Chapter 111 - 106: The Limit Below the Extraordinary

Chapter 111: Chapter 106: The Limit Below the Extraordinary

Shi An was very satisfied with all three pieces of loot.

After the Nightmare was conquered, he didn’t stay long before sensing the premonition of return. To his surprise, he found he could interrupt this premonition.

However, he allowed the gravitational pull from reality to drag him back.

The next moment, with a loud SPLASH, Shi An returned to reality.

Old Lu was still waiting not far away, sitting on a small folding stool and frantically tapping his phone. It wasn’t until his base was destroyed that he finally couldn’t help but curse out loud.

"The freaking marksman isn’t pushing towers, and the jungler isn’t jungling! I’m gonna [BEEP BEEP BEEP]—"

However, seeing Hajilu’s 0-9 score, Shi An simply muttered a single word, "Noob."

Lu Fan jerked his head up. "Son, you’re finally back! Seeing you safe and sound puts this father’s heart at ease."

Shi An angrily ruffled Hajilu’s hair, though he still felt quite warm inside.

He said, "It’s just a mere Nightmare. Do you think I’d shy away from it? I just steamrolled right over it and that was that."

"Keep bragging!" Hajilu raised a finger.

After returning to his rented apartment, Shi An sank into the Sea of Nightmares once again.

This time, he descended as the Manager, returning to his loyal Safe Zone. First, he carefully examined the several pieces of loot he had just harvested.

One building blueprint.

One Dream Curse Object template.

"This is a Rare Level Curse Object template. Theoretically, as long as I have enough Belief Value, I can mass-produce Rare Level Curse Objects!"

A Rare Level Curse Object was a Treasure that many Refining Stage powerhouses dreamed of obtaining. Often, when a Refining powerhouse hit a bottleneck, it was simply because they couldn’t find a suitable and powerful Curse Object.

As for the building blueprint...

"This is a duplicate Alchemy Workshop Blueprint."

If it weren’t for the "synthesizable" prompt, Shi An would never have chosen such a blueprint; he would have been better off picking three Member Cards.

But now...

"Buildings can actually be synthesized? What happens after synthesis? Sure enough, the Safe Zone still has too many hidden functions."

Shi An arrived at the workshop and took out the blueprint. Instantly, shattered text reconstructed before his eyes, forming a prompt.

[Prompt: Do you wish to input the required building Materials and synthesize the two "Wizard’s Alchemy Workshops"?]

[Prompt: Synthesizing two identical or similar buildings can upgrade the building’s Tier.]

Say no more!

A hazy white mist enveloped the workshop area. This time, the construction and maintenance didn’t take long. Soon, a brand-new workshop area appeared before Shi An’s eyes.

The workshop was completely renewed. Although it didn’t have any advanced sci-fi aesthetic yet, it was more than a tier above its previous crude style.

[Prompt: "Wizard’s Alchemy Workshop" has been upgraded to "Exquisite Alchemy Workshop (Rare Level)."]

Shi An muttered, "...So, buildings have a Tier as well? The reason there was no Tier displayed before was that they were all Ordinary."

A Rare Level Alchemy Workshop no longer had the previous "probability of failure" side effect. The "mutation" effect was retained, and it also gained a new effect: a chance to refund Materials during crafting.

In short, the production costs for the Safe Zone’s various workshops had been greatly reduced, and the crafting speed was much faster. There also seemed to be a prompt indicating a higher mutation limit.

It wasn’t bad at all.

While Shi An was upgrading the workshop, Employee Number Three, the Fallen Spring Spirit, had already reported for duty. The moment he finished selecting his loot, the Spring Spirit manifested inside an unoccupied staff dormitory.

At this time, Little Blood and Nether Robe were welcoming the newcomer.

One was condensed from Blood Mist. It occasionally exploded its body into Blood Mist, then condensed the Blood Mist back into a chubby, physical form, bobbing its head around.

The other was a dark red bridal gown. It had no hands at its cuffs, looking as if its arms had been chopped off, leaving only empty sleeves. It didn’t have a head either; a red bridal veil and embroidered shoes hung on the gown like two pendants strung together by dead threads, swaying back and forth as the dress drifted.

The final one was condensed from flowing water, outlining a tangible figure that clearly revealed a female silhouette. At first glance, it seemed to be the most normal of these three life forms, however...

The flowing water was filthy, pitch-black water, with wisps of terrifying black smoke evaporating from its murky surface. Just from this sight alone, the Fallen Spring Spirit looked far more terrifying than Little Blood and Nether Robe.

The Fallen Spring Spirit had already learned the general situation and its future job duties from Little Blood and Nether Robe.

Shi An walked over and said, "From now on, the security of the Safe Zone will be handled by the two of you, Blood Hand Seal and Fallen Spring Spirit. Of course, there usually aren’t many troublemakers in our Safe Zone, and if someone does cause a scene, you can just use your permissions to kick them out. Usually, your mission will just be to patrol the area. If anything happens, report it to me."

Little Blood gurgled, "Roar~ (No problem~!)"

The Fallen Spring Spirit pinched its watery skirt and gave a slight curtsy.

Shi An thought about giving the Fallen Spring Spirit a nickname. This was to treat everyone equally, not to mention that "Fallen Spring Spirit" was too long and troublesome to say.

"I’ll just call you Little Quan from now on."

The Fallen Spring Spirit shook its head. No, no, that didn’t sound good enough.

"Then how about Little Ling?"

The Fallen Spring Spirit shot him a look of disdain. This human really sucked at naming things. It used its flowing water to condense two characters.

"Zhuo~ Ling~"

"Ling~ has the meaning of flowing water~ It suits~ me~"

The Fallen Spring Spirit—oh, wait, Miao—was actually a cultured ghost!

How did it know all this?

Little Blood couldn’t help but feel like a total barbarian in comparison. And indeed, it was.

After learning that its job would require interacting with humans, Zhuo Ling immediately used its "Elemental Form" Ability to reconstruct its body on the spot.

A few seconds later, a young girl wearing a black Gothic dress appeared before the two ghosts and one human.

The young girl had un-concealable grayish-black striped marks on her neck, a symbol of "filth." Looking closely, Shi An could also see the traces of flowing water circulating on the surface of Miao’s body.

It wasn’t human after all, just a humanoid shell simulated from flowing water. However, the Basic Level "Elemental Form" already possessed such strong shape-shifting capabilities. If Shi An were to upgrade Zhuo Ling, it would probably reach a state where it could pass off as completely real.

Shi An glanced at his current Belief Value.

When the Level 3 Safe Zone first opened for business, the Belief Value was only at 880 points. But over the past two days, not only had he conquered a large-scale Nightmare, but the Nightmares conquered by the Safe Zone’s Dream Descenders also numbered over a dozen.

He had reaped a plentiful harvest.

Furthermore, as the number of Dream Descenders staying in the Safe Zone continued to grow, they were also producing a steady stream of Belief Points. While individual amounts were small, the massive base population meant it accumulated into a very impressive figure.

[Belief Value: 1920 points.]

He needed to save a portion of it, but he could at least spare around a thousand points of the Power of Faith to upgrade his own employees.

Nowadays, there were more and more Dream Descenders in the Safe Zone. Although Little Blood, Zhuo Ling, and the others held the permission to kick people out, raw strength was ultimately the foundation of everything. It was time for another upgrade.

"Converting Belief Value into strength is a much more valuable way to keep it by my side."

However, from Shi An’s current perspective, the initial, un-upgraded combat power of Zhuo Ling and Nether Robe was still stronger than Refining Stage powerhouses like Xi Xue and Profound Sword. And people like Xi Xue and Profound Sword were already geniuses to begin with. They had conquered Nightmares multiple times and had even trained in the Training Ground.

Currently, within the "First Refinement Realm," they could be considered top-tier powerhouses in a league of their own. Below their tier of powerhouses were those in the Senior First Refinement Realm. And further below were the Ordinary Refining Stage and the newly advanced Refining Stage.

Even Little Blood... Even before awakening its third Skill, Little Blood’s combat power in its original state was far stronger than an Ordinary Refining Realm expert. It was likewise stronger than Ordinary, common ghosts.

Shi An guessed that this was because once ghosts gained intelligence, they could utilize their own power to the absolute fullest.

Shi An spent one hundred Belief Value points to upgrade Nether Robe’s remaining Skill, "Red Sleeve," to Level 2. After that, he spent another three hundred Belief Value points to upgrade all three of Zhuo Ling’s Skills to Level 2.

Inside the training room.

The human body that Zhuo Ling molded using "Elemental Form" no longer showed the slightest flaw. It even found a set of Dream Descender clothes to wear and grabbed a Curse Object to use as a weapon, making it look even more realistic.

Under normal circumstances, since it originated as a ghost, no matter how realistic its fabricated form was, the sinister and ominous aura unique to ghosts could never be erased. A ghost would always be a ghost; it would be a ghost for its entire existence!

However, employees transformed through the Safe Zone had absolutely none of a ghost’s sinister coldness. Take the Blood Hand Seal, for example. Aside from looking like a ghost, absolutely nothing else about it was related to a ghost. That was why other Dream Descenders assumed the Blood Hand Seal was a Ghost Object controlled by the Manager, or some special item construct.

"But the strongest aspect of Elemental Form is that it allows Zhuo Ling to be immune to a lot of damage. It can completely ignore real-world bullets and slashes from blades. Only a Curse Art imbued with powerful Curse Power could truly injure it, and even then, it would only be an injury."

"A ghost’s Life Force is simply too powerful."

Its third Skill, "Fallen Domination," couldn’t be tested right now. However, with its first Skill, "Call Tide," Zhuo Ling could be seen summoning massive waves of black tide out of thin air. Its sheer might was oppressive, and the small training room was nowhere near large enough for it to fully unleash its power.

If Zhuo Ling were compared to the previous Black Crow ghost that had awakened its intelligence...

Shi An felt that Zhuo Ling was a tier stronger. With just the two Abilities of Call Tide and Elemental Form, Zhuo Ling was more than capable of clashing with the Black Crow Boss, let alone the fact that it still had its third Skill.

After finishing the upgrades for the two employees, Shi An noticed the Blood Hand Seal staring at him with dry, eager eyes.

"Don’t worry, you’re the main event."

The Blood Hand Seal’s three Skills were:

[Blood Hand Brand Level 3, Blood Concealment Body Level 2, Blood Demon Incarnation Level 1.]

[Prompt: "Blood Hand Brand" cannot be upgraded further.]

He spent 500 points of Power of Faith to upgrade the remaining two major Skills all the way to Level 3.

All in!

Even though the amount of Power of Faith consumed was only a few times greater, the commotion caused by the Blood Hand Seal’s upgrade seemed more than ten times, perhaps even dozens of times larger.

The sprint from Level 2 toward Level 3 seemed to be the crucial threshold!

Little Blood’s entire body exploded, turning into a cloud of Blood Mist. That Blood Mist then continuously expanded and kept Spreading, crashing around the entire training room like a tidal wave.

Shi An and the two ghosts were all forced into a corner. Nether Robe transformed into a large robe and draped itself over him, while Zhuo Ling erected a wall of water.

The howling of the Blood Mist lasted for a full ten minutes.

[Prompt: Your employee "Blood Hand Seal" has been upgraded to a perfect state.]