Calamity Messenger-Chapter 97 - 77: Inventory (Third Update)

Is it worth giving up a Legendary Token in exchange for Jiang Shi’s alt account?

The profession trait of the Wandering Messenger, "Wandering Blessing," allows players to choose rewards twice during the treasure chest reward stage.

Yan Qing immediately chose the Secret Technique Book on the far left, and now he can choose a second reward.

The one with the highest value is naturally the reward of the light orb in the middle: a pair of gloves at the Legendary Token level. Even if the effect wasn’t clear, Yan Qing believed the Legendary Token wouldn’t disappoint him.

However, at the moment when the Foundation Establishment Powerhouse attacked, he chose the oddity on the far right: the Return Order.

"Return Order"

"Usage Condition: Player must not be in a restricted state"

"Usage Count: 2/3"

"Effect: Activates immediately upon use, casting time is ten seconds. During the casting state, the player is invincible and unaffected by any external influence, while the player cannot affect the external world. The player can choose a return location during casting. If no choice is made, returns to the nearest landmark."

"Evaluation: Nothing can bring you more security than this."

With the Return Order only usable three times, and one use already for Jiang Shi, would choosing the Legendary Token have been the correct decision?

Actually, when Yan Qing started considering whether it was ’worth it’, his heart was already subtly feeling it wasn’t worth it, just like when you flip a coin to make a decision, your heart harbors a bias.

Because Jiang Shi’s profession is too lousy.

Outside the woodland, Jiang Shi’s second-turn profession is akin to a blank slate. Perhaps some may think Jiang Shi should quickly upgrade to third-turn and get a new profession.

But don’t forget, the new profession appearing in the third-turn is generated based on the player’s past experiences, with the player’s previously played profession having a significant influence.

If Jiang Shi continues to live and fight near the woodland, her third-turn is likely to draw out a legendary version of Woodland Messenger; but if Jiang Shi abandons woodland warfare and trains with dual blades, she at most can draw a rare version of the Dual Blade Messenger.

Choosing to change sequence and switch routes equals clearing important past records if you can’t go fully down one profession path. Just like university students won’t get any help from being the student council president when applying for a programmer job.

The player’s third-turn profession will greatly impact Foundation Establishment strength, and the third-turn profession is influenced by the second-turn profession, which often evolves from the first-turn. If one is pursuing ultimate strength, the messenger player at each stage is crucial, hence high-difficulty instance players are jokingly called ’key people’ in game forums, and high-difficulty instances are called ’prisons for key people’.

Thus, Jiang Shi’s profession potential is not even as good as Ye Si’s. If Ye Si can rise all the way to Foundation Establishment, he can probably reach the strength of ordinary players, whereas Jiang Shi would likely only have sewer-level combat power. Therefore, to Yan Qing, her value is not above the Legendary Token.

However, if everything were maximized on profit, he shouldn’t have lost his temper from the start; Jiang Shi should have compromised with Lu Wangji, sacrificing some face for greater gains.

But the stuff of the alt is his stuff, naturally the face of the alt is also his face.

If truly helpless, it would be fine. Yan Qing would only write it down and take revenge later, but since he can defend his player dignity now, why let the alt suffer?

In single-player games, there’s a type of ’inevitable defeat battle’; most players lose and proceed with the plot, but a few players find ways to win these battles at any cost, and Yan Qing is one of these few. He’s not doing it for challenge reasons, his reason for winning is simple — he simply doesn’t want to lose.

I simply don’t want to lose!

What does the Court matter, what do the families matter, what does a Foundation Establishment Powerhouse matter, what does an inevitable defeat battle matter, I’ll show you a reversal!

But if I compromise... if I choose the Legendary Token instead of the Return Order...

Yan Qing is just that kind of stubborn personality, he plays with passionate fervor, indifferent to profit and loss, yet regains rationality and starts pondering if there was a better choice after the battle is over. This symptom isn’t very severe in single-player games because you can load saved files to verify whether you made the right choice by taking different routes, but now it’s an online game; he’ll never truly know whether he made a mistake.

All said, he’s just an ordinary player after all.

The dilemma quickly subsides because Yan Qing now has more important things to do: tally the loot!

First are the tokens of Zhou Ye and Chen Linchuan, seven items in total, namely ’Fire-Controlling Bracelet’, ’Golden Ring Saber’, ’Exorcism Heroic Sword’, ’Steel Belt’, and two ’Heart-Protecting Mirrors’ and two ’Storage Rings’.

"Fire-Controlling Bracelet"

"Grade: Third-Turn Ordinary"

"Durability: 24/40"

"Equipment Requirement: 20 points Divine Soul, Fire Dao foundation MAX"

"Effect: Flame Enchantment: Adds fire to your weapon, causing an additional 30 points fire damage. The fire can ignite flammable objects and lingers in the air for one second. Activating Flame Enchantment costs 30 points of Spiritual Power, and maintaining the effect consumes 1 point of Spiritual Power per second."

"Effect: Apprentice: If the user’s Fire Dao foundation requirements are not met, this bracelet can still be used, but the weapon must be actively ignited to activate Flame Enchantment. User’s Fire Dao comprehension speed +10%."

"Evaluation: It’s said that new apprentices of Flame Mountain start as cooks first, this bracelet is their only cooking tool. Only when they can create delicacies with their hands alone can they truly begin learning the Flame Dao."

/

"Golden Ring Saber"

"Grade: Second-Turn Rare"

"Durability: 61/100"

"Equipment Requirement: 30 Qi Blood points, 10 Spiritual Power points"

"Basic Attack Power: 30~50 points"

"Effect: Martial Exhibition: When you attack using the Golden Ring Saber, it will permanently increase your Qi Blood intensity. The current Qi Blood increase is: 0."

"Effect: Blood Bath: Your Qi Blood will rapidly increase during battles, starting after 15 seconds and reaching its peak after 600 seconds. You can increase your Qi Blood by a maximum of (30+5×Martial Exhibition Qi Blood increase) points."

"Evaluation: Every swordman believes they are its last master; you have proven them wrong."

Wow, Yan Qing’s eyes lit up.

The Fire-Controlling Bracelet is just the most basic Fire Path Token, yet it can significantly enhance a messenger’s combat power. 30 fire damage may not seem much, but the ’burn,’ ’ignite,’ and ’fear’ effects it brings are not to be underestimated. It may be less effective in PvP, but it’s extremely useful for dungeon runs, and it allows players to use it even without a Fire Dao foundation, making it the only Fire Path entry-level text Yan Qing currently has.

The Golden Ring Saber is also an excellent token, and Second-Turn Rare is already comparable to Third-Turn Ordinary. If Zhou Ye has been using the Golden Ring Saber since the second-turn, the Qi Blood amount he increases through martial exhibition must be considerable. Coupling with the second empowerment ’Blood Bath’ of the Golden Ring Saber, Zhou Ye can easily increase nearly a hundred Qi Blood during battles.

If Zhou Ye carries a bunch of Blood Replenishing Pills, consuming them while fighting, he could probably withstand the BOSS of a third-turn dungeon.

It’s just that Jiang Shi wielded the Bingzi Pepper Forest with such high output, Zhou Ye didn’t even have time to showcase his high Qi Blood before being struck fatally with one blow.

Even more amazing is that even a First-Turn Messenger can use the Golden Ring Saber, making it perfect for nurturing low-level characters.

"Exorcism Heroic Sword"

"Grade: Third-Turn Rare"

"Durability: 91/150"

"Equipment Requirement: 30 Qi Blood points, 10 Spiritual Power points"

"Basic Attack Power: 50~60 points"

"Effect: Charging: You can spend Spiritual Power every second to enhance your next slash, increasing attack power by 100 points per second charged, at most charging for five seconds, consuming 10 Spiritual Power points per second."

"Effect: Exorcism: When your single attack inflicts more than 300 points of damage on an enemy, it will incite the beast’s soul within the Exorcism Heroic Sword, turning the damage into crushing damage (damage becomes double and ignores enemy defenses)."

"Effect: Firm: This weapon is so rugged that it’s exceedingly durable, hardly getting damaged even when attacked."

"Evaluation: Perhaps this weapon would be more practical without the charging effect."

/

"Steel Belt"

"Grade: Third-Turn Ordinary"

"Durability: 45/50"

"Equipment Requirement: 15 Qi Blood points"

"Effect: Weight: Your Agility -15 points, but for each day worn, your Qi Blood and Agility will permanently increase, and the negative effect will gradually diminish. After wearing it for 180 days, the negative effect will lessen to Agility -5 points."

"Effect: Steady: This belt is so heavy that you are hard to be shaken by external forces, immune to most kinetic impacts."

"Evaluation: Someone once gathered a five-piece set of Steel Belt, Steel Arm Guard, and Steel Leg Guards, and after years of rigorous training, they astounded everyone in a crucial showdown by removing them all."

The Exorcism Heroic Sword is nothing much to discuss, a common Third-Turn Rare weapon. This type of great sword is mainly just for dealing with monsters; it doesn’t offer much against humanoid enemies, so Yan Qing has no interest in using such a cumbersome weapon.

However, this Steel Belt is quite nice. Yan Qing prefers tokens that allow one to become stronger without the need to fight, but he doesn’t intend to live too harshly. He plans to wear it for one or two days to see how it goes, or else he might pass it on to Ye Si Jiang Shi as a benefit.

From these two sets of gear, it’s apparent that aristocrats are conscious of enhancing their attributes through tokens rather than blindly accumulating combat power.

But these two family elders have only these few tokens; it seems rather shabby.

Yan Qing guesses they should have another set of better equipment when going into dungeons. After all, dungeons always need participants, but they won’t always be stationed inside dungeons, so the truly significant tokens are likely communal and prohibited from personal removal.