Chapter 69: Special Skills: Arcane and Mastery

[Hello, brave warrior of the Divine Mountain Empire!]

[Ding! Warrior, you have received a gift. Please check it.]

[You have acquired an Arcane Skill: Star Soul Rotation (Sealed).]

[Ding! You have received a message—

To the mighty warrior from another world, on behalf of the Fourth Prince of the Divine Mountain Empire, I extend an invitation to you. Should you choose to join our faction, we will generously provide all the resources you require.

The legendary secret technique we are offering this time was discovered by the Fourth Prince in an ancient ruin. It is currently unknown to anyone else and will not reveal the connection between us.]

[You have triggered a hidden quest.]

[Game of Thrones]

[Hint: You achieved exceptional results in the first phase of the Imperial Trial, meeting the conditions to unlock the hidden quest.]

[Description: Join/Refuse to join the Fourth Prince's faction of the Divine Mountain Empire.]

[Hint: The arcane skill you received can only be unlocked if you accept this hidden quest and join the Fourth Prince's faction.]

"It's here!" So, this is the hidden quest they mentioned earlier? Sterl smiled, looking quite excited.

Should he accept the quest?

"Accept!" Sterl didn't hesitate for a second.

He could figure out with his butt that joining this faction would likely involve helping the Fourth Prince in some sort of power struggle for the throne, which would be extremely dangerous. A slight mistake could cost him his life.

But for players in [Transcendence], who wouldn't risk their necks to make their way in the world? Having a chance to risk it all was actually a kind of luck.

However, there was one thing that puzzled Sterl—

What's an arcane skill? Being somewhat ignorant, he really had no clue what it was.

Sterl accepted the quest and then messaged the strongest member of his newly recruited subordinates, intending to ask for some information.

Of course, as a "cool and mysterious strongman," Sterl wouldn't ask directly. Instead, he sent a private message—

[Compile all the information you know about arcane skills and send it to me.]

With that sentence, he emanated the aura of a true boss.

After sending the message, Sterl noticed a new prompt in his quest log.

[Hidden National-Level Side Quest: Game of Thrones, has been activated.]

[Objective: Achieve the best possible ranking in the Imperial Trial to earn an additional reward.]

[Warning: The higher your ranking, the more likely you are to face attacks from enemies within the Fourth Prince's faction and hostile NPCs and players.]

"So, the essence of this quest is to fend off enemies to earn rewards?" Sterl quickly understood.

He broke into a smile. Sterl loved these kinds of missions where you just wait for the enemy to come to you! It didn't interfere with anything else at all! Whether leveling up or traveling, he could complete it effortlessly! Rounding it up, it was essentially a free reward!

Sterl's expression was joyful. Thinking back to the huge benefits from the first mission of the Empire's trial, his mood improved even more. He was already beginning to look forward to what kind of enemies would come to attack him...

"Even a B-level one can cause several countries to vie for it, and it costs 1,000,000 contribution points to exchange?"

Sterl was stunned for a few seconds.

He was also surprised that the hidden quest [Game of Thrones] had given him an arcane skill just for accepting it. Was the reward really that generous?

Sterl quickly calmed down, realizing that the arcane skill gifted by the Fourth Prince was probably not as high-rated as a B-level one... It was likely a relatively mediocre arcane skill, far inferior to the Divine Mountain Empire's [Mountain].

Sterl then looked at the introduction of [Arcane: Mountain], and he became even more confused.

First, it mentioned the term "Legendary Path," which made Sterl realize that these so-called arcane skills were likely related to realms beyond the third class change.

But what exactly is the "Legendary Path"? And what is "Second Awakening Talent"? Sterl had never been taught these terms in any of his classes!

What did "Training Difficulty" mean??

Sterl was momentarily stunned. If this was a skill, wouldn't he just learn it instantly? Did the training difficulty refer to the difficulty in increasing proficiency?

Moreover, arcane skills had such stringent learning requirements. They required gold-level skills, the player's own talents, and a very high level...

"If that's the case, what if I can't even learn the arcane skill given by the Fourth Prince?" Sterl suddenly realized something. Considering the description of arcane skills, he roughly guessed the truth. In the first round of the hidden quest assessment, Sterl's combat performance made people mistakenly think he was a third-class player.

For third-class players, the most attractive bargaining chips were resources related to breaking into the legendary realm.

The Fourth Prince was extremely generous, offering an arcane skill to recruit Sterl...

Sterl also checked the other arcane skills in the shop, and sure enough, they all mentioned the three indicators: Legendary Path, Training Difficulty, and Learning Requirements.

After browsing for a bit, he directly filtered out the arcane skills from the shop display.

Sterl had only 3000 contribution points, which wasn't enough to buy any arcane skills. Even if he had enough, he wouldn't buy them!

Sterl already had the arcane skill gifted by the Fourth Prince. Even if the quality was poor, Sterl had the ability to allocate points. The last thing he fears was poor quality.

Initially, Sterl intended to look for some practical skills. But soon he noticed something new that he hadn't heard of before, besides the arcane skills—

[Mastery]

This type of skill also had restrictions like Training Difficulty and Learning Requirements, but this time Sterl didn't need to ask his subordinates.

With [Mastery], Sterl understood immediately after clicking on one of the introductions—

[Mastery: Divine Mountain Empire Spearmanship]

[Description: Through training with this mastery, you will learn spearmanship primarily in the style of the Divine Mountain Empire.]

[Effect: After training in this mastery, you can accumulate proficiency to acquire the following three skills: Furious Thrust, Flame Spear Sweep, and Heavy Stone Guard.]

[Skill Proficiency Level is the same as Mastery Proficiency Level.]

[Learning Requirements: Proficient in Basic Spearmanship, Basic Footwork, and Basic Polearms.]

[Training Difficulty: Easy]

In addition to the description, there was a transparent screen demonstrating the Divine Mountain Empire spearmanship and the three skills.

After analyzing it for a bit, Sterl understood and became highly interested in masteries.

It wasn't just because mastering one of these would allow him to learn multiple skills. What intrigued him was the combat techniques that came with the mastery itself!