Book 5: Chapter 53: Detection Aura

Frank’s servant warehouse was actually his own storage space. However, he had granted Qin Lun access to the warehouse based on servant regulations.

The hunchbacked servant gave Qin Lun more than just access to the storage space. According to the servant rules of Shattered Starry Sky, a lower-ranked apostle servant could freely open and close their own body attributes and equipment skills for a higher-ranked apostle. This meant that Qin Lun could now check all of Frank’s information in the Death Notice.

After the last body enhancement, Frank’s body attributes had increased slightly. After the mission settlement, he had gained over 15,000 Shattered Crystals. After deducting the cost to fix his hunchback and leg disability, he estimated he would have about 12,000 to 13,000 Shattered Crystals left.

In addition, the mission evaluation reward included one purple equipment, one low-level Reflex Training Scroll, one Law of Shattering Fusion Crystal, and several special recovery items from Nars.

Frank’s gains from the Nals World were not as good as Qin Lun’s first Orphan World rewards. However, compared to the trial worlds of other ordinary apostles, it was much better, possibly due to the difficulty of the Mid-Magic World.

Name: Frank Stan; Apostle ID: 49031

Bloodline: Junior Necro; Title: First Tier First Level; Soul Lifespan: 55/55;

Health Points 830, Energy Points 285; Contribution Points: 15;

Explosive Power 40 points, Agility 16 points, Constitution 35 points, Perception 11 points, Mental Will 12 points, Protection 18 points

Bloodline Abilities: Cold Will, Zombie Body

Technique Slot: Axe Mastery (Intermediate Technique), Basic Shield Proficiency (Basic Technique); Skill Slot: None

Frank’s Energy Points, Mental Will, and Perception were very low, while his Explosive Power, Constitution, and Protection were surprisingly high. He could only become a physical attack class, and things like Necromancer or Lich were definitely out of his reach.

Even though Frank’s Protection was only 18 points, which was slightly lower than Qin Lun’s, Qin Lun’s Earth Drake Leather Armor alone added 10 Protection points. Without his equipment, the high-level Moon Elf body actually had only 12 Protection points.

Qin Lun glanced at Frank’s attributes and became even more determined to mold him into a personal MT. There were various types of MT professions—some leaned towards physical combat, while others focused on spellcasting.

Generally speaking, MTs served two main purposes: one was to withstand the entire enemy team’s focused fire in a short time, meaning they couldn’t be instantly killed before teammates could rescue them. The other was to have crowd control ability; they couldn’t let enemies bypass them and attack teammates with low health and protection.

Given Frank’s current Mental Will and mana, he couldn’t take the spellcasting MT path. He couldn’t learn from some undead MTs who appeared on the battlefield with large-area plague poison clouds. Similarly, his Agility wasn’t high enough to be like some physical MTs who wore full sets of heavy knight plate armor and carried high-quality Tower Shields, crashing around like tanks.

Qin Lun planned to have him wear chain mail. Chain mail offered good protection, and combined with Frank’s Zombie Body, his defensive capability would be sufficient. It wasn’t as cumbersome as plate armor, so it had less impact on mobility. Then, for skills, he would prepare some straightforward and brutal MT skills like “Charge,” “Leap,” and “Stomp,” which required little finesse.

Anyway, Frank didn’t need to cover the entire team; it was enough for him to be a good personal bodyguard for Qin Lun alone. Given Frank’s simple and honest nature, Qin Lun didn’t dare to send him out to handle things alone. Otherwise, without his watchful eye, the honest hunchbacked servant might get tricked and killed by others.

Since he would wear chain mail instead of plate armor, there was no need for a shield, which would allow the two-handed great axe “Skull Crusher” to unleash its maximum attack power.

“Skull Crusher” was a Life-Taking Relic of Hundred-Kill Slayer quality, with huge advancement potential. Though the weapon had a remnant wish task from its original owner, Frank inherited his Law Body and could naturally use it, but it had little trade value.

The purple equipment Frank obtained was a throwing weapon called “Saron Boomerang,” with jagged serrations on the blade edge. Qin Lun didn’t plan to sell this item; he would leave it for the hunchbacked servant to make up for his medium-range attack capability.

After thinking for a moment, Qin Lun moved all the extra equipment items from his own storage space, including recovery items and Shattered Crystals, into Frank’s storage space. He intended to use the servant warehouse as their shared storage.

Others might think Qin Lun should keep some recovery items to guard against Frank betraying him.

However, Qin Lun didn’t think so. He was a master of psychology himself. From his conversation with Frank at the Hollke manor, he could tell that he had completely replaced Wellington in Frank’s heart. The hunchbacked servant saw protecting Qin Lun as his own reason for existence. If he couldn’t trust him, then what was the point of reviving Frank?

After checking Frank’s gains, Qin Lun turned his thoughts to his own equipment and skills.

Due to the significant increase in his Mental Will and Perception, his Clock Eye rose from B- to B+ grade, and he could now use the third hand. Because of the actual combat experience, his Combat Gunmanship increased from D to C- grade. Indeed, life-and-death battles were the fastest way to improve skills.

After successfully changing his class to Jungle Hunter, Qin Lun’s gun skills improved, and he gained the basic technique—Dagger Mastery. The skills he created himself, Weakness Crosshair, Spiral Shot, and Ballistic Refraction, were formally recognized by Shattered Starry Sky due to the improvement in his gun skills and Perception. It was indeed a great harvest.

The two new job skills he obtained: Swift Wind Step evolved from Wind Drift Art. Both were at the same grade, and their effects were similar. However, Drift Technique was a magic skill that consumed Energy Points. Swift Wind Step, on the other hand, utilized Wind Element Affinity to transform into a footwork movement skill, making it more flexible and varied, and it no longer consumed Energy Points.

Swift Wind Step (D+ grade active skill): A footwork skill that uses the apostle’s Wind Element Affinity to reduce body resistance and create a wind tunnel effect around the apostle. It accelerates and changes direction according to the apostle’s will, temporarily increasing movement and jumping effects by three to five times. It lasts for ten seconds, with a three-minute cooldown, and is used to relieve muscle tension.

The other skill, C-grade Detection Aura, was a trap-type skill. It could also be said to be a core professional ability of the Jungle Hunter combat profession.

What is the most essential skill of a hunter? Of course, hunting techniques! Before hunting, the hunter must first discover the prey, hide themselves, drive hunting dogs to herd the prey into traps or suitable attack positions, and then attack and kill the prey, and decompose the spoils.

The entire hunting process—scouting, camouflage, setting traps, positioning, and long-range attacks—are the core skills of the hunter profession. Among these, scouting ability is the most important prerequisite. If a hunter can’t even find the prey, then there’s no point in talking about hunting.

The “Detection Aura” skill Qin Lun obtained was a trap-style detection ability. Why call it a trap-style detection ability? Because this skill was a professional passive aura. Once prey entered a certain range around the hunter, even if they were in stealth or invisible states, he would detect them.

Detection Aura (C-grade passive skill): This aura can three-dimensionally detect all auras and mental fluctuations within a radius of fifty meters centered on the apostle. If the apostle carried image detection equipment, the Detection Aura would also form a three-dimensional projection in the equipment and mark potential hidden enemy targets one by one.

Skill Effect One: The C-grade Detection Aura can detect all enemy targets using stealth skills below A- grade (not including A- grade). This effect may vary depending on the difference in Perception strength between both parties.

Skill Effect Two: The Detection Aura can roughly distinguish the enemy’s strength level from aura and mental fluctuations. This effect may vary depending on the difference in Perception strength between both parties.

Skill Effect Three: The Detection Aura can connect to the apostle’s image equipment, form corresponding projections, and mark suspicious hidden targets. The detection range is limited to a fifty-meter radius. The clarity of the projection depends on the equipment quality.

After seeing the specific content of this skill, Qin Lun immediately smiled. Originally, he felt that the Jungle Hunter profession was ordinary and unremarkable. With the emergence of this core professional skill, basically no apostles of the same level could ambush him. It could be said to be the natural enemy of the Assassin and Rogue professions.

Unfortunately, the Detection Aura’s visible range was too small. Even if the grade increased in the future, being able to “see” a few hundred meters was probably the limit. If it were ten kilometers or so, it would be like a combination of a human radar and a space telescope.

However, to truly utilize the ability of the Detection Aura, he still needed a piece of projection detection equipment. He did have a dark blue Combat Gauge on him, but that thing could only be used to estimate enemy strength and did not count as real detection equipment.

Moreover, from its use in these two worlds, the thing had too many limitations. Enemies of similar grade couldn’t pose a life threat to him. Enemies that were too strong—having this thing or not made no difference, as he still couldn’t estimate their specific strength anyway.

Qin Lun now planned to throw the Combat Gauge into the Auction House. Apart from a freak like him, dark blue Combat Gauges were still very popular in the Auction House because they required a Bronze Level mission evaluation card to obtain.

Don’t think that Bronze Cards were as common as cabbages. Qin Lun worked himself to the bone in the World War II World and only got one Bronze Level mission evaluation. Ordinary apostles would be overjoyed just to get a Bronze Card in a mission world.

The higher an apostle’s strength, the greater the mission difficulty accordingly. It wasn’t that high-ranking apostles could pull out a handful of Bronze Cards. Even the Casey trio that Qin Lun had encountered before usually considered getting a Bronze Card as a successful mission completion. Getting a Silver Card required some luck and was considered very perfect. A Gold Card required largely solving the world’s mysteries and was something one could only hope for but not necessarily obtain!

Of course, most of the mission worlds that high-ranking apostles entered were Mid-Magic Worlds, with a few being High-Magic Worlds. The Bronze Cards obtained there were much more valuable than Qin Lun’s from the Low Magic World.

Having decided to get a piece of image detection equipment, Qin Lun shifted his attention to the modification of the “Death Notice.”

Back in Nars, he had already added “Mental Will” and “Protection” attribute data to the Death Notice. Now, he planned to make some additions to the original four attribute data: Explosive Power, Agility, Constitution, and Perception…