213: [Flower Stick Queen] Star Upgrade, Moon Ladder

Chapter 213: Flower Cudgel Leader Star Ascension, Moon's Sky Ladder

Because S-class contracts have priority delivery rights, the Token Card arrived very quickly.

The price was 300,000 cubic coins, no more, no less.

The moment Shi Li received the Token Card, he immediately began the simulation mission.

This mission is named: Flower of the Club (Star Ascension).

After Seventh severely wounded two Sword Maidens from the Jin Kingdom in a duel, her fame soared.

The martial artists from various countries who came to challenge her no longer dared to do so easily.

But she knew she was still far from her goal.

So she decided to go to the Ancient Land of Quai for training, a dangerous place.

As soon as she entered the dangerous land, she encountered a powerful Mythical Beasts.

After an intense battle, Seventh emerged victorious.

Please help her make a choice.

A. Let it go.

This ferocious beast has a hateful face; it definitely holds grudges.

B. Cook it.

Sometimes ugly food tastes even better, but it's unknown if it's poisonous.

C. Stomp its head.

To prevent future troubles, it's safer to silence it.

Can cooking really be an option? But they say poisonous food often tastes better.

Shi Li casually chose C.

Overall, this mission wasn't too difficult.

After all, he had already experienced several Star Ascension simulation missions and was used to them.

After 5 days of refreshing and spending over 1.1 million cubic coins, the mission was finally completed.

You have completed this simulation, with a completion rate of 100%.

You can obtain 1 Hand Card [Charge (LV3)].

You can obtain 1 Item Card [Star Ascension Mission].

Do you want to spend 70,000 cubic coins to reset this mission?

It's a [Star Ascension Mission], not bad.

And it also gave a LV3 Hand Card.

LV3 Charge: Makes 1 card recover 15 energy for 2 consecutive rounds. (T1)

A total of 30 Charge can be obtained over 2 rounds, which is quite considerable.

The only pity is that [Charge] Hand Cards cannot overlap.

For example, when LV3 is active, LV2 and LV1 [Charge] cannot be applied to it.

The same applies to LV2 [Charge].

The Star Ascension mission for [Flower Cudgel Leader] doesn't seem very difficult.

Shi Li looked at the card.

Club Skill Training: Flower Cudgel Leader kills Overlord-level enemies, 0 / 100

The number isn't high, only 100.

Elite → Commander → Overlord → King → Emperor. The problem is—where to find them.

Shi Li had been to several other realms, but in reality, let alone Overlord-level, even Commander-level enemies were rare.

The only time he encountered an Emperor-level Withering Dragon was an exception.

He could count the Overlord-level monsters he encountered on one hand.

This mission, despite its low quantity requirement, felt much harder than the previous [Jumping Guard] and [Withering Dragon] missions.

No, wait a minute.

But suddenly, Shi Li thought of a place.

Chess Domain.

If he thought about it that way, the final BOSSes in the Chess Domain's dungeons seemed to include quite a few Overlord-level enemies.

Moreover, the Chess Domain has Characteristic dungeon teleportation gates, which are very convenient and can greatly improve search efficiency.

However, there was one problem.

That is, whether the BOSSes in the Chess Domain dungeons would count.

But no matter what, he decided to give it a try.

Anyway, District 11 wasn't far from the Chess Domain entrance, and it had been a while since he had gone there.

So, after greeting Xiu Qingshan, a dedicated aircraft immediately came to pick up Shi Li.

More than an hour later, Shi Li was already standing in Tianshan City.

Let's first see how my commissioned tasks are doing.

Since he was here, he wasn't in a hurry to do the [Flower Cudgel Leader]'s Star Ascension mission.

He would deal with other matters first.

He glanced at his bounty posts, all of which had been completed.

Someone had also left a message on the post about collecting pure dragon materials, offering to provide clues or even trade with Shi Li.

He politely declined them one by one, because [Red Blade Maiden] had already successfully Star Ascension, and he no longer needed this material.

But the online forum seems a bit lively lately.

Scanning a few pages quickly, Shi Li found many new posts.

They were all discussing the same thing, the Moon's Sky Ladder.

Although he didn't know what it was, he didn't plan to find out.

For now, he intended to resolve the remaining materials for Ashiro's mission.

He looked at his bounty posts again, and people had replied, all with good news.

After comparing them one by one, Shi Li completed the transactions with them.

Spending another 400,000 cubic coins, he got all the mission items.

Teleport.

Having completed the transaction, Shi Li's figure flickered and appeared in the initial small town.

Boss, I'm here.

Pushing open the door of the material shop, Shi Li walked in.

You're finally here. How's the material collection going?

It's finished.

Hehehe, a bit slower than I imagined.

So Shi Li took out those materials and completed the handover.

Mission completed.

You received a reward of 600,000 cubic coins.

I can only say it's not a loss.

Seeing this reward, Shi Li curled his lips.

Because this price was roughly the same as the price he offered for the mission materials.

With these materials, it's almost done.

Only one last thing is needed to complete it.

—

Shi Li was a bit speechless; why did this material collection mission have a second phase?

Couldn't he just face the BOSS directly? This collection mission was nowhere near as exciting as combat.

However, he couldn't refuse, and new text popped up before him.

Mission Updated

Find the Evil Dragon Alaga

Mission Content: Ashiro still lacks one last material, requiring you to go to the Moon's Sky Ladder to collect it.

Moon Crystal Essence, 0 / 1

Enemy Level: ???

Recommended Rank: ???

Reward: ?

Moon's Sky Ladder?

Shi Li was slightly stunned.

Why did this thing appear here too?

Hmph.

Ashiro looked at Shi Li upon hearing this, already knowing in his heart.

He had long suspected that the other party was an outsider.

Not even knowing about the Moon's Sky Ladder, this suspicion was now completely confirmed.

But it didn't matter.

Over the years, more and more outsiders from other worlds had appeared; it was no longer surprising.

So, Ashiro began to explain to Shi Li.

August of each year is the month when the moon is closest to the earth in this world.

During this month, every night, long ladders will extend from the sky in various parts of the world.

Each step of the ladder requires facing different choices; different choices lead to different encounters.

Whenever you reach a new height, the Moon's Sky Ladder will give you corresponding rewards.

It sounds like a roguelike mode.

Shi Li half-understood.

In short, there are a few points to note.

First, never view it by the standards of the cubic chess.

The Moon's Sky Ladder is a completely different existence.

Second, the Sky Ladder can be challenged infinitely.

As long as you refresh your personal luck, you can get rewards.

Third, if you encounter others on the Sky Ladder, always be cautious.

In the Sky Ladder, mutual plundering is possible.

Alright.

Shi Li nodded, indicating he would keep these points in mind.

The Crystal Essence is a reward item from the Sky Ladder level.

At this point, Ashiro looked out the window: "Today is the first day the Sky Ladder opens, and I see there isn't much time left until sunset.

You can go eat and then try it out.

There are many Sky Ladders; there are quite a few in and around our small town."

Alright, I'll give it a try.

Shi Li had originally planned to enter a dungeon, but half a day wouldn't make much difference.

So he wandered around outside, and when night fell, he witnessed a spectacular sight.

He saw bright lights, like a meteor shower, descending uniformly from the sky.

Indeed, just as Ashiro said, there were many Sky Ladder entrances.

One of them landed not far from Shi Li.

Looking around, no one seemed to be competing with him, so he walked forward.

This was a glowing stone step, floating silently about 5 centimeters above the ground.

A different mode from chess? Could it be cards?

Shi Li thought for a moment, then stepped onto it.

The next second, text popped up before his eyes.

Sky Ladder mode activated.

Please select the character you want to strategize with.

Character?

He opened the page as prompted and found that it was actually his deck of cards.

Each card was a character.

It was just presented in a slightly different way.

For example, [Red Blade Maiden] was simplified to the greatest extent in this Sky Ladder mode.

Red Blade Maiden

Berserk, 50 / 50

Tenacity - Trait: Red Blade Maiden possesses [Super Armor] and [Resistance] effects. There are no scores, no entries.

Only the belonging system and [Characteristic].

Other characters were the same; even ordinary character cards didn't have [Characteristic].

Then I'll choose [Red Blade Maiden].

Shi Li thought for a moment and chose his strongest card.

Selection complete, entering Sky Ladder.

Then, a new panel appeared before him.

Three options were laid out before his eyes.

1. Night Imp - LV1

An enemy that often appears at night, quite weak.

2. Moon Night Blessing

You can choose one of three Blessings.

3. Shop

You can spend Moon Coins to purchase items from the shop.

It really is a roguelike mode.

Shi Li had played many games before and was not unfamiliar with this.

Then he saw the deck in the interface.

So that's what it means.

The number of cards in the deck was not many.

Attack ☆: Deals 20 damage. There are 4 of these cards, displayed as recyclable cards.

Shi Li checked the notes, and recyclable cards meant that they would automatically return to the deck after use.

Vast ☆: Consumes 20 health, dealing 10% of its maximum health as True Damage.

There are 2 of these cards, displayed as non-recyclable.

This means that if it's used in a battle, it will not return to the deck.

It's a one-time use, gone after use.

Let's try it first.

Since there was no trial and error cost other than wasting time, Shi Li directly chose option 1.

Awoo!

Then a faint green goblin appeared.

Night Imp

Balanced, 50 / 50

So weak.

At the start of the round, Shi Li saw his deck shuffle.

Then 2 cards landed in his hand.

Both were [Attack ☆].

So this card movement is completely random, right? Only 2 cards per turn?

After playing the 2 [Attack ☆] cards, he ended his turn.

Then, it was the [Night Imp]'s turn.

The battle ended quickly, and Shi Li gained 1 experience point and 5 Moon Coins.

It's a bit willful; it doesn't even heal me after battle.

Shi Li looked at [Red Blade Maiden] with 40/50 health, feeling a bit annoyed.

Then he looked at the experience bar: 1 / 2.

One more monster should be enough to level up.

At this point, the option for [Night Imp] had changed.

1. Possessed Wildcat - LV1

A wildcat possessed by something unknown, full of hostility towards you.

As for the other two options, they remained.

Let's check the shop first.

Shi Li opened the shop again.

Longsword - Equipment: Increases [Attack] by 3 damage (15 Moon Coins)

Armor - Equipment: Damage taken from each attack -3 (15 Moon Coins)

Surge - Action: Gain 10 [Healing] (10 Moon Coins)

So expensive, I can't afford it at all.

He complained a bit and didn't choose to buy anything.

As long as he didn't click refresh, the shop option would always remain and not be replaced by something else.

So he looked at [Moon Night Blessing] again.

At the beginning of each major stage, you will be able to choose 1 of 3 random Blessings.

Along with the text description, an option appeared.

Blade of Light: [Attack] deals 10 light damage. Sixth Sense: Makes the enemy's first card ineffective each round. Vast: Damage cards deal 10 additional damage to targets with less health than self.

This is my first time playing, so I don't have much confidence. My main goal is to go as far as possible.

So [Sixth Sense] seems more reliable.

Shi Li chose the middle one.

After [Shop] and [Moon Night Blessing], he now understood some clues.

That is, the card's entries might be returned to the card in various forms.

Therefore, choosing which card as a character, to a certain extent, determined the character's combat style.

It also allowed the card player to have some foresight.

In this way, he began to study and strategize this Sky Ladder mode.

Since so many people in the Chess Domain wanted to enter this Sky Ladder, the benefits should not be small.

On the other side, in Shi Lei City, the capital of Shi Lei Country, at the Blacklight Mercenary Group headquarters.

A middle-aged man with his hands behind his back looked up at the glowing steps that had landed before him.

May the Withered Saint Lord be victorious.

Kneeling on one knee behind him was the current leader of the Blacklight Group.

The Blacklight Group had been developing in the Chess Domain for some time and had already established a mature intelligence network.

According to his extensive investigations, the [Wandering Fragmented Blind] was highly likely to be at the very top of the Sky Ladder.

It was precisely because of this intelligence that the Withered Saint Lord had descended a clone.

He intended to personally explore the Sky Ladder and obtain the [Wandering Fragmented High].

At this moment, the Withered Saint Lord seemed not to have heard the leader's voice, nor did he give any response.

He merely glanced at the glowing steps, then stepped onto them.

I must obtain the [Wandering Fragmented High].

I must obtain the [Wandering Fragmented High].