Chapter 89: Buffs and Debuffs
The surging blood energy caused large sections of the walls in the exclusive room to crack and collapse. Various pieces of furniture shattered, wood splinters flew everywhere, and the carpet on the floor tore apart, scattering in all directions.
"Roar!"
A blood beast formed behind Su Xiao, letting out a roar. The surrounding debris was instantly devoured and annihilated. The once chaotic exclusive room was cleared out, with a layer missing from the walls, floor, and ceiling.
At the center of the blood energy, Su Xiao was covered in dark blue smoke. This was caused by the Devouring Core activating on its own. Among Su Xiao's many abilities, the Devouring Core was the hardest to control. This was even after he had resolved the issue of the Demon Blade's energy. Previously, every time he used this ability, there was a risk of being 'Demon Bladed'. Fortunately, this problem had been permanently solved.
[Prompt: Detected that the Hunter's Charm Attribute has reached -1 point.]
Seeing this prompt, Su Xiao, whose eyes were glowing red, felt much more at ease. This prompt indicated many things.
First, his Charm Attribute had *reached* -1 point, not *fallen* to -1 point. There was a huge difference between the two.
If it had fallen, it would be a complete debuff. Reaching it, however, meant that making the Charm Attribute -1 point was itself a very difficult thing to achieve.
Su Xiao had previously obtained the [Exemption Badge]. This badge could exempt the debuff effects caused when Charm, Willpower, or Luck Attributes fell below 0 points.
Of course, this was for personal effects, such as the reduction of summoning slots. However, the [Exemption Badge] could not exempt debuffs related to negotiation, as these involved external influences.
The [Exemption Badge] had its limits. Once Charm, Willpower, or Luck Attributes reached -10 points, the exemption effect of this [Exemption Badge] would become invalid.
For the current stage, the effect of the [Exemption Badge] was sufficient. Since this type of special equipment existed, it was very likely that equipment capable of exempting penalties from even lower negative attributes existed.
[Because the Hunter's Charm Attribute has reached -1 point, you will be unable to summon all Lawful Good faction summons.]
[Within derivative worlds and primordial worlds, your reputation with the Lawful Good faction will be initially Cold or Mildly Hostile. You cannot negotiate with Lawful Good faction plot characters through normal means (excluding coercive methods).]
[Your summoning slots are permanently -3. Charm Attribute-derived summoning slots: 0/0. True Intelligence Attribute-derived summoning slots: 4/5 (Permanent Summon: Shadow Hunter Beini occupies 1. Followers will not occupy summoning slots).]
[Your summoning slots will fall to 1/2.]
[Prompt: Exemption Badge has been triggered. This debuff has been permanently exempted.]
[You will be unable to wear/use all Charm-characteristic equipment and items, and cannot learn Charm-type skills.]
[Prompt: Exemption Badge has been triggered. This debuff has been permanently exempted.]
[Charm resistance rank -2.]
[Prompt: Blade Grandmaster passive effect has been triggered. The Hunter can exempt this debuff.]
[Prompt: Exemption Badge has been triggered. This debuff has been permanently exempted.]
[The Exemption Badge has completed all exemptions. This special equipment has been consumed.]
...
The [Exemption Badge] floating in front of Su Xiao shattered. Although this badge was a consumable, it provided a permanent exemption effect, which was very rare. As for the debuffs triggered when Charm Attribute reached -10 or below, another solution would need to be found.
With Charm reaching -1 point, there were many debuffs, a total of five. Fortunately, except for the initial reputation decrease with the Lawful faction, all others were permanently exempted.
[Detected that the Hunter's Charm Attribute has reached -1 point. You will gain the following permanent bonuses.]
[Willpower +10 points.]
[Charm Judgment Rank +3.]
[Own Aura Intensity +15 points.]
[Chilling Killing Intent (Passive): When you display killing intent and make eye contact with an enemy, the enemy will be subjected to an unavoidable Willpower forced judgment.]
[If the enemy fails the judgment, they will suffer debuffs such as fear, cowardice, and panicked fleeing. If the enemy's Willpower is too weak, they may fall into a deep coma.]
[Prompt: This ability has no cost and no cooldown.]
[Prompt: This ability will not be included in the skill list and cannot be improved through conventional means.]
[Prompt: If the Hunter releases his own aura, this effect can be triggered without eye contact.]
...
The dark blue smoke on Su Xiao dissipated, and the blood energy was also withdrawn. It had been too long since he had fully released his blood energy, so this loss of control was an inevitable result.
The exclusive room was in a mess. Judging by the extent of the damage, it would cost at least over a hundred thousand Paradise Coins to repair.
Su Xiao felt his own blood energy; it was fine now. He couldn't test the 'Chilling Killing Intent (Passive)' for the time being.
Compared to this ability, which couldn't be improved through conventional means and wasn't even included in the skill list, Su Xiao's Aura Release ability had now recovered, and its characteristics had changed.
[Aura Release Lv.1 (Active)]
Skill Effect: Release your own aura, dealing 860 points of defense-ignoring blood damage to all enemies within 105 meters, and causing the enemy's Stamina consumption rate to increase by +12%, lasting 30 minutes.
Prompt: During the period of accelerated Stamina consumption, the enemy's physical defense will also decrease by 0.5 points per second, up to a reduction of over 45%.
Prompt: This physical defense reduction has priority.
Prompt: This is a non-judgment ability and can only be resisted through aura.
...
Although Su Xiao had already sensed the general effect of Aura Release, he was still in a good mood after checking it. When fighting enemies, he wouldn't need to constantly release his aura. Instead, he would perform a single, ultra-high-intensity blood energy release to break through the enemy's aura defense, causing blood damage while also inflicting a continuous debuff.
It could be said that Aura Release made up for Su Xiao's weakness of lacking a large-scale ability. Although Ring Break was a large-scale ability, it wasn't very effective against numerous small-sized enemies.
Releasing Cyan Steel Shadow Energy had lethality, but it wasn't as high as after burning the enemy's body energy. The current Aura Release solved this problem, and it was a 360-degree, no-blind-spot large-scale damage effect.
Besides killing enemies, blood energy release was even stronger when fighting powerful opponents. Su Xiao wasn't afraid of clashing auras with Ancient Gods, and he had a special technique to enhance his blood energy, so he wasn't worried about his blood energy not affecting the enemy.
With the enemy's Stamina consumption accelerated and their physical defense continuously decreasing, for Su Xiao, who fought with blade techniques, the weaker the enemy's physical defense, the greater his advantage.
As Su Xiao was feeling his own blood energy, *bang*, a broken door slammed onto the ground diagonally behind him. He turned his head to see that in the empty room, Bubu Wang, Beini, and Baha were almost huddled together. Bubu Wang's rapidly vibrating hind legs were particularly eye-catching, while Amu stood in a nearby corner.
"It's recovered now."
"Woof."
Bubu Wang walked out of the room, stunned by the scene before him.
"Repair it."
Su Xiao traded 20 Soul Coins to Bubu Wang, telling him to keep the surplus as pocket money.
Entering the Alchemy Laboratory, which had been specially reinforced and thus unaffected, Su Xiao checked on things. The Void Tree fruit product was fine; he just needed to wait.
Su Xiao planned to go improve his Aura Release ability and take a look at the long-unvisited Ancient Battlefield. The Demon Blade often went to the Ancient Battlefield; he wondered if he would encounter him this time.