Chapter 98 -98-A Massive Haul of SSS-Rank Rewards!

Chapter 98: Chapter98-A Massive Haul of SSS-Rank Rewards!

Just as Aya had started seriously considering which piece of purple gear looked the most valuable.

Tap.

Several streaks of golden light suddenly landed on the table.

Aya froze.

Then looked down.

Several golden scrolls lay quietly before her.

The intense glow of high-grade items nearly blinded her.

She whipped her head around.

"Boss, these are...?"

John walked back over to the sofa.

"Take them."

"I was just messing with you earlier. I’m not going to shortchange you over a few items."

Aya froze for two seconds.

A smile immediately returned to her face.

But then she quickly realized something.

"Then why did you tell me to pick whatever I wanted?"

John sat down.

"That was me messing with you too."

"..."

The smile on Aya’s face froze again.

She hugged the golden scrolls to her chest.

Then silently walked over to the corner and crouched down.

And started drawing circles on the floor.

John couldn’t be bothered with her.

Jokes were jokes.

Aya had genuinely done a lot this time.

As for the loot she deserved.

He naturally wouldn’t leave her short.

More importantly right now.

He wanted to see exactly how much they had hauled in from this trip.

John opened the Void Arsenal again.

A massive amount of item information instantly filled his vision.

He skipped over the ordinary equipment and materials.

There weren’t actually that many items truly worth paying attention to.

But every single one of them was excellent.

[SSS-rank Skill Fusion Stone ×3!]

[Skill Evolution Stone ×1!]

[SSS-rank Item: Droplet of the Fountain of Life ×1!]

[SSS-rank Item: Mount Evolution Card ×1!]

[Skill Book: Blizzard ×1!]

[Skill Book: Ice Seal ×1!]

Aside from those.

There was also plenty of high-quality equipment, special scrolls, and advanced materials.

"Beautiful."

John couldn’t suppress the grin on his face.

Sure enough.

How could grinding monsters possibly make money as fast as raiding someone’s treasury?

Other people killed one BOSS.

And got a few pieces of equipment.

He entered one treasury.

And carried the loot out by the chestful.

No wonder infiltration and raiding quests were so dangerous.

The rewards were genuinely insane.

John first took out the two skill books.

[Blizzard]

[Effect: Summons a large-scale blizzard over a designated area, dealing magic damage equal to 100% of Wisdom per second to all hostile targets within a 300-meter radius and reducing their Movement Speed by 20%.]

[Duration: 10 seconds]

[Base Cooldown: 60 seconds]

[MP Cost: 300]

The second book.

[Ice Seal]

[Effect: Releases a blast of extreme cold, dealing Ice-type magic damage equal to 400% of Wisdom to all hostile targets within a 300-meter cone in front of the caster and freezing them for 1 second.]

[Base Cooldown: 20 seconds]

[MP Cost: 300]

Two area skills.

One dealt sustained damage.

The other provided area control.

Both were exactly the kinds of skills he currently lacked.

"Learn."

[You have learned the Skill — Blizzard!]

[You have learned the Skill — Ice Seal!]

The information for both skills flowed into his mind.

John nodded in satisfaction.

Then.

He picked up the three SSS-rank Skill Fusion Stones.

One of them dropped into his palm.

Inside the crystal.

Two magical patterns of different colors slowly revolved around each other.

[Skill Fusion Stone]

[Quality: SSS]

[Type: Single-Use Special Item]

[Effect: Allows you to select two learned skills and fuse them, generating a more powerful new skill based on their characteristics!]

Any two skills could be fused.

And he had three stones at once.

John didn’t use one immediately.

Instead, he fell into thought.

His single-target damage was already massively overkill.

Void Spear.

Fire Dragon.

Then add traits like [Projectile Split], [Combo], and [Chain Reaction].

Against a single target or a small number of high-HP enemies.

He had absolutely no shortage of damage.

What he had always been slightly lacking in.

Was pure area damage.

[Sea of Flames] had an absurd coverage area.

But in terms of damage per tick.

There was still an obvious gap between it and his single-target skills.

In that case...

He’d improve his AoE first.

John quickly made his decision.

[Fuse the skills "Sea of Flames" and "Blizzard"?]

"Confirm."

Buzz—!

Both skill icons flew into the Fusion Stone at the same time.

Flames and ice continuously collided inside the crystal.

Several seconds later.

Crack!

The entire Fusion Stone shattered completely!

Ice-blue and crimson magic surged into John’s body at the same time.

[Skill Fusion successful!]

[You have lost the Skill: Sea of Flames!]

[You have lost the Skill: Blizzard!]

[You have obtained a new Skill — Icefire Flame Array!]

John immediately checked it.

[Icefire Flame Array]

[Quality: S]

[Type: Sustained Area Magic]

[Effect: Creates an Icefire Flame Array within a designated area, dealing dual Fire- and Ice-type magic damage equal to 550% of Wisdom per second to all hostile targets within range!]

[Reduces the Movement Speed of hostile targets within range by 50%!]

[For every 3 seconds the array persists, all hostile targets within range will be frozen for 1 second!]

[Base Effect Radius: 500 meters]

[Duration: 15 seconds]

[Base Cooldown: 60 seconds]

[MP Cost: 300]

John’s eyes lit up.

550%.

For fifteen seconds.

And it came with a 50% slow plus periodic area-wide freezes.

Now this was an AoE skill!

Not to mention.

It could also benefit from the various traits on the Void Staff.

[CD-- ×2].

[Domain Expansion].

And once he added the new traits he’d gained later...

"Now we’re talking."

He finally had a sustained AoE skill that was genuinely worth using.

John picked up the [Skill Evolution Stone] next.

[Skill Evolution Stone]

[Type: Single-Use Special Item]

[Effect: Raises the quality of one eligible skill by one rank!]

This item actually made him think for quite a while longer.

Damage was the one thing he had absolutely no shortage of right now.

What had truly been bothering him all this time.

Was [Void Shift].

Twenty meters.

It used to be enough.

But as the levels of his enemies kept increasing.

And the scale of the battlefield kept growing.

Twenty meters was clearly starting to feel too short.

That had been especially obvious against Grey just now.

A single blade wave from Grey could cover dozens of meters.

While John could only shift twenty meters at a time.

It had made things more than a little awkward.

"You’re the one."

[Use the Skill Evolution Stone on the S-rank Skill "Void Shift"?]

"Confirm."

Crack!

The Evolution Stone shattered.

Dense spatial energy instantly enveloped the skill icon.

[Upgrade successful!]

[The quality of your Skill "Void Shift" has increased!]

[S → SS!]

[Void Shift]

[Quality: SS]

[Effect: Instantly enter the void and reappear at any designated location within 100 meters!]

[While inside the void, you cannot be targeted or attacked!]

[Maximum Movement Distance: 100 meters!]

John was satisfied.

Twenty meters.

Straight to one hundred meters.

A full fivefold increase.

The next time he encountered a large-area skill like Grey’s.

At least he wouldn’t have to blink around all over the place like he had just now.

With the skills handled.

Next up.

Were the three new traits he had obtained from leveling all the way to Lv39.

John opened the notifications.

[Lv37 SSS-rank Trait — Relentless Onslaught!]

[Effect: Increases each damage tick of damage-over-time skills by 50%. Does not stack.]

John froze for a moment.

Then.

Slowly looked toward the [Icefire Flame Array] he had just fused.

One damage tick every second.

Lasting fifteen seconds.

Its total damage was directly increased by 50%?

"..."

Wasn’t this practically made for it?

The original sustained damage of 550% Wisdom was already high.

Now add [Relentless Onslaught] on top of that.

The longer it burned, the harder it hit.

And the more absurd it became.

John decisively slotted the trait into the Void Staff.

Then continued.