The Players And The Protagonist Want To Kill Me – Volume 1, Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Shoddy System, You’re Up Again
Sivey returned to Winterkeep in a relaxed and contented mood, having successfully completed the last daily villainous quest.
(E/N – The last quest was to beat up a citizen, to show he was cruel and ruthless)
At the time, a slave trader was ruthlessly beating his slaves in front of his cronies. Although such cruelty was common in this world, it was intolerable to Sivey.
Therefore, Sivey’s knights intervened, incapacitating the perpetrator for disturbing the city’s security and creating excessive noise during the altercation, and freeing the slaves. The slaves were then arranged to serve as household servants in the castle.
The flawed system didn’t specify the type of person Sivey needed to confront, as long as they were commoners. This unique quest was one that Sivey completed without expecting any compensation.
“Now it’s time for the exciting award ceremony!” Sivey exclaimed, rubbing his hands eagerly as he sat up straight at the long table in the dining hall. Before him lay a spread of carefully prepared roasted meat and red wine, courtesy of the castle chef.
“System, I want to claim the reward!” Sivey declared, taking a sip of wine, his anticipation rising.
[Ding! Host has completed all daily quests. Would you like to claim the reward?]
“Yes, yes, yes!” Sivey eagerly confirmed, imagining fireworks exploding in his mind as he awaited his prize.
A virtual roulette wheel, adorned with red satin and colorful lights, appeared before him, bouncing around in a festive manner. “Wow, quite festive, huh?” Sivey remarked, grinning at the sight.
The roulette wheel was divided into five sections: troops, martial arts, equipment, potions, and artifacts, in a traditional style. Sivey’s expectations of the system were low, but he remained hopeful for a valuable reward.
Among the options, Sivey desired troops the most. As a newly appointed lord, he lacked manpower and needed support. Additionally, more henchmen would increase his defenses against potential threats from players.
Equipment was his second choice. With his martial arts skills already top-notch, additional gear would enhance his combat abilities.
Sivey had no use for martial arts rewards, having already mastered techniques from the Legendary Sword Saint.
Artifacts were unfamiliar to him, but he dismissed them as likely irrelevant, given the system’s unreliability.
Potions held little appeal to Sivey, as temporary enhancements seemed insignificant compared to permanent improvements.
“Here we go,” Sivey mentally prepared as he pressed the button in the middle of the roulette wheel. The wheel spun, passing martial arts and troops before finally landing on the equipment section.
“Not bad!” Sivey exclaimed, somewhat pleased with his reward.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host, on obtaining Superior-grade armor Dragon Slayer Heavy Plate Armor… Ding! Acquired triple critical strike chance, critical strike success… Congratulations, Host, on obtaining Heroic-grade armor Triumphant Paladin Hero Plate Armor.]
“Hmm, not bad… Wait a minute, what did you say, system? Heroic grade?” Sivey leaned back tactically, suddenly sitting up from his chair.
“Congratulations, Host, on obtaining Heroic-grade armor Triumphant Paladin Hero Plate Armor, would you like to materialize?”
“Materialize, materialize, hurry up. I haven’t seen what Heroic-grade armor looks like yet!” Sivey urged eagerly.
Sivey felt elated; his master, the Legendary Sword Saint Sardine, only possessed a sword at Heroic grade, and his armor remained at the Grandmaster level.
Human craftsmen were limited in their abilities; forging Grandmaster-grade armor was already the pinnacle. Equipment above Grandmaster grade could only be crafted by Dwarven Masters, and even then, Heroic-grade Equipment was rare and challenging to make.
In Sivey’s eyes, a set of magnificent armor materialized on the dining table. The entire set was silver-white with gold accents, made from dragon-pattern steel and adorned with a large golden dragon crystal on the chest plate.
The dragon crystal, originating from a young brass dragon, enhanced the wearer’s Qi level and defense. It could also activate a protective shield until its energy was depleted.
This Heroic-grade armor was top-notch, crafted from priceless materials. Sivey eagerly donned the armor, feeling a surge of energy coursing through his body.
With his new armor, Sivey was eager to test its capabilities in combat against Clement. As he retrieved his greatsword, he couldn’t contain his excitement.
“The system is awesome, the system is really fragrant, you’re no longer the dumb system, you’ve stood up!”
[Ding! This system has no legs, and cannot stand up.]
The system remained as unresponsive as ever, but Sivey saw its limitations as an advantage to exploit.
As Sivey eagerly anticipated his upcoming battle, he couldn’t wait to put his new armor to the test against Clement.
“Sire Sivey, are you looking for me, old servant?”
Clement, clad in heavy knight armor, pushed open the door to the private training room. He had just finished training guards in the castle’s rear courtyard.
Winterkeep currently lacked defensive forces, so training more soldiers to serve as Winterkeep’s guards was a top priority.
Sivey had been waiting in the training room for a while; this was where he usually trained privately.
In this room, which was much larger than the dining hall, there were some wooden stakes and weapon racks, but they were mostly decorative.
What was really useful was the layer of magic-infused obsidian tiles on the floor and walls. These tiles not only had extremely high hardness but also decent tenacity.
The downside was that their energy conductivity was very poor, so they could only be used to make weapons below the Superior grade.
“Clement, I got a pretty good set of armor; let’s have a fight and try it out,” Sivey turned around and smiled.
The dragon crystal on his chest plate was shining brightly, making it impossible for people to divert their attention away from it.
Clement looked at the armor on Sivey’s body with surprise. He was also someone who knew his stuff and could tell that this armor was not ordinary.
“Sire Sivey, this set of armor of yours can’t be summarized as just ‘pretty good’,”
Clement said somewhat enviously. Armor, longswords, and knight’s spears were things that accompanied knights for life; they were even more intimate than their own spouses.
All knights were keen on better armor and weapons, and Clement was no exception.
“In that case, old servant, help me test this new armor.”
With that, Clement made a gesture of invitation to Sivey, and the two walked to the center of the arena, bowing slightly with one hand clasping their chests.
Then, Clement raised his head, drew the longsword from his waist, and with the sword edge forward, his momentum suddenly sank, transforming from a spirited old man into a fierce beast lurking in mountains of corpses and seas of blood, ready to prey on anyone.
Sivey silently praised in his heart, “No wonder this ruthless man single-handedly stopped the Fourth Cataclysm for over two months.”
This ferocious killing intent, majestic momentum—even as an Earth Knight himself, he still felt a chill down his spine.
But Sivey was not the trash lord from the game; he was much stronger than that, only pursuing elegance in swordsmanship.
He had learned famous swordsmanship from the Legendary Sword Saint, simple and unadorned, yet overwhelmingly dominant.
Gripping the broadsword with both hands, his eyes calm and shining like stars, Sivey seemed to merge with the surrounding environment.
Under the amplification of the Heroic-grade armor, his momentum was like a majestic brass dragon roaring behind him, carrying a heavy sense of oppression that suppressed everything—even the air became stagnant.
“Hah!”
Clement stepped forward, launching the first attack. The longsword thrust forward, a sharp sword cry rang out, and a crimson sword aura burst out like a poisonous dragon.
Sivey raised his sword to block horizontally, exerting force with both arms to deflect Clement’s single-handed sword, then used both hands to thrust the sword forward.
“Roar!”
With the mighty force of the giant sword, accompanied by a fierce lion-shaped phantom, it swung down on the raised longsword.
The terrifying force created waves of Qi, causing cracks to appear on the obsidian ground under the old knight’s feet.
Facing Sivey’s fierce attack, Clement leaned to the right and used the momentum to retreat, avoiding it. In an instant, the longsword stabbed out again, the crimson sword aura resembling a dark moon.
As the two fought back and forth, their movements were so fast that only afterimages could be seen.
“Clang clang clang!” The sound of weapons clashing was incessant, and the golden and crimson sword Qi intertwined, with several dozen exchanges in just a few breaths. After a hundred moves, the two still fought fiercely.
But Sivey voluntarily withdrew from the battle because continuing would be meaningless; it would only be a test of who had better stamina.
This was a pure contest of swordsmanship and sword tactics; neither of them used Qi. Otherwise, Winterkeep would probably have turned into ruins.
“Sire Sivey, after you put on this armor, you’re like a brass dragon; I can’t even move you without using Qi,” Clement said helplessly, smiling bitterly.
His swordsmanship came from the battlefield, known for its fierceness and sharpness, yet he still had no good way to deal with Sivey. This armor perfectly complemented Sivey’s sword skills, which relied on strength to break through finesse.
“You were holding back, and besides, relying on Equipment is ultimately not as good as relying on oneself,” Sivey said, not falsely modest. Clement’s strength was beyond doubt.
After a fight with Clement, he was even more satisfied with this armor, which maximized defense.
As a pragmatist, Sivey had always believed in one principle: only by staying alive could he contribute.
If he died, nothing else mattered.
At night, Sivey, asleep, suddenly displayed a smug smile on his face.
He had a dream; in the dream, he was besieged by a group of players, but this group of players never managed to break through his defense.
[A/N:
Let’s talk about the setting of weapons and armor.
The grade of weapons represents their strength. The higher the grade, the higher the durability and strength of the weapon or armor.
For example, when a Superior-grade weapon clashes with a Common one, the Common weapon will break. It’s not that higher-grade weapons don’t have special abilities; they do, but they’re not particularly exaggerated, just like armor. Equipment is ultimately just external objects with limited amplification capabilities, unlike those insane artifacts.]
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