Chương 15: Heaven Mystic Token

The Calamity Race? Ryan started. If he remembered right, the very first monsters to invade the real world in his last life had been the Calamity Legion—and the Calamity Race was also the primary enemy players faced in Heaven's Descent's first-phase expansion.

"Sunward Town is, in truth, one of the Seven Ancient Towns of old. It once flourished, though time has worn it to ruin," the Emperor said with a wry smile.

"The original Sunward Town was a moving city—it floated in the air, chasing the sun in its flight each day, so that night never fell. That is the origin of its name." There was such a history? Ryan was taken aback.

"But then the Calamity Race appeared and wrecked all Seven Ancient Towns, stripping each of its powers—Sunward Town among them." The Emperor's voice was grave.

"Ten thousand years on, the old towns have faded, yet their foundations remain. In the energy core beneath Sunward Town, three strands of Heaven Mystic Qi still linger. Obtain them, and you can refine one layer of the Heart's power—freeing yourself, for now, from the Heart's restraint on your strength."

"How do I reach the underground?" Ryan frowned.

"Don't be hasty. To enter the depths and approach the energy core, you must first break the seal the Calamity Race left here," the Emperor said.

"Ten thousand years have passed, and that seal is no longer firm. Go to the monster lairs around Sunward Town, find the creatures infected by the Calamity's demonic aura, and collect five strands of Calamity Demonic Aura from them. With that aura, you can break the seal with ease and reach the depths where the energy core lies." Ryan nodded slowly. So this meant beating down every powerful Boss around Sunward Town, one by one. That suited him fine.

Though he was a single step from Level 10, the Infinite Plunder & Acceleration System's EXP was still some way from Level 3—and hunting Bosses would net him a good deal of EXP. Once the System leveled, he'd gain new ability bonuses: a powerful boost to his strength.

"Thank you," Ryan said earnestly.

"Don't thank me. In doing this, I help myself as well." The Emperor smiled faintly.

"I have a premonition that, before long, the Heavenly Demon Race will rise again. When that day comes, your help would raise our odds of victory."

"Now—take this token. It will help you seek out Heaven Mystic Qi within a hundred li. With it, things will be far easier." The Emperor drew from his robe a token glowing with faint purple light and handed it over.

"Good luck to you." With a faint smile, he pressed the hood down over his head; his body dissolved into a blur and faded into the air. Whoosh— As the Emperor vanished, the warped space around Ryan returned to normal, the clamor of players rising up once more, leaving him with an oddly unreal feeling. [Heaven Mystic Token (Lv0): A token the Heavenly Emperor forged from Heaven Mystic Qi; locates Heaven Mystic Qi within a hundred li. Base attributes +100, Luck +5, Charm +5. Wearer requirement: host of the Heart of Heaven's Punishment. Upgrade condition: +1 level for each Heaven Mystic Rune refined.] An upgradeable token! Ryan's gaze sharpened, shock rising in his chest. Tokens like this worked like badges—costing a single bag slot to grant their attribute boost—and an upgradeable one was a steal beyond words. At Level 0 the Heaven Mystic Token already gave a hefty bonus; he could scarcely imagine how terrifying its stats would be once it leveled.

He stowed it at once, and his attributes shot up again. [Name: Big Gunn] Level: 9 (99. 9%) | Class: Non-Combat HP: 1, 850/1, 850 | Stamina: 1, 300/1, 300 Attack: 190 (+70) | Defense: 165 (+70) Attack Speed Bonus: 25% | Movement Speed Bonus: 15% — Combat Attributes — Strength: 190 | Constitution: 165 | Agility: 150 | Intelligence: 120 | Spirit: 120 — Fixed Attributes — Charm: 15 | Luck: 30 — Talents — Penetration, Block, Combo — Skills — Second Nature, Charging Wolf The +100 base bonus sent his stats soaring; beyond his durability, his speed climbed sharply too.

In Heaven's Descent, every 20 points of Agility raised a player's attack speed, movement speed, and crit chance by 1%. With a full 150 Agility now—modest gains in themselves, but paired with the System's acceleration—it was a different story altogether. Between gear and System, his peak attack speed had reached 14 strikes a second. A truly terrifying figure.

"Now—off to hunt Bosses!" The corner of his mouth curled. The monsters outside Sunward Town had turned violent for one root reason: the Calamity's demonic aura. So to collect Calamity Demonic Aura, high-level, high-grade Bosses were the obvious targets. Sunward Town was a starter village, so by common sense its monsters capped at Level 10, its Bosses at Level 15. He bought a monster-distribution map from the general store, swept his eyes over it, and fixed on one spot: the Shadowmurk Forest.

A Level 10 zone—the highest-level wild area around Sunward Town, and the most heavily polluted by Calamity Demonic Aura. Three kinds of monster dwelled there: the Bloody Maneater Flower, the Shadow Cat Demon, and the Venomous Mad Wolf. There, Ryan would seek the five strands of Calamity Demonic Aura to break the seal beneath Sunward Town. Stolen novel; please report. He had to hurry—because he intended to be the first player to reach Level 10.

Not only because it would send his fame soaring and make the studio money more easily, but because the System reward for the first to hit Level 10 was, to him, intensely tempting. Getting that reward meant a great deal. No matter what, it had to be his. Eyes firm, he raced toward the spot marked on the map. Field Black Iron Boss First Kill The Shadowmurk Forest lay shrouded in miasma year-round, and with its dense trees, the whole region was dim, vision badly choked. System: [Ding! You have entered the Shadowmurk Forest. Affected by the forest's miasma, HP decreases by 1 per second!] By rights, a normal Level 10 player, geared, had around 200 HP. A 1-per-second drain meant they could last only about three minutes here—which meant entering the Shadowmurk Forest required ample healing potions, or you'd be the frog in slowly boiling water, dead before you knew it. For Ryan, it was different.

Among his three early talents was Block, which auto-negated 20 of any incoming damage, so the miasma's drain couldn't touch him at all. He plunged straight in, driving toward the Bloody Maneater Flowers' gathering ground marked on the map. Soon the woods thinned a little, the trees growing taller and straighter. Rustle, rustle…

Ahead, in a miasma-wreathed clearing, a cluster of Bloody Maneater Flowers—thick-stalked, two meters tall—drifted about aimlessly, their bloody maws splitting open to bare jagged fangs that gleamed cold from afar, chilling to behold. Drip. Viscous saliva fell to the ground, eating into the turf, sending up a wisp of green vapor that merged with the surrounding miasma. System: [Ding! You have entered a Maneater Flower dense zone. Miasma concentration increased; HP decreases by 3 per second!] A normal player here—forget the flowers' attacks—couldn't survive a minute on the miasma alone without supplies. But for Ryan, 3 a second was nothing. Snap. He stepped on a twig by accident, and in the silent woods it rang out sharp and clear.

"ROAR!" Sure enough, three Bloody Maneater Flowers nearby were drawn by the sound; with a screech, they split their maws wide and lunged. [Bloody Maneater Flower: A maneater flower infected by Calamity Demonic Aura, savage by nature. Level: 10, HP: 480, Attack: 50, Defense: 30, Skills: Rend, Bloodsuck.] The corner of Ryan's mouth curled. With his attack and defense both topping 200, these were beneath mention. Black Iron Longsword in hand, he stepped in to meet them, his blade weaving a flurry of afterimages.

Fourteen strokes a second—in less than half a second, all three lay dead. They dropped three silver coins, a Basic Recovery Potion, and a Common-grade greave. Ryan swept it up and strode openly into the flowers' gathering ground. Cutting through the chaos like a hot knife, fourteen strokes a second—paired with his 10x movement speed, his kill efficiency was absurd.

In under ten minutes, over three hundred Bloody Maneater Flowers in the area lay dead: five gold, a stack of Basic Recovery Potions (a hundred bottles), and ten Common-grade pieces. He stowed it all, his bag nearly full again. Twenty slots really weren't enough. He'd have to spend on a bag expansion soon, or at this kill speed and Luck, it would fill in no time. Worth noting too: with over three hundred flowers slain, Plunder had raised his Strength, Agility, and Constitution by 5 each—a small but real boost.

Pressing on through the miasma, he reached the end of his sight: a miasma-choked valley, a thick reek of blood spreading from it, sickening to the senses. System: [Ding! You have entered the Bloody Flower King's Lair. Affected by the bloody miasma, HP decreases by 5 per second!] ROAR!!! The instant he entered, a deafening screech erupted. He looked—and through the valley's heavy reek, a maneater flower the size of a two-story building came lunging at him.

[Bloody Flower King (Black Iron Boss): A maneater flower king gravely infected by Calamity Demonic Aura, no small power. HP: 24, 000, Attack: 100, Defense: 60, Skills: Bloody Rend, Bloodsuck, Thorn Pierce, Bloody Shroud.] A Black Iron Boss? Ryan gave an inward nod of approval. Different Boss grades dropped gear of corresponding grades on death—so to him, the Bloody Flower King wasn't a headache, but a delivery of Black Iron gear about to land in his hands. How many pieces will it cough up?

He was full of anticipation. The Bloody Flower King had fifty times the HP of a common flower, double the attack and defense, and a few powerful skills besides. None of it daunted Ryan in the least. Kill! One stroke for over 200 damage. Paired with his blistering attack speed and the Combo talent, his damage climbed higher and higher as the seconds passed.

"ROAR!!!" Driven back step by step, the Bloody Flower King finally loosed a furious bellow and unleashed a skill. A vast cloud of bloody reek sprayed from its maw, blanketing the valley, choking off vision and hiding the Boss in the blood-fog. System: [Ding! Affected by the skill Bloody Shroud: HP decreases by 50 per second for 10 seconds!] The prompt sounded, and 30-point damage numbers finally floated up over Ryan's head.

It was a wide-area skill covering the whole valley, and under Bloody Shroud his movements slowed a touch. If this hit a normal party, they'd be wiped on the spot. Fifty a second—without good gear and supplies, no one could last the full ten. But with HP near 2, 000, the attack was a tickle. Swish, swish, swish! Suddenly, blades of wind pierced the blood-fog from every direction—thorns sharp as sword-edges launching indiscriminate stabs across the valley.

[Thorn Pierce: Summons thorns for a three-stage piercing attack, dealing 100%, 150%, and 200% true physical damage to targets in range.] -80! -130! -180! Three numbers floated up, dropping Ryan's HP by nearly 400 more.

"Now it's getting interesting." His gaze sank, and he grew serious. Tracking the sound, he quickly pinned down the Bloody Flower King's position and struck with precision. Shing! One thrust caught the Boss at a vital point, force-interrupting its skill. The blood-fog slowly thinned, and the Bloody Flower King stood exposed before him once more. Striking while the iron was hot, Ryan's Black Iron Longsword swept in like a gale, grinding the Boss down and finally cutting it from the world. Boom!

The Boss burst, loot scattering across the ground—and a sweet System prompt rang in Ryan's ears. System: [Ding! Congratulations on completing a Field Black Iron Boss First Kill! Reward: 5 free attribute points, 2, 000 Reputation!] System: [Ding! Plunder successful! Strength +10, Constitution +10, Agility +10!] System: [Ding! Plunder successful! You obtained the skill "Thorn Pierce"!] What—it plundered the skill? Ryan paused, then opened his attribute panel.

"This…"