Xinran’s pitch-black hair was glowing under the moonlight. She was staring at me wordlessly and emotionlessly while holding a bright spear. A long time ago, she had black eyes that looked like black jewels. But now, it was dyed completely blood-red in color.

Ding~!

System Notice: Your SSS Rank quest [Promise] has entered the next stage. Xinran has awakened from her hibernation, and 10% of her soul has been resurrected!

……

What? Soul resurrection?!

I stared wide-eyed at the beautiful girl in front of me, but her former innocence had been replaced by a kind of killing intent and pressure that only an elite undead creature could have.

Xinran stared back at me expressionlessly before saying, “Let’s kill him. Quickly!”

Although this Xinran clearly wasn’t the beautiful girl in my memories, we currently shared the same goal. I didn’t know why she wanted to kill this Purgatory Devil Sovereign, but I was going to kill him and loot his body anyway. One way or another, I was going to get the Devil Suppressing Sword and complete my quest!

……

“Hah!”

I activated Wild Roar, and both Xinran and I had our Attack boosted by 15%. The beautiful girl stared darkly at Purgatory Devil Sovereign, and the giant stared right back at her. Suddenly, he asked in a loud voice, “Who are you? Why do you have the power of the Dark Domain?”

Instead of answering, Xinran simply thrust her spear forward like she was unleashing a crazed dragon!

“Hmph!”

Purgatory Devil Sovereign snorted coldly before crouching slightly and raising his sword horizontally in front of him. Holy shit, he is assuming a defensive stance!

Naturally, I wasn’t going to let him succeed. Considering how much HP this boss had, it would probably take me months to kill the sonuvabitch the proper way. The main DPS of this boss battle was without a doubt Xinran. Also, I suspected that NPC battles didn’t take Attack or Defense stats into account, so it was possible they could deal hundreds of thousands of damage in just one hit!

Reacting as quickly as lightning, I activated the one skill that could interrupt the boss in time—Charge!

Whoosh!

I hit the boss in the blink of an eye, and this time Purgatory Devil Sovereign was stunned properly. Then, I flicked my wrist and unleashed Crushing Blow!

Bang!

My blade destroyed the boss's defensive skill and dealt a massive amount of damage—3219!

But my damage was nothing compared to Xinran’s. Purgatory Devil Sovereign failed to guard because of me, so the tip of her spear reached the boss’s chest without resistance and stabbed right through!

Puchi!

Black blood flew everywhere as an insane number, 230489, appeared above the boss's head. He had lost two-thirds of his HP in just an instant! As of now, there was no player or NPC in the entire game who could deal this much damage! She was like a god who was surpassed by no one!

Furious, Purgatory Devil Sovereign summoned a rain of blades and shouted loudly, “I don’t care who you are, but I’m going to kill both you and that ant!”

Fuck! It’s an AoE attack!

Bang bang bang!

But Xinran blocked in front of me and took three hits in a row! Her HP instantly fell to less than 20%!

178434!

183948!

173446!

God damn, the battles between NPCs are just too scary!

Xinran smiled despite the savage expression on Purgatory Devil Sovereign’s face. “Hehe. He may be weak, but he is no ant. Die, you fallen devil!”

She abruptly raised her spear again and summoned lightning around it. The weapon instantly grew several times bigger before she stabbed Purgatory Devil Sovereign in the chest once more!

198042!

The deadly attack almost deleted all of the boss's HP. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to kill him, and his retaliatory strike turned out to be even stronger than her powerful skill! He swung his sword and struck Xinran squarely in the shoulder!

219843!

Xinran was powerful, but she had also only awakened recently. She let out a groan when her HP hit zero, and she stared at me with her blood-red eyes before she transformed into a ball of white light and returned to my pet space.

This was my last chance. It was either me or him!

I charged toward the boss in a straight line and swung my sword twice: Pardon + Desperate Gambit!

Crack!

MISS!

8904!

Fuck, I even got a critical hit?!

Even better, the attack was actually enough to end the Dark Gold Rank boss’s life. Once his gigantic body hit the ground with a loud thud, he exploded into a bunch of equipment drops and items, and to my pleasant surprise, my body was surrounded by a pillar of golden light twice in quick succession. I actually leveled up twice!

Very good, I had reclaimed the top spot in the Floating Ice City Heavenly Ranking. This is awesome!

I checked my pet space, but I couldn’t summon Xinran again. The credit for this kill was undoubtedly hers.

I bent downward to grab the items Purgatory Devil Sovereign had dropped. The first thing that caught my eye was a huge, bright sword. To no surprise, it was the legendary weapon I was looking for—

Devil Suppressing Sword (Earth Divine Armament)

Introduction: Quest item, stats are currently locked.

……

The sword was a quest item, so obviously I couldn’t use it for myself. I threw it into my bag and wondered what I would get after turning in the weapon.

I checked the rest of the loot but didn’t pick up any of the Phantasmal Magic Stones on the ground. One, they weren’t worth a lot of money. Two, I had a hundred stacks of Leaf of Eternity in my bag for Lin Yixin. I was sure that they were worth a lot more than the Phantasmal Magic Stones. Lin Yixin better pay good money for this, because I am NOT giving them away for free.

Besides the quest item, the boss also dropped shiny red legguards and a ghastly-looking magic scepter. I was sure that the loot was going to be incredibly awesome because one, they were the only two player-equippable items the Level 85 boss had dropped, and two, the game company would be flooded by spit if the loot of a Level 85 boss turned out to be Iron-grade.

I grabbed the legguards and felt a cool sensation assaulting my palm. Then, I waved my hand and brought up its stat screen. They were as incredible as I thought they might be.

Purgatory Legguards (Dark Gold–grade, Outstanding★)

Defense: 225

Magic Resist: 175

Stamina: +50

Strength: +48

Passive: Increases resistance to all types of magic by 9%

Passive: Increases user’s physical attack power by 3%

Outstanding: 4% chance to avoid an attack

Level Requirement: 75

……

Fuck! A Level 75 Dark Gold–grade equipment, and an Outstanding one no less?!

At first glance, a 4% chance to avoid an attack didn’t look very impressive, but in practice it was an incredible passive be it versus mobs or players. Just imagine if you were lucky enough to trigger the passive once or even twice during a battle! That might just tip the scales of the battle against your opponent. These days, everyone knew that success was a function of both personal strength and luck.

Besides that, these Purgatory Legguards also came with two incredibly powerful passives. The first passive boosted Magic Resist by 9%, the second increased physical attack power by 3%. Again, the numbers at first glance didn’t look very impressive, but they were exactly the kind of stats any melee-class would very much like to have. This would boost my survivability by a ton and my damage output slightly. It looked like I was getting closer and closer to my dream of being a fully decked out, divine warrior!

I replaced the Silver-grade Bone-shatter Legguards with these new legguards without hesitation. My stats immediately skyrocketed—

ID: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand

Class: Undead Swordsman (Silver Swordsman)

Level: 77

HP: 4350

Attack: 702~1205

Defense: 1050

Magic Resist: 875

Reputation: 45850

Luck: 3

……

Outstanding items were amazing! Although these legguards were only one-star Outstanding, they boosted my max HP to 4350, and my Defense to 1050. I was living the dream of jack of all trades, master of all, with high Defense, high HP and high Attack! I was so happy that I felt like basking in the joy of my new upgrade forever!

But I couldn’t. There was still one more item to check, and I could do my victory dance after I checked it out. The scepter was surrounded by spirits and dark, gray runes. It felt less like a scepter and more like a murder weapon that was coated in blood! I waved my hand again and brought up its stats screen. It was so impressive that I almost lost my breath.

Purgatory Scepter (Dark Gold–grade, Outstanding★★)

Magic Attack: 190~355

Intelligence: +52

Stamina: +42

Passive: Increases user’s Magic Attack by 12%

Passive: Increases Magic Shield’s durability by 40%

Outstanding: User gains the skill “Snowstorm”, a targeted AoE skill with large damage.

Level: 75

……

Holy shit! What is this scepter! Two-star Outstanding, ridiculous Magic Attack, unbelievable passives and even a new AoE skill?? Any mage who got their hands on this Purgatory Scepter could probably dominate the world with their eyes closed!

I swallowed. Thank goodness that I was the one who got this scepter, not my enemies. I couldn’t imagine how the normal players of Ancient Swords Dreaming Souls and Snowy Cathaya would fare if this scepter had fallen into the hands of someone like Dominating Mage God or Life of Luxury!

I was very, very delighted by the loot I had gotten from Purgatory Devil Sovereign. Although the Level 85 Dark Gold Rank boss only dropped two items, their value outstripped literally every equipment I knew of to date!

I quickly came to a decision. The Purgatory Legguards were mine to keep, and the Purgatory Scepter would be put up at the auction house. It was the first pot of gold our new workshop would earn, so I was going to maximize the profits even if it killed me!

Someone might wonder if it would be a better idea to leave this scepter in the hands of a close friend, but there were two problems. One, I didn’t have a close friend who was a mage. Two, it was too valuable an equipment to give away to anyone, and too precious a gift that no good friend in their right mind would accept!