Chapter 94: A Huge Boost in Strength

An autumn wind blew, scattering fallen leaves in chaotic swirls.

“Huh… Not a single one followed? Were they playing a joke on me? Ah, darn it, you can never guess what’s in a girl’s heart. No matter how much you try to figure it out, you’ll never get it right…”

Finding that the lovely Rogue women hadn’t followed him, Sun Fei stood stiffly amidst the whirling sand and swirling leaves for a moment. He thought the girls must have changed their minds about going on the long journey. Helplessly, he hummed a little tune to himself. He traversed the big and small streets of Lut Gholein and found NPC Fara in the inner city. She played the same role here as the big-breasted beauty Charsi did in the Rogue Encampment – that of a blacksmith. From her, one could purchase higher-level, more lethal weapons.

Sun Fei opened the trade dialog and started shopping.

Starting with armor.

The Arctic Fur piece he had gotten from monsters earlier had 48 defense. By now, it was a bit outdated. It couldn’t withstand the teeth and claws of higher-level monster demons. It was time to retire it.

He looked carefully and picked out a red insect-patterned plate armor with 95 defense. This Superior Plate Armor more than doubled the defense of the Arctic Fur. Unfortunately, its price was astonishingly high, costing Sun Fei a whole 20,000 Gold Coins.

Besides the plate armor, Sun Fei chose a Spartan-style, high-level helmet with a T-shaped nose guard. The helmet had a golden feather standing upright on top, looking incredibly stylish. The helmet had 13 defense and a special effect: +18% resistance to fire damage. He also bought a pair of Tireless Chain Heavy Boots of Tracking, a blue-grade piece offering +12 defense and a host of other special magical resistance effects: fire, lightning, and poison.

He had armor, a helmet, and heavy boots. All he was missing now was a pair of strong gloves to complete the set. Unfortunately, after searching for a while, Sun Fei found that NPC Fara didn’t sell any gloves he was really satisfied with.

After thinking for a moment, he came up with a solution. He’d buy the plain, base-level iron gloves available here. Later, he’d have the blacksmith Charsi in the Rogue Encampment add Magic enchantments to them. He hadn’t used the Magic reward he got after finishing the Magic Hammer quest yet. That way, he could obtain a pair of high-performance gauntlets.

Next came replacing his weapons.

Sun Fei chose carefully. He replaced his Barbarian’s giant two-handed axe. He picked two broadswords of the same length but different colors – one purple and one cyan. They were called the Soul Slaughter Double-Edged Broadsword and the Soul Serration Crystal Sword. Each weapon’s one-handed damage was between 8-25. Even compared to the exaggerated two-handed damage of his original axe, they were stronger. Both were blue-grade items with special properties boosting all four resistances, attack accuracy, and other magical effects. The two swords cost him 19,000 Gold Coins. Since his Barbarian Character had now learned the Double Swing skill, he could wield two swords simultaneously. Not only was the skill effect incredibly cool, but his attack power was also more than doubled.

These two swords were his primary weapons prepared specifically for his Barbarian role.

For his secondary weapons, he removed and sold the old Storm Piercer Short Sword and the Soul Emblem Small Round Shield. He chose a Super Light Steel Shield that looked strikingly similar to a Paladin’s cross insignia. It offered 22 defense, came with the special effect of +3 to all resistances, and had two sockets. He also picked a short-handled axe called the Blood Split Double-Edged Axe. Its one-handed damage was 7-20. It had added fire damage, +2 to maximum damage, +41% enhanced damage, and +32 attack rating.

Now, with a shield in his left hand and an axe in his right, his secondary weapons boosted his attack power by about double compared to before. The effectiveness of this new gear was simply staggering.

Finally, Sun Fei spent 3,000 Gold Coins on a large, triple-layer belt with sixteen slots. This made transporting items from the real world into the World of Diablo much more convenient.

This shopping spree cost him nearly 60,000 Gold Coins. However, because he sold his old gear, recovering some cost, he still had 35,000 Gold Coins left. He was still a little wealthy man.

Sadly, NPCs rarely sold small items like rings or amulets here, so Sun Fei had to give up on that idea. He currently wore two rings and one amulet. Unfortunately, their special effects were mostly adding light radius and attack accuracy – not very useful – but still better than nothing.

During this time, Sun Fei finally confirmed one thing:

The NPCs in Lut Gholein possessed no intelligence of their own. If the inhabitants of the Rogue Encampment had made him feel like he was in a living world, this desert jewel presented the complete opposite impression; it was like a purely single-player Diablo game. Every NPC’s dialogue, tone, everything was identical to the computer game he remembered from his previous life. Apart from their set lines, their expressions were wooden, their faces blank. They couldn’t answer anything else, like robots pre-programmed with very limited routines.

“Why is it like this?”

No wonder Lut Gholein felt so lifeless, like a city of the dead. The real reason lay here. But Sun Fei couldn’t figure out the specific reason behind this phenomenon. In the end, he decided to put the mystery aside for now and just watch how things unfolded.

…

Equipping the brand-new gear, Sun Fei instantly felt a surge of immense power radiating through every pore. His defense and attack power had more than doubled due to these gear bonuses. The armor set was astonishingly effective, achieving a perfect blend of aesthetics and practicality.

It made him involuntarily recall the various mystical constellation Cloths from the super classic Japanese anime Saint Seiya of his past life. Thinking of this, he focused his will. First, he made the armor on his body invisible. Then, he shouted, “Zhuang Bi Constellation Cloth, descend!” Following that, he controlled the armor to manifest piece by piece. The process was exactly like the scene in the anime where the Bronze Saints summoned their Cloths. Beams of light shot out from the armor. The scene was undeniably cool. It satisfied Sun Fei, a Saint fan, greatly fulfilling his playful wish.

He thrust his hands into the empty air. A cyan and a purple beam of light flashed. Two terrifying greatswords suddenly appeared in Sun Fei’s grasp. This imparted an almost ethereal, immortal-like aura to him, reminiscent of a graceful Sword Immortal.

“Ha! These two treasured swords, from now on, shall be called the Purple and Green Twin Swords!”

Fully armed and wielding the Purple and Green Twin Swords, Sun Fei whirled out of Lut Gholein’s city gates like a tornado. He unleashed carnage upon the wilderness. Monsters that had previously taken three or four axe swings to kill now fell instantly to a single thrust. The Double Swing skill churned into a Blade Storm. Wherever it passed left a trail of death – every ten steps an enemy fell, journeying a thousand miles without halt.

“With the Barbarian Character’s current power, even if I faced a true Four-Star Expert head-on now, I’d stand a good chance.”

After ten-plus minutes of monster slaying, Sun Fei fully understood his true current strength.

Having done all this, he didn’t delay further. He returned directly to the city and found the “Eternal Mob Character” Warriv dressed in blue. He chose the Travel West option. In a flash of azure light, Sun Fei returned to the Rogue Encampment.

…

“Lord Sun Fei! You didn’t keep your promise!”

“My Lord, we just want to see the sights of a big city! We absolutely won’t cause you any trouble! Please just take us there this once!”

“My Lord, you can’t be this biased! You already took Sister Ileena there once! Why won’t you take us? Whatever Sister Ileena can do for you, we can do it too!”

Rogue Encampment.

Outside Warriv’s tent, at the exact spot where Sun Fei and the “Eternal Mob Character” Warriv had vanished about half an hour ago, the youthful, beautiful Rogue women saw the two return. Instantly excited, they crowded around, chattering like noisy birds.

Ileena, beautiful and serene like a lotus, had appeared at some point, unnoticed amidst the chaos.

She gently parted the sisters surrounding Sun Fei. Looking at a slightly bewildered Sun Fei, she hesitated for a moment before speaking softly, “My Lord, if it’s convenient… please take the sisters to see it. They grew up here, facing countless demons, a gloomy sky, and the dark wildlands every day. They yearn to see the prosperity of a large city…”

“Stop!”

Sun Fei cut everyone off. He looked at this group of thorny roses with utter bewilderment. “So… you girls weren’t choosing to stay behind just now?”

“Choosing to stay behind?” The girls were dumbfounded. “Why would we choose to stay behind? Clearly, my Lord, it was you who didn’t want to take us and slipped away alone!”

Huh? It was like that?

Sun Fei was confused. After a moment’s thought, he said, “That’s weird… Alright, let’s try one more time… Maybe we just weren’t synced properly last time. Everyone hold hands, don’t let go, close your eyes.”

The girls complied.

A low hum sounded, followed by a flash of azure light.

Sun Fei vanished from the spot. Gone with him was Ileena. The other Rogue women, however, remained standing exactly where they were, exchanging bewildered looks once again.

Hummm.

Sun Fei reappeared very quickly.

“What in the world? I can only take Ileena alone?” Sun Fei was stunned too. This didn’t make sense. If others couldn’t pass over, then nobody should be able to pass. Why was Ileena, also a Rogue, able to pass over, but the other girls couldn’t?

The entire group stood there, staring at each other in silence.