Chapter 432: Third Talent Tree?

Returning to his room in the inn, Rhode placed the box on the table and began to examine the pair of daggers carefully. As his hand hovered above them, the cards of Celia and Celestina emerged on his palm. The cards spun non-stop, glistening with hallucinatory aura, as though reacting to the surroundings. At this moment, similar white radiance glowed from the daggers, shining in symphony with the two cards, responding to their calling.

I see.

Rhode could confirm that these two daggers were indeed part of the Holy Sword Card Deck. However, Rhode was dubious because previously, these two cards only appeared after awakening their Soul of Existence. But since these two daggers are present and don't require awakening, what should I do?

A Spirit Swordsman had the ability to seal living creatures into cards. However, the creature must be alive. As long as the living creatures agreed, the Spirit Swordsman could seal them into cards while they were alive. However, those living creatures had self-consciousness. From the start, the Holy Sword Card Deck were lifeless cards and only when Rhode awakened them forcefully would they have the ability to transform into human figures.

However, Rhode was at his wit's end facing these two lifeless daggers. Since he couldn't possibly ask them if they would like to be his summon spirits, what should he do?

Rhode sighed and clenched his fist. Two floating cards shattered in his palms and Celia and Celestina emerged.

Celia lowered her head as soon as she appeared, bowing respectfully. "I'm sorry, Master. We weren't able to offer you help when you needed us the most..."

"You don't have to apologize, Celia." It wasn't Rhode who said that, but Celestina. The demon young lady leaned against the wall, gazing at Rhode in disdain. Although her expression didn't reveal her true thoughts, her eyes betrayed how she regarded Rhode. "It wasn't your fault. It was just because our Master was too weak, draining all his energy dealing with a few maggots. Ha, what a joke. It's just our luck to have him as our Master."

Rhode frowned and ignored Celestina's utterance. This demonic young lady was indeed too troublesome for him to handle. She was basically standoffish to his commands and often sarcastic in her words. However, even though her statements kind of made sense, Rhode didn't feel respected. As long as Celestina didn't go against his orders and create trouble for him during battle, he wouldn't argue with her.

Rhode neglected her words as he pointed to the daggers that laid quietly in the box. "What do you two think of them?"

The sisters shifted their attention to the daggers and their expressions changed slightly. "That's the... No wonder I felt a familiar aura around me..."

Celestina walked towards the daggers and gently caressed them as she spoke. However, she paused halfway and swept a glance at Rhode vigilantly. It was as though Rhode wasn't her master, but her enemy instead. The demonic young lady retracted her hand and turned around.

"Let's go, Celia. If our master can't even resolve this problem by himself, then he doesn't have the right to obtain the Holy Sword." A black mist emerged and shrouded Celestina before she eventually returned to the state of a card, disappearing into thin air. Meanwhile, Celia wore a difficult expression as she puckered her brows slightly, gazing at Rhode helplessly. She was about to comment, but let out a sigh instead.

"I'm very sorry, Master. Although I want to say something, Sister is right. This is the experience that you as a Holy Sword Holder should go through and not seek our help for. You have to rely on your own strength to awaken them." Celia bowed solemnly and transformed into a card, disappearing too.

Got to say, the sisters' reactions astonished Rhode as he didn't expect them to refuse to offer any help or even give a tip. Although it wasn't rare for Celestina to behave this way, to have Celia disobeying himself seemed like he definitely needed to resolve this all by himself.

Rhode sunk into deep thought, picking up the two daggers.

These two daggers were weighed equally and reasonably light, with a suitable touch and great balance overall. It was obvious that these two daggers were made for dual-wielding and they gave Rhode an entirely different feel compared to every other weapon that he had. The Star Mark, Succubus, or Crimson Blade were all one-handed swords and although it was fine to wield them with both hands, the difference in length and balance were difficult to grasp. However, these two daggers were perfect in terms of length and balance, which showed that they were used as a set.

Rhode closed his eyes and felt the two mysterious weapons in his hands. Soon, lines of system prompt emerged before him.

[Madaras — Runes Dagger. Born under the glory of magic, inheriting a mysterious honor. Magical Immunity 15%. Reconciliation 30%. Speed Increase 30%]

[Gracier — Dawn Destroyer. All beings surrender to it. Physical Immunity 15%. Blade Sharpness 30%. Balance 30%]

Rhode was quick to realize that these two weapons were counterparts of each other. Madaras was a Runes Dagger that possessed powerful magical resistance and attack while Gracier, a Dawn Destroyer, stacked physical resistance and attack. Their magical and physical immunities were what Rhode paid close attention to. Got to say, these points were the most worthy of praise. Meanwhile, their only flaw was the low success rate of only 15%. Furthermore, the descriptions stated that the chances would be randomly triggered, which wasn't that appealing because it meant that the chance could be triggered at any time. It would be great if the chances were triggered during battle and aid Rhode in reversing any grave situations. However, if they were to take effect in non-threatening situations and lose their chance in crucial moments, it would be a pity.

Other than this flaw, the 'Reconciliation', 'Speed Increase', 'Sharp Blade', and 'Balance' was rather decent. However, they were only decent compared to an ordinary weapon. Although these daggers were rare in comparison to ordinary weapons, these features were still lacking when put against the Holy Sword Card Deck. The weapon attributes of the Star Mark and Succubus were high in values and most importantly, both of them had their very own unique techniques, whereas these two daggers had none. Apart from their names and weapon attributes, there was nothing else unique.

It seems like it has something to do with the two daggers themselves...

Rhode recalled Celestina's words. Although this demonic young lady spewed unsympathetic and harsh words, Rhode managed to capture some hints. Both daggers hadn't displayed their full potential, so there must be something he didn't do well enough, causing them to not awaken fully.

However, Rhode had no clue on how he should awaken these two daggers. He shut his eyes and attempted calling out to them spiritually. But there was no response.

Without any choice, Rhode placed the daggers by the side and considered other matters.

And that was his leveling.

Rhode rose by two levels and reached level 30 after defeating Vulture and the Necromancer. Apart from the four skill points that he received from leveling up, there weren't any special rewards for hitting the level 30 milestone. Initially, Rhode had decided to increase the skill points for the talents of the Soul Messenger and Summoning Master. However, after these two battles, Rhode felt that he needed to reconsider his decision.

The reason was the Legion Horn.

Rhode realized that there was an upward trend of his usage in the Legion Horn because most enemies he fought were higher in levels than him. The powerful ability of the Legion Horn couldn't be neglected when it came to guaranteeing an instant-kill to these enemies. However, it was the energy consumption of the Legion Horn that had always been Rhode's biggest headache. In the game, Spirit Swordsman would seize the opportunity to use the Legion Horn against a BOSS when the BOSS was low in HP. Whereas for PK, there was no need for explanation. The Spirit Swordsman needed to grasp the weakness of their opponent and only tragedy awaited if they missed.

In the game, players could make steady progress incrementally in defeating monsters roaming in different areas. However, Rhode couldn't in this real world, especially when there was an Ice Lake mission right after the Castel Plateau Ruins mission. In such a situation, it became especially important in pursuing the ability to instant-kill. However, the aftermath of the Legion Horn became a huge problem that troubled him the most. Just like this time, he defeated Vulture in a breeze with it, but he needed to be on the run from the Necromancer as he didn't have the energy to continue the duel against him. Rhode was fortunate that he met Paris; if not, he would have relied on unlocking Gillian's seal to settle this problem.

But Gillian would only be able to resolve such problems once.

After consideration, Rhode decided that the best alternative was to increase his survivability. Rhode wasn't worried about his physique that much because his spiritual energy was much more critical as the growth of spiritual energy capacity was the slowest. In the deepest parts of the [Soul Messenger] talent tree, there was a talent that allowed the holder to restore full health and condition on the spot (Of course, with the condition that the holder was alive). However, Rhode needed to complete the first two stages of talents fully and moreover, he would need to reach about level 40 to do so.

At this moment, Rhode shifted his attention to the other talent: [Soul Territory].

[Soul Territory: Automatically casts a halo. The holder can absorb the spiritual energy of the creatures that the holder has killed by 10%, 20%, 30%. Quantity can be stacked]

This sounded like a suitable talent for Rhode.

But the problem was that this talent laid in the third Talent Tree: Hell Lord.

Rhode was hesitant.

Do I really have to activate the third Talent Tree?