Acid Trap

(This is tomorrow's update. I have to go to Nanchang tomorrow, and since I don't know why automatic updates aren't working, I'm posting it together today.)

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Under the repeated parries, chips broke off the dagger. After all, it was only an ordinary weapon, and normal wear and tear was severe. Before Soren had raised his strength to the second tier, he had always carried at least three weapons on him, precisely so he would have spares after one was damaged in battle. Ordinary equipment could generally be bought at a Blacksmith Shop, but enchanted Supernatural Equipment was rare. Soren had only acquired a weapon that suited him after exploring ancient ruins once.

One thing had to be mentioned: Soren's most proficient weapon was rather unusual!

It was not a dagger, but a scimitar.

A decent scimitar was difficult to buy in southern cities. Even ordinary white-tier equipment was the same, because a slightly better white-tier weapon, made of steel and forged to a proper standard, cost around five Gold Dalers. Thus, for a long time, players who had just entered War of the Gods had struggled to obtain a quality white-tier weapon. As for the dagger currently in Soren's hand, its quality was actually closer to gray-tier equipment. A true white-tier dagger should have been forged from folded refined steel.

"Looks like I should get my hands on a scimitar first!"

Soren sidestepped in place, his waist twisting one hundred and eighty degrees. His dagger chopped into the skeleton's rear neck bone, instantly shattering the last trace of death energy within the target. Its entire body collapsed into a pile of Shattered Bones. He glanced at the 45 points of Slaughter Experience he had gained, tossed aside the nearly ruined dagger in his hand, and muttered, "There aren't many scimitars in southern cities. To buy a suitable one, I'll have to at least go somewhere near the grasslands."

What Soren used was naturally no ordinary scimitar.

In fact, by his strictest standards, even the Northern Grasslands did not sell the scimitar he needed. Only the finest forging masters of the Underdark could create one suited to him. The Full Moon Scimitars of the Sage Desert were too light, while the Bone Scraper Scimitars of the North Vast Grasslands were too brittle. The only weapon that truly felt right in Soren's hand was a Heavy Scimitar that possessed some traits of a Tang Saber while combining the advantages of a Great Horse and a Shi Ge Saber. Such scimitars were extremely heavy. Their spines alone could bludgeon an ogre to death, and they could maximize destructive power when chopping. Soren had once cleaved through marble three feet thick with a single slash.

One foot was roughly thirty centimeters, so three feet was nearly a meter thick!

Even an adult dragon could not withstand the force of one of his slashes. Otherwise, the legend of the Dual-wielding Violent Rogue would not have spread through the Underdark. Some even said that if he had not advanced as a rogue, but had instead multiclassed as a berserker, Sword Saint, or Weapon Master, he might have been able to face an Ancient Red Dragon head-on in single combat.

Using a Heavy Scimitar required at least 14 points of Strength!

The pair of scimitars Soren had once used were Legendary Weapons specially forged in the Underdark. One weighed eighteen kilograms, the other sixteen. They required at least 18 points of Strength to wield properly.

His figure gradually merged into the shadows.

Soren did not expect to get a Supernatural Weapon right away. He would already be satisfied if he could obtain a Fine Military Standard Weapon.

Generally speaking!

Around fifteen Gold Dalers would be enough to buy one.

At this stage, the Southern Duchy still used the Silver Standard System. Silver Dalers were the recognized currency, while gold could only be considered a precious metal. Even Gold Dalers minted by followers of the Goddess of Wealth circulated only among the upper ranks of the nobility. One Gold Daler was worth ten Silver Dalers. Whether Gold Dalers or Silver Dalers, twenty coins weighed exactly one pound. As for Copper Dalers, many were privately minted by the lower classes, and quite a few were crudely made. Their exchange rate against Silver Dalers fluctuated, and many people had suffered losses because of that!

The players had cursed about it for a long time.

War of the Gods was simply too realistic. It did not even have a unified currency.

If not for the Goddess of Wealth regulating the currency exchange ratios, converting the currencies of different races and regions would have driven countless people insane!

Still, this extremely realistic set of world rules had been embraced by many.

Soren had been one of them.

To him, War of the Gods had been an entirely different world, an indispensable part of his life's experiences—perhaps even an extension of his life itself.

That was why he had accepted everything so easily.

As he ventured deeper into the cave, the eerie atmosphere grew increasingly intense.

The first fork in the path appeared before Soren, along with three corpses that had completely decayed into skeletons.

"It's a trap."

Soren picked up one of the skeletons with one hand and examined it, muttering, "Looks like this guy was shot to death by bolts! There should have been a very powerful Bolt Trap here."

Three ribs had been shot through. With one glance, Soren could tell that the man had been hit by at least ten bolts.

It was difficult for a single trap to launch that many attacks.

Soren shrugged and searched the corpse, finding some Silver Dalers, some rotted and unidentifiable scraps of paper, and a Bronze Medal. He pocketed the Silver Dalers, then looked over the paper. The writing on it had completely blurred away. As for the Bronze Medal, he recognized it well—it was the emblem of the Adventurer's Guild, marking an official E-rank Adventurer.

"What an unlucky fellow."

"Looks like after he died, his companions used his body to block the trap a few more times."

Sure enough, adventuring was the best way to get rich.

Soren had merely searched the corpses of the party wiped out by the trap, yet he found over ten Silver Dalers and two gleaming Gold Dalers.

That was about equal to what he had earned by wiping out the Slums gang!

"One, two, three."

Soren tossed the bones aside. Perhaps he had experienced too much in War of the Gods, but now that he was facing real skeletal remains, he felt nothing much. He merely muttered to himself, "Including the skeleton from before, the four of them all seem to have been warriors wearing studded leather armor. Spellcasters probably wouldn't join such a low-level adventuring party."

"Then where's the rogue?"

Wizards, priests, druids, and sorcerers were all typical rich Professionals.

An Arcane Scroll of Magic Missile cost thirty Gold Dalers apiece. How could they possibly join such a low-level adventuring party?

Because their combat power was absurdly strong, all Caster Professionals in Gods' Treasure Vault were respectfully called mages. But mage was also another word for miserable. There were more than thirty standard first-tier Arcane Magic spells, and learning them all by copying from Arcane Scrolls cost around 1,500 Gold Dalers. Finding a Native Teacher cost only half that amount, but that was still nearly seven or eight hundred Gold Dalers.

And that was only the cost of first-tier arcane spells!

Although priests and druids could use divine spells, whether it was the ritual of Divine Blessing or the ceremony of Nature's Gift, they required materials worth more than 500 Gold Dalers to prepare. If one chose a deity to worship, the temple would bear part of the cost, but it still came to around 300 Gold Dalers. Sorcerers had the advantage of Bloodline Awakening and could automatically master Spellcasting Ability, but holding a Bloodline Advancement Ritual was even more expensive.

If Soren remembered correctly, the first Bloodline Advancement Ritual required materials worth around 1,000 Gold Dalers.

That was because a sorcerer companion had borrowed most of his savings at the time.

By comparison!

Melee Professionals had it much easier. Give them a blade, and they could start chopping people.

Normally, while mages were only around Professional Level five, many melee classes had already reached level eight or even above level ten.

Just look at Soren's current wealth, and one could understand how difficult it was to earn money.

To gather such enormous sums, more than ninety percent of mages had gone through a thoroughly miserable period.

There had once been a saying passed around in taverns!

—"If an adventure doesn't offer a guaranteed return of more than 100 Gold Dalers, there's no chance of hiring those mages!"

Low-level Caster Professionals had weak combat power.

They needed at least five Professional Levels to display sufficient strength, so the vast majority of low-level adventuring parties had no spellcasting classes.

Therefore!

Soren concluded that there had to be a rogue as well.

Without the mages' Scout Trap spell, which had a success rate above ninety percent, they could only rely on a rogue's Professional Experience to make judgments.

Don't expect too much from a Low-level Rogue's chance of discovering traps!

Rogues at this stage were decent at picking locks, but their mastery of trap skills was not high. There were plenty of cases where they discovered a trap, failed to dismantle it, and died inside it themselves.

Since adventuring offered high rewards, it naturally carried high risks!

After a successful adventure where the party suffered no casualties or losses, they had to return to the tavern and treat everyone to a good drink.

In truth.

Soren had not had many chances to buy everyone a drink at the tavern.

Very soon.

Soren found the rogue's corpse at the cave entrance ahead.

He had no interest in deducing why the rogue had died here from subtle clues. Instead, he directly lifted the body, looked at the head that was missing half its side, and said grimly, "An Acid Trap?"

It should have been an Acid Trap.

One of the most troublesome and deadly traps for all rogues in the early stages!

Few other traps could melt away half a corpse's head. There were also many tiny pits scattered across the ground, left behind by splashed acid.

"Looks like this will be troublesome."

Soren took out a small wooden hammer and lightly tapped the ground. To prevent traps from being triggered by rats, many traps were designed to activate according to an adult's body weight. That was why halflings were always the most welcomed rogues in adventuring parties. Acid Traps came in two types: Magic Traps and Physical Traps. The former involved setting up a Magic Circle connected to a Trigger Device, while the latter installed refined acid into the Trigger Device, spraying the acid out once someone triggered the trap.

Before reaching advanced Bloodline Awakening.

Even warriors above Professional Level five could be instantly killed by an Acid Trap!

Even if they survived, they would be practically crippled.

There were many Bloodline Advancement Rituals in the later stages of Professional Enhancement. Some warriors with terrifyingly high constitutions could withstand acid, explosions, lava, and more, then continue fighting as lively as ever!

But Soren, at his current stage, was not confident he could endure an Acid Trap.

If he got hit by it.

It would be certain death!