After equipping the new blue gauntlets, my stats improved significantly again. My HP had reached an astonishing 1720 points, defense was 333, and attack was 234-302. Unfortunately, it was still quite a bit lower than Murong Shanshan's 265-345 attack.
The princess was in the palace on the left. I found her with little obstruction. She seemed to recognize me, and when she learned that I had come at Dack's request, she even showed a rare smile.
Princess Misha took out an exquisite, translucent jade: "This is the jade Dack once gave me. Can you help me take it to Dack? I really want to see him!"
I took the jade and felt there was nothing more to say to the princess, so I immediately used a Hearthstone. My vision flashed, and I was already next to the Exchange. I was about to leave the city to turn in the quest when I noticed a player setting up a stall behind the city gate. Seven or eight skill books were laid out, with prices clearly marked.
The player selling items kept chatting up players passing by: "Come take a look, brothers, eight freshly baked skill books, still warm! And I'm looking for a wife, must be dignified in appearance, no equipment needed!"
Goodness, selling things and looking for a wife at the same time. This guy definitely has a future!
"Hey, brother, where did you get so many books?" I asked, curious. I looked at the wide variety of books, and they all required gold coins for transaction. I found it strange: "Why only sell for gold coins?"
"Don't even get me started. Our leader took on a hidden class advancement quest that requires 100 gold coins. Who has that much gold these days? We all had no choice but to sell all the skill books we found!"
I chuckled when I heard that. Currently, moons constant only allowed RMB online banking for buying and selling equipment, but it hadn't opened the Exchange function for gold coins and RMB. Moreover, the amount of gold coins players currently obtained was barely enough for them to learn skills. Heaven knows a low-level skill costs 1 gold coin to learn from a trainer, especially for the Mage class. As their level increased, they could learn more and more skills from trainers. A skill learned at level 20 cost 5 gold coins, and if a player didn't do quests, it was very difficult to get more than 10 gold coins from killing monsters. Most players' money was borrowed by their Mage friends, so even fewer players had extra gold coins.
I looked through them. Three of the eight skill books were ones I hadn't seen. Two were level 20 Priest skill books, and they were attack-type, which should be a timely help for Lu Xuehan, who could only heal right now. There was also a level 24 Mage book for Frost Armor, which Xu Lin would probably also desperately need. All three together cost 80 gold coins.
I checked my inventory and had exactly 84 gold coins. Perhaps for ordinary players, that much money would be impossible, but I had taken on quite a few quests, and the Golden Knight I killed also dropped a good amount of money, so I could barely afford it. No wonder this guy hadn't sold them for so long; most players with a few gold coins were considered rich!
I bought the books one after another. Although no one was buying them now, given time, people would definitely gather the money to buy them. If I acted too late, I would regret it!
The three skill books were all excellent—
Punishment (Requires: Priest Level 22): Inflicts a certain amount of holy power damage to the target. Deals double damage to demon-type monsters. Cooldown 3 seconds. Damage increases with level.
Magic Reflection (Requires: Priest Level 25): Allows the caster to reflect one instance of magic damage back to the opponent for 30 seconds, dealing the same amount of magic damage. Spell duration increases with skill level!
Frost Armor (Requires: Mage Level 24): Increases the caster's defense by 120 points for 30 minutes. When attacked, inflicts a frozen effect on enemies, reducing their movement speed and attack speed by 50%. Skill effect increases with skill level... I looked at the skill descriptions, somewhat at a loss. Punishment was fine; it was an attack skill that a Priest should have. But Magic Reflection was a bit overpowered. Imagine if a Mage with full intelligence attacked a low-resistance Priest; the reflected magic damage could very likely instantly kill that low-HP Mage! Frost Armor was even more outrageous. A level 1 skill already increased the Mage's defense by 120 points, which could completely eliminate the possibility of a Mage being instantly killed. Moreover, after attacking a Mage with Frost Armor, the attacker's movement speed would be reduced by 50%. This would make it very difficult for melee classes like Thieves and Warriors to continuously engage a Mage in close combat.
I still had a War God's Power for Archers in my bag. This was great; Xu Lin, Xin Yu, and Lu Xuehan all had something, so everyone wouldn't tease me for being biased. With these powerful skills, our five-person team's hope of becoming the number one in this town greatly increased. Who knows how generous the team rewards would be... I checked the time; it was already 4:30 PM. I still had half an hour until my appointment with Murong Shanshan, so I might as well turn in the quest first.
Bypassing the Lumber Mill, the Wild Horse Plains was still a familiar sight, but the camp of the former Flying Knights had been cleared. Roger probably led his remaining troops back when I went to the palace to turn in the quest. Currently, the Lumber Mill already had people training, so Roger and his group wouldn't face much danger going back.
I went directly into the Golden Knights Order's commander's tent. Dack smiled as soon as he saw me. When I handed him the princess's jade, he, a big burly man, actually burst into tears, snot and all, almost making me sick to my stomach.
Dack began to summarize my quest achievements over the past two days: "Brave warrior, thanks to your help, our Golden Knights Order can finally return under the empire's banner. We no longer have to fight aimlessly. To express my gratitude, I have decided to let you undergo a sacred baptism to make you stronger!"
System Prompt: Dack wants to perform a sacred baptism on you. Do you wish to accept?
I was instantly stunned. Shouldn't sacred baptisms be performed by priests or similar people? Could Dack, this bright Golden Knight, also do it?
After thinking for a moment, I figured accepting wouldn't be a bad thing. I waved my hand and selected confirm!
"Ding~!"
System Prompt: You have accepted the baptism and gained the passive skill—Divine Blessing.