Trash in the Apocalypse

[You have successfully passed your lightning tribulation.]

[Physical body resistance has been increased. Spiritual sense started to develop. Energy pool increased.]

[Natural health and energy regeneration increased.]

He placed the newly gained two stat points into his charm stat, finally getting all of his stats above 30. His power and speed stat increased due to absorbing relevant essence stones, gained from killing evolved carriers. He also found out that Elemental carriers had certain chances to drop corresponding essence stones. The fire elemental can drop power essence, while the earth elemental can drop endurance essence stones. In regards to this, the water elemental has to drop somewhere between the wits essence stone or the charm essence stone.

[Jun Reyes][Profession - Thug][Level - 20]

[Health - 2,100][Energy - 610]

[Title - Thug Life III]

[Power - 105][Endurance - 49][Speed - 66][Wits - 35][Cunning - 30][Charm - 30]

[Stat Points - 0]

[Trait]

-[Brave] [Iron Guts] [Strong]

[Skills]

-[Threaten - (Custom)] 

-[Rob - (Custom)] 

-[Execute - Lv.4]

-[Melee Weapon Mastery - Lv.4]

-[Blueprint - Lv.Max] 

-[Howling Rage - (Custom)]

-[Sprint -(Custom)]

-[Time Perse - Lv.Max]

-[Water Stride - Lv.Max]

-[Enhanced Sight - Lv.Max]

-[Reinforce Lv. Max]

-[Empower Lv. Max]

-[Aura (Death) Lv. Max]

-[Bladestorm - Lv. Max]

-[Detection - Lv. Max]

-[Block - Lv. Max]

-[Limit Break!]

A lot of things have changed to his character screen and even some of his skills had evolved during this short month.

Since he had a monopoly over various essence stones, his stats appeared over the top causing him confidence that he never experienced before. This is also why he dares to hunt solo knowing that barely anything in the wild could pin him down if he wanted to escape. 

Even the lightning tribulation which was on its second power only caused 900 true damage to him. It's his second tribulation and the true damage dealt him raised by 20 points every strike. That is 20, 40, 60, up to 180. With his 2,100 Health, the tribulation failed to even bring his health to half.

To maximize the absorption of lightning essence, he didn't coat his body with energy allowing the pure lightning energy to travel inside him. Right now, he was still feeling numb and sore while smelling like a lump of burnt uncooked meat.

As for the Limit Break! skill, he dared not to tamper too much into it since he finally got the hang of his skills now. He decided to only play with its options once he got a higher energy pool or when the situation calls for it. 

Limit Break had wonderous effects but has a glaring flaw. The changes made to the skill can't be downgraded. And Jun accepted it as natural since it would be strange if skills trained to a certain level would suddenly become weaker than its current level. Just imagine having a level 3 offensive skill with 200 damage suddenly dealing 100 damage like it was just level 1.

By the time he learned of that defect, he already had the custom skills in place and decided not to mess with it anymore.

Besides the two obvious changes, his title has also upgraded into something actually worth being happy of. The title Thug Life has upgraded three times and now gives him 100XP daily instead of 10XP daily at level 1. Even though it's not much, free food is always welcome.

After the dark clouds dissipated, Jun finally felt the surrounding area roaring with hordes. It was like a sea of voices echoing on a hill repeatedly. The lightning tribulation caused the dispersed evolved carriers from the capital to once again come back into the vicinity. 

During the initial phase where there were still hundreds and thousands of living people trying to survive and run for their lives, these carriers were pushed to the outskirts of the city to chase after them. It is also one of the reasons why the central capital was empty. 

As for why there were not many lightning tribulations in the province? Who in their right minds would have the guts to go and search for trouble by themselves? Everyone was busy avoiding fights or anything that could attract attention to them. Besides the military who gets mob exp evenly distributed to them, only cultists or strange individuals had the chance to do some farming.

For most civilians, one encounter with an evolved carrier would spell immediate doom. It was especially so for survivors in the cities. There was a large population for carriers to easily evolve even when there's competition around. In a sense, towns and barrios became the safest place during the initial phase due to their small population. They had more time to adjust while things happened.

At that thought, Jun couldn't help but think about the lone survivors inside the city. He could feel their presence in the area but haven't seen them directly. 

They could be considered hardcore survivors right? Do they believe being alone is the way to go? Or is there a reason why they don't join a group?

As he pondered over the numerous possibility, he felt something inside him fluctuate. All of a sudden, an electric shock instantaneously spread out to his whole body. It felt like goosebumps combined with weak shocks from a lie detector machine. Seconds went on and the tingling sensation came to a halt with a notification popping up.

[Awakened ability upgraded! Time Perse energy usage has been reduced by 50%. 1 per second ] 0.5 per second. An additional option has been added to Time Perse.]

[Time Lapse option added. While inside Time Perse, you can choose to allow enemy movement as if watching a time-lapse. With a ratio of 1:3, this skill will drain the target's energy while also spending your energy.]

[Your body has been refined!]

[After absorbing substantial lightning energy, your body has slightly adjusted to the lightning attribute. Your body has become lighter and nimbler.]

After the shock therapy, Jun could feel the various changes in his body. The whirling energy inside his stomach, the newly strengthened bones of his body, and the heightened senses to feel the surroundings.

Jun opened his eyes accompanied by sparks of black lightning. Deep within his eyes was the gift given to him for witnessing the change of the world.