Volume 2 Chapter 55: Expanding Content

With additions like the Exchange List, Title System, Job Skills, and Combat Model, Qin Lun’s modified Death Notice could no longer suffice. Luckily, the Death Notice itself was just special equipment that managed Apostle Soul Marks and Law Bodies. It could change based on its master’s thoughts.

Qin Lun quickly made some changes to the Death Notice considering these new additions.

The modified Death Notice now resembled an Optical Computer interface. On the far left appeared a row of icons. On the right sat an automatically updating info panel. The first icon was Character Status. Below that, icons included Storage Space, Equipment, Skills, Exchange List, Titles, Combat Model, and more.

Opening the Character Status icon revealed the original 3D character projection, plus three gauges: Vitality, Stamina, and Soul Lifespan. Their values were 165, 165, and 100, respectively. Qin Lun knew. The Sacred Spirit Potion accounted for 15 points each on Vitality and Stamina. The remaining 50 points were surely the result of this Law Body enhancement.

Actually, Law Body enhancement went beyond just Vitality and Stamina values. Strength, nerve reactions, agility, and the body’s sensitivity to the outside world all saw huge improvements. But the original Death Notice only had three data points. It didn’t turn other Law Body aspects into numbers, so they couldn’t reflect on the 3D projection.

After this body enhancement, Qin Lun realized just three physical stats couldn’t build a thorough Combat Model. So, summarizing past fights, he made several body attributes show up as data in the Death Notice.

First was Explosive Power. Qin Lun planned to base its numerical value on muscle-bone strength plus the blood volume the heart supplied per beat, combined with upcoming test data.

Second was Agility. Qin Lun felt the Agility attribute of a Law Body should cover nerve reaction speed, physical flexibility, balance, and such. In truth, combining Agility and Explosive Power directly gave movement speed, attack speed, and damage capability for body parts.

Third was Constitution. Unlike Explosive Power or Agility, Qin Lun saw this as a passive attribute. It combined the Law Body’s ability to withstand hits, recover from damage, and resist abnormal states. Abnormal states referred to things like paralysis, unconsciousness, immobility, cold, heat, and other negative reactions.

Fourth was Perception. Qin Lun linked this temporarily only to sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, and intuition. Intuition was hardest to test among these senses. But as his real battle experience grew, he vaguely sensed intuition’s importance. That made him decide to include it.

These four attributes, plus Vitality and Stamina, formed the basic attributes on the 3D projection. They were the personal foundation for building the Combat Model. Qin Lun initially wanted finer details. But his current power level was still weak. Too much detail was unnecessary. He’d wait until his Law Body strengthened sufficiently for that.

Qin Lun temporarily set all four stats at 10 points. But the 10-point baseline was just a daily average. Unpredictable fluctuations could occur with changing hormones and mental states.

Qin Lun planned to access some equipment in Moonlight Forest for extensive Law Body testing. He’d then record the results into the Death Notice. That way, as hormones and moods shifted within him, the Death Notice would also adjust these three attributes. This prevented big errors in the Combat Model.

After checking Character Status, Qin Lun clicked the Equipment icon. Within lay only three items: the Dagger of Sin, the Wind Spirit Crossbow, and the newly rewarded Dark Gold Equipment.

Unlocking the Equipment system boosted Qin Lun’s understanding of Spiritual Equipment. The Shattered Starry Sky’s equipment system named Wind Spirit Crossbow deep blue Spiritual Equipment. Dagger of Sin belonged under the separate Life-Taking Relic equipment system.

But besides simple material and quality notes, neither Wind Spirit Crossbow nor Dagger of Sin showed attack power values. Thinking about it, it made sense. The same weapon acted differently against various creatures under different circumstances. A simple number couldn’t possibly represent its attack power.

Wind Spirit Crossbow had an Infinite Bolts ability. It relied on Magic Crystals to shoot Wind Blades. As long as Magic Crystals remained, bolts of course were unlimited. Dagger of Sin possessed a Soul Devour equipment ability. Sadly, it could only consume Souls of lower-tier creatures and middle-tier creatures who’d lost their will to fight.

As for Shattered Starry Sky’s separate categories for Spiritual Equipment and Life-Taking Relics, Qin Lun qualified to check now. He’d earned 35 contribution points and gained the Formal Apostle title.

Within Shattered Starry Sky, equipment Apostles could bring into Other Worlds largely fell into two types. The first was standard Spiritual Equipment, such as Wind Spirit Crossbow. The lowest quality here was white equipment. White equipment didn’t mean a white item; it was a quality grade.

Within the limits of tech and magic levels, white equipment could be taken to Other Worlds. But this Spiritual Equipment relied only on its base materials, with no added powers. Above white equipment came blue equipment with unique properties, like Wind Spirit Crossbow’s Infinite Bolts ability.

Above blue equipment were purple and Dark Gold items. These high-level pieces had two or more special properties. However, even as an Apostle, Qin Lun knew purple or Dark Gold gear wasn’t automatically better than blue.

Sometimes, a blue item’s single special trait could be incredibly powerful—even superior to Dark Gold items boasting several traits. So only equipment that fit was truly good. Focusing solely on gear quality was pointless.

Above Dark Gold lay Legendary Equipment, Divine Artifacts, and more. Qin Lun lacked sufficient rights for detailed explanations on those.

Beyond regular Spiritual Equipment, Shattered Starry Sky possessed another abnormal category: Life-Taking Relics. Life-Taking Relics were another form of Spiritual Equipment. But their spirit didn’t form naturally. It sprouted by consuming Soul power from intelligent lifeforms.

Life-Taking Relics were murderous tools. If their master held ideals of righteousness and kindness, they aligned with lawful factions. Otherwise, they fell into evil factions. Divided into nine types overall, any Apostle could use only part of them.

Most Life-Taking Relics were weapons. Fewer were armor or jewelry. Since they could absorb Remnant Souls, their quality kept rising as long as their materials allowed, offering massive growth potential. They were growth-type equipment.

Qin Lun retrieved the reward’s Dark Gold Equipment from Storage Space, inspecting it closely. He already had Wind Spirit Crossbow and Dagger of Sin for range and melee. So this time, he specifically requested defense gear from Shattered Starry Sky.

Perhaps Qin Lun’s mission pleased Shattered Starry Sky. It generously delivered a top-tier shield. The shield was overall diamond-shaped. Its surface was mirror-smooth and sparkling. Made of countless equal-sized hexagonal steel mirrors, it resembled a honeycomb’s cross-section.

Hexagonal Prism Shield (Small Shield)

Quality: Dark Gold

Material: Blue Prism Steel

Weight: 1500 grams

Equipment Abilities: Mirror Reflection, Light Burst, Shield Defense

Mirror Reflection (Passive): Hexagonal Prism Shield held wondrous spiritual energy. It had a chance to partially bounce back spell energy aimed at the shield.

Light Burst (Active): Hexagonal Prism Shield could absorb and store a quantity of light energy. When the holder actively triggered it, a prism-shaped laser shot to attack enemies. The laser caused extreme damage to spectral entities and dark creatures. Additionally, it had a chance to blind creatures possessing sight. Each use required the shield to absorb light for half a natural day to refill.

Shield Defense (Passive): Hexagonal Prism Shield held wondrous spiritual energy. It had a chance to defuse enemy physical attacks via its smooth mirror surface.

Equipment Requirement: The holder needed at least 280 base Mana Value. Without this, all three abilities remained locked. Only the base materials could be used for blocking.

Qin Lun gave a bitter laugh. This shield defended well against both magic and physical attacks. Plus, it had countermeasures. He hadn’t seen many Apostle gears, yet he knew this was top-tier. Sadly, he couldn’t use it. At only 165 Stamina Points, he fell far short of the 280 Mana Value requirement.

Annoyed, he put away Hexagonal Prism Shield. Next, he took out the rewarded Intermediate Skill Scroll. The scroll still had Law seals. Breaking them equaled immediate usage.

Seeing the scroll, Qin Lun revealed an odd expression. This wasn’t a regular Skill Scroll. His understanding was—this was a unique scroll that enhanced skill proficiency.

Intermediate Stress Training Scroll: This scroll must be used while the Apostle trains a skill or attack method. Once used, the Laws within it will extract the most ideal training outcome. The Apostle receives that outcome’s equivalent sensation tens of thousands of times. Thus, the Apostle masters the skill quickly. Effects can reach proficient level.

Through inquiry within his permissions, Qin Lun discovered three grades of such scrolls. They were: Novice Proficiency Scroll, Intermediate Proficiency Scroll, and Advanced Expertise Scroll.

Qin Lun actually didn’t know. In Shattered Starry Sky, proficiency, expertise, and mastery scrolls normally had fixed prefixes. Examples included: Dagger Expertise, Pistol Proficiency, or Long Sword Mastery.

Scrolls like this one—with no prefix that directly turned any skill trained into proficiency—were extremely rare.

This equaled a custom-made proficiency scroll. Some experienced Apostles speculated that only a rare few low-level Apostles performing exceptionally well in their initial Otherworld Missions could meet the hidden condition for Shattered Starry Sky to award such scrolls.

Qin Lun sighed and stashed the scroll. Currently, he only held one Intermediate summoning skill called Mazer Summoning Art. Familiarizing himself with a summoning skill tens of thousands of times couldn’t produce two summons. This scroll, too, was unusable for now.

After reviewing Character Status, Equipment, and Skills, Qin Lun finally opened the Exchange List. Unlike when it first unlocked, the list no longer held just Soul Power Crystal and Gargoyle Core. Instead, rows and rows of items filled it.

After only a short look, Qin Lun felt dizzy. There were simply too many bizarre things. He now knew that only after clearing specific Otherworld Missions would items matching that world’s tech and magic level appear.

Though technology here was limited to the Steam Age and low-magic worlds, the list still held over a thousand pages of items. Items generally fell into six categories: Finished Alchemy Products, Equipment Materials, Energy Crystals, Bloodline Reagents, Recovery Medicines, and Special Treasures.

When Qin Lun got the Gargoyle Core, he learned the Exchange List had huge gaps between buy and sell prices. Take the Gargoyle Core: 500 Shattered Crystals to buy, but only 100 Shattered Crystals to sell—a fivefold difference. This revealed just how stingy Shattered Starry Sky was.

However, when Qin Lun opened Finished Alchemy Products and saw complete equipment, he realized he’d underestimated Shattered Starry Sky’s shamelessness.

A blue-quality alloy crossbow firing flame bolts cost 15,000 Shattered Crystals to buy, yet sold for just 1,500 Shattered Crystals—a tenfold difference. Qin Lun’s hard-earned 13,800 Shattered Crystals couldn’t even afford one blue-quality item!

This alloy crossbow was similar to his Wind Spirit Crossbow. Same quality too. One used Wind Blades, the other flame bolts. Seeing its price made Qin Lun feel far warmer toward Mafa.

He’d previously underestimated Mafa. But by comparison, Mafa seemed extremely generous to him. He finally understood why Mafa called Wind Spirit Crossbow’s counterpart a family treasure.

Whereas finished products were ridiculously priced, equipment materials proved much cheaper. Such a big gap made Qin Lun think. He guessed this arrangement protected this world’s native races.

Apostles found it hard to obtain full gear pieces from other worlds. After all, Shattered Laws fusion crystals were limited rewards. They couldn’t meet the huge gear shortage. Thus, Apostles must find ways for gear inside Shattered Starry Sky. In ancient times, this caused mass extinction of the Sky’s top-life forms.

Afterward, Apostles, facing survival tests, finally had to stop killing en masse. This wasn’t just because surviving top-life went into hiding. Apostles also faced enormous survival pressure. Any spare time went toward combat training, leaving no hours for learning crafting or forging. They needed native races’ help to process materials into various Spiritual Equipment.

Shattered Starry Sky priced finished products so high to scare away Apostles. Why not abolish finished sales entirely? Probably to satisfy occasional urgent Apostle needs. Crafting a full piece took time. Trading markets didn’t always have suitable items immediately available.

In the Energy Crystals category, Qin Lun saw assorted gaseous, liquid, solid energy forms plus gemstones. Some Magic Crystals looked identical to those used in Wind Spirit Crossbow. He wouldn’t need to worry about finding Magic Crystal replacements.

Prices here varied by grade. High-quality crystals and energy needed tens of thousands of Shattered Crystals. Low-quality items and low-concentration energy cost merely a few hundred Shattered Crystals. He could afford those.

But upon opening the Bloodline Reagents category, Qin Lun slowly widened his eyes.

Low-Grade Berserker Bloodline: 70% success chance. Upon activation, all attributes +25%. Berserker state lasts 10 minutes. Recovery takes three natural days. Price: 50,000 Shattered Crystals + 1 Bronze-Level Mission Rating Card.

Low-Grade Shadow Bloodline: …Price: 65,000 Shattered Crystals + 1 Bronze-Level Mission Rating Card.

Low-Grade Blood Clan Bloodline: …Price: 120,000 Shattered Crystals + 1 Silver-Level Mission Rating Card.

[…]

Such awful bloodlines still sold for so much! For Qin Lun’s personality, reading this triggered rare regret.

He wished he had captured a Werewolf or a Vampire in his last world and drained all their blood! Though he likely couldn’t bring that into Shattered Starry Sky, and even if he did, Apostles probably wouldn’t gain bloodline abilities… But just in case? Just in case!

Alright, you win! Qin Lun smirked, expressionlessly skipping past the Bloodline Reagents section.

The Special Treasures category showed grayed out. Qin Lun couldn’t view it. Moving to the Recovery Medicines section, he slowly calmed down and set aside unnecessary emotions.

Recovery medicines offered fairer prices. Likely because Shattered Starry Sky wanted Apostles minimizing casualties in Otherworld Missions. This category probably considered Apostles’ actual purchasing power.

Though some buying limits existed, all stayed within tolerance. Most importantly, low-level Apostles like Qin Lun could still access affordable medicines.

Silvermycin: Injection-type. Restores 50 points of Mana Value over 10 minutes. Price: 1,000 Shattered Crystals. Available only after unlocking Title System.

Carbon-Based Protein Pills: Nutritional supplement. Restores 100 points of Vitality within 15 minutes. Price: 1,500 Shattered Crystals. Available only after unlocking Title System.

Low-Concentration Holy Water: Full-spectrum recovery medicine. Restores 80 Vitality + 80 Mana Value over 3 minutes. Dispels dark-type negative status effects. Price: 3,500 Shattered Crystals. Available only after unlocking Title System. (Warning: Apostles with dark-type bloodlines suffer adverse effects.)

Healing Bandage: Medical item. The bandage soaked in various rare medicines. Boosts Law Body natural recovery by 500%. Promotes rapid healing of external wounds. Ineffective against limb disability/amputation. Price: 2,000 Shattered Crystals. Available only after unlocking Title System.

Self-Healing Crystal: Magical Recovery Item. Holds mystical energies. Reusable until stored magic depletes. Restores Vitality + Mana, heals wounds while moderately countering most detrimental status conditions. Price: 4,500 Shattered Crystals. Requirement: Apostle must hold Tier 2 Title. Alternatively, 450+ Exchange Vouchers can bypass purchase restrictions.

[…]

Many recovery medicine types existed. Yet Qin Lun could only buy items from the first two pages. Still, compared to earlier entries, this section actually proved useful. Qin Lun was content.

After viewing the Exchange List, Qin Lun finally clicked his final target icon: the Title System. It had just activated after this mission.