Chương 69: Chapter 68 — Brand-New Gear, Brand-New Skills

A full Amethyst-grade set—the Night Demon Set! Explosive stats! A pity the equip level was 55; Ryan couldn't wear it yet. On top of that, a brand-new currency dropped: Amethyst Coin. Like Carrot Coin, a trade currency dropped only by Amethyst-grade Bosses and up, usable on the black market or with the Mysterious Merchant—less valuable than the rare Carrot Coin, but still many times more precious than gold. This kill yielded 500 Amethyst Coin, no small sum.

Besides some high-level gear, Balana dropped a pair of Night Demon Wings, granting brief flight. [Night Demon Wings: Special gear. Once equipped, grants brief flight; flight speed 200% of movement speed, max altitude 200m, drains 100 Stamina/sec. Durability: 300.] A fine item—300 durability meant 300 minutes (five hours) of flight. With these, travel and aerial combat alike grew much easier. Ryan also got an Inheritance Token from the King.

[Inheritance Token — Dark Night Demon King: On use, change class to the Dark Night Demon King's inherited class.] An Inheritance Token—a hidden item that let one change straight into a hidden class, crude and simple. Sold, it would surely fetch a fine price. Beyond these two prizes, the rest were recovery items: Special Recovery Potions (10, 000 HP/sec) and Special Spirit Potions (10, 000 Stamina/sec). In Ryan's hands, with 10x Recovery, that meant 100, 000 a second—downright monstrous.

Setting items aside, Plunder also stripped no small amount of attributes and skills off the demon army. His final Forbidden Curse one-shot the lot, netting 200 Agility and 300 Strength. In skills, he made out like a bandit: 20 Skill Enhancement Points and a full five skills plundered. [Night Demon Bloodline: Passive. Gain night vision; when fighting in dark scenes, base attributes +50%.] [Night Demon Hunt: Active. The Night Demon race is in its element at night, swift in attack and movement! Strengthens Night Demon Bloodline: +50% movement speed and +100% attack speed! Duration 60s, cooldown 5 hours (30 min).] [Night Descends: Active. Create a dark barrier blocking all light, letting night-power reach its fullest! Night power +100%; all enemies lose vision, basic attacks may miss! You cannot move while casting; Stamina drain per second scales with barrier size.] [Power of Shadows: Active. Wrap weapons and gear in shadow power, adding shadow damage to attacks; drains 100 Stamina/sec.] [Night Demon Summon: Active. Summon ten Night Demons to fight; each has one-tenth of the summoner's stats. Demons last 300s, costs 2, 000 Stamina, cooldown 120s (12s).] Five skills that complemented one another—Ryan was suddenly all but a Night Demon himself. And the System's First-Kill talent was potent too, lifting his combat power a notch. [Bloodthirst: Attacks carry a 20% lifesteal effect. Each enemy slain stacks one layer of Bloodlust, +0. 1% of your attack, up to 1, 000 layers. Bloodlust resets on death.] A monstrous talent! Paired with the 10% lifesteal from the Bloodsuck Ring he'd gotten in Sunward Town, his lifesteal stacked to a full 30%—a terrifying figure. Now Level 19, with all his points in Luck, he'd broken past 80 to a stunning 83—higher than even the reborn Ryan had ever seen. The night deepened, and as everyone drifted to sleep, Ryan went up to the surface, found a spot, pulled out a Portable Forge, and began refining Bronze Fire Seeds.

He hadn't forgotten that Sunward Town's energy core still awaited charging—ten thousand Bronze Fire Seeds was no small number, so he had to use every spare moment. In the dead of night he toiled, seed after seed filling his bag. Meanwhile, he disassembled the ruined Dark Cudgel with the Mystic Spirit Disassembly Art and got its blueprint.

[Dark Cudgel: Refined Iron Ore ×20, Hardshell Turtle Carapace ×10, Bronze Fire Seed ×3] Ryan adjusted the recipe—swapping Refined Iron Ore for refined Mystic Iron Ore, Hardshell Turtle Carapace for the Fire Turtle Shell left over from the Firegold Set, and Bronze Fire Seeds for Silver. In Heaven's Descent, gear-crafting wasn't rigidly fixed; a player could forge by their own ideas—though whether it succeeded, and what stats resulted, was anyone's guess.

Under the Mystic Spirit Forging Art's mighty bonus, even with a simple Portable Forge, after some effort Ryan forged a brand-new weapon. System: [Ding! Brand-new gear forged! Please name it!] This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Sure enough, with the recipe mimicked and the materials swapped, the result was no longer a Dark Cudgel. Looking at the black-and-red staff glowing faintly in his hand, Ryan thought a moment, then had it.

The staff used Mystic Iron and Fire Turtle Shell both—why not call it…

"Mysticfire Staff!" System: [Ding! Naming successful! Congratulations, you obtained the "Mysticfire Staff" blueprint!] A golden-glowing blueprint appeared in his panel, bearing a [Self-Created] mark. [Self-Created: A recipe of the player's own creation, transmissible to others by inheritance, through the player's will.]"Doesn't that mean… I can take disciples now too?" Ryan blinked, marveling.

"If that's so…" A thought stirred, and a brand-new plan began to brew in his heart.

"Looks like I'll have to innovate more from here on out." Looking over the glowing Mysticfire Staff's stats, a satisfied look crossed his face. Is This… an Earth Spirit Pearl? [Mysticfire Staff: A fire-attribute staff refined from Mystic Iron. Gold Grade-4. Attack +1, 800, Strength +60, Agility +60, Sap level +5. Mysticfire Strike: gather power for an overhead blow dealing 500% damage. Cooldown: 10 minutes (1 minute).] Gold Grade-4!

Solid attack—and more importantly, the "Sap +5" boosted Sap's damage and control further still. [Sap (+5): Strike a heavy blow with a cudgel, dealing 400% damage and stunning the enemy for 3 seconds. Cooldown: 1 minute (6 seconds).] Against plain Sap, the enhanced version's damage rose to 400% and its control from 2 seconds to 3—a full extra second. For Ryan, with his absurd attack speed, one second was more than enough to do a great deal.

Satisfied, he stowed the Mysticfire Staff and threw himself back into refining Bronze Fire Seeds. The sun rose, the moon set; a night passed. As the sky brightened, the people who'd sheltered underground returned to the surface. Far as the eye could see, all was desolation; even the town's lone well was choked with yellow sand, useless now. This region was no longer fit to live in. Loss and sorrow hung on every face.

"Take this water—drink it." Ryan sighed and pulled out a hundred bottles of Farmer's Spring.

"This…" Jasper Lee paused, a troubled look crossing his face.

"Don't worry—it's my treat, no charge." Ryan smiled. The hundred jars of thirty-year Blade-Burner had already more than paid him back. [Premium Blade-Burner: Blade Dynasty traditional craft, thirty-year vintage, mellow and fierce, top quality! Effect: once consumed, +30% crit rate, +150% crit damage for 60 seconds. (Drunk effect: +60% crit rate, +300% crit damage!)] Paired with the Drunken Fist effect, thirty-year Premium Blade-Burner could send his damage soaring.

In the Blade Dynasty, money alone might not buy this; even the most ordinary Blade-Burner required enough Blade-Dynasty favorability to purchase, and a thirty-year vintage was harder still. So Ryan had struck real luck to get such a precious batch—with it, killing monsters or running quests, he had a tiger's wings. While the others waited, Ryan stayed busy, refining more Fire Seeds at the Portable Forge.

"Um… Brother Gunn, you know the forging art?" Catching Ryan at rest, Lee came over, a little excited.

"A little."

"Wonderful! Could you do me a favor?" Lee brightened.

"My flying sabers are poor quality—could you enhance and reforge them?"

"No problem." Ryan smiled and accepted. He took a saber and looked—a *Bronze*-grade flying saber! Utterly unworthy of Lee's strength; no wonder he griped about them.

"Well? Can you reforge them?" Lee asked, hopeful.

"I can." Ryan nodded and cast the Mystic Spirit Disassembly Art, breaking the saber down for a blueprint.

"Bring out the rest of your flying sabers too." Lee handed over all three hundred. Disassembling them, Ryan couldn't help marveling: What a waste of material—such fine Mystic Iron Ore, hammered into sabers with no craft at all! He had reason to believe that, refined and used as plain throwing weapons, the ore would hit harder than these botched sabers. What kind of "Mystic Iron flying sabers" are these? An utter disgrace. Disassembling all three hundred, he got three hundred fine Mystic Iron Ore.

Then, comparing the original blueprint, adding his own ideas and last-life experience, he made a new attempt. System: [Ding! Forging successful! Please name the new gear!]"Mystic Iron Flying Saber!" System: [Ding! Naming successful! Congratulations, you obtained the Mystic Iron Flying Saber blueprint (Self-Created)!] [Mystic Iron Flying Saber: A flying saber refined from premium Mystic Iron, exceedingly sharp. Gold Grade-4. Attack +6, 000, Agility +120, Strength +120, Crit Rate +10%. Weak-Point Break: striking a target's weak point ignores its defense and triggers a 100% crit. Equip Level: 50.] Three hundred fine Mystic Iron Ore made a set of sabers—a hundred Mystic Iron Flying Sabers in all.

"Have a look—satisfied?" Ryan handed Lee the forged set with a smile.

"This… Gold Grade-4?! Satisfied! More than satisfied!" Lee beamed, ear to ear, like a child who'd found his beloved toy.

"Good." Ryan smiled. Flying sabers had to be forged as a set, so they ate a lot of material at once—ill-suited for crafting to sell. His hundred-saber set could only be equipped by one person; split among several, the power plummeted. So flying sabers weren't a weapon for just anyone.

"Wonderful! Brother Gunn, you're my lucky star! Hahaha!" Lee laughed, clapping Ryan's shoulder with a fan-like hand.

"Since you've done me a great favor, I won't let you lose out! I got this thing on a wilderness expedition in my youth; it's useless in my hands—so it's yours now!" System: [Ding! Jasper Lee favorability +1, 000! Current favorability: 4, 000!] Ryan took the wooden box Lee handed over, opened it—and froze. In the antique box lay a murky brown-yellow sphere, a heavy aura turning slowly within it, quickening his breath. This is… an Earth Spirit Pearl?!