novelraw Chapter 253: Can You Let Me See Your Face~
Chapter 253: Can You Let Me See Your Face~
[Rift Settlement In Progress...]
[Survivor: You endured the long darkness and successfully passed a dangerous night. Reward +30%
Terminator: You dealt massive damage to the Rift enemy boss in the final stage. Reward +30%
Shadow Beast Harvester: Killed three hundred weak shadow beasts. Reward +20%
Large Monster Hunter: Killed two large shadow beasts. Reward +20%
Fear Spreader: You instilled fear in others. Reward +10%]
Chen Qi opened his eyes and scanned the many scores from the Rift.
Caused fear in others? He also received an extra reward multiplier.
Chen Qi was slightly surprised.
The reward entries he received were even more than he expected.Perhaps, I can get a C rank or above…
It is already quite rare to receive a C rank on a first time participating in a B-tier Rift.
The prompt continued to appear.
[Special Reward Triggered: Mysterious Discovery, you found a little Shadow Weaver. Reward +20%]
Hmm? There is such a hidden score? Chen Qi was shocked.
[Settlement complete, your rating is B-minus, reward: a random card treasure chest, and a small gift from the Shadow Weaver.]
Rating B-minus…
Chen Qi’s pupils shrank involuntarily.
The scoring in B-tier Rifts is more detailed and difficult.
This time, he did not trigger any hidden storylines nor was he the main damage dealer in the boss fight; to ultimately get a B rating was quite lucky!
[Draw a card?]
[Shadow affinity 50%, other affinities 50%!]
Chen Qi excitedly rubbed his hands.
Draw!
[Drawing in progress...]
After a moment, a dark red card appeared in Chen Qi’s hand.
On the back of the card was a dense shadow, within which was a bright red blood blade.
Blade affinity… Chen Qi opened the card.
[You have obtained the legendary basic skill "Dark Flame Fist"]
[Dark Flame Fist Lv1:
Affinity: Shadow, Blade
Description: Promise me, use Dark Flame Fist to burn everything away!!
Learning conditions: Constitution 60 points, mastery of Qi Transformation, minor shadow affinity comprehension, moderate fire resistance.
Effect: Can transform qi into fierce black flames, each punch immensely powerful, causing ‘Dark Flame Wound’ effect.
Dark Flame Wound: Targets hit by Dark Flame Fist suffer greatly reduced defense, recovery, and mental strength.
Note: This fist can be upgraded to level 3. Upon max level, gain overall power enhancement! At the highest third-tier realm, unlock Qi Manifestation: Flame Demon!]
Dark Flame Fist!!
Chen Qi stared at the card in his hand, startled.
This skill is famous among Blade affinity transcendent fighters!
Dark Flame Fist is a very powerful qi skill, definitely top-tier for third-tier transcendent fighters.
Although currently the skill description only shows power plus simple defense breaking, healing reduction, and damage reduction effects.
As a basic skill, just relying on power and defense breaking alone places Dark Flame Fist in the top five basic skills!
In terms of skill power, Dark Flame Fist is at least three tiers stronger than Chen Qi’s previous Shadow Blade Slash! Once mastered, its power triples!
Not to mention the level 2 unlock of Dark Flame, level 3’s Dark Flame enhancement, fire resistance, strength bonus, and finally the Qi Manifestation: Flame Demon!
Chen Qi’s previously mastered basic attack skill Shadow Blade Slash was not strong; its apparent strength came from the powerful stats granted by Ember’s Touch.
Dark Flame Fist is undoubtedly a huge upgrade!
Besides Blade Release, this is the strongest attack skill Chen Qi currently possesses!
Although it is a fist technique, Chen Qi now has Ember’s Touch: Shadow Weaving.
His tentacles can also use qi skills!
The tentacles behind him are most suitable for fist techniques!
Later level 2 Dark Flame can also be used to strengthen blade techniques.
This card draw was extremely lucky!
Good luck... Chen Qi clapped his hands.
Unfortunately, learning Dark Flame Fist requires moderate fire resistance.
Previously, Teacher An’s Celestial Firebird feast gave him minor fire resistance, but it’s still somewhat difficult to learn Dark Flame Fist.
Luckily, moderate fire resistance is not hard to achieve; as long as constitution reaches 50, plus some special food or potions, it’s manageable!
Chen Qi stored the Dark Flame Fist skill card into his Backpack Card.
At this moment, another prompt appeared.
[Do you accept the Shadow Weaver’s gift?]
A gift? Chen Qi was indifferent.
In some Rifts, by interacting with NPCs and increasing favorability, one can receive NPC gifts.
NPC rewards are not uncommon, but since Chen Qi is not a Floral affinity transcendent, he didn’t focus on this.
Such special NPC gifts only come with high favorability.
Otherwise, they are usually scary useless trinkets.
Chen Qi had just violently beaten the Shadow Weaver and had the Deepsea Water Spirit No.1 deal huge mental damage to the little Shadow Weaver!
The little Shadow Weaver, injured both physically and mentally, likely wouldn’t give me anything good.
Accept.
Chen Qi confirmed acceptance, and a tiny furball materialized in his right hand from the darkness.
[Little Shadow Weaver’s Furball:
Affinity: Shadow, Hammer
Item type: Summoning item.
Effect: You can use this token in darkness to summon the little Shadow Weaver to provide special help.
Note: If the summoned little Shadow Weaver takes too much damage, it will return to the Rift.]
Chen Qi was stunned.
Though it seemed ordinary, this was an extremely rare item!
This is equivalent to gaining a free chance to craft top-tier equipment outside the Rift!!
But the Shadow Weaver summoning token is a special item only obtainable with high favorability.
Why would the little Shadow Weaver give me this? Does it like being beaten? Chen Qi was puzzled, hurriedly reading the last description of the item.
[Item message: The little Shadow Weaver thinks you are very handsome, well-dressed, your aura smells wonderful, and your actions are domineering; it is deeply captivated by your charm!]
"Charm..."
I got the little Shadow Weaver’s favor because of charm?
So Shadow Charm really works... Chen Qi touched his forehead, secretly shocked.
On the player forums, many Floral affinity players rely on deceiving NPC feelings to reap rewards.
Charm builds, huh... Chen Qi smiled.
Now he seemed to understand why so many people on forums fight over a mediocre succubus card.
Good stuff! Chen Qi accepted the Shadow Weaver’s furball.
The prompt appeared again.
[The Rift is about to dissipate—]
With the refreshing sea breeze, thick dark clouds gradually dispersed, a ray of pale sunlight gently poured through the Rift in the sky, shining on Chen Qi.
"Phew, comfortable..."
Chen Qi stretched lazily, enjoying this rare warm sunlight.
At the same time, the career task completion prompt finally appeared.
[Traveler, you have completed the career task ‘Night Watcher’.]
[In the land of shadow beast chaos, you protected the initial light; Lamp affinity rating increased.]
[You protected everyone; Scale phase rating increased.]
[Final evaluation: A, you receive 12,000 inspiration points and one Lamp Inspiration!]
12,000 inspiration points!
Chen Qi excitedly clapped his hands.
A huge harvest!
Previously, he had 21,100 inspiration points; the recent kills of little shadow beasts and the Shadow Giant granted 9,000 inspiration points, plus 12,000 now.
He now has a total of 42,100 inspiration points, an extremely high number for a third-tier transcendent!
A super big haul!
Chen Qi sighed with emotion; once at third tier, powerful skill cards consume inspiration points in the tens of thousands.
These inspiration points solved his urgent problem.
Chen Qi did not hesitate, immediately opened the skill card panel, and spent 8,000 inspiration points to upgrade Blade Forging Body Technique.
In an instant, Chen Qi felt his body like a heavy iron block being hammered by countless hot hammers, joints popping loudly!
[Your Blade Forging Body Technique has reached Lv2, Strength +5, Constitution +5! You can now practice Body Forging Technique again to further raise your constitution and strength limits!]
Chen Qi flexed his muscles, feeling the surging strength throughout his body.
His constitution had reached the major milestone of 70 points, and strength reached 58 points!
Of course, for third-tier Blade and Goblet affinity transcendent fighters, this constitution only ranked medium to low.
The recently fought Haige had at least 200 constitution and 150 strength.
Compared to these top transcendent fighters, Chen Qi’s stats still lagged far behind.
However, once reaching third tier, due to greatly increased upper limits, attribute improvements accelerate…
After upgrading Blade Forging Body Technique, his multiple subsequent practice sessions would grant stat bonuses; eventually, constitution and strength both breaking 100 points was just a matter of time.
Chen Qi adjusted his breathing, exhaling a steaming breath.
On the pier, cheers erupted.
Captain Sea Serpent and Melanie also noticed Chen Qi and came over.
Captain Sea Serpent held a stack of bounty lists and asked:
"Hunter, did you gain a lot from this Rift?"
"Yes, the inspiration points I obtained this time are enough to bring a qualitative leap in my skills."
Chen Qi regulated his breathing, calming down.
This guy’s strength is not bad... Melanie was surprised.
At first meeting, Chen Qi appeared just a somewhat capable second-tier transcendent in her eyes.
But now, after just a few days, Chen Qi had risen to third tier, and the domineering aura his body emitted was much stronger.
Is this the genius of the Witch Sea! Melanie mused.
Captain Sea Serpent also sensed Chen Qi’s change, his tone softening:
"Congratulations on reaching third tier! Hunters from afar. By the way, I have some bounty lists here; I need your help."
"Bounty lists?"
Chen Qi and Melanie asked in unison.
Captain Sea Serpent frowned:
"Damn navy infiltrated our island, killed people from Sea God Island. Besides that, on the sea, there are supernovas and that long-missing Black Hunter..."
Chen Qi made a surprised face:
"Black Hunter? That bastard wasn’t whipped to death by the Flower Witch?"
A trace of disdain flashed in Captain Sea Serpent’s eyes, then he said admiringly:
"No, that’s a rumor. I don’t believe the Black Hunter would willingly be the Witch’s slave. No matter how you look at him, he’s a monster who tramples others underfoot!!"
In Captain Sea Serpent’s mind, Black Hunter’s image was enormous.
Then he lowered his voice:
"According to our latest intelligence, they left the Blood Blade Pirates.
He’s back, and stronger. But you don’t need to fear; although the Bishop is gone, Haige is still here."
Melanie asked:
"Any news about the Flower Witch?"
Captain Sea Serpent shook his head:
"Not yet. If the Black Hunter appears, it means the Flower Witch has also appeared. If we can catch those two, we’d be wealthy. Both of you have good intelligence gathering skills; I hope you can provide some clues!"
"Hmm."
Chen Qi leaned back.
"I understand."
Melanie nodded.
After Captain Sea Serpent finished, he went to spread bounty information to others.
Melanie waved goodbye; she needed to study her unfinished book interpretations.
After they left, Chen Qi gazed toward the sea, thoughts drifting with the waves.
Fame is not always a good thing.
The situation is even more complicated than I imagined…
He and the Flower Witch were in dire straits on the sea.
His situation was fine; as long as he didn’t activate Ember’s Touch, few could detect him.
The real trouble was the Flower Witch; the little flowers growing on her head moved, meaning she was easy to spot.
Hopefully, news of both of us appearing will spread slowly across the sea... Chen Qi packed up and headed to his boat.
……
……
The next day, noon.
East of Sea God Island, Sea of Forests, Seal No.3 mobile shipyard.
The huge shipyard of Seal Transport Company floated above the sea, with many ships passing by.
Such massive shipyards are built near Rift-dense sea areas to provide ship repair services to adventurers.
Some dining ships, medical ships, and item shop ships also stay around the mobile shipyard, forming a floating merchant fleet.
“Selling medicine! Potent medicine! Can heal the whole body!”
A cloaked girl stood on a small houseboat, softly calling out.
Unfortunately, after a long time, no customers came.
Ultimately, her boat lacked an official flag; without a flag, no one dared trust her medicine.
Caw! Caw!
Suddenly, a large number of carrier pigeons flew overhead, resting on the mobile shipyard.
White Pigeon Press’s trained pigeons specialize in delivering newspapers.
"Pigeon, one newspaper please."
Seeing this, the girl quickly waved and bought the latest newspaper from the pigeons, opening it to read.
“Looks like there was a Night of Shadow Tide at Sea God Island; hopefully nothing bad happened…”
The B-tier Rift’s Night of Shadow Tide had already caused a sensation across the sea.
Fen was especially worried, muttering to herself as she hurriedly scrolled down.
“First batch of supernovas confirmed! A new era!”
“Sea God and Navy clash! Two legendary naval battles!”
Fen skipped many sections, finally finding the extra report on Sea God Island.
“Black Hunter appeared, alive; truly worthy of his name…”
Upon learning Chen Qi was alive and well, Fen breathed a sigh of relief, revealing a silly smile.
“Black Hunter is actually still alive?”
A cold female voice said.
“Yes! Still alive!”
Fen said proudly.
But then, she blinked.
Wait, who was speaking to her? When did they approach?
Fen pulled her cloak over her face, then looked up.
In front of her was a very simple white steam-powered boat.
Standing on the boat was a heroic-looking girl wearing white hunter clothes, her fluffy short-medium hair stained with blood, seemingly unwashed for days—
Most striking were her icy blue eyes beneath the messy hair.
Fen broke out in a cold sweat; although the woman wore a faint smile, for some reason, Fen felt the woman was as cold as a robot.
Also, Fen had the strange feeling she had seen this woman somewhere before.
“Um, is there something you need?”
Fen pulled down her hat brim and asked softly.
The white-haired woman spoke softly:
“I’m here to buy medicine.”
“Uh, what kind of medicine?”
Fen raised her head slightly; her gaze met the other’s.
However, she was shocked to find the woman’s gaze was like a hawk’s, staring tightly at her!
She wore hunter clothes, was a bounty hunter, and smelled of human blood… Fen swallowed.
Her identity must not be exposed!
Must not reveal... Fen struggled to maintain the natural demeanor of a wandering apothecary.
But the next second, the white-haired woman suddenly leaned forward; the distance between her and Fen’s nose was just four fingers, her blue pupils like a hungry leopard’s!!
She sniffed.
Oh no! Fen’s neck sweated coldly; she tightened her hat brim:
“What’s wrong, customer?”
The white-haired woman stared coldly without blinking:
“You have a very fragrant scent, a familiar scent.”
“Store owner, can I see your face?”