Wain received arge amount of Soul Essence and saw dozens of messages in front of him. Nearly half a thousand souls hovered around Wain. In an instant, he clenched his fist, and one by one, those souls began to copse.


    [You have acquired the Soul Essence of Ghost level 5.]


    [You have acquired the Soul Essence of Fallen Knight level 7.]


    [You have acquired the Soul Essence...]


    Eventually, Wain saw one of the cherished messages.


    [You have leveled up to level 11. You get 3 status points to distribute freely]


    ''I already have quite a few status points, but it''s too early to use them. I must save them until I meet my opponents at the top.'' Wain thought.


    On the one hand, Wain acted foolishly because he could use status points before entering the pagoda to increase his stats significantly and be much stronger. But, Wain had a different logic.


    The only strong opponent he encountered was the Spirit Knight on the fifty-first floor. So far, Wain has handled all opponents without using status points.


    Wain expected the opponent on thest floor to be incredibly strong. So Wain preferred to leave the status points when he fought the final monster. Because then he would understand his opponent''s fighting style and make the most of the status points.


    If Wain didn''t have enough strength to win, he would use all the status points to increase Strength. If the final opponent had powerful attacks, Wain would increase Vitality or Stamina to survive a few hits.


    Of course, if Wain encounters an opponent before the 100th floor that he cannot defeat without being seriously wounded, he would use status points.


    In addition to the fact that Wain has leveled up and gained a lot of Soul Essence, he also gained something else.


    [You get Common Rating Spiritual Box]


    [You get Common Rating Spiritual Box]


    To his surprise, Wain received two Spiritual Boxes. The odds on this item were pretty slim. He Wain expected to get one Spiritual Box if he crushed several hundred souls.


    ''I got lucky. I hope there''s something useful inside. These Spiritual Boxes fell out when I used the souls of the carnivorous nts. Perhaps I''ll get some vegetation rted items?'' Wain thought and immediately opened one of the Spiritual Boxes.


    After that, a small square sk with some gold dust appeared in the palm of Wain''s hand. Wain couldn''t tell at a nce what it was and opened the item''s description.


    [Healing Nectar sk (Primary Chronicle, Common Rating)


    Small sk with nectar which can boost one''s regeneration for three minutes. It doesn''t cure poisoning or cure negative effects]


    ''Pretty understandable and straightforward description. The effectsts three minutes for one battle is more than enough. The effect doesn''t seem to be very strong, but it''s better than nothing. I have no way to heal my wounds except with this sk.'' Wain thought.


    He moved the nectar sk to the Ring of Damned and opened the second Spiritual Box. He got a green bomb covered in a viscous, green substance.


    [Slime Bomb (Primary Chronicle, Common Rating)


    A vessel filled with sticky slime. When exploded, arge amount of mucus is scattered around for a distance of five meters. This substance is tough to get off, but the slime is extremely weak for fire. This slime is capable of slowing most enemies below level 13]


    "Not bad. If there''s someone fast on the upper floors, I could use this bomb. I didn''t use all those souls for nothing now." Mumbled Wain and headed to the next floor.


    During this little rest, he had fully recovered his strength. His arms no longer hurt, and he had enough energy to fight a long battle to the death.


    Until the seventieth floor, Wain did not encounter any serious opponents. He had to fight many carnivorous nts and their various variations.


    He encountered a nt that shot explosive seeds at him on the sixty-fifth floor.


    It didn''t seem very dangerous from the outside, but it wasn''t. If Wain hade under fire, he would have been seriously injured and burned, but this flower was too slow and had no defense. Wain quickly dealt with it using the sma Destruction Sword.


    On the seventieth floor, a more serious opponent awaited Wain. There was only one, and it was a massive, stone golem with crystal outgrowths on its back.


    ''He looks very slow. I shouldn''t have any trouble dealing with him.'' Thought Wain and ran toward the golem.


    The golem reacted to Wain''s attack, but the monster was very slow. The golem turned around and brought its massive fists down on Wain, but Wain was already on the other side.


    The golem was made entirely of stone, except for the core inside its body. Therefore, this monster had virtually no weaknesses. The golem had no muscles, no tendons, no organs, no bones.


    Such an opponent could be problematic for Wain since he knew how to exploit his enemy''s weaknesses, but, in this case, it didn''t matter.


    Whooosh.


    Wain sharply thrust the sma sword into the golem''s side and took a broad swing. The monster felt no pain, so it struck Wain again with its powerful arms. Wain bounced to the side and cut off the golem''s arms in one motion.


    The stone arms rumbled to the ground, and that''s when the monster realized he was in a critical position. The crystals on its back glowed brightly, and beams of energy shot out in all directions. It was a dangerous attack, but Wain figured out how to get away from it.


    Wain ran up to the golem and covered himself with the monster''s body. He had nothing to fear since he had already cut off the golem''s arms. Wain began to inflict numerous wounds on the golem.


    The sma sword easily cut through the dense stone, which could withstand several powerful explosions.


    When the monster realized that Wain was safe, the monster decided to eat him. The golem''s mouth opened wide, and it tried to swallow Wain.


    ''He was harder than I thought.'' Wain muttered to himself and pointed his sma sword at the monster.


    There was a loud click the next moment, and a powerful kic bullet destroyed the golem''s head. Wain decided to use this skill since the golem was might.


    Wain thought it would save a lot more energy than running around the golem and inflicting numerous wounds.


    Then the golem fell to the ground with a thunderous crash and disintegrated into many stone fragments. A blue soul flew toward Wain.


    [Soul of Stone Golem (Destroyed)


    Chronicle: Primary


    Rating: Rare]


    Wain didn''t wait and immediately crushed the soul.


    [You have acquired the Soul Essence of Stone Golem level 11.]


    "He was quite strong. There are thirty more floors to go, after which I will climb to the very top. Hopefully, I won''t encounter too strong opponents before the final monster." Wain muttered and headed for the next floor.


    Wain encountered no more powerful enemies from the seventieth floor to the ny-sixth floor. He fought dark knights, carnivorous nts, and red wolves.


    These enemies were weak and numerous. Wain had no problem dealing with them by improving his mastery over the sma Destruction Sword.


    For these floors, Wain collected approximately three hundred souls and used them all along the way. He didn''t get a Spiritual Box or level up, but he did get arge amount of Soul Essence. In the future, Wain wanted to improve Kic Shot.


    Wain thought this skill had great potential. Of course, Kic Shot had the big disadvantage of having a significant kickback, but Wain was sure that this problem could be solved in the future. He was counting on Lea to create something for him after a while.


    "Hmm, given a chance, we should look into finding people with craft souls. Perhaps, in the future, Gisle''s University will be more than just the main base at Overion. In theory, it could be one of the trade centers on the east side of this." Mumbled Wain.


    He was lucky to have found Lea and saved the mutant girls. They would help progress greatly. Wain''s idea was that if there were many people with craft souls in the university or other territories captured by Gisle, it would be a very lucrative business.


    Wain believed that the apocalypse was not the end of the world, it was a new era, and he was entirely right.


    ''First, people would try to survive or be as strong as possible by killing monsters. Then small bases will be set up that will gradually grow. These will be safe ces reminiscent of the old cities.'' Wain thought.


    ''After that, powerful people wille into y. They will seize more territory and use it to their advantage. I''m sure that after a while, weak people will pay money to have the right to hunt in some Nest or Dungeon.'' Wain pondered.


    ''Eventually, hunting in rtively safe areas, the services of skilled artisans, and lodging in safe areas will be a business. Besides strength, information, and luck, there is one other fundamentalponent in all worlds: money.''


    Of course, in most cases, souls would act as money. In the beginning, people would work to survive. But,ter, they would demand payment for their work. This would be the development of the economy of the new world.


    For those who stand at the top of the new world, paying souls to ordinary people would not be a problem. After all, they would own numerous monster farms where it would be easy to get a lot of souls.