Chapter 66: A Day of Getting Beaten Up
Su Xiao looked at the Hunter King in his hand. This item was currently in its ring form.
The nature of the Hunter King was indeed very special. You could say it was three pieces of equipment, or you could say it was one piece, because the Hunter King's form could transform, with three forms: ring, pendant, and gun. Activating different forms granted different additional attributes.
The ring reduced the duration of abnormal status effects, while the pendant delayed the time before entering a dying state, since entering a dying state meant completely losing the ability to resist.
As for the gun form, its attributes were similar to the previous [Wild Hunt's Judgment], but [Wild Hunt's Judgment] required all five shots to hit before detonating for a weakening effect. Now, each shot applied one layer of weakening, and stacking to five layers completely outperformed [Wild Hunt's Judgment].
Compared to detonating after all five shots hit, Su Xiao preferred one shot, one weakening. This gave a higher margin for error. Against enemies of similar strength, the probability of landing all five shots was too low.
Three forms, three different effects. As for the most important set effect, it remained active regardless of which form the [Hunter King] was in.
Set Effect 1 and Set Effect 2 were undeniably powerful. One increased true attributes, and the other greatly enhanced Su Xiao's close-combat ability and survivability.
As for Set Effect 3, this ability was extremely strong—no, it was even perversely powerful. However, its weakness was obvious: it required 'charging' first, and its duration was only 100 seconds.
If Su Xiao activated Hunter's Hour, then for the next 100 seconds, his mana would be effectively infinite, and his own mastered abilities would have no cooldown. Of course, this did not include equipment-attached abilities.
Interestingly, Su Xiao's 'Dragon Shadow Flash' ability was not within the scope of equipment-attached skills. The reason was that Dragon-Slaying Flash was a companion weapon. Su Xiao had been aware of this when using the 'Dragon Shadow Flash' ability. At that time, it wasn't Dragon-Slaying Flash that pierced through space, but he himself. Therefore, Dragon Shadow Flash was equivalent to an ability he personally mastered.
If Su Xiao activated Hunter's Hour, his subsequent combat would only require three abilities: Dragon Shadow Flash + Counter Shield + continuously activating Azure Steel Shadow.
During these 100 seconds, Su Xiao could freely pierce through space and use Counter Shield without limit. If the Counter Shield was shattered, a new one would be generated immediately. If one layer couldn't block it, two layers would be generated simultaneously. In this situation, the only thing waiting for the enemy was despair.
Unlimited use of Dragon Shadow Flash would make Su Xiao elusive, and unlimited use of Counter Shield would allow him to ignore large-scale attacks.
Undoubtedly, Hunter's Hour was Su Xiao's current ultimate ability, a trump card for turning the tide at critical moments.
Su Xiao took a deep breath. This upgrade of the Hunter Set was definitely a huge gain. The Hunter Set truly lived up to its reputation as a dream set for close-combat fighters. Unlike the Ascension Set, it had no team bonuses, but it could be used for a long time, and its individual bonuses completely crushed the Ascension Set.
Su Xiao only needed to sacrifice one ring equipment slot or necklace equipment slot to enjoy the bonus effects of three equipment pieces. Even at higher ranks, he wouldn't need to abandon the Hunter Set.
With the Hunter King's attributes being so powerful, Su Xiao naturally wanted to enhance it. Therefore, he headed straight to the Equipment Enhancement Hall.
Half an hour later, Su Xiao left the Equipment Enhancement Hall. His expression wasn't very pleasant. The reason was that the enhancement cost for the Hunter King was simply too expensive.
Due to the Hunter King's set characteristics, it was treated as three pieces of equipment being enhanced simultaneously during enhancement. Enhancing three pieces of gold set equipment at once cost a staggering 230,000 Paradise Coins per attempt.
Even if Su Xiao spent all the Paradise Coins in his hand, he couldn't enhance the Hunter King to +5. If he couldn't enhance it to +5, the Hunter King wouldn't have a significant improvement.
Therefore, Su Xiao planned to use the remaining 770,000 Paradise Coins for other things.
After returning to his exclusive room, Su Xiao began to think. Paradise Coins were, of course, used to enhance his own strength. A portion would be spent on socketing a gem into Dragon-Slaying Flash. As for the remaining Paradise Coins, he could choose to buy a gold-quality equipment or develop some kind of ability.
After hesitating for a moment, Su Xiao took out Dragon-Slaying Flash and decided to first socket the 'Spirit Cat' gem into Dragon-Slaying Flash before considering other things.
[To perform this socketing, you need to pay 20,000 Paradise Coins.]
The socketing cost was completely acceptable. Su Xiao chose to socket. The 'Spirit Cat' gem in his hand floated up, its size rapidly shrinking until it became the size of a grain of rice.
White light enveloped the hilt of Dragon-Slaying Flash. A very small groove gradually appeared at the end of the hilt. The greatly shrunken 'Spirit Cat' gem was set into the groove. The socketing was complete, and Dragon-Slaying Flash's attributes displayed a socketing effect: ignoring 16 points of the enemy's body defense.
Su Xiao examined the Spirit Cat gem at the end of the hilt. It seemed that Dragon-Slaying Flash could still socket 6 to 8 more gems.
Gems were the kind of thing that could only be found by chance, rarely sold. Su Xiao had opened many treasure chests but only obtained one gem, showing how rare this stuff was.
For the remaining Paradise Coins, Su Xiao had to choose between buying a gold-quality equipment that suited him and improving some ability.
The ability he wanted to improve was not one he had already mastered, but a scroll he hadn't used yet.
[Close Combat Brawling Specialization Scroll (Lv.25)]
This specialization-level scroll was gifted to Su Xiao by Maha after his death. Su Xiao had been hesitating whether to use this scroll.
If he used it, Su Xiao would only invest appropriate resources into this ability. If it required using Soul Crystals (Large) to upgrade, he would temporarily give up on improving it. After all, he already had Blade Mastery, an ability that consumed a lot of resources.
However, if he didn't use this scroll, close-quarters combat was a weakness Su Xiao couldn't ignore. Due to the length of Dragon-Slaying Flash, when an enemy got close, Su Xiao could only fight with the Slaughter Shortsword.
In previous worlds, it was fine, but as the enemies grew stronger, holding the Slaughter Shortsword could no longer solve the problem.
In close-quarters combat, Su Xiao had been beaten badly many times. Die from the Blood Gate had beaten him, Hughes had beaten him, and Rose had also beaten him.
Maintaining a distance of 2 to 5 meters from the enemy, Su Xiao wasn't afraid of anyone. But if the distance was less than 1 meter, he could only use the hilt of Dragon-Slashing Flash to strike or use side kicks. As for being completely close, like being hugged by the enemy, he could only rely on his toughness to endure, find an opportunity to create distance, or be beaten to death.
When Su Xiao fought Rose with fists, to be honest, he was indeed beaten quite badly by that girl. Her little fists had broken many of Su Xiao's ribs.
Thinking of the miserable state he was in when being close to enemies in the past, and considering the number of Soul Crystals (Medium) he had, Su Xiao resolutely walked toward the Skill Upgrade Hall. Being pressed to the ground and beaten was too frustrating. He would strive to turn the tables and press the enemy to the ground and beat them instead.
Five hours later, inside a skill upgrade pod in the Skill Upgrade Hall.
[Tip: You have mastered Close Combat Brawling Specialization (Lv.25).]
Su Xiao's eyes suddenly opened. He instinctively raised his arms in front of his face. Five hours ago, he had used the Close Combat Brawling Specialization Lv.25 scroll, and then he entered a dojo.
After entering there, the 'misfortune' began. One by one, close-combat experts were manifested. Su Xiao couldn't use a blade or any other abilities; he could only fight with his bare hands.
Under the auxiliary training function of Reincarnation Paradise, Su Xiao was thoroughly beaten for five hours. After 'dying' 19 times, he finally mastered Close Combat Brawling Specialization (Lv.25).
[To upgrade Close Combat Brawling Specialization (Lv.25), you need to consume Soul Crystal (Small) x5 + 10,000 Paradise Coins.]
Seeing this prompt, Su Xiao was stunned. Upgrading a Lv.25 specialization ability only required Soul Crystals (Small). But he noticed one thing: enhancing Brawling Specialization consumed more Paradise Coins.
"Upgrade 5 levels consecutively."
Soul Crystals and Paradise Coins were quickly deducted. Light and shadow flickered before Su Xiao's eyes, and he arrived at that dojo again.
"Here we go again."
Su Xiao's gaze swept around. In the ancient dojo, several figures gradually formed...
Two hours later, Su Xiao, standing inside the skill upgrade pod, shook his head.
[Close Combat Brawling Specialization has been upgraded to Lv.30.]
Su Xiao checked the attributes of Close Combat Brawling Specialization Lv.30. His brow furrowed. This ability had been upgraded to Lv.30, but no additional ability had appeared. To think, back then, Blade Specialization had only been upgraded to Lv.10 before an additional ability appeared.
In fact, Su Xiao had been stuck in a misconception. His blade ability was not obtained through a skill scroll but was one of the core abilities attached to the Shadow of Law Destruction profession.