"Very good!"
Modr was visibly delighted by Ye Kong's reply.
The next moment, he handed over the new red-and-black sword to Ye Kong. "Brave explorer, the great God of the Blind will always be watching over you. Please take this sword and accomplish the mission given to you!"
System Notification: You have accepted the Story Event - "The Hidden Traitor" - "Final Act." The difficulty of this event is Elite Grade.
"The Hidden Traitor - Final Act"—
Players must successfully assassinate the Priest of the Horticultural Church - Pulitzer within the next 15 minutes. Otherwise, the quest will be failed.
"I will definitely live up to your expectations!" Ye Kong bowed forward slightly as he accepted the new red-and-black sword. The moment he took hold of it, his expression changed.
Assassin's Sword - God-blessed (Quest Equipment)
Weapon Attributes: Attack 26, Dexterity +10, Strength +10, Ignore Level Difference +10
Special Effect - Blessed Assassination: If the target of an attack is a devotee of the Horticultural Church, all attacks deal triple damage. Attacks on any other kinds of targets will be invalidated.
Additional Skill - Exsanguinate: Upon activation of this skill, the next attack will deal an additional 25 points of damage, while ignoring six points of the target's Defense. If the attack hits the target's back, it will deal double damage!
Note: Exsanguinate requires one Soul Essence, and has a Cooldown Time of one day in real time.
It had almost double the stats of the Assassin's Sword!
On top of that, there was its Special Effect, Blessed Assassination, which actually dealt triple damage to the Horticultural devotees!
Three times the damage!
As if that wasn't enough, the Exsanguinate skill brought the offensive capabilities of the Assassin's Sword to a whole new level.
"Is this a 'God-blessed' enchantment effect?!"
Ye Kong discovered the truth about the Assassin's Sword he held in his hands. It was...
An enchanted weapon!
Enchantments had the power to increase the weapon's overall attribute bonuses, as well as the power to add an extra special effect or skill!
As far as Ye Kong was aware, out of all the types of enchantments, the "God-blessed" enchantment was the best. However, enchanted weapons were already very rare, not to mention the ones with the best "God-blessed" enchantments!
In Ye Kong's past life, there were less than a hundred thousand enchanted weapons in the entire Yggdmillennia Server. Out of these, there were only 20 with the "God-blessed" enchantment!
Only 20!
Among the hundreds of millions of players in the Yggdmillennia Server, there were only twenty God-blessed weapons. This showed just how powerful and valuable a God-blessed effect was! In his past life, the weapon Ye Kong used only had a "Judgement" enchantment, which wasn't quite at the level of "God-blessed."
"It looks like that supernatural scene from earlier was the 'Divine Bestowment' of the God of the Blind, Hodr. I would expect nothing less from the Divine Bestowment of an actual god. He directly enchanted the Assassin's Sword, and gave it the strongest God-blessed effect.
"Given that the weapon has a "God-blessed" effect, it makes sense now that its attributes are so terrifying..."
Ye Kong shook his head. It was a real shame that the Assassin's Sword was a piece of quest equipment. If it wasn't, it would have been the best equipment in the game until level 10... no, even until level 15.
Ye Kong equipped the "Assassin's Sword - God-blessed," and at that moment, his attributes changed to—
lacuna (Human)
Level: 1 (Experience Level 70/200)
Character Class: Swordsman (Dexterity-type Profession)
Health (HP): 55/55
Soul Essence: 1/1
Attack: 44
Defense: 4
Basic Attributes: Strength 14, Dexterity 18, Stamina 4, Intelligence 5
His Strength attribute had increased to 14 points, and his Dexterity was even higher, at 18 points. However, Ye Kong was still unsatisfied with this result—
"This won't do. My Dexterity is still slightly lacking.
"Looks like... I have no choice but to do this!"
Ye Kong whipped open the Character Overview window, and put all three of the distributable stat points he'd gained upon reaching level one into "Dexterity"!
Whoosh!
Ye Kong's Dexterity had surpassed the 20 point mark, reaching a whopping 21 points!
21 points of Dexterity!
It should be pointed out that a level 10 player character without any equipment only had a total of 45 attribute points. With these points spread out evenly across the four attributes, each attribute would average around 11-12 points. However, Ye Kong's Dexterity was now at 21 points, and even Dexterity-type classes, which prioritized this attribute, would only be at level 10, with only 18 points and no equipment bonuses!
After all, none of them would do what Ye Kong had done, and put all their attribute points into "Dexterity" at the very start of the game!
"My Dexterity stat is above 20 points now. With these stats, I'm starting to feel a lot more confident!"
Ye Kong tried flexing his arms, testing out the new incomparable "lightness" of his body. It was as though his virtual body had gone through a "rebirth"!
Ye Kong had deliberately saved the three distributable stat points just so he could respond to possible changes in the story event. He wasn't expecting his prudence to pay off so quickly—he had just enough points to get his Dexterity over 20 points!
When a player's Dexterity surpassed 20 points, the player's agility was dramatically improved, bringing about an almost "qualitative" change!"
When experienced alpha test players leveled up to level 10, they would channel all their energy into collecting some Bronze equipment to push their highest attribute over 20 points. This gave them a significant advantage in terms of power!
However, in addition to his extreme style of stat point distribution, Ye Kong was equipped with the "Assassin's Sword - God-blessed," which provided him, as just a level one player, with 21 points of Dexterity and an outrageous 44 points of Attack!
This was unheard of in the entire history of "Demon Realm"!
"Your bravery is truly admirable." Blind Priest Modr responded, a small smile on his face. "Very good. I will quietly await your good tidings."
Clearly, he maintained a state of ignorance regarding Ye Kong's "strange" actions.
It's probably worth mentioning here...
The NPCs in "Demon Realm" were programmed by the Main AI to treat players as though they were free-roaming explorers. At the same time, they also wouldn't see players' actions when "operating the menu," and therefore wouldn't react to them strangely.
"I'll take my leave."
Ye Kong gave a slight nod, and then, pushing off with his feet—
Swish!
Like a phantom, he was gone in a flash, disappearing through the hall's exit.
As still as a statue, Blind Priest Modr calmly observed Ye Kong's departure. The sunlight started streaming through the windows at a sharper angle, and the shadows cast by the eaves of the building shaded his body.
"At long last, hehehehe..."
For a long while, a weird, hoarse laugh came from Modr's dry throat.
"Our invasion is about to begin!"
........
Ye Kong left the association building and headed straight for the residential district in a mad dash!
Whoosh!
With his 21 points of Dexterity, his speed was so fast that the players he passed on the way there couldn't even see him moving past them. They only felt a strong gust of wind before he was gone without a trace!
Just by speed alone, Ye Kong was the top player in Qingmu Town!
"I'm here!"
Ye Kong came to a sudden stop, kicking up a large cloud of dust beneath his feet.
At that point, he was back in the residential district from earlier, and the target for the current quest—Horticultural Priest Pulitzer—was still standing in the center of the spring. Sadly, none of the players were willing to accept his quest.
"Pulitzer is a level 10 Cleric, and he has the hidden class - Devoted Shepherd."
Ye Kong recounted all the information he had on Pulitzer. "Even though the 'Devoted Shepherd' is one of the most unremarkable hidden classes, it still shouldn't be underestimated! Moreover, the target is nine levels higher than me, and even with the additional stats from the 'Assassin's Sword - God-blessed,' I'm still about 10 points behind him in terms of overall attributes!"
Ye Kong was fully aware of the difference in strength between Pulitzer and himself. It was not a gap that the "Assassin's Sword" could close. Unless Ye Kong could pull off a perfect sneak attack, there was no way he would succeed in killing Pulitzer.
At the end of the day...
Level 10 mobs had an average of 12 points per attribute, while in Ye Kong's case, only his Strength and Dexterity were above this average. As for his remaining attributes, he only had four points of Stamina and five points of Intelligence, which were both lower than the average attributes of a level five mob!
Under these kinds of circumstances, Pulitzer only needed to cast a "Shock of Light" (the signature skill of a Devoted Shepherd). Because Ye Kong only had five points of Intelligence, he wouldn't be able to resist the skill's Dazed effect, and would be as helpless as a sitting duck!
With Ye Kong's current HP and Defense, he wouldn't be able to survive even a single attack from Pulitzer!
His only way out was the Exsanguinate skill!
However, the "damage" conditions for using Exsanguinate were extremely strict, and the skill had a cooldown period of one real-time day. This meant that Ye Kong only had one shot!
If Ye Kong failed once, there was no turning back!
The key issue now was that Ye Kong's reputation level with the Horticultural Church was "Neutral." Pulitzer wouldn't let down his guard around him, and needless to say, he wouldn't turn his back to him either. Ye Kong had no choice but to try his luck.
Now that things had come this far, there was no other way out for him...
"I need to get ready to go."
Ye Kong sucked in a deep breath, but as he prepared to move to his target, he suddenly saw a figure out of the corner of his eye—
"The old beggar?"
Ye Kong stopped in his tracks. His instincts from his many years of gaming experience told him something wasn't right.
"No, this isn't right. I've had this feeling that something is wrong... Wait a minute!
"This entire story event has been so secretive so far, so why is the last leg of the quest so 'straightforward'? Isn't it a little too 'simple' to just take the Assassin's Sword and walk up to Pulitzer and assassinate him? It doesn't feel like an Elite Grade story event quest at all... Unless, of course, I'm missing something!"
As if a burst of inspiration had flashed through his mind, Ye Kong raised his head and looked to where the old beggar was—
"That's right...
"I've forgotten the most important factor here!"