A Manure Like Money

Evan logged in on the second day of Soulbound Online and opened his status.

'Status.'

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—Player Description—

Ricochet weapons (C-rank) – Static explosives (C-rank) – Ranged Explosives (C-rank) – Resilience (D-rank) – Heightened Reflexes (D-rank ) – First Aid (E-rank)>

'Rest In Pieces' mastery (C-rank) – Areodynamics mastery (E-rank) – Pyrotechnics mastery (E-rank)>

——Combat Stats——

————Other——–—

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He took a closer look at the combat and specialization proficiencies that had been upgraded after defeating the [Hidden] [Anomaly] F-rank Dungeon that had been raised to a D-rank Dungeon after the system calculations and was awarded an A-rank evaluation as his final score.

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It seemed Raphael deemed Evan worthy of four of these rank-ups to his combat proficiencies after scoring an A-rank Dungeon evaluation. The upgrade from E-rank to D-rank on Resilience was due to acquiring the E-rank [SPC] Soulstone of Resilience that Evan had traded with Mille for 500 Aerth coins the boss slime had also dropped.

Mille needed neither SPC stats nor had a big commitment toward acquiring the Resilience combat proficiency and thus aimed for the coins instead. Though taking reduced damage would be nice, she was a Priestess with already low HP and defenses. Adding a percentage-based damage mitigation bonus wouldn't add much value.

Furthermore, it also made sense that Evan's most used combat proficiencies were the ones to rank up. He recalled having spammed his boomerang and explosives arsenal relentlessly and had dodged plenty of attacks.

In hindsight, while engrossed in combat, he had completely forgotten to use First Aid to heal himself up. When he finally did remember, he cursed himself after noticing that using the skill required Bandages that he'd never purchased. He swore he'd be sure to spend some coins later to keep this option available in the future.

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<'Rest In Pieces' mastery (C-rank):

Your Static explosives detonations can be delayed for +45 seconds. You can set up +3 Static explosives at a time>

Your Ricochet weapons can bounce +1 minimum and +1 maximum times between target(s). Ricochet weapons travel 5% faster>

You are +10% more resistant to Fire damage. Your stagger recovery rate after taking Concussive damage is +15% faster>

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It appeared Evan also received a rank-up to his 'Rest In Pieces' mastery as well as unlocking the two other masteries that his class held.

Unfortunately, the newly unlocked masteries didn't come with the Amber Vizor's +1 rank starting bonus to proficiencies, but beggars couldn't be choosers, Evan thought.

All things considered, he could always increase the proficiencies in future Dungeon raids.

What remained was to distribute his accumulated stat points. He'd leveled up once while fighting slime mobs, and gained another two levels after getting the boss slime EXP, totaling three levels and nine stat points.

He carefully inspected his combat stats.

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——Combat Stats——

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Evan still found no good use for INT and WIS other than strengthening his magical defense or decreasing the chances of being inflicted with magical ailments. He had no MP bar to utilize after all.

He nevertheless decided to put one point into INT and two points into WIS to make his stats more aesthetically pleasing. Whether these random choices would come and bite him would be for him to discover later.

Since his SPC and DPS with special consumables were already relatively high for his level, he decided to round things out by evenly distributing the six remaining stat points into STR, DEF and AGI.

"Now, the last thing to check out," he murmured, and then opened his Inventory, pulled out a mysterious egg, and read the item description.

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A mysterious egg that shows signs of life. It is yet to hatch. (UT)>

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"Oh, well." Evan sighed. "I'll check the forums later."

Now that most things were in order, he strolled toward the nearest marketplace in Cobblestone, sold any random item drops that only took up Inventory space, and restocked on Makeshift Grenades, Unstable Mines, and some low-grade Bandages. He even unwillingly purchased 10 medium-grade health potions.

"That'll be 30 Aerth coins for the potions, adventurer." An NPC doing business with Evan said.

'Damn, that's like twenty or more level 5 monsters worth of coins,' Evan inwardly cursed.

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"Good sir, we have a special offer for your class today. Would you like to have a look?" The NPC merchant gestured.

Explosive consumables were indeed expensive. Evan had already spent around half of his coins! But he figured it wouldn't cost him anything to take a look. He opened the shop window again and noticed that a new tab had appeared next to the consumables tab.

He tapped on the 'Special offers' tab on his user interface and soon noticed two new items on display.

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Evan's devilish right hand was trying to push the [Buy]-button while his celestial left hand tried to pull the former away. The struggle was real. Eventually, his demonic lust was victorious, and his already halved wallet was the one to suffer.

After buying into the merchant's daylight robbery, it was time for Evan to head toward Lord Brickwell's manor to collect his Heroic Merit for completing the [Kill 50 slimes] Quest.