Versatile Sword Cultivator

Chapter 17 – The importance of Affection Level

Lin Jichen remembered his life before rebirth.

There was a lovestruck player who fell for an NPC sister from his sect, pining for her affection.

He doted on her, answering her every call, yet her affection level never seemed to rise.

Once, when the sister was on a mission, she was captured by demonic cultivators.

Knowing he wasn't strong enough, the smitten player spent his fortune to hire a guild to storm the demon's lair with him.

In the end, they rescued the sister.

But by then, she had been tortured by the demonic cultivators and her cultivation was destroyed, leaving her paralyzed in bed.

Still, the player never left her side.

He stayed with her day and night, tending to her needs, braving dangerous leveling areas daily to find heavenly treasures to heal her.

After five years, the sister finally recovered and was deeply moved by him, her affection level reaching 100 points.

This was the first and only instance in the world of maxing out an NPC's affection level.

After the game merged with reality, the sister appeared in the real world, still staying by the player's side through thick and thin.

Their love story touched everyone, including Lin Jichen.

It became one of the most touching love stories in "Tale of Immortal," always a hot topic among players.

But it also proved how difficult it was to raise NPC affection levels in "Tale of Immortal," since NPCs were ancient beings from a world of immortals.

Most ancient people had traditional and rigid thoughts, especially women, who mostly adhered to the concept of the Three Obediences and Four Virtues.

Of course, modern girls also follow the Three Obediences and Four Virtues.

The Three Obediences: never gentle, never considerate, never reasonable.

The Four Virtues: can't be spoken to, can't be hit, can't be scolded, can't be provoked.

Of course, this refers to some girls, not all.

Women in "Tale of Immortal" value chastity highly and are particularly cautious around men.

Once you break through their defenses, they will be devoted to you for life, recognizing you as their true love.

For someone like Lin Jichen to reach 10 points upon first meeting is incredibly rare.

"Since you're my first junior brother, as your senior sister, I should give you a gift for our first meeting."

Nangong Yue finished speaking and produced a verdant jade pendant, generously handing it to Lin Jichen.

Lin Jichen took it and saw that it was a Spirit Grade piece of equipment.

In "Tale of Immortal," equipment was categorized into eight grades: Ordinary, Spirit, Mysterious, Earth, Heaven, Holy, Immortal, and Divine, which included skills, mounts, and so on.

[Spirit Grade · Gathering Spirit Jade Pendant]: Defense +10, Heart Protection +5, recovers 1% mana per second when out of combat.

Skill: [Spirit Shield], forms a 0.5-second mana shield during combat, blocking one skill attack from enemies below the Crystal Realm. Only blocks skills, and the shield expires after the duration, with a cooldown of 15 minutes.

Requirement: None.

Heart Protection refers to guarding against critical hits, while Heart Strike is the critical damage.

It's akin to blocking critical hits and landing them.

However, "Tale of Immortal" doesn't have critical hit damage; weak spots must be targeted to deal critical damage.

After reading the pendant's description, Lin Jichen was overjoyed.

This jade pendant was definitely top-notch among Spirit Grade equipment!

The [Spirit Shield] skill was incredibly practical!

It could block one skill attack from enemies below the Crystal Realm, essentially reducing the opponent's skill count by one during a fight.

But the skill was a test of timing, lasting only 0.5 seconds, meaning the release had to be perfectly timed, or it would be wasted.

Lin Jichen wanted to laugh out loud, seeing the benefits of cultivating a good relationship with NPCs, colloquially known as living off a woman!

Especially with powerful NPCs, the higher their affection level for you, the more benefits you reap.

In his past life, there were indeed many pretty boy players and fox spirit female players who didn't follow the normal gaming route. They didn't cultivate, level up, or run dungeons.

They focused solely on how to charm NPCs, especially powerful ones.

With the principle of clinging to the powerful for an easy life, they flattered and fawned over formidable NPC characters daily.

Eventually, they developed an alternative and bizarre method of cultivation.

The most successful player even charmed a Nascent Soul Realm female elder from the Beast Taming Sect and became her dao companion.

When everyone heard about it, they were curious and went to see the female elder, expecting a great beauty and envying the player's good fortune.

But upon seeing her in person, they were shocked; she resembled Illaoi from League of Legends.

Despite the ridicule, the player didn't care and even shared his insights on living off a woman.

He claimed that the uglier the NPC, the easier it was to raise their affection level if you were good-looking and put in the effort.

He boldly stated that he used to work as a "prince" in a nightclub in reality.

For him, enduring a bit of ugliness was nothing; he had served far worse, and this NPC was already considered pretty.

With that, everyone hailed him as a true man!

Lin Jichen didn't have such resolve and determination.

Of course, if it were a beautiful NPC, that would be a different story, cough cough.

"Thank you, senior sister."

Although Lin Jichen was happy, he maintained a modest demeanor on the surface, not wanting to look down on Nangong Yue and affect future progress in their affection level.

"No need to be polite, after all, I am your senior sister~"

Nangong Yue said cheerfully, enjoying being called senior sister by Lin Jichen.

Among the inner disciples, she was the youngest and had never been anyone's senior sister before.

Plus, her first impression of Lin Jichen was so good, and she was so delighted by his flattery, that she looked at him even more favorably.

"Oh, right, the sect master told me to give you the new disciple's package."

Nangong Yue almost forgot the task given to her by the sect master due to the pleasant conversation with Lin Jichen.

She stuck out her tongue playfully and handed Lin Jichen a package.

Lin Jichen opened it to find a set of Sword Sect disciple clothes, a Spirit Grade sword, and a Storage Ring.

[Spirit Grade · Sword Sect Attire (Inner Sect)]: Defense +15, Heart Protection +5, Speed +10.

Requirement: None.

[Spirit Grade · Gentle Breeze Sword (Inner Sect)]: Strength +10, Heart Strike +4.

Requirement: None.

[Spirit Grade · Stone Sinking Ring (Inner Sect)]: Backpack space +100 points.

Requirement: None.

These three items were the standard welcome gifts provided by the sect to each disciple.

However, Lin Jichen's was an inner sect package, the best kind, with all three items being Spirit Grade equipment.

Outer sect and branch sect disciples could only get Ordinary Grade sets, which were far inferior in performance.

The Storage Ring even contained 50 low-grade Spirit Stones, a benefit exclusive to inner sect disciples.

50 low-grade Spirit Stones equaled five months' salary for an outer sect disciple.

Outer sect disciples could collect 10 low-grade Spirit Stones at the end of each month, branch sect disciples 20, and inner sect disciples 50.

Aside from the Sword Sect attire and Storage Ring, Lin Jichen didn't really need the sword; he had the Red Cloud Sword, which had better attributes.

Lin Jichen planned to sell the sword when more Sword Sect players appeared.

"Alright, my task is done. My father is calling for me, so I'll be going now. I'll come to play with you again when I'm free."

After speaking, Nangong Yue hummed a tune and left with a jingle, feeling very happy today.

Lin Jichen was also in a good mood.

The harvest on the first day of public testing far exceeded his expectations.

He changed into the Sword Sect attire, tossing his original leather armor and iron boots ruthlessly into the ring to be sold later.

Such Ordinary Grade leather armor and boots were nowhere near as comfortable as Spirit Grade attire.

The Sword Sect attire, made of blue and white silk, made him look particularly sharp, with gold trim on the sleeves unique to the inner sect.

On the left side of the chest was embroidered a miniature sword, and on the right, the words "Tian Yan."

After changing into the Sword Sect attire, Lin Jichen looked completely renewed.