Gusion picked up the ring and examined its details.
[Soul Devourer]
Origin: End Space
Rarity: Purple
Equipment Type: Accessory
Durability: 100/100
Requirement: 30 Spirit
Details: Made by Supporter █████ using Thunder Gold and Clearstone as main materials. Has excellent growth potential.
Skill 1: Soul Devour (Passive): Can absorb high-quality energy (natural, dark matter, etc.) to grow. First time absorbing new energy yields more growth; subsequent absorption is less effective.
Current Growth: 0%
Skill 2: Spirituality (Passive): Increases spell resistance and boosts nerve reflex speed by 30%.
Skill 3: Soul Surge (Passive/Active): While worn, attacks deal extra true damage equal to 3% of max soul energy. When actively triggered, consumes 10% soul energy per second, and attacks deal extra true damage equal to 10% of max soul energy.
[Note: Can only trigger once per second]
Rating: 200+
Evaluation: Enough talk, show your blue bar!
[]
Although only purple, this item's effects were powerful, and its mechanism was excellent.
The sailor-uniform girl had tailored it to his needs. Skill 2, Spirituality, was a standard accessory bonus—but a good one, showing her skill.
Skill 3, Soul Surge, was insane—a purple item that inflicted true damage! The amount scaled with soul energy; the higher the Spirit stat, the more blue bar he had, and the more true damage he'd deal.
End Space didn't fully quantify soul and life energy, but in battle logs, you could check temporary numbers.
For example, if he slashed an enemy, the log would show how much damage he dealt.
By his calculations, for equal Spirit and Physique, soul and life energy were about the same numerically.
So, with Soul Surge active, just 10 procs would nearly kill an explorer with equal stats.
Of course, it wasn't overpowered yet—using it drained 10% soul energy per second, so he'd be empty in ten seconds.
Once soul energy hit zero, you'd faint or suffer severe fatigue—so you couldn't win just by spamming this effect.
But Gusion could recover soul energy in battle—his Mazuko skill could drain. He could activate Soul Surge and drain at the same time—a perpetual motion machine.
The 10% soul energy true damage per hit was significant, a reliable way to chip down an enemy's life.
Most importantly, Soul Devourer was only purple now. Once it ranked up to Legendary, all skills would get even stronger—and Soul Surge would be far more practical.
In short, this item had huge growth potential; at higher rarities, the trigger limit might even be lifted.
Seeing Gusion silent, the sailor-uniform girl asked nervously, "Just so you know, you can cancel the order, but can we at least not cancel the bed?"
But Gusion shook his head. "I'm satisfied. Let's settle the final payment."
Though not Legendary, Soul Devourer was excellent. Growth equipment was a permanent investment—long-term benefits surpassed a single Legendary accessory.
The girl beamed. "Great! I was afraid you wouldn't recognize its value. Don't mind the slow leveling—growth gear is king!"
"It does save money in the long run—if I live long enough."
"You'd better live long—I need you as a customer!"
She tidied her messy workbench. "Besides, it's not just about saving money."
"Oh? What do you mean?"
But she waved him off. "Too complicated to explain now—I'm exhausted and need sleep."
Gusion saw her panda eyes and figured she'd worked days to finish Soul Devourer, so he let it go.
Leaving her shop, he equipped the ring and used End Space's hide function to make it invisible—no foreign object feel, very convenient.
He tried injecting his soul energy into it, but its growth didn't budge. Clearly, feeding it his own energy didn't work, or pure soul energy was already his.
Back in his room, he used Thunder Breathing to generate some rough lightning and fed that to the ring—this time, its growth ticked up by 0.01%.
Seeing how slow these methods were, Gusion gave up on leveling it in End Space—he'd wait for a mission world with proper energy sources.
[Your share of the Kengan Ashura world's profits this cycle has been settled: 14,000 End Coins. Please check your mailbox.]
Just after studying the ring, Gusion got another prompt. He'd nearly forgotten his monthly rental income.
After conquering Demon Slayer, he'd acquired its world core too. That world now generated 31,800 End Coins per month—over twice Kengan's yield. But that income wouldn't arrive until next month, since the world was still being integrated.
With the new rent, he suddenly had spending money again. He went to the equipment enhancement hall, spent over 5,000 coins upgrading Soul Devourer to +8, and then headed to the training ground.
With money, he splurged on a paid mirror field, sparring with Kengan world's Ohma Tokita, adjusting his opponent's stats to match his own.
He felt this was the best way to improve his combat skills—a few days' sparring and all his combat masteries would go up a level.
The day before entering a new world, Gusion finished his training and checked his results.
After several worlds and practice with Ohma Tokita, his top combat mastery had reached level 37.
[Master-level Swordsmanship]:
Level: 37/40
Effect: Explorer is a true master of swordsmanship; attacks with sword-type main weapons deal 74% additional damage.
At this rate, after one more world, he might reach Grandmaster level for combat skills.
Besides combat, he kept up his physical training. With his divine bed and the Origin Spirit Seed's spiritual pressure passive, his stats had improved again.
[Pioneer #008 (including equipment and title bonuses):]
Constitution: 44 (+1)
Strength: 37 (+1)
Agility: 37 (+1)
Spirit: 40 (+3)
Charisma: 5
Luck: 2
[]
Spirit increased the most, mainly due to spiritual pressure training—the divine bed sped this up.
His Constitution stats rose more slowly now, probably because higher strength meant smaller gains from regular training.
After leveling up, Gusion returned to the arena. In half a day, he defeated his last opponent, Snow Wind, with a headshot from the Barbarian King's Bow.
Spectators witnessed two title changes in a single day.
Snow Wind had just reached first in the morning—she'd gone through another world since last meeting Gusion, improving greatly, and defeated the previous champion.
But before she could enjoy her title, End Space prompted her that a new challenger was about to face her mirror, and asked if she wanted to defend in person.
Since she was around, Snow Wind chose to fight herself, curious about her challenger.
When she entered the arena, she saw a familiar face.
Everyone used scouting skills in the arena. When she saw Gusion's stats under 40, she thought he was hiding his real power.
But then Gusion's aura began to surge—first Zanpakutō release, then Breathing Technique, then Demon God state—his stats shot up to 46 or 47.
Even so, Snow Wind was puzzled—how could Gusion rank so high? She was a four-max-stats second-tier; the top ten all had 50 points.
How had Gusion reached this rank?
Very soon, she understood.
Although Gusion had lower stats, he fought like a berserker, yet every move was subtle and precise. Each exchange he made the optimal choice, eventually forcing her into a corner.
When she used a skill to pull away for a breather, Gusion drew his heavy longbow. In the next instant, she was teleported out of the arena.
Leaving the lounge, Snow Wind looked at Gusion with a strange expression. She opened her mouth, but couldn't find the words.
She was normally calm and quiet, but this time, she really wanted to curse—she'd only had the title for half a day! She hadn't even used it in a mission world!
Gusion greeted her politely. "Thanks for the match."
"Let's hope we don't meet in a mission world," Snow Wind said again, with a new meaning.
Gusion smiled and waved goodbye. On his way back, he got a prompt.
[Mission world will open in 2 hours. Please prepare.]
[Target world: Derivative World—One Piece]