Preparing for Battle

I really want to try out the skills.

However, Lu Xiu suppressed the urge to immediately launch a recapture operation.

Not today.

I'm so tired.

Moreover, judging from the timeline, the truce period is almost over.

As she pondered this, she also checked the other item and equipment rewards given for clearing the verification dungeon.

Unexpected.

There was also an unexpected surprise.

[Item Name: Estus Flask]

[Rating: S]

[Type: Recovery Item]

[Effect Description: Contains five elemental elixirs. Each time you drink it, it instantly restores 30% of your maximum health, ignoring any healing restrictions.]

[Recharge Rules: Automatically fully charged every natural day. When located in the [Lord of Cinder] domain, it can absorb energy dissipated from the First Flame for automatic recharge. It automatically condenses a mouthful of Elemental Liquid every 10 seconds.]

[Note: You can take away an undead's clothes, but you can't take away their right to drink orange juice.]

Lu Xiu gently tossed the Estus Flask in her hand.

nice one.

With fixed Consumable, she won't need to eat rice from Sekiro every time she drives Atypical Courage.

This thing is useful normally, but it will be even more useful once the [Lord of Cinder] realm is unlocked.

With it, her battery life will be greatly enhanced when she activates her domain.

very nice.

She tossed the Estus Flask into her backpack and moved on to the next one.

[Item Name: Ring of Favor and Protection]

[Rating: SS]

[Type: Ring]

[Attribute Bonus: Constitution +4]

[Special Effect: Increases the user's base maximum health by 20%, and reduces all damage taken by 5%.]

[Negative effect: Reduces healing effectiveness by 5%.]

[Equipment Requirements: None]

[Note: Everyone praises the goddess Fina, who possesses natural beauty, saying, "I love you very much," but the goddess's favor is as elusive as a fluttering butterfly, while the goddess of sin, Velka, "Dislikes you very much."]

Divine equipment!

Its attributes are different from those of dungeon items, but it's still very powerful, and it no longer has the mechanism of being damaged when removed.

The note is a bit odd.

Although the goddesses mentioned above are all characters from Dark Souls, none of them actually appear in the game.

I don't know why these two characters were mentioned.

That's a bit strange.

However, it's not uncommon for system notes to contain random or nonsensical things.

never mind.

The last one.

[Item Name: Ancient Lord Soul Shard]

[Rating:???]

[type:???]

[Effect:???]

[Note: Even the Deity decay and perish, but this essence will not. It was once used to separate life and death, light and darkness. Now that the old gods are gone, this fragmented essence awaits the crucible of the next era—or the wielder of the sword.]

"----What is that?"

Lu Xiu tilted her head.

On her fair palm was a dim halo without any physical form.

It looked like a burning pale flame, but it had no heat and no weight.

On the panel, both the rating and the effect are question marks.

This was the first time she had ever seen such a reward.

no.

Are we not allowed to see the rewards from the dungeon?

What kind of reward is this?

Aren't they all generated by the system? Why make it sound like fantasy?

Intentionally disgusting people?

Lu Xiu stared at the pale flame for a while, and after calming down, she ruled out the possibility that the system was deliberately trying to annoy her.

Because she remembered.

Since the World Gamification, it seems that some players have encountered this situation: if the sequence of certain items is insufficient, they will be displayed as a series of question marks.

"So it's because my sequence isn't high enough? Fine, whatever, I'll keep it safe for now."

Lu Xiu thought for a moment, then didn't dwell on the item too much. With a slight flick of her wrist, she put the pale flame into her backpack, intending to show it to Jian Li later.

If Jian Li sees a question mark as well, then we'll talk about it later.

While the name of an item is interesting, it's useless to care if you don't know what it's for.

That concludes the discussion.

I've checked all the rewards for completing Dark Souls, and they're very generous.

Skills, attributes, equipment, and endurance.

Her overall combat capabilities have once again reached a breakthrough.

The only downside is that I didn't get the invincibility skill from rolling.

However, there are still two more chances.

After the recapture battle, Lu Xiu realized that her rank was not high enough, so she decided to complete the Dark Souls dungeon three times.

We'll see if it can be generated then.

As for now.

Of course, we should rest first. Even the strongest person can't fight Dark Souls continuously.

Lu Xiu exhaled a breath of stale air, summoned the System Panel, and immediately exited the Construction Space.

In the living room.

Silence.

Lu Xiu landed quietly.

The spirit that had been barely held up by the incentive of the reward completely relaxed upon returning to reality, and a strong sense of fatigue surged over it like a tidal wave.

"So tired----"

Lu Xiu stretched languidly, her slender neck arching back to reveal a section of her fair collarbone. Her waist arched slightly as she stretched, lifting her hem to reveal her fair, flat stomach. The proud contours of her chest were clearly outlined as she stretched, rising and falling slightly with her inhale and slowly settling back down with a long sigh.

She paused for two seconds with her arms raised, then looked down and almost instinctively reached her hand under her clothes.

A soft click.

The feeling of being confined vanished instantly.

Instantly, even breathing felt much smoother and clearer.

This can be considered a benefit of adapting to her body after enduring intense suffering in Dark Souls; in the past, she wouldn't have been so casual.

And at this time...

Bite!!!

The system notification sounded without warning.

At the same time.

[System Announcement]

[Lu Xiu, the Architect of Nine Provinces, has completed the verification run of the new dungeon [Dark Souls].]

[Final Overall Rating for Dungeon: SSS!]

[Intrusion activity ended.]

[The SSS-rated dungeon is about to launch. Both sides' recapture battles and regular arenas are immediately suspended. The arenas will officially enter a five-day preparation period.]

During the war preparation period, the new SSS-rank dungeon [Dark Souls] will be open as a public neutral dungeon to players of both sides.

Players from both regions who clear this dungeon will receive substantial battle merit rewards.

[Because the Architect Lu Xiu is from Nine Provinces, to ensure fairness, players entering the Prison Rock instance will need to pay double the Survival Points, and will only receive one reward upon completion.]

[After the five-day preparation period, the system will settle the results. The region with the highest completion rate will be the winner and will unconditionally gain fifty regions under the jurisdiction of the opponent's capital. (Note: Architect Lu Xiu will not be able to reveal the specific process of this instance to any player.)]

[Once the speedrun is completed, this instance will be officially added to the arena scene library and will automatically become the only selectable scene for large-scale battles.]

[Countdown to the start of the combat readiness period: 8 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds.]

Prison Rock.

Royal Court.

The originally Heavy Pressure atmosphere miraculously dissipated considerably with the arrival of the system announcement.

The Prime Minister's facial muscles gradually relaxed, as if a great Heavy Burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

Because of this entire day in the arena, until the truce period.

All of this gave him a terrible headache.

The intensity of the battle was already high, and the invasion caused even more trouble, leaving Prison Rock in complete chaos.

Players from Prison Rock are not nearly as cautious as players from Nine Provinces when facing monsters in the Lu Xiu dungeon.

They just blindly charge in, and the result is that they keep losing.

--

It only got a little better in the afternoon.

But it wasn't much better.

Because of the repeated deaths at the hands of the invading monsters, players in Prison Rock are no longer willing to match up, and Chosen Player are less willing to participate in the recapture battle.

It seems that the situation of being completely suppressed by Nine Provinces not long ago is about to repeat itself----

Thankfully, Lu Xiu finally cleared the level, and the preparation period for war has begun.

The Prime Minister breathed a long sigh of relief.

Despite a host of questions, such as how much of a boost will the Lu Xiu dungeon provide to players in the Nine Provinces, and just how difficult is it?

But finally, I can catch my breath and catch my breath.

Most importantly, Prime Minister Prison Rock felt that the system's designation of this SSS-level dungeon as a public racing area meant that players from Prison Rock and Nine Provinces could once again start on equal footing.

Everyone is starting from scratch, facing completely unknown monsters and mechanics.

As the Architect, Lu Xiu cannot reveal the strategy guide.

Players in Prison Rock shouldn't lose to those in Nine Provinces, since both are experiencing an SSS-rated civilian dungeon for the first time.

If the players in Prison Rock adapt to the new dungeon better, they might even be able to turn the Prison Rock and win.

Prison Rock's situation has recently become quite dire.

The Prime Minister, lost in thought and enjoying a brief moment of relief, was completely unaware—

The top- Chosen Player of Prison Rock standing below looked ashen-faced as if they had swallowed something horrible.

They are people who have personally experienced the monsters in dungeons.

Many even died at the hands of monsters in the dungeon.

They didn't think that dungeon would be easy to clear, or that Prison Rock would offer much of an advantage.

However, they had no other choice at this point but to hope that the dungeon had corresponding mechanics that they could gradually familiarize themselves with and make things easier.

On the other side...

Coordination Bureau.

"This is unfair! This is unfair!"

Wei Yidong Yidong's booming voice echoed in the spacious conference room, "Why?! This is an SSS-level dungeon that our Nine Provinces Architect painstakingly built! Why should it be opened to those bastards from Prison Rock? Do they even deserve to be in our Nine Provinces dungeon?!"

However, nobody paid him any attention.

Yan Fushou was still looking at the announcement.

Lu Xiu has finally cleared the level.

As expected, it passed the test on the first try.

But—it took Lu Xiu a whole day. How many people in the entire Nine Provinces could pass through in five days?

He had already witnessed Lu Xiu's impressive performance when clearing the dungeon, but even she needed that much time to complete it.

How difficult will this dungeon be? How long will the process be?

Unbelievable.

He couldn't even imagine what would happen nine hours later when players from both sides flooded into that instance.

What gave him the biggest headache was that he also had to arrange for someone to plan the strategy.

anyway.

Frontline soldiers are definitely needed; that's the responsibility of the Strategy Group.

Thinking of this...

He couldn't help but glance at Shen Nian and Jian Li, who were also looking at the announcement.

Shen Nian noticed Yan Fushou's gaze and looked up. "----What's wrong? Director?"

Yan Fushou was silent for a moment, then said, "Shen Nian, I remember you subtly inquired about Lu Xiu last time, whether the dungeon had a reverse ending, right?"

Shen Nian: "----"

It wasn't just the Coordination Bureau and the high-ranking officials of Prison Rock who were discussing the latest announcements and copies.

Regular players are also discussing it.

[Holy crap! SSS rank! I actually cleared it on my first try!]

[It took Lu Xiu a whole day to clear the game—considering the strength of the invading monsters, it's hard to imagine just how difficult it is.]

[What's there to be afraid of! We all have two shoulders and one head. If Lu Xiu can do it, so can we! If not, we'll brainstorm! We'll share our ideas anytime! I don't believe that with so many of us, we can't build a road to success! This matter concerns the Nine Provinces, so we won't be fighting alone.]

[It seems that's true.]

[Thinking about it that way, it does seem true, but is Lu Xiu's first SSS-rated dungeon really that simple?]

On the other side.

The players in Prison Rock are in a similar situation.

[The invasion is finally over! The Architect on the other side actually verified that he cleared the game. The difficulty was so high, yet he managed to clear it on his first try!]

The stats of the invading monsters are completely unreasonable—just how difficult will this dungeon be?

[What's there to be afraid of? Dungeons definitely have their own mechanics, and they'll progress gradually. Dungeons are definitely easier than real-world dungeons; they're not that insane.]

[Yes! The dungeon definitely has unique mechanics! If players from Nine Provinces can clear it, so can we!]

[Fifty areas! No matter how difficult, we have to conquer them! We have so many Chosen Player! Surely we can clear them in five days? Can't we even come up with a strategy?]

Yes, this could even be considered our best opportunity. Starting from scratch, if we win, we can immediately return to the starting point of the arena! And once we're familiar enough with this dungeon, we can then Plunder the SS-rank items from players across the Nine Provinces.

Skill!]

[----]

Regardless of the heated discussions outside, and regardless of whether players are eager to try their luck or worried,

The Architect himself, who is at the heart of this storm.

At this moment, however, the noise from the outside world has been completely blocked out.

Although the system announcement was unexpected, although I was startled, and although there were other things that happened.

But Lu Xiu eventually washed up and went to bed.

Because I was too tired.