God-Tier Awakening: The Dead Can Still Level Up

Chapter 39: Rewards

The crimson armor floating before Xingluo suddenly separated into individual pieces and moved toward her.

Seeing them approach, Xingluo opened her arms and remained still as the chest plate settled against her body, replacing the damaged armor she had worn throughout the dungeon.

The remaining pieces followed one after another, locking around her shoulders, arms, waist, and legs before adjusting themselves perfectly to her size.

At last, the Fate Star Token flew from her hand and entered a narrow opening at the centre of the chest plate.

The surrounding metal closed over it immediately, leaving only a small nine-pointed symbol glowing beneath the crimson surface.

Xingluo lowered her arms and examined the sharp armor covering her body, while the dark edges and red plates reflected the white light around them.

Wuxia circled her once before nodding with approval. "Damn, that looks peak."

Xingluo looked at him for a moment before replying seriously, "You really are like one of those grandfathers living inside a ring."

Wuxia’s mouth fell open, everything had been fine when her obsession with webnovels helped her understand strange situations, but now she dared compare someone as young and handsome as him to an ancient old man.

Seeing him staring at her in disbelief, Xingluo failed to hold back a smile and lightly cleared her throat.

"I was joking, so do not take it to heart." A faint blush appeared on her face as she added, "You are my dear ghost knight."

Wuxia studied her for a moment, then shrugged as though the earlier insult no longer mattered. "That is slightly better."

Before Xingluo could respond, a pillar of white light descended over them and the reward space began fading away. "Looks like it is time to leave."

The light suddenly intensified, and both of them lost sight of everything around them.

When Xingluo opened her eyes again, her boots struck solid ground and the familiar scent of soil and trees entered her nose.

The mana density around them had also changed completely, lacking the oppressive coldness that had filled the Eternal Night Basin.

Behind them, the dungeon vortex trembled once before rapidly shrinking into a single dark point and disappearing.

Xingluo stared at the empty space in shock, cleared dungeons did not normally vanish because most of them stabilized afterward and became repeatable copies with reduced experience and selectable difficulty levels.

Even unstable dungeons usually remained for some time before collapsing, yet the Eternal Night Basin had disappeared the moment they left.

Wuxia looked at the place where the vortex had been before turning toward her. "Do you believe in fate, Xingluo?"

She remained silent for a moment before answering, "After everything that has happened, I suppose I do."

Wuxia looked back toward the forest. "Then perhaps that dungeon was never meant to remain."

"It may have been the beginning of an inheritance prepared specifically for you, while everyone else who entered before us was simply caught inside it."

Xingluo’s expression changed slightly as she remembered the countless webbed corpses they had found throughout the dungeon. "So they died only because they entered something meant for me?"

"Maybe," Wuxia replied. "Or they were unlucky insects caught beneath the grinding wheel of fate before the person it was waiting for finally arrived."

Xingluo lowered her gaze and remained thoughtful for several breaths before slowly nodding.

There was no way to know whether the dungeon had truly been created for her, but its disappearance, the Fate Star Token, and the approaching trial made the possibility difficult to ignore.

She tapped the centre of her chest plate, and the entire armor set immediately dissolved into streams of red light before entering the nine-pointed symbol.

Her original clothes appeared beneath it without any damage, while the symbol itself faded until it could no longer be seen.

Wuxia raised an eyebrow. "Instant summoning, automatic fitting, self-storage, and a growth range extending to Level 200."

His expression became slightly bitter as he looked at her. "That suit really has everything."

Then he remembered that the system had rewarded him with the Staff of Death.

Wuxia immediately opened his system interface and searched through the notifications, but the staff was nowhere among his equipped items.

[The Authority Relic has been transferred to the Host’s storage space.]

"Storage space?"

Wuxia frowned because he did not remember possessing anything like that before his Authority advanced.

He focused on the system again, and a previously hidden section opened inside the panel.

Only then did he notice that the storage space was not the only change, nearly every part of his status panel had been altered.

Wuxia opened the upgraded panel, and the first things that caught his attention were two newly unlocked skills.

[Soul Armament]

[Convert a Soul Soldier into a weapon while retaining part of its abilities and characteristics.]

[Restriction: The Host cannot personally wield a Soul Armament.]

Wuxia stared at the restriction for a moment before moving to the second skill.

[Descent]

[Descend into a contracted Soul Soldier and temporarily take control of its form.]

[Duration: 15 minutes.]

[Effect: All attributes of the selected Soul Soldier increase by 200%.]

His feelings became slightly mixed after reading both descriptions.

Descent was clearly powerful, especially when used on the Panther, the dragons, or Varkhiel, since doubling their existing strength would allow him to fight through them directly.

Soul Armament, however, looked far less useful because he could not wield the created weapon himself.

It might work well with Descent or allow Xingluo and stronger soldiers to use the abilities of another Soul Soldier, but its actual value would depend on how much power remained after the conversion.

Wuxia sighed and moved toward the Authority section.

[Soul Monarch Authority: Level 1.]

[Soul Power: 22,000/100,000.]

[Army Size: 5/3,000.]

Looking at the number five, his expression became slightly bitter.

Soul Soldiers whose forms were destroyed during battle would normally return after a recovery period, but those he had sacrificed to strengthen the Panther and sustain the others had been converted entirely into soul power.

Their cores, contracts, and remaining consciousness had all been consumed, meaning they could never reform again.

Only Varkhiel, the two Flood Dragons, the Panther, and the Broodmother remained from the army he had gathered.

He had lost nearly everything, but considering what those sacrifices had allowed them to obtain, Wuxia could not truly regret the decision.

He closed the Authority section and noticed a new tab at the edge of the interface, the moment he focused on it, a small storage grid appeared before him.

[Soul Storage]

[Capacity: 1/16.]

Sixteen square spaces were arranged inside the panel, but only the first contained an item.

A miniature black staff rested inside the slot, and when Wuxia focused on it, the full-sized weapon immediately appeared inside his hand.

The staff was nearly as tall as him, with a smooth black shaft and a dark crystal fixed at its upper end, yet it carried no weight against his soul body.

When he thought about storing it again, the weapon dissolved into black light and returned to the first slot.

Wuxia repeated the action several times, fascinated by how naturally the staff responded to his thoughts.

It did not feel like an ordinary weapon stored in a separate space, but rather something connected directly to his soul, as though the staff itself had become another part of him.

His interest lasted until he opened its information panel.

[Staff of Death]

[Grade: Bronze.]

[Type: Authority Relic.]

[Current Effect: All attributes of Soul Soldiers increased by 10%.]

Wuxia stared at the grade before his face slowly changed. "Bruh, what the fuck is this?"

After receiving a Diamond-tier growth set, two King Bloodline dragons, and a Mid-Tier Soul Sentinel, he had expected the so-called Staff of Death to be something far more impressive.

Instead, it was only Bronze-grade and carried a single ten-percent enhancement effect.

The effect was not completely useless, especially with an army that could eventually reach three thousand soldiers, but it hardly matched the name of an Authority Relic.

Wuxia was about to close the panel when his eyes caught a small line beneath the item description, his expression immediately changed as he leaned closer to read it.

Beneath the Staff of Death’s description was one final line.

[A relic formed from the Authority of Death itself.]

[Growth Limit: None.]

Wuxia stared at the words for several breaths as his earlier disappointment disappeared completely.

The staff was only Bronze-grade for now, but unlike normal equipment, it could continue evolving without any known limit.

A thrill passed through him, and a wide smile slowly appeared on his face as he imagined what its enhancement could become after several upgrades.

Seeing his expression, Xingluo raised an eyebrow. "What did you find? You are grinning like an idiot."

Wuxia closed the item panel and looked toward her. "Nothing much. I finally received some equipment of my own."

Xingluo shrugged without asking further. "Then enjoy it. I think we have already experienced enough of the outside world for now."

She looked toward the distant direction of the city before continuing, "We should head back before everyone assumes I disappeared permanently."

Wuxia nodded and snapped his fingers, causing dark-red soul power to gather on the ground beside them.

The Panther emerged from the flowing energy and lowered its body in front of Xingluo, its form now stable after leaving the dungeon.

Xingluo jumped onto its back and adjusted her position before looking at Wuxia. "Let us go home, my ghost knight."

Wuxia floated beside her and gave the Panther a simple command.

The beast pushed against the ground and rushed through the forest, carrying them toward the distant city as the place where the dungeon had once existed slowly disappeared behind them.