Generous Rewards

Li Si saw that Di Sen had stopped resisting and chosen to admit defeat, and he finally let out a breath of relief. To be honest, he had almost run out of Mana Value and was close to being unable to hold on himself.

He glanced at the azure fireball in his hand and, to save trouble, hurled it directly at an open patch of ground far away from everyone.

Boom!

A deafening explosion rang out. The tamped ground was as fragile as tofu under the direct bombardment of the Blue Ball Spell, and a crater several times larger than the one created by the Fireball Spell appeared before them.

"Young Master Li Si... that's terrifying!" Di Sen was still lying on the ground, staring blankly at the crater in the distance, where blue flames still burned. Even from so far away, he could clearly feel the terrifying heat.

If that attack had landed on me, there probably wouldn't even be ashes left.

Is he really a Novice Mage?

Having watched the entire duel from the side, Welf clearly sensed the power of that spell. The lingering dread made him realize that this spell could even threaten him.

Who was he?

A Gold Warrior! Even among warriors, the most numerous class, high-level warriors were considered top-tier combatants throughout the kingdom. They were the sort of existence that might not appear even once among ten thousand warriors.

Logically speaking, novice spells should not have been able to break through his Battle Qi Defense. Yet the strange blue fireball in Li Si's hand could clearly penetrate his defense and injure him. That was simply unbelievable.

Before the match, Welf had been respectful toward Li Si because of Butler Joyce. But now, he genuinely felt a measure of fear toward his viscount from the bottom of his heart.

As for Bill beside Welf, his face had already gone pale and his legs had turned weak. He was only one step away from collapsing to the ground.

Li Si paid no attention to the guards' expressions. As he took deep breaths to calm his wildly pounding heart from the battle, he checked the system notifications that had just appeared before him.

[You defeated Di Sen by overcoming a stronger opponent and completed the limited challenge quest.]

[Judgment: Cross-Rank Challenge. Judgment passed. Rewards increased.]

[Judgment: All-Out Battle. Judgment failed (Di Sen did not use 100% of his strength). Rewards reduced.]

[Judgment (Hidden): Flawless Victory Without Injury. Judgment passed. Rewards increased.]

[Quest completion: 110%. Distributing rewards.]

[You obtained 330,000 experience points.]

[You obtained the specializations Dauntless Challenger and Low-Grade Robust Body.]

[You obtained the skill Martial Skill: Wrathful Strike.]

Li Si had not expected to trigger a limited challenge quest. This was one of the more appealing gameplay features in Divine Revelation.

When players challenged NPCs, wild monsters, or bosses, they had a chance of triggering this limited challenge quest. The rewards were generous, and there was a chance to obtain the challenged target's skills and specializations, along with substantial experience point and Gold Coin rewards.

But generous rewards also meant that such quests were exceedingly rare and extremely difficult!

First, this type of quest could only be triggered in a solo challenge.

Second, the quest only had a chance of triggering when the system judged the enemy's level to be close to or higher than the player's.

In Divine Revelation, due to equipment, talents, and many other factors, NPCs were much stronger than ordinary players at the same level. Not to mention important figures in the main storyline, whom even professional players could not stand against.

A single story boss often required vast numbers of players to throw their lives at it, getting beaten to death over and over again.

Thus, not many players in his previous life had managed to complete this quest and obtain its rewards. Yet countless players still enjoyed it so much that, in the end, those NPCs who could more easily trigger such quests started avoiding players altogether.

You would be walking down the road perfectly well when some bizarrely dressed person suddenly leaped out and shouted, "Grandson!" before demanding a duel.

If you ran into hundreds of lunatics like that every day, no one could endure it.

After thinking it over, Li Si gave up on the idea of farming limited challenge quests from other people. First, his strength was still insufficient. Defeating Di Sen had also been partly luck, and he still needed to keep working hard.

He could have Welf and the others cooperate with him, but first, the trigger rate for such quests was rather low. Second, if they held back too much, the quest rewards would drop severely.

If he had not completed the hidden judgment this time, the rewards would not have been so generous.

Li Si estimated that if he cheated his way into defeating Welf, the system would be showing him courtesy if it tossed him a few Gold Coins.

Shaking his head and no longer dwelling on it, Li Si happily began taking stock of the generous quest rewards.

"Three hundred thousand experience points—sweet. That's enough to raise me about two levels."

"One hundred Gold Coins. That would have been a lot when the server had just opened. Now that I'm a viscount, it's still a lot!"

Now for the main event. Li Si rubbed his hands together and opened the detailed information for the specializations and skill he had obtained.

Dauntless Challenger—Damage received from Rank Suppression is reduced by 30%. Has a chance to negate negative statuses such as fear, intimidation, silence, confusion, and charm.

Low-Grade Robust Body—Health Points increase by 10%, recovery speed from minor injuries increases, and personal toughness and Elemental Resistance are slightly improved.

Martial Skill: Wrathful Strike—Intermediate warrior skill. Deals theoretical damage equal to (30% of the user's lost Health Points + 200% × Strength attribute) to the enemy. Has a certain chance to inflict intimidation. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

There was no need to look at Martial Skill: Wrathful Strike for now. He did not have any spare experience points to improve the skill, and at a low level, the chance of triggering its intimidation effect was far too low.

Dauntless Challenger was an extremely useful specialization. Every player could obtain it the first time they challenged an enemy of a higher level than themselves. Its chance to negate negative statuses could potentially produce miraculous results in battle.

Low-Grade Robust Body was a passive specialization that could directly improve one's durability. Warrior players only became indestructible top-tier tanks after acquiring many similar passive specializations, so the more of these specializations, the better. He would welcome all of them.

Low-Grade Robust Body and Martial Skill: Wrathful Strike had probably both been plucked from Di Sen. At that thought, Li Si could not help looking at Welf with an eager gaze.

The loot from a Silver Warrior was already this good. What great treasures could he pluck from Gold Warrior Welf?

Li Si nodded and silently added "challenge Welf" to his mental notes.

Welf, who was helping Di Sen to his feet, suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. He looked around, feeling as though something filthy had its eye on him.

Watching Di Sen struggle to clean the black oily liquid off his body, Li Si suddenly felt that the Grease Spell seemed to have further potential for development. It was simply too useful for disgusting people. He could study it properly when he had time.

Seeing that Di Sen likely would not be able to clean himself up anytime soon, while Bill still seemed not to have recovered from his fright, Welf could only pick up his sword and stand before Li Si, preparing to complete the remaining training.

He no longer dared to show the slightest bit of negligence. Even though Li Si looked somewhat tired, he did not dare suggest ending early without being told to do so.

It was all this guy's fault!

Welf shot a disdainful glance at Bill, who was cowering off to the side.

It seemed he really needed to train this fellow more. He had been far too lenient with him before. How could he properly serve as Young Master Li Si's guard if this continued?

Welf thought very obediently.

However, Li Si had no intention of continuing the training. With a call to Welf and the others, he prepared to return and rest.

He still had to make a trip back to Fiss Royal Magic Academy tomorrow, so there was no need to exhaust himself too much today.