Lin Ye hauled up the Bronze-tier chest.
The instant his fingers touched the chest, the band of light around his right wrist appeared once more.
A deep-red radiance flowed across it, and Lin Ye saw the number above the band: 88%.
At that moment, the number was still slowly increasing.
88.1%…
88.2%…
The rate was much slower than it had been in the venomous spider’s lair.
Lin Ye glanced at his status panel and found that his level had already stalled at Level 13, with his experience bar at 66%.
He estimated that he had just annihilated tens of thousands of monsters in an instant, and the enormous amount of experience had carried him straight from Level 2 to Level 13.
But now, his experience bar had practically stopped moving.
After pondering for a moment, Lin Ye quickly found the answer.
Most of the monsters in this forest were around Level 10, or even lower.
Now that his level exceeded theirs by such a wide margin, the rules of this world greatly reduced the experience gained from killing lower-level monsters.
Eventually, the experience awarded would be forcibly reduced to a single point.
However, although these monsters yielded very little experience, they could still charge his band of light.
It was simply nowhere near as efficient as directly coming into contact with Abyssal Energy.
Lin Ye speculated that this was because the monsters had mutated after being infected by Abyssal Energy. They naturally carried a small amount of it within their bodies.
When they died, that faint Abyssal Energy escaped and was absorbed by the band.
Just as Lin Ye was thinking, a line of crooked characters suddenly appeared in the air before him without warning.
The characters twisted and writhed, rearranging themselves. Then, unbelievably, they transformed into writing Lin Ye knew all too well.
Lin Ye’s heart jolted.
These were not the common characters of this world, but rather the characters from his memories of his previous life…
Chinese characters!
【Obtain 10,000 points of Abyssal Energy to unlock the ring’s charging capacity.】
【Current Abyssal Energy: 1,548】
Staring at the two lines of Chinese characters floating before him, Lin Ye’s breathing grew heavy.
This was not a system notification that had sounded directly in his mind. These characters had genuinely appeared before his eyes—words that only he, as a transmigrator, could understand!
Lin Ye suddenly realized that the cheat ability he possessed was definitely far more complicated than he had thought.
It even had an independent advancement system that existed beyond the laws of this world!
But the biggest problem now was: where was he supposed to find 10,000 points of Abyssal Energy?
Just as Lin Ye was at a loss, he suddenly remembered that when the venomous lake had been completely evaporated by the terrifying heat, a cluster of purple-glowing crystals had been exposed at the bottom.
Lin Ye had learned about those purple crystals in his school textbooks.
They were Abyss Crystals.
Abyss Crystals were a unique mineral of the Abyss, as well as vessels capable of storing vast amounts of Abyssal Energy!
Lin Ye took a deep breath. With a thought, the second effect of Void Incarnation activated instantly.
Dark-blue mist swiftly enveloped his entire body. Lin Ye leaped forward and plunged straight into the seething lake of magma.
The energy immunity effect of Void Incarnation immediately took effect.
The magma, hot enough to melt steel in an instant, seemed to pass through a phantom the moment it touched Lin Ye’s body. It caused him no actual harm whatsoever.
Before long, Lin Ye emerged from the magma.
Clutched tightly in his hand was a small piece of purple crystal.
However, the moment Lin Ye climbed ashore and dispelled Void Incarnation’s immunity to energy attacks, a sharp, needle-like pain suddenly stabbed into his brain!
Lin Ye let out a muffled groan. His vision began to twist, and countless horrifying illusions exploded before his eyes.
It was as if slick tentacles were stroking his cheeks. At other times, it seemed that countless scarlet eyes were staring intently at him. In his ears came faint whispers, sometimes distant and sometimes close.
This was the most terrifying aspect of Abyssal Energy radiation: it acted directly upon the mind and soul!
At the same time, however, the two lines of Chinese characters appeared before Lin Ye’s eyes, and the number began jumping wildly!
Current Abyssal Energy: 2,450…
Current Abyssal Energy: 3,890…
Current Abyssal Energy: 5,210…
The rate of increase was nearly a hundred points per second!
Lin Ye endured the agonizing pain in his head, which felt as though it were being torn apart, and gritted his teeth as he tossed the Abyss Crystal back onto the ground.
Then he quickly put some distance between himself and the crystal.
Only after he had moved several dozen meters away did Lin Ye begin to feel better.
At the same time, although the charging rate of the band of light had slowed somewhat, Lin Ye sensed that if he continued touching the Abyss Crystal, he would completely break down even with Void Incarnation protecting him.
In reality, if any high-rank class holder had witnessed Lin Ye’s actions, they would have been utterly dumbfounded.
He had not even changed classes yet, and was only an ordinary person at Level 13. Forget directly holding an Abyss Crystal—even standing within several dozen meters of one would have caused him to lose consciousness instantly!
His body would then undergo irreversible deformity and mutation, ultimately degenerating into an Abyssal monster!
The terrifying resistance to Abyss Crystals that Lin Ye was displaying was something almost no human in this world possessed.
Even if there were people capable of enduring high concentrations of Abyssal Energy radiation, they would undoubtedly be powerful experts of at least the fifth or sixth advancement, with extraordinarily strong bodies and minds!
Time passed second by second.
After several minutes of agonizing waiting, the numbers before Lin Ye’s eyes finally reached their limit.
【Current Abyssal Energy: 10,000/10,000】
【Charging complete. Ring capacity unlocked.】
In the next instant, Lin Ye saw the band of light around his wrist erupt in a dazzling radiance.
The band, which had originally consisted of only a single ring, extended outward and expanded directly into ten rings!
The ten rings glimmered together, resembling a miniature stellar ring encircling his wrist.
At the same time, the number that had previously displayed only a percentage changed into 189%/1000%.
The charging capacity of the bands around his wrist had now expanded to 1,000%!
Of the ten bands around his wrist, the innermost one shone with multicolored light, while the second band also flickered with a deep-red glow.
Looking at the changes around his wrist, Lin Ye formed a hypothesis.
The bands around his wrist would display the result of opening a chest whenever they came into contact with one.
And reaching 100% meant that opening a chest was guaranteed to yield a Mythic-tier item.
But what did this progress exceeding the limit mean?
Did it mean that opening this Bronze-tier chest would consume 100% of the progress, leaving him with 89% afterward?
And if the 189% progress applied to a Bronze-tier chest, then if he switched to an even lower-tier junk chest or an Iron-tier chest, would the ratio increase accordingly?
To verify his theory, Lin Ye immediately began searching the surrounding area.
Before long, he discovered two Iron-tier chests in an open space not far from the lava lake. Their surfaces were covered in faint spirit patterns.
Lin Ye strode over and picked up one of the chests.
The bands of light around his wrist appeared once again.
This time, however, a full five bands lit up!
The first four bands shone with multicolored light, while the final one was pitch-black.
The number had skyrocketed from 189% just moments ago to 495%!
His guess had been confirmed!
His total charge pool was fixed for the time being.
For a Bronze Chest, that amount of energy was enough to support opening it once and obtaining a Mythic item, with 89% left over.
But if he used the same energy pool to open Iron Chests, he could obtain four Mythic items in succession, with 95% of the charge remaining!
This meant that the higher the chest’s level, the more charge it consumed to produce a Mythic item.
When his charge had previously been only 100%, opening a chest could consume at most the entire 100% and yield a single Mythic reward.
But now that his limit had expanded, he had many more options.
With a maximum charge of 1,000%, once he accumulated enough energy, he could even open ten Iron Chests in a row, with every one guaranteed to yield a Mythic item!
Lin Ye placed the two remaining Iron Chests, along with the Bronze Chest, into his inventory.
He looked around and confirmed that there were no other chests within sight.
The entire Poison Mist Forest had been flattened by the Mythic-grade Fire Elemental Rune, and countless monsters had died.
Lin Ye knew very well that if he searched through the vast ruins now, he would definitely find an unknown number of chests.
But he also knew that he couldn’t afford to be greedy.
After causing such a huge commotion, the high-tier professionals of Wang Hai City—and even the military—were undoubtedly already on their way.
If he stayed and continued collecting the chests, he would have no way to explain himself if those people happened to find him.
It was time to leave.
Lin Ye had no regrets.
He pulled the Return Scroll Feng Yuanshan had given him from his inventory and crushed it in one hand.
The next second, Lin Ye’s figure vanished.