Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 458 - 96. Still, Little Piggy has the most oil and water.

Chapter 458: 96. Still, Little Piggy has the most oil and water.

The players certainly had no complaints. Having tasks to do was a good thing, so many picked up the tasks, grabbed their shovels and pickaxes, and set off to find the Goblin Lair.

"It’s probably a long-term mission. Li Aozi often issues these kinds of tasks," Yutianxiao analyzed: "The settlement condition ’Unexpected Wealth’ requires us to find out the truth about the cave, indicating there must be some hidden information. Could it be that we need to communicate with the locals?"

"Speaking of which," said Night Fighting Sword as he opened Li Aozi’s shop interface, "Li Aozi offers lessons in the ’Crystal Tower Official Language: Tanas Language’ here, and the price is not too high."

"Anyway, there are just a few small villages nearby, so let’s go out and ask around and make contact."

Seeing the players getting serious, Li Aozi stopped interfering. He went to his Biological Pool to replenish production materials and adjusted some of the original formulas, continuing the automated production of the Arcane Awakening Elixir.

He only needed to modify the formula slightly, and the players would have to come here and smelt gold.

Yawen managed the sales and administration in Newbie Village, and since she handled the money, Li Aozi felt at ease.

He then took out Zaniya, leveraging the abilities of this Divine Sword, "Refine" and "Self Tempering," to use it as a temporary forge and anvil.

Not only did it upgrade the power of the Divine Artifact, but it also had extensive applications in lifestyle professions, making it extremely practical.

Li Aozi had previously purchased some rare materials in the cosmos, and players had also mined simple local minerals, sufficient for Li Aozi to produce a batch of enchanted weapons.

The lifestyle profession of "Forging Master" provided an extra success rate bonus for smithing extraordinary weapons. After wasting a few pieces of iron, Li Aozi began forging suitable swords and weapons for the players.

Zaniya showed considerable interest in blacksmithing, constantly reminding Li Aozi of the details to watch out for during the process, significantly reducing failure rates.

Though Li Aozi was confident he could match a Zeta Rank strongman, he was well aware he couldn’t defeat them.

Being able to withstand blows without dying and completely defeating the opponent were two different things.

The interstellar media, while hyping up Li Aozi’s underdog victories, were careful with their wording, using "faced the enemy" instead of "defeated the enemy."

Velazquez was driven away by Valenkov’s new government. Li Aozi did not have that capability yet.

If a Gamma Rank could defeat an enemy two ranks above them, especially a member of a Narrative-Level high civilization like Velazquez, the cosmic order would have already fallen apart.

In reality, advancing to "Star Realm Echoer" made Li Aozi more cautious. Given his current pace, he estimated that this stage would accompany him for at least five years, even with player involvement, it would still take considerable time.

As he was about to go to school while being in his vulnerable "Echoer" stage, Li Aozi had to think of ways to protect himself.

"I should save the Class Promotion Voucher for the Zeta stage promotion to Eta (η, the seventh Greek letter). When I switch to ’Bishop,’ I will have to go to the Lower Starry Abyss. Among those who will dive with me, I can use the Class Promotion Voucher to create a gap between us."

The dive into the Starry Abyss was a dangerous endeavor. The Narrative-Level civilizations in the Border Abyss were less civil compared to the Layer Abyss. There were no nations or political constraints, and colleagues had to be treated with extra caution.

Taking this opportunity, Li Aozi also updated his equipment, crafting a set of fully enchanted jewelry for himself including bracelets, rings, arm bands, and pendants.

Unfortunately, his forging skills were average at best, so he could only create one "Flawless Perfection" piece of jewelry, while most remained at the "Exquisite Craftsmanship" level.

Even so, the set of jewelry increased Li Aozi’s Charm by a full 30 points, the maximum a ’Sovereign’ class could achieve without wearing armor.

After checking himself over, Li Aozi realized that the "Law of Energy Conservation" he had previously learned could enhance the development level of a non-Core Arcane by one degree.

For self-defense, Li Aozi immediately applied this upgrade to Sequence 77: "Calamity."

Unsurprisingly, it was one of the most unreasonable Arcane Energies he had. His ability to fight across ranks twice in a row heavily depended on the assistance from the Sequence Arcane Energies of "Gravity" and "Calamity."

——————————

[Your Arcane Energy [Sequence 77: Calamity] has been enhanced]

[New Effect: Curse]: You could place a long-term curse on someone’s fate, making them plagued by misfortune and reducing all positive benefits.

[Current Development Level]: Contact Level. At this development level, the Arcane Energy consumption rate was –100%

——————————

The higher the development level of Arcane Energy, the lower its consumption. "Calamity" was a typical energy hog, and even with three Mana Recovery specialties, Li Aozi couldn’t meet its consumption needs, though the new effect was quite satisfactory for him.

Reducing all positive benefits covered a wide range of activities, from equipment drop rates to life recovery and longevity extension—anything considered a positive benefit.

It essentially nullified all positive buffs. With the "Curse" effect active, no matter how much the "Redemption" class buffed someone, they might not even be able to maintain their health points.

However, this needed to be a long-term curse, and the details would be seen further down the line.

As always, there were no weak Sequence-Level Arcane Energies, except for "Bloodline."

For safety, Li Aozi injected himself with another batch of Arcane Awakening Elixirs. However, since his bloodline had already transformed into the Elyei Spirit Race, his genes were no longer responsive to outdated mutation inducers.

After ten injections, Li Aozi’s body developed complete drug resistance, and he only acquired a batch of useless Arcane Energies, which he directly crushed into Gene Fragments for future bodily adjustments.

"There shouldn’t be any need for my intervention now. The players will handle everything."

After staying a day in Newbie Village and collecting 1.2 million Experience from players, Li Aozi noted that the rich resources on Baizhu Star ensured that the players’ productivity was remarkable.

Li Aozi calculated that this was just enough to raise the Level of the secondary profession "Magician" to the max, Level 30, providing 30 points of Intelligence, completing its mission.

Originally, his Base Intelligence was already at 92.4 points. Now, it increased to 122.4 points, and with the 20% inevitable Intelligence benefit provided by his title "Pioneering the Future," his Intelligence had forcibly reached 146.88 points.

Li Aozi’s main attribute of Charm, with the 30 points provided by jewelry, was merely 157 points. With the 30% boost from "Perpetual Love Hunting," it reached a staggering 204.1 points.

With over 200 points of Charm, Li Aozi had truly surpassed the Delta Rank, reaching the level of the Epsilon Stage. At this point, even if he did nothing, his Charm alone would attract the love of the natural world, guaranteeing a lifetime of comfort.

Reaching out to the flowerbed, the shy roses responded with warm smiles, even pulling back their thorns to let Li Aozi stroke them.

The air felt nutrient-rich, and high-energy particles eagerly approached Li Aozi without causing harm, like the world was carefully feeding him honey with a spoon.

But the increase in Intelligence brought some different perspectives. From a rational viewpoint, nature pampering him wasn’t a purely emotional matter but a pragmatic and materialistic behavior.

Nature’s favor for those with high Charm was to better cultivate such individuals for the Starry Abyss, to fight against the Destroyers until death. Such battles were meaningless since, in the Layer Abyss, there was no reincarnation mechanism. Hence, Charm was actually a conspiracy...

Li Aozi patted his shoulder, stopping himself from overthinking.

The higher the Intelligence, the more selfish one became, to the point of doubting even the world itself.

"Now that my Intelligence seems a bit too high, I should quickly root out those infiltrated citizens from the ’Society.’"

Li Aozi’s head buzzed slightly. Fortunately, he currently didn’t have a physical head, so the impact of the worldview shock was minimal.

He observed the situation with the White Obelisk. Currently, the "Sovereign" Pathway population had expanded to 97 people and was still increasing.

"At this rate, and with the player influence, I might have a chance to enjoy the attribute boost by the end of this version."

Raising pigs was key!

Fighting, doing tasks, and studying to level up were just amusements. To truly earn Experience, raising pigs was essential.

Not everything Li Aozi received was good news.

Yawen hadn’t come to see him the entire day, but Li Aozi decided not to dwell on it.

He prepared rewards for the players, updated a batch of jewelry as merchandise, and after quickly replicating a fake implanted head using the Biological Pool as a disguise, he left Newbie Village.

Next, he needed to take some time to complete the dying wish that Qiu Ran had left for him.

"It’s time for school."