Chapter 65: Reaching Level 3
The grand plan of fighting three hundred Frankish knights had to be abandoned by Asker because the girls were all saturated with supernatural power.
The girls were initially happy, after all, absorbing so much supernatural power could raise their physical qualities to a higher level.
However, back in Furnace Island, after listening to Asker’s “Supernatural Power Rapid Consumption Plan,” everyone’s faces turned pale.
To summarize, everyone would fight without armor, and Asker would beat them all up with a wooden sword wrapped in cotton cloth.
“Why would I be beating you up?” Asker said incredulously. “I’ll say it again, you’re the ones who are going to attack me and try to take me down.”
“What’s the difference between that and you beating us up?!” The girls cried out in unison, “Unless you swear not to fight back!”
“It’s impossible for me not to fight back.” Asker said, “On the battlefield, can you really expect the enemy not to fight back?”
“Now your levels are at least level 1, and a wooden sword can’t kill anyone. Actual combat is the fastest way to digest supernatural power. Besides, Nuo is also here, she can heal you.”
“A wooden sword hurts when it hits you!” Nuo wailed.
“It’s supposed to hurt.” Asker said, “Did you know that physical pain accelerates the transformation of supernatural power.”
“Then why don’t you let us beat you up?” Sidlipha spoke up.
“Okay, come on, come on.” Asker waved his sword. “I’m begging to be beaten up.”
Sidlipha’s eyes twitched and she stood there without moving.
“Sidlipha, don’t you always like fighting?” Asker said strangely. “Why are you acting differently this time?”
“I like to chop people, not be chopped!” Sidlipha shouted. “Every time I spar with you, I end up being knocked down by you, curled up like a shrimp!”
“Maybe you can turn the tables this time.” Asker said, “Didn’t you absorb a lot of supernatural power?”
Sidlipha hesitated, but she quickly remembered the miserable scene of being stabbed in the left shoulder and slashed in the right waist by Asker after taking her first potion, Strength X, and immediately started shaking her head frantically.
“Then forget it.” Asker dropped his sword in disappointment. “Then you can find someone to spar with each other.”
So the girls cheered and started looking for sparring partners.
Eleanor sparred with Sidlipha, one focused on attacking, the other on defending, having a great time.
Mia competed with Peggy, two agile melee fighters circling and attacking each other, their figures moving so fast that it made people dizzy.
Nuo and Medea, holding wooden swords, clumsily attacked and defended each other, making Asker think of a phrase:
Two chickens pecking at each other.
Teleporting out of Furnace Island, Asker returned to the roof and saw Miel still in a prone position, silently shooting at the distance.
“How’s it going?” Asker came to her side and asked.
“Locked down.” Miel replied.
“Locked down?” Asker was a little surprised. He understood what Miel meant, she had single-handedly blocked the Galata Bridge with just a sniper rifle.
“At first, I shot and killed more than a dozen knights.” Miel explained. “Then they tried to advance with shields, but shields couldn’t withstand my sniper rifle. So they tried a group charge.”
“The Galata Bridge is 500 meters long, and it takes them enough time to run from one end to the other for me to fire more than 60 shots. In the end, they couldn’t bear such losses, so they didn’t dare to send anyone onto the bridge again.”
“Didn’t they try to break through by driving?” Asker asked.
“I would shoot the fuel tank.” Miel replied.
“You can hit the fuel tank of a speeding car?” Asker was a little surprised.
“Shoot a few more times.” Miel replied. “On average, I can hit it once every 5-6 shots.”
“Hmm, good job.” Asker praised her.
In this world without players, Miel being able to hold back the Frankish knights across the Golden Horn for so long had already achieved his original strategic goal.
“We should go.”
“Aren’t we going to continue blocking the bridge?” Miel was a little surprised. “I can still hold on.”
“You’re out of bullets, right?” Asker said.
Miel was stunned, she removed the magazine and found that there were only three bullets left.
“Always remember your ammo capacity.” Asker said earnestly. “Besides, you can’t keep shooting like this forever.”
“The Frankish knights who have already crossed the bridge and entered the main city must have learned from the rear that there is a sniper blocking the bridge. Now they are searching the mountain. If you continue shooting, you will only expose your position earlier.”
“Impossible.” Miel said, “I haven’t let any messenger cross the bridge.”
“Do you know that there is a communication tool called a mobile phone in this world?” Asker said.
Miel was stunned again, then sullenly fell silent.
“You go back to Furnace Island and rest first.” Asker said.
After sending Miel back to Furnace Island, Asker went downstairs and left. As expected, he found more Frankish knights along the way, who seemed to be deliberately searching high-rise buildings and blocking roads.
However, for Asker, who had extremely rich experience in stealth, this kind of blockade was simply ridiculous.
He quickly went down the mountain from another direction and walked towards the 11th District.
Near the Church of St. Polyeuctus, he encountered a blockade set up by the city defenders.
After a rough but thorough inspection, Asker was finally identified and allowed to pass.
It was already 9 pm when he returned to his ancestral home.
…
Empress Theodora was placed under house arrest by Empress Zoe!
At 10 am the next day, after the Frankish knights’ attack on the main city was repelled and all the knights retreated to the other side of the Golden Horn, this explosive news suddenly spread among the defenders.
There were several versions of the detailed content in the rumors.
The first version was that the Frankish knights’ invasion was instigated by Theodora. She insisted on seeking help from the West despite Empress Zoe’s objections, which resulted in letting the wolf into the house.
The nobles and bureaucrats who suffered losses in this war launched an angry inquiry at the national council meeting in the Golden Throne Palace and found that there was only Theodora’s seal on the agreement signed with the Venetians, but not Empress Zoe’s.
This was enough to show that the two had different political stances. And the Venetians’ betrayal meant that the route of seeking help from the West was cut off, also marking the end of Theodora’s political life.
The second version was that Theodora, in order to obtain aid from the Western Church, had privately promised to revise the classics according to the Church’s wishes, which greatly displeased the current Ecumenical Patriarch Alexius. Therefore, the Orthodox Church turned a blind eye to the decision to depose the Empress at the national council meeting.
The third version was the official one, which stated that Empress Theodora, deeply regretting and apologizing for her wrong decision to the Empire and the people, voluntarily abdicated and would spend the rest of her life in a monastery.
All her supreme imperial powers were transferred to her elder sister, Empress Zoe, upon abdication.
So Empress Zoe became the sole Empress of the Empire.
Although coups and military coups were commonplace in the Eastern Solomon Empire, this blatant framing still caused dissatisfaction among the people of the capital.
What did it mean that only Theodora’s seal was on the agreement? Would the bureaucrats below dare to negotiate an agreement with the Venetians without Empress Zoe’s nod?
The matter of revising the classics did cause dissatisfaction among many Orthodox believers. However, without the Orthodox Church speaking out, no matter how exaggerated the rumors were, they were just hearsay. So the media began to engage in a war of words.
But Asker didn’t plan to deal with this for now. His second Sharp Weapon I potion had been fully digested, and he needed to take the third potion, Dodge I.
Dodge I, as its name suggested, was to let the user master the ability to dodge. From large movements like sidesteps, jumps, rolls, and slides, to small movements like tilting the head, turning the body, or leaning back, all fell within the scope of this potion.
He took the potion from the cabinet. Dodge I was completely clear and transparent, like extremely clean water, lying quietly in the bottle.
If it weren’t for the label on the outside, a normal person would easily mistake it for ordinary water.
Of course, with spirituality, one could tell it was a potion at a glance.
Asker opened the bottle and drank all the potion in one gulp, only to feel his strength instantly drained.
He slumped to the ground weakly, feeling it difficult to even breathe. Dodge I began to conflict with his existing Sharp Weapon I and Perfect Physique I. All the muscles in his body began to atrophy rapidly, and in a short while, he became like a dried corpse.
In the next ten minutes or so, it felt like countless saws and axes were cutting his bones, but he was so weak at this time that he couldn’t even let out a groan of pain.
It was not until the physical conflict gradually subsided that Asker slowly sat up, his muscles gradually swelling and filling up again.
“Phew…” His body finally returned to its original state, Asker let out a long breath. Recalling the feeling of conflict just now, he couldn’t help but frown.
Different bloodlines contained different potion sequence combinations.
Generally, a bloodline would contain at least three potion sequences, such as Nuo’s “Singer of Life,” which only had the three sequences of “Life,” “Spirit,” and “Mind.”
Bloodline paths containing 3 or 4 potion sequences were called “Focused Bloodlines.” Because they had fewer different sequences, the risk of losing control was also lower.
At the same time, the Sequence of the potions taken would also be higher.
For example, at level 10, Nuo would possess both the abilities of Life IV and Spirit IV, which meant that she would become a senior expert in manipulating living beings and spirits. No Transcendental of the same level could be her opponent in this regard.
If there were 5 or more potion sequences, then it was the so-called “Dangerous Bloodline.” The danger here referred not only to the higher risk of the user losing control, but also to the enemies of these Transcendents.
Because the more sequences you had, the more abilities you had, and the more likely you were to use various strange and unpredictable tactics.
Especially at the bottom of the supernatural world, where “below demigod, all are mortal flesh,” many times battles were not about who had stronger abilities, but about who had stranger abilities.
After all, even an ordinary person with a sniper rifle could kill any Transcendental below demigod level, so why would they need higher-level destructive abilities?
No matter how strong your destructive ability was, could it be stronger than a nuclear bomb?
On the other hand, if you possessed abilities like illusions or invisibility, it would be very easy to assassinate a Transcendental – as long as the target wasn’t a demigod.
The “Weapon Master” bloodline was one of the most dangerous bloodlines, containing a total of eight sequences: Sharp Weapon, Blunt Weapon, Projectile, Block, Dodge, Tactics, Intuition, and Perfect Physique.
Just digesting the third sequence, Asker’s spirituality was already showing signs of being unable to support it. He really didn’t know what to do with the subsequent potion sequences.
The “Iron and Fire” game had a cash shop. If a character lost control while taking a potion, RMB* warriors could spend money to eliminate the loss of control.
There were no RMB warriors in this world. Once you lost control, you would definitely die.
He could only take it one step at a time.
Asker stood up and began to digest the dodging knowledge from the characteristic.
From the Dodge I potion, he gained the ability to precisely control distance and time.
If there was an enemy in front of him, wielding a weapon and slashing or stabbing at him, he could immediately and naturally calculate in advance how far away the enemy’s weapon was from him, when he should dodge, and how to dodge the attack with the least movement.
Compared to dodging based on experience before, from now on, Asker could dodge enemy attacks based on instinct, even if his mind was blank.
The only fly in the ointment was that during the process of advancing to level 3, the Dodge I potion had replenished him with a large amount of supernatural power.
His spirituality was saturated again.
***
(RMB being the abbreviation for Renminbi, the official currency of China) on in-game purchases to gain a substantial advantage over other players. These advantages could include powerful items, high-level characters, or other boosts that would normally take considerable time and effort to acquire through gameplay.
Like “pay-to-win” (P2W)
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