Chapter 314: Still Salvageable

Just holding it in one's hand, there was a sense of dark, deathly aura.

Yun Mu opened the book and discovered it was filled with a bunch of characters she couldn't understand at all, and by the looks of it, they were unlike any language in her memory.

"This is Heling Script; literally, it is the script of the Heling Empire." Lucy explained upon seeing the blank expression on her face.

"The Heling Empire has not experienced any major historical ruptures since its founding, so their script has been passed down from ancient times to the modern day."

"However, precisely because of this, Heling Script is somewhat too archaic compared to modern, newly invented languages, making it rather difficult to use."

"Of course, that is as far as I know." Lucy spread her hands: "Modern Heling Script should have undergone improvements, though that is just my guess."

"But this book is still written in the Heling Script I am familiar with, and the content within..."

Lucy took the Curse Book from Yun Mu's hand, flipped through it quickly for a moment, and her brows couldn't help but furrow slightly.

"These are all disreputable black magic, spells related to curses. As long as you inject Spirituality into this book, one of the spells on it will randomly take effect."

"Magic should be innocent, right?" Yun Mu thought of something at this moment and said: "It is just that the people using the magic are different."

"Normal spells are of course fine." Lucy nodded affirmatively, closed the Curse Book, and sighed: "But strictly speaking, curses cannot actually be considered magic."

"Eh, why?" This was the first time Yun Mu had heard such a statement.

"Weakness, blindness, disease, aging... these powers that cause pain are actually a type of dark magic, and curses, usually, do not require a casting process."

"Instead, they communicate with some Supernatural creatures capable of wielding dark magic through prayers, sacrifices, rituals, and the like, or it is said to be a spell cast upon the target by a god."

"Doing this can certainly allow ordinary people to use the power of spells, but behind it, it often implies a heavy price."

"Soul, emotions, health, unbearable pain."

"If it were under the premise of mutual consent, such a transaction would be understandable; however, in reality, in most cases, the petitioner is usually the one being deceived."

"Besides that..." After a pause, Lucy's expression looked somewhat complex.

"Some external existences bring risks just by coming into contact, just like..."

"Like Scarlet?" Yun Mu guessed what she was going to say, and seeing her pause, immediately added.

"Exactly."

Lucy nodded and returned the Curse Book to Yun Mu.

"Although I don't really like this kind of thing, if you have time, Miss Yun, you can still take a look at the content inside," she said.

"That way, you won't be completely clueless when facing curses."

"But I can't understand the words on it," Yun Mu said, taking the Curse Book from Lucy's hand.

"It's fine." Lucy smiled softly: "If you can't understand—I can teach you!"

"Uh..." Yun Mu's face turned awkward: "I feel like the variety of languages I've learned is already enough."

"More skills won't weigh you down, right?" Lucy looked at her with a smile: "Perhaps Miss Yun will go to the Heling Empire one day?"

"Then at least wait until I go to learn it!"

"Are the biological samples collected?" Yun Mu asked the Plague Doctor, who was getting up and walking back from the corpse of the Bishop.

"Mm, they have been collected." The Plague Doctor nodded, then looked at the heat rash on her body with some concern.

"Did you get sick during the previous battle?"

Without waiting for Yun Mu to reply, the Plague Doctor took out a syringe filled with leaf-green liquid from the leather pouch at his waist.

"This is a potion I developed; it should be able to remove the Disease status. You should try it," he said.

"Really?" Yun Mu took the syringe from the other party with some suspicion.

Old rules, check the attributes first.

【Leaf Green Potion (Blue)】

【After use, removes negative debuffs brought by the 【Disease】 effect.】

【Refined by the Plague Doctor.】

Ah, what a brief attribute panel, but it looks like there really isn't any problem.

Yun Mu no longer hesitated and decisively inserted the potion into her own shoulder.

Accompanied by a flash, the 【Typhus】 on the status bar immediately dissipated.

And what surprised her quite a bit was that below the Gatekeeper's health bar, the icon representing the 【Severe Coughing】 status also disappeared after a flash.

Oh, she understood! The Plague Doctor must be a special NPC within the Plague Capital Dungeon, specifically used to remove Disease statuses.

Otherwise, wouldn't it be quite troublesome if one were afflicted with a Disease status by an enemy and had no items to remove it? With the Plague Doctor around, there is no need to worry about Disease debuffs.

Anyway, after the battle ends, the Plague Doctor helps remove them.

However, this should just be a setting for the Dungeon's gameplay; there shouldn't be such Leaf Green Potions in the plot.

Otherwise, what would the Plague Doctor be collecting tissue samples to research for?

"Thanks, do I need to return the syringe to you?" Yun Mu thanked the Plague Doctor.

"No need." The Plague Doctor shook his head: "Just find a place to throw it away."

Shouldn't this kind of thing be specifically collected for destruction after use? Or reused after being disinfected once or something?

Although she had some doubts in her heart, since the Plague Doctor said so and this wasn't the real world, Yun Mu threw it on the ground without any burden.

Let's continue moving forward; it's time to head to the next area.

Thinking this, Yun Mu led her Partners to continue along the street, and soon, new fork-in-the-road options appeared before her.

【Suiji Shijian】

【Blacksmith Shop】

Looking at the two lines of text floating before her, Yun Mu pondered for a moment and finally walked toward the Blacksmith Shop on the right.

She had quite a lot of Gold Coins on her now, so she could try upgrading her equipment.

But before that, she needed to upgrade Lucy first; she would decide on the equipment upgrades based on the amount of Gold Coins consumed by the upgrade. As for the Super Golden Spatula? She planned to give this item to the Horned Deer, which was her newly acquired Mount.

Because the Horned Deer's current level is lv1, using the Super Golden Spatula could maximize the gains; if she used it on Lucy, the Gold Coins she previously spent upgrading Lucy wouldn't be refunded.

There is nothing to worry about regarding Lucy's level; just like before, continue using Gold Coins.

This way, the amount of Gold Coins she needs to spend won't be much different from before.

Clicking on Lucy's character panel, Yun Mu selects the upgrade option.

【Advance (Elite → Expert)】 【5200 Gold Coins】 Not bad, it's less than she expected.

After all, raising from lv24 to lv25 costs 5000 Gold Coins, and raising from lv25 to lv26 is not just a simple one-level increase.

It is a breakthrough from Elite to Expert; she had previously thought it would cost at least 6000 Gold Coins.

It seems the Game Panel is still quite conscientious; it really is, I'm crying to death.

It's a pity, if it could be even cheaper, ah no, if it were a free upgrade, that would be even better.

*Cough cough*, stopping the thoughts of wishful thinking in her heart, Yun Mu begins to upgrade Lucy.

【Gold Coins】 -5200 【Gold Coins】 -5500 【Gold Coins】 -6200 What? It costs 6800 Gold Coins to continue upgrading? Why don't you just go rob someone? Looking at her remaining balance of only 12639 Gold Coins, Yun Mu thinks for a moment and decides not to press the upgrade button again.

These Gold Coins should be saved for upgrading equipment; if she spends too much on leveling, she won't have money to reinforce her gear.

【You have consumed 19139 Gold Coins, the level of 【Alchemist Lucy】 has increased to lv28!】 【【Alchemist Lucy】 Max HP +12, Attack +8, Spell Strength +14, Defense +5, Tenacity +2, Dodge +15, Speed +2, Precision Correction +20, Critical Hit +6%.】 【【Alchemist Lucy】 gains trait 【Blood Core】】 【【Alchemist Lucy】 gains trait 【Advanced Harmonization】】 【Advanced Harmonization: When using Alchemy to refine items, there is a certain probability that the quality of the refined product will exceed its original grade; in addition, when refining items, there is a chance to obtain double the product.】

【【Alchemist Lucy】 learns skills 【Blood Magic: Blood Echo】 【Constellation Magic: Blade Constellation】】 【Blood Magic: Blood Echo: Deals spell damage with +20% damage correction to one unit and 【Marks】 the target.】

【Mark: Increases damage taken by the target by +20% and critical hit chance against them by +5%. The mark lasts for three turns (or until the target acts three times). When the mark disappears, it will detonate the blood within the target's body, dealing damage equal to 40% of the damage value received while the target was marked.】

【Constellation Magic: Blade Constellation: Magic containing all the stars of the Blade Constellation. When used, one of the following four effects will be chosen—

1. Applies a weapon enchantment effect to all friendly units. When attacking enemies with an enchanted weapon, it will deal additional damage equal to 30% of the caster's Spell Strength.

2. Deals spell damage with +50% damage correction to all enemies, Armor Penetration +15.

3. Deals magic damage with +80% damage correction to one designated enemy unit, and additionally deals extra damage equal to 30% of the enemy's lost HP.

4. Summons 16 starlight blades to float behind the caster. When dealing damage to enemies, the 16 starlight blades will perform a coordinated attack, with each starlight blade's damage correction being -60%.】

【Note: 【Constellation Magic: Blade Constellation】 can only be used once per battle.】

【Name: Lucy (Last of the Blood Clan · Alchemist) Level: lv28 (Expert) Race: Blood Clan · Bloodline 【Currently in Bloodline state】

Age: 300 years old

Max HP: 67 Attack: 28 Spell Strength: 49 Defense: 17 Tenacity: 9 Dodge: 39 Speed: 21 Precision Correction: 55 Critical Hit: 15%】 Lucy, god!

Great, no need to say more!

These stats, these skills! Lucy-ism!

Counting the stat effects provided by her equipment, Lucy is now fully capable of serving as the team's second-in-command for damage output.

And these two new skills obtained after breaking through to Expert are truly monstrous.

The damage correction of 【Blood Magic: Blood Echo】 is not high, but it has an additional 【Mark】 effect.

It can make the marked target take twenty percent more damage.

Twenty percent! Not a twenty percent increase in damage correction, but damage taken!

This is too monstrous! Besides that, this skill even has a +5% critical hit effect.

If this successfully crits, Yun Mu simply dares not imagine the damage.

As for the last part of the 【Mark】 effect, the description about the mark exploding after three turns.

She has selectively ignored it.

Three turns? With this mark on, what kind of monster could drag it out to three turns without dying?

Just kidding, finish you off in two turns, dead, dead, dead! And besides 【Blood Magic: Blood Echo】, the other skill 【Constellation Magic: Blade Constellation】 is also a heavyweight.

The previous 【Blade Constellation I】 and 【Blade Constellation II】 are gone; it looks like they were integrated into this skill.

You integrated it well!

The weapon enchantment effect can now be cast on the whole team, and the spell bonus has also risen from the original fifteen percent to thirty percent, directly doubling! And the large-scale AOE skill that deals damage to all enemies actually has a fifty percent damage correction and fifteen points of armor penetration.

It's just absurd.

As for effect three, eighty percent single-target damage correction, plus extra damage equal to thirty percent of the enemy's lost HP.

It seems like a finisher skill that deals more damage the lower the enemy's HP is, yet even against a full-HP target, the eighty percent damage correction can still deal decent spell damage.

You have to know, Yun Mu's lv6 Mental Shock still only has 65% damage correction to this day.

Ah, what? You say Mental Shock also has an additional Stun effect? Forget it, who can you even stun with a 100% stun probability? Even a random small mob has 8 points of Tenacity.

Continuing to talk about the Blade Constellation skill, regarding its fourth effect—summoning sixteen starlight blades to perform a coordinated attack. Damn, it sounds so cool and immersive.

However, this skill requires wasting one turn to activate, which doesn't seem very useful in a Dungeon.

But if it were in reality... Holy crap, Sword Come! "Familiar power"

Lucy clenched her fist tightly, then smiled at Yun Mu.

"Thank you, Miss Yun. Now, I should be able to control my original body for about four hours."

Ah? The duration of controlling her original body has suddenly become a combat power unit! "Hmm... about what rank do you need to be to fully control your previous body?" Yun Mu asked her with some curiosity.

"I'm not too sure either." Lucy tilted her head and pondered for a moment: "Probably reaching the Champion rank would do it."

Fifth Rank Champion... Just raising to the Expert rank costs so many Gold Coins; Yun Mu dares not imagine how much money it will take to reach Champion.

If only there were a few more Super Golden Spatulas.

Thinking of her Gold Coin balance that was never enough, Yun Mu couldn't help but feel a bit of heartache for her wallet.

The Gold Coins given for killing monsters are still too few. I wonder if there will be more ways to obtain Gold Coins later in the Dungeon.

(End of chapter)