Divine Convenience Store-Chapter 543: Divine Vitality Surge
"Alright, my prodigious assistant. How should we tackle Floor 5? What is the most common challenge among the patrons who go up there in a duo?"
Taking one corner in the Waiting Room, Lin Mo started browsing the strategy guides posted on the Bulletin Board through his Viewing Jade.
"According to user [TowerClimber01], Floor 5 is a threshold. It isn’t a survival round like the first floor, nor a maze like the second. It’s an Arena Deathmatch with continuous challenges, each one stronger than the last."
"If you’re a duo, the system spawns two enemies at once and both are tailored to match the challengers’ detected attributes. If you go in solo, you fight one at a time. If you go in as a duo... well, you fight two, but they have perfect synergy."
Lin Mo could only shake his head as he already imagined how troublesome it would be alone. But if there are two, they just had to show that they had differing attributes. Then, they could deal with the one that’s not matched with their attribute.
Still, he found it funny that the username of that patron was like that. It’s like he only bought the Viewing Jade to share his knowledge about the tower challenges after he started climbing one.
Most likely, it was one of the Ancestors of the prominent sects in the Eastern Abyssal Domain or an unknown expert who recently resurfaced just like those hidden cultivator families or sects that decided to emerge at the same time as the appearance of Anchors and Towers became prevalent.
Liu Xiaoyu curled her brows as she also read through that thread, "Counter our attributes? So, my lightning will be countered. Is that it, Boss? That sounds annoying."
"It’s a challenge, obviously. And it’s the checkpoint of this tower. Each challenger will possibly face a similar spike in difficulty every five floors." Lin Mo nodded as he closed the interface. "Floor 5 forces the challengers to adapt rather than rely on a single overpowered trick. But since we are going in together, we can also workaround that challenge. Unless the enemies the tower generates possess both of our attributes at the same time."
"Ooh! What about their strength, Boss? Will they start with a whole stage above us or...?"
"Let’s see. It’s probably on par with the strongest of the group. Which means... you. We’ll be starting with a late Foundation Establishment Stage and the succeeding enemies will grow in strength. Hopefully, only a minor realm increment or less than that. As for how many challenges there will be on the floor... that depends on the tower.
Ending that with a wry smile, Lin Mo stared straight at his assistant, who grew increasingly excited at the prospect of a tag-team battle. Her eyes were already sparkling with battle lust.
"So, what you’re saying is," Xiaoyu pounded her fist into her palm as sparks of golden lightning danced between her fingers, "We just need to hit them harder than they can counter? Or, better yet, we switch dance partners! If they counter me, you hit them. If they counter you, I smash them! That’s the ’convenient’ workaround, right Boss?"
"Mhm. It’s a little crude but essentially correct. We switch targets but we have to also preserve our strength since it won’t be just one challenge." Lin Mo nodded, checking his gear one last time.
He ensured his [Starfall Judgement Revolver] was loaded and strapped around his hip and his spear was devoid of chipping. "Let’s go eat first and prepare convenient supporting Card Talismans, artifacts and formation flags."
"Got it, Boss! Can you get me a packed meal with divine beast meat? The one that costs 100 high-grade spirit stones!"
"You... Are you going to empty your Boss’s balance?"
"Eh... Think about it, Boss. That meal has an incredible buff! It can elevate our strength to the next stage for about an hour! Then, we will also be able to absorb 1% as a permanent enhancement once it wears off!"
With Liu Xiaoyu framing it like that, Lin Mo was stumped. There was indeed that kind of packed meal that had been recently added. The one that also caused a momentary stir in the Bulletin Board when someone discovered it on top of the packed meal shelves.
He recalled that its effect would only work once a month. Because of how potent the divine beast meats are, a cultivator’s body will become unable to process their nutrients if they consume twice in short succession. It’ll be just like a heavenly delicacy that offers nothing but taste.
"Alright. If it ensures our success and keeps my assistant happy, it’s a valid expense. Besides, I’ve also been meaning to try it out. Too bad, we can’t get it for free as a business expense."
Lin Mo sighed as he used the Store Token to browse the Divine Convenience Store’s inventory list. He navigated to the premium meals section and selected the item Xiaoyu was drooling over.
[Braised Celestial Ox Short Ribs with Spirit-Infused Rice]
[Cost: 100 High-Grade Spirit Stones]
[Effect: Grants ’Divine Vitality Surge’ for 1 hour and increases physical strength and spiritual energy recovery by 50%.]
[Divine Vitality Surge: Temporarily and artificially raise one’s cultivation stage to the next stage, along with all its enhancements. When the effect wears off, 1% of the enhancement will be permanently retained by the body.]
[Note: The effect has a cooldown time of a month because of the limitation of a mortal’s body. Cultivators past the Tribulation Transcendence Stage have a shorter cooldown time.]
As he tapped his Personal Balance to pay for the meals, two steaming, ornate lacquer boxes materialized on the table.
The aroma that wafted out when Liu Xiaoyu tore the lid off was thick enough to be seen. A rich, savory cloud that smelled of ancient spices and boundless vitality.
The other cultivators in the waiting room who caught the whiff of it couldn’t help but drool.
Although greed appeared in their eyes for a bit, they eventually calmed down when they saw that it came from Lin Mo and Liu Xiaoyu’s side.
"Itadakimasu!" Xiaoyu cheered, using a phrase she picked up from one of Lin Mo’s casual stories about Earth, before digging in with a speed that defied etiquette.
Lin Mo almost flicked her forehead for using that word but he acted a little merciful, letting it pass.
He opened his own box and started drooling as well.
This would be his most expensive meal to date, both in his past life and the present.
A divine beast’s meat? Who can have such a luxury to eat that? Furthermore, those divine beings priced them cheaply.
He couldn’t help but imagine that the Celestial Ox might be the size of a planet for a reasonable explanation why it was only 100 high-grade spirit stones.
It didn’t count the labor used by, most probably, the Ember Saintess Huoling.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Lin began to eat.
One bite was enough for him to forego any regret he might have for buying them. The potency of the meal was immaculate. Furthermore, the meat melted on his tongue, turning into a warm current that rushed through his meridians.
The fatigue from his cultivation session and the succeeding challenges vanished instantly.
His starlight qi buzzed with a new, aggressive intensity, and his muscles felt like coiled steel springs. Then, he could sense his cultivation base ballooning as if he had truly reached the next stage. He felt like he could punch a Core Formation expert and win a fight against one effortlessly.
"Whoa... I feel like I could punch a hole in the sky, Boss!" Xiaoyu declared, slamming the empty box down.
A faint, golden aura of pure vitality shimmered around her skin, mixing with the ambient lightning of her physique.
"Let’s save the sky for later. For now, let’s just punch some holes in whatever the tower throws at us," Lin Mo said, wiping his mouth and standing up. It was a convenient buff, indeed. "Are you ready?"
"Born ready, Boss!"
With that, after advertising the meal to the patrons in the same waiting room, they moved towards the portal to Floor 5.
Upon confirming their link, the sensation of spatial displacement was instantaneous.
When their vision cleared, the comfortable ambiance of the waiting room was gone.
They stood in the center of a colossal, circular arena paved with cracked, ancient stone.
Massive pillars rose around the perimeter, supporting a nonexistent roof that opened up to a swirling, gray void. The stands were filled not with cheering spectators, but with silent, hooded statues that seemed to watch them with stony indifference.
[Floor 5: The Arena of Duality]
[Objective: Defeat 3 Waves of Counter-Attribute Guardians.]
[Challengers Detected: 2]
[Analyzing Attributes...]
[Subject 1: Lightning/Storm]
[Subject 2: Starlight/Order]
[Cultivation: Late Foundation Establishment Stage]
[Generating Counter-Entities...]
As soon as that window appeared, the space in the center of the arena warped.
Two massive summoning circles appeared, one pulsing with a heavy, brown earth energy, the other with a chaotic, devouring darkness.
"Here they come, Xiaoyu." Lin Mo warned as his [Starlit Dragon Spear] materialized in his hand. "Remember the plan. Identify, switch, eliminate."
"Got it, Boss! I’ll carry you to the higher floors if you want to. Let’s make the most of this buff and the Dao of Convenience. Hehe!" Liu Xiaoyu confidently declared as she bumped her fists together, causing her golden lightning to crackle.
