Golden Ring

Li Shuyi then also drew her own LV4 professional enhancement effect.

Her performance rating was similar to Bai Xiaowen's; she also drew an excellent-level special effect, which didn't have a name but instead added a description to the "Thunderwind Combo" skill.

[Thunderwind Combo: Each successful melee attack grants a stack of Combo Effect, up to a maximum of 10 stacks. Each Combo increases attack speed and Critical Hit rate by 2%. Each Critical Hit on a target awards a Thunder Mark, lasting 30 seconds. A maximum of 5 Thunder Mark can stack on the same target. You can choose to detonate all Thunder Mark on your next melee attack for additional damage.]

This skill is somewhat similar to the combat mechanics of the Rogue in another timeline of World of Warcraft. The Thunder Mark can be seen as Combo point for the Rogue, but it requires Critical Hit to trigger.

This extra effect isn't very useful against regular enemies with low Life Value, but it's quite effective against Elite Tier or Boss Tier with long health bars.

It's worth noting that Li Shuyi currently has an agility of 35 points, which will reach over 45 points after stacking her talents. Her Critical Hit rate is already quite impressive, and the Thunderwind Combo skill itself has a 20% cumulative Critical Hit rate bonus!

During the 30-second duration of the Thunder Mark, it's generally possible to land at least five Critical Hit, dealing considerable damage. Of course, if the target is Agility Specialty boss, and Li Shuyi's agility attribute is Suppression, this might not be possible.

"Alright, we've had pretty good luck with the job enhancement effects; our strength has increased. Now it's time to open the treasure chests." Bai Xiaowen cheerfully took out all the treasure chests, and for a moment, the tent shimmered with gold and silver light, creating a very impressive visual effect.

The two first opened the Golden Treasure Chest of the level 6 Boss Tier, the Stone-Armored Monitor Lizard.

The Stone-Armored Monitor Lizard's Battle Rating was only B, which was undoubtedly due to the intervention of the White Stone Army soldiers, resulting in a lower rating.

However, with only two chances to draw, they managed to get two pieces of Gold Equipment, which was quite lucky.

The first piece of equipment is the [Monitor Lizard's Toughhide Belt]. As Gold Equipment, it simply and directly increases constitution by 5 points, without any other attributes. However, for a waist-tier item, 5 points of constitution is a very valuable attribute, definitely befitting its Gold Equipment status.

This equipment was given to Li Shuyi. Her base constitution was only 13 points, and even with the 30 points of Life Value added by the [Eclipse Badge], she only had a total of 160 health points, which was rather low for a warrior-type class. With this equipment, Li Shuyi's constitution reached 18 points, her total Life Value was 210 points, and her armor exceeded 20, significantly improving her safety.

Actually, Bai Xiaowen could also wear this equipment, but he already had a blue item, the [Rhino's Might Belt], while Li Shuyi didn't have one.

The second piece of equipment was a ring.

[Petrified Monitor Lizard Tailbone (Bind on Pickup)]

[Quality: Hero Tier (Gold)]

[Equipment Slot: Finger]

[Equipment Requirements: None]

[Additional Attributes: None]

[Additional Skill: Stone Armor: When activated, your skin becomes as hard as rock, reducing physical damage by a fixed 10 points, but your attack speed and movement speed are both reduced by 40%. Cooldown: 8 hours.]

[Durability: 39/40]

[Note: This is a stone ring—if fossils can be considered stones.]

This Gold Equipment only has one Stone Armor, which provides decent damage reduction, but the penalty to attack speed and movement speed is unacceptable. Basically, like [White Eagle's Assault], it's a niche Gold Equipment with low value.

As a melee DPS, Li Shuyi certainly needed to stay alive, but dealing damage was her primary job, so she obviously didn't need the ring. Bai Xiaowen, on the other hand, still had a ring slot on one hand, so she put it on.

It should be noted that an Awakened One can wear a maximum of two psionic rings, one in each hand.

If you wear two rings (pseudo-equipment) on one hand, the two rings will be in close contact at all times, causing Psionic Particles Disruption, making all the attributes of the two rings ineffective.

Of course, you can wear as many of the Earth Plane jewelry rings as you want, as long as they don't contain Psionic Particles.

After opening the giant lizard's treasure chest, Bai Xiaowen opened Overseer Kelman's Large Golden Treasure Chest.

Kelman's treasure chest was much more high-end than the Stone-Armored Monitor Lizard's. In a golden light, twelve cards floated slightly, and the engraved patterns were much more intricate and detailed than any gold cards he had ever seen before.

Bai Xiaowen and his companion received an A-Tier rating for killing Kelman —unfortunately, Bai Xiaowen had hoped for an S-Tier rating, but it seems they fell just short.

Bai Xiaowen made her first choice and got off to Opening Gate, drawing a Skill Book on her very first draw!

[Earth-Shattering Strike: 3-Star Skill. Shocks the ground, dealing moderate physical damage to enemies standing in a cone-shaped area and knocking them into the air for an extended period, rendering them unable to defend themselves (requires a two-handed melee weapon). Skill learning requirements: Two-handed weapon (including but not limited to two-handed hammers, axes, and swords) skill advancement level 7, base strength 40 points.]

This skill is quite powerful, with two highlights.

First, the skill has a high priority, so the success rate assessment will definitely be enhanced accordingly.

Second, the additional abnormal status is "knock-up", and it is specifically stated that it will "levitate for a long time"!

In summary, the Awakened categorize abnormal states into three types: soft control, hard control, and super hard control. This is, of course, the Awakened's terminology.

Soft control generally refers to effects that restrict movement, such as cold, freezing, binding, etc. While a target under soft control cannot move, they can still attack or cast spells. In addition, the "silence" effect, which unilaterally restricts spellcasting, also falls into the category of soft control.

Hard crowd control not only restricts movement but also limits attack and spellcasting abilities. Examples include fear, polymorph, stun, paralysis, taunt, and Suppression. Targets under these abnormal statuses cannot move, attack, or cast spells.

Of course, there are differences in hard crowd control. For example, the fear effect is significantly less effective than the stun effect. This is because the Fear Status ends immediately upon being hit, while the stun state does not.

Whether it's soft control or hard control, it can be removed using "control removal skills" or "control removal items," it's just a matter of priority. According to World of Warcraft, it can be resolved by "using tokens."

The last type, "super hard control," is the most extreme form of control. In the Awakened stage, there are only two types: knockback and knock-up.

For example, Li Shuyi's [Savage Charge] has a knockback effect, which is a super hard crowd control. Of course, the "knockback" effect usually only knocks the opponent back a short distance, so it's not very useful.

"Knockback" is different. It makes the target's body stiffen, enters a floating state, and is unable to defend. This kind of super hard control is not exempt from control reduction skills such as "Heart of Sincerity", "Heart of the Sky" and "Warlord's Resolve". Even if you use [Eclipse Badge] or "Green Lotus Seed" to remove the control, it will be ineffective. You can only be used as an aerial punching bag and take hits for nothing.

After activating "Zhao Yun's Mark," Li Shuyi gained the skill "Linked Assault." With the strength of a level 3 Elite Tier, she easily defeated the level 6 Boss Tier Jericho. What did she rely on? It was this abnormal knockback control.

Unfortunately, the requirements for this [Earth-Shattering Strike] Skill Book are far too high. Not to mention the level 7 two-handed weapon proficiency, the 40 base strength alone is an insurmountable barrier.

"We went a bit too far ahead in our challenge. We killed a level 7 Boss Tier when we were only level 3. The rewards are good, but we can't use them." Bai Xiaowen could only regretfully put the Skill Book back into his Storage Space.

Li Shuyi then drew a second gold card and got a beating heart, which startled her.

[Berserker's Heart: An S-Tier special treasure that can be used in the enhancement slot of an equipment Enhancement Card, greatly increasing the success rate of equipment enhancement and potentially adding additional effects to the equipment. Special note: It is recommended to choose equipment with high compatibility with the Berserker class for enhancement.]

Bai Xiaowen continued to shake his head with a wry smile. The items were indeed valuable, but they weren't needed for the time being. Even a fool would know that the most suitable equipment would be two-handed axes or hammers, followed by heavy plate armor. But none of these were Bai Xiaowen or Li Shuyi's cup of tea.

Fortunately, [Berserker's Heart] doesn't specify anything like "team-bound," meaning it can be traded, which at least ensures it retains its value.

Then, Bai Xiaowen began the final draw.

The golden card flipped over, and Bai Xiaowen smiled after seeing it, "Finally, an equipment drop! Another ring."

[Ring of Torment (Bind on Pickup)]

[Quality: Hero Tier (Gold)]

[Equipment Slot: Finger]

[Equipment Requirements: Base Strength 15, Base Agility 15]

[Attribute: None]

[Skill: Agony Potential: Passive skill. For every 10 points of damage you take, you gain 1 point of Strength. This effect only applies to damage taken within the last 30 seconds.]

[Durability: 38/40]

[Note: Only pure strength can bring pure victory.]

"This ring is nice," Bai Xiaowen commented, "But it's not suitable for you."

Li Shuyi thought for a moment, nodded, and said, "This equipment is essentially useless without sacrificing health, so it's definitely not suitable for me."

As a DPS, no matter what survival skills you have or how much Life Value you have, never think about intentionally taking damage to increase your output. Remember, a DPS who stays alive can deal damage.

This ring is best suited for tank-type classes, because tank-type awakened beings, while ensuring their constitution attribute is high enough, need a considerable amount of strength to ensure they can hold the BOSS's position.

There's no tank in the squad right now, so it's only available to Bai Xiaowen. If Bai Xiaowen uses "Life Sharing" on Rageclaw, Rageclaw intentionally takes damage, Bai Xiaowen will also share the damage, and his strength will increase, which will also increase his damage output.

Although Bai Xiaowen already has two rings (one of which is Blue Quality and grants +2 Spirit), he can still use them interchangeably.

Although the environment of Psionic Particles has led to datafication, the combat process remains close to reality.

Equipment can be changed during combat, but it requires distraction. Actions like taking off and putting on a ring are difficult for most melee classes to perform in intense battles, but Bai Xiaowen, as a ranged character with multitasking abilities, can do it.

Since the [Ring of Torment] grants a passive skill that takes effect at any time, Bai Xiaowen equipped it first, temporarily replacing the [Petrified Monitor Lizard Tailbone].

When you need to use the [Stone Armor] skill attached to the [Petrified Monitor Lizard Tailbone] to save your life, just switch it on and activate the skill.

At this point, the two Boss Tier had finished drawing from their Golden Treasure Chest. Afterward, Bai Xiaowen and his companion opened several Silver Treasure Chest, which, unsurprisingly, were all water chests. This was probably because the Elite Tier Remnants all had a negative status effect that halved all their attributes.

The last five Silver Treasure Chest yielded only two ordinary, unremarkable pieces of equipment, aside from a bunch of Psionic Points, and they were even Bind on Pickup.

Given Bai Xiaowen and his companion's current perspective, this kind of basic equipment isn't even good enough to be used as an auxiliary burning tool when crafting enhanced equipment; they should just dismantle it and exchange it for Psionic Points.

After opening the treasure chests, the two of them had a total of over 80,000 Psionic Points points.

The summoned creatures in Bai Xiaowen's Black Soul Stone also leveled up to level 4 along with his level. However, these Undead Species summoned creatures would not receive any further enhancement effects upon reaching level 4.

However, the attribute growth of summoned creatures is real, and as Bai Xiaowen's Divine Might increases again, their attribute bonuses are even higher.

The Shadow Assassin has reached 25 points in Agility; the Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier's Strength of 15 and Constitution of 14 far exceed the level of ordinary Skeleton Soldier; the Skeleton Mage's Spirit has risen to 24 points, and the theoretical magic damage of a single Lightning Throw is over 40 points.

As for the still-dead, unresurrected, Stitched Monster Fatty, his constitution has reached a high of 28 points. This guy has an extra 30% Life Value, and his total Life Value has reached 364 points, making him more resistant to damage.

Unfortunately, Fatty's spirit is too low; even after leveling up to level 4, it only has 6 points, which is a major weakness. It can only use the Meat Hook once in a battle at most before its Divine Might is almost depleted. Expecting its Divine Might to recover at a rate of 0.6 per minute? No way.

Bai Xiaowen inspected the defense line and promoted several Elite Tier veterans who had performed outstandingly in the Battle of Blackiron Gorge to knights, granting each of them a fief.

The simple knighthood ceremony attracted a large crowd, including Lord Julien and Lady Cecilia, who were present to witness the event.

After the compensation and rewards were distributed, the morale of the White Stone Army was even higher. It would be hard to call them a strong army, but at least their morale was high, and they had begun to take the shape of a brave army.

After the investiture ceremony, Lady Cecilia remained.

"A lord as generous as you is rare, and it would make other lords dislike you," Cecilia said, perhaps because their Affection Level had improved to the level of acquaintances, her tone becoming more casual. "Several of my cavalrymen are eligible for knighthood, and they'll probably have sleepless nights tonight. If I'm not mistaken, those newly appointed knights of yours were all bandits before, weren't they?"

Bai Xiaowen said earnestly, "They've been reformed for over ten days."

"... So easily you grant your family's lands to bandits? You're quite an interesting person," Cecilia said.

"Without brave soldiers, could the Northern Frontier be defended?" Bai Xiaowen shook his head. "Although the vanguard of the Remnants has been wiped out, the main force has not yet arrived. The situation in this war is very serious. In special times, special systems are needed; we cannot stick to the old ways."

"Speaking of the main force of the Remnants... His Highness held a ball at Blackrock Fortress. Besides allowing everyone to rest, another important topic was the strategy for dealing with the main force of the Remnants," Cecilia stared intently at Bai Xiaowen with her azure eyes, "Do you have a dance partner now?"

There was a lot of data, so I wrote a bit more to make up for it. Thank you all for subscribing. I think many readers have already subscribed, which is why there are so many new additions~ Bowing, thank you all for being with me along the way!