Chapter 185: Ironclad Defense (1/2)
It was a beautiful March outside Eternal Song Forest. The air of spring pleasantly tickled the nose, and butterflies danced across the air.
I led He Yi, Murong Mingyue, Beiming Xue and Moonlight Stone to the encampment of the Violet Empire’s Blood Dance Legion. A column of undead cavalry was racing across the open ground before us and shattering the quiet afternoon with their hooves.
He Yi watched the squadron of skeletal knights and skeletal horses nervously as she asked, “Have you been here before, Mingyue?”
Murong Mingyue shook her head. “This is my first time.”
“Those undead won’t attack us, will they?”
“How would I know? Lu Chen’s the only one who can answer that!”
I turned around and gave them a reassuring smile. “Relax, this is a neutral encampment, so they won’t attack you unless you attack them first. Also, you’re with me right now, and they wouldn’t dare attack a uh… junior officer of the Blood Dance Legion…?”
“OMG!”
After a round of chatter, we had already entered the encampment. As expected, no one had tried to stop us.
We found the small tent where I had last seen Shadow Dancer Xue Wei. I was immediately greeted by the sight of the worried Princess Sophia.
“Ah? You’ve returned, young warrior?” Sophia immediately rose to her feet with a look of pleasant surprise.
I nodded and took out the Heavenly Poison Snow Lotus. “Your Majesty, my companions and I have brought you what we promised. We have found the Heavenly Poison Snow Lotus for Xue Wei!”
“Mn!”
Sophia accepted the little flower and crushed it carefully into powder. Then, she covered Xue Wei’s wounds with it.
It was incredible, but the poison tormenting Xue Wei immediately started dissipating the moment it came into contact with the Heavenly Poison Snow Lotus. The black blood immediately started to turn red, and Xue Wei’s face regained their color once more. Although she was still weak and tired, Xue Wei opened her eyes and smiled at me. “Thank you!”
I nodded back. “You’re welcome!”
Princess Sophia turned toward me and said joyfully, “Young warrior, you have fulfilled your promise and proven your courage by killing the terrible Poison Ghost King. Xue Wei has also experienced rebirth due to your efforts. You are undoubtedly the hope of the Blood Dance Legion, or rather, the Violet Empire itself! Come and receive the reward you deserve!”
Ding~!
System Notice: Congratulations, your party has completed the quest [Myriad Poison Cave]. You have gained 95000 EXP, 7000 Reputation, 1250 gold and the quest reward, “Guard”!
……
Swoosh!
I opened my bag and took out a blue-colored skill book. It was the defensive skill book the quest had given me!
Guard: By assuming an airtight defensive stance, you reduce all incoming damage by 50% to 90%. Cooldown: 3 seconds. Class Requirement: Any. Level Requirement: 10
……
I learned it immediately and watched my skill list grow by one. From now on, when I was facing the right kind of boss, I could block any attack that I couldn’t evade in time and reduce the damage I took by at least 50%. What a great and practical skill this is!
Besides that, I also took out the two awesome items I had gotten from Myriad Poison Cave—the Purgatory War Armor and the Purgatory War Helmet. I could equip them now that I was at Level 70!
Swhoosh swhoosh!
I equipped both the armor and helmet. The Purgatory War Helmet had a rugged design, but it was clearly of fine quality. The barbs on my shoulder were shaped like vertical blades, and the jagged edges gleaming in front of my chest looked both cool and deadly. Coupled together with my Bloody Purgatory Cloak, I looked like the incarnation of the Grim Reaper!
At this point, anyone could judge from my appearance alone that I was clad from head to toe in top-tier equipment, but they still wouldn’t be able to guess just how deadly I was. The stat boosts the two Dark Gold metal armor gave me was positively insane!
I brought up my character screen and was stunned to speechlessness by my own stats.
ID: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand
Class: Undead Swordsman (Silver Swordsman)
Level: 70
HP: 3300
Attack: 473~755
Defense: 780
Magic Resist: 562
Reputation: 36850
Luck: 3
……
Tsk tsk, my HP was greater than a first-rate magic knight’s, and my Attack was out of this world as usual. Besides that, I had a godly 780 Defense and, what’s even better, 562 Magic Resist. From here on, Ice Dragon Howl would no longer be haunting me in my sleep!
After I was done admiring myself, I put away the Beast-faced Turmoil Helmet and the Soul Turmoil Armor. These items were worth some gold on the auction market. The Dark Steel–grade Soul Turmoil Armor especially could probably be sold for a couple hundred gold at least!
The girls also got a reward from the quest. Murong Mingyue was having fun with her new staff. It was a Gold-grade staff that gave her a lot of extra magic attack and a healing boost of 120. It was a pretty amazing priest weapon all in all.
Beiming Xue also leveled up to 70. She was holding her new Purgatory Bow and notching an arrow with ice energy circulating around the arrowtip. It was her new skill, Freezing Arrow.
He Yi smiled at me and said, “I’m Level 64! Just a bit more, and I’ll enter the Top 100 Heavenly Ranking of Floating Ice City!”