A Core Ship From The Start

Chapter 135: Chapter 117: The Starting Point of Advanced Level_1

[Divine Mission “The Glory of Sigma” Stage Two Completed]

[Mission Evaluation: Extremely Outstanding!]

[You have saved the hope of the Empire and retained the spark of the Empire!]

[Received 70000 experience, an extra 40000 experience, level promoted to level 34. +3 Specialization points, +3 Attribute points]

[Judge level reached thirty, Advanced Mission Route can be unlocked]

[Your deeds have drawn the attention of the Imperial Gods, you will receive their extra rewards!]

[Randomly received +1 Blessing from the Imperial Gods]

[The Brutal God’s favorability towards you +50]

[Divine Mission “The Glory of Sigma” Stage Three Initiated]

[Mission Objective: Assist the Emperor, Retake the Orthodoxy!]

[Times may change, but monarchy is eternal]

After silently reading the system prompts in front of his eyes, all Duanmu Huai wants to say is, you’ve got some nerve.

What does it mean, a blessing?

It’s clearly you trying to build a relationship with me!!

Is your Empire so poor, you can’t find anyone else? With so many chosen, why must you fleece me like sheep?!

Why, am I not worth paying for?

Or did I give you a discount?

Moreover, if you want me to do something, at least show some tact. Look at those in novels, games, animations, films, whenever deities need someone to do something, at least there’s a load of wealth and beauty involved. Why when it comes to me, you’re so penny-pinching, giving me a little blessing and consider it done? Can’t you send someone like a Holy Woman, Female Priest, Female Priestess, Nun, Lake Goddess Fairy or something to appease me?

Ohh, speaking of the Lake Goddess Fairy, Duanmu Huai is infuriated. He just found out that every Holy Grail Knight has a standard Lake Goddess Fairy, dedicated for adventuring and being lovey-dovey with the Holy Grail Knight, why am I the only one without?

Is the Lake Goddess still holding a grudge? It was just a Holy Grail that I took from you, surely you’re not that petty.

But whatever…

Silently staring at the system prompt that indicated [Advanced Mission Route can be unlocked], Duanmu Huai clenched his fists tightly.

I’ve been waiting for this!!

The advanced mission seems simple, it’s just that your initial profession has reached its limit, and you can now take an advanced profession. For instance, the Library Curator or the Great Judge are normal advanced professions, but beside these, there are also some hidden advanced professions. Duanmu Huai set his sight on these hidden advanced professions!

He keeps thinking about it because of the oppression brought about by the game!

In reality, Star Ocean Online is a pretty shitty game.

According to the game design, the path of player growth is like this — collect Holy Artifacts to enable the construction point to improve the space station, complete missions to gain experience and level up. But often, the pace of player growth and the speed of Holy Artifact collection are not proportionate. In some cases…some players are lucky, and they can perform subspace travel even when they have not reached level 20.

While some are less fortunate, the space station is still a mess even when they have reached the max level of 40.

Ideally, advanced missions are only opened after reaching the initial level cap. But Star Ocean Online shamelessly set the advanced mission level at level 30, instead of level 40.

At first, many players were puzzled, but no matter what, it’s always good thing being stronger and more powerful after advancing, so most players would take on the advanced mission. Being able to advance earlier is always beneficial right? When you’re strong, isn’t everything easier?

However, when players started on their subspace journeys, exploring other planets, they discovered — there are a lot more advanced profession missions in the universe, and each is stronger than the one they had!!

When players, beating their chests and stamping their feet, tried to change their profession plans, they were informed — players who have already advanced can only advance again when they reach level 60 unless they obtain an item called “Retrospective Crystal” that can reset their characters to the pre-advanced state.

What left players speechless is, this “Retrospective Crystal” is not for sale, but a gift. Players need to charge to over 50000 points to get it, and it is personal binding, non-transferable.

After figuring out this point, all players lost it.

They were originally puzzled why an item that seemed useless was included in the recharge reward. “Retrospective Crystal,” which only functioned to reset your character to the pre-advanced state, did not give any permanent attributes to the character, so players didn’t pay much attention to this at first.

But when they were in space, they realized it was waiting here for them all the time!

This damn company!!!

Players cursed out loud, but the company acted as though they had not heard anything, leaving the players with no choice but to continue. Some chose to reroll a new character, while some accepted their bad luck and continued to play, just hoping not to be screwed over again when they could advance for the second time at level 60. Only a few big spenders seemed amused by this gimmick, for a time, possessing the “Retrospective Crystal” even became a symbol of flaunting wealth, whether it’s used or not, as long as you charge to 50000 points, you can get a “Retrospective Crystal,” it’s a symbol of status and wealth! Some guilds even went as far as not letting you in if you didn’t have a “Retrospective Crystal”!

Duanmu Huai fell into the second category. He felt frustrated at the time, but there was nothing he could do. After all, he had already changed his profession to Librarian, and moreover, he intended to make money through this game. To recharge 50,000 points for this? He’d rather die!

How could it be that he was losing money instead of making money?!

Besides, many of the profession changing tasks in the universe were one-time tasks, which basically meant if one person completed it, then it would no longer be available for others. Under this kind of “stimulation”, many players either chose to grit their teeth and charge ahead, or they chose to start over with a new account. This was also one of the reasons leading to the “End of Days” event. At that time, the majority of the advanced players in the game set off to various parts of the universe to seek out hidden class transfer tasks, leaving the Novice’s Village. This was also one of the main causes of the Novice’s Village’s destruction.

That’s why, from the very start, Duanmu Huai had always focused on the power core, and had specifically found the power core of the Ancient Saints. After all, to carry out a safe subspace voyage, Ancient Saint technology was indispensable. With safe subspace voyage technology, Duanmu Huai would be able to go to his desired job change location and carry out a profession change.

As for the timing, Duanmu Huai had already decided.

After completing this god-choosing mission and obtaining the Holy Artifacts from the three unfilial descendants, Duanmu Huai would be able to upgrade the Tribunal library to level 10. Besides obtaining a “100%” research speed increase, he would be able to gain an additional point of “Super Wisdom” that would allow him to instantly complete any technology he was currently researching. By then he should be able to construct the Antimatter Reactor and the Super Dimensional Space Tunnel Engine to embark on his subspace voyage.

Duanmu Huai didn’t plan to just leave things alone, rather, he knew that while the “End of Days” event may have seemed like a short event, it spanned a period of nearly ten years. Staying here was also pointless. Given the level of civilization on this planet, no matter what he does, he would not be able to stop the “End of Days” event.

Only by exploring the universe and successfully changing his profession would he earn the qualifications to face Chaos Evil Gods head-on.

As for the last part about the favorability of the Brutal God…… Duanmu Huai chose to ignore it. Anyway, even after knowing it, there’s nothing he can do.

But for now… let’s see how his luck works out.

Duanmu Huai looked at the system prompt in front of him and rubbed his hands together.

The Imperial had many deities they worshipped. Among them, Sigma was naturally the most prominent, but this did not mean that the other gods were less significant. Apart from Sigma, the most powerful was Ulrick, after all, even the founders of the empire were his believers. If it were up to Duanmu Huai, he would have preferred to receive the blessing of the Goddess Shalaya who was in charge of healing and mercy because this goddess was the nemesis of the God of Plague and was very effective at restraining the variety of plagues and viruses spread by the God of Plague. For Duanmu Huai, he did not fear the magic of the God of Trickery, nor did he fear the frontal attacks of the Brutal God nor did he worry about the mental harassment of the God of Lust; the only troublesome things were the plagues and viruses of the God of Plague.

Well, let’s see.

Duanmu Huai reached out his hand and clicked on this prompt.

[Randomly receive a God’s blessing +1]

[You have received the blessing of the God of Death, Moor]

[Acquired the additional profession “Death Guard” (increase attack damage by 30% against the undead)]

“Damn it!”

Upon seeing this, Duanmu Huai almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

The goddamn Death Guard!

Moor was the God of Death worshiped by the empire, it was rumored that the souls of all who died would go to him. If there was any connection between Duanmu Huai and Moor, it would be that the Knight’s Order of the God of Death, Moor, also used a skull as its emblem…… But the skull he used and that of Moor’s was not exactly the same thing, right?!!!

My skull does not represent death!

If Moor were here now, Duanmu Huai would definitely want to have a serious talk with him and explain that the two are not the same thing… Unfortunately, he did not have Moor’s contact information.

Let it be then.

Duanmu Huai silently added one point each to his strength, physical condition, and intelligence again. Then, he put all his specialty skill points into [Great Psychic Combat Training]. Afterward, he shifted his gaze to the next task.

Although, Duanmu Huai was a bit puzzled.

This task seemed to reveal some doubts.

According to the description when the second task was completed, it seemed that without him, the king, Kevin, was doomed to die. The reality was indeed so. After all, even if Kevin had brought the mercenaries here, without Duanmu’s defense and his bombardment of the undead army, all Kevin could expect was certain death.

Therefore, according to the original timeline, was Kevin supposed to die?

Duanmu Huai rubbed his chin. He was not very familiar with the Empire’s plot-line. After all, he was born in Zhen Dan in the game. In the late stage of the “End of Days”, the Dragon Emperor of Zhen Dan built up a fleet comparable to Zheng He’s voyages to the West Indies, leading everyone to sail into the sea and escape to a different space. As for the situation on the empire’s side, he was also not too knowledgeable about the specifics.

So now that Kevin is alive, how big an impact will it make on this planet?

“Knock, knock, knock.”

As Duanmu Huai was thinking, there was a knock on the door. Ann opened the door, poked her head in, and looked at Duanmu Huai.

“Ah, sir knight, they are looking for you. They want to discuss our next move.”

“I’ll be right there.”

Hearing Ann’s update, Duanmu Huai stood up.

Now let’s see what His Majesty the Emperor has in mind.