Kurosaki Rei didn't know how the other party could tell that he didn't really need the scroll, and he was also a bit puzzled.
"You're a mage-type explorer, right? What do you want this kind of scroll for?"
"Useful."
Black Lily replied briefly. Then she tilted her head slightly. "Add me as a friend?"
Kurosaki Rei didn't refuse and accepted her friend request. Buyers this straightforward were rare, and as for whether she was strange or not—he didn't really care.
After adding him, Black Lily turned around and left. Along the way, several explorers who saw her subconsciously avoided her, as if they were wary.
After selling off everything he had on hand, Kurosaki Rei felt refreshed. Sitting on a fortune of 150,000 Terminus Coins, he decided to head to the Equipment Enhancement Hall and have some fun.
After killing Kibutsuji Muzan, the growth progress of Prison Demon had once again reached 100%, allowing it to evolve into a Legendary-tier main weapon.
Prison Demon
Origin: Bleach
Rarity: Legendary
Main Weapon: Blade-type
Durability: 200/200
Sharpness: 45 (+13)
Toughness: 44 (+13)
Usage Requirement: Restricted to Pioneer No. 008
Details:
A Zanpakutō forged by Pioneer No. 008 by infusing a soul into an Asauchi. Automatically bound—this equipment cannot be sold or traded, and other users cannot activate it.
Weapon Skill 1 (Passive): Soul Nourishment
Description: When the explorer uses Prison Demon to kill enemies, it devours a portion of the enemy's soul power to nourish itself, increasing its growth progress. The explorer may also feed Prison Demon with their own soul to gain extremely high growth progress.
(Warning: This method is extremely dangerous.)
Current Growth Progress: 11.91%
Weapon Skill 2 (Active): Shikai
Description: Upon releasing Shikai, it continuously consumes the explorer's Soul Source, manifesting Prison Demon's true form. In Shikai state, all combat attributes temporarily increase by +4, neural reaction speed is significantly enhanced, and Prison Demon's Sharpness and Toughness increase by +5.
Shikai Skill (Passive): Demonic Corrosion
When Prison Demon deals damage, it applies a Corrosion effect. Enemies affected by Corrosion have their natural recovery reduced by 70% and take Corrosion damage equal to 30% of the maximum damage dealt by that attack per second.
Duration: 10 seconds.
Corrosion effects on the same wound can stack.
Shikai Skill (Passive): Demonic Drain
When Prison Demon deals damage, it absorbs 10% of the damage dealt as Soul Source. This Soul Source is restored—after loss—to the pioneer. If the pioneer's Soul Source is already full, the excess dissipates into the air.
Score: 400+
Evaluation:Within your heart, a demon god is imprisoned.
After evolving to Legendary-tier, Prison Demon underwent a qualitative leap. Setting aside the boosts to Sharpness and Toughness, the descriptions of its existing skills had all changed dramatically, with their effects greatly enhanced.
Not only that—Prison Demon had gained a brand-new Shikai skill, also passive, whose effect struck Kurosaki Rei as utterly absurd.
Simply put, it was the legendary "mana-stealing blade."
Restoring his own Soul Source was one thing, but draining the enemy's Soul Source was effectively a way to control the opponent's mana pool.
If his enemy relied on skills and spells, taking a few hits from him might leave them completely unable to cast anything—while he himself stayed fully charged. It was downright broken.
And Kurosaki Rei felt that this skill was still in its infancy. When Soul Source overflowed, there ought to be additional effects that hadn't yet manifested.
Even as it was now, the effect was already outrageous. Against non–skill-based enemies, draining their Soul Source dry would still cause them to fall unconscious.
With anticipation, Kurosaki Rei arrived at the entrance of the Equipment Enhancement Hall. The moment he got there, he saw many explorers staggering out with grief-stricken faces, crying and wailing.
At the hall's entrance, several wooden signboards had been set up by explorers, covered with various messages.
The most eye-catching was a set of three phrases pasted across the door like a couplet, inspiring an inexplicable sense of awe:
"Enhancing ruins three generations."
"Exploding gear destroys a lifetime."
Banner: 'Lucklets Keep Out'
Seeing the words Lucklets Keep Out, Kurosaki Rei smiled knowingly, took out the Luck Fruit, and ate it on the spot. Sweet on the tongue, with a lingering aftertaste.
Leisurely, he walked into the Enhancement Hall, while furious roars from explorers echoed nonstop around him.
The Enhancement Hall, like the area for allocating free attribute points, was a special zone in the space and not divided by tiers. Explorers of all ranks could be seen here.
Finding a quieter corner, Kurosaki Rei took out Prison Demon and the Lucky Forging Stone, placing them into the bronze-cauldron-like enhancement machine.
[Prison Demon current enhancement level: 0.
Enhancement success rate: 100%.
Cost: 1,000 Terminus Coins.
Proceed with enhancement?]
Without hesitation, Kurosaki Rei confirmed. Equipment enhancement naturally cost money, with prices varying based on enhancement level and equipment quality.
He enhanced Prison Demon consecutively up to +5, at which point the prompt changed.
[Prison Demon current enhancement level: +5.
Enhancement success rate: 100%.
Cost: 2,000 Terminus Coins.
Proceed with enhancement?]
With the Lucky Forging Stone backing him up, Kurosaki Rei wasn't worried and continued.
Normally, a failed enhancement would cause the level to drop by one. But once enhancement reached +8 or higher, failure meant the equipment would outright explode.
That was when the Lucky Forging Stone's durability would be consumed. Kurosaki Rei planned to check the odds first before deciding whether to gamble.
[Enhancement successful. Prison Demon current level: +8.
Next enhancement success rate: 19.1%.
Cost: 3,000 Terminus Coins.
Proceed with enhancement?]
Looking at the low success rate, Kurosaki Rei abandoned the idea of gambling. Even with the Forging Stone providing a safety net, he felt it wasn't worth it. If the stone broke, he wouldn't be able to resell it.
The ideal use of a Lucky Forging Stone was to enhance many Legendary items to +8 and stop there. Kurosaki Rei didn't really understand why Snowwind had been willing to sell it—after all, an adventurer group had many members, and she would have more opportunities to use it.
But then again, Kurosaki Rei realized he'd been mistaken.
Low-tier explorers rarely visited the Enhancement Hall. Their equipment usually got replaced after one or two worlds, and spending money gambling on enhancement simply wasn't cost-effective.
High-grade enhancement costs were also steep. Take Prison Demon for example—eight consecutive successes had already cost 11,000 Terminus Coins. Without the Lucky Forging Stone as insurance, who knew how much it would've taken to reach +8?
Moreover, explorers generally believed that enhancement below +5 didn't cause much of a qualitative change, so few people were willing to invest in ordinary gear.
Only truly excellent equipment intended for long-term use was worth enhancing.
Kurosaki Rei was the same. After enhancing Prison Demon, he didn't invest in any other equipment.
He felt the rest of his gear would be replaced after a world or two, making enhancement a waste of money—unlike Prison Demon, which was a growth-type weapon that could inherit a portion of its enhancement level upon evolution.
After retrieving Prison Demon and the Lucky Forging Stone, Kurosaki Rei checked its updated attributes.
Aside from the +8 boosts to Sharpness and Toughness, Prison Demon had gained a new enhancement trait.
Enhancement +8 Trait: Bully
Effect:
When Pioneer uses Prison Demon to attack enemies whose Life Source is below 30% of their maximum, 50% of the damage dealt is converted into true damage.
Just one glance at this trait was enough for Kurosaki Rei to understand why so many explorers were willing to gamble in the Enhancement Hall despite knowing the risks.
Reaching +8 was truly a qualitative threshold. Enhancement traits were randomly generated based on the equipment's characteristics, but they were almost never useless—each one was powerful in its own way.
After completing the enhancement, Kurosaki Rei's Terminus Coins shrank to 140,000, but even so, he was still considered extremely wealthy among Tier-2 explorers.
With such a fortune on hand, Kurosaki Rei began to look down on the miscellaneous items sold in the trading market. What he really wanted now were tailor-made, top-tier goods.
So he headed downward, straight to the bottom layer's Commercial Street.
Following the route he remembered, Kurosaki Rei quickly found that sparsely visited shop.
The sailor-uniform girl was slumped over the counter, dozing off. Her hair covered half her face, a silly smile hung at the corner of her mouth, and drool dripped down—who knew what sweet dream she was having.
"Wake up. You've got a customer."
Kurosaki Rei felt a bit speechless. Is this how you do business? No wonder there were no customers.
The last time he'd been here, she'd been actively soliciting customers. Now she looked completely checked out.
"Huh!? Where's my bed?!"
The sailor-uniform girl jolted awake in fright.
Kurosaki Rei had no idea what kind of dream would prompt such a question. He waved his hand in front of her face. "It's me. Remember?"
Once she fully woke up, her face instantly flushed red. She hurriedly grabbed a tissue to wipe her drool and tidied herself up.
"…Oh, it's you. Buying a bed?"
"Let's talk business first. As for the bed—we'll see."
Kurosaki Rei didn't refuse outright. He'd already experienced the benefits of her beds. If he stayed long-term in mission worlds, they could bring him considerable returns.
Hearing this, the sailor-uniform girl's eyes lit up, her smile turning radiant. She grabbed Kurosaki Rei's hand and pulled him inside the shop.
"Honored customer, this way please."
Kurosaki Rei didn't bother complaining about her tone or actions. He simply scanned the items on display and frowned.
"Why is it still the same stuff as before?"
The smile froze on the sailor-uniform girl's face.
Because in the two weeks since Kurosaki Rei last left, she hadn't closed a single deal.
High-tier explorers usually had their own familiar shops or trusted supporters. When it came to custom equipment or categorized purchases, they would never come to a small shop like hers.
Supporters' treatment on Commercial Street was also tiered. Low-tier supporters like her—even with excellent craftsmanship—couldn't rent storefronts in prime locations. It wasn't that she wanted to open shop in such a remote area.
Those department-store-sized shops were usually run by sixth-tier or even higher supporters. This had little to do with raw skill—prime locations were mainly determined by supporter mark permissions.
Of course, higher-tier supporters usually did have strong skills as well. Otherwise, simply having a large shop wouldn't guarantee good business.
For these reasons, her shop—barely two months old—was stuck in the most difficult startup phase. Combined with the fact that many explorers in the Terminus Space had no habit of buying furniture, her business was utterly miserable.
After Kurosaki Rei, she'd managed to pull in two other customers—but the moment they saw that it was all furniture inside, they left without waiting for her explanation.
It made her lament how impatient explorers were these days—never even giving her a chance to pitch.
"I was waiting for you to spend money, obviously. You made a fortune in your last mission world, right?"
The sailor-uniform girl changed the subject, her bright eyes sneakily scanning Kurosaki Rei from head to toe. Her instincts told her—this man was rich now.
"I've got some spare funds. I want to ask—if I custom-order a Legendary-tier piece of equipment, what kind of price range are we talking about?"
Kurosaki Rei didn't reveal too much, casually browsing the Legendary items on the shelves behind her. They were all high-quality, but none fit his needs.
"Legendary?"
The sailor-uniform girl beamed. "Looks like you really did strike it rich. Crafting Legendary equipment isn't hard for me—but the old rule still applies."
She leaned forward slightly, grinning.
"You buy one of my beds, and I'll make it for you."
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