Chapter 196 - Holy Lancer

Chapter 196: Holy Lancer

[Ding!]
[Player Jessica Weiss has completed a grand challenge and obtained Proof of Hero]
[Proof of Hero: Evidence of a successful grand challenge. Your accomplishment would be well remembered, and your courage existing eternally with the world. (Can only be used above Level 60)]
[Player Jessica Weiss has obtained Sefarim (Exclusive item/Soulbound) and unlocked new Cleric class-change ‘Holy Lancer’]
[Class introduction]
[Holy Lancer: The Holy Lancer wields their divine lance from their mount to protect the weak and innocent in the name of duty. They are the ideal form of paladins, training tirelessly in combat and the sacred arts, dashing through sand and cutting through the enemies’ ranks.
Players no longer change weapons after changing class to Holy Lancers, and must pour all their experience and skill within their holy lances to hence elevate the grate and ability of the lance itself, and bound it to the Lancer with utmost intimacy. The day the holy lance sharpens is the day the name of the Holy Lancer resounds across the world.]
[Click here for video]
[Class-change requirements: Player Level 15, clearing class-change quests, a Level 15 Purple-Rare item (Golden-Legendary works as well) to be delivered to the dwarven craftsman to forge the mold of the holy lance.]
Xi Wei wasn’t idling even though he had said nothing in his divine kingdom while Jessica and the others slew the Drake with the greatest treasure of the elves. Instead, he was using his divine power to sense the principles in which Sefarim worked.
Since there is a clear divide between the gods and their various divine orders and aside from the widespread overlapping of authority, the gods wouldn’t easily be able to replicate what other gods had created.
And that was precisely why the gods of this world clearly had no awareness or countermeasures against theft.
Moreover, although Xi Wei couldn’t understand most principles of how Sefarim worked even after he carefully felt it as if he was licking it, he still gained much from that.
Additionally, the introduction of Life Skills and its skill proficiency setting had allowed Xi Wei to profit with huge amounts of divine energy. Hence, in the spirit of ‘money not spent is paper’, he simply used that divine energy, and imitated the principles of Sefarim to a certain extent in molding a new class.
Though the Holy Lancer appeared high and mighty, it was just like other classes with three branches in its skill tree.
The first branch was the [Sacred Lance]. The Player wouldn’t be able to equip other weapons after changing class to Holy Lancer, and their only weapon is the one forged from the holy lance mold that the dwarven craftsman made during their class-change.
The holy lance mold would draw the Player’s EXP and level up in tandem with the Player, and the Sacred Lance class would allow the holy lance mold to further gain special abilities, although those abilities would never stop consuming the Player’s mana and would burn EXP once their MP bar was empty.
Therefore, the Holy Lance would have seal certain skills correspondingly when the Players learning new ones, and most skills for this skill branch would have ‘O Sacred Lance, unlock the seals in my name, XXX!’ that sort of feeling. Sealing once doesn’t mean only one could be unlocked either, and several seals could be unlocked in an instant if the blue bar was sufficient, the overlapping effects of which unleashed fearsome might.
Then, there was the Cuirassier[1] skill branch.
As Holy Lancers couldn’t switch weapons, they would have one item slot less than other Players. That being said, they had another advantage in their mount—while other Players could ride various creatures as well, only Holy Lancers would receive stat buffs from their mounts.
In turn, most skills on the Cuirassier skill branch was casted in tandem with their mounts, combining in attacks, pressing advantages and keeping guard. Like how calvaries crushed infantries, the combined powers of the mount and the Holy Lancer would achieve a 1+1>2 effect in most scenarios!
Still, if one were to put their finger on the hassle of this skill branch would have, it would be the effort, spirit and even wealth required to groom their mount.
That being said, unlike the Holy Lance branch which only consumes EXP partially from each monster killed, mounts are considered summoned creatures and wouldn’t drain the Player’s EXP. Moreover, leveling mounts only required the purchase of some unique snacks from the System shop, aside from using Player EXP or Illum crystals to make energy cubes to feed them with.
The last skill branch was Guardian, which as its name suggests was a tanking route that prioritizes defense.
Xi Wei had noticed from previous events that the Players lack a defensive class. The Warriors should have that covered, but neither of their current available class change that was Spirit Swordsman and Swordmaster had huge amounts of HP. Therefore, the responsibility of tank was awkwardly assumed by Warriors who had yet to take class-change, which negatively affects the Players’ party organization.
As such, there clearly wasn’t any class better than Holy Lancers to take up tanking, what with them being the only armored class there is for now who could share HP with their mounts. Furthermore, the skill tree also had skills for healing and purification, which was a strengthened version of Cleric favoring defensive aspects of the game.
Hence, a jack-of-all-trades class was born: they are able to heal and hold themselves in a fight, or flee on the Red Hare[2] they summoned if things looked dangerous!
Nevertheless, two shortcomings of the Holy Lancer class would probably be how they were restrained in narrow spaces, be it their mounts or their holy lance that is over two meters long. And then there was their extremely fast standard speed, and that they would easily become separated from the rest of their party…
Still, with the class made and announced, Xi Wei paid attention to the other Players’ reaction towards the new class.
“Yeah! Clerics are finally getting new class-change!”
“Another class-change after so long? I’ve already gotten used to the scent of seafood (Before Holy Lancers, the only class-change available to Clerics were Aquatic Angels).”
“It takes one rare item for that class-change? So materialistic, poor people are never going to afford this…”
“Looking for level fifteen rare-purple items! Exchangeable with the limited dolphin head item! Only one helm available, hurry up if you want it!”
“Not really. But no one would want that anyway after the flawless dolphin heads started dropping at Fishmen Island?”
“You know jack. Dolphin head of other colors have no soul!”
Aside from those normal discussions, the other Players rearing beasts just outside the Unnamed Town were cheering as well.
“Awesome, the pony I’ve been raising is useful now!”
“Wonderful, the alpaca I’ve been raising is useful now!”
“Amazing, the condor I’ve been raising is useful now!”
“Wait a minute, what did you say your pet was again???”
[1] literally iron horserider
[2] The Red Hare (赤兔马) was a famous horse owned by the warlord Lü Bu, who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China.