Chapter 26: Talent
After opening over a dozen wooden crates, they contained weapons, potions of unknown quality, and armor pieces.
After a long selection, Su Xiao set his sights on a blade.
[Blood Blade]
Quality: (Unidentified)
Su Xiao held a weapon similar in style to Dragon-Slaying Flash. This blade was named Blood Blade due to its blood-red edge.
The long blade slowly slid from its sheath. Su Xiao attempted a few slashes, producing a sharp sound of air being rent. The auction house manager, who had been growing impatient, suddenly changed his attitude.
A flash of blade flowers, and the long blade slowly returned to its sheath.
"I'll take this one."
Su Xiao felt this blade was of no low quality, at least something that could pass Reincarnation Paradise's authentication.
"Well..."
The auction house manager's face showed difficulty, as if he had an unspoken problem.
"What is it?"
"It's like this, Mr. White Night. This blade has already been reserved by someone. That guest is willing to pay a high price..."
"Has the payment been made?"
"Not yet, but..."
"If they haven't paid, tell them to shut up."
Su Xiao walked toward the elevator, blade in hand. He planned to stay in the auction house for the next few days.
...
On the twentieth floor of the auction venue, there were many guest rooms. Su Xiao chose to stay here temporarily.
Now that he had joined the Ten Elder Council's faction, their relationship was one of cooperation, so he was destined to be hostile to the Brigade.
According to the original plot, the Brigade would definitely come to rob the auction. In fact, not only the Brigade, but some contractors would also target the auction.
Based on Su Xiao's preliminary investigation, contractors had already begun joining the Ten Elder Council's forces. These contractors didn't conflict with his interests. Although they were in the same faction, Su Xiao didn't plan to interact with them.
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Su Xiao slowly opened his eyes, having completed his daily meditation.
Letting out a long breath, Su Xiao suddenly remembered that he still had two treasure chests in his storage space—one light gold and one purple.
"Let's try my luck."
Su Xiao suddenly felt an inexplicable unease. After all, he had just obtained five soul crystals (medium), and would get five every day from now on. Such a windfall must have consumed a lot of luck.
Taking out the Destiny Redemption lighter, Su Xiao lit a cigarette. After exhaling a puff of light gold smoke, he was blessed with the Lucky King status. At that moment, he felt a mysterious confidence.
[Yes/No to open treasure chest (purple).]
"Open."
[You have obtained 1200 Paradise Coins.]
[You have obtained 5600 Paradise Coins.]
[You have obtained 3400 Paradise Coins.]
[You have obtained 9500 Paradise Coins.]
...
Seeing this series of notifications, Su Xiao exhaled a wisp of blue smoke. Overall, his luck was decent.
Just as he finished opening the purple chest, the bathroom door opened. Bubu Wang walked out, shaking the water from his fur. This guy was very clean and bathed every day whenever possible.
Seeing that Su Xiao was "secretly" opening chests, Bubu Wang quickly ran over, his eyes seeming to say, "Master, how could you not call me for something so fun?"
Bubu Wang sat on the bed, watching Su Xiao open the chest with great interest, because Su Xiao's expressions changed the most when opening chests.
Su Xiao took a deep breath and opened the light gold chest. Given his recent gains, he didn't have high expectations for this chest.
[You have opened the Lord's Chest (Light Gold).]
[You have obtained 20,000 Paradise Coins.]
[You have obtained Talent Book (Page 2).]
[You have obtained Talent Book (Page 3).]
...
[Talent Book (Page 2), (Page 3)]
Origin: Reincarnation Paradise
Quality: Light Gold
Type: Consumable
Effect: Three pages total. Can be combined into a complete Talent Book when all are collected.
Talent Book: A necessary item for awakening talents (Current talent: Soul Devourer).
Rating: 310
Description: Talent Book pages can be exchanged for soul crystals (large). Each soul crystal (large) can be exchanged for one page of the Talent Book.
...
Two pages, metallic in texture but soft to the touch, appeared in Su Xiao's hands. These pages were covered in strange script. Just glancing at them gave him a dizzy feeling.
"Paradise, what is talent awakening?"
Su Xiao's talent ability was Soul Devourer.
Killing Talent (Soul Devourer): Upon killing a target, permanently steal 1–15 mana points.
This talent was simple and practical. As for what talent awakening meant, he guessed it was about enhancing the talent ability.
[Hunter rank under review...]
[Review complete. Providing relevant information based on Hunter permissions.]
[Talent abilities are diverse, divided into common talents, rare talents, special talents, killing talents, etc.]
[Talent abilities range from E-rank to SSS-rank. They have no rank before awakening.]
[Awakening a talent requires meeting the following conditions: Any bare attribute reaches 50 points (Achieved), obtain three S- or above clear ratings (Achieved), Talent Book (Achieved (2/3)), complete the talent awakening mission (Not achieved).]
[After awakening a talent, the talent ability will display its corresponding rank, enhancing existing abilities or unlocking new ones.]
[Talent awakening is extremely dangerous. Over 50% of contractors fail to awaken their talents.]
[Talent awakening is of great significance. Killing talents must be awakened. Reincarnation Paradise will issue a mandatory mission after the Hunter reaches the third rank. The higher the Hunter's rank, the more difficult the talent awakening. The difficulty of the talent awakening mission will exceed the Hunter's rank. For example, if Su Xiao is [Permission insufficient, unable to view further information].]
[Warning: The Hunter must not disclose matters related to talent awakening.]
...
After reading the information provided by Reincarnation Paradise, Su Xiao fell into thought.
A concept he had never heard of emerged: awakening talent abilities. Many signs indicated that talent awakening was a good thing.
Leaving aside the possibility of gaining new abilities, just the enhancement of his current talent was something he desperately desired.
The Azure Steel Shadow ability consumed too much mana. Gaining 100 mana points per derivative world could no longer satisfy him.
From the literal meaning, it was clear that talent awakening was fraught with difficulties and was a highly secretive matter. This time, he had only stumbled upon the two pages of the Talent Book by chance; otherwise, he would never have known about the concept of talent awakening.
Awakening a talent required meeting four points: one bare attribute reaching 50 points, three S- or above clear ratings, a complete Talent Book, and finally, the talent awakening mission.
According to the information from Reincarnation Paradise, Su Xiao needed to fulfill the first three conditions before the talent awakening mission could be activated.
The talent awakening mission was different from a promotion mission. It could be executed in any derivative world. If Su Xiao could collect the complete Talent Book in the Hunter world, he could immediately activate the talent awakening mission.
Unfortunately, not to mention whether Su Xiao had the ability to complete the talent awakening mission, the likelihood of obtaining the Talent Book (Page 1) in the Hunter world was slim. There were no such coincidences in the world. With Su Xiao's luck, the idea of someone delivering a pillow just as he felt sleepy was completely impossible. If he "felt sleepy," he would only be ambushed.
"Talent awakening... ten ranks higher."
Su Xiao felt that the sooner the talent awakening mission was completed, the better. Ideally, it should be done between the second and third ranks to minimize risk.
Putting away the two pages of the Talent Book, he didn't need to worry about talent awakening in this derivative world for now. It was more practical to think about how to deal with the Brigade.