53 Purchase

[Skill Max Gift Pack x 36 Opened]

[Congratulations Host, System Upgrade Module x 72 Obtained]

[Congratulations Host, 360,000 Points Obtained]

Now with 99 System Upgrade Modules, Jim felt it was time to unlock more functions. 'Hmm...'

[Divinity Container]

[Price - 50 System Upgrade Modules]

'Whoa, that's expensive. What would I even use it for?' Jim decided against it for now, given the name and high price he felt it would have large ramifications.

[Auxillary Qi Container]

[Price - 10 System Upgrade Modules]

[Auxillary Mana Container]

[Price - 10 System Upgrade Modules]

[Automatic Looting]

[Price - 3 System Upgrade Modules]

[Memory Playback]

[Price - 1 System Upgrade Module]

[Subordinate Enhancement]

[Price - 20 System Upgrade Modules]

With 44 modules spent, Jim felt this was enough for now. Standing in the living room, Jim tested the new Memory Playback function. He activated it while recalling when he entered Verdana. A holographic cube appeared where he willed it to, everyone looked over to watch the elves walking down the city street.

Xia: "What is that?"

Jim: "Mm? Oh, I'm just trying something out."

Xia could tell he didn't intend to fully explain, she was a guest here and decided not to pry further. Jim attempted to use the auxillary containers, he could feel a shapeless space. it was not present in reality but somehow connected to himself. He tried pouring in mana, the viscous substance quickly drained from himself. He allowed half of his mana to enter the container, then attempted to withdraw a portion. It happened smoothly, a quick test showed Qi was also easily deposited and withdrawn.

'Hm, let's try out Subordinate Enhancement.' Libta was nearby, he activated the system function.

[Libta Upgrades Available: Body Enhancement, Mind Enhancement, Magic Enhancement, Cultivation Enhancement, Skill Enhancement, Power Enhancement]

'Let's go with...Skill Enhancement.'

A list of Libta's skills appeared. the Kick skill he had given her a while back was still Lv. 1. Selecting it, he could increade the level up to 9. 'Hm? Why can't I get it to max?' After some testing, he found that he could only enhance her skills up to one level below his own.

Satisfied with this, he headed upstairs to begin his daily cultivation. 'Mm?' Immediately after starting, he broke through to Late Spirit Lord. 'I must have been close to breaking through without realizing it.' He resumed. Not even a minute passed and he broke through again. 'What is happening!?'

Recalling the Peerless Genius Body description, it said that it increased cultivation speed. 'Isn't this a bit too much, though?' He took a break from cultivating, Jim had often read in novels that a certain amount of time needed to pass after a breakthrough for the cultivator to stabilize himself. Forcing another breakthrough before that stabilization period was up would cause problems later. He couldn't really feel anything off, but decided to heed the warnings anyway.

What Jim didn't know was, the days, weeks, or months required to condense a cultivator's power was entirely eliminated by the system. Every time he broke through his foundation would be laid out and solidified perfectly in that instant. However, never feeling the difference caused him to not gain a sense for how stable his power was, so he ended up worrying over nothing.

Jim headed over to his computer and started searching real estate listings nearby. He felt moving too far away would be bad for his mother, nearly their entire family and her circle of friends lived in this city after all.

'Mm?' He found a listing that was rather strange. 9 Bedrooms, 10 Bathrooms, 10,000 Square Feet. The place was beautiful and spacious, but it was only going for $500,000. This was far too low for the listed features. Noticing that it wasn't too far from Bill's house on the map, he made a call to find out from someone in the area.

Bill: "Jim? What's up?"

Jim: "I'm looking for a new house, I noticed this place nearby yours with weird pricing."

Bill: "Ah, that one...A lot of people died there a few years back. Plenty of people have bought the place but they all get spooked by creaking wood and old pipes before moving out. Eventually the price dropped but people just stopped trying to live there."

Jim: "Huh, I'll check it out."

Bill: "We're going to be neighbors?"

Jim: "Possibly."

Jim could hear the excitement in Bill's voice with that last question. Chuckling to himself, he contacted Sam to check if they knew of anything unusual at the place. The answer he got back was they had investigated but found nothing, as far as they could tell it was a normal place with an urban legend.

Jim reached Detection towards the place, he wanted to perform his own investigation before buying it. 'Hmm...' There was some sort of dark green mass squirming around in the basement. 'Appraisal'

[Silky]

[Strength: 2]

[Dexterity: 4]

[Vitality: 2]

[Agility: 1]

[Magic: 81]

[Status: Starving, Damaged Spirit Vessel, Suppression]

'What? Silkies are european spirits in the form of women that clean houses, right? Why does it just look like a blob?' He couldn't find anything else strange about the house. Using stealth, he headed over to inspect the place in person.

[Lockpicking Skill Obtained]

Immediately after entering, Jim was hit by a strange feeling. It was like an invisible oppression, different from the pressure his heart demons or that old cultivator let out. It was closer to hatred, an absolute all-encompassing hatred that stifled breathing and movement. Jim was surprised anyone had bought the place at all. Actually, why did the investigative unit not report this? Could it be nobody else felt it?

The feeling grew weaker as he headed down to the basement. The green mass seemed to notice something and slithered into cracks in the floor. If he didn't have detection, he wouldn't have noticed it was here at all. 'Huh...'

Deciding to check out the source of the suppressing force, he worked his way up. Above the third floor was the attic, the feeling was the strongest in there. Mana sense showed a heavy congregation of dark attribute mana. 'Is this where the people died? What can I do about it?'

Jim wondered if an opposing attribute would help. He tried casting Light Orb. *Screech* 'I pissed something off.' The dark mana began congealing together under the pressure of the light. The suppressive feeling grew stronger than before. Jim didn't want to damage the house, so he began casting Light Orb repeatedly. Controlling the orbs, he directed them towards the dark mana.

The congealed mana was nearly solid by now, but it hadn't taken a shape of a person or animal or anything really. It was just a formless mass, appraisal wouldn't identify it. 'Could it be that it's not actually a creature? Just a seriously dense pile of mana?' Jim continued pounding the mana with light. After a few minutes, the dark mana began to dissipate, it couldn't take the pressure.

Continuing, Jim eventually managed to remove all of the dark mana in the attic. He continued casting Light Orb throughout the entire building and removed every pouch of dark mana he could find. The suppression was now gone, the house felt nice and relaxing. 'Now what do I do with this thing?'

Appraising it again, the Silky didn't have the Suppression status anymore. But it seemed weak, hardly moving, he felt it was dying. Recalling the Starving status, he brought out some food and left it before the creature. After waiting a minute, nothing happened. 'It's not interested? Maybe...it's a spirit so it doesn't eat food? What then?'

Jim tried grabbing some mana from within himself and forcing out a clump of it. The green mass began quivering. 'Oh? Is that it?' He directed the mana to the mass, it hungrily absorbed the clump, but over 80% of the mana dissipated back out of the creature soon after. 'This must be the damaged spirit vessel status...'

He tried casting several minor heals, but it didn't seem to help. Just for a try, antidote didn't either. He then attempted the new healing technique, no name was included with the information sent to his mind, so he named it Golden Sura Healing. Strangely, the system still hadn't created a skill for it. 'Is it because it's too similar to Reiki? Or maybe I don't understand it enough to qualify for even Lv. 1. That or the system just can't make heads or tails out of it.'

The golden strands reached out and began their work. Jim felt a heavy loss of Qi over the next hour. Finally, the strands completed their work. Checking the Silky's status, the only bad status left was Starvation, he began sending out multiple clumps of mana, it no longer leaked from the mass. 'Seems that worked.'

A few minutes later, the mass started moving, compressing together, a form began growing upwards. Eventually the green mass could no longer be seen, only a beautiful nude woman floating slightly above the basement floor was left. Exhaustion was clearly written on her face as she looked around in a daze. "What...happened...?"

Jim: "Hi there."

Silky: "Ah! Human? Wait, you can see me?"

Jim: "Yeah, are you alright? You were in really bad shape a minute ago."

Silky: "Alright? I..." She began touching all over her body. "I seem to be okay, how?"

Jim: "It was tough to fix you up, can you tell me how you got in that state?"