Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“What is your proficiency now?” asked Lin Jie.

Fire Bomb took out his skill panel hurriedly, and it was written there prominently: Engineering Specialization Primary 1,900

/3,000.

All players, regardless of Professional Living or Battling Jobs gamers, would come into contact with the phrase, specialization. The effect of specialization was more or less the same, for example, Fire Bomb was a Fire Gun Specialist, so his success rate when creating a Fire Gun would be at least 5% based on his proficiency. There would be chances to supplement the gun with ‘Explode’, boosting the weapon’s stats beyond its basic attributes.

There were some downsides to such a powerful specialization, the player would have a decrease in 50% in proficiency when they were manufacturing other engineering products, which would lead to a corresponding fall in success rate as well. However, it was up to the individual to decide if that was good or bad. Generally, players would not have enough time to master two or more specializations, so it was usually based on personal preference. Thus, the disadvantage was not considered a cost by most.

Lin Jie would receive additional Attack and Attack Speed, and be able to boost Blood Power and Berserker skill by 15% if he specialized in Berserker. However, his Defense would fall as a result, Damage Suffered would increase by 10%, while the rest of his skills effects would fall by 20%.

Fire Bomb was a player that had risen to fame suddenly in his previous life. He had been a low-profile solo player, and the most notable thing about him had been the Hunter’s Guild’s order of 6,000 Dark Gold Fire Guns placed when they had loftily conquered Triumphant Midnight’s cities! Surprisingly, Fire Gun had managed to deliver the goods on time with the guns having 15% higher attributes than usual, and that had boosted him to fame.

“Oh right, Boss, I have an idea, a great idea!” Fire Bomb took out a large piece of paper that was the height of a human and placed it on the ground. There was a Gargoyle that was formed by countless lines and was covered with numerous remarks. He said excitedly, “This is just my rough idea. I can’t turn it into a blueprint yet, because my proficiency is insufficient, but my idea is that you can get your team’s Contract Summoner to add on heavy weaponry such as cannons, fire guns…”

Lin Jie shook his hands and interrupted him seriously. “Don’t aim too high.”

Fire Bomb was surprised and nodded fervently. He had wanted to express his innovative ideas, but instead, it backfired, and he received such a comment.

“We have to do things one step at a time. Let’s set a short term goal, if you are able to reach middle-grade within 10 days, I will give you this.” A blueprint appeared in Lin Jie’s hands, which attracted Fire Bomb’s attention immediately, it was the Silent Killer Manufacturing Blueprint, a Sub-Legendary manufacturing blueprint!

“Okay, okay!” Fire Bomb’s breathing was heavy as he stared at the blueprint so hard as though he was going to swallow it.

“Do it well.” Lin Jie patted Fire Bomb’s shoulder and got Bella to allocate him some space.

‘Recruiting Fire Bomb, the top-class Fire Gun Specialist from my previous life, could help in the transformation of Silent Killer. Once he reaches middle-grade, he will at least be able to create a Dark Gold Blueprint based on Silent Killer’s blueprint. Hehe, the magnitude will be so powerful.’ Lin Jie pondered carefully as he turned to call Bella.

Bella eyed Phoenix enviously, who was surrounded by countless of people, before turning around and replied respectfully, “What is it, Boss?”

Lin Jie took out the Wood Crystals, Woods, from the three sisters, the Fire Crystals from the Ancient Wilderness Temple, and took off his Kiara Beast King Armor as he arranged everything. “Once Phoenix has more free time on hand, let her work overtime to merge all these ingredients with the Kiara Beast King Armor. I have to make a trip to Holy Church now.”

“Okay, I will arrange that now.” Bella smiled faintly, looking just like a secretary.

Lin Jie pondered and said, “The first Final Tournament is beginning soon, go prepare for it.”

“Me?” Bella was surprised.

“Yeah, I am planning for you to be the host.” Lin Jie waved his hands and turned to leave.

Bella looked at Lin Jie’s back as a glimmer shone through her sparkling eyes.

‘Bella seems to crave the approval of others, or should I say attention… 90 out of 100 girls are like that.’ Lin Jie shook his head but felt relieved. ‘Bu Yi is still the most obedient.’

Luckily, Bu Yi was demure and came from a family of a strict upbringing. Her interactions with strangers were limited, so she wasn’t the spotlight of attention.

Furthermore, with how jealous Lin Jie was as a person, he would be jealous of everyone, except his close friends! If Bu Yi was like Bella, he would be very gloomy.

…

Holy Church.

The Holy Church was currently packed to the brim as countless players surrounded an NPC and wanted to enter the church desperately.

This NPC was the officer in charge of the Final Tournament registration.

The Final Tournament, unlike the Fishing Festival, was a competition co-hosted by the Holy Church and Empire. Hence, utmost importance was placed on the rules—the flow included sign ups, preliminaries, repechage, and finals. There were also several evaluation judges laid out, such as Judgement Leader, Knight Leader, General, that had appeared in many Epics.

To put it simply, everyone had to follow the process!

The tournament would last a week, or even up to half a month.

Lin Jie’s mouth twitched as this NPC was spawned at the Holy Church’s entrance, thus clogging up the whole Holy Church’s Square.

The chaotic final tournament registration site blocked poor Lin Jie, who was on a mission, he could only trail behind the crowd. Lin Jie spotted a few familiar faces amongst the crowd, including the champion of this first tournament’s weaponry battle from his previous life, ‘Freon’, as well as Ophadi Wantless, who was using Arcane Imitation to simulate a Holy Light Cape to pretend to be an NPC so that other players had to let him through.

“Hello, brother, you seem anxious to sign up?” At this moment, a tiny dwarf tugged on Lin Jie’s greaves and said softly, “Do you need a place in the queue? I can assure that you will be registered within a minute for the cost of just 30 silver coins. Time is money, my friend.”

Lin Jie was surprised as he took out 30 silver coins and stuffed them into the dwarf’s hands, “Bring me there.”

“Hehehe, easy, easy, all you have to do is to press the button on this. Afterward, remember to return it to me.” The dwarf placed a button onto Lin Jie’s hands and went on to search for more businesses.

Augmentor Control Device: Can be used when not in battle, you will switch places with the augmentor.

‘This guy is pretty smart.’ Lin Jie glanced at the device on hand with surprise. There existed an item known as the ‘augmentor’ in engineering, and it could be altered by the player to resemble anything. However, it could only have the ‘Taunt’ effect when the engineer had reached superior-grade. This dwarf was really smart as he had made the augmentors queue up for him so that he would sell his queue position! It seemed like there was more than one player that was using such tactics since the business was booming.

‘No wonder the queue wasn’t moving at all even though I have been here for a while. WTH, scalpers can really be found everywhere!’ Lin Jie chuckled and pressed the button, he instantly swapped positions with the augmentor in front, which was then kept by the dwarf into his backpack to be reused.

“I am here for the sign-up.” Lin Jie threw out a silver coin to the NPC.

“This is your number token, you have the freedom to enter the tournament arena and battle, Every victory will be 2 points, and every failure will be 0 points. Victory will also entitle you to 50% of your opponent’s points.” The registration officer simply threw the token to Lin Jie and waved his hands. “Next!”

Lin Jie took his token and left, this was the number token for the final tournament, his number was pretty good—2222!

‘How clueless do I have to be?’

Lin Jie was rendered speechless as he couldn’t help but complain internally while keeping the token and entering the Holy Church.

This time, the guard did not bar his way. Instead, he welcomed him cautiously, “Lord Viscount, please, please…”

Lin Jie was astonished when he stepped into the Holy Church, the flourishing Church that was constantly filled with devoted believers was completely empty. There only stood Tyrese, the Raid Commander of War of Light, steadfastly at the door, who nodded and said, “Viscount, welcome, please enter.”

She waved her hand, and the Holy Church’s door closed shut.

“We have received the oracle, you managed to kill the Blood Sub-Shrine’s Deputy Lord, the strongest killing machine of Dark Shrine, King of Blood.” Tyrese’s face was solemn, but shock filled her eyes as she said in a tone filled with bewilderment, “The Holy Church once sent a Sub-Legendary Knight Leader with 3,000 paladins for a siege on the King of Blood. However, they were unable to kill him. Instead, some of their blood and flesh were absorbed, which further strengthened the King of Blood’s abilities. You, however, have managed to slay him.”

Lin Jie understood that the God of War had probably sent the message to the Holy Church while delivering King of Blood’s corpse back. This was a good thing, otherwise, in order to drag the corpse back to the City of Light, he would have to go by the normal means such as hiring many horses, carriages, and mercenaries… Some with ulterior motives might obstruct their way, and the Dark Shrine might issue missions to seize the corpse.

As to why the Paladins were so helpless against King of Blood, it was due to the battle issues that NPCs had to consider. An NPC’s attributes were more than just what it seemed on the surface, they had many hidden statistics. For example, most of the Undead was unkillable and tough to slay. However, it was much simpler for players, as they just had to drain the health bar to kill the Undead.

This was why players had received the NPCs respect, as well as why the NPCs would often issue missions for players.

“Just by killing the King of Blood, the rewards you will receive from the Holy Church’s and the Imperial’s Reward List are extremely generous, furthermore…” Raid Commander Tyrese’s ring shone, and King of Blood’s corpse almost filled up the entire Holy Church Hall. “Furthermore, the corpse is undamaged and contains a great deal of power, which is very useful.”

Lin Jie raised his brows. “So you want me to hand over King of Blood’s corpse, in exchange for the rewards?”

“Eh? This wasn’t your plan?” Tyrese was surprised. “This wealth is more than what humans from the alternate realms can comprehend!”

“Hahaha, I am not planning to hand over the corpse.” Lin Jie chuckled and said, “There are two reasons why I came here. Firstly, to receive my experience points rewards for killing the King of Blood. It’s against the rules that I don’t receive any experience points for slaying the warlord of Dark Shrine, right?”

Tyrese frowned. “When humans from the alternate realms slay warlords, they can exchange it for experience points and item rewards from the Holy Church. However, you would have to hand over the corpse in return as well. There are not any examples of only receiving the experience points… I suggest that you hand over the corpse to use, in that case, you will be able to receive both the experience points and a large number of rewards.”

“In other words, I can just receive the experience points, right?”

“Yes…”

“Great, then I have achieved my main goal.” Lin Jie snapped his fingers and continued, “Secondly, I have something to tell you.”

Tyrese became serious as she saw the solemn look on Lin Jie’s face, and she asked, “What is it?”

“I believe that you are aware that the Dark Shrine has been permeating into the internals of the Guild, and several humans from the alternate realms are amongst them. They have consumed the Dark Shrine’s Dark Holy Water, which in turn has boosted their attributes. Even during the warzone of Midolhaar, there were sightings of such humans that have switched jobs to Dark Blood Bandits slaying Guild soldiers. I think that there is a need to suppress the Dark Shrine, this would be beneficial to the War of Light as well, am I right?”

Tyrese was surprised. “You? A human from the alternate realms wants to suppress the Dark Shrine? Forgive my bluntness, your power is not even 10% of mine, how will you be able to suppress them? Why do you give me the feeling that you are being whimsical?”

Lin Jie smiled slightly. “Isn’t this why I came looking for you? Look at what this is?”

His right hand turned, and a crown that was covered in darkness and emitted an evil, tyrannic and ancient aura appeared!

This was the item that Lin Jie had once used to transform into the Moratti Shrine Dragon Envoy—Demonic Dragon Crown!