Chapter 14: Defensive Psalms and Loose Gloves

Translator: Lonelytree

For Matthew, who had always been low-key and pragmatic, it seemed too early to say that he was a legend.

However, seeing the same rules as the game in his previous life appearing then still made him feel a little at ease.

Legend.

It referred to those who were above level 21, had mastered the power of the domain, and were famous. One had to have all three elements.

If an adventurer wanted to activate the Legendary Path, he would have to rely on three aspects: level, domain, and reputation.

Under normal circumstances.

Domain Elements were the hardest to master, followed by Levels, and Reputation was the easiest.

Especially for those who were good at fraud and self-promotion, obtaining a reputation was very simple.

Therefore, Matthew did not have much hope of entering the legendary path early.

“Meeting Blake here saves me a lot of trouble. Otherwise, I would have to send Sif to the liege’s manor myself.”

Matthew was very relieved to leave Sif with Blake.

This bearded man was not only a reliable captain of the garrison, but he was also Sif’s cousin by blood.

What was even rarer was that…

Blake had actually taken the initiative to offer to keep his power a secret for him.

“I wonder how he will tell the others and report to his uncle, the Suki Family Lord…”

The return journey was very brisk.

After a while.

The crude walls at the edge of Rolling Stone Town could be seen vaguely.

Matthew waved at the bone dragon behind him.

“Let’s go back!”

Phily’s was from a negative energy plane. Although they had signed a contract, Matthew still needed a lot of mana to summon him to the prime material plane.

With his mere Level-8 mana, it was already very difficult for him to hold on until now.

If it wasn’t for Matthew’s intention to test out his limit, he might have sent it back a long time ago.

“Phily…”

The Bone Dragon Soul Flame swayed, revealing an obvious reluctance.

“Go, you did great tonight. Keep up this performance, and you might get a reward in the future!”

Matthew skillfully consoled the creature.

[Thanks to your encouragement, the loyalty of Phily (Bone Dragon) has increased to 93!]」

The gray Reverse Summoning Array lit up.

Phily shook its tail, and its huge body suddenly disappeared, leaving behind only a few pieces of bone powder on the ground.

Matthew smiled.

“This bone dragon is much more useful than I thought!”

However, in the next second.

[Necromancy Contract: The official summoning has ended. Your summoned creature, Phily, has gone all out for tonight’s battle. However, during this period, it consumed a large amount of energy, which affected its survival in the negative energy plane.

[Phily requests the reward for this summoning: 5 Soul Crystals. Do you want to pay?]

[Option 1: Pay at the original price (Phily’s loyalty will increase, and it will be willing to share an ability exclusive to it with you)]

[Option 2: Bargaining (Phily’s loyalty remains unchanged, but it may not be so obedient the next time it is summoned.]

[Option 3: Refuse to pay (Phily’s Loyalty drops)]

” Five Soul Crystals?!”

Matthew revealed a look of disbelief.

“Peggy’s salary for two months is only one Soul Crystal. Can the bone dragon be worth 300 days of Peggy’s service in one night?”

His heart began to twitch!

Soul Crystals.

It was a derivative produced by necromancers during meditation.

This thing was extremely precious.

For high-level undead creatures, Soul Crystals were necessary for their advancement. Many intelligent undead creatures were willing to sign contracts with necromancers because they wanted a stable way to obtain Soul Crystals.

Peggy was an example.

In addition.

Soul Crystals were also essential for crafting magic items, casting Forbidden Necromancy Spells, and setting up undying rituals.

It could be said to have a wide range of uses

However, necromancers were not very efficient at producing Soul Crystals.

Take Matthew as an example.

Even if he meditated for six hours every day, he could only obtain three to five Soul Crystals a month.

For two and a half years, Matthew had only accumulated more than 20 Soul Crystals!

This was not because he had slacked off in meditation.

It was just that the exhaustion was indeed not small.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t be thinking about how to pay Peggy lesser every day…

“I didn’t expect to meet a cute scammer.”

Matthew shook his head in his heart.

This bone dragon could no longer be summoned in the future.

He couldn’t afford it.

He hesitated.

Matthew still chose to ” pay the original price.” There was no other way. Phily was now his trump card. Loyalty was hard to come by, and he was not willing to lose a lot for a little.

[Undead Contract: You have paid 5 Soul Crystals!]

Phily is extremely grateful. His loyalty towards you has increased to 96!

Phily has shared its ability, ‘Blind Sense’!

[Blind Sense (weakened): You can perceive your surroundings without using your normal sight, hearing, smell, and other visual organs. Any small fluctuation will be difficult to escape your perception.]

You can use this ability to detect invisible units and hidden creatures (except spirits).

[Range: 30 feet]

This ability was surprisingly good.

It was perfect for detecting invisible units!

Matthew’s heartache was slightly alleviated.

“I’ll just treat it as buying an ability with the five Soul Crystals!”

Later in the night.

At home.

Matthew, who had taken a short break, perked up again and began to take out the spoils of war from his Magical Bag.

The Evil Wizard’s camp actually had quite a lot of resources.

Unfortunately, the storage space of the Magical Bag was very limited. Bringing back so much was already the result of Matthew’s best efforts.

Most of the spoils of war came from looting Fein.

Compared to Heiss, the Arsonist, Fein did not have much money on him, only a hundred gold coins and a few silver coins. Perhaps most of his money had been spent on buying prisoners and supplies.

However, in terms of items, Fein was very rich!

[Defensive Psalm (Spell Book)]

[Description: When you hold this book, you can use it as a medium to support your spell casting. You can also use it as a charging support to guide your spell casting.]

[Casting medium: +20% casting speed, Protection Domain Spell Effect increased]

[Pre-charge: You can choose three spells from the following list to cast quickly every day. After all three spells are used up, it will take at least 24 hours to recharge.]

[Spell List: Mystic Lock; Spell Unlock; Rune of Guard; Protection from Good and Evil; Magic Emblem; Mordenkainen’s private chamber.

Matthew found the Defensive Psalm on Fein’s corpse. Fortunately, it was not destroyed by the skeletal dragon’s claws.

Gently wiping it, it glowed with a new luster.

The book was only the size of a palm and was bound in leather, reinforced with steel and silver. There was a steel lock on the side of the book, and it could only be opened with a key.

Unfortunately, Matthew did not find the key.

However, he was not discouraged. The steel lock that came with the Defensive Psalm was not a magic lock, which meant that there was no need to use a spell to open it. If that was the case, he could turn to thieves.

“I remember that there was a slightly famous locksmith in Baiyan City. Many people said that he was a retired high-level Thief.”

Matthew thought, “Unfortunately, I’ve never heard of anyone in Rolling Stone Town who’s good at picking locks.”

The Defensive Psalm was a very good magic tool, or rather, the defensive spells recorded in it were precious to Matthew… as long as he could find someone to unlock it.

It was the perfect replacement for his Staff.

[Blood Essence Bottle: When the bottle is filled with dark red Blood Essence, you can quickly recover your HP by drinking it.]

[Description: 1. Every 10 milliliters of Blood Essence can restore 5 – 6 HP.]

[2. You can slowly refine the Blood Essence Fluid by injecting blood into the bottle.]

[3. The ratio of blood (normal animal or human) to blood essence fluid is 10:1.]

[Current Blood Source Fluid: 125/150 (ml)]

It was shaped like an ink bottle the size of a baby’s fist, but it was filled with dark red liquid.

Matthew could feel a faint life force from it, and there was also a faint evil aura.

Its origins were probably related to the Blood Race.

Putting aside his prejudice, the Blood Essence Bottle was a small top-grade item.

A full bottle could recover 18 HP in a second, which meant that it could instantly restore an Intermediate Warrior from a near-death state to about half HP.

This was a treasure that could save a life at a critical moment!

Matthew solemnly placed it in the first compartment of his Magical Bag in case he needed it in the future.

As for the blood.

Just buy it!

It was normal for a necromancer to buy some blood for research, right?!

Among the remaining items, there was a charged staff that could release Arcane Missiles five times after charging.

There was an extremely precious ” Realm Heart Stone “. If it were sold in Baiyan City, the price would not be lower than 400 gold coins. This was the core material used to construct the inter-plane array.

There was also a one-handed axe with +1 enchantment that could greatly increase the efficiency of logging.

Finally, there was a magical glove.

“Loose Gloves (Level 2 Rare Item)

[Description: When you wear this glove and shake hands with the target, the target’s guard will be greatly reduced.]

[Remark: If you wear this glove for a long time, your wariness towards others will also be greatly reduced.]