Stacking Fin's bowl on his, Seth rose from his chair.
"Now then, I finished the bowl, and I'm standing perfectly fine. Can I get my prize now? We still have stuff to do today." They turned toward the stall owner, breaking his stupor. For a moment, he couldn't hide his displeasure.
Hesitantly, the stall owner placed a small sandalwood box in front of him on the table. For some reason, cultivators either put pills in bottles or in intricate wooden boxes, treating them like jewelry...
"As you can see, we have a winner! A true hero has conquered the demon noodles and claimed the great prize," he announced to the audience, trying to regain his earlier cadence. Although he pretended to the crowd, he didn't do so toward Seth.
"Take your prize and leave," he whispered to him grumpily. Seth raised an eyebrow at this flip of attitude, but he didn't say anything. He put the pill in his inventory, but when he moved over to pick up the distraught Fin, two gorillas blocked his way,
"What is the meaning of this?" Seth asked coldly.
"You can't take her; she has a debt to pay. She will do well in our sect, I'm sure the elders will enjoy her looks," the stall owner said with a smirk. The blacksmith sighed. So that was their ploy. They knocked out wandering cultivators with their noodles and then kidnapped them!
Master Mountain had mentioned that this world could be rather lawless at times, but he had not expected it to be this frequent. A young master trying to steal a restaurant, a sect kidnapping people with the lure of a great prize... and they even tried to scam him.
< One-Sun Core Pill, Uncommon
A somewhat successful product in a failed attempt to replicate the famous Nine-Sun Core Pill.
Can only be consumed once. Can permanently harm the user if requirements are not met.
Increases inner energy by up to 10 years /+1000 Mana.
Grants 5% Fire Affinity.
Requirements: 200 Endurance, 20% Fire Resistance >
He had checked the pill before putting it away. The options were okay, but this was far from what they promised, and even if it was what they promised, it wouldn't have mattered. The gorillas were struck by two punches that they weren't even able to perceive before they fell to the floor.
"I was going to overlook your attempt to scam me with a crappy, fake pill, but trying to kidnap my wife goes too far," he said, turning away from the unconscious gorillas and back toward the stall owner, or maybe it was better to call him a 'recruitment officer'.
"What are you trying? Do you know who we are?" the cultivator asked, as if Seth was supposed to know. The man was clearly afraid, but he was putting up a front of confidence.
The blacksmith was momentarily stumped by the sheer stupidity of the question. They were running a secret scheme here and never introduced themselves. How was he supposed to know? Not that it mattered...
A horde of martial gorillas emerged from the kitchen and the crowd, surrounding the stage, and the stall owner's voice stabilized. Level-wise, they all ranged between 30 and the early 40s.
"We are the Hollow Ash Sect! Do you really dare to offend us for a woman?"
Again, what question was that? No matter what, the answer was a fist strike that shoved the man's crooked nose back into his skull. Seth didn't even use any skills apart from his passive ones. He continued to fell any cultivator with a single strike.
He didn't use any magic or skills, only his passive improvement. At this point, he could dominate most cultivators below lv.100 with his attributes alone, despite not holding a physical combat class or wearing his full armor.
Using the medicines he and the girls had bought in Spring City and the replications Alison had managed to produce, Seth had been steadily raising his base attributes by roughly 50 points across the board.
Subsequently, his Endurance and Intelligence had breached the 400 points milestone and granted him two traits. 412 Endurance granted him 'Tempered Flesh'. After his body has been tempered by all kinds of hazards, the trait granted 10% resistance to all physical ailments and effects.
The trait had a similar effect to Tekar's tank skills, but the effect was obviously weaker. Still, it was a welcome buff for the blacksmith. Maybe there would come a time when he became impervious to most ailments, then he would have a lot less to worry about.
On the other hand, reaching 402 points in Intelligence made him a 'Mumble Caster', allowing him to shorten and slur spells to a certain extent without impacting their power or accuracy. This raised his casting speed by up to 20%, for spells he had to actually cast.
Although Seth wasn't primarily a magician, even he profited from it, in case he wanted to use
However, even more important for this moment was what had happened when his Strength breached the 500 points milestone. The trait 'Muscle Armor" he had gained at 400 points had changed and was now called 'Tectonic Bulk'.
It improved the original effect of raising his base physical defense by 3 for every point of strength, and the new trait had an additional effect. The trait described it as the inertia of his power, being unable to be stopped. For every 50 physical defense granted by the traits, Seth gained 1% armor penetration against physical defense.
With 512 points of Strength, he gained a mighty 30% Armor Penetration. Not only did the blacksmith far outrank in level and stats, but his fist strikes also ignored a third of their normal defense.
It was like a cartoon brawl; whoever tried to step on the stage caught a haymaker from the blacksmith and was thrown into the dust at the foot of the stage. Fin, although feeling a little depressed and queasy, wanted to join too, but Mina had appeared beside her and stopped her.
"He is having fun, let him have that," the cat girl whispered in her ears. There was no need for them to intervene, seeing how Seth was slapping away people with a happy smile on his face. It didn't take long for all disciples of the Hollow Ash Sect currently present to be knocked out.
"Let's loot these guys and move on," the bard suggested, looking at the disorderly pile of bodies he had built at the foot of the stage. All of them were alive, but they would leave as beggars. The trio relieved them all of their bags.
The stall owner even had a small space bag filled with the earnings so far. Seth's budget rose by almost 500 low-grade and 50 medium-grade spirit stones. After conquering the Demon Noodles, they wanted to continue exploring.
"We can continue exploring the bazaar tomorrow. We have to leave now if we want to visit the Spirit Temple in time for the tour, eat, and get to the show in time," Mina declared that they were out of bazaar time for today, despite only exploring a fraction of the vast area.
Despite Konan being a small city by the standards of the Cloud Continent, it still had a population of roughly 2 million. The market and the bazaar were beyond what the three had been expecting. Even for Seth, who came from an advanced world with an originally huge population, the dense crowd and vast market were something he was not used to.
Mostly because markets were no longer a thing on Urth. Why go in person when you can look and order online? The girls were more used to markets than him, but System worlds rarely sustained huge populations.
Apparently, the Cloud Continent was abundant enough to sustain huge populations of mortals, despite the apparent dangers from cultivators and beasts. Not even the added danger of the Pathworks put a dent in that.
"Alright, then let's go ahead and see what that Spirit Temple looks like," the blacksmith answered readily. The bazaar would run away. The Temple... who knew if it still stood tomorrow?