novelraw Chapter 152: Thunder God Again
Chapter 152: Thunder God Again
"White Dragon King, thank you for your help!" Huang Yi said with sincere gratitude. This time, the White Dragon King could have well abstained from doing all this, but not only did it provide a drop of essence blood, it also spent effort and attention to extract those useless Talent Bloods and weaken the potency of this drop of essence blood, so Huang Yi could absorb it. This was pure help.
"No need to thank me! You’re now a member of the White Dragon Clan! There’s an important task ahead, and that is to collect treasures to create an External Incarnation. This is a great aid for our White Dragon Clan. Although it possesses only 50% of your strength, upon death, it can resurrect unscathed. In the future, you can control it to carry out some dangerous tasks! Here is the method to create your External Incarnation, take a look!" the White Dragon King said, and an ancient sheepskin scroll flew out from its body, stopping in front of Huang Yi.
Huang Yi immediately picked up the sheepskin scroll. The writing inside was very ancient, seemingly left by the ancestors of the Dragon Clan, but it was still in the common language of the continent, so he could make it out vaguely.
The beginning of the sheepskin scroll explained the meaning of the External Incarnation.
An incarnation is somewhat similar to an avatar, but they are two different things. An incarnation is more like a treasure, while an avatar is a skill.
Many people possess the ability to have avatars, especially the Holy Domain Warriors. This is also a natural ability that one acquires after reaching the Holy Domain Rank. Avatars generally come in two types. The first type is one that splits off a portion of one’s own strength, like those criminals from the Heroes’ Prison who escape with a split part of themselves. If that part is killed, the original body suffers a loss in strength and requires much time to recover. However, such an avatar has its advantages—it is permanent with no time limit, as long as it doesn’t die, it can continue to exist indefinitely. The second type of avatar doesn’t affect one’s own strength and is akin to summoning temporary virtual avatars. Generally, these avatars do not last long, having strict time limits, and are quite fragile, easily defeated.
As for an incarnation, it combines the advantages of both types of avatars. An incarnation does not impact the strength of the original body and also grows with the growth of the original body’s strength, always maintaining 50% of the original body’s strength. Additionally, an incarnation can exist indefinitely, and for the White Dragon Clan, an incarnation can be resurrected after death, essentially serving as a permanent aid.
However, the process of creating an incarnation is exceedingly complex. The text recorded on the sheepskin scroll is dense and, since the language is archaic, it’s somewhat abstruse and difficult to comprehend, requiring a lengthy period of study to truly understand. Moreover, the materials needed for creating one’s own incarnation are too demanding for an ordinary person to afford.
Huang Yi found a spot to sit down, took a deep breath, completely calmed his heart, and began to study the sheepskin scroll attentively, while Little White Cat lay obediently in his arms, slumbering.
However, as if fate decided to play a trick on him, just when he had calmed his heart to study the sheepskin scroll, a voice suddenly echoed between heaven and earth—
"[System Announcement]: Chinese player [Thunder God] has cultivated one of his War Souls to the 9th Stage, becoming the first player to advance a War Soul to the topmost layer. Awarding Public Prestige 1000 points and obtaining the [Unique Achievement]—[War Soul Mastery], China National Honor Value +1."
This announcement, like a bucket of cold water, slightly disrupted the calm that Huang Yi had just attained!
It was Thunder God, again!
This name, to Huang Yi, bore a powerful oppressive force. He didn’t feel this way towards Dao Feng, but against Thunder God, he felt an unfathomable dread! Now, as a newcomer, Thunder God had actually cultivated his War Soul faster than Dao Feng, Heavenly Dao, and the Pope had. This represented a tremendous leap in strength, and Huang Yi estimated that Thunder God’s power was now fully on par with Dao Feng’s!
These days, Huang Yi had already gained some early information about War Souls from the forums.
Cultivating a War Soul was very difficult; a player would awaken their War Soul after reaching Level Fifty, which would enhance certain Attributes. There were, in total, three Phases to a War Soul, each consisting of three Layers—which meant there were nine Layers!
And the amount of enhancement was easy to calculate: the first Layer would increase an Attribute by 1%~2%, the second Layer by 2%~3%, and the third Layer by 3%~4%, and so on. Each Layer had a success rate, and if unsatisfied, you could reset. For example, if upon reaching the third Layer the player discovered an increase of 3%, they could reset that Layer, and eventually would randomly hit 4%. In this way, if all nine Layers were completed, even if every Layer was at the lowest value, it would still result in a 45% increase in a certain Attribute!
This increase was extremely terrifying, so countless Level Fifty-five players were desperately cultivating their War Souls.
However, the cultivation process was anything but easy, as enhancing a War Soul required Experience Points and Crystals, and even success rates dropped as one climbed higher Layers. The consumption increased, and the probability of success decreased. If an enhancement failed, then the player’s progress for that particular Phase of their War Soul would reset to zero, and they would have to start over. For instance, if a player succeeded in the first two Layers, but failed on the third, not only would the third Layer reset, but also the first and second Layer, forcing them to begin again from the first Layer! If the third Layer was successful, then that player had crossed the First Phase and would start the Second Phase, which included the fourth, fifth, and sixth Layers. If they succeeded on the fourth and fifth but failed the sixth, then the progress from the fourth and fifth Layers would be wiped and they would have to restart from the fourth Layer...
According to forum players, climbing from the Eighth to the Ninth Layer was the most difficult, consuming an entire Level’s worth of Experience Points and three Crystals of the same level as a BOSS, but the success rate was a mere 2%! Should they fail, it meant they had lost the Eighth and Seventh Layers as well!
Top-level players like Dao Feng had been stuck here for two years without success, wasting untold amounts of Experience Points in the process. They had reached Level Fifty one or two years ago, but were still only a little over Level Fifty. All the Experience Points they earned during that lengthy period had gone into War Soul cultivation, yet they still hadn’t succeeded. One can imagine just how difficult it was to cultivate a War Soul to the Ninth Layer. And yet, Thunder God, this latecomer, had taken a step ahead of them, fortuitously awakening his Ninth Stage War Soul! That is to say, one of his Attributes had at least increased by 45%. If this was an Attack Spirit, then he was far too horrifying, having permanently increased his Attack Power by 45%!
This oppressive feeling was unparalleled for Huang Yi, and Thunder God’s counterattack had thoroughly plunged him into the depths of the eighteenth level of Hell. In the system’s selection for the Best Newcomer Award, Thunder God was highly likely to be favored, since even Dao Feng and others had never achieved such a feat!
Moreover, Thunder God had also accumulated two points of National Honor Points by now, standing on equal footing with Dao Feng! The strength he had shown recently was downright intimidating; he had recently become the first to conquer Sun Island, triggering a system announcement, and in no time at all, another system announcement was triggered. It seems that in his quest for the Best Newcomer Award, he was truly giving it his all.
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I apologize for the delay in this Chapter. The concept of War Soul is a very important setup in this novel, so I wanted to take a moment to explain it here. Do not be misled, War Soul is far more complex than this, and once Huang Yi awakens his War Soul, it will be explained in much greater detail.