Chapter 1048 - Reappearance of the Sorcerer's Stone

Chapter 1048: Reappearance of the Sorcerer’s Stone
Translator: 
Sean88888 
 Editor: 
Elkassar1
Sheyan was really tired at the moment. In the previous world, he first had to go up against the mastermind behind the scenes, and then he had to try his best to achieve the highest degree of completion in the following mission. It would be strange if he was not tired!
There were still a lot of things waiting for him to deal with, but fortunately, he did not have to give an immediate answer, so Sheyan planned to take a good rest first and think about his next step carefully.
He checked the reward he had just received, the liquid metal enhanced lifeform (fledgling), with anticipation. He wondered what kind of stats this thing which he had worked so hard to get would have, and whether it was worth the effort.
The thing in front of Sheyan right now was a viscous mass of silvery liquid substance about the size of a watermelon. A vortex of light would appear from time to time on its surface. When Sheyan touched it with a finger, the viscous mass would slightly wrap around the finger, and then loosened, like the sensation of dough.
Sheyan inquired through the nightmare imprint and obtained a clear description.
[ Liquid metal enhanced life-form (embryo): This is a new kind of combat weapon developed from liquid metal. This lifeform had been imprinted with your soul imprint. After it is attached, you will be able to change its shape according to your will, but because it is currently in a semi-complete form, it has only has a strengthening effect at present. The details are as follows: ]
[ You can command your liquid metal enhanced lifeform attach itself to your weapon, and the weapon will gain a special effect equal to an additional +3 strengthening. If the additional effect pushes the strengthening level to a key level (4, 7, 10), an additional special effect will be produced. The special effect will be randomly selected and will be added to the weapon. ]
[ Once an additional special effect is produced, the effect will be set. Within 72 hours, even if the lifeform is re-attached several times, the additional special effect will not change. ]
[ You can also command the liquid metal enhanced lifeform to attach itself to a piece of armour. The armour will gain an additional +500 HP and absorb 10% of all damage. ]
[ Hint: Every time the liquid metal enhanced lifeform attached itself to an equipment, 5000 utility points will be consumed, and the cooldown time is 12 hours. ]
Sheyan was eager to try this and see what kind of special effect he would get. He stared at the liquid metal enhanced lifeform in front of him while commanding it with his mind. The thing started squirming like a snake. It then crawled onto the ‘Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves’ of his, and seeped inside through any crack it could find. In the end, the liquid metal enhanced lifeform completely disappeared, and a layer of a silvery-white metal appeared on the surface of the gloves. The layer of metal looked as if it was plated onto the glove.
When he checked the description of the gloves again, there were some new information.
[ Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves +3 (temporary strengthening). Attack power increased by 10-40 points. ]
Sheyan checked the status of his utility points and potential points, and found that he had an ample amount of them after the deal with Five Wheels. So, he headed to the designated equipment strengthening place inside the realm, intending to strengthen the pair of miner gloves to +1.
Strengthening was admittedly a very difficult process, so much so that many people had gone bankrupt from it, but to strengthen the gloves to just +1 should not be too difficult.
Sheyan placed the miner’s gloves into the strengthening device, and found that the temporary strengthening effect was indeed disregarded as he expected. The fee was also the cost to strengthen from +0 to +1, so this strengthening did not take much effort.
After the strengthening, Sheyan discovered an additional effect on the equipment.
[ +4 temporary special effect: When you successfully use ‘Tactical Throw’ to grab the enemy, you gain a 10% bonus in Strength. This effect lasts for 30 minutes. ]
[ This effect has domain precedence. ]
[ Warning: If the temporary strengthening is removed, this effect will also be removed. ]
As soon as Sheyan saw that the temporary special effect had domain precedence, which was second only to domain authority, he instantly knew that the liquid metal enhanced life-form could indeed evolve into a divine equipment. Such a high precedence was absolutely not normal.
(Ability effect precedence: No precedence < Slight precedence < Authoritative (Crushing damage belongs here) < Domain precedence < Domain authority)
He had now confirmed that the liquid metal enhanced life-form had a great value. Even in its current incomplete form, it already displayed the same strength as a dark gold equipment. Therefore, Sheyan was now determined to continue with this Silver Mission Series.
Just as he was about to go back to the real world to take a good rest, the nightmare imprint suddenly heated up. He received a message:
[ Esteemed Lieutenant Colonel, your achievement points have exceeded 200 points. Please report to the Hall of Honour as soon as possible. ]
Sheyan could not help but feel perplexed by this message.
Zi, Mogensha, and Reef were all knowledgeable and experienced in realm matters, but in matters related to military rank, Sheyan was honestly the most knowledgeable in the whole team. And yet, he could not think of a reason for these summons.
Despite how tired he was, Sheyan still decided to drag his body to the Hall of Honour after a little hesitation.
Sheyan had gained his own exclusive office after he was promoted to a Lieutenant Colonel, so he did not have to queue up like the others. When he arrived at the Hall of Honour, his chest glowed with a dazzling light on its own. He was then transported directly to his office. The people around were naturally burning with jealousy, but there was nothing they could do about it.
Sheyan initiated the connection after he sat down on the chair in the office. He kept yawning as he was really tired right now. Fortunately, it did not take long for a cold synthesised female voice to transmit over from the other end.

Contestant No. 1018, your current military rank is a Lieutenant Colonel. Your achievement points have exceeded 200 points. You have met the relevant condition and obtained a bonus promotion opportunity in conjunction with the 1300-year anniversary of the founding of the Empire. Would you like to take part in it?

Sheyan was shocked.

Can you tell me more about this bonus promotion opportunity?

The synthesised voice explained emotionlessly,
You are currently a Lieutenant Colonel, and to promote to a Colonel, you need 350 achievement points. But if you meet the condition for the bonus promotion, you can promote directly to a Colonel!

Sheyan immediately began to weigh the pros and cons.
The so-called condition for the bonus promotion was bound to be to complete a certain mission. Normally, the reward for a Golden Side Mission was only about 30 achievement points. Even a high-difficulty Golden Side Mission would only reward about 60 achievement points at most.
However, although Golden Side Missions were insanely difficult, they would reward equipments and items too in addition to achievement points. Therefore, one could not just extrapolate the difficulty based on achievement points alone.
Presumably, under normal circumstances, if nothing but achievement points were rewarded, the difficulty of a mission which directly gave 75 achievement points was about comparable to the difficulty of a low difficulty-level Golden Side Mission.
But since the synthesised voice mentioned that it was a bonus promotion opportunity, it should be a special occasion or something, so the difficulty of the mission should be a little lower than usual. Even if the reduction in difficulty was only the minimum one tier, Sheyan still had quite some confidence even if he had to complete an A-difficulty mission. After all, he could be said to be at the peak of Growth Hunters in both equipments and attributes!
Therefore, Sheyan found the opportunity very intriguing. After further inquiry, he found that although he could not obtain any specific information the bonus promotion mission, some general information were still available.
For example, this mission was only open to individual contestants.
Besides that, this was an unconventional mission, so when he entered the relevant world to carry out the mission, the flow of time would speed up in that world. A participating contestant may spend several months in the world only to find that merely a few hours had passed in the realm when they returned, so they could still go into the world after that with their party.
Knowing this, Sheyan of course accepted the bonus promotion opportunity. The higher ups did not specify the specific content. Sheyan was only asked to be prepared and that he would be notified to enter the nightmare realm for the mission in the near future.
At this time, Sheyan was prepared to leave, but several messages suddenly flashed on the electronic screen on the desk. Sheyan clicked opened the messages and found that most of them were about the 1300th anniversary celebration of the Empire. However, there was one message which attracted his attention.

A cross-realm auction is in progress. Only contestants above the rank of official Lieutenant Colonel or Reserve-Duty General have the right to participate in the auction. Would contestant Sheyan like to join the auction?

Sheyan was excited. In the marketplace in his realm, the chance of a high-grade item appearing had gotten lesser and lesser, and even if one did appear, it would usually have an exorbitant price! Previously, Zi had discovered a really amazing dark blue cloak in the marketplace. All three of its properties boosted the Intelligence attribute, so the cloak actually increased Intelligence by 37 points. The seller had asked for 400,000 utility points….
Sheyan did not hesitate to participate even though he had to pay an admission fee of 5,000 utility points. His vision suddenly blurred, and he noticed that he had been transported to a venue the size of a basketball court. Hundreds of people were seated here, their faces could not be clearly seen.
The auction items were floating in the middle of the venue, with details of the auction items in front of the seats.
Each item would go to the highest bidder. That was naturally the rule of the auction.
More importantly, even if the bidders do not have enough cash, they could try to barter with their own items. Or, they could use their items as collateral. The auction house would appraise the value of the items and either provide them with a loan, or sell the items directly. The bidding methods could be considered quite flexible.
The item being auctioned right now was a high-tier item that passed Sheyan by once upon a time — the Sorcerer’s Stone from the Harry Potter world!
This object used to be merely 30 meters away from Sheyan, but if Sheyan had given in to his greed back then and tried to cross those 30 meters, he would have died for sure! He could never have imagined that this object would appear in front of him again in such a manner!
(TL: Bonus chapter coming later.)