A Core Ship From The Start

But, for them, this was enough.

“Good job, big guy!!”

Brock, armed with an axe drenched in ratman gore, pat Duanmu Huai on the leg. The dwarves were already not that tall, and with Duanmu Huai standing at a towering 2.5 meters, Brock looked like a small dog in front of Duanmu Huai, so small he couldn’t even hit Duanmu Huai’s knee when he jumped.

“Didn’t think you had it in ya!”

Brock was genuinely elated. Initially, he had only hoped that Duanmu Huai would help them alleviate some pressure. After all, Duanmu, clad in heavy armor and wielding a War Hammer, was not someone that could easily be dealt with. As long as he could attract the ratman’s attention, it would make things a bit smoother for the dwarves.

But Brock did not expect Duanmu Huai to charge to the front line, withstand the ratman’s fiercest attack, and firmly capture their attention. This enabled the dwarves to stretch their legs, as one might say. Duanmu Huai played an essential role in their effortless repelling of the ratman army.

Not to mention……

“You even killed the hero of these disgusting rats!”

“Hero?”

Hearing this, Duanmu Huai was taken aback. During the battle, he received a system notification about getting 1500 experience points, but he was too busy battling to check it. Now, hearing what Brock said, he was lost. Meanwhile, Brock burst into hearty laughter, beckoned over, and a dwarf with a ratman’s head in his hand came over.

“This is the one! Death Master Sines! I can’t believe it died in your hands, hahahaha!!!”

While speaking, Brock couldn’t help but laugh again. Death Master Sines was a powerful Ratman Assassin whom Brock had faced several times, but always to no avail. The reason was simple – the strength of this Ratman Assassin was so robust that even the dwarf’s armor was no match for his three poisonous blades. However, this time, this Ratman Assassin was killed by Duanmu Huai, leaving Brock feeling as if he had just taken a big swig of fiery liquor.

Now that Sines was dead, those disgusting rats nestled beneath the Gray Mountains could finally get lost!

“I can’t take the credit. It was Ogis who killed the rat.”

Hearing Brock’s introduction, Duanmu Huai finally understood why that rat was so resilient. Even though he was a flexible assassin, a hero unit probably exceeds level 35. My current level is only 21. Even with the strength of a Thunder Warhammer, I do not possess the ability to kill it in one hit.

Fortunately, with Ogis providing support on the sidelines, an unexpected problem was eliminated. Ratmen not only like to use poison, but they’re also accustomed to assassination. Duanmu Huai doesn’t look forward to being continuously monitored by a master assassin. Now that it’s dead, he’s relieved.

“Indeed, the credit goes to both of you, and I will inform the Supreme King! He will surely be pleased!”

Seeing Brock’s reaction, it was evident that he harbored deep resentment against this master assassin… Hm, Duanmu remembered that the dwarven Supreme King had a small notebook which was exclusively used to jot down names of enemies. Once an enemy had been eliminated, his name was crossed off. He wondered if this master assassin was one of the names listed in the Supreme King’s notebook.

“From now on, you are a friend of the dwarves! We are always generous to our friends! What do you want? Just say it!!”

Listening to Brock’s words, Duanmu Huai’s eyes lit up, and then he began to stare at Brock.

“Mr. Brock.”

“Just call me Brock! We fought ratmen together, which makes us brothers! Cut the formalities!”

“Alright then, Brock… What are… your plans for these ruins?”

“Hm………”

Hearing this, Brock paused for a moment, observing his surroundings and nodded.

“We plan to. We also need to inspect the things left behind by the ratmen and clear them out.”

“Can I have a look inside the ruins and find something interesting?”

“Oh?”

Brock was somewhat surprised by Duanmu Huai’s request, but after giving it some thought, he nodded in agreement.

“No problem! Take whatever you fancy, we dwarves are never stingy!”

“Thanks.”

On hearing Brock’s response, Duanmu Huai breathed a sigh of relief.

The reason he made such a request was not because of his obsession with archaeology, but because he was able to recognize something that the dwarves, unfamiliar with the current state of affairs, couldn’t – the ruins they were standing on were likely from the Ancient Saints!

The so-called Ancient Saints, on this planet, were the creators from ancient times, said to have created races such as humans, elves, dwarves and so on. The fact was indeed so, the Ancient Saints were not creators but advanced civilizations from outer space. Their looks were rumored to be similar to frogs. They held unimaginable technological strength and magic power and stood at the pinnacle of mastery over both demon beasts and theoretical physics.

When the Ancient Saints came to this world, it was to create beings that could resist the Subspace Demons and Chaos, hence races like the elves and dwarves were created.

However, something went awry, the portals created by the Ancient Saints in this world collapsed and Chaos began to flood in. The Ancient Saints abandoned this experimental field, and they ran away without even bothering to pack, their speed no slower than a mistress caught in bed by a husband.

After that, Chaos invaded the world in large numbers and the entire planet was in grave danger. However, the remaining races of this world managed to reverse the situation and sealed off the entire Subspace using the “Great Vortex”, saving the planet.

These were historical facts discovered by players in their later archaeological efforts. After this, the Ancient Saints never appeared again. Even though the game updated several times, players never found any traces of the Ancient Saints again. At the time, rumors among players were that these guys might be hiding in some obscure part of the universe or that the Subspace Evil God wiped them all out.

Or, more simply, the developers dug up a hole and forgot to fill it.

In any case, even though the Ancient Saints had abandoned the world, many of their technological relics remained in the world’s ruins, including an entire technological evolution tree!

After all, the Ancient Saints had been fighting Chaos for who knows how many years and had a vast amount of experience dealing with them. Their technology significantly helped in the fight against Subspace Evil Gods and Chaos invasions. Their power level was generally ranked as T1 Class by players on the leaderboard, with a few technologies even able to reach T0 Class.

The best way to get these technologies was to find technological relics of the Ancient Saints in the ruins, then take them to the Tribunal Library for analysis and then construction.

Duanmu Huai indeed knew of some places where Ancient Saint artifacts definitely existed before he crossed over; however, these places were all contested by large guilds at the time. As a lone player, he couldn’t afford or use them. All the places Duanmu Huai knew were on Zhen Dan’s side. He wasn’t sure whether there were any technological relics in the Ancient Saint ruins in these Gray Mountains.

But… wouldn’t he know if he just looked for it?

Having gotten Brock’s permission, Duanmu Huai let go of his worries and started to wander around the ruins. He was quite familiar with Ancient Saint ruins since they generally had similar layouts. It was like a modern person traveling to a fallout wasteland – a simple glance would tell you the function of each building.

But before that … Duanmu Huai opened the system and quickly settled this mission.

[Time Limit Mission “Disinfect” Completed!]

[Mission Evaluation: Outstanding]

[Player receives 3000 experience, additional 2000 experience, level increased to LV22, Attribute Points +1, Specialization Points +1]

[Received Additional Specialty (Persistent Chase)]

[Persistent Chase: +5% Critical Hit chance, +15% Critical Hit intensity when attacking debuffed enemies]

Well… It’s a bit complicated.

After adding attribute points to Strength and upgrading the level of Star Warrior’s battle training, and looking at the effect of this additional skill, Duanmu Huai was a bit conflicted.

In fact, he could use this skill right now, the simple principle is to—-take off the helmet, and then fight the enemy, his LV2… no, now LV3 Intimidation is enough to add DEBUFF to the opponent, and then continue to use [Persistent Chase] effect.

But… Does he want to show his face?

Whether to choose face or strength became a real dilemma for Duanmu Huai.