Chapter 51: The Chest of Destiny!

(1/3)

Human faction... leader?

Looking through the water at Lake-town, which was still glowing with fire, Li Xia recalled the handful of elderly, infirm, and weak survivors mentioned in the original work.

He could only temporarily set aside this title, which reeked of overwhelming presence, and instead ponder the rest of the Hall's prompts.

Just as he had thought, the Hall was not a rigid gaming system. Originally, killing Bard would have immediately kicked him out of the human faction, and his reputation would have dropped to blood-feud status.

However, first of all, Bard had wanted to die; secondly, no one had witnessed the killing scene.

In the end, the reputation penalty was avoided. Part of the reason was that the human faction was already extremely weak and incapable of tracking down the culprit.

This approach would not work with a faction that possessed well-developed organizational structures and advanced technical capabilities, because they would investigate.

Yet, this introduced a factor that Li Xia did not understand.

Killing Bard, an important figure in the original Middle-earth world, would generate a massive tremor in the timeline. Although it produced a vast amount of transcendence opportunities, the killer would also suffer a backlash from destiny. What exactly this destiny backlash was, remained unknown.

His innate skill [Blessing in Disguise], which Li Xia had once regarded as useless chicken ribs, suddenly activated and neutralized the backlash.

Li Xia felt a bit emotional. In a sense, it really was a blessing in disguise.

Next was the time to tally the harvest.

First were the transcendence opportunities. The two kills had yielded a massive amount of transcendence opportunities, totaling 78%.

This was not particularly useful to him, as it was mainly used for settling merit points.

Then came the spoils of war. Because this was a battlefield trial world, a portion of the gains was converted into accumulated battlefield contribution settlement, leaving only treasure chests in Li Xia's hands.

Two treasure chests emitted a soft glow in his personal space.

Unlike ordinary treasure chests he had seen, the designs of these two chests were exceptionally unique.

One of the chests was square and very regular, marked with the symbol [∞].

[Box of Destiny · Bard]: Carried by destiny, this is destiny's feedback to you.

This box... gave Li Xia a very strange feeling. After pondering for a moment, he decided to wait until he finished this trial and returned to the space before dealing with it.

At least he needed to figure out what a destiny treasure chest actually was.

Following that was the other chest.

The exterior of the box was covered in fine, dark red scales, which, upon closer inspection, actually looked quite similar to Smaug.

On the lid of the treasure chest was a closed eye, with four sharp, terrifying barbs extending outward from the corners.

Perhaps noticing someone examining it, the eye on the treasure chest lid suddenly snapped open—it was a pair of slit pupils identical to Smaug's.

The eyes were filled only with endless resentment and anger, glaring around in all directions.

Should he... also wait until he got back to open this one?

Mostly because he was afraid the treasure chest might bite.

(1/3)

(2/3)

Finally was the title [Dragon Slayer].

He opened the detailed attributes of the title on the panel.

[Dragon Slayer]
Equipment Effects:
1. Dragon Slaughter: Extremely prone to hostility from dragon-kind creatures; damage dealt to dragon-kind increased by approximately 10% (additional damage bonus provided by the Hall of Light).
2. Prestige: If identity replacement is used upon entering the world, the initial identity will be elevated by one rank (provided by the Hall of Light).

Title Advancement:
[Dragon Slayer] — [Dragon Hunter] — [Enemy of Ancient Dragons] — [???] — [???]

Li Xia's eyes lit up. This title was extremely practical. Although it came with a debuff that made him easily hated by dragon-kind creatures, the value of the second effect, Prestige, far outweighed what a single debuff could offset.

Moreover, there was a 10% increase in damage dealt to dragons? What made it even more interesting was that this bonus was provided by the Hall of Light.

For example, if he slashed a dragon-kind creature once, the Hall of Light would calculate the approximate damage based on that strike, and then his own output would be factored into this blow.

It was just that title advancement was very difficult. To advance to the next stage, [Dragon Hunter], he would need to kill 4 more dragons...

Sensing that his little follower had rowed a boat nearby, Li Xia closed the panel and floated to the water's surface.

Lying in the small wooden boat, once he suddenly relaxed, the accumulated tension and exhaustion surged up all at once.

Bracing himself to instruct his little follower to find a safe place, Li Xia could no longer hold on and sank into a deep, heavy sleep.

Whatever else there was, he would deal with it after waking up...

...............

The apostles on the other side, however, had completely fallen into madness—a peculiar emotion, a mixture of jealousy and admiration churned together.

Many people had not even recovered from their extreme shock.

Even the boldest and most arrogant apostle had never thought of killing Bard and then killing Smaug, pushing the rewards of this battle to their theoretical maximum.

Yet, right in front of everyone, a novice apostle just like them had actually pulled it off.

Fuzzball: "The big boss is awesome!!!!!!"
Desperate Baron: "What the hell! You can do that too? I've attained enlightenment!"
Knight: "I admire you, I am truly inferior! Brother Xia, our guild is offering a high price to buy the treasure chests. If you drop a destiny box, everything is negotiable!"
Mad Woman: "Oh, you got assigned this by your guild too? I knew the destiny box was valuable, though I don't really know what it is yet. But little handsome, big sis is buying here too~ you know how it is."

The chat platform refreshed rapidly. The great battle had finally ended, and everyone was in a state of extreme relaxation.

They were eager to vent the emotions that had accumulated in their hearts through some channel.

Only one person was different. Aaron Gull stared with bloodshot eyes, jealousy and anger gnawing at him like venomous snakes.

He frantically reported to the Hall of Light.

(2/3)

(3/3)

Thanks to the status of being a watched person, the Hall of Light gave a reply: "The Hall has initiated multiple reviews; this was a micro-probability event."

When Aaron Gull checked what a micro-probability event was, he only felt his heart aching with rage.

According to the Hall's reply, the kid had simply found the Black Arrow while playing around with blind diving.

Why? On what grounds?!

The Hall is unfair! Could Xia be the Hall's biological son? Can he just pick up equipment anywhere?

I! Refuse to accept this!

...............

At the edge of Lake-town, even the great battle with Smaug just moments ago seemed to have nothing to do with the peace here.

A long table was set with exquisite meals, and half a bottle of red wine leaned against a wine rack.

On a gold candlestick, white candles burned with tiny flames.

Claude picked up a napkin, wiped his mouth leisurely, picked up the red wine glass on the table in front of him, and said with a smile, "Black Ape, how about it? Want to join the Brotherhood of Steel?"

Opposite him, a tall Black man was tearing into a heart that was still dripping with blood. His expression was extremely focused, even carrying a hint of piety.

It was as if this was not a heart, but a holy meal bestowed by the gods. The tough heart tendons were stretched and snapped by ivory-white teeth.

Bright red blood was squeezed out and sprayed everywhere, extremely bloody.

"Join you guys..." Black Ape raised his head, wiped the blood from his face, and licked it delicately with his thick lips.

His other hand rummaged nearby, casually pulling a head out of a nearby bag like throwing away trash.

It was none other than Ronnie, who had argued with Li Xia. His eyes were wide open, as if he had seen something incredible, leaving his entire expression frozen in sheer, unadulterated horror.

Yet Black Ape still remembered the overbearing look Ronnie had worn when mocking him inside the Hall.

So people were actually very fragile... and very fickle.

"Why don't you go recruit someone else?"

Black Ape reached out and pointed into the distance, his expression somewhat solemn:

"Like... that person whom I have no confidence I can defeat... Xia?"

————————————————
1. Monthly Votes
2. Recommendation Votes

Sorry everyone, I'm away from home.
This chapter was just written on the high-speed rail.
(3/3)