Another A-Rank Evaluation

Chapter 30: Another A-Rank Evaluation

The Thunderous Berserk Dagger was just like its name: anyone who wielded it would be affected by the frenzied, berserk aura emanating from the blade.

Li Wei had gone berserk by now, stabbing at Sand with the dagger as if his life depended on it.

He stabbed, slashed, thrust, and sliced, unleashing a dizzying array of moves. The electric damage radiating from the blade made poor Sand suffer terribly. In less than five seconds, his health had already dropped below 1,000.

And that was without Li Wei having mastered Dagger Mastery. If he'd been an experienced dagger wielder, Sand would probably have already fallen over and started singing "Conquer."

Five seconds wasn't all that long, but it wasn't short, either. The Vampire Honor Guards nearby weren't just standing around. Why were they letting Li Wei run amok?

The Vampire Honor Guards wanted to protect their master, but they couldn't find an opening. The Dread Knights, level-six units, had already blocked them off with their swords. Although the guards had the advantage in numbers, the natural gap in their levels left them helpless. All they could do was watch as Li Wei grinned viciously and stabbed their master, Sand, again and again.

The sudden turn of events threw the undead army into chaos. Even the Bone Dragon forces—dozens of them already deployed on the front lines—were affected.

The human kingdom's knights and Griffins were simply too "fragile" before the level-seven Bone Dragons. Bone Dragons were undead creatures created by necromancers using evil magic to awaken the remains of dead dragons. Though they had no flesh, their bones were as hard as steel, and their special abilities, "Fear" and "Aging," made them no weaker than they had been alive. In some ways, they were even stronger.

Perhaps only the Angel Legion, also a level-seven unit, could stand against them. But the Angel Legion was the human kingdom's last secret weapon, and they were unlikely to reveal it lightly. The Griffins were brave, but no match for the Bone Dragons. They had already suffered heavy casualties. Fortunately, several hundred elite knights remained; otherwise, these dozen or so Bone Dragons alone would have sent the human army into a full retreat.

Even so, the knights wouldn't be able to hold out much longer. When Zheng Yutong saw a knight bitten in half by a gigantic Bone Dragon, she grew frantic. The success or failure of this mission depended on this battle. Nothing could go wrong.

She prepared to take matters into her own hands. Using Wind Walk to enter the fray, she immediately cast her level-four Magic Arrow at a Bone Dragon. The arrow, wreathed in blinding sparks of electricity, shot like lightning and struck the creature with a loud crackle.

Unfortunately, without Eye of Perception, she couldn't see the damage or the Bone Dragon's health. If she had, she might have despaired: her strongest skill had taken only one-twentieth of its health.

As time passed, the human army managed to kill one Bone Dragon, but they had no more troops to send in. Both the commander and Zheng Yutong knew that they were probably going to lose this battle.

Just then, a piercing shriek rang out from within Dawn City. Every Bone Dragon stopped attacking at the same moment, as if it had heard someone's command. They beat their enormous bony wings and flew toward Dawn City.

What had happened?

The human commander and Zheng Yutong were both baffled. Why would the enemy retreat when it had such a huge advantage—and why were they retreating so... hastily?

If they'd known the Bone Dragons were rushing back to save their supreme commander, their jaws might have hit the ground.

The Thunderous Berserk Dagger in Li Wei's hand was wrapped in several arcs of lightning that never faded, making it look like a genuine divine weapon. Every attack dealt more than 100 damage. Worse still, the dagger's lightning hurt not only Sand but also any other undead close by.

With every rise and fall of the dagger, sharp crackles of electricity filled the air. Li Wei was so excited he could barely keep from shouting. He was having the time of his life. An E3-rated fighter chasing down a B3-rated Sand was like a mouse beating a cat senseless. How could he not be thrilled?

Sand, meanwhile, was so bewildered by the terrifying dagger that he even forgot to cast spells. He did nothing but flee. After a few more stabs, his health had fallen to 500.

At that moment, Guo Jian arrived. Seeing Sand darting around like a stray dog, he was startled. Sand was the key to completing his mission. Nothing could happen to him.

With a shout, he swung a huge iron axe at Li Wei, using the Rakshasa Three Forms.

I've been waiting for you!

Li Wei glanced at Guo Jian out of the corner of his eye and sneered. Last time, this man had caused his assassination mission to fail. If he let this guy ruin his chance again, Li Wei might as well go find a block of tofu and kill himself by running into it.

Li Wei struck back with a Gouge, and his Thunderous Berserk Dagger met the massive axe with a sharp crackle. Despite the overwhelming difference in strength between them, Li Wei managed to knock Guo Jian's iron axe back with his small dagger.

With 19 Strength, 25 Agility, and the dagger's terrifying attack power, Li Wei now had five times the strength and speed of an ordinary person. He was more than capable of taking on Guo Jian.

The dagger, a purple-quality weapon, was what made the difference.

In Shadow Street, an item's value depended not only on its rating but also on its quality. From lowest to highest, the qualities were gray, white, green, blue, purple, and orange. The Thunderous Berserk Dagger was among the finest purple weapons, while the axe in Guo Jian's hands was only ordinary white quality. It was no match for the dagger.

"That dagger of his is strange!" Guo Jian was an experienced veteran and knew what to look for. Lightning crackled all over the dagger in Li Wei's hand. Its design was distinctive, and a faint purple glow seemed to surround it.

A purple-quality weapon!

Guo Jian sucked in a breath when he recognized it. He was an old hand on Shadow Street, but in all that time, he had seen only one person with a number below 100 sell a purple-quality wristguard. Several powerful veterans had bid against one another for it, and the final price had reached a staggering 50,000 points. At 1,000 points per mission, it would take fifty missions completed safely to afford a wristguard like that.

The incident had left Guo Jian feeling envious, jealous, and resentful. He still remembered what purple-quality items looked like, so he froze when he saw the dagger in Li Wei's hand.

Then he made a decision: kill Li Wei at any cost and take the purple-quality weapon. His eyes reddened with bloodlust, like a rapist who'd spent over a decade in prison and had just seen a naked beauty.

Li Wei wasn't afraid of him, but he wouldn't let Guo Jian distract him this time. Sand was the real target, so after forcing Guo Jian back, Li Wei slashed at Sand again.

-180

The electrified blade tore away a strip of flesh. Sand's health had fallen to 380, almost a critical level. At last, the necromancer's savage nature came out.

"Blindness!"

He used the same trick again, but this time he targeted Li Wei. Without strong resistance to magic, no one could withstand its effects. In an instant, Li Wei saw several blinding flashes. His eyes lost their sight, and he was plunged into darkness.

Seeing that his spell had successfully affected its target, Sand was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when he realized that the other man's dagger seemed to have eyes of its own, stabbing straight for his throat.

-200

A spray of blood burst out. The lightning damage dealt by the Thunderous Berserk Dagger reached its highest point yet. Its sharp blade pierced right through Sand's throat. If not for the special constitution he possessed as an undead, that strike would have killed him.

How could this be?

More than the fact that he'd been stabbed, what terrified Sand was that the other man had landed a precise hit despite being afflicted with Blindness. Did he have a constitution immune to magic, or an item that could ward off magical attacks?

Impossible. Items that resisted magic were exceedingly rare. And even if someone had one, it couldn't completely negate a spell's effects. Having never encountered anything like this before, Sand gaped, frozen in place.

That moment of hesitation brought the necromancer eternal death!

Li Wei's eyes were unfocused, clearly unable to see a thing, yet the corners of his mouth still curled into a victorious smile. His body pivoted to the side in an instant, and he quickly switched the dagger to his other hand. With a backward thrust, he drove its sharp point into Sand's forehead like a bolt of lightning.

A massive surge of electricity erupted, coursing from Sand's head through his body.

-220

The strike hit a vital point, dealing bonus damage. Sand saw only a blur. A wave of pain washed over him, then darkness closed in. To his dying moment, he never understood why that human, despite being afflicted with Blindness, had still managed to strike him without being affected.

As Sand's corpse hit the ground, Li Wei's Yellow Paper appeared.

"Redemption of the Dread Knight" completed. Mission rating: A. Reward: 20,000 points. Reward: Ring of Dread Knight's Resentment ×1. Reward: Undead Necromancer Sand's Magic Notes ×1.

All missions completed. You will be forcibly returned to Shadow Street in 3 seconds... 3... 2... 1...

When the countdown reached two seconds, Li Wei promptly exchanged the Thunderous Berserk Dagger in his hand for 20,000 points.

A moment later, he was enveloped in light. After a wave of dizziness, his vision returned, and Li Wei found himself back in the familiar room.

Smooth walls, dim torches, and the huge mirror opposite him. But this time, Li Wei wasn't tense. He sat cross-legged on the floor, recovering the inner energy he had expended in his successive attacks and taking stock of what he had gained from the mission.

Another A-rank evaluation. Li Wei was used to it by now. He first checked his points, but the moment he saw the number displayed on the Yellow Paper, his pupils shrank to pinpricks.

55,000 points!

How could he have so many?

Li Wei felt as happy as if he'd won the lottery or found a huge sum of money. With his exceptional memory, he quickly recalled where the points had come from: 20,000 for the A-rank mission rating, 20,000 from selling the purple dagger, 5,000 for killing Sand, and 10,000 accumulated by killing countless low-level creatures as he expanded rapidly over the seven days of the mission.

At last, he'd gone from a serf to a landowner. Leaving the points aside for now, Li Wei took out the several items he'd obtained during the mission.

[Poisonous Centaur Battle Axe], Attack +16, green quality. Inflicts 2–3 points of poison damage per second on hit. Can be exchanged for 3,000 points.

This was the item Li Wei had created through Stacking. It could be called a piece of equipment unlike any other on Shadow Street.

[Ring of Dread Knight's Resentment], Attack +12, all four attributes +3, blue quality. Can be exchanged for 5,000 points.

It was an exceptionally valuable ring. Its bonus to attack power and boost to all four attributes made it hard for Li Wei to put down.

After putting it on his finger, Li Wei's attributes became: "Reincarnator No. 1987: Human (Martial Artist), Strength 12, Agility 13, Spirit 18, Stamina 8, Inner Energy 30; Skills: Innate Skill, First Layer; Cloud-Piercing Palm; Eye of Perception; Art of Stacking; Precision LV4; Shooting Mastery; Overall Rating E3!"

The last item was [Undead Necromancer's Magic Notes], "a rare magical manuscript recording the spells studied by the necromancer Sand..."

"Hahaha!"

Holding the black notebook, Li Wei laughed wildly. He knew just how powerful magic was. In his final battle with Sand, he hadn't dodged or resisted the Blindness spell at all; he had taken its full effect. After his first assassination attempt failed, he realized that he would need to train specifically if he wanted to kill Sand. Blindness was clearly one of Sand's signature spells; otherwise, he wouldn't have cast it on the Dread Knights the first time.

So, during those few days, Li Wei had spent every day blindfolded, sparring with the Dread Knights. He wanted to be able to keep fighting even while suffering from a negative status effect. As it turned out, he'd made the right call!

Sand had ultimately died at Li Wei's hands. At that moment, even the powerful Blindness spell couldn't save his filthy life.

Even so, Li Wei still yearned for those wondrous spells. Now that he had this magic notebook, it was like a lifeline thrown to him in a snowstorm.

He opened the black cover and began reading by the dim torchlight.

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