What did you do with the dice?

Rusalka: (How can I not help my wife? This weapon is a freebie, buy it!)

Sanitta laughed: (I know you're anxious, but wait. What if she fights Phoenix? Let me ask you, do you stay neutral? If she uses this number of times, do you just go up and give Phoenix two Holy Slashes in the back? And then say, "You're fighting a female knight, aren't you a spy?")

Rusalka was stunned: (Ah, this...)

But he still wanted the weapon. After all, he felt that it was unlikely that he would encounter such a thing. There was no reason. Theresa and Phoenix didn't know each other. What was her status? What was Phoenix's status? Why would she condescend to fight Phoenix?

So Sanitta taught him: "As long as it does not involve my relatives and friends and does not violate my personal wishes, it is fine."

Theresa happily waved her hand and said, "Deal, Lord God, could you please be a witness?"

So, with just one sentence, Rusalka got a handsome silver-white sword that was gleaming with light.

There is also a golden sphere inlaid in the middle of the sword. This is a special material used to store the power of holy light. Although the sword itself is a replica and does not have divine power and powerful evil-breaking power, it has all the functions and is a true imitation of the original. Rusalka, who was so happy that she was at a loss, praised it as a high-quality Yiwu product.

Although the [Immunity Successful] prompt popped up during the transaction, it did not prevent Rusalka from obtaining the Noble Phantasm.

Rusalka: (Phenix only gives me gold coins, while Theresa gives me money, soldiers, and weapons. I almost want her to take over.)

Sanita: (You're right. Phoenix only needs to fight for you on the battlefield, while Theresa has to consider many things. When to send you troops, when to control the situation, when to use mind control skills on you to see if they work. All of these things require a lot of time and energy.)

Rusalka: (Woohoo! I was instantly defeated by Mingshiki.)

At Sanita's urging, Rusalka finally remembered the important matter: "By the way, an army from the El Empire crossed the Elf Forest and came to Snidi. Sagittarius, do you have any clues?"

Sagittarius thought for a moment and replied, "The Queen wants to get the Second Prince from the Grand Duke, so she asked the El Empire to act on her behalf. After all, the Rangers couldn't find any trace of him before, and Grand Duke Delai used this as a threat, which probably made her a little impatient."

Rusalka: (Huh? A cart running over a pony?)

Sanita: (Can you think of anything else?)

Rusalka: "Then what benefits can the El Empire gain?"

Sagittarius laughed and said, "Guess what the Ranger Team's mission is? Once the Second Prince is captured by the Queen, they can immediately carry out the next phase of the decapitation mission. The Queen only wants Alice City and the land of the Kingdom. With the Second Prince as the legitimate heir, Grand Duke Delai is no longer needed.

For the El Empire, weakening the Kingdom of Sinidi is a way to support the Seven Sins Church's allies in Alice City. Even though the Queen's ultimate goal is to capture Alice City, resolving the imminent threat of the two Grand Dukes' collaboration is the top priority.

Rusalka was already a little confused about the purpose of war. It felt like everyone's cooperation was quite chaotic. The reason the God of Nature Faith assisted the other side was because she was confident that she could kill the other side after killing her competitors. And the God of War Faith of the El Empire actually helped...

Rusalka: "That's not right. What if the El Empire captures the Second Prince and then imprisons him to threaten your Queen? Wouldn't that be a waste of effort? Or are you planning to let the Rangers take advantage of the situation?"

Sagittarius shook his head. "It doesn't really matter whether the Second Prince is dead or alive. What matters is that the news that he was kidnapped spreads. I'm sure the Queen has already arranged a replacement for the Second Prince. How many people in Sinidi have seen the Second Prince in person? It's hard to tell the real thing."

Well, it’s really a headache to deal with this group of guys with ulterior motives. I have no idea what they are planning at every step.

Chapter 109 Emergency Upgrade

Now Rusalka probably understood why the army of the El Empire so counterintuitively headed straight for Mingyue City, which was located halfway behind. This could only mean that Grand Duke Delai had hidden the second prince in this city.

However, Sanitieta felt that there were too many unreasonable circumstances. First, why was the task entrusted to a distant marquis? Secondly, if that was the case, why did the two marquises' reinforcements arrive so late? This was the crux of the matter. How could Grand Duke Delai, citing the tense frontline situation as an excuse, completely ignore the situation here?

Thinking about it this way, was it really the lords and nobles around the front who let the troops pass all the way because they tacitly chose not to do anything? Or did they get some information and deliberately let the Aiel Empire's troops pass?

But then again, since both the elves and the El Empire are very convinced that the Second Prince is in Mingyue City, their intelligence agencies are definitely not useless. When the facts and actions on both sides are completely disconnected, Sani Tieta begins to doubt whether the so-called "Second Prince" really exists?

Damn, in the war of public opinion, intelligence war, and information war, Rusalka's side is completely useless. If it weren't for the Council of Gods, they might not even know why they were beaten in the end. They fought one battle after another in a daze, not knowing who they were fighting or why they were fighting each other.

Every time he thought about himself fighting like a deaf-mute, and becoming in the same state as Rusalka, where every day he would be like, "What? There's a fight? Here it comes!", Sanitieta wanted to call Rusalka over and scold her.

He should have been asked to set up an intelligence agency a long time ago, but this procrastinator just likes to put it off. He would rather play the kingdom sandbox with Phoenix every night than think about how to develop things in the territory.

If he were Rusalka, he would have coaxed and deceived Phoenix into leading a team to set up some "MI7", which would have been considered as a way to make up for DM's background and character that had been modified beyond recognition.

Well, maybe it is precisely because Rusalka is such an imperfect Rusalka that Phoenix has a good impression of him.

At this moment, Rusalka's voice brought Sanitieta back to reality: "Brother, it's your turn to play your cards."

Sanita was distracted and responded directly: "I can't afford it."

Rushakan was confused. "No, brother, you can't even afford a pair of 3? What cards do you have? Do you want Phoenix?"

Phoenix, who learned the rules of Dou Dizhu very quickly, said: "Five."

The bet between the three people was the peanuts on the table. From the moment Sanitieta felt that he was pulled here to make up the number, he no longer had the thought of complaining. He neither liked eating peanuts nor had the heart to play cards at this time, so why was he sitting here?

Sarolt, now fully recovered, knocked on the door. "Captain Rusalka, there's been no news from the front lines today. Will we still issue the standby order tonight?"

"Yes." Rusalka also felt that there was no need to issue martial law or prepare for war. Why should he be anxious if his two sons were not anxious? Hunbei: "Yes, 10."

After receiving Rusalka's reply, Sarolt left.

After Sanita finished dealing his cards, he pressed them down on the table and said to Phoenix and Rusalka, who were both stunned, in a low voice, "I don't think something is right. Phoenix, could you go to the clock tower and bring a flare?"

Rusalka: "Why? She finally agreed to stay here peacefully."

Sanita: "Two days have passed, and the magic cannon hasn't fired a single shot. I don't think it's because the Marquis's residence is resisting fiercely, but because the El Empire has occupied the Marquis's residence, and they can't 'output magic power', or the magic cannon has some kind of racial restriction, so they can't use it."

Rusalka: "Isn't the bell tower even more dangerous? Let the coalition forces take it slowly. We have food and water, so why rush?"

Sanita: "Well, this is too abnormal. They didn't let us be cannon fodder at all. It's really unreasonable.

I tend to assume the worst, but have you ever considered whether the coalition forces are truly responsible for eliminating the remnants of the Aiel Empire?

Rusalka: "Huh? What about something else? Coming here for tourism?"

Sanitta: "All our assumptions are based on the scenario where the Queen and the Grand Duke have fallen out. But if they haven't, what roles do the El Empire's army and Marquis Banner play?"

Sanitieta: (The information about Sagittarius is all her personal conjecture. If the information is wrong, and the Queen's target is not the Second Prince, then what is her real purpose? Have you ever thought about it?)

Rusalka certainly hadn't thought about it: "Tell me more."

Sanita replied helplessly, "I was just thinking about it, and then you dragged me over to play cards. No matter what the reason is, the biggest threat to us in the entire city is the clock tower, and the only one here who can target this place is Phoenix."

Uh, interrupting his brother's thoughts made Rusalka feel awkward. He pushed all the peanuts in front of him as bargaining chips to Sanitieta: "Come on, eat while you think."

Phoenix followed suit and gave a few of the peanuts in front of her to Sanita.

Sani Tieta frowned. There were too few intelligence and clues along the way, but the coalition's performance was too abnormal. Rather than saying that they really recovered the lost territory, it was better to say that they were deliberately delaying time under this pretext so that the El Empire could capture the Marquis's Mansion. From the previous deployment of combat arms and the idea of ​​not wanting Rusalka to participate in the war, it can be seen that they don't care about delaying the opportunity to fight.

However, the Grand Duke would never cooperate with the El Empire. The Elf Queen might still be able to reach an agreement with the El Empire, but the Grand Duke is now openly dealing with the Church of the Seven Sins. If he wants to cooperate with the Great Duke Gode, it will be impossible to reach an agreement with the El Empire, an ally of the Church of the Seven Sins.

Therefore, if the Grand Duke and the God of Nature did not fall out, but on the contrary they were still cooperating closely, then the Ranger Team would definitely convey false information to the El Empire, and this false information would be enough to be confused with the real thing, causing the El Empire to want to take advantage of their "arrogance" to defeat them, but they ended up being used as a pawn.

As for who won the game between the two sides, judging from the current situation, Sanita actually couldn't understand it. But if there really was any secret, it must be in the Marquis's Mansion, and it could only be discovered before the coalition forces took over the Marquis's Mansion.

Sanitieta: (You, go to the Marquis's mansion to gather intelligence.)

Rusalka: (What? Me? Get rid of Tang Sanzang and his disciples?)

Sanita: (You bastard, I told you to send Phoenix.)

Rusalka: (Wow, I'm afraid she'll get hurt.)

Sanita: (Wait for her to come back, I'll teach you how to conquer her.)

Rusalka said without hesitation to Phoenix, who was shelling peanuts nearby, "Phoenix, the organization wants to assign you a mission."

Phoenix nodded. Before Rusalka could finish her words, she was about to run away in the black fog, but Rusalka grabbed her hand and said, "Don't worry, I haven't finished speaking yet. First of all, you are not allowed to kill anyone. If you are in danger, just release the smoke bomb and run away. I will pick you up. If conditions permit, help check the Marquis's mansion to see what those Fox warlocks are doing."

Phoenix nodded, but she didn't move. Instead, she looked at Rusalka's hand that was holding hers.

Rusalka blushed, loosened her hand, and said, "Go early and come back early, and have a safe journey."

"Okay." After Phoenix said that, her body was swallowed by the black mist.

Rusalka: "Messenger!"

"Yes! What do you want, Master?"

"In three hours, that is, tomorrow morning, put the entire army on standby."

"As ordered!"

Sanitieta glanced at Rusalka and said, "You're directly disobeying the orders of the two marquises. This is the first time I've seen you so courageous."

Rusalka replied, "Could they be more ruthless than the Wolf Riders?"

The two smiled at each other, sorted out the cards, and started cracking peanuts and playing Regicide.

But just when the two of them were playing cards until the wake-up bugle blew at six in the morning, they suddenly felt dizzy and entered the upgrade space directly.

This was the first time that Rusalka encountered such a strange situation. She couldn't contact Sanita and didn't know what would happen in the outside world, so she could only focus on the panel.

This upgrade was exactly one full level, which was just a little short of level 10. Rusalka thought about it and put 5 free points directly into the experience bar to reach level 10. At level 5+5, the Paladin profession's attack action gained one more attack opportunity, and the same was true for the Warlock, with one more attack opportunity for the weapon action. In the game "Baldur's Gate 3", this formed a very tricky three-dozen bug.

However, the reality was not as expected. After he finished the upgrade, the system popped up a [Resource Incompatibility] prompt in front of him, telling him that the resource for "one more attack action" was not compatible with the current version, and whether it needed to be replaced with an [Upgrade Module] or converted into limited points.

Rushaka already knew the function of the upgrade module last time. It can be used to upgrade the skills learned before by adding points. Only the "limited resources" obtained with the level after unlocking the card can be used to exchange for upgrade modules.

The sorcerer was at level 5, and two 2nd rings upgraded him to 3rd ring, but for some reason, the damn sect leader still didn't respond to him, as if he had forgotten about him as a "believer".

It was very awkward, just like when he first reached level 2. He couldn't learn the warlock's spells, which was very embarrassing.

Forget it, anyway, it is used to cut the Holy Slash, which he has strengthened to become the skill with the highest damage, so it doesn’t matter whether there is a three-ring spell or not.

Now that he had two more upgrade modules, he thought about it and decided to spend 10 points on each to improve his [Flexible Expertise] talent and [Expertise Copy] talent, and also strengthen their [Effect] and [Characteristics].

[Flexible Expertise+++]: Treated as any unpossessed expertise, the bonus value in the expertise description will be doubled, the debuff value will be halved, and the expertise will also receive a special enhancement bonus.

[Expert Copy+++]: You can copy a non-existent expert. The numerical gain in the expert's description will be doubled, and the debuff will be halved. The expert will also gain a special enhancement bonus.

Special enhancement gains, such as the following:

[Heavy Armor Master+++]: While wearing Heavy Armor, you gain a fixed reduction of 8 points of physical damage (e.g., mental/psychic damage that doesn't touch the body, etc.)

[Giant Weapon Master+++]: When wielding a two-handed weapon, the hit value is reduced by 2 and the damage is increased by 20 points. This part of the damage will no longer be affected by the half damage reduction of [Resistance] when calculating the damage. Other effects such as physical immunity and barrier reduction will still affect this value.

[Shield Master+++]: When holding a shield with non-zero durability and being targeted by an area-of-effect damage that requires a Dexterity saving throw, you no longer need to use a reaction. Instead, you can make a Dexterity saving throw, taking no damage on a successful save. Your shield's durability decrease rate is reduced by 50%.

It's very powerful, and it immediately makes up for the lack of damage from Rushaka's basic attack. Now, the basic attack damage alone can compete with that Dragonborn.

Moreover, when switching to mobility expertise, one can run faster and can attack or defend. Although the difference brought by reality directly sacrifices two huge upgrade gains at the board game level, Rusalka is still very satisfied with the result of this compensation.

Of course, the main reason why Rusalka spent points to upgrade to level 10 was because after seeing the power of the template, he remembered that he seemed to have a template that could be developed, and level 10 happened to be a turning point.

[You have reached level 10, and the "Path of Holy Vengeance" template has evolved a second time.]

[Please choose your evolution path from the following four paths. Please choose carefully, as this will determine the evolution path of this career branch at level 15/20.]

Here it comes. Although he didn't know why the upgrade happened suddenly, Rusalka had a feeling that something bad was going to happen, so he planned to arm himself to the teeth.

But unfortunately, Sanitta was not there. He was not used to being asked to make the choice on his own for such a crucial part. Even though he was extremely rebellious, he would like to listen to Sanitta's analysis before rebelling, so that he could feel at ease.

[1. Path of Redemption: All Radiant Damage dealt by you will be converted at a 1:1 ratio and added to the Holy Healing Pool's reserves. The excess will become a personal barrier that lasts for 10 minutes, and will be added to the Holy Healing Pool after the duration ends (if the Holy Healing Pool is full, it will automatically dissipate).]

Rusalka didn't think about whether she could be saved or not. There were no "action" rules in reality. If the Holy Healing Pool was not given to herself, would it be given to her teammates?

This one directly pushed the endurance to its limit. Rusalka felt like she would melt if she got any closer, and would explode if she looked at it any longer. She really wanted to choose this one directly, but she held back and looked at the next one.

[2. Forbearance: Each time you take damage, your next attack deals an additional 2d8 Radiant Damage (stacking). Your [Vengeance Shock] has a slightly higher chance of triggering when attacking you. When moving towards a target that has damaged you within 1 minute, your movement speed is doubled.]

Turtle, this sounds like a turtle. Rusalka feels that this passive talent of being able to withstand attacks is simply a turn-based game in DND, especially when monsters are spawning everywhere and you can be hit countless times in one round. That is a magical skill.

But no matter what the effect is in reality, the style is too tragic, and it can only be triggered when you are injured, which completely conflicts with your Hamlet's Shield.

This isn't a game. Who wants to lose health when they can fight without taking damage in real life? Pass, next one.

3. Command: You and your allies gain a bonus to saving throws and to-hit rolls equal to your Charisma bonus (+5). When on the battlefield, the morale of your allies will be significantly boosted. When facing an evil force, you and your allies will deal additional damage equal to your Charisma bonus (+5), and your morale will reach "fight to the death."

Wow, this is also very powerful. Rusalka can imagine herself commanding a group of holy warriors with ridiculously high immunity to sweep across the world in the future.

Now that we have vinegar, whose house should we go to borrow some crabs to eat?

You mean the Shaddoll Legion? That's coarse bread, and vinegar costs more than that. It's not worth it.

4. Way of Faith: Now, when your weapon comes into contact with an entity, you can activate Holy Slash. Your Holy Slash has the [Destruction] attribute. When using an object with a durability attribute, such as [Shield], [Barrier], or [Armor], if the opponent's Strength is less than 100 points, your Holy Slash will directly destroy it. Otherwise, the damage caused to it will be quadrupled. In a battle, each time you use Holy Slash, the damage of all Holy Slashes thereafter will increase by 1d8.

鲁莎卡笑了，4对于战斗的增益强度是最低的，1d8伤害的期待值也就只有4-5，换做现实中的折算方式应该是会算成5点。

You only have 8 ring slots, and if you use them all to deal Holy Slash, the total benefit will be 140 points of extra damage.

So he chose 4.

Because it’s called “faith”.

If you don't play Holy Slash, what kind of Paladin should you choose?

Chapter 110 What is my cultivation level?

In a blink of an eye, the two returned to reality and found that time had not changed at all, as if the long period of upgrading in the middle was completed while the world was stopped.

After a brief exchange with his brother, Rusalka realized that his brother did not use the 5 free points to upgrade to level 10 - because he only had five points.

Sanita: (Of the four paths, I'm actually more inclined towards the third one, because as you can see, it's not just the civil war in the Kingdom of Snidi; the entire world is at war. Having a stable army is actually the goal that we, as a team of adventurers in tabletop games, can never achieve.)