Sanctuary Paradise

Chapter 804 The Mage's Way

Two days later, in a private room.

[Upgrade complete. Basic Soul Weaponry skill has been upgraded to LV.20]

[Basic Soul Weaponry: LV.20 (Soul & Knowledge)]

Proficiency: 2/3000
1. Natal Soul Weapon: Optional...

...

...

4. Soul Inscription - Break: Consumes 50000 Soul Energy or 5 Soul Crystals (complete) to inscribe "Soul Inscription - Break" on the "Fated Soul Weapon" with attack characteristics. After inscription, when the current "Fated Soul Weapon" is in a passive state, the user's unarmed and weapon base attack power will be increased by an additional 80 points (soul inscription increases by 60%).

5. Soul Inscription - Solid: Consumes 50000 Soul Energy or 5 Soul Crystals (complete) to inscribe "Soul Inscription - Defense" on a "Fated Soul Weapon" with defensive characteristics. After inscription, when the current "Fated Soul Weapon" is in a passive state, the user's body and armor's basic defense penetration resistance will be increased by an additional 80 points (soul inscription increases by 60%).

Upgrade cost: 5 Soul Coins

……

A cold notification sound rang in Xin Lailai's mind. Inside the room, after digesting the large amount of Soul Weaponry knowledge that had flooded her mind, Xin Lailai slowly opened her eyes, let out a long sigh, and looked at the two newly unlocked Soul Weaponry knowledge on the Branding Interface with a satisfied look in her eyes.

With 80 points of base weapon attack power and 80 points of base penetration resistance, it can only be said that the LV.20 Soul Weapon Learning is indeed worthy of being a top-tier Soul Knowledge for the fourth tier and above. The new Soul Inscription it brings has a truly powerful effect.

The former can greatly make up for the fact that their Abyss Ink cannot be enhanced, allowing its attack power to truly reach a level comparable to top-tier +13 greatsword-type legendary weapons. In terms of improvement, the 80-point base weapon attack power bonus on their Abyss Ink, which only has 300 points of attack power, is equivalent to directly increasing their slashing strength by as much as 26.7%, which is enough to prove how powerful its effect is.

As for the latter, 80 points of penetration resistance can be said to almost completely prevent the effect of defense penetration, so that enemies can only use the sharpness of their weapons to fight their defense head-on, and cannot use attributes such as defense penetration and defense reduction to avoid their ridiculously high physical defense.

Even ordinary Tier 4 defense-ignoring damage would likely be reduced to regular physical damage by their ridiculously high penetration resistance, and they would have to endure the baptism of their body defense, which reaches a whopping 80 points after being buffed by the "Limit Breaker". This is the qualitative change that comes when the values ​​reach a certain level.

"I just don't know if I'll have enough time to grind Soul Weapon to level 30?"

Xin Lailai glanced at the fact that she had less than a week left to stay at the amusement park, a thoughtful look flashing across her eyes.

According to what they learned from the "Soul Cultivation Manual," the Elementary Soul Weaponry will undergo a significant qualitative change when it reaches LV.30. It is a technique called "Spiritual Weapon Hundred Forging." Once mastered, it can reforge their natal soul weapon, causing a huge change in its active form's cooldown mechanism, from the original fixed seven-day cooldown to a cooldown-free state that only generates soul load.

Combined with the "Sword of Time Breaker" and "Shield of Space Breaker" skills in the new class template provided by 83203, it is equivalent to them directly mastering the time-cutting and space-suppression abilities without cooldown.

This is why they prioritize upgrading Soul Weaponry over Soul Runeology; after all, who can resist two spacetime abilities with no cooldown?
"Lingyuzi, it's time to prepare to construct the Soul Inscription." "Okay, coming!"

After a short rest, Xin Lailai looked at the girl beside her who was reading the "Soul Cultivation Manual" and reminded her that it was time to update their innate soul weapon abilities. Ling Yuzi nodded obediently and sat down with her, mobilizing the soul energy in the soul storage crystals placed around them and manipulating them to slowly condense and inscribe in mid-air.

[Note: Due to the "Soul Inscription - Break" effect, the current ability "Destined Soul Weapon - Sword" effect has changed.]

[Note: Due to the effect of "Soul Inscription - Solidify", the effect of the current ability "Innate Soul Weapon - Shield" has been changed.]

[Note: Due to the current excessively high base defense penetration resistance of the Pioneer, the related resistance attributes provided by "Oath Bottoms" and "Love Gem (Left)" have been significantly reduced!]

Ten minutes later, as two crystal-clear soul inscriptions fell, several prompts rang in Xin Lailai's mind. Xin Lailai simply glanced at them and then paid no further attention to them.

In fact, they had already received a similar prompt once when they were training their mental resistance.

The Transcendent Set and the Twin Gem are, after all, sets and gems that focus on comprehensive functions. In addition, the range of the all-resistance bonus is too wide. Therefore, even with top-tier legendary quality, the resistance bonus they provide is at most effective against resistances below 80 points.

Once their relevant resistance exceeds 80 points, the benefit they provide becomes negligible, and once the relevant resistance exceeds 100 points, the benefit diminishes to an almost negligible level.

Of course, this does not mean that the 40 resistance bonus from the Transcendent Set and the Twin Gems is weak. On the contrary, the 40 all resistance bonus provided by these two greatly makes up for their shortcomings in those rarer resistances. Moreover, they can create a wonderful chemical reaction with the 50 all conventional resistances provided by their class template, raising it to a terrifying level of nearly 80 points.

This is why they were able to easily take a bath under Eliog's demonic magic in the previous world. To be honest, as a world-class boss exclusive to the derivative world, the opponent's magic was not weak at all. Unfortunately, the opponent just happened to be facing a monster with 80 points of resistance to all the usual resistances such as high temperature, cold, poison, and corrosion, as well as more than 30,000 points of protective energy, 57.5% permanent damage reduction, and an automatic blocking mechanism.

Let alone the other side, even they themselves sometimes feel that their current tankiness is somewhat insane compared to that of a third-tier mage.

To paraphrase the Deathbringer, sometimes their tankiness is so high that it's disgusting to even touch them. Keep in mind that the opponent's "Death Prison" is a legendary +13 weapon inlaid with 3 epic gems, and it also has the Netherworld Death Aura that can deal true damage. For such an opponent to say that they feel disgusted, you can imagine just how rotten their "tankiness" is to kill.

At least after sparring with them a few times, the opponent never used those low-damage but high-hit moves on them again, because that would just be a waste of their weapon's durability.

[Hint: Refining complete. The following items have been obtained.]

……

One man against an enemy (★★★★) *1
Immovable as a mountain (★★★★★) *1
……

Suddenly, a cold notification sound rang out. Upon hearing it, Xin Lailai's eyes lit up. She immediately swiped on the branding interface to bring up the title interface and looked at the two titles with the 'NEW' icon at the very top:

……

One man against an entire army

Origin: Sanctuary Paradise

Quality: ★★★★

Category: title

Characteristics: Neutral
How to obtain: Obtained through title refining.

Requirements for wearing the title: All physical attributes must be at least 80 points. Title potential: 60.5% (increase by 4.3%).

Title Effect 1 (Passive): When killing enemy units, you gain an additional 30% kill reputation (an increase of 15%).

称号效果2（被动）：当自身半径30km（范围+15km）内的敌对单位数量达到10000/30000/50000名时，自身全身体真实属性临时提升3点/4点/5点（属性+2点），获得10%/20%/30%伤害减免与独立伤害提升（提升幅度+100%），每秒恢复0.3%/0.4%/0.5%的最大生命值与法力值（新增），且触发后该加成将至少持续40分钟（提升10分钟）。

*Note: The attribute bonus provided by this title is a "temporary attribute benefit".

*Note: If you remove the title after the bonus is triggered, the duration of the bonus provided by the title will be reduced by 50%, and will gradually decrease to no bonus in the subsequent duration.

Synopsis: One man can hold the pass against ten thousand!

……

Immovable as a mountain

Origin: Sanctuary Paradise

Quality: ★★★★★
Category: title

Characteristics: Neutral
How to obtain: Title Refinement

Requirements for wearing this item: Physical defense no less than 75 points, actual stamina no less than 90 points, and health points no less than 15000 points.

Title potential: 52.3% (increase of 8.6%)

Title Effect 1 (Passive): When worn, the final damage received is reduced by 2000 points (increased by 1000 points).

Title Effect 2 (Active): Upon activation, the user gains 50% damage reduction at Tier 1 strength (reduction +10%, reduction tier +1), and temporarily increases body defense by 50% (buff +10%). During this period, the user also gains the "Strong Invincibility" effect for 30 seconds (duration +10 seconds). This effect can be used once per world progress.

*Note: The damage reduction provided by this title can stack up to 95%, and the maximum increase in body defense value is 750 points.

*Note: The final damage reduction effect of this title only applies to external direct damage, and cannot apply to internal indirect damage such as erosion, poison, and bleeding.

Synopsis: Come, shake me!!!
……

very good!

Before the branding interface, Xin Lailai looked at the new effects of "One Man Against an Army" and "Immovable as a Mountain" after the refining was completed, and a look of unusual satisfaction appeared in her eyes.

It was worth the 4060 exploration points and 290 soul coins he spent; the effects of these two titles did not disappoint them.

There's not much to say about "Immovable as a Mountain"; the 1000-point damage block increase is equivalent to raising their armor penetration threshold to a whole new level when they wear it.

It's important to understand that "Immovable as a Mountain" reduces the final damage. This 2000-point reduction, based on their 2.37 HP, means that a single hit that would normally deal 10% damage after multiple reductions will be reduced to only about 1.27% of their HP. This makes multi-hit attacks, which are already not very effective against them, even worse.

As for "one man against an entire army," that would be even more formidable, as can be seen with the naked eye.

Although this refinement was only from three to four stars, the improvement was much greater than that of "Immovable Mountain" when it went from four to five stars because its title potential broke through the 60% threshold of a minor qualitative change.

Not only did it nearly double the bonus, but it also gained an additional life and mana recovery effect that can be described as a miracle skill for sustain. Especially the mana recovery, 0.5% per second may not sound like much, but if you convert it according to their stats under elf assimilation, it is a terrifying recovery amount of 155.8 points/second.

Normally, this amount of recovery might not seem like much, since they have already mastered the Domain of All Laws and have a large supply of recovery potions provided by Xiao Pu. However, if they encounter a situation like the one in the DanMachi world where the oil lamp runs out, this 0.5% mana recovery per second could very well be their last lifeline among the countless abyssal creatures.

Of course, if possible, he would prefer that they never encounter that situation. Moreover, even disregarding the mana regeneration effect, the 30% damage reduction and 5 points of temporary attribute bonus alone are enough to make "One Man Against an Army" a top-tier title.

Keep in mind that they already have the "Limit Breaker" title, which provides a temporary boost of 5 points to their true attributes. Combined with the "One Against an Army" effect, this means that if they are in an environment with more than 50000 enemies, they can directly unleash power comparable to a fourth-tier contractor with 100 points in physical attributes.

As for environments with more than 50000 hostile targets, where can you find them? You can only say that you can find any world invaded by the abyss. The number of abyssal creatures you would face would probably be more than that. The endless siege from the sky to the ground, covering the mountains and plains, is something that people who have not experienced it firsthand can never understand.

Moreover, even if they can't find an environment that gathers enough enemies, it doesn't mean they can't trigger the "one-man army" buff, like right now—

[Note: Your current title has been changed to "One Man Against an Army"]

[Note: Due to the presence of over 30000 enemy units within a 30km radius, the "One Against an Army" title effect has been triggered. This temporarily increases all of the user's true attributes by 4 points, grants 20% damage reduction and independent damage increase, and restores 0.4% of maximum health and mana per second.]

A cold notification sound rang out, and as Xin Lailai took something out of her storage space, the "One Man Against an Army" title on their title interface was directly activated, bursting out with an exceptionally pure title energy that boosted their physical strength by a significant level.

Xin Lailai nodded with great satisfaction at this scene and put the jet-black metal ball, which was radiating a strong sense of resentment, back into her storage space.

As they predicted, the number of people required for "one against an army" is merely a trigger condition, rather than the attribute reward they receive when breaking through 80 points of True Barrier, which requires using the spirit of enemy or friendly units to create a suppressive field covering the entire area.

For them, who are a mage, a soul scholar, and an alchemist, triggering the "one against an army" bonus is an incredibly easy thing.

The black metal sphere they just saw was a 'vengeful spirit sealing device' that they came up with after refining the "one-man enemy army". It contained exactly 30000 miniature artificial vengeful spirits that were hostile to them. Although these vengeful spirits were so weak that they could be blown away with a breath, they perfectly met the requirement of 3 hostile units needed for the "one-man enemy army".

As for whether doing this is suspected of exploiting loopholes in the title system, etc.

All I can say is that if a qualified mage, after realizing the triggering principle of "one against an army," still foolishly tries to trigger its bonus in the traditional way, then they are truly out of their mind.

Just like how pioneers who dare not exploit loopholes should go home and farm, if mages dare not try to discover new rules, then what's the difference between them and barbarians with techniques like white magic?
……

(End of this chapter)