Chapter 32 Mental Power
Even the body of a second-level mutant creature couldn't stop the sharp white chopping knife.
The blade directly pierced the throat of the large lizard. William exerted force, the wound split open, and a large amount of fresh blood sprayed out, filling the air with a strong smell of blood.
Just now, Pill sneaked out from the side and bit the tail of this lizard, making it less agile, which allowed William to strike its throat with a single blow.
This large dog surprisingly knew how to cooperate with William, showing remarkable intelligence.
After withdrawing his knife, William temporarily moved away from the dying large lizard.
The vitality of mutant creatures was very tenacious. Even if a vital spot like the throat was severed, they did not die immediately but became extremely violent, attempting to turn around to bite the Pill that had bitten its tail.
However, the Pill was cunning. Holding the lizard's tail, it played hide-and-seek with it. When the lizard turned left, it ran right, and vice versa. The large lizard swayed left and right a few times, and a small pool of blood formed a small lake. Gradually losing strength, it let out a howl, swayed, and fell to the ground, completely limp, on the brink of death.
It was at this moment that William approached, glanced at the large lizard, and stabbed its eye with one blow, quickly extracting the Second-Level Magic Crystal.
In the past life, these monsters mutated from lizards and were called Blood Tongue Lizards. They had tough skin, agile movements, and a long tongue. When shot out, it could attack enemies several feet away with great force. The tongue also had barbs that could scrape off flesh and blood when it touched a person, making it quite troublesome.
The weakness of the Blood Tongue Lizard was in its throat and the soft part of its belly. Only experienced survivors could accurately find and attack these weak points.
William happened to be an excellent hunter in his past life.
After extracting the magic crystal, William did not let go of the body of the Blood Tongue Lizard. He first cut off the sharp claws on its limbs and then removed its famous long tongue. These were all excellent materials, and the tongue was even a decent delicacy that could enhance the human physique when consumed.
While doing these activities, the Gathering and Refining Skills of the prestigious craftsman profession were automatically activated. William received five prompts for increased proficiency in a row.
William was surprised. It seemed that the Gathering and Refining Skills were somewhat like passive skills. As long as he gathered and refined materials, his proficiency would increase without needing to activate it separately.
Furthermore, William discovered that the materials collected by the Gathering and Refining Skills would be processed directly. For example, the twenty claws and the long bloody tongue of the Blood Tongue Lizard, once collected, no longer appeared bloody but became dry and intact, even devoid of the smell of blood, suitable for enchanting and forging.
Although he already knew that the secondary profession of a prestigious craftsman was good, the current situation still made William marvel at it.
This kind of professional advancement was indeed very difficult but truly powerful!
However, William also discovered a drawback of this profession. Regardless of which professional skill he used, it consumed a considerable amount of mental power.
In the post-apocalyptic world, obtaining a profession would activate the mental power mode. Using professional skills would consume mental power, and the professional skills could not be used if the mental power was depleted.
There were usually three ways to replenish mental power. One was natural recovery over time, which varied from person to person. Those with higher evolutionary levels recovered faster, and some special skills also facilitated quicker recovery.
The second method was through potions on the roulette specifically designed to restore mental power. These potions, which were known as blue bottles by survivors due to their blue color, could be consumed to restore mental power. There were many types of blue bottles, some accelerating the natural recovery rate while others could instantly restore mental power. The former were called small blue bottles, and the latter were known as large blue bottles, each with different levels of effectiveness.
In addition to these, the third method of restoring mental power was through the efforts of alchemists, gourmets, and pharmacists, who could create potions and food to restore mental power. The effectiveness varied depending on the item.
For mental power, recovery was crucial, but the total amount of mental power was even more important.
There were several ways to increase the total mental power. The quickest method was to continuously acquire new professions. Each new profession would increase mental power, and for the same person, mental power was not divided by profession. Regardless of which professional skill was used, it all drew from the total mental power. In other words, the more professions one had, the more total mental power one had, and the more times one could use professional skills. It didn't matter which professional skill was used; as long as the mental power consumed did not exceed the total amount, it was acceptable.
However, obtaining professions in the post-apocalyptic world was not easy. Everyone knew this shortcut, but few could increase their total mental power in this way. Therefore, most people opted for other methods, such as increasing mental power along with the level of evolution. Consuming certain potions or food could also achieve the same effect. Additionally, advancing in professional levels would also increase the total mental power.
Currently, William had two professions, and his total mental power was quite abundant considering his current evolutionary level and professional level. However, he strengthened and enchanted his chopping knife, enhancing a baseball bat tonight. Now, he felt that his mental power was nearly depleted after using the gathering and refining skills.
In his past life, he also had two professions: a shooter and a swordsman. However, the mental power consumed by these two professions was enough for him to engage in intense combat for several hours, a stark contrast to now, where he had used up his mental power after just a few uses of professional skills.
It seemed that there were still many aspects of professions that he didn't know about. He could only explore them slowly in the future.
After tidying up the lizard, William hurried toward Candice with the Pill. The female police officer was dealing with two large lizards, and one wrong move could cost her life.
Meanwhile, Candice was indeed in danger.
Previously, in the bathroom, she could maneuver around the walls and a few Blood Tongue Lizards, but now, she had run to the stadium area in order to create an opportunity for William.
This area was empty on all sides, offering no cover. After being chased by two large lizards, she found herself in a vulnerable position. If not for the strange baseball bat being truly effective, delivering a blow that could make the Blood Tongue Lizards scream in pain, along with her martial arts training since childhood, she might have been torn apart by them by now.
However, Candice still couldn't deliver a fatal blow to these two second-level evolved lizards with the baseball bat. It seemed like she was reaching her limit.
Just at that moment, William arrived and immediately drew the attention of the two Blood Tongue Lizards. The leading large lizard changed its target and charged toward William.
