Muscle Enhancement Type 1 could add an extra hundred jin of strength, and now it had been upgraded to Muscle Enhancement Type 2, boosting the added strength to three hundred jin. This meant that in his Muscle Enhancement Type 2 state, combined with his base strength of seven hundred jin, he could unleash a total of a thousand jin of force.
A thousand jin of force was something Su Li could never have imagined before.
The iron rod, which had once felt heavy in his hands, now felt as light as a dry weed to Su Li. Yet the power behind his strikes had increased significantly. With one swing, the head of the water rat beast he hit didn’t just cave in or crack—it exploded entirely.
Su Li had successfully advanced to become a Level 3 Source Awakener. On the other side, Xu Xuehui, with Ding Longyun’s help, had also managed to kill two low-level corpse beasts and become a Level 2 Source Awakener.
Becoming a Level 2 Source Awakener brought physical enhancements to Xu Xuehui. The most noticeable change was a sharp increase in her base strength. The poorer one’s original physical condition and the weaker their strength, the more pronounced the effects of this evolution. Since Xu Xuehui was just a young girl, her original physical condition was far worse than Su Li’s or Ding Longyun’s, but this also meant the evolution she gained from obtaining the Source was even greater. Once she advanced to Level 2 Source Awakener, her strength had already reached six hundred jin.
“Which enhancements are you picking?” Ding Longyun asked, worried that Xu Xuehui might choose poorly.
“Eyes, ears, lungs,” Xu Xuehui replied simply, her voice soft.
“Pick the lungs,” Ding Longyun said without hesitation, guiding her choice. “We’re surrounded by water. Boosting lung capacity is definitely the right call. I’m already at Lung Enhancement Type 3.”
Su Li glanced at Ding Longyun with some surprise and said, “Why aren’t you strengthening your muscles to increase power? Why keep focusing on your lungs?”
Ding Longyun chuckled and said, “What can I say? I get seasick. Besides, the water level is still slowly rising. Who knows, maybe one day all the land will be flooded, and we’ll have to live in the water. That’s when you’ll see the value of strengthening your lungs. Do you know how long I can hold my breath now? Thirteen minutes. That means I can take one breath and stay underwater for thirteen minutes. Do you get what that means?”
“Whales that live in the ocean can generally only hold their breath for about 10 to 30 minutes. Right now, I’m better than some whales with shorter breath-holding times.”
Hearing this, Su Li felt a bit envious. He thought that Ding Longyun’s breath-holding ability was already comparable to a whale’s, and maybe there was a real possibility of living underwater in the future.
But envy aside, if Su Li had to choose again, he would still pick muscle enhancement.
He had also started to figure out a pattern: each level-up increased base strength by about a hundred jin. Based on that, Ding Longyun, now at Level 4, had a base strength of around eight hundred jin. Purely in terms of raw power, Ding Longyun was no longer a match for him.
As the two chatted, they kept working. Su Li took down a few more water rat beasts that charged at him, bringing his total Source count to six. He still needed twenty-four more to level up again.
Perhaps Su Li’s performance was too terrifying. The stairway was piled high with the corpses of water rat beasts. The surviving ones scattered in panic, rushing downstairs and disappearing into the darkness, no longer daring to come up.
Su Li didn’t give chase. Instead, he glanced up toward the roof, where he faintly heard sounds of movement. “Brother Ding, how about we go back and take on that Overlord Crab?”
With his newfound thousand-jin strength and further improvements in speed and reflexes, and Ding Longyun now at Level 4, the two of them working together stood a good chance against a Level 3 elite Overlord Crab.
What Su Li was after was the special ability he had observed through the “Peeking Rune” from killing the Overlord Crab: Overlord Armor.
Special abilities could dramatically boost combat power. Su Li’s ability to crush monsters of the same level and even take down higher-level Source Beasts was partly due to his choice of muscle enhancement for raw strength, but also because of his special abilities, “Glutton’s Fang” and “Peeking Rune.”
“Glutton’s Fang” was incredibly sharp and unstoppable, while “Peeking Rune” allowed him to know his enemy and understand their strengths and weaknesses. For example, when he had faced the Marine Iguana Lizard, which was a higher level, he used “Peeking Rune” to learn that the lizard was highly venomous. This knowledge let him avoid being bitten during the fight. If he hadn’t known that and lacked the awareness, being bitten by the Marine Iguana Lizard’s teeth would have led to a completely different outcome.
“Alright,” Ding Longyun said, equally eager. He swung his steel shovel toward the corridor, sending two low-level corpse beasts flying, then turned and dashed toward the stairs leading to the roof.
Su Li followed closely, saying to Xu Xuehui, “Stay behind me. Just wait at the stairway entrance—don’t come out. This Overlord Crab is dangerous. Those water rat beasts won’t dare come up, and these corpse beasts can’t hurt you now.”
Xu Xuehui nodded. As a Level 2 Source Awakener, she had gained some experience and found dealing with low-level corpse beasts quite easy. She was no longer as panicked and flustered as before.
The three climbed the stairs, with Ding Longyun in the lead. He let out a grunt and said, “This guy’s persistent. It’s still blocking the way here.”
At the roof exit, the massive Overlord Crab remained stationed there, occasionally using its pincers to damage the area. The iron door at the exit had already been deformed by its efforts.
As Ding Longyun charged up, the already flimsy iron door finally gave way. The Overlord Crab pushed it with its large pincer, sending it flying off its frame and hurtling toward Ding Longyun.
With Su Li and Xu Xuehui behind him, Ding Longyun had no room to dodge. He gripped his steel shovel tightly and braced himself against the iron door.
With a sharp clang, Ding Longyun’s arms shook as he blocked the door with his shovel. The impact left his arms numb and aching, making him grimace. Then, with a grunt, he pushed the twisted iron door forward, using it as a makeshift shield, and charged at the Overlord Crab blocking the exit.
The iron door, driven by Ding Longyun, slammed into the Overlord Crab, producing a loud crash. But the crab’s strength was immense, and Ding Longyun’s charge didn’t fully dislodge it. Su Li followed closely, sprinting forward and ramming into the iron door, unleashing his thousand-jin force in a sudden burst.
*Boom!*
The iron door, propelled by their combined effort, flew outward, taking the tumbling Overlord Crab with it.
With the crab blocking the entrance knocked away, Su Li and Ding Longyun breathed a sigh of relief. They rushed out of the doorway and back onto the roof. Xu Xuehui, following Su Li’s instructions, stayed at the entrance, where it was relatively safe. The Overlord Crab couldn’t attack her there, and she only needed to deal with any low-level corpse beasts that came up the stairs.