Chapter 143 - Deepblue Frostsoul, Advancement, and Honor
Chapter 143: Deepblue Frostsoul, Advancement, and Honor
The battle had come to an end. After looking at the two oddly-shaped ice “sculptures” up at the shore, Qin Ruo subsequently lowered his head and looked at his pair of hands in disbelief. He shook his head since he still felt that what had happened just now was a little bit absurd.
Who would have thought that the majestic Level 45 Water-type monster Snow Giant’s weakness was actually the weak Aquabullet? If he was the one to spread this news, most pros who roamed the Snow Domain would most probably laugh out loud!
Even Qin Ruo was doubtful that perhaps the genetic structure of the Snow Giants encountered here on this Frostsnow Island was different from that of the Snow Giants found in Snow Domain…
The battle that ended not long ago demonstrated that, although an Aquabullet did not severely damage the Snow Giant as it only melted away a small portion of its huge body, the fact that it could reduce 100 HP from the Snow Giant per single attack was pretty astonishing. A Tier 3 Frostlance cast by Qin Ruo could hardly drain three digits’ damage from the Snow Giant.
However, Qin Ruo did not waste a lot of time to linger on this mysterious occurrence. This was because he was distracted by something that happened in the lake which was more unexplainable.
The Wintry Vajra had maintained its walking posture since stepping into this lake and stood towering in the water like a fixated “water statue”. As compared to the insignificant Snow Giant, Qin Ruo was more eager to figure out why such drastic changes were happening to the Wintry Vajra. He wondered whether this had something to do with his final quest.
Was this because certain conditions had been met or something else?
He walked to the shore and stuffed the two Violet Equipment and two Mana Cores that dropped from the Snow Giants into his backpack. After that, he carefully activated Barrier and Aquashield before taking himself to the back of the Wintry Vajra.
He stretched out his hand slowly and touched the Wintry Vajra ‘body’ lightly from the back…
Water!
It was really made out of water. The Wintry Vajra’s body had completely transformed into the Water Element. But this was different from Qin Ruo’s Water Elemental State. It seemed like the Wintry Vajra soul was stripped and lost its mobility entirely. Now, its existence was to serve one last purpose—a vessel!
A vessel to hold the Deepblue Frostsoul.
Following this revelation, Qin Ruo was no longer hesitant and used his hand to explore further into the Wintry Vajra’s thoracic cavity—where the heart was. He then grabbed the Deepblue Frostsoul and pulled it out.
At that instance, the Wintry Vajra’s body immediately collapsed as if the Water Element had lost its mental support and dispersed into the lake with a swoosh, which frightened Qin Ruo a little.
At the same time, system notification began to ring successively near his ear.
Deepblue Frostsoul obtained, fifth part of quest completed!
All five Advancement Quests accomplished!
Congratulations, Tier upgraded! Promoted to Tier 4!
A blinding white light spilled down, which was similar to the Radiant Priest’s skill Ultimate Holy Prayer. It instantly removed all Qin Ruo’s debuffs and rejuvenated his spirit.
*Acquired Intermediate Water Elementalism Technique—Sting! *
Acquired Intermediate Water Elementalism Technique—Break!
Acquired Intermediate Water Elementalism Technique—Transfigure!
Acquired Intermediate Water Spell—Raging Snow Roar!
Acquired… Frost Barrier! … Darkfrost Shield! … Snow Eagle Dive! … Darkfrost Sting! … Million Arrow Sleet!
The system notification on the acquisition of Tier 4 Water spells finally came to an end after popping up for one whole minute. Qin Ruo opened the Skill Interface to view them and realized there were a total of twenty-four extra spells added at the end of the list.
Among them, two were Defensive Spells, two were Supporting Spells, while others encompassed Single, Multiple, as well as AoE Offensive Spells.
Qin Ruo frowned while studying the numerous spells. The number of Tier 4 Spells was more than all Tier 1 to Tier 3 spells combined. Besides, there were also huge gaps in strength in terms of their attribute. For example, one Novice Tier 4 Offensive Spell “Snow Eagle Dive” already surpassed the Grandmaster Tier 3 Frostlance’s Magic Attack by 2 points. Once it reached the Grandmaster level at a later stage, its Magic Attack would exceed 20 points.
Twenty points Magic Attack was equivalent to 100 HP damage. Although it cost roughly one to two more MP points and has its charging time increased by one to two seconds, it still possessed a huge advantage in terms of its damage efficiency against the target! No wonder most Elementalist would usually focus on Tier 4 Spells in their routine leveling.
However, in Qin Ruo’s opinion, over- reliance on Tier 4 spells might become troublesome and disadvantageous in emergency situations. Taking what happened in Devil’s Swamp as an example, if the Elementalists from the Eight Gods Troop’s Hunters were willing to summon the Tier 2 Barrier instead of the Tier 4 one when they were ambushed, the Citadel party would definitely be unable to rival them. He himself might also be unable to find any opening to overwhelm all Elementalists at one go… Even if they managed to win in the end, it would be a narrow victory.
After reading through all the techniques, he closed the Skill Interface and only came to realize that there was a person in front of him. The NPC Elder who had given the Advancement Quest to Qin Ruo suddenly appeared before his eyes and was smiling at him.
Right after he recognized his presence, the NPC Elder stretched out his hand and said, “Please pass the Deepblue Frostsoul to me.”
“Eh?”
The words of the NPC Elder made Qin Ruo tense up. He subconsciously grabbed his pocket.
No matter how the Tier 4 Mana Core was attained by Qin Ruo, he spent so much effort to obtain it… It would probably be worth 5000 gold coins if put on sale. This sum could be used to compensate his depleted stock of Movement Speed Potion and HP Potion (L). If he surrendered it to the Elder, he would suffer a huge loss here since the Boss had dropped nothing else!
Anyhow, this game world belonged to the Elder’s creator. How possible can he refuse the request?
In the end, Qin Ruo pitifully surrendered the Deepblue Frostsoul and shot a bitter look at the NPC Elder who remained calm and gracious. He was exactly like a kid who had his favorite toy confiscated by his parent…
‘Eh? What in the…’
Unexpectedly, right after the NPC Elder received the Ice Soul, he flipped his hand like performing a magic trick and silently reopened his palm in front of Qin Ruo to handed the item back to him.
Qin Ruo was startled. He glanced at the necklace on the NPC Elder’s palm and licked his slightly dry lips excitedly and nervously. He then asked the Elder in a hopeful voice, “Is this necklace… for me?”
The NPC Elder nodded and said, “This is your reward for passing this Advancement Quest!”
Hearing this, Qin Ruo eyes blinked brightly as he hastily picked over the necklace embedded with the Deepblue Frostsoul…
Before he could get a good look on the attribute, the NPC Elder spoke to him again with high spirits, “Young hero, as the Elder of the Aquamancer Guild, I shall now formally be your witness and grant you Honor. May the radiance of the Angel Faction shelter you eternally, young warrior!”
“To protect the Angel Faction’s territory, to aid the Angel Faction warriors, and fight unitedly to resist the corruption by Devil’s Continent’s force! The Mythical Battlefield requires your service…”
Following this passionate speech, system notification rang annoyingly once again. This time, Qin Ruo was satisfied to learn about the new information.
Acquired Honor granted by the Angel Faction! Acquired seven Honor Points!
‘Seven Honor Points?!
‘Is it due to the difficulty of this Advancement Quest?’
When he was about to consult the NPC Elder regarding this, the scenery in front of him suddenly took a rapid turn. The NPC mentor had vanished, while he had appeared on Savis Town’s warp portal…
He looked vaguely on the surrounding pedestrians that were walking to and fro. He opened his mouth but was unable to make any sound. He opened the Attribute Interface to confirm once again that he had really leveled up to 40 and officially entered the Tier 4 rank. The feeling of reincarnation was inevitably stemmed from the bottom of his heart.
‘Tier 4!
‘Finally, Tier 4!’
Qin Ruo had completely forgotten about the seven Honor Points that he had just gained. He shut his eyes tight and took a deep breath. All he wanted to do now was to release his inner excitement and impulse to call out to the world!
“I’ve finally achieved Tier 4!”
This achievement was very common in the game. However, Qin Ruo still yelled joyfully in his own mind for a while. After that, he quickly regained his composure and returned to his regular demeanor. He was well aware of his true purpose in playing this game. At least, for now, he would not behave exaggeratedly simply because of levels or tier advancements.
He looked at the time and figure that it was already 4 o’clock in the morning. He had been doing the quest for almost three hours… He wondered whether Slayer’s Heart and the few others were still online. He did not pay attention to the party channel when he was running the quest.
He discovered that several people were still online and guarding Aricus Underground Ruins through voice message. An unknown warmth feeling filled Qin Ruo’s heart when he found out that the group must have chosen to stay on guard because he was attempting the Advancement Quest today. Or else, on a normal day they would have already gone offline and gone to bed at this hour.
After the few ladies heard Qin Ruo’s voice, they began to inquire the quest outcome one after another through the party channel. As they were informed that he had successfully completed the Tier 4 Advancement Quest, another round of cheering and congratulations unavoidably exploded from the other end of the channel.
“Well done! It’s your treat tomorrow. Don’t forget that!”
“Great! Now we no longer need to worry about you. It’s finally time to go offline and get a beautiful sleep. I am almost numbed by all the spiders here! I will go off now.”
“Ruo Ruo, good night!”
“Ruo Ruo, get up earlier tomorrow though it’s weekend. Find a remote place to increase your Skill Mastery points. We are not going to bother you tomorrow.”
“That’s right! Especially a few commonly used Defensive and Attacking Techniques. Ruo Ruo, you better make sure that you get to the Advanced Level as soon as possible! Many Clans will certainly fight to recruit you after you upgrade your equipment.”
Qin Ruo was stunned after listening to everyone’s advice.
“Leveling will take a lot of time. What about the secret chamber at the Ruin’s third level?”
“You don’t need to worry about that. We can’t go in during the weekend anyway since it will be extremely crowded. You should take this opportunity to focus on your leveling for these two days. Once you are more familiar with the Tier 4 abilities, it will be easier for us to enter the dungeon as well.”
Slayer’s Heart explanation dampened Qin Ruo’s mood.
‘Sh*t! I actually planned to speed up the earnings during these two weekends first…’