I returned to the entrance of the Fireblade Valley and went to find the scout captain. I walked up to him to turn in the quest, and I passed him 100 horns, along with a Sealing Stone that contained a Fireblade Warhorse.

The scout captain’s eyes lit up with a wild joy from the instant he saw the Sealing Stone. He slapped me on the shoulder heartily as he yelled, "Young warrior, your strength is utterly astounding! Alright then, here is your reward! I hope that you will be able to continue fighting for the survival of the human race!"

My lips twisted as I mouthed the words, "Actually I’m an undead, you dumbass…"

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, you have completed the S Rank quest [Fireblade Warhorse Horn]. You have gained 120000 EXP, 40000 gold, 9000 Reputation, and the quest reward: "Soul of the Earth Bracers".

……

Bracers?

I urgently opened up my bag to fish out a pair of rough-looking bracers glowing with purple light. My heart was filled with shock and joy when I saw how strong they were.

Soul of the Earth Bracers (Purple Gold–grade, Outstanding★★★)

Defense: 350

Magic Resist: 320

Strength: +87

Stamina: +82

Tactics: +17

Passive: Increases user’s physical attack power by 8%

Outstanding Property: Increases user’s attack speed by 10%

Class Requirement: Warrior

Level Requirement: 115

……

These were a great pair of bracers. They added 10% attack speed and 8% Attack. They were the perfect option for a full-offensive warrior who was always trying to improve his DPS. They even gave me an additional 17 points of Tactics.

My luck’s off the charts! I actually got an Outstanding Purple Gold–grade item from an S Rank quest! What a pleasant surprise this was!

I had reached Level 116 not long earlier, so I had met the requirements to equip these bracers.

The wristguards I was wearing now were still my old and well-worn Flame Dragon Gauntlets. They were a Level 65 Dark Gold–grade item, so they were pretty trash by now. Every time He Yi noticed them, she would glower at me and say, "Lu Chen, your wristguards are way too crappy! How about I go to the auction and get some proper ones?"

I kept putting it off. Given my personality, I still preferred to get my equipment from grinding. As for going to the auction to buy something, that was something for rich people to do, and I wasn’t one of them!

After I equipped the Soul of the Earth Bracers, my stats skyrocketed, once again proving just how crappy my Flame Dragon Gauntlets had been until now.

ID: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand (Title: Purgatory Thunder)

Class: Undead Swordsman (Dark Gold Swordsman)

Level: 116

HP: 12610

Attack: 1717~2185

Defense: 2145

Magic Resist: 1965

Reputation: 129764

Tactics: 136 (+78)

Luck: 22

……

My total HP, Attack, and Defense had risen once again. However, the most eye-catching improvement was the boost to my Tactics. Now that I had 136 Tactics, my stratagems would be boosted by 136%. In other words, my Martial God stratagem would now boost attack power by 94%, a simply ridiculous number!

Beiming Xue and Gui Guzi’s Famous General Skills could raise attack power by 50%, but they were far too restrictive. A player needed to either use a bow or be a cavalryman to benefit from their skills. For anyone else? Useless. This constraint was simply far too severe. This was especially true in a 5v5 competition where balanced class composition would ensure total uselessness of their constricted stratagems. At that time, a skill like Martial God, which boosted everyone’s Attack regardless of class, would be king!

Today was simply the best! I had also obtained an enormous 51% of the EXP I needed to reach the next level, so it looked like it wouldn’t be a pipedream for me to reach Level 117 in the next 24 hours! I was one step closer to accomplishing the herculean task that was reaching Level 120!

Now that there was nothing else interesting left in Fireblade Valley, it was time to return to town!

Swhoosh!

When I arrived back in Sky City, I saw that He Yi and Murong Mingyue had set up shop not too far away from me. The two girls were leaning against the wall as they rubbed their drowsy eyes.

Oh, they haven’t gone offline yet?

I walked up and squatted in front of them while saying, "Eve, why haven’t you logged off yet? Are you not going to work tomorrow?"

He Yi shook her head, "The recent territory war was quite tiring. I’m going to take a small break from work. Things at work have slowed down anyway, and I threw a few dinner parties too. But the bad thing about dinner parties is that I always need to drink wine when I attend them…"

Murong Mingyue said, "Lu Chen, are you high? Did you have too much fun in Fireblade Valley?"

"I had quite a bit of fun actually!" I took out a Sealing Stone which contained a Fireblade Warhorse and showed it to the two girls.

I chuckled and said, "Take a look. What do you think about this?"

Whoosh!

The Fireblade Warhorse’s stats appeared in front of them, causing their tiny mouths to drop open in utter shock.

"Lu Chen, is this a warhorse you found in the Fireblade Valley?" He Yi asked.

"Yeah."

"This Sealing Stone… Where did you get it? It’s a crazy good item…"

"Heh heh, I extorted it from the NPC…"

"Extorted huh…" He Yi said as she gave me a blank stare. She couldn’t help but chuckle after that as she continued. "You’d even dare to extort an NPC, you must really yearn to not be welcomed in these lands…"

I laughed out loud. "That’s nothing. I mean, I’ve even killed NPCs before, so extorting one is small beans to me. Oh, Eve, that’s right. I have around thirty of these Sealing Stones with me. This means that we can get thirty more Fireblade Warhorses for our guild members. Go and find Xu Yang and tell him to choose thirty loyal high-level magic knights or wanderers in our guild. We’ll pass these thirty Fireblade Warhorse Sealing Stones to them. It’s about time we focused our resources to create a proper cavalry unit for our guild."

"Hmmm, no problem. I’ll immediately go and wake up Xu Yang and get him started on this. We should be able to deliver these Fireblade Warhorses to their lucky owners by tomorrow morning."

"Okay, that sounds great!"

……

He Yi woke up Xu Yang with a phone call and he immediately started hustling as the rest of us prepared to go offline.

The two ladies went offline first, but I had to make a trip to the auction first. I put up the Fireblade Set for sale, setting the starting price at 20000 gold. I also put up the Outstanding Dark Gold spear for sale. Once I finished my business with the auction, I went to check on Air Force One’s shop.

Mn, focusing on selling Magic Consumables is good business. I earn at least 10000 gold coins from it everyday. I’ve already reached the level of a gold collar!

As I was walking toward the inn to log off, I suddenly heard a beeping sound. I had received a message from Lin Yixin:

"Hey, hey, stop running. Wait for meeee..."

Holy shit!

I turned around and discovered that Lin Yixin wasn’t too far away from me. She was wearing a new set of armor and viridian light was pulsing above her shoulder. This set of armor looked very good and it seemed like her war boots were new as well.

Only a day had passed since I last saw her, but she had practically swapped out all of her equipment.

I stared at her a bit too intensely, and she started to blush.

"Your armor isn’t bad! It’s glowing with both an orange and a prismatic light, so it’s an Outstanding Spirit-grade item, right? Your boots look pretty good too. Purple and prismatic light huh, so it’s an Outstanding Purple Gold–grade item!"

"Ah?" Lin Yixin’s mouth dropped open. She swiftly closed it and smiled. "You can actually tell just from that. Not bad. Being able to tell an item’s grade just from its glow, your eyes really are sharp…"

I laughed. "Ridiculous, I’m as experienced as they come. What sort of bosses haven’t I fought before? What sort of items haven’t I seen before? Speaking of which, Yiyi, what boss did you beat?"

Lin Yixin giggled as she replied, "Qingqing and I spent six hours whittling away at this Level 145 Spirit Rank boss. But we were unlucky, because Qingqing didn’t manage to get a Famous General Skill."

"So you ended up reaping all the benefits?"

"Heehee, kinda!"

Lin Yixin walked toward me with a devious smile on her face. "Besides dropping a few pieces of equipment, the boss dropped a Mount Sealing Stone as well. Why don’t you take a guess at what sort of mount I got?"

I asked, "A chinese field dog?"

"Screw you, why would it be…"

Lin Yixin hopped back two steps, a winsome smile on her face. She said, "Take a good look, because my pet is about to rock your world…"

Whoosh!

The Frozen Sword danced in the air as a magic formation rose up from the ground. A piercing whinny filled the air as Lin Yixin’s warhorse leapt out of the aether. My jaw dropped to the ground the instant I saw her mount.

A gallant-looking warhorse wreathed in frost appeared in front of me. It didn’t look any different from any standard warhorse, but it was covered with ice barding and snowflakes coalesced into existence around it. A blade made of ice and metal jutted from its head and when it sneezed, puffs of frost flew out from its nose. What a powerful-looking ice-element warhorse!

"What’s it called, Yiyi?" I asked.

"It’s called the Frostscythe Warhorse. Doesn’t it sound cool?" Lin Yixin said with a saccharine sweet smile.

"Mhmm, what about its stats!?"

"Please wait a moment!"

In the next instant, the Frostscythe Warhorse’s stats appeared on my screen, and they nearly caused my eyes to pop out of their sockets.

Frostscythe Warhorse (Purple Gold Rank Mount)

Strength: +270

Stamina: +240

Attack Increase: +17%

Defense Increase: +14%

Attack Speed: +40%

Movement Speed: +90%

Attack Range: +28 yards

Max HP: +6000

Turn Rate: -65%

Mount Tenacity: +35%

Passive: Movement state cannot be easily interrupted, resistance to ice magic +60%

Level Requirement: 110

Reputation Requirement: 50000

……

Fuck, what kind of stats were these!? It was a Purple Gold Rank Mount, just like He Yi’s Snow Domain Windchaser, but the Frostscythe Warhorse had a level requirement of 110 as opposed to He Yi’s mount, which had a Level Requirement of 100. Its stats were all one tier higher than the Snow Domain Windchaser but their traits were largely the same.

I was left at a loss for words as I patted the Frostscythe Warhorse on the butt. But I quickly recovered and said to Lin Yixin, "You increased your HP by another 6000 points? If you mount up and turn on Bombshell, what will your HP be like?"

Lin Yixin took a quick look at her own stats before replying, "Right now, I have 11720 HP. If I’m mounted on the Frostscythe Warhorse, I’ll be 17720 HP. I have 114 Tactics at the moment, so Bombshell increases my stats by 53.5%. After I add that altogether, my HP should be slightly over 27000?"

"..." I fell silent.

"What’s wrong, Lu Chen?" Lin Yixin smiled sweetly as she tilted her head my way.

I said in a rather helpless voice, "Your insane stats are stressing me out! Which guy will be able to tolerate being so much weaker than his girlfriend…"

"I’m not that much stronger… It’s just because of my mount…" Lin Yixin said as her beautiful face went red. It was only then that she realized what I’d just said. She glared at me and said, "OMG, who’s your girlfriend again!? The only one who will do the deed first and decide later is you…"

I laughed, "What do you mean by act first and decide later? I haven’t even done the deed yet…"

"Oh so you want to do it?" Lin Yixin’s lips curled up mischievously.

I felt my heart twisting up the moment I saw that smile. I knew that she couldn’t mean anything good, so I desperately shook my head as I replied, "Oh no no no. I was just talking nonsense. Anyway, it’s really late. I’ll see you later Yiyi! You should go to bed soon as well!"

"Hmmm. I’ll need to accompany my mom for most of the day tomorrow, so I can only start grinding again when I come back in the evening. I’m going to get left behind again." As she said that, she raised her head to look at me. "Lu Chen, what are you going to be busy with over the next two days?"

"Territory construction and leveling up. I need to reach Level 150 as quickly as possible, so that I can finally get my own mount…"

"Okay, good luck! If you find a good place to grind, bring me along as well! We haven’t leveled together in a long time."

"Got it! Hurry up and go to sleep!"

"Okaaay!"

Lin Yixin obediently nodded her head as she turned around and headed into the inn.

……

My lips curled up as I gave a quiet laugh. There were times that Lin Yixin was simply too cute. However, I did need to hurry up and level. If not, I’d be a sitting duck the next time I fought a mounted opponent without a mount of my own.