A beam of golden light descended from above, and Zhang Yi leveled up to 5.

  The rewards from hidden quests are indeed far superior to those from common quests!

  Opening his backpack, the first thing that caught his eye was a silver light armor, looking shiny and sleek, likely a decent piece of equipment. Zhang Yi casually took it out—

  [Guardian Armor]:

  Quality: Two-Star

  HP: 120

  Additional Attribute: Agility 3

  Css Restriction: None

  Level Requirement: 5

  Description: This is the glory of the Guardian, symbolizing that the wearer once protected those in distress outside Hope Town. May this armor guard you as you have guarded the people of Hope Town...

  No wonder it's a hidden quest; it actually rewarded a two-star piece of equipment! Considering that it's only been a little over three hours since the Apocalypse game started, almost over 90% of pyers worldwide haven't even gathered half of their equipment for the seven slots, yet Zhang Yi has already obtained a two-star armor!

  Moreover, the basic attributes of this two-star armor are extremely high. A one-star level 5 armor avaible in the shop adds around fifty to sixty HP, and just by increasing the quality by one level, the basic attributes have doubled!

  This is even before enhancement. Once enhanced to level 25, the basic attributes will increase by 2.5 times, which is incredible.

  Setting the armor aside for now, Zhang Yi's gaze shifted to a white book lying quietly in his bag.

  In the world of Apocalypse, besides learning a css's basic skill upon each job change, most skills are acquired through skill books.

  Skill books can only be obtained by killing monsters in the wild or opening treasure chests after pyers reach level 10 and complete their first job change. This hidden quest granted Zhang Yi a privilege, rewarding him with a skill book even before his job change!

  Even though it's a lowest-quality white skill book, Zhang Yi, at level 5, was quite satisfied.

  Skill books are distinguished by color quality, ranging from lowest to highest: white, green, blue, purple, orange, red, and gold. Generally, skill book quality cannot be upgraded unless specified.

  So, Zhang Yi picked up the skill book—

  [Fatal Strike]:

  Quality: White

  Description: Upon use, grants the skill Fatal Strike (Effect: Charges the weapon to unch a deadly attack on the enemy, dealing 115% physical damage, consuming 2 Energy Points, with energy consumption depending on the user's level, this is level 1 consumption. Cooldown time: 10 seconds.)

  Css Requirement: Assassin (Usable by non-job-changed pyers; if not an Assassin after job change at level 10, the skill will be returned in skill book form)

  Skill Slot Consumption: 1

  White skills are the weakest, with no special features other than a 15% damage increase, but it's better than nothing.

  Additionally, regarding skills.

  In the world of Apocalypse, each skill a pyer masters occupies a skill slot. Starting from level 0, pyers automatically gain 1 skill slot every 3 levels. Learning a white skill requires 1 skill slot, and each increase in skill quality requires an additional skill slot, with a gold skill consuming 7 skill slots.

  Of course, don't think that because white skills consume fewer skill slots, you can stack them infinitely. A single gold skill is unmatched by a hundred white skills. Even if you throw dozens of white and green skills, they can't compare to a single red or even orange skill.

  Currently at level 5, Zhang Yi had exactly one skill slot, so he used the skill book. As the skill book transformed into starlight and merged into Zhang Yi—

  "Ding~ Congratutions on mastering the skill [Fatal Strike]!"

  Opening the skill list, he saw that using Fatal Strike at level 5 required 5 Energy Points. With Zhang Yi's 75 Energy Points, he could use it about 15 times.

  Not to mention the entire server, there must be pyers who obtained skills through special means before level 10. At least as the first pyer in Safe Zone No. 886 to master a skill, Zhang Yi felt quite impressive.

  Fortunately, the Dragon skills attached to the [Dragon Bloodline] don't require skill slots, otherwise, the first gold skill [Hellfire Dragon Fme] would be overwhelming for Zhang Yi.

  The 100 Level 1 Enhancement Stones rewarded by the hidden quest can be synthesized into 50 Level 2 ones, more than enough to enhance the two-star [Guardian Armor]. However, Zhang Yi wasn't in a hurry to enhance it because there was still a two-star treasure chest dropped by the Spider Leader in his bag. If the chest contained a three-star piece of equipment, those 100 Level 1 Enhancement Stones could be synthesized into 25 Level 3 Enhancement Stones, directly enhancing the three-star equipment to level 25.

  Better safe than sorry; luck is unpredictable.

  Knowing he couldn't trigger any more quests with Ili and his daughter, Zhang Yi bid farewell to the pair and headed to the shop in Hope Town, spending 1 Silver Coin to buy a two-star treasure chest key.

  The moment of witnessing a miracle.

  Using the key to open the treasure chest.

  "Ding~ Congratutions on opening a two-star treasure chest, obtaining 50 Silver Coins!"

  "Damn, it's not equipment!"

  But exchanging 1 Silver Coin for 50 is still a good deal. Getting 50 Silver Coins at once, Zhang Yi was quite satisfied.

  In the world of Apocalypse, there are countless pces where Gold Coins are needed. Without them, it's nearly impossible to move forward in the game.

  Enhancement stone synthesis requires a lot of money.

  At the bcksmith shop in town, at the price of 5 Copper Coins for synthesizing two Level 1 Enhancement Stones into one Level 2 Enhancement Stone, Zhang Yi spent 125 Copper Coins to synthesize 50 Level 1 Enhancement Stones into 25 Level 2 ones.

  Then, under the effect of [Divine Enhancement], he used 10 Level 1 Enhancement Stones and 25 Level 2 Enhancement Stones to enhance the 15 [Bio-Trousers] dropped by King's Glory and the [Guardian Armor] to level 25.

  "Ding~ Enhancement successful, congratutions on your equipment [Bio-Trousers] reaching enhancement level 25, unlocking the exclusive talent [Defense Fortification]!"

  "Ding~ Enhancement successful, congratutions on your equipment [Guardian Armor] reaching enhancement level 25, unlocking the exclusive talent [Angel's Protection]!"

  Originally adding 6 points of defense, the trousers now had a defense bonus of 21 points after reaching level 25. The unlocked [Defense Fortification] talent added an extra 10 points of defense, instantly boosting Zhang Yi's defense from 46 to an impressive 71 points!

  And the level 25 Guardian Armor's base HP increased from 120 to 420, with the additional attribute of 3 Agility rising to 11 points!

  [Angel's Protection] provides a shield equal to 10% of the wearer's maximum HP when attacked, sting 10 seconds with a cooldown of 10 seconds.

  Equipping the Guardian Armor, Zhang Yi checked his status bar. Wow, his HP had broken the 500 mark, soaring to an impressive 570 points!

  Looking at his current stats, Zhang Yi nodded in satisfaction: "Next, it's time to go big."