224: Wandering Fragments

Chapter 224: wandering fragment

The 500,000 cubic coins wasn't too difficult for Shi Li.

Two or three days of gold farming groups would be enough, so after a brief cleanup, he returned to the Chess Domain.

Leo was overjoyed to hear that Shi Li was going to run gold farming groups again.

After all, some time had passed since the last time, and the bosses' consumption needs and desires had reignited.

Precisely because they hadn't spent money for a while, the bosses' enthusiasm for spending was exceptionally high today.

From a 20-person dungeon with 3 bosses in a gold farming group, Shi Li received a dividend of over 500,000 cubic coins.

This was certainly good news, saving him a lot of time.

Seeing that there was still some time until night, he left the Chess Domain again and returned to the entrance base.

With 500,000 cubic coins in his account, he could continue Star Ascension for the Black Angel.

After a wave of spending, the first thing was that the Wither System's resonance increased again.

It rose from 140% to 160%.

Now, let's look at its card stats.

【Black Angel】

Wither, 30 points, Three-Star Attack 30, 100/100, 0/30

【Soul Drain - Characteristic】: Black Angel's attacks inflict 10 points of Exhaustion.

【Sinful Punishment - Passive】: When Black Angel's Exhaustion expires, the target loses corresponding health.

【Redemption - 10 Energy Points】: Black Angel attacks 1 target and detonates its Exhaustion.

【Soul Absorption - 30 Energy Points】: Black Angel attacks 1 target, converting its Exhaustion into an equal amount of Energy Cap (Exhaustion: Loses corresponding Energy Cap for this round, stackable).

Unlike what he imagined, Shi Li initially thought he would get a percentage-based Exhaustion, similar to the Withering Dragon.

But thinking about it, a percentage-based Exhaustion might not be very useful.

After all, no matter how much energy a BOSS has, it's only one or two thousand points.

Compared to health, a percentage of energy value indeed holds little significance.

Shi Li tested this entry on the simulated card table.

It means that when the Black Angel attacks a target that has Exhaustion, it converts an equal amount of that target's Exhaustion into the Black Angel's Energy Cap.

Considering that casting the skill already involves 1 attack, which applies 10 points of Exhaustion, the Black Angel only needs the target to have 2 layers of Exhaustion to gain 30/30 Energy Cap.

This way, the skill can be cast without cost, and it can be cast again next turn.

Another point to note is that Soul Absorption can also trigger Sinful Punishment while increasing its own Energy Cap.

Assuming the target originally has 2 layers of Wither, then when attacked by Soul Absorption, it will take 30 points of attack damage and 30 points of damage from Exhaustion expiration.

The higher the stack of Exhaustion, the higher this damage.

The only thing to consider is how to cast the first Soul Absorption, which is a warm-up issue.

The warm-up for the Wither System is also a big problem, especially in the early stages, even harder than the Po Shi system and Steadfast System.

Overall, Shi Li considered this improvement to be quite good.

From a broad perspective, it falls into the average category within his unique card deck.

Its strength is neither high nor low.

If he were to rank his deck, it would definitely be in the lower tier.

But in special circumstances, he believed it would perform exceptionally well.

“Sigh—”

After reviewing the card stats, Shi Li knew there was one thing he couldn't escape.

That was looking at the Star Ascension quest.

【Star Ascension Quest】: Pay corresponding cubic coins, 0/5,000,000.

“I knew it.”

This number simply made his eyes ache.

Even for him, 5 million cubic coins wasn't something he could just casually pull out, was it?

And now it only costs 5 million to ascend to four stars, so will it cost him 50 million to ascend to five stars later?

This matter is best put on hold for now.

If he really had 5 million cubic coins, he could ascend two or three other unique cards to four stars.

However, it's worth noting that he also obtained the Black Angel's natal hand card simulation quest token card.

This item is also temporarily on hold; he has no money.

Anyway, the natal hand card and ascending to four stars are best completed together. Completing either one alone will not allow the Wither System's resonance to reach 200%, preventing the opening of the Wither slot for the Hell Trial, which would somewhat diminish its meaning.

After finishing the Black Angel's three-Star Ascension, Shi Li rested for a bit.

Then he returned to the Chess Domain.

Today is the last day of the annual Ladder Month.

Throughout the full moon ladder, he was the sole survivor.

According to what he learned from Leo, tonight he would once again face the nine major progressions.

And these nine major progressions, it is said that very few people have been able to complete them to this day, hardly any.

When the moonlight stairs descended, Shi Li stepped onto them.

Unexpectedly, what awaited him was not a new progression, but a pile of Blessing options.

“I was too happy getting the new card last night, and for a moment I forgot about this.”

After completing the last PVP match yesterday, he had completed a total of eighteen major progressions.

And after completing eighteen major progressions, there would be an additional reward of choosing a Blessing.

And this was not an ordinary Blessing selection, but a Blessing overview.

That's right, all the Blessings that could be chosen in the Ladder mode were here.

Including those Shi Li had already chosen, as long as they were stackable, they could be chosen a second time.

This Blessing overview had been transcribed before, so Shi Li already knew all of them.

So he had already thought of his answer.

He wanted to choose Moonlit Companion again, which would allow him to fuse another character, and not just a temporary one.

Adding a fused character would certainly greatly increase his success rate in clearing the stages.

This time, the character Shi Li wanted to fuse was no longer the Breaker.

The reason he chose to fuse the Breaker last night was to adapt to the circumstances.

In reality, this also made him realize a problem: the Demon-Defeating Dragon's survival methods were still insufficient.

So the target he wanted to fuse was the newly acquired Black Angel, which also belongs to the Wither System.

Even his opponent last night chose this card, so its strength in the Ladder could be imagined.

Each attack can reduce the opponent's Energy Cap by 3 points. Once it accumulates high enough, the target's Energy Cap will completely drop to 0.

Without energy, they basically can't unleash any burst damage, and thus can't instantly kill the Demon-Defeating Dragon.

So, unlike collecting Shields and Damage Reduction before, this is a proactive survival strategy.

“Hmm?”

However, just as Shi Li was about to find Moonlit Companion to select it, he suddenly noticed something was off.

According to historical intelligence, there were a total of 364 Blessings in Ladder mode.

With 4 per page, there were a total of 91 pages.

But at this moment, he found that the Blessings before him spanned 92 pages.

“So, there's an extra page?”

He directly jumped to page 92 and found only a single, solitary Blessing.

In other words, there was now 1 extra Blessing, making a total of 365.

But because these Blessings were all randomly sorted, he didn't know where the extra one was.

“I feel like something is off.”

So Shi Li began to search.

During this time, he found Moonlit Companion on page 34, but didn't choose it, continuing his search instead.

Finally, on page 68, he saw an unfamiliar Blessing that he didn't remember.

【Curious Observer】: There is a different scent about you, drawing the moon's gaze.

“Hidden plot?”

This was the first thing Shi Li thought of when he saw this Blessing.

But if he were to say what made him different from those who had reached the third day of the full moon before, he could only think of two points.

He was an outsider; after all, he wasn't a native inhabitant of the Chess Domain.

However, he didn't know how long the Chess Domain had been open to the outside world.

He had once searched for some literature and it seemed that the appearance of outsiders could be traced back decades ago.

Of course, the term 'outsider' didn't just refer to people from Blue Star; it could also be outsiders from other civilizations entering the Chess Domain.

Decades of time meant dozens of Ladder events had occurred.

During this period, it was not strange for outsiders to be able to enter the third day of the full moon.

So Shi Li felt that it shouldn't be because of his identity as an outsider that he triggered a hidden plot.

This probability was relatively small.

Then there might only be one other difference between him and others.

That is, the Withering Dragon. Perhaps no one had ever used a card outside of the seven systems as a character before.

In any case, the opportunity was now before him.

Shi Li certainly wouldn't miss this chance.

So, with the thought of being prepared, he also checked the remaining Blessings.

He confirmed again that the other Blessings were consistent with the historical intelligence, and only Curious Observer was outside of the intelligence.

Ultimately, he chose this Blessing.

However, nothing special happened next.

The new major progression still arrived, and before him were still the three choices: 1 enemy, 1 Blessing, 1 shop.

Shi Li chose the enemy option, and then he discovered something different.

【Cloud Elf】 (Rage)

This time, two extra words appeared in the enemy's name: Rage.

Shi Li didn't know if this monster was originally like this; he only knew that its strength was much higher than the enemy from the previous major progression.

Fortunately, his character's Characteristic was special; if it were someone else fighting, they might have died in a few rounds.

After defeating this enemy, a new enemy appeared.

Three consecutive enemies all had the words Rage in their names.

So this wasn't a special case for the Cloud Elf just now; it seemed to be a general situation.

In historical intelligence, this was never mentioned.

“Could it really be because I chose that Blessing just now?”

Shi Li had a faint guess.

The ensuing battles gradually became more and more difficult.

The enemies' attacks grew stronger and stronger, several times barely grazing the Demon-Defeating Dragon's lifeline.

Even in the major progression BOSS battle, his Decoy Talisman was triggered.

Fortunately, Shi Li also continued to enhance the Demon-Defeating Dragon's survival capabilities, which allowed him to barely survive.

“At this rate, I wonder if I can complete all nine progressions tonight.”

He was now feeling a bit uncertain.

A new major progression began, and new steps appeared.

However, this time, even the scene changed.

Before, it was the moonlight staircase, with a high night sky, floating clouds, and cold wind.

But upon entering this major progression, everything else was gone except for the moonlight staircase, which remained.

At this moment, he was in a pure colored space.

The options continued, so he continued to progress up the ladder.

He was relatively lucky to encounter Moonlit Companion again in the Blessing of the second major progression.

Shi Li believed that this was Heaven itself wanting him to successfully clear the stage.

So, he unhesitatingly chose to fuse the Black Angel.

With the Black Angel's Characteristic, the subsequent battles became much easier.

As long as it was combined with the Demon-Defeating Dark Hunter's Echo, when Quantum Entanglement and Soul Drain were triggered simultaneously, the enemy simply wouldn't have enough energy to unleash any burst damage.

As he continued to advance, the scenery and enemies changed again.

The place he was in now was a palace made of moonlight.

And those increasing steps clearly led to the depths of the palace.

All the enemies uniformly became various Moonlit Attendants with prefixes.

For example, Lowly Moonlit Attendant, Veteran Moonlit Attendant, Rational Moonlit Attendant, and so on.

When he fought his way to the final major BOSS of the ninth major progression, he found that the opponent was a moonlit afterimage whose appearance was unclear.

【I sense a familiar yet strange scent on you.】

Unexpectedly, when the battle began, the opponent actually spoke.

“You are—”

This was the first time Shi Li had encountered a truly intelligent and communicative enemy in the Ladder.

【I am merely a fragment separated from a deity, an awakened will.】

“Fragment?”

He felt that this word sounded a little familiar.

【You can call me wandering fragment.】

“This.”

Upon hearing this, Shi Li remembered.

In the foreign realm where he obtained the Withering Dragon, he had heard a related term: fading fragment.

And Wandering, just like Wither, belonged to a system within the exotic cards.

If he remembered correctly, this system seemed to require movement to gain energy.

【Defeat me, and you shall gain ownership of this fragment.】

With the opponent's words, the battle finally officially began.

What awaited Shi Li next was a bitter struggle.

This BOSS was completely different from what he had imagined.

It didn't appear as a Wandering System, but rather as an Balance System.

After being defeated, it revived with full health and transformed into a Rage System.

After the Rage System, there was the Wisdom System, and after the Wisdom System, there was the Po Shi system.

This guy actually had seven lives!

But Shi Li's carefully configured Demonbane Angel Dragon was not to be underestimated, and it managed to completely defeat the opponent.

The moment the battle ended, a ray of light flew into his hand.

【You obtained Moonlit Werewolf 1.】

【Wandering System Resonance】: 0% → 20%

“Oh?!”