Chương 20: You Can Actually Haggle?

"Solid haul!" Xiao Chen was satisfied and ready to leave the dungeon. He had no idea that clearing these leftover mobs would change everything. Just as he was about to exit, urgent notifications blasted in:"WARNING!"

"WARNING!"

"An unknown entity has taken notice of you."

"Leave the dungeon immediately!"

"Wait -- don't leave. Do NOT redirect that entity's attention to the Blue Star Plane." Xiao Chen was bewildered -- until he saw it. Directly in front of him, embedded in the sky as if it belonged there, a crimson eye materialized. It looked almost natural, part of the environment. Except no human eye was that shade of red. It radiated wrongness. Danger.

"Whoa. Is this a hidden Boss?" Instinct took over. Xiao Chen raised his bow and loosed several arrows.

"Holy crap!" Did the system just swear?

"You have attacked a mysterious entity!"

"-1""You have obtained Mysterious Blood +1" The eye blinked -- a reflexive response to being attacked. And then it stayed closed.

"Uh... what just happened?" This was a dungeon. Since when did giant eyes show up in dungeons? Xiao Chen had never heard of anything like this.

"You have acquired one drop of Mysterious Blood. Special regulated item -- will be confiscated by the Plane."

"???" The hell? They could do that?

"You have received Special Contribution Reward: All Stats +100. Gold +1, 000."

"You will receive special attention from the Plane." What was even happening right now?"'Special Contribution' and that's all I get?" He said it without thinking. Truth was, the reward was enough to make him happy for a long while.

"You have been granted a Soul-Bound Weapon." Xiao Chen stood frozen. You could... haggle with the system? Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Also, what was a Soul-Bound Weapon? He opened his inventory. Inside sat a wooden bow. 【Ordinary Wooden Bow (Soul-Bound Weapon, Untradeable!) | Equipment Level: None All Stats +10 | ATK +30 | ATK Range +5 | ATK SPD +0.

1 | EXP Bonus +10% Effect 1: 10% chance for Critical Strike, ATK +100 Upgrade Requirements: EXP 10, 000 | Gold 1, 000 | Meteoric Iron x10 | Beast Sinew x1】 A weapon that could be upgraded? And it needed EXP? Today had completely shattered his understanding of how this world worked. He pulled up the forums and searched. Eventually, he found some info on Soul-Bound Weapons.

"Only 21 Soul-Bound Weapons have ever been granted in this world. 14 remain in existence." Only Awakened who made extraordinary contributions to the world received Soul-Bound Weapons as rewards. Tiannan City had one such person: Xiao Yan.

"Wait, what extraordinary contribution did I make?"

"Power-leveling some newbies? But I charged them for that!"

"Or was it... that weird blood drop?" Xiao Chen didn't know what to think. Was his life about to change? A Soul-Bound Weapon. Was he really the kind of person who deserved something like this? A small windfall would've made him ecstatic. Something this huge? That made him nervous. Xiao Chen checked the Auction House and compared the wooden bow to regular weapons. The Soul-Bound Weapon was broken beyond belief. Just at Common grade, it already had a skill effect, plus attack speed and range bonuses!

And an EXP bonus on top of that! He didn't dwell on it long. He equipped the Soul-Bound Weapon immediately. If the Plane had awarded it, there had to be a reason. Free stuff was free stuff. You didn't say no.

"Not in a rush to level anyway. This is my weapon from now on." At Common grade, it fell short of his current Bronze Bow. Equipping it dropped his attack by 770 and his range by 5 meters. But that was temporary. The weapon could be upgraded. Plus, he'd been forced to surrender that drop of mysterious blood, and the system had compensated him with +100 to all stats. His overall power was roughly the same as before. With the Soul-Bound Weapon equipped, he sold both his backup weapons from his inventory.

Two weapons fetched 2, 000 gold. Now he had 3, 125 gold. The upgrade materials weren't hard to find. The Auction House had everything he needed. After equipping the weapon, he discovered something: it siphoned 20% of his EXP. Good thing it had its own EXP bonus built in, or that would've been unbearable. Back at the guild territory, Xiao Chen assembled another power-leveling group. This time, ten people. Two hundred gold each -- his total broke five thousand gold.

He was a veteran at this now, more efficient than ever.

"Stay on the wall. Don't do anything, and don't talk to me unless it's an emergency." Xiao Chen was entirely focused on his Soul-Bound Weapon. No time for chitchat. It took ages before the weapon reached 10, 000 EXP. He figured it out: the EXP came directly from his own EXP pool. Meaning mobs below Level 50 contributed nothing to the weapon. Pretty scammy, honestly. He'd hoped he could cheese it like with Little Strong, grinding low-level mobs for fast gains. EXP threshold met, materials gathered.

Xiao Chen initiated the upgrade. 【Your Soul-Bound Weapon has been successfully upgraded. 】 【Black Iron Bow (Soul-Bound Weapon, Untradeable!) | Equipment Level: None All Stats +40 | ATK +200 | ATK Range +10 | ATK SPD +0. 2 | EXP Bonus +20% Skill 1: 10% chance for Critical Strike, ATK +400 Skill 2: 10% chance to bypass target's Defense Upgrade Requirements: EXP 1, 000, 000 | Gold 10, 000 | Refined Iron x10 | Mithril x10 | Beast Sinew x1】 One tier up, and the improvement was massive.

Then Xiao Chen saw the next upgrade requirements, and his heart sank. One million EXP. Ten thousand gold. This thing cost more than a summon ascension. He had four thousand gold left. He'd been planning to buy Undead Core Crystals for Little Strong. Now, that plan needed serious reconsideration. The +0. 2 attack speed boost did improve his clear speed significantly. He was firing roughly once per second now. The new skill added meaningful damage output too.

At this point, Xiao Chen's damage couldn't be measured by base attack alone. All the stacked bonuses combined into something formidable. He was starting to understand why Xiao Yan was so dominant. A Soul-Bound Weapon created an advantage that was nearly impossible to overcome. Pushing the weapon to Bronze grade was doable, but the 10, 000 gold requirement was brutal. If he also wanted to ascend Little Strong, he'd need 20, 000 gold total. Other gear upgrades were on hold for now.

Bronze-tier skill books were out of reach, and Universal Skills? Forget about it. Xiao Chen had picked the most expensive possible path to power.