Reborn with Infinite System Points, I Can Directly Change Item's Value-Chapter 44 --Triggering a Hidden Quest, Heading to the Imperial Frontier
[Deathcall] (S-Rank)
[Effect]: Upon activation, summons 30 undead creatures absolutely loyal to the user. (The summoned creatures’ level depends on the player’s level.)
...
[Poison Resistance] (S-Rank)
[Effect]: Passive talent. Poison resistance +50%!
...
After killing the platinum-grade Boss, John obtained two talents.
Both of them were quite good.
Especially Poison Resistance.
With this passive talent collected, only three other resistance types remained for his main quest.
"Still, for me, these two talents are too weak."
With a thought, John immediately altered the values of both talents.
After pushing both talents to their limits,
the number of summons for Deathcall jumped directly from 30 to 99!
As for Poison Resistance, its resistance value was maxed out at 100%, effectively making him immune to poison damage.
...
"That’s more like it."
John nodded in satisfaction.
At that moment,
the familiar announcement resounded across the sky.
[Server-wide Announcement: Congratulations to Zone 5 player "John" for achieving the first kill of the platinum-grade Boss "Dreadblood Matron Lv.50"!
Rewards granted: Fame +300,000, gold coins +10,000!]
...
Hearing that announcement,
players across the server were already stunned into numb silence.
They looked at one another, not even knowing what to say anymore.
Because since the server opened, aside from John, almost no other player had appeared in a world announcement at all.
Everyone else was still grinding elite-grade monsters to level up.
And John was already hunting platinum-grade Bosses!
[Nisia] (Zone 1): "John is already farming platinum-grade Bosses?
How can the gap between people be this huge?!"
[Mia] (Zone 5, Overlord Guild): "Mighty John, no wonder I haven’t seen you in the main city.
So you were off getting the first kill on a platinum-grade Boss. Congrats, congrats!"
[Ares] (Zone 3): "Boss John, I’m begging you—now that you’ve taken the first kill of a platinum-grade Boss, please don’t go after the silver-grade and gold-grade ones too.
Leave the rest of us some way to survive!"
...
John paid no attention to the wailing of players from other zones in world chat.
At this moment, all his focus was on the changes happening within the Boneforest.
After the Dreadblood Matron died, the blood covering the ground slowly receded.
The dense spread of bone trees also began to wither and collapse bit by bit.
And once the blood and bone trees were gone,
a tunnel was revealed.
Clear marks of artificial excavation could be seen on the outer wall of the tunnel.
It stretched all the way toward the distant horizon.
The reason John was so surprised was simple: in his previous life, he had never seen this tunnel before.
"Could it be because I killed Dreadblood Matron far earlier than any other player did?"
John speculated inwardly.
After thinking it over for a moment, he decided to follow the tunnel and see where it led.
He walked for about an hour.
At last, he reached the exit of the tunnel, and on the road outside, hoofprints began to appear.
The hoofprints were fresh and clearly visible, which meant mounted riders had passed through not long ago.
John’s expression shifted slightly, and he quickened his pace.
He had a feeling that he was about to come into contact with some hidden secret.
After another half hour of travel,
a man came into view, collapsed by the roadside.
His body was stained with blood, as though he had suffered grievous injuries.
At this moment, he was lying there, struggling in pain.
John approached cautiously.
When the man saw him, he suddenly raised a blood-covered hand.
"Are you... a citizen of the Eaglecrest Empire?"
John froze for a moment, but in the end, he nodded.
"Yes."
At those words, a trace of joy appeared in the man’s eyes.
Struggling through obvious agony, he forced himself upright and said between ragged breaths,
"This lord... cough, cough... what I’m about to tell you, you must remember it well!"
John nodded.
"Go ahead."
The man began to explain.
According to his introduction, he was a scout who had been ambushed.
His attackers were a mercenary squad.
The scout had only managed to survive this long because of a protection talisman bestowed upon him by the Empire, along with his own decent hidden strength.
Even so, he was gravely wounded and clearly on the verge of death.
As for why that mercenary squad had tried to murder him—
it was because the hostile nation, the Ruvan Kingdom, had hired them to launch a surprise attack on one of the Eaglecrest Empire’s frontier main cities.
It was precisely because the scout had learned of this information that he had been hunted all the way here.
And now, mortally wounded, his life was hanging by a thread.
After saying all this,
the scout’s complexion worsened even further. He coughed up several mouthfuls of black blood and was clearly about to die.
Just before his last breath, he gripped John’s hand tightly.
"Please... this concerns the safety of the Empire. You must deliver this message to Snelow City!"
Snelow City was the very main city that the Ruvan Kingdom’s mercenary force was about to attack.
[You have triggered a Hidden Quest: Save Snelow City!]
Looking at the dead scout, John reached out and gently closed the man’s eyes.
Then his gaze fell on the Hidden Quest panel.
[Save Snelow City]
[Quest Objective]: Go to Snelow, the frontier main city of the Eaglecrest Empire, and assist the defenders of Snelow City.
Resist the mercenary forces of the Ruvan Kingdom and prevent Snelow City from falling!
...
"So this actually involves the Ruvan Kingdom..."
John frowned slightly, surprise flickering in his eyes.
In the game’s world setting,
the Eaglecrest Empire was hostile to several small kingdoms in the surrounding region.
The Ruvan Kingdom was one of them.
The ancestors of the Ruvan Kingdom had originally been a band of thieves, rogues, and outcasts expelled by the Eaglecrest Empire.
Because Ruvan was located in a barren, bitterly cold land, the Empire had never bothered to annex it.
Only later, when the climate began to warm and Ruvan gained an opportunity to develop, was the kingdom finally established.
To stand against the Eaglecrest Empire,
the Ruvan Kingdom formed an alliance with a nearby pirate empire.
And because of that, the Eaglecrest Empire had never been able to absorb the Ruvan Kingdom.
Perhaps because it believed the Empire could do nothing against it,
the Ruvan Kingdom had actually begun coveting the Eaglecrest Empire’s territory.
Now it had even gone so far as to directly hire a Mercenary Legion, intending to seize Snelow City on the Eaglecrest frontier.
Their treacherous ambitions could not have been more obvious. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶
"From my past experience, the rewards for Hidden Quests are always items capable of changing one’s fate.
In my previous life, there was a player who completed a Hidden Quest and rose to the top in a single leap.
He became one of the decision-makers of Zone 1.
That alone is enough to prove how precious the rewards of a Hidden Quest can be!
And now that I’ve encountered one myself, I absolutely must complete this quest!"
John made up his mind.
He closed the quest panel.
After accepting the Hidden Quest,
the location of Snelow City automatically appeared in his mind.
It just so happened to lie straight down this very road.
John immediately followed the road and rushed toward Snelow City as fast as possible.
If Snelow City were to fall to the Mercenary Legion before he arrived,
then the entire quest would be declared a failure in advance.
John had to hurry.
He had to reach Snelow City as quickly as possible.
