"Alright, thank you very much."
With that, Sterl made a quick move, activating Shadow Stealth to disappear from Lorik Harbor.
...
More than ten minutes later, Sterl found a cave in the wilderness. After kindly inviting a black bear that had been living there to leave, he settled down cross-legged to sort through his recent gains, his eyes shining with surprise.
"Wow, even though I didn't get any guild materials from the previous maps, this haul has been amazing!"
First, he had gained 110 points of Blood Force (with one point provided by the BOSS).
Sterl could directly allocate points to achieve a perfect-level Law. However, since he only had one opportunity to choose, he wasn't in a hurry. Instead, he wanted to wait for a crucial moment to decide which Law to enhance based on the situation at hand.
Next, there was the mysterious boss drop. At the time, Sterl had been twisted and affected, all his focus caught in the blade Law of [One Sword Opens the Sky].
Yet he still managed to throw out a Fate Token. Sterl had no idea what he could choose, so he picked the option with the lowest probability, which should yield decent rewards.
He was primarily focused on getting money, regardless of the risks involved.
In the end, he gained quite a bit of experience, but since it was only a single boss, the experience bar only indicated that he could level up twice.
This clearly showed how frustrating leveling up was within the Transcendence system...
Moreover, he had only received a modest amount of purple coins—just 23 in total.
The main highlight was the equipment and items dropped.
Sterl held three Iridescent-Level orbs in his hands and opened them one by one.
First, he received four SSS-level guild materials.
"Not bad; if I wait four days, I can upgrade the guild to level 4."
Next was—
[Dream Tooth (Platinum)]
[Description: A tooth that controls strange dreams; perhaps it can be set as a gem in equipment?]
[Effect: This material can be fused into any piece of equipment, granting the player an attack effect—Soul Extraction [The soul power of the struck enemy will be extracted, converting into the player's energy. Each unit can only be extracted once.]]
"Looks decent." Sterl tossed the tooth, which resembled a pure white blade, in his hand. This item couldn't be used for point allocation; right now, Sterl just wanted to see how the Soul Extraction effect worked.
If the values were high enough, this item would undoubtedly be incredibly valuable!
Even if each unit could only be extracted once, it would significantly alleviate Sterl's mana issues, and the Soul Extraction itself would certainly deal substantial damage.
Moreover, the pain of damaging a soul should be more unbearable than the side effects of consuming energy potions.
Sterl felt that Soul Extraction could also effectively control opponents for a while...
Next—
[Malicious Intent Rain Boots (Legendary)]
[Tier: Legendary]
The third drop was a pair of light purple boots with live fish swimming around them, giving off a rather eerie vibe.
Sterl couldn't be bothered to check the specific attributes and simply tossed them into his small world.
This equipment was reserved as one of the potential items for future upgrades to the legendary tier.
When the time came, Sterl would sift through to find the strongest set of equipment to equip himself.
The fourth item was a talisman adorned with strange shadowy figures.
Sterl had previously been keen on collecting talismans, but the Hall of Valor rarely sold such items. While he could use Valor Contribution Points to buy some talismans, his points were too tight as he needed to exchange them for Platinum Skills, so he hadn't considered them before.
[Gaze of the Ancient One]
[Category: Talisman]
Moreover, Sterl still needed seventy-five more Fortune points to evolve his cheat. He had to actively trigger the Fortune backlash to stabilize and gain Fortune.
Exploiting bugs was an absolute must!
As for...
There was one more thing.
The item that old fisherman had given Sterl.
He didn't even have the inclination to open it.
Because—
[Damaged Terminal (???)]
[Effect: Using this item creates a [Transcendence]/Swallowing Heaven game account for you.]
This item did not display any effects in the [Transcendence] system; it was Sterl's cheat that recognized its effect.
It was extremely bizarre!
[Transcendence] game items allow you to create a [Transcendence] account?
And what's the situation with that Swallowing Heaven game account? Is it perhaps referring to creating an account for Hell players?
Sterl received this item after exhausting his Fortune.
From his earlier conversations with Sosia and Sonis, he knew that the Red Falcon clan was directly converted into players rather than using some item to create an account in the game.
What exactly was this Damaged Terminal?
Moreover, if Sterl was already a [Transcendence] player, would creating another account lead to a bug?
Instinctively, Sterl felt a sense of unease. He hid the Damaged Terminal in his small world, planning not to touch it for a while.
As for the plus sign on the Damaged Terminal...
It was gray.
Sterl sensed that points could only be added after his cheat underwent a second evolution.
At that moment, he felt a strange mixture of fear and anticipation.
It seemed like he was gradually approaching the core secret of the game [Transcendence].
Everything was awaiting the next evolution of the cheat to be unveiled.
...
A day passed quietly.
Shattered Void received its fourth point allocation, but there was still no qualitative change, only a slight increase in power.
Once again, Sterl arrived at the Principality of Florence, and he stood frozen in place.
It had changed!
Everything had changed. The original Principality of Florence, a grand city bustling with NPCs and rich in culture, had transformed into a large place resembling an adventure guild.
He could see players moving about in the rugged buildings, with most of them having power levels above legendary.
Demigod-level players were also quite common.
Sterl had previously looked through the data on powerful figures from the Hall of Valor provided by Sosia and Sonis.
He hadn't intended to memorize it, but with their power levels displayed, he could hardly forget a single detail.
Sterl noticed a significant number of named demigod warriors from the Hall of Valor were now present in the Principality of Florence.
Moreover, the central area of the city was not a palace but a massive space rift glowing with a blood-red light. Many players were seen exerting their efforts to stabilize the rift with spatial power.
Surrounding the rift were numerous fully-equipped adventure squads showcasing their abilities, opening pathways near the spatial rift.
They were likely preparing to venture into Hell.