Chapter 49: Slaughter
Su Xiao quietly waited for the changes in his body. In the past, using enhancement potions was always accompanied by excruciating pain. But after undergoing the baptism of talent awakening, he now only smiled slightly at the pain of enhancement, absolutely not twitching.
Five minutes later, Su Xiao suddenly laughed. Bubu Wang beside him was startled, his gaze seeming to say, "Master, what's wrong with you? That sudden smile is terrifying. Don't scare me."
"Hahaha."
Su Xiao laughed uncharacteristically loudly, causing Bubu Wang to bristle in fright.
"I'm... excited. It should be because of the enhancement potion."
This time, using the enhancement potion didn't produce any pain. Su Xiao only felt his body slightly heat up, and his spirit was excited.
The excitement wasn't too severe a mental change. As long as he concentrated, Su Xiao's willpower was enough to resist this feeling of excitement.
Half an hour later, Su Xiao's expression returned to calm. The excitement faded, and the effects of the enhancement potion manifested. He clearly felt his body becoming stronger.
Clenching his fists, crack, crack, crack—a terrifying power surged within him. Including equipment bonuses, his strength attribute had reached 65 points.
With 65 points of strength, he could do many things. If he threw a full-power punch, he could create a large hole in steel. Of course, this was destructive power without the bonus of skills or weapons.
Fists weren't Su Xiao's forte. If he used a blade to cut, steel would be as fragile as tofu before him. Such was the power of attributes + skills + weapons.
Not only strength increased, but the improvements in agility and endurance attributes also became apparent. More obvious was the increase in neural reflex speed.
Faster neural reflex speed allowed Su Xiao to capture the enemy's movement trajectory, attack trajectory, and so on. Its importance went without saying.
All three items had been put away or used. Su Xiao picked up the last item. It was a weapon, a short blade about 50 centimeters long, gleaming with cold light.
This short blade had a straight body, no guard, and the handle was wrapped in some kind of animal skin, black in color. It felt very comfortable to grip. The entire blade had a perfect center of gravity and was not light in weight, but with Su Xiao's strength attribute, it felt very light and handy.
[Slaughter]
Origin: Fate/Zero · Holy Church
Quality: Gold
Category: Short Blade, Secondary Weapon (Length 52.8cm, Width 3.1cm)
Material: Meteorite Alloy, High-Strength Titanium Metal, Moonlight Essence, Mithril.
Durability: 92/92
Attack Power: 115～193
Equipment Requirements: Strength 30 points, Agility 47 points, Willpower 18 points, Blade Basic Skill LV.30.
Equipment Effect 1: Throat Slit (Passive) — When slitting the throat of any living creature, additional damage is inflicted.
Tip: Additional damage is 50%～60% of base damage. Additional damage ignores body defense and resistance.
Equipment Effect 2: Blood Weeping (Passive) — If a successful throat slit triggers Equipment Effect 1, an endurance attribute check will be made against the enemy. If the enemy fails the check, the Blood Weeping effect is triggered. The enemy will suffer massive blood loss, with bleeding damage per second equal to 4% of the enemy's maximum health. The bleeding effect lasts 10 seconds. This damage has priority.
Tip: If the enemy's health is below 30%, the bleeding effect duration is reduced by 50% (5 seconds), and the bleeding effect is doubled (8% of maximum health per second).
Equipment Effect 3: Moonlight Radiance (Passive) — Sharpness +14, Armor Penetration +10, Penetration +9.
Equipment Effect 4: Quick Switch (Active) — Slaughter was forged for the third generation of the Enforcer Leader. Due to its ominous nature, the third generation Enforcer Leader used it as a secondary weapon. Weapon switch speed +70%.
Tip: Quick Switch (Active) has no cost.
Tip: Quick Switch (Active) has no cooldown.
Rating: 390 (Gold equipment rating ranges from 310 to 400 points)
Description: Ominous, Madness, Jealousy, Rage. Before using Slaughter, be sure to assess your own willpower. If your willpower is too low, the first throat slit will be yours.
Price: 175,000 Paradise Coins.
...
Slaughter spun in Su Xiao's hand, tracing patterns of blade flowers. He directly ignored the warning in the blade's description. He himself wasn't clear on the exact value of his willpower, but it was definitely higher than 18 points. The equipment requirement for Will of Fire was 15 points of willpower. When he equipped Will of Fire, there was no sign of rejection, indicating his willpower attribute was at least above 20 points.
The Slaughter short blade was very sharp, though not as sharp as Dragon-Slaying Flash. After all, Dragon-Slaying Flash was forged by Su Xiao at great expense.
However, the sharpness of this short blade was not to be underestimated. Sharpness +14, Armor Penetration +10, Penetration +9. The combination of these three greatly elevated the blade's sharpness.
"Throat slit, huh."
Su Xiao tossed the short blade in his hand. Although he had always used long blades, his skill with short blades was not weak. His Blade Master skill was at LV.30. If he couldn't even flexibly use a short blade, that skill would be too useless.
Su Xiao decided to keep this blade. The reason was that Dragon-Slaying Flash was somewhat inadequate in close-quarters combat. He had obtained a gold-quality dagger before, but unfortunately, that dagger didn't belong to the blade category. The usage methods of daggers and blade-type weapons were vastly different.
This short blade was not a main weapon but a secondary weapon. Secondary weapons had a characteristic: they couldn't fully receive the bonus of basic skills, only about 90%～95%.
The attributes of this blade were astonishing, but for others, not being able to fully receive basic skill bonuses would make them very unhappy. However, Su Xiao didn't care about this.
Secondary weapons had their advantages. Most secondary weapons had attributes that made them easy to carry or increased weapon switch speed. For example, if he was currently fighting with Dragon-Slaying Flash and this short blade was placed in storage space, if this short blade weren't a secondary weapon, switching between the two would have a brief delay. With the switch speed bonus, this delay could be ignored.
In normal combat with enemies, he used Dragon-Slaying Flash. But when an enemy got close, this blade became a deadly weapon.
One slash across the throat, and even if the enemy was a tank, they would be tormented by the additional damage + bleeding effect, questioning their life choices.
Su Xiao had experienced the awkwardness of being closed in on more than once. Just before, the third-rank contractor Butterfly had gotten close to him. Due to the length of Dragon-Slaying Flash, Su Xiao could only hold the blade in a reverse grip, unable to execute slashes, only able to cut the enemy.
With [Slaughter], Su Xiao would be much more composed when closed in on. Switching to the short blade, he could slash, cut, or stab. Moreover, this short blade was a gold-quality weapon with attributes not inferior to the previously obtained [Bian Family Dagger], even stronger.
The characteristic of [Bian Family Dagger] was poison + penetration, while [Slaughter]'s characteristic was instant death + sharpness. Both had their strengths, but [Slaughter]'s rating was 10 points higher than [Bian Family Dagger], and its attack power was also slightly higher.
Putting away [Slaughter], the gains after the golden chest's flash were truly astonishing, so astonishing that Su Xiao's heart was pounding. With such huge gains, to what extent would his luck be overdrawn? Would he choke to death even drinking cold water?
Su Xiao took a deep breath. Thinking about these things was meaningless. He had already obtained the benefits. Whatever happened next, he could only let fate decide.
Su Xiao looked at the scarlet card beside him. With his current degree of luck overdraft, the possibility of drawing something good was not high.
"Bubu. You do it."
Tossing over the scarlet card, Bubu Wang got up and caught it.
Crack~
A crisp sound came from beneath Su Xiao. The bed he was sitting on collapsed...
Bubu Wang was greatly alarmed. Sitting on the ground, he quietly retreated without moving a muscle.
"Is this the start of my bad luck?"
Su Xiao sat on the bed with its four legs splayed out. He didn't want to go sit on the intact stool nearby. Who knew what kind of trouble sitting on that would cause?