Chapter 39: One-Star Card Pool, Ten-Pull Activated!

[Berserker: The heavier the injuries you suffer, the more your physical constitution increases, and the faster your wounds heal.]

A simple description, but magnificent strength!

As for why the strength is so magnificent...

Uesugi Toru simply used the Kaga Kiyomitsu to cut a thumb-thick wound on his arm, and he discovered that his physical constitution jumped from twenty-nine points straight to thirty points.

He did not even dare to imagine how much his physical constitution would increase if he were beaten to near death—in short, the expectation should be around 10 points or more.

Other than that, Uesugi Toru now only needed to circulate his Spirit Concentration Technique slightly to push the inner spiritual energy within his body to the extreme limit of amplification without even transforming into the Hannya of Smiles.

This could not help but make him sigh—humans truly do have limits.

While adapting to the surging power within his body, Uesugi Toru continued reading downward in a pleasant mood.

[Because your Demonic Avatar: Hannya of Smiles has reached one star, one-star limited salvage is now open!]

[One-Star Limited Salvage: Abandoned Shrine!]

The moment this line of prompt appeared, Uesugi Toru could see the phantom of a desolate and ruined shrine sitting behind the title text, replacing the original bamboo grove as the new gacha pool.

Oh? Why does this shrine look somewhat familiar?

Uesugi Toru leaned in to look closely for a good while, and confirmed his guess upon seeing the two three-tailed fox stone sculptures at the entrance.

Isn't this the abandoned shrine in Edo City that he visited not long ago?!

But is there any connection between this?

Uesugi Toru could not figure it out for the time being, so he had to bury this doubt deep within his heart.

[Each salvage costs 50 soul ash.]

[The first ten-pull salvage is available at a thirty percent discount!]

After the two lines of prompts dissipated, many translucent phantoms appeared once again within the originally desolate shrine.

The largest among them was a phantom standing in the center of the gacha pool, wearing a fox mask and holding a folding fan. However, because of the mask, Uesugi Toru could not tell what kind of demon this was.

He tried clicking on the phantom with his mind.

[Three-Tailed Fox]

[Quality: Rare]

A prompt like this popped up instantly above the phantom's head, leaving Uesugi Toru both pleasantly surprised and a bit amused.

What pleasantly surprised him was that he could now know how many good things remained unpulled in the gacha pool.

Yet what was the meaning of this prompt only popping up halfway?

Just teasing him, aren't they?

Next, he tried clicking on the items worn by the Three-Tailed Fox, discovering that each one was an item of fine or rare quality, looking exceptionally alluring.

Yet it simply refused to tell him their specific effects and attributes.

Uesugi Toru narrowed his eyes and let out a cold snort—it is merely 350 soul ash after all; watch daddy use massive soul ash to ruthlessly drain your little gacha pool dry!

Without any hesitation, Uesugi Toru heavily clicked with his mind on the black-qi-surging [Salvage Ten Times].

——Ten-pull, initiate!

Rumble... Rumble...

Accompanied by the disappearance of a full three hundred and fifty points of soul ash, the originally quiet and deserted ruined shrine began to vibrate gradually.

The damp moss quickly receded, the dust and debris were swept away by a strong gale, and the disorderly branches on both sides looked as neatly trimmed as if they had been re-manicured.

Almost instantly, the shrine took on a brand-new appearance.

Uesugi Toru thought to himself that this gacha animation was actually made quite well, full of flair and detail.

Then, under his gaze, the two fox stone sculptures at the entrance actually had their eyes glowing and began to move. They ran into the shrine and then dragged out items one by one from the shrine.

Soon, ten items of varying colors were placed outside the shrine, though unfortunately this ten-pull did not pull out the demon Three-Tailed Fox.

As the shrine slowly returned to its original appearance, Uesugi Toru looked at the various unfamiliar yet familiar items.

[Requiem Incense Ash (Micro)] ×3, [Requiem Incense Ash (Small)] ×3, [Requiem Incense Ash (Medium)].

[Cleansing Amulet], [Blessed Folding Fan], [Technique Scroll (Damaged)].

Seven of them were the familiar Requiem Incense Ash, though this time they were no longer just a pile of white lights making up the numbers.

Because among them, the Requiem Incense Ash marked as "Small" was emitting a faint green light, and the [Requiem Incense Ash (Medium)] carried an even thicker green light.

Clicking on the panel, one could see its description—

[Requiem Incense Ash (Medium)]

[Quality: Super Fine]

[Effect: One of the necessary consumable materials for upgrading from two stars to three stars.]

So Requiem Incense Ash (Small) must be the necessary consumable material for upgrading from one star to two stars.

Uesugi Toru glanced at the upgrade requirements for the Hannya of Smiles and found that they had generated slightly different requirements than before.

[Upgrade Requirement: Requiem Incense Ash (0/50)]

[The predicted time spent for the upgrade is 168 hours (one week).]

The upgrade condition did not crazily turn into 10 portions of Requiem Incense Ash (Small), but instead changed from a fixed number to a progress bar.

He experimented a bit and discovered that contributing Requiem Incense Ash (Small) was equivalent to 10 points of progress, whereas Requiem Incense Ash (Micro) was only equivalent to 2 points of progress.

A rare and conscientious design indeed.

Uesugi Toru sighed with emotion.

However, the time required for the upgrade had also doubled; he wondered if there were any items that could accelerate this process.

Without thinking too much about it, Uesugi Toru looked at the remaining three items.

[Cleansing Amulet]

[Quality: Fine]

[Effect 1: Tranquility. When wearing the Cleansing Amulet, the spirit will be nourished by a micro-amount.]

[Effect 2: Induction. When ghosts and goblins appear nearby, the Cleansing Amulet will grow slightly warm.]

[——An amulet long-term enshrined within a shrine, possessing certain magical effects.]

It was an item that allowed ordinary people to detect demons, though for Uesugi Toru, who could sense demonic aura and see the stars above other demons' heads, it was better than nothing.

I'll give this amulet to Ririko next time, he thought. After all, Ririko was only skilled at wielding a sword and did not possess the various methods of detecting demons and strange tales like an Onmyoji.

Next came the main event—the folding fan held in the Three-Tailed Fox's hand, emitting a faint blue light.

[Blessed Folding Fan]

[Quality: Rare]

[Effect 1: Gentle Breeze Striding. Consumes spiritual power to accelerate movement in a designated direction for a certain distance without chanting. Movement distance and speed increase with the amount of spiritual power consumed. Can only be released once every thirty seconds.]

[Effect 2: Terrifying Heavenly Lightning. Consumes spiritual power to release a bolt of heavenly lightning toward a designated target without chanting. The power of the heavenly lightning increases with the amount of spiritual power consumed. Can only be released once every five minutes.]

[——The folding fan of the shrine's chief priest, once blessed by enshrined deities.]

Good stuff.

Anyone who has played games knows how important a "wind-up" timing is; many bosses have died because their wind-up was too slow.

Just the two skills with instantaneous casting and no chanting were enough to match this folding fan with its rare quality.

Not to mention that one was a mobility skill and the other was a high-damage burst skill.

Unfortunately, this folding fan should be a specialized weapon for spell-skilled demons like the Three-Tailed Fox, and completely incompatible with his muscular Hannya, whose spiritual-spell attribute was a mere 4 points.

Though the weapon was good, it could only join the chief priest's robe to support the future Three-Tailed Fox avatar.

Thinking of this, Uesugi Toru sighed and looked at the final item—

[Technique Scroll (Damaged)]

[Quality: Fine]

[Effect: Upon use, provides 100 proficiency points to a designated skill.]

He paused for a moment, then looked at his own Spirit Concentration Technique proficiency.

——[Fragment of Spirit Concentration Technique (Proficiency 201/300)].