I rubbed my eyes. No, they weren"t deceiving me. The Dragonlight Armored Horse really was a Rare mount!
Moreover, since I had Dark Pupils on, its stats screen was automatically displayed in front of me and shared into the party channel. The atmosphere was filled with silence as everyone"s mouth fell open—
Dragonlight Armored Horse (Spirit Rank Miniboss Mount)
Strength: +400
Stamina: +420
Attack Increase: +30%
Defense Increase: +30%
Attack Speed: +35%
Movement Speed: +120%
Attack Range: +25 yards
Max HP: +8000
Turn Rate: -45%
Mount Tenacity: +20%
Additional Skill: Hoof Trample
Introduction: The Dragonlight Armored Horse is the fusion between a warhorse and a dragon"s soul. It is the result of a lifetime of research of the genius tamer, Beast Emperor. He had procured refined souls from magical springs as fuel, forged sh.e.l.ls from the Rainbow Bronze, and trapped a warhorse inside it for refinement. He successfully infused it with the power of the holy giant dragon and made it even more impenetrable than ever. Influenced by draconic power, the warhorse became an incredibly violent creature that wants nothing but to tear everything in front of it to shreds.
Level: 150
Reputation Requirement: 240000
……
"A Spirit-grade Miniboss Mount… Such incredible stats…" He Yi blinked once before looking back and forth between her Snow Domain Windchaser and the Dragonlight Horse. Blus.h.i.+ng a little, she asked me, "Er, Lu Chen, do you think it"s about time I replaced my Snow Domain Windchaser with something better?"
I shrugged and replied with a smile, "Ahem, the Dragonlight Armored Horse is leagues ahead of the Snow Domain Windchaser, and it has a Hoof Trample that you can use at the end of Charge, so there"s absolutely no harm in switching to it. But if you want to keep your old mount, I won"t stop you..."
"No, I want this one…" my beautiful guild leader said with determination.
"Okay. Quick, this wild horse is about to go rabid!"
"Yeah!"
He Yi canceled her mount and moved up to the Dragonlight Armored Horse quickly. A magic knight could bind multiple mounts, which was why she could tame the Dragonlight Armored Horse without needing to release the Snow Domain Windchaser straight away.
Hand illuminated by the light of a magical formation, He Yi extended her palm toward the Dragonlight Armored Horse and caused a gigantic magic formation to appear beneath its feet. The mount was quickly pulled into it and turned into a ray of white light that flew into her pet s.p.a.ce. What the f.u.c.k, she succeeded on first try? Is it because her karma is too good?
I didn"t say anything to He Yi"s success because I was too busy being stunned by her luck. Beiming Xue clapped her hands and exclaimed, "Congratulations, Sister Eve! This mount will be a great fit for you!"
He Yi nodded appreciatively. "Hehe, thanks!"
She summoned her mount again, and this time, the Dragonlight Armored Horse appeared instead of the Snow Domain Windchaser. A mount"s size changed automatically to fit its owner"s gender, so the Dragonlight Armored Horse shrank and became smaller than my Armored Ice Qilin Horse. He Yi already looked pretty amazing on her own, but after she climbed up the indigo horse, she looked even more heroic than before.
After taking a look at her own stats, He Yi said, "My HP and Defense increased by a ton. This mount is really impressive…"
I nodded in agreement. The Dragonlight Armored Horse might not compare to my Armored Ice Qilin Horse, but it was by no means a lousy mount. After all, my Armored Ice Qilin Horse was Earth Rank and a boss, so it was only natural that it would be far superior to the Dragonlight Armored Horse. The Dragonlight Armored Horse was about half as strong as my mount, and that was already very impressive.
An ambitious smile creeping onto my face, I said, "The mount"s both powerful and good-looking. It"d be nice if we could create a troop of Dragonlight Cavalry. With just a thousand of these babies, we can sweep a small half of a main city with Knight G.o.d and Generals right now."
Murong Mingyue shot me a helpless smile. "Lofty dreams are great, but reality is a cruel mistress. Do you really think it"s possible to make a cavalry troop on miniboss mounts?"
I curled my lips and didn"t reply.
However, He Yi pulled up a stone hammer from the ground and said confidently, "Actually, yes, it"s more likely than you think. Just watch!"
Our beautiful guild leader then rode up to another statue and smacked it with the hammer. A second later, something unbelievable happened before our eyes: the mob inside the third statue turned out to be a Rare boss mount as well! This meant that the Dragonlight Armored Horse wasn"t a unique mount!
He Yi let out a chuckle. "So? What do you guys think? If I"m not mistaken, at least half of the Dragonlight Armored Horses here are mounts. Lu Chen, the treasure map Yiyi gave you truly deserves to be called a treasure map…"
However, my crazed joy only lasted a couple of seconds before the cold bucket of reality doused it. "I got some Sealing Stones from a quest I did a long time ago, but there weren"t many and I had used them all already. Moreover, the five of us are the only ones who can enter this valley, so that method won"t work either…"
……
He Yi pondered for a moment before admitting, "I guess you"re right. This map is different from the usual ones…"
Beiming Xue also nodded in disappointment.
However, Moonlight Stone smiled and said, "I have important news that you might want to hear. Is there anyone who"s willing to buy it for one gold?"
I turned around to face her. "What news?"
"Give me the gold first. I"m h.o.a.rding, you see…"
Shaking my head, I tossed her a gold coin as she asked and said, "Can you speak now?"
Moonlight Stone giggled. "Mn! Do you remember that guy called Eternal Totem from Blazing Hot Lips? Yep, he"s the tamer who learned the Famous General Skill, Hundred Beasts. He isn"t the only tamer to learn a Famous General Skill, however. There"s also a tamer in Warsky Alliance who learned a Famous General Skill called Beast King, a skill that increases the stats of all allied pets by 30%, and grants them Stealth and Haste. His name is Psychic. Do you know that he has a special ability that allows him to create Sealing Stones?"
"What? A player who can make Sealing Stones?" I exclaimed in shock. "How… how is that possible?"
"Why would it be impossible?" Moonlight Stone. "Anyway, two hours before we went online, I heard that Psychic was selling Sealing Stones at Sky City for 1000 gold a piece. Unfortunately, his business wasn"t doing very well because it was too expensive and its uses were rather limited. Sealed maps like the Dragonlight Canyon where a Sealing Stone might come in handy are rare after all."
I nodded in agreement. "That"s true…"
Moonlight Stone continued, "It"s pretty cheap to create Sealing Stones. All you need is magic and trash materials that are easily procured. The problem is that Psychic, or rather Warsky Alliance, has a monopoly over this market, and Psychic gave all the Sealing Stones he created to October Rain for safekeeping. This means that we must consult with October Rain if we wish to procure the Sealing Stones. Unfortunately, Warsky Alliance and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls are enemies, so..."
He Yi frowned a little. "This won"t be easy. Our guilds are like cats and dogs, and October Rain is a cunning woman. Negotiating with her would be akin to pulling a tooth from a tiger"s mouth!"
I smiled and said confidently, "Don"t worry, I"ll take care of this. Do whatever you like and wait for my good news!"
"Okay. Come back soon!"
"Got it!"
After crus.h.i.+ng a return scroll and returning to the eastern plaza of Sky City, I brought up my friend list and tapped the seventh person on it, namely October Rain. I sent a message saying, "Hi there, beautiful. Good night…"
October Rain responded with a smiley face, "I can"t imagine you contacting me for no reason, so what do you want from me, Lu Chen?"
"Are you free to talk at the eastern plaza? There"s something I want to discuss with you."
"Sure, just give me a moment!"
……
I withdrew the Armored Ice Qilin Horse and sat down. While October Rain was making her way over, I put the top-tier equipment I grinded at Dragonlight Canyon on the floor and set up a stall. Then, I leaned lazily against the city wall and placed the Cyan Netherworld Sword beside me. The Phantom Wolf King was curled up next to my feet like a red guardian dog.
A few minutes later, a beautiful archer appeared from the teleportation formation. It was of course the Level 151 October Rain. As the strategist of the runner-up of the Guild Ranking and a CGL Hall of Famer, it was pretty much a given that October Rain had impressive grinding speed. And judging from the dazzling auras surrounding her leather armor, her equipment couldn"t be too far behind our Beiming Xue.
"Oh, you came?" I pointed at the empty spot next to me and smiled at her. "Come take a seat. Now that I think about it, I"ve never given you a meeting gift, have I? Feel free to take any one thing from my stall if you see anything you like…"
October Rain sat down beside me and looked at me with suspicion. "This is so strange. Usually I"m the one who"s doing the teasing, not the other way around. You also have a disgusting expression on your face…"
My smile widened. "What are you talking about? I"ve always treated you courteously, haven"t I?"
"Now that I think about it, you aren"t wrong…" October Rain"s confusion continued for a moment before she shook her head. "I don"t know what is going on with you, but tell me what business you have with me already."
I curled my lips but went straight to the point. "It"s nothing big, really, just… I heard your guild has an OP tamer who can create Sealing Stones? Sealing Stones are awesome, so… is it possible to ask you to give me some? I like grinding solo, so I often run into Rare pets or mounts. I like capturing them and selling them, you see. A financial crisis just happened to hit me recently, and the days aren"t easy to get by, you see. Takes sooo much effort just to earn a bit of money."
"Ohhh, now I get it. You"re gunning for our stock of Sealing Stones. Hmph hmph, I knew it, there"s no way you would come to me if you didn"t have a request to make!" October Rain said while glaring at me.
I continued to smile. "Did you forget that you"re the vice leader of Warsky Alliance, and I"m the vice leader of your enemy guild? What would people say if we got too close to each other? At the very least, Warsky wouldn"t like this, would he?"
October Rain puffed up her round chest and raised her eyebrows. "I"m my own person, personality and status-wise. Everything I do, I do it of my own free will! Not even Warsky has the right to control me!"
"Very well, let"s get back to business then. Can you give me some for free, seeing as we"re on such good terms with each other?"
"Don"t even think about it. 5000 gold a piece."
"What!? That"s daylight robbery! It can"t be more than 500 gold a piece!"
"OMG, your shamelessness knows no bounds! It"s got to be 3000 gold a piece at minimum!"
"How about we both make a compromise? How does 600 gold a piece sound?"
"So shameless! 1500 gold a piece, and no lower than that!"
"Deal!" I caught October Rain"s hand and shook it. "I want 3000 Sealing Stones, thank you!"
"What the h.e.l.l? I don"t have that many…" October Rain shot me a glare, but she seemed to be thinking about something. A while later, she smiled at me and said, "You"re asking more than I can give, so I gotta price this differently. 10000 gold a piece, and no less than that…"
I sucked in a deep breath before uttering, "October Rain, forgive me for saying this, but this is worse than daylight robbery!"
October Rain chucked. "Hmph, don"t try to gaslight me, Lu Chen. Why would you buy 3000 Sealing Stones at once if you aren"t plotting something big? You know what, forget the deal, I"m not selling you anything even if you agree to pay me 10k gold a piece. Strengthening Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls does us no good, and Warsky is rich enough that he won"t mind missing a 3-million gold business."
I clenched my fists as a note of begging entered my throat, "No! For the sake of our friends.h.i.+p, please reconsider this!"
October Rain stared at me playfully for a moment before bursting into laughter. "Alright, I can sell you 3000 Sealing Stones at our agreed price of 1500 gold a piece, but I"m adding an extra condition!"