Ashen God
Chapter 585 - 584 Profession Level Up

Chapter 585: Chapter 584 Profession Level Up

"I originally thought that after the Swift Leggings were fused at +5 and promoted to Dark Purple Quality, they would only gain a score increase of 55 points, like the Dragon Power Bracelet, but instead, the Swift Leggings went up by 57 points.

It seems that even items produced by the same alchemist on an assembly line will ultimately have certain differences and cannot achieve the kind of standardized uniformity seen in industrial production."

Zhang Yanhang didn’t know whether to feel relieved or choked up about this result. The relief primarily came from the thought that the alchemist hadn’t been overly oppressed.

The frustration stemmed from the fact that alchemy, a skill inherently suited to a boutique production model, naturally came with restrictions and was more suited to small-scale personalized production than mass production like mechanical assembly lines in the tech industry.

Of course, this could also simply be due to that particular alchemist’s lack of expertise in this area, or maybe they were better at inventing and creating rather than reproducing items.

But for someone like Zhang Yanhang, he was very skilled in this respect; after all, he had to restore items to their original form after every fusion and ensure there were absolutely no differences between items of the same fusion level, which was why he could guarantee a very high fusion success rate.

Thus, for that reason, if it were up to Zhang Yanhang, he would probably be quite good at large-scale mass production.

So, it’s fair to say that even though everyone learns the same alchemy, each alchemist will have more or less a different focus.

Of course, those like Zhang Yanhang, whose difference is extremely high, are definitely in the minority; after all, he didn’t systematically learn alchemy at all, but instead, it was all through automatic skill transmission by alchemy.

A typical alchemist in the early stages has to learn most alchemy skills, such as weapon forging, which Zhang Yanhang is not good at. So, basically, as long as you become an alchemist, you would know a part of it, but definitely not as extreme in specialization as Zhang Yanhang.

Regarding the reason why the Swift Leggings +5 scored two points higher than the Dragon Power Bracelet +5, Zhang Yanhang figured it was probably because the Swift Leggings’ defensive power and durability after fusion were slightly higher than that of the Dragon Power Bracelet, therefore affecting the score.

After all, although durability and defensive power are not very useful to Zhang Yanhang, according to the group admin, they are very useful to most ordinary awakened individuals, and naturally, this would also affect the equipment score.

However, compared to defensive power and durability, Zhang Yanhang definitely cared more about the increase in Additional Attributes.

"This time, after promoting the Swift Leggings +5 to Dark Purple Quality, the Additional Attribute movement speed bonus jumped from the original 11% to 14%, adding a 3% increase to movement speed, which is quite nice. It’s just unclear whether it will help break my movement speed through one hundred meters per second."

Zhang Yanhang had long been looking forward to reaching a speed of one hundred meters per second. Although the success rate of achieving this speed should be quite high this time, he might have to wait until he was promoted to Third Tier if it didn’t work, especially since the probability of obtaining equipment or achievements that increase movement speed in the Demonized Swamp was not high.

After going through the Swift Leggings +5 attribute list, Zhang Yanhang immediately re-equipped the Swift Leggings onto his calves.

As soon as he had re-equipped the Swift Leggings, Zhang Yanhang did a quick sprint test to check his movement speed, and it was slightly disappointing.

Zhang Yanhang had hoped that the 3% movement speed increase would directly break his speed through one hundred meters per second, but sadly, it fell short.

The 3% movement speed increase only boosted his speed from 97 meters per second to 99 meters per second. He barely gained an increase of 2 meters per second and was still 1 meter short of completing his goal of one hundred meters per second.

Although rounding up would roughly equate to one hundred meters per second, Zhang Yanhang felt that accuracy was preferable in these types of situations.

"I originally thought that with this breakthrough, the speed increase after being blessed by Spiritual Qi would reach 0.6 Mach, but regrettably, the speed with the blessing of Spiritual Qi has only gone from the original 0.57 Mach to 0.58 Mach, still lacking 0.02 Mach."

Because he couldn’t break through one hundred meters per second with the Swift Leggings +5, Zhang Yanhang had to continue to pin his hopes on the Demonized Swamp, hoping to obtain some equipment or achievements there that could increase movement speed. Otherwise, he would really have to wait until being promoted to Third Tier.

"So, the question is, now that I’ve checked everything from the treasure box, what should I do next?"

After careful consideration, Zhang Yanhang realized he hadn’t checked his Soul points balance yet. Logically, having killed two hundred monsters, he should receive at least a four-digit Soul points profit, or even five digits if he was lucky.

After all, both the Big Goblin and Goblin Shaman provided a high number of Soul points. Although it wouldn’t be enough to upgrade anything else, if it were just for raising the Profession Level, it was very likely.

With that thought in mind, Zhang Yanhang immediately checked his Soul points balance.

[Soul Points: 17901 (+11140)]

"Hmm? I actually received a five-digit income of Soul Points, so it seems my estimate was quite accurate. With the more than six thousand Soul Points I had originally, I now have a total of 17901 Soul Points, which is indeed enough for a Profession Level upgrade."

Zhang Yanhang’s current Profession Level as Heavenly Destiny Master was just LV.17, and to advance from LV.17 to LV.18, it would require 14000 Soul Points. With his current Soul points balance, he had more than enough.

"The reason I could gain 11140 Soul Points this time is really thanks to the Big Goblin and Goblin Shaman. Combined, they contributed to almost 90% of the Soul Points yield."

Zhang Yanhang remembered that a treasure box dropped by a Goblin Shaman could provide 1800 Soul Points, which meant just three boxes together would equal 5400 Soul Points, accounting for half of the income.

And the reward for killing a Goblin Shaman, after deducting the six Soul Points used for extraction, would still leave over a thousand Soul Points. Thus, actually, just one Goblin Shaman could contribute to two-thirds of the Soul Points yield.

And each treasure box from the Big Goblin provided nine hundred soul points, making it two thousand seven hundred in total for three boxes. So, if you consider the killing benefits as well, it’s not an exaggeration to say that the Big Goblin and Goblin Shaman provided ninety percent of the soul point income.

However, in stark contrast was the extremely poor Raccoon City reward pool; after deducting the hundred soul points consumed for drawing the prize, the one hundred monsters in that pool, including treasure box earnings and killing benefits, barely provided Zhang Yanhang with a few hundred soul points.

Besides that, the Big Saber Goblin, Goblin Spear Thrower, and Goblin Wolf Cavalry also provided Zhang Yanhang with several hundred soul points each. Even when totaled up, they barely reached over a thousand points, which was equally deplorable.

Yet, while these monsters performed miserably in the prize pool, they often dominated in actual soul point income when clearing them out in reality, due to their sheer quantity. After all, quantity could indeed lead to a qualitative change.

"Since I have enough soul points, let’s immediately start upgrading the Heavenly Destiny Master’s profession level," Zhang Yanhang said while clicking on the upgrade button on the level panel.

[Would you like to spend 14,000 soul points to raise your profession level to LV.18?]

"Yes, raise the profession level to LV.18," Zhang Yanhang remembered saying that right after he upgraded his profession level to LV.17, the speed of subsequent level rises would definitely be fast. And sure enough, just over an hour later, he was upgrading his profession level again.

If he estimated based on the current pace, Zhang Yanhang reckoned he would reach the Second Tier Peak of LV.20 before he went to sleep next time.

Right now, at LV.18, he had just stepped a little closer after initially entering the later stage of the Second Tier, belonging to the phase where he was still accumulating energy for a breakthrough. Well, normally that would be the case, but it’s indeed a bit different from Zhang Yanhang’s situation.

[Profession level successfully raised to LV.18, free attribute points +6.]

"After upgrading the Heavenly Destiny Master’s profession level to LV.18, I’ve got another six free attribute points, adding to the eighteen I had saved before, I now have a total of twenty-four free attribute points. If I distribute them evenly among the four main attributes, I could raise each main attribute by six points," he mused.

Zhang Yanhang felt that hoarding free attribute points was indeed a good habit because even if you had just advanced in rank, you could immediately gain corresponding strength. Attributes are foundational, and only with a solid foundation can various percentage bonuses exert greater effects; they complement each other.

After successfully upgrading his profession level, Zhang Yanhang immediately opened his level panel to take a look.

[Name: Zhang Yanhang (Second Tier)]

[Race: Human]

[Profession: Heavenly Destiny Master]

[Level: LV.18 (0/16000)]

[Soul points: 3901 (-14000)]

"If nothing unexpected happens, after raising the profession level to LV.18, the amount of soul points needed for further increases has indeed gone up by two thousand, from the original 14,000 to 16,000. But now, I only have a balance of 3,901 soul points left, which isn’t enough to continue raising my profession level."

To keep raising his Heavenly Destiny Master’s profession level from LV.18 to LV.19, Zhang Yanhang still needed to accumulate another 12,099 soul points. Rounding that up, just thirteen thousand points, he felt he could gather that quite soon.

"Only two levels left to raise my profession level to the Second Tier Peak of LV.20; just hope that the Ash Source requirements for upgrade unlocks will be as minimal as possible," he wished.

If things go without a hitch, Zhang Yanhang should be able to unlock Alchemy’s subsequent upgrades after ascending to the Third Tier. And based on his experience upgrading during the Second Tier, he figured that if he wanted to continue upgrading Alchemy, he would need to keep consuming Ash Source.

Therefore, if possible, he hoped he would have two or three points of Ash Source left after promoting his rank so that he could immediately raise the skill level of Alchemy after ascending.

Because his previous advancement to Second Tier only required a single point of Ash Source, Zhang Yanhang felt it was quite promising to achieve this.

"I’ve tallied the items from the treasure boxes, and the soul points have been used up, so should I start cleaning up the Demonized Swamp next? No, before tackling the Demonized Swamp, I’d better first make a trip to the sewer in Raccoon City to affix the talisman paper, as the automatic repair will require quite some time."

Since it was troublesome to enter the sewer, Zhang Yanhang directly opened a teleportation channel and swiftly arrived at the location of the abandoned Transmission Channel. Although he hadn’t been here in several days, it appeared that zombies had not respawned like the last time.

Looking at the damp sewer walls covered in black stains, Zhang Yanhang felt that sticking the talisman paper directly here might not be ideal, so he decided to renovate it a bit.

As for how to renovate, it was literally as it sounded. Zhang Yanhang manipulated Alchemy to turn over the soil behind the walls, stuffing the original bricks and stones back into place.

This made the surroundings much cleaner. Moreover, to prevent any zombies from interfering, Zhang Yanhang erected an earth wall behind him, which completely blocked off the end of the passage, leaving only a small space enough for his own movement.

After such manipulations, the sewage and trash around Zhang Yanhang disappeared, revealing grey-yellow walls mixed with mud and stone. Visually, it actually resembled a narrow cave; if not for the off-color earth walls, he might even feel like he was back at the Crimson Iron Ore Vein.

Once sure the environment was suitable, Zhang Yanhang took out the blue talisman paper covered in indecipherable ancient text and special symbols from his waist bag.

He surmised that the technology on the rune most likely came from some high-level technology of the Ashen World, at least from the Fourth Tier Region. Otherwise, it couldn’t have easily developed the function of automatically repairing the teleportation channel.