Chapter 82: This Time My Rewards Are Fairly Unpredictable

Chapter 82: Chapter 82: This Time My Rewards Are Fairly Unpredictable

With a thought, he began accepting the rewards one after another.

The first reward came from the Star Tempering Body Technique.

The instant the knowledge entered his mind, Xavier’s blood surged.

An immense force erupted from his body. It felt as though countless stars had descended upon him at once.

An invisible pressure spread through the room, carrying the weight of something vast and celestial.

The furniture around him began to tremble. The wooden table groaned. Cracks spread across the floor. Even the bed beneath him twisted under the pressure.

Xavier’s expression changed. He immediately suppressed the technique and withdrew the surging power before the damage could spread any further. The room finally returned to silence.

Xavier took a breath before directing his awareness inward.

What he saw left him pleasantly surprised. His first two spiritual platforms were completely filled with chaotic energy. Even the third spiritual platform was already about one third full.

A faint smile appeared on his face. His cultivation had advanced considerably.

The system panel appeared in his mind.

[Name: Xavier Kane]

[Realm: Spirit Platform Realm, 3rd Star]

[Talent: Perfect]

[Constitution: Chaos Body, Mid-to-Late Growth Stage]

[Martial Arts: Everlasting life force(Mastery), Heaven Piercing Sixfold Finger (Proficient), Phantom Step (Perfect), Wind and Thunder Sword Technique (Mastery), Star Tempering Body Technique (Fragment, 3rd-Level Mastery)]

Xavier examined the new information carefully. 3rd Star in the Spirit Platform Realm.

The investment had paid off far better than he expected. And this was only the beginning of the rewards he had yet to fully examine.

As Xavier examined the new information in his mind, he could not help but appreciate just how extraordinary the Star Tempering Body Technique was.

A 7th-Grade martial skill naturally was not something ordinary.

The technique allowed its user to absorb the radiance of the stars and use that energy to continuously strengthen the body.

Over time, it could improve physical strength, martial talent, potential, and even the user’s fundamental constitution.

Unlike techniques that focused on a single aspect of cultivation, the Star Tempering Body Technique strengthened almost everything at once.

There was, however, one obvious weakness.

The first two levels were primarily cultivation techniques. They could greatly improve the user’s foundation, but they offered almost nothing in terms of direct combat ability.

That was why Xavier was especially pleased with the system’s 30x multiplier.

The reward had allowed him to skip far ahead, reaching the 3rd-Level Mastery of the technique and already approaching the threshold of the fourth level.

More importantly, reaching this stage had unlocked an entirely new ability.

The Starry Realm. When the Star Tempering Body Technique was activated, Xavier could create a special force field around himself.

Within that field, gravity could be increased to roughly twice its normal intensity. Anyone caught inside it, apart from Xavier himself, would be affected.

That explained what had happened earlier. When he first received the reward, the power of the Starry Realm had leaked out before he could properly control it.

The furniture had twisted, the floor had cracked, and the entire room had seemed to groan beneath an invisible weight.

Xavier glanced around his bedroom. He still did not know exactly how powerful the Starry Realm could become.

How high could he increase the gravity? How large could he make the affected area? And how much control would he eventually gain over the force field?

Those questions would have to wait. His bedroom was hardly the ideal place to experiment with an ability capable of crushing everything around him.

Xavier shifted his attention to the next reward.

"Now for the second return," he murmured.

With a thought, a vest like piece of armor appeared before him.

It was made from an unfamiliar metal that shimmered with a deep golden light. Despite its appearance, the armor was surprisingly light and flexible.

Xavier’s eyes brightened.

"An 8th-Grade Golden Body Soft Armor," he said.

This was the highest grade piece of equipment he had ever possessed.

High tier equipment was generally easier to find than high tier elixirs, but that did not mean truly powerful armor was common.

An 8th-Grade defensive treasure was exceptionally rare throughout Valemont.

According to the system’s description, the armor could significantly weaken attacks from most Spirit Platform martial artists and completely neutralize attacks below that realm, including those from Foundation Establishment martial artists.

That alone would have made it valuable. But the armor had another function.

A miniature defensive formation had been embedded within it.

Once Xavier supplied it with magical energy, the formation would activate and generate a thin protective barrier over his skin.

That barrier could withstand a potentially fatal attack from a Star Sea martial artist.

Xavier could not help smiling.

"Not bad," he said.

In fact, it was considerably better than not bad. With this armor, his already formidable defensive ability had risen another level.

His attention then shifted to the two rune fragments. The first one was the Speed Rune Fragment.

[Rune Fragment: Speed]

[Effect: Formed from highly condensed spiritual energy and the laws of heaven and earth. Increases the user’s physical speed by 30%.]

The second was the Swordsmanship Rune Fragment.

[Rune Fragment: Swordsmanship]

[Effect: Formed from highly condensed spiritual energy and the laws of heaven and earth. Increases the overall power of sword based martial skills by 30%.]

Xavier studied the descriptions. Compared with the Vitality Rune Fragment Samuel had given him, these two were much more straightforward.

One increased his speed. The other strengthened his swordsmanship.

There was no complicated condition attached to either.

Xavier was more than satisfied. A thirty percent increase in either attribute was already significant.

When combined with his existing strength, the boost to his actual combat ability would be even more obvious.

But the most interesting part was not the immediate increase in strength. It was what the rune fragments represented.

Xavier’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

If these fragments don’t have a clear limit, he thought, a possibility suddenly occurring to him, could I eventually gather enough of them to create a complete set of rune armor?

If every fragment could enhance a different aspect of his strength, the combined effect would be terrifying.

The idea alone was enough to make Xavier excited.

The only problem was obtaining enough rune fragments. But even that was not impossible.

As long as he had sufficient resources to trade, Samuel could help him find treasures from the Extraordinary Division or its connections. If he supplied enough valuable elixirs, he could acquire one fragment today and another tomorrow.

He did not need to complete such a project immediately. He could build it piece by piece.

Eventually, perhaps he could turn an entire collection of rune fragments into a complete set of equipment.

Xavier smiled.

"There’s no need to rush," he said.

His attention finally landed on the last reward. The Six-Sided Destiny Die. The moment he read its description, his expression changed.

[Six-Sided Destiny Die]

[Description: A mysterious artifact believed to have been left behind by the God of Fate. It has six sides and may be rolled once every day. The number rolled determines the effect. A result from one to six increases the user’s base strength by 10% to 60% for one hour.]

[Warning: Every gift of fate carries a hidden price. Use with caution.]

Xavier’s eyes narrowed. Unlike the Coin of Destiny, there was no obvious penalty attached to rolling the die.

At worst, he received a ten percent increase. At best, he received sixty percent.

That was far more useful than the coin Samuel had given him.

But the description contained one sentence that caught Xavier’s attention.

A relic of the God of Fate.

"Gods," Xavier murmured, his expression becoming thoughtful.

The existence of gods was not merely an old legend in this world.

There were traces suggesting that beings far beyond ordinary martial artists had once existed.

The mysterious Celestial Core was one such example.

The Great Destruction had changed the world forever, and ever since that catastrophe, no god had openly descended into the mortal realm.

So what exactly did it mean for this die to be described as a relic of the God of Fate? Had the god died? Had the god simply left this world? Or had this artifact been abandoned for some completely different reason?

Xavier’s mind filled with possibilities. But after thinking about it for a while, he eventually shook his head.

"Forget it," he said.

Those beings were still far beyond his current level. There was no point wasting time speculating about something he could not investigate yet.

He put the Golden Body Soft Armor and the Six-Sided Destiny Die away.

As for the high grade spirit stone, Xavier barely paid attention to it. It was useful, certainly, but compared with the other rewards, it was not particularly exciting.

"It’ll have its uses," he said.

With that, Xavier stopped thinking about his rewards.

"It’s late. I should get some sleep," he said.

He washed up and went to bed. The night passed peacefully.

The following morning arrived quickly.

After breakfast, Xavier accompanied Mira to Arcadia Academy.

Today marked the reopening of the Annual Cup popularly known as the Barley Cup.