018: Midnight Bat Cloak!

"Adventurer, have you made your choice yet? Time is money."
The black goblin saw Morning Wind hesitating and urged him to hurry up. No matter what kind of goblin, their motto was always "Time is money," and they strove to earn the most in the shortest possible time. At first, seeing Morning Wind buy so many items at once, the black goblin was thrilled, but when Morning Wind started to hesitate, unsure what to buy next, the goblin grew impatient.
"Wait, let me try combining scrolls!" Morning Wind knew he couldn't stall any longer, so he decided to experiment with the scrolls he had purchased, hoping to delay things a bit.
"Hurry up, I have to get to the next plane for a trade," the black goblin pressed on.
Morning Wind had already decided on which skills to combine. For active skills, he merged Rage Strike and Execution together—these were the most explosive skills for a berserker; combining them would make them even more formidable. For passive skills, he chose Unified Rage and Titan's Grip, wondering if the combination would grant extra damage bonuses when wielding two-handed weapons.
Rage Cleave: Lethal skill. A powerful blow, dealing 350% attack damage with all equipped melee weapons, and for every 5 points of rage, an additional 5% damage is added, up to a maximum of 100%. This bonus does not consume rage. If the target's HP is below 30%, Rage Cleave automatically delivers a 3.2x critical hit. Each critical can trigger one Rage Cleave, stackable up to three times, and can only be used within 8 seconds after a critical. Cooldown: None. Cost: None.
It possessed the explosive force of Rage Strike and the lethal finishing effect of Execution when the enemy's HP dropped below 20%. With such a powerful skill, stacking it three times—three Rage Cleaves in a row—could kill an enemy even if they activated damage immunity skills. Morning Wind felt Blood Dragon would become even stronger.
Enhanced Titan's Grip: Passive skill. Allows you to dual-wield pairs of two-handed weapons, increasing damage by 30%, and off-hand weapon damage by 40%. (Holding one-handed weapons also grants a damage boost.)
The combined skill of Unified Rage and Titan's Grip was exceptionally powerful, letting you dual-wield two-handed weapons with a damage bonus. If he carried two two-handed weapons, how much damage could he unleash? Paired with Rage Cleave, Morning Wind felt a single blow could instantly kill enemies.
Originally, Unified Rage and Titan's Grip only differed in weapon type, with similar output. But after combining, Titan's Grip became much stronger. Now, the gap between dual-wielding one-handed swords and two-handed swords would be much greater. No one would think Blood Dragon was him anymore, right?
"King of the Wind Chasers, don't let me run into you again!" The weapons warrior who had tried to break his Blood Dragon Ring—Morning Wind now wished he could find him again, just to show him how it felt to be killed with two Rage Cleaves.
Morning Wind used two talent scrolls, and since level 10 he gained one talent point per level, now totaling four points. He planned to enter the Trial Tower at level 20 and select his own talent skills.
"Where are you now?" Morning Wind sent a call to Cheng Xue. The black goblin was already packing up, clearly unwilling to wait much longer.
"My sister and I are almost there, just wait a bit longer." Cheng Xue and Cheng Shuang were coming as fast as they could, hoping to make it in time. This time, Cheng Shuang brought 10,000 gold coins—more than enough.
"Monk, where are you?" Morning Wind sent a message to the Monk.
"Almost there!" The Monk had the skill Earth Roll, making him move quickly; besides, it seemed he really knew some Shaolin techniques, as he walked extremely fast.
Sure enough, within two minutes, Morning Wind saw the Monk approaching and said to the black goblin, "Merchant, my friend has arrived, and he has gold coins. Two other friends are bringing a large amount of gold; I hope you can wait a moment."
A large amount of gold!
The black goblin caught this keyword, his eyes widening as if golden coins appeared. "Good, good, hurry up."
"You cheapskate, I finally scraped together 500 gold coins. Hand over the skill book," the Monk said as he reached Morning Wind, out of breath. He hadn't expected the game to be so realistic—after just ten minutes of running, he was winded.

"Trade quickly; I'll give you the skill book in the main city later," Morning Wind immediately initiated the trade.
The Monk was surprised that Morning Wind handed over the goods before payment. He hesitated, but seeing Morning Wind wielding a purple weapon, he figured he wouldn't be cheated and handed over the 500 gold coins.
"Eh? Who is this goblin..." Only after the trade did the Monk notice the interdimensional merchant and hurried over to inquire. The black goblin, seeing another customer, gleefully displayed his wares.
"Damn, so expensive..." The Monk had spent all his gold on Morning Wind and now had none left. Seeing that every scroll was at least 500 gold, he turned to Morning Wind for a skill book.
The Monk immediately turned and said, "Cheapskate, can you..."
"Do you want gold coins or to log out?" Morning Wind reached to his belt for the Brotherhood Sword. The Monk understood—there was no way he could get his gold back.
Soon, Cheng Xue and Cheng Shuang arrived. The two beauties rushed over, panting—unlike in real life, they had never run so hard in a game. In reality, they would never be able to run like this.
"Beauties, please add me as a friend!" The Monk saw the two women and was in high spirits, wanting to add them as friends, but Morning Wind kicked him aside, then chose a 1,000 gold dark-gold "Night Bat Cloak" and a 1,000 gold Spatial Transfer Banner.
Cheng Shuang ignored the Monk entirely, squatted down to inspect the interdimensional merchant’s goods, and immediately bought the Holy Light Talent Stone, Enhanced Water Element Skill Book, Active/Passive Skill Combination Scroll, and Angel’s Descent Skill Book—an instant purchase of 8,000 gold.
System: You have earned the interdimensional merchant’s respect. Next time, you’ll receive a 10% discount on purchases.
This time, Morning Wind’s referrals brought the merchant considerable profit; otherwise, he wouldn’t have earned such respect, leading to discounted sales—a rare feat among players. But you needed buyers like Cheng Shuang, who spent 8,000 gold without blinking, then picked two more items, burning through 10,000 gold in a flash.
Seeing no more buyers, the black goblin waved and ran toward a nearby spatial rift to leave.
Morning Wind equipped the Night Bat Cloak; its appearance was striking. The bat’s head had two downward-curving fangs that could bite onto the collar of Morning Wind’s armor, and the claws could hang perfectly from his shoulder plates. The cloak was dark gray, reaching his calves, making it look as if a bat was biting his neck from behind.
Night Bat Cloak
Dark-gold, cloak, bound
Equipment requirements: Warrior, Paladin
Defense increase 5%
Concealment effect +100%
Included skill: Flight
Bonus effect: Raising the cloak to resist magical attacks grants immunity to 20% of magic damage

Bonus effect: In dark environments, covering oneself with the cloak enables stealth, with effectiveness increasing with distance
Description: Exclusive cloak of the Bat Demon King.
Flight: Flight skill. Grants low-altitude flight ability, lasting 12 seconds. During this time, your flight duration does not exceed 2 seconds, the total duration is extended to 12 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Cost: None
This secondary cloak equipment could be extremely useful in many quests; for example, in tasks involving falling or climbing, the ability to fly at low altitude made things much easier.
"Morning Wind, the cloak looks really cool!" Cheng Xue saw Morning Wind put it on and felt his whole aura had changed. With a purple-glowing sword at his waist, he looked just like a general.
Cheng Shuang glanced at him once, then activated Hearthstone to return to the city, clearly intending to choose dual talents. With the Holy Light Talent Stone, dual talents were a must—such treasures were rare, and even most professional players didn’t have them.
Of course, dual talents were just stronger, but if luck allowed a hidden class transfer, it wouldn’t be much inferior to dual talents. Morning Wind hadn’t heard much about how to acquire hidden classes; otherwise, he’d have tried.
"Let’s go back to the city. Monk, come to the warehouse for your skill book!" Morning Wind first used the Spatial Transfer Banner to set a point in the Land of Chaos. Next time he left the main city, he could teleport directly out, without having to go through the main gate.
"Okay, I’ll be right there!" The Monk was thrilled to get skill books for both talent branches, immediately using Hearthstone to return to the city, then rushing to the warehouse to find Morning Wind.
Morning Wind gave the Monk all the missing skill books. He had originally wanted to use the Monk as a training dummy, but as soon as the Monk learned the skill books, he ran off. He had wanted to spar with Morning Wind, but seeing the purple weapon, he thought better of it—better to escape than risk a fight.
Morning Wind ignored the Monk, used the Spatial Transfer Banner to arrive at the Land of Chaos, then dashed toward the Boulder Mountains. There was a shapeshifting troll stronghold there; with the Night Bat Cloak, he wanted to sneak in and see if he could get something out of it.
"Morning Wind, when it’s past midnight, do you want to go to the Heroic difficulty Withered Treefolk dungeon?" Zhang Xinting sent a message.
"Is it the same group as before?" Morning Wind really didn’t want to team up with Lin Shanshan, that unreliable healer—it would be a challenge to clear the Heroic dungeon with her.
"No, it’s with the Sky Slash team’s professional players. They haven’t cleared the Heroic dungeon yet and want you to lead them through." The Sky Slash team hadn’t been able to withstand the final boss—the magic damage was too high, and their warrior tank’s skills weren’t complete, so tanking was still difficult. Besides, for damage output, their berserker couldn’t compare to Morning Wind at all.
"Then after midnight." Morning Wind ended the call and began sprinting along the main road of the Boulder Mountains.
At 11:25, Morning Wind reached the shapeshifting troll stronghold in the Boulder Mountains—a fortress built against the slopes, with only one entrance guarded by six trolls. There were also watchtowers nearby, making infiltration difficult. But this time, Morning Wind didn’t enter from the front; instead, he used the Flight skill from the Night Bat Cloak to sneak in from the cliffs. As one side was a sheer drop, there were no watchtowers, making it easier for Morning Wind to infiltrate.
Landing in a corner of the stronghold using the Flight skill, Morning Wind immediately pulled up the Night Bat Cloak to conceal himself, activated stealth, and did his best to avoid detection by the patrolling shapeshifting trolls.