Chapter 830 - 825: I Have Two Teammates
Bai Pu naturally knew the reason; it was the Red Race who employed tactics to enhance the world’s difficulty and prevent returning.
The Red Race’s intention was to eliminate Bai Pu in this world, but ultimately, they underestimated Bai Pu’s ability, resulting in their complete annihilation.
After the first stage of the main quest was settled, the second stage of the main quest arrived.
[Main Quest Two: Black Heaven Descent begins.]
[Quest Objective: Prevent the complete revival of the Great Dark Heaven, Ancestor of Demons and Monsters.]
[Quest Difficulty: ???]
[Quest Deadline: 10 days]
[Quest Rewards: Gaia Camp Military Merit +300~1000]
[Failure Penalty: Gaia Camp Military Merit -500; if merit is insufficient, your rank will be downgraded.]
[Warning: Items that ignore main quest requirements for returning cannot exempt the penalty of deducting Gaia Camp Military Merit.]
Bai Pu immediately noticed that his main quest two rewards and penalties were different, surprisingly providing Gaia Camp Military Merit!
Military Merit is a reward point only available to authentic Major Generals. After accumulating 10,000 merits, Bai Pu would qualify for "Two-star Major General" trials.
Initially, Bai Pu thought that only battles with Otherworld Travelers on the Spirit Realm battlefield would yield military merit, but unexpectedly, the second main quest in the Heart Demon World also provided merit.
Is it that main quests related to world secrets always provide military merit rewards?
Or does the Heart Demon World’s Great Dark Heaven have its special nature?
Bai Pu currently had zero military merit; if the second main quest fails, he would owe 500 merits.
The "warning" clearly stated that the Golden Return Scroll could exempt general main quest penalties but could not exempt the "deduction of merits" penalty.
Bai Pu quickly inquired: "If I fail, resulting in a deduction of 500 merits, will my One-star Major General status still remain?"
[The identity of Gaia Major General will only be stripped due to betrayal of the Gaia Camp.]
Bai Pu breathed a sigh of relief; the Major General status would not be stripped, which was good news.
However, another prompt appeared on the retina:
[With negative military merit, you will be unable to use the monthly ’Equivalent Exchange’ qualification until your merit point count exits the negative.]
Bai Pu breathed a sigh of relief.
He was now a One-star Major General with an exchange limit for resources of rarity 10, which was still quite restricted.
In the recent exchange, Bai Pu initially attempted to exchange for Golden Famous Relic equipment but was informed that world-unique equipment couldn’t be exchanged; then he tried for Dark Gold Equipment, but the list only showed ordinary dark gold without artifact spirits.
Ordinary dark gold equipment without artifact spirits was similar to standard equipment, just with more attribute bonuses, and the additional skills were not unique, overlapping significantly with Bai Pu’s own skills, making them less significant to him.
Because each Awakened had a limit on high-grade equipment they could wear.
Energy Strength determined the quantity of high-grade equipment (Dark Gold and above) one could wear. Bai Pu, before the Demon Fighting World, with the Doomsday Purple Weapon included, had four pieces of high-grade equipment in total, already reaching the wear limit.
Although Bai Pu in the Demon Fighting World achieved an energy strength leap, reaching Enhanced Lord strength, it only added an upper limit of one to two high-grade equipment pieces.
This precious limit felt somewhat wasted on wearing standard dark gold.
Thus, in the last "One-star Major General Resource Exchange," Bai Pu chose a Fire Element Burning Mystical Arts Curios.
He originally thought to use the Mystical Arts Curios in the Heart Demon World for Enlightenment through the natives’ secret teachings, but unexpectedly, the reward for a 9.2 difficulty task exhibited stunning effects post-Enlightenment, leading Bai Pu to Enlighten the top-grade Mystical Arts of the Fire Element—Red Lotus Mystical Arts—without relying on the Mystical Arts Curios.
Next month’s resource exchange wasn’t clear to Bai Pu yet—he was keen on a Special System Mystical Arts Curios, yet the rarity of Special System Curios started at 11 points, qualifying only Two-star Major Generals for the resource exchange.
Thus, the deduction of military merit into the negative wouldn’t greatly affect Bai Pu currently; it’d be better to take a chance to see if he could earn a thousand merits!
Next to him, Rein and Leia’s transmitted voice sounded: "Gangxin, are you going to take the second stage of the main quest?"
Bai Pu looked up to see Leia’s expression showing excitement, while Rein seemed relatively composed.
"I will take it, though it’s risky, I still want to take a shot." Bai Pu briefly explained his thoughts.
Rein smiled: "I want to take a shot, even though I am a One-star Major General, without resource exchange rights, negative military merit doesn’t greatly affect me. As for Leia, she absolutely has to take it!"
Bai Pu looked at Leia, guessing: "Did you see that the reward for main quest two is..."
"Rank promotion to Major General!" Leia’s excited face turned red, "I’ve never seen such an opportunity that doesn’t require the trial task for promotion to Major General. I definitely have to seize it."
"Rank promotion? Was there a prerequisite, perhaps requiring to be a Golden Vice Admiral?" Bai Pu suddenly thought of something, quickly asking.
"No need for Golden Vice Admiral, just not being a Divine Chosen, then participate in and complete the task to be directly promoted to Gaia Major General! However, it’s equivalent to a First Refinement task promotion to Major General, with lower weight. But that doesn’t matter, what I need is only the advantage of Gaia Major General in basic attributes..." Leia became more excited as she spoke.
"In that case... I have two teammates, I plan to summon them into this world."
Bai Pu voiced his plan, "With the Golden Return Scroll obtained, I already had this thought."
A world with a difficulty of 9.2 is indeed rare, akin to an Ascension Plane rehearsal.
Of course, Wu Mingyue and Wu Qingyun, the two teammates, could also reap substantial benefits from it.
Bai Pu previously worried whether the two could endure such high difficulty, facing life-threatening risks, but with three Golden Return Scrolls, if they encounter certain death situations, they can return forcibly!
Needless to say, the second main quest also offered rank promotion rewards.
...
After Bai Pu and others took on the second stage main quest, the Turtle Ship sailed southward straight to the Red Annihilation River.
In his private cabin, Bai Pu first summoned teammates Wu Mingyue and Blood Spider Wu Qingyun over, sharing the task with them.
The two were naturally surprised and delighted, with Wu Mingyue remarking, "Didn’t expect I also have the chance for rank promotion to Major General. It certainly feels different after entering the Silver Heart Great World, many opportunities indeed."
Wu Qingyun: "I feel the same."
Bai Pu smiled: "Opportunities are many, but strong capability is necessary to seize them. This time Gaia’s Will is so generous, it’s not charity or a launch sales event, and the difficulty of the second stage main quest might be something we’ve never experienced before."