Chapter 32 – The Third Chapter of the Book of Order

Nie Yan swept his gaze over every nook and cranny in the forest. When he spotted a certain shrub at the base of the mountain, he was incapable of looking away.

This particular shrub reached up to his knees and had many branches. Its appearance was not unlike a jade sculpture—pure, translucent, and radiating with vibrant colours. Tucked away within the shrub's leaves was a single scarlet red fruit that resembled a cherry—tender and glistening.

This is a Red Urnberry! I didn't think a plant like this could appear in such a low-level area!

Nie Yan's memories were still quite clear; during the latter years of his past life, the selling price of a single Red Urnberry reached up to several hundred gold. Moreover, each and every Red Urnberry held different properties.

Nie Yan walked towards the steep mountain wall and carefully harvested the Red Urnberry from the shrub. Fortunately he had already learned the gatherer skill, otherwise he would've had no chance in retrieving this fruit—an event which would've been truly unfortunate.

Red Urnberry (Rare Fruit)

Description: The player who eats this fruit will gain +2 Willpower permanently.

Restrictions: Each player may only consume this fruit up to three times. Further consumption will not yield any additional benefits.

Considering the Red Urnberry's inherent rarity, and the fact that it could also permanently increase a player's stats, it was no wonder this fruit could sell for upwards of several hundred gold.

Nie Yan contemplated for a while before finally deciding to eat the fruit. After all, this was a rare opportunity. Besides, this fruit was meant to be eaten; only a fool would actually sell it.

An additional two Willpower was quite decent. Willpower was a stat that reduced the effectiveness of debuffs (such as sickness, poison, curses, resistance debuffs, etc.) on a player. It didn't matter if it was PvP or PvE, Willpower was a stat that would always be useful. After all, the number of mobs and classes that could cast debuffs on a player were more than just a few.

Nie Yan put the fruit into his mouth. It melted almost instantaneously and became a warm current that flowed directly to his stomach.

He took a quick glance at his Willpower stat. It had gone from zero to two.

Having two willpower at such a low level was rather useful. After eating the Red Urnberry, he didn't dally any further and headed deeper into the forest.

After walking down a path hidden in the grass for roughly five minutes, he finally entered the deeper part of the forest. Here the trees were more lush and exuberant, but the lighting was much dimmer due to the light having to penetrate through much more vegetation to reach the ground below.

The forest floor was covered in a layer of dead leaves that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Within the dark forest, a single bright ray of light could be seen shining through the dense foliage. The absence of any other lights only served to make it all the more prominent and clear.

At the centre of the ray of light was a meter high cylindrical column that seemed to have been carved out of stone. Placed atop this column was a thick book which seemed to have been eroded by the elements. Its worn state seemed to be a testament to the book's long and distant history.

This book was, according to Nie Yan's memories, aptly named "Annals of the Era of Shared Governance." Its contents detailed all of the historical events that occurred during the Era of Shared Governance.

It was within this thick history book that the Chapter of Courage was hidden.

Nie Yan walked up to the column and extended his right hand towards the cover of the book. The moment his fingers made contact, the book opened up by itself and began rapidly flipping through its pages.

Suddenly, a narration began playing.

「Within this secret forest, you've discovered a thick book that chronicles the history of an ancient era. Upon placing your hand on the book, you suddenly feel a mysterious force enter your body. "What's this?" you inquire to yourself while brimming with curiosity. Shortly after, the pages in the book begin turning by themselves, revealing mysterious silver leafed characters. From these characters, you learn this "Annals of the Era of Shared Governance" was written by a combination of three languages: the Kasate Giant language, Ancient Universal language, and Dragon language. You record this newfound knowledge in your head.」

「System: You've learned the language of the Kasate Giants.」

「System: You've learned the language of the Dragons.」

「System: You've learned the ancient language of the common people.」

「System: You've received the "Annals of the Era of Shared Governance."」

The Atlanta continent contained over three hundred languages. Before, Nie Yan had only learned the current common language, which was the language of the Humans. Yet suddenly, he had learned three new languages. He quickly glanced over his information page and realised it had a new section titled "Annals of the Era of Shared Governance." Within this section was a description of every notable event that had occurred during that era.

This sort of data was invaluable. In the future, it could help Nie Yan accomplish many tasks and identify various items.

This "Annals of the Era of Shared Governance" will save me a lot of time and trouble when completing quests related to that era, Nie Yan couldn't help but think to himself.

「"Eh?" Looking closely at the book, you are surprised to discover a separate piece of paper tucked away between the pages of the book. Numerous rows of mysterious, dark golden characters dotted this page. As you look over the lines of gibberish, you slowly realise that these characters belong to the language of the Kasate Giants and spell out "Chapter of Courage".」

I've finally found it! Nie Yan pleasantly thought to himself as he glanced at the chapter's properties.

-Chapter of Courage

Description: The third chapter of the first volume of the Book of Order. A fragment of a Legendary item. Whoever shall possess this chapter will receive the inheritance of the God of Light. Your mission is to spread the glory of light!

Properties: Receive 2 stat points and 1 mastery point every 5 levels. Focus +15, Willpower +15, Resilience +16, Jump +15, Reflex+15, Speed +16

Transcendent Insight: Gain the ability to see through your enemies. Allows you to view enemy character information. Also grants the ability to appraise items.

Passive: Awareness +10

Adjudicator of God: Grants immunity to all magic, gain 500 health, and summon an advanced life-saving shield that absorbs sixty percent of all incoming damage for five minutes. (This skill cannot be used in instances)

Cooldown: 10 days (1/10)

Restrictions: Can only be bound by a member of the Righteous Guardian of Order.

Note: Item effects are applied immediately upon entering the player's inventory.

Nie Yan stared out blankly as his hands began to tremble lightly. He had seen the properties of this chapter on the internet in his past life before, but now, as he held the chapter in his hands, he experienced an entirely different feeling. He reckoned this Adjudicator of God was the very skill the guild leader of Holy Empire, Sleepy Fox, had used to slaughter his way through two hundred players in his past life. Not to mention the skill even made the player immune to every single type of magic for five minutes. What kind of overpowered ability was this? What was even more disgusting was the fact that Sleepy Fox already had top-tier equipment in the first place. If you added immunity to all magic, five hundred health, and a shield that absorbed sixty percent of all damage, then his strength would undoubtedly become excessive beyond reason. To meet him on the battlefield would simply be meeting a god of death. However, the cooldown period of the skill was still quite high. After all, it would take ten days before the skill could be activated again, which was why most players wouldn't rashly use the skill unless they were at a critical juncture.

And that was just the Adjudicator of God skill. The chapter's other properties were quite powerful as well, especially the one that allowed a player to gain an additional two stat points and one mastery point every five levels. Nie Yan was practically bursting with happiness. From his knowledge, the only classes that had a bonus that came close to this were Shamans, Paladins, and Demon Swordsman who also gained two additional stat points every five levels. Due to their characteristics, however, they had to evenly distribute their stats between strength and intellect, because they would practically be useless if they only focused on a single stat. However, a Thief was different. On top of the five stat points and one mastery point he would gain every five levels from Level 0 to 30, he would now also gain two additional stat points and one mastery point every five levels thanks to the Chapter of Courage. Nie Yan understood what this meant.

If you included the other stat bonuses and properties of the chapter, Nie Yan had effectively leapt up to become one of the top experts, if not the strongest player in the game. This chapter from the Book of Order clearly lived up to its name as a legendary existence.

After placing the Chapter of Courage into his knapsack, Nie Yan glanced at his stat page and found that several of his stats had risen by a large amount.

When Adjudicator of God came off cooldown, he would become unequalled in terms of combat strength.

However, from now on, he would have to take extra caution whenever he was killing mobs or fighting players. This was because the Chapter of Courage would immediately drop from his body if he died. The only way to prevent this was to find the other five chapters and complete the first volume of the Book of Order.

Despite having finally retrieved the Chapter of Courage, Nie Yan didn't relax or loosen his guard at all. After storing the chapter in his knapsack, he took out a Return Scroll and began channelling it.

「System: Unable to activate Return Scroll from this location.」