91: 【Gold 8】, 【Red Sword Princess】Evolves

After the first stage of Pioneer Team operations concluded, the second stage would commence after a brief rest.

There were two main tasks for the second stage.

The first task was to mine the already discovered resources.

Besides the ore veins discovered by Shi Li and Zhong Xin, other teams had also found some resource points.

At that time, specialized mining teams would enter to operate.

Considering the upcoming bilateral cooperation, the Pioneer Team had already discussed with the Great Priest through the Weng Weng Clan's long-range communication methods.

The Weng Weng Clan actually had little need for these resources and also lacked high-purity Gather methods.

Therefore, the discussion result was that Blue Star would be responsible for the Gather, and the profits would be split equally afterward.

Pioneer Team members needed to provide protection for the mining personnel throughout the process.

The second task was to perform a prerequisite quest.

Shi Li and Zhong Xin had already disseminated the task, and the entire Pioneer Team had received the quest to "Hunting Winged Beasts."

Only by having as many people as possible complete this task could they potentially initiate cooperation or further achieve cooperation with the Weng Weng Clan.

However, this task might not be so easy; not to mention whether they could defeat elite Winged Lycan.

Even tracking their whereabouts would likely take some time.

As Shi Li still needed to participate in the city-wide mock unified exam, he could only temporarily leave the Pioneer Team.

He would rejoin after the unified exam Card Hall matches were over.

It was unknown how many people in the Pioneer Team would have completed "Hunting Winged Beasts" by then.

"You've worked hard; I heard your performance this time was excellent."

Outside the camp, Director Hou personally greeted Shi Li in front of the aircraft.

"I was just lucky."

Shi Li said with a smile.

"Sometimes, luck is also a form of strength."

Director Hou knew this was just modesty.

Achieving the highest performance score in the entire team during the first stage was not something that could be accomplished by luck alone.

"Director Hou, can you take me to the Card Hall first?"

After boarding the aircraft, Shi Li's first choice was not to go home.

"No problem."

Director Hou showed an expression that was not unexpected.

Upon arriving at the Card Hall, Shi Li immediately went to the trading post.

The material cards he had consigned earlier had already sold, earning him 15,000 cubic coins.

Then, he sold or listed the materials obtained from his journey to the foreign land as appropriate.

During the process, the 50,000 cubic coins bonus also arrived in his account.

He spent 24,000 cubic coins to purchase three Three-Star [Berserker Medium] cards.

Adding the 20,000 cubic coins he earned from selling the [Poisonous Insect Fang] to the leader of Team 3 on the first day, he now had a total of 66,000 cubic coins in funds.

After completing all of this, Shi Li returned home.

He took a comfortable hot bath and felt some of his fatigue dissipate.

Although the foreign land base also had such facilities, it just wasn't as comfortable as bathing at home.

Excitement suppressed his sleepiness, and Shi Li took out the [Enhancement Quest] card given by the principal.

Aligning it with the [Crimson Blaze] Characteristic of the Red Blade Maiden, the quest panel immediately popped up.

Hunt Berserker Three-Star Demon - 10/10

Hunt Berserker LV5 Two-Star Demon - 100/100

Hunt Other LV5 Two-Star Demon - 200/200

[Berserker Medium] (Three-Star) - 3/3

Success Rate: 19%

"Finally, I've gathered the last item."

He clicked "Use" with a hint of excitement.

Buzz...

As the item card glowed, several lines of text appeared before his eyes.

"Characteristic evolution failed. This card will be destroyed after completion."

"Do you want to spend 3,000 cubic coins to reset this card crafting? Yes/No."

The good news was that the enhancement results could indeed be refreshed.

The bad news was that the price had increased again.

It was 500 cubic coins more expensive than the last time he synthesized the Tiao Tiao Characteristic.

This price was acceptable to Shi Li, who now had money on hand.

So he clicked "Refresh."

Buzz...

Another flash of light passed.

"Characteristic evolution failed. This card will be destroyed after completion."

"Do you want to spend 3,000 cubic coins to reset this card crafting? Yes/No."

The result remained unchanged.

From a probability concept, a 19% success rate does not mean that 19 successes will occur out of 100 enhancements.

Shi Li's luck was somewhat poor; after 10 consecutive refreshes, spending a total of 30,000 cubic coins, he finally succeeded.

The Characteristic he wanted to enhance finally changed.

[Crimson Blaze - 50 Health Points]: Red Blade Maiden attacks 1 target, dealing [Fixed Damage] equal to 20% of the target's maximum Health Points.

"Comfortable."

After enhancing this Characteristic, he felt that the Red Blade Maiden's combat power soared significantly.

From now on, he would no longer fear Defense or those damage reduction Characteristics.

In addition to this, the enhancement of this Characteristic brought another gain.

The resonance degree, which had been stagnant for a long time, increased again.

[Berserker Resonance Degree]: 40% → 60%

"Before, when I manually crafted the new Characteristic [Unceasing], it didn't increase the resonance degree. Now, simply enhancing an existing Characteristic increased it by 20%.

It seems it might be related to the strength of the Characteristic."

Shi Li deduced the pattern of resonance degree increase.

If he upgraded the Red Blade Maiden to Three-Star, it would likely reach 80% Berserker Resonance Degree.

It might even be possible to achieve resonance before the college entrance examination.

"If I achieve Berserker resonance, I can, like others, open the [Berserker Trial] simulated dungeon in the Card Player interface."

He felt full of anticipation.

However, the most important thing at the moment was the unified exam.

Winning first place in the unified exam was the most practical reward at hand: the opportunity to upgrade a card to Three-Star.

There were still two days until the official start of the unified exam, so Shi Li first had a good night's sleep.

The next day, he entered the Card Hall's virtual library via the cubic cabin to look up information, and then processed the [Horn of the Golden Rhinoceros Beetle] that Buzz Grey had given him.

This cost him another 10,000 cubic coins, but it also successfully promoted him to Gold 8.

On the third day, the final stage of the city-wide mock unified exam finally began.

This time, it would take three days.

One day for the Round of 8 to 4 and Round of 4 to 2, one day for rest, and one day for the finals.

When the eight contestants stood on the stage, Shi Li realized that he was not the only one who had made progress during this period.

After all, several of them on the field had participated in Jiangnan University's tryouts and had all received Two-Star Relic Card rewards.

It seemed they had assimilated them very well.

Now, among the eight, the lowest rank had reached Gold 5.

Some had even successfully advanced to the Platinum rank, entering Platinum 1.

And Fang Jinghai, the original hot favorite to win, had jumped two ranks to Platinum 2.

Shi Li's Gold 8 was not so conspicuous among the eight, only ranking fourth.

There was also a guy who was Gold 9 ahead of him.

Unexpectedly, in the very first match, Shi Li drew the guy who was Platinum 1.

Bai Jiajia, the top seed from Eighth Middle School.

She had not revealed her full deck in the previous matches, so Shi Li knew very little about her information.

He only knew that she possessed a Unique Character Card that did not carry a Characteristic.

She was an opponent not to be underestimated.

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