Chapter 67: The Advantage of Copying

The translucent dotted three-dimensional structure kept filling in, the progress bar continuously swelling and changing: 0% … 8% … 17% … 27% … 41% … 67% … 81% … 88% … 91% … 93% … 100% complete.
A breath of relief escaped him.

Liang Jing’s face had gone somewhat pale, cold beads of sweat beading on his forehead. If Jia Yujin and the others saw him now, they would be astonished beyond belief. Back in the normal day, Liang had never been seen sweating through exercise or combat. Yet now he was soaked, looking not only exhausted but unnaturally pale. In front of him were two piles of materials, and his mood was complicated as he looked at them. Each pile was identical: one beast hide, one energy core less than two centimeters in diameter, and a few beast sinews. All were from a green-tier Elite Steel-Spine Beast. These were also the materials that had left him in this miserable state—materials created through copying them.

He decided to use these materials first for **Armor Skin Secret Technique: Enchantment**. Even if the success rate was low, it was still useful for improving skill proficiency. No one had ever had the luxury for such waste. Even in the pre-apocalypse game era, even the leading life-skill players in the guild circles would never dare such extravagance, because even in that world green Elite monsters were rare, nothing like ordinary white monsters that could be farmed at will.

After two or three hours of experimenting, Liang finally chose these two heaps as the best option available. For the last few hours, only the materials from the Mutant Bull were easy for him to replicate. Other materials—whether from the rare Steel Rampaging Rat or the blue Boss Red Bristlefly—were difficult to succeed with. Even though today his qi had broken through to the second layer, its amount was more than double before, and its quality had improved greatly. By rough calculation, his qi energy was three to four times what it had been before the breakthrough. Still, it was far from enough to copy materials from those higher-tier monsters.

He hardly considered the Mutant Bull materials worth his time. If better alternatives existed, why waste effort on inferior scraps?

Liang Jing’s innate ability, **Replication**, was astonishing in its effect—creating from nothing and bending nature itself.
Yet in the end, it still consumed energy in equivalent measure to bring a material into being, converting its form to an identical form. Liang’s qi was still too thin and too small.

As for the Golden Boss Baroque core, he did not even have enough energy to complete a scan, much less to copy. By his current reckoning, generating something consumed at least five times more energy than scanning it. That figure could rise or fall depending on the target’s anti-penetration resistance.

Although it was a setback and no chance for an instant rise, Liang felt a quiet delight at heart. Even someone as fortunate as him would only encounter a few monsters above the Elite rank over long periods. For ordinary people, even with conditions like his but without Replication, such rare materials would never be risked on making gear with Armor Skin Secret Technique: Enchantment without certainty. Yet Liang was different: he could spend heavily on these materials now, and in the future, as his qi level kept breaking through and rising, replicating them would become easier and easier. Even now, he could directly use materials most would call impossibly rare and high-grade to build his skill proficiency. He did not care at all. This was something others could not do.

For a beginner starting out in Armor Skin Secret Technique: Enchantment, this set of materials was probably the best choice. All three basic components came from a single creature and likely had some internal harmony. For a novice like Liang, his success rate would surely be much higher.

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Liang quickly sank his spirit into the qi coursing through his channels. At once his spirit shuddered into alignment with his awareness of qi, and he guided it to accelerate through the veins according to the flow’s natural rhythm. Inside him, the two zombie thugs enslaved by **Corpse Servitude Technique** outside were occasionally killing monsters and bringing in pale-luminescent life-essence from those creatures. Under his acceleration, that essence quickly seeped into his meridians and turned into qi, replenishing him fast. Through repeated trials, he gained a rough understanding: life-essence had a huge effect on replenishing qi consumed by use, but once his qi reached saturation, any further increase became many times slower. Liang even wondered if the saturation changed pressure inside and outside the channels, reducing how much life-essence could permeate and slowing the conversion speed.

In any case, the life-essence was immensely effective for restoring internal qi. Yet he could not manage both tasks at once. If he could, he would have used that rapid consume-replenish cycle to copy much higher-level items. Who knows what would happen then?

It was precisely for this reason that his qi was only just enough to copy and generate one set of Steel-Spine Beast core and hide before replenishing itself. If it were someone else, once their qi was spent, it would take at least a full day to slowly recover.

After a short while, Liang opened his eyes, satisfied. His complexion had improved a lot. The qi in his body was fully replenished, saturated, even a little purer than before, and greater in quantity. This seemed an excellent way to speed up qi advancement.

Now he began crafting equipment with Armor Skin Secret Technique: Enchantment. He set the materials to be used aside and carefully preserved the other stack of components.

Because he was just starting and still familiarizing himself, Liang used the Warrior Leather Armor he had always worn as the template. Yes, he would make a full cuirass this time, not separate pieces such as helmet, gauntlet, or greaves.

A flash!
Liang activated Armor Skin Secret Technique: Enchantment. Blue-white halos sprang up on both palms, and he worked naturally over the steel-gray Steel-Spine Beast hide, which still shimmered with hard, ghostly light. Blue-white radiance penetrated the hide, transforming it—softer, stronger—then adjusting proportion, size, and cuts.

A progress bar appeared before him: 0% … 5% … 9% … 17% … 21% … Failure!

As expected.

The hide in his hands, already spoiled by failure, was a damaged grey-yellow strip. Even with the skill’s automatic guidance, it was only his very first attempt; he was not yet practiced, his reflexes were a little slow, his motions stiff and unnatural. The sizes simply did not match. One could call that hide wasted. Still, for smaller components it might still do—at least for gauntlets and shoes.

Progress bar: 0% … 8% … 17% … 27% … 41% … Failure!

This time the material was useless for anything, not even a single gauntlet. Still, it gave him some proficiency—his skill proficiency and his hand-foot coordination improved. He had finished cutting and patterning carefully; only later did issues arise in punching and stitching, causing the failure.

Checking the consumption from using Armor Skin Secret Technique: Enchantment, Liang found it manageable. It was far less than with Replication. It still consumed some stamina, spirit, and qi, but the amounts were small, recoverable in moments. Even the spiritual exhaustion was the same.

About half an hour later, Liang had copied out another full set of materials and recovered from the drain again.

Progress bar: 0% … 8% … 17% … 27% … 39% … Failure!
0% … 5% … 13% … 24% … 37% … 56% … 66% … Failure!

Making a cuirass was clearly harder than making shoes. Liang looked bitterly at the two sets of consumable leather sinews spent, and regret settled in his chest. The leftover materials from this failed cuirass attempt could have been used for shoes; he had already completed the first two major steps, only the last remained—the most refined stage of Armor Skin Secret Technique: Enchantment, and by far half of the proficiency would have come from this stage. Yet it all failed.

A sliver of ferocity flashed in Liang’s eyes.

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The newbie gear is done!
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