Chapter 59: Frantically Opening Treasure Chests, Collecting All the Essences of the Toxic Swamp!
Two hours later, inside a deserted cave.
"One, two, three, four, five, six... twenty-three. Good lord."
Ye Chuyun stared into his storage space, his eyes glowing with excitement.
He had spent roughly two hours gathering every single undiscovered treasure chest scattered across the Venomous Swamp.
In total, he had obtained 23 gray chests and 12 bronze chests.
There were no mysterious iron chests or silver chests to be found.
However, that was entirely to be expected; the Venomous Swamp was merely a beginner trial zone, so high-tier chests were naturally out of the question.
Adding these to what he already possessed, Ye Chuyun now owned a total of 31 gray chests, 20 bronze chests, and 2 silver chests.
Now it was time to merge the chests!
Ye Chuyun placed all the chests together and initiated the merging process.
[Prompt: Synthesis successful! Obtained 1 Bronze Chest!]
[Prompt: Synthesis successful! Obtained 1 Bronze Chest!]
[Prompt: Synthesis successful! Obtained 1 Bronze Chest!]
...
Prompts popped up continuously.
Until all the chests were consumed, Ye Chuyun surveyed the remaining inventory.
Before him lay merely 3 gray chests, 3 bronze chests, 2 mysterious iron chests, and 3 silver chests.
Goodness, he was just one silver chest short of being able to synthesize a single gold chest.
What a terrible pity.
Ye Chuyun sighed and abandoned the idea of forging a gold chest.
His top priority right now was to swiftly enhance his strength.
There was no need to stubbornly fixate on a gold chest.
He might as well open all the chests he currently had.
Chest after chest flashed with dazzling brilliance.
This time, Ye Chuyun's storage space fell drastically short of capacity.
With no other choice, he had to spend Gods and Demons Coins to expand it.
Ye Chuyun inspected the loot yielded by the chests.
He had harvested over 10,000 Gods and Demons Coins.
Over ten Tier 1 spell scrolls, four Tier 2 spell scrolls, and one Tier 3 spell scroll.
Dozens more enhancement stones and skill stones were acquired.
Several skill books were also obtained, one of which—a Tier 2 skill book—instantly caught Ye Chuyun's attention.
[Teleport: Tier 2 skill. Consumes mental power to instantly travel a distance of ten meters. Learning requirement: Agility 500 or above.]
"Now that's a good item!"
A wave of joy washed over Ye Chuyun, and he decisively learned the skill.
Aside from skill books, over a dozen pieces of equipment were also obtained.
Among them were three Tier 1 equipment items, five Tier 2 equipment items, and five Tier 3 equipment items.
It was a pity that out of the five Tier 3 pieces, four were necklaces.
Ye Chuyun already possessed the [Sage's Chain].
The attributes of the [Sage's Chain] were comparable to those of the other four necklaces, plus it possessed the rare ability to reduce skill cooldowns by twenty percent.
Ye Chuyun couldn't bear to replace it.
Fortunately, the final piece of Tier 3 equipment was quite exceptional.
[Cyan Jade Bracelet: Mental Power +30, Physique +10, reduces skill cooldown time upon equipping. Tier 3 equipment.]
Yet another piece of equipment capable of reducing skill cooldowns!
Ye Chuyun decisively equipped it.
Aside from these, the chests also left behind a single blueprint.
[Faint Shimmer Cuirass Blueprint: Can be crafted by a primary blacksmith. Tier 2 top-grade equipment.]
"An equipment crafting blueprint, of all things."
This was the first time Ye Chuyun had ever laid eyes on an equipment blueprint.
When he examined the attributes of the Faint Shimmer Cuirass, he couldn't help but draw a sharp intake of breath.
"Holy crap!"
[Faint Shimmer Cuirass: Defense +40, Physique +20, Strength +10. Comes with the passive skill Healing Light, which can emit a beam of healing light to heal the user. Equipping conditions: Level 5, Physique 200 or above.]
"This Faint Shimmer Cuirass is truly top-tier."
Ye Chuyun felt a twinge of greed.
Whether in terms of attributes or attached skill effects, this Faint Shimmer Cuirass vastly surpassed the [Iron Turtle Battle Armor] he was currently wearing.
The crucial point was that if he could learn to craft this Faint Shimmer Cuirass...
He would be able to mass-produce it infinitely!
Moreover, given such supreme attributes, this cuirass would undoubtedly fetch a stellar price on the market.
Ye Chuyun was certain.
The money-making potential of the Faint Shimmer Cuirass would certainly be no less than that of a primary Whetstone.
"I need to get my hands on a set of blacksmithing tools as soon as possible," Ye Chuyun muttered to himself.
With all the chests fully opened, Ye Chuyun's next objective was to collect the elemental cores of all fierce beasts within the Venomous Swamp.
There were numerous species of fierce beasts inhabiting the Venomous Swamp.
From his arrival until now, he hadn't encountered all of them.
There were still many cores of beasts he had never laid eyes on waiting to be collected.
These could further elevate his combat prowess.
Ye Chuyun glanced at his watch.
It was already 6:00 PM on the second day.
Night was about to fall.
"Time waits for no one. I must hurry."
Ye Chuyun patted his clothes, donned his night-vision goggles, and soared out of the cave.
...
Three hours later, outside a rocky mountain range.
"Roar!"
A massive purple scorpion crashed to the ground before Ye Chuyun.
[You have slain the Tier 2 fierce beast, Venom-Tail Scorpion. Energy Points +80.]
[100% drop rate triggered. Items have been automatically placed into your storage space. Please check and confirm.]
Ye Chuyun checked his storage space.
Fortunately, he had earned plenty of Gods and Demons Coins, allowing him to continuously expand his inventory.
The space, which originally held only a hundred slots, had now been expanded to two hundred slots.
Presently, the vast majority of these slots were packed to the brim with all sorts of cores and equipment.
"Phew, finally finished collecting everything."
Ye Chuyun breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Searching for these unfamiliar fierce beasts over the past three hours had been no easy feat.
To gather all the cores, he had slaughtered at least over a hundred fierce beasts of various species.
His Energy Points had surged by another 50,000 to 60,000, bringing him one step closer to Level 11.
He did the math.
There were a total of 28 different species of fierce beasts residing within the Venomous Swamp.
The beasts he had previously hunted amounted to only 13 species combined.
It had taken him three full hours to track down and complete the remaining 15 species.
He had acquired nearly 180 cores in total.
"I wonder how much my combat power will soar if I devour all these cores!"
Gazing at the small mountain of cores before him, Ye Chuyun couldn't help but swallow hard.
Swallowing over a hundred cores consecutively—he wondered if his mortal body could handle the strain.
"Screw it, let's do this!"
Ye Chuyun gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, grabbed a handful of cores at random, and shoved them into his mouth.
[Consumed Dream Silkworm Core: Strength attribute +4.]
[Consumed Crimson Poison Marten Core: Strength +3, Physique +3.]
[Consumed Giant-Toothed Alligator Core: Strength attribute +8.]
...
There were 15 species of beast cores in total, with an ingestion limit of ten times per species.
This meant Ye Chuyun had swallowed 150 cores in one go.
His attributes skyrocketed wildly.
By the time Ye Chuyun swallowed the very last core, he felt his entire throat going numb.