Unknown Decision

Chapter 23: Unknown Decision

Li Wei hesitated!

Reason told him not to accept such a dangerous mission. An A-Rank difficulty rating was no joke. If he simply continued with the main quest, having the Dread Knight would make a mere C-Rank mission easy to complete.

Besides, Li Wei already had a detailed plan for "Reclaim Dawn City." It shouldn't have been difficult to choose between abandoning a task he had a clear plan for and could complete, and taking on a mission two difficulty levels higher without any clues.

And yet, Li Wei hesitated!

This was an A-Rank mission—a rare opportunity that might never come again. Anyone who arrived on Shadow Street had their fate controlled by a mysterious force. To survive, they had to keep growing stronger, and high-difficulty missions always brought high rewards. Li Wei had experienced this firsthand during the "Initial Trial": he had given up going to Fairy Spirit Island and chosen to stay behind to look after Aunt Li, and in the end, he had obtained the C-Rank martial art Cloud-Piercing Palm. That was a perfect example.

After a long while, Li Wei made up his mind!

He glanced at the Crossbowmen behind him, put away the Yellow Paper for the time being, and hurried toward the next resource point with the Dread Knight.

A Gold Mine lay tangled beneath creeping vines. It was the last resource point in the forest. With the Level 6 Dread Knight at his side, Li Wei had little trouble taking out the Stone Men guarding it.

"You have occupied a Gold Mine. You will receive 1,000 units of gold every day!"

After occupying the Gold Mine, Li Wei rushed straight to the Withered Wood Guardian recruitment site he had visited earlier. This time, he didn't hesitate. He led the Dread Knight and three Crossbowmen into the Withered Wood Guardians' territory.

Three towering Withered Wood Guardians were stationed there. Li Wei quickly ordered the Dread Knight to engage them and tie them down. The three Crossbowmen concentrated their fire on ranged attacks, while Li Wei himself attacked the Withered Wood Guardians with Cloud-Piercing Palm.

Even with the Dread Knight, the battle was brutal. The Withered Wood Guardians were Level 5 creatures, after all, and their powerful special abilities and defenses gave Li Wei plenty of trouble. But Cloud-Piercing Palm seemed to counter them. A few successive strikes left one of the Withered Wood Guardians crippled, and the unlucky creature was finally cut in half by the Dread Knight's blade.

Using the same method, they took care of the remaining two Withered Wood Guardians.

"You have occupied the Withered Wood Forest. Would you like to recruit Withered Wood Guardians?" Only when he saw the message appear on the Yellow Paper did Li Wei smile with satisfaction. But before long, his expression turned sour.

He was out of gold!

Recruiting a Withered Wood Guardian cost 800 gold coins. Fortunately, he had occupied a Gold Mine, but he could still afford only one. Even so, it was a Level 5 creature, and a single one had considerable fighting power.

Leading the five-meter-tall Withered Wood Guardian, Li Wei returned to where Bai Jie was resting.

The woman had clearly grown anxious waiting. When she saw the enormous Withered Wood Guardian, she froze for a moment, then started to order the Militiamen and Crossbowmen to attack. Before leaving, Li Wei had handed her command of several units.

But she soon spotted Li Wei.

"Oh my god, I thought you weren't coming back!" Bai Jie had clearly been terrified. It was no wonder: anyone who suddenly encountered a creature as tall as a Withered Wood Guardian would have been intimidated. But what happened next shocked her even more.

A three-meter-tall Dread Knight emerged from the trees, a faint black aura surrounding him. Though the black-armored knight was considerably shorter than the Withered Wood Guardian, his appearance instantly made him seem more imposing than every other unit there.

"What is that? Li Wei, what on earth have you been doing?" Bai Jie stared at the man before her, dumbfounded. She never would have imagined that he could leave for just over an hour and come back with two powerful creatures.

Li Wei gathered his thoughts and said, "Bai Jie, I need you to do something for me!"

After a pause, he continued, "This is a Level 5 creature, a Withered Wood Guardian. I'm leaving it, along with the remaining five Crossbowmen and three Militiamen, in your hands. Oh, and I'm also handing over control of the Withered Wood Guardian recruitment site and the three resource points. Go to the Knight Training Ground right away and meet up with Zheng Yutong and the others. Tell her I have something to do and have to leave. Here's a letter, too. Give it to Zheng Yutong; she'll know what to do!"

Li Wei took out a letter he had just written and handed it to Bai Jie. It contained his complete plan for reclaiming Dawn City.

In the end, Li Wei had decided to accept Mordel the Dread Knight's mission. He couldn't let this opportunity slip away. As for Zheng Yutong and the others, this was all he could do to help.

"What's going on?" Bai Jie looked at Li Wei, at a loss. "Are you coming back?"

Li Wei had already swung himself onto the Dread Knight's horse. He thought for a moment.

"Maybe. Good luck!"

He said it both to Bai Jie and to himself.

At the same time, Li Wei accepted the "Redemption of the Dread Knight" mission on the Yellow Paper.

Only after accepting a mission could one learn the details from the characters involved in the story. This time, the one explaining things to Li Wei was naturally Mordel the Dread Knight.

Mordel's family had been a line of knights for several hundred years. Going back to their ancestors, the family had produced dozens of great knights, all loyal guardians who had devoted everything to the human kingdom. The king had placed great trust in them, settling the family in a border town that would later become Dawn City.

Glory and honor might have watched over the family forever, but everything changed when war came.

That day, black clouds covered Dawn City. Outside the city appeared monsters found only in the terrifying stories told to frighten children.

The Undead!

Not just one or two, but undead creatures stretching as far as the eye could see. The soldiers defending the town were horrified to discover vampires, Liches, and even terrifying creatures like Bone Dragons among the undead army.

No one knew what horrors Dawn City endured that day. By the time the human kingdom sent a large army seven days later, not a single living soul remained in the entire city.

The Mordel Family, who had defended Dawn City, fell with it!

No one knew that it had been a conspiracy—a plot targeting the knightly Mordel Family. The family's youngest and most promising knight had overheard a few words about the scheme from an Undead Necromancer. He was furious. Though he was already on the verge of death, that did nothing to lessen his hatred for the person behind it all.

So when the Undead Necromancer offered to turn him into a Dread Knight, he agreed without hesitation. For his family, for revenge, he was willing to do anything.

From that day on, the world had one more Dread Knight named Mordel.

"I still remember the looks on the faces of those innocent people as they died..." As Mordel spoke, the red flames in his eyes flared brighter. "The one behind all this was a knight. He betrayed his kingdom and his faith to gain greater power. As far as I know, he later became an Undead Necromancer!"

Li Wei's eyes lit up. It looked like they had reached the crux of the mission!

"Undead Necromancer—Sand. That's the only name I remember. Master, please help me kill that vile undead!"

Li Wei froze!

It was him! Wasn't that the same guy who was attacking Dawn City this time?

"'Redemption of the Dread Knight': kill the Undead Necromancer Sand within seven days. Failure will result in the Dread Knight turning against you!"

Damn it!

Li Wei almost tore the Yellow Paper to shreds. This was a complete trap! But it was too late to do anything about it now. The mission couldn't be abandoned, and he had to complete it. Otherwise...

He stole a glance at Mordel the Dread Knight and shuddered. Being hunted by a monster like him wouldn't be pleasant. But killing Sand would be no easy task either.

No wonder it was an A-Rank mission. It really was a challenge!

"Master, forgive me for speaking frankly, but you're too weak. You wouldn't be able to deal with even the few vampires under Sand, let alone the Undead Necromancer himself!"

The Dread Knight's sudden remark left Li Wei embarrassed. It was true. Li Wei had an E3-Rank rating; he probably couldn't even handle a single vampire, much less Sand.

Li Wei had only gotten a rough idea of how powerful Sand was from Mordel, but that was enough for him to make a judgment. Compared with Mordel, Sand was at least as strong, if not stronger.

"Mordel, do you have any suggestions?" Li Wei asked, following the other's lead.

The Dread Knight let out a deep laugh. "For the sake of revenge, I offered my soul to the Grim Reaper in exchange for two skill scrolls. I learned one of them, Fatal Strike..."

As he spoke, he raised the black blade in his hand and swung it at a giant tree nearby, so wide that several people would have needed to join hands to encircle it. A crimson flash streaked through the air. In an instant, the massive tree was cleaved in half, and its trunk crashed to the ground with a thunderous boom, scattering countless birds and beasts.

-800

That was the damage Li Wei saw through his Eye of Perception: the Dread Knight's attack had dealt 800 damage, eight times as much as Cloud-Piercing Palm. Normally, someone with 10 points of stamina had the equivalent of 100 HP. Li Wei could kill such a target with a single palm strike, but even someone with 80 stamina probably wouldn't survive the Dread Knight's Fatal Strike.

Apparently satisfied with his skill, Mordel nodded, then continued, "After learning the attack skill, I kept the other skill scroll. It's only some kind of unknown 'crafting skill,' but it's still rated A-Rank. Now, to increase your strength, I'm offering you this skill scroll, Master!"

Mordel took out a scroll glowing with a faint blue light and handed it to Li Wei.

"Crafting Skill: Art of Stacking. A-Rank rating. Unique attribute. Can stack target creatures or items. The targets must share the same attributes. The level and attributes of the resulting item will change randomly according to the number of times it is stacked... 'Only a god could master this technique!'"

Looking at the skill scroll's attributes, Li Wei was at a loss. It was actually a crafting skill.

Crafting skills weren't rare on Shadow Street. Li Wei had seen plenty of Skill Books for things like "Smithing" and "Engineering." Basically, no one paid them any attention.

It wasn't for any other reason. Learning a crafting skill required extremely strict prerequisites. Take Smithing, for example: you needed at least 10 points of strength and had to master the "Novice Blacksmith" skill first.

Ten points of strength weren't a problem, but "Novice Blacksmith" was a hassle. There were no Skill Books for it. You had to train in the real world. In other words, to earn the title of "Novice Blacksmith," you had to be an experienced blacksmith in real life.

Other crafting skills worked the same way. Even actual craftspeople would prioritize skills that could directly improve their combat strength on Shadow Street. After all, strength was what mattered most. No one wanted to be subordinate to others and work as a "craftsman." That was why crafting skills were ignored.

Now Mordel the Dread Knight had given Li Wei a crafting skill, leaving him not quite sure whether to laugh or cry.

"Stacking items? What exactly is it good for?" Li Wei looked at the learning requirements for the crafting skill: "...Requires 15 points of Spirit and mastery of at least one Detection-type skill."