The Choice

The battle was over.

You unlocked Combat Expertise: Basic Fighting Level 1.

You unlocked Combat Expertise: Basic Weaponry Level 1.

He had finally gained Combat Expertise, even if it was only the most basic Level 1.

Bai Pu let out a soft breath. He was still far behind those well-prepared trial-takers. Trial-takers generally trained at least one Combat Expertise to Basic Level 5, to the point where they could advance at any time, before entering the Spirit Realm to begin a trial.

Based on your Spirit, you obtained partial information on the Plague Dead.

Plague Dead (Ordinary Level 1)

Race: Humanoid Race/Mutant Monster

Attributes: Strength 6, Agility 5, Endurance 7, Spirit 3

Skills: Claw Strike, Undead Body, ???

Claw Strike: The Plague Dead attacked enemies with its claws, dealing Sharp Damage and inflicting minor Bleeding and Corpse Poison.

Undead Body: Passive. The Plague Dead's body was stiff, Movement Speed -2 (equivalent to the movement speed provided by 2 points of Agility), Basic Armor +4 (equivalent to the basic armor value provided by 4 points of Endurance), and immune to Bleeding effects.

Bai Pu finally understood. No wonder it had been so difficult to fight. This thing had 7 points of Endurance, meaning it had 70 Health Points. Undead Body's passive effect granted +4 Basic Armor, giving it 11 Armor in total. It was practically a small meat shield.

Fortunately, Undead Body's passive also reduced Movement Speed by 2. Otherwise, with the Plague Dead's 5 points of Agility, it would definitely have caught up to the injured Bai Pu.

If he had been unable to protect himself, Bai Pu would have had a hard time luring the Plague Dead to the trap.

A slightly illusory White Treasure Chest floated above the Plague Dead's corpse.

"A treasure chest dropped!" Bai Pu was delighted. Spirit Realm monsters did not have a high chance of dropping treasure chests upon death.

This Plague Dead had not been difficult to deal with. It should have been nothing more than an ordinary minor monster, yet it had dropped a Loot Card treasure chest. His luck was truly good.

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

With a crisp clatter of coins, white light flashed, and six white cards arranged themselves neatly into two rows before Bai Pu. Their backs faced him, hiding their fronts from view.

You obtained 12 Spirit Energy Points.

You obtained an opportunity to draw Loot Cards. Current available draws: 2.

Here it was—the legendary card draw!

Bai Pu had watched videos of some awakened streamers drawing cards, so this was nothing unfamiliar to him. He first circled halfway around and peeked at the fronts of the cards, only to find them shrouded in white mist. He could not see anything clearly.

No wonder awakened streamers never looked at the fronts of the cards when drawing them.

Bai Pu hesitated no longer and directly tapped the first card on the upper left.

Whoosh!

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

You obtained equipment: Smooth Bone Hammer.

Equipment had dropped! And it was even a weapon with relatively high value!

Bai Pu was delighted and immediately checked the equipment's attributes.

Smooth Bone Hammer (Sealed)

Quality: Ordinary (White)

Equipment Slot: One-Handed

Equipment Requirement: Basic Strength 4

Attributes: Attack Power 1–4

Additional Skill: Silky: Passive. When attacking with this equipment, Attack Speed +3 (equivalent to the attack speed provided by 3 points of Agility)

Durability: 18/20

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

Bai Pu felt that his luck was indeed not bad. He gripped the end of the bone hammer, and it felt smooth as ivory. The protruding bone-shaped handle at the end provided an excellent anti-slip grip, preventing it from slipping from his hand.

Prompt: This equipment is currently sealed. To use it, you must unseal it and complete Spirit Energy Resonance.

Warning: Unsealing this equipment will prevent anyone else from using it.

Unseal it?

Bai Pu chose yes without hesitation. As white light flickered, the Spirit Energy Resonance was completed. When Bai Pu held the bone hammer, he felt a blood connection with it, as though it were an extension of his arm.

The second Loot Card dropped a blood sample.

Plague Dead's Mutated Blood Sample: Unknown item. Please seek a relevant specialist for identification.

After completing the two draws, the remaining four white cards and the White Treasure Chest below them turned into wisps of smoke-like particle stream and vanished between heaven and earth.

Bai Pu stood up and felt an itchy numbness in his chest. Looking down, he saw bluish-purple swelling already appearing where the Plague Dead had scratched him.

"The Plague Dead's Claw Strike contains poison..." Bai Pu frowned. Fortunately, the Bleeding effect had ended, his Health Points were gradually recovering, and the wound on his chest did not hinder his movement.

He could only continue onward and search for a village or town inhabited by natives. Perhaps he would find a way to detoxify himself there.

Splash, splash—

The sound of water reached him. Bai Pu looked up and saw a dark, gloomy river, immediately perking up.

"This is seventeenth-century Europe. Human settlements depend on rivers! If I follow the river, I'll have a better chance of encountering natives."

Bai Pu identified the direction of the current and headed downstream.

After walking for about an hour, the trees along the way gradually became denser. Between the plains and valleys, he could see patches of barren land that appeared to be abandoned farmland.

From the mouth of the valley ahead came faint sounds of shouting and fighting. Bai Pu paused slightly, then quickly climbed the outer ridge, crouched down, and poked his head over to look.

More than a dozen militiamen in crude leather armor were fighting with weapons such as pitchforks and sickles.

They had four enemies in total.

Three of them were Plague Dead, similar in appearance to the one Bai Pu had previously defeated. All staggered along, their clothes filthy and tattered.

The militiamen's final enemy was clearly much larger than the Plague Dead. His two arms were especially thick, with knotted muscles like old tree trunks.

This fellow was also armored, with a blood-red ring insignia on his breastplate. Wielding a heavy iron warhammer covered in barbs, he struck a militia captain-looking man, sending him flying while coughing blood. He had clearly suffered severe injuries.

Although the militiamen held the numerical advantage, they were utterly outmatched by the "iron hammer"! After the Militia Captain was severely injured, the militiamen retreated one after another.

The distant sound of hoofbeats rang out as a knight rushed toward the battlefield. The knight's armor and surcoat bore the same blood-red ring insignia.

"Good grief... That iron hammer alone feels strong enough to kill every militiaman. Not to mention the three Plague Dead. The knight coming from afar seems to be with the iron hammer too?"

A prompt from the Spirit Realm Will suddenly arrived.

Main Quest I: The 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.

Mission Difficulty: B

Mission Time Limit: 12 hours.

Mission Reward: Join Blood Ring Fortress/Join Brandenburg Territory.

Failure Penalty: Exile. All Spirit Energy items obtained on this plane, including equipment, items, and Spirit Energy Points, will be deleted.

Warning!! Failure of the Main Quest will result in your exile to Time-Space Turbulence.

You are currently carrying out a Trial Mission. If this Main Quest fails, it will be considered a Trial Mission failure. The failure penalty will be adjusted to the Trial Mission failure penalty: Expulsion. You will be expelled back to the real world. The difficulty of your next Trial Mission will increase by an additional 30%, but its rewards will not increase.

Choice countdown: 10, 9, 8, 7...

The Main Quest had finally been triggered!

Failure of the Main Quest meant exile to Time-Space Turbulence?

Bai Pu had heard of Time-Space Turbulence. It was a punishment feared by countless awakened ones, and exile was practically a death sentence. He did not want to be exiled, not even if it was changed to expulsion back to the real world!

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

Clearly, the "iron hammer" was the Blood Ring Hammer Knight, belonging to the Blood Ring Fortress faction. The dozen or so militiamen were the Brandenburg Militia, belonging to the Brandenburg Territory faction.

Watching the approaching knight, Bai Pu reviewed the mission information in his mind. Before the countdown ended, he made his choice. Raising the bone hammer, he strode toward the battlefield and shouted, "For Brandenburg!"

Prompt: You chose to help the Brandenburg Militia eliminate the Blood Ring Hammer Knight squad.

Your Reputation in Brandenburg Territory +300. Current Reputation Level: Friendly.

Your Reputation in Blood Ring Fortress -300. Current Reputation Level: Hostile.

That was right. Bai Pu had chosen to stand with the seemingly weaker Brandenburg Militia against the powerful Blood Ring Hammer Knight squad!

Before Bai Pu could reach them, the knight had already charged into the battlefield.

The lance rose high, carrying tremendous force as it crashed into... the Blood Ring Hammer Knight!

The Blood Ring Hammer Knight was sent flying high into the air. After landing, he rolled several times like an Iron Can kicked away by a foot.

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

The knight paid him no heed, reined in the horse, turned around, raised the lance again, and charged once more.

Bai Pu revealed a faint smile.

The reason he had chosen the Brandenburg Militia was because he had concluded that this newly arrived knight was definitely hostile to the Blood Ring Hammer Knight!

The reason was simple. The Main Quest was called The Choice—meaning a "careful choice." This term was generally used only when one faced a dilemma.

In other words, according to the Spirit Realm Will's evaluation, choosing whether to help the Brandenburg Militia or the Blood Ring Hammer Knight squad was a difficult choice. Neither option could be one that made completing the mission especially easy!

Supporting evidence was the mission difficulty rating given by the Spirit Realm Will.

The mission difficulty was B. Among the D, C, B, A, and S mission difficulty ranks, B was considered moderate difficulty.

If the newly arrived knight had been with the Blood Ring Hammer Knight, then helping the Blood Ring Hammer Knight would have been far too easy. Bai Pu's assistance would not even be needed; the Blood Ring side could effortlessly crush the militiamen to death ten times over!

A mission where he did not even need to act and could simply reap the rewards—did that deserve a B-rank difficulty?

Therefore, the newly arrived knight had to belong to the Brandenburg Territory faction. Only then would the difficulty be balanced. No matter which side he chose, it would be a B-rank mission.

As for why he had chosen Brandenburg Territory instead of Blood Ring Fortress?

The reason was simple: that knight wearing Blood Ring armor. The other party wore Blood Ring battle armor yet belonged to the Brandenburg faction. Such an abnormality meant there was definitely story content to uncover.

These thoughts sounded lengthy, but Bai Pu had taken less than 0.1 seconds to consider them. His attention remained focused on the battlefield.

During the knight's second charge, the distance was short, so the acceleration was not particularly fast.

The Blood Ring Hammer Knight suddenly spun in a circle, stirring up a Steel Cyclone! The sweeping force knocked the knight's lance off target. It not only passed by him, but the knight was also caught in the Steel Cyclone and thrown from the horse.

Only then did Bai Pu see clearly that the knight had a tall, slender figure, round and sturdy thighs, and a high-rising iron breastplate. She was actually a female knight.

After landing, the female knight rolled and sprang to her feet with agility, dodging the Blood Ring Hammer Knight's follow-up smashing attack. She pulled a shield from her back, drew her Sting Sword, and spun as she thrust at her opponent's face.

Bai Pu had no intention of interfering in the battle between these two powerful natives. His goal was simple: take out the three Plague Dead first.