Game’s Dogma

Chau Yu was still reminiscing about the fight just now when Moonless Night suddenly yelled, ‘How is this possible!’

Alarmed by the anxious cry, Chau Yu went over to where Mask died. Three pieces of epic equipment and an uncommon skill book lay on the ground.

‘How is this possible! Where are the skill books!’ Moonless Night almost went mad.

Their target was the five skills books, but that didn’t mean they didn’t care about epic equipment either. Originally, their plan was to return to the armoury and pick up their desired equipment after killing Mask’s squad. However, only four of them survived the bitter battle, two from each guild. Considering that each player could pick up five items, each guild could only haul ten items from the treasury; they could’ve picked up almost sixty items if their members hadn’t died!

Such a huge loss turned Moonless Night’s eyes bloodshot—it pained him just by thinking about it. Sixty pieces of epic equipment, just how much were they worth? Every single item was a gem when no one could clear the Level 30 John’s Laboratory (Hell) dungeon, greatly limiting the supply of Level 30 epic equipment. Yet all they got in return were two skill books?

Chau Yu silently knelt and picked up the skill book.

Moonless Night immediately flared up and roared, ‘What are you doing!’

‘Guild master Night, did you forget about our deal already? We, Empyreal Spire, are also qualified to receive a skill book. Now, Mask only dropped one skill book. Dark World already received one when he threw one to the ground, it’s only fair we get this one. One each, is it not fair?’

Moonless Night couldn’t refute his words. After all, what Chau Yu said was very reasonable, and getting mad would only embarrass himself even more. Still, such a great loss was hard to swallow.

‘Didn’t Mask pick up five skill books? How come there’s only two now?’

Chau Yu chuckled. Those who could laugh even after suffering such a great blow must be those who were shrewd yet broad-minded.

‘Did you see him pick up the skill books with your very eyes?’

Drako Yau’s vision turned hazy.

He thought he was dead.

The ‘no death penalty’ rule apparently applied to him as well. To be precise, he was forcefully teleported away when he was close to his limit, but not close enough to trigger his weird state.

I could likely kill all of them if I entered that weird state, he thought. However, the backlash would be devastating, and with Greenstone dead, no one could suppress it. He’d probably end up dead either way.

Thinking about it now was pointless; he was alive and that was what mattered the most.

All of a sudden, he could feel solid ground beneath his feet. Underworld and Drako Yau’s squad both appeared somewhere near Mount Soughslit. Though slightly dazed, they quickly recovered.

‘How’s your haul?’

The Underworld members were overjoyed; they clearly had quite the bountiful loot. With a bit of regret, they said, ‘Should’ve brought more of them over, we could only get five items each!’

Drako Yau laughed. ‘It’s nice that you’ve got some good loot, don’t ask for too much. Anyways, this isn’t the place for chit-chatting. Let’s head back.’

Everyone tore a Return-to-City Scroll and left.

Evergrand, guild base of Underworld.

Underworld’s guild base differed vastly from that of Howl of the Tempest Wolves. The latter’s base was wild and unruly, while the former had a mysterious and grand atmosphere to it. Mainly black with tints of gold, their base was decorated with statues of what seemed to be demon lords, yet they added a majestic tone instead of eeriness to the base.

They all entered the conference room in Underworld’s base. Those from Underworld all had excited looks; with Bloodless Bladester, Hades, Soulsmith, Everlastor, and Unceasable, the five of them picked up twenty-five pieces of epic equipment! Of course, they didn’t have the leisure to pick them out one by one and stuffed them into their item bags whenever they came across an epic item, swapping them for better ones if they came across one as they ventured.

Drako Yau exchanged glances with Windstrider, who nodded and took out three glowing skill books from his item bag.

Turning back time a little, back to when Zephyrwolf just died.

‘I’m rushing to the exit!’ Zephyrwolf said through the squad channel in a hurry, his voice somewhat rough. ‘Aha! Dodged that fella’s arrow! I’m at the exit! I—’

His last words were cut short. Drako Yau and the rest could vaguely see him drop to the ground from where they were.

‘Strider! Lurk! Pick up three skill books and run away, we’ll stall for time!’ Drako Yau ordered decisively.

Windstrider asked in hesitation, ‘Won’t it be dangerous for you guys…’

‘It’s a bit too late for that. If you lurk from the star, they’ll think there’s only four of us and forget about your existence. That’s our only chance at getting any skill books. With their numbers, we probably can’t escape.’

Windstrider nodded. Though hesitant, he knew it was the best option they had.

When Drako Yau appeared at the exit, no one saw Windstrider picking up the skill books together with him. He picked up two uncommon ones, while Windstrider got the other three and fled without turning back.

Two of the three skill books were rare, while the last one was epic.

The rare ones were:

‘Berserking Blessing: Grants two allies the ‘Berserk’ status. Increases Attack Speed by 50 per cent and Attack by 20 per cent for three minutes. All attributes will decrease by 20 per cent for three minutes after berserking.

Class-specific: Cleric.

Cooldown: 20 minutes.’

‘Cloak of the Golden Bell: Greatly increases one’s Defence. Level 1 increases Defence by 10 per cent, lasts for 10 minutes.

Non-class specific.

Cooldown: 15 minutes.’

The epic skill book read:

‘Dual-Wielding Rifle Mastery: Switches to dual-wielding automatically when equipping rifles. Increases dual-wield Attack by 1 per cent.’

The short description didn’t even mention the differences of dual-wielding. While Dual-Wield Mastery was an epic skill, it was a massive gamble. Who knew what dual-wielding meant? What if it was weaker?

Once a skill was learnt through a skill book, it couldn’t be removed even through resetting skill points. As such, everyone made careful considerations before learning such a skill.

The two rare skill books were exceptional, though Berserking Blessing had the edge over Cloak of the Golden Bell as it granted a squad buff instead of a solo buff.

They all turned silent and looked at Mask, who now took off his iconic mask and seemed no more than an ordinary man. He picked up ‘Berserking Blessing’ and threw it towards Unceasable.

‘This one’s yours, the other two’s ours. Is that fine?’

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