Chapter Fifty: Enhanced Combo

The soldier captain continued, “We were originally cavalry of the Royal Flying Knights. Three months ago, we received orders from the kingdom to suppress the rebels here on the Wild Horse Plains—the Golden Knights. Two months passed, and our numbers kept dwindling. The kingdom stopped sending us supplies altogether. Later, we learned that the lumber mill along the supply route had already fallen under the power of the undead. Every supply convoy was slaughtered there and turned into undead themselves. The rebel Golden Knights here are extremely formidable. Over two months ago, they used the open plains to their advantage and broke through our forces in one swift assault. Our commander, Derl, lost his life in that brutal battle. Since then, we’ve been trapped here on this suspension bridge. It’s been two months, and all our supplies are gone. If we don’t get reinforcements soon, we’ll starve to death right here.”

He fell silent at this point, sitting by the campfire with a string of sighs. The other soldiers drifted toward a dilapidated barracks that seemed to be the outpost for this ragged band, a stark contrast to the banners flying proudly across the way in the Golden Knights’ camp. Even a blind man could tell that the battles here had been fierce.

Seeing there was nothing to gain, I quickly sat by the fire and asked the captain, “Sir, the Golden Knights are also part of the kingdom’s army, aren’t they? Why are they now rebels on the plains?”

The captain sighed. “That’s right. The Golden Knights were one of the kingdom’s four main knightly orders. Their leader, Dark, is one of the few Sky Knights in the realm. The story goes back three years. That year, Princess Misha and Dark fell in love. But that same year, the dreadful undead plague swept through. The princess, unfortunately, was infected. Under pressure from his ministers, the old king had no choice but to exile the princess to the Plague Cemetery to let her fate take its course.”

“Dark surely wouldn’t have accepted that?” My interest was piqued. I hadn’t expected the quest I picked up to come with such a compelling backstory. “Moon’s Balance” really spared no effort!

The captain gave a bitter smile. “Dark is a stubborn man, as unyielding as the loyalty of his knights. On the third day after the princess was sent to the Plague Cemetery, Dark led his elite troops and broke through the undead mages’ wards to the old manor. Sadly, he didn’t find Princess Misha. Instead, he infuriated the old king. The two broke all ties, and Dark led his knights away from the royal army. Enraged, the king dispatched the second strongest flying knight regiment to hunt them down. Little did he know how fierce the Golden Knights would prove—within three days, they routed us entirely. Dark set out on a path from which there was no turning back.”

A chill ran through me. So this was connected to Princess Misha’s quest. No wonder Dark couldn’t find her—her soul had already been extracted.

“Young man, whether any of us make it back to Hurricane City alive depends on whether you can deliver a message for us.” The captain finally stated his request, and a quest prompt appeared: Will you accept Squad Leader Roger’s request to deliver his message?

I hesitated. If I just took this courier quest, it would be too simple—just a single trip back to town, likely for a meager reward, and if there was no follow-up, I’d lose out.

Adventure! Only risk brings great reward.

With a wave of my hand, I chose “no.” Unexpectedly, Squad Leader Roger gave a meaningful smile. “Young man, do you find this task too simple?”

I nodded solemnly. “As a swordsman of the kingdom, I have the courage to challenge Dark himself!”

Roger’s face froze for a moment—clearly the program was generating the next quest. Sure enough, in a few seconds, Roger continued, “Young man, this is no easy matter. You must be ready to risk your life! Go—bring back proof of your valor from Dark’s army!”

Quest prompt: Accept Squad Leader Roger’s request—kill knights from the Golden Knights regiment and return with 100 Golden Knight badges to Roger. This mission is extremely dangerous—be careful! The Golden Knights are on the plain opposite; every half hour, a patrol of scouts is sent outside their camp.

I carefully read the quest description twice and packed my gear. Helping Murong Shanshan with her quest earlier hadn’t worn down my equipment much, so I should be able to handle this. The quest notes said some Golden Knight units patrol outside the camp—clearly, I shouldn’t storm the main camp but hunt down the smaller patrols outside instead.

“Young warrior, do you have any other questions?” Roger asked, noticing my silence.

I was tempted to ask if he could give me some legendary item for protection, but looking at this down-and-out leader—who had lost his horse, likely eaten for survival, whose lance was long gone, whose greatsword was chipped and rusted, and whose once-silver armor was now blackened—I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

“No, Captain, nothing else. I’ll get started,” I replied, hefting my sword, honestly without trying to wheedle anything extra.

Roger smiled, “I don’t have much to give, but perhaps you don’t know—I was once an infantryman. Here’s a manual of swordsman skills. I hope it helps you!”

Ding~!

A skill book dropped into my inventory. I opened it and was stunned—Enhanced Combo!

Enhanced Combo: Allows the swordsman to execute combo skills more skillfully, increasing their damage to a certain degree. Requires Combo skill at level 3.

I quickly checked my skills panel. Thanks to frequent use, Combo was just now at level 3—the highest possible at my current level. In “Moon’s Balance,” skill levels can only be one higher than the tens digit of your character’s level. I’m level 27, so Combo can go up to level 3 and no higher until level 30, when I can raise it to 4. The highest skill level currently available officially is 10. Some on the forums claim a level 10 Combo can strike up to 7 times in rapid succession, making a high-attack swordsman capable of instantly killing a mage of the same level.

Unfortunately, that’s just theory. “Moon’s Balance” is very well balanced. Studies have shown that as Combo’s level increases, each hit actually does less damage. Lately, the forums have been full of complaints—most swordsmen now grumble that Combo is weak, almost a liability, as two hits combined sometimes do less damage than a single normal attack.

So, what difference will Enhanced Combo make to this almost useless skill?