Chapter 52: Basic Passives
The Soul Gaze ability was successfully upgraded to Lv.70. To continue improving it, the cost per level is very high, with each level requiring 500 Soul Coins.
For the current stage of combat, Soul Gaze at Lv.70 is already sufficiently powerful. This ability only undergoes a qualitative change every Lv.10. In other words, to counter Eighth Rank control abilities, at least 5,000 Soul Coins would need to be consumed to raise Soul Gaze.
415 Soul Coins remain. The Goddess's Favor ability doesn't need to be upgraded urgently; there's still a considerable distance to go before reaching 20 points of bare Charm Attribute.
Inside the Skill Upgrade Pod, Su Xiao attempted to consume Soul Coins to improve his Firearms Mastery ability. Although he possessed a Holy Spirit Rank accessory called [Heavenly Walk] that could temporarily elevate his Firearms ability to Grandmaster Lv.10, the duration was too short. It was far less reliable than mastering it himself.
Firearms abilities were either unnecessary or, when the right opportunity arose, could deliver a painful blow to enemies, especially when ambushing multiple foes.
Su Xiao had encountered many "special situations" where enemies charged through his gunfire, trying to close in for melee combat against him, the long-range sniper. This was advantageous for him; he truly wasn't afraid of enemies engaging him in close quarters, but rather worried about them fleeing.
[Yes/No to upgrade Firearms Mastery: Lv.36 (Passive). Upgrading this ability requires 1 Soul Coin.]
Mastery-level abilities were core skills at lower ranks. By the Seventh Rank, the cost to upgrade them wasn't high—relatively speaking, of course.
Su Xiao chose to upgrade continuously by 10 levels. The Skill Upgrade Pod activated, and a wealth of knowledge about firearms flooded into his mind. With his current robust physique, he quickly absorbed this firearms knowledge.
[Firearms Mastery has reached Lv.40. This is the maximum level for Firearms Mastery. To advance to Grandmaster level, a specific scroll is required, or you must negotiate with a plot character who possesses this ability. After meeting specific conditions, the plot character can teach this ability.]
Having spent only 4 Soul Coins, the Firearms Mastery ability hit a bottleneck. Su Xiao didn't have a Basic Ability Advancement Scroll. As for seeking guidance from a plot character within a world, that was worth considering.
To advance to Firearms Grandmaster, finding a Firearms Grandmaster in a mission world would suffice, having them "teach" him. As for the influence of Charm Attribute, there was no need to worry. Su Xiao was no low-rank contractor who had to kowtow to a Firearms Grandmaster; he could easily capture one.
Setting aside the idea of improving Firearms abilities for now, Su Xiao realized something: Soul Coins had more uses than he had imagined. Some things that couldn't be done with Paradise Coins could be achieved with Soul Coins.
For example, using Soul Coins to upgrade abilities either made it impossible to upgrade at all, like Blade Grandmaster, or allowed it to be raised to a very high level, like Soul Gaze.
Su Xiao thought of a very stable method to grow stronger: mastering buff-type passive abilities. Although these passive abilities had no obvious effects, they could strengthen oneself, such as improving physical defense, health points, speed, body coordination, strength checks, life recovery rate, stamina recovery rate, mana recovery, and so on.
If he mastered a large number of such passives and used Soul Coins to raise them to very high levels, Su Xiao would have a foundation that outsiders could hardly imagine.
These [Basic Passives] seemed simple, but the cost to upgrade them was extremely high. Yet, they were the foundation for mastering powerful abilities.
The only difficulty was that such abilities were both expensive and hard to buy. The origin of these abilities was usually hidden areas in low-rank worlds. For low-rank contractors, they would have to risk their lives to obtain a single [Basic Passive Scroll], usually keeping it for themselves. Very few were put up for sale.
As for why Su Xiao didn't obtain a [Basic Passive Scroll] at lower ranks, let's just say the Goddess of Fortune was smiling at him. Law Destroyers were naturally lacking in luck.
Su Xiao now wanted to get a [Basic Passive Scroll], but unfortunately, he didn't have enough Soul Coins—only 411 remained. He felt that no matter how many Soul Coins he obtained, once he started improving his strength, he would quickly become poor. Reincarnation Paradise offered many opportunities to grow stronger, but they also required spending a large number of Soul Coins.
Checking his skill list, he saw the Azure Shadow King ability and decisively consumed 3 Golden Skill Points to upgrade it.
[You have consumed Golden Skill Points ×3.]
[Azure Shadow King: Lv.5 (Ultimate Skill) upgrading...]
The Azure Steel Shadow energy within Su Xiao's body became highly active. First, a tingling sensation spread throughout his body, which gradually turned into intense pain.
An hour later, Su Xiao exhaled a mouthful of turbid air. He clearly felt his body had become much lighter. His vision, hearing, and even perception had sharpened slightly.
[Azure Shadow King: Lv.8 (Ultimate Skill)]
Passive Effect 1 (Swift Shadow): Permanently increases body speed by 1.3 times (increased by 0.3 times).
Body speed includes: movement speed, attack speed, neural reflex speed, etc.
Passive Effect 2 (Azure Shadow King): ...
...
Two more levels, and Azure Shadow King would undergo its first qualitative change. He felt that the current Azure Shadow King was only a preliminary awakening of the Blade of Law Annihilation, with much room for further development.
The remaining Soul Coins couldn't be touched. Su Xiao needed to go to the Land of All Beings to develop the "Secret Technique: Heavenly Flow." Once this ability was successfully developed, selling the "Secret Technique: Heavenly Flow" would bring a substantial profit.
Walking out of the main entrance of the Skill Upgrade Hall, Su Xiao took a gem from his storage space. This gem was called [Fate Stone]. If embedded in equipment, it could increase Luck Attribute by 5 points. If used directly, it could permanently increase one's own Luck Attribute by 2 points. This was a characteristic of a small portion of Holy Spirit Rank gems, and also the reason why such Holy Spirit Rank gems were expensive.
Su Xiao had kept [Fate Stone] for a long time without using it, intending to use it as "bait" to lure the Goddess of Fortune into a sealed space.
The Goddess of Fortune couldn't be killed. If he accidentally killed her and greatly reduced his Luck Attribute, the loss would outweigh the gain. How to capture the goddess was the key.
Su Xiao felt that, with his current Seventh Rank upper-tier combat power, capturing the Goddess of Fortune alive would still be somewhat difficult.
Lost in thought, Su Xiao arrived in front of the Equipment Enhancement Hall. He still had 368 Ba Souls obtained from the Divine Realm. Naturally, he wanted to try using Ba Souls to enhance equipment.
On the ground in front of the Enhancement Hall's entrance, a large area of conspicuous messages was written. Stepping over these messages, Su Xiao entered the Enhancement Hall.
Stopping in front of an equipment enhancement machine in the corner, Su Xiao operated it, and a metal tray popped out on the machine.
Su Xiao had long decided what equipment to enhance with Ba Souls: [Whisper of the Soul].
Using Ba Souls to enhance equipment had a higher lower limit than normal enhancement but a lower upper limit, maxing out at +8.
Ba Souls could only enhance equipment above Epic Rank. [Whisper of the Soul], as a current Holy Spirit Rank secondary weapon, was the most suitable for enhancement. In very narrow terrain, [Whisper of the Soul] was the best weapon to use.
[Yes/No to consume Ba Soul ×1 to enhance 'Whisper of the Soul (Holy Spirit Rank)'. If this enhancement is performed, Whisper of the Soul (Holy Spirit Rank) cannot be upgraded through normal means and can only be enhanced by consuming Ba Souls.]