After trying on the fine-grade Wolfhide Armor and checking the description displayed on his panel, Wang Zhifan quickly stored it back in his personal space.
In the current hot season of the real world, he felt stuffy even in light clothing, let alone wearing a full suit of leather armor.
He got up and switched on the small electric fan placed on the chair beside the bed, cooling himself off a little before taking out his other two dungeon rewards.
First was the Blade of the Wolf Fiend, which he had chosen first. As its name suggested, it was a rare blade weapon, perfectly suited for him as a Blademaster player.
Blade of the Wolf Fiend (Rare)
Armor Penetration: When attacking, ignores 40% of the target's physical defense.
Wolf Fiend: When attacking wolf-type enemies at Lv5 or below, there is an 80% chance of triggering an instant-kill effect.
This blade was a prized specimen among long sabers. Its edge was not only exceptionally sharp but also incredibly tough, and it possessed particularly terrifying killing power against wolves, hence the name Blade of the Wolf Fiend.
"So it's a weapon designed specifically to deal with wolf-type enemies. No wonder it has that name... But its armor-piercing effect looks pretty good too, and the blade itself looks damn cool."
The rare long saber currently in Wang Zhifan's hands looked somewhat like a katana. Its blade was a bright silver-white, long, narrow, and straight with a slight curve. The sheath and hilt were a subdued black-and-gray color. Overall, it was a little over one meter long, far longer than his already ruined common short blade.
Standing up, Wang Zhifan completely drew the Blade of the Wolf Fiend from its sheath and casually swung his newly acquired weapon through the air, producing a faint whistle. Then he sheathed it and stored it back in his personal space.
What appeared in his hand next was an unremarkable pale yellow scroll, but its value could not be underestimated. It was a fine-grade Warrior Skill Upgrade Scroll.
Warrior Skill Upgrade Scroll (Fine)
Tear open this scroll to upgrade any class skill of a Warrior-class user to Lv3. Skills already at Lv3 have a 10% chance of upgrading to Lv4.
There was no need to hesitate. After reading the scroll's description, Wang Zhifan tore it open and used it on the spot.
As he did so, the torn pale yellow scroll rapidly vanished from his hand. At the same time, an indescribable stream of information began flooding into his mind, making him seem to instantly understand a great deal of simple yet practical blade techniques. He also felt a tingling sensation in his palms, wrists, arms, waist, legs, and other areas, as though those parts of his body had been meticulously modified along with the improvement of his skill.
Very soon, Wang Zhifan opened his player panel and discovered that his only Warrior-class skill, Blade Art Lv1, had been upgraded.
Name: Wang Zhifan. Status: Normal. Level: Lv1. Experience: 36/100. Class: Blademaster. Constitution: 11. Strength: 12. Agility: 12. Spirit: 11. Skill: Basic Blade Art Lv3. Equipped: None. Personal Space: Blade of the Wolf Fiend (Rare), Short Blade (Common) (Damaged), Wolfhide Armor (Fine), Cloth Armor (Common) (Damaged).
This leap in improvement was very obvious to him. Even though he was not engaged in actual combat right now, the various blade-wielding techniques imprinted in his mind, along with the sense of proficiency in his body as though he had practiced with a blade for ten years, made him believe that his blade skills had risen by a huge margin.
After taking out the Blade of the Wolf Fiend again and practicing with it in the air for a while, Wang Zhifan compared his current excellent handling with the awkward clumsiness from before the upgrade and became even more certain of it.
"If my blade skills at Lv1 had only been at beginner level, then with Basic Blade Art Lv3, I should count as a competent blade user now... I could completely rely on my superior blade technique to take on three of my former selves at once and kill them all... Players really do improve their strength ridiculously fast."
Having dealt with his dungeon gains, Wang Zhifan began to feel hungry, so he took out his phone and planned to order some takeout.
According to the memories of the original owner, this world was quite similar to the one he had lived in before transmigrating. Both were modern civilized societies, except the country he was currently in was called the Xia Kingdom rather than the Celestial Empire.
Ding ding ding~
Just as Wang Zhifan began looking through his phone for this world's food delivery apps and planned to check how much money he had in savings, a call suddenly came in. The screen showed the caller as "Brother Qiang."
Wang Zhifan frowned slightly and quickly searched through the memories he had absorbed from the original owner. He soon recognized that this Brother Qiang was likely the source from whom the original owner had bought his player class card. But he clearly remembered that the original owner had already settled payment and goods with him, so why was Brother Qiang suddenly calling now?
"Brother Wang, I wanted to ask you something. Have you finished your first dungeon yet?"
After answering the call, Wang Zhifan heard a deep middle-aged male voice coming from the phone's speaker.
"I just finished it. Brother Qiang, what do you need from me?"
Wang Zhifan did not deceive him and answered directly. In any case, players were not especially rare in this world. He was merely a beginner player, and an unlucky melee-type one at that. No one would pay him particular attention.
"Oh! It's nothing special, really. I just happen to have a job on hand that's rather suitable for a new player like you to hone your skills. I was wondering whether you'd be willing to give it a try?"
The next words from the phone caught Wang Zhifan somewhat off guard.
"Brother Qiang, I'm only a Lv1 beginner. I nearly got myself killed just now while teaming up with others for my first dungeon. What kind of job could I possibly do..."
Wang Zhifan felt rather speechless. The other party clearly knew he was a complete beginner, yet he was still inviting him to do some job. The intention to use him as cannon fodder was far too obvious.
"Hehe, Brother Wang, don't misunderstand. I'm actually being urged by the authorities to help them recruit a group of talented players to join a special operations team.
This team specializes in clearing out those low-level Ash Domain monsters. You know about Ash Domains, right? Those disgusting things that invade our real world and can only be cleared by players.
These damn things are appearing more and more frequently now, whether in our Xia Kingdom or abroad. The elite player units trained by the authorities are already too busy to handle them all.
If you're interested, I'll give you a contact. I guarantee the pay for working over there will be much higher than an ordinary job, and if you perform well, you might even receive fine-grade equipment as an official reward..."
Brother Qiang spoke at length, allowing Wang Zhifan to understand that he had been entrusted by the Xia Kingdom authorities to recruit people everywhere in response to the increasingly widespread Ash Domain invasions.
Before you continue