Chapters [87 - 88]

Chapter 87. Life Skill Choices

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The next day, the Demonic Crystal Spaceship arrived at Baqi City in the afternoon.

After getting off the spaceship, Lin Huang went to the Hunter Association along with the carcasses he had with him to redeem credit points. He redeemed a total of 500 million credit points from 1,300 bronze-level monsters. These carcasses were ranked from bronze-level rank-1 to bronze-level rank-3.

Lin Huang did not stay any longer at Baqi City and left the city from the south gate of the foothold once he had redeemed his points. He summoned his Alexandrian Eagle and flew towards Wulin Town.

Lin Huang finally arrived at Wulin Town at around 2.30 p.m.

Upon arriving at Street No.101, Lin Huang saw the house but he was not used to the newly furnished house.

He scanned the Emperor's Heart Ring before entering his house. Lin Xin's shoes were not there as she was at school.

Lin Huang put on his slippers and entered the house. He realized that his house was quite clean, which means Lin Xin did the house chores while she stayed alone at home.

He took a bottle of green leave juice from the fridge and returned to rest on the couch in the living room.

He had been extremely busy for the past 20 days.

He did not have sufficient rest for the past 10 days as he was preparing for the Reserve Hunter assessment. After returning home for around three days, he went to the level-4 wild zone of Wangyou Forest so that he can level up to iron-level. Furthermore, he spent six and a half days at Grimace Valley to polish his Life Power. He would leave early and come home late every day like a machine.

Now that he finally got home, he decided to take a good break before leveling himself to bronze-level.

The Life Power in his iron Life Wheel overflowed and it was not completely stable yet and so he considered upgrading to bronze-level after a few months of rest so that things could settle down.

Upgrading to the next level when the Life Power in his body was unstable would cause a leak in Life Power. Even a mild leakage could cause failure in the upgrade, leading to substantial reduction in Life Power. For serious cases, it could range from a violent rage to an explosion increasing the chances of death.

Of course, there must be a way to reduce the settlement period of the Life Power. It could be done by practicing Life Skills. Higher leveled Life Skills will accumulate Life Power quicker shortening the settlement period of Life Power.

"It seemed like it's the right time to choose a set of Life Skills now." He placed the green leaves juice back on the tea table looked for information on various Life Skills.

There were only three types of Life Skills available in the markets which were low, medium and high level.

The low-level Life Skills were so expensive that one would have to buy it with at least a few million credit points. The price for a mid-level Life Skill was around 30 million and above and high-level Life Skill would cost between 300 to 500 million credit points.

If there were attributes associated with the Life Skill, the price would be 10 times higher or even more.

There was a piece of news he heard about an auction on one of the web pages. It was a high-level Life Skill: Ice Tactics . An anonymous person bought it for 880 million credit points.

As reported by the news, the Life Skill was described as a high-leveled Life Skill imbued with the element of ice. Practicing Life Power with this kind of Life Skill would allow one to use the elemental power with one's Life Power. Once it reaches a certain level, the Life Power would turn enemies into ice., one would carry its ice feature in his Life power. When it reached a certain level, the Life Power would turn enemies into ice.

This description reminded Lin Huang about Xue Luo. However, he was sure that even if Ice Tactics was trained to its ultimate level, it would never be on par with Xue Luo's abilities.

Life Skill that beyond these high-level Life Skills would be the ultimate Life Skill. Life Skills of this level would not be available on the market. It was an item that the members of the royal family would usually fight for. Lin Huang had no clue about its price. It should be at least 10 times the price of a high-level Life Skill or possibly even more.

Lin Huang did not find a suitable Life Skill even after browsing the net for more than an hour.

Lin Huang hesitated for a while and called Yi Zheng as he was best qualified to speak on this issue.

The notification rang twice and a video feed of Yi Zheng's appeared.

"Hey man, are you calling the wrong number? Aren't you supposed to call my sister?" Yi Zheng was wearing a white robe and looked like he just woke up.

"There's something that makes you seem better looking." Lin Huang said.

"Yeah, I like this. I didn't know that you're such a good flatterer!" Yi Zheng looked pleased and said, "You can ask me whatever now."

"I want to know how I should choose a Life Skill and you're the best person to ask for advice about these kinds of things," Lin Huang pleaded.

"I have forgotten that you're iron-level now. Did you kill the Six-Armed Demon or the other monster?" Yi Zhen asked.

"It is the Six-Armed Demon" Lin Huang replied. In fact, the monster that Lin Huang killed was the mutated demon that wore a purple dress.

"I didn't know you were capable of that. You're quite the skillful man!" Yi Zheng sounded surprised.

"Okay, back to the topic. It's actually not difficult to choose a Life Skill. First of all, you have to test the Life Power on your body to check what element it leans towards. Then, choose a Life Skill compatible with the element of your Life Power. However, most people have Life Power without any elemental attributes and will only obtain it later by practicing with Life Skills. In some cases, choosing a Life Skill with similar attributes would be an advantage.

"You must have read the news about the Life Skill Ice Tactics yesterday. For instance, both of them were training for Ice Tactics . If one was born with the Life Power without an elemental attribute, his casting speed for Ice Tactics would be one. Similarly, the speed of Life Power accumulation and the power of Ice Tactics would also be one. However, if another person was born with Life Power imbued with the element of ice which would allow it to sync with Ice Tactics , the cast speed for Ice Tactics would be increased by three-fold or even more by three-fold or more. The same goes for the Life Power accumulation and the activation. Therefore, compatible elemental attributes and Life Skills are pretty important."

"If your Life Power naturally does not have any elemental attributes, I would recommend you choose Army Attack Tactics . Though it is only a high-level Life Skill, if you're able to reach the sixth level, its power would be on par with that of an ultimate Life Skill." Yi Zheng's explanation was very detailed.

"How much would this Army Attack Tactics cost?"

"Why are you asking about the price? Isn't it there's an "Army Attack Tactics" training crystal in the reward given to you earlier? Did you not receive the parcel?" Yi Zheng was curious.

"Which parcel are you referring to?" Lin Huang asked, confused.

"It's the reward for the monster horde incident given by the Hunter Association and the government. It's rewarded to everyone who stayed there to help. Yeyu and I intentionally reported that you're the one who helped out the most in the incident. The leader heard that you're going to upgrade to the iron-level and rewarded you with an Army Attack Tactics training crystal." Yi Zheng explained patiently. "It was sent out a week ago and I just received mine last week. I'll ask for you if you haven't received it yet."

"It's okay. I'll ask my sister about it later because I just got home today. She might have kept it for me. If she didn't, I'll check the location of the parcel via the courier service database." Lin Huang responded and then further added, "Oh yea, you mentioned about the innate attribute of Life Power just now. How do I test it?"

"You're a Reserve Hunter now. It can be tested for free at any of the footholds of the Hunter Association or you could purchase a tester from the net. It's user-friendly and cheap. It only costs tens of thousands credit points. However, I would recommend you take your test at the Hunter Association's foothold because you'll get a detailed report after you do. At the same time, your abilities will be updated as well. Since you've upgraded to the iron-level, you might as well update your personal information." Yi Zheng adviced.

"Alright. I'll spare some time to test the attribute of my Life Power and then decide if I should choose Army Attack Tactics . I'll call you again if there's any other problem."

Lin Huang hung up the phone and immediately bought a Life Power tester from the net because he did not want to update his combat abilities at the Hunter Association. He had been upgraded to iron-level rank-3 without any Life Skills. It would be a big problem to him if the others found out about this.

After placing his order, Lin Xin arrived home from school.

She was so happy when she saw Lin Huang as she entered the house. "Brother, when did you come back?"

"I arrived here at around 2.30 p.m." Lin Huang closed the web page of the news, stood up and walked towards the kitchen." What would you like to eat for dinner? I bought you only the most delicious dishes. Come, have a look and choose which you like."

Lin Xin changed her slippers and saw 10 takeaway boxes as she entered the kitchen.

"What's that?" She pointed at one of the boxes and asked.

"It's fried snake. Its main ingredient is the snake flesh cut into pieces. Its fried and spicy."

"How about that?" Lin Xin pointed at another box and asked.

"Weird tasting Takoyaki. Its main ingredient is squid tentacle with seasonings and are ball-shaped. It's baked and not fried, though."

"How about this?"

"Ghostwhisper. It's ghostwhisper's tongue, cut into thin slices before being fried."

...

After asking about each dish's ingredients, she picked her top three favorites. Lin Huang cooked some rice and heated up the dishes for dinner.

After having their dinner, Lin Huang asked, "Xin Er, have you received any parcels lately?"

"Yes, three of them. One of them is from the Hunter Association while one is the Gun Master game ring. I've unwrapped it. The third parcel only came in yesterday and the sender is a girl. Her name is Leng…"

"Where're the parcels then?" Lin Huang was excited to hear her name.

"The Gun Master game ring is in my room. I've been playing with it these days. I didn't unwrap the other two. It's on your bedside cabinet."

"Oh, I'll have a look at it then." Lin Huang sprung to his room at once.

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Chapter 88. Great Reward

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Lin Huang took out two parcels from the bedside cabinet. The parcel that Leng Yuexin sent him was packaged properly.

There was a storage ring inside the parcel. It was not the one that Li Yanxing had.

There was a small note with a fragrant smell inside the parcel and there were eight numbers written on it. It was probably the password that Leng Yuexin gave him to unlock the ring.

Lin Huang entered the password according to the numbers on the small note on the login page.

Upon verifying the password, an authentication to prove his identity was needed. Lin Huang figured that Yuexin had intentionally set it that way just in case the parcel was stolen or got lost.

Lin Huang scanned his Emperor's Heart Ring and verified his identity. Lin Huang's identity was automatically bound to the system and the storage ring she gave him became his exclusive storage ring.

He immediately checked on the storage ring's internal information.

The storage ring had a very large storage capacity of 100,000 cubic meters. If he were to expand the storage capacity of the Emperor's Heart Ring to this level, he had to spend 100 million credit points for the expansion. The Emperor's Heart Ring that Lin Huang was wearing now was only at 20,000 cubic meters.

Nonetheless, he noticed that only a few things were stored inside.

There were hundreds of complete Life Crystals and thousands of Life Crystal pieces. Along with those were hundreds of weapon rings inside the storage ring.

The last few items in the ring made Lin Huang's breath quicken as these items were placed separately within the storage ring.

There was a black sword that Lin Huang had seen Li Yanxing used before. It was a relic. Aside from the sword, there was a silver armor and a pair of black leather boots.

Lin Huang could neither activate these three relics with his current Life Power nor could it be kept in his body as well but he could use this sword to kill monsters in the future. Though he would not be able to use it to its full potential with his Life Power, its sharpness alone was enough.

A Golden Card was placed not far away from the three relics.

"Is it a Credit Point Storage Card?" Lin Huang looked at the card and immediately recognized what it was.

"Non-binding Credit Point Storage Card detected. Would you like to bind it?" A page suddenly popped up from the Emperor's Heart Ring.

"Bind it."

After a short while, the Emperor's Heart Ring released a beam of light that shone on the Golden Card.

"Scanning of card's information is now complete. Binding… Binding is complete. Would you like to integrate the card into your personal account? After integration, your credit point account will be upgraded to a VIP account and you will be eligible to enjoy discounts on certain merchandise."

"Integrate it then." Lin Huang nodded his head. He trusted items from Leng Yuexin.

"Integration is complete. Your personal account has been upgraded to a VIP account. Your account balance is 38.155 billion credit points."

"38.155 billion?!" Lin Huang's eyes popped. He could only redeem one billion credit points after collecting carcasses for a few days. Lin Huang was shocked to see Li Yanxing's credit point balance.

Lin Huang thought of it again, even billions of credit points and a few relics meant nothing to him. How terrifying was the power of the Leng's family?

The Leng family would definitely know that Leng Yuexin had Li Yanxing's storage ring with her. Otherwise, they would not negotiate with the Li family to unlock the Emperor's Heart Ring. It was impossible that the Leng family did not know that she gave all of the items in Li Yanxing's storage ring to him. Since Leng's family agreed to give him these treasures, it probably meant nothing to Leng's family or perhaps they were a sign of an apology.

After integrating the golden Credit Point Storage Card and the Emperor's Heart Ring, it vaporized and disappeared. He had no idea what was it was made of.

He stored the Credit Point Storage Card and wore the delicate storage ring on his left pinky. He then proceeded to unwrap the second parcel.

The second parcel was sent by the Hunter Association. Inside, there was a black stone, the size of a fist. It contained a thumb-sized crystal chip and a bronze token that was half the size of half his palm.

Lin Huang could recognize that the bronze token was a decree that allowed them to have access to Bronze Hunter related activities. When the token was issued, it would be processed by the Hunter Association and there would be no follow-up procedures.

When Lin Huang received this, he knew that he had been upgraded to bronze-level in the Hunter Association. It was the level of a regular hunter and he was no longer just a Reserve Hunter. He could access all information a Bronze Hunter could.

However, the upgrade did not mean that Lin Huang had become a true Bronze Hunter. Tasks that other Bronze Hunters could take on, he could only see the information and could not accept. He also could not enjoy the benefits given to Bronze Hunters as well.

Aside from the bronze token, the black stone was probably the cultivated crystal for Army Attack Tactics .

Lin Huang was not sure of the elemental attributes of his Life Power. Therefore, he dared not practice it yet.

He then looked at the thumb-sized crystal chip. He only knew that it was a message chip recognized by the Emperor's Heart Ring. Lin Huang had no clue what the inside of the chip contained.

He scanned it with his Emperor's Heart Ring and an image was projected onto Lin Huang's room.

There was a muscular, middle-aged man practicing a set of techniques in the projected image. It was giving off a deadly aura. Lin Huang noticed that each of the attacks were fatal. It seemed to be a military technique.

It took him 20 minutes to complete practicing the technique.

In the projected image, the middle-aged man then began to speak. "The name of this close combat technique is called Fatal Tactic and it's meant to be used with Army Attack Tactic until one reaches gold-level…"

"This combat technique is quite good, though."

Actually, without listening to the man's description, Lin Huang already knew that it was a rare combat technique. With the assistance of the teaching projection, he would be able to master the technique and accumulate the necessary cards. Although he majored in sword techniques, it would be great if he could master this combat skill.

He kept all his stuff in the storage space. Lin Huang got up and walked towards Lin Xin's room on the third floor. "Lin Xin, could you please lend me the 'Gun Master' game ring? I want to assess the current level of my skills."

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