Chapter 19: Taking Stock of Spoils! Purple Star Divine Gear! Dragon Friendship Medal!

The vast majority of equipment in this world is crafted by blacksmiths, and any equipment obtainable from dungeons is invariably a tremendously powerful existence.

The equipment obtained from this dragon's chest was a mask—a special piece of equipment that was neither weapon nor armor, and such items often had unexpected effects, which made Lu Zheng all the more eager.

He directly used his passive skill 'True Eye' to appraise it!

【Equipment: Dark Mask】

【Quality: Purple Star one-star (uniquely bound)】

【Equipment requirement: LV. 60 or above Dark-attribute professional, or true Spirit stat greater than 1000】

【Spirit +800】

【Constitution +200】

【Dark spell resistance +10000】

【Skills: Mask Illusion (Passive), Fusing Darkness】

【Durability: Permanent】

All equipment qualities, from lowest to highest, are divided into four major tiers: Black Iron, Silver, Gold, and Purple Star, each major tier further divided into five minor star levels. Equipment quality is evaluated across multiple dimensions such as base attribute bonuses and built-in skills. Every piece of Purple Star-tier equipment is priceless! And equipment below Purple Star tier all has durability—once durability is depleted, the equipment is directly destroyed and disappears.

Purple Star-tier equipment has infinite durability, unlimited use, and is uniquely bound and non-droppable; once the user dies, the equipment also disappears!

And the two skills it granted were also extremely impressive.

【Skill: Mask Illusion (Passive)】

【Effect: Your true level and information cannot be probed; your appearance will be different in every person's eyes】

Good lord, that meant as long as he wore this equipment, he wouldn't need to worry about his identity being exposed—his level couldn't be probed, his information couldn't be sensed, and even his appearance became pixelated! 【Skill: Fusing Darkness】

【Effect: You can merge into darkness to walk; in this state, physical damage is immune, dark spell damage is immune, and all other attribute spell damage is reduced by 50% except holy-type spells; your dark spell attacks increase by 50%】

Lu Zheng already had a 'Dark Assault' skill that allowed him to infiltrate darkness, but that continuously consumed mana, whereas now he only needed to put on the mask to freely hide within darkness, and the power of Dark Thrust also directly increased by fifty percent!

Identity concealed, brutal assault—so, I've really become an assassin?! He glanced at his base attributes: Spirit 1224, just enough to equip it. He put it on directly—since it could be concealed anyway, he could summon it at any time.

Next, Lu Zheng looked at the other items in the chest.

【Skill Book: Dark Guardian】

【Effect: Minimum cost of 500 mana; releases a layer of dark shield covering the whole body, adding 10000 base defense; as mana cost increases, defense value increases】

【Learning requirement: LV. 60 or above Dark-attribute professional, or true Spirit stat greater than 1000 and mana greater than 1000】

This was the shield-type skill Lu Zheng had been lacking all along, and now he finally had it. He hurriedly clicked to learn it, then cast a Dark Guardian on himself.

Raising his hand to look, he could see a layer of black light appearing on the surface of his skin, not affecting his movements at all. He even discovered that this skill could also be cast on a single small area, such as the eyes, but it would still cost a minimum of 500 mana.

But considering the 10000 base defense bonus, that was quite reasonable.

The dragon chest contained four items in total. Besides the Dark Mask and skill book, the other two were a scroll and a medal. 【Item: Gate of the Abyss Scroll】

【Effect: Using the scroll opens a Gate of the Abyss, connecting this world and the Abyss plane. The Gate of the Abyss lasts for 72 hours and allows creatures up to LV. 300 to pass through】

This was extraordinary—if he opened a gate at the city gates, it would directly cause an Abyss invasion! He quickly put it away, lest he accidentally use it.

【Item: Dragon Friendship Medal】

【Effect: Gain Dragon Majesty; all targets whose level is not higher than yours have Agility reduced by 50% and Spirit reduced by 50%; all dragons' favorability toward you increases by 50%; with this item, you may enter Dragon Valley】

Seeing this medal, Lu Zheng was stunned for a moment, then he realized—that Vixus was a renegade dragon who had defected from the dragon race, an evil dragon corrupted by darkness. Killing it and earning the friendship of the dragon race was not strange at all.

But thinking that he had apparently also obtained a 'Dragon Slayer' title left him not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

【Title: Dragon Slayer】

【Effect: Dragons' hostility toward you increases by 50%; your damage to dragons and dragon-blood creatures additionally increases by 5%; Strength +500, Constitution +500】

So, title plus medal equals neither good nor bad? Having finished inventorying everything, Lu Zheng didn't go out that day—he just lay flat for a day and rested.

The next day, he arrived at another Level 3 strategic reserve city: Heavy Shield City.

His plan for these days was not leveling up—raising summon beasts' levels was one aspect, but more importantly, he was going all out to earn money! Killing monsters for materials, selling them for gold coins, and accumulating a sum of money.

Because he wanted to find someone to forge equipment.

And according to the information he had gathered, forging a one-star Silver equipment would cost at least 50 gold coins, Gold equipment would cost several thousand, and given the materials he had, he would at least be able to forge a piece of Gold equipment.

A few thousand gold coins might not be enough—he needed to prepare at least twenty to thirty thousand gold coins to possibly have enough.

Fortunately, Lu Zheng was not fighting alone! Today was the 44th day after Awakening Day, and with 440 summon slots, he had already acquired 166 elite-quality summon beasts. Coupled with the several immortal-grade spirit pets in his hands, all working together to kill monsters and gather materials for him, all he needed to do as their master was to constantly collect and sell the materials, then return.

With such high-efficiency work, his wealth grew rapidly. On the very first day alone, he earned a full three thousand-plus gold coins—equivalent to the purchasing power of over thirty million yuan, a figure his parents in this life could never earn in their entire lifetimes! Lu Zheng had already given his parents over a hundred gold coins, but they hadn't spent any of it, saying they were saving it for Lu Zheng's future wife.

His parents had worked hard their whole lives, and by now it had become a habit that couldn't be changed in a short time, and they certainly wouldn't allow him to be distracted at this most critical moment right before the college entrance exam.

So Lu Zheng stopped thinking about helping them do anything, planning to wait until after he got into university and set their minds at ease before helping them raise their levels and gain strength and wealth.

In the blink of an eye, ten days passed. In those ten days, Lu Zheng successfully saved up a full fifty-eight thousand-plus gold coins—a considerable fortune.

In the process of frantically earning money, he also incidentally raised the levels of all his summon beasts by a bit.

Apart from the five-star legendary divine pet Taotie, whose level remained unchanged at 50, all other summon beasts gained tremendous level increases. The Three-Tailed Spirit Fox reached level 48, the Cave-Glimmer Dark Serpent and Howl-Moon Dark Wolf both reached level 46, and the Phantom Spirit Cat and Crescent Eagle reached level 44.

Besides that, the remaining 200 elite summon beasts reached an average level of 40, which brought Lu Zheng a massive amount of experience and base attribute point feedback, pushing his own level to 48 as well.

The only thing he felt unsatisfied about was that among the summon beasts drawn these past few days, not a single one was above rare quality.

He currently had 540 summon slots, and the summon beasts in over 300 of those slots were all just cannon fodder at the one-star ordinary beast pet level!

Today he went all out and exhausted all his cannon fodder in one breath—giving it a try, a three-hundred-pull draw, to see if he could pull something good.

(End of chapter)