BXBX NOVEL Chapter 41
Chapter 41 Administrator b 4}
He never thought about buying Clairvoyance, and since it was too expensive, it was an easy exclusion. That left a total of two powers that appealed to him: Skill Synthesis and Evolution. For evolution, Yoon-seok had a very negative preconception but changed his mind after hearing Elle’s explanation that his stats would increase by six with an additional buff in his case.
It wasn’t an easily passed-over figure, even more so when it came to his priorities. For example, Yoon-seok needed 1.44 million AP to raise his C-rank agility, yet now he could multiply it by six times. Considering that the total amount of AP Yoon-seok had acquired so far was approximately 1 million AP, he could easily realize how ridiculous Evolution was.
‘Well, after all, they’re both extremely risky.’
Evolution, whose results were unpredictable, and Skill Synthesis that had good synergy with b Predation}. Not knowing what both powers entailed. Nevertheless, Yoon-seok was captivated.
‘High-Risk High Return…no, it’s also a huge risk because the winning bid is many times bigger than others anyway.’
Soon, Yoon-seok made his decision. To gain the power of Skill Synthesis. The reason was simple.
‘Evolution cannot be used unless the gauge is full.’
In Elle’s case, it took her about half a year to do so. But Skill Synthesis had its uses this instant. The idea of creating original skills that could never be found at the store was also an undeniable allure.
「Skill Synthesis is added to your soul.」
1.3 million WP left. Since his biggest concern was out of the way, Yoon-seok purchased the remaining powers he had considered without hesitation.
「Lady’s Commandment is added to your soul.」
「Enhanced Speed is added to your soul.」
Lady’s Commandment was chosen because it had good synergy inside the narrow arena. He was thinking of keeping the remaining 300,000 WP but decided instead to purchase one of the magical powers deemed useful. The candidates he selected at first were all unique and expensive, but these active powers were relatively cheap.
*Enhanced Speed – Can teleport within a 50-meter radius. Wait 600 seconds to re-use. Casts immediately.
It was an immediate trigger, but the cool time was quite long. He bought it thinking that it would be good to use during critical situations.
‘Even if I have remaining APs after excluding Evolution, there’s still nothing to buy.’
Looking through the list for the last time with such thoughts, he turned to Elle.
“You said you could get WP as you get closer to your desire, so what happens to me?”
Elle’s desire didn’t have a definite proposition. He wondered what would happen if the supply and demand of WP were blocked in the future…
“It’s up to the admin’s discretion to pay extra WP according to the desired achievement rate.”
Discretion. In other words, there was a way for an administrator to pay WP to a contractor at random if they decided to do so.
“So you can give me more WP right now?”
An innocent question to find out whether it’s true. However, Elle’s complexion paled as if she had misunderstood.
“I, I’m sorry…I didn’t have much WP because I used my powers earlier. Even if I do give you what’s left, it’s still not enough to buy more powers.”
It felt like he was leeching money off of her. Yoon-seok laughed at the difference in atmosphere from when she sneered at the Heavenly Warrior earlier. Did she misunderstand again? Elle waved her hands and appealed to her needs.
“D, don’t be disappointed. Admins get basic allowances. If you wait for a year, about 1.5 million WP…no, it’ll take half a year if I do extra work!”
He felt like an unemployed, freeloader husband.
“…”
He didn’t know what her extra work was, but Yoon-seok decided not to tell her not to do it.
「Go to the waiting room on the 6th floor.」
「All items below the A-rank available in the store have been unlocked.」
「Challenger profile indicating power and admin status is added.」
「Dimensional Movement: Acquired Skill Plaza b EX}.」
Time ran out after he talked a bit more with Elle, and thus he returned to the waiting room on the sixth floor. Many things happened, but seeing how the fifth floor was a great turning point, no major changes were made to the waiting room. The statue and tablet remained the same. However, the timer for the next duel disappeared.
It wasn’t completely gone, but it just pointed at zero. Yoon-seok wasn’t surprised because he’d heard it from Elle.
‘Is this just the beginning…?’
Yoon-seok calmly swiped through the tablet to see what was new. He decided to start with his new powers first.
‘Now I know why it’s not called a skill.’
First of all, unlike a skill, it wasn’t invoked by command. Yoon-seok used Enhanced Speed in the waiting room as a test. It was a very strange feeling.
‘It’ll take a while to get used to…’
Should he say it reacted to will? It felt like he suddenly had wings on his back. Maybe he was still getting used to it, but it wasn’t hard to move his wings.
‘Let’s try Skill Synthesis next. Is this how you do it…?’
The power responded again, this time when he focused his willpower. All of Yoon-seok’s skills were listed, covering his eyes with a system announcement.
「Please select a skill to synthesize.」
「You can synthesize up to 3 skills. All ranks must be the same.」
Up to three, so he guessed synthesizing only two would be fine. Yoon-seok chose unimportant techniques to start with because he didn’t know what the results would be. It was War Stomp and Tracking. The grades were slightly off, so he had to upgrade them by one to match the rankings, but…
His reward AP had now exceeded the hundreds of thousands mark, so it would take about 3,000 to do so. Besides, he didn’t spend it on useless things, did he?
「Skill has been synthesized.」
「Acquired Earthquake of Dawn {Rank F}.」
A far more decent name than Tracking or War Stomp. Yoon-seok quickly checked the information.
*Earthquake of Dawn b Rank F} – Original skill of Challenger Choi Yoon-seok. Stomp feet to send shock waves out within a 25-meter radius. Shockwave heals allies and knocks enemy’s out.
An interesting skill had come out. It wasn’t explained in the description, but the time taken to heal or knock out the enemy was likely to be affected by how powerful the ally was or how immune the opponent was to its effect. War Stomp was like that too.
‘It’s so vague…’
Just by looking at the effects, it was clear how Tracking and War Stomp were combined. The problem was that before he got to use the power, he had no idea how the skill would turn out. Plus, the original effect of Tracking was eliminated because War Stomp was the main skill.
‘That means it’ll be hard to synthesize b Predation}.’
In terms of importance, neither b Heavenly Body} nor b Blood Pact} could compare to b Predation}, which served as his foundation. It would be the only thing he would never change.
‘But it’s still good to synthesize other things.’
Even with the same rank, upgrading the Unique Skills was more expensive. However, if two or three skills were synthesized into one, the cost of up-ranking would be reduced. Moreover, the synthesized skill was unlikely to disappear even in the event of defeat since it wasn’t a skill obtained through b Predation}.
Later, Yoon-seok conducted several more experiments, continuing to learn more about Skill Synthesis. As Elle explained, Unique Skills and ordinary skills could be synthesized, and when you rank up a synthesized skill, options of new characteristics were given.
-Attribute 1: Increasing Range
-Dawn of Earthquake covers twice the range.
-Attribute 2: Speedy Recovery
-The effect of healing allies increases 1.5 times.
Yoon-seok chose to increase the range because there was no need for effects relating to allies. Anyway, the important thing was that the synthesized skill could be synthesized again.
「Skill has been synthesized.」
「Acquire Descent b Rank E}.」
This was the skill created by combining Eyes of Truth and Earthquake of Dawn. Yoon-seok’s eyes went wide after confirming the description. Just like before, the created skill was unpredictable.
*Rank E – Original skill by Challenger Choi Yoon-seok. The Judge descends and smashes a certain range with his foot. Allies within range will not be harmed.
Judge descending? He tried it out, thinking about what the hell it meant, and a huge foot appearing overhead stomped on the ground.
Boom!
Fortunately, it was the waiting room, so no damage was done, nor was he injured.
‘What a fascinating skill…’
It felt like opening a mystery box. It didn’t look very useful yet, but it was fun to synthesize as he acquired skills he’d never seen before.
‘But can I re-purchase it again?’
Yoon-seok re-purchased Eyes of Truth because he was likely to meet more dangerous people in the future. Even the moment he was learning the skill, he wondered if it would work.…
「A new skill has been acquired.」
The answer was yes. Yoon-seok’s face brightened up. Although it was limited compared to the general skills available in stores, the synthesis risk just became much lower. Therefore, Yoon-seok grew bolder.
「Skill has been synthesized.」
「Acquired Executioner of Steel {Rank E}.」
This time, he mixed Descent and Iron Mastery. His defense increased 2.25 times when metal armor was worn. It wasn’t a bad permanent effect, but he didn’t hesitate.
*Executioner of Steel b Rank E} – Original skill of Challenger Choi Yoon-seok. Set a 50-meter radius as an enforcement zone. No allies can enter the enforcement zone. However, within range, the user’s physical resistance increases by 50%.
Yoon-seok smiled with contentment.
‘Not bad…?’
It wasn’t a durable figure that increased defense, but the durability reduced external damage. Considering that the arena’s circular stadium had a radius of about fifty meters, it meant he could increase his physical resistance throughout the duel if he had enough magic to keep it up. Besides, he didn’t have any allies, so it was the same as having no penalty.
‘Let’s stop here.’
Soon after, Yoon-seok put Executioner of Steel aside and synthesized a few other skills. It was Magic Resistance and Sword Mastery, which were the core of Yoon seok’s general skills.
「Skill has been synthesized.」
「Acquired Devil’s Prosecutor b Rank D}.」
This time, he checked the information with considerable nervousness as the skills were D-rank.
*Devil’s Prosecutor {Rank D} – Original skill of Challenger Choi Yoon-seok. Any attack with a sword will ignore 30% relative resistance with additional corrections.
Active skills were created continuously when they were synthesized between actives, but this time a passive skill was released because they were both passive. He was planning to synthesize it again by upgrading other skills to D, but fortunately, there was no need.
‘I can learn Sword Mastery and Magic Resistance again later…’
Looking at the emptying list of general skills, Yoon-seok turned elsewhere. Now that he’d gotten used to using Skill Synthesis and experimenting, it was time to move on to the main dish.
「Please select a skill to synthesize.」
b Heavenly Body}, b Bloody Pact}, and b Non-verbal Magic}. This was the combination he’d learned after requesting to look into his future again with the power of Clairvoyance when he obtained Skill Synthesis. Elle said she couldn’t go into detail due to constraints, but she was confident that he would never regret it.
‘She’s not gonna tell me future predictions are wrong, right…?’
Was it because he had to invest 65,000 AP according to the rank of the three Unique Skills? Or was it because the synthesizing process was irreversible? Maybe it was because he didn’t fully trust Elle yet. But the dice have already been rolled.
「Skill has been synthesized.」
「Bloodseeker’s Ultimatum has been acquired.」