Chapter 341 (1/2)
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Carrying 600 Armored Rhino Hearts in my bag, I eventually walked out of the small but incredibly th.o.r.n.y needle-leaved forest and arrived at a mountain path. As expected, Jon the Windchaser, the beautiful a.s.sa.s.sin, and two NPC swordsmen were guarding the place, too afraid to leave. Their reaction said everything that needed to be said about Lord Arthas's tyranny—or perhaps their loyalty to Princess Karinshan.
I walked up to them and dropped all the Armored Rhino Hearts I gathered on the ground. Then, I asked, ”Here's everything I gathered thus far. How many do you need?”
Jon the Windchaser stared at me in shocked disbelief while trembling. ”Young warrior, did you kill all these Armored Rhinos yourself?”
I nodded. ”Is there a problem?”
”N-no…” The Windchaser collected the Armored Rhino Hearts while muttering to himself, ”What a powerful adventurer, I almost couldn't believe he had taken out all these Armored Rhinos single-handedly…”
The beautiful a.s.sa.s.sin nodded before sneaking a glance at me. Then, she whispered, ”You're right, Grandfather Jon. He's definitely stronger than those ignorant and incompetent n.o.bles in the capital. Silver Moon Alliance wouldn't be in the state it was in if we had a couple more adventurers like him…”
”True, true…”
The Windchaser agreed verbally before looking at me. He laughed candidly and declared, ”Young man, you have performed your quest beyond my greatest expectation. Come and receive your rightful reward!”
Ding~!
System Notice: You have completed the quest [Hearts of the Armored Rhinos]. You have gained 1 million EXP, 15000 gold, 4500 Reputation and the quest reward: Ring of Windchasing!
……
Ring of Windchasing?
Quivering to attention, I hurriedly opened my bag and found a dark gold–colored ring sitting quietly at a corner. It looked like my decision to surrender an additional 500 Armored Rhino Hearts was absolutely the right decision. The 1 million EXP alone was several times what you would expect from a normal S Rank quest, boosting my experience bar from 0.1% all the way to 27.4%. If every quest was this rewarding, I was certain that I could hit Level 100 and become the first fourth-promotion player in China in two days!
Hmm, I want to check the Ring of Windchasing's stats first before doing anything else. It's a Dark Gold–grade item, so it should be pretty good, right? I waved my hand across the equipment and caused a semi-transparent screen to leap into view. I was immediately petrified on the spot.
Ring of Windchasing (Dark Gold–grade, Outstanding★★)
Strength: +75
Stamina: +70
Pa.s.sive: Increases user's close-ranged physical attack by 12%
Pa.s.sive: Increases user's max HP by 1500
Outstanding Properties: Increases user's attack speed by 10%
Level Requirement: 95
……
G.o.d d.a.m.n, what an amazingly super ring! I never thought that something this amazing would come out of a quest like this. My good karma must be off the charts today!
The ring was deserving of its grade and outstanding stars, giving its user a total of 70 stats. Besides that, it added 12% physical attack power and 1500 max HP. The first pa.s.sive was good enough, but the second one was exactly what I needed right now. I was a pure offensive warrior who dropped all my stat points into Strength, so my HP was pitifully small compared to other warriors. For example, Gui Guzi's health pool would be double of mine if he leveled up a couple more times and caught up to me.
As for the plus 10% attack speed, that was an Outstanding Property. Together with my Bloodl.u.s.t, it should boost my attack speed to a total of 45% or so! High attack speed was always welcomed, be it in PvE or PvP battles!
I immediately took off my original gear, the Gold-grade Abyssal Ring and put on the Ring of Windchasing. My power immediately rose to new heights.
ID: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand (t.i.tle: Purgatory Thunder)
Cla.s.s: Undead Swordsman (Silver Swordsman)
Level: 98
HP: 7340
Attack: 827~1445
Defense: 1350
Magic Resist: 1180
Reputation: 80764
Tactics: 75
Luck: 12
……
Nice. My max attack was 1445, but if I were to account for the boosts I got from my equipment—+17% Attack from the Purgatory Sword, +3% Attack from the Purgatory Legguard, +7% Attack from the Paralysis Ring and now +12% Attack from the Ring of Windchasing—my real Attack stat should be 2008. And this was without taking my Undead Energy IX, which boosted my damage to living targets by another 45%, into account. This was why I could deal over 5000 damage with a casual strike. My attack power was so, so, so much stronger than most other players out there that 99% of their jaws would hit the floor if they saw me hitting any random mob or player.
Besides that, the ring had increased my max HP to 7340, setting me on the path of becoming an iron fortress. 1350 Defense didn't seem like much, but in reality I had +7% Defense from the Explosion Necklace, +3% Defense from my helmet, +14% Defense from the Obsidian Dragonscale Armor, +3% Defense from my cloak, and +5% Defense from my wristguard, totalling up to 34% increase and putting me at 1809 effectiveDefense.
1809 Defense was a lot, but it was nowhere enough to block my Attack. For example, if I were to attack myself, I would suffer a ton of damage. This was why the saying ”offense is the best defense” was an unchanging truth since time immemorial.
Long story short, my power was growing rapidly thanks to the improvement in equipment. It was to the point where even the mobs that terrified the NPCs were nothing to me.
That wasn't all. Usually, the pa.s.sive of a Dark Gold–grade equipment boosted a player's stats between 3% to 7% only. However, the same equipment with an Outstanding property could have a pa.s.sive that was over 10% or more. This meant that the importance and necessity of Outstanding equipment was only going to grow as the game progressed. Even when top players began wearing items of Spirit, Immortal or even Divine–grade, Outstanding property was still the deciding factor whether an equipment was amazing or not!