Chapter 226: Breaking Free from the Unranked, Officially Becoming a Space Veteran (Revised)
From now on, Cheng Tian officially shed his novice status and entered the veteran stage.
The previously hidden "Unranked" prefix was completely replaced by "Black Iron Rank."
Using all Heaven's Chosen Space players as the data object, the average number of main story dungeons required to advance from Unranked to Black Iron Rank was approximately 6 to 8, not counting the novice trial data.
However, Cheng Tian only used one novice trial and two official trials to elevate himself to Black Iron Rank.
The Cadillacs and Dinosaurs dungeon could probably be counted as 0.5 times, but this was still an exceptionally fast promotion speed.
It's estimated that even Aoko, who is also Black Iron Rank, would be speechless upon hearing this.
The moment Cheng Tian stepped into the Black Iron Rank, a series of rules began to scroll across his screen, and their content was largely consistent with what Aoko had indirectly expressed before.
However, Cheng Tian quickly extracted two relatively crucial rules from them.
One was that after becoming Black Iron Rank, Cheng Tian would receive a relevant dungeon keyword hint 24 hours in advance for each monthly trial dungeon.
This keyword would not be a generic one like "Faction Confrontation," but rather a keyword closely related to specific types, allowing him to prepare in advance, just as Aoko had made many preparations for sword and halberd combat.
The second rule was that the bounty mission center would further open up missions adapted for Black Iron Rank, and the dungeon keywords would become even more diverse.
This meant that dungeons would have more uncertainties, leading to unexpected yet reasonable plot developments, making the information held by Heaven's Chosen Space players, including Cheng Tian with his Clairvoyance, no longer 100% useful, and potentially even creating IF storylines similar to 'Dynasty Warriors 7'.
Using 'Dynasty Warriors 7' as an example, it would be like Guan Yu, who was destined to die in the Battle of Fancheng, having his fate reversed because of player intervention, where Xu Shu arrived early and provided a strategy to overcome the inevitable death.
And using Makaimura as an example, it would be the Demon King's subordinates attacking Arthur and the princess, but it's Arthur who gets kidnapped instead, and the enraged princess dons Arthur's abandoned knight armor, embarking on a solo Makaimura Great Expedition to rescue Knight Arthur.
It's about using existing dungeon elements to showcase more possibilities, which is quite different from the situation of 'Cadillacs and Dinosaurs' being merged with 'MapleStory' fragments due to erosion.
However, Cheng Tian estimated that upon reaching Bronze or even higher ranks, similar dual blueprint merging situations might occur.
Following the rank promotion was the settlement of Cheng Tian's Game Expert talent.
[Game Expert Settlement Initiated —]
[Your mission completion is 100%, your scene exploration is 100%, and your dungeon settlement evaluation is S+.
You single-handedly killed Dual-Blade Knight Balford and Silver Prince Allen.
You carved out a large number of special treasures and changed the dungeon's Supreme Staff from limited to 1 to limited to 2, ending the Golden Grand Duke Garibaldi's exclusive ownership of the "Crimson Chaos Staff."
You were granted the title of Knights of the Round Table.]
[Through settlement, you gained the template skill 『The Holy Grail Guides the Way / Holy Grail Mission』 of "Holy Grail Knight / Marcus Crupol" as an additional skill.]
[Due to the loss of the Virtue of Responsibility's blessing, the number of Holy Grail Missions that can be triggered after entering each dungeon reverts to 2, and the completion of Holy Grail Missions will be included in the mission settlement, increasing completion and final score.]
[The "Ghost Rider / Johnny Blaze" template, temporarily loaded due to the template reversal under the influence of Hundred Demons' Night Parade, will also exist in the form of a transformation-type additional skill, with a certain degree of effect weakening.
You gained 『Ghost Rider Transformation』 as an additional skill through settlement.]
...Perhaps it was due to using the Emerald Staff, but compared to the overwhelming fatigue Cheng Tian felt after completing the Metal Slug dual main quest, this time, back in his personal space, Cheng Tian felt completely refreshed and not tired at all.
In fact, if he couldn't trigger the Golden Grand Duke's Great Expedition mission himself, he would even want to try to challenge for a double S rating.
Not tired is not tired, but eating is still necessary.
The Arcade Imitation Cuisine Restaurant received another large order; just looking at the quantity of food, one might even think it was some kind of hundred-person gathering.
Cheng Tian himself had a very good appetite, and increased mental activity actually increases food consumption, as the brain's power increases, and energy consumption also rises significantly.
Most importantly, he also had the War Elephant Mammoth and the Crimson Tyrannosaurus Rex, two super eaters; a mere hundred-person portion couldn't stop their vigorous consumption, and compared to them, the Primitive Pterodactyl was considered to have a small appetite.
Of course, this expenditure was not part of their daily consumption; it was extra money, but Cheng Mouren, whose wealth had once again returned to six figures, was happy to spend it!
While plucking a handful of bananas from the War Elephant's Hundred Fruit Tree and stuffing them into his mouth, Cheng Tian checked his communication list.
Aside from Luo Meiling and the other two who had already been guided through the dungeon, the avatars of Aoko, Congming Tou, and others were still offline, which meant they were either in a main story dungeon or had already returned to reality.
In fact, Cheng Tian and his group had been fighting for about 48 hours, but in a main quest, this was already considered very efficient; the deserted appearance outside the Space Island also showed that most players had not yet returned, or had already died in the dungeon.
Cheng Tian closed the communication list and then casually opened his personal panel.
[Name: Cheng Tian / Aoko / DX233180]
[Title: -]
[Race: Earth Human]
[Profession: -]
[Attributes: Strength 18, Agility 14, Spirit 30 (Emerald Staff +2), Charisma 11, Legend Point 1, Fire Resistance 20%]
[Available Free Attribute Points: 14+4 points] (Chapter 166, another 4 dragon eggs were taken, remaining attribute points)
[Available Free Skill Points: 4 points]
[Status: HP = 280 / 280 (Emerald Staff +100hp), MP = 300 / 300, No special BUFF]
[Talents: Game Expert (S-rank), Remnant of Sun's Blessing (C-rank, not ascended)]
[Inherent Skills: Hundred Demons' Night Parade Lv4 (B-rank), Ten Commandments Lv4 (C-rank), Titan's Grip Lv1 (B-rank)]
[Additional Skills: Soul Save, Chariot Master, Bounty Hunter, Holy Grail Mission (New), Ghost Rider Transformation (New)]
[Items (New): Balford's Pride and Obsession Lv2 (Purple, Set One-Handed Sword), Prince's Longsword Lv1 (Purple, Two-Handed Greatsword), Crimson Chaos Staff, Silver Knight Statue * 2, Golden Knight Statue * 1, Magic Pouch (6 slots)]
[Achievements/Titles (New): Louis XVI Simulator / Guillotine (Blue), Britannia Supernova / Knights of the Round Table Dragon Elephant Knight (Purple), Are You Also a High-Tier Lord? / Silver's Demise (Purple), The Esotericism of Three-Ball Spells / I Am Not Karl (Purple)]
Cheng Tian curiously clicked on "The Esotericism of Three-Ball Spells / I Am Not Karl."
For other players, there was a chance, however small, to stumble upon Red Shock and Green Shock, but Blue Shock, being a deleted Easter egg, could obviously only be obtained through technological means.
So it belonged to a limited Easter egg.
Its achievement reward was a passively triggered characteristic: upon entering a new dungeon, Cheng Tian would randomly receive 1 Shock Orb that could only be effective in the current dungeon and could not be taken out of it. Its color would be randomly drawn from the three colors, and whether used or not, it would disappear directly after clearing the dungeon.
When he saw this reward, Cheng Tian's eyes darted around, then he moved his gaze to his Soul Save skill.
These Shock Orbs... should also be considered throwable consumables, right?