Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

During the Creation Era, one could be gobbled up by wild beasts from who knew where be killed by their own kind over resources or be destroyed by heavenly catastrophes… The world was full of dangers everywhere. Young Clomaros’ mother would not use such a great amount of magic just to create a single wooden stake that no one could strike down—but if the wooden stake was just meant for her son, that would be easier.

Lin Jie pondered about it. He took out the Orb of Deception from his backpack and changed his appearance to an ordinary middle-aged man.

Straight Thrust!

-130!

‘It’s effective!’ Lin Jie was overjoyed. He made the correct judgment!

By right, sorcery performed by powerful characters like sorceresses should be able to see through low-level items like the Orb of Deception. After all, every kind of job had their own trademarks: Warriors were characterized by Blood Vigor, Mages by Elemental Cores and Paladins by Holy Light… However, as young Clomaros was too weak and had not changed jobs yet, the wooden stake was only able to identify his face.

This also gave Lin Jie the chance to cheat.

The wooden stake’s health points were capped off at 100,000 points. It was still an hour to sunset, and thus, there was ample time for Lin Jie to bring down the wooden stake. Lin Jie thrust out at the wooden stake calmly, and his sword always stabbed right into the middle of the wooden stake.

Plot-type Missions had completion progress. It would be incredible if Lin Jie could use this single action to reach 100% completion for this mission.

At the 100th strike, the spot which Lin Jie attacked showed some cracks. This meant that his attacks were effective! Lin Jie cleared his mind of all other thoughts and concentrated striking at the same spot.

At the 200th strike, the wooden stake showed signs of decaying…

Eventually, Lin Jie landed his 500th strike at the same spot on the wooden stake! The wooden stake’s health points were at its minimal, and the spot which Lin Jie stuck at was rotting to pieces.

“Son, just give up,” A stern but caring voice was heard from behind. Lin Jie’s pupils constricted, and he immediately disabled the effects of the Orb of Deception. His wooden sword thrust into the wooden stake’s decaying spot and the wooden stake broke apart before their eyes!

Lin Jie turned back and looked at the God of War’s mother. However, his surroundings became blurred, and he was unable to take a closer look at her face.

“Not bad, I will allow you to learn swordplay now.” She squatted down and patted Lin Jie’s head.

The next moment, there was a loud clang. Lin Jie was then kicked out of the mural!

Opening his eyes, Lin Jie realized that he was back in his own body. The mural had changed from the picture of a young man practicing with his sword to the image of a beautiful mother caressing her son’s head. It looked very heartwarming and touching.

Lin Jie couldn’t help but scoff at this. He guessed most probably the God of War was not very often praised by his mother when he was young, and thus, when his fantasy came true, he would naturally not want to share his mother’s loving caresses with outsiders.

However, his scorn for the God of War disappeared at the next moment.

Ding~

—’The completion rate for this mission is 100%! You gain 2,000,000 EXP. You also gain 10 Gold coins and learned the skill Shield Cut. The God of War Clomaros taught you combat skills, and thus, you earn an additional 10 Attack Power points.’

Other than the fact that Lin Jie’s EXP bar had progressed to 56%, he also gained an additional 10 Attack Power points and a skill. This was awesome!

However, when he thought back to the time when Clomaros’ mother appeared, Lin Jie couldn’t help but break out in cold sweat. If he hadn’t changed back to Clomaros’ appearance immediately, Clomaros’ mother would probably have smacked him to his death and put thousands plus Curses on him… If things really proceeded that way, not only would he not be able to strike down the wooden stake, his mission completion rate would be returned to 0%, and no rewards would be given. Furthermore, considering the rebellious age at which the God of War was at during the time of the mural, he most probably might take all the favorability points Lin Jie had earned from his Warrior mentor away in spite. That would end up pretty badly.

Lin Jie checked his new skill in anticipation.

Shield Cut: You can deal out a single attack which has the effect of ignoring your target’s Mana Defense and Shield Defense, causing 150% Damage. The cooldown time for this skill is 15 seconds.

“Hahahaha…” Lin Jie couldn’t suppress his joy and laughed out loud. His laughter echoed back at him in the deep cavern and sounded like thunder, making Gilian cover up her ears in frustration.

This was actually a Shield-Penetration type of skill! Other than bypassing the shields of Shield Specialists, this skill could also be used against Mages and render them defenseless!

Be it Arcane Mages, Fire Mages or Wind Mages, they all had to depend on Magical-Shield type of skills to help fend off attacks. Magical Shields could help to decrease 40% of the damage Mages faced by using Mana points as its energy fuel. As such, Mages would normally have extremely high Mana bars just like the high Health bars of Shield Specialists. This was the most challenging difficulty one faced when they tried to attack them.

Out of all the different Magical-Shield type of skills, the most outrageous would be an Ice Mage’s specialized Magical Shield skill. Ice Mages could summon a layer of Magical Shield known as the Ice Armor to protect themselves, and the Defense capabilities of their Ice Armors would directly correspond to their Mana bars’ maximum cap. It was common to see Ice Mages with around 1,000 Mana points summoning Ice Armors of 1,300 Defense points to protect themselves.

However, with this Shield Cut skill, Lin Jie would be able to bypass all sorts of shields!

Lin Jie walked towards the second mural with the Secret Techniques of Clomaros, but realized that all of them had disappeared!

‘But of course, I just changed young Clomaros’s life path, all his following stories would be changed accordingly too…’

Whoosh—

A beam of light shot out from the Secret Techniques of Clomaros and was being absorbed by the walls. The murals were being reformed stroke by stroke, but looking at the speed at which it was being created… Lin Jie guessed it would probably take up to days or even months before the new murals could be formed.

It looked like he had received all the possible rewards from this scroll of the Secret Techniques of Clomaros. If he wanted to continue learning, he would have to find the other scrolls—and those scrolls would all have to direct him towards this cave too.

“Let’s get out of here,” said Lin Jie.

Gilian waved her fingers and sighed. “Well, if I have enough Mana, I will be able to fasten the pace of the murals’ formation. It’s such a pity we have to give up now…”

Lin Jie looked at her from the corners of his eyes and said coldly, “We are leaving now.”

“Aish, Master, don’t be so impatient. Aren’t you interested to know about the rest of Clomaros’ secret techniques?”

“Nope.”

Gilian became anxious. “But I know of another place with hidden treasures!”

“Oh?” Lin Jie finally raised his eyes.

“Hehe, it’s Clomaros’ treasures. Don’t you want them, Master?” tempted Gilian. “I can take you there.”

Lin Jie grinned widely and took out the Gold Character Card. It was now empty—Gilian was supposed to be inside there.

“Return to the card now. Since those are Clomaros’ treasures, it would naturally be within this cave. Why will I need you to lead the way for me then? I will explore it by myself.”

Gilian’s expression turned cold. She said, “I won’t return to the card.”

Lin Jie whipped out the Thunderbolt Sword and Broken Blade, pointing them threateningly at the ground.

“Ice Armor!” With a wave of her hands, Gilian actually activated the signature skill of an Ice Mage! As she had less than 100 health points now due to being in the weakened state, it would be more advantageous for her to use the Ice Armor skill to protect herself instead, since this Magical Shield was directly correlated to her Mana bar’s maximum cap.

Ice Armor

Defense: 12,000

Note: It can fend off all attacks for its user When using the Ice Armor, casting of spells will not be disrupted.

“Human, I respect you, but enough is enough,” said Gilian coldly.

Whoosh—

Several glaring beams of light reflected out from Lin Jie’s swords made Gilian close her eyes momentarily. A pale-yellowish light covered Broken Blade’s surface as it thrust out towards Gilian, and it broke through that sturdy-looking Ice Armor easily. Gusts of Blade Auras rushed towards Gilian and were only 0.1 centimeters away from her neck! At the speed the Blade Auras were rushing at her unless Gilian was able to come up with some superb excuse with that amazing lying talent of hers, her head would be sliced off if she remained cocky.

Shield Cut!

Lin Jie narrowed his eyes and cried out loud, “Get back there!”

Gilian never expected that this human could actually penetrate her Ice Armor. As the saying went, ‘A wise man knows when to retreat.’ She transformed into a beam of light and returned to the card.

Lin Jie looked at the skill he just learned amazingly. The Shield Cut was indeed powerful! So what if shields had Defense capabilities of several ten thousands points? Anyone with this skill could pwn it without any doubts!

The light given off by the Secret Techniques of Clomaros was flickering like the light given off by fireflies, and it could barely light up the surroundings in front of Lin Jie. Lin Jie raised the scroll up and walked towards the depths of the cave. Since Gilian mentioned that there were treasures within the cave, it most probably would not be a groundless rumor. Considering the system’s usual way of hiding treasures, the treasures within this cave would definitely not be lying openly on the ground for the players to pick up. Lin Jie cleverly started feeling all around the cavern’s walls.

—’You receive Gold Sand*3.’

—’You receive Coagulated Blood Crystal*3.’

—’You receive Torn Diary.”

… Well, there were indeed many things, but none of these items were really useful.

Suddenly, Lin Jie’s finger touched something!

—’You receive the Moratti Shrine Map.’

Moratti Shrine Map: This is a treasure map. It records the location of the Moratti Shrine. An unknown power surrounds it, and only the bearer of this map can enter its passageway. You can bring at most two friends along with you.

“Moratti… Moratti…” Lin Jie was muttering the name beneath his breath repeatedly when it suddenly dawned on him, “Moratti! He’s one of the 12 Popes of the Dark Shrine!”

Indeed, this map led to one of the sub-shrines of the Dark Shrine, Pope Moratti’s shrine! Lin Jie drew in a sharp breath—what he held in his hands was the key to one of the ancient hosting sites of the Dark Shrine. Just imagine how much treasures and secrets it contained!

‘Should I hand this up to the Holy Church in exchange for 10% of its treasures?’ Lin Jie pondered for a while, then bit down on his lips. ‘Oh the heck with it, how would I know how much those hypocrites in the Holy Church would keep for themselves? Only the bravest can get the most rewards. I will go there personally!’