Bountiful Harvest

The next item was a blue special item called the "Fusion Heart." It seemed that even the worst blue items wouldn't be too bad.

"Special Item Name: Fusion Heart (Blue)"

"Item Effect: Can merge any two mutants with a maximum tier of not exceeding Tier 2, and their strength will increase after the fusion."

"Item Hint: Mutants of a tier higher than Tier 2 require the addition of a 'Key' during the fusion process; Tier 1 mutants do not require a 'Key' to be added."

"Item Review: Maybe you can try to recreate The Stitcher! Note: 'Keys' are often found in the Origin Site."

Clark held a blue heart in his hand, which was beating vigorously and occasionally emitting a strange odor. He felt puzzled about what 'Keys' and the 'Origin Site' were. Recreating another Stitcher? Clark shook his head; he must be out of his mind to create another mutant. Besides, he wasn't even sure what this item was for.

Though somewhat disappointed, it was a blue special item after all, and he believed it would come in handy someday.

Suddenly, a flash of insight struck him. Clark's breathing became a bit erratic. Maybe this item could be used to artificially create mutants and then kill them to level up?

He wondered if the mutants created artificially might drop equipment. If they did, then creating mutants of Tier 1 wouldn't be very useful in terms of equipment drops, but Tier 2 or even Tier 2 peak mutants might be a different story. Another 8*8 great explosion! That would be amazing! He just didn't know what the 'Keys' and the 'Origin Site' were.

Clark pondered this as he felt like he had heard the term 'Origin Site' somewhere before. Well, he decided to put this matter aside for now. After establishing a safe zone with the apocalypse base car in a few days, he could reconsider it. With a flip of his wrist, the last piece of equipment from the bottom of the box appeared in his hand.

Clark eagerly looked at it. It was a shriveled, blue piece of equipment that looked like the head of a dehydrated woman—a blue item!

In the entire LJ city and the surrounding war zones with nearly a million players from his previous life, there was only one blue item.

Although it couldn't be ruled out that someone had obtained one and chose not to flaunt it on the chat channel, it was enough to prove the rarity of blue equipment.

The Skullcrusher's Hand and the Soul Shard he had obtained earlier were fused without even being tested, at the request of the black dragon. So, technically, this was his first blue equipment.

Although he already had an orange equipment, it was ultimately sealed, so it didn't affect Clark's current excitement and unease. He wondered about the attributes of this blue item. Even if it was slightly worse than the Skullcrusher's Hand, it would still lead to a significant increase in his overall strength.

"View Equipment [Skull of Resentment]!"

"Equipment Name: Skull of Resentment (Blue)"

"Equipment Effect: Willpower +3, increases the maximum limit of spiritual power by 50%, and boosts mental recovery speed by 30%."

"Equipment Special Effects: Immunity to mental attacks below 20 willpower! Reduces damage from attacks within 25 willpower by 20% and decreases damage from attacks within 35 willpower by 10%."

"Equipment Skill: Mental Illusion, creates corresponding illusions based on the target's thoughts, causing the target to fall into an illusionary state. Cannot move or attack during the release."

"Equipment Review: The third head from The Stitcher, a collection of resentment."

Looking at the Skull of Resentment in his hand, Clark fell into silence. Its attributes were excellent, especially the 50% increase in maximum spiritual power, which was simply insane. The damage reduction to mental attacks was akin to a copy of the black dragon's talent. With physical damage reduction from The Stitcher's body and mental damage resistance from the Skull of Resentment, if he were to obtain an elemental resistance armor, Clark wondered if there would be any players left who could harm him for a long time.

High attack, high defense, fast speed, and strong mental power—his current self could be said to have no major weaknesses. With Clark's current willpower attribute, which had reached an impressive 20.8, when converted into spiritual power, it amounted to nearly 208 points.

(One Tier 2 mutant provided the equivalent energy of 4 Tier 1 mutants, making Clark's player level 2. His willpower attribute had increased from 19.8 to 20.8.) When combined with the 20% increase in his maximum spiritual power obtained from the black dragon after devouring equipment, along with the activation of Power Burst and the Skull of Resentment, he could raise his spiritual power to a maximum of 438 points!

This already put him at the level of a Tier 3 psychic-type Awakener. Moreover, it came with a rare control skill. Although he couldn't move or attack while using it, the power of this skill was more than enough.

In the world of the apocalypse game, control skills were extremely rare. After all, battles between Awakeners and mutants were so fast-paced that even a momentary lapse in concentration could decide life and death. For instance, the control skill that came with the Skullcrusher's Hand only caused temporary dizziness due to the brief mental impact. It was only effective because it targeted The Stitcher, which had three intertwined wills, causing momentary confusion.

If this equipment fell into the hands of an elemental Awakener, they might laugh it off because it wouldn't benefit their skillset. However, the problem was that none of the team members, including Clark, had skills that consumed large amounts of mental power.

Even Lynn, despite her high mental power, didn't rely on skills much. If it weren't for continuously casting Mental Barriers, her substantial mental power wouldn't be significantly depleted. When it came to skills, none of them had anything notable.

Clark had two skill books in his hands. He didn't have high expectations, as they were both C-grade skills, which were unlikely to be very powerful. Besides, even though these skills wouldn't take up the Awakener's talent slot, they would occupy a player's skill slot. Each player could only learn one player skill, and once learned, it couldn't be replaced. However, Clark didn't have any player skills to begin with, so he decided to take a look at these.

"C-grade Skill: Rampage Charge"

"Skill Effect: Consumes 70 mental power. Lock onto a target and launch a charge attack with a damage multiplier of 1.1 based on the Strength attribute. During the charge, reduce the effects of slowing and debuff."

"C-grade Skill: Flesh Healing"

"Skill Effect: Consumes 100 mental power. Accelerates wound healing. (Cannot regenerate limbs; healing effectiveness is based on Constitution attribute.)"

As expected, both skills were as he had anticipated. Compared to the Awakener's innate talent skills, player skills seemed somewhat lackluster. "Rampage Charge" required 70 mental power, which corresponded to 7 points of Willpower attribute. For most other players at this stage, it would deplete their mental power after just one use. A 1.1x damage multiplier wasn't significant. "Flesh Healing" had some utility as it could be used after battles. In a game where healing items were scarce, this skill could be valuable.

For Arnold, learning these two skills wouldn't be a bad choice. His Willpower attribute determined that he couldn't learn high-cost skills, so these two skills would help turn him into a charging berserker.

As for Clark, he still leaned toward learning elemental skills. With his high Willpower attribute, not learning high-cost skills would be a waste of his potential.