After getting 3 ‘Dimensional Anchor’ scrolls, Carl very deliberately tries to show a calm expression, but numerous years of waiting and hoping, now that he finally see the ray of hope, it is not that easy to suppress his emotions. He absentmindedly chats with Liang Li Dong for a while, and then hurriedly bids farewell.
After Carl left, Liang Li Dong takes the invitation card from the table once again, the date is written below the sender’s name: Holevin Calendar, Orange Star Era Year 3256 July 23.
Liang Li Dong remembers very clearly, the last time he logged off the game, is Orange Star Era Year 2923 September, which is to say, this world is 300 years after the game world, or in other words, that period of time when he changed into soul, more than 300 years have pa.s.sed in the real world.
More than 300 years……This may explain why contracting familiar has became a special technique, but for the average magic standard to drop instead of rise, what on earth happened in this world in this 300+ years! More than 300 years of time, can change many things, for example those powerful NPC heroes and celebrities, most probably are a pile of bones already, except for the few long-lived species……Talking about long-lived species, Liang Li Dong remembers Fire Dragon King Margaret, this woman should almost be a grown-up now. Just thinking about this thing gives him a slight toothache, according to Fire Dragon Tribe’s tradition, every time there is a new king reaching adulthood, the whole tribe will hold a carnival, as to how to carnival……
Going to human kingdoms to s.n.a.t.c.h gold coins, s.n.a.t.c.h gemstones, s.n.a.t.c.h women! Margaret is the crystal of ‘love’ between the previous Fire Dragon King and the captured princess. G.o.d knows which country is going to suffer this time.
But this thing should not have much to do with Holevin, after all, Holevin and Fire Dragon Tribe’s territory are very far apart, there is a few countries in between, not even flying across half of the distance, the fire dragons should have already enjoyed s.n.a.t.c.hing to the fullest and return to their territory already.
Liang Li Dong is still very weak now, Divine n.o.ble at only Level 1, practically does not have any outstanding combat power at the start, it naturally has no problem bullying commoners, but faced with other Cla.s.s-er with the same Level, if both sides’ combat experience is not that different, then they will have no chance of winning, let alone facing dragons head-on. This is not something he should be considering now.
If strength is weak, then work hard to become strong, this is the common perception among players. Strength is reflected in many aspects, character Level, choice of Feat, quality of equipment, and combat experience all can affect the outcome of a battle. Liang Li Dong has no way to increase his character Level quickly now and also has no way to get a suitable set of equipment, but he still has ways to increase his strength.
Bloodline magic a.n.a.lysis.
Normally, other than their own bloodline magic, Sorcerer cannot learn other magic. But Sorcerer can slowly raise their character Level, purify bloodline, improve bloodline magic’s effect, if one is lucky enough, one can even set off a new bloodline magic additionally.
He goes to the small forest behind, casting the ‘Driving Fog’ skill time and again, because Sorcerer does not need to learn bloodline magic, they can use it by instinct, so there is rarely model structure diagram of bloodline magic appearing in the game, because even if you know the model diagram of bloodline magic, and know how to execute this magic, but because you lack the support of bloodline, casting a bloodline magic that does not belong to you will still fail.
However, Liang Li Dong discovered a secret in the game, bloodline magic can actually be improved. The one to discover this secret is his cousin, and also the person to bring him into ＜f.l.a.n.g.e Continent＞.
His cousin always looks cheerful on the surface, but in actual fact, has amazing intuition, Persian Cat and Xiao-Bai follows him in soul state, ordinary people cannot even feel it, but every time he met up with his cousin, his cousin always mumbles: You seemed to be stalked by 2 dirty things[1], do you need me to help you hire a monk for exorcism……
Every time that happened, Persian Cat and Xiao-Bai’s expression will become very weird.
And, cousin’s game name is ‘Shooker’.
Liang Li Dong reminisces the past, while feeling the Driving Fog magic’s way of execution, although slightly distracted, this does not hinder his reading of Driving Fog magic’s model structure. Originally, in Liang Li Dong’s speculation, ‘Driving Fog’ should be a bloodline magic around Level 3, but now, he has already interpreted 27 basic nodes, but the whole magic’s model structure is still wrapped in fog.
Could ‘Driving Fog’ be a Level 5 bloodline magic? Liang Li Dong is shocked by this possibility, if this is real, the ‘Cloud Dragon Bloodline’ that can awaken a Level 5 bloodline magic right after creating character, how strong will that be! His curiosity is totally mustered.
The following few days, in the morning, he teaches children words, teaches them some little knowledge, occasionally teaches them the principles of living. In the afternoon, he will go to the back of the forest to continuously use Driving Fog, and a.n.a.lyzing ‘Driving Fog’ magic’s model structure. a.n.a.lyzing magic is also considered as a kind of learning, and can obtain character EXP, this is Mage’s primary way of leveling.
And a.n.a.lyzing ‘Driving Fog’ gives him a lot of EXP, the EXP he obtained everyday actually went over 20, at the 4th midnight 0 hour, his character Level increased.
Name: Beta-Liang (LV2)
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Cla.s.s: Divine n.o.ble
Familiar: Joan (3 Feather Crown Falcon)
Physique: 7 (7.7)
Coordination: 7 (7.7)
Intelligence: 7 (7.7)
Will: 7 (7.7)
Charisma: 7 (7.7)
Character EXP: 7/200
Looking at this character window, Liang Li Dong believed it, ‘Driving Fog’ magic is really a Level 5 bloodline magic, only a.n.a.lyzing a Level 5 bloodline magic can provide players with so much character EXP. However, a.n.a.lyzing for so many days, he only found 87 basic nodes of Driving Fog, and it gets harder and harder to find, according to experience in the game, to completely a.n.a.lyze a Level 5 magic, on the average needs 4 months, which is to say……Liang Li Dong can rely on this magic to grind 4 months of character EXP.
Liang Li Dong is so happy he cannot help but claps, but he calms his mind very quickly, and focuses his attention on the character window.
After raising to Level 2, all Cla.s.s can gain a Feat as an award. If it is a NPC Cla.s.s-er, they will have to find a teacher to learn from at this time, typically, learning fees are required, and whether or not anyone is willing to teach, and whether you can learn the Feat you wanted is another thing.
And players still have benefit given by System: Feat Gacha System!
Any player that raised to even-numbered Level, when they can learn a Feat, Gacha system will appear. It will randomly throws out 3 Feats for you to choose. This 3 Feats are randomized based on your Cla.s.s and stats, it will definitely not have Feats of another Cla.s.s, for example a pure Warrior, will definitely get a magic-type Feat like ‘Moving Casting’.
Players can choose 1 suitable Feat from the 3 Feats to be part of their abilities. Naturally, players can also not choose any Feat, give up this Gacha chance and find a NPC or other players to learn a Feat that suits them more.
Liang Li Dong opens the 3 question mark icons in his field of view, the description of the 3 Feats appears before him.
Familiar Strengthen: All the stats growth of your familiar +1, and additionally gets a combat Feat. (This Feat requires to have a contract familiar)
Charge: You can charge for a distance at a very fast speed, consumes a lot of stamina. Maximum charging distance is 10+(Level X 2).
Swordsmanship Will: You take a step further in the road of swordsmanship. When you use sword-type weapon, slashing speed +2, sword-type weapon’s sharpness +2, sword-type weapon’s toughness +2. You are a swordsmanship master now, years of swordsmanship training lets you gain a special ability. You can consume stamina and Mind Power to gather a will on the weapon that is visible to naked eye, your swordsmanship attack will be regarded as a non-elemental magic attack, and attack range +1. (This Feat requires ‘Swordsmanship Specialization’ as prerequisite Feat)
Seeing this 3 Feats, even if Liang Li Dong has a big heart, his expression is still very conflicted, it is not that this 3 Feats are not good, in fact they are too good! He has no way to make a decision immediately. In the game ＜f.l.a.n.g.e Continent＞, there is many Feats, rumors say there is more than a thousand. After a vote by players, 50+ quite practical Feats are chosen, the aforementioned 3 Feats have quite a high ranking.
According to players ‘speaking from experience’, luck actually has a value, after it is used, you will have to acc.u.mulate it slowly……If one gets too many good Feats at the start, he will most probably be very unlucky later into the game, the Feats he get will definitely be garbage Feats. Many players post threads in the forum, exposing their tragic experiences, a Level 16 Warrior player post a thread showing the Feats he get when he was Level ’12’, ’14’, ’16’, they are all things like Snake Venom Resistance, Disease Resistance, Bug Venom Resistance, Plague Resistance etc, the whole forum laughed over, he was jokingly referred to as ‘Invulnerable to Poison’, and became famous from it.
Logically speaking, no Feat is garbage, but Feats like ‘Snake Venom Resistance’ actually has not have a high practicality, it cannot have effect all the time, and can only be useful under special circ.u.mstances.
Liang Li Dong gotten 3 special Feats at one go now, he feels a deep chill, if that bunch of players’ theory on the game forum is correct, then his days in the future is going to be really tragic.
Although if one does not get Feat from the System, one can still learn from NPC and players. Learning from players is easier, as long as ‘Affection’ is sufficient will do, as long as the two stick together for 10-15 days, then pay a large sum of lesson fees, normally one can learn Feat already, after all most players are creatures who place their interests in the first place. However, System has a very disgusting setting, if players’ certain Feat is ‘Gacha’ from System, then they cannot teach this Feat to other players and can only teach to NPC Cla.s.s-ers. And teaching NPC Feats, that is a very long process, half a year is the norm, a year is not uncommon, so players normally are not willing to teach NPC skills, unless their relationship with NPC is very close.
Since some skills cannot be learned from players, then the only way is to work on NPC Cla.s.s-ers, just that this is very troublesome. NPC has their own personalities, same mentality like a real person, those that are greedy are easier to work with, just throw over a sum of money, and it can be learnt. However, greedy NPC Cla.s.s-ers, typically will not have powerful Feats on them, while those Cla.s.s-ers with special Feats, either have strange personality, or has n.o.ble background.
For example this Feat ‘Swordsmanship Will’, back then, so many ‘Sword Warrior’ got so distressed trying to learn it from NPC Cla.s.s-ers because they could not get this Feat.
Then, players in the game shared their information, dug out 4 NPC Cla.s.s-ers that know ‘Swordsmanship Will’, maybe there is more NPC Cla.s.s-ers that also knew this Feat, but there is too little players, only a merely 500 thousands only, only very few players have the Feat ‘Humanoid Knowledge’, while NPC amounts to 5 billion, there is probably more than 10 million Cla.s.s-ers, they cannot possibly get every NPC Cla.s.s-er’s data. Furthermore the game world is way too real, there is NPC Cla.s.s-ers dying from battles every day, or old age, everyday there is new NPC Cla.s.s-ers being born, this amount of data is way too large, so players typically only pay attention to those very special, or very strong NPC Cla.s.s-ers.
The 4 Cla.s.s-ers that know ‘Swordsmanship Will’ are respectively: ‘Deputy Head of Temple of Light Paladin Corps, Eric’, ‘son of Duke Briganda[2], Blond Lion Tyson’, ‘Briganda’s White Pine Ridge family[3], old patriarch Alex’, and ‘Frost Wolf Clan’s Shaman Sect’s Holy Maiden, descendant of Winter Wolf Lilimoss’.
These 4 people are all prosperous people, ordinary players does not even have the rights to meet them, let alone learning Feats from them, why will they even teach you.
And the 3 Feats placed before Liang Li Dong, are seriously blinding his eyes! He really wants to get them all at once, the sad thing is, there is only 1 chance, and there is a lot of Feats in the game, wanting to ‘Gacha’ these kind of good Feats in the future, is no different from looking for a needle in a haystack.
This Feat ‘Familiar Strengthen’, represents the potential of the future, familiar’s stat growth all +1, the effects are not obvious in the beginning, but as the Level increases, Joan will become more and more powerful, and familiar can read books, the smarter the familiar is, the more it can learn. In the future, things that Joan learnt can become Liang Li Dong’s knowledge through soul pa.s.sage. Moreover, a strong familiar’s combat power cannot be belittled too.
This skill ‘Charge’ is a PVP G.o.dly skill, the effect is better the higher the level is. Think about it, when Mage is preparing to chant magic, Archer is pulling their bow, loading their arrows, from 20-30 meters away, a person comes to them with a ‘swoosh’ and afterimage, anyone will be depressed. And not only can this skill be used for raids, it can be used for moving around and escaping, offense and defense in one.
As for the Feat ‘Swordsmanship Will’, if Liang Li Dong chose this Feat, then he can become a swordsmanship master immediately. The Trait n.o.ble Swordsmanship, Swordsmanship Specialization[4], together with Swordsmanship Will……1 Trait and 2 Feats stacked together can totally let him fight Warrior head-on in the early stages, and at later stage, in terms of close combat, he will still not be a match for Warrior.
What Divine n.o.ble needs is control power, and support ability, and not powerful offensive ability. Wait till Level 5, Divine n.o.ble’s special Cla.s.s Trait will unlock, at that time, he will not have to consider about the problem of offensive ability anymore.
Then the remaining choice, is ‘Charge’ and ‘Familiar Strengthen’. Liang Li Dong sits on the chair and not move at all, just like a statue, after more than an hour, his gaze falls on ‘Familiar Strengthen’.
Joan who was sleeping soundly on the bed immediately wakes up, it looks at its body being engulfed by a layer of blue light in surprise, jumps up, and asks in shock: “Pain pain pain! Master, what are you doing? Could it be you are going to sacrifice me?”
The magic reaction when sacrificing familiar, will also have blue magic marks of light appearing.
Liang Li Dong smiles, and does not speak.
“Ah, so unlucky, not even 5 days after gaining intelligence, and already going to be abandoned by master, why am I so miserable?”
Joan rolls around on the bed pitifully, after a while, the blue light on its body disappears. It stunned for a while with its claws pointing at the sky, looks left and right, feels its body once again, and then flips over, says with slight doubts: “I seemed to be slightly more powerful again? Master, what did you do!”
“Just a choice that makes people conflicted.” Liang Li Dong pats Joan’s head: “It’s nothing, continue sleeping.”
On the second day, Liang Li Dong continues teaching children words, but at afternoon, he did not go to the small forest again to a.n.a.lyze ‘Driving Fog’ magic, but went to the old Village Head’s house. Today is the mayor’s daughter, Barbara’s birthday, Liang Li Dong and old Village Head’s family are invited, so they intend to head to the city together later.
A carriage is parked outside the Village Head’s house, this is rented by old Village Head from the city in advance, although Reed family has already declined, if old Village Head has to walk to attend a banquet, to him who values family honor very much, it is no different from slashing heavily at his heart, no matter what, this prestige cannot be lost.
“Teacher, you came!” Seeing Liang Li Dong, Kyle is very happy. He is wearing a light gold tight-fitting n.o.ble attire now, that faint countryside boy feel is slight fainter, he looks very gallant on the whole. Clothes make the man, this line is indeed not wrong.
Old Village Head is also wearing a n.o.ble attire of the same style, but his cuff edge is black, collar is also black, it seems more mature and sedate. He saw Liang Li Dong and smiles: “Priest Beta, very thankful of you to be willing to go together with us.”
Liang Li Dong says to the side: “Kyle, go have a look inside the carriage, is there anywhere not clean, if there is, clean it.”
“Yes!” Kyle answers, and runs out excitedly.
Old Village Head sighs lightly, things like cleaning the carriage, is not what a n.o.ble young master should be doing! However there is no choice, the Reeds have already declined, hiring servants is not difficult, but servants with knowledge and etiquette cannot be hired at all. Hiring those villagers as servants, will only bring down Reeds’ honor, and be a joke, might as well not hire.
After sending away Kyle, Liang Li Dong looks at old Village Head, and says slightly impressed: “Old Village Head is really smart, for this matter today, you actually started planning 8 years ago. You hope Kyle do not have to worry about living in the future, maybe even have the chance to inherit a fief. But you didn’t consider Kyle’s views, this matter may have a turn, you better be prepared.”
Old Village Head looks puzzled: “Priest Beta, what are you talking about, why do I not understand it at all?”
“Hehe, don’t pretend anymore, I already……” Liang Li Dong suddenly frowns, because he can tell that the old Village Head is not acting ignorant: “8 years ago, Kyle saving the mayor’s daughter, is not planned by you?”
Old Village Head’s expression is even more shocked: “Kyle saved the mayor’s daughter? That happened before?”
Not planned by old Village Head? Then mayor’s side has no reason to even put this up, after all Winter Wind City’s mayor is considered upper rank n.o.ble after all, countryside declining n.o.bles like the Reeds, if there is no accident, there is no way the mayor’s family will even notice them, they have no need to specially plan that kidnapping case just to make Kyle marry into their family.
Could it be it really was the 8 years old Kyle, beat an adult human trafficker until he is rolling on the floor? If this matter is not fake, Kyle must have a huge secret hidden on him. His ancestor is a hero, in the cave outside the village, there is a mysterious bloodline magic model structure diagram, being able to defeat an adult at a young age, Liang Li Dong feels that he has gotten an important lead.
That kidnapping case, is it targeted towards Kyle? Or is it a coincidence? Or did he think too much? Liang Li Dong squints his eyes, and is slightly confused.
T/L note 1: Referring to ghosts.
T/L note 2: It is not clear whether it means Duke of Briganda or a Duke called Briganda. I’m just a.s.suming latter for now unless it’s proven otherwise later in the novel.
T/L note 3: Again, it is unclear whether it is a family living in White Pine Ridge or the family is known as White Pine Ridge. Again, I’m just a.s.suming latter for now unless it’s proven otherwise later in the novel.
T/L note 4: I have no idea why it changed from Sword Mastery 剑类武器掌握 to Swordsmanship Specialization 剑术专精.
Feel free to point out typos and mistakes.