Commander's Cloak (2-in-1)

Bai Xiaowen selected the first gold card.

"You have obtained the item: Broken Slave Contract".

[Broken Slave Contract: A+ Rank Item. Signs a contract with Standard Template creature, making it your slave. There is a chance of failure if the creature refuses. The higher the creature's level, the greater the chance of failure.]

Following the main text is a string of smaller print:

Special Note: This slave contract is broken and its effectiveness is relatively weak. You can collect more Broken Slave Contract to combine them into more powerful items.

"This is... an item that permanently increases the ability to summon servants," Bai Xiaowen said after reading the prompt.

"This thing seems perfect for you," Li Shuyi said.

"First of all... it restricts it to Human Species, and more importantly, it only allows contracts with creatures of the Standard Template!" Bai Xiaowen shook his head and said, "This lowers its value, not to mention the failure rate."

"But having another Standard Template servant is good too. They should enjoy your summoned creature bonuses," Li Shuyi said. "Besides, there's always a dream behind this. If we get a few more broken contracts, we might be able to combine them and use them on Elite Tier or even Boss Tier."

"Actually, this thing is most cost-effective on Awakened Ones..." Bai Xiaowen said, stroking his chin. "One more Awakened One servant is worth several Spirit Realm creatures... If it could be used on Elite Awakened... tsk, my Spirit Channeling bonus and Divine Might bonus..."

Li Shuyi was lost in thought. With her current attributes, if she received a 20% boost to all attributes, plus a +6 to all attributes... she could probably really take on Advanced Boss one-on-one.

"How about it? Isn't it very appealing?" Bai Xiaowen said with a smile. He could tell at a glance what Li Shuyi was thinking about while she was lost in thought.

Li Shuyi reacted quickly and glared angrily at Bai Xiaowen.

Bai Xiaowen quickly waved his hand and smiled apologetically, "Relax, relax... I was just saying. If an Awakened One becomes a servant, it's hard to say whether they can retain their self-awareness... Without self-awareness, they can't resonate with psionic equipment, so they can't wear it. In that case, they're no different from other summoned creatures..."

"To find other broken slave contracts, we'd probably have to look in planes where slavery is more prevalent, like our current adversary, the Hittites," Li Shuyi rolled her eyes at Bai Xiaowen. "Should we include this in our plans?"

Bai Xiaowen shook his head and said, "No... Our next focus is on collecting the Venomfang Priest Set, so our main area of activity should be within Egypt. However, collecting the Slave Contracts requires killing high-ranking Hittites Advanced Boss, which limits our activity to the Syria region. The two conflict."

Bai Xiaowen has quite a few summoned creatures, not to mention the Black Soul Stone. If he wants to summon more creatures, he only needs to spend some Soul Essence to unlock the new options on the fifth level. There's no need to spend too much energy on a slave contract with an uncertain future.

Putting away the slave contract, Li Shuyi continued drawing, and this time she got equipment—a cloak.

[Commander’s Cloak (Bind on Pickup)]

[Quality: Heroic Tier (Gold)]

[Equipment Slot: Back]

[Equipment Requirements: Base Strength 20, Base Agility 20, Base Constitution 20, Base Spirit 20]

[Attributes: All attributes +1, Back armor +3, Evasion rate +3%]

[Additional Skill: Commanding Roar: Increases all damage dealt by friendly units within a large area (Spirit * 10, unit: meters) by 15%, and reduces all damage taken by 15%, for 15 seconds. Cooldown: 24 hours.]

[Durability: 39/40]

[Note: A wise commander should know how to inspire the potential of his soldiers.]

"This is an extremely high-quality Gold Equipment," Bai Xiaowen said. "For a Gold Equipment, +1 to all attributes is already barely enough, not to mention it also comes with a powerful group buff skill. Any one of the attributes and skill of this cloak alone would be enough to justify its status as a Gold Equipment."

That's right. Even without any additional attributes, the Commanding Roar skill is definitely worth it and justifies the quality of Gold Equipment. Combining these two elements means that one Gold Equipment has the value of two Gold Gear, and it only occupies one equipment slot. This is far more valuable than two ordinary Gold Gear.

The only drawback is that the equipment requirements are quite strict; all basic attributes must reach 20 points to wear the equipment—most Awakened Ones, including Hero Class, cannot meet this standard, as everyone has weak attributes.

Even with Bai Xiaowen's all-around abilities, his basic strength is only 19 points, just 1 point short. However, the good news is that Bai Xiaowen meets all other requirements; he only needs to take a Strength Enhancement Potion to reach the required level.

This is also why Bai Xiaowen has not used the third Enhancement Potion. Before the pain value curve of exponential growth, there is a limit to the number of Enhancement Potion an awakened person can withstand. It is better to save them for later and then choose to take them when there is a real need for the growth of a certain attribute.

For example, right now, lacking even 1 point of basic strength, you can only drool over this super-grade Gold Equipment...

In Bai Xiaowen's Storage Space, there were two bottles each of strength-enhancing, agility-enhancing, and constitution- Enhancement Potion, all of them level 10, perfect-grade potions that could increase attributes by up to 5 points. It's better to be prepared; even if he didn't need them, he could auction them off at the Super God Potion Shop before they expired...

After putting away the Gold Equipment, Bai Xiaowen selected the third card.

"You have obtained two Premium Psionic Crystal."

Premium Psionic Crystal and Superior Psionic Crystal are the same type of item. Both are placed in Enhancement Card during the equipment enhancement stage to replace other auxiliary equipment and are used for burning.

However, Premium Psionic Crystal is equivalent to burning a piece of Gold Equipment of the same type as the main equipment! The increased success rate is definitely considerable.

"This is used to enhance Dark Gold Equipment to +7, and it will definitely hold its value well, at least equivalent to two pieces of Gold Gear," Bai Xiaowen said with emotion as he put away the two Premium Psionic Crystal. "Commander Holimu... what a generous slave owner!"

I drew three times and got some good items each time, the most valuable of which was the Commander’s Cloak.

"Xiao Wen, there's something else in the treasure chest," Li Shuyi said immediately, her eyes sharp.

Bai Xiaowen waved his hand and said, "It should be Holimu's head, the kind that's bound to fall off... After all, Ramses said he wanted to use Holimu's head as a drinking vessel. Since we killed Holimu, the Spirit Realm Rules will naturally give him his head as a trophy."

After a pause, Bai Xiaowen continued, "If there were any impropriety in our kill, this head might have counted as one of our loot draw attempts. However, we accomplished the kill under the most difficult circumstances, so the head is an extra bonus."

After a fierce battle and heavy losses, the Egypt army finally protected Pharaoh Ramses and returned to the southern fortress of Amur. Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi simultaneously received a message that the mission was complete and they could go to Ramses to submit their report.

The soldiers and civilians of Amurru Fortress opened the fortress gates, marched out of the city, and lined up to welcome their Pharaoh.

Ramses ' Golden Chariot had already been changed horses on the road, and even the bloodstains and dust on the chariot had been wiped clean. The young pharaoh, wearing a lapis lazuli crown, stood on the chariot, accepting the cheers of his subjects with the air of a victor.

At the gates of the Amurru Fortress, Ramses delivered an impromptu speech.

The purpose of the speech was to Inspiration morale, and the theme was, of course, to boast of military achievements.

"... In short, we achieved a glorious victory in this battle. The corpses of the Hittites piled up like mountains, enough to stop the flow of the Orontes River! We also killed the Hittites commander, and that coward Muwatallis fled back to Kadesh City!"

"The final victory in this war will surely belong to Egypt!"

Under Ramses's influence, even the Egypt soldiers who had fought all day had a kind of illusion, as if they had really won a great victory.

Bai Xiaowen clapped as he criticized the Pharaoh's shamelessness, and shouted along with the crowd, "Long live the Pharaoh!"

As Ramses nodded reservedly, accepting the praise of his subjects, Bai Xiaowen naturally didn't miss the opportunity either.

"Great Pharaoh, your loyal warrior Dio, hereby presents to you the head of the Hittites commander!"

Bai Xiaowen knelt on one knee before the Golden Chariot, offering up the head of Holimu, stained with blood and dust, his eyes wide open in death.

Ramses laughed heartily, grabbed the braid from Holimu skull, lifted it up, and displayed it to the surrounding crowd as proof of Egypt's great victory.

The cheers from the surrounding crowd grew even louder.

"Arise, my warrior!" Ramses found Bai Xiaowen pleasing to the eye. "I told you to retrieve the head of that Hittites for me; I will use it to make drinking vessels! And you have done so. You are a warrior favored by Amun-Ra, the sharpest blade in my hand! Now, mount my chariot and bask in glory with me!"

Ramses bent down, helped Bai Xiaowen up, and with a strong pull, dragged Bai Xiaowen onto the Golden Chariot.

To ride in the same carriage as the Pharaoh and return in glory to the Amurru Fortress would be an incredible experience for an ordinary Egypt, who would probably be so excited that they would faint and become utterly loyal to the Pharaoh from that moment on.

However, Bai Xiaowen was not a local, so he didn't feel it as strongly. He just secretly marveled at Ramses ' extraordinary personal charisma.

Amid cheers, the Golden Chariot entered the magnificent Pharaoh's palace. Bai Xiaowen officially received the notification:

"C-Tier Hero Side Quest: The Return of the Pharaoh, Completed. Quest Completion: Excellent (86%)."

"You have gained 3000 merit points."

"Your reputation with the Ancient Egypt faction has increased significantly. Current reputation level: Revered."

"Pharaoh Ramses II's Affection Level towards you has increased. Current Affection Level level: Friend."

"Main Quest: Choice, Completed. You may leave the Ramses Plane World at any time for the next 8 days, 9 hours, and 17 minutes. All gains from this Spirit Realm exploration (including but not limited to Psionic Points, equipment, and items) will not be lost."

Bai Xiaowen breathed a sigh of relief and exchanged a glance with Li Shuyi. Although the three members of the Zhalun group caused trouble, the completion of this main quest was ultimately successful.

The remaining eight days or so of Free Exploration Time should be made good use of.

At this time, Ramses had already completed the defenses of the Amurru Fortress and formally summoned Bai Xiaowen.

"Dio, now tell me, what do you and your sect know?" Ramses said in a deep voice. "I am not in the country right now and cannot verify whether your story about the Sacred Bull Sepiras and his followers is true, but given that you saved me and my army, I have no choice but to believe you."

The opportunity to deceive has arrived.

Bai Xiaowen was radiant with health at this moment. While waiting to be summoned, he had recited the poem from the Peony Behind Leaves Painting.

In Egypt, where the language was different and cuneiform script was still in use, charm only increased by 15%, but that was enough—after all, the foundation was strong. Bai Xiaowen thought to herself.

"Great Pharaoh, as I told you before, it was all the work of the Silent Tongue Sect," Bai Xiaowen said solemnly. "Don't you think the Hittites were too well-prepared for this expedition? Because before you expanded the Ptah Legion and marched on Suliston, your spies hidden within Egypt had already informed the Hittites of your plans!"

"You mean... the Silent Tongue Sect is Hittites spy organization?" Ramses asked, frowning.

"No," Bai Xiaowen shook his head, saying slyly, "They are all Egypt, but... Egypt who are loyal to the Hittites."

"How is this possible?" Ramses shook his head.

"Speaking of which, this is also related to sectarian conflict..."

Bai Xiaowen had planned this all along; he was determined to throw this mud at him.

"The Silent Tongue Sect worships the Delta Serpent God —also known as Edjo, the guardian deity of Lower Egypt. As you know, after Menes Great unified the two Egypt, the guardian deity of Lower Egypt gradually lost his position and was replaced by the great Sacred Bull Sepiras."

"Over the years, Edjo's sect has been constantly seeking to restore the Snake God's status, and our struggle against them has been ongoing."

"This time, they've staked everything on this war, using their connections in Egypt to conceal the identities of Hittites spies, with only one goal... to kill you in Suliston! If it weren't for these rats stealing intelligence for the enemy, how could your battle plan have been thwarted?"

This was the material Bai Xiaowen had prepared beforehand. Any other awakened individual would have found it difficult to weave such a convincing lie, with names of gods, places, and sects appearing one after another...

Ramses pondered for a moment and said, "Even if I die, will they achieve their goal? Changing the faith of the Lower Egypt people is not an easy task."

"Your death is just the first step; another important figure will appear next!" Bai Xiaowen's lies became increasingly slick. "That person, like you, has noble royal blood, is a son of Seti I, and commands one of the four legions... Once you die at the hands of the Hittites, he will inherit the Pharaoh's throne. He has already made a deal with the Silent Tongue!"