The next item I checked was the indigo cloak. Its stats screen appeared as a hologram , illuminating the pitch black of the tower.

Daphne’s Cloak (Heaven-grade, Outstanding★★★★★)

Defense: 985

Magic Resist: 850

Agility: +275

Stamina: +250

Strength: +235

Passive: Increases user's ranged attack power by 40%

Passive: Increases damage of user’s Spiraling Arrow Blade by 50%

Slots: 8

Outstanding Property: Daphne’s Grasp. Upon activation, the user becomes invisible for 30 minutes.

Level Requirement: 160

Class Requirement: Archer

……

My eyes were practically glued to the stats screen. What an incredible leather armor cloak! Not only did it have a melodious and elegant name, its stats were crazy good, and its passives boosted the attack power of ranged attacks by 40%, and Spiraling Arrow Blade by 50%! Any archer who got their hands on this cloak would transform into a god of killing that not even I or Lin Yixin might be able to withstand!

Thud!

I immediately pulled the cloak closer and stared into Lin Yixin’s beautiful eyes, begging, "Give me this cloak, and I’ll listen to any request you have, Yiyi!"

Lin Yixin stared at me disdainfully. "Bastard, you just want Beiming Xue to become the first archer to get a top-tier Heaven-grade cloak! Hmph! This is too much!"

I hurriedly hugged her shoulders and said persuasively, "When Beiming Xue traveled all the way to Bloody Mercenaries workshop alone, I already swore to treat her like my younger sister. That’s why I want to give her this Daphne’s Cloak…"

"Younger sister, you say?" Lin Yixin tilted her head like a ghost from a horror movie. "You sure that’s the extent of your relationship?"

I turned pale. "Of… of course! What are you even thinking?"

"Ceh!"

Lin Yixin punched me once in the arm before replying, "Alright. Starting now, I’m the one who decides which item goes to who, you hear me? All of them… Dammit, Qingqing is my dearest sister, and I’ve never gifted her an item that’s as good as this cloak. How are you going to repay me for this failure, huh!?"

"I get it, I get it already. Now let’s check out the last item and head to the eighth floor, okay?"

"Mn!"

The last equipment was a necklace and an obvious treasure. Its pendant was a broken red sword, and its design was cool and murderous. It was exactly the kind of an accessory a militant like me loved—

Necklace of the War God’s Broken Blade (Immortal-grade, Outstanding★★★★★★)

Strength: +750

Stamina: +800

Agility: +720

Tactics: +99

Passive: Increase user’s physical attack power by 50%

Passive: Increases user’s Defense and Magic Resist by 50%

Outstanding Property: Broken Blade Attack. When attacking a target, there is a 7% chance to stun them for 7 seconds.

Slots: 12

Introduction: During the ancient times, a terrible war broke out between the gods and devils. Countless gods died in the battle, and one of them was the Golden War God himself. Fragments of his broken sword fell to the human realm and were picked up by a divine smith. After applying a mysterious divine metal to the fragments, he reforged them into the Necklace of the War God’s Broken Blade. A tremendous amount of divine energy is contained within the pendant, and the necklace became the dream treasure of countless adventurers.

Level Requirement: 160

Class Requirement: Warrior, Wanderer, Magic Knight

Reputation Requirement: 300000

……

"Holy shit, what an amazing necklace…" I muttered while wiping away my saliva.

If Heaven-grade equipment was considered top-class, then Immortal-grade equipment was beyond even that. The stats alone showed that the Necklace of the War God’s Broken Blade was three times higher than that of a Heaven-grade equivalent, meaning that the total power of two or even just one Immortal-grade item was easily equal to almost a whole set of Heaven-grade equipment. The further the game progressed, the more important extraordinary equipment like this would become.

This time, I passed the Necklace of the War God’s Broken Blade into Lin Yixin’s hand without hesitation and said, "Here, this is yours…"

But Lin Yixin laughed playfully and teased me, "Please, you would eat me if I took this necklace from you…"

"Of course not…" I blushed. "If I wanted to eat you, it would not be because of a necklace…"

"What are you talking about?" It was Lin Yixin’s turn to blush as she passed me the Necklace of the War God’s Broken Blade. "Take it. I already have the Devil Bell, so I don’t mind Immortal-grade equipment at all. Plus, I don’t yet have the level or reputation to equip it. I would look down on myself if I hoarded equipment I can’t even use like some miser."

"Alright…"

I smiled brightly. "Stop being so generous, we’re all family here. If you keep acting like this I’m going to start feeling embarrassed…"

Lin Yixin replied, "If that’s true, then why can’t sense a shred of shame in you, you shameless bastard…"

……

I laughed and switched out the Soul Suppressing Necklace for the Necklace of the War God’s Broken Blade. To be honest, the Soul Suppressing Necklace was an amazing item with an active that gave me 100% critical hit chance for 60 seconds. It was an item that I was going to miss for sure. On the other hand, the Necklace of the War God’s Broken Blade gave me a 7% chance to stun an enemy for 7 seconds, and utility-wise it wasn’t inferior to the Soul Suppressing Necklace in the slightest. I had been missing something like this ever since I took off the Paralysis Ring, and now my dream had finally come true!

I could feel my displayed and hidden stats improving visibly after I equipped the Necklace of the War God’s Broken Blade. Immortal-grade equipment was amazing enough, but a 6-star Outstanding one could only be better. My 54 points of Luck weren’t just for show. When it works, it works like a miracle.

A warm stream of energy flowed out from my neck area and spread throughout my whole body. All my stats experienced a drastic increase—

ID: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand (Title: Purgatory Title)

Class: Undead Swordsman (Great Earth Swordsman)

Level: 162

HP: 111290

Attack: 4410~5270

Defense: 6415

Magic Resist: 5610

Reputation: 328900

Tactics: 586

Luck: 54

……

My max HP had jumped over 110k, and my upper limit ofAttack soared over 5k. If I factored in the boosts from my equipment that the number was even crazier. I roughly estimated that my equipment boosted my Attack by 210%. 65% from the Cyan Netherworld Sword, 45% from my mount, 50% from the Necklace of War God’s Broken Blade, 25% from the Battle Flame Wristguards and 25% from the Silver Dragon Ring. Add Martial God to the mix, and that is a total boost of 410%. 5270 Attack times 5.1 equals 26877 effective Attack, so it makes perfect sense why not even a boss could tank my damage. In a MMORPG like this, attack power was a culmination of equipment, skill, stats and more!

Also, my Tactics stat was a crazy 586 right now. It was way beyond the necessary amount to cap my Famous General Skill.

I complained as I stared at my stats screen, "Sigh, why would I even need 586 Tactics? What a waste…"

However, Lin Yixin stared at me and asked, "Wait, you don’t know?"

"Whatever do you mean, dear?"

"Stupid…" Lin Yixin curled her lips and explained as she pulled me toward the teleportation formation, "Divine General Skills are the ascended version of Famous General Skills, so your Tactics affects it as well. A Divine General Skill’s attack power is split half-half between your true Attack and your Tactics, meaning that the higher your Tactics stat is, the more powerful your Divine General Skill becomes. This is why your Ancient Seal does more damage than Candlelight Shadow’s Outer Flame. It’s because his build leans too deep into Attack and not enough Tactics. Therefore, you should always try to raise both your Attack and Tactics when you improve your equipment."

"Oh, I see…"

Before I knew it, we had one foot inside the teleportation formation already. Lin Yixin smiled at me and said, "See you on the eighth floor, Little Cheat! You’d better come find me!"

"Mn!"

……

Swhoosh!

When my vision brightened again, I was already on the eighth floor of Nine Tigers Soul Suppressing Tower. Not far away, I saw a bunch of Dark Prisoners roaming the area. The dread-rank mobs were now Level 192.

I opened the map and noted that I was teleported to the south of the boss, and Lin Yixin to the north. Fuck, it’s going to be a while before we meet up again!

Beep!

Lin Yixin sent me a message that said: "Looks like we’re pretty far apart from each other this time. Let’s meet up at the area on the left side of the boss. With luck, we’ll be together again in a little over an hour. Be careful, these dread-rank mobs seem pretty powerful, and our bard buffs have expired. With our current Defense, we can only fight 2 to 3 Dark Prisoners at a time."

"Mn, I know. You should be careful too, Yiyi. The mobs aren’t the only enemies here; remember to keep an eye out for those players who got teleported to the eighth floor earlier, okay?"

"Got it!"

……

Looks like we would have to fight for ourselves this time. After tidying my bag for a bit, I summoned the Phantom Wolf King and my apparition and continued the battle!

While I was fighting, I listened in on the others speaking in the guild channel—

Xu Yang: "What the fuck, it’s so fucking chaotic around here! Candle Dragon was holding the fifth floor boss until Warsky Alliance showed up and scattered them. Then Hero Alliance snatched it from them, and then a Korean alliance backstabbed Hero Alliance and scattered them instead. I bet Vienna’s Sorrow is about to die from anger any moment!"

Li Chengfeng: "Hahaha, I was watching the show myself. Anyway, don’t forget to rush the boss when its HP drops below 20%. Chaos Moon and High Fighting Spirits, lead the attack on the boss and leave Candlelight Shadow and Vienna’s Sorrow to me. Fuck, if only the vice leader was here. He could’ve 1v2’d Candlelight Shadow and Vienna’s Sorrow and saved me so much trouble…"

He Yi: "Don’t get careless, Chengfeng!"

Gui Guzi: "Yeah! I know you’re a Divine General, but you absolutely mustn’t underestimate Vienna’s Sorrow and Candlelight Shadow, Li! Vienna’s Sorrow’s Ice Stream Blade could deal tens of thousands of damage to me in one hit!"

Li Chengfeng: "Are you guys joking? Of course I’m not going to underestimate them; both those fuckers have the stats to match their skills. When I say leave them to me, I really mean trying not to die and buying as much time as I can… heal me please, sisters!"

Beiming Xue: "Everyone, I see a small group of Hall of Immortality players behind us. Can you kill or stall them for as long as possible, Chaos Moon? The boss's HP is only 27% now!"

Chaos Moon: "My god, three minutes ago guild leader Eve asked me to stop Candlelight Shadow, two minutes ago Gui Guzi asked me to kill Wind Slayer, one minute ago someone asked me to fuck Vienna up and now I have to fight Hall of Immortality all by myself? I’m not Nezha, people! I don’t have three heads and six arms!"

Murong Mingyue: "There, there. Now go!"

Chaos Moon: "Go where?"

Murong Mingyue: "Go finish all your tasks, duh!"

Chaos Moon whined. "Lu Chen you bastard, get back to us already! This was your job, not mine!"

……

On the eighth floor, I laughed heartlessly as I continued fighting the Dark Prisoners. It felt so nice to be far, far away from my responsibilities, if only for a moment!