Luke was not entirely sure what kind of mechanism this was. Although an outward-cast skill became passive after being placed in the slot, it was not the state he had originally imagined—one where Red Flame Cannon continuously wrapped around his body and fired without end.
Instead, it became an activatable passive. Just as most passive skills could be toggled on or off, the instant he activated this passive called [Red Flame Cannon], he could manually cast Red Flame Cannon once.
This was different from the Red Flame Cannon-wreathed state Luke had envisioned. Worse, toggling the passive had a two-second cooldown, which left him rather dissatisfied.
He had guessed that this was because the Origin Spirit Seed’s growth level was still insufficient. Now, that guess had been confirmed. The moment he placed Red Flame Cannon into the slot, its cooldown dropped to one second.
If the Origin Spirit Seed could continue sprouting and growing, perhaps the cooldown for skills like this would disappear in the future. It might even become the state he wanted—a true passive fused directly with his body.
Of course, Luke was merely running a comparative experiment. In actual combat, he did not intend to place Red Flame Cannon in the slot. Instead, he would choose high-consumption Kidō that normally drained him dry in a single use—such as the exceptionally defensive Binding Spell, [Dankū].
Depending on the battlefield, Luke might also put Kaidō in the slot. He had tested it before. Perhaps because Kaidō was inherently meant to restore the user’s own body, it could transform into a perfect passive ability.
When Kaidō was placed in a slot, it became something akin to a high-speed regeneration passive. It would be extremely useful in a brutal battle.
The problem was that Luke had only had one slot before, and he had prioritized Armament Haki. Armament Haki was useful for both offense and defense, and with its tremendous defensive boost, he normally would not suffer serious injuries anyway.
"Not enough slots..."
Luke muttered to himself. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that the Origin Spirit Seed simply did not have enough slots. Every good skill made him want to stuff it inside.
Unfortunately, he currently had only two slots, and the cooldown for replacing a slotted skill was absurdly long. Freely switching skills in combat was impossible. Most of the time, he would have to rely on abilities allocated in advance.
Luke sat on his bed catching up on anime. As he breathed, he naturally used the Breathing Technique he had learned in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, while also dividing his attention to cultivate through his Spiritual Pressure training method.
It could not be helped. He had just put Red Flame Cannon in the slot to test the cooldown change, so he would have to wait until tomorrow before he could slot the Spiritual Pressure training method again.
............
The next morning, Luke ended his enjoyable all-nighter of catching up on anime. Since Spiritual Pressure cultivation itself had a meditative effect, he did not feel particularly mentally exhausted.
[The Pioneer’s consigned items have been successfully sold. Please collect your Endspace Coins through the mail.]
Before he had even eaten breakfast, Luke received Endspace’s notification.
Checking his mailbox, he found that all the items he had listed had sold. He had rejected the earlier bargaining messages, so they had sold at their listed prices.
That put another 63,000 Endspace Coins in his pocket. Combined with what he had left over, he now had a little more than 140,000 Endspace Coins on hand.
After washing up, Luke submitted a request to Endspace.
[Endspace, enhance my Armament Haki.]
His Armament Haki was currently Level 12. Enhancing it to Level 13 required 2,800 Endspace Coins and five Lesser Inheritance Crystals. Each subsequent enhancement would cost an additional 400 Endspace Coins.
He enhanced it three times in a row, spending a total of 9,600 Endspace Coins and using up the rest of his Inheritance Crystals.
Once his Armament Haki reached Level 15, Luke felt as if it had arrived at another watershed. When he asked Endspace, he learned that further enhancements would no longer require Lesser Inheritance Crystals, but Medium Inheritance Crystals instead.
He could also clearly sense it himself. Armament Haki had reached a bottleneck. Within its current realm, before any qualitative breakthrough, its power had already peaked.
He had tried to extrapolate from what he had seen in the anime and imitate Ryuo, but the attempt ended in failure. Reality and animation were different, after all. Without personally seeing how that power operated, breaking through based solely on imagination and imitation was difficult.
Still, Luke did not give up. He felt that he had already found the trick to it. His continued practice was not being wasted; once he broke through, his Armament Haki level would rise rapidly.
Having upgraded one of the most important passive skills in his arsenal, Luke turned off the television and prepared to browse the trade market again.
Perhaps his increased Luck attribute was really making a difference. This time, Luke quickly found something that suited him quite well.
The first item was a pair of boots, a piece of footwear equipment. The vendor seemed to have been sent by an adventure group to sell off goods, as the stall carried all kinds of items.
[Cloud Treader]
Origin: Native World No. 339185
Quality: Legendary
Equipment Type: Footwear
Durability: 200/200
Toughness: 39
Usage Requirement: 35 Agility, 35 Spirit
Details: A masterpiece forged by the legendary craftsman Milsis. Made primarily from cloud silkworm silk and drifting cotton, Cloud Treader grants strong physical and magical resistance to the areas it covers.
Equipment Skill 1: [Ride the Wind] (Passive)
Effect: While wearing Cloud Treader, the Pioneer is blessed by the power of the wind. Air resistance while moving is reduced by 50%.
Equipment Skill 2: [Cloud Treader] (Passive)
Effect: While wearing Cloud Treader, the Pioneer is affected by 80% less gravity. This passive skill may be toggled on or off at any time and has no cooldown.
Equipment Skill 3: [Pierce the Clouds] (Active)
Effect: Consume a certain amount of Soul Source to activate Pierce the Clouds. The Pioneer can instantly travel to any location within fifty meters that they can see.
Cooldown: Sixty minutes
Rating: 330
Evaluation: Ride the wind upward, walk upon the clouds.
Endspace’s evaluation for this equipment was unusually serious. But that was not why Luke had taken an interest in it. He felt that its functions were ideal for a lone wolf like himself.
Its overall rating was not particularly high among Legendary equipment, and many Explorers might have little use for its utility. But Luke could make use of every one of its skills.
First, because he had mastered advanced Flash Step and Thunder Breathing, his speed was terrifying when he went all out. But that brought its own problems. The faster he moved, the greater the air resistance became. It not only restricted further increases in his speed, but also consumed more stamina.
That made [Ride the Wind] an outstanding passive for him. In fact, it would be useful for any Explorer capable of high speed. It was simply that among second-tier Explorers, very few possessed speed on Luke’s level.
The second skill, [Cloud Treader], was likewise not very useful for most Explorers. Reducing gravity would not let them float in the air; at most, it would slow their descent and lessen the impact when they landed. But for Luke, it was different.
The Flash Step he had learned in the world of Bleach actually allowed him to walk through the air, provided he created footholds from Reishi.
With Luke’s current Spiritual Pressure, that was fairly taxing. That was why most Soul Reapers in the world of Bleach ran along the ground. Only seated officers and above would walk through the air under particular combat circumstances.
But with Cloud Treader’s skill, he would only need to consume a small amount of Soul Source to create footholds. That would let him walk through the air, granting him what was essentially a half-flight ability.
The advantages of gaining aerial movement in battle were self-evident. It would not only increase his mobility, but also give him far more tactical options.
The final skill was even more valuable. [Pierce the Clouds] was effectively a Flash, and its sole flaw was its excessively long cooldown. But at a crucial moment, one Flash was enough to save his life—or secure victory.
All things considered, this equipment was quite good even for an ordinary second-tier Explorer, which was why the vendor’s price was not low: 70,000 Endspace Coins.
"Fifty thousand. I’ll take it."
Luke tried to haggle. Based on the market, a piece of Legendary equipment was worth roughly thirty to one hundred thousand Endspace Coins. Footwear was not a main weapon, so the vendor was indeed asking a little too much.
"No. This is already the lowest price."
The vendor shook his head.
"Pierce the Clouds is a powerful skill, but this is only footwear. Its overall value isn’t that high. Not many people in the market can afford Legendary equipment in the first place. How many days have you been trying to sell it?"
After laying out his reasoning, Luke asked the question. He had paid attention to Endspace’s market economy before. Legendary equipment was top-tier gear among second-tier Explorers, and few could afford it.
Take Snowwind, whom he had met before. He had heard that she was ranked second in the second-tier arena, yet even the leader of such a large adventure group only had a full set of Legendary equipment. Ordinary second-tier Explorers simply could not afford Legendary gear.
Seventy thousand Endspace Coins was enough to buy a good main weapon. A large adventure group would be more inclined to buy a shield for its main tank or a casting focus for its healer, not a pair of boots.
This item had only two types of potential buyers. One was a wealthy leader of a major adventure group who pursued perfection. The other was a powerful lone wolf, someone like Luke.
Neither type was common in the market. Everyone also had their own path of development and different needs, making it even less likely that these boots would sell at a high price.
Sure enough, after hearing Luke’s words, the vendor’s expression became slightly awkward. "Fifty thousand is still impossible."
He was in charge of sales for the Mammoth Adventure Group. They had not kept the footwear for internal use because they wanted to sell it for money and eventually get their main tank a new shield. He understood Luke’s reasoning, because he had indeed been setting up this stall in Endspace for a week. Few people had even asked about the footwear, and those who were interested had all walked away after hearing the price.
"Fifty-five thousand. That’s my limit."
Luke spoke calmly.
The vendor hesitated. He did not immediately refuse, because his adventure group would be entering a new world in another week. They could not keep holding onto their inventory forever.
"Wait a moment."
After saying that, he turned around as though communicating with his teammates. A while later, a giant man over two meters tall strode over. The vendor stood up and respectfully said, "Captain."
The muscular man was bare-chested, with animal hide draped over his shoulders. He looked like some kind of primitive savage, but his face wore a hearty smile as he looked at Luke.
"Brother, how about this? Join our adventure group, and these boots are yours."
Luke paused, not expecting this turn of events. Still, he shook his head. "I have no plans to join an adventure group for now."
Offering a piece of Legendary equipment to recruit him showed genuine sincerity. But Luke was a Pioneer, and he would always have personal missions he could not explain to teammates. He was not suited to moving with a group.
If he ever needed an adventure group, he would establish one himself and simply reap the benefits of its team skills.
"Hahaha, looks like I guessed right. You really are a lone wolf."
The burly man was not offended. He laughed and said, "It’s fine if you don’t join. Let’s just make a friend. Fifty-five thousand, right? Little Wolf, trade with him."
At that, the vendor picked up the footwear and traded it to Luke. Luke paid without hesitation and did not try to haggle any further.
"My name’s Titan. What should I call you, friend?" the burly man asked after the deal was complete.
"Prison Demon."
Luke gave his Endspace nickname. Few people used their real names while acting in Endspace.
With that said, Luke prepared to leave, only for Titan to stop him, leaving Luke somewhat puzzled.
"It’s like this, Prison Demon. You seem like a very strong lone wolf. I was wondering—do you have any need for a ranged weapon?" Titan explained.
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