Sacred Souls: Genesis

Chapter 64: Chapter 63: One-Day Instance Tour

Nine days later, on the first day of the May Day holiday.

Jiang Qiao, as a qualified internet-addicted teenager, although he hadn’t been able to go on a vacation in the real world, had followed Zhao Mingwei, acting as his little follower in the Holy Spirit World, and visited several famous “sights” such as Death Plateau, Shadow Mist Canyon, and Black Dragon Nest with various guilds.

Today’s destination for Jiang Qiao was the Black Dragon Nest, and the tickets were purchased by the Dancing Nuclear Guild.

The Black Dragon Nest was one of the three major endgame instances in the Holy Spirit World, which focused on dragon-type monsters. The layout of this instance was inspired by the famous instance, Black Stone Tower, from World of Warcraft.

Thus, the initial design of the Black Dragon Nest was a tower located on a lava volcano. The upper section was controlled by the black dragons, while the lower section was home to a terrifying Elemental Lord. @@novelbin@@

The Dancing Nuclear Guild was attempting the upper section of the Black Dragon Nest, battling the heroic difficulty level with a team limited to twenty-five players.

The difficulty levels for instances in the native world of Holy Spirit were divided into three categories: normal, hard, and heroic.

Both hard and heroic levels could produce epic level gear, but the drop rate of epic gear at the hard level was extraordinarily low; most players needed to run the instance two or three times to get a piece. The epic drop rate at the heroic level was slightly more generous, with a high probability of producing one epic gear per run.

But amongst a team of twenty-five people, getting a piece of this epic gear also required a bit of luck.

“You don’t know how terrifying my power is… argh…”

One of the final bosses in the instance, the Black Dragon Princess, was overwhelmed by a barrage of flashy skills from the Holy Spirit players, and fell to the ground with a scream before she could finish her sentence.

As the enormous body of the Black Dragon Princess crashed down, breaking several pillars in an instant, a pale golden glow emanated from Jiang Qiao’s body, and his level rose from forty-nine to fifty.

According to the level rankings displayed, Jiang Qiao was the one hundred and twenty-seventh player to reach max level.

There was also a hidden boss in the Black Dragon Nest, the Black Dragon Prince, which the Dancing Nuclear Guild planned to regroup before tackling.

“Fluffy Bunny, come loot the body, and Spasm, come peel the skin and bones off this dragon,” Mo Shigui called out to the guild’s luckiest nurse “sister,” then instructed a Hunter player in the group who had the skinning skill.

“Coming, coming!”

Fluffy Bunny hopped enthusiastically over to the dead Black Dragon Princess, and after feeling around the equipment, the Hunter player began to strip various materials from the body of the Black Dragon Princess.

These materials could also be used to craft certain fixed epic gear, which was a very player-friendly system especially for those with bad luck.

Mo Shigui wasn’t too focused on the gear drops this time, as he already possessed a complete set of endgame gear, only lacking a perfect creation.

He sheathed his shield and sat down next to Zhao Mingwei’s Mind Energy Master character, then took out two bottles of Magic Power juice from his backpack.

“What’s on your mind?” Mo Shigui handed one of the bottles of Magic Power juice to Zhao Mingwei, who opened it and took a gulp that went ‘glug, glug, glug’, and a sign appeared above his head showing MP+2500.

“Old Song, you’ve been playing this game for half a month now, you… do you really think Holy Spirit World is just a game?” Zhao Mingwei suddenly asked.

This statement made Jiang Qiao’s ears perk up instantaneously; he even wanted to cast an Eavesdropping Technique on himself.

“Have you developed feelings from playing Holy Spirit World? I can understand you, Smile Master. This game is indeed fun. The life professions and some of the extended side quests are very… ingenious, and the combat system is the most interesting one I’ve encountered in any game. There are also a lot of professions. Just the job change system alone has kept me and my team busy for a long time.” Mo Shigui said, pouring himself another glass of Magic Power juice. This juice had no taste, and Mo Shigui didn’t feel like he was drinking anything, but a conversation between men had to involve drinking!

“That’s not what I’m talking about. Don’t you feel… the world of Holy Spirit is truly ‘alive’?” Zhao Mingwei asked.

“A world that breathes? I remember a game that used this slogan, but although Holy Spirit World has many side quests and hidden tasks, the NPCs’ actions are predictable, their preset dialogs are so numerous it’s almost incredible, but a game is still a game.” Mo Shigui paused suddenly, thinking of something. “Smile Master, have you considered leaving the monkhood? Is it because of that female NPC? I guess it’s Guardian Spirit·Furya?”

Mo Shigui was not a gossipy person, but he did enjoy gossiping about Zhao Mingwei, who was also known as ‘The Holy Monk’ in his professional circles.

Because Zhao Mingwei was a very pure person, a purist gamer, his view of gaming was just gaming, things like making money through games or deceiving girls had never crossed his mind.

“Don’t you think Furya feels like a real person?” Zhao Mingwei did not deny Mo Shigui’s words, he knew some of the inside stories of Holy Spirit World, but he hadn’t told anyone.

“A real person? All of Furya’s lines have already been posted on the forum by a poster from the team called Prolific Scribes —a total of seven hundred seventy-two lines. Whenever you speak with her, her response will definitely be one of those seven hundred seventy-two lines. Do you still think she’s a real person?”

Mo Shigui was a very rational person, his career as a coach had taught him to speak with data, analyze himself, his opponents, and the game itself.

“But it’s normal for you to fall for her. The way the official designed this NPC is very cunning, hitting right on the sensitive spots of lonely, addicted youngsters like you. If I were ten years younger, I might have also fallen head over heels for this gentle NPC, but Smile Master, she’s just a pile of data, data that the officials designed for you to keep buying, buying, buying, just like a doll set by someone. If you really want to date, you might as well go for the Fluffy Bunny in our guild.”

This wasn’t the first time Mo Shigui had been giving Zhao Mingwei psychological counseling. Fluffy Bunny, who was still distributing equipment nearby, suddenly looked up at Mo Shigui as if asking, ‘Are you calling me?’

“What if your Furya fell into danger? Would you try to save this bundle of data then?” Zhao Mingwei asked again.

“Such a scenario where an NPC leads players into danger is definitely planned as part of the plot, and if there’s a main quest, why wouldn’t I take it? Like the quest Furya issued this time is related to our awakening skills, we can’t awaken if we don’t do it… I have no reason to go against Holy Spirit World officials.” After saying this, Mo Shigui paused and then added,

“Besides, if I were to truly step into my character, how could I, the Holy Spirit appointed by the Sea Blue Goddess, the Black Dragon Scourge, the Executioner of Shadow Mist Canyon, the Butcher of Death Plateau, the Great Lord of Lionheart City, and the Ruler of Tower of Trial, allow a servant of mine to suffer even the slightest harm? We are tackling the Black Dragon Nest instance for the thirteenth time, even several dragons with names have been slaughtered countless times, what else in this world could possibly scare us?”

Mo Shigui recited a series of titles brought by the achievements system. Titles are another slot of equipment for a player, most of which have no attributes, but those obtained after completing hero-level instances do have slight attribute boosts.

The title that Mo Shigui currently wore was Black Dragon Scourge, obtained after clearing a hero-level Black Dragon Nest. The attribute is a five percent damage increase against dragon-type enemies.

“Hearing these words puts my mind at ease,” Jiang Qiao murmured softly, secretly pressing a button named ‘Publish’.

The official promotional page for Battle of Divinity officially went online!