Epoch of Twilight

Chapter 43: Expertise

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Luo Yuan could not pass up a good piece of meat when it was close enough to taste. He remained still for a moment, and then began to move aggressively. He could not control his desire anymore. In the end, he pulled Huang Jiahui into the car, where their actions got even more aggressive. However, Huang Jiahui stopped him at the critical moment and told him that Wang Shi Shi was waiting for her at home. Besides, it was very dangerous for them to behave like this in a forest. Although her excuses were not convincing enough, Luo Yuan chose to be a gentleman and stopped. He withdrew his wet hand from her panties.

They didn’t have to rush as they would get to spend more time together at night. However, he had forgotten that women were emotional creatures. He had also underestimated Huang Jiahui’s rationality when she calmed herself down. After dinner, Luo Yuan tried to hint to Huang Jiahui a couple of times that he was still excited from their earlier encounter. However, Huang Jiahui pretended that nothing had happened before and entered the room along with Wang Shi Shi.

Luo Yuan watched her shut the door. The poor guy wanted to call Huang Jiahui but in the end he stopped himself and controlled his desire for sex. He went back to his room feeling hopeless. He comforted himself by thinking that they would get another chance in the future. He sighed and then concentrated on improving his knife skills. People tended to be more productive when they were not in love. Luo Yuan had managed to upgrade his knife skill to Level 15 by 11 p.m., after just a few hours of training. He could have advanced to Level 20 if he had assigned the 5 technique points to his knife skills.

Although he knew it would better to add the technique points at a later stage, he decided to assign the 5 points to his knife skill after all. He could not resist the urge. Besides, he also wanted to know what would happen when his skill reached Level 20. He went ahead and assigned all 5 points to his knife skill. Suddenly, a wave of knowledge filled him and he felt something gush into his brain, making him feel a little dizzy.

A dark red cockroach was hiding beneath the bed, trying to get some food, when it suddenly got shocked. Its antennas started moving vigorously and it quickly crawled towards the door. However, it was only halfway there when it stopped. Its body had hardened and it could not move anymore. Luo Yuan’s energy had even penetrated the wall and spread into Huang Jiahui’s room. The two of them were sleeping, but they had difficulty breathing and were sweating profusely as if they were having a horrible nightmare.

The energy faded with time and Luo Yuan’s eyes got clearer, two light beams appearing at the last moment before disappearing again. “Beep! Sensory perception +1!” He had recovered in a second, which made him really excited. He wanted to scream, but he did not. He was a considerate neighbor after all. He had not expected a sensory perception upgrade when he had assigned the technique points to the knife skill.

He closed his eyes slowly and realized that the range of his sensory perception had improved. He could now detect changes within a 10-meter radius from where he stood. He could even sense Huang Jiahui and Wang Shi Shi, who were sleeping next door. Unfortunately, he could only see their shadows and not any other body details. Anyway, that wasn’t that important. His sensory perception used to be weak, however, after the upgrade, he could tell the difference even with the naked eye.

From certain aspects, sensory perception provided an overall control as well as motion detection. The eyes of the frog were a very good example. A frog’s sensory perception focused on motion instead of on inanimate objects. His attention was drawn by moving objects, such as someone moving their hands or talking, or something being blown away by the wind. It was a very special power, as well as a useful technique.

While one could say that eyesight and sensory perception were similar, the two of them had entirely different functions. They did not affect each other but they did work together. Luo Yuan even suspected that this was a natural power human beings had acquired through evolution. From now onwards, no human or animal could get closer than 10 meters to him.

For example, when Luo Yuan suddenly moved, his knife shone in the dark and the cockroach that had been trying to escape was killed before it had even managed to move a meter. Strangely, the tile under the cockroach looked perfectly fine. Luo Yuan had only used this technique when he had dissected the big snake. He had been wanting to concentrate and gather his energy for quite a while. Now though, it would be too easy for him. Of course, he would need to practice more to familiarize himself with this new skill.

He opened up the properties panel and noted that some changes had been made. When the knife skill had gotten upgraded to Level 20, there had been some changes then too. For instance, his knife skill had changed to “Knife Expertise: 0”.

Based on the information on his mind, he guessed that when the knife skill reached an expert level, it would be different than the normal knife skill. It had already begun to involve a power that was seemingly the most useless one in the properties panel, and that was “Determination”. Previously, Luo Yuan had assumed that “Determination” was only meant to help him remain calm regardless of what situation he encountered. Basically, he thought his 13-point Determination would be more than enough. However, he had not expected it to turn out to be so important for the knife skill.

While he played with his knife, he wondered what the difference between the normal knife skill and knife expertise was, how powerful it would be, and whether it could be used to kill blue rank creatures. He closed his eyes and felt the magical changes. One minute later, he reopened them and took several deep breaths. Then he closed them again. After 10 minutes, he got frustrated and scratched his head.

Half an hour later, he looked out the window and realized that it was almost dawn. The night had moved on from the earlier excitement to the present excitement, and finally given way to depression. He realized that he could not achieve a state in which he would have no desires. Even if he closed his eyes, there were too many things and ideas inside his head, and that made him feel extremely frustrated. The most important thing was his sensory perception, which would allow him to detect almost anything. He was distracted and the inside of his head was a mess even when he closed his eyes. He sat down at the edge of his bed helplessly. He rubbed his eyes and a few minutes later he felt calmer.

This wasn’t about talent. He was an adult and he had to be more mature after getting a shower of knowledge and information. Besides, this was the first time he had tried to explore this technique. It was impossible for him to be totally aware even if he had all the knowledge he needed. He had a few ways to achieve that, though. Luo Yuan recalled that meditation associated with yoga and the monks could help calm down a person’s mind. Too bad he had no internet connection, or he could have checked that online.