Author Introspective - Chapter 190 edits

Here we go again...

For Patreons that were here for the original chapter 128, you might know where this is going.

I don't know how it has taken me this long, but the posting of chapter 190 made me realize something. I really suck at making skill gain chapters hype. I always focus on the wrong thing, like the cost or drawbacks, instead of having Ashlock look to the future and see how hype the thing he just got really is.

Did you know chapter 190 is supposed to be ALL powerups? Sure, it costs to repair Ents instantly, but they also heal over time by themselves. Ashlock just happened to discover that, much like himself, when he suffers damage, he can exchange sacrificial credits to heal straight away.

What does this mean?

Well, I added some content to chapter 190 that hopefully encapsulates what it means:

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[Khaos has sustained 27% damage. Repair instantly for 324 SC?]

[Zeus has sustained 43% damage. Repair instantly for 645 SC?]

"Holy shit, I can heal my Ents instantly with sacrificial credits? System, why didn't you tell me this before?" Ashlock cursed. If only he had known about this before, he could have eaten Hammond and then used those credits to repair Khaos to hunt down Nox!

"Actually, wouldn't this also be a broken feature during the beast tide? If I am given an unlimited supply of monsters to consume, I can send out waves of raised Ents to fight back against the horde without the risk of losing too many, as I can bring them back to be repaired either at my main body or a Progeny."

That aside, Ashlock couldn't help but gasp at the prices. Why were they so darn high?

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I added this in to give Ashlock more combat options. Sacrificial credits are effectively the system currency, and unlike Qi (which, let's be honest, seems to come and go at random), system credits have narrative weight to them. Because using them means Ashlock is forfeiting a system draw in favor of healing instantly, or raising an Ent, or using Consuming Abyss, etc. As Ashlock gets stronger, he has to seek out stronger foes to get these system credits, whereas his Qi regen and reserves will scale exponentially.

You may have noticed that all of the system-given abilities operate off the credits rather than Qi, and there is an in-universe reason for that, which will be explained later.

That aside, I also decided to rewrite the ending scene, so here it is:

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"I wonder how Nox would enjoy fighting Sol in a pocket realm that's nothing but desert and ten suns in the sky?" Ashlock chuckled evilly, "This skill will also come in handy when fighting the Patriarch or any other cultivators out of my league. If I can trap them in a pocket dimension devoid of their Qi type, I just have to win in a battle of attrition."

Now hyped, he decided to test the skill but realized he would need to acquire some sacrificial credits first.

"System, why can't you take my Qi as payment instead? Why does everything with you have to involve sacrificial credits or nutrients?" Ashlock complained as he devoured the nearby pile of corpses.

As the mountain peak was filled with the sound of crushing bones and melting corpses, Ashlock activated his new skill. A menu appeared and showed him an expansive list of pocket realms he could conjure. "So there is an initial cost and then a fee of ten sacrificial credits per minute to maintain the skill? Ugh. My poor money..."

Since he was about to test a new skill, he decided to warn Diana first, "Diana, could you move to the other side of the mountain peak? I am about to test something."

Diana nodded and got up to leave with Kaida.

Deciding on a spatial Qi pocket realm that would only encompass a few meters around him as it was the cheapest at a hundred credits, he clicked the option and felt reality around him warp and change.

However, before the link could be fully established, Maple did something. The pocket realm Ashlock had picked was ripped from his system's grasp, and Ashlock found himself and Red Vine Peak surrounded by the void and stared down by a group of World Walkers.