Ashen God
Chapter 643 - 642: Exceptional Talent

Chapter 643: Chapter 642: Exceptional Talent

"This time, the introduction to the Cloud Tiger Shoulder Armor really did connect with the previous storyline. There truly was a missing segment earlier, causing the subsequent Emperor Crocodile Belt story to seem slightly abrupt. But now that the Cloud Tiger Shoulder Armor has bridged the gap, everything seems much more normal.

No wonder the Queen blushed suddenly when Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado woke up in the story of the Emperor Crocodile Belt. I originally thought there might be some emotional dispute between them. Now, it seems more likely that it was simply because the Queen was suddenly licked on the foot by Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado.

Moreover, piecing together the stories in the two introductions, there seems to be a slight conflict. In the introduction of the Cloud Tiger Shoulder Armor, Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado is aware of what he did.

Yet, in the introduction of the Emperor Crocodile Belt, Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado has not realized what happened and even thought the Queen attacked him because her spirit was controlled by a Heart Stealer, leading him to consult other ministers for an explanation.

If we combine and interpret both versions of the story, could it be that Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado experienced memory loss during his unconsciousness? If so, that actually makes a lot of sense."

Zhang Yanhang speculated that Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado probably fell unconscious because the Elf Queen, after being licked and feeling shy, subconsciously attacked Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado again.

Moreover, it was likely a full-force attack, which resulted in Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado feeling upon awakening as if his body had been hammered all over by the Dwarf Lord’s Storm Hammer.

Additionally, during this process, due to the Queen’s overly powerful attack, he lost his short-term memory, completely at a loss as to why the Queen attacked him repeatedly and even imposed a bizarre punishment on him.

"Then due to the punishment, Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado was unable to forge items for ten years, giving him plenty of free time.

He used this idle time to consult other ministers about the reason for his punishment but ended up needing to understand ’reading the air.’ After ten years of hard practice in fully understanding this, his strength greatly increased, to the extent that even the Elf Queen felt she could challenge him."

Zhang Yanhang felt that if the story continued in this direction, Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado would probably go personally to seek answers from the Elf Queen, and due to his increased strength, not be overwhelmed as before but should be able to exchange a few rounds of blows with the Queen.

"Moreover, the introduction finally revealed the outcome for that tailor, who was imprisoned along with Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado, but Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado only had a one-year sentence, while the tailor, considering the High Elf Clan’s long lifespan, would probably be locked up for at least a thousand eight hundred years."

According to Zhang Yanhang’s understanding of the High Elf Clan’s perception of time, Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado’s one-year sentence converted to Main World’s time would be roughly like a week’s detention for disorderly conduct at a police station, which is considered a very light punishment, probably just symbolic.

But for the tailor, it would definitely be different, probably sentenced without parole.

"By the way, this introduction to the Cloud Tiger Shoulder Armor finally explained who created those High Elf Blood and World Tree Juice I drank. I always thought it was some apprentice or acquaintance of Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado.

But unexpectedly, it turned out to be made by Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado himself using his own blood. This guy is really powerful, casually spitting blood of dark purple quality. It seems his starting level should be around tier four, and, from previous descriptions of his strength, even reaching above tier four is not impossible.

Nevertheless, strong as he is, he’s really quite an oddball, and somewhat a weirdo for licking the Elf Queen’s foot."

Though Zhang Yanhang would like to try it himself if he had the chance, this did not stop him from morally criticizing Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado in his heart. He just couldn’t help being a hypocrite.

But compared to the introduction, what was more important for Zhang Yanhang was the additional attributes provided by the Cloud Tiger Shoulder Armor. After checking them, Zhang Yanhang surprisingly found that his previous small wish had come true—he had really acquired another piece of equipment that could enhance the recovery speed of his Physical Value.

"If I remember correctly, whether it’s the blue quality or the 10% recovery speed boost for physical value provided by the Cloud Tiger Shoulder Armor, as well as the 50 points of equipment score, they seem exactly the same as the Grey Maned Arm Guard, only the names and stories in the introduction are different.

It must be said, that apprentice of Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado is as reliable as ever, or rather, has not found any room for improvement yet; otherwise, he certainly wouldn’t have crafted completely identical pieces of equipment."

Equipment that, except for the name and content of the introduction, has an identical attribute list, Zhang Yanhang had never seen before. One could say the buxom Elf Apprentice indeed might have a talent in crafting, possibly even considered exceptionally gifted, although perhaps a bit too ’special.’

"But setting aside the Elf Apprentice’s talent, this 10% enhancement to Physical Value recovery speed is indeed very beneficial. After a few more fusions later, it will definitely help raise my hunting efficiency quite a bit, further reducing my rest time and even helping me genuinely achieve a working-to-rest ratio of three to two."

After checking the attribute list of the Cloud Tiger Shoulder Armor, Zhang Yanhang quickly clicked on the last item slot. If Zhang Yanhang guessed correctly, this fifth item slot must be related to Talent.

[Item Five]

[Option One: Prehistoric Giant Beast, D-Level Quality, Talent]

[Option Two: Demonized Life Form (Maned Tooth Beast), D-Level Quality, Talent]

"Option Three: Demonized Life Form (Canine Giant Ape), D-Level Quality, Talent"

"Sure enough, it’s related to Talent," Zhang Yanhang muttered, "unfortunately, although I discovered over three hundred Drop Treasure Boxes, it’s still not enough compared to the upgrade requirements for the Ocean Rhythm Talent. After all, to elevate the Ocean Rhythm Talent from its current SS level to SSS level, I would need 729 Prehistoric Giant Beast Talents."

But Zhang Yanhang had already planned to reacquire Prehistoric Giant Beast Talent after the refresh of Demonized Creatures in the Demonized Swamp, so although he definitely couldn’t upgrade Ocean Rhythm to SSS level this time, he didn’t feel too troubled about it. After all, it was just a matter of a few more days, and it wouldn’t delay too much.

Speaking of matters related to Talent, a question suddenly occurred to Zhang Yanhang. Would Talent not be capped at SSS level?

"It’s unlikely that SSS level would be the cap," he thought. "Although under normal circumstances moving from SSS level to EX is very common, Ashen World itself is evidently anything but normal."

Zhang Yanhang’s intuition told him that the SSS level, although it seemed high, was probably still far from the EX level, and might just be reaching the middle tier in the entire Talent Level system—merely upper middle at most. There must still be considerable room for upgrading.

"Sigh, just getting to an SSS level is already so difficult; it requires exactly 2187 E-Level Talents, and beyond that, the demands might easily jump to five or even six figures. It’s definitely necessary to upgrade using higher initial level Talents. Otherwise, advancing further would really be tough."

To be honest, Zhang Yanhang was starting to feel this way already. Thus, he felt that if he continued to use E-Level Talents for upgrading, it would only get tougher. He would definitely need to try and obtain Talents that started from a higher level.

Otherwise, upgrading to SSS level would require 2187 E-Level Talents, and anything above SSS level would need 6561 E-Level Talents. After that, each upgrade would immediately shoot up to a stunning nineteen thousand, six hundred and eighty-three E-Level Talents in the five-figure range.

With two more upgrades, it would reach six figures, and then seven figures after two additional upgrades. Given that each upgrade tripled the requirements, it was akin to an infinite cubing—truly terrifying.

"Raising my Talent from E-Level to SS-Level took six levels, jumping the Talent upgrade demands from single digits to four digits. Unsurprisingly, the next six levels are going to push the Talent demands by three more digits, from four digits to seven digits. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

However, this is with E-Level Talents. If it were D-Level Talents, it would only need six figures; C-Level would barely exceed six figures, and B-Level would only need five figures. Elevating each initial Talent improves its Quality, directly reducing the cubing effect and significantly chopping down the number of required Talents."

It was precisely because of the infinite cubing growth, which was a bit too terrifying, that Zhang Yanhang considered obtaining Talents like the Prehistoric Giant Beast, which initially were D-Level.

"Let’s not think about these things for now," Zhang Yanhang decided, redirecting his focus back to the Drop Treasure Boxes. "So, I choose ’110 Soul Points,’ ’110 Soul Points,’ ’110 Soul Points,’ ’Cloud Tiger Shoulder Armor,’ and ’Prehistoric Giant Beast.’"

After inspecting all five Item slots in the Drop Treasure Boxes dropped by the Demonized Saber-Toothed Tiger, Zhang Yanhang quickly made his final decision. Time Pause subsided, but he immediately took up another Drop Treasure Box and triggered Time Pause again.

Based on his experience with opening boxes before, he would likely need around twenty minutes to open all of the Drop Treasure Boxes, so he needed to be quick.

Moreover, after he finished with the boxes, he then had to proceed with the fifth-stage cleanup plan in the Demonized Swamp, aiming to clear the area of Demonized Mammoths and Demonized Four-eyed Wild Boars. Although there was still ample time, wasting it was definitely not encouraged.

...

On October 27, Tuesday, the day after the Double Ninth Festival and also Zhang Yanhang’s third day in Ashen World, at 8:32 PM, in Raccoon City, Dulda Apartment, Unit 301, on an old wooden bed.

After spending less than twenty minutes opening all the Drop Treasure Boxes, Zhang Yanhang did not rush to check his balance of Soul Points, even though this time it was sure to be a record breaker. Instead, he first tallied up the various items obtained from the Drop Treasure Boxes.

First up were the Weapon gains. As expected, there were no gains in terms of Weapons this time, primarily because the Drop Treasure Boxes from Police Zombies didn’t have the decency to yield items like before which, similar to Weapons, had Attack Power—thus, the earnings were nothing but air.

Then, having tallied his Weapon gains, Zhang Yanhang quickly moved on to counting up his Talent gains. Compared to the non-existent Weapon gains, the Talent gains proved to be much richer. Of course, any gains would seem abundant compared to nothing, but the Talent gains were genuinely substantial.

Due to winning seven Drop Treasure Boxes from the Lucky Slot Machine in Raccoon City as a third prize, Zhang Yanhang had acquired five E-Level Talents "Slow Corrosion," which was quite decent, considering he normally could only obtain four E-Level "Slow Corrosion" Talents due to the Police Zombies.

With a total of one hundred and thirty-four Slow Corrosions previously saved in his Waist Bag, and adding these newly acquired five Slow Corrosions, he now had one hundred and thirty-nine in total. Although it was still far from enough to elevate the Longevity Mountain and Fortune Sea to SSS Level, there was at least a bit of progress.

"To elevate the SSS Level Talent ’Longevity Mountain and Fortune Sea,’ I need to consume 2187 E-Level Slow Corrosion Talents," Zhang Yanhang calculated. "Subtracting the meager one hundred and thirty-nine Slow Corrosions I have, that leaves me short by 2053 Slow Corrosions.

That’s why I say, upgrading with E-Level Talents later on really is overwhelming—already overwhelmed with just SSS Level, let alone the levels following SSS.

Purely upgrading with E-Level Talents, just obtaining SSS Level requires me to kill forty to fifty thousand Zombies, and anything above SSS Level would need close to two hundred thousand Zombies just to gather enough."

With this thought, Zhang Yanhang couldn’t help but sigh.