Bang!
The Fireblade Warhorse raised its front hooves before bringing them down on me with a Stampede. The small shockwave caught both me and the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf.
1893!
3092!
I had Ghost Deity Armor, so I was doing fine. My pet however took almost twice the amount of damage I took. Stampede was a pretty powerful skill. The Fireblade Warhorse also had two skills called Haste and Fireblade Thrust. Haste was a negligible skill that increased its movement speed. Fireblade Thrust was just an offensive skill with increased Attack that I could Guard easily. I didn"t try to parry the skill because the Fireblade Warhorse"s level was much higher than mine. Even if I had the skill to do it, it could result in failure due to the hidden Attack formulas and variables.
I swung the Heaven-stealing Sword up and down and deleted the Fireblade Warhorse"s HP rapidly. At the same time, I absorbed 14% of the damage with every swing as health. I basically dealt over 5000 damage and absorbed around 700 HP with every attack, and my attack speed was high enough that I didn"t even need to drink health potions.
……
The Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf and I attacked the Level 135 shadow-rank mob ferociously. Less than two minutes later, the Fireblade Warhorse let out a death groan and collapsed heavily on the ground. It dropped a horn that glowed fiery orange, and it was none other than the quest item I was supposed to collect, the Fireblade Warhorse Horn.
I happily picked up the horn and left to seek out the next mob. Once I gathered 100 horns, the S Rank quest would officially be complete. According to the game rules concerning quest rewards, S Rank quests had a 20% chance to reward me with an equipment drop, and there was a 20% chance that this item would be of the Purple Gold grade. This meant that I had a 4% chance to receive a Purple Gold–grade item upon completing this quest. I believed that technically, even Spirit-grade reward was possible, although I had no idea what the chance of that was.
That being said, I can"t forget that a player"s Luck affected all chance-based calculations such as reward chance. On the surface, it looked like I only had a 4% chance to obtain a Purple Gold–grade equipment. In reality, my chance was much higher than 4% because I had a whopping 22 points of Luck. It could be as high as 10% for all I know.
Luck was meant to represent a player"s soft acc.u.mulation of strength. Luck was incredibly hard to obtain because it was rewarded only to a player who did well in a large-scale battle or a huge tournament, or killed a super boss. Long story short, the longer the list of glorious achievements under one"s belt, the higher their Luck, and the better their in-game karma would become. It was a kind of strength any player worth their salt must have.
……
Half an hour and a dozen or so Fireblade Warhorses later, I had obtained 3 horns. The quest item"s drop rate was so-so at best, but I didn"t particularly begrudge it. After all, Fireblade Warhorse was a high-level mob that rewarded me with plenty of experience and skin. It was a pretty cheery process all in all.
A scorching hot wind suddenly swept across the area and caused a nearby shrubbery to shake violently. Its branches swayed just enough to reveal the back of the hill. The Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf was stretching its paw lazily without a care for the world.
My eyes lit up in excitement, however. It was because I saw a brawnier, brighter Fireblade Warhorse grazing at a depression on the ground on the opposite side of the shrubbery. It was none other than the Rare and capturable version of the Fireblade Warhorse!
Fireblade Warhorse (Silver Rare)
Level: 135
Attack: ???
Defense: ???
HP: ???
HP: ???
Property: Can be tamed by players above Level 105
Introduction: As the rulers of Fireblade Valley, Fireblade Warhorses are extremely heat-resistant as their diet consists mainly of fire-attribute vegetation. Over time, the fire energy acc.u.mulating inside their body caused a mutation and grew a blade of fire on their foreheads. No wild beast had dared to challenge them since.
……
A Silver Rank mount? Not bad! It was nothing compared to Dark Gold or Purple Gold Rank mounts, but it was definitely better than 99% of the existing mounts right now!
Moreover, it had a level requirement that matched the current average level of magic knights. Provided that there weren"t too few of them, it wasn"t a pipe dream to create a Fireblade Cavalry in just a short period of time!
Excited, I charged the Rare mount with the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf and carefully brought it down to almost 30% health. Then, I stopped attacking and let my pet deal the rest of the damage because my crit rate was too high. I would cry if it died to an unfortunate critical hit.
Knowing what I was plotting, the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf attacked cautiously until the Fireblade Warhorse only had 10% health left. This is my chance!
I stopped my pet from attacking and took out a Sealing Stone. Then, I locked onto the Fireblade Warhorse and began the sealing process!
Swhoos.h.!.+
The magical energy of the Sealing Stone broke free from its container and transformed into a purple magic formation beneath the mob"s hooves. Then, it attempted to drag it into the black hole at the center of the magic formation. However, the ingrate struggled mightily and broke free of the magic, foiling my first sealing attempt!
The process repeated itself. The Sealing Stone continued pulling the Fireblade Warhorse with its magical shackles, and the Fireblade Warhorse struggled valiantly to break free from them. In the end, when the fifth sealing attempt began, the mob finally relented and lay down quietly at the center of the magic formation itself. It transformed into a white light and entered my Sealing Stone, turning the translucent object bright red and fiery. I could even see a shrunken Fireblade Warhorse inside the Sealing Stone. This meant that the sealing was successful, and the player could now check its stats whenever they wished!
I excitedly waved a hand across the Sealing Stone and brought up the Fireblade Warhorse"s stats—
Fireblade Warhorse (Silver Rank Mount)
Strength: +110
Stamina: +100
Attack Increase: +9%
Defense Increase: +5%
Attack Speed: +20%
Movement Speed: +50%
Attack Range: +15 yards
Max HP: +2500
Turn Rate: -90%
Mount Tenacity: +20%
Mount Skill: Stampede
Pa.s.sive: Movement state cannot be easily interrupted, resistance to ice magic +20%
Level Requirement: 105
Reputation Requirement: 20000
……
The mount was far inferior to He Yi"s Snow Domain Windchaser, but I was pleased to see that it retained the skill "Stampede”. This meant that the mount would automatically use "Stampede" on the enemy when mounted. How awesome was that?
For a second, I imagined a cavalry troop made of Fireblade Warhorses charging into the enemy"s battle line and executing Stampede at the same time. Stampede only had an effective AoE of 3 yards, but it could be extremely deadly when stacked upon one another. This was especially true when the cavalry troops were charging the enemy lines.
Overjoyed, I put the Sealing Stone at a corner of my bag. Can"t mix up a finished product with the unfinished ones, you know?
A Sealing Stone was a top-tier item for sure. I might not be a mounted player, but with this item I could use my level and equipment advantage to hunt for excellent mounts for the guild. In the case the guild didn"t need them, I could always sell them for money. Young people should always make earning money a priority, or they wouldn"t have the capital to marry a dozen or so wives.
……
I went back to my quest. I had already made up my mind to sweep through the entire Fireblade Valley and capture every last Rare Fireblade Warhorse that existed in this place. The level of this map was so high that only a well-equipped party over Level 105 could make it in safely, and there was barely a handful of players who could come in here solo.
After an innumerable number of Fireblade Warhorses and quest items later, a Fireblade Warhorse finally dropped me equipment. It was a helmet, and when I picked it up I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a piece of a set!
Fireblade Helmet (Dark Gold–grade, Outstanding★)
Defense: 280
Magic Resist: 215
Strength: +85
Stamina: +80
Pa.s.sive: Increases user"s. .h.i.t rate by 10%
Outstanding Property: Defense increased by 100
Property: Fireblade Set, Helmet
Level Requirement: 105
……
Its Defense was extremely good, although I should"ve expected this since it was a 1-star Outstanding item. Moreover, the stats of a full set were even better; increasing overall Attack and Defense by almost 50%. Modestly speaking, a Dark Gold–grade set like this should be worth 500k RMB at least. That being said, there was no guarantee I could gather a full set.
Oh well, I"ll take it easy. It"s a great reward, but it"s an optional one that I don"t need to actively pursue.
Inside the guild channel, Gui Guzi was choosing 100 best mounted players of the guild based on the contribution ranking after he was appointed the cavalry corps commander. We were trying to build our first hundred-man cavalry as soon as possible. A Level 120 fifth-promotion player could party up to 50 players at once—twice for a Famous General, by the way—so at Level 120, Gui Guzi would be able to party up to 100 players and buff them all with his Knight G.o.d. They would become our very own invincible cavalry troops!
My experience kept rising as I grinded until evening. Six hours had pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye, and my experience had increased to Level 116, 27%. So far, I found it much faster to grind here than anywhere else, and I had collected 44 Fireblade Warhorns. What really motivated me was the knowledge that Fireblade Valley was a virgin land that was untouched by other players, and the 11 Rare Fireblade Warhorses in my Sealing Stones were the living proof. This also meant that I could equip 11 magic knights or wanderers with Fireblade Warhorses right now!
I didn"t join He Yi, Beiming Xue, and Murong Mingyue for dinner. I simply told them to bring me back some boxed meals. Some time later, I logged off and ate the packed dinner they brought me in ten minutes. Then, I downed three gla.s.ses of water in a row. I needed to work quickly, or I would have to grind overnight.
I logged back into the game and grinded well into the night. During this time, I had obtained 4 pieces of the Fireblade Set and a 2-star Outstanding spear. On top of that, I had sealed 27 Fireblade Warhorses. However, despite my valiant efforts, over 30% of the map was still not cleared. Clearly, I would be able to tame over 30 Rare Fireblade Warhorses in this place.
I sent Gui Guzi a message: "Little Gui, bring a squad of magic knights and wanderers with you to Fireblade Valley, and make sure they"re over Level 105. I"ll send you the coordinates. There are Rare mounts here, so move quickly!"
"Got it! Are you going to grind overnight today, boss?"
"Maybe. We"ll see!"
"Okay!"
……
Back to the grind I went. When I found the last piece of the set—Fireblade Chest Armor—I had 31 used Sealing Stones sitting inside my bag. I looked at the time. It was past 1 am already. Not long after, Gui Guzi arrived with thirty or so mounted players, and I left the task of sealing the remaining mounts to them. I had finished gathering the quest items, and it was time to turn in my quest.