about its extremely low drop rate.

Ace then checked its description. 

"Bingo, hahaha. It seems my luck is really great today," Ace said with a wide grin on his face.

[Bats Transformation]

Rarity: Very Rare

Description: A signature skill of a vampire. Turning oneself into 20 small bats. The bats can not have a distance from each other for more than 200 meters. Agility +20%. Can't do any attack or skill when in this form. Each bat had a fixed 30 HP. The skill will be canceled when more than 25% of the bats are killed. Can't be activated when inflicted by a debuff.

Mana consumption: 1 per second (non-vampire).

Cooldown: 20 minutes (non-vampire).

Learnable: Yes.

Ace was really glad to get this skill. He had just witnessed with his own eyes the utility of the skill. The vampires could escape unhindered with this skill. And what really made him happy with this skill was he could fly with it.

After imagining he could fly in the sky by learning this skill, he didn't wait any longer and then chose to learn it. He thought that Geo and Cloud didn't need the skill urgently, as they, as supports, rarely confronted enemies head-on. They could also ride Red and Blue to fly like before.

[Do you want to learn the 'bats transformation' skill?]

"Yes," Ace answered.

The small blue crystal then disintegrated, became grains of light, and entered Ace's head.

*Ding*

[Congratulations, you have learned the 'bats transformation' skill.]

Ace couldn't help but grin stupidly. He wanted to try it immediately. But, his rationality prevented him from doing it. This skill was an escape skill. He shouldn't use it carelessly. Furthermore, he was still in the wild. What he was concerned about was the 20 minutes cooldown of the skill. Although it didn't seem long, if somehow he needed it after he used it, that would be bad.

He then reviewed this skill. Although it was a good skill. It was by no means without flaws. First, to use it, he had to be free from debuffs. 

Debuff was a common thing that someone could get when fighting. Slow, burned, stunned, paralyzed, blind, poisoned, confused, weakened, bleeding, unlucky, etc. Many skills could cause debuff like 'Roar' of his brother could cause stunned debuff to his enemies and 'confuse' of his mother in law could cause confused debuff. 

Even his slow dice could inflict slow debuff. The reason he never used it these days was because its effect, although good, was only useful for a long-duration battle. He didn't use it because he preferred to use both of his hands to throw cards than use one of them to throw the dice. By doing so, he could end the fight immediately.

[Slow dice]

Grade: A

Effect: inflicts slow debuff to a selected enemy for (the number that appeared on the dice x 5) seconds. The effect could be stacked. Cooldown: 15 seconds.

Durability: 5,000

Requirement: Gambler of fate or Joker

Slow: Agility was halved for a period of time.

The dice could halve even quarter the agility of a target at some conditions. When he got number four, five, or six on the dice, he could halve the agility of the target once more after the cooldown of the dice throw ended, which was 15 seconds. 

He must always hold the dice for the effect to continue. He didn't know about the gambler of life, but he could only hold a dice each time. After he threw the dice and the dice's effect was activated, the dice would come back to his hand. So he could only throw the card with another hand that didn't hold the dice.

Honestly, he was afraid of the dice. It could be called his bane, who used his agility as his bread and butter. Once he was slowed down, his ability to dodge attacks would be reduced by much. And then because of his low defense, his enemies could solve him easily. Fortunately, he, who got the dice, not anyone else.

Back to the skill. If he knew the skill's limitations back then, he would use the dice to inflict the slow debuff on the vampire woman to stop her from transforming into bats. Then, he could finish her in a short time with the help of Geo's pets. As for Hugo, the vampire player, he felt that he wouldn't run away if the woman didn't escape.

Another flaw of the skill was the mana consumption. Although 1 mana per second wasn't considered as severe. It prevented someone from flying for a long time. After all, he must preserve some of his mana for emergencies. However, this issue was not a problem for Ace. At the moment, he had a mana recovery of 1,6 mana per second. It meant he could fly without care of mana consumption. It made him feel good about himself. Something that for some people was considered a drawback was solved naturally by his high mana recovery.

Another thing that he paid attention to was why the two surviving vampires scattered their bats after they transformed. He didn't think about it before. 

However, he must seriously adhere to this method to prevent the bats from being shot down by the AoE skill of the enemy that would cause his bats transformation skill to be canceled. After all, each bat's HP was only 30.

He must hide this information to prevent others from knowing what they should do to solve this skill. 

He didn't get any good equipment anymore from other deceased vampires, vampire servants, and some transformed refugees that had been killed along with them. He then took all of the equipment that he could get. After all, they had some value.

He considered it for a while then decided to dig a hole outside of the cave to bury them. After all, although they were enemies, they deserved such respect. It would take some time, but he would do it.

But, before that, he wanted to see his son and his mother-in-law. Did they succeed in waking the girl?

***