Awakener Forum.
"Come, come, place your bets! Who will be the first to clear the Advancement Instance?"
"That goes without saying, of course, it's our Eagle Federation's Holy Hall Squad."
"Baka! Our Sunrise Nation's Sun Goddess Squad is the strongest! Clearing the Advancement Instance first is a piece of cake!"
"I'm dying of laughter. Weaklings who couldn't even get the first clear of the Trial Instance, please don't speak, okay?"
"I'm betting on the Truth Squad."
"I'll cast a vote for the Noah's Squad."
.........
If you want to know what's the hottest topic on the forum right now, it's undoubtedly the first clear of the Advancement Instance.
"It took seven hours to clear the Trial Instance. The Advancement Instance must be even harder. No hope of seeing it today."
"That's not necessarily true. The beginning of everything is difficult. Before, we knew nothing about instances, and with various concerns, it was naturally slow. Now, with rich experience, even the Advancement Instance won't stop top-tier Awakeners for long."
"I heard that Starfall Country and Eagle Federation are already considering forming super teams composed entirely of SSS-grade Talent Awakeners. In front of such super teams, even without any information or guides, it's possible to brute force their way through."
"Forget about Starfall Country. Does Eagle Federation have that many SSS-grade Talent Awakeners?"
"They have many lackeys."
...
"Advancement Instance."
Noah looked at the panel in front of him, his heart surging.
There was only one First Order Advancement Instance, which was originally gray but now lit up, showing as selectable.
[You have selected the Advancement Instance: Rise of the Orcs (1)]
[Required number of players for the instance: Five]
[Your team does not meet the requirements and cannot enter the instance]
Hearing the system prompt, Noah wasn't surprised. He could enter the Advancement Instance after his growth value was full, but Claire and others' growth values were not full, so they couldn't enter for now.
He needed to find an instance to max out their growth values first.
As for which instance to choose, any would do. Anyway, the first clear was gone, and neither Noah nor Claire and the others would get anything good, so farming any instance was the same.
Thus, Noah led the team back to Blood Battle Miller Family Fortress, farming it seven times in ten minutes, maxing out the growth values of the four people as well.
"Noah, are we going straight to the Advancement Instance?" Claire felt like she was in a dream.
Marcus and the others were no exception.
You know, they were D-grade and E-grade Talent Awakeners that no one wanted to team up with. Now, not only did they get three first clears, but they were also going to the Advancement Instance, and it was very likely they would be the first team to enter the Advancement Instance.
As for whether they could clear it, they weren't sure.
Noah was about to answer when suddenly, his expression changed slightly, and countless memories of diligently practicing Swordplay flooded into his mind, then disappeared in an instant.
"Could it be..."
He quickly opened his attribute panel and looked at the skills section.
[Skills: Swordplay Proficiency Lv1, Magic Shadow Step Lv0]
Swordplay Proficiency changed from Lv0 to Lv1, leveling up. The others remained unchanged, except that in the skill description, the Swordplay power changed from 10% to 11%.
Skills have proficiency or experience points. Through long-term use, the experience points continuously increase, and the skill level also rises.
However, is it that simple to level up?
Noah recalled that he only used a longsword during the The General's Downfall instance, increasing his skill experience points. If it were to level up, it would have leveled up then.
So this upgrade was not due to using a longsword.
Soon, Noah thought of a possibility.
He opened his attribute panel and carefully looked at his talent.
[Effect Two: Grow Stronger by Breathing (As long as you breathe, you can become stronger in all aspects, and you can perfectly control it. The higher the order, the greater the increase.)]
"Becoming stronger in all aspects. So, it's not just basic attributes, skills also become stronger."
This was very comfortable.
He didn't need to deliberately use his skills; they would automatically become stronger until they reached max level.
"Looking at it this way, skills shouldn't be learned randomly. If there are suitable skills, it's better to learn them as early as possible."
Noah checked his inventory.
There was only one skill book inside, an Ordinary quality Cross Slash.
He didn't think much of this skill.
Clearing the Goblin Forest first, besides the attribute crystals, also gave him two rewards, one item and one piece of equipment.
[Military Talisman (Goblin Warrior)]
[Quality: Ordinary]
[Type: Item]
[After use, summon a Goblin Warrior to fight for you. Disappears after death]
An item of the same type as Military Talisman (General's Guard Leader).
[Two-Handed Greatsword]
[Quality: Excellent]
[Type: Weapon]
[A meticulously crafted standard weapon, owned by a certain formal female knight.]
Upon seeing this weapon, Noah's eyes immediately lit up.
An Excellent grade weapon.
This was a big prize.
Let alone the First Order, this weapon was considered top-tier even in First Order instances.
"My luck has exploded."
Noah naturally kept this weapon for himself. A two-handed greatsword is also a sword-type weapon, and the passive effect of Swordplay Proficiency could take effect.
...
"Noah."
Seeing that Noah didn't respond, Claire called out again.
"Oh, we won't enter the instance yet. I still have something to do. Let's meet in an hour. If you have something to do, you can go take care of it too," Noah said, coming back to his senses.
Returning to his residence, Noah immediately logged into the Awakener Forum and went straight to the trading center, putting up the two military talismans.
He specified that he wanted to trade for skills.
The trading center was still very quiet at the moment, with very few people able to clear instances. Therefore, as soon as Noah put up these two items, they quickly caused a sensation.
"Damn, there are even items like military talismans."
"If I had these two military talismans, wouldn't I be able to clear instances too?"
"Everything is possible in a dream."
Without looking at the instant 99+ background messages, Zhou Li refreshed the trading center every once in a while. Ten minutes later, he saw a skill book listed.
Unfortunately, it was only an Ordinary quality skill, and the other party was asking for an exorbitant price, wanting to trade one for two.
Zhou Li directly ignored it.