Re: Evolution Online

Liam was like a kid in a candy store. His gaze swept over the items, his eyes shining with wonder. He moved through the aisles, touching nothing but taking in everything.

Dante, meanwhile, felt like he was standing on the edge of a precipice. Each step Liam took among those shelves was a step closer to the complete annihilation of his wealth. The enormity of the potential expenditure made his previous purchases seem trivial in comparison. He wanted to scream, to run, to do anything to stop this madness, but he was helpless.

Dante could only watch blankly as Liam went around checking out one weapon after another. However, his high spirit was quickly doused as he saw that these legendary items were not as good as the ones he had gotten from the tutorial.

Seeing Liam frown, Dante quickly interjected. "See I told you. They are bad. It's not worth it. They don't even give that many additional attributes. Just some special trait."

"Sure, they will become better with upgrades but the materials are costly and rare. They are money sinks. Why do you think the person who crafted them sold them in the first place?"

Liam ignored Dante's rant and checked out the details of the few items that caught his eye.

[Sword of the Phoenix]

Level 0 (Can be upgraded)

Type: Weapon (Sword)

Damage: 75 - 90

Attributes:

Phoenix's Wrath: On hit, 10% chance to cast a flame that engulfs the enemy, dealing 150 fire damage over 10 seconds.

Rebirth: When the wielder's health falls below 10%, fully restore health once per day.

Flame Guard: Increase resistance to fire by 50%.

Durability: 200/200

Special Ability: Every kill increases the sword's damage by 1, stacking up to 50 additional damage.

[Mantle of the Star Seer]

Level 0 (Can be upgraded)

Type: Armor (Cloak)

Defense: 55

Attributes:

Star Gaze: Increases the wearer's magic accuracy and critical hit chance by 15%.

Astral Projection: Once per day, allows the wearer to become ethereal, avoiding all physical damage for 10 seconds.

Celestial Guidance: Increases mana regeneration by 20%.

Durability: 150/150

Special Ability: Casting a spell has a 5% chance of not consuming mana.

Aegis of the Five Realms:

Level 0 (Can be upgraded)

Type: Armor (Shield)

Defense: 120

Attributes:

Realm's Barrier: Absorbs 500 points of damage before needing to recharge (recharges fully in 24 hours).

Elemental Harmony: Grants 25% resistance to fire, ice, lightning, earth, and wind damage.

Guardian's Echo: Reflects 10% of melee damage back to the attacker.

Durability: 250/250

Special Ability: When health drops below 15%, create a protective dome that reduces incoming damage by 50% for 15 seconds (once per day).

Gauntlets of the Titan:

Level 0 (Can be upgraded)

Type: Armor (Gloves)

Defense: 70

Attributes:

Titan's Strength: Doubles the wearer's physical strength.

Unbreakable Grip: Increases the chance to disarm opponents or break objects.

Shockwave Clap: Clapping hands together unleashes a shockwave that stuns nearby enemies.

Durability: 220/220

Special Ability: Once per hour, the wearer can grow to twice their size, gaining additional strength and health for 2 minutes.

***

Liam sighed. They were indeed not that good and did not offer extra attributes but their effects were quite powerful. If they were upgraded, they might have potential.

Besides, there was another reason why he wanted to buy these items. He wanted to reverse engineer them and improve his forging expertise.

More than Legendary items, the recipe for crafting a legendary item was rarer. Even more so was the recipe for crafting a soul weapon. Soul weapons were exceedingly rare and exceedingly powerful, often becoming the defining asset of the elites of the myriad realms. They grow with their owner, becoming more potent as the wielder's strength increases. Understanding the crafting of Legendary items could pave the way to understanding and maybe even creating soul weapons.

Liam knew this was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. The insights he could gain from these Legendary items could catapult his own crafting abilities to new heights.

"Bastard… listen to me." Dante interrupted Liam's thoughts.

"Hmmm?" Liam raised a brow, not pleased.

"I mean, bro. No, guild leader. No, Grandmaster. Please listen to me." Dante stammered hurriedly. "Before you decide to go all in on this floor and empty my bank account, there are some training facilities on the top most floor. You should first use them."

"Oh?"

Dante became excited that the bastard was actually listening to him. He started selling his idea even more vigorously. "These training facilities are top-notch. There is even a time-dilation array facility." "If you train there, you can train for a longer time. Its a 5:1 ratio that too. The ambiance is also very ideal. There is a painting treasure hung on the wall that sometimes reveals insights into the truth of the universe."

"You should train and meditate on your insights there. I am sure you have one or two dao seeds by now. You can improve them tremendously."

Liam nodded, patiently listening to him. Everything seemed to make sense so he stepped back from the legendary items he had his eye on. He wanted to use the training facility first and come back here later.

Dante started celebrating inwardly. Obviously, he was not doing all of this for shits and giggles. Considering how much of a training maniac Liam was, or at least from what he had heard about him, he was sure that Liam would be engrossed in training for days together which should give him enough time to think of something to get out of this shit show.

As Dante quickly escorted everyone to the top most floor of the system shop, Liam suddenly paused. "Hmmm? What is there on the tenth floor?"

Dante started sweating. "Nothing. Nothing. It's just another food court. You can pay a visit to that later after training. You would be hungry-" Before he could finish his words, he once again shuddered like a fly on an electric bat.

"You are lying?" Liam's lips tugged upward. Just what was there on the tenth floor? He walked towards the floor. Naturally, he was not going to leave one floor out of the eleven floors unchecked when he specifically came here to access the system shop.

This floor was surprisingly a little crowded. There was sort of a drunken haze on the floor similar to a gambling den and when Liam took a closer look, the whole thing was indeed a gambling den.

"It's just gambling. It's just gambling. I was only trying to warn you." Dante started but he did not continue talking as he winced again in pain.

"You do know that your soul gets weaker and weaker every time you lie to me and try to break the contract?" Dante shuddered and then completely zipped up his mouth.

Liam, Rey, Madan, and Lan Deming walked around the floor, taking a look at everything in front of them. There were all sorts of gambling options on the floor from games of chance to high-stakes battles where powerful tamed creatures were pitted against each other. There were also arenas where people could bet on their own fights, a risky venture that promised huge rewards for the victors.

Each section was bustling with activity, the air filled with shouts of victory and groans of defeat. Beings of different races and worlds freely intermingled and interacted with each other. Liquor flowed and beautiful nymphs swayed their bodies covered scantily, trying to please everyone.

Liam walked past all of this ruckus as he looked around the floor some more. Was there something else here? Why would Dante react so much just for some gambling? It did not make sense.

As he wandered around, he finally came across a few shop counters at the end of the floor that did not seem to be related to gambling. Liam walked over to check them out.

"This is an information desk, Grandmaster." The fairy politely explained to Liam.

"Information desk?" Liam's interest was piqued.

"Here you can pay mana cores and find out about anything and everything." Seeing that Liam did not look impressed, the fairy started explaining further. "We work with the wandering gaze faction. They run the top information network in our sector. All our information missives are directly obtained from their main branch. So you can rest assured. These are 100% accurate."

Liam did not reveal it but his heart was thumping loudly at the moment. Until now he was fighting against an invisible enemy, an enemy that he knew nothing about.

And now he finally had a chance to obtain some legitimate information, information that he sorely lacked.

However, he did not want to get too excited as there could always be some hidden issues. He remained calm and asked the fairy. "What about the next counter? What do they sell?"

"Oh?" The fairy batter her long eyelashes and replied with a smile. "They sell teleportation tokens, Grandmaster."

"They sell teleportation tokens to many worlds in the myriad realms. Not just our sector, esteemed Grandmaster. It is a golden opportunity that you would not want to miss."