Scourge Messenger

Chapter 78 Inventory (Third Update)

Is it worth giving up a legendary item in exchange for the alt account Jiang Shi?

The Wandering Courier's class trait, "Wandering Blessing," allows players to choose two rewards during the chest reward phase.

Yan Qing immediately chose the leftmost secret book; at this point, he could also choose a second reward.

The most valuable item was undoubtedly the central ball of light reward: a legendary token-level glove. Even without seeing the effect clearly, Yan Qing was confident that the legendary token would not disappoint him.

But at the moment the Foundation Establishment expert attacked, he still chose the rightmost rare item: the Return Token.

"Return Order"

"Usage conditions: The player cannot be in a restricted state."

Number of uses: 2/3

"Effect: Activates immediately upon activation, with a casting time of ten seconds. During the casting period, the player is invincible and unaffected by any external influences, while also being unable to exert any influence on the outside world. The player can choose a return location during the casting process; otherwise, the player will return to the nearest landmark."

"Review: Nothing gives you a greater sense of security than this."

The Return Token can only be used three times, and I've already used one for Jiang Shi. Would choosing the Legendary Token have been the right choice?
In fact, when Yan Qing was considering whether it was worth it, he already had a vague feeling that it wasn't. It's like when you flip a coin to make a decision, you already have a bias in your mind.

Because Jiang Shi's profession is too bad.

Once outside the woodlands, Jiang Shi's second job advancement is essentially useless. Some might think, wouldn't it be better for Jiang Shi to quickly level up and advance to his third job?

But don't forget that the new jobs that appear after the third job advancement are generated based on the player's past experiences, with the jobs the player has played before having a very large influence.

If Jiang Shi continues to live and fight near the woodlands, she will likely get the legendary version of the Woodland Messenger when she reaches the third job advancement; but if Jiang Shi gives up fighting in the woodlands and instead trains in dual swords, she can only get the rare version of the Dual Swords Messenger at most.

If you can't stick to one career path and choose to switch routes midway, it's like erasing all your important past experience. Just like a college student who was once the president of the student union won't necessarily be more helpful when applying for a programmer job.

A player's third job advancement greatly affects their Foundation Establishment strength, and the third job advancement is influenced by the second job advancement, which is mostly derived from the first job advancement... If you want to pursue the ultimate strength, then the Messenger player is crucial at every stage. Therefore, players who play high-difficulty dungeons are jokingly called "key players" in game forums, and high-difficulty dungeons are called "key players' prison".

Therefore, Jiang Shi's professional potential is not as good as Ye Si's. If Ye Si can advance all the way to Foundation Establishment, he can probably reach the strength of an average player, while Jiang Shi would probably only have sewer-level combat power. Therefore, for Yan Qing, her value is not higher than that of a legendary token.

But if everything is about maximizing benefits, then he shouldn't have lost his temper in the first place. Jiang Shi should have compromised with Lu Wangji, lost a little face in exchange for greater benefits.

But everything on the smaller version is his, and the smaller version's reputation is naturally his reputation as well.

If he was truly powerless to do anything, then so be it; Yan Qing could only write it down in his little notebook and take revenge later. But since he could defend his dignity as a player now, why should he let his alt account suffer?

In single-player games, there exists a type of "inevitable defeat" battle. Most players simply lose and the story progresses. However, a small group of players will go to great lengths to win these battles, willing to invest a great deal of time in the process. Yan Qing is one of these players. His motivation isn't a challenge or anything like that; his reason for wanting to win is simple—he just doesn't want to lose.

I just don't want to lose!

So what if it's the imperial court? So what if it's a powerful family? So what if it's a Foundation Establishment expert? So what if it's a battle I'm destined to lose? I'll show you how I can turn the tide!
But if I compromise... if I choose the legendary token instead of the return token...

Yan Qing has this kind of eccentric personality. When he's playing, he's so excited and doesn't care about the gains or losses. But after he's done playing and regains his senses, he starts agonizing over whether there were better options. This symptom isn't as severe when he's playing single-player games because he can reload and try different paths to see if he's right. But now it's an online game, and he never knows if he's made a mistake.

Ultimately, he was just an ordinary player.

The dilemma came and went quickly, because Yan Qing had more important things to do now: take stock of the spoils!
First are the tokens of Zhou Ye and Chen Linchuan, a total of seven items: the 'Fire-Controlling Bracelet', the 'Golden Ring Blade', the 'Evil-Repelling Sword', the 'Steel Belt', two 'Heart-Protecting Mirrors', and two 'Storage Rings'.

"Fire-Controlling Bracelet"

"Rank: Third-tier Common"

"Durability: 24/40"

"Equipment Requirements: 20 points of Divine Soul, Fire Path Basics MAX"

"Effect - Flame: Applies flame to your weapon, dealing an additional 30 fire damage. The flame can ignite flammable materials and remains in the air for one second. Activating Flame consumes 30 spirit points, and maintaining the Flame effect consumes 1 spirit point per second."

"Effect - Apprentice: If the user's fire-based skills are not up to par, this bracelet can still be used, but the user must actively ignite the weapon to activate the Flame Infusion effect. The user's fire-based skill acquisition speed is increased by 10%."

"Comment: It is said that all new apprentices in the Flaming Mountain start as cooks. This bracelet is their only cooking utensil. Only when they can make delicious food with their own hands can they truly begin to learn the Way of Flames."

/
"Golden Ring Knife"

"Rank: Second-tier Rare" "Durability: 61/100"

"Equipment requirements: 30 points of health, 10 points of spirit"

Basic attack power: 30~50 points

"Effect - Martial Arts: When you attack with the Golden Ring Blade, your HP will be permanently increased. Currently, the increase in HP is 0."

"Effect - Bloodbath: Your health will rapidly increase during combat, triggering after 15 seconds and reaching its maximum value at 600 seconds. You can increase your health by a maximum of (30 + 5 × martial arts health increase) points."

"Comment: Every swordsman thought he was its last master, but you proved them wrong."

Wow! Yan Qing's eyes lit up.

The Fire Control Bracelet is just the most basic Fire Path token, but even so, it can significantly increase the messenger's combat power. 30 points of fire damage may not seem like much, but the 'burn,' 'ignite,' and 'fear' effects it brings are not to be underestimated. It may not be very effective in PvP, but it is very useful for dungeons. Moreover, it allows players without any Fire Path knowledge to use it, making it Yanqing's only introductory Fire Path tutorial.

The Golden Ring Blade is also an excellent token. A second-tier rare item is already comparable to a third-tier common item. If Zhou Ye has been using the Golden Ring Blade since the second tier, the amount of health he increases through martial arts training must be considerable. Combined with the Golden Ring Blade's second power, 'Bloodbath,' which can further increase the amount of health gained through martial arts training by 30+5 times, Zhou Ye can easily increase his health by nearly 100 in battle.

If Zhou Ye carries a bunch of healing pills and eats them while fighting, he might be able to withstand the boss in the third job advancement dungeon.

Jiang Shi's output with the Bingzi Jiaolin was too high. Zhou Ye didn't even have time to show his high health before he was hit in a vital spot and killed.

What's even better is that the Golden Ring Blade can be used even by a first-tier messenger, making it perfect for leveling up alt characters.

"Evil-Repelling Sword"

"Rank: Third-tier Rare"

"Durability: 91/150"

"Equipment requirements: 30 points of health, 10 points of spirit"

Basic attack power: 50~60 points

"Effect - Charge: You can consume spiritual energy per second to enhance your next slash. Each second of charging increases attack power by 100 points, up to a maximum of five seconds, consuming 10 points of spiritual energy per second."

"Effect - Exorcism: When your single attack deals more than 300 damage to an enemy, it will trigger the beast spirit within the Exorcism Sword, turning this damage into crushing damage (damage becomes double and ignores the enemy's defense)."

"Effect - Toughness: This weapon is so savage that it is extremely durable and difficult to damage even when attacked."

"Evaluation: Perhaps this weapon would be more practical if the charge-up effect were removed."

/
"Steel Belt"

"Rank: Third-tier Common"

"Durability: 45/50"

Equipment Requirements: 15 HP

"Effects - Weight: Your dexterity -15 points, but with each day you wear it, your Qi and dexterity will permanently increase, and the negative effects will gradually decrease. After wearing it for 180 days, the negative effects will be reduced to -5 points in dexterity."

"Effect - Stability: This belt is so heavy that it is difficult for you to be shaken by external forces and is immune to most kinetic energy effects."

"Comment: Someone once collected a complete set of five steel belts, steel arm guards, and steel leg guards. After years of relentless training, he removed them all in a crucial battle, making a name for himself."

There's not much to say about the Evil-Repelling Great Sword; it's a common third-tier rare weapon. Greatswords are basically only useful against monsters; they're ineffective against humanoid enemies. Yan Qing has no interest in using such a cumbersome weapon.

This steel belt is actually quite good; Yan Qing loves these kinds of tokens that can make you stronger without fighting. But he doesn't want to suffer too much, so he'll wear it for a day or two to try it out. If it doesn't work out, he'll just give it to Ye Sijiang as a perk.

These two sets of equipment also show that noble families are consciously increasing their attributes through tokens, rather than blindly accumulating combat power.

But it seems rather meager that these two elders of a prominent family possessed such meager tokens.

Yan Qing guessed that they would have a different set of better equipment when they went into the dungeon, since dungeons always need people to run them, but they wouldn't stay in the dungeon forever. Therefore, the really important token was probably for everyone to use and no one was allowed to take it away privately.

(End of this chapter)