Chapter 233: This is the True Spell Turret
Excluding the Ghost Rider, whose template strength couldn't be determined before, the Juste template loaded by Cheng Tian was the first 'Reinforcement-grade' template to appear.
This means that while retaining the original strength, the weaknesses of the original body are eliminated, and certain abilities are enhanced.
The enhancements for this cultured member of the Belmont family were reflected in the additional template equipment.
The Vampire Killer was inherited, so the whip had virtually no difference in attributes from the Simon template corresponding to his grandfather. It still dealt extra holy damage to evil dark creatures, and double damage to vampires while reducing their self-healing ability by 50%.
However, the spellbook was more unique; it was a collection of Juste's spoils from Castlevania.
[Juste's Spellbook: Off-hand, Spellbook, Template Weapon. Equipment Requirement: Vampire Magic Hunter / Belmont Family Bloodline. Durability - / -.
This is the product of five different spellbooks Juste found and merged during his exploration of Castlevania. It can switch to the required magical attribute at any time according to the user's needs.
Juste's Spellbook has five attributes: Ice, Flame, Wind, Lightning, and Summoning. You can only activate one at a time; you can switch the spellbook's attribute at any time, but it costs an additional 5 MP in combat.
Juste's Spellbook can be used individually to cast small spells of the corresponding attribute by consuming MP, or it can be combined with throwable off-hand weapons/consumables to form larger-scale spell abilities under the effect of 'Combined Casting'.
Each attribute of the spellbook grants the player corresponding effect bonuses—
Ice: Ice-attribute spell damage +10%, Magic recovery rate +5 ( +5 MP per minute).
Flame: Flame-attribute spell damage +20%, Flame-attribute spells are more likely to inflict 'Burn' on the target.
Wind: Wind-attribute spell damage +15%, Fixed reduction of Ice, Flame, and Lightning spell damage by 10 points.
Lightning: Lightning-attribute spell damage +25%, Lightning-attribute spells will temporarily reduce the target's lightning resistance by 25% for 5 seconds.
Summoning: Summoned units' HP increased by 50%, Summoned units will receive the caster's corresponding HP and MP recovery bonuses (current HP recovery rate is +2.7, Magic recovery rate is +4).]
In the normal Aria of Sorrow playthrough, the player controlling Juste needs to scour Castlevania to find each single-attribute spellbook one by one. The template loaded by Cheng Tian enhanced the spellbook aspect, turning the original random single spellbook into a five-in-one spellbook, and even granting corresponding effects to each attribute.
And the giant Merlin phantom summoned by Cheng Tian was a large-area spell expanded from the casting characteristics of the Red Shock Orb, combining it with the Summoning spellbook.
This ability did not come from the spellbook, but from Juste himself, the cultured individual.
[Combined Casting: Template Skill, Composite Skill. As one of the few cultured individuals in the predominantly martial Belmont family, Juste possesses very powerful magical talent. He has the ability to combine magic with off-hand weapons to unleash more powerful spells.
When you possess spell skills of the five attributes—Ice, Flame, Wind, Lightning, and Summoning—and hold a throwable off-hand weapon or consumable, you can combine a single-attribute spell skill with an off-hand weapon to release an enhanced spell that possesses characteristics of both. The greater the spell's power, the longer the cooldown.
When you hold Juste's Spellbook, you can still perform Combined Casting even without corresponding attribute spell abilities.
When holding Juste's Spellbook and simultaneously holding six types of off-hand weapons: Dagger, Throwing Axe, Holy Water, Holy Fist, Holy Book, and Cross, you can trigger the 'Juste's Exclusive Enhanced Spell' effect. Juste's Exclusive Enhanced Spells have no casting wind-up, can be cast in any state, and have no cooldown.]
[Additional Comment: There is a golden house in the book... and also summoned beasts in the book!]
Under the influence of this skill, the basic effect of the Red Shock Orb was retained, still able to instantly kill ordinary template units and convert them into valuables, but the casting radius, relying on Merlin's phantom, directly increased from the original 10 meters to 35 meters, an increase equivalent to half of Cheng Tian's raw Spirit attribute. This means the total casting area directly surged by more than 12 times.
However, this action also caused Cheng Mouren's mana bar to plummet by nearly a third, deducting 120 points, which startled Cheng Mouren himself. He hastily switched the spellbook to the Ice attribute to accelerate his mana regeneration rate.
Currently, Cheng Tian's Spirit attribute is 40 points. Including the Ice Spellbook's bonus, his mana recovery rate has reached 9 points per minute. Theoretically, he only needs to rest 44.5 minutes to return to full mana.
But Cheng Tian quickly summarized and figured out the casting pattern: he actually didn't need to use innocent souls to condense the Shock Orb, because the act of Combined Casting doesn't consume the off-hand weapon itself. Instead, it uses the off-hand weapon as a base to construct an additional spell framework, then consumes mana to cast it.
In other words, Cheng Tian could very well transfer the spell's consumption to the innocent souls themselves.
Originally, condensing one orb required 100 souls, but using the orb as material to cast a combined spell only required 60 souls, and the casting area would surge by more than 12 times. This was no longer just a meter running backward; it was completely an energy overflow!
This was a special action that even Juste himself couldn't achieve.
Originally, the skills loaded in this template actually included 'Soul Save', but Cheng Tian already had it, and the skill's origin was Juste's grandfather, Simon, with a higher priority effect, so it was overwritten by the Juste template.
If it were Juste's Soul Save, innocent souls could only be used for throwing off-hand weapons, not as a mana source for casting the Time Stop Watch like Simon's, thus making Cheng Tian's mana consumption transfer impossible.
Your grandfather is still your grandfather.jpg
Originally, Cheng Tian might have needed to control the number of monsters lured and calculate the number of innocent souls dropped. But now, he didn't need to at all. The Ghost Cicada and Primal Wyvern madly lured monsters, and Cheng Tian would occasionally summon a giant Merlin phantom, with mana consumption completely transferred to innocent souls.
And when 'Summoning Book + Red Shock Orb = Merlin Shock' was on cooldown, Cheng Tian would directly condense mana orbs and continue blasting.
This led to the Ghost Town, originally bustling with monsters constantly refreshing in waves, enough to deplete the supplies of a well-prepared player team, now being bombed by Cheng Tian to the point where it stopped spawning soldiers...