Golden Experience Appears!, Part 1

Soul Tools had become so commonplace in later ages that they were old news. The Sun Moon Empire's Soul Tools had made the Tang Sect's skills practically useless, and the sect had gone into immediate decline. By the time Jodio was active, only Tang Ya and Bei Bei were keeping it going. It was hard to imagine that Tang San had founded the sect with the goal of making it the greatest on the continent.

The sect's succession requirement was absurd, too: its leader had to possess a pure Blue Silver Grass martial soul. What could Blue Silver Grass even do? The thing in your hand, God King Tang, was the Blue Silver Emperor! Surely you knew how useless an actual Blue Silver Grass martial soul was. You couldn't even be bothered to give your descendants an upgrade. The Blue Silver King would have done; that was a decent martial soul. But no. And they were supposed to be grateful to you? Forget it.

Soul Tools had outclassed the sect's specialty, while its leader had a useless Blue Silver Grass martial soul. Oh, there was a latent Blue Silver Emperor factor in there, but what could anyone expect from something latent? The sect had poured money and resources into its leaders for generations, and this was the martial soul it got? No wonder it declined.

That was how Jodio had complained to Huo Yuhao back then. You honored your teacher and tried to prove his theory that there were no useless martial souls. Very filial of you. But why didn't you just make your teacher a divine official and take him to the Divine Realm? He was your sworn father!

As the saying went—or rather, as Jodio knew from experience—people in the countryside sometimes took a stone roller as a sworn mother or father. Jodio reckoned that if he ever became a god, he would at least give his stone-roller mother a mind and bring her to the Divine Realm. Failing that, he would make her a top-tier stone-shaped soul beast. People weren't made of stone; how could they have no feelings? Someone born in a feudal age ought to understand that better than Jodio. So what was going on?

When Jodio talked about this with Tang Ya, she broke completely. She promptly threw in her lot with him. Sometimes people knew the truth but chose to deceive themselves. Once someone pierced that illusion, though, their faith in it could collapse for good.

Worse still, when Tang San confronted Jodio, he used that very conversation to accuse him of corrupting his descendant. Oh, come on. This is my fault now? All I did was lay out exactly what you'd done, and that counts as corrupting her?

Fine, fine. You're a god. You win. I'll submit—so can I become a god too? What, no? Then we have nothing to discuss. I won't just corrupt her; I'll make her my trusted follower and have her turn her blade on you. You're the one who called me evil. Don't blame me for acting the part.

I wonder how little Huo and the others are doing. On his 457th day in the world of ten thousand years ago, Jodio missed them.

Jodio gathered his thoughts and concentrated on absorbing the soul ring. The arrow stirred in his heart, as though it had sensed the trace of a new Stand. He reached inward, yearning for one Stand and one alone—the one that would make all the difference.

"Gold Experience!"

Jodio opened his eyes and saw his new hairstyle reflected in the pool. Three "doughnuts" sat in a row across his hair, giving him a lively, playful look.

"How did it go?" Flender opened his eyes. He was curious about Jodio's martial soul and his new soul-ring ability. A search through the old texts could at least point him toward what to expect from little Ao's and Hongjun's martial souls and soul rings. Jodio's was another matter. It was too novel not to be curious about.

"One moment, Teacher. I'll activate it."

Jodio summoned the Stand Arrow again and lightly drew it across his fingertip. This time, he didn't need to drive it in as hard as he had to activate Stone Free. Giorno Giovanna had awakened naturally at twelve because of his father; Jodio only needed a trigger to draw the Stand out. Oh, man. What if I try for King Crimson or Killer Queen? I'd have to really stab myself, and that hurts.

"Gold Experience."

Jodio struck Giorno Giovanna's classic pose, tugging at his collar with one hand and resting the other on his hip. Gold Experience appeared. It was a golden humanoid with a round head that resembled a cauliflower. Purple ladybug emblems marked its joints and chest, and a cloud-shaped emblem sat on its shoulder. Overall, it looked rather frail.

"Why does it look weaker than Silver Chariot and Stone Free?" Flender asked after staring at it for a while. It wasn't that he looked down on the Stand. It simply didn't look as strong as the other two.

Silver Chariot needed no explanation: it looked like a medieval knight and was clearly powerful at a glance. Stone Free was covered in muscle and looked imposing. This one, though...

"You guessed right, Teacher. It's for support, not the main attacker." Jodio snapped his fingers and smiled. Giorno could send a car flying with Gold Experience's C-ranked power, but that didn't mean Jodio could. How did that even make sense? Wasn't C-ranked strength supposed to be around the limit of an ordinary person? What ordinary person could punch a car away?

Then again, perhaps it was possible here in Douluo. For one thing, the density of this world seemed a little off, as though parts of it were incomplete. For another, that C rank was assessed relative to Jodio's level. At level ninety, punching a car away might genuinely count as C-ranked strength—or even D-ranked.

"Let's see what it can do. Is it a healing ability?" Flender asked.

"Watch closely, Teacher. Gold Experience!"

"Muda!"

At Jodio's call, Gold Experience punched a rock beside them. Flender witnessed something astonishing: the rock rapidly twisted and changed shape, turning into a living frog!

"What!"

Flender's understanding of the world shattered. What was this? Creation? Was there a soul skill like that? Even plant-type soul skills could, at most, make plants grow. He had never heard of one producing an animal!

"That's Gold Experience's ability. He can create life—though only for a short time," Jodio explained, looking every inch the JoJo.

"An incredible ability, but wait! Can he create soul beasts?" Flender had been about to say it had little use when a possibility struck him. Stone Free merely turned into string, yet Jodio had found all sorts of uses for it. Surely this ability could produce soul beasts!

"Could it be...?" Flender grew excited as he glimpsed a possibility with limitless potential. No way. That would be a money-making machine!

"In theory, yes. But soul beasts created by Gold Experience wouldn't last very long, and creating them would drain my Soul Power at an increased rate." Jodio smiled and spread his hands.

"Teacher, you should be more interested in what he can create. Why do you think I called him a healing type?"

Currently available information:

Level 20 Stand: Gold Experience

User: Jodio Joestar

Soul ring: Yellow — 210-year Dragon Horse Beast

Destructive power: D, speed: B, range: D, stamina: D, precision: D, development potential: A+

Stand ability: By striking inanimate objects, Gold Experience can turn them into living things. The user can choose what kind of organism to create, though only animals and plants have been created in the original work; it is unknown whether fungi or other organisms are possible. If the organism breaks down or dies, it reverts to the original object.

An organism created in a harsh environment may develop resistance to it, but an environment that is too extreme will prevent the object from becoming an organism at all.

Shortly after the Stand ability first awakens, before the user has fully mastered it, organisms created by Gold Experience may protect themselves by reflecting any harm they receive back onto the attacker. This effect disappears as the user's command of Gold Experience improves.

Gold Experience can turn objects into body parts to repair injuries. This healing is essentially like surgery, however, so it is painful and cannot cure illness or poisoning. Antivenom from an animal can be used to treat poison, though, and unlike Crazy Diamond, Gold Experience can heal his own user.

Gold Experience's ability to create life lets him distinguish living things from nonliving ones and detect life precisely. In addition, the life he creates seems inclined to "return to where it was born."

Overloading a target with life to cause a berserk effect (not yet unlocked)