After two full days of fierce fighting, Tang Heng returned in triumph from the mixed zone of the Star Dou Great Forest.
He'd gone through an entire backpack's worth of shields. They just weren't enough.
"I'll see if I can get a Mending Enchanted Book from that black-market dealer later. Otherwise, these shields are nothing but consumables."
"Or I could build an iron farm. Batch-producing the raw materials wouldn't be a bad idea."
Tang Heng muttered to himself, took the cream of mushroom stew he'd made earlier out of the fridge, and quickly replenished his depleted hunger.
As an aside, the fullness buff from stew reduced hunger depletion for its duration. It was truly an essential for home and travel.
As for Miss Spirit Sheath's complaints along the way about why he wasn't using her, Tang Heng had replied with just one line:
How could I bear to let your body...
Tang Heng glanced at his status panel and nodded with satisfaction. "Not bad. Thirty-one levels of Soul Power should be enough for now."
"I just need to focus on leveling up from here. Once I reach level ninety-nine, I can activate reincarnation mode."
Reincarnation would reset his level, returning him to ten levels of Soul Power, but his Limit Douluo stats and Martial Soul would be preserved.
It was like a max-level old-timer starting over to collect gear, then stacking his stats higher and higher.
Thinking of this, Tang Heng couldn't help sighing. "I was too young back then. I should've changed the experience gained from killing Soul Beasts. Instead, I used the default experience rate—the one everyone complains about the most."
But it wasn't a big deal. It would just take a little longer.
Tang San was still being driven to distraction by the temporal turbulence, and he still had to deal with the other eleven Divine Realms. He simply had no time to personally handle things here.
And what about the plane consciousnesses, Tang Hao and Ah Yin?
Obviously, he'd make the most of the time before they caught on, develop as much as possible, and then finish them off in one fell swoop.
After dinner, Tang Heng sipped his tea, looking utterly content.
(╯▽╰)
"Let's see what new mods I got this time~"
Tang Heng leisurely checked his past records and quickly found the list of newly added mods.
Going by his deductions, breaking through level ten for the first time had added one mod, and breaking through level twenty the second time had added two. This time, he should've gotten three.
[Sophisticated Backpacks]
[Curios]
The last one was a classic mod. It showed up in almost every version.
[Lucky Block]
Tang Heng stared at the Lucky Block in the last slot, his brows knitted tight. "This thing's one step from heaven, one step from hell. If you're lucky, opening just one early on can send you soaring. If you're unlucky, those bizarre punishments inside can kill you over and over."
Clearly, his past adventures with Lucky Blocks had left a bad impression.
But there were always exceptions.
Children didn't cry every day, and gamblers didn't lose every day.
If his luck really was terrible, he could get Tang Wulin and Na'er to come open them for him.
Or he could wait until his Golden Lion evolved into an Auspicious Beast and have her open them. She'd probably do a lot better than he would.
As for the other two mods, they were more practical.
Are you still troubled by not having enough inventory and backpack slots?
Are you still annoyed that you can't pick up all your materials when you're out exploring?
Sophisticated Backpacks could solve these problems perfectly.
"Just as I thought. Sophisticated Backpacks and mods like it are essential for any adventure modpack." Tang Heng couldn't help but remark.
This mod didn't just solve the problem of insufficient backpack space. It also provided different upgrade slots as the backpack leveled up.
Each upgrade could expand the backpack's functionality, greatly improving the exploration process.
Tang Heng rummaged through his storage and soon gathered the materials needed to craft backpacks.
The basic backpack could be upgraded using ores, all the way to Netherite quality.
But since he didn't have any spare Netherite at the moment, he could only make three Diamond-quality backpacks for now. He'd give them to Na'er and Wulin the next time he brought them in.
Tang Heng turned his attention to [Curios].
He vaguely remembered that it had several accessories with useful functions, at least for someone in his current situation.
One: Eternal Steak
[Mr. Cow gave everything to Steve]
As the name suggested, it was a steak that never ran out, no matter how much you ate. It represented Mr. Cow's ultimate spirit of self-sacrifice.
The taste might not be great, but for their family of three big eaters, it was absolutely top-tier in terms of practicality.
Pair it with the upgrade slots from Sophisticated Backpacks, and their hunger bars wouldn't drop at all.
The other two accessories were even more ridiculous than Eternal Steak.
Vampire Glove:
Restores health equal to 20% of the damage dealt when attacking.
Think about it. Really think about it.
Your health is flickering like a candle in the wind, but I haven't lost a bit of my strength. What are you going to do about that?
The other accessory was also jewelry: Golden Hook.
It didn't have a mechanic as absurd as the Vampire Glove, but it was an excellent tool for getting ahead: it increased experience dropped by creatures by 50%.
It might not be so useful in an ordinary modpack, but this was Douluo Continent's home turf. Experience = Soul Power growth.
Could Shrek or the Sea God Pavilion offer a fifty-percent increase in Soul Power growth rate?
Tang Heng spread his hands, really wanting to say:
Can anyone else do that?
After calming himself down a little, Tang Heng used the materials he had at home to craft ten Lucky Blocks with thirty points of luck.
"I remember the Vampire Glove can show up in blacksmith chests, and in abandoned mineshafts underground."
"The Golden Hook comes from shipwreck treasure chests. All of this depends on luck."
Tang Heng carried the Lucky Blocks to another hill, just in case he got some kind of demon or monster and accidentally blew up the house. That would be a case of joy turning to sorrow.
Thirty luck points, all made with iron blocks.
Surely that couldn't still give him some kind of trouble, right?
Hesitation meant defeat!
Tang Heng brought his hand down and cracked open the first Lucky Block.
Leather *2
Again!
Iron Ingot *3
Again!
100 Instant TNT.
The blast left Tang Heng seeing stars and cost him a good chunk of health.
Tang Heng climbed out of the crater and couldn't help complaining. "That really hurt... This damn Lucky Block is deliberately targeting me, isn't it?"
I refuse to believe a gambler can keep losing forever!
What awaited Tang Heng next were a water prison, Anvils raining from the sky, and a hundred Ghasts.
The king descended from the heavens, furious and snarling!
Tang Heng had to spend quite some time dealing with the Ghasts floating all over the sky. Fortunately, none of them turned out to be something at the hundred-thousand- or million-year level.
The village in the distance was caught in the crossfire, too. Some villagers were hit by Ghast fireballs, let out their "unh, unh" damage sounds, and ended their short but sinful lives.
The black-market dealer was probably laughing his head off.
There were three left, but Tang Heng didn't dare open them. Reality had worn down his confidence to nothing.
It was confirmed: he was the unluckiest of the unlucky.
And these were just regular Lucky Blocks. There were other kinds, too, though he hadn't made any yet.
Those extra Lucky Blocks not only had more generous rewards, but probably far more terrifying punishments. He'd better face reality.
Golden Lion had been drawn over by the explosions. She crawled out of the doghouse built just for her and came over to Tang Heng.
She glanced at her dejected owner, then stuck out her tongue and licked his cheek.
Tang Heng ignored her and went to collect the Ghast Tears the Ghasts had dropped.
Golden Lion noticed a Lucky Block lying on the ground and curiously edged closer.
Perhaps on a whim, Golden Lion bit right into it.
As the Lucky Block disappeared, a dark, block-shaped object hovered quietly above the grass.
Tang Heng finished collecting the Ghast Tears and turned around. The moment he did, he spotted it.
Netherite Block.
Damn, what a lucky bastard.
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