Realm Advancement

Wu Shaozhen looked at the statues. Each one represented the fall of a War God. He made his way to the swirling portal, where a system notification sounded:

"Ding! Would you like to challenge the War God Secret Realm? Each player may challenge it once per day."

"What's the point of challenging the War God Secret Realm?" Wu Shaozhen asked.

Information about the War God Secret Realm soon appeared before Wu Shaozhen: "The War God Secret Realm randomly manifests a War God phantom of the corresponding realm. Defeating the phantom counts as a successful challenge, and your realm will advance accordingly. Advancing your realm increases the potential of your talent. Each realm advancement grants a large number of attribute points and a corresponding War God Medal. If you perform well enough to earn the recognition of a War God's heroic spirit, you may also randomly learn one of that War God's skills!"

"Oh, so this is where you advance your realm." Wu Shaozhen understood now. His talent's special trait said that killing a boss whose realm was no lower than his own would increase his maximum poison stacks by one. He had initially thought it meant level, but it actually meant realm.

"But what does increasing my talent's potential mean? Can talents actually be upgraded?" Wu Shaozhen wondered. Forget it. I'll find out once I beat it.

I've already beaten both Black Iron and Bronze bosses, so I can't trigger my talent's special trait again. I'll advance two realms first and see what happens. There should be a reward for the first person to complete a challenge and advance their realm, right?

With that in mind, Wu Shaozhen selected "Yes."

The swirling portal soon opened. Wu Shaozhen stepped inside and found himself in an enclosed space, empty on all sides.

Just then, a phantom materialized a short distance ahead. It looked like a middle-aged man, though his features were indistinct. Wu Shaozhen cast Insight on him:

[War God Phantom] Black Iron Grade

Level: 11

Health: 80,000

Physical attack: 400

Physical defense: 150

Spell Defense: 80

Speed: 60

Skill 1: Azure Light Slash: Unleashes a blade of light forward, dealing 150% damage to targets in its path. Cooldown: 20 seconds.

Skill 2: Block: Blocks the next attack. Cooldown: 5 seconds.

That's it? Nothing else? Wu Shaozhen looked at the War God phantom's stats and shook his head dismissively. He had expected something much stronger. Its stats were only a little better than the Boar King's, and it even had one fewer skill.

Still, it made sense. The War God Hall's Mystic Realm could only be challenged solo. If it had skills like the Boar King's, nobody else would stand a chance. Even with these stats, defeating it alone was practically impossible for players at their current stage. They would probably have to advance their class through a Class Change and gain some levels and equipment first.

But these stats hardly impressed Wu Shaozhen anymore. To save time, he activated Extreme Speed, tanked two attacks from the phantom while applying three poison stacks, then strolled away. With his movement speed above a hundred, watching the phantom move at 45 felt like watching a snail.

With 66 defense and 1,750 health, Wu Shaozhen had lost less than half his health after tanking two attacks from the phantom. Once he left combat, he regenerated a whopping 17 health per second, making it easy to recover fully. As for its skill, the damage was nothing special; one Medium Red Potion would take care of it. He could completely ignore the second skill. A Block every five seconds might frustrate other players, but it was useless against him.

The three poison stacks dealt 69 damage per second, so killing the phantom would only take twenty-odd minutes.

The result held no surprises. Twenty minutes later, the phantom fell, and the challenge was complete. Wu Shaozhen was still wondering whether any War God's heroic spirit had taken a liking to him when he was teleported out. Clearly, he had not earned their recognition. He did not know whether his realm was too low to attract their attention or whether none of them approved of his sneaky fighting style.

As soon as he returned to the War God Hall, another system notification sounded.

"Ding! Congratulations on completing the challenge. Your realm has advanced to Black Iron. All attributes +10. You have received 10 free attribute points and a [War God Medal] of Black Iron grade. As the first player to reach Black Iron, you receive the following system reward: free attribute points +10."

"Huh? No server-wide announcement?" That was even better. He really did not want to be in the spotlight anymore. He was practically becoming public enemy number one.

"The attribute bonuses from realm advancement are huge. Ten points in every attribute means 60 attribute points. Add the 10 free attribute points, and that's 70 in total. And this is only the lowest realm. The bonuses must get even bigger later."

It seemed that, aside from equipment, realm would also be a key factor in the gap between players' strength.

He took out the [War God Medal] and checked it. Its effect was simple and powerful: all attributes increased by 10%. Heh, I like it.

He checked his free attribute points. A full 50 points remained unallocated.

Wu Shaozhen studied his stats and considered his options. With Immortal Body, I don't need to put points into constitution anymore. Strength isn't necessary either, and intelligence goes without saying. Only three attributes are useful to me. Agility is definitely the first; that's my main focus right now. Next is bone root. I'm bound to run into mages and monsters with magic attacks later, and my Spell Defense is too low right now, so I need points in bone root. Then there's spirit. Once I have more skills, my mana definitely won't be enough, though it's sufficient for now.

After weighing agility against bone root for a while, Wu Shaozhen finally added 20 points to agility and 30 to bone root. His agility was already very high, so it could wait a little. Defense was more urgent.

With his realm advanced, his points allocated, and the medal equipped, Wu Shaozhen's strength soared once again.

Name: Dustseal

Realm: Black Iron Grade

Level: 11

Health: 1,910

Mana: 280

Physical attack: 157

Magic attack: 32

Physical defense: 111

Spell Defense: 70

Movement speed: 142

Attack speed: 30%

Critical hit rate: 10%

Experience: 2,060/30,000

Strength: 37 + 10% = 40 (fractional points are discarded)

Intelligence: 15 + 10% = 16

Constitution: 62 + 10% = 68

Bone root: 55 + 10% = 60

Spirit: 15 + 10% = 16

Agility: 108 + 10% = 118

These stats did not look like those of a level 11 player at all. He had explored almost all of Jinling City without finding any NPCs who offered quests, but it did not matter. Wu Shaozhen had never held out much hope anyway. This game mainly revolved around killing monsters, and aside from the Novice Village, quests were extremely rare in the main city.

It was time to go out and kill monsters. He had not improved his talent in a long while. He opened the map and studied it carefully before settling on a plain five kilometers beyond the south gate. A group of Goblins lived there, all exactly level 16. Continuing in that direction would also lead him to monsters ranging from level 17 to 20.

After confirming the location, Wu Shaozhen ran in that direction. His movement speed of 142 was no joke; he reached the Goblin Plains in just a few minutes. Looking at the short, ugly Goblins, he immediately cast Insight on one.

[Goblin]

Level: 16

Health: 18,000

Physical attack: 320

Physical defense: 130

Spell Defense: 60

Speed: 45

Skill: Heavy Strike: Swings the Wolf Fang in its hand and smashes it into the target, dealing 155% physical damage.

Honestly, monster stats in Oracle scaled up incredibly fast. This Goblin's attack and defense already surpassed the Boar King's; it merely had two fewer skills. Having stats like these on an ordinary monster was downright nasty.

But it was a piece of cake for Wu Shaozhen now. He activated [Extreme Speed], pushing his movement speed past 200 and his attack speed to 80% (percentage bonuses were added together, not multiplied). He rushed up, applied three poison stacks, took just two blows, and ran off. Then he poisoned three in succession, farming them as a group. He simply tanked all three monsters' attacks while poisoning them. With his impressive 111 defense, each blow from a Goblin only took off 209 health, and even their skill dealt just over 300 damage. Still, three was already his limit, and he occasionally had to use a potion.