Death Notice Book 6: Chapter 53: Moonlun Chain

Kelly was gazing at the young man smiling warmly through the projection, yet she didn’t know quite how to feel inside. The novice Apostle who had used the “Lost” team’s internal-card invitation was not this person before her, but another novice Main Tank.

Surprisingly, the Elf Elder responsible for tallying the Elven Race’s war spoils in the end recognized that novice MT. Like Qin Lun, he came from Moonlight Forest, likely another friend of the young man.

Qin Lun refusing to use the invitation presented by the “Lost” team made his intentions crystal clear. He disliked the team’s presumptuous attempts to win him over, subtly indicating he had absolutely no desire to join their service.

Kelly didn’t know how much their probing influenced his decision, but it now seemed they’d personally pushed this outstanding Apostle toward other teams. Judging from Qin Lun’s activities over the past few days, even if he later made deals in other alliance demiplanes, just looking at his trades at the Auction House brought him over two hundred thousand Shattered Crystals.

Clearly, he’d received invitations from other alliances and teams, participated in the Metropolis Domination War, and profited handsomely from it.

This outcome left all the leaders of the “Lost” team deeply embarrassed. Yet, Kelly was powerless. The person who decided to test Qin Lun with the invitation had been the Leader of Lost himself. In any case, they couldn’t exactly blame their own Leader over a single novice Apostle.

Who could have guessed Qin Lun had so many connections in Devil’s Horn? After all, this novice Apostle had only lived in Apostle City for about three months.

“Leader Kelly, thank you for the Heavenly Insight Eye scroll. It’s a very convenient Eye Technique,” Qin Lun replied, his smile composed and confident.

“Are you truly not considering joining Lost?” Seeing Qin Lun’s slightly phony smile again, Kelly suddenly felt an urge to punch something. Remembering the friendship he had offered before, she couldn’t help asking once more.

“The Neutral faction?” Disappointment was clear on Kelly’s face; she instantly lost interest in talking further.

“Leader Kelly, was that the only thing?” After the pair faced the projection in silence for a long while, Qin Lun finally prompted her.

“Oh, right. I came to tell you something.” Kelly snapped back to attention, her expression serious. “The novice Apostle who used that Elven Race invitation… is he your friend?”

“No, just a business partner. Why? Did he gain a lot in the Metropolis Domination War? Are you thinking of inviting him to join ‘Lost’?” Qin Lun’s eyes sparkled mischievously, teasing her.

“His gains were indeed substantial. However, we won’t invite him to join ‘Lost’. I simply came to remind you it’s best to keep some distance. Save yourself the shock of finding out you were betrayed later.” Kelly shook her head helplessly, smiling wryly.

The novice Apostle Domination War zone Grant entered was different from Qin Lun’s. After the Joker entered the Domination War, he quickly joined a temporary five-person team formed on the spot. All Apostles within it belonged to Devil’s Horn.

After the first few fights, this small team realized their individual members lacked prowess while their team combat lacked coordination. On several occasions, they even cornered prey only to see it escape by targeting their weak points, leaving them covered in dust and looking miserable.

Repeated setbacks led them to abandon targeting other Apostles’ invitations. Instead, they began concentrating on searching for Atlantis Ruins within the Domination War zone. Their greater number and cautious approach meant they achieved quite a harvest by the time the War drew to a close.

Just then, Grant suddenly launched surprise attacks. As the Joker had consistently shown himself as a low-harm, high-defense MT, everyone underestimated his attack power after he put on his mask. He defeated the other four one by one, seizing their Ruins discoveries and their remaining invitation letters.

However, one of the four was a new member of the “Lost” team. She voluntarily canceled her invitation letter first, allowing the truth to come out while she lived.

While scheming was natural inside the Domination War, and theirs had been only a temporary squad, such outright betrayal didn’t fit “Lost”‘s operating style. They naturally refused to invite Grant to join.

“Thank you for the warning. It’s very important to me!” Qin Lun’s eyes flashed as he smiled and nodded.

“Then take care of yourself,” Kelly bit her lip, her gaze full of unreadable emotions before closing the projection.

After ending the call with Kelly, Qin Lun chuckled and shook his head. He wondered what expression the Female Martial Artist might wear later if she realized he wasn’t much different from Grant himself. Nevertheless, he mentally noted her goodwill in taking the trouble to warn him for this.

Over the next few days, only Odo contacted him once more; no one else disturbed Qin Lun.

Odo seemed rather awkward during this contact. Just as Qin Lun had predicted, the “Sky Float” team, which hadn’t paid him attention before, failed to offer him the main force treatment as Odo promised. They merely gave him a peripheral member status and ordered him to quickly report to one of Sky Float’s outer teams.

Perhaps feeling he hadn’t kept his word, Odo didn’t mention the Adis Short Staff this time. Qin Lun took initiative though, returning the Dark Gold Staff to him for 100,000 Shattered Crystals.

However, Qin Lun used this opportunity to explain that he’d recently joined a temporary squad for his latest Quest World, requiring him to postpone his reporting for one more task world. Odo immediately agreed, promising to communicate with that outer team for new recruits himself.

Qin Lun postponed reporting for a reason: his next Quest World would require him to enter alone – a restricted cross-dimensional world.

Qin Lun’s total gains from the Domination War neared one million Shattered Crystals. He spent a hundred thousand on three Alchemy Recipes and gave Didi a hundred thousand for materials. He also purchased several pieces of Main Tanking equipment for Frank, along with over a hundred thousand worth of shared healing items.

This consumed nearly forty percent of his Shattered Crystal profits. Adding in the hundred thousand from selling the Adis Short Staff, Qin Lun still had resource items worth roughly seven hundred thousand Shattered Crystals left.

Yet, apart from the fresh hundred thousand from Odo, Qin Lun actually possessed no other liquid funds. Six hundred thousand in resources had long been traded for other items on the Demiplane Trading Floor of the Chaos Alliance. Among the most crucial was a spherical Space-Time Locator Sphere.

These locator spheres were special items from the Shattered Starry Sky exchange catalog, existing in two types. One allowed Apostles to enter specific Low Magic Worlds; the other, higher grade, could locate Mid-Magic Worlds. Worlds above Mid-Magic weren’t seen within the exchange list.

Barely anyone ever exchanged for them though. Their requirements were bizarre: besides demanding specific Apostle tiers, they required trading with a higher-grade Gold-rank evaluation card to get the sphere for the world tier below.

For instance: to get a sphere targeting a Low Magic World required a third-tier High-Rank Apostle trading away a Gold card earned in a Mid-Magic World. To get a sphere for a Mid-Magic World demanded a fourth-tier Legendary Apostle trading away a Gold card from a High-Magic World.

Forget Apostle tiers; just getting either type of Gold card was extremely rare. Exchanging it to reach the lower-level world via the sphere seemed massively wasteful. Unless for unique reasons, no Apostle would do this.

Naturally, re-entering a specific Quest World to carry forward previous adventures and connections promised enormous returns. For example: if Qin Lun returned to Nals World now, his connection with Master Vima guaranteed he could acquire numerous Apostle Skills.

The source of Qin Lun’s acquired Space-Time Locator Sphere was unavailable, leaving how the seller obtained it unknown. This sphere allowed access to a particular Low Magic World and cost him two hundred thousand Shattered Crystals.

However, Qin Lun didn’t haggle with the seller behind the shop; he bought the sphere outright at the asking price. Competition from others’ bids was one factor, but more importantly, he currently faced a bottleneck in his career path and needed to enter a specific Quest World to overcome it.

Besides the locator sphere, Qin Lun bought two pieces of Dark Gold Equipment for himself. One, badly needed before the Domination War, was a Dark Gold Quality image-detection tool; the other was an accessory called the Moonlun Chain. Its Mind Calming effect replaced his little white ring that offered just one measly spirit point.

Moonlun Chain (Wristlet)

Quality: Bright Gold

Material: Moonlight Condensation Crystal, Mithril

Weight: 100 grams

Adds: 3 points of Perception, 7 points of Spirit

Passive Skill: Mind Calming. Wearing this accessory provides a mind-soothing and calming effect, lowering skill casting requirements and increasing skill accuracy. Grants moderate resistance against psychic interference skills.

Equipment Note: Fits smoothly into virtually all Quest Worlds. No specific requirements for usage.

These two pieces cost Qin Lun nearly fifteen thousand Shattered Crystals. Moreover, he spent fifty thousand purchasing items with Remnant Souls attached, enhancing the Dagger of Sin to Thousand-Kill Slayer quality and granting it a new skill called “Soul Chain.”

His constant expenditure during the Domination War left Qin Lun with only a single seventh-tier Magic Scroll – the Wood Prison Totem – and a sixth-tier one – the Earthen Wall. He reluctantly spent another ten thousand Shattered Crystals replenishing with seven or eight sixth-tier Magic Scrolls to restock his Sacrifice gloves.

The final ten thousand Shattered Crystals went entirely towards precious items augmenting his Law Body attributes. This raised him by five points in strength, five in spirit, three in agility, and three in constitution above his original stats.

The Domination War truly showed him the weakness of his physical attributes. During his showdown with Menlo, realizing his strength fell short of even the agility-focused Kung Fu Girl proved deeply jarring.