After visiting the orphanage, Winnie arrived at the church, as if completing a daily quest in a mobile game, he approached the goddess statue to begin his prayers.

His arrival naturally drew the attention of some people inside the church, but Winnie himself didn’t care at all.

He paid no mind to how these people looked at him, what they thought, or what they said.

Don’t disturb me from stacking virtue points.

After two hours of diligent effort, Winnie successfully harvested two virtue points, bringing his total to nine.

Very good, very good! Just 21 more points, and he can get awakening!

Having prayed for two hours, Winnie felt sore and stiff from standing in the same position for so long.

He stretched his stiff shoulders and glanced at the sun hanging over the mountainside, it was almost evening.

Having thoroughly enjoyed his virtue-stacking session, he suddenly remembered that there was a duel scheduled in two days.

He realized that he had been so focused on stacking virtue that he might have been a bit disrespectful to his opponent.

Thus, Winnie made his way to the capital’s Soul Art collection shop to pick out a few general purpose skills.

Hmm, his reputation in the capital was truly something.

Even the shopkeeper, who had been lounging in a rocking chair reading a newspaper, couldn’t help but sit up straight upon seeing him.

The shopkeeper clicked his tongue repeatedly and occasionally cast “respectful” glances his way, as if Winnie’s presence had brought immense honor to the humble shop, making the shopkeeper feel uneasy about such a distinguished guest.

Why the hell is this guy here again??

The shopkeeper had no idea what sin he had committed to deserve this.

His shop had been visited by this guy two days in a row.

A beautiful day ends the moment I see Winnie.

What’s going on with this spoiled brat?

Why is he suddenly interested in soul arts?

Didn’t he always despise this stuff?

No, to be precise, he used to avoid it like the plague.

The old Winnie thought he was hiding it well, but in reality, everyone could see the insecurity in his heart.

Could it be because of Princess Mirexia?

Other than her, the shopkeeper couldn’t think of any other reason for Winnie’s sudden interest. It was just too baffling.

Whatever, I’ll just pretend I didn’t see him. Back to reading the newspaper.

“Shopkeeper, where can I find general purpose skills for armor-type Soul Art? Point me in the right direction, will you?”

“Over there,” the shopkeeper instinctively pointed, then immediately realized who had asked him and gave Winnie a strange look.

“Thanks.” Winnie turned around and waved, heading in the direction the shopkeeper had indicated.

“If you’re just here for a quick look out of curiosity, I recommend checking out the general purpose skills for mage-type soul arts. There’s a wide variety. Armor-type soul arts are already niche, with few users, so there aren’t many skills for them either,” the shopkeeper said, glancing at Winnie.

Clearly, in the shopkeeper’s eyes, Winnie was just here to satisfy a passing whim.

A guy who can’t even absorb soul arts coming to a Soul Art collection shop?

Isn’t that like a deaf person attending a concert?

What else could he be here for other than to indulge a fleeting interest?

Winnie didn’t respond and went straight to the display cabinet for armor-type skills.

As the shopkeeper had said, compared to the other skills that filled multiple cabinets, the armor-type skills were pitifully few.

They were even stored in the cheapest wooden cabinet, highlighting just how unpopular this type of Soul Art was.

Armor-type skills were indeed very unpopular, especially among the talented.

In their eyes, only those with poor magical aptitude would resort to armor-type skills as a last resort.

Skills are supposed to be related to magic, right?

If they’re not closely tied to magic, can they even be called skills?

Moreover, Camella was a land dominated by mages.

Being a mage wasn’t just about being elite, it was like being the elite of the elite.

In Camella, even the most powerful enchanted equipment and alchemical potions couldn’t provide overall magic resistance.

At best, they could offer resistance to a single magical attribute.

After all, magic was just a general term for elements, and its internal complexity was immense.

The differences between different elemental magics were even greater than the difference between physical and magical attacks, making it impossible to categorize them as a single type.

Defending against physical attacks like slashes and stabs from swords and spears is relatively easy, just a good set of armor will do the trick.

However, completely shrugging off magical attacks without a scratch is nearly impossible.

Even the best alchemical potions and enchanted items can only absorb a portion of a single elemental magic.

Even if you poured all your resources into maxing out resistance to one element, you still wouldn’t be completely unscathed.

And with so many types of magical elements, even if you maxed out fire resistance, you’d still be vulnerable to wind, earth, and other elemental attacks.

It’s a lot of effort for little reward, and the protective effectiveness is poor.

This is why mages run rampant across not only Camella but even in the whole Terraria, standing at the pinnacle of power.

After all, a sword or spear might leave a hole in you, but magic can reduce you to ashes.

Plus, most magic attacks are area-of-effect, damaging large groups at once, whereas a sword or spear can only injure one or a few people at a time.

The difference in destructive power is clear.

However, there is an exception.

Winnie remembered that in the game’s lore, only one race possessed overall magic resistance: the Blessed Angels.

But the Varelis family, who were descendants of the Blessed Angels, had long since fallen into decline, so this magic resistance was never reflected in the game.

Although the fact that armor-type skills still existed and were chosen by some meant they hadn’t been completely phased out by history, it was also undeniable that armor-type skills fell short compared to most other skills in the late game.

Think about it, what genius would waste their talent on absorbing an armor-type skill?

Most would choose mage-type skills instead.

The more talented individuals who chose mage-type skills, the more Soul arts and skills were developed for them.

In contrast, armor-type soul arts were chosen by few, and mostly by those with mediocre talent who had no other options.

With no one innovating, they naturally faded from public view.

The archive’s collection of skills was already incomplete, and given how niche armor-type skills were, the selection was even sparser.

Among them, only a handful were actually useful.

Fortunately, the descriptions under each technique gave a rough idea of their effects, so Winnie wasn’t completely in the dark and forced to choose based solely on names.

But after looking through them, most of the armor-type skills seemed useless at first glance, and even more so upon closer inspection.

Picking through them felt like searching for gold in a pile of garbage.

After much deliberation, Winnie settled on a skill called Lightweight Armor.

However, when he saw the price, he immediately felt a pang of worry.

He didn’t have enough money.

Crap.

Winnie facepalmed. He had been so busy doing good deeds and stacking virtue points that he had forgotten he was also broke.

What should I do? How can I make money?

After some thought, the only solution Winnie could come up with was to take on quests at the Adventurer’s Guild to earn some cash.

But this was no joke. Given his reputation, finding a team to join was out of the question, people would avoid him like the plague.

How could a novice who had just obtained a soul art complete an Adventurer’s Guild quest alone?

Even the simplest one would be impossible, right?

For a moment, even the resourceful Winnie was at a loss.

No, there’s always a way. If there’s a quest that only my soul art can handle…

…Wait, I’ve got it!