Recognition and the Main Quest Triggered

Chen Xinhe pressed deeper into the cave.

The passage grew darker and damper, and his visibility gradually worsened.

Fortunately, Chen Xinhe had plenty of experience leveling up and had been through most maps. He knew that at times like this, his other senses were just as important as sight.

"Congratulations, you have slain a Three-Headed Hound Knight."

"You gained 712 experience points."

"You gained 498 experience points."

By the time he was well over halfway into the cave, Chen Xinhe had cut down more than twenty hound knights with overwhelming ease.

His remaining experience was about to pass twenty thousand.

Suddenly, the cave opened up considerably ahead. Though visibility was poor, he could just make out a giant creature in front of him.

It was an exceptionally massive Three-Headed Hound Knight. Its heads pressed against the cave ceiling, and its body occupied most of the space that had just opened up.

[Target discovered: Three-Headed Hound Knight]

[Comparing enemy and user strength... Results obtained...]

[Level: Lv21]

[Health: 3519/3556]

[Stamina: ???]

[Attributes: Strength 19, ???, Intelligence 6, Agility 11]

[Skills: Charge (D-rank) Lv???, (insufficient scouting data) ???]

[Overall rating: E (advanced monster)]

[Warning: This enemy is far stronger than you. Avoidance recommended]

At the sight of the giant three-headed hound, Chen Xinhe's expression grew serious.

A three-headed hound like this would have been nothing to his original character in the game.

But compared to his current self, the gap was considerable.

Above level twenty, it had already reached the third tier.

Its strength and stamina attributes alone crushed his, to say nothing of its E-rank overall rating.

That meant this Three-Headed Hound Knight was far stronger than ordinary three-headed hounds, even among those in the third tier.

Its scouted base attributes didn't look particularly high, which could only mean its Charge skill was an extremely high level!

"Swish! Thump!"

Before Chen Xinhe could take a closer look and compare their abilities, the third-tier Three-Headed Hound Knight charged at him without a moment's hesitation.

It was faster than every three-headed hound Chen Xinhe had encountered that day, moving so fast it nearly left afterimages.

Chen Xinhe's mind could react, but unfortunately, his current body couldn't.

All he could do was raise his blade, hold his breath and focus, then take the blow head-on.

"Boom!"

Chen Xinhe was hurled more than ten meters like a cannonball, crashing back into the narrow cave passage.

"You have suffered a Heavy Strike. Health: 417/762 (cannot recover during combat)."

"You have been afflicted with bleeding. Health -3."

"You have been afflicted with bleeding. Health -3."

As expected, a monster with an E-rank overall rating was still too much for Chen Xinhe to handle at present.

Not only was its Charge skill extremely powerful, it also inflicted bleeding.

If his inherited equipment hadn't been decent, with every piece being rare Merrick Family heirloom equipment, that hit probably would have killed him.

And unlike when he had controlled a character in the game, now that he had been seriously injured in one blow, he could feel his body trembling uncontrollably, and even getting up sent pain through his entire body.

Unfortunately, the three-headed hound across from him clearly gave him no time to recover. The next moment, it charged again.

It was still extremely fast, but this time Chen Xinhe had anticipated it.

He leaped to the side along the cave wall ahead of time. Even though his opponent moved fast enough to leave afterimages, he relied on the instincts honed through years of playing the game to catch an opening and deliver a heavy slash.

"Critical hit: 1643 damage dealt."

"Remaining health: 1876/3556."

The three-headed hound collapsed behind him the moment it took the Heavy Strike. While it was still somewhat dazed and stiff from the hit, Chen Xinhe hurried forward.

He didn't dare let the three-headed hound charge again. Even with rare equipment covering his body and his blade braced against the first charge, he had lost over half his health. If it happened again, he would die in this new world.

He swung his blade down with all his might, once again targeting the weak spot at the back of its neck!

"Critical hit: 1797 damage dealt."

"Attack: 79 damage dealt."

"Congratulations, you have slain a Three-Headed Hound Knight."

"You gained 17019 experience points."

As expected, killing an enemy above his tier gave more experience. It was enough to level him up, and more than the experience from the nearly thirty ordinary three-headed hounds he had just killed combined.

Of course, that was also because this three-headed hound had an E-rank overall rating.

Unfortunately, there was still only experience; it hadn't dropped even an ordinary item.

At that moment, two more hound knights rushed out of the cave. Just as Chen Xinhe endured his discomfort and raised his blade to continue fighting, he saw the two hound knights run straight past him and flee.

Given his condition, Chen Xinhe didn't pursue them.

Instead, he continued into the cave, where there were no longer any sounds of other three-headed hounds.

He had reached the end of the cave, and the stench in his nose grew ever stronger, making him want to retch.

When he used the fire-starting supplies he carried to light a torch, the sight before him instantly froze Chen Xinhe in place.

At the end of the cave, there was no ironwood treasure chest filled with various rare items, as there had been when he cleared it in the game in his previous life.

As far as he could see, the relatively spacious ground at the end of the cave was covered with human corpses!

Bloodied severed arms, long-rotting corpses, and skulls that looked as though they had been picked clean formed a towering pile of bodies before him, a scene like hell on earth.

The smell of blood and rotting flesh continued to assault his nostrils without restraint.

Chen Xinhe stood rooted to the spot, all the strength draining from his body in an instant.

So... this was the real Divine Revelation world?

Had the server cut things from what I originally experienced in the game?

For the actual humans now living in the Divine Revelation world, was this the state of affairs in the second act's setting?

So monsters survived entirely by slaughtering and feeding on humans?

In his previous life in the Earth Federation, Chen Xinhe had been among the poorest of the poor, possessing nothing beyond government relief.

But at least there had been Divine Revelation, a game that let him indulge in fantasy and lose himself in it as if it were a new world.

Now, faced with the corpses covering the ground before him, he truly experienced the real Divine Revelation world for the first time.

It was far from the paradise he had expected. Danger was everywhere here too, and ordinary people still lived under the threat of monsters.

At that moment, he could no longer regard this place as a game world.

He could no longer subconsciously believe, as he had before, that he was merely playing a character named Lister Merick, maintaining a detached attitude and treating everyone else in this world as NPCs.

Chen Xinhe's experiences over the past few days suddenly felt real to him.

He was now truly within the Duchy of Will.

And he truly was Lister Merick, the sole heir of the current generation of the Merick Family!

At least in the real Divine Revelation world he now inhabited, he finally accepted the fact that he was Lister Merick.

It wasn't simply role-playing; he was willing to live on in this identity.

"Lister Merick, congratulations. You have triggered a main quest. Would you like to accept it?"

A system message appeared before him.

Expressionless, Lister summoned the panel and examined the main quest.

"Main quest: Reforge Merick's Glory"

"Quest objective: Spread the Merick Family's renown throughout the Duchy of Will and the Kingdom of Lucian."

"Quest rewards: Stage one, spread its glory throughout the Duchy of Will: 5 attribute points, 2 million experience points, and 10,000 gold coins.

Stage two, Glory Throughout Lucian: 10 attribute points, 5 million experience points, 100,000 gold coins, and one additional resurrection."

"Note: The user currently has 0 resurrections!"

Only then did Lister finally realize that he had no resurrections at all.

And just how dangerous it had actually been to fight that advanced E-rank Three-Headed Hound Knight.

If he had made a single mistake, he might really have died in the game world.

"Accept the quest!"

After taking quite a while to recover, Lister finally accepted the quest.

A main quest like this was exactly what he wanted. Leaving aside the hard-earned attribute points, a single resurrection alone was enough to make him risk his life for it!