However, now the curse has been downgraded by one rank, which means that the ’Activation’ trait is actually of a higher quality than Survival of the Fittest.
Mu You refreshed the Pocket Watch, and sure enough, all the curses that appeared next were quite disturbing for combat.
After about a dozen attempts, he finally encountered a curse with a somewhat acceptable effect.
[Curse ’Random Failure’: When you use a talent or magic that requires active release, there’s a 20% chance of random failure.]
This curse is quite powerful, there is a one-fifth chance of failure for all active abilities and magic. It’s not so bad for magic, as you can just try again if it fails, but some talents are limited in usage.
The recently acquired ’Activation’, which takes effect only when the Blood of Heart Vessels is drunk, is a prime example, as a vampire can extract only a handful of drops from its total. Each failure is a massive loss. This is completely dependent on luck, and a bit of bad luck can lead to despair.
However, this side effect is negligible for Mu You. If it fails, he can simply retry with the Pocket Watch.
[Because you have integrated a complete vampire heart, the recovery time for Blood of Heart Vessels is automatically reset to zero. You can extract the next drop of Blood at any time. Would you like to extract now?]
There is no need to hesitate about this. It’s always better to extract it as early as possible.
[Extraction successful. Your HP cap has been reduced by 1000 points. You have obtained 1 Liston’s Heart Vein Blood. What will you put this Blood towards?]
Seven options popped up: [Watchman], [Medicinal Plant Gatherer], [Master Fortune teller], [Mysterious Man], [Cunning Thief], [Moon Wolf], [Other Creatures]
Mu You took a look; of his seven skins excluding the vampire one, six of them appeared here. The only one missing was the Mechanical Armor Skin. It seems that the Blood of Heart Vessels can’t be used with the fleshless Mechanical Armor Skin.
Considering the value of Heart Vein Blood, he had to carefully consider. Mu You grabbed the pocket watch and examined the upgrade effects of each skin in turn.
[You have switched to the Watchman skin and drunk Heart Vein Blood.]
[Your Watchman skin has advanced to ’Watchman Officer’ skin, obtaining the ’Clockwork Reminder’ talent: At every exact hour, you can release a reminder to everyone in your area (including friends and foes). Your reminder will directly echo in everyone’s ear, and all actions including yours will temporarily stop to listen to your reminder. The reminder can last up to ten seconds.]
Mu You’s face looked odd. This ability... it’s like waking up everyone in the middle of the night and forcing them to listen to an alert. Wouldn’t that provoke a beating if actually used?
Of course, this ability does have practical uses, like broadcasting across the city or as a ten-second group control during a battle if used correctly. However, the timing must be on the dot, which is quite difficult to manage.
Shaking his head, Mu You retraced time and tried to use the Watchman skin to drink the Heart Vein Blood again.
As expected, the talent he obtained was still ’Clockwork Reminder’.
It seemed that the ’Activation’ talent for each skin was fixed and had been decided since the skin was obtained. It could not be changed.
Mu You had no choice but to continue trying other options.
[You have switched to the Medicinal Plant Gatherer skin and drunk Heart Vein Blood.]
[Your Medicinal Plant Gatherer skin has advanced to ’Magic Potion Master’ skin and gained the ’Master of Potion-Making’ talent: The quality of magic potions you personally refine is automatically upgraded by one rank, but will never exceed the legendary rank.]
Mu You raised an eyebrow; this talent of the Medicinal Plant Gatherer was quite useful. By directly upgrading the quality of the magic potion, it became an ability that many Magic Potion Masters longed for.
However, Mu You didn’t rush to decide and continued to explore the other options.
The Fortune Teller, after activation, progressed to ’Master Fortune Teller’, greatly increasing the success rate and number of daily divination attempts.
Mysterious Man Skin, after advancement, became ’Mimic Master’. The obtained talent was ’In-Battle Apprehension’; whenever someone else casts a certain magic on you, you’ll gain a certain understanding of that magic. Once you’ve gained enough understanding, you can directly learn this magic in battle.
Moon Wolf Skin, after advancement, transformed into ’Steel-back Wolf’, nullifying all attacks hitting the back.
The advanced effects of these three skins were quite practical and aligned with their respective roles.
However, the most eye-catching for Mu You was the final upgrade for the Cunning Thief skin.
[You have switched to Cunning Thief skin and drunk Heart Vein Blood.]
[Your Cunning Thief skin has advanced to ’Heartless Thief’, acquiring the ’Deep Plunder’ talent: When killing a target with an advanced skin, there’s a chance to loot corresponding advanced skin fragments, with the drop rate dependent on the quality of the target’s skin.]
Under normal circumstances, a player will only get one low-quality skin fragment when killing a target. Advanced skins can only be obtained by permanently killing a target.
The new talent ’Deep Plunder’ of the Thief, however, is powerful in that it can directly drop advanced skin fragments. Of course, there’s the issue of drop rate, and the exact rate is not specified here. It’s most likely not high, possibly 1% or even less.
But with the pocket watch, probability is not an issue for Mu You, so to say, by continuously killing an individual ten times, he can definitely assemble the advanced skin of the opponent.