While Selia and the system were talking, the Shield Guard had quietly cleared away more than half of the enemies in the settlement, leaving only a few Syracuse family Crossbowmen hiding in the buildings, putting up a desperate resistance.
However, for the Shield Guard, it was just a matter of two shield bashes—one bash to smash the door, and one bash to smash the person.
“Tsk tsk, is the Shield Guard always this violent when fighting?
It’s just like smashing doors in Shining’s story.”
Selia clicked her tongue, hiding behind a wall and watching the battle in the distance, while rubbing her sore right shoulder.
[It feels great to be carried by a big shot, right?
You’ll have to be careful during the next unexpected encounter, Host.]
“Wahhh, I don’t want to be dog-executed by dozens of hounds.”
“I’ve already decided, System.
If I encounter that situation, I’ll just commit suicide directly.”
“There’s no help for it.
Perhaps this is the fate of a Lancer.” Selia looked melancholy.
[A sniper rifle counts as a gun, I suppose.]
Just then, Selia noticed that the Shield Guard had finished the battle and was walking towards her.
“Report: Mission accomplished.”
Leaving behind these words, the Shield Guard vanished into thin air, leaving only a pile of loot from this node on the ground: a few originium shards and a recruitment permit.
“Eh?
It just disappeared?” Selia watched the Shield Guard turn into specks of light, curiously reaching out to touch the remaining specks in the air, but she felt nothing.
[Of course.
From another perspective, since the Shield Guard has disappeared, it proves that you have successfully cleared this node.]
“Then these spoils…
they aren’t useful, right?” Selia picked up the Supporter/Defender recruitment permit from the ground.
The permit instantly turned into a beam of light and dove into Selia’s screen.
Immediately after, a blank recruitment menu appeared before Selia’s eyes.
[You can’t put it that way.
If the Host can make it to the final node, you can still save some money for it.]
“Oh, right.” Selia suddenly remembered a detail from the system’s introduction earlier: “I remember you said the reward for clearing the first floor is one originium shard?
Is this the same thing as what I’ve obtained now?”
[Of course not.
The reward I mentioned is something you can use in the system shop.
The originium shards you’ve obtained now have basically no other use besides being deposited into Kannnot’s shop.]
“Can’t I buy collectibles?”
[Of course you can, but you can’t take the collectibles you buy with you.
They will be wiped when the next trial starts.
And given the Host’s current physical fitness, even with the help of collectibles, the effect in battle is limited.
Therefore, this system does not highly recommend that the Host buy collectibles.]
“In other words, I basically don’t need to pay attention to the data on hope and originium shards, right?” Selia sighed and picked up the detector: “Fine, let me see if I have any chance of clearing this in one life.”
[I’m pretty sure you don’t have a second life, Host.]
“Let me see…
eh, that’s not right.
The detector isn’t showing the map ahead, it’s only showing the path.”
[If it’s not there, then it’s an unexpected encounter.
If it were other non-combat nodes, such as a Safe House or a Departure, there would be corresponding building icons on the map.]
“Oh no, this really fits the definition of the node; I can’t even tell if it’s a battle or not.”
“But at least it’s not all bad news.
At least as long as there’s no combat, I can clear the first floor on my first attempt.”
Putting away the detector, Selia once again stepped onto the road ahead.
Ten minutes later.
“Hoo—hoo—this snowy road is way too hard to walk on.”
Setting her backpack aside, Selia leaned against a huge ancient tree, panting lightly.
“I remember I only walked for about ten minutes at the beginning.
Why haven’t I reached the node area yet?”
[Because this is an unexpected encounter.]
The system answered righteously.
[As long as you haven’t walked out of the range of this node, events can happen at any time.
You don’t need to be too anxious.
If you’re tired, you can rest for a while.]
“Will resting for a while affect the event happening?” Selia stared ahead with dead fish eyes.
[It will.
For example, you might wake up from a nap to find a Khan’s army formation right in front of you.]
“Then I shouldn’t rest at all!”
Selia hooked the straps of her backpack, exerted force with her arm, and swung the backpack onto her body.
As a result, because of her sore right arm, the backpack slammed heavily against the ancient tree she was leaning on, making a huge noise.
“Damn, I hope I didn’t knock down my Anti-Interference Index.” Selia was startled and quickly unzipped the backpack.
However, at this moment, it seemed that due to that impact just now, the bark of the ancient tree in front of her cracked and peeled away amidst the loud noise, and intricate patterns emerged on it.
“Th-this is…”
Selia froze for a moment, then reached out and touched the complex patterns.
The moment Selia touched the ancient tree, the patterns on the tree instantly vanished.
Selia felt her backpack grow heavy.
Opening the backpack, a brand-new Foldartal was quietly lying inside.
“Ancient tree, first floor, obtained a stone slab…” Selia pondered for a moment and immediately arrived at the answer: “Is this the Language of Schicksal?”
Unexpected Encounter — Language of Schicksal, a node where you can obtain one Foldartal without loss.
[That’s right, Host.
Your luck is really good.
Hurry up and see which one it is.]
The system’s voice carried a hint of surprise; it seemed she hadn’t interfered with this acquisition.
“Let me see…
hiss, Warrior?”
Foldartal [Warrior], its effect is to choose one combat node, and then randomly designate another combat node.
Combined with the effect of [Affection], it can directly turn two combat nodes into unexpected encounters.
[My god, Host, this run has a chance!]
The system became excited as well.
[If you can just happen to roll a Foldartal in the shop on the first floor that can be combined with Arbor to skip levels, then you might even be able to clear the second floor without fighting!]
“Eh?
Are there Foldartals in the shop on the first floor?”
[Normally there aren’t, but the enhancement system has fine-tuned quite a few settings within the theme to allow the trial to unfold more realistically.]
[If it’s in the shop, he can’t exactly not sell it, right?]
“This is truly a god-tier start.” A joyful expression appeared on Selia’s face: “If I can clear the second floor this time, the progress will speed up quite a bit, right?”
[Of course!
The reward for clearing the second floor is 2 originium shards and 1 hope, and performing the first stage of promotion for the Host only requires 6 originium shards.
If things go smoothly, it can shorten the progress by a full half-month.]
“Alright, I’m full of determination now.”
“No matter what the next unexpected encounter node is, I will push through it.”
[I’ll win.]
“Don’t, don’t use that meme.
I’m afraid I’ll really turn into 2.5 Ling later.” Selia firmly avoided any possibility of setting a flag.
Some time later.
[Host, I have some bad news for you.]
[There is a cave ahead of you, and it seems there are over a dozen people inside.]
“Gulp.” That was the sound of Selia swallowing her saliva.
[What should we do, Host?]
The system’s voice was also a bit panicked.
[This might be a combat node.]