Chapter Seven: Silver Edge

Valen glanced back at the system shop, a slight resentment filling his gaze. After realising how poor he was, he had left the second floor and bought a sword from the first floor instead.

The system had given him a swordsman’s Suit, but not a sword. To fully utilise his strength, he needed a proper weapon. Hence, he bought a cheap D-rank sword for 200 points. He also bought a new system relay while he was at it. The version he got this time was the latest, and it had only cost him 1 point, leaving his remaining points at 799.

He planned to increase his remaining 799 points by hunting monsters.

Within the seven days before entering the Astral Veil, he wanted to gather enough points to purchase as many life-saving items as possible.

Valen couldn’t help but admire the sword in his hands as he asked the system to reveal its information one more time.

[Lv. 5 D-Rank Vibrasteel Blade — "Silver Edge"

Details: A lightweight energy-conductive sword capable of amplifying the user’s physical strikes. The blade releases a wind wave after every ten swings. Resets if the user stops swinging for 3 seconds.]

There were grades to equipment, weapons, and items. Starting from the lowest to highest, they were: common, D-Rank, C-Rank, B-Rank, A-Rank and S-Rank.

The personalised swordsman equipment the system had made for him was only at D-Rank, but its might couldn’t be underestimated—especially for people at low levels like him.

So although Silver Edge was also just a D-Rank weapon, it had an effect similar to how Power Suits had functions. With the ability to release wind blades after every ten strikes, it would be considered a good D-Rank weapon.

This was also why Valen had decided to purchase it. Another reason was the fact that it was a rechargeable weapon.

Valen unsheathed the sword in his hands, glancing at its hilt. The number "100" could be seen, signifying that it was fully charged.

Aside from that, a small green shard was embedded on the blade, gleaming slightly under the pouring golden rays of the sun.

Excitement clouded his eyes as he sheathed the sword back, itching to give it a try. However, he knew his priorities. He had to grow stronger first. The sooner he used the purple coins, the better it would be for him.

Walking down the street, he diverted into a dark alley after ensuring no one was following him. Going back home right now would only take a lot of time, so he could only settle for the closest thing to him.

After finding a relatively neat spot where those outside the alley couldn’t see him, he retrieved a small pouch from his pocket and emptied its contents on the floor.

With a melodious sound, 50 purple coins piled up before him. Valen stretched a hand and took a handful of them.

Then he closed his eyes and tried to find that peaceful state of clarity. It took him a few minutes before his mind settled and a faint stream of trophic energy surged into his body from the coins in his hands.

It melded with his bones and flesh, strengthening them significantly. Soon, Valen was lost in that feeling of growing stronger.

Whenever all the energy in a coin was drained, it would dim greatly with cracks appearing on its surface. These were known as inferior purple coins as they didn’t possess trophic.

If a coin became inferior, Valen would replace it with another. In this manner, the glowing purple coin pile began to decrease. If anyone were to witness how fast Valen was burning through the purple coins, they would feel incredible heartache to the extent of spewing out blood.

One purple coin, on average, would take someone with a high-grade body a few minutes to deplete and the level increase would be significant. Yet, in a few minutes, Valen had laid waste to several coins, displaying his abnormal energy absorption rate.

Valen didn’t know how long it took, but he was soon awoken from that wondrous state when his body began to feel bloated. He knew that if he continued, the rupturing of his internal organs would be the least of his worries. He might even become a cripple.

To relieve this bloated state, he would have to carry out exercises and a punching routine to smoothen out the clogged energy.

Valen’s eyes snapped open and he glanced around himself.

’Amazing...’

His senses had drastically improved.

The outlines of distant objects appeared clearer than before, as though a thin veil covering the world had been lifted away. This may have been a slight misconception, but he really didn’t know how to put it into words.

He could hear the faint humming of machines beyond the alley and a few barely comprehensible words of two arguing passers-by. This made him involuntarily shiver. Now he knew why most well-off individuals preferred to hire normal people as workers in their household, never Evolvers.

Such an insidious ability to listen in on people’s conversations was terrifying. Thankfully, Silver Watches were made from special materials, allowing them to release an invisible field that hinders the hearing of individuals beyond that field.

However, it’s only a basic precautionary measure. There are powerful individuals who wouldn’t be affected by this.

Valen felt warm blood surging steadily through his veins, filling his body with an unfamiliar vitality. His muscles felt lighter and more coordinated, as though every movement required less effort than before. This kind of sensation made it feel as though a weight had been lifted off his body.

Even his breathing had become smoother, the unknown exhaustion lingering within him having faded significantly.

Valen clenched his fist tightly, measuring his strength. It wasn’t explosive, but it had increased. This gave him an unbearable urge to test it out.

He stood up and stretched a bit before unsheathing Silver Edge and carrying out a few swings accompanied by graceful movements. He was executing the Basic Swordsmanship Art, a technique manual he had purchased three years ago and had been training in ever since.

He made sure to pause for three seconds after every ten swings so as to not trigger the effect of the sword. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The punishment for damaging properties within a city was one that, although he could bear, he still wasn’t willing to waste any money on it.

Once he felt as though he had practiced enough, he sheathed Silver Edge and packed up the remaining coins and inferior coins.

"Tsk, I only have 20 coins left from the initial 50. Is this how low the energy within purple coins are?" Valen mumbled as he called upon his profile.

---

[Profile:

Name: Valen

Username: Night Star

Evolution Path: Twilight Gene

Rank: 0 (Apprentice)

Level: 0.67% Energy Absorbed

Points: 799

Status: Normal]

---

"I didn’t even reach Level 1 with so much?!" Valen subconsciously yelled, an ugly expression appearing on his face.

Thirty purple coins would have been enough for someone else to cross the level one barrier and even go a little bit farther.

However, his level had only increased by 0.59%. Now he understood not just how high his absorption rate of energy was, but also why his energy resistance was tagged ’Extreme’.

With his body both resisting and absorbing energy at a crazy rate, a lot of it would naturally go to waste. Along with how difficult it was for his Twilight Gene to evolve, it fully explained why he was this slow at advancement.

’I have to gather as many resources as I can. Otherwise, I’ll quickly fall behind others. Level 1 is a minor threshold and if I can cross it before entering the Astral Veil, my chances of survival would increase significantly.’

With a goal in mind, Valen tapped his silver watch and opened the Evolvers Channel. A screen popped up before him and he noticed the new series of messages that had already flooded the White Star City official forum.

It took him some time to find the message he was searching for. It was:

<Searching for party members to team up and raid the new haven: Black Ruin Castle? Only Level 0.10 and above accepted. Must have at least three pieces of Common Equipment.>

Initially, Valen hadn’t met the requirements for this, so he had ignored the message. But now, not only was he at Level 0.67, but he also had the D-Rank sword and D-Rank personalised swordsman equipment made by the system for him. These were already more than enough for him to qualify.

He tapped the profile of the sender to private message him. His username was Forgotten Maple.

---

Night Star: <Good day. Is the offer to recruit party members still open?>

It didn’t take a lot of time before Forgotten Maple replied.

Forgotten Maple: <We’re still lacking one teammate. Nine are already here and one is on his way. Seeing that you’ve contacted me, I can assume that you wish to sign up, correct?>

Night Star: <Indeed. I’ve met the required standard, so where can we meet to set out?>

Forgotten Maple: <I’m at the underground town of the city. Here, we can take the underground train to the nearest checkpoint before the Black Ruin Castle.>

Night Star: <Alright. I’ll be there as quickly as possible.>

Forgotten Maple: <You have to be here in at most 30 minutes. Any further delay and we might not be able to take the next train out of the city. The day walkers are attacking the surface. So, we can only use the underground route to leave the city.>

Night Star: <Noted.>