Chapter 67: Special Item Purchase

[240,000 oc]

With two hundred and forty thousand origin crystals, Damon set his disposable budget for the day at forty thousand origin crystals. First thing he did was call up his status window and confirm his current stats—

[AWAKENER STATUS]

[DAMON EINSTEIN]

ALIAS: WHITE DEMON

RACE: AWAKENED HUMAN

TIER: 0

MENTALITY: ???

PHYSIQUE: 6.5 (-5)

CLASS: RICH MAN [ UNIQUE HIDDEN (???) ]

[CLASS SKILL 0: RICH MAN’S BANK (PASSIVE) ]

[CLASS SKILL 1: LOCKED ]

[CLASS SKILL 2: LOCKED ]

[CLASS SKILL 3: LOCKED ]

[CLASS SKILL 4: LOCKED ]

[CLASS SKILL 5: LOCKED ]

[??? ]

AFFLICTION: CURSE OF FRAILTY [UNIQUE (ORIGIN) ]

[CURSE OF FRAILTY [UNIQUE (ORIGIN)

FOR YOU WHO TILTED THE BALANCE; THE ’ORIGIN WILL’ GIFTS A UNIQUE CURSE.

EFFECT 1: IMPOSSIBLE TO INCREASE PHYSIQUE STAT.

EFFECT 2: RANDOM LOSS OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

EFFECT 2: RANDOM FULL-BODY OR PARTIAL PARALYSIS.]

From the start, Damon had been put at a huge disadvantage. Unlike other awakeners, there was no initial boost to either of his stats; maybe there was a boost to his mental stat, but he couldn’t even see what value it was, so it didn’t even matter.

The lower one’s stats are, the harder and more expensive it becomes to raise said stats. The ideal state would be to have high enough stats at the base level so that when the exponential rise begins, one would already be at a decent spot before it starts becoming more unbearably expensive—

But that is for normal people.

Damon had already raised his stats five times to test things out, and since the cost to raise one’s stats becomes progressively more expensive with the scary bumps in zero addition at ten markers, he had spent a total of fifteen origin crystals on his stats that showed no improvement. Usually, due to this expenditure, stats are left to the other awakeners on the team since unique Damon; they aren’t cursed; and Damon’s skill doesn’t feel reliant on his stats.

But now that the crystals are available, he would try raising his stats as much as he reasonably can without going overboard. The others would come next, but his current target was raising his physique stat by exactly forty stat points. This would run Damon a cost of around ten thousand origin crystals.

Such a feat would be impossible for most to accomplish at the moment; maybe only possible to those on the rankings. The general stat point that the strong awakener survivors are recognized to be around at the moment would be the twenties. Anything beyond that would be unheard of; and Damon did exactly that—

Giving the command..... Exactly nine thousand, nine hundred and thirty origin crystals were deducted from his balance—

[230,070 oc]

Damon felt no physical change to his person, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any changes to his stats. Calling upon his status, and there it was—

[AWAKENER STATUS]

[DAMON EINSTEIN]

ALIAS: WHITE DEMON

RACE: AWAKENED HUMAN

TIER: 0

MENTALITY: ???

PHYSIQUE: 46.5 (-45)

CLASS: RICH MAN [ UNIQUE HIDDEN (???) ]

[CLASS SKILL 0: RICH MAN’S BANK (PASSIVE) ]

[CLASS SKILL 1: LOCKED ]

[CLASS SKILL 2: LOCKED ]

[CLASS SKILL 3: LOCKED ]

[CLASS SKILL 4: LOCKED ]

[CLASS SKILL 5: LOCKED ]

[??? ]

AFFLICTION: CURSE OF FRAILTY [UNIQUE (ORIGIN) ]

[CURSE OF FRAILTY [UNIQUE (ORIGIN)

FOR YOU WHO TILTED THE BALANCE; THE ’ORIGIN WILL’ GIFTS A UNIQUE CURSE.

EFFECT 1: IMPOSSIBLE TO INCREASE PHYSIQUE STAT.

EFFECT 2: RANDOM LOSS OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

EFFECT 2: RANDOM FULL-BODY OR PARTIAL PARALYSIS.]

Pushing the stat sup from here would be exponentially more expensive; even the strongest of awakeners would find it nearly impossible with the current rate drops of origin crystals. Hopefully, the drop volume of these crystals increases in the future.

With that out of the way, Damon contemplated upgrading his origin store grade, but chose to put it aside for the moment. The cost was quite expensive for him at the moment, but there was something else in the store he’d been meaning to try out—

[SPECIAL ITEM]

[COST: 10,000 oc]

There was no description for this product might be. It has a timer sometimes set to a full day, or sometimes just a few hours, like this one, whose timer was about to come to an end in a few minutes.

No matter howDamon tried to spin it in his head, this looked like a gamble. The item might not be worth it or completely unimportant to his needs, but it doesn’t matter much since he’s been curious to check it out.

’Purchase’

As soon as Damon gave the go-ahead, his origin crystal balance was deducted by exactly ten thousand points, and an emerald colored ring manifested in front of him, resting on the desk next to his bed. Damon slowly picked up the shimmering ring, and as the details revealed themselves to him, his eyes slowly drew open —

[T-2 Exxion Prototype Energy Shield]

[Functionality: Negates All Damage Below T-2. Absorbs Damage at T-2 Up To Five Times ]

[Durability: 20/20]

Damon was silent for a couple of minutes, dazedly staring at the ring in his hand.

’T-2?’

’No one has even seen T-1 on the entire planet. T-2?. Isn’t this too broken an item?’

Excitement welled up in Damon, without thinking much; he was about to jump back into the special item section to purchase more, but it was greyed out, pending refresh. The special item was gone.

’So...there is just one special item?’ The realization was immense, but it wasn’t only Damon who made this realization—

All over the world, in the global, national, and regional chats, an uproar was taking place- everyone screaming out in shock at the sudden disappearance of a special item. No one has been able to purchase it, as the prices of these refreshed special items rise every day, and no one knows what to expect or what was in there.

This was also the first time the world was finding out that this was a limited item. Now everyone was curious— who bought it?. What was in there?. The chats called out individuals in the top rankings, making assumptions that it was one of them monsters that could have made such an impossible purchase.

Ten thousand origin crystals for a single unknown item was impossible to imagine, turning all the survivors’ worldview upside down. The average number of origin crystals that a capable awakener is able to generate per day was only around twenty or less.

Damon, meanwhile, wore the emerald ring on his finger as he planned where to spend his wealth next.