Chapter 375 - Magic Blast & Ending Sorrow
The first thing Bai Zemin did was to separate the treasures he had obtained for their type.
The skill scrolls went to one side, the sheepskin scrolls went to another side, the Soul Stones to a different one from the previous two.
Next, Bai Zemin separated the treasure orbs depending on their color. He had received treasure orbs of red, orange, yellow, and finally green; four different colors. Although most of them were red, his mood did not waver at all.
It took him about five minutes to do all this. However, he was not finished yet because after separating them by the type of treasure they were, Bai Zemin also had to separate them by their quality just as he had done with the orbs.
Starting with the Soul Stones, Bai Zemin separated them depending on whether they were Unclassified, First Order, or Second Order.
Following the Soul Stones, he began to work with the skill scrolls.
The total time it took him to do everything was roughly about ten minutes.
As he looked at the different mountains on his bed, he nodded in satisfaction.
While it seemed like what he was doing didn't have any meaning, in reality, that wasn't the case. By separating the spoils of war by the quality he wouldn't have to go through the description and statistics of each treasure one by one too carefully and could focus mainly on what he knew would be of use to him. After all, for the current Bai Zemin, a Normal grade treasure was no longer of much use.
As if to prove this point, he took one of the red-colored orbs and gently clenched it.
A pair of gloves appeared in front of him and as he took them in his hands he whispered softly, "Combat Gloves, +8 Strength. Can turn a normal punch into a killing punch."
That was all. Even the description of the item was bland and indeed exaggerated.
Bai Zemin shook his head and put down the Normal grade gloves next to the red-colored orbs. Ignoring that pile of orbs, he focused on the much smaller amount of orange orbs; Rare grade treasure orbs.
The number of Rare grade treasures was around 60. Compared to the approximately 180 Normal grade treasures, the difference was remarkable. However, 60 Rare grade treasures was a huge sum from the current Bai Zemin's point of view.
"If I had all these treasures at the beginning of the apocalypse, so many things would have been so much easier..." He didn't know whether to feel good about himself or whether he should feel bad as he muttered such words.
Clearing his mind of such meaningless thoughts, he began to break the orange treasure orbs one by one. Approximately a minute or two later, in front of Bai Zemin were 58 Rare grade treasures.
There were Xuanyuan Swords, there were Triple Bolt Crossbows, there were Compound Bows, there were Full Coats, Combat Dresses, Earth Bracelet, Blazing Ring, etc. All of them granted around 20 and 30 stat points each, being the Combat Dresses and the Full Coats the ones that granted more stat points in total but only 5 points to each one. The other treasures such as Xuanyuan Swords and the like awarded points to a single stat or maybe two but the quantity awarded was higher in comparison.
What caught Bai Zemin's attention a bit was that he did not find items similar to his Spiritual Earring. Although it was also a Rare grade treasure, it definitely had to be a rarity among its kind since even after breaking open more than 50 orbs not even one appeared.
"All these treasures will be used to raise a new troop of soul evolvers." Bai Zemin decided the fate of all these Normal and Rare grade treasures right then and there.
Unlike a nonsense monster like Bai Zemin, 99.9% of soul evolvers in his faction were just normal soldiers of which 99% of them gained two stat points every time they leveled up and that was all since they defeated only enemies of equal or lower level than them. What did this mean? Simple: they all had normal, average stats, with nothing to highlight.
Simply put, treasures that increased +5 stat points were incredibly valuable to them as it was no different than getting a boost of several levels on a hit. The only reason why Bai Zemin preferred to use forging equipment was because the defense granted by armor and the physical or magical attack power of weapons was far more useful to him than receiving 20 Strength points or any other stat; after all, enemies of his level could not threaten him at all and only those peak Second Order existences could, just maybe, represent some threat to him.
As for Rare treasures: these were, as the name implies, rarities. These types of treasures should not appear in large quantities. It was just that thanks to Bai Zemin being an anomaly, as Shangguan Bing Xue constantly referred to him as well as Lilith, his faction and his subordinates could enjoy benefits that they normally could not.
Bai Zemin estimated that the power of his troops would increase by no less than 200% when all these treasures were handed over.
After finishing with the orange orbs, Bai Zemin moved on to the bright yellow orbs.
"Five Magic grade treasures." He murmured with enthusiasm in his voice.
Magic grade treasures were of great help even to him. Although there were few opportunities so far where he had required their use, this was only because not many enemies that required the activation of such treasures had appeared. Bai Zemin estimated that perhaps only total peak Second Order or possibly Third Order existences could force him to have to make use of some "external power" in order to win.
With five flashes of yellow light, five new objects appeared before his hopeful eyes.
First, Bai Zemin picked up a jet-black earring that caught his attention. The reason why this small object caught his attention more than the rest was because it somehow looked ominous and domineering.
Then, he looked at the information in the object.
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[Mystic Earring (Magical Treasure Grade): When equipped, automatically increases the user's Magic by +50 points. One time every two days you can use the attached skill Magic Blast. Magic Blast: Drains 95% of the Mana remaining in the user's possession at the moment of activating Magic Blast and increases the Magic stat by a % equivalent to the absorbed Mana. The magic attack power of your next attack increases in relation to the absorbed Mana and the increase of the Magic stat where 200 points equal x1 the previous power and its maximum is x5.]
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Bai Zemin's hand trembled slightly as he read the information from the small black earring and almost let it fall to the ground.
"Really powerful... Powerful and dangerous!" Bai Zemin exclaimed to himself.
The Mystic Earring was an object that could literally be called a double-edged sword. It was an item that possessed a skill that after being activated would immediately drain the user's Mana reserves almost completely, thus leaving the user not only with a severe headache and feeling nauseous due to the sudden consumption but would also cause the user to have just enough Mana to activate one or maybe two other skills; even none at all depending on how much Mana the earring user's Mana reserve had!
Imagine losing your ability to activate or sustain any skill in the middle of a death fight or in the middle of the battlefield.... It wasn't much different than being dead! Unless you had an amazingly powerful physique that allowed you to fight as an equal against your enemies, you would definitely die!
If in an online role-playing game you suddenly lost all your mana in the middle of a duel against another player, you would definitely lose the fight unless the difference between the two sides was big enough to ignore the damage the enemy's skills could inflict on you.
Simple as that.
However, in exchange for putting you in such a dangerous situation, the Mystic Earring would reward you with a tremendously powerful attack power. Bai Zemin thought of many ways to use this skill and just imagining the outcome sent a massive shiver down his spine.
"I'd better be careful with this..." He whispered with a hint of fear in his voice as he pierced his right ear.
Now, both of his ears had earrings in them and there was no room for any more. While the Soul Record allowed two Xuanyuan Swords to be wielded at the same time, the increased stats would only be sent by one of the two swords; still, the sharpness and lethality of the weapon would be there. However, two bracelets, earrings, or any other accessory of the same type would have no effect on the user.
Also, for some reason, the Soul Record was actually similar to the systems that were often seen in video games. Simply put, Bai Zemin could not fill his ears with earrings even if he was willing to look like a punk and he could not fill himself with necklaces or bracelets even if he was willing to look like a tribal chieftain.
"Just imagine it as if you had already used up all the equipment slots and your character's status window was full." Bai Zemin continued talking to himself, still not quite used to not having Lilith at his side to chat and joke with.
"Come to think of it, don't I have too many 'double-edged swords' in my body?" Bai Zemin's eyes widened wide at such a revelation.
Gravity Manipulation, Blood Berserker's Wrath, the recently acquired Mystic Earring.... At this rate, wouldn't he end up dying one day because of his own skills?
Bai Zemin smiled bitterly at the thought of this and shook his head.
Soon, Bai Zemin's attention was drawn to an object that, when he saw it, almost caused tears to fall from his eyes.
So beautiful... So bright... So magnificent...
He stretched out his trembling hands and then caressed them tenderly, almost sobbing with emotion.
Boots!
Finally he had gotten new boots!
Even now, Bai Zemin continued to wear the damn boots he had received in college! Normal grade treasure boots that barely boosted his Agility by +10 points!
Even if these boots only gave +5 more Agility points, he would already be satisfied with that!
"Come on baby, make daddy happy." He said words that would probably get the attention of a certain succubus if she were present.
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[Boots of Ending Sorrow (Magic Grade Treasure): When equipped, automatically increases Agility by +25 points. Despite their extremely light and elegant appearance, they hide a very sad story behind them. One time every 7 days you can activate the skill 'Ending Sorrow Speed'. Ending Sorrow Speed: For 50 minutes increases the user's Agility by +100 points. As a consequence of the boost, the user will not be able to move its legs for 24 hours after the deactivation of the skill.]
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Seeing the boost of +25 points of Agility, Bai Zemin was so happy that he wanted to scream. After all, it was a net gain of +15 points of Agility once he replaced his current Velocity Boots.
However, when he saw the fierce punishment for using the special skill of the boots, Bai Zemin finally understood the reason behind the item's name. This made his urge to scream still there, but instead of wanting to scream out of joy, he wanted to scream out of anger!
But when Bai Zemin finished reading the item's information, his face froze and his lips moved on their own as he muttered, "Note, if the user's Agility stat is higher than 500 natural points, the side effect of the skill Ending Sorrow Speed can be ignored...."
Bai Zemin looked at his natural Agility... 772.
"..." A big smile appeared on his face to the point where all his teeth shone under the glare of the sun coming through the window.
"Hahahahahaha!" he finally put his hands on both sides of his waist and began to laugh as if he had lost his mind.
From heaven to hell and then to heaven again! That was how he was feeling right now!
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