Chapter 40 (1/2)

Chapter 40: Progress Points

Yue Qiang opened his character stats and checked the description for the Rage Gauge.

Rage Acquisition: When a character is attacked or when they are attacking, Rage will be generated. Besides that, when HP is below 30% Rage will be generated continuously. The closer the character is to death, the faster the generation of Rage.

Rage Gauge: A gauge that is acquired only through a special method. The initial value of Rage is 0, and the maximum value is the character’s Strength * 10. The usage of the Rage Gauge is differentiated into 2 types. The character could deplete rage to either use a special skill, or increase the power of a skill. The more Rage is depleted, the bigger the effect.

The first usage method was not too different from the Rage in the other games he had played. He hadn’t learned any skills that depleted Rage yet, it wasn’t something he could use for now.

The second usage method was a little rare. Increase the power of a skill by injecting Rage into it… This one’s very practical. It provided him a way to combine multiple gauges and maximise his combat strength.

Rage was very powerful, and it had greatly increased his power. This was the conclusion he obtained after a simple a.n.a.lysis.

And yet, Yue Qiang had a bad premonition.

Normally, it was very difficult to increase one’s power even in a game that didn’t put much emphasis into game balance, and hard didn’t even begin to describe the level of obstacle he had to surmount to increase his strength in this game. Super hard was more like it. It had taken him three months of practice in real life for him to obtain a fist style that could only be described as slightly stronger inside the game.

But now, he had obtained this Rage Gauge without paying any price whatsoever.

Although there was foreshadowing and Chen Zi Han’s explanation, but he still felt that this increase in ability was a little too easy.

This was the Rage Gauge we’re talking about!

In other games, only a warrior could own this gauge, and only it. The warriors who had Rage – especially those whose meter was completely full – had extremely terrifying close combat abilities. Going by this logic, there’s no way this game’s Rage would be too lousy.

But in contrast to this logic, the process in which he obtained this skill was too easy.

He had only read a book and spent a very short amount of time.

Not only that, Chen Zi Han had specifically clarified that with Yue Qiang’s current abilities, he would not be able to learn this book. And yet he did through Chen Zi Han’s a.s.sistance.

There were two possibilities. One was that something was off with the game balance. The chances of this possibility was infinitely close towards zero.

The other possibility was that the quest he was about to face, the quest to head towards Mo’s Family Great Camp and summon reinforcements was far from just delivering a letter. This was after he had increased the chances of the quest’s success after stealing the Ring of Earth.

Yue Qiang clicked the item ‘Chen Zi Han’s Letter’ and triggered the quest.

System Message: You have accepted the quest ‘Request Aid’.

Quest Background: Yue Village has fallen completely, and as captives the Yue Villagers wishes for you to ask for reinforcements from the Mo Family’s Great Camp.

Quest Objective: Bring ‘Chen Zi Han’s Letter’ to the Mo Family’s Great Camp to request aid. Bringing along plot-related items or other valuable items could increase the quest’s chances of success.

Quest Reward: Already obtained.

The question description consisted of only a few lines, and very simple. He had already obtained the quest reward, namely the Rage Gauge he had acquired under Chen Zi Han’s a.s.sistance. But there was a problem. Yue Qiang did not discover the difficulty indicator relating to this main quest. The font color of the text was white; the same as the average text color.

The system could not provide a quest difficulty. Does this mean that its difficulty is… uncertain? Or does it mean that the risks of this quest is incredibly variable?

Seeing that he had triggered the quest, Chen Zi Han walked forwards and said, “Since young sir has already accepted the quest, then we may get ready for the departure now. This old man wishes young sir a smooth escape and good journey.”

The time was almost up.

Yue Qiang pushed opened the door, exited the house, and discovered that the quarter pump chump Ai Qian was already waiting for him outside the door. The two Zhao Soldiers who were guarding the entrance lifted their halberds as if it was part of their routine, “Prisoners are not allowed to go outside!”

Ai Qian walked over all smiles and cheers and used the same ‘I am taking this captive to witness our Zhao State’s rigorous military discipline’ excuse and led Yue Qiang away with ease.

The duo, one at the front and one at the back, walked past the house of the blacksmith Tan Xiong, the house of the village elder Chen Zi Han and also the temporary residence of the general Zhao Yan, and the northern entrance of the village. Along the way they did see many patrolling Zhao Soldiers, but none of them came forwards to stop them. Yue Qiang had gotten out the village so easily that it was as if he was on a road trip.

A few hundred feet away from Yue Village’s northern entrance, Ai Qian felt that they had come far enough and came to a stop first. He stared at Yue Qiang’s backpack as if his eyes could see through it.

There seemed to be only two things in Ai Qian’s eyes. One was women, and the other was backpacks. Moreover, his eyes were incredibly sharp. Yue Qiang always felt that he could see through his backpack and read the items inside it.

He walked over and came very close to Yue Qiang. He even patted his shoulders and said, “You seem to have a lot of books with you.”

Yue Qiang’s backpack really did have quite the number of books. Other than the few books that he could not learned yet, he now had an additional handwriting from Chen Zi Han t.i.tled ‘s.h.i.+’. He now fully understood exactly how useful books were. It was definitely beneficial for him to collect as many of them as possible.

“Are you interested to buy one more from me?” Ai Qian said mysteriously, “Remember that market I told you before? I got a great book from that place. Come, trade with me.”

Once finished, he brought out the trading system and quickly put a book inside.

Yue Qiang hovered his mouse over the item and read: