novelraw Chapter 355: Five Hidden Attributes
Chapter 355: Five Hidden Attributes
"What the — a Barbarian Centurion? No wonder he was so hard to put down!"
Li Wei couldn't suppress the shock coursing through him. Honestly, his legs had gone weak. He was leaning on his enchanted greatsword with both hands, trembling slightly, his mind briefly blank, his heart still hammering with lingering dread.
No one who hadn't lived through it could understand the pressure he'd been under during those two short minutes.
If Zhao Xuanxuan hadn't been ferocious enough, if those three squads of soldiers hadn't performed well enough to crush and annihilate that Ability User company in such a short time, if Zhao Xuanxuan hadn't led the charge herself — this battle would almost certainly have gone sideways. Even if it hadn't ended in defeat, it would have let the Neanderthal walk away at his leisure.
[You have survived a brutal and extraordinarily difficult battle. You brushed against death multiple times, struggled desperately in a desperate situation, and barely escaped with your life. This will be one of the most unforgettable battles of your journey. Facing an opponent of such power has taught you reverence. Your Hunter Destiny Grid +2, your Woodcutter Destiny Grid +2, your Scout Destiny Grid +2!]
[You have earned 300 War Points. Current total: 1,500 points.]
Two special notifications flashed before Li Wei's eyes. The next instant, a warm surge of energy flooded through him, his condition rapidly recovering — Li Yue had used a five-star Universal Gold Card to restore him.
Then Li Yue hurried off, first restoring the heavily wounded Zhao Xuanxuan, then going to check on Benjamin, Santiago, Grant, and Xavier.
All four were dead beyond any doubt.
She looked back at Li Wei, her expression filled with grief. Yes, she knew all four could be revived — but if they couldn't even perform the right reaction now, that would be unforgivably foolish.Especially in front of the three squads of soldiers.
For a long time, those soldiers had enjoyed a comfortable arrangement: Zhao Xuanxuan charging at the front, Benjamin and the others supporting in the middle, while they sat on the electric trucks and fired arrows. Then one hard battle had stripped all of that away.
This world was still dangerous.
No one wept. No one panicked. They had all been surviving the apocalypse for fifteen years — death was familiar to them.
But that very familiarity had bred a kind of detachment. A distance. A feeling that no matter how hard you fought, no matter how bravely you died on the battlefield, it ultimately amounted to nothing.
Despair. Numbness. Detachment.
That was what it was.
Because no matter how hard you tried, how hard you fought, how strong you became — death came for everyone eventually.
The lord got the benefits. What did they end up with?
In that moment, both Li Wei and Li Yue felt it — Perception +6 was often countered, but most of the time it was still very useful.
"Clear the battlefield, collect the bodies, pull that enchanted chariot out of the river. Then we fall back."
Li Wei called out the orders, then pocketed the two purple cards and converted the three Gold Cards into Silver Clearance Tokens.
He didn't put on much of a show. He didn't say much. Words were useless right now. Only miracles could cleanse the soul — only miracles could make people believe in something.
This battle had been brutal. They had won, but they still couldn't stop Frost Duke from building a Great Bridge Fortress here.
But Li Wei had won something else entirely.
This was a golden opportunity to reforge the faith of his territory's Freemen — to forge a bond of loyalty.
Otherwise, no matter how many attributes he upgraded for them, no matter how many Bronze Tokens, Black Iron Tokens, or profession cards he handed out, it wouldn't matter.
These weren't NPCs. They needed morale. They needed a future they could see.
They needed a powerful conviction — a soul to believe in.
In a certain sense, he had needed this battle. And that was also why he hadn't told Benjamin and the others that they could be revived.
Telling them in advance would have turned it into a transaction in a game. They wouldn't fear death anymore — but they'd also become reckless. After all, they could just respawn, like some foolish player.
Only by letting them die, and then reviving them afterward at the right moment, would this mean something.
Only then would it be the perfect opportunity to win every heart — and every ounce of faith.
"Caw! Caw!"
Adai flew over and called out twice. He reported that he'd gone to search for the centaur count — the creature had likely been swept east by the current — but Li Wei simply didn't have the bandwidth to deal with that right now.
Together with the others, they hauled the enchanted chariot out of the river, hitched it to an electric truck, and made their way back to the territory's main base.
On the road, Li Wei and Li Yue rode their horses at the rear of the convoy.
Both were silent for a long time. This battle had reminded them again what it felt like to be dominated by someone stronger.
Finally, Li Wei broke the silence.
"Aunt Yue — are you alright?"
"Not really. Feels like I just got killed again."
Li Yue's face carried a trace of exhaustion and helplessness. She gave Li Wei a tired smile.
"Do you know how I died during my cross-border mission? I ran into a Barbarian Centurion. I was almost completely helpless. It's haunted me like a nightmare ever since. Just now, at the start of that fight — if we'd both gone all-out from the beginning, we might have had a real chance. But I hesitated. I'm sorry."
Li Yue let out a long sigh. Li Wei fell quiet.
What could he say?
He understood the shadow that had settled over her. At least he'd held on. At least they'd won.
Maybe this battle would help Li Yue take a small step out of that nightmare.
But speaking of which — this fight had also shown him exactly where his own weaknesses were. His three-star Woodcutter needed to reach four-star. His three-star Scout needed to reach four-star. Every two-star attribute card needed to be maxed out. And come autumn, he'd try to push to five-star Farmer.
Yes — he had been hesitating, wavering, because he'd still been thinking about turning his Hunter Card and Woodcutter Card into rare variants. But he'd realized he had badly underestimated the Neanderthal crossers' strength.
This centurion was probably the main combat force among this wave of Neanderthal crossers — and might even be just a branch-level main force, not the absolute top.
He thought back to those Neanderthals he'd glimpsed from a distance, clad in heavy armor. Compared to them, today's Cao Nima was probably a step below.
Those ones might be capable of going toe-to-toe with the Slovenly Giant.
Against opponents like that, he didn't need to be able to win — but he at least needed to be able to run.
"Aunt Yue, what exactly is a Dawn Knight? And what kind of existence is a Barbarian Centurion?"
Li Wei asked. Only Li Yue would have this kind of information.
"A Dawn Knight is an upgraded, enhanced version of a Dark Moon Knight. Didn't you notice? Every time he swung his spear or thrust with it, there was a strange force that instantly disrupted our Perception. That's another type of hidden attribute — one awakened when a Cavalry or Knight Destiny Grid, combined with a Hunter or Mountaineer Destiny Grid, both reach 50. It's called Delusion Breaking."
"Delusion Breaking?"
"That's right. It's one of the five common hidden attributes. Scholar and Physician-type professions awaken Inspiration when their Destiny Grid reaches a certain level. Hunter and Mountaineer combined with Woodcutter or Butcher types awaken Perception. Mason and Miner types awaken Dulling. Blacksmith and Miner tend to produce Blood Burning. Knight and Hunter types produce Delusion Breaking."
"These five hidden attributes can counter each other, complement each other, or suppress each other in various ways."
"For example, Dulling is immune to Perception, Inspiration, and Delusion Breaking. But Blood Burning can shatter Dulling with ease."
"Delusion Breaking counters Perception, but can be misled and disrupted by Inspiration, and weakened and burned away by Blood Burning — which is why that Barbarian prioritized killing Zhao Xuanxuan."
"Perception, meanwhile, can break through Blood Burning and can't be misled by Inspiration — but it's easily countered by Delusion Breaking, and has no effect on Dulling."
"Finally, Inspiration can mislead and disrupt Delusion Breaking and Blood Burning, but is ineffective against Perception and Dulling. That's the full picture of how they counter each other."
"Of course, all of this assumes the values are in a similar range."
"If your Perception value exceeds one-third of the opponent's Delusion Breaking value — say your Perception is +9 and their Delusion Breaking is +6 — then their Delusion Breaking can't touch you."
"Everything else follows roughly the same logic. So in the end, it still comes down to stacking attributes, grinding Destiny Grids, farming rare variants, upgrading equipment, and pushing enchantments."
"The reason Cao Nima was so hard to kill was that his armor had at least Tier 3 enchantments — and each tier of that kind of enchantment costs tens of thousands of gold coins to complete."
After hearing Li Yue's explanation, Li Wei couldn't help asking: "Could you awaken both Perception and Delusion Breaking at the same time? Would those two conflicting hidden attributes clash with each other?"
Li Yue shook her head. "The conflict between the five hidden attributes applies when they're on different individuals. But there is a way to have two hidden attributes on the same person — you need to condense a combat card. A Tier 3 Warrior Card, Tier 3 Witch Card, Tier 3 Ranger Card, Tier 3 Knight Card — once you have one of those, you can grind for a second hidden attribute. But I don't know the specifics, because that's at minimum pushing toward six-star."
"As for your question about Barbarian Centurions — they're a very powerful type of existence. To put it in comparable terms, roughly the same tier as Lu Ziming. And I myself am only around the level of a Decurion."
"That said, you don't need to worry too much. Centurion level is roughly the ceiling for crossers. Going beyond that is limited. Once you get to Millenary Commander level, that's Night Owl and Black Wolf territory — so it simply won't appear. Also, cross-border missions are infiltration operations by nature — essentially spy work. They can't openly assault our territory with a squad in broad daylight. That would be detected immediately, then tracked and eliminated."
"But these Barbarian crossers will embed themselves within Frost Duke's Ability User Legion. In the future — especially at the final decisive battle — their presence will be a lethal problem. So the best approach is to find and eliminate them before that happens."
"Anyway, don't put too much pressure on yourself. In this battle, aside from me dragging things down, everyone else performed admirably. Especially you — if you'd understood Delusion Breaking from the start and been careful about it, you could have held that man off for at least three minutes. If there's ever a rematch, I'd bet on you to win."
Li Yue paused, then let out a small laugh. "Sorry — this was a great victory, and the way I've been talking makes it sound like something went terribly wrong. Honestly, we've already won. The territory has a hundred units of mana in storage, plus a Second-Order caster — that combination is our foundation. Why do you think Frost Duke isn't attacking us directly? Why is he building a fortress on the south side of the bridge instead? Is it because he's noble and restrained?"
"When this year's Radiation Storm hits and the mana wells reach two hundred units of stored mana, even twenty more Neanderthal crossers would have to walk around our territory. That man we just fought — if your Second Aunt were stationed at the mana wells, he'd be dead the moment he came within ten kilometers."
"Our territory is already maxed out. Everything we do from here on is to make sure we hold Riverside Fortress and bring that five-hundred-kilometer stretch of land in between under our control. That's where all our effort needs to go."