Chapter 138: Unexpected Gain
After taking a bath, Ian felt much more refreshed.
Those absurd thoughts from earlier were now gone.
Lying on the large, soft bed in Drogo's palace, Ian logged into the system interface and began checking his gains for the day.
He opened the messages in his inbox one by one:
[Completed Main Quest 1 'Lord', gained 20 points, 5000 Gold Dragons]
[Successfully entered the Royal Council, achieving the beginner achievement 'Path of the Noble - Promotion', gained 3 skill points, 5 points, 1 basic skill selection scroll]
[Successfully became Hand of the King, achieving the intermediate achievement 'Path of the Noble - Second in Command', gained 20 points, 1 skill upgrade scroll (this scroll can upgrade any skill below Legendary level by one tier)]
Damn! Seeing this, Ian's heart skipped a beat.
Two achievements? This was truly an unexpected surprise.
Ian was already pleased that Viserys's appointment of 'Hand of the King' had resulted in an achievement, but he hadn't expected it to go straight to the intermediate level.
Moreover, judging from the progression of these two achievements, the advanced achievement for this route should be 'Becoming King'. If everything goes smoothly, Ian might achieve this soon.
Continuing to scroll down, Ian saw a familiar term in the next message:
[Achieved a B-level highlight play, gaining 10 points]
"Highlight play? It's happening again?" Ian paused, then mentally called out to the AI assistant, Annie. "What exactly does this highlight play evaluate? Why haven't I seen it before?"
"A highlight play is a comprehensive evaluation of the player's entire stage," the AI replied.
"What's the basis for this stage division?"
"Each level of main quest is considered a stage."
"So, this is my overall rating for the entire stage from completing the first blood mission until today? Only B-level?" Ian frowned; he wasn't satisfied.
"That's correct," Annie simply gave an affirmative answer. "The highlight performance is divided into four levels, with rewards of 1 point for D-level, 5 points for C-level, 10 points for B-level, and 50 points for A-level."
"Uh..." Ian gently rubbed his forehead. Seeing the increasing reward tiers, he understood that A-level highlight performance was just something the developers were dangling in front of the players; the difficulty level was probably never intended for anyone to achieve.
Without dwelling on it further, Ian began to check his updated character sheet:
[Ian: Strength 32, Agility 27, Spirit 13
Skills: Basic Etiquette, Basic Common Tongue Literacy, Advanced Swordsmanship, Advanced Horsemanship, Intermediate Lance, Beginner Skinchanger
Attribute Points: 0 Skill Points: 8 Points: 100 Items: Basic Skill Selection Scroll, Skill Upgrade Scroll]
Seeing that he had 8 skill points, and considering the huge loss he suffered in King's Landing last time, Ian abandoned the wishful thinking that personal strength was useless and chose to spend 4 skill points to upgrade his swordsmanship to Master level.
In the past two months, he had basically maxed out his advanced swordsmanship proficiency, and advancing to the next tier would provide a significant improvement.
He still had 4 skill points left, and he only needed 2 to upgrade his Skinchanger ability to intermediate level, which was more than enough.
As for the skill upgrade scroll, its maximum effect was to upgrade from Master to Legendary. He didn't have any Master-level skills yet, so using it now would be a pure waste.
"Wait!" Ian thought, summoning Annie again and asking eagerly, "Can the skill upgrade scroll be used on NPCs?"
If he used it on Case, wouldn't it directly upgrade him to legendary swordsman status?
"No, NPCs are all native inhabitants; they are not constructs like players, and the system cannot modify their attributes and skills."
"What a shame," Ian muttered helplessly.
If it could be used on NPCs, Case might be able to single-handedly wipe out the Sutera Tetrus team, led by player Ander Poole, wielding a Valyrian steel sword.
After all, so far, the highest skill level Ian had seen among those nearing the power ceiling was only Master; the power of a Legendary warrior was unimaginable.
After learning that the scroll couldn't be used on NPCs, Ian closed his character sheet and instead went to the Points Shop.
His total points had now reached 100, granting him the qualification to preview the Level 3 Points Shop.
[Level 3 Shop: Gold Coin Box (containing 2000 Gold Dragons): 10 Points; Gold Coin Box (containing 10000 Gold Dragons): 20 Points]
Sure enough, Gold Dragons were cheaper again in the Level 3 Shop, and the discount was substantial compared to the previous two levels. However, it still lacked appeal for Ian at this point.
Looking further, Ian discovered that the Level 3 Shop indeed had a much wider selection than the previous two levels.
[Valyrian Steel Dagger: 5 points; Valyrian Steel Arming Sword: 10 points; Valyrian Steel Longsword: 20 points; Valyrian Steel Bastard Sword: 30 points;
Valyrian Steel Greatsword: 50 points; Valyrian Steel Plate Armor: 200 points; Qohorik Enchanted Plate Armor (the pinnacle of human enchanting craftsmanship beneath Valyrian Steel, with hardness exceeding 800 HV and fracture toughness of 600 kJ/m²;
no weapon except Valyrian Steel swords can penetrate its defense): 10 points; Selectable (within the region) S-rank NPC: 30 points; Basic Skill Selection Scroll: 30 points]
Overall, compared to the first two levels of the shop, the items here were indeed much more attractive to players. Whether it's Valyrian Steel weapons, Qohorik Enchanted Plate Armor, or S-rank NPCs, they were all worth purchasing.
Continuing to browse, Ian discovered that in addition to the fixed slots, the third-level shop also had four random slots that refreshed monthly, with the refresh date being the monthly settlement day.
This week's items were:
[A spell book from Asshai (written in the Asshai'i language, who knows what it contains?): 5 points; A magical obsidian candle (a relic of an ancient ritual, no one knows what it does): 5 points;
A jar of weirwood seed paste (a paste made by the Children of the Forest from weirwood seeds and other unknown substances, which can slightly enhance mental power and awaken the greensight talent in one's bloodline): 30 points;
Deep One remains (said to help improve divine magic): 30 points]
Skipping the other options, the weirwood seed paste successfully caught Ian's attention.
His future travel plans didn't include going north of the Wall in Westeros, meaning this was an opportunity if he wanted to acquire the greensight ability before mastering the 'Skinchanger' skill.
With that in mind, Ian tentatively clicked "buy," hoping to see the official unlock conditions for the Level 3 shop, while praying that the condition wouldn't be spending 100 points in the Level 2 shop.
Some god must have answered Ian's prayer, because the game developers didn't continue with the same rules as unlocking the Tier 2 shop, instead adopting a simpler method.
The pop-up notification reads:
[Tier 3 Shop Unlock Condition: Spend 100 points or pay an equivalent item worth 100 points in the Tier 2 shop to unlock.]
(End of Chapter)
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