Chapter 7: Hidden Storyline
[Energy-Saving Robe — Blue]
[Craft: Masterwork]
[Description: Sewn from the materials [Miser Demon's Hide] + [Energy-Saving Rune], slightly increases MP and HP.]
[Special Bonus: Your casting MP cost is reduced by 10%.]
[Note: Thrift is a virtue.]
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[Mermaid Ring — Blue]
[Craft: Fine]
[Description: Forged from the materials [Mermaid's Tear] + [Magic Ore], slightly increases MP.]
[Special Bonus: Your healing skill effectiveness is increased by 30%.]
[Note: Sob sob sob~]
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[Lia's Necklace — Purple]
[Craft: Masterwork]
[Description: Drops upon slaying the dungeon boss [Lia].]
[Special Bonus: Your corrosion skills can stack corrosion effects up to three times.]
[Note: Sizzle… sizzle…]
Five players, three pieces of equipment dropped in total — a pretty decent drop rate.
After checking the stats on each item one by one, Xia Er couldn't help but nod in approval.
While none of them were as stunning as that orange-quality ring from the first time, the overall quality was still quite high — especially the purple necklace with masterwork craftsmanship, which happened to synergize perfectly with his own skills.
Beyond that, Xia Er also planned to keep the robe that reduced MP consumption for himself.
Even though the Arcane Power Ring already provided a thousand MP, there was no getting around it — spellcasting classes were genuinely starved for mana, especially when using Dark Veil, where you could watch your MP bar plummet with every passing second.
He slipped on the robe and gazed at the necklace in his hand, still faintly stained with blood. A wave of quiet reflection washed over him.
Another boss had fallen at the hands of players.
He could only hope he wouldn't end up sharing the same fate.
Two pieces of equipment claimed for himself — as for the remaining ring, its effects weren't suited to him, so Xia Er decided to give it to his domain's deputy.
The Soul Contract situation hadn't even gotten off the ground yet. He needed to strengthen the domain's overall power first.
"Little Ghost is a vampire — she should be able to benefit from the healing bonus."
Having settled on the right person, Xia Er made his way toward the area of the domain under her jurisdiction.
* * *
Inside the starter village.
Players dressed in coarse cloth and clutching battered swords wandered back and forth, the place packed to the brim.
Ever since Oracle entered open beta, countless videos had spread across the internet. The breathtakingly realistic world combined with its sweeping lore had drawn in a massive wave of players — peak concurrent users had even surpassed eight figures at one point, a staggering number.
Watching the surging crowd, the beta-tester squad that had just been wiped by a certain domain lord now wore the same hollow, vacant expressions that Li Shen had once worn.
One dungeon run, and between them they had lost over ten thousand experience points, two rare pieces of equipment, and one boss drop — their collective strength had dropped by an entire tier in one fell swoop.
They'd killed plenty of level-30 dungeon bosses before. So why was this guy so absurdly overpowered?
He even — damn it — targeted the back row!
"Fuck!"
"My corrosion necklace! That thing was purple quality — I could've kept using it even after my job advancement!"
Faced with his teammates' outrage, Li Shen's expression was utterly flat. "My backer lost an orange-quality item."
The reason for his calm was simple.
His heart had completely given up.
Li Shen knew stronger players, but the Tier 1 crowd was currently busy with job advancements and pushing the main storyline — none of them had the spare time to come over, and he couldn't offer a price worth their while anyway.
After struggling with it for a while, Li Shen opened the chat window and found the player ID listed as Qiu Yue.
Li Shen: [Sis Qiu Yue, I just called up a few buddies I met during beta and headed to the Undead Domain again.]
Qiu Yue: [How did it go?]
Li Shen: [All five of us job-advanced players got killed by the boss. The difficulty is just completely off the charts.]
Li Shen: [As for the money for the orange item… sorry, I can only cover half.]
After a moment of silence, a single word finally came back from the other side.
[Fine.]
Li Shen hurriedly replied: [Thanks, Sis Qiu Yue. If you ever need anything in the future, just call on me — no charge.]
Qiu Yue: ….
No charge, and I still wouldn't dare call on you again.
Closing the chat window, Qiu Shui felt a dull headache coming on.
Even a five-person squad of beta testers who had already completed their job advancements couldn't clear this dungeon…
After a moment of silence, she quietly opened the forum.
Beyond the party-finding and strategy sections, the forum had one particularly popular feature: the live marketplace.
Players could post listings in the free market to trade item for item, or item for currency. On top of that, there was one special type of transaction.
Bounties.
* * *
The eastern region of the Undead Domain was the area under Little Ghost's jurisdiction.
As one of the domain's four deputies, she held the title in name, but in practice fulfilled almost none of her administrative duties — spending at least twenty hours a day lying inside a coffin.
After a brief search, Xia Er slowly walked up to one particular coffin and knocked on the lid. Knock, knock, knock.
No response came from within.
Xia Er simply reached out and flipped the lid open.
Little Ghost was lying inside, hands folded over her stomach, sleeping with serene contentment.
Seemingly roused by the noise, she opened her drowsy eyes and looked up at Xia Er with a puzzled expression. "Lord Xia Er, what brings you here…"
Little Ghost scooted to one side, making room. "Did you want to come in and sleep for a bit?"
Xia Er: ……
Still sleeping! She's going to sleep herself silly!
He shook his head and quietly produced the ring. "This ring has a healing bonus — you should be able to make use of it."
"Thank you, Lord Xia Er…"
Little Ghost slowly climbed out of the coffin and accepted the ring, looking thoroughly half-asleep.
Xia Er couldn't be bothered to say anything more. He had just finished delivering the equipment and was about to leave when his gaze suddenly caught a flash of crimson — a bright red fang peeking out from beneath the edge of her pillow.
A line of text materialized before his eyes.
[Item Name — Liliya's Token]
[Description: A relic left behind by Liliya, Progenitor of Vampires. It appears to serve some special purpose.]
[Note: This is a past that was never meant to be discovered…]
"What's this?"
Faced with Lord Xia Er's question, Little Ghost fell into a quiet reverie. "It's a token my father gave me…"
"Before I came to seek refuge in Lord Xia Er's domain, my father handed me this fang and told me to keep it hidden…"
Xia Er furrowed his brow. "I'm a bit fuzzy on things from before — which domain did you used to live in again?"
Little Ghost didn't hide it. "The Blood Clan."
"Understood. I won't tell anyone else about this."
"Go ahead and lie back in your coffin."
Walking back toward the castle, Xia Er turned the recent events over in his mind.
If he wasn't mistaken…
He had just stumbled upon a hidden storyline by accident.