VRMMO: The Unrivaled

Fire God Helmet (Sacred Armament, Outstanding★★★★★★★★)

Defense: 12500

Magic Resist: 11700

Strength: +1950

Stamina: +1900

Agility: +1850

Tactics: +195

Passive: Increases user's max HP by 90000

Passive: Increases user’s Defense and Magic Resist by 45%

Slots: 17

Outstanding: Rise of the Guardian Dragon. By summoning the power of the Hidden Dragon and making a seal with one hand, awaken a slumbering divine dragon and attack all enemies within 100 yards with the power of the rising dragon. Costs 1000 gold per use. Cooldown: 6 minutes.

Introduction: During the ancient times, an excellent youngster born from a fallen noble family cultivated single-mindedly and obtained the Fire God’s inheritance as a result. In the end, he became the new Fire God. The Fire God Helmet is one of the ultimate armaments he possessed. Tens of thousands of years later, when miracles were a thing of the past, the Fire God Helmet suddenly appeared and awed everyone. It contains the power of the Fire God, and legend says that its wearer will inherit a portion of his divine power, the Rise of the Guardian Dragon.

Level Requirement: 205

Reputation Requirement: 700000

Class Requirement: Fighter class

Note: Item bound to player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand"

……

Words couldn’t describe how blessed I was feeling right now. Just look at those stats!

If I had one nitpick to make though, it would be its active skill, Rise of the Guardian Dragon. A skill that costs 1000 gold, a.k.a. 1000 RMB, per use? This seriously wasn’t something a normal player could afford to use. Even a white collar could only use it a couple of times before they were forced to make do with cup noodles for the rest of the month.

Long story short, I should use Rise of the Guardian Dragon only when it is absolutely necessary!

I replaced my Dragonlight Helmet with the Fire God Helmet. A scorching power immediately flooded my body, boiled my blood vessels, and tightened my muscles to the point where I had to find release. Tsk tsk, it felt exactly like when I was equipping the Ancient Divine Armament Purple Ying Sword. Roughly speaking, the Sacred Armament was around the same level as an Ancient Divine Armament, or much better than a Cambrian Divine Armament.

I checked out my stats page again. All the relevant stats had gone up visibly—

ID: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand (Title: Martial God of the Abyss)

Class: Undead Swordsman (Great Earth Swordsman)

Level: 208

HP: 601820

Attack: 21320~24770

Defense: 38865

Magic Resist: 34920

Reputation: 829400

Tactics: 1346

Luck: 73

……

Look at this baby! One Sacred Armament was all it took to elevate my survivability to a whole new level! I now had a max HP of 600k, and a base Defense of nearly 40k! I could call myself the tankiest player in the world right now, and it wouldn’t be exaggerated in the slightest!

I dazedly put away the Dragonlight Helmet as the warm sensation called happiness continued to assault my senses. With these stats, I shouldn’t need to worry about being chased anymore, right?

Unfortunately, Breeze and Rain and his Beast King Cavalry appeared at just the wrong moment to shout, "I’ve come to ‘congratulate’ you on your new loot, Lu Chen!"

I raised my eyebrows but deflated a bit. Fine, you outnumber me, you win...

Although my survivability had jumped by leaps and bounds, Breeze and Rain could still reduce all my stats by 70% with Soul Capture and one-shot me. Moreover, I was alone, and he was supported by thousands of Beast King Cavalrymen. There was no reason to risk being caught by a Trapping Net and killed.

There was only one course of action here, and I took it without hesitation. I patted the Ancient Divine Dragon’s back once, and it immediately let out a mighty roar and soared into the sky. After I was a hundred meters above the ground, I said to Breeze and Rain with a smile, "Play time’s over, Breeze and Rain! Chase me if you can, hahaha! See you later!"

After that, the Ancient Divine Dragon slipped into the clouds and vanished completely from view. Right before I looked away, I could see the resistance and fury in Breeze and Rain’s eyes. The Agility Warrior was one of the strongest experts in the entire Cyan Earth City, no, the entire India server, and yet he hadn’t been able to best me in Iron Skull Wilderness at all. It was no wonder he found it difficult to swallow this indignity.

……

While in the sky, I opened the world map and locked onto Zephyr Valley. The final boss had already been eliminated, so it was time to find out what the mysterious Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse really looked like. Mounts had always been one of my highest priorities, and I had good reason to believe that the Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse would turn out pretty good. Assuming that my expectation wasn’t betrayed, the Cyan Tiger Cavalry would have much to celebrate after this. They were long due for a replacement mount anyway.

In just ten minutes, I entered Zephyr Valley and swooped down on the Great Undead Magus Juve’s tiny house like a hawk. His Fire God Helmet was mine, and the rest of his loot, Hickey’s. In a sense, we both got what we wanted from the boss.

Pa!

After the Ancient Divine Dragon, I jumped off its back and summoned the Phantom Wolf King.

I progressed through the darkness. Directly in front of me was a seemingly endless stretch of graves. I moved closer to one of the tombstones to check out the engravings, and it stated—

"Grave of a brave warrior of the Empire, Cardirola, one of the 100000 braves who perished in the Battle of Flowing River. He and his horse had died to the same arrow, so they were buried together in this land."

……

Both the master and the mount had died to the same arrow?

I thought for a moment before tentatively poking my sword into the soft mound behind the tombstone. A bloody, bony arm instantly burst out of the soil and grabbed the blade! Holy shit, that gave me a fright! Clearly, Cardirola had been transformed into an undead. Unfortunately for him, he was just a Level 247 fiend-rank mob. He wasn’t quite strong enough to even damage me anymore.

After I returned Cardirola to true death with a couple of hits, a warhorse abruptly burst out of the same mound the undead had emerged from. It was a skeletal warhorse with bones as tough as steel and dark blue eyes. It was also surrounded by icy wind blades.

Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse (Ancient Spirit Rank Boss Mount)

Level: 1

Taming Level Requirement: 200

Riding Level Requirement: 180

……

So, it was a Level 180 Ancient Spirit Rank Boss mount. Its level was way higher than the Beast King Cavalry of India! I couldn’t help but be curious about its exact stats.

So I produced a Sealing Crystal, pointed it at the Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse and ordered, "Get inside, boy!"

However, the livestock neighed imperiously at me and foiled my sealing attempt! Thankfully, failing a seal doesn’t use up the Sealing Crystal.

I was a bit annoyed, but I pushed past it and tried again. This was how sealing usually turned out after all. However, I repeated the attempt 17 times and still failed to seal the Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse!

"What the fuck is going on?" I swore out loud.

Suddenly, the Ancient Divine Dragon rubbed its head against my arm and grabbed my attention. Then, it roared at the Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse and caused the latter to drop to its knees! Seriously! It was like a scene straight out of an anime!

Swhoosh!

This time, the Sealing Crystal successfully sealed Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse. I couldn’t stop grinning when I saw its exact stats—

Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse (Ancient Spirit Rank Boss Mount)

Strength: +900

Stamina: +940

Attack Increase: +40%

Defense Increase: +39%

Attack Speed: +55%

Movement Speed: +150%

Attack Range: +29 yards

Max HP: +20000

Turn Rate: -39%

Mount Tenacity: +30%

Unique Skill: Zephyr of Death. The mount roars and increases user’s Attack by 60%, and attack speed by 20%

Introduction: The Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse is a cursed animal. It is said that the riders of the Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse always become powerful warriors, but they become easily overwhelmed by killing intent.

Level Requirement: 180

Reputation Requirement: 200000

……

Hmm. As a whole, the Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse’s stats were slightly lower than the Dragonscale Beast’s. However, both mounts shared the same level of offensive power. The key difference here was the Dragonscale Beast’s Dragon Soul Protection—a buff that increased both Attack and Defense of its rider by 50%—and the Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse’s Zephyr of Death. Long story short, the undead mount had excess in offense and not enough defense.

I was still pretty satisfied though. The Dragonscale Beast was He Yi’s WEL reward, so of course it wasn’t something that could be caught in a random map. In fact, I should be thanking all my previous incarnations for accumulating enough karma to create an encounter between me and the Zephyr Ironbone Warhorses!

……

I mounted the Ancient Divine Dragon once more. Its gesture made me realize that my intimidation power as an Asura King was nothing compared to my mount’s draconic might. In other words, sealing a creature on dragonback was far easier than otherwise!

I moved on to the next grave. Every one of these graves contained an undead warrior and a Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse, and I was on the journey to catch them all!

I managed to capture the second Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse on the first try, further solidifying my certainty that the Ancient Divine Dragon boosted creature capture rate. OMG, this mount is so good...

It almost felt like I was cheating as I grinded undead warriors and sealed Zephyr Ironbone Warhorses. More and more Sealing Crystals turned dark blue—the main color of the Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse—as I worked for three hours straight. I couldn’t say that I was disappointed in the slightest though.

Suddenly, I heard a couple of unnatural knocks from above. It was Chaos Moon tapping on my helmet.

After I found a place to set up my tent and log out of the game, the first thing that entered my sight was Chaos Moon’s starving face. "Dude, it’s 8 pm already. Are you going to eat dinner or what? I’m about to die from starvation…"

I replied, "Sorry, I’m busy right now. You’ll have to eat dinner yourself tonight."

Chaos Moon giggled a bit. "Say, I heard that you fought against Breeze and Rain and Flowing Cloud again in Iron Skull Wilderness? You truly are something!"

I smiled. "I know. Anyway, you should go. Do remember to buy something for me. I’m most likely going to burn the midnight oil today."

"Okay…"

……

After I returned to the game, I decided that my grinding speed was too slow. So, I made the Phantom Wolf King run over thousands of undead graves before one-shotting them all with the Ancient Divine Dragon’s Summon the Storm. I even spent the 1000 gold fee to activate the Fire God Helmet’s skill, Rise of the Guardian Dragon. The Ancient Divine Dragon lowered its body, and I pressed the seemingly infinite energy in my palms into the ground. The draconic energy sank into the earth before bursting out in columns of mighty explosion, one-shotting even more undead warriors and filling up my experience bar like crazy!

God damn, Rise of the Guardian Dragon might cost 1000 gold per cast, but its damage was worth every yuan. This skill was way stronger than even Summon the Storm!

After I had cleared out a sizable number of undead warriors, I took out a whole set of Sealing Crystals and threw them at the now defenseless Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse at random. The result was insane to say the least. I was sealing at least one mount every two seconds! Assuming that I sold these at Sky City, I bet I could fetch at least 5000 gold per Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse. Only heaven knows how rich I would become by the end of the day. Of course, it was just a pipedream. There was an extremely high chance that Eternal Moon would detect the unnatural amount of gold that was being transacted and smother my plans before I could finish selling them all. No, the safer thing to do here was to equip my army with these mounts. After all, the game company might stop me from making too much money, but they wouldn’t stop me from becoming the king of mercenaries.