Chapter 228: Protection: Royal Armory

Chapter 228: Chapter 228: Protection: Royal Armory

When the feeling of weightlessness vanished and Lance found his footing again.

He found he had left the canyon and returned to the Star Dust Corridor.

Countless silent stars drifted around him.

He stood firmly on the starlit ground, his right hand still poised in mid-air.

Just a second before the trial ended and he was teleported away.

He had been about to reach out and wipe the tears from the young woman’s face.

But now, there was only slowly drifting stardust before him.

The petite figure had vanished without a trace, and the surroundings were so quiet he could only hear his own breathing.

Lance silently withdrew his hand.

He looked down at his empty palm, a strange, complex feeling stirring in his heart.

This was the first time since arriving in this world that he’d felt so unsettled about the outcome of a battle.

He stood there, carefully recalling the events that had just transpired.

No matter how he thought about it, he still couldn’t understand why the girl had looked so heartbroken at the end.

It definitely wasn’t because of the battle.

Especially when, before fainting, her lips had moved as if trying to tell him something.

Unfortunately, the forced teleportation had cut her off, and he hadn’t caught a single syllable.

"Whatever. If I can’t figure it out, I’ll stop thinking about it."

Lance shook his head, forcefully pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind.

The pure Red Dragon Bloodline she displayed in the final battle, coupled with her ability to successfully draw and wield the King’s Choice Sword...

With these solid qualifications, even a fool could guess that the young woman named Elvira was undoubtedly a core member of the Pandragon Royal Family.

Perhaps even a legitimate Princess with rights of succession.

And looking at the entire network of connections Lance had built in the Material Realm so far...

...the only one who could reach such a high-level dignitary of the Kingdom was Cecilia, the heir to the Rosenthal Clan.

After returning to Gray Rock Town, he could write a letter and ask Cecilia to inquire about the girl’s situation when she had a chance.

Having settled on his next course of action, Lance refocused his attention on the business at hand.

As the instance trial officially concluded, the entire Star Realm Corridor began to vibrate slightly.

This signaled that his final coronation ceremony was taking form.

The reputation he had scraped together from all over the trial instance was now being transformed by the Star Realm into motes of light, which began to gather in the void above his head.

At first, the scene was quite sacred.

Stardust emitting a soft golden glow appeared in the void, drifting down lightly onto Lance’s head like fireflies.

This golden light represented the positive emotions of gratitude and reverence that a few people in the Trial World had felt for him.

This was the most standard scene for the coronations of kings throughout history.

However, Lance looked around and quickly sensed that something was off.

’This amount of golden starlight is a bit pathetic, isn’t it?’

He couldn’t help but mutter inwardly.

There were so few specks of light that they weren’t even enough to weave a halfway decent grass wreath.

Before he could think any further, the scene that followed was a crushing blow.

Following the sparse golden light, an overwhelming tide of black-gold starlight surged forth.

This was all a product of reputation manifested from negative emotions like Fear, anger, awe, and hatred!

This sea of black-gold light instantly swallowed the pitiful flecks of gold and began to gather and swirl madly above Lance’s head.

’Holy crap, is this pitch-black stuff really okay?’

Lance watched the horrifying scene above his head, the corner of his mouth twitching uncontrollably.

If he had known the system would actually materialize this vicious reputation into a crown and place it on his head...

...he would have shown a bit more restraint when he was going around offering "equivalent protection" in the instance!

The black-gold motes of light intertwined and compressed in mid-air.

Finally, in a dazzling flash of dark light, they finished gathering and solidified into a black crown.

Lance watched as the pitch-black crown slowly descended and hovered steadily above his head.

He was at a loss for words.

’What kind of proper person would wear a crown that looks like it belongs to a major villain?’

The moment the crown formed, a system notification screen popped up.

[Trial complete. Calculating your Star Realm Legendary deeds...]

[You have won the final victory in the War of the Two Dragons!]

[Your every action has been witnessed by the kings of the Star Realm. Loading the exclusive blessings of three Heroic Spirits...]

As soon as the notification faded, three voices boomed in Lance’s ears!

"May all enemies in the world be cowed by greed, turning their wealth into tribute."

It was a dignified male voice.

"May your spear forever drink the blood of strong foes, stripping the vanquished of all dignity."

A second, heroic voice followed immediately after.

"May every blade raised against you ultimately fall under your command."

The third voice was forceful.

Listening to these three consecutive blessings, Lance’s brows furrowed deeply.

’Are these really blessings from proper Heroic Spirits?’

Put together, these three sentences sounded like a blessing for a rampaging, plundering Tyrant.

While Lance was complaining inwardly,

The three blessings transformed into three blinding streams of light and shot precisely into the black crown above his head.

Then, the entire crown dissolved into specks of starlight that rained down on Lance, completely merging deep into his body.

[The blessings of the three Heroic Spirits have intertwined. Combined with your modus operandi of "equivalent protection" and "forced deprivation" within the instance, your exclusive Heroic Spirit Protection has taken form!]

[Congratulations on obtaining the Golden Legendary Protection: Royal Armory]

[Protection Effect description: Under heaven, there is no land that is not the king’s. All that is held by the enemy is but tribute.]

[When facing items that are bound to a user or have special requirements, you can activate this Protection through physical contact.]

[The Protection will forcibly initiate a "Royal Judgment." If the judgment is successful, it will instantly erase the item’s original binding or conditional restrictions, immediately plundering its ownership for yourself.]

"Holy shit!"

The moment he finished reading the description, all of Lance’s complaints vanished into thin air.

The value of this Protection was so powerful it was simply inconceivable!

One had to understand that in the Profession System of the Material Realm,

most Professional Level equipment that could significantly boost combat power was tightly bound to its original user.

Unless the user themselves willingly and actively unbound it to transfer ownership,

otherwise, even if the user was killed on the spot by an enemy, and that person forcibly stripped the equipment and put it on, they would be absolutely unable to activate it or receive any buffs.

To forcibly remove such a bind, the only way was to spend a large sum of money at the Black Market to find a "Gold Washer."

They were special Professionals who specialized in the work of "laundering" equipment.

Moreover, the higher the quality of the equipment, the more the difficulty and cost of unbinding it increased exponentially.

All in all, the cost of unbinding a piece of equipment was sometimes almost the same as buying a new one of the same level directly from a merchant guild.

But now, with the [Royal Armory] Protection,

Lance could ignore the expensive cost of laundering equipment.

And that was just the Protection’s value on an economic level.

If used in actual, life-or-death combat, its lethality would be even more terrifying.

Many High Tier Professionals, especially those "rich kids" backed by powerful clans,

often had a large part of their skills built upon powerful core equipment.

If, in the middle of a fierce life-or-death battle,

Lance suddenly reached out, touched the opponent’s equipment, and then forcibly made it his own...

...wouldn’t the enemy just have a mental breakdown?

Furthermore,

many of the famous Divine Artifacts or Legendary equipment throughout history

often had extremely harsh usage requirements.

But with this tyrannical Protection that represented Royal Authority,

Lance could even ignore those bullshit requirements and forcibly wield such equipment, and the items wouldn’t even have a chance to resist.

It was truly worthy of being the highest-level Golden Legendary Protection from a Heroic Spirit Baptism, and stacked with three blessings on top of that; the effect was just that simple and brutal.

Without the three blessings, the original effect might have been to plunder only a certain category of items, but now it was clearly an overpowered, all-category effect.

However, Lance didn’t let this huge surprise go to his head.

This forced plunder, naturally, couldn’t be 100% successful. It required a prerequisite judgment.

The system panel also thoughtfully provided an introduction to the relevant mechanics.

Depending on the power level and material quality of each piece of equipment, they all naturally possessed a "Resistance Threshold" of varying strength.

Since the source of power for the Star Realm’s Heroic Spirits all came from the breadth of the legends they left behind in the Material Realm during their lives,

and since [Royal Armory] was a Protection born from the power of Heroic Spirits,

its source of power was directly dependent on Lance’s own fame and legendary status in the current world.

Therefore, this Protection had a special, exclusive judgment value known as the [King’s Authority Value].

This value was closely related to only three stats: Legendary Status, the number of Great Deeds completed, and Reputation Value.

Specifically, every point of Legendary Status accumulated or every Great Deed achievement completed would automatically convert into 1 base point of King’s Authority Value.

Lance glanced at his current stats panel.

His current permanent King’s Authority Value was 3 points.

These 3 points came from the 1 point of Star Realm Legendary Status awarded for clearing the trial, as well as the two Great Deeds: "Overstepping Gods" and "Resist Death."

On a side note, Star Realm Legendary Status was a good thing.

It would allow Lance to have a guaranteed, albeit faint, level of fame from the start when entering similar Star Realm instances in the future.

Within the instances, the local NPCs would feel a sense of déjà vu, as if they had "heard stories about the War of the Two Dragons," which would save him a lot of trouble in establishing his identity.

Of course, Legendary Status certainly had deeper functions, but he would have to wait for a future opportunity to enter the Star Realm again to slowly explore and understand them.