Book 3, Chapter 32
The Revenger Returns
"What the h.e.l.l is this?" I questioned the oldman.
"I"m sorry! We must have confused something up inthe process. I think we accidentally summoned the soul of an eastern ryu ratherthan a western dragon. But that will make do. They"re not that different."
"Make do??" I pressed my nose against the oldman"s face. "Now how do you explain your technical mistake, sir?"
He stuttered: "Calm down friend, it"s actuallybetter than planned. A ryu"s soul is usually more violent than a dragon"s. YourArtifact even acquired an additional skill out of it!"
"Seriously?"
True. I noticed a new attribute in my status bar.
[Shinryuu"s Deterrence]: Advanced version of [Intimidate].Greatly reduces the Reaction Speed and Accuracy of enemies within yoursurrounding area, with a chance to interrupt any spell casting actions.
"Ummm. Neat.Fine, I"ll let it slip since nothing bad happened."
The old man grinned again. "To apologize, we cangive you an extra quest where you can obtain a new companion. Do note that thisquest is very hard, we will not be responsible if you fail it."
"That willbe nice! What kind of quest?" Harder quest means better reward!
"I...do not know the details." He took out asmall, greenish object. I checked it over and over, the only thing I made outis that the stuff looks like an almond.
"It"s used to trigger a quest. Bringit to the Garden of Life if you decide to do it."
"Understood."
I put it away and left thetrading center. Man this place is scary. One visit cost me a dozen levels!
When we walked for a while I called Clark. "Comehere, I just found something!"
"Umm?"
I showed him my gauntlet. "Check this out!"
"A...crossbow? What"s wrong with that?"
"There was no crossbow on the gauntlet before. Ijust realized this thing is the same as my Revenger I lost before!"
"That"s simple," He explained, "Youalready know Artifacts got souls in them. A soul will not want to vanish, your crossbowwas shattered in that fight so its soul chose to fuse into your gauntlet tokeep itself alive. This was not shown until your gauntlet is repaired. Now they"rerevived together. Speaking of which, why the h.e.l.l are you always finding free Artifacts??"
"Ha! The merit of having a good "Luck"!"
Withmy full Dark Dragon Lord set, I"m starting to like my own handsome look. c.r.a.p, amI turning into a narcissist?
Forget it. I still have something to ask Clark.
"Can you make combat armors for horses?"
"You mean...bardingsfor war steeds?"
Oh, so that"s the professional name.
"Yup that"s what I mean."
I summoned myten Phantom Knights. Each one of them is wearing full black armors, heavy ones.Their entire bodies are covered, with only the eyes exposed. They are wearingreally long capes too. The inner part of the cape is blood red, the outside isblack, with golden fringes. Even their mounts are cladded in irons. I can onlysee the eyes and tails of these really large steeds.
They were in this formation whenI was trying to capture them at Domergor"s place. And wow I was impressed!
Soimposing, such awesomeness!
If they charge at someone as a group, their targetmay just surrender on the spot!
On the other hand, I"m c.r.a.p compared tothem. I was wearing common gear borrowed from Clark. And I looked like somekind of errand boy! My only noticeable point is that Night Shade is even biggerthan their mounts. I didn"t notice this before, Night Shade is actually waystronger than ordinary horses. Buuut...He got no protections. That"s when Imade up my mind to find some armors for him.
I pointed at the knights I just summoned. "I wanta set of armor like these ones." Then I summoned Night Shade to show himthe size.
Clark approached Night Shade and lifted one of hishooves. "I have some of these armors stocked up but...Your companion here is tallerthan anyone I"ve ever seen. Actually you just re-defined what I know about warsteeds. That ten buddies over there are already the largest size of all horses. This Nightmare iseven bigger, by a large amount. Let"s see. You go mind your own business fornow. I"ll try to craft one for you."
"What"s the price? I need to pay you something.You didn"t even ask for any for repairing my armor."
"I"m not in a hurry with money. Just remember topay it back when you can."
I left the LostCity while planning on my next step. I"ll log out for now. Will try to grind harderduring the next two days and try to reach over level 265. When Clark finishesNight Shade"s armor, I"ll go into the Dragon State city and get my SoulManipulator t.i.tle. It will be practice too. Gotta know how to break into a cityfirst before I can save Rose!
I had breakfast with Rose the next morning. She told methat her projects were just approved by the college. She will need to spend thetime allowance carefully to finish her experiments so she may not beplaying the game for the next week. That"s fine with me. I may as well take thechance and get a couple of more levels, to ensure my rescuing plan doesn"t gosouth easily.
I went back into the game after driving Rose to the lab.Grinding sounds a really dull process for most people. Not for me though. Ilove the feeling of it. Besides, this is for saving my princess!
I reached 301 aftersix days. All companions stayed close expect Loong"er (300). I"m impressed withmyself! My speed for clearing mobs obviously became way faster since I got myoutfit back. With my high Defense I can look for monsters 100 levels above me, whichmeans my progress is better than anyone can expect.
Rose will be back intwo days. Gotta take actions now!
I went back to the Lost City and received Night Shade"sbarding from Clark. He"s quite the fast worker. I took Night Shade to the openground outside the city to try it on.
It mostly fits, but there is one problem:Clark forgot to leave a hole on the forehead! He only made a larger sizedhorse armor based on the ones he already have, but he forgot Nightmare"s horn, nowI can"t get it on.
It took another afternoon for him to fix it. This timeI"m much satisfied. This full plate armor on Night Shade made him even moreintimidating than the Phantom Knights.
Before I leave, Clark stopped me. "Holdit. I think I have something else you may find useful."
He ran away and came back with an object in his arms."Try it!" He threw it on the ground.
Saddles?
"Something I used before. Pretty good quality. Ino longer ride horses. Might as well give them to someone."
I fixed it onto Night Shade"s back and hopped on. Thisfeels really nice! I also noticed that Night Shade"s speed didn"t go down. Fromthe walkthroughs, mounts will become slower depending on how much weight they"recarrying. While the riding skills of their riders will improve the situation. ThoughI never learned that skill. Besides I never heard of any riding skill thattotally nullifies this speed penalty.
Is that because of the saddle? I opened Night Shade"sequipment window. He is now wearing a collar, a set of barding, a saddle, fourhorseshoes.
Collar is the reward I got earlier in the game. Every companion hasone.
The barding is just made by Clark. It increases his Defense by 200 andgives him a skill [Charge]. The skill is similar to a Fighter"s [Violent Dash].It basically is used to b.u.mp the target off its original position and sometimesstun it.
The four horseshoes are not the common ones you pick up on thestreets. They got spikes on them, for causing damage when kicking or stompingon enemies. They add 200 Attack, 1 Speed for Night Shade while doubling theeffect for [Charge]. Where did Clark get these things?
I looked at the saddlelast. Yep, it got a bonus: Ignores weight load! It means Night Shade will keephis full speed whether someone is riding on him or not. He"s already fastenough, no one would ever catch me at this rate!
I then went to King Chemist"s pharmacy to restock mymedicine supplies. His meds are really effective in emergency situations, havingmore will surely improve my chances.
Kay, all donenow. I activated my ring, teleported to the plains just outside Dragon Statecity and logged off. Got to have a nice sleep tonight. Tomorrow will be the day to get into the city, finish my Soul Manipulator job change, and see if I"mgood enough to get past the city guards while I"m at it!
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