156. Being Unwilling to Lose and Wanting to Save Face Are the Driving Forces Behind Improving Your Skills

The first little Ashina to accomplish the feat of passing the Black Iron Trial finally logged back in after being offline for four hours. It was already broad daylight, and breakfast was over. The little players hadn't lingered long in Batasing City.

They had caught up with the carriages and, under Maxim's lead, were escorting the important prisoners and a group of down-and-out "Blood Vulture loyalists" back to Scarlet City as quickly as possible.

When little Ashina opened her eyes, she saw her three companions dozing in the swaying carriage.

That was what players looked like after logging off. Although Maxim hadn't given the female players any special treatment, the other little players had very willingly given them a carriage of their own.

"Ah! It's different now!"

The Ashina sword saint stretched in the carriage. After she'd pinky-sworn with Lord Murphy the previous night, the system had shown that she'd completed the Black Iron Trial. Then she'd been forced offline, and her game helmet had displayed the message, "Reconstructing tester's physical projection." Did that mean her character information had been updated?

She looked down at the character screen displayed on her computing orb. Sure enough, it was completely different from before:

Tester ID: Ashina Sword Saint

Character Class: Level 10 Gunner / None / None

Character Status: Classed → Black Iron Body

Character Attributes:

Strength: 4 → 6

Dexterity: 8 → 12

Endurance: 6 → 7

Intelligence: 3 → 5

Perception: 6 → 8

Charisma: 3 → 4

Remaining Free Attribute Points: 6, can be allocated manually.

New Character Traits Acquired!

Pain Suppression: Reduces all melee damage taken.

Calm Hunter: After entering combat, reduces the mind's susceptibility to outside interference and shortens the duration of mental negative effects.

Melee Ranger: Reduces the accuracy penalty when using handguns in close-quarters combat.