043 Spending Money Like Water
Seeing that the nether energy engine had reached its enhancement limit, and its nether energy pool could only reach 9,000 points, Song Chi secretly wished for a high-quality engine part as soon as possible.
Recalling the original "Atomic Fusion Nuclear Energy Engine" component, its energy pool capacity at lv0 was as high as 5,000 points. If upgraded to lv19, it could potentially reach 30,000 points or more. The current capacity, coupled with its low energy supply efficiency, was insufficient.
With the nether energy pool at 9,000 points, Song Chi estimated that further enhancements to the "Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator" might not be feasible.
However, there was little he could do for now. Just yesterday, he logged into the White Tower LAN and found no engine parts of blue quality or higher in the LAN mall. There were a few white quality parts, but their attributes were average and the asking prices were high. He decided they weren't worth it for now.
After reinforcing the nether energy engine, Song Chi naturally turned his attention to the dark matter energy shield. With plenty of first-order floating land sources and mercury crystals on hand, Song Chi had no intention of parting with them. The orange glory quality parts were sufficient for long-term use, having invested heavily in their early-stage resources and obtaining high cost-effectiveness from them.
Moments later, he strengthened the dark matter energy shield generator component all the way to lv15, spending a total of 200 strands of first-order floating land source and 150 tons of mercury crystals.
Looking at its attributes, the improvement was indeed significant:
Dark Matter Energy Shield Generator lv15
Quality: Orange
Features:
- Shield value increased by an additional 85%
- Shield protection value doubled
Consumption: 60/s (psi energy points)
Protection: 880
Shield value: 16280/16280
Charging: 20s; Buffering after overload: 35 minutes
Required for upgrade: 70 strands of floating land origin (first level), 10,000 nether energy points, 45 tons of mercury crystals
The dark matter energy shield generator, now strengthened to lv15, showed a tremendous increase in attributes, particularly in protection and shield values, which had risen from 380 to 880 and 6080 to 16280 respectively. Such enhancements were considerable, reflecting the high quality of the dark matter energy shield generator and its percentage-based attribute increases at higher enhancement levels.
Despite his desire to continue strengthening the dark matter energy shield generator, Song Chi found himself lacking sufficient psionic energy points. Strengthening from lv15 to lv16 required 10,000 psionic energy points, yet his current psionic energy pool reserve was only 9,000 points.
In light of this, Song Chi shifted his focus to the "Fire Sun Terracotta Tree" component.
This component was currently the only one on the Sky that could utilize first-order floating land sources, aside from the dark matter energy shield generator and the Jinyan hull armor. Song Chi wasn't ready to enhance the Jinyan hull armor yet, so naturally, his attention turned to the Fire Sun Terracotta Tree.
Ultimately, he spent a total of 90 strands of first-order floating land source to reinforce the Fire Sun Terracotta Tree to lv15:
Fire Sun Terracotta Tree lv15
Quality: White
Consumption: 200/tool (psionic points)
Effect: Fire Sun Terracotta Warriors (Summons ten level 15 Fire Sunflower Warriors. They can persist indefinitely while alive, but once slain, they can only be summoned again after 24 hours.)
Required for upgrade: 30 strands of floating land source (first level), 4000 nether energy points
With only 12 strands of first-order floating land source left in his possession, Song Chi wouldn't be able to strengthen other first-order components in the near future.
Having reinforced the two highest-quality components on the Sky, Song Chi then turned his attention to the "White Fire Ship Hull".
Although this component couldn't directly enhance the shuttle's attack or defense, it determined the number of "special component slots" on the fire ship and set the upper limit for the nether energy training platform level. While Song Chi deemed the Nether Energy Training Platform dispensable, he still preferred to have several spare special component slots on the Sky, even if there were no other special parts besides the Fire Sun Terracotta Tree.
Similar to the colorless version, the white fire ship hull's enhancement resource requirements weren't dependent on the fire seed's quality.
To upgrade from lv0 to lv1, only 5 rays of zero-order floating land source and 200 nether energy points were needed.
From lv1 to lv2, 10 rays of zero-order floating land source and 400 nether energy points were required.
And so forth.
In the end, Song Chi spent 225 rays of zero-level floating land source to elevate the white fire ship hull from lv0 to lv9. Technically, he could have raised it to lv10, but after careful consideration, he refrained from doing so.
Upgrading the Xinhuo hull from lv9 to lv10 would prompt the Sky to transition from a psionic shuttle to a psionic airship. While the upgrade itself posed no difficulty given the Sky's foundation, the subsequent risk during alien star field launches would increase accordingly. For Song Chi, who merely sought to safely procure ordinary resources, such an outcome wasn't ideal.
Therefore, he capped the enhancement level of the white fire ship hull at lv9 for now.
Even without immediately advancing to a psionic airship, the Sky's special component slots had increased from an initial 2 to 6 with its enhanced lv9 state.
According to the quality of its own fire seed, the Sky, bound to a white fire seed, would gain additional special slots each time its fire ship hull was upgraded by 5 levels.
Of course, this wasn't set in stone. If Song Chi managed to further enhance the quality of his fire seed in the future, the spacecraft itself would accommodate additional special slots based on the fire ship's level.
With the white fire ship hull strengthened, and still possessing a surplus of zero-level floating land essence, Song Chi then turned his attention to the "Golden Rock Ship Armor" that had yet to be reinforced.
As a white-quality ship armor component, its cost-effectiveness in enhancement remained impressive. However, due to its overlap with the dark matter energy shield generator, it hadn't been a priority for Song Chi's immediate enhancement list.