Hunter 104: The Heart of a Fighter

"Don't be in such a rush! Hand over those items you have. I'll host an auction to boost our guild's reputation!"

Daxius said.

Lin Jiu handed over the equipment and scrolls to Daxius. In return, Daxius transferred the 100,000 Paradise Coins to Lin Jiu for immediate use.

After some thought, Lin Jiu realized that since Daxius wasn't planning to develop his combat abilities and his next avatar's situation was uncertain, it was best to focus on his development. So, he gave Daxius the [Body Enhancement Serum (No. 3)] and a meteorite fragment with a chance of awakening a Stand.

Daxius's eyes lit up—these would make perfect auction highlights!

If the Reincarnation Guild manages to establish itself (and with a name like that, it would be shocking if it didn't!), it would bring countless benefits to Lin Jiu!

What belongs to Daxius also belongs to Lin Jiu. If necessary, he wouldn't have to worry about raising funds or selling his items—he could just leave it all to Daxius.

...

Ten minutes later, Lin Jiu arrived at the Attribute Enhancement Hall. After entering the enhancement pod, a prompt appeared.

[Welcome to the Attribute Enhancement Pod. Please pay 100 Paradise Coins to activate.]

Lin Jiu's current raw attributes were displayed before him:

Strength: 20

Agility: 20

Endurance: 20

Intelligence: 15

Charisma: 10

[The Hunter has 12 freely assignable attribute points.]

[Detected that the Hunter's primary attributes are Strength, Agility, Endurance, and Intelligence. Please prioritize enhancing these four attributes.]

There wasn't much to consider; Lin Jiu quickly allocated 5 points to Intelligence to reach the next tier's bonus.

The remaining points were distributed as follows: 3 to Strength, 2 to Agility, and 2 to Endurance.

[Attributes allocated. Enhancement beginning. The process will involve significant pain. Do you wish to activate the free anesthetic function?]

As usual, Lin Jiu declined the anesthetic. After confirming the allocation, the enhancement pod began its work. Since only Intelligence was significantly boosted this time, the pain wasn't as severe as previous enhancements.

[Intelligence is the Hunter's affinity attribute. Intelligence has reached 20 points. The Hunter may select one of the following rewards:]

[Mana Drain: Restores 10 Mana per enemy killed.]

[Fearless Heart: Reduces pain perception by 10% during combat.]

[Iron Will: Enhances resistance to stun, sensory confusion, and other status effects.]

As a lone wolf, Lin Jiu immediately chose the third option. Achieving near-complete immunity to control effects was still a long way off.

With most of his stats remaining balanced, and only a significant increase in Intelligence, Lin Jiu didn't experience much discomfort from the sudden boost in attributes. He just needed to adjust slightly to his stronger body.

His current attributes were now:

Strength: 23

Agility: 22

Endurance: 22

Intelligence: 20

Charisma: 10

Returning to his private space, Lin Jiu sat cross-legged on the bed and took out five small Soul Crystals, using four of them to enhance his Sword Mastery.

Each level of Sword Mastery required one small Soul Crystal and 1,000 Paradise Coins. The Soul Crystals shattered, and 4,000 Paradise Coins were consumed.

[Sword Mastery has been enhanced to Lv.2.]

[Sword Mastery has been enhanced to Lv.3.]

…

[Sword Mastery has been enhanced to Lv.5.]

Closing his eyes, a brilliant white space appeared before him, and a figure formed from fragments of Soul Crystals emerged. The figure was identical to Lin Jiu in height and appearance and was practicing swordsmanship. Time seemed to lose its meaning as the figure executed simple, yet extraordinarily graceful sword moves. A beautiful flourish brought the sword closer to Lin Jiu's face.

Lin Jiu opened his eyes, savoring the experience. Although Sword Mastery hadn't reached Lv.10, the four-level increase gave him a sense of something elusive.

[Sword Mastery: Lv.5 (Passive)]

Skill Effect: Increases melee attack power by 18% and improves proficiency with bladed weapons.

He kept the last small Soul Crystal for his Soul Blade ability, which also required 1,000 Paradise Coins to upgrade.

[Soul Blade: Lv.2 (Active)]

Skill Effect:

Soul Slash: Each melee attack consumes 1-50 Soul Energy, dealing soul damage equal to 1.5x the consumed Soul Energy.]

[Body Break: When using Soul Slash, consume an equivalent amount of Mana to deal true damage equal to 0.5x the consumed Mana.]

Now came the exciting moment of opening the treasure chests. Daxius had handed over the blue treasure chest belonging to Kokushibo to Lin Jiu, who activated the Man over Fate ability on the Reincarnation Disc, enhancing his luck before opening it.

Although Daxius also benefited from the luck boost, he was too busy with his startup to monitor it closely. All he needed was for Lin Jiu to open the chests and hand over anything unnecessary.

Checking the Heaven Disc, Lin Jiu saw that no new avatar slots had appeared, so he used Man over Fate on the Human Disc. His Luck attribute reached 5 points, effectively 2.5 points!

With this increase, Lin Jiu contentedly pulled out three Crimson Cards and three blue treasure chests. He wasn't worried about his luck being spread too thin among his avatars; as long as he didn't drop into negative values, he was fine.

He started with Kokushibo's chest, which, unfortunately, didn't produce a flash of light.

[You have opened a blue treasure chest and obtained the following items!]

-2,000 Paradise Coins

-Demonic Eye Blade

[Demonic Eye Blade]

Origin: Demon Slayer

Quality: Blue

Durability: 60/60

Attack Power: 21-34

Requirements: Strength 10, Agility 12

Effect: Aberration - Consumes the user's life force to extend the blade. (If the blade is damaged, it can be repaired by consuming life force.)

Rating: 51

Description: Is this the stance of a samurai? Is this really what I wanted? I've become so grotesque…

Value: 6,700 Paradise Coins

Looking at the reddish-brown blade covered in eye motifs, Lin Jiu tossed it aside to be packaged for Daxius.

Next, he opened the chest dropped by Wamuu. The 2.5 Luck attribute came through, and there was a flash of light!

[You have opened a blue treasure chest and obtained the following items!]

-5,000 Paradise Coins

-Blue Skill Scroll!

Lin Jiu's eyes lit up with joy upon seeing the scroll's contents.

[Heart of a Fighter Skill Scroll]

Origin: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Quality: Blue

Type: Passive Skill Scroll

Effect: Use to learn the passive skill Heart of a Fighter Lv.1.

Rating: 70

Description: Only the strong can define truth. Only the victor is justice and friendship...

Value: 8,000 Paradise Coins

Lin Jiu immediately spent 1,000 Paradise Coins to learn the skill.

[Heart of a Fighter Lv.1 (Passive)]

Effect: Increases melee damage by 1% and enhances perception by 2%.

This passive skill evolved from Wamuu's most coveted Combat Genius trait and added another layer to Lin Jiu's abilities. He felt great!

Feeling good, Lin Jiu opened the chest dropped by Kars. After acquiring such a rare passive skill, Lin Jiu was ready to accept whatever came from this chest.