Disaster Strikes - Chapter 62:

An hour passed.

Many people stopped at Chen Mo’s stall and showed interest in the Despiser pistol. However what Chen Mo first sold was actually the “Revival of the Grizzly” skill scroll.

D-tier skill scrolls usually sell for between 50 to 80 points. Chen Mo had already priced the “Revival of the Grizzly”, a skill scroll with strong early-stage properties but no growth potential, at 100 points according to the price of D-tier skill scrolls with top attributes. However, the large and burly-looking natural disaster in front of him did not hesitate and chose to trade immediately.

Obviously, the attributes of this skill scroll were extremely suitable for him.

Prompt: Transaction complete, your disaster contribution points +100.

With these 100 points, Chen Mo’s disaster contribution points reached a staggering 311. Combined with the Despiser pistol and two bottles of salamander recocvery potion that had not been sold yet, Chen Mo even began to consider whether he should get himself a piece of blue-quality clothing.

However with his current attributes even if he could wear blue-quality clothing, he would need to pay attention to the related wearing requreinments, which might be difficult to find.

As night fell the temperature in the square became increasingly cold.

Most of the vendors had already started to pack up and the vendor next to Chen Mo who was selling the green-quality clothing still hadn’t sold the Lv3-enchanted green-quality clothing. Helplessly he also planned to pack up and go home.

Chen Mo took the opportunity to probe, “How about that green-quality clothing for 120 points, will you sell it?”

“120 points?”

The vendor asked, “Are you a vampire? This is a clothing with +10 defence!”

With points in hand Chen Mo had more choices, So he calmly said “After all, it’s just a green-quality clothing. I’ll add another 10 points, 130 points in total, as a gesture of goodwill. How about it?”

“Absolutely not!”

Seeing the other party about to leave Chen Mo said helplessly “I’ll still be here tomorrow. If you change your mind, come over.”

This vendor was quite stubborn and ignored Chen Mo leaving directly.

The square was getting emptier and Chen Mo didn’t plan to waste any more time. After all good things would sell themselves, he wasn’t in a hurry to sell the Despiser right away, so he strolled around the remaining few stalls in the square and quickly found something suitable, a D-tier skill scroll.

Prompt: Corrosive Sphere.

Rating: D-tier.

Usage requirements: Basic Spirit 20, Basic Psychic Level 8.

Item attributes: Fixed damage 50, Target defence -3, lasts 5 minutes, can be stacked, energy cost 3 points, cooldown 10 seconds.

Item description: It can cause small fixed damage while gradually eroding the enemy’s defence through a special corrosive energy.

The reason Chen Mo was interested in this skill scroll was simple, because of its attributes of fixed damage 50 and defence -3.

Chen Mo’s traveler’s talent allowed his psychic-type skills to undergo positive and negative mutations, enabling him to convert ann ally’s positive attribute into enemy’s negative attribute and vice versa.

As a result, the 50 points of fixed damage from Corrosive Sphere could be converted into 50 points of fixed healing for himself at any time.

According to Chen Mo’s tests, if his Psychic Bullet skill was converted into healing attributes, it would only be half of the damage value.

At this point, Chen Mo’s Psychic Bullet was at level 4, with damage calculated as base damage + spirit * 0.5 + basic psychic level + weapon * 0.2 + skill proficiency + Lv4 additional attribute, which is 20 + 15 + 9 + 5 + 4 + 3 = 56 points.

In other words, at this stage Chen Mo’s reverse Psychic Bullet of healing through the tarveler’s talent would only heal 28 health points.

The 50 points of fixed damage from the D-tier skill Corrosive Sphere, if converted into 50 points of fixed healing, would lose its long-term growth ability, however for Chen Mo at this stage the effect was still significant, almost equivalent to half a bottle of small green potion which is 15 points.

However in this D-tier skill scroll, what Chen Mo valued most was its stackable defence -3, which can last full 5 minutes. And after this skill attribute was converted through the traveler’s talent, doesn’t this mean that he could gain defence +3 and repeatedly stack it?

A 5-minute duration for the skill was already enough for Chen Mo to deal with a vast majority of small-scale battles at this level.

After experiencing the trial of the starving ghosts, Chen Mo had realized the value of defence attribute.

Aside from clothing and basic blocking, for every 10 points of the physique grown by a natural disaster, 1 point of defence would be added. Besides improving the quality of health points, defence attributes also provided strong immunity to acute poisoning-type skills.

During the trial when facing the acute poisoning attack of Doctor Terror if Chen Mo’s defence attribute had not been high enough, the consequences would probably have been the same as that of the experimental assistant, dying on the spot after being poisoned.

After some evaluation in his mind Chen Mo asked “How many points for this D-tier skill scroll?”

The vendor selling the skill scroll was a female natural disaster. She was dressed in silk clothes and had an air of aloofness. After glancing at the scroll she said lightly “80 points.”

With her opening offer, she set the highest price for a regular D-tier skill.

“60 points,” Chen Mo bargained, calmly analyzing “Although this skill scroll has the special attribute of defence -3, its 50 points of fixed damage limit its long-term development. 60 points is the most I can offer.”

It had to be said that during his time as a starving ghost in the academy, Chen Mo had conducted thorough research on the low-end market. He had detailed data on the basic values of various items, so his bargaining was well-founded.

The female natural disaster clearly knew that Chen Mo’s words were factual, however she seemed somewhat dissatisfied with Chen Mo’s confident attitude after bargaining.

“65 points” she said.

Sensing the displeasure in her tone Chen Mo was puzzled, he didn’t seem to have said anything wrong. Though he was puzzled Chen Mo could feel the immense pressure from the woman, she was likely a Level-3 disaster destroyer. It wasn’t worth challenging her patience for 5 points, even if it meant saving money, he had to consider the time and the person he was dealing with, therefore he agreed to the deal on the spot.

Prompt: Your disaster contribution points -65.

Prompt: You have acquired “Corrosive Sphere.”

After spending 65 points on the skill scroll, Chen Mo had 246 points left. He stored “Corrosive Sphere” in his storage space.

Braving the severe cold, Chen Mo wandered around the square for a while. Although he found some good items, he didn’t make another purchase.

For example, there was a pair of full-attribute green-quality shoes with +30 health points, the vendor was asking for 100 points which was quite a high price considering Chen Mo had seen shoes with +27 health points selling for only 50 points.

There was also a potion called Qi Condensation Pill. Its effect was to increase the Spirit attribute by +1 after a month of refinement if the total attribute value was below 100. During the refining period energy would be reduced by 10 points, the vendor was selling it for 100 points.

After some thought, Chen Mo decided to pass on these items.

Taking this spirit-enhancing potion would require a month of refinement, during which his energy would be reduced by 10 points. This was an unbearable burden for Chen Mo, who only had 17 energy points. With only 7 energy points left, he would be unable to sustain the energy consumption of his tasks. Unless he was willing to stay in the disaster world for another month, which was not very realistic.

As the temperature dropped, there were very few people left on the square and Chen Mo returned to his apartment.

Since he still had plenty of black bread left Chen Mo didn’t need to spend extra on food these days.

Once back in the apartment Chen Mo couldn’t wait to take out “Corrosive Sphere.” As the disaster energy flowed along his palm to the skill scroll, it started to flicker.

Prompt: Are you sure you want to learn the D-tier skill “Corrosive Sphere”?

“Yes.”

As the skill scroll gradually became transparent fragmented memories about the skill “Corrosive Sphere” entered Chen Mo’s mind. When the scroll completely disappeared from his hand, a brand new way of using the skill appeared in Chen Mo’s mind.

Prompt: You have mastered the skill, “Corrosive Sphere”.

After pondering for a moment Chen Mo tried to condense a Corrosive Sphere.

A dark ball wrapped in psychic power about five centimeters in diameter, slightly larger than the psychic bullet appeared, it seemed misty, like a constrained black smoke floating in his palm expanding and contracting as if breathing, giving it a lifelike quality.

Since this was Chen Mo’s apartment after successfully condensing the skill he chose not to release it but to let it gradually dissipate and disappear.

“I’ll try its ballistic trajectory and speed when I have time.”

When Chen Mo looked at his attribute panel, he saw the words “Corrosive Sphere” at the bottom of the skill column.

Of the available four skill slots, Chen Mo had already learned three psychic skills, forming a combination of high, medium and low-tier skills, a E-tier skill, a D-tier skill and a C-tier skill. Without an awakening stone to expand the skill slots, he needed to be careful when choosing his fourth skill before making a decision.

Knock, knock.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door from outside.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me.”

After confirming it was Tain Tian, Chen Mo opened the door and found not only Tian Tian but also a giant woman with smoky makeup, towering at about 1.9 meters, looking down at him.

“Who is this?”

“She’s my new sister. Don’t say I didn’t warn you about good news.”

Good news?

Chen Mo looked at Tian Tian with a puzzled expression.

Tian Tian smiled and said “My sister is a senior natural disaster in the intelligence community. She saw my talent and invited me to join the Hyacinth Alliance in the gathering place. Someone offered 300 points to buy information about a figure called the ‘Tian Qi'(Apocalypse). If you encounter him in mission worlds, be sure to pay attention.”

“Tian Qi?” Chen Mo’s face changed slightly. When he traveled from Stone’s former residence to the Academy, he almost died of starvation and cold on the way. He was fortunate to be rescued by a natural disaster driving an off-road vehicle, which allowed him to reach the Academy. Wasn’t his name also Tian Qi? Therefore, Chen Mo couldn’t help but probe “Why are you looking for me?”

Tian Tian rolled her eyes and asked “I already said it’s because of good news. Generally, who would spend so many points to collect information about a disaster predator?”

Does this mean Tian Qi is just a Level 1 disaster predator?

“Don’t underestimate him” the giant woman said in a cold voice. “He is a person who once hunted and killed an entire disaster squad. He should be a professional optimizer who suppressed his disaster level.”

A professional optimizer?

Although Chen Mo knew some information about Tian Qi, he had no intention of informing the other party about it for points. Firstly, the information he knew was not of great value and secondly it was a matter of repaying the Tian Qi’s lifesaving grace. No matter how great the benefit was, Chen Mo would adhere to his principles and not return kindness with enmity.

“Alright, I’ll keep an eye out in mission worlds.”

After saying this, Tian Tian continued to search for other natural disasters with the woman. It was obvious that they planned to search for the relevant information by casting a wide net.

As for the 300 points Tian Tian mentioned although it was a considerable bounty for Chen Mo, the real bounty was likely much higher than 300 points, otherwise why would these two go to such lengths?

“Forget it.”

Chen Mo also knew that with his current situation, he couldn’t help the other party even if he wanted to. He could only sigh silently and wish his good luck, he didn’t know why he had attracted such enemies.

As for the intelligence community and the Hyacinth Alliance mentioned by Tian Tian, although Chen Mo didn’t understand them very well, he could see that she was quite eager for them. This also fit well with Chen Mo’s expectations of her, with her talent she would surely thrive in the intelligence community given time.

“Now the most important thing is to improve my strength as soon as possible. I wonder if that guy will come tomorrow.”

Chen Mo still couldn’t forget about that green-quality armour enchanted to Level 3.

(End of chapter 62)