Chapter 2: Holy Sword Set Card

  "Ah..."

  It wasn't until then that Luo De let out a breath and lay back down again.

  After the conversation with the girl just now, Luo De can confirm that this is indeed the world of Long Soul Continent. Moreover, this is not the era he experienced before, but a more distant past - the Twilight Year, which corresponds to the period when the game of Long Soul Continent had just started public testing.

  How did I end up here?

  Luo De let out a sigh, shook his head and stopped thinking about these strange and mysterious things. In any case, he had already arrived here, and that was a fact. So what should he do next?

  First, Rod decided to try out what he could do for now. And with just a thought, a clear and familiar system prompt quickly appeared before his eyes, displaying his current status and attributes:

  Luo De

  Grade 1

  Ethnicity: Mixed-blood (?)

  Talent: Unsealed

  Racial Bonus: Unsealed

  Racial characteristics: Unsealed

  Occupation: Summoner Swordsman (Hero Occupation)

  Occupational Skills: Summoning (Proficiency E)

  Possesses swordsmanship: Moon Shadow Sword Technique (Proficiency E) (Usable skill - Shattered Blade)

  Part-time: Alchemist (Specializing in Arcane Crafting)

  Possesses skill: Concentrated Shaping (Proficiency E)

  This is a very normal and yet very abnormal attribute table. Especially when he saw the first item, Luo De almost shouted out loud.

  Mixed blood? How can it be mixed blood?

  On the continent of Long Soul, the so-called mixed-blood is not referring to intermarriage between different ethnic groups on Earth. On the contrary, most people with this attribute are born from the marriage between humans and other races. However, Luo De was very clear that he was a human being, and even in the game, he did not choose any other race. But why now, his attribute table would have an extra mixed-blood? And behind it is a question mark in parentheses, which represents that the bloodline has not yet fully awakened, so the racial rewards and racial characteristics are also sealed. This means that Luo De must understand what kind of blood he possesses and awaken the dormant power in his bloodline before he can obtain them.

  This is a bit of a hassle for Rod, as the racial rewards are usually provided after the character is established. For example, the human racial reward is to shorten the time it takes to learn skills, and depending on the race, there will be additional bonuses such as resistance to poison and increased reputation. However, now these rewards and characteristics have nothing to do with Rod.

  However, there was also a surprise, as in the swordsmanship and alchemy column, Rod discovered that aside from his level one essential skills, the dozen or so sword techniques and alchemy skills he had learned as a player were not forgotten, but quietly listed below. However, they were all darkened, indicating that with Rod's current abilities and level, he was unable to learn and use them. This didn't worry Rod, though - as long as his strength increased and reached the required conditions, he would be able to regain the right to use these sword techniques and skills once more. The only drawback was that the proficiency of these sword techniques and skills had also been restored to their lowest level, E-rank, rather than SSS-rank.

  However, Rod didn't mind these minor issues because what he valued most about these skills wasn't their proficiency, but rather their origin. Many sword techniques were extremely difficult to learn, requiring not only level-ups or attribute increases, but also completing a series of tasks, raising one's reputation, or simply stumbling upon hidden items by chance. All of this required a lot of money, time, and even luck. It wasn't until Rod's final year in the Dragon Soul Continent that he had fully crafted his character, giving him the confidence to challenge the Void Dragon.

  Unfortunately, with joy and worry, the problem of swordsmanship was solved, but Rode soon discovered that what had been reset to zero was not just experience, level, and proficiency. There was also the most important existence for a summoner swordsman - the summoned spirit.

  In the game Dragon Soul Continent, Summoner is a controversial profession. At first, it was introduced as an official player-exclusive profession and received attention from everyone. However, after getting familiar with it, Summoner became known for its awkward dual-attribute system due to magic and martial arts combination, complex attack coordination with summoned spirits, and high experience consumption during leveling up, earning the title of one of the most frustrating professions among players.

  At first glance, the summoning techniques of swordsmen and mages seem to be identical, but in reality, they are fundamentally different. A mage's summoning technique involves consuming their own power to tear apart space and summon creatures from lower planes, using magical force to constrain them into serving themselves. In contrast, swordsmen do not have the ability to tear apart spatial planes; all of their summoned entities originate from the mortal world. One such ability is the unique "Spirit Summoning Technique" possessed by swordsmen, which allows them to reawaken the spirits of ancient, mysterious objects imbued with spiritual power and then seal them into a contract for use.

  Although it sounds great and powerful, there are also a lot of troubles in it. In fact, at the beginning, many players were confused by this skill and chose to summon swordsmen. In their view, as long as they buy back some damaged ancient artifacts at a low price in the ruins or guilds, and then use the soul-calling technique to call out the souls of those weapons and seal them, they can get a divine artifact without much effort.

  Unfortunately, dreams are beautiful, but reality is cruel. Let's not mention that the remnants of ancient-level weapons can only be activated by high-ranking summoning techniques to awaken their dormant souls. As spiritual bodies, they have lost their physical form and thus their power is much weaker than before. Take Rod's quasi-divine artifact "Dragon King's Fury" in the game, for example. He was able to extract its soul from a weapon remnant only after reaching max level, but even then, the condensed weapon's power was not as strong as those crafted by master blacksmiths. It took Rod two whole years of searching high and low across the Dragon Soul continent to finally reactivate all the fragments' souls and restore the weapon to its original state. Not to mention the time spent, the dangers involved in the process were enough to deter many people. Moreover, spiritual weapons require soul power to maintain during use, and summoned spirits also consume soul power. However, summoners have much less stored soul energy compared to mages. As a result, many summoners would rather choose ordinary weapons than use these "beautiful-looking" but practically useless spiritual weapons.

  Apart from this, there are three other sources of summoning spirits for swordsmen. One is to obtain the soul core condensed after a magical creature's death and awaken it, making it one's own summoning spirit. However, this will be affected by the holder's attributes and environmental factors, resulting in changes. To illustrate, if a summoner obtains a soul core from killing a fire snake but awakens it in an icy environment or while wearing dark-attribute equipment, who knows what kind of monster will be summoned? If it's a nine-headed serpent with dark powers, that's fine, but if it's an ordinary magical creature weakened by attribute clashes, then there's nothing to do but cry.

  The second way to obtain a summoned spirit is by defeating non-human creatures, and after meeting certain conditions, you can also sign a contract with them, seal them as your own summoned spirits for use. This is also a more common way for summoners, but the drawback is that these summoned creatures have too much autonomy, if in the game, then the performance is likely to resist the orders of their summoner based on their own judgment. Of course, this will not be welcomed by anyone, after all, who doesn't want the things they summon to help them out instead of making trouble for them.

  As for the last method, it is to awaken the attribute adjustment talent after level 10, and merge multiple summoned spirits to produce a higher-level spirit. This method controls the uncertainty of the summoned spirits to some extent, as long as you are familiar with their characteristics, race, and attributes, you can roughly guess what kind of summoned spirit they will become after merging. However, this approach also has its drawbacks - the level of the newly produced summoned spirit is unpredictable, it may produce a 1-level new summoned spirit by merging two high-level summoned spirits, or merge out a summoned spirit that is higher than the holder's level and cannot be used at all. If it's the latter, just work hard to upgrade your own level, but if it's the former, then delete your account...

  The experience of summoning spirits is deducted from the holder's body, which is also why summoners level up more slowly than other professions. With the same amount of experience points, other professions only need to consider themselves, but summoners must allocate some of it to their summoned spirits for upgrading. However, this allocation is difficult to grasp, and giving too much experience to the summoned spirit can guarantee its level increase and evolution when it reaches a certain point. Nevertheless, as mentioned in the first point, the spirit's evolution is influenced by various factors such as the environment, the holder's will, and external influences at the time of evolution. As a result, the evolved summoned spirit may not always be what the holder desires.

  And it's precisely because of the "坑爹" (exploitative) nature of summoning swordsmen that it has also topped the list of "Top 10 Most Exploitative Professions" on the official forum of Long Soul Continent. Some people have given a very vivid evaluation to those who play summoning swordsmen: either they are newbies who have never played games before and were deceived by introductions and CG promotions, or they are casual players who don't strive for improvement. Or else they are gamblers who bet on their luck and personality. And the last type is... Luo De.

  Just from the change of this game ID's name to a phenomenon, it can be known that when Luo De obtained countless server firsts with the Summoner profession, which is recognized as the most坑爹 (exploitative) in the world, and even conquered three new eras in a row, what kind of feeling did those players have?

  Most players don't like this overly random way, it makes them feel out of control, but Rode enjoys it, precisely because of the unknown, which is also the reason he chose to be a Summoner. In fact, in his long gaming career, he has encountered almost all the "坑爹" performances of Summoners, but Rode is not tired of it, because only by conquering such difficulties can he feel more satisfied.

  But now, the dozens of top-notch summoning spirits he had cultivated over seven years were all eliminated. The mysterious summoning array on the back of his right hand still existed, but Rod felt no trace of any spirit within it. On second thought, it was also understandable that this body was not a game body after all, and one couldn't ask for too much.

  But...

  Thinking of this, Roder's heart moved involuntarily, and then he reached out his hand to touch the pocket on his chest, and indeed, he soon touched a card.

  That is a white-based card, on which is depicted a long sword wrapped in thorns, with intricate carvings and a pair of beautiful wings at the hilt. The four corners of the card have different marks: a white semicircle in the top right corner, a small "X" in the top left corner, and two small numbers "3" in the bottom left and right corners. When flipped over, a mysterious and elegant text slowly appears on the back of the card.

  Eternal Holy Sword 10th: Star Stigma, attributeless, can be merged - even the dust of history cannot bury its dazzling brilliance.

  Still here?

  Looking at the card in his hand, Luo De was slightly stunned. This was a special equipment for summoning swordsmen, a summoning card. Moreover, he was very familiar with this card. It was a rare card that he had received as a commemorative gift from the game officials after leading his guild to win first place on the server for two consecutive seasons. The game company had specially made this card to honor him as a top player. Of course, similar cards and merchandise were abundant, but Luo De didn't have the heart to waste money on things that could only be looked at and not used. So he only had this one award, which he carried with him as a good luck charm, anyway, it didn't take up much space.

  It was originally just an ordinary, extremely ordinary commemorative prize, except that there is only one in the world, but at this moment, Luo De saw that its surface was emitting a faint light, shining in his hand.

  Want to give it a try?

  Rode hesitated for a second, then his right hand grasped the card tightly. The magic circle attached to the back of Rode's right hand suddenly lit up, and a burst of azure magic lines spread out from it, extending to each finger on his right hand. Then, the white card suddenly burst into dazzling white light, and then turned into specks of dust, completely disappearing into thin air.

  At this moment, a system prompt also appeared in front of Rode.

  [Eternal Set Plate 1/10, Eternal Holy Sword Rank 10 - Stellar Scar]

  "Hmm..."

  Staring at the system prompt, Luo De let out a complex sigh. Although he didn't know why something that was just an ordinary card in his original world had become a summoning card with its original function here, for Luo De's current situation, this was absolutely the most useful assistance. In the game, finding +2 ability weapons before level 15 was very rare, and "Star Mark" actually had an initial +3 attribute, which was enough to make the originally half-abandoned summoner swordsmen comparable to regular swordsmen. Additionally, its fusion property meant that as long as a suitable spirit was found, it could be transformed into an attribute weapon. Although the fact that it required the holder to consume soul power to use it made it slightly inferior to normal weapons, just in terms of attack power, it was already one of the few powerful equipment available at this time.

  It's just that Rode can't get thoroughly excited now, because for him, the situation he's gotten himself into is just too bizarre.

  Is this a game? Or reality? If it's reality, then where should I go and what should I do?

  "Knock knock."

  Just then, there was a knock at the door.

  Rod raised his head and saw a middle-aged man pushing the door to enter, wearing an adventurer's leather armor, with a fiery red long hair casually combed back, seeing Rod, the man smiled slightly.

  "Hello, sir. I am Carter, the leader of the Star Moon Mercenary Group."