Choice

[Battle End]

[You have learned the combat specialty: Basic Grappling Lv. 1.]

[You have learned the combat specialty: Basic Weaponry Lv. 1.]

Finally, combat specialties! Even though they're just the most basic Lv. 1.

Bai Pu let out a soft breath. He knew there was still a big gap between himself and the well-prepared trial-takers. Trial-takers usually train at least one combat specialty to Lv. 5, reaching a point where they can advance at any time, before entering the Spirit Realm to begin their trials.

[Based on your spirit, you have obtained partial data on the Plague Dead.]

[Plague Dead (Normal Lv. 1)]

[Race: Humanoid/Aberration]

[Stats: Strength 6, Agility 5, Stamina 7, Spirit 3]

[Skills: Claw Strike, Undead Body, ???]

[Claw Strike: The Plague Dead attacks enemies with sharp claws, dealing piercing damage and inflicting mild bleeding and corpse poison effects.]

[Undead Body: Passive. The Plague Dead's body is rigid, reducing movement speed by -2 (equivalent to the movement speed from 2 Agility points). Base Armor +4 (equivalent to the base armor value from 4 Stamina points). Immune to bleeding effects.]

Bai Pu suddenly understood. No wonder the fight was so difficult. This guy had 7 Stamina, meaning 70 HP. The passive effect of Undead Body granted +4 base armor, which was equivalent to 11 armor – practically a small tank.

It was also fortunate that the passive of Undead Body reduced movement speed by 2 points. Otherwise, with the Plague Dead's 5 Agility, it would definitely have caught up to the injured Bai Pu.

If he couldn't even handle himself, Bai Pu would have found it very difficult to lure the Plague Dead into the trap.

A slightly ethereal white treasure chest floated above the Plague Dead's corpse.

"It dropped a treasure chest!" Bai Pu rejoiced inwardly. The chance of monsters in the Spirit Realm dropping treasure chests upon death wasn't high.

This Plague Dead wasn't difficult to deal with; it was likely just a regular mob, and it actually dropped a loot chest. His luck was truly good.

Bai Pu placed his hand on the chest and chose to open it directly.

Clink! A crisp sound of colliding gold coins rang out. As white light flashed, six white cards arranged neatly in two rows floated before Bai Pu. The backs of the cards faced him, obscuring their fronts.

[You have obtained 12 Spirit Energy Points.]

[You have obtained a chance to draw loot cards. Current draws available: 2.]

Here it comes, the legendary card draw!

Bai Pu had seen videos of some Awakened streamers drawing cards and was not unfamiliar with this. He first circled halfway around, glancing at the fronts of the cards, only to find them covered in a white mist, making them impossible to see.

No wonder the Awakened streamers didn't look at the fronts when drawing cards.

Bai Pu didn't hesitate any longer and directly clicked on the first card on the left from the top row.

Whoosh!

Light flashed, the card flipped over, and the image finally settled on a thick, short, club-like object.

[You have obtained equipment: Smooth Bone Hammer.]

An equipment drop! And it was a relatively valuable weapon!

Bai Pu rejoiced inwardly and immediately went to check the equipment's stats.

[Smooth Bone Hammer (Sealed)]

[Quality: Normal (White)]

[Equipment Slot: One-Handed]

[Equipment Requirement: Basic Strength 4]

[Stats: Attack Power 1-4]

[Additional Skill: Silky Smooth: Passive. When attacking with this equipment, attack speed +3 (equivalent to the attack speed from 3 Agility points).]

[Durability: 18/20]

[Description: A bone hammer made from the mutated bones of a Plague Dead's remains. Sturdy and durable.]

Bai Pu felt his luck was quite good. He gripped the end of the bone hammer and felt its silky smooth texture, like ivory. The bone protrusion at the end served as a good anti-slip grip, preventing it from slipping out of his hand.

[Hint: This equipment is in a sealed state. To use it, you need to unseal it and complete Spirit Resonance.]

[Warning: Unsealing this equipment will make it unusable by others.]

[Do you wish to unseal it?]

Bai Pu chose "yes" without hesitation. With a flash of white light, Spirit Resonance was completed. As Bai Pu held the bone hammer, he felt a sense of connection, as if the bone hammer were an extension of his arm.

The second loot card dropped was a blood sample.

[Plague Dead's Mutated Blood Sample: Unknown Item. Please seek a qualified professional for identification.]

After completing the two draws, the remaining four white cards, along with the white treasure chest below, turned into a stream of smoke-like particles and dissipated into the air.

Bai Pu got up and felt a slight itch on his chest. He looked down and saw that the area scratched by the Plague Dead had already developed purple bruising.

"The Plague Dead's Claw Strike contains poison..." Bai Pu frowned. Fortunately, the bleeding effect had stopped, and his HP was slowly recovering. The scratch on his chest did not affect his movement.

He could only continue forward, searching for a settlement or town inhabited by natives. Perhaps there he could find a way to cure the poison.

Swish swish—

The sound of water reached him, and Bai Pu looked up to see a dark, wide river, immediately invigorating his spirits.

"This is 17th-century Europe, and human towns depend on rivers! Walking along the river, you'll have a greater chance of encountering natives."

Bai Pu identified the direction of the water flow and headed downstream.

After walking for about an hour, the trees along the way gradually became denser. He could see patches of desolate land between the plains and valleys, like abandoned farmland.

From the valley entrance ahead, the sounds of shouting and fighting could faintly be heard. Bai Pu paused slightly, quickly climbed the outer ridge, and crouched down to peek.

More than a dozen militiamen, clad in simple leather armor, were fighting with weapons like pitchforks and sickles.

Their enemies numbered four.

Three of them were Plague Dead, similar in appearance to the one Bai Pu had defeated before, all shambling along with dirty, tattered clothes.

The militiamen's last enemy was noticeably thicker than the Plague Dead, with especially stout arms, their muscles bulging like old tree trunks.

This fellow was also armored, with a blood-red circular emblem on his chest plate. He wielded a heavy iron maul with barbs. A militiaman who looked like a captain was struck and immediately vomited blood, flying backward, clearly severely wounded.

Although the militiamen outnumbered their opponents, they were at an absolute disadvantage against the "Iron Maul"! After the militia captain was heavily injured, the militiamen began to retreat.

The sound of approaching horses echoed from afar, and a knight was rushing towards the battlefield. This knight's armor and battle robe bore the same blood-red circular emblem.

"Good grief... it feels like this one Iron Maul is enough to kill all the militiamen, let alone the three Plague Dead. And that knight approaching from a distance seems to be with the Iron Maul?"

A prompt from the Spirit Realm Will suddenly arrived.

[Main Quest I: Choice]

[Objective: Help the Blood Ring Hammer Knight squad eliminate the Brandenburg Militia, or help the Brandenburg Militia eliminate the Blood Ring Hammer Knight squad.]

[Quest Difficulty: B]

[Quest Deadline: 12 hours.]

[Quest Reward: Join Blood Ring Fortress / Join Brandenburg Territory.]

[Failure Penalty: Banishment. All Spirit Energy items obtained in this plane, including equipment, items, and Spirit Energy Points, will be deleted.]

[Warning!! If the Main Quest fails, you will be banished into the Time-Space Turbulence.]

[Detected that you are currently undertaking a trial quest. If this Main Quest fails, it will be considered a failure of the trial quest, and the failure penalty will be corrected to the trial quest failure penalty: Expulsion. You will be expelled back to the real world, and the difficulty of the next trial quest will be increased by 30%, but the reward will not be increased.]

[Choice Countdown: 10, 9, 8, 7...]

The Main Quest had finally been triggered!

If the Main Quest failed, he would be banished into the Time-Space Turbulence?

Bai Pu had heard of the Time-Space Turbulence; it was a punishment that countless awakened ones feared, and being banished was almost equivalent to a death sentence. He didn't want to be banished, not even if it was corrected to being expelled back to the real world!

Bai Pu forced himself to calm down and began to consider the Main Quest.

Clearly, the "Iron Maul" was a Blood Ring Hammer Knight, belonging to the Blood Ring Fortress faction; those dozen or so militiamen were Brandenburg Militia, belonging to the Brandenburg Territory faction.

Bai Pu watched the approaching knight, reviewed the quest information in his mind, and before the countdown ended, he had made his choice. He raised his bone hammer, strode towards the battlefield, and shouted, "For Brandenburg!"

[Prompt: You have chosen to help the Brandenburg Militia eliminate the Blood Ring Hammer Knight squad.]

[Your reputation with Brandenburg Territory +300, current reputation level: Friendly.]

[Your reputation with Blood Ring Fortress -300, current reputation level: Hostile.]

That's right, Bai Pu's choice was to stand with the seemingly weaker Brandenburg Militia, against the powerful Blood Ring Hammer Knight squad!

Before Bai Pu could arrive, the knight had already entered the battlefield.

The lance was held high, carrying a powerful impact, and it crashed into... the Blood Ring Hammer Knight!

The Blood Ring Hammer Knight was sent flying high, rolling several times upon landing, like a tin can kicked away.

After rolling a few times, the Blood Ring Hammer Knight stood up again, shook its head, and roared at the knight, "Traitor!"

The knight ignored him, reined in his horse, turned, raised his lance again, and charged.

Bai Pu smiled slightly.

The reason he sided with the Brandenburg Militia was that he had calculated that this newly arrived knight would surely be an enemy of the Blood Ring Hammer Knight!

The reason was simple: the Main Quest was called [Choice], which means "careful selection"! This term is usually used in difficult situations.

In other words, in the Spirit Realm Will's assessment, choosing to help either the Brandenburg Militia or the Blood Ring Hammer Knight squad was a difficult choice; there was no option that could be completed easily!

As supporting evidence, there was the quest difficulty rating given by the Spirit Realm Will.

The quest difficulty was B-class. According to the difficulty grading of D, C, B, A, and S, a B-class quest was considered medium difficulty.

If the newly arrived knight was allied with the Blood Ring Hammer Knight, then the difficulty of choosing to help the Blood Ring Hammer Knight would be too low. Bai Pu's help wouldn't be needed at all; the Blood Ring side could easily crush all the militiamen ten times over!

A quest that didn't even require intervention, where one could reap rewards effortlessly, would be rated B-class difficulty?

Therefore, the newly arrived knight must belong to the Brandenburg Territory faction. This would balance the difficulty, making it B-class regardless of which side was chosen.

As for why he chose the Brandenburg Territory faction and not the Blood Ring Fortress?

The reason was simple: it was the knight who was also wearing Blood Ring armor. The fact that he wore Blood Ring armor yet belonged to the Brandenburg faction was so abnormal that there must be some plot to be uncovered.

These thoughts, though long in explanation, occupied Bai Pu for a mere fraction of a second. He continued to focus on the battlefield's unfolding situation.

During the Knight's second charge, the distance was shorter, and the acceleration wasn't rapid.

The Blood Ring Hammer Knight suddenly spun around, whipping up a Steel Cyclone! With the force of the air current sweeping across, the Knight's lance missed its mark, not only grazing past but also sending the Knight themselves tumbling off their mount, caught in the Steel Cyclone.

Only then did Bai Pu get a clear look. The Knight was tall and slender, with shapely, firm thighs, and their iron breastplate bulged prominently. It was, in fact, a Female Knight.

After landing, the Female Knight rolled and sprang up with agility, evading the Blood Ring Hammer Knight's follow-up smashing attack. She unslung her shield from her back, drew her rapier, and spun, thrusting towards her opponent's face.

Bai Pu had no intention of intervening in the battle between these two formidable natives. His goal was simple: to take care of those three Plague Dead first.