Iron Mountain Sash

You have passed the Punishment Instance trial and are beginning to leave the instance...

After piercing the masked Blademaster through the heart with a single slash, Wang Zhifan immediately saw the notification that he had cleared the trial. But he was in no mood to celebrate.

That was because, at the very end of his fight against the Punishment Instance enemy, he had been a little careless. He had not expected the opponent to be utterly fearless of death, and as a result, the man had landed a solid blow to Wang Zhifan's waist and abdomen with his broken blade.

Fortunately, Wang Zhifan was currently wearing excellent-grade Wolfhide Armor, whose physical defense was quite good. Moreover, because he had remained in the Tiger Fiend state, his strike had inflicted simultaneous damage to the masked Blademaster's body and soul, killing him instantly. The man had never gotten the chance for a final desperate outburst. In the end, the spot where Wang Zhifan had been struck by the broken blade was not actually injured at all, leaving only a shallow dent in the Wolfhide Armor.

This Punishment Instance trial had probably lasted only three minutes, but Wang Zhifan felt that it had been quite dangerous. If his personal attributes, equipment, and skill levels had not far surpassed those of players at his level, he might very well have died in this Punishment Instance, or at the very least suffered severe injuries.

Do not think that being severely injured in a Punishment Instance was no big deal. The mechanics of a Punishment Instance were vastly different from those of ordinary instances.

Besides offering no rewards whatsoever upon clearing it, a Punishment Instance would not heal players when they left. In other words, if a player defeated an enemy in a Punishment Instance at the cost of severe injuries, they would remain severely injured after leaving the instance and returning to reality. It was entirely possible for them to die the moment they returned.

That was why the mechanics of Punishment Instances were highly intimidating to players. No player wanted to be thrown into an instance that offered no rewards and brought only material losses, bodily pain, or even death.

After a moment of dizziness, Wang Zhifan realized that he had already left the Moonlit Mountain Summit and the Punishment Instance. But instead of returning to the Great Boar Instance world, he had gone straight back to reality—to his rented apartment.

"Damn! I haven't picked my rewards yet!"

The moment Wang Zhifan saw that he had not returned to the grassland, his blood pressure spiked. But soon, he saw the Great Boar Instance reward selection panel slowly appear before him. He realized that entering a Punishment Instance had not swallowed up his unclaimed rewards, and he could still make his own selections.

"At least it's somewhat humane. If it threw me into a Punishment Instance and swallowed the rewards I was supposed to get too, that'd be too much to take."

Having gone through an unexpected Punishment Instance, Wang Zhifan was feeling somewhat unsettled. But before reflecting on his own actions, he decided to choose his instance rewards first.

"No need to look at the ordinary-grade stuff... I can choose excellent-grade armor, firearms, bullets, or skill scrolls... These rings seem pretty decent too..."

Wang Zhifan noticed that the rings on the Great Boar Instance reward list each had their own merits.

Unyielding Ring (Excellent)

When you wear this ring, your health recovery speed increases by 200%. This effect doubles while you are severely injured.

Ring of Fury (Excellent)

When you wear this ring, your Strength attribute increases by 3, while your Agility and Spirit attributes each decrease by 1.

Fang Ring (Excellent)

This ring is also a concealed weapon. You can use it to unexpectedly fire fangs at enemies within fifteen meters, each dealing physical damage equivalent to 10% of Lv. 3 Boar Charge. It can be fired three times per day.

"This Unyielding Ring looks pretty good. It's like having a weaker version of Healing permanently on me... The Ring of Fury is somewhat useful for a physical class like mine... The Fang Ring's concealed weapon feature is pretty novel too..."

After looking over the excellent-grade rewards on the list, Wang Zhifan shifted his attention to the most important rare-grade reward.

Iron Mountain Sash (Rare)

When you wear this lightweight belt, every 1 point of Constitution grants you 0.6% physical damage reduction. This belt can grant up to 60% physical damage reduction.

"Up to 60% physical damage reduction? I only need 100 Constitution to gain such a powerful effect! I currently have 18 Constitution, so wearing it would give me over 10% physical damage reduction! Why is such a divine item only rare-grade?"

After reading the description of the rare-grade Iron Mountain Sash on the reward list, Wang Zhifan found it hard to believe that this instance's rare reward could be so powerful. A full 60% physical damage reduction—percentage-based damage reduction like that did not seem as though it should belong to merely the rare grade.

"Could it be because armor penetration exists? Does that make such high damage reduction not as useful as it looks?"

Wang Zhifan then recalled that the Blade of the Wolf Fiend in his hand possessed 40% physical penetration. The Blade of the Wolf Fiend was also rare-grade equipment, yet it directly had as much as 40% physical penetration without requiring any other attributes. From that, he inferred that higher-grade weapons would surely have even higher penetration. Therefore, even if some player stacked their damage reduction to 100%, it did not necessarily mean they could withstand attacks head-on.

"No matter what, this is definitely a good piece of equipment. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to raise my Constitution to 100 in the future."

Without thinking too much further, Wang Zhifan made his final selections. The reward panel before him quickly vanished, and three items appeared out of thin air: a black leather sash, a silver-white handgun, and a yellow gemstone ring.

The black leather sash was naturally the rare-grade Iron Mountain Sash. The silver-white handgun was the excellent-grade firearm he had chosen, and also the only firearm-type weapon on the previous reward list. The yellow gemstone ring was the excellent-grade Unyielding Ring.

Originally, after obtaining the handgun of the trench-coated young man he had encountered in the instance, Wang Zhifan had not planned to choose another gun. But he discovered that excellent-grade firearms were considerably better than ordinary-grade ones. Since he wanted to use guns, he needed one of good quality. Otherwise, with neither shooting skill nor a good firearm, such a weapon would not be very meaningful in his hands.

Handgun (Excellent)

Compared to an ordinary-grade handgun, this handgun has approximately 20% greater shooting accuracy and a magazine capacity increased by 4 rounds, for a maximum of 12 bullets.

Wang Zhifan still had 10 excellent-grade handgun bullets prepared in his personal storage space, which happened to pair well with this excellent-grade weapon. Excellent-grade handgun bullets also had significant advantages over ordinary-grade ones.

Handgun Bullet (Excellent)

These excellent-grade bullets are approximately 30% more powerful than ordinary-grade bullets. They are also more stable and have a lower ricochet rate.