Chapter 147: Promotion Rewards

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Virtual World: The Era of Magic
Just before logging in, my mom suddenly called to ask if there was a power outage, giving me a cold sweat.
――――
After packing up the equipment and gold coins dropped by the 'Demon Lizard,' the three of us hurried back to Greenwild Town at top speed!
Upon returning to the city, Dr. Ye immediately used his hard work and great contributions to coerce me into handing over the Gale Set... while I had to put on his mismatched, patchwork set of equipment. Compared to my former dashing and heroic self, it was simply 'horrifying to behold'!
At first, I had quite a few complaints, but when I thought about how the Tier 3 quest was accomplished and how I could acquire an even better set of equipment at any moment to appear in a brand-new posture, my mood instantly improved, so I couldn't be bothered to argue with this 'flashy intellectual'...
Who would have thought!
That fellow Dr. Ye was utterly shameless. The moment he put on the Gale Set, he completely dismissed my impending trip to Frost City to learn Tier 3 skills, dropping just two words—'Bye-bye'—and then swaying his ass coquettishly as he ran off to grind levels.
Falcon and I watched his rapidly disappearing ass, and once again, with great tacit understanding, simultaneously raised our middle fingers at Dr. Ye's retreating back!
……
At the North Gate of Frost City, Holz spotted me from afar and revealed a rare smile, causing a player dressed as a Bow-Warrior standing beside him to freeze for a long time, thinking he had triggered some hidden quest.
It wasn't until Falcon and I arrived that this Bow-Warrior's daydreams were broken.
The Magic Bow-Warrior, clearly only of Tier 2 strength, looked in bewilderment at the two people walking over, curled his lip, cursed in a low voice, "Damn, NPCs are snobs too!", and then quickly scurried away under Holz's cold gaze...
After the Magic Bow-Warrior left, Holz quickly turned his gaze back to me, his expression amiable as he said:
"Scavenger Kirin, you have once again proven my judgment with your strength. Excellent! You didn't let me down..."
Falcon, standing to the side, was instantly stunned. He had expected to hear Holz recite standard formulaic lines telling Scavenger Kirin to choose his Tier 3 skills, but not only did Holz wear a 'smile,' he actually uttered such rare words!
He was actually praising Scavenger Kirin? Heavens! What was going on here? Falcon had played the game for so long and had never heard of an NPC having such a humane side...
Could this be the legendary matter of character and luck?
Falcon deliberately used a strange, exaggerated gaze to size up the legendary 'high-luck player'...
Neither Holz nor I paid any attention to Falcon.
Holz continued:
"You have successfully advanced. For a certain fee, you can come to me at any time to learn the skills of the 'Iron-Blood Magic Bow.' But before that, let me tell you about the rewards you've earned for this successful advancement..."
As soon as those words fell, I immediately perked up my ears, not daring to miss half a word from Holz;
Falcon, who had been messing around, also stopped his nonsense and stared intently at Holz with intense curiosity—his main reason for tagging along this time was to witness different advancement quest content and different advancement procedures.
"As the first 'Iron-Blood Magic Bow' with a one-hundred-percent match rate, the Empire has approved my special bestowal to you... a Tier 3 Knight skill—Beast Taming!"
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Beast Taming—an ability to turn subdued demonic beasts into one's own mount; usually, this advanced skill is only granted to high-attack, high-defense Knight classes, allowing them to select the best demonic beast mounts for themselves.)
"Huh?"
"Ah-ha?!"
Hearing that a Tier 3 Knight skill, Beast Taming, was the reward, a disappointed voice and a surprised voice rang out simultaneously—Falcon and my reactions were poles apart...
Before Holz could finish speaking, Falcon interrupted with a disappointed tone:
"Damn, and here I thought it was some great reward! You're actually pulling out trash skills like Beast Taming... So stingy!" With that, he wore an expression of extreme disgust, causing Holz to frown deeply. Holz glanced at Falcon and then looked back at me:
"You can choose to accept it or refuse it."
Phew! Who said I was refusing?
I glared at Falcon and hurriedly replied:
"Of course I want it!"
Hearing me say this, Holz's expression finally softened a bit. This scene gave Falcon a chill in his heart: Why are NPCs suddenly acting so human? Good grief... I didn't offend him just now, did I?
Thinking of this, Falcon didn't dare to utter another word, fearing that Holz might 'block' him during his own future advancement...
……
"Good! However, I cannot teach you advanced Beast Taming. If you want to learn it, you must go to the 'Knight Academy' and find 'Kerry' at the Knight Academy. He is an expert in beast taming. With his guidance, I believe you will quickly master the techniques of Beast Taming!"
At this point, Holz's tone shifted:
"So, will you learn the skills of the Iron-Blood Magic Bow right now?"
After memorizing the name 'Kerry,' I nodded.
"Alright!"
The next moment, a light screen appeared before my eyes...
Phew, a Bow-Warrior's skills are always so numerous that they make your head spin, but fortunately, I hadn't forgotten the Tier 3 skills I needed to learn these past few days.
Glancing around, I quickly locked onto the six skills I needed.
'Insight': Using this skill allows one to easily obtain the data of all players and creatures within 5 levels of oneself, and can see through the stealth of Thieves below level 35. Duration: one minute. (Effect increases with skill level)
'Arrow Rain': Releases twenty attacks at once, covering a two-meter area within the effective attack range; an area-of-effect skill, counted as a single wave of damage.
'Multi-Shot': A auxiliary skill that can be used simultaneously with other offensive archery skills.
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For example: Multi-Shot combined with Slowing Arrow; at the primary level, it can simultaneously release three Slowing Arrows of identical power and effect, attacking multiple targets at once. It is a very good auxiliary skill, but it also heavily tests the player's control ability and MP pool! At the intermediate level, it can release four Multi-Shots simultaneously, advanced allows five, and top-tier allows six...)
'Armor-Piercing Arrow': Possesses an armor-piercing effect. At the primary level, its lethality increases attack power by 50%, and it has extremely strong destructive power against equipment; at the same time, it possesses a 1% defense-ignorance effect. Once triggered, the maximum attack output is directly converted into damage dealt to the target.
The last two skills are Warrior-type skills.
One is Thrust, which increases attack power by 40%, and the other is Parry. Using any weapon to weaken enemy attacks, Warriors can actually use this skill at Tier 2, but Bow-Warriors have to wait until Tier 3 to possess the strength to parry.
These six skills were all meticulously chosen by me. Insight goes without saying; an archer without this skill is not a competent archer;
Arrow Rain is an area-of-effect attack, which is an absolute must; the application range of Multi-Shot is very broad and extremely useful; and Armor-Piercing Arrow goes without saying—it is the archery skill with the most powerful lethality, while its MP consumption is also the most horrifying, directly consuming 10 MP per use. It's fine for dealing with high-tier players, but a bit too costly for grinding mobs.
……
After paying sixty gold coins for tuition, I quickly left the North Gate with Falcon.
Until Holz was out of sight, Falcon finally spoke up: "Kirin, are you really planning to go learn that Beast Taming skill?"
"Duh, why wouldn't I?"
I looked at him strangely and said:
"If I can get a Blood Lion or a Dragon Wolf as a mount, that would be pretty sweet. Heh, Eagle, are you jealous?"
"Pfft... In my opinion, even if Holz rewarded you with an extra hundred gold coins, it would still be better than this damned Beast Taming. Do you have any idea how many people a single Beast Taming skill can drive to their graves in a day?"
Falcon's solemn expression made me stop in my tracks:
"What do you mean?"
"That Beast Taming skill is purely a torture device. Only when a player trains it to the top level can they barely manage to subdue Dragon Wolf beasts, Blood Lion beasts... Dealing with level 36 demonic beasts every day, do you think that's fun? Many solo players simply cannot complete it, and even with money, equipment, and people, it wastes a ton of time. Weren't you always in a rush to reach Tier 4? If you want to get a demonic beast mount, you won't be done in ten days..."
His earnest words made me hesitate:
"...... Is it really that serious?"
"Why would I lie to you? Go check it out yourself. Training a level 36 demonic beast must be done entirely by oneself; if anyone else hits it, success is impossible... Furthermore, you have to beat the demonic beast down to below 20 HP, wait for it to enter a weakened state, and then use Beast Taming..."
"Huh? Wait, what is a weakened state? Tell me about it." I interrupted Falcon's explanation and asked.
Falcon sighed speechlessly before saying: "When HP drops below 3%, it is judged to have entered a weakened state! The Dragon Wolf beast has 720 HP, and 3% is 21 HP!"
"Uh... 21 HP. That number seems really hard to control; hit it just a fraction too hard and it dies..." I finally realized that this Beast Taming skill seemed to be a job requiring high precision.
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