The Second Class Advancement Quest's Increased Difficulty
With a large influx of players logging in, the experience points awarded after completing the first act of the main storyline are finally being used by players.
Many players chose to allocate points to Merrick Saber Technique, causing Lister's stagnant experience points to surge back up.
Forget about those things for the moment, Lister was carefully looking at the announcement on the Expansion.
Information that might be irrelevant to the players is something he can't easily ignore these days.
The year was 1539 in the solar calendar, which was indeed more than 20 years earlier than the war he remembered.
The actual interactive power zones, judging from the current situation, are much larger than the area in the first act.
There are only 11 cities in the Kingdom of Lucian that can be called major cities.
These are the core administrative cities of three vassal principalities and eight provinces.
In his previous life, Lister arrived directly in the Royal City of Bode and didn't have much time to learn about other aspects of the city.
Even players who descend upon other major cities will eventually converge on the royal city.
Judging from his current perspective, Kingdom of Lucian's current external campaign is actually relying on itself.
After all, the players are outside the actual interaction area and do not actually exist, so they will not affect the overall battle.
The first two acts of the game are designed for beginners.
The true impact of each player's influence on the game only becomes apparent when they officially choose sides during the great war between the two nations in Act III.
"Use 'Crystal of Extreme Transcendence'?"
"Yes!"
Please select one active skill. Note: The Crystal of Extreme Transcendence can only upgrade an active skill to rank A. Upgrading beyond that level will not be effective!
"User has selected -- Merrick Saber Technique (Level B)."
"Congratulations, your Merrick Saber Technique has improved!"
Another wave of swordsmanship memories surged into his mind, and compared to the previous ones, Merrick Saber Technique in this memory had changed drastically!
The moves are no longer fixed or rigid; instead, they reflect a deeper understanding of the sword, a momentum that is unstoppable.
Countless memories surfaced out of nowhere, overriding Lister's original understanding of Merrick Saber Technique.
"Congratulations, your Merrick Saber Technique has been upgraded!"
[Merrick Saber Technique (Rank B → Rank A) LV60 (1/600000): Uses knife techniques to precisely attack the target, dealing 6571~7298 damage (affected by Strength attribute bonus). Immune to most control effects while attacking, and the knife attack cannot be interrupted to a certain extent.]
Seeing the improvement in Merrick Saber Technique, Lister nodded with considerable satisfaction.
The direction for improvement is towards immunity to control effects, and even towards Super Armor, which surprisingly has quite a bit of potential.
In his previous life, he had never considered upgrading the Merrick Saber Technique. If he had known it would have this effect, he would have definitely tried to upgrade the skill to S-rank.
For now, we're using the Crystal of Extreme Transcendence stolen from the treasury of the Kingdom of Lucian.
There were seven in total; you don't feel bad using stolen goods.
I rechecked my four attributes, and after taking the potion, they were all at 60 points, reaching the level barrier limit.
Of the active skills, only Merrick Saber Technique is maxed out; the rest are all at level 1.
After checking everything, Lister finally clicked on the available job change quest.
Each job change solidifies one's four main attributes, and the job change will be adapted based on factors such as the player's current skill mastery.
Lister dared not hope that he would have the same good luck in his second job advancement as he did in his first, and continued to use his passive sword technique.
But he was still very devout, even though he only maxed out one A-level sword technique skill. Logically, the suitable second-job class wouldn't be too bad.
Congratulations, you have begun the job change quest.
"Notice: Basic attributes and all skills are now fixed. You cannot upgrade existing skills before completing the job change quest. (Note: You can continue to upgrade skills and learn new skills before completing the job change quest.)"
Congratulations, your job change quest has been drawn and issued.
"Lister Merrick's exclusive second job advancement quest: The mysteries hidden in alchemy, the lost civilization awaits a new awakening..."
"Task requirements: Part 1 (one part total): Find the alchemical ruins, search for 0/100 types of alchemical creatures (Note: must be killed), explore 0/1000 types of alchemical creations (Note: only need to be recorded),..."
Looking closely at the exclusive job change quest, it's clear that the second job change is a quest for level 60 players.
This actually refers to the player's fourth act, which is the period when they begin exploring the Alchemy Technology Ruins.
Therefore, Lister had anticipated that the job change quest would be related to the Alchemy Ruins.
Before I could even finish reading the exclusive quest, the quest text suddenly disappeared, followed immediately by a series of warnings.
Warning: System error! Quest issuance failed; the current error involves a second-stage job changer.
"Warning: A special detection of an alien cosmic life form has been reported to the mainframe."
"The mastermind, Area 71, has personally taken over..."
It's that familiar Area 71 again; it seems Lister has already encountered its judgment twice.
"Scan: This alien life form has reached level 60, meeting the criteria for a second job advancement. A job advancement quest can be issued; the quest is being reissued."
"Notification: According to the supplementary regulations for the alternate universe, the job change quest failed to be issued due to a system error."
"Error details are known: The job change for life forms from the alien universe was not part of the main brain system's mission. Re-establishing contact with the alien universe is underway... Please wait..."
"Notice: The Alien Universe is currently in a dormant state, and will be re-determined independently by Area 71 of the mainframe. (Note: This determination will be notarized.)"
"Judgment: Lister Merrick, the second job advancement quest for the alien cosmic entity continues to be issued. Due to the current level of this life form far exceeding the main body's progress, the difficulty of the job advancement quest has been increased!"
"In accordance with the current needs of civilization's development, a new mission is being generated... Please wait..."
Notarization complete!
"Lister Merrick's exclusive second job advancement quest: A new civilization born from alchemical technology, not yet recognized by the Galactic Federation due to historical reasons..."
"Task Specific Requirements: First Stage (One Stage in Total): Register your current civilization within the Galactic Federation. (Note: This task involves significant changes to the development process and is quite difficult. Upon completion, the strength of your new job will be appropriately increased.)"
Finally, the series of messages came to an end.
Lister never expected that simply accepting a second job advancement quest would involve so many judgments.
I can't help but feel fortunate that I completed my first job advancement. I guess the job advancement quest was a reward and was completed automatically, which is why I wasn't penalized.
Now, this second job advancement quest has suddenly gone wrong.
The original task was easy for Lister; it was simply exploring the alchemical ruins.
It was a standard second-tier advancement mission, even easier than the second-tier advancement mission in his previous life.
His previous life's second job advancement quest consisted of three parts. Although the strength requirements were not high, it was very complicated and was a specific side quest event.
Now, things have gotten even worse; the intensity of the task has increased by a whole new level.
Of course, Lister was somewhat relieved about this, because at least after completing the mission, the strength of his new job would be appropriately increased.
It seems that being able to achieve so-called fairness is good news for him.
Being able to lay a solid foundation in the early stages is not a bad thing for him, and high-effort, high-return tasks are also reasonable.
However, the specifics of this task were something that Lister couldn't quite understand.
Just this one sentence, without any further explanation, the so-called "registration" feels like giving the current civilization an identity.
He didn't really know much about the early stages of the "Divine Revelation" world; he wasn't a top-tier player on the server.
He wasn't the one driving the game's progress; he was just an ordinary player who followed the crowd.
I only have a general understanding of the background of each scene in the game.
For example, the battle between the two nations in Act III, and the exploration of alchemical ruins in Act IV.
Logically, the appearance of the Galactic Federation should be in Act 5!
Does this mean the second job advancement quest won't be completed until Act 5?
Wrong...!
Lister remembered that Act V was about defending against an attack from the Galactic Federation.
The system notification stated, "This involves a major development process."
Could it be that as long as he registers his current civilization within the Galactic Federation, he will be immune to invasion?
But... how exactly do I complete this registration?