Chapter 15 Reinforcement and Missions

Because the singularities absorbed a massive amount of the veil of darkness when generating special spaces, an uncountable number of shadow-devouring bugs inevitably bred. If one wished to run dungeons unimpeded, these bugs had to be cleared out first. After completing the initial exploratory work, the three major organizations decided to let the players, who were the seeds of the hearthfire, participate as well. They demarcated a large expanse of the wilderness for players to battle the shadow-devouring bugs, ensuring that as long as they stayed away from the marked singularities, they would not suffer spatial tearing.

Truth be told, purely grinding monsters to level up was tedious, especially when stamina was consumed. Even with boosters to save physical energy, most players found it difficult to endure two consecutive hours of combat. In contrast, thanks to his fitness routine, Ember's endurance was sufficient for a three-hour battle. Coupled with intermittent rests and waiting periods, lasting four hours was not a problem, which happened to be the combat and dungeon time he had allocated for himself.

After all, no matter how fun a game was, one should not lose one's ambitions in play, and damaging one's health was an even more irrational behavior. Therefore, the official authorities limited the number of dungeon runs while simultaneously preventing the excessive proliferation of in-game resources.

However, since the somatosensory suit was upgraded to simulate near-realistic painting effects, Ember was able to incorporate a portion of his sketching practice into the game. Furthermore, long hours of combat could also serve as a fitness workout, so Miaomiao naturally adjusted his fitness plan. As a result, Ember's gaming time actually exceeded that of the vast majority of players, reaching six to seven hours without affecting his real life.

Although about a third of that time was spent slacking off, it was roughly comparable to hardcore grinding players.

"Once we finish off this batch of bugs, we can head back to turn in the quest," Ember said to Qiu Yinong behind him. Over the past two days, they had each cleared nine groups of shadow-devouring bugs, basically sweeping the surrounding monsters clean.

It was worth mentioning that the shadow-devouring bugs in the wilderness area were slightly different from those in the slaughter assessment. Although there were group leaders as strong as the juvenile shadow-devouring bug mother, they lacked the attribute enhancements of a boss template, making their combat power significantly weaker. However, their advantage lay in their population, which far exceeded that of a large bug nest. Yet, before the two of them, numbers were meaningless. Ember only needed to block the narrow pass to hold the line single-handedly with his armor's defense. With his and Qiu Yinong's massive damage output, beating back the continuous tide of shadow-devouring bugs was simply effortless, and taking charge of an entire bug nest sector was a breeze.

Seeing this, Not An Expert, Lu Renjia, White Flag, and the others also formed their own teams and wrapped up the nearby singularities. Gathering all of them together would not actually improve combat efficiency; instead, it would waste the bug nest resources. Currently, there were also some new players or closed-beta players who had passed the advancement trials and thrown themselves into the wilderness, yet the situation of having few monsters for many people still persisted. Therefore, everyone tacitly dispersed, intending to secure enough profits from wild monsters before the massive wave of players advanced.

Killing shadow-devouring bugs to gain contribution points and various materials went without saying. Over the past two days, they had also seen quite a few items and equipment. Although most of them were useless to themselves, throwing them into the player shop could still generate income. Most importantly, shadow-devouring bugs occasionally dropped access items for nearby spaces. After special spaces were generated at the singularities they were responsible for, Ember and Qiu Yinong had tried teaming up to run the dungeons.

The spatial storyline here was not as complex as the Snow Academy, nor was the timeline distant. The event took place during the Maple Island mutation a year ago. Players needed to beat back the shadow-devouring bug tide, buy time for the people of Maple Island, and help them escape the island as much as possible before the raging veil of darkness arrived.

Simply put, it was a combat dungeon. However, the shadow-devouring bugs that acquired boss templates saw a sharp spike in combat power, and there were also several thick-skinned, classic bosses. Without a healing-class player to sustain their health pools, even with the two of them fighting in coordination, they encountered layer upon layer of obstacles. Their results from three dungeon runs were one failure and two successes respectively. Only when Ember, having leveled up once more, was able to wield the Eight Spider Spears, could he combine his exploration experience to evade fatal traps and barely achieve a flawless rating on the Hard difficulty.

Drawing lots again, Ember's luck was slightly better. He obtained a belt with fifteen inventory slots. After paying eight hundred credit points, he successfully retired his old waist pouch, allowing the anomalous keepsake [Gluttonous Desires of the Living Softbody] to relocate. This increased his normal space to twenty slots and his special space to five slots, while also allowing him to carry a large object with a volume of no more than one cubic meter.

Qiu Yinong looked on with envy, but ultimately only obtained miscellaneous items that could only be described as trash. Fortunately, a piece of armor very suitable for her dropped in this dungeon, so it was not a wasted effort.

When Ember reached behind his back and pulled out a dark-green spider spear, he immediately locked onto his target with the guidance skill. Sensing the impending crisis, a juvenile mantis violently jerked back, only to be pierced mid-air by a streak of black light. With a snap, it dropped to the ground and instantly lost all signs of life.

The piercing effect of the Eight Spider Spears significantly enhanced Ember's long-range combat capabilities. After a period of training, he was already able to raise his hit rate at the maximum shooting range to a good standard with the assistance of the guidance skill, gradually demonstrating the formidable power of this Tier 2 weapon.

As for where the guidance skill came from, it was naturally traded for the Ring of Rejection. Nowadays, players who could acquire skill stones were extremely rare, and those willing to trade them were even scarcer. Therefore, Ember did not deliberately pursue Throwing Mastery. After some hard bargaining with a university player from a different plane, he traded the Ring of Rejection for the guidance skill and five thousand credit points. Then, hardening his heart and stamping his foot, he bought Throwing Mastery directly through official channels, finally giving the Eight Spider Spears actual combat effectiveness.

Picking up the enhancement materials dropped by the juvenile mantis, Ember estimated that what he had on hand was just enough to upgrade the tool proficiency for his brush-tracing. By then, he could craft skill cards that enhanced slashes, allowing polearm-type equipment to wield the unique skills of sharp weapons.

[Notice: You have successfully killed a mantis-shaped "juvenile shadow-devouring bug" and completely destroyed the bug nest here. Please return to the safe zone to turn in the quest.]

"I've just completed ten sets of quests. How about you?"

"Pretty much."

"Hmm, it seems that around a single singularity, there are basically about twenty sets of wild monsters. Thanks to the level advantage brought by the closed beta, the two of us were able to peacefully grind enough profits. After tomorrow, a large number of players should successfully advance, and wanting to grind wild monsters without being disturbed will be impossible," Ember remarked to Qiu Yinong with a sigh. "Still, this is for the best. After all, grinding wild monsters yields far fewer rewards than dungeons. Once we finish the cleanup quest, we should naturally receive some dungeon-related quests."

"Makes sense. Calculating the time, the Eldest Daughter of the Sun and the Shadow Queen should also be issuing their next quests soon."

Qiu Yinong agreed with Ember's view, and the two then returned to the safe zone to prepare for turning in the quests.

Ten sets of wild monsters earned them each fifteen thousand credit points and ten quest vouchers. Following his revised purchasing plan, after acquiring Throwing Mastery, Ember used seven quest vouchers and seventeen thousand six hundred credit points to exchange for two technique-class passive skills: [Grappling Mastery] and [Blocking Mastery].

...

Skill Name: [Grappling Mastery]
Type: Passive
Cost: None
Effect: Grants your hands a two-point Strength judgment bonus when controlling a target.
Requirement: Strength Tier 6, Agility Tier 3
Introduction: Let your enemies truly experience what it feels like to be played in the palm of your hand.

...

Skill Name: [Blocking Mastery]
Type: Passive
Cost: None
Effect 1: Grants you a three-point Strength judgment bonus when attempting a block.
Effect 2: Grants you a certain chance to trigger a perfect block.
Requirement: Strength Tier 7, Agility Tier 4
Introduction: Effective defense is often more important than offense.

...

After the server launch, technique-class skills were enhanced, while numerical-class skills were all weakened. Therefore, after careful deliberation, Ember decided to first supplement some technique-class passive skills that seemed less visibly impactful, allowing him to further leverage his Strength-specialization advantage.

Although nine points of Strength was still considered relatively specialized among Tier 2 players, the experiences of the two previous dungeons made Ember realize that the special quests from the Shadow Queen had higher attribute-tier requirements. Therefore, Ember needed to use technique-class passive skills to make up for the awkward situation where his Strength growth was forced to slow down.

At the same time, through the failure experience in that combat dungeon, he realized that simply increasing attack and defense numbers would become pale and powerless when facing powerful targets with attribute restraints. A rational and comprehensive enhancement and upgrading strategy was the effective, royal road.

Thus, Ember, who had previously boosted his attack and defense numbers significantly through equipment enhancement, decided to change his original exchange strategy. He gave up a burst skill with very high damage but an extremely long cooldown, opting instead to first purchase two versatile technique-class passive skills to enhance his Strength-based confrontations.

"Respected Envoy of Darkness, the Shadow Queen requests your presence."

Sure enough, as soon as Ember finished exchanging his skills, he saw the Dark Veil Servant, who had received the news, walk into the skill hall and lead him to the base of the White Tower. At the same time, Qiu Yinong on the other side was also invited by a game NPC to the Hillside White Tower.

Upon seeing the Shadow Queen for the third time, Ember noticed that her zither-playing skill had improved significantly. Although it was still intermittent, harmonious tunes could now be discerned. As for the thick veil of darkness lingering behind her, one could faintly make out embryonic dark angels flying in the air to the accompaniment of the zither music. However, the sound of Ember's footsteps disrupted the zither music and simultaneously caused the veil of darkness to return to a state of chaos.

"Fortunately, you understood my meaning and swiftly completed the cleanup quest for the three major organizations, otherwise I would not have been able to find a legitimate reason to summon you again."

With her hands resting on the zither keys, the Shadow Queen revealed a look of gratification. Her slender fingers were fairer than the white zither keys, making her black nails appear even more gloomy and profound. Ember remembered that the last time he saw her, the Shadow Queen did not look like this, and he wondered whether she had been influenced by the veil of darkness or that black snow umbrella.

"Of course, Grandmother Maple-Zither still doubts your motives. Therefore, to dispel her suspicions, I won't waste words and will directly issue the quest to you. As for whether you can further gain my trust, it depends on your own capability."

"Please go ahead."

"Just now, while having afternoon tea with the Eldest Daughter of the Sun, I sensed that a special space had been generated at a singularity on the outer periphery of the isolated island. Inside, there is an item emitting an aura that deeply interests us. However, considering that this quest is rather troublesome, the Eldest Daughter of the Sun and I discussed it and decided to each dispatch a trusted confidant to complete the quest together. Of course, if you believe your strength is sufficient, you are entirely welcome to execute the quest alone."

With that, the Shadow Queen waved her hand to summon the black snow umbrella, handing it to Ember: "Take it. When you get close to that item, the snow umbrella will produce a special resonance. Undisturbed, the snow umbrella can draw that item into the space within the umbrella. Additionally, just to be safe, if you choose to cooperate, you don't need to return the snow umbrella to me personally; you only need to hand it over to the guardian knight accompanying you."

The Shadow Queen's gaze fell on Ember's face: "Well then, do you have the confidence to pull it off?"

[Notice: The character tags "Continuous Apostasy" and "Envoy of Darkness" have triggered a special quest for you.]

[Notice: Do you wish to accept the special quest issued by the "Shadow Queen" — "Deepening Trust"?]

...

Quest Name: [Deepening Trust]
Requirement: Obtain "???" in the dungeon "Maple Night".
Reward: Determined based on completion performance.
Introduction: Your outstanding performance has led the Shadow Queen to decide on further cooperation with you. She senses that a mysterious item exists within the special space generated at the original site of Maple Leaf Town, and requires you to use the snow umbrella to retrieve it.

[Notice: This dungeon has a relatively high difficulty, and duo teaming is recommended.]
[Notice: Only in difficulties of "Hard" or above will you have the opportunity to obtain "???". The shorter the time consumed, the greater your rewards.]

...

"I'll do my best."

Ember took the snow umbrella and said in a deep voice. The Shadow Queen was very satisfied with his calm and unhurried attitude, and then revealed the relevant information she had gathered.

...

Dungeon Name: [Maple Night] (Medium)
Type: Exploration, Combat
Players: One to Two
Requirements: Life Tier 6, Willpower Tier 7
Drops: Equipment (Low), Materials (Average), Special Items (Guaranteed drop upon achieving a special ending)

[Notice: This dungeon contains instant-death mechanics and has high attribute requirements. Please handle with care.]
[Notice: This dungeon possesses certain combat elements; it is recommended to complete strengthening preparations beforehand.]

...

The admission requirements for the Snow Academy dungeon were 5 Life and 5 Willpower, but the next dungeon quest directly raised the total to 13 points. Such an increase was somewhat astonishing, and it also indicated that the difficulty of the Maple Night dungeon indeed far exceeded that of Snow Academy, which served as an introductory dungeon.

Having completed his combat preparations in advance, Ember did not need to worry about strengthening. Seeing that the Shadow Queen was not in a hurry to dismiss him, he took out the "Shadow-Devouring Bug Head" obtained from killing the Ant Lord. Over the past two days, his other companions had found the time to run dungeons in groups, but the problem was that none of them knew which dungeon space this key actually corresponded to, so Ember wanted to ask the Shadow Queen about it.

"I was previously worried about how to get my hands on this thing, but I didn't expect you to have obtained it in advance!"

Upon seeing the shadow-devouring bug head, a look of surprise appeared in the Shadow Queen's eyes: "This shadow-devouring bug head can unlock a special space located in the underground library of the archives. In fact, I had long planned to have you make a trip there, because a presence that I attach great importance to is hidden within the library space. However, after discovering that the library space possessed major value, the three major organizations imposed information lockdowns under various pretexts, and even refused to let access items leak out!"

"It just so happens that your dual identity will not be obstructed by the three major organizations, so once you complete this quest, you might be qualified to make a trip there on my behalf."