Chapter 215
Yuki chuckled inwardly but had no intention of concentrating the points on himself. After glancing at the panel again, his guess was now completely correct.
With the limitations removed, eight specialization points are enough to advance physical attributes to the next stage.
He raised his head without showing any emotion and said in a low voice, "You only have one chance. Don't rush to convert or trade. Use up all the points you can first."
"Hayasaka, use 4 specialization points to advance your physical attributes to the Transcendental Grade, and invest 2 enhancement points into your Flying Boots."
There's not much to say. Death Knell has reached the bottleneck of the Arcane Grade level. To advance further and jump from level 5 to level 6, it needs a full 16 enhancement points, which is not enough even if everyone has enough.
Moreover, given the recoil and side effects of Death Knell, a significant amount of points are needed to build the system.
"I don't think the item-based build is that easy to master. Is this easy to get started but hard to master?" Hayasaka finished adding points and suddenly felt an inexhaustible power. Upon closer inspection, his overall rating had also been raised to Transcendental Grade II.
"Don't worry, you still have your bloodline skills, you don't have to go all in on Death Knell." Yuki nodded, letting her get used to her suddenly increased physical abilities. Anyway, there was enough space here for her to experiment.
Seeing her reach dozens of meters away in the blink of an eye, everyone was somewhat envious. This was equivalent to overcoming a bottleneck and completely abandoning humanity.
"Senior, you don't need me to say anything more, do you?"
Mai Sakurajima nodded slightly. She had saved up enough for two dungeons and now had six specialization points in her hand.
Four of them were used to raise Adolescent Syndrome to LV4, and the remaining two were used to raise Physical Fitness to Extraordinary. After she finished allocating the points, Yuki turned around somewhat blankly, and only came to her senses when she saw Shiina Hiyori's stats.
As a key player in navigating the second main storyline, she had accumulated a lot of points, a full 4 enhancement points and 5 specialization points. Yuki thought for a moment before saying:
"Hiyori, use 3 specialization points to improve your physical attributes and raise your body to the extraordinary level. Use the remaining 2 points to enhance your traits, and then use all 4 enhancement points on the Void Puppet."
"But I want to accumulate 6 specialization points and directly upgrade the trait from LV2 to LV4." Hiyori had her own opinion.
"There's no need for the all-in feature; the first priority is to stay alive." Yuki shook his head. It wasn't that he was stingy; the intensity of combat between players would definitely increase in the future.
Hiyori's current physical attributes are at an excellent level, roughly equivalent to a professional athlete, which is far behind the current version.
"Okay, I'll listen to you." Hiyori nodded obediently, without sticking to her own opinion.
Finally, there's Kaguya, who keeps stealing glances at herself.
Yuki cleared her throat. She had also exhausted all her points in the dungeon, and given her weak strength, she had practically no other options.
There are a total of 4 specialization points, 2 of which improve physical attributes and 2 improve traits. However, there's a trick to these enhancement points; Yuki specifically asked her to upgrade her Ice Enchantment to excellent level.
That's about it.
Yuki glanced at everyone's player panel (attached below). The physical attributes he valued most had basically been raised to the extraordinary level, and their overall ratings were close to the Transcendental Grade level. It was just a pity that something unexpected happened. If they could have completed the epic-level quest, everyone could have entered the Transcendental Grade and entered a new stage.
But it doesn't matter. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, and Taiyi me, who is a well-rounded individual. Even if specializing in a certain area will amplify the weaknesses, they can be made up for by teamwork.
Then, aside from Hayasaka Ai, he did not choose to upgrade the Chaos Item.
Firstly, there might be new trading methods, and perhaps a more suitable Chaos Item to replace them; secondly, because his permissions were unlocked, he saw the requirements for upgrading from Arcane Grade (Level 5) to Chaos Grade (Level 6).
There are a full 12 enhancement points, which not only triples the number of points, but also comes with prerequisites, such as reaching certain levels of physical strength and luck. In addition, user binding has been added.
Thinking about it, it makes sense. Chaos Item are incredibly overpowered; their unpredictability and lethality increase exponentially. Even with strong side effects, they can't stop reckless people.
'What if a player goes on a suicide attack rampage, wielding Chaos Grade- level Death Knell to take me down with them? That would be so frustrating.'
Regarding Transcendental Grade skills, Yuki can already see the upgrade path later on.
Excellent, master, legend, myth, id.
It takes 8 enhancement points to go from Master to Legend, which isn't much, but just like going from 'Monster' to 'Epic' in physical attributes and from LV5 to LV6 in Ego Trait, there's an additional restriction.
"Players need to create epics..."
A new path, new limitations—is the core objective still to maintain fairness as much as possible? And what even constitutes creating a legend?
"On the surface, it should be a special achievement within the dungeon. Hmm, it's like a bottleneck; players who are solely focused on taking shortcuts will get stuck at the 'monster' stage."
"This is somewhat similar to before. If you don't come to the Outpost, you'll be stuck at the Transcendental Grade stage. Maybe we should learn from Adam and achieve a qualitative leap through quantitative change."
Yuki thought this was a good thing. If he was destined to die, he would rather die at the hands of a strong person who had overcome many obstacles and climbed to the top step by step than be killed by a nouveau riche with a protagonist's halo and incredible luck.
"Mr. Yuki, aren't you going to add some?" Hiyori poked her head over, noticing that Yuki's interface hadn't changed.
"I'm thinking of going all in on physical attributes, but I'll wait and see." Yuki smiled. He was currently missing three specialization points. Seeing Hiyori hesitate, he reached out and patted her head.
"I'm too shy to be kept by you guys."
The game has already provided a shortcut; it wouldn't be difficult for Hiyori and the others to exchange their points for credits and then trade them to him. However, Yuki felt that they needed the credits more.
For them, it's a matter of becoming stronger; for others, it's a matter of survival. It's not hard to tell which is more important.
"Besides, I still have some good stuff in my storage space. If I'm not mistaken, that can be exchanged for a lot of points."
"Adam's corpse!" Hiyori's eyes lit up; this was the second-highest reward after the mission rating in the 'Calamity of Blood'.
The monster was covered in Transcendental Grade or Arcane Grade- level equipment, but most of it was damaged and couldn't be directly attached to its body like Adam's.
If Player Forum, it's equivalent to having a pile of junk. There are too few players who become stronger through physical modification, and even if there are, they don't have the ability to repair their bodies.
"It seems we have to go out and take a look."
"Yes, we have to open that door, both morally and logically. To be honest, I really want to explore the unknown." Yuki's thirst for knowledge burned brightly. He turned to look at the others, most of whom were immersed in the joy of becoming stronger, which diluted their previous fear and anxiety.
This was the first time they had all upgraded together like this, so Yuki didn't disturb them. He found a place to sit cross-legged and watched as everyone familiarized themselves with their new powers.
As he watched, he sensed something was wrong and began to twist his head back and forth.
"Do you feel like someone's missing?"
A slightly mischievous voice rang in his ears, Yuki instantly drew his sword, almost jumping up on the spot.
"Senior?"
Memories flooded his mind, the blade that had been drawn three inches from its sheath stopped, Yuki turned his head to see the girl crouching beside him, winking at him.
"You idiot, you're so heartless, you've actually forgotten about me already." Mai Sakurajima smoothed a few strands of black hair, her bright eyes filled with interest, as if she really enjoyed Yuki's shocked expression.
A fully-fledged bunny girl? Or the controllable kind?
Yuki was indeed shocked. Her senior's previous characteristic was to weaken her presence, but someone she knew too well was hard to forget, and could be detected by skills like Intuition.
"Have you erased your own sense of existence?"
"Yes, that's what the game's explanation says: within one hour of this special feature, I can erase my existence, including you all forgetting about me."
It appears one moment and doesn't appear the next; it's just like Schrödinger's Bunny Girl, isn't it?
Yuki was happy for her senior, and her eyes became calm. Then, she placed a slender finger on the center of her forehead.
"How boring. Can't you be more shocked for a little longer?" Mai Sakurajima smiled, then pouted at the blonde girl who was sprinting away, leaving a trail of afterimages in her wake. "You said if you gave me Death Knell, I'd be invincible, right?"
Imagine a non-existent person holding Death Knell, shooting you in the head—nobody could stand that.
Even as a joke, Yuki thought about it seriously for a moment, then shook his head and said, "No, true powerhouses are very sensitive to hostility. When you aim, their presence increases dramatically, which is actually less effective than physical invisibility. To suppress hostility, you need a lot of..."
"I know, it's because you gave such a serious explanation." Mai Sakurajima used a little force to push Yuki's head back, and he stood up, supporting himself on his knees. "Aren't you going to verify the future?"
"We'll go once your special ability cools down." Yuki didn't hide anything, but hesitated for a moment. "Senior, are you sad?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a faint sigh. His companions, each one more astute than the last, had already guessed what the situation was.
"It happened so suddenly, it was a bit unexpected, but I was mentally prepared. Please take good care of Hayasaka -san; I think she's not as calm as she seems on the surface."
Oops, I forgot she's a mother-obsessed person.
Yuki's expression changed. If anyone was most reluctant to accept reality, it would definitely be Hayasaka Ai. He had actually been fooled by her player form. He slapped his forehead in frustration.
"Looks like I really am an idiot, I actually forgot that."
"Hmph, you only just realized that? You spend all your time with Hayasaka, yet you're not as observant as I am." Mai Sakurajima snorted lightly, then turned away.
I really want to see Waka, and I haven't properly apologized to my mother yet.
Her clenched fist trembled slightly. Before Yuki could comfort her, she hid her fist in her sleeve, turned around again, and exuded a queen-like aura.
"Yuki."
"Senior, please speak." Yuki upright, appearing extremely obedient.
"I don't care where we are, or what's outside—" Mai Sakurajima knelt down, cupped the man's face in her hands, and said, enunciating each word clearly:
"You must take us back."
Character Panel (New Stage)
Player: Yuki (Player experiences: Bloodthirsty Red Moon, Demon Hospital, the Bystander Is Blind, Calamity of Blood)
Faction: None
Physical Strength: Human (Transcendental Grade)
Storage space: 4 cubic meters
Ego Trait: Unknowner's Mystic Code (LV.3)
Equipment: Demon-Breaker Longsword +3 (Chaos Grade), Quiet Dew +1 (Chaos Grade), Hunter's Double-Barreled Blunderbuss +3 (Transcendental Grade)
Night Domain (Transcendental Grade Level) Shape-shifting Outfit
Transcendental Grade Skills: Vitality Shift (Proficient), Reinforcement Magecraft (Master) Concept Enhancement, Demon Man Secret Technique
[Bloodline Skill: Demon Possession (LV3)]
Devil's Vision: Possesses Transcendental Grade vision, observing all soul matter.
Regenerative Tail: Consumes soul energy to rapidly repair the injured body.
Demon Heart (Normal): Transforms the soul into energy, which serves as the energy core to supply the entire body.
Enhancement Points: 2
Specialization points: 5
Points: 0
Overall rating: Transcendental Grade Three
Player: Hayasaka (Dungeons experienced: Bloodthirsty Red Moon, Demon Hospital, Forest Sea Labyrinth, Battle on the Raging Seas, Calamity of Blood)
Faction: None
Physical Strength: Human (Extraordinary) → Transcendental Grade
Storage space: 8 cubic meters
Ego Trait: The Fool's Mask LV.3
Equipment: Death Knell Revolver (Arcane Grade, Forged 3 Times), Storm Cleaver (Transcendental Grade), Flying Boots (Chaotic Grade) → Transcendental Grade, Lucky Earrings (Chaotic Grade)
Item: Lucky Candy (Chaos Level)
Transcendental Grade Skill: Gun-Kata (Mastered)
Bloodline Skill: [Ghost Shooter (LV1)]
[Entering Spirit Form for 2 minutes greatly increases physical resistance, weakens energy resistance, and unlocks Terrain Adaptation]
Residual reinforcement points: 2-2=0
Specialization point remnant: 5-4=1
Points: 0
Overall rating: Transcendental Grade I → Transcendental Grade II
Player: Mai Sakurajima (Dungeons experienced: Bloodthirsty Red Moon, Demon Hospital, Forest Sea Labyrinth, Battle on the Raging Seas, Calamity of Blood)
Faction: None
Physical Strength: Human (Limit) → Extraordinary
Storage space: 8 cubic meters
Ego Trait: Adolescence Syndrome (LV4)
Chaos Item: [Chaos Item: Singer's White Veil (Chaos Grade) +3] [Chaos Item: Lightning Skill Orb (Chaos Grade)]
[Upon activation, a defensive shield is deployed for the wearer, providing good protection against energy and physical attacks, as well as some mental defense. It can be activated 6 times, and recharges every hour.]
Transcendental Grade Skill: [Light-Covering Prayer Rite (Master)] [Designates three players, reducing their item and skill cooldowns by 40%, or designates one player, reducing their cooldowns by 100%, skill cooldown time is ten minutes]