Blood Warlock: Succubus Partner in the Apocalypse

After calming his excitement over the new boots and the attached powerful skill whose side effect would not affect Bai Zemin in the future thanks to his natural Agility points exceeding by a wide margin the threshold required to ignore the immobility, he took off the old pair of Normal grade treasure boots and replaced them.

"You two have done well, you deserve a good rest." He patted each boot as he put them aside.

These boots had been his second pair of boots as the first pair had been destroyed during his first battle against a First Order existence. However, this second pair of boots had been with him longer than almost all of the equipment he wore on his body with the Blazing Ring and the Broken Bronze Bell being the only two comparable. Therefore, to him, they had a bit of special meaning.

After his happy mood returned to neutral, he picked up another treasure; a ring.

The ring had a rather unique aspect as instead of being completely circular with a hole in the center through which the finger would pass, it actually had the symbol of a tree on the top and instead of being completely circular, it had four root-like extensions growing from the tree which served to hold it firmly on the finger.

It was the first time Bai Zemin had seen such a strange ring but he had to admit that the model looked quite interesting.

------------------------------

[Green Defender Ring (Magic Grade Treasure): It was forged using branches from a powerful Third Order plant-type creature several centuries ago and it is said that part of the creature's will now resides within the ring. When equipped, it automatically increases the user's Mana by +20 points and Health by +15 points, in addition, one time every 24 hours you can activate the attached skill Treant Defender Summon. Treant Defender Summon: Convoke the Treant Defender creature using the remaining will of its past self. The creature's power is equivalent to that of a Second Order beast initial stage and possesses its own skills. The duration of the skill is 2 hours.]

------------------------------

Reading the information contained in the records of the Green Defender Ring, Bai Zemin sighed.

It really was an item worthy of being a Magic grade treasure. In fact, it was probably one of the most powerful Magic grade treasures from many points of view.

At this stage of the apocalypse, probably very few humans could contend with a Second Order existence and surely all of them were either great fighters or had incredibly high luck to reach the point of being in possession of so much power. However, the oddly shaped ring in Bai Zemin's hands granted its possessor the skill to summon a plant-type creature with a power equivalent to a Second Order existence.

Even if it was only Second Order initial stage, a Second Order creature was still a Second Order creature! 

Moreover, the summoned plant-type creature would possess its own skills, which made it even more terrifying. Plant-type creatures were in some ways the most terrifying nemesis of large-scale armies; this was because many of these creatures possessed the ability to strike with long tentacle-like whips and others could even hide their roots underground to wreak havoc in the midst of armies.

Unfortunately, this ring was of little use to Bai Zemin.

If he were someone weaker, then he would gladly equip the Green Defender Ring immediately and jump up and down with joy. However, his power at this point was clearly beyond a normal Second Order existence. In fact, the current Bai Zemin even doubted that a peak Second Order could defeat him even if it put up a bit of a fight.

In other words, what use was it to him to summon a creature in the Second Order initial stage to fight against a Second Order peak or even Third Order? Probably not much since the difference between an initial Second Order and a peak Second Order was completely different from the difference between an initial First Order existence and a peak First Order existence.

After all, to reach the absolute maximum of the First Order stage one "only" needed to climb 25 levels and would immediately find oneself on the threshold of the next stage. However, from the initial Second Order stage to the absolute maximum Second Order stage there was a difference of 50 levels.

More difference in levels equaled more difference in stats and consequently greater was the difference in power. This would only increase more and more with each Order and there would come a point where it would basically be impossible to jump levels to fight unless one had hundreds or even thousands of stat points above one's own level. This was also the reason why existences capable of level jumping were so rare and distant from each other.

As he rolled the eccentric ring between his fingers, Bai Zemin thought for a moment what to do with the object. However, he didn't have to think about it too much as he immediately decided who the future owner of the ring would be.

Hadn't he previously thought that he should start looking for some defensive equipment for when he found his family in the near future? This Green Defender Ring was a good start.

"It will be for her." He decided as the image of a young girl 3 years younger than him flashed in his mind.

Although it had only been about 6 months since he had last seen his younger sister Meng Qi, a lot had happened during the past span of time. Bai Zemin felt that a lifetime had passed since the last time he hugged his loved ones and now he regretted tremendously for taking for granted all those hugs and kisses he shared with his family in the past, believing that it was normal and would always be like that.

When the effect of his Stone Heart skill kicked in, it was hard to get his mind back to normal. It took Bai Zemin almost ten minutes to return to his previous state of mind once he thought of those three people who were always in his subconscious.

After putting away the Green Defender Ring inside his bag, Bai Zemin picked up the fourth Magical grade item and the second to last one.

This item was actually a deep black bracelet with two thin dark purple lines that intertwined several times with each other like a string of genetic code along the length and width of the bracelet.

------------------------------

[Purple End Bracelet (Magical Grade Treasure): It was forged using Rank 2 metals and possesses some of the power of a Rank 3 lightning seed. When equipped, it automatically increases the user's Magic stat by +30 points, and one time every 6 hours you can activate the attached skill Lightning Chain. Lightning Chain: As the name of the skill suggests, it releases a chain of purple lightning and strikes all enemies within a range of 50 meters in front of the user without distinguishing between allies and enemies. The power of the attack is proportional to the user's Magic stat as well as the magic attack power.]

------------------------------

Although it was not as amazing as the Green Defender Ring, the ironic reality was that the Purple End Bracelet was of more use to Bai Zemin compared to the ring.

After taking off the Earth Bracelet, Bai Zemin equipped the Purple End Bracelet and his Magic stat received a +20 boost, which was equivalent to 10 levels if one wanted to obtain that many status points in Magic.

Now there was only one Magic grade treasure left, the last of the five.

Bai Zemin looked at the final treasure and scratched his head in confusion.

This last Magic treasure turned out to be a hand mirror whose edges and back were black with pure white decorations. But the most striking thing was that this mirror was actually broken, BROKEN! He couldn't even see his own reflection clearly there!

Still, this was the first time Bai Zemin had seen such a treasure so he somehow estimated that it should be a rarity among rarities even if it was broken. After all, it was a treasure that came out of a Magic grade orb, and so far he had never been disappointed even if in the end he couldn't use the treasure or if it didn't match him.

After finding no answers for himself, he finally gave up and stretched his hand forward to read the item's records.

------------------------------

[Remnant Inner 'heart' Mirror (Magic Grade Treasure): This was once a great treasure that enjoyed great power and mystical abilities, however, it now only possesses a single skill but even then it was greatly weakened. One time every 24 hours you can use the skill 'Inner Heart'. Inner Heart: To activate the skill it is necessary to point the mirror at another entity so that their appearance is reflected in the crystal. Effect: You can discover when someone is telling you the truth or lying but it only works on beings that are no less than one stage below you.]

------------------------------

"What?" Bai Zemin couldn't help but exclaim in surprise as he read the information of the artifact in his hands over and over again.

However, it was clear that the records in the mirror did not change just because Bai Zemin read them several times and they would not change no matter how many more times he read them.

It really was an impressive treasure! A treasure that had the ability to tell who was lying and who was not!

Even if this mirror didn't give any statistics, only its single attached skill was insanely powerful and useful!

To many, this mirror may not be of much use compared to a strength-enhancing treasure, however, in Bai Zemin's eyes, it was a priceless treasure! This was because he was a faction leader!

What was in the factions? By nature, every faction had traitors! But with the mirror in his hands, he could catch the traitors or would-be traitors before things got out of hand!

Soon, however, he frowned as he realized a not at all minor problem.

"One stage below..." 

Simply put, the difference had to be one Order for the mirror effect to work on the other party.

The current Bai Zemin was a First Order existence and he would probably stay there for a good while longer. Even if his actual power was far beyond what his current stage represented, it was indisputable that he was still in the First Order of the power scales. This also meant that he could not use the effect of the Inner Heart skill to know whether or not another First Order existence was lying regardless of whether or not Bai Zemin was tremendously more powerful.

However, the frown on his face soon stretched and his expression returned to normal.

Even if the treasure was currently useless against other First Order existences due to Bai Zemin's own incapacity, the truth was that the number of First Order humans he had met so far were not too many. Most of the soul evolvers were still Unclassified existences.

Bai Zemin could use the mirror effect to clean out as many traitors as possible before they all break through and in case he was still in the First Order. Although the 24-hour cooldown time was somewhat cumbersome as it would waste many uses in case the other person had no evil thoughts, from another perspective it could also be said that the mirror would help Bai Zemin trust a little more his own subordinates who fought for him and deserved a certain level of trust.

Unconsciously, Bai Zemin thought about Wu Yijun, and remembering her possible feelings for him, he felt that the mirror effect might be good to confirm it. However, he soon dismissed such thoughts.

Even if he ignored the fact that Wu Yijun had already advanced to First Order, Bai Zemin felt that it would be disrespectful to do such a thing. If Wu Yijun really loved him as it seemed that she did, then she would surely be hurt if he brought up something like that.

Since Bai Zemin had already experienced how painful heartbreak was, he naturally did not want to make someone else suffer because of him. At least not as far as was reasonably possible.

One of his life mottos was the simple but precise phrase that went like this:

"Don't do what you wouldn't want others to do to you."

Therefore, the thought of using the mirror on Wu Yijun once he advanced to Second Order was only there for a second before it died as quickly as it was born.

First of all, he would have to make sure to talk to her to clarify many things, and then, he needed to make his priorities clear so that she would understand that nothing would be easy. As for love... To be honest with himself, Bai Zemin was still somewhat afraid of such an emotion.

Otherwise, his Stone Heart skill would not have been born.

* * * * * * *

Thank you very much to everyone who voted for Blood Warlock with Golden Tickets! <3