"Fifteen thousand."
The stall owner was a middle-aged man wearing straw sandals. He looked quite formidable, and his stall displayed five or six pieces of high-end Rare-tier merchandise.
"Too expensive."
Even though he had expected a steep price, Lu Li shook his head immediately.
Cultivation manuals and bloodlines were items that an Explorer could use continuously as they grew stronger, so naturally, their prices were higher than standard equipment. But even so, Lu Li didn't think this Armament Haki learning item was worth 15,000.
Most importantly, he only had 3,450 Terminus Coins on him.
Seeing the stall owner remain silent, Lu Li asked, "Do you accept bartering?"
The owner looked up, scrutinizing Lu Li for a moment before replying, "What are you offering?"
Lu Li pulled out an Inheritance Crystal (Small). "One of these, plus 3,000 Terminus Coins. Deal?"
The owner's eyes lit up the moment he saw the crystal. Then, he looked at Lu Li with a bizarre expression. He could tell Lu Li was strong and likely not a complete rookie, but why would any Tier 1 Explorer willingly sell an Inheritance Crystal?
These were incredible items for upgrading combat proficiencies. They could turn an ordinary office worker into a proficient weapon user and martial artist. They were essentially the lifeblood of Tier 1 Explorers.
"No good. Even if Inheritance Crystals are rare, it's only because no one is selling them. One crystal itself isn't worth 12,000. You'll need to offer three." The owner shook his head, testing the waters.
"How could I possibly have that many? I only have two in total. Two Inheritance Crystals (Small) for this item. Take it or leave it. If you don't want them, I'll just go use them to upgrade my own proficiencies."
Lu Li lied with a perfectly straight face. He actually had three, but he could sense the vendor's deep craving for the crystals. He definitely wasn't going to agree instantly.
"Two..."
The stall owner frowned slightly. Purely in terms of market value, his Armament Haki was worth slightly more than two small Inheritance Crystals. However, he had been sitting at this stall for over a week without a single buyer, and he desperately needed the crystals right now.
One of his crucial core skills was exactly two small Inheritance Crystals away from leveling up.
"Actually, on second thought, it's probably safer to just upgrade my current abilities..."
Before Lu Li could even finish saying "forget it," the vendor interrupted him.
"Deal!"
The stall owner stood up, grabbed the item, and immediately initiated a trade request.
A small prompt window popped up in Lu Li's holographic menu.
[Explorer 'Who Wants To Smell My Foot Fungus' has initiated a trade request. Do you accept?]
Seeing the vendor's Space ID, Lu Li's facial expression management nearly suffered a catastrophic failure. Still, feigning a look of reluctance, he accepted the trade.
After the transaction, a smile returned to the vendor's face. "To be honest with you, I'm genuinely missing crystals for a specific skill. Otherwise, I would never have agreed to this price. Let's just consider it making a new friend."
"We both got what we needed. Mind if I ask how you got this?" Lu Li asked, pointing at the item in his hand.
"Ugh, don't even bring it up. I fought life and death in the One Piece world and only managed to scrape by as a Sergeant at Marine Headquarters. This item was officially authenticated and generated during the settlement. Selling it to you like this barely covers my costs."
Likely in a good mood after finalizing the trade, the stall owner didn't bother hiding the details.
After chatting for a bit, Lu Li left the stall. He had acquired another crucial piece of intelligence: items directly obtained by Official Explorers within Mission Worlds could be extracted and brought back to the Terminus Space by paying a Terminus Coin fee for "authentication."
For instance, the Armament Haki item in his hand was originally just a standard Marine Headquarters textbook on Haki. After being authenticated by the Terminus Space, it was converted into a Skill Item that could be directly consumed to learn the ability.
Interestingly, the item wasn't actually a book anymore. It was a block that looked like a book, but it was completely empty inside. It didn't allow Lu Li to sit down and read the theoretical text on Armament Haki.
This was likely a hardcoded countermeasure by the Terminus Space to prevent Explorers from returning to the hub and mass-producing copies of cultivation manuals to distribute.
Lu Li wandered around the market a bit longer. After spending 2,000 Terminus Coins on a Rare-tier recovery item, he headed back.
He was extremely eager to see exactly how Armament Haki functioned and whether it met his expectations.
Returning to his room, Lu Li submitted a request. "Terminus. I want to learn Armament Haki."
[Request acknowledged. Initiating Armament Haki awakening for the Pioneer.]
As the system prompt chimed, the item in Lu Li's hand vanished.
Immediately after, his vision went black, and his consciousness grew heavy and dizzy.
It was a profoundly bizarre sensation. He felt as if he were floating in the void, communing with the absolute depths of his own consciousness, forcefully awakening the latent potential known as "Haki."
Roaming through the boundless dark for what felt like an eternity, the agonizing wails of souls suddenly echoed in his ears. In a daze, he caught another glimpse of that terrifying, Demon God-like silhouette in Purgatory, staring back at him across the abyss.
Lu Li snapped his eyes open and glanced at the wall clock. Exactly five hours had passed.
He opened his menu to check his newly acquired ability.
[Armament Haki]
Skill Rating: C+ (Note: This rating scales dynamically with the skill's level.)
Skill Level: 3/40
Category: Active
Cooldown: None
Details: By consuming a specific amount of Soul Source, the Explorer can manifest Armament Haki to coat any part of their body. The exact energy consumption depends on the surface area coated and the duration of use. The defensive capabilities of any body part coated in Armament Haki will be massively elevated. Furthermore, attacks infused with Haki can directly strike intangible, spiritual entities.
Evaluation: Please refrain from using this to coat 'weird' body parts.
"So this is Haki..."
Ignoring the system's cheeky comment, Lu Li rolled up his right sleeve and activated Armament Haki.
Instantly, a layer of dark greyish-black armor coated his forearm. It had a glossy, distinctly metallic texture.
Lu Li knocked on it with his left hand. It felt incredibly dense. He then drew Qiu Mo and gently pressed the razor-sharp edge against his coated arm.
Clink—
It sounded exactly like steel grinding against steel. Lu Li glanced at his arm; a faint white scratch appeared for a split second before being immediately overwritten by the flowing Haki.
"What a miraculous ability."
A wide smile broke across Lu Li's face. He was highly satisfied with the defensive output of Armament Haki. Qiu Mo was a max-rated Rare-tier primary weapon. Even though he hadn't swung with any real force, the blade's inherent Sharpness stat was terrifyingly high, yet it failed to even break his skin.
Factoring in actual live combat, he recognized that his Level 3 Armament Haki was still relatively weak. If he swung his blade at full force against his own coated arm, it would undoubtedly slice right through.
But Lu Li wasn't a stationary target who politely let enemies hack at him. He was incredibly agile in battle. He wouldn't allow lethal, full-power strikes to land cleanly. However, for weaker, glancing blows, he could simply face-tank them using Armament Haki, vastly expanding his tactical flexibility.
Most importantly, Armament Haki wasn't just a turtle-shell defensive skill. A hardened fist would inevitably inflict exponentially higher blunt-force trauma. Furthermore, he could project the Armament Haki outward, coating Qiu Mo to drastically elevate the blade's Toughness and Sharpness.
Having actually learned the "cultivation manual," Lu Li realized that Haki wasn't truly a traditional external body-tempering technique. It was a physical manifestation of one's essence, vitality, and spirit.
He wasn't highly educated in a scholarly sense, but his knowledge of martial arts was vast. Drawing a parallel to legendary ancient martial arts concepts, he felt Haki was akin to "Intent" (Yi).
When he was young, his master told him stories of ancient martial arts grandmasters who could kill a man from a hundred meters away using pure Sword Intent, or shatter mountains with Fist Intent. They didn't rely purely on raw physical muscle; they weaponized the profound conceptual domain they had comprehended. It was the power of the mind and spirit made manifest.
The One Piece lore vaguely and cryptically described Haki as the external manifestation of willpower. Lu Li found this aligned perfectly with his own martial theories.
Overall, he deemed the trade a massive success. The Haki system truly possessed an incredibly high ceiling.
If a mere Level 3 provided this much utility, then maxing out the skill might genuinely render him completely invulnerable to blades, fire, and water, while granting him peerless offensive power.
Lu Li checked the upgrade requirements. To level up his Armament Haki right now, he needed [Inheritance Crystal (Small)] x1 and 400 Terminus Coins.
He currently had enough resources, but he decided against a forced system upgrade. He wanted to spend some time actively comprehending and training the ability himself to see if he could level it up naturally through physical grinding.
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