Chapter 950 - 895: Book Borrowing Leading to an Editing Assignment
Amid the players’ discussions at the manor’s gate and the butler’s welcome, Da Fei once again entered the Duke Mansion.
At this moment, the halls of the Duke Mansion were filled with red paintings of fiery seas hanging on the walls everywhere. Da Fei couldn’t help but exclaim, "What’s this?"
The butler smiled and said, "Sir, these are award-winning entries from the contest! You’ll find out more in a moment."
Award-winning entries? Da Fei vaguely guessed what the greed power of the Nightmare Space was all about. When Da Fei entered the living room, Duke William himself was also there painting in person.
The butler reported, "Duke, the Forging Steel Hand has returned!"
But the Duke was so focused that he remained unmoved. After the butler called out twice, Duke William finally came to his senses and exclaimed with great joy, "Warrior, you’ve come again. What good news do you have this time?"
Da Fei laughed heartily, "This time, I am here to report to you, sir, that the island in the Nightmare Space has expanded several times over. The progress is incredibly fast!"
The Duke was jubilant, "That’s great! There are indeed results. If that’s the case, I’ll amplify the effort even more and launch an oil painting collection contest nationwide, no, across the entire Alliance! I want to increase the prize limit for every level!"
Da Fei suddenly realized, no wonder the Nightmare Space had the power of greed; it was driven by prize incentives. It seems that the Nightmare Space can not only collect human fear power but also greed. This truly deserves to be the Divine Domain of a Demon God, whose source of faith and power is precisely these things.
At this point, the Duke excitedly pointed at the painting he was working on, "Warrior, what does the Nightmare Space look like now? Help me describe it so I can redraw it and use it as a model for the contest!"
Da Fei walked to the easel to have a look. Indeed, the poker and chess pieces were flying all over, truly an immersive experience!
Da Fei couldn’t help but praise, "It’s so lifelike! As expected of you, Duke, you’re also so skilled at painting!"
The Duke sighed with emotion, "Since I lost my strength in childhood, I’ve been so weak that I couldn’t even learn the most basic swordsmanship and could only play with arts. Now I’m not good at anything else, but when it comes to painting and playing cards, I’m really not bad at all!"
Playing with arts? Then there must be lots of books!
Da Fei said happily, "Don’t worry, sir; the strength will return! There’s nothing wrong with the painting, just make the island in the fiery sea several times larger. And given the current trend, it will only get bigger in the future, so there is a foundation."
"I see!" The Duke enthusiastically waved his pen, "Then I’ll just draw a continent in the fiery sea!"
Da Fei added, "This Nightmare Space, in a sense, is a Divine Domain space, equivalent to the original form of world creation, where thoughts can be transformed into matter. So if participants can use their imagination and add some gold and silver mountains or money trees to the space, that would be great! And if they can be a bit artistic and paint some fountains and flowing water, that wouldn’t be bad, either?"
The Duke laughed heartily with excitement, "Good! What a good imagination! This time, it’s finally not about imitation, it’s elevated to the stage of artistic creation, good, let’s set the contest rules just like that!"
But just after laughing, the Duke coughed repeatedly with short breaths. The butler hurried forward to support him, "Sir, you’ve been too fatigued today, please take care to rest!"
The Duke is in such a weakened state! Da Fei also said quickly, "In that case, I won’t disturb your rest, Duke. I should be returning too. Just one thing, the sea voyage is long, and I wish to learn some knowledge during the journey. I wonder if I could borrow some high-end knowledge books from the Duke?"
The Duke highly praised, "Nowadays, young people seeking quick success and instant benefits are increasing, but those willing to calm down and read are becoming fewer and fewer. It’s great that the warrior has this request. How about this, I’ll lend you my cherished complete set of ’Lionheart Empire’s War History’ for you to read, which includes tactics of famous generals from various periods of the Lionheart Empire, as well as those from our allied and enemy countries, and various geographical knowledge. This is a book that only the Royal Family and Grand General Level individuals are entitled to possess, which you won’t even find in libraries. You must read it carefully! And reading just once is not enough; every time you reread it, you’ll have new insights."
Holy crap! As soon as I came in, I got such a coup when I just wanted to borrow a few dictionaries, oh right, dictionaries!
Da Fei quickly said, "Thank you for your guidance, sir! I’m afraid this book is too advanced for me to understand, so I also need some dictionaries."
The Duke laughed, "No problem, butler, also give the ’Universal Language Dictionary’ to the warrior!"
The butler immediately replied, "Yes, sir!" and hurriedly left.
The Duke sighed with emotion, "Warrior, due to your battles in Divine Punishment City, your world reputation has become quite high, but not extremely high. Do you know what the fastest way to enhance world reputation is?"
Da Fei’s eyebrows jumped, "Please enlighten me, sir!"
The Duke chuckled and sighed, "Of course, it’s by writing books and leaving your name behind! I once participated in the compilation of the ’Lionheart Empire Encyclopedia,’ but the world is so vast and complex; it’s such a grand masterpiece that, unfortunately, due to my failing health, I had to quit halfway. If you are interested, I can recommend you to join. How about it?"
——System Prompt: The Duke has issued you a data collection task for the ’Lionheart Empire Encyclopedia Compilation.’ Do you wish to join?
Oh my goodness! As expected, when interacting with higher-level NPCs, they can assign me a task anytime with just a casual remark! Da Fei lamented, "Sir, how do I have the ability to handle such a cultured task?"
The Duke laughed, "As far as I know, you’re a Sea Monster Hunter, right? Your Reconnaissance Skill can gather Sea Monster information, right? You can participate in compiling the Sea Monster Encyclopedia by submitting the data to the compilation team or directly to me. By the way, aren’t you a warrior who sails past unknown lands during world exploration? If you submit the map data, you can also contribute to the World Geography Encyclopedia. The more detailed the data, the better, how about it? It’s just something you can easily complete while passing by; not everyone qualifies for this."
I see! Da Fei remembered something and hurriedly asked, "I’ve sold quite a bit of Sea Monster information to the Elorin Fishing Guild before; can this data be handed over to you, sir?"
Startled, the Duke sighed regretfully, "Such a pity! It truly is a shame to meet you too late! First-hand data is always the most valuable. If the data has been sold several times over, its value decreases significantly."
Oh my goodness! Indeed, meeting such an important figure comes too late; normal players wouldn’t meet an NPC of the Duke’s caliber for many years!
Feeling a bit of a headache, Da Fei said, "Well, aside from Sea Monsters, I’ve defeated many strong creatures in Hell, like the Hell Volcano Earth Dragon; although the data isn’t comprehensive, can these help?"
The Duke, surprised and breathtaken, responded, "Of course! Certainly, this data can contribute to the Hell Creatures Encyclopedia!"
I see! Reputation is truly important, determining the type of tasks a single NPC can assign different players, even hidden tasks. The importance of world reputation is undisputed; without it, this Nether Sea mission wouldn’t have gone so smoothly.
No more hesitation from Da Fei; he chose to accept the task.
——System Prompt: You accepted the data collection task of compiling the Lionheart Empire Encyclopedia. You received the task item: Observation Notes. Observation Notes will record unknown geographical features you pass.
——System Prompt: You can choose to submit the creature information and unknown maps to the Duke.
It’s clear as day that submitting data to an NPC of the Duke’s caliber is like obtaining a Divine Artifact, vastly superior to giving it to a mere fishing guild president with no regrets compared to back then.
Da Fei opened the intelligence collection gathered by his Reconnaissance Skill, submitting data on various Volcano Earth Dragons, Volcano Demon Scorpions, Volcano Demon Wolves, and recent data on various Nether Sea Monsters, Siren Sea Demons, Giant Crab Elites, along with more.
——System Prompt: You submitted a large amount of compilation materials, gaining a progress value of 9130 points for the compilation work. The higher the progress value, the greater the world reputation and manuscript fee reward upon publication.
At this moment, upon receiving Da Fei’s data, the Duke’s face turned pale with excitement, breathing rapidly, his entire body trembling, unable to utter a single word!
Thankfully, a steward promptly arrived to support him, saying, "Sir, control your excitement!"
The Duke, speaking in a dreamlike state, stammered, "Good! Good!"
The steward had no choice but to hand Da Fei a book bag shimmering with Demon Light, "Sir, the Duke must rest, this specialized book bag is used to carry books. It contains a complete set of books, but these books need royal supervision once a year, with the next supervision in half a year’s time. Therefore, be sure to return them after half a year."
——System Prompt: You obtained 10 borrowed books from the duke: Lionheart Empire’s War History, Universal Language Dictionary. The borrowing period is six months.
Six months? Well, books are best understood when borrowed! All the family team will read these 10 books together! Da Fei happily said, "Then please rest, Duke, it’s time for me to leave!"
Duke: "Good... Good!"
Da Fei is well aware of the power of books. Remember back on Newbie Island, by using a few Ship Notes, many epic quests and Phantom Crossbow Cannon information were obtained, let alone these war books only accessible to high-end NPCs. This game cannot stop me from becoming a god, hahahaha!
Now that tasks have been completed, Da Fei left with no regrets, striding forward. As he reached the manor, finally he saw several players standing at the gate, possibly here for tasks.
Upon seeing "Forging Steel Hand" appear, excited players cheered, "He’s out, we can report back!"
Oh my goodness, turns out these are spies for the large guild acting like journalists! Fine, having the large guild’s attention is even better.
Da Fei teleported back to Divine Punishment City. At this time, the Divine Punishment City Square only had his ship, Junxiang, stationed, while beauties like Little Fang and Little Li were nowhere to be seen. Training downhill perhaps? Maybe, but no way Little Fang can handle two accounts for battle.
Without much else to say, he directly entered the Nightmare Space, for it was time to take Remy away.
(Requesting monthly votes and recommendation votes!!~) (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets on the starting point (qidian.com), your support is the greatest motivation for me. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)