Chapter 496: Necklace of Fleeting Shadows

Translator: alyschu

The moment Karinshan rested her small snow-white hand on the armrest of the throne, the royal authority of Sky City was instantly transferred to her, triggering a string of system announcements.

Everything had finally come to a close! Everyone had worked hard for more than ten hours, but it was all worth it. We had made a victorious return to our home city and the points we earned were exchanged for experience! Furthermore, the players who were ranked high on the leaderboard would receive far more rewards than just experience!

Ding~!

System Announcement: We congratulate all players for achieving victory during the Coldblade War event!

With 714780 points, player “Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand” obtained the most points during this event, thus becoming the MVP of the Coldblade War! Rewards: Level +3, Luck +3, and reward item “Necklace of Fleeting Shadows” (Earth-grade, Outstanding★★★★)!

With 574900 points, player “Wind Fantasy” took second place in this event. Rewards: Level +2, Luck +2, and reward item “Bracers of the Knight’s Glory” (Spirit-grade, Outstanding★★★)!

WIth 520930 points, player “From Water” took third place in this event. Rewards: Level +2, Luck +2, and reward item “The Molten One’s Helmet” (Spirit-grade, Outstanding★★)!

With 520220 points, player “Beiming Xue” took fourth place in this event. Rewards: Level +2, Luck +1, and reward item “Cloak of Agility” (Spirit-grade, Outstanding★★)!

With 489020 points, player “Legendary Brave” took fifth place in this event. Rewards: Level +1, Luck +1, and reward item “Magma Shield” (Purple Gold-grade, Outstanding★★★★)!

......

The air reverberated with the ringing of the system announcement notice as the rewards for the Top 100 players were announced and distributed. The rewards given to the Top 100 players were exceptionally generous, and I felt even luckier than the other four. To think that I’d actually been given a 4-star Outstanding Earth-grade necklace! This was only the second Earth-grade item in the entire China server!

I hurriedly opened up my inventory and retrieved a necklace that was flowing with brilliant light. The golden pendant on the necklace was shaped like an arrow and it looked exquisitely-made. After I reached out to touch the pendant, I felt a vigorous power surge into my body. This was definitely a top-notch necklace! One of the best in the server!

I could no longer contain my excitement. I waved a hand over the Necklace of Fleeting Shadows and its stats flew up before my eyes.

Necklace of Fleeting Shadows (Earth-grade, Outstanding ★★★★)

Agility: +150

Stamina: +145

Tactics: +30

Passive: Increases user’s long-range physical attack power by 30%

Passive: Increases user’s max HP by 3000

Passive: Increases user’s Volley damage by 50%

Slots: 4

Outstanding Property: Fleeting Shadow Strike. When Fleeting Shadow Strike is activated, it raises user’s attack power by 20% and ranged attack speed by 200% for 120 seconds

Level Requirement: 125

......

My mind instantly went blank. I didn’t quite know what to say as I stared dumbly at the necklace. The system had actually given me a necklace that was tailor-made for archers!

Without even mentioning the 30% boost in attack power, this necklace actually increased its user’s max HP by 3000. This was absolutely the best stat an archer could get on an item. After all, archer was a low-HP class in the first place, and their choices were limited when melee players started chasing after them. Their first option was to use skills like Freezing Arrow and Leap to kite these players. Their second was to try to use a combo of Shock Arrow + Volley to kill them off. However, the moment those players got within melee range, the archer would die nine out of ten times, so these extra 3000 health points were very important to any archer, it was like getting another life in a game like Mario.

This was because most melee players didn’t have an Attack as ridiculous as mine. Most of them wouldn’t be dealing more than 5000 damage to archers with their basic attacks. In fact, most melee players could only deal around 2000 odd damage to an archer at this stage of the game. The average fighter would need to hit the archer around four or five times, while an average archer would need a little over ten arrows to kill them. Neither party had a distinct advantage over the other.

Furthermore, this Necklace of Fleeting Shadows even boosted Volley’s effects by 50%. This was an even stronger passive as it would help with both grinding mobs and PvP. Then there was its Outstanding Property, Fleeting Shadow Strike. For two minutes, it would allow an archer to burn their cosmos and increase both their rate of fire and the strength of their attacks. Even a fighter wearing heavy armor would wilt under the furious attacks of the archer who possessed the Necklace of Fleeting Shadows.

Lin Yixin walked over and asked, “Lu Chen, what stats does that Earth-grade necklace have?”

I shared the stats to her, causing the little beauty’s eyes to light up in admiration. After that, she waved a hand towards the distant Beiming Xue and said, “Little Xue, come here. Your big brother has something to say to you...”

“Fuck...”

My lips twisted when I saw Lin Yixin call Beiming Xue over. This little rascal’s mind was simply too quick, she connected the dots far too easily. She was well aware that I wouldn’t be willing to give such a strong necklace to anyone who wasn’t close to me, and there wasn’t any archer who was as close to me and strong as Beiming Xue, so she was really my only pick. Lin Yixin knew me all too well, so she immediately waved Beiming Xue over once she saw those stats.

So when Beiming Xue arrived, I still didn’t really know what to say. I simply passed her the Necklace of Fleeting Shadows and said brusquely, “Hey, this belongs to you from now on. You need to work hard and level up. Rush to Level 150 as soon as possible!”

“Ah?”

Beiming Xue’s eyes froze the moment she glanced at the Necklace of Fleeting Shadows. She dove into my chest the very next instant, her hand still gripping the necklace. After that, she rose onto her tiptoes and gave me a soft kiss on the cheek, one that felt incredibly soft and moist.

Beiming Xue flew out of my arms and wore the Necklace of Fleeting Shadows. She had reached Level 125 after this event.

Meanwhile, Lin Yixin was staring straight into my eyes. She simply stood there, staring at me silently, before she giggled and said, “Hoh, you really do have a lot of girls hanging around you...”

“This isn’t my fault...”

“Did I say it was your fault?” Lin Yixin said as she stuck out her tongue at me.

After that, she laughed and said, “Fine, fine. I’ll just chalk this up to your good luck. You have three great beauties in Sister He Yi, Sister Mingyue, and Beiming Xue living together with you. Hmph, I’m afraid that most trust fund babies couldn’t even get to enjoy this sort of luxury even if they spent hundreds of millions of dollars. You should treasure these moments well...”

I laughed and said, “Yiyi, do you also want to move over and stay with me?”

“What?”

Lin Yixin had been caught off-guard by my reply. Her face immediately went red as she growled at me, “Tsk! I won’t be a lamb delivering myself up to the butcher’s knife! Hmph! You already have three! Isn’t that enough?”

“No... Nothing! Oh right! You got those Bracers of the Knight’s Glory! What are its stats?”

“It’s a 3-star Outstanding Spirit-grade item, so its stats are pretty damn good. I’m keeping it for myself~.”

“Okay!”

......

I looked at the time and said, “Tell the beautiful Xueshang to come over to Dark Moon City. Let’s divide the spoils of war between our guilds. After that, I’m heading off to hand in my fifth promotion quest.”

“Okay!”

I opened up the guild’s administration panel before teleporting back to Dark Moon City.

Wooosh!

I stepped out of the teleportation and rushed toward the guild warehouse. Lin Yixin and Ling Xueshang arrived a little after me and they smiled sweetly as we started to split the equipment. We divided them amongst ourselves in a 4:4:2 split, with Snowy Cathaya and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls taking the lion’s share of the items.

In fact, Ling Xueshang was very generous while we were splitting items and she didn’t even blink when she saw Outstanding Purple Gold–grade or Dark Gold–grade items. Instead, she even allowed us to take the better Outstanding items, causing me to look at her with renewed admiration. Anyone who could enter the CGL Hall of Fame really did deserve their place in the hall. An ally like Ling Xueshang, who was both principled and generous, was a priceless treasure.

It was late into the night by the time we had finished splitting the equipment. Lin Yixin and Ling Xueshang went to start their fifth class promotion quests. After all, everyone who had survived into the latter stages of the Coldblade War had seen their levels rise dramatically. I estimated that there were at least one hundred people doing their fifth class promotion quests right now. People like Li Chengfeng, Beiming Xue, Gui Guzi, and Murong Mingyue had already started on their quests after the event ended!

However, the one who was destined to be the first person to complete their fifth class promotion quest was me! After all, mine was already done.

At this time, I heard a beep. He Yi had come online. Now that the battle was over, the players who had died could revive in the main city again.

"Eve, you’ve come online?" I sent her a message.

"Mn." Eve replied with a smiley-face emoticon.

After that, she sent me another message: "I came online to receive my fifth class promotion quest and to check if it’s going to be too difficult. Also, I want you to come offline immediately after you’ve finished handing in your quest, Lu Chen! I bought a big pizza back and I even ordered some Sichuan dishes too! All of the dishes have come already and they’re piping hot! Everyone is to come offline in twenty minutes and eat supper. Don’t starve yourself to death!"

"Okay, gotcha!"

......

My quest was simple enough to complete. I leisurely took out a return scroll that would teleport me to Sky City. The map of the main city was about to close soon, and it would only open 24 hours later. This means that most people would be unable to even get their fifth class promotion quest before Sky City closed so no one would be able to rob me of the privilege of being the first player to complete their fifth class promotion quest.

When I stepped out of the teleportation formation, I noticed that the people in charge were NPCs from Floating Ice City. Once the server was patched, Karinshan would be the new ruler of Sky City, and she would also become the ruler of the tier 2 cities nearest to Sky City. This was because Sky City was one of the three big cities, so anyone who ruled it was the king of an empire.

Karinshan hadn’t been crowned king yet, and she still wore her original coat of arms, the crest of the Chinese Redbud royal family. She was still a princess of this royal family, but she now possessed even greater authority than ever before. From now on, Princess Karinshan would be the reigning authority over Floating Ice City, Samgharama City, and Thunder City, and she would rule from the heart of her empire, Sky City. Her royal and military might had reached a whole new level.

Whoosh!

I teleported myself back to where Rinser was. I arrived in front of him before I crowed in an excited voice, "Trainer, I have completed your quest! I found Mylin and then helped her and Karinshan wrest control of Sky City from that rotten king! The Sky Empire is about to enter a new age!"

"Well done, kiddo!"

Rinser licked his lips before he grinned. It was a most sinister and terrifying grin. He said, "You really didn’t let me down. In fact, you absorbed a large amount of undead sparks during that battle against Coldblade! Kekeke, you are very likely to become the first undead to become an Asura King in nearly a century! Keep working hard! Obtain the power that we undead need to ensure the survival of our race!"

"Trainer, my mission..."

"Ohohoho, I nearly forgot!"

Rinser smacked his bald head before letting out a roar of laughter. After that, he walked up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. He said, "Come! You have already proven your valor, so these are the rewards that you deserve!"

......

Ding~!

System Notice: You have completed your fifth class promotion and have successfully been promoted to ‘Platinum Swordsman’. As the first player to complete their fifth class promotion quest, you have been rewarded with Luck +2!

......

After I heard that system notice, another system announcement was made to announce that I was the first fifth promotion player in the server.

However, the rewards were a little disappointing this time. I only got 2 points of Luck, but after thinking about it for a while, I realised that it actually wasn’t too bad. After all, Luck was a stat that was hard to come by. With the addition of the MVP prize, I had gained 5 points of Luck altogether and my Luck was now a terrifyingly high 33!

At this time, I raised my head to look at Rinser to discover that he was staring at me as well. After that, his mouth split into a grin as he cackled at me sinisterly. "Kiddo, you’ve grown really powerful. I think it’s about time I imparted my signature skills to you."

1. Saint Seiya joke.