novelraw Chapter 107-1: Relics and the Hell-Difficulty New Chapter (1)
Chapter 107-1: Relics and the Hell-Difficulty New Chapter (1)
Lin Xun quickly opened his Inventory to check.
[Type-II Relic Fragment (Corrupted Mire): Equipping this Relic will enhance your soul. Soul Enhancement Effect: +10%]
“Huh? Soul enhancement? What does that mean?”
After clicking the Relic Fragment, an equip option appeared.
Lin Xun attempted to equip the Relic.
[You have equipped Type-II Relic Fragment (Corrupted Mire)!]
[Your soul has grown stronger!]
[Your Soul Enhancement effect will synchronize with the Shell you possess.]
[Once your total Soul Enhancement exceeds 50%, your maximum Soul Strength will increase by 1.]
Relics could actually increase the maximum limit of Soul Strength?!Lin Xun hurriedly opened his Apostle Panel.
[Relic: Type-II Relic Fragment (Corrupted Mire)]
[Total Soul Enhancement: 10%]
A thought struck him. He randomly clicked one of the Shells in the Shell Slots.
[You have possessed the Shell of the Blood Sun Paladin!]
[This Shell is now enhanced by your Soul. Shell Strength: +10%!]
His eyes widened, equipping a Relic could directly boost a Shell’s strength by percentage!
There was still one Source of the Apocalypse in his Inventory, unlike the fragment he had just solidified. The Corrupting Blood Sun’s Source of the Apocalypse was in its ultimate form, a reward from achieving an SSS rating.
Brimming with anticipation, he clicked the Book of Salvation once more.
[Would you like to solidify Type-III Ultimate Source of the Apocalypse — Corrupting Blood Sun into a Relic?]
[Warning: This solidification process is irreversible. Please choose carefully!]
[Solidifying…]
[Solidification complete!]
[You have obtained Type-III Ultimate Relic (Corrupting Blood Sun)]
[Type-III Ultimate Relic (Corrupting Blood Sun): Equipping this Relic will enhance your soul. Soul Enhancement Effect: +50%]
The difference between S-tier and SSS-tier was enormous, 10% vs. 50%, a fivefold gap!
No hesitation, he clicked Equip.
A 50% boost was clearly far more impactful than just 10%.
[You have equipped Type-III Ultimate Relic (Corrupting Blood Sun)!]
[Your soul has grown stronger!]
[Your Soul Strength has increased. Current Soul Strength: 3/3!]
Lin Xun was overjoyed. Having just two Soul Strength points had felt incredibly limiting. With this upgrade to 3 points, he no longer had to worry about getting locked out of play due to a soul burnout.
Now he just wondered if the soul recovery speed had improved as well.
Suddenly, he frowned, something wasn’t right.
When equipping the Ultimate Relic, the game hadn’t shown any message about the previous Relic being unequipped.
He reopened the Apostle Panel and looked at the Relics section. Sure enough, there were two Relics present!
[Relic: Type-II Relic Fragment (Corrupted Mire)]
[Relic: Type-III Ultimate Relic (Corrupting Blood Sun)]
[Total Soul Enhancement: 60%]
“Wait… Relics can be equipped simultaneously?”
After pondering for a while, Lin Xun came to a hypothesis.
The labels, Type-II and Type-III, weren’t just indicating the drop source or quality. They might also represent compatibility tiers, meaning Apostles could equip Relics from different difficulty levels.
Which meant, ignoring 0-difficulty chapters (which had no rating), Apostles could potentially obtain and equip one Relic per chapter from difficulty levels 1 through 9!
And if every chapter yielded an SSS rating, and each Ultimate Relic provided a 50% Soul Enhancement, that would be a 450% total enhancement to both soul and Shell strength!
Suddenly, he slapped his thigh.
“Crap! That means I totally screwed up just now!”
Lin Xun had entered the game starting from difficulty level 3. From this point forward, any chapter he entered could only randomly be level 3 or higher.
According to the game’s mechanics, that meant he could no longer obtain ultimate Relics from level 1 or 2 chapters.
“Is this… the downside of having too strong a talent?”
Lin Xun gave a helpless laugh, unsure whether to be proud or frustrated.
Sure, starting at a higher difficulty accelerated his growth significantly, but at the cost of giving up access to Relics?
Wasn’t that price just a little too high?
He had a vague suspicion that this cursed game wouldn’t implement such a harsh rule lightly, but the facts were right there, undeniable.
“Why not just ask Team Leader Li?”
After all, the first Source of the Apocalypse he’d received had come from the sultry, black-stocking superior. She definitely knew the hidden mechanics.
He switched to the Book of Communication in the Library.
This function worked similarly to an email system, players could check messages via the Book of Communication or the Resting Page. It didn’t support live chats or sticker spam like a regular messaging app.
Opening the Book of Communication, four friend requests popped up.
Three of them were from a while ago.
‘Star Glaze’ was the black-stocking office lady – Li Xingyue.
‘Pretty Warrior Girl’ was the short-haired beauty – Ye Xiaoqi.
‘Little White Deer’ was none other than Lu Caiyi.
Lin Xun accepted all three requests without hesitation.
The last one…
‘Chug the Holy Water’
???
[Apostle “Chug the Holy Water” has sent a friend request to your disguised soul imprint “Lord of Cinders.”]
[If you accept this Apostle, he will gain access to your true soul imprint.]
[Do you want to add this Apostle as a friend?]
What kind of joke was this?
Lin Xun instantly hit Reject.
What, did this guy develop some kind of twisted Stockholm Syndrome?
Was he trying to add a “worthy opponent” for mutual admiration?
Or was he looking to spew garbage talk?
Lin Xun guessed it was most likely the last one.
He began composing messages.
To Star Glaze: ‘Team Leader, the Divine Relic worked great. I’ve decided to repay your kindness properly.’
To Pretty Warrior Girl: ‘You keep hounding me to update, yet don’t vote with your Recommendation or Moon Tickets? What’s that about?’
To Little White Deer: ‘Xiao Bai, let’s go for drinks.’
In that moment, Lin Xun felt the same thrill he used to get back when QQ and WeChat first launched, he almost wanted to shake his phone to find nearby users.
Just as he was about to close the Book of Communication, a reply from Li Xingyue came through.
‘Star Glaze’: ‘You cleared the starting chapter already???’
What a coincidence, Team Leader Li was online and playing this cursed game too.
‘Swordsmith’: ‘Just cleared it. About to come report in, boss.’
‘Star Glaze’: ‘That was fast! Come to the office.’
‘Swordsmith’: ‘…’
Did… Did he just chat himself into working overtime? You couldn’t make this up.
Still, this was a good opportunity to ask his superior about the secrets of Relics.
After getting dressed, Lin Xun hailed a cab and headed to the office.
Just as he entered the Cultural Bureau’s front gate, he saw a figure quickly slipping out.
He thought the guy looked familiar, one of the few male colleagues he had. If he remembered right, the guy’s name was something like Fang… Fang Yifei?
Lin Xun was about to say hi, but the guy bolted so fast he vanished from sight.
He didn’t give it much thought and headed straight for the third floor: Team Leader’s office.
As always, Li Xingyue was dressed in her smoking hot office lady attire, clearly she’d been waiting for him.
Without standing on ceremony, the handsome guy plopped down on the sofa beside his superior.
Once you got familiar with the sultry black-stocking woman, you’d realize that her cold and glamorous persona was just a facade. In truth, she was an excellent boss.
She never pulled rank, was considerate toward subordinates, and always tried to secure extra perks for them.
Li Xingyue poured him a cup of hot tea:
“I thought you’d need more time to clear Chapter 323. I didn’t expect you to break through so soon.”
“How’d your chapter rating turn out?”
Lin Xun lied with a straight face:
“I failed to live up to your training, Boss, just an A rank.”
She gave him a sultry side-eye, utterly bewitching.
“The Blood Sun world is notoriously difficult. In the game, worlds like that are categorized as Nightmare Difficulty.”
“Clearing the Blood Sun world already puts you ahead of 99% of Apostles, let alone earning an A rating.”
“I knew I wasn’t wrong about you… It’s just a shame. Divine Relics haven’t been approved for distribution lately. Otherwise, with a few more in your hands, you might’ve earned an S rating.”
See? Not only was the boss gorgeous, she had a silver tongue, too.
Seizing the moment, Lin Xun asked about the deeper mechanics of Relics.