The next morning, I woke up to the ringing of my phone. After checking the time and seeing that it was 11 am, I got up to my feet and opened the curtains. The sunlight s.h.i.+ning through the window felt warm and bright.
A quick wash later, I knocked on He Yi"s door.
"Eve?"
"Yes, Lu Chen?"
He Yi opened the door and responded. Murong Mingyue was inside as well.
"I promised Lin Yixin to eat lunch with her yesterday, so I"m heading out…" I said.
"Mn. Come back soon. There are countless people in the guild who are screaming for you to duplicate mounts as soon as possible, and Lil Beiming desperately wants to ride a mount too."
I replied smilingly, "No worries, tell Beiming that I"ll duplicate Dragonscale Beast for her immediately after I come back. Oh right, what should we call our new cavalry after we distribute the Dragonscale Beasts to our high-level players?"
He Yi gave it some thought before saying, "Let"s just keep the same t.i.tle as before. The Dragonscale Beast almost looks identical to the Dragonlight Armored Horse in terms of appearance anyway. There"s no need to go out of our way to change it."
I nodded before confirming, "Okay. From now on, our usual cavalry will be called the Dragonlight Cavalry, while our mounted archers will be called the Dragonlight Archers. Sounds fine?"
He Yi agreed easily. "Yes, yes, whatever you say. Now go, don"t keep Beauty Lin waiting."
"Mn."
……
I saw Lin Yixin at the entrance after I left the apartment and vroomed all the way to the university. But to my surprise, Zi Chuanyu and Clear Perfume were with her.
"Aw, I thought this was a one-on-one date…" I poked my head out of the window and said after parking the car by the roadside.
Clear Perfume giggled. "We didn"t want to be the third wheel either, but Yiyi insisted that we come with her!"
"Well, hop in, y"all. Where are we eating?"
Lin Yixin opened the car door and slipped into the front pa.s.senger seat. "Since you"re treating, let"s eat something nicer. How about sea food at Yakexuan?"
"Sure!"
We arrived at Yakexuan and ordered a table full of dishes. Honestly, it didn"t cost as much as one might expect. Unless the venue was especially high-cla.s.s, a table full of dishes was well within my ability to afford.
While we were eating, Lin Yixin looked at me and asked, "How does Dark Moon City look now that it"s Rank 10, Little Cheat? Is it much stronger than before?"
"It"s okay. The walls are tougher, the arrow towers are stronger, but that"s about it. There isn"t really much difference at all."
"Hmph. Don"t think we don"t know that Rank 10 castles have unique skills!"
"Hehe!" I chuckled but didn"t say anything.
"Spill. What are the effects of the two skills exactly? If I remember, one of them is called Duplicate Mount, and the other"s Mounted Archery Training, right?"
"Yep."
I sipped my drink before answering, "Well, I guess there"s no point hiding this from you. Duplicate Mount is a skill that duplicates any mount at or below the Earth Rank at the cost of 400k resources. However, duplicated mounts are only equippable by players of the guild, and cannot be sold. As for Mounted Archery Training, it allows Level 180 seventh-promotion archers to learn the Mounted Shooting skill and become your legendary mounted archers."
"What!?" Lin Yixin and Zi Chuanyu shot to their feet almost at the same time. Their eyes were as wide as saucers.
I stood up too and put both hands on Yiyi"s shoulders, smiling. "Sit down, you two. Lunch isn"t over yet, and you"re drawing attention."
I knew they would react like this. Duplicate Mount wasn"t the most impressive skill in the world because with time, Earth Rank mount would become more and more accessible. Mounted Archery Training though was an invincible spear granted to us by the WEL compet.i.tion. Currently, Dark Moon City was the only city in the entire world who had the ability to train mounted archers. Moreover, this was the MVP reward, so there was a chance the skill was exclusive to our guild forever. In other words, mounted archers could be a unit that was exclusive to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls only!
"Mm hmm, today"s oyster sure is fresh and tasty…" I praised.
No one responded to my musings.
Suddenly, I felt Lin Yixin pressing her arm against mine. When I turned my head, I was greeted by one of the most dazzling smiles I had ever seen from her. "Why don"t we make a deal, Little Cheat?"
A terrible premonition immediately struck me. "What are you plotting, Yiyi?"
She replied, "Mind sharing Dark Moon City"s unique skill with us? We are your allies, aren"t we? You know that Silver Fir City is still a long way from reaching Rank 10."
"f.u.c.k no! Dark Moon City doesn"t belong to me alone. I can"t decide this without consulting my comrades…"
"I know. But we can pay for it!" Lin Yixin looked babies into my eyes as she said, "I"m not asking you to duplicate mounts for us. What I want is that Mounted Archery Training skill… you know that I brought Nangong Lexi into the guild, and that she was a famous mounted archer in Spirit of Grief, right? If she could have a mount, I"m sure she"ll be twice as good as she is now. My request is very simple: train 100 mounted archers for us, and no more. We"ll even pay double the resources it costs. What do you think?"
Lin Yixin was being as generous as she could get. She wanted 100 mounted archers only, and she was willing to part with twice the amount of resources for them. Snowy Cathaya was the one ally that would never turn their backs on us, be it a Nation War or a territory war, so I had to satisfy her request.
Zi Chuanyu and Clear Perfume were looking expectantly at us as well. This was very important to Snowy Cathaya.
I gave it some thought before answering, "Well, 100 mounted archers definitely isn"t a problem. However, there"s a soft cap on Mounted Archery Training, and if I remember correctly it can only produce 200 or 500 mounted archers per day. Also, I already mentioned this before, but Dark Moon City doesn"t belong to me alone. I have an obligation to train our guild members first and create our mounted archer troops as soon as possible, and that"ll take around a month. That being said, I can suppose that I can make a small exception. Send ten of your best archers to join Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and I"ll finish their training first."
"Mn mn! That"s wonderful!"
Excited, Lin Yixin dropped her chopsticks and kissed me on the cheeks before I could react. Then, she returned to her seat so fast that it was almost as if nothing had happened, if you ignored that her pose was unusually prim and her cheeks were reddened.
Zi Chuanyu and Sun Qingqing were stunned by this. Zi Chuanyu said, "Seriously? Did you guild leader just give Lu Chen a kiss for the Mounted Archery Training? She"s lost her shame completely, hasn"t she, Qingqing…"
Sun Qingqing: "Shut up."
Zi Chuanyu: "..."
……
After the meal, I bade Lin Yixin goodbye, drove back to the workshop and logged back into the game as soon as possible. I bet my comrades are rioting right now!
Swhoos.h.!.+
I teleported to Dark Moon City immediately after I arrived at Sky City. Now that the undead castle was Rank 10, it looked a lot more impressive than before. Its land had expanded by almost three times, and it had the copper-like appearance of a tier 3 main city. The faint sheen of b.l.o.o.d.y energy covering the walls also gave it an intimidating presence. Speaking of walls, the city walls were a lot tougher than before. They were covered with sharp spikes that mostly prevented the use of cloud ladders and siege towers. The only way to scale the walls safely now was to destroy the spikes with catapults first.
The territory hall itself was an iron fortress protected by countless Ghost G.o.d Knight NPCs. I saw a lot of players gathering outside the entrance including He Yi, Li Chengfeng, Beiming Xue and more. It went without saying that the melee fighters wanted to upgrade their mounts, and the archers wanted to learn Mounted Shooting as soon as possible.
"What the f.u.c.k took you so long, man?" The moment I showed up, Li Chengfeng grabbed my clothes and dragged me all the way to Dark Knight Hero Udal"s feet. "Duplicate a Dragonscale Beast for me now!"
"Slow down man…"
"How can I!? Our city resources were maxed out many hours ago, and we"ve wasted at least several hours of production while you"re enjoying your date!"
"f.u.c.k, really?"
I checked the resource screen and confirmed that all 4 types of resources were maxed out at 10 million already, also the upper limit of our warehouse. If I wasn"t mistaken, the system must"ve maxed out our resources when it upgraded the city after we won the MVP reward. I couldn"t believe that I had forgotten about this!
That being said, this was undoubtedly good news. 10 million was enough to duplicate plenty of mounts and train many mounted archers!
He Yi said, "I tweaked the training requirement a bit and changed the cost to 50k guild points. I also set it so that only players who have joined us for at least half a month could enjoy the benefits. It"s to prevent other guilds from stealing them."
I nodded. "Good point."
It was a wise decision for sure. When the 10 archers from Snowy Cathaya arrive, I"ll use my authority to pardon their requirement.
I extended a hand to He Yi and asked, "Eve, the egg please."
She took it out and pa.s.sed it to me. "Here…"
"Thanks. Now then, Li Chengfeng Gui Guzi, Fighting Spirits, You and Yun, Chaos Moon, Heaven"s Rain and Diamond Dust… come here and receive your Dragonscale Beasts!"
"Okay!"
They voiced their agreement and surrounded me instantly. The Dragonscale Beast was the champion reward of the WEL compet.i.tion, so it was far stronger than a normal Dragonlight Armored Horse. They must be overjoyed that they got to equip such an amazing mount for just the measly price of 50k guild contribution points!
After the Dark Knight Hero Udal carried the egg to a sealed altar inside the territory hall, I took the opportunity to rename and reskin the Dragonscale Beast to the Dragonlight Armored Horse. This way, we wouldn"t need to change our cavalry"s name. After that, the system told me to choose a player to receive the mount, and I motioned with my mouth for Li Chengfeng to stand at the center of the magic formation. After I confirmed the prompt, a faint blue light surrounded Li Chengfeng, and the system confirmed that Li Chengfeng had received a new mount. It had the appearance of the Dragonlight Armored Horse, but the stats of the Dragonscale Beast!
"Haha, awesome!"
Li Chengfeng jumped down the altar and waved his hand once. An impressive black warhorse immediately appeared beneath him. It was covered in draconic armor, and it had a triangular-shaped horn on top of its forehead. When it neighed, a draconic soul surrounded the dragon warrior and increased his Attack and Defense by 50%! It was the unique skill, Dragon Soul Protection!
The duplication process continued smoothly as Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon, High Fighting Spirits and more received their mounts. The sight of the castle"s resources dropping continuously both pleased and worried me.
……
"Big bro, what about me?" Suddenly, Beiming Xue tugged at my Nine Heavens Li Fire Bracelet and said, "I want a mount too!”