Chapter 46: Purity and Quality
When Su Xiao's vision returned, he was already inside the Skill Upgrade Pod. Bubu Wang, who had been napping in the corner, immediately sat up, his expectant little eyes seemingly asking, "Master, can this Wang go out and have some fun now?"
"Not yet for now."
Su Xiao still needed to craft Apollo, so Bubu Wang, his "mobile blue buff," naturally couldn't leave.
The Aura Release ability couldn't be improved further in the short term. However, compared to checking the Aura Release ability, Su Xiao was more eager to know how his Charm Attribute was doing. He opened his personal stats, and the Charm Attribute of only 16 points came into view.
The Charm Attribute had dropped by a full 12 points. However, compared to the improvement in Aura, these 12 points of Charm Attribute were within an acceptable range.
Su Xiao pushed open the Skill Upgrade Pod and stepped out. Just as he was about to close the personal attribute list, the Charm Attribute suddenly emitted a red light, as if stained by blood energy. Then, under Su Xiao's gaze, the value of the Charm Attribute twisted and distorted, changing from 16 points to 15 points.
Su Xiao's footsteps halted. He had only taken two steps before losing 1 point of Charm Attribute. This made him take a deep breath.
By the time Su Xiao walked out of the Skill Upgrade Hall, the Charm Attribute had dropped to 11 points. When he returned to his Exclusive Room, the Charm Attribute fell from 11 points to 10 points.
Under Su Xiao's watchful eye, the red light on the Charm Attribute faded, turning the same color as the other attribute values.
This wasn't the first time Su Xiao had experienced a drop in Charm Attribute, but it was the first time he had witnessed it firsthand. Looking at the remaining 10 points of Charm Attribute, he let out a long sigh. At least it hadn't dropped to single digits, which was already a relief.
But there was still a problem. Every time he improved Aura Release and absorbed the blood energy from the Ancient Battlefield, it could potentially cause his Charm Attribute to drop. If this continued, would his Charm Attribute fall to 0 points? Or even become negative?
Closing his personal information, Su Xiao felt that the drop in Charm Attribute wasn't too big of a problem. First of all, his Charm Attribute was essentially useless anyway. When negotiating with plot characters, he basically relied on physical negotiation. As long as he ensured his Charm Attribute didn't drop to 0 points, it would be fine. At most, he could convert 1 True Attribute Point into a regular attribute to strengthen his Charm Attribute.
Having thought of this, Su Xiao began to examine the Aura Release ability.
【Aura Release Lv.34 (Active/Passive)】
Skill Effect (Active/Passive): Can continuously release aura within a range of 49 meters. All enemy units within this area undergo a Willpower check. If the enemy fails the check, they will enter a state of panic. The panic state can be dispelled using Mind Purification-type skills.
Tip: If an enemy enters a panic state, Stamina consumption speed +35%, Body Defense -27 points. When the enemy releases a skill, there is a 10% chance of failure.
Tip: As this skill is improved, Aura intensity will increase, and Willpower will be slightly enhanced.
Tip: Due to absorbing a large amount of pure blood energy, Willpower +19 points.
Tip: Due to absorbing a large amount of pure blood energy, Willpower check rank +1.
Tip: Due to absorbing a large amount of pure blood energy, Aura can deal Willpower × 10 Soul Damage to "Aberrant" type enemies.
...
The weakening effect of Aura Release on enemies was becoming increasingly significant. Moreover, a new ability had been added: dealing massive Soul Damage to "Aberrant" type enemies.
So-called Aberrant enemies basically refer to evil spirits, energy-state souls, or ghosts and monsters that are rarely seen in Reincarnation Paradise.
Certain derivative worlds do indeed have ghosts and monsters, but their numbers are scarce. Because of this, Contractors find it very troublesome to deal with such enemies, as they are too rare to justify creating specialized abilities just to counter them.
The new effect of Aura Release served as a kind of insurance, giving Su Xiao a means to deal with evil or unclean enemies when he encountered them. Of course, to date, he had never actually encountered souls or ghosts, though he had faced many undead.
Time passed slowly. Su Xiao still had 1.45 million Paradise Coins left. He had originally thought that strengthening the Aura Release ability would consume a lot of Paradise Coins, but that wasn't the case.
With plenty of Paradise Coins and only 10 Soul Crystals (Medium) left, Su Xiao was a bit troubled. He didn't have many uses for Soul Crystals (Medium) at the moment, but he couldn't do without them entirely.
He did have a considerable number of Soul Crystals (Large), but the problem was that the purity of the two was different, not their volume. Therefore, Soul Crystals (Large) could not be broken down into Soul Crystals (Medium). Soul Crystals (Small) and Soul Crystals (Medium) had the same quality but different volumes, so Soul Crystals (Medium) could be broken down into Soul Crystals (Small).
Soul Crystals (Large) were of a different purity. Even if a Soul Crystal (Large) was shattered, it would become a Soul Crystal (Large Fragment), which could not be converted into Soul Crystals (Medium).
As a hard currency in places like Reincarnation Paradise, the Void, and Primordial Worlds, Soul Crystals (Large) were the foundation. Or rather, Soul Crystals (Small) and Soul Crystals (Medium) were specialties of Reincarnation Paradise, diluted in concentration for use by lower-rank Contractors. Soul Crystals (Small, Medium) and Soul Crystals (Large, Complete) were not in the same purchasing system.
Because of this, there was no exchange relationship between Soul Crystals (Large) and Soul Crystals (Medium). Soul Crystals (Large) were more precious. Compared to the former two, the production of Soul Crystals (Large) was far lower, and their formation conditions were more stringent. Assuming the energy within a Soul Crystal (Medium) was 1 point, then a Soul Crystal (Large) was at least 120 points or more.
But don't think the value of a Soul Crystal (Large) was 120 times that of a Soul Crystal (Medium). Because the two could not be interchanged or decomposed, there were far more low-rank Contractors in Reincarnation Paradise than high-rank ones. Demand determined the market and price. In the eyes of 1st to 3rd rank Contractors, Soul Crystals (Large) were indeed rare resources to be admired, but they couldn't use them. No demand meant lower value. Selling them for Paradise Coins was fine, but wanting to exchange them for Soul Crystals (Medium) or (Small) depended on luck. No one dared to establish such a trading channel; it would lead to bankruptcy.
Contractors who truly needed Soul Crystals (Large) were at least Rank 4 or above. This created a situation where the reference price for a Soul Crystal (Small) was 10,000 Paradise Coins, while the value of a Soul Crystal (Large) was not 12 million Paradise Coins. The target audiences for the two were completely different, and they couldn't be converted into each other, so their values were naturally different. No merchant guild dared to set up a dedicated platform for trading Soul Crystals.
Of course, nothing is absolute. Those idiotic merchants from Red Maple once tried to set up a similar conversion channel. After losing over 5 million Paradise Coins in 2 hours, the platform collapsed.
The reference price for a Soul Crystal (Large) was around 300,000 to 400,000 Paradise Coins. After all, it couldn't circulate among 1st to 3rd rank Contractors. However, its actual transaction price fluctuated wildly. If a high-rank Contractor urgently needed a Soul Crystal (Large) to improve their abilities, even if it was sold for 1.3 million Paradise Coins, the other party would have to grit their teeth and accept it.
If someone tried to exchange four Soul Crystals (Medium) for one Soul Crystal (Large) from a high-rank Contractor, the response would be very consistent: get lost. Sometimes, equivalence doesn't mean interchangeability. The real-time price of Soul Crystals fluctuates too drastically.
This resource was a consumable and a hard currency, but it wasn't as stable as basic currency. In contrast, the purchasing power of Paradise Coins was very stable, rock-solid.
Soul Crystals (Small) and Soul Crystals (Medium) had the same quality but different weights.
Soul Crystals (Medium) and Soul Crystals (Large) had the same weight but different qualities.
Soul Crystals (Large) and Soul Crystals (Complete) had the same quality but different weights.
...
Soul Crystal (Small): Contains Soul Energy 1.2 ~ 1.3.
Soul Crystal (Medium): Contains Soul Energy 11 ~ 12.
Soul Crystal (Large): Contains Soul Energy 1200 ~ 1300 (internal Soul Energy purity is extremely high, requiring strong physical constitution and Soul Strength to withstand).
Soul Crystal (Complete): Contains Soul Energy 12500 ~ 13000 (internal Soul Energy purity is extremely high, requiring strong physical constitution and Soul Strength to withstand).
...
Soul Crystal (Small): Reference price 10,000 Paradise Coins.
Soul Crystal (Medium): Reference price 100,000 Paradise Coins.
Soul Crystal (Large): Reference price 300,000 ~ 400,000 Paradise Coins (price fluctuates greatly).
Soul Crystal (Complete): Reference price 4,000,000 ~ 6,000,000 Paradise Coins.
...
When Su Xiao's Mana Points recovered to around 1000, he began to work on crafting the first Apollo.