One thing needed to be clarified first: during the remaining time Kurosaki Rei stayed in the Demon Slayer world, he continued to grow stronger.
Before leaving that world, he had checked his attribute panel.
[Pioneer No. 008, your base attributes are as follows (title bonuses included):]
Constitution: 34 (+1)
Strength: 31 (+1)
Agility: 31 (+1)
Spirit: 33 (+1)
Charisma: 6
Luck: 1
After several weeks of training, his Strength and Agility had successfully broken past the Tier-1 extreme value of 30 points, which was why the space stated that he met the requirement of exceeding three attributes.
What was rather annoying, however, was that precisely because his attributes had exceeded the extreme values, he was promoted directly to a Tier-2 explorer without going through an advancement mission world. As a result, the Tier-1 Arena title he previously obtained became invalid.
Thus, his attributes dropped again—Strength and Agility fell back to 30 points. It was truly a case of Schrödinger's qualification.
Strictly speaking, under his current state, he didn't meet the space's conditions for skipping the advancement mission, since only two attributes consistently exceeded 30 points.
But order mattered. He qualified first, then advanced. There was no bug abuse involved. And now that he had a large number of free attribute points in hand, a complete transformation was imminent.
[Pioneer No. 008, you have unclaimed Attribute Extreme Value Rewards. Would you like to perform extreme-value enhancement first?]
After entering the carnivorous plant, Kurosaki Rei received the prompt from the Terminus Space. He wasn't in a hurry to allocate his attribute points and decided to claim the extreme-value rewards first.
[Pioneer's Constitution attribute has reached the Tier-1 extreme value. Please choose one of the following enhancement rewards.]
Abundant Vitality: Gain an additional 5% increase to maximum Life Source.
B. Endless Vitality: Gain a 5% bonus to stamina and natural recovery.
C. Strong Bones and Muscles: Gain a 5% bonus to physical and magical resistance.
[Note: Enhancement reward affixes are randomly generated. Once a type is selected, future enhancements are more likely to roll similar affixes.]
Kurosaki Rei now had a rough understanding of how these extreme-value rewards worked. Judging from the three options, Constitution enhancements branched into three directions: more "HP," stronger stamina and recovery, or greater durability.
Kurosaki Rei felt his stamina and natural recovery were already decent. With the Coward's Pendant, the extra 5% Life Source from option A seemed a bit underwhelming. After some thought, he chose C.
He guessed that since he was still low-tier, these rewards naturally didn't look too impressive. Most likely, this was a long-term, cumulative system.
There was no such thing as an explorer undergoing a qualitative leap the moment they received an extreme-value reward. Top-tier Tier-1 explorers weren't defined by these bonuses alone.
After making his selection, Kurosaki Rei felt something begin to reshape his body. At first it was gentle, but soon afterward he felt searing pain etched deep into his bones.
Thankfully, the enhancement didn't last long and quickly ended.
[Pioneer's Strength attribute has reached the Tier-1 extreme value. Please choose one of the following enhancement rewards.]
Brute Force: During Strength checks, Strength is treated as +1 higher.
B. Unchained: When affected by bodily control-type skills, reduce control duration by 5%.
C. Ferocity: Gain an additional 5% damage bonus on physical attacks. This bonus is calculated independently.
For Strength, Kurosaki Rei made his choice almost instantly—C.
Stack damage, plain and simple. If he killed the enemy in one strike, there was no need for strength contests or worrying about crowd control. Besides, he already had the Berserker title, which boosted Strength checks.
[Pioneer's Agility attribute has reached the Tier-1 extreme value. Please choose one of the following enhancement rewards.]
Keen Reflexes: Dynamic neural reaction speed +5%.
B. Sprint: Movement speed +5%.
C. Weak Point Break: When attacking an enemy, there is a 5% chance to trigger Weak Point Break, granting a 100% damage bonus to that attack.
Kurosaki Rei pondered briefly. Options A and B were solid but unremarkable. His movement speed and reaction time were already excellent, so the marginal gain didn't feel worth it.
Weak Point Break, on the other hand, might produce miracles against powerful enemies.
So he chose C again.
[Pioneer's Spirit attribute has reached the Tier-1 extreme value. Please choose one of the following enhancement rewards.]
Meditation: Soul Source natural recovery speed +5%.
B. Tenacity: Reduce the effects of mental control by 5%.
C. Frequency: Reduce Soul Source consumption of skills by 5%.
Kurosaki Rei thought for a moment, then followed his usual principle: when in doubt, pick C.
Reducing consumption felt far stronger than increasing natural recovery. After all, Soul Source regenerated extremely slowly, making it almost useless in combat and relevant only afterward.
After claiming all extreme-value rewards, Kurosaki Rei finally began allocating his free attribute points. As for how to distribute them, he had long since made up his mind.
[Warning: Pioneer is using a large number of free attribute points. Pain during the enhancement process will be intensified. Please prepare yourself.]
Kurosaki Rei didn't even have time to cancel. He wanted to say he could do it in batches, but he had already confirmed the enhancement. The space was merely issuing a warning before immediately beginning.
The next moment, soul-deep pain engulfed his entire body. Even with Kurosaki Rei's level of endurance, he was wracked with violent convulsions.
After an unknown amount of time, he was spat out by the carnivorous plant, twitching twice on the ground.
Only after resting for quite a while did Kurosaki Rei sit up, lingering fear still in his heart. He'd learned his lesson—next time, if he had many attribute points, he would enhance them in stages.
That said, once the pain passed, the sense of transformation filled him with joy. Wearing the Coward's Pendant, he checked his status again.
[Pioneer No. 008, your base attributes are as follows (equipment and title bonuses included):]
Constitution: 43 (+8 +1)
Strength: 36 (+6)
Agility: 36 (+6)
Spirit: 37 (+5)
Charisma: 5 (–1)
Luck: 1
Kurosaki Rei stood up and stretched, feeling the immense changes in his body, a smile spreading across his face.
Though he had only just advanced to Tier-2, he was confident that even among Tier-2 explorers, his strength ranked in the upper echelon.
And he still hadn't fully digested the gains from this world. He currently held around 110,000 Terminus Coins, 25 Small Inheritance Crystals, and the "Beyond Shore Demon" bloodline set, among other resources.
Aside from the Small Inheritance Crystals, he planned to sell off everything else that should be sold, then use the liquid funds to purchase equipment and items better suited to him.
After changing clothes in the locker room, Kurosaki Rei headed straight for the Trading Market.
Although he had advanced in tier, some of the items he held weren't very useful to Tier-2 explorers, but were practically divine artifacts for Tier-1 explorers. So he went first to the lower-tier Tier-1 Trading Market.
Within the Terminus Space, if one didn't want to spend time running a stall, consignment sales were also an option.
Beside the trading market stood rows of display platforms—consignment facilities provided by the Terminus Space. You could place items inside, set a price, and let the system handle the rest.
In the detailed settings, sellers could also allow or forbid bargaining. If bargaining was allowed, buyers could submit an offer via in-system mail.
If the seller agreed, the transaction would go through at the new price. If not, it could be rejected. Regardless, each buyer could only bargain three times per item, preventing malicious harassment.
If a consignment sale succeeded, the Terminus Space took a 3% commission, which was why most explorers preferred direct sales and keeping all the profits.
But Kurosaki Rei was flush with cash and didn't feel like wasting time hawking one or two items in the Tier-1 market. So he directly consigned the Seven Emotions Token.
Although it wasn't a main weapon, it was a purple, full-score special item. After surveying the market, Kurosaki Rei believed its value wouldn't be low, so he set the price at 30,000 Terminus Coins.
After some thought, he disabled bargaining. He planned to let it sit for a few days—if it sold, great; if not, he'd reconsider.
He believed that for a reasonably sized Tier-1 adventurer group, this item would be extremely powerful and could become the core of their dungeon-clearing strategy if used well.
Next, Kurosaki Rei took out a long, thick, black object—the Godslayer Sniper Rifle he'd pulled from a Deceased Chest.
For Tier-1 explorers, this sniper rifle was a powerful ranged main weapon, one that wouldn't even become obsolete in Tier-2. He priced it accordingly at 25,000 Terminus Coins.
Finally, there was the Giant's Heart Necklace, which he had already retired. As a main-tank artifact, Kurosaki Rei priced it at 8,000 Terminus Coins, no bargaining allowed.
After arranging the sale of these lower-tier items, Kurosaki Rei headed to the upper-level Tier-2 Explorer Trading Market. Finding a relatively quiet spot, he set up his stall.
He wasn't selling many items—only two—but both were heavyweight goods. One was the Legendary bloodline: Beyond Shore Demon, bundled with two Blood Demon Art skill scrolls. The other was the Expert-Level Combat Mastery Scroll.
After several mission worlds and encounters with many explorers, Kurosaki Rei had come to understand that the vast majority of low-tier explorers had mediocre combat proficiency. The main reason was that combat mastery scrolls were rare and expensive within the space.
New explorers usually didn't have much money. Many could only afford a basic combat mastery scroll to barely become capable fighters. Advancing to higher realms was extremely difficult.
Yet to survive long-term in the Terminus Space, combat mastery—basic as it was—was absolutely essential.
Currently, there were three ways to raise combat mastery levels in the space.
The first was self-training, as Kurosaki Rei did. Unfortunately, most people progressed extremely slowly this way—sometimes several worlds would pass without any improvement.
The second method was using Inheritance Crystals, letting the space assist with upgrades. This was fast and effective, but it consumed an enormous number of crystals. An explorer might risk their life through an entire world and only earn enough crystals to raise a mastery by one or two levels.
The final method was mastery scrolls, widely regarded as the most cost-effective approach.
Using a combat mastery scroll directly granted the corresponding mastery level, and could even skip entire tiers. The advantages were obvious.
For example, if an explorer only had Basic-level unarmed combat mastery, using Kurosaki Rei's Expert-Level Grappling Mastery Scroll would immediately raise them to Expert-level, regardless of how many levels they had in Basic mastery before.
Although their Expert-level mastery rank might start lower than their previous Basic-level rank, the total bonuses would be higher, and the potential ceiling much greater.
Because of this, mastery scrolls were always in high demand and short supply.
Tier-1 explorers were still in the clueless survival stage. Tier-2 explorers, however, had begun thinking long-term. Kurosaki Rei's scroll would definitely sell.
"Hey, brother, how much for that mastery scroll?"
As expected, someone soon stepped up to ask.
"Forty thousand."
Kurosaki Rei's single sentence directly scared off the dark-faced man asking.
"That's too expensive, man. Expert-level mastery scrolls are rare, sure, but this is a grappling type, not a main-weapon type. The bonus you get in actual combat isn't that big. Can't you make it cheaper?"
The burly man tried to haggle.
"Then go find a main-weapon one."
Kurosaki Rei replied calmly. He wasn't an idiot. Main-weapon masteries were restrictive, while grappling mastery applied in almost any combat situation. It was a comprehensive combat mastery through and through.
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