Chapter 13: Yggdrasil
***
The teleportation was disorienting as always, but whether it was because she had transformed from human to dragon, Su Ling didn't end up on her knees dry-heaving this time. She just stood there for a moment to steady herself, then was completely fine.
She was in a pure white square space, there was nothing in it at all, not even a speck of dust as far as the eye could see. Before Su Ling could even make sense of the situation, Lu suddenly appeared. She looked around, surveyed the surroundings, and gave a satisfied nod.
"Cleaner than a sterile room. Couldn't be more perfect."
Su Ling had no idea what she was talking about. More perfect for what? What was Lu trying to do? Before she could even ask, her tears reacted faster than the pain did, a 1-centimeter-long cut appeared on both of her wrists, but strangely, blood only spurted from her right wrist.
The bright red blood followed Lu's guidance and gathered into a concentrated mass above her raised right hand. At the same time, dark red blood from above her left hand was flowing steadily into her body through the cut on her left wrist.
Getting blood drawn wasn't particularly uncomfortable for Su Ling, but that dark red blood flooding into her body made her feel like her organs and every vein in her body were being burned alive.
It was far worse than the pain she felt when fusing with the Silver Dragon Gene, as if her very soul was being scorched by hellfire. Even the tears that fell without her control evaporated the instant they left her eyes.
But every time her tears evaporated, Su Ling felt a cool, refreshing sensation, like eating an ice cream on a 40-degree summer day. That single moment of comfort was the only thing keeping the last thread of her consciousness intact. When the blood exchange finally ended, she collapsed to the ground uncontrollably, but never lost consciousness. The cuts on her wrists sealed themselves shut on their own.
"Done. All your abilities should work normally now."
Lu closed her right hand, and the blood that had once belonged to the Silver Dragon vanished instantly. Su Ling pulled up her personal panel to check, and sure enough, Blood Butterfly, which had previously been locked, now showed a proper skill description.
【Blood Butterfly (Active) Lv1: Consume 50 MP to fully liquefy yourself into blood. During this state, all physical attacks are ignored, magic-type attack damage is reduced by half. Duration: 1 second. Cooldown: 300 seconds.】
After reading the skill description, Su Ling's eyes lit up like light bulbs. This was a god-tier damage-dodge skill! If she'd had this ability back when she was fighting the Contaminator, everything would have been so much smoother, she never would have needed to bail herself out with her dragon tail at the last second!
Su Ling was buzzing with excitement, and it was precisely because of that excitement that she didn't notice Lu's body had become slightly transparent. On that calm, indifferent face that always seemed unbothered by everything in the world, a trace of exhaustion had crept in, one she couldn't quite hide.
Still riding the high, Su Ling immediately wanted to check what it would take to level up her skills. She tried upgrading Blood Blade first, since it was her only combat skill. Without it, she would have had zero chance against the Contaminator.
【Upgrade Blood Blade Lv1 requires 1 Tree Coin + 1 God's Dream (Small). Confirm upgrade?】
Tree Coins were easy enough to understand, basically the universal currency inside the World Tree. But God's Dream (Small) had Su Ling completely stumped.
She tried checking the upgrade requirements for Sword Mastery and Blood Butterfly too. Blood Butterfly's requirements were identical to Blood Blade, but Sword Mastery only needed Tree Coins, 10 Tree Coins per upgrade.
Sounded pretty cheap on the surface, but the problem was, she was flat broke. The quest rewards Su Ling received from the initial trial were nothing but the Silver Dragon Gene and her status as an official Contractor. No money, no materials, no items, "dead broke" was basically her middle name right now.
As for her storage space, White Iris Heart was absolutely out of the question when it came to trading for money. That was her promise to Isha, no matter what, she would never hand that sword over to anyone.
And besides that sword, all she had left was a Treasure Chest... wait. Didn't she drop a Treasure Chest?
The thought hit her, and Su Ling couldn't help but rub her hands together in glee. Opening loot boxes was one of her favorite things ever. Back when she used to play gacha games, the whole thrill was in the pull itself, a test of your luck, and she had never been one to shy away from that kind of challenge.
"Lu! Come watch me open this with me!" Su Ling sat cross-legged on the ground, face full of excitement as she pulled the Treasure Chest out of her storage space. Lu let out a helpless yet fond smile, walked over to Su Ling's side, and bore witness to the moment of truth together with her.
Su Ling lightly touched the Treasure Chest, and a prompt appeared before her eyes.
【Open Treasure Chest (Blue)?】
Yes!
With Su Ling's silent mental confirmation, the ancient-looking chest slowly creaked open, no blinding light, no fanfare. Just an exquisite necklace and a small red gemstone, sitting there waiting for her.
【You have opened a Treasure Chest (Blue).】
【You obtained 34 Tree Coins.】
【You obtained God's Dream (Small).】
【You obtained Tear of the Pure.】
【Tear of the Pure】
Origin: Planet Isha
Quality: Blue
Type: Necklace
Durability: 30/30
Equipment Effect 1: Intelligence +5
Equipment Effect 2: Consume 10 Durability to block 1 mental-type attack. (Lost durability can be restored using Tree Coins after returning to the World Tree.)
Note: One of the tears shed by the Saintesses throughout the ages. It can protect you from the influence of contamination, but don't go forcing her to cry just because of that, because it won't do anything.
Rating: 36 (Blue quality items are rated between 31 and 40.)
Price: 20 Tree Coins.
Looking at the pure white crystal in the shape of a teardrop at the center of the necklace, Su Ling was momentarily speechless. She chose to equip it, a flash of white light, and the necklace disappeared from her hand and appeared around her neck.
Defensive gear like this wasn't something Su Ling planned to sell. Setting aside the fact that she genuinely had no way to block mental-type attacks right now, the simple fact that she currently had zero equipment was more than enough reason to keep it.
"Hey Lu, what do you think I should upgrade first?"
Now that she had money and the key upgrade material, Su Ling still didn't rush to upgrade anything. Instead, she asked Lu for her opinion first, because her gut told her that going with Lu's advice was probably better than deciding on her own. Lu would never lead her astray.
"Sword Mastery and Blood Butterfly." Lu answered without any hesitation.
Sword Mastery could be leveled up 3 times in a row. The remaining money plus the God's Dream could bring Blood Butterfly up to level 2, with 3 Tree Coins left to spare.
Su Ling didn't think twice about it, money only means something when you spend it, especially when you're spending it to make yourself stronger. There was no way this could be a bad call.
Su Ling pulled up her panel, selected Sword Mastery, then leveled it up 3 times in a row!
【Sword Mastery Lv4: Proficient with all sword-type weapons. Damage dealt with sword-type weapons increased by 85%.】
A flood of sword-related knowledge poured into Su Ling's mind. She quickly sorted through it and found that her understanding of swordsmanship had deepened considerably. Some techniques and counters that had been fuzzy before now had clear, concrete answers.
She didn't stop there, she selected Blood Butterfly and confirmed the upgrade.
The red crystal in her hand shattered. Su Ling felt as if her blood had all been set in motion at once. The blood seed in her chest slowly dissolved a little as her blood circulation accelerated, then after running a full lap through her entire body, it fully merged into her bloodstream.
【Blood Butterfly Lv2: Consume 50 MP to fully liquefy yourself into blood. During this state, all physical attacks are ignored, magic-type attack damage is reduced by half. Duration: 1.5 seconds. Cooldown: 300 seconds.】
The improvement to Blood Butterfly wasn't huge, really just a slight increase in the invincibility window, but Su Ling had no complaints. After all, it was only level 2. There was still plenty of room to grow.
"By the way, why not upgrade Blood Blade? Boosting your attack power seems like a good call too, right?" Even though she had followed Lu's suggestion, Su Ling still put forward her own take.
In her mind, offense was the best defense, if she could one-shot the enemy, the enemy couldn't hurt her. So to her, Blood Blade's priority should've been just a little higher than Blood Butterfly.
"You'll understand why later."
Lu gave a rare non-answer to Su Ling's question. She walked over to the room's exit, then turned and glanced back at Su Ling. "Want to go out and explore a bit?"
Su Ling agreed without a second thought. The space here gave her a very safe feeling, but the emptiness of it all was a little suffocating. And besides, she wanted to see for herself what Yggdrasil was really like.
They pushed open the door and stepped outside together. Beyond her door was a lively, bustling street, street stalls lined every corner, vendors calling out their wares, the whole scene full of energy and noise.
Just as Su Ling was about to find someone to ask where exactly she was, her panel automatically popped up, showing a massive city layout with herself marked as a small green dot. The spot was labeled with 3 words, the Commercial District.
Yggdrasil, commonly known as Tree City, was the place she now stood in. She was far from the only Contractor of the World Tree, Tree City was where Contractors gathered to share intel, form parties, and trade with each other.
Everything was new to Su Ling as she took it all in for the first time. The stalls were selling all kinds of equipment and materials she had never seen before, and some of the gear even had flashes of golden light glimmering off them, the kind of glow that just screamed "expensive."
Of course, their price tags more than lived up to that impression. Su Ling glanced at her single-digit balance and realized she couldn't even cover the change on any of it.
The deeper in she went, the pricier everything got. After wandering for a short while, Su Ling turned right around and headed the other way, the things she could actually afford were probably all the way at the outermost stalls.