After cleaning the mucus off the tiger cub and washing it with warm water, he dried it and immediately wrapped it in a thicker quilt.
Although he felt that mutated beasts shouldn’t be that fragile, it was still a newborn cub. Worried that it might catch a cold, he even turned on the air conditioner—quite a luxury.
The cub cooperated the entire time, only occasionally making soft sounds, its eyes still closed.
After wrapping it up, he didn’t even have time to deal with the bathwater and hurried to prepare milk formula.
He had stocked up plenty of milk powder in his space, but he remembered colleagues who raised cats and dogs saying that goat milk powder was better—easier to absorb and more nutritious. So he took out goat milk powder. He even had feeding bottles, which came free with the milk powder. He quickly prepared a bottle and put it into the cub’s mouth, which had already begun to whimper.
The moment the cub latched onto the nipple, it eagerly began sucking, drinking with great enthusiasm, even kicking its little feet.
Cheng Feng tucked its flailing feet back into the blanket, his gaze soft. He finally had a companion, didn’t he?
But when he had to feed it every two hours, and if he was even slightly late, he would be assaulted by its loud cries, all the warmth quickly disappeared.
“Ancestor, stop crying! The milk is here, it’s here!”
With dark circles under his eyes, Cheng Feng woke up groggily from sleep, took out the pre-prepared milk from his space, and stuffed it into the cub’s mouth. The moment the sucking sounds began, he collapsed back into sleep.
That day, Cheng Feng didn’t use the crystal cores. Burying the level-four mutated tiger in the backyard took a lot of time. On top of that, after drinking milk, the cub seemed to gain energy and kept making trouble, leaving him no time to think about anything else.
It wasn’t until the next day that he finally had time to use the crystal cores.
The method of using crystal cores was different from special seeds. Special seeds could simply be eaten, but crystal cores were gem-like solid objects that couldn’t be swallowed. And considering they were dug out from the brains of mutated beasts or zombies, very few people could eat them without hesitation.
Fortunately, absorbing the energy only required holding the core in hand and using one’s ability to draw in the energy.
Based on knowledge from his previous life and records from the original novel, the approximate requirements for leveling up using special seeds and crystal cores were as follows:
Level 1 to Level 2:
1 Level-3 special seed, or 5 Level-1 zombie cores, or 2 Level-2 zombie cores, or 2 Level-2 mutated beast cores
Level 2 to Level 3:
5 Level-3 special seeds, or 2 Level-4 special seeds, or 100 Level-1 zombie cores, or 20 Level-2 zombie cores, or 5 Level-3 zombie cores, or 20 Level-2 mutated beast cores, or 5 Level-3 mutated beast cores, or 2 Level-4 mutated beast cores
Level 3 to Level 4:
5 Level-4 special seeds, or 5 Level-4 zombie cores, or 20 Level-3 zombie cores…
…
The higher the level, the more energy required, and low-level cores became less effective. This forced ability users to hunt high-level zombies or mutated beasts.
Right now, both of his abilities were at level 2.2. The resources he had were one level-four core, three level-three cores, and four level-three special seeds. After absorbing all of them, both of his abilities broke through to level three, reaching a value of 3.12.
He remembered that before his death in his previous life, Jiang Yun and the others had recruited Zhao Lin, a level-three fire-type ability user, into their team. They had even sacrificed him to do so. While part of that was because his own value was low, it also showed how rare and powerful level-three ability users were at the time.
And in this life, he had reached level three in just one month!
Cheng Feng was so excited that tears welled up in his eyes. His growing strength finally made him certain that this life was completely different from his previous one.
In a good mood, he wanted to cook something delicious as a reward.
But before that, he suddenly remembered how the wolf howl attack during the battle had no effect on him.
Even the level-three mutated pine tree had been affected. There was no way a level-two ability user like him should have been unaffected. Could his ability have other functions?
When ability users awaken, they can roughly sense their ability type, but the specific uses must be explored on their own. Each major category also has many subtypes.
For example, mental abilities can be divided into attack-type and control-type.
So the details of abilities must be determined through use.
For instance, his identification ability—at first he thought it could only identify mutated plants, but later discovered it could also identify mutated beasts.
A sudden idea struck him—could it identify humans?
If it could, then not only would he have more confidence when facing other ability users, but he could also analyze himself and determine his abilities in detail.
It was a blind spot. He had never thought of using his ability on himself.
Taking a deep breath, he used his identification ability on himself—and instantly received information.
[Level 3 Ability User: Awakened abilities—Affinity, Identification.
Affinity Ability: Can release a presence that makes zombies, mutated beasts, and mutated plants feel comfortable. Developed functions include:
Ally (100%) – zombies, mutated plants, and beasts will completely treat you as one of their own.
Good Neighbor (50%) – nearby entities will become more friendly toward you.
Passive: Immunity to mental attacks and toxins from level-four and below mutated beasts and plants (improves with level).
Identification Ability: Can identify basic information of ability users, mutated beasts, and mutated plants. The higher the level, the more detailed the information. Currently developed: 30%.]
Seeing his own information felt strange, as if he was getting to know himself for the first time.
But it provided a lot of useful insights, saving him time and effort in exploration.
First, his immunity to the wolf howl attack was explained—it was the passive effect of his affinity ability, granting immunity to mental attacks.
Even as a passive skill, it was extremely powerful. Ignoring damage in any scenario was almost unbeatable. Even if it only worked against mental attacks and toxins, he was very satisfied.
Second, the clearly defined ability data gave him direction for future development. For example, the “Ally” function likely reached 100% upon awakening, while “Good Neighbor” seemed to be self-developed. This suggested that ability growth was strongly influenced by personal initiative.
Finally, the 30% development of the identification ability made him realize that the information he had previously obtained was only partial—possibly even less when his level was lower.
With 70% of the information unknown, he was actually in a dangerous position. He needed to accelerate the development of this ability.