Chapter 350: Chapter 350: Heart of Frenzy, Forge of a Hundred Shapes
The only problem was that the Dark King needed the shadowLaw, which Sterl did not possess. Naturally, he couldn't take the time to slowly comprehend the shadowLaw. Instead, Sterl had forcefully acquired the Core of Shadow through a massive influx of funds.
This item had numerous demons in Hell that possessed related attributes, and the amount Sterl had originally extracted was not enough to give birth to even a single seed of Law after refining.
Thanks to the acquisitions facilitated by the Sosia and Sonis sisters in the Hall of Valor, he barely managed to gather enough resources and even consumed a bit of blood force to directly unlock shadowLaw. The shadowLaw provided Sterl with four significant enhancements.
First, the affinity with the shadow world allowed him to survive in this alternate space for an extended period and gave him the opportunity to recruit some of the beings within it. Second, it offered an increase in shadow attribute power and enabled various explosive abilities derived from shadow energy.
Third, it provided a substantial passive boost and an active enhancement effect for all stealth and disguise-related skills. Lastly, Sterl could create a shadow clone that inherited all of his attributes and skills within the demigod realm, although the powers of Fission and Iridescent-Level skills could not be transferred.
With that, Shadow Stealth was effectively eliminated from his repertoire.
Next came the two Platinum Skills: one was Heart of Frenzy, a pure enhancement skill that required mastery of the laws of frenzy and violence. This skill could provide significant boosts to Sterl's attributes and output. However, both of these laws were relatively rare.
Sterl had successfully stolen the violence Law from a demigod of the main world using a Fate Token and [Consume], acquiring three significant bonuses in the process.
The first bonus doubled the effectiveness of strength assessments. The second allowed him to activate the skill, ensuring that his next attack would be unavoidable for his opponent. The third bonus enabled him to completely destroy the body of an enemy upon killing them, granting attribute bonuses that could triple all his stats.
However, Sterl had yet to acquire the frenzy Law.
The final skill was [Forge of a Hundred Shapes], which enabled Sterl to store and record various attribute panels, requiring mastery of the laws of change and flame. The change Law was even rarer than the blade Law; only a few special races capable of continuously altering their forms had the opportunity to comprehend this Law. Unfortunately, there were no such races present on this battlefield.
[Forge of a Hundred Shapes] primarily assisted Sterl in disguising his appearance. The attribute disguise provided by Star Insight was quite reliable, but the issue was that his facial disguise relied on low-grade equipment crafted from blood force, which was long overdue for an upgrade.
Thankfully, few bothered to see through his true appearance during their assessments; most were focused on detecting his real attributes, preventing Sterl from facing any backlash.
After exhausting all the various loot spheres, Sterl had one final sphere left—the radiant-level Sphere!
However, Sterl found that he couldn't open the sphere at all. It continuously displayed the message:
[Blocked by ???, item cannot be used.]
[Yes/No to activate auxiliary function for unlocking?]
Sterl felt a sense of helplessness, as the option to unlock with the auxiliary function was completely grayed out. After thinking for a while, he realized that it might be similar to the various functions that had been hidden during character creation. He would need to invest points into the game pod core before having the chance to reveal these hidden functions.
It might require a second or even a third cheat evolution point investment to restore them.
He could only hope for the former, as by the time the third evolution came around, he might not even need the items within the Radiant Sphere.
Sterl still had a few more benefits to consider.
In terms of activity rewards, his contribution to the Hell faction's contribution store wasn't enough to redeem an Iridescent-Level ability, especially since he couldn't farm main world players like he did with Hell players previously, needing to avoid the deities lurking around for opportunities to strike. Thus, he decided to hold off on redeeming anything for now.
On the other hand, he directly opened the highest tier of the contribution store in the main world, where he could select one ability. His original plan was to use [Rebirth of All Thoughts] on the battlefield to draw attention, encouraging others to redeem fragments of [Rebirth of All Thoughts]; he would exchange one for each he obtained.
Sterl knew that incomplete Iridescent-Level skills couldn't be learned by regular demigods or Supremes. Therefore, as long as he identified who redeemed the skill, he could wait until the event was over, then hunt them down, using a Fate Token to lock onto the dropped item and secure the final fragment of the skill.
However, due to the pursuit of shadows, this plan had to be abandoned. Sterl was also uncertain if anyone in the main world faction had redeemed [Rebirth of All Thoughts], so he decided to hold off on claiming that reward for now. If he couldn't gather all the fragments of [Rebirth of All Thoughts], he could opt for another reward.
After the main world event entered its second phase, all previous merits were converted into contribution coins. Sterl amassed a total of 58,942 contribution coins from this round. The highest-value fragment of the Iridescent-Level skill in the store was priced at 40,000 contribution coins, but it could only be exchanged once.
Since these were all one-third fragments, Sterl also planned to see if any other players in the main world had redeemed them. After defeating them, he could loot the fragments and redeem the remaining one-third. This way, Sterl ensured he would at least obtain two-thirds of the Iridescent-Level skill, making it a worthwhile endeavor.
Now, there was no rush to redeem anything. Sterl decided to keep 40,000 contribution coins on hand for whenever he wanted to redeem an Iridescent-Level ability. He spent the remaining just over 10,000 on various rare resources that had been difficult to collect in the past.
For example, he acquired potions that increased attribute limits. He also purchased various expedited Law resources similar to the Core of Flame. Such items were incredibly precious; despite having killed thousands of Hell players and demons, Sterl still hadn't gathered enough to obtain even a single seed of shadowLaw.
Next, he acquired various rare potions and escape items, along with a talisman.
[Divine Blessing of Light +]
[Category: Talisman]
[Description: A reward granted to the brave by [Transcendence], redeemable only after accumulating over 30,000 contribution points.]
[Effect: You deal an additional 10% true damage to all non-main world entities, and this damage will be fully converted into your life force.]
The effect of the talisman itself was average, but it held significant commemorative value. It's worth mentioning that despite having killed so many Hell players, Sterl hadn't dropped a single talisman. According to the game's mechanics, talismans could stack infinitely in the inventory, which is why [Transcendence] only allowed players to obtain them one at a time through various task instances.
After organizing all his gains, Sterl's combat power limit had hardly changed, but his foundational strength and attributes had seen a substantial increase. However, he estimated it would take him about another half month to fully digest all the attribute-enhancing items he had acquired.
During these past two weeks, Sterl's point allocation system had been operating at full speed. The first point he allocated was not to anything else but to the [Solidification Method] granted by the Succubus Queen. This was crucial for Sterl to continue causing trouble on the battlefield and to resist divine-level charms.
The final result was beyond Sterl's expectations. He managed to allocate points six times in a row, and by the first allocation, he had already repaired his Platinum Skill into a fragment of Iridescent-Level. Sterl could feel he had gained significant damage reduction and resistance to various anomalies.
Although each successive allocation only slightly increased his damage reduction, his resistance in the realm of mind surged dramatically. The reason for this effect was because this method originated from a Buddhist nation, where monks placed greater emphasis on the refinement of the inner self, treating the strengthening of the body as a secondary concern.
After allocating his points, Sterl felt countless Buddhist teachings ripple through his mind, making him feel as if he had become a high monk. Fortunately, at that moment, the cheat mechanism kicked in again.
Everything that happened after point allocation would only have a positive effect on Sterl. However, the influence of these Buddhist teachings led to a transformation in his state of mind, which was clearly a negative aspect. As a result, the effects of the Buddhist scriptures were suppressed and rendered ineffective.
Sterl only benefited from the resistances provided by the skill, while his mental state remained unchanged, though he felt more calm and composed.
The final seventh point allocation brought about a qualitative change. To Sterl's bemusement, it led to the birth of his first complete Iridescent-Level skill. Since it had been repaired from a fragment, this skill was slightly stronger than an ordinary complete Iridescent-Level skill but was overly specialized.
[Solidification Method (Iridescent-Level)]
[Description: Originally lost scriptures have been extrapolated to completeness under some mysterious influence. However, various contents mixed with skills from the Succubus lead to a bizarre and chaotic state for the entire skill.]
[Effects: Greatly enhances resistance to charm and other mental anomalies, significantly boosts physical prowess and sexual ability, greatly increases damage resistance, and greatly enhances resistance to all abnormal states.]
[Hint: This skill cannot be taught to any unit.]
[Hint: This skill provides additional resistance against charm abilities.]
The skill's description seemed to remain largely unchanged. However, after a brief test, Sterl was astonished. The [Solidification Method] was not compatible with divine authority, so its Iridescent-Level strength was somewhat lower.
But with all his attribute enhancements maxed out and all damage-reduction abilities activated except for [Rebirth of All Thoughts], the passive bonuses from the [Solidification Method] made demigod-level attacks feel like a gentle breeze on the battlefield.
Only supreme-level skills posed a real threat to him. At the same time, he was able to endure hundreds of attacks from demigod-level enemies, completely bypassing all control skills thrown at him!
As for mental resistance, Sterl had secretly consulted Flanda, discovering that her charm had no effect on him whatsoever. Sterl wasn't saying that he wouldn't have a physical reaction to her provocations; the sensations in his body were one thing, but his state of mind remained incredibly calm.
In fact, he even went so far as to switch to a different account, waiting for the Succubus Queen to make her move.