20demayo Chapter 357 is both a whale and a cheater.
Chapter 357 is both a whale and a cheater.
Chapter 357 is both a whale (high spender) and a cheater.
Unlike other ordinary skills, [Soul Nemesis] is a product that incorporates the most advanced alchemy technology of mankind.
It has a unique feature: it can automatically evolve as the professional grows.
When Ark surpassed the apprentice stage and officially advanced to a Black Iron-level necromancer, [Soul Nemesis]...
It was also automatically upgraded to a Black Iron level skill.
Unfortunately, Fangzhou stayed at the Haicheng Military Academy during his apprenticeship and trained peacefully, so he did not fight against the Abyss Demons.
Although I had a few combat experiences, those were all in the environment controlled by the military academy, fighting against captured demons.
In this situation, neither the quantity nor the quality can meet the requirement of raising the [Soul Nemesis] skill from the Perfect level of proficiency to the Instinct level of proficiency.
Therefore, after advancing to the Iron-level skill, the skill's proficiency level dropped from Perfect to Proficient.
[Soul Nemesis] (Iron-tier, Proficient): The latest research achievement of the guardians of human civilization, guiding countless heroic spirits throughout the ages to awaken the boundless hatred for abyssal demons hidden within the souls of human professionals, thereby increasing their combat effectiveness against abyssal demons to a certain extent. The user's affinity with abyssal demons is greatly reduced, damage dealt to abyssal demons below Iron-tier is slightly increased, and damage received from Iron-tier abyssal demons is slightly reduced. The extent of the damage increase and reduction depends on skill proficiency, the number and quality of abyssal demons killed, and their stats.
As Ark examined the information on its attribute panel, an unprecedented sense of urgency arose within it.
The skill combinations and equipment pairings that seemed perfectly reasonable and sufficient during the apprentice stage are no longer applicable at this point.
Many skills and equipment effects are no longer sufficient for the current level, and they need to be replaced or upgraded.
Fortunately, he had accumulated a large amount of soul power and contribution points beforehand, which should be enough for him to spend lavishly.
Fangzhou accessed the resource library of Haicheng Military Academy.
Firstly, for the Ark, the most direct and effective way to improve is to obtain those secret medicines that can enhance basic attributes.
These secret elixirs are designed specifically for Iron-level professionals and can significantly enhance the user's four basic attributes: strength, constitution, agility, and spirit.
Most importantly, they do not cause any side effects and are extremely precious cultivation resources.
Ark was naturally prepared to redeem and use it as soon as possible.
For most students who are short of money, due to the limitation of personal contribution points, they can only live within their means and carefully choose the secret medicine that is most suitable for their career path.
Fangzhou's situation is different. As a highly regarded seed student in the military academy, he is not only exceptionally strong, but also has accumulated a large number of contribution points due to his outstanding performance.
Therefore, while the other trainees were still hesitating over a single bottle of the secret medicine, Fangzhou had already decided without hesitation to take all four kinds of secret medicines for himself.
These secret medicines are quite expensive, each bottle priced at 500 contribution points, which is ten times more expensive than the apprentice-level secret medicines.
The four bottles of secret medicine together cost a total of 2,000 contribution points. Even with the Ark's 30% discount, it still requires 600 contribution points.
This is a huge expense, but for the ambitious Ark, this investment is undoubtedly worthwhile.
Besides the direct attribute boost from the secret medicine, the Ark, after being promoted to the Iron level, also faces the need for equipment upgrades.
As spiritual power evolves and transforms into magical power, the ability to support equipment naturally increases significantly.
He can replace all the gray, low-quality apprentice sets with white, common-quality Nova Mage sets.
In this way, all eight pieces of his equipment were replaced with white, common-quality equipment. He also benefited from the amplification effect of the Undead Orb on undead attribute skills, as well as the Nova Set's set effect of slightly enhancing spell effects and reducing mana consumption.
These changes have clearly enhanced the overall combat effectiveness of the Ark, making it more adept at maneuvering on the battlefield.
However, Fangzhou also realized that as he entered the Iron level, some of the artifacts he had relied on during his apprenticeship were no longer effective due to level restrictions.
Sealing Bone Bell, Bone Shield Crystal, Ripple Ring, and other low-quality gray offensive artifacts did perform remarkably well against enemies at the Apprentice level.
However, when facing Iron-level opponents, their effect is negligible and can be almost ignored.
The low-quality, generic artifacts like the Sighing Flower, the Regeneration Amulet, and the Mirror of the Heart are no longer sufficient for Ark's current cultivation needs and can offer almost no real assistance.
These strange objects, once indispensable companions during his apprenticeship, now lie quietly in a corner, symbolizing a period of growth.
Of course, not all artifacts are rendered useless.
Items such as the Charging Reel, Heroic Banner, Berserker Mark, Small Space Storage Capsule, Sea City Military Academy Seed Medal No. 1, Sky Magic Bottle, and Dragon Summer Blade Medal, due to their high quality, can still provide necessary support for Ark for a considerable period of time.
Of course, if Ark can successfully upgrade his Apprentice Alchemist sub-profession to Junior Alchemist and has sufficient alchemical resources...
Perhaps, under Instructor Su Xinyan's guidance, we can try to upgrade these gray, inferior oddities to white, ordinary quality, thereby extending their lifespan.
In terms of expertise, Fangzhou previously won the championship in the recruit skills competition and received a professional expertise empowerment reward from the Dragonxia Federation Military Department.
On the advice of several instructors, especially Su Xinyan, Fangzhou chose the "Mana Conductor" feat, a common skill for magic users, which greatly increased his mana regeneration speed.
Now that he has successfully condensed an invisible core of magical power and advanced to the Black Iron rank, Ark can begin learning his second professional specialty.
However, this time he will not be able to rely on the initiation technology provided by the Dragonxia Federation Military Department, and must rely on his own efforts to master the new expertise bit by bit.
A glint flashed in Fang Zhou's eyes. Although he no longer had the support of external forces, his attribute panel and accumulated soul power might be able to provide some minor assistance in the process of learning a new specialty.
Fangzhou gently swiped the screen of his personal terminal and entered the resource library page of Haicheng Military Academy.
As a sergeant, he enjoys E-level privileges, which means that on top of his Iron-level strength, he can access more advanced resources.
The Logistics Department's resource pool management rules clearly state that a Black Iron-level professional like him has the right to redeem a professional skill here once.
Therefore, Fangzhou no longer needs to consult Instructor Su Xinyan.
In previous discussions, Instructor Su Xinyan had clearly advised him to choose [Powerful Undead Summoning] as his feat during the Iron stage.
Fang Zhou's gaze swept quickly across the lines of text as he carefully reviewed the list of legal professionals' specialties at Haicheng Military Academy.
Although necromancers don't have many class feats, there are dozens of general feats for spellcasters.
Of these specializations, [Powerful Undead Summoning] is undoubtedly the one that best suits his needs.
It can significantly enhance his summoning abilities, giving him a greater advantage in battle.
Different professional skills require different amounts of contribution points to redeem.
Ark noticed that the [Powerful Undead Summoning] feat requires 1000 contribution points, which is almost the standard price for bronze-level skills.
This is not surprising.
Because skills like [Mana Conductor] and [Powerful Necromancer] are considered common feats.
The corresponding learning materials weren't very expensive.
Beyond these common skills, there are also advanced professional skills that only highly skilled professionals can master.
Learning these specialties not only requires valuable learning materials, but may also require the assistance of some rare resources, thus naturally making them more expensive.
Fortunately, for Ark, the 1000 contribution points for [Powerful Undead Summoning] is not an unbearable burden.
As a key trainee at Haicheng Military Academy, he enjoys a 30% discount and only needs to pay 300 contribution points to exchange for learning materials for this specialty.
This is a very good deal for him.
Fangzhou's gaze fell on his attribute panel, his heart filled with anticipation.
He had just successfully solidified his innate skill, [Summon Undead Creatures], during his breakthrough to the Black Iron realm, which greatly enhanced the effectiveness of his summoning abilities.
Now, with the added boost from the Necromancer class-exclusive feat of [Powerful Undead Summoning] and the effects of the Contract Enchantment affix, even Ark himself can hardly imagine how astonishing the number of undead creatures he will summon will be.
Of course, mastering a professional skill is very difficult for any professional; it requires persistent effort and cannot be achieved overnight.
Even with Ark's natural talent, it would take some time and effort to fully master the [Powerful Undead Summoning] feat.
However, cheaters are an exception.
The Ark has a stat panel and provides some assistance with Soul Power, which might shorten this process.
Fangzhou hasn't received the learning materials for his professional expertise yet, so he's not entirely confident about it.
He then looked at his part-time job as an alchemist.
Since he started working part-time as an alchemist, many instructors have intentionally or unintentionally reminded him to focus his main energy on leveling up his primary profession, necromancer, and not to spend too much energy on his secondary profession, so as not to affect his growth.
Fangzhou naturally followed the instructors' advice.
In any case, during his apprenticeship, he successfully took on the secondary profession of trainee alchemist by expending a certain amount of soul power, and indeed gained some immediate increase in combat power.
Now that his main job has successfully advanced to Iron rank, Ark believes it's time to consider further upgrading his secondary job level.
He planned to learn some advanced knowledge of novice alchemists from Instructor Su Xinyan in order to upgrade his secondary profession level by one level.
This will not only provide him with more auxiliary resources, but also bring more convenience to his future research and practice.
Additionally, depending on the needs, Ark can also try taking on a second secondary profession.
He had quite a few options, including learning the blacksmithing sub-profession from Instructor Huang Qiuyue, learning the array master sub-profession from Instructor Chu Chengxiu, and learning the pharmacist sub-profession on his own using the materials left behind by Gu Yueyuan.
These three side jobs each have their own unique characteristics and appeal.
Blacksmith, formation master, and pharmacist.
Which one should I choose as a part-time job next?
In the end, Fang Zhou simply shook his head slightly, noted the question in his memo, and decided to leave it for a later discussion with Instructor Su Xinyan before making a decision.
Choosing a side job is not only about personal interests, but also about future career path and development potential, so it requires careful consideration.
As for the World Rune, Heart Steel has been successfully upgraded to the second stage thanks to the rune seed split off by Major General Ning Danxin.
As for how to upgrade and strengthen the Night Watch and the Gallows, Ark is already working hard to explore it, so there's no rush.
The next major focus for Arknights is the development and enhancement of its skills.
Especially in terms of the general skills of Black Iron-level mages, there are many new skills that Ark needs to learn.
For example, during the hunt in Cave 1, he longed to obtain the [Friend of Life] and the [Summoning Mage Mount].
These two skills will undoubtedly provide great convenience during exploration.
In addition, there is the skill of "Language Proficiency," which allows users to understand and speak the languages of different races.
This is undoubtedly extremely useful for a mage who often goes on adventures.
Whether communicating with other races or breaking ancient spells, language proficiency will be a great asset to Fang Yu.
These three skills are essential and universal skills for almost all magic users.
Although it doesn't play a significant role in combat, it is extremely useful in the daily life, study, research, and cultivation of practitioners.
Furthermore, Fang Yu had already mastered the skill of "calm and composed" during his apprenticeship.
In the Iron tier, this skill has an even more powerful upgraded version: [Enhanced Composure].
The effect of this skill is simple and direct: it provides stronger mana regeneration capabilities for Iron-tier mages.
Whether in the heat of battle or in the calm of daily training, this skill is indispensable and can be considered a universal skill that every mage must possess.
As for other common skills for Black Iron-tier mages such as [Mana Armor], [Powerful Mage's Hand], and [Mana Missiles], although they are not essential, they are still very important to Fang Yu.
He will then need to accumulate a lot of Black Iron level mage skill materials to advance the apprentice-level skeletal skill tree to the Black Iron level.
In the apprentice archer stage, Fang Yu's main combat mode is to summon a large number of skeletons to form a skeletal army.
Meanwhile, under the protection of the skeleton legion, he used skeletal spears and death ripples as magical artillery turrets.
This tactic was not only effective, but it also achieved remarkable results in many battles.
During the Black Iron Loss phase, Fang Yu did not intend to change this combat mode.