Ashen God
Chapter 319 - 318 【Indestructible Golden Body LV.MAX】 (4000 words)

Chapter 319: Chapter 318 【Indestructible Golden Body LV.MAX】 (4000 words)

Regarding the current situation, Zhang Yanhang did feel some regret, but it was actually not too bad, after all, for the current cost of upgrading his skills, fifty thousand soul points could at most allow him to enhance the Limitless Universe Skill by three levels.

In fact, before promoting the Technique Immunity Skill, Zhang Yanhang had already vaguely anticipated this, as the fifty thousand soul points along with a little Ash Source were mainly used to unlock the subsequent upgrade limits of the skill itself, so it was indeed normal for the skill effect to not increase much.

Just like the previous promotion of the Limitless Universe Skill, it only provided a slight increase in attribute bonuses. To obtain more attribute value bonuses, Zhang Yanhang needed to continue increasing the skill level.

"Since one promotion jumps straight to Level 5 and basically maintains the same skill effect as before," he mused, "does this mean that the new limit after reaching the maximum level would be twice that of the original? That is to say, reaching a 200% Shield Value Limit."

Since each increase in professional skills usually adds the same bonus effects, Zhang Yanhang had every reason to suspect that upgrading the Technique Immunity Skill to the Original Stage and then to the maximum level could at least provide him with a 200% Shield Value Limit.

"Moreover, after promoting to the Original Stage, the 50% Shield Value Limit bonus, which I originally obtained at Levels 6 and MAX, was also retained. It seems the additional attributes I can gain from upgrading to Original Level 6 and Original MAX might continue to stack on top.

Since I was able to get a 50% Shield Value Limit bonus before, the additional attribute bonuses from the Original Stage will undoubtedly only be greater than the original.

In this case, if I can once again raise the Technique Immunity Skill to the MAX level," he thought, "then my Shield Value Limit could at least reach more than three hundred percent..."

Although the current Shield Value Limit of Zhang Yanhang was already quite robust, allowing him to withstand a same-tier lord monster for several minutes before breaking the shield while standing still.

But a higher Shield Value Limit is always better; the more it is, the safer he would be when hunting monsters, significantly reducing the chances of Zhang Yanhang falling prematurely on his way to retirement.

Although there is a saying, ’The best defense is a good offense,’ Zhang Yanhang still preferred a balanced offensive and defensive strategy. After all, walking the path of an assassin in the real world focusing solely on Attack Power without concerning Defensive Power would be highly risky.

Furthermore, following the assassin path would make him hampered when facing monsters, completely unable to ignore the opponent’s attacks and scrutinize their attribute list directly after bombing them with Fireballs.

Accessing the attribute list was really useful for Zhang Yanhang when hunting specific monsters, as it allowed him to clearly identify the enemy’s weaknesses and then execute more efficient hunts, such as with the Lord Monster Tracker—without viewing the attribute list, Zhang Yanhang would be completely unable to fight when facing the tracker’s four different forms.

"If I could promote Technique Immunity again to the MAX level," he pondered, "my Shield Value Limit may even make it difficult for high-level lord monsters to break quickly. Of course, the prerequisite for promoting to the MAX level is that I can accumulate enough soul points."

Although he hadn’t yet checked the upgrade costs for the Technique Immunity Skill at the Original Stage, Zhang Yanhang believed that since the promotion alone required fifty thousand soul points, the subsequent upgrades would demand even more, at the very least, a six-figure sum of soul points.

Moreover, this six-figure sum was likely one that would only be partially fulfilled even if he emptied all the gains from clearing the entire Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu.

Before promoting his skill, Zhang Yanhang wasn’t too pressured about this aspect, but after the promotion, the pressure immediately mounted. If it weren’t for all the surrounding monsters already being wiped out by him, he would have been eager to continue hunting monsters to earn soul points.

After promoting the Technique Immunity Skill, Zhang Yanhang reopened his balance of soul points, planning to use the remaining part to slightly raise the levels of other skills.

[Soul Points: 22837 (-51200)]

"There are only over twenty thousand soul points left, which is just barely enough to upgrade the Indestructible Golden Body to MAX...,"

Zhang Yanhang had also considered using these twenty thousand plus soul points to enhance the level of the Limitless Universe Skill, but it could only support one upgrade, and it seemed more beneficial to directly upgrade a more useful Indestructible Golden Body Skill.

"If I hadn’t promoted the Technique Immunity Skill just now, I reckon I would have already elevated all four of my main attributes to the Second-tier Extreme State by raising the level of the Limitless Universe Skill," he reflected. "Currently, among my four main attributes, only Agility and Intelligence remain at forty-nine points.

Although a single level upgrade might also likely raise Agility and Intelligence to fifty points, achieving the small goal of becoming a Second Tier Peak Awakened will have to wait until next time."

To raise the Limitless Universe Skill to Level 5, Zhang Yanhang needed to use 12,900 soul points, resulting in him having less than ten thousand soul points left after that expenditure.

For him now, these fewer than ten thousand soul points couldn’t do much; after barely upgrading the Indestructible Golden Body to Level 9, he might also manage to slightly elevate the Supreme Will Skill, but not by much—Level 6 would probably be the limit.

Thus, rather than reaching this neither here nor there state, it was better to step up the Indestructible Golden Body all at once, and then wait until he could accumulate enough soul points next time to upgrade the Limitless Universe Skill.

"Make a choice! Enhance the Skill Level!" Zhang Yanhang had long anticipated upgrading the Indestructible Golden Body to MAX, and this time he should finally experience what it felt like to have the Golden Body effect encompassing his entire body.

[Do you wish to enhance the skill level?]

[Option One: ’Gun Master Level MAX’ upgrading to ’Grandmaster Level 5’ (Consumes 1 Ash Source and 51,200 soul points.)]

...

[Option Four: ’Technique Immunity·Original Level 5’ upgrading to ’Technique Immunity·Original Level 6’ (Consumes 102,400 soul points.)]

[Option Five: ’Limitless Universe Skill [Second Tier] Level 5’ upgrading to ’Limitless Universe Skill [Second Tier] Level 6’ (Consumes 12,900 soul points.)]

---

[Option Eight: Upgrade ’Supreme Will LV.3’ to ’Supreme Will LV.4’ (consumes 200 Soul Points).]

[Option Nine: Upgrade ’Indestructible Golden Body LV.8’ to ’Indestructible Golden Body LV.9’ (consumes 6400 Soul Points).]

"Upgrading Technique Immunity·Original from LV.5 to LV.6 requires 102400 Soul Points?! Although I anticipated it, this number is still beyond my imagination... One hundred thousand Soul Points, almost equivalent to the total income I could get after clearing the entire Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu..."

Zhang Yanhang was quite shocked by the soul points needed to upgrade Technique Immunity·Original to LV.6. Compared to the 51200 soul points spent on upgrading to the Original Stage, 102400 soul points were exactly double.

Although 102400 soul points doesn’t seem much now and appears to be an amount that could be gathered with some effort,

based on Zhang Yanhang’s long experience with upgrades, the soul points required for skill upgrades doubled with each level.

Just needing one hundred thousand soul points now for upgrading to LV.6 meant that later it would evolve into two hundred thousand for LV.7, four hundred thousand for LV.8, eight hundred thousand for LV.9, and finally one million six hundred thousand for LV.MAX.

The thought of such a massive need for soul points made Zhang Yanhang feel somewhat suffocated.

In fact, Zhang Yanhang had a premonition that under normal circumstances, someone of his level as a Second Tier Awakened would not be able to acquire skill upgrades after promotion. Thus, he was effectively using the soul point acquisition efficiency of a Low-level Awakened to pay for the colossal upgrade demands that only a High-level Awakened could gather.

So, in the end, it was all because Multiple Choice was too powerful, allowing Zhang Yanhang access to skills that he definitely couldn’t have obtained at his current stage.

"One million six hundred thousand soul points, just jumping from my previous estimate of six-digit soul point needs to a seven-digit one. It seems like I definitely won’t be able to gather that many at the Second Tier. I’ll have to wait until I’m promoted to the Third Tier."

Zhang Yanhang believed his current goal should be to gather the one hundred thousand soul points needed to upgrade Technique Immunity to LV.6 first. This would allow him to gain the additional attributes of LV.6 during the upgrade, giving him a significant boost, while the further skill levels would have to wait until Third Tier.

After setting this small goal of gathering one hundred thousand soul points, Zhang Yanhang also roughly planned his next upgrade strategy. Since the soul points needed after LV.6 were too many, he would first upgrade all skills that could be promoted to LV.6, then consider upgrading to LV.MAX.

After all, upgrading to one LV.MAX generally requires three million one hundred fifty thousand soul points, equivalent to upgrading twenty-one LV.6s. It’s not cost-effective to concentrate soul points on upgrading to LV.MAX first; it’s better to first use ’a small amount’ of soul points to upgrade skills to LV.6.

Although compared to the consumption of upgrading to LV.MAX, the soul points for upgrading to LV.6 indeed seem small, one hundred fifty thousand soul points is still an enormous number for the current Zhang Yanhang, roughly equivalent to 1.5 Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gus.

"One hundred fifty thousand soul points, even if I really find a Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest and clear it, at most I would barely gather two or three batches of one hundred fifty thousand soul points, but I have a total of seven skills that need to be promoted and upgraded to LV.6."

Although the Indestructible Golden Body and Supreme Will Skills have not yet been upgraded to LV.MAX, it’s only a matter of time. Aside from Alchemy and Limitless Universe Skill, Zhang Yanhang plans to promote and upgrade all other skills to LV.6, then start working towards upgrading to LV.MAX.

Upgrading these seven skills to LV.6 would roughly consume one million soul points from Zhang Yanhang; it might indeed be possible within Second Tier but not very likely.

Thus, Zhang Yanhang estimated that his upgrade plan, although simply upgrading all skills to LV.6, would also most likely have to wait until he was promoted to Third Tier.

"Forget it, for now, I shouldn’t even think about these things since I definitely won’t be able to gather that many soul points in the short term. Even just gathering the hundred thousand soul points needed for upgrading Technique Immunity·Original to LV.6 is difficult. So, I choose Option nine and upgrade the Indestructible Golden Body Skill to LV.9."

After pausing time to think over his future upgrade plan, Zhang Yanhang refocused his attention on the text options and quickly made his choice.

---

Because the additional attributes of the Indestructible Golden Body were fixed rewards, Zhang Yanhang did not trigger options regarding the choice of additional attributes upon upgrading to LV.MAX this time. Therefore, after he completed the upgrade of the Indestructible Golden Body skill, he immediately opened its skill effect.

[Indestructible Golden Body LV.MAX (Passive/Active)]

[Passive Effect: Life Value +50% (+10%)]

[Active Effect: After skill activation, parts of the body covered by the Golden Body Effect gain +250% defensive power (+50%), Attack Power +50% (+10%), currently coverable parts: entire body. No cooldown time, consumes a small amount of Physical Strength.]

[Additional Attribute: Skillful—You can now skillfully control the Indestructible Golden Body skill. You have gained the ability to freely transfer the Golden Body Effect to specified locations, increasing the rate of Physical Strength consumption when the target of the transfer is an external object.]

[Additional Attribute: Mastery—You have become quite adept at controlling the Indestructible Golden Body skill. You have gained the ability to concentrate the initially full body coverage of the Golden Body Effect to specified locations to significantly enhance the defensive power bonus and Attack Power bonus of those locations. The rate of Physical Strength consumption increases variably based on the degree of concentration when transferring the Golden Body Effect.]

"When it was at LV.8, the Golden Body Effect was able to cover the limbs and torso, and now that it has been upgraded to LV.MAX, the final parts, the neck and head, have been added to the coverable parts.

With the Indestructible Golden Body upgraded to the LV.MAX stage, it can finally cover the entire body. Additionally, my Energy Shield can now benefit from the defense bonus provided by the Indestructible Golden Body."

Ever since he first acquired the Indestructible Golden Body, Zhang Yanhang had always been looking forward to promoting it to LV.MAX, as only the LV.MAX stage of the Indestructible Golden Body could unleash its true potential.