Chapter 74: Cut Me Some Slack!

After leaving the battlefield, Miss Vilyric donned the [Cognitive Obstruction Mask], took a detour, and hurried to her pet guardian’s cell.

She was quite satisfied with this attempt.

While assisting Edwina Cecelia against that vengeful spirit, the priestess used a total of two skills.

The first was the iconic 5th-tier holy light magic [Cooperative Pact], learned by almost all priest classes in the game.

This skill links the caster to another designated player, granting the latter a boost in all attributes based on the former’s intelligence.

Simple and straightforward.

Though it’s just a 5th-tier magic, [Cooperative Pact] is truly very useful.

Once the link is established, it will continuously consume the caster’s mp until it’s actively canceled or the mp is depleted; it can’t be countered by any conventional means and has no so-called duration limit.

Due to the one-on-one binding characteristic of [Cooperative Pact], the game has introduced things like “Fixed Healing” and “Fixed Combinations,” and some players even used this as a springboard to develop various CPs and even real-life relationships.

However…

This skill is still a bit low-tier and has its limitations.

If the player casting [Cooperative Pact] has a significantly different attribute level from the linked player, there will be an upper limit on the increase.

Vilyric had tested it in the game, and the maximum boost could enhance the assisted player’s attributes to about seven times their original value. In other words, the highest possible increase from [Cooperative Pact] is this.

In this world, there are clearly similar limitations, so Edwina only rose from the beginner sky level to about the peak surpassing level, roughly equivalent to level 35—close to level 70.

The second skill was a sudden inspiration for Vilyric. Seeing the holy light power on Edwina, she decided to try the 9th-tier magic [Kiss of Light].

This skill has two different effects.

The first time it’s used on a player or NPC, it permanently boosts the target’s attributes and increases something called [Light Element Affinity] in the game.

Using it again will similarly enhance attributes and light element affinity; though it can stack with the first use, it won’t be permanent, and the effect will diminish significantly.

It’s safe to say that the greatest value of [Kiss of Light] lies in its first use.

Moreover, due to its high level of difficulty to obtain, many priests or light-type classes in the game go so far as to trade materials or even spend real money to ask players with this skill for a chance to use it once.

Attributes are secondary, but the opportunity to increase [Element Affinity] is incredibly, incredibly precious.

[Element Affinity] is a relatively common system in the game, easy to understand.

Basically, the affinity corresponds with elemental magic from the skill tree, and the higher it is, the greater the power when casting the corresponding property magic, while consumption decreases.

This attribute can generally only be enhanced through hidden quests or some extremely rare skills that cannot be triggered repeatedly, aside from the fixed initial value gained when choosing the skill tree.

For instance, when Vilyric released holy light skills one million times and completed a special achievement called [Light Transformation], her affinity shot up to the maximum of 100%.

A regular priest player reaching 50% would consider themselves a decent healer, with most people below that value, and many from other classes sitting at zero.

According to the priestess’s earlier experiment, the creatures in this world also exhibit similar attributes.

Edwina’s original light element affinity was around 30%, which is already quite high among the human groups she had encountered.

The archbishop Isaac from Flame Dragon City and those two sky-level priests in Liliya’s team likely only have 15%-20%. Other temple personnel that Vilyric encountered on her journey rarely topped this number.

Having received [Kiss of Light], Edwina’s light element affinity further increased as Vilyric had anticipated, reaching about 50%.

Currently, the priestess couldn’t see other people’s specific attribute numbers like in the game, so the only way to gauge changes was through the difference in Edwina’s attack power before and after.

This way, many speculations were confirmed, and it seemed that the so-called divine family from the Holy Empire likely received similar blessings, resulting in a higher affinity for light elements—a special inheritance of sorts.

Pushing open the somewhat rusty dungeon door, Vilyric immediately spotted the incredibly impatient little dragon girl standing there, surrounded by several shadow guards and adventurers.

Several adventurers were already lying on the ground beneath the little dragon girl’s feet, groaning as if they were still alive.

On the way here, Xiao Guang had conveyed news of intruders to Vilyric via contract, reminding her that this might be Princess Edwina’s arrangement.

Unable to do anything, she could only advise the little dragon girl to hold back a little, at least not to kill anyone.

With Xiao Guang’s temperament and communication skills, it was almost impossible to forget about conflict; she couldn’t let her pet get hit without fighting back, could she?

Vilyric couldn’t bear to see that. If a fight broke out, so be it; after all, it wasn’t like they couldn’t heal!

Although Xiao Guang had a bit of a temper, she wasn’t the type who couldn’t tell right from wrong. If she really beat someone up, they must have had some responsibility too!

“Master! You’re finally back!”

Upon seeing Vilyric push open the door, the once troubled blonde girl instantly brightened and dashed towards her. The shadow guards and adventurers along the way dared not to obstruct her, instead exchanging glances while making way.

There was no helping it; this woman was just too terrifying. Not only was her outfit odd, but her speed was so fast that shadows couldn’t even be seen. All four or five seasoned earth-level experts attacking her suddenly found themselves taken down in an instant—was that reasonable?!

Regardless of the skill level, many were starting to suspect that this suddenly appeared little girl wasn’t even human.

However, at least this group, which Liliya had dispatched early from the battlefield to rescue the hostages from the dungeon, completely dared not mention any nonsense about “the United Kingdom” or “foreign races” in front of the little dragon girl.

How could they not know that confronting a tiger after being crushed by their strength would only invite death?

“Be good~ I’m sorry to make you feel wronged; just leave this to me.”

Ruffling the small dragon girl’s wonderfully soft head, she ignored the adventurers whose eyes twitched at the mention of “wronged,” looking as if they had things to say but didn’t know how to start.

Vilyric stepped forward, handing her and Xiao Guang’s adventurer identification badges to one of the leading shadow guard ladies with a slight smile.

“Shadow Guard, right? By the order of Princess Edwina, my companion and I have secretly infiltrated here for an investigation. My name is Vilyric, and this is my teammate, Xiao Guang. It seems there’s been some misunderstanding; I truly apologize.”

“Our identities can be verified with Princess Edwina, and as for the conflict… cough, how about you cut me some slack and let it go?”

See? This is what you call putting learning into practice!