Chapter 91: The Goddess of Fortune Smiles
"20,000 Paradise Coins per level, within acceptable range," Su Xiao muttered to himself inside the Skill Upgrade Pod.
For an ability like Goddess's Favor that boosts luck attributes, the upgrade cost was naturally not low.
Su Xiao had experienced something similar before. When he was in the Demon Castle, after completing one of Alice's games, he received a +1 boost to his luck attribute.
However, after all the 'guests' in the Demon Castle escaped, an enraged Alice confronted Su Xiao face-to-face. She didn't seem to do anything to him, but in reality, she forcibly stripped away the luck boost that game had granted him. For this, Alice received punishment from Reincarnation Paradise.
The result was that all the 'guests' Alice had imprisoned escaped. These 'guests,' who had been imprisoned for who knows how many centuries and were filled with hatred, hid within the vast void, ready to retaliate against Alice at any moment. As for Su Xiao, he lost that luck attribute boost.
This taught Su Xiao that such 'permanent' boosts granted by powerful beings were sometimes unreliable. In the end, they were just boosts.
Goddess's Favor was different. Although Su Xiao obtained this ability through the Goddess of Fortune, it had already become his own ability. He needed to invest resources to upgrade it before its effects gradually manifested. Even if the Goddess of Fortune herself appeared, she couldn't strip away this ability from Su Xiao.
It was precisely for this reason that Su Xiao was prepared to invest resources into an ability like Goddess's Favor.
Standing inside the Skill Upgrade Pod, Su Xiao manipulated the virtual panel before him and selected to upgrade the Goddess's Favor ability. He still had 209,920 Paradise Coins left, enough to raise Goddess's Favor to a certain level.
After selecting the upgrade, the Skill Upgrade Pod began operating. Su Xiao's gaze swept around him. He didn't feel anything obvious—upgrading Goddess's Favor was completely different from upgrading Aura Release.
The Skill Upgrade Pod stopped after running for five minutes.
[Goddess's Favor has been upgraded to Lv.2. Do you wish to continue upgrading this ability?]
...
"That's it?"
Su Xiao raised his hands and examined the changes throughout his body. There were no changes at all, or rather, the degree of change was too small for him to notice.
Su Xiao chose to upgrade continuously, and the Skill Upgrade Pod continued running.
[Goddess's Favor has been upgraded to Lv.3.]
[Goddess's Favor has been upgraded to Lv.4.]
[Goddess's Favor has been upgraded to Lv.5.]
...
[Goddess's Favor upgrade halted due to insufficient Paradise Coins.]
Paradise Coins flowed away like water. The upgrade stopped when only 9,920 coins remained. Su Xiao checked the Goddess's Favor ability.
[Goddess's Favor (Passive Skill)]
Skill Effect: Luck Attribute permanently +2 (increased by 1 point).
Tip: For every 10 levels this ability is raised, an additional 1 point of Luck Attribute is gained.
...
Upgrading the Goddess's Favor ability was essentially spending 200,000 Paradise Coins for 1 point of Luck Attribute. It wasn't a loss or a gain. From a short-term perspective, it seemed like a loss, but from a long-term perspective, it was a great deal.
As long as he got incredibly lucky when opening Legendary Chests, then not only would upgrading Goddess's Favor to Lv.20 or even Lv.30 pay for itself with the extra gains from just two or three chests, everything after that would be pure profit.
Su Xiao naturally had to think long-term. He was already developing four attributes, requiring massive resource support. Obtaining resources sometimes required not only strength but also a certain amount of luck.
With his Paradise Coins nearly depleted, Su Xiao didn't leave the Skill Upgrade Pod. Instead, he contacted Bubu Wang and opened the Adventure Team's shared storage space.
From the Adventure Team's shared storage, he took out a 500,000 Paradise Coin savings card. The savings card disappeared in Su Xiao's hand. The skill scrolls were selling well; the first batch alone had yielded over 500,000 Paradise Coins.
[You have received 500,000 Paradise Coins.]
With the Paradise Coins replenished, Su Xiao continued upgrading the Goddess's Favor ability.
[To upgrade Goddess's Favor to Lv.21, 30,000 Paradise Coins are required. Do you wish to pay?]
The price had increased, but Su Xiao still chose to upgrade. One hour later.
[Goddess's Favor has been upgraded to Lv.30.]
Another 10 levels of upgrades. He checked the upgrade cost again. This time, the cost had reached 40,000 Paradise Coins per level.
Half an hour later.
[Goddess's Favor upgrade halted due to insufficient Paradise Coins.]
There was no doubt that upgrading Goddess's Favor was very expensive. Fortunately, Bubu Wang sent a second Paradise Coin savings card.
[You have received 650,000 Paradise Coins.]
Suppressing the feeling of heartache, Su Xiao continued upgrading the Goddess's Favor ability.
[Goddess's Favor has been upgraded to Lv.30. Do you wish to continue upgrading?]
With Goddess's Favor reaching Lv.30, Su Xiao still had 459,920 Paradise Coins left. However, upgrading the Lv.30 Goddess's Favor ability required 50,000 Paradise Coins per level.
This meant Su Xiao had to consider whether to continue upgrading. It was a matter of resource balance.
If he wanted to upgrade, he would have to do it in one go for 10 levels; otherwise, it wouldn't be worth it.
Upgrading Goddess's Favor to Lv.40 would grant a total of 5 points of Luck Attribute. Adding the Lucky King state...
Su Xiao hesitated. His previous Luck Attribute was 2 points, but now it had reached 6 points. With the Lucky King state, his Luck Attribute would reach an unprecedented 10 points.
With this level of Luck Attribute, if combined with certain abilities, it could even be used in combat. Su Xiao had fought against such enemies before. Without exception, these enemies were very troublesome to deal with.
Of course, Su Xiao was very self-aware about his own luck. A high Luck Attribute was good for opening treasure chests, but for combat, it might be unreliable and extremely frustrating.
Stop here. After making this decision, Su Xiao turned and walked out of the Skill Upgrade Pod. He had other abilities to upgrade—Blade Technique, Legendary Gems, new Alchemy formulas—all of which required significant Paradise Coin expenditures.
Upgrading abilities required balance. Blindly focusing on a single ability might look good in the short term, but within two worlds at most, various drawbacks would appear. This was a mistake only rookie contractors made.
[Goddess's Favor (Passive Skill)]
Skill Effect: Luck Attribute permanently +4 (increased by 2 points).
Tip: For every 10 levels this ability is raised, an additional 1 point of Luck Attribute is gained.
...
It was worth noting that although the upgrade cost for Goddess's Favor was very high, Su Xiao finally had an ability that could stably increase his Luck Attribute. There was no doubt that the Luck Attribute was the hardest attribute to increase, bar none. Even True Attribute Points couldn't increase the Luck Attribute.
Su Xiao returned to his Exclusive Room with a large sum of money. Bubu Wang, Amu, and Beini were all in the Trade Market, so the Exclusive Room inevitably felt a bit quiet. When those three were all in the Exclusive Room, it would be very lively.
Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the bed. He took out 20 Soul Crystals (Large) from his storage space. This was the result of who knows how long he had been accumulating.
After waiting for a moment, Bubu Wang placed another 100,000 Paradise Coin savings card into the Adventure Team's shared storage. With everything prepared, Su Xiao chose to upgrade Blade Master.
[Do you wish to upgrade Blade Master? To upgrade this skill, you need to consume 250,000 Paradise Coins + Soul Crystal (Large) × 10.]
Su Xiao naturally chose to upgrade two levels in a row, because when Blade Master reached Lv.50, he would face a crucial decision.
One by one, the Soul Crystals shattered in Su Xiao's hand. His vision blurred, and his entire being was pulled into a spatial vortex.