Failing an enhancement above +10 meant losing the Soul Ring forever!
After hearing Lin Xiao's words, Xie Yue, Hu Liena, and Yan were all deeply shaken.
That penalty was far too severe.
Wasn't losing a Soul Ring practically the same as taking a Soul Master's life?
Lin Xiao immediately guessed what they were thinking and said gravely, "All I can say is that danger and opportunity go hand in hand. If you want great power, you must bear the corresponding risks. That is the price of becoming stronger."
"Then is there any way to avoid this problem?"
After a long pause, Hu Liena asked.
She believed that a shop this miraculous ought to offer some way to avoid it.
"Of course there is..."
Lin Xiao gave Hu Liena a long look and said, "Since the problem comes from the jars, we must look inside the jars for a solution. As far as I know, they contain an item called the Enhancement Protection Scroll.
"It can take a certain penalty in your Soul Ring's place when an enhancement above +10 fails. It guarantees that your Soul Ring won't shatter, though its previous enhancement level will reset to zero."
"Phew..."
Hearing this, Hu Liena, Xie Yue, and Yan all let out long breaths.
"Having a Soul Ring's enhancement level reset to zero is much better than having it shatter."
That was an outcome they could accept.
Seeing their reactions, Lin Xiao couldn't help laughing. "Heh, isn't it a little early for you to be thinking about that?"
They hadn't even reached +1, yet they were already worrying about what happened beyond +10. They were rather like someone fretting that the sky might fall.
Uh... that's true.
At Lin Xiao's reminder, both Xie Yue and Yan looked somewhat embarrassed.
Hu Liena's face even flushed.
They were eating salty radishes and worrying about thirst for no reason at all.
Lin Xiao shook his head slightly, stopped looking at them, and turned his attention to the shattered jars on the table.
Three items still needed identifying.
One jar contained an Experience Capsule, which had appeared before.
The other two contained identical items.
Both were thumb-sized blue bottles of the same color, seemingly filled with some kind of liquid.
Item: [Magic Juice] Grade: [Common] Type: [Tradable] Description: [Mana recovery has been converted to soul power recovery.] Effect: [Restores 30% of the user's soul power upon use.]
A recovery potion. A bare-minimum consolation prize-very Dungeon City... Lin Xiao dismissed his stray thoughts and said to Xie Yue, "Not bad. I won't go over the Experience Capsule again. The other two little blue bottles are called Magic Juice. Using one instantly restores thirty percent of your soul power."
That's it?
After hearing Lin Xiao's brief description, Xie Yue felt somewhat disappointed. Though they were also white-grade items, they were considerably worse than the Experience Capsule.
After all, plenty of support Soul Masters could restore, heal, or even boost soul power.
So Magic Juice's effect was nothing unusual.
Given the choice, Xie Yue would rather have an Experience Capsule.
Beside him, Hu Liena asked, "Is there a level restriction?"
Lin Xiao shook his head. "No. And this item is tradable, meaning you can share it with anyone."
"In that case, it seems pretty good. It might work wonders when carrying out a mission alone or dealing with a crisis."
That was how Hu Liena saw it.
"You're right."
After hearing Hu Liena's explanation, Xie Yue felt much better.
He then put away the "treasures" he had opened on the table, one by one.
No matter how you look at it, I came out ahead. It's just that two items in the last four boxes were relatively poor, but even those weren't terrible. Overall, I still made a profit today-and an enormous one.
Thinking this, Xie Yue looked at Lin Xiao with an unconscious mixture of sympathy and bewilderment.
He felt sympathy because his enormous profit surely meant an enormous loss for Lin Xiao, the owner.
His bewilderment came from how baffling Lin Xiao's actions were.
If all these wonderful items were auctioned off instead of placed in jars, their prices could easily multiply several times over, or even more than tenfold.
To put it bluntly, the six hundred thousand he had spent opening jars might not even buy a single Enhancer!
Yet Lin Xiao put these things in jars for people to open?
At a hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins per jar, he was practically running a charity.
"Heh, are you wondering why I sell jars here? When you reach my level someday, you'll understand."
Seeing through Xie Yue's thoughts, Lin Xiao casually spun some nonsense.
There was nothing he could do about it, either.
If he could, he would have smashed every last jar himself.
But he couldn't.
The only ones he could open were the tenfold Lucky Magic Jars awarded by the system after sales.
Seeing that Xie Yue had put away every item he had opened, Lin Xiao gave him a professional smile. "Xie Yue, you've already opened six jars. After you open three more, the next one will give you double rewards. Would you like to continue?"
Double rewards!
Xie Yue's eyes lit up. If Lin Xiao hadn't reminded him, he would almost have forgotten about that.
It would be a lie to say he wasn't tempted.
But just then, Hu Liena tugged on Xie Yue's sleeve.
"What is it, Nana?"
"Brother, we're out of money..."
"Out of money?"
"Out of money!"
Xie Yue felt as though a basin of cold water had been poured over his head.
Only then did he realize that, without noticing, he had gotten carried away and spent all his savings!
But I'm only four jars away from double rewards!
Xie Yue was both eager and helpless.
In the end, he could only sigh. "Boss, if I scrape together enough money and come back to open more jars, can I still get double rewards?"
A person would only be poor for a while, not forever.
Xie Yue made up his mind to return once he had money.
Lin Xiao said, "There's no need to rush. Each person can buy at most ten jars within seven days, starting from the moment of their first purchase. Whenever you reach ten jars within those seven days, you'll receive double rewards."
"So that's how it works. I'll go back and raise the money right away."
Hearing that, Xie Yue let out a long breath.
With six days left, he could scrape together four hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins, even if he had to smash his pots and sell them for scrap.
He was determined to claim those double rewards!
"Goodbye, boss." Hu Liena waved, looking utterly lovely.
Yan said nothing, merely nodding at Lin Xiao.
But Lin Xiao saw the longing deep in Yan's eyes.
Without a doubt, he was a potential customer.
Naturally, Lin Xiao wouldn't turn away customers who came to his door. He smiled and nodded. "You're welcome anytime."
Then Lin Xiao silently watched the three open the door and leave the shop.
Meanwhile.
Quite a crowd had already gathered outside the little shop.
The appearance of Hu Liena and her two companions immediately drew countless gazes.
"Look, they're all smiling. Did they get more treasures?"
"Even if they didn't get anything else, it was worth it. A Soul Bone is incredibly valuable."
"Haha, they're out! It should be my turn now, right?"
"In your dreams! Get to the back of the line. Besides, each jar costs a hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins. Do you even have the money? And here you are shouting about opening jars!"
However.
Some newcomers were instantly dumbfounded by what they heard.
"What?"
"A hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins to open one jar, and this many of you are still lining up?"
"Have you gone mad?"
Before you continue