Chapter 93: Glory and Slaughter
Su Xiao returned to the rest area, and a large number of prompts appeared.
[Prompt: Your competitor ranking has risen to 10th place. You have received the following rewards.]
[You have received 2 Attribute Points.]
[You have received Victory's Glory (Mark).]
[Victory's Glory (Mark)]
Origin: Reincarnation Paradise
Quality: Special Item
Category: Mark (Usable within 3rd Rank)
Durability: -
Mark Effect: Health Points +150, Mana Points +150, Infrastructure usage cost in Reincarnation Paradise -6%.
Prompt: If the Hunter's ranking increases, this Mark will be enhanced.
Prompt: If the Hunter rises to 1st or 2nd place in the 3rd Rank Arena, this Mark will transform into an Arena Title.
Description: This is a reward for the victor.
Selling Price: Unsellable.
...
The attributes of the [Victory's Glory] Mark were very practical. While increasing Health and Mana, it also saved a large amount of Paradise Coins.
One shouldn't underestimate this 6% cost reduction. It included facilities like rented stalls, the Skill Upgrade Hall, and the Equipment Enhancement Hall. Calculated this way, the Paradise Coins saved would be quite substantial.
Not only that, but this Mark was in an 'upgradable' state. As Su Xiao's ranking within the 3rd Rank increased, the effect of this Mark would become stronger.
When Su Xiao defeated the 2nd place competitor, this Mark would transform into a Title. Su Xiao hadn't heard of what a Title was yet, which showed how rare the means of obtaining Titles were.
Even with his main weapon enhancement broken, Loki Yin chose to fight, all to protect [Victory's Glory].
Loki Yin was also unlucky. He had just put his main weapon into the enhancement machine when he received the match prompt. The result was obvious. With his main weapon enhancement broken, Loki Yin was beaten black and blue by Su Xiao. Or rather, even if his weapon enhancement hadn't broken, he would still have been cut down badly by Su Xiao.
In fact, Loki Yin could have accepted the arena match much earlier, but he kept stalling. First, he wanted to take the opportunity to buy a weapon. Second, he was in a bad mood and left Su Xiao hanging there, intending to intimidate him.
Su Xiao directly imprinted the [Victory's Glory] onto his metal arm guard. However, the other reward for breaking into the top ten surprised him quite a bit: those 2 Attribute Points.
These were 2 normal Attribute Points, unusable for strengthening True Attributes. This made Su Xiao subconsciously open his personal information and focus his gaze on the Charm Attribute. His Charm Attribute... seemed to have a chance of being saved.
Su Xiao was clearly severely unbalanced. His four main True Attributes were all close to 90 points, while his Charm Attribute was still 9 points. A single-digit Charm Attribute was an eyesore.
Defeating the 10th place gave 2 normal Attribute Points. If he fought his way to 1st place, the Attribute Points gained would be considerable. Su Xiao's Charm Attribute... still had a glimmer of hope for rescue.
Su Xiao made a silent decision: to use this opportunity to rescue his Charm Attribute, at least making it reach double digits.
The first arena match ended. Su Xiao was in good condition, so he continued to match opponents.
...
Twenty hours later, inside a ruin of some ancient site.
Su Xiao leaned against a stone pillar. Several bite marks were distributed on his arms, thighs, and other areas, with blood gushing out.
Taking out bandages, Su Xiao hastily wrapped the wounds. This was his seventh arena match in the past twenty hours. Competing against the top ten, each match took about ten minutes to queue for. There weren't many contractors as procrastinating as Loki Yin.
After fighting Loki Yin, Su Xiao realized that the strength of the top ten in the arena wasn't as strong as he had imagined. Or rather, he himself had become stronger.
Before entering the Shia World, Su Xiao's strength had actually already reached the top ten of the 3rd Rank Arena. It was just because of time constraints that he hadn't been able to break into the top ten.
After finishing the Shia World, Su Xiao's strength had greatly improved. His core ability, Blade Master, had increased by five levels. His Azure Steel Shadow ability had also improved, along with his four True Attributes.
The match Su Xiao was currently in was his battle against the 3rd place competitor. His opponent was named White Crocodile, a Summoner. This guy only had one type of summon: a type of giant crocodile.
This crocodile wasn't a living creature in the true sense, but a combat creature cultivated postnatally. This thing had no sense of pain, no fear of death, and all its attributes were around 80 points. The number was always maintained at 10. Or rather, White Crocodile could only summon ten giant crocodiles at a time, but his reserve of summons was very large.
At the start of the battle, White Crocodile immediately burrowed into the mouth of a giant crocodile. Su Xiao killed that crocodile one minute later, but White Crocodile himself was nowhere to be found.
Based on Su Xiao's experience, White Crocodile could freely switch between the stomachs of these ten giant crocodiles. Unless he killed all ten crocodiles at the same time.
Undoubtedly, White Crocodile's ability was disgusting. Heaven knows how many of these giant crocodiles he had cultivated.
Su Xiao had already killed nearly a hundred giant crocodiles, but he still hadn't seen a trace of White Crocodile. Instead, he had been bitten a few times by these crocodiles, which was extremely frustrating.
From the 10th place Loki Yin to the 3rd place White Crocodile, Su Xiao had encountered all kinds of opponents along the way. The contractors from 9th to 5th place had all been taught a lesson by Su Xiao.
The 9th place was a mature lady, a Charm specialist. The result was that she was pinned down and cut by Su Xiao. Before turning into light particles, that mature lady shouted: 'I hope you stay single for the rest of your life!'
Carrying the blessing of the sexy mature lady, Su Xiao then cut down the 8th place. This was a cute-looking girl who kept talking trash during the fight. She specialized in using heavy firearms and really blasted Su Xiao quite a bit. This girl eventually surrendered. It must be said, she was a respectable opponent. After being slashed three times by Su Xiao, she didn't even frown, but kept talking trash. She was a very cute heroine.
As for the 7th, 6th, and 5th places, these were three males. The 7th and 5th places weren't worth mentioning for now. The 6th place male contractor disgusted Su Xiao quite a bit. This guy had an undying constitution, and his Health recovery speed was astonishing. Su Xiao had to rely on the True Damage from Azure Steel Shadow to slowly wear him down to death.
The 4th place brother was the funniest. He should have watched the recordings of the previous matches. When Su Xiao matched with him, he directly refused the match. In the view of this rational-to-the-point-of-coldness brother, the odds of winning against Su Xiao were too low, and it would lead to significant equipment wear and tear. The risk outweighed the reward.
Su Xiao's advance like a bulldozer attracted the attention of many adventure groups. These adventure groups initially thought a dark horse had emerged. But after watching the battle recordings, they found that this wasn't a dark horse, but a ruthless person frantically climbing the arena rankings.
When Su Xiao was preparing to challenge the 3rd place, many 3rd Rank contractors already knew about this news. They naturally paid attention to the same-rank arena.
When Su Xiao fought the 4th place, because the arena didn't provide betting for the top ten, the Black Sail Merchant Guild, smelling a business opportunity, came to open a betting pool. These guys were very experienced and used some unknown means to circumvent the punishment. Or rather, they just endured the punishment. Compared to the profits they could gain, the punishment was within the acceptable range for these black-hearted merchants.
What the black merchants could do, others couldn't. Two medium-sized adventure groups that imitated the Black Sail Merchant Guild had just opened their own betting pools when they were punished nearly to the point of vomiting blood.
When the Black Sail Merchant Guild opened the betting pool, they immediately contacted Su Xiao and negotiated a deal with him. When Su Xiao challenged an opponent, he would give the black merchants the news first. In return, Su Xiao would take a 50% cut.
Don't think this cut was too much. If Su Xiao intended to screw the black merchants, he could definitely make them vomit blood. Moreover, this 50% was the 50% after deducting costs, meaning they split it equally. If they couldn't sign some contract with Su Xiao, the black merchants could be screwed by Su Xiao at any time. Wanting to open a betting pool would be a pipe dream. If Su Xiao deliberately lost a match, he would at most pay a 30-hour waiting time. Therefore, the black merchants agreed very readily.
So far, Su Xiao had earned 370,000 Paradise Coins from the black merchants.