Chapter 96 – A New Hero: Owen

Di Ping closed his eyes, feeling the changes in his body. This time, the physical enhancement was significantly greater than the previous tier-three upgrade. His strength had increased considerably. Previously, each tier-one upgrade had added about 200 pounds to his strength.

This time, he could feel that his strength had at least increased by 400 pounds, double the previous gain. His body's resilience had also grown stronger; he now felt as if a regular knife strike would hardly injure him.

Opening his eyes, he saw the broken sword lying on the coffee table. He picked it up and lightly ran it across his arm. Sure enough, it left only a faint white mark without any blood. He then applied more force, and a shallow cut appeared with a slight trickle of blood.

It was clear that this system functioned differently from the game. After upgrading from tier-one level four, the energy requirement had increased, but so had the strengthening effect. This was a positive development. Di Ping felt that as long as his strength improved, it didn't matter how it was achieved. There was no need to overthink it.

Looking at the displayed information, it was confirmed that he had reached tier-one, level four. Di Ping felt a small sense of pride. He believed he would continue to grow stronger. With the help of the system, even mutated crocodiles or giant eagles would eventually fall under his command.

After calming his excited emotions, Di Ping took out the crystal cores he had acquired earlier from the system's backpack. Once the backpack function was activated, he had placed the cores inside. It was quite convenient, as they disappeared into the backpack with a mere thought.

Opening the small bag, a small pile of jade-like crystals appeared before him. Upon counting, there were exactly 40 pieces in total. He had kept 6 from before, and collected 33 more from the underground market, along with a slightly larger crystal core from the mutated Tibetan mastiff, making the total 40.

He decided to keep the largest crystal core from the mutated Tibetan mastiff and exchange the others for crystal coins. The crystal cores seemed to only be useful for exchanging for coins so far, and Di Ping was in urgent need of crystal coins. Exchanging them all would maximize their value. As for the Tibetan mastiff's core, it was considerably larger than the typical mutated beasts, so he decided to hold onto it for now, unsure if it might have other uses.

"Beep… Exchanging 39 crystal cores for 48 crystal coins!"

After the system's notification, all but the largest Tibetan mastiff core were exchanged for crystal coins. Di Ping checked his total and found he now had 548 crystal coins.

With the task completed and 500 more crystal coins earned, Di Ping decided to use them to recruit heroes using a Legendary Recruitment Voucher.

Excited, he finally had the chance to recruit an S-class hero. He believed 500 crystal coins would be enough. Entering the tavern, he opened the recruitment interface, refreshed it, and selected the option to use the Legendary Recruitment Voucher.

Upon confirming, the recruitment interface was enveloped by a white light. The original heroes began to fade into the light, which grew brighter and more intense. After a few seconds, the light began to fade, and three new heroes appeared in the hero slots.

"Holy... holy..."

Di Ping exclaimed in astonishment, his eyes wide with joy as he gazed at the screen.

"Master! What's wrong?"

Gina, who had been meditating, was startled awake by Di Ping's outburst. She opened her eyes with a concerned look.

"Uh! Nothing, nothing, please continue resting," Di Ping smiled and waved her off, urging Gina to return to her meditation.

Gina gave him a puzzled glance, unsure what had caused her master to act so strangely, but eventually closed her eyes and resumed her sitting posture.

What had shocked Di Ping so much? He had seen not only an S-class hero but also a B-class hero appear. How could he not be thrilled? The third hero, a D-class one, he ignored completely. His eyes were fixed on the S-class hero, who was a warrior named Owen, while the B-class hero was a priest named Moke Reyes.

After some thought, Di Ping decided to recruit the S-class hero first. He wasn't in a rush; he just didn't want to waste the Legendary Recruitment Voucher, fearing the crystal coins wouldn't be enough. He clicked on Owen's avatar and selected the recruitment option. When the required crystal coins appeared, he cursed under his breath. The cost for an S-class recruitment was outrageously high—500 crystal coins. He had originally thought 500 crystal coins would be plenty!

Now, he found himself back to square one. However, he reluctantly spent the coins, choosing to confirm the recruitment. Owen slowly faded away in a burst of white light.

At that moment, on the third floor of the tavern in the base, three pillar-like structures, covered in intricate runes, suddenly lit up. The pillars began to open slowly, and a sphere of light appeared between them, gradually expanding. The white light in the center grew brighter and more intense, while flashes of electricity arced through the air, resembling scenes from a post-apocalyptic world.

The light intensified for about one or two minutes before it suddenly erupted. The explosion of light lit up the entire third floor like daylight. The violent lightning converged in the center before exploding outward, creating a massive sound. Amidst the flashing electric light, a shadowy figure slowly materialized.

The white light began to recede, and the lightning dissipated. Finally, the energy sphere, which had been about ten meters in diameter, contracted rapidly toward the center before disappearing completely. A clear human figure appeared in the middle of the three pillars.

The figure paused for a moment before taking a step forward and walking out of the pillar space. At that moment, Wu An, the tavern manager, appeared at the door of the third floor, smiling broadly as he watched the figure emerge.