Chapter Sixty-Two: The Sacred Baptism

After equipping the new pair of blue gloves, my stats received another major boost—my health had reached a staggering 1720 points, with defense at 333 and attack at 234-302. Unfortunately, my attack still lagged behind Murong Shanshan’s 265-345 by quite a margin.

The princess was inside the palace on the left. I found her without much trouble; she even seemed to recognize me. When she learned I had come at Dark’s request, a rare smile graced her lips.

Princess Misha produced an exquisite piece of jade. “This is a jade Dark once gave me. Could you bring it to him for me? I wish to see him again!”

I accepted the jade, feeling there was nothing more to say, and immediately used a Return to Town scroll. In a flash, I found myself beside the Exchange. I was about to leave the city to turn in the quest when I noticed a player setting up a stall just outside the gates, displaying seven or eight skill books with their prices clearly marked.

The seller was busy chatting up passing players. “Come take a look, brothers! Fresh out of the oven, eight skill books, still hot! By the way, I’m looking for a wife—must be attractive, equipment not required!”

What a guy—hawking goods and seeking a wife at the same time. This kid must have a bright future ahead!

“Hey, brother, where’d you get so many books?” I asked, curious. There was quite a variety, all priced in gold coins. I wondered aloud, “Why only accept gold coins?”

“Don’t mention it,” he sighed. “Our leader took on a hidden class change quest that costs a hundred gold coins. Who has that much gold these days? We’ve all had to sell our skill books to help out!”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Currently, “Moonmark” only allowed equipment trading via online banking, without any function to exchange gold coins for real money. At this stage, players barely had enough gold to learn their own skills—learning a basic skill from a trainer already cost one gold coin. Especially for mages, as their level increased, so did the number and cost of learnable skills; a level 20 skill cost five coins. If you didn’t do quests, it was almost impossible to grind out over ten gold coins. Most players had already lent their money to mage friends, so those with any spare gold were even rarer.

I checked the eight books—three I’d never seen before. Two were level 20 Priest skills, both offensive, a godsend for Snow Hany, who until now could only heal. The third was a level 24 Mage skill—Frost Armor—which Lin Xuemin would definitely need. Together, they totaled eighty gold coins.

I glanced at my own pouch: eighty-four gold coins. That might seem impossible for the average player, but I’d done quite a few quests, and fighting Golden Knights had netted me a tidy sum, so I could just barely afford them. No wonder the books hadn’t sold yet; to most players, having a few gold coins was already extravagant.

One by one, I bought the books. Even if they weren’t in demand now, players would definitely scrape together the money for them eventually, and I’d regret missing out if I waited too long.

The three skill books were impressive—

Retribution (Requirement: Priest Level 22): Strikes the target with a certain amount of holy power. Deals double damage to demon-type monsters. Cooldown: 3 seconds. Damage increases with skill level.

Magic Reflection (Requirement: Priest Level 25): For 30 seconds, reflects one instance of magic damage back to the caster, dealing equal magic damage to the enemy. Duration increases with skill level.

Frost Armor (Requirement: Mage Level 24): Increases the caster’s defense by 120 points for 30 minutes. When attacked, inflicts a freezing effect on the attacker, reducing their movement and attack speed by 50%. Effect increases with skill level.

…

Reading the descriptions, I was a bit at a loss. Retribution made sense as an offensive skill for Priests, but Magic Reflection seemed a bit overpowered. Imagine an all-Intelligence Mage attacking a Priest with low resistance—the reflected damage might instantly take out the fragile Mage! Frost Armor was even more outrageous: a level 1 skill granting Mages 120 extra defense, making it almost impossible to one-shot them. Plus, attackers would have their movement speed halved, making it much harder for melee classes like Rogues and Warriors to close in.

There was also a book for Archers—War God’s Might. This time, everyone would get something—Lin Xuemin, Xinyu, and Snow Hany all had skills, so no one could accuse me of favoritism. With these powerful new skills, our five-person team’s chances of becoming the top group in the city soared. I wondered what the team reward would be—surely something generous.

I checked the time—it was already 4:30, half an hour before my meeting with Murong Shanshan. I decided to turn in the quest first.

Skirting the lumberyard, I crossed Wild Horse Plains. The scenery was the same, but the camp of the Flying Knights had been cleared out—Roger must have retreated with his remaining troops while I was at the palace. The lumberyard was now being farmed by players, so Roger’s group wouldn’t be in much danger.

I headed straight for the Golden Knights’ command tent. Dark greeted me with a broad smile. When I handed him the princess’s jade, this burly man actually broke down in tears, sobbing so hard it nearly made me cringe.

Dark began to summarize my achievements over the past two days. “Brave warrior, thanks to your help, the Golden Knights can finally return to the Empire’s banner. We no longer have to fight without purpose. To show my gratitude, I have decided to grant you a holy blessing to make you even stronger!”

System prompt: Dark wishes to bestow a Holy Baptism upon you. Do you accept?

I was stunned—wasn’t a holy baptism something only priests could perform? Could Dark, a paladin of light, really do this?

After a moment’s thought, I decided it couldn’t hurt and accepted.

“Ding~!”

System prompt: You have received the passive skill—Holy Blessing.