Seeing me fight, He Yi and Lin Yixin couldn't help but feel pleased.

"Lu Chen, when did you learn Thousand Mirage Slash?" Lin Yixin pouted. "Why don’t I have an AoE skill..."

"I know right!" He Yi nodded. "Melee players usually don’t have AoE skills. I keep feeling like I am missing something. I kill monsters so slowly..."

I sank into distant memories and thought back. I looked up and said, "Yiyi, remember when we were in Ancient Thunder Temple together? The last boss was the Thunder General. His signature skill was Thousand Mirage Slash. Coincidentally, I dropped this very skill book. I asked you if you wanted it and you generously gave it to me..."

"Ah?!"

Lin Yixin had a shocked expression that soon morphed into deep regret. "Why was I so stupid then..."

"Who knows..."

I smiled and comforted her. "No worries. If we kill more bosses and do more quests, we can get a melee AoE skill book sooner or later. The game is about effort. The more effort you put in, the sooner the system will eventually repay you."

"Right, right, let's first finish this quest!"

……

Beiming Xue was silent, her expression grave, as she pulled the string of the Purgatory Bow and sent Evil Spirit Volley into the monster swarm. Excluding me, Beiming Xue was our strongest DPS. Her Evil Spirit Volley had the splash property. As the nine arrows fell into the spider swarm, the damage was redirected to the surrounding insects, eliciting sharp screeches.

At the front of the team, I, Lin Yixin, and He Yi had enough Defense to tank the Mountain Spiders. They were just Level 85 elites, and couldn’t be too strong. We also picked a good position that would only let us face only one or two Mountain Spiders at a time. With Murong Mingyue's healing abilities, she could easily keep our HP above 75%. All in all, we were really safe.

Swoosh Swoosh!

My luck exploded and rewarded me with two 5%-chance Purgatory Slashes in quick succession. They tore through the air and landed amid the tide of spiders. Splash damage sealed the deal, killing many Mountain Spiders, leaving their blood sacs, magic stones and items in their wake.

I looked at the time. We had fought for almost half an hour, and our experience had increased by nearly 20%. Our clearing speed was very good!

Pity that the Mountain Spiders were about finished. Otherwise, if we fought through the night, I could get really close to Level 90 tonight...

"Work to kill the last Mountain Spiders!"

I raised my sword. Pardon + Desperate Gambit!

Crack!

5401!

A Mountain Spider immediately fell to the ground, a rich stream of experience flowing over, causing my body to warm. A pillar of golden light fell on my head. I leveled up!

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, you have reached Level 84. Because you are above Level 80, your General Star has awakened. You have received 42 Tactics!

……

"Hm, 42 Tactics?" I was surprised. "Players over Level 80 receive Tactics points when leveling up?"

Lin Yixin shook her head. "No, the system setup is like this. After players reach Level 80, they will get 1 Tactics every two levels. Tacticians get 1 Tactics per level. You are Level 84, so the system has given you 42 Tactics. You can now learn low-rank General Skills..."

"Here, I have a stratagem book, do you want to learn..."

Lin Yixin took out a yellow skill book from her bag. I glanced at it and was speechless.

Encourage: Increases all party member’s attack power by 5%. Usage Requirement: 20 Tactics.

……

"Um, this is a skill that tacticians learn when they reach Level 20?" I asked.

"Yes, do you want to learn?" Lin Yixin laughed softly. "I spent a lot to buy this book..."

I said expressionlessly, "Have you spent more than 1 gold? Hmph, I won’t use this low-level skill. Just 5% attack power, it's too low. My Wild Roar boosts attack power by 15%, Encourage is much worse..."

Lin Yixin pouted. "Never mind, I will leave it for myself..."

As I spoke, He Yi killed a Mountain Spider and gold light washed over her. Soon after, Lin Yixin reached Level 80 and received 40 Tactics. Without hesitation, she used the skill book and asked me for party leader. She used the skill, boosting all of our attack power by 5%!

Damn, so Encourage and Wild Roar stacked? Very good. Now, each of us had a 20% boost to our Attack. It was like having a high-level bard buffing us with Divine Valor. So good!

……

Seeing Lin Yixin's General Skill, Murong Mingyue laughed. "It seems that the age of military generals dominating in Heavenblessed's servers have arrived..."

"Yes!"

I swung the Purgatory Sword and killed the last few Mountain Spiders. During the fight, my experience rose by 30%, and all the girls leveled up at least once. The experience was abundant!

We began sweeping the battlefield clean. According to our earlier agreement, Lin Yixin took nothing but the Mountain Spider Blood Sacs. Actually, their value was even higher than normal items’.

No one wanted the stones so we turned our attention toward the equipment.

I walked over and picked up a metal helmet. Iron-grade trash. I threw it away. Basically, I would only look at Steel or Dark Steel–grade items.

After sweeping the battlefield for nearly five minutes, I found four items that could be considered pretty good. I showed them the items, and all beauties were dumbstruck and screaming in protest, "Lu Chen, how did you pick such good equipment?!"

Watcher Wristguards: Level 75 Dark Steel–grade metal armor. 84 Defense. Increases user’s HP by 4%.

Blood Battle Helmet: Level 75 Silver-grade. 102 Defense, 4 Tactics. Increases user's Defense by 2%.

Silver Scale Legguards: Level 75 Silver-grade. 100 Defense, 3 Tactics. Increases user's attack power by 1.2%.

Patrol Leather Boots: Level 75 Dark Steel–grade. 85 Defense, 2 Tactics. Increases Magic Resist by 0.4%.

……

Yes, three of the four items had Tactics bonuses. Just from this alone it could be seen that the era of generals had begun. Tactics bonuses were definitely nice. The stat on its own could decide extra properties granted by players’ General Skills.

For example, if a player with 0 Tactics used the elementary Encourage, it would only increase attack power by 5%. But if a player with 100 Tactics used the same skill, it would buff for additional 100x1%x5%. Basically, its effect would be doubled. Each point of Tactics increased General Skills’ effects by 1%. If a player had 200 Tactics, Encourage would increase attack power by 15%!

What did this mean?

This meant that although non-tacticians could enjoy General Skills, the natural advantage of tacticians could not be replaced. In large teams, having a high-level tactician as the party leader would be a significant advantage and nothing could change it. Non-tactician players wouldn’t buy items with additional Tactics, it just wasn’t viable.

In conclusion, when choosing high-rank items, people would prioritize items that offered Tactics boosts along with powerful stats. General Skills could even be used when in the party alone. In the future, high-Tactics players could buff themselves with 20% Encourage. It wouldn’t be a problem, and their attacks would be terrifying!

The World Famous Generals patch was coming. Foot soldiers that didn’t aspire to become generals didn’t even deserve to be foot soldiers!

……

I raised the items in my hand and asked, "You want these trash items with Tactics bonuses? Take them then, they won't be sold for much..."

The girls weren’t very interested. He Yi twisted her mouth. "You take them, we won't take them. Continue, this Hundred Flower Valley must have some bosses. Let’s see if they drop some items with high Tactics boosts!

"Mn!"

Holding the Purgatory Sword in one hand I munched on a Magic Consumable in the other. Using Thousand Mirage Slash consecutively was heavy on my MP usage, increasing my need for Magic Consumables. I felt my 120-slot bag was starting to look a little small. How convenient would it be to have endless space in my bag… Unfortunately, such items were Divine-grade items and weren’t something within my reach right now. Also, my bag had 120 slots, and the girls only had 50 each, forcing them to be as frugal as possible!

We passed through the spiders’ clearing, cracking the eggs on our way through.

Beiming Xue said, "How about we burn all the eggs?"

Lin Yixin shook her head. "No, the rest can grow. Later when we come back we might have more Mountain Spiders to kill. Just now, we got 2400 blood sacs in an hour. They’re seriously some good stuff, we’ll be sure to come back~~"

I was speechless. "The Mountain Spiders have been cursed for three lifetimes to encounter you..."

"Hmph!"

We continued to advance. After cleaning out their nest, Hundred Flower Valley had almost no Mountain Spiders. Surely we would meet other creatures as we ventured deeper.

Not far ahead we saw a mouse about the size of a fist. It was completely green, and squealed as it swung its short tail.

"Woah, so adorable~~"

Lin Yixin giggled and walked over with her Moonlight Sword. She reached out and greeted the mouse. "Hey, little one, where’s your mother?"

I was shocked. "Yiyi, she is the mother..."

"What?!"

The little mouse suddenly turned around, body flashing with magic light as though it was casting. In the next moment, an enormous meteor fell down!

Boom!

453!

Lin Yixin retreated, the meteor making a bloody mark on her shoulder. She was shocked. "This little mouse was so vicious..."

I was speechless and the picture of the small mouse appeared in the air—

Earth Mouse (Elite)

Level: 90

Magic Attack: 820~945

Defense: 500

HP: 12000

Skill: Meteor

Introduction: A nimble organism of ancient forests. Earth Mice are born underground, and absorb the power of the earth. They are extremely nimble and can cause meteors to fall on their enemies. As the denizens of Hundred Flower Valley, they are not to be trifled with.