Chapter 18

August, blazing and intense,

Unlike the sweltering City A, the Elwynn Forest in "Dungeons & Dragons" had just entered early summer. Being in the northern part of their respective worlds, the Elwynn Forest was clearly much cooler and more pleasant.

This added another well-founded reason for players to linger on this virtual land...

Northshire Abbey, Church Library:

Ever since a young man wearing an apprentice mage robe and bearing no divine insignia on his chest walked into the church library a month ago, no one else had entered this place, which was called a church library but was actually just a warehouse for useless religious texts.

—Of course, no one had come out of there either.

The priests did not care how long the mage apprentice stayed in the church library or what he did, as long as he did not commit any acts of blasphemy or damage anything.

In fact, if those adventurous adventurers, who were so sharp that they could see through everything, suddenly had a great enlightenment after reading those religious texts that even the priests themselves did not want to read, and could wholeheartedly share the same faith as the priests, these clerics would genuinely feel happy.

However, it seemed that the young man who had been reading books in the room for a month had no such intention. At least, when he walked out of the church library, he did not immediately ask the old Hagen Dazs to bask in the glory of a certain god.

Many people in Northshire Abbey knew this young man:

The apprentice mage mentor Klein Luther once said, after a drunken night, that he had never seen a mage apprentice who could only use four 0-level spells and had an extremely poor connection with the Weave. This young man, who looked clear-eyed and handsome, was the one.

Of course, "waste" and "idiot" were also the evaluations of Alpha by all the NPCs in Northshire Abbey.

However, Alpha clearly did not care about the NPCs' opinions of him. Now, two things made Alpha extremely excited:

First, Alpha's [Language Proficiency] and [Knowledge Proficiency] had been upgraded to level 20 and level 18, respectively.

[Language Proficiency] had already reached the current level cap, while [Knowledge Proficiency] was still two levels short.

Perhaps because the religious texts in the church library only covered one knowledge domain but almost all the mainstream languages of the Material Plane, [Language Proficiency] was higher. If Alpha wanted to continue upgrading [Knowledge Proficiency], he would have to read other books.

Second, the suspected reward for the S-rank quest "Clean the Church Library":

—A book with an ivory-carved cover and bound in fine, soft sheepskin!

After Alpha wiped the last religious text clean and filled the 44,039th gap on the bookshelf, he received a notification that the S-rank quest "Clean the Church Library" was completed.

Naturally, at Alpha's initiative, there was no experience or money reward for completing this quest.

In fact, it was wise of Alpha not to ask for a reward, as the final line of the quest notification read:

"Given your selfless completion of the task of cleaning the library for the church, perhaps you can consider taking a book that does not belong to Northshire Abbey.

Of course, you need the approval of Brother Hagen Dazs Starbucks."

Except for this strange book with a completely ivory-carved cover, all the other books had found their places on the shelves, filling them to the brim. This meant that the ancient book with four strange large characters on its cover was the so-called "book that does not belong to Northshire Abbey."

In fact, these four strange large characters were not strange at all.

In fact, the language used to write these four characters, which the system defined as non-existent in the Material Plane of Azeroth in "Dungeons & Dragons," was Chinese, and the meaning of these four Chinese characters was:

—[The Book of Chivalry]!!!

[The Book of Chivalry], anyone with a basic knowledge of martial arts should know the significance of this name. At the very least, they would know that it had nothing to do with the world of "Dungeons & Dragons," a world of swords and magic. Chivalry was a realm exclusive to the heroes of ancient China, representing a broad-minded and righteous way of life.

To be honest, Alpha really did not know what the appearance of this [The Book of Chivalry] at this time meant, but Alpha knew that he had a 100% necessity to claim this absolutely magic-proof ivory book for himself.

However, since the quest notification had said that he needed the approval of Brother Hagen Dazs Starbucks, he had to ask this old cleric and find a way to get [The Book of Chivalry].

Stealthily taking [The Book of Chivalry] was clearly unwise. Not only would it not count as completing the quest, but these seemingly weak NPCs would not let him steal.

Once the players showed any intention of appropriating their property, the NPCs would immediately transform into the chosen of the war gods, instantly going berserk, especially for such heinous acts involving religion—stealing in the church was a standard act of blasphemy and would certainly be punished by the righteous gods' church without mercy.

Moreover, the ivory material of [The Book of Chivalry] was valuable in itself...

From the old Hagen Dazs' stinginess with the reward, it was clear that the priest Tom, who could save even a few small coins for labor, was not a philanthropist. The only way to get the old Hagen Dazs to hand over the book was for Alpha to donate enough gold to Northshire Abbey:

Devout priests would not allow themselves to possess wealth. They adhered to the doctrines, they believed in the gods, they had no desires, they looked down on worldly glory, they... well, anyway, if the devout you were willing to give a little donation to the church...

"...The great god of loyalty and courage would not refuse the devout heart of a kind mage... No, no, not too much, a donation, not too much, just... how much?

No, no, that's too much,

...You know, the followers of Tom do not covet worldly possessions. Only the followers of the goddess Oghma would be interested in the stench of copper... No, no, Bishop Darmine is the worst at managing money. Just give the money to old Hagen Dazs, he is the most cautious priest...

...30 gold coins, oh my, praise the goddess Oghma... Oh no, praise the great god Tom, bless you, dear Shalva..."

"It's Alpha, respected Brother Hagen Dazs, can I take this strange book?

—These four strange characters remind me of my hometown."

Alpha corrected the greedy old priest who couldn't even remember his name, while holding [The Book of Chivalry] and smilingly asked.

The appraisal of such a large ivory craft was done by a professional merchant, who determined it to be worth no more than 30 gold coins.

Of course, Alpha did not have that much money. Lancelot temporarily mailed over 30 gold coins, and in return, Alpha had to agree to the unreasonable demand of letting Lancelot come over for half a month of free lunches after school.

With the money in hand, the old Hagen Dazs, who was counting it lovingly, paid no attention to the books:

"Of course, it's yours. Those monks from the East always bring back strange things that no one is interested in...

...Oh no, I mean, those monks who traveled to the East might have visited your hometown, so they brought back this book that reminds you of your hometown.

—Oh, touching homesickness."

With that, Alpha ignored the old Hagen Dazs' chatter, left the priest Tom, who was intoxicated by the "huge" 30 gold coins, and left Northshire Abbey with the system notification "S-rank quest 'Clean the Church Library' completed, reward: [The Book of Chivalry]."

......

......

After not stepping outside Northshire Abbey for a month, breathing the pure natural air of the Elwynn Forest again, Alpha felt a sense of being in a different world.

In the lush green forest, the stream tinkled, accompanied by the chirping of insects and birds. Occasionally, deer and rabbits would dart out of the bushes, curiously examining the adventurer in front of them, creating a peaceful and serene scene.

However, Alpha did not have time to savor these useless bourgeois sentiments.

After a month of hard work, he finally got this strange [The Book of Chivalry]. The most important thing was to figure out its value. An S-rank quest reward, anyone who had the time to do anything else instead of figuring it out would be a real idiot:

[The Book of Chivalry: Special item, absolutely magic-proof;

Reading requirements: All good alignments can read, [Knowledge Proficiency] 15, [Language Proficiency] 20.]

Good alignment, his luck was really good. Otherwise, he would have to change his alignment by completing good alignment quests, which would be more troublesome than cleaning the church library again.

And the requirements for [Knowledge Proficiency] and [Language Proficiency] just happened to match his current levels. This perfectly aligned with Alpha's value that "work done should not be in vain." The effort had been rewarded, which made the waste mage feel a bit smug.

—If Alpha had not read all the religious texts in the room with astonishing perseverance, he would have had to wait a while to meet the reading requirements.

Since he could read it now, Alpha naturally did not hesitate to open [The Book of Chivalry].

The anomaly occurred the moment Alpha opened [The Book of Chivalry]:

There were no words on the pages under the ivory-carved cover. Instead, the entire book emitted a dazzling golden light as the cover was opened, blinding Alpha.

The golden light shot up into the sky, enveloping Alpha, and then exploded in different directions from him...

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