Shi Luo Ye (失落叶). : другие произведения.

Zhan Long (eng) 13-24

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  Chapter 13 - Grass Fruits
  
  With the aid of the system help menu, I found the alchemist instructor to be located at a small forest, just outside of Ba Huang City.
  
  With my Bramble Thorn Sword, I jogged to the location of the alchemist instructor, but when I got there, what should have been a small forest was only an empty field.
  
  What"s going on here? I pulled up the online forum for <> and searched for posts regarding alchemy. Soon, I found a post that was tailored to my need -
  
   [Question]: Where is the alchemist instructor? Why can"t I find him?
  
   [Answer]: Motherfucker, I searched for the alchemist instructor for an entire morning and found out that the alchemist instructor isn"t at the place where the system guides you. Instead, the alchemist instructor is in the forest, outside to the northern gate of Ba Huang City. There are at least 11 spots where the instructor can be found and every 15 minutes the instructor goes to a different spot. Ridiculous!
  
  ...
  
  So that"s why I couldn"t find him.
  
  I went around to the small forest, and searched there. It took about 10 minutes before I finally found the instructor napping under a Ginkgo Tree. The name displayed on top of his head was [Alchemist Mi Fu].
  
  I walked up to him and respectfully bowed, saying: "Hello there. I would like to become an Alchemist!"
  
  But after I bowed, he didn"t reply to me. Trying to stay respectful, I decided to keep my eyes to the ground and keep bowing, after all, I didn"t want to displease the instructor. But after quite a while, he still didn"t reply, confused I looked up. What the hell? He left.
  
  I had thoughts of quitting alchemy but reason won and so, I kept on searching for the instructor. After another 10 minutes, I found the alchemist under another tree. I walked up, this time with a bit of force, I said: "Hi. I would like to become an Alchemist!"
  
  Mi Fu looked up and glanced at me before saying: "Kid, do you really want to become an alchemist?"
  
  "Yes!"
  
  "Okay!" Mi Fu smiled: "In order to become a great alchemist, one must have a sharp mind. If you can correctly answer my three questions, I"ll give you a task. Only after you have completed the task will you be able to become a full-fledged alchemist."
  
  "Okay, please begin!"
  
  Mi Fu"s smiled became even wider: "What kind of wheel can"t move around?" (The question is actually asking what kind of car can"t move around and the answer is a play on Chinese words which unfortunately can"t be expressed in English)
  
  I paused, this was a riddle! After a few seconds, I got the answer: "A wind-mill"
  
  "Correct. Next question, how can you use a single leaf to cover the entire sky?"
  
  "Use the leaf to cover your eyes."
  
  "Last question, there"s a caterpillar and he wants to cross a river, but there is no bridge. How can he cross the river?"
  
  This was a hard one. I thought about it for a full minute before tentatively answering: "He metamorphosis"s into a butterfly and flies across the river?"
  
  "Yup, not bad..." Mi Fu finally sat up. Looking at me, he asked: "Do you really want to become an alchemist?"
  
  "Yes!"
  
  "Alright!" Mi Fu took out a miniature shovel from his pocket and said: "Alchemists must be able to collect herbs by their own power. To the south-east, there"s a Grass Fruit Forest, go there and collect 10 Grass Fruits. If you can do this, I"ll let you become an Alchemist."
  
  "Ding"
  
  Do you accept the quest - [Alchemist"s task]?
  
  Of course, I accepted. The quest description matched what Mi Fu said, collect 10 Grass Fruits. This shouldn"t be too hard, but the only difficulty is that I don"t know what level the monsters are in the Fruit Forest.
  
  ...
  
  With my miniature shovel, I left the alchemist instructor. After about 10 minutes, I arrived at Grass Fruit Forest. At the edge of the forest, countless butterflies flew up and down. It"s quite breathtaking.
  
  
  
  I tightened my grip on my Bramble Thorn Sword, even though the forest looked peaceful, there might be extremely strong monsters in it. Right after entering the forest, a green Bat that was resting on a tree came flying at me.
  
   [Blood Sucking Bat] (Normal Monster)
  
   Level : 12
  
   Attack: 55-62
  
   Defense: 24
  
   Health: 400
  
   Skills: [Transfusion LV-1]
  
  Description: A low level monster in <>. These Blood Sucking Bats are skilled in leeching away health. They often destroy nearby fields, making farmers and hunters very wary of them. In fact, many lives have ended at the hands of Blood Sucking Bats.
  
  ...
  
  Looking at the clumsy actions of the Blood Sucking Bat, I couldn"t help but laugh. This is too easy!
  
  I thrust my sword at the approaching Bat. It was simple yet effective. Puchi. I hit the abdomen of the Bat. Instantly the Bat, which was about the size of a small rubber ball, cried out in pain. My strike caused 97 points in damage.
  
  Instead of backing away, the Bat flew into my chest, opened its Bloody mouth and bite my exposed shoulder. The Bat turned 50% of the damage into his own health -
  
  43
  
  +21
  
  I didn"t bother looking at the wound on my shoulder and instead, focused on slashing at the Bat. With a couple of hit, I ended the life of the Bat. After I killed the Bat, I gave myself a hemostasis and recovered 100 health. After dying, the Bat left behind 2 items, one of them was 5 copper coins and the other was a dark green card. After I picked it up, I was shocked -
  
   [Blood Sucking Bat Illustrations] - Illustration type item. After finding the Illustration of a monster, a player can tame a monster to become a pet.
  
  ...
  
  "A pet?"
  
  I was shocked. Even though I knew that there are 3 slots for pets for each player, of the thousands of players that I passed since arriving at Ba Huang City, I hadn"t seen anyone with a pet.
  
  Well, might as well use it. Shua, the [Blood Sucking Bat Illustration] was transferred to my Illustration Book. After opening my Illustration Book I was able to understand the process in taming a monster. What I had to do was find a level 1 monster that I had the Illustrations to and use some Sealing Cards to tame it. The chances for sealing varied with each monster and only level 1 monsters could be tamed.
  
  Right now, I don"t have any Sealing Cards so there was no point in trying to find a level 1 Blood Sucking Bat. So I continued forward. After a few steps, I found what I was looking for. In front of me were some light green shrubs, they were the level 1 herb, Grass Fruit!
  
  Each stalk had quite a few fruits but when I tried to pick the fruits, they wouldn"t come off, so I took out my shovel and carefully dug the entire stalk out of the ground. When I finished digging and pulled out the Grass Fruit Stalk,
  
  "Ding!"
  
   System notice: Congratulations, you have collected [Grass Fruit] * 1!
  
  ...
  
  With renewed vigor, I looking for other stalks of Grass Fruit, luckily there was one right beside me. In a couple of moments, I had 2 Grass Fruit Stalks tucked in my inventory.
  
  With my Bramble Thorn Sword, I continued forward. Soon, I encountered more Blood Sucking Bats. A few meters in front of me were 2 Blood Sucking Bats. Looks like I"ll have to 1v2...
  
  My lips curled into mocking smile, it"s time to fight!
  
  Shua!
  
  My bare foot slid across the grass. Raising my sword, I slashed at the closest Bat with my entire strength. Peng. It was a critical strike! A 178 floated above my strike. After the Blood Sucking Bat took the hit, its body flew backwards. At the same time, I noticed that, in <>, once a hit lands, the opponent falls backwards or tenses up for a slight moment which affects the counterstrike used by the opponent, at least that was the case for these Blood Sucking Bats. Anyways, this momentary pause gave me a chance to land another hit on the Blood Sucking Bat before the Bat could even react to the first strike.
  
  Cccchhhing
  
  91
  
  Taking advantage of the slight pause in the Bat after landing the second hit, I slashed at the Bat from below. As a result, the counter attack that should have happened after the first hit and had been delayed to after the second hit was now delayed to after the third which killed the Bat. Bramble Thorn Sword"s attack speed was quite slow. It took about 1.5 seconds to perform a normal attack, but with the lag between my attacks and the counterattacks of the Bat and my impressive damage, I was able to kill the Bat without taking a single hit...
  
  
  
  While fighting the second Bat, I began thinking, for the first Bat I attacked, I started off with a critical strike which caused a slight pause in the Bat, hit the Bat again which postponed the counterattack once again and finally before the Bat"s counter strike could connect with me, I finished it off. Is that... a combo? Wait, since I devised it myself, could this be what legendary use - a compiled combo?
  
  
  
  Hmph, things are about to get interesting.
  
  
  
  ...
  
  
  
  Soon, I had collected 9 stalks of Grass Fruit, and when I dug up the 10th stalk of Grass Fruit, a familiar sound rang out beside my ear.
  
  
  
  *Ding!*
  
   System Notification - You have learned the skill - [Herb Collection]!
  
  
  
  In nearly every game that I have ever played, [Herb Collection] is a skill essential to Alchemists and Pharmacists. I couldn"t believe my luck. To have gotten such an important skill this quickly, great! Compared to my [Turmoil Sword], [Herb Collection] didn"t take long to learn at all. The main difference between Pharmacists and Alchemists was that Pharmacists specialized in making health potions while Alchemists specialized in making mana pills. Even though the products of the two professions are quite different, they are both professions that guaranteed a huge income. At least I hope that"s the case.
  
  
  
  From my observations, I realized that every time a player raised their level, they would get a 10 point boost in mana. But the skills that the player uses would also become stronger and take up more mana. For example, my Hemostasis took 5 mana at level 1 and would take 50 mana at level 10. But this is only a low level ability, for players who get to level 50, a high tier skill at level 1 would use up 20 mana and 200 mana at level 10. A swordsmen who only puts all of his stat points in Strength and not Spiritual Power would only have 550 mana to use at level 50. Once he uses a couple skills, he would be out of mana. If he doesn"t use any mana pills then he"d be stuck using basic attacks. This meant that the need for mana pills was limitless, as long as there were people playing, there would be a need for mana pills.
  
  
  
  My goals to making money are quite simple, first of all, I need to give money to my sister for her college fees and secondly, I need money to rebuild the Zhan Long team in <>. All I have in my savings is 8000+ RMB or 1300 USD. A single headset for <> costs 10,000 RMB, which is why I desperately need to find a method to make the most money in the shortest amount of time.
  
  
  
  Alright, Alchemy, my first step to riches. Even if my overall level becomes low, I won"t hesitate to spend time on Alchemy"s level.
  
  
  
  ...
  
  
  
  After returning to the small forest, I found the alchemy instructor Mi Fu and gave him the 10 stalks of Grass Fruit.
  
  
  
  "Oho, young man, as expected, you completed this tough task. From now on, you are one of the smart and courageous Alchemists. You will go to the extremes of Earth, explore places that have never been seen by the human eyes in order to find the rarest herbs and create the most precious pills..."
  
  
  
  Mi Fu patted my shoulder. With his hand came a beam of light. After the beam of light disappeared, the title of "Trainee Alchemist" appeared under my name. In addition, I learned a new skill - Alchemy! My hard work was not in vain!
  
  
  
  .....
  
  Mi Fu looked at me and continued: "Now, you are an Alchemist, but... hmm, young man, since you"re an adventurer of Ba Huang City, why didn"t you go to city"s lord to receive your city emblem?"
  
  
  
  "City Emblem?" I had never heard of that before.
  
  
  
  "Hmph, you really aren"t the brightest, are you?" Mi Fu patted his forehead, as if it was hurting: "As an adventurer of Ba Huang City, you should go to the lord"s building, find the city"s lord and become recognized as an adventurer of Ba Huang City. The lord might even give you a gift..."
  
  
  
  "Whattt?!"
  
  
  
  I ran back to the City, leaving Mi Fu alone under the Gingko tree. What the heck? The system help never told me about this! Looking through the help menus and forums there weren"t any posts about the emblem and gift either! I"m guessing not many player in Ba Huang City know about this either.
  Chapter 14 - Let the Blood Spill over Ba Huang
  
  Shout out to Freespot who helped me translate this chapter! Also, sorry if the writing"s a bit rough in this chapter, it"s late at night and I"m super tired.
  
  There were countless players around Ba Huang City. Outside in the forests, there were thousands if not tens of thousands of players fighting Blood Sucking Bats and other monsters. Inside the city, there were countless players selling items.
  
  A level 10, white trash tier coat was selling for 5 Silver coins! I don"t think anyone"s going to buy that, after all, a coat with 5 defense really doesn"t have many uses or retain it"s value and money is so precious right now that one would be better off buying some potions and raising one"s level.
  
  There were quite a few people in front of the Pharmacies, Blacksmith Forges and Training Halls but there wasn"t anyone on their way to the meet the lord of the city, no one but me. Looks like everyone was busy trying gain an advantage over one another and weren"t planning to pay their respects to the lord.
  
  .....
  
  The blood red path to the city hall was guarded by soldiers wearing black armor, that didn"t shine under sunlight. Inside the city hall was an sword-wielding general, the feudal lord of Ba Huang City. The Chinese server of <>, only had three secondary cities and one main city, which meant he was one of the highest ranking officials in the Chinese sever.
  
  I walked forward and courteously said: "My lord, I would like to become an adventurer for Ba Huang City..."
  
  The lord had a huge beard, with his hand on his sword, his eyes swept over me: "Young man, do you really want to become a member of Ba Huang? Are you willing to defend this city to your last breath?"
  
  I nodded: "Yes"
  
  "Good, come over here, you will now become a member of Ba Huang City."
  
  Paa. The lord"s hand, covered with a gauntlet, patted my shoulder. The strength that the hand used was far greater than my imagination. Under his pat, I winced at the pain in my shoulders but at the same time a familiar ringing sound rang besides my hear-
  
  Ding!
  
   System Notification: Congratulations, you have joined Ba Huang City as an adventurer and received the right to use recall scrolls for Ba Huang City. In addition, you have received Ba Huang City"s city badge - [Let the Blood Spill over Ba Huang]
  
  ...
  
  Shua!
  
  A badge of a bloody battle knife appeared on my shoulder. I"m guessing that that"s Ba Huang City"s unique badge. The badge granted a City Buff - [Let the Blood Spill Over Ba Huang]: Anyone who wears this badge will receive a 3% increase in attack and defense!
  
  Hmph, choosing Ba Huang City as my home city has paid off. I wonder what effect the badges from Fan Shu City and Jiu Li City have, I"ll remember to ask Ling Wan Er and Dong Cheng Yue next time I see them.
  
  After registering as an adventurer of Ba Huang, I left the City Hall since there was nothing more to keep me there.
  
  But right when I was about to leave the City"s gate to venture into the surrounding forest, a player yelled: "Buying a [Blood Sucking Bat Illustration], I"ll pay good money for it!"
  
  [Blood Sucking Bat Illustration]?
  
  I opened my inventory, hmm, after killing more than 20 bats, I had found 2 illustrations. One, I used myself and the other one was sitting snugly in my inventory. Therefore, I went up to the player buying the illustration. He was about 20 years old, level 13 and his game ID was "New Moon Merchant Number 4"
  
  I walked in front of him and asked: "My friend, why do you want to buy those illustrations?"
  
  The merchant laughed: "It"s a business secret!"
  
  "Is it really a secret? All you want to do is use the [Blood Sucking Bat Illustrations] to catch some Blood Sucking Bats and sell them as pets right?"
  
  The merchant"s eyes narrowed: "Wuh? How"d you know?"
  
  Now it was my turn to laugh: "Really? You thought that only you would think of that? Anyways, I have a [Blood Sucking Bat Illustration], so how badly do you want it? If I think the price is right, I"ll sell it to you. If it"s not then I"ll just use it myself and catch some bats to sell. Then we"ll be competitors!"
  
  As soon as he heard that I had an illustration, the merchant"s eyes lit up: "My good brother, do you really have the illustration? Our group of 30+ people have been killing Blood Sucking Bats for 4 hours now and not even a single [Blood Sucking Bat Illustration] has dropped! How good is your luck to have one already?"
  
  I was shocked, was the drop rate for the illustrations really that low? Was my luck really that good?
  
  I took out the illustration and waved it in front of the merchant"s eyes: "Mm, you want this right?"
  
  "Incredible, you really do have it. Brother, how much are you going to sell it for? Please, please sell it to me!"
  
  "Make your offer!"
  
  The merchant nodded and raised 5 fingers: "50 Copper Coins!"
  
  I smirked: "Alright, Ima go fight some monsters. Bye!"
  
  "Wait, wait..." The merchant hurriedly tugged my sleeve: "Even if we can"t make a deal, we can still be friends right? Don"t be in such a hurry to leave, if you aren"t satisfied with this offer, we can still discuss it right?"
  
  I smiled, the merchant took my bait. I also held up 5 fingers: "This price..."
  
  "You don"t mean... 5 Silver Coins!?"
  
  "Yes, 5 Silver Coins. You have 30+ people killing Blood Sucking Bats right now, each person should be able to get about 1 Silver Coin"s worth of drop or so in 1 hour, your people would have made about 30 Silver Coins. Even though you guys have gotten 30 Silver Coins, none of you have a single Illustration. So the real question is, why am I not selling this illustration for 50 Silver Coins? But since this is our first time trading, I"ll leave the price at 5 Silver Coins, take it or leave it."
  
  The merchant whose face paled after my speech, immediately said: "Yes yes yes. I"ll take it. 5 Silver Coins right?"
  
  After opening the trade window and traded with the merchant, my inventory was one [Blood Sucking Bat Illustration] lighter and my purse was 5 Silver Coins heavier.
  
  ...
  
  After selling the illustration, I immediately headed to the general store. After flipping through a couple pages in the catalogue, I finally found what I was looking for. Before, when I looked through the recipes in [Alchemy] -
  
   LV -1 [Grass Fruit Pill]: Recovers 50 mana.
  
   Needs 3 Grass Fruits, 1 Empty Bottle
  
   LV -2 [Silver Leaf Pill]: Recovers 100 mana.
  
   Needs 4 Silver Leaf Herbs, 2 Refinding Water, 1 Alchemy Pot
  
   LV -3 [Seven Star Pill]: Recovers 200 mana.
  
   Needs 3 blades of Seven Star Herbs, 3 Refining Waters, 1 Alchemy Pot
  
  .....
  
  Both, Alchemy Pots and Empty Bottles were single use items, which meant that they would be consumed after I created the pill. So I decided to buy 100 Empty Bottles because after refining 100 Grass Fruit Pills, I should be able to get to level 2 in [Alchemy] and at that point, there isn"t much meaning in continuing to make Grass Fruit Pills. Each of the Empty Bottles cost 2 Copper Coins so the combined cost of the 100 Empty Bottles was 2 Silver Coins. The Alchemy Pots however cost 20 Copper Coins. The price was ten times the price of an Empty Bottle! After buying 10 Alchemy Pots, I switched my focus to Sealing Cards, they were 1 Silver Coin each. I bought 2... and surprise! I"m out money.
  
  This time, I went out of the Eastern gate of Ba Huang City. In front of me was a sunny forest, Clear Rainforest. The rainforest, which surrounded Ba Huang City, had a variety of low level monsters. The majority of the monsters were small animals or bugs that wouldn"t cause much damage. It was the perfect place for level 10-20 players to raise their levels. It was also where I was about to make a lot of money!
  
  I rushed into the rainforest, my foot crushing countless flowers and grass. My first goal was to collect Grass Fruits and raise my [Alchemy] skill to level 2. A level 1 Grass Fruit Pill can recover 50 mana which footed the mana for 5 uses of [Hemostasis] but the cooldown the pills is 30 seconds which meant that I wouldn"t be able to use Hemostasis to it"s full potential (Author never says what the cd is on Hemostasis but from this it"s assumed to be less than 6 seconds).
  
  Inside the forest, there were plenty of Grass Fruits lying around but before I could pick them, I had to kill the Blood Sucking Bats that "guarded" these precious herbs. Whatever, the bats gave precious experience which is always welcomed.
  
  Ka Cha! (Common sound effect in Chinese for beheadings)
  
  The Blood Sucking Bat that, moments ago, so valiantly rushed at me was now dead at my feet. With his death, a golden light shone over me, I was level 11!
  
  Every time I fought a Blood Sucking Bat, I would carefully check if it was a level 1 bat. If it was a level 1, I would have sealed it without hesitation. After all, no one had a pet at this stage and any pet, even a pet that had stupidly low stats like a Blood Sucking Bat, would sell for huge amounts.
  
  Unfortunately, lady luck didn"t shine on me and no level 1 Blood Sucking Bat appeared.
  
  After an hour of collecting Grass Fruits, I found a quiet spot in the forest and began to refine the Grass Fruits into Grass Fruit Pills. After emptying my stock of Empty Bottles, my [Alchemy] skill reached level 2!
  
  .....
  
  I stood up, taking a look at my status, I realized that I was level 12. Now that my [Alchemy] skill was level 2, the new goal would be to gather Silver Leaf Herbs, so that I could increase my [Alchemy] level even higher.
  
  Even though I could see piles of fully grown Grass Fruit, unfortunately, I didn"t have any interest in the Grass Fruit now that my [Alchemy] skill was level 2. I was slowly moved forward, carefully searching the ground for Silver Leaf Herbs. After searching for about 20 meters, I discovered the first batch of silver leaf herbs. With a silver glow, they hid under shade of the surrounding trees. Unexpectedly, they was actually easier to find than I imagined!
  
  Without a worry in the world, I walked forward, smiling at my fortune. But right when I was about to collect the Silver Leaf Herbs, a bird"s screech sounded above me and suddenly a silvery light dived towards me.
  
  Puuu!
  
  Blood sprouted from my forehead, a sneak attack!
  
  "71!"
  
  The treacherous attacker? A bird that was clad in silver. Even though its body was very small, it"s damage to me was proof that it"s attacks were exceptionally ferocious. Its beak, which looked like it was plated in silver, made me wince just by looking at it -
  
   [ Silver Feathered Bird ] (Ordinary Monster )
  
   Level: 15
  
   Attack: 55-80
  
   Defense: 19
  
   Health points : 550
  
   Skills: [ Silver Feather Strike ]
  
  Description: The Silver Feathered Bird is one of Clear Rainforest guardians. These metallic birds have a outlandish speed and extremely strong penetration attacks. Their persistence in guarding the Silver Leaf Herbs make countless herb pickers curse and hate them.
  
  ......
  
  Quickly snapping out of my trance, I slashed at the Silver Feathered Bird, striking it in it"s flight and causing 112 points of damage. I realized that even though the bird"s offensive power is quite high, its defense was insufficient, which meant that while it could kill quickly, it could also get killed quickly.
  
  Jie Jie!
  
  After the Silver Feathered Bird was hit, it let out chirped angrily and quickly rushed at me twice. The damage and pain from it"s attacks were on a level that I had never experienced before, even while fighting the Bramble Thorn Bear King.I had to use 3 consecutive [Hemostasis]s, for me to barely stay alive. Luckily, I"m a sword practicing healer. For a common swordsman with my level and equipment, even having 2 lives would be insufficient for him to kill a Silver Feathered Bird.
  
  Puu!
  
  I thrusted my sword. It caught the Silver Feathered Bird"s body square and took away the final slivers of it"s health.
  
  Paa Ta!
  
  A pile of Copper Coins dropped on the ground. Wow, there were 11 Copper Coins. These level 15 monsters were perfect for leveling, they gave a generous amount of money and a decent amount of experience.
  
  ......
  
  After placing the Copper Coins in my purse, I squatted down and started to collect the Silver Leaf Herb. After finishing, I ventured further into the forest.
  
  This time, because of my scary encounter earlier with the Silver Feathered Bird, I searched for Silver Feathered Birds each time I saw a Silver Leaf Herb. If two Silver Feathered Birds attacked me at once, I would die without a doubt. My life was definitely more important than a Silver Leaf Herb.
  
  After half an hour of searching, fighting and collecting, the sky turned dark. It had become night in the game!
  
  I looked up, appreciating the intricacy of the game when suddenly a silver flash appeared between the trees, oh great, another Silver Feathered Bird. But when I looked at the Silver Feathered Bird"s level, I involuntarily shuddered, it was a level 1 sealable Silver Feathered Bird!
  
   [Silver Feathered Bird]
  
   Level: 1
  
   Description: Sealable
  Chapter 15 - The Incredible Price for the Silver Feathered Bird
  
  For a long time, I had thoughts of killing myself. A level 1 monster is very rare, or rather a player that had an illustration for a type of monster and found a level 1 monster of that type was very rare. Unfortunately, I only have the [Blood Sucking Bat Illustrations], I have yet to find the silver bird illustrations... what can I do? AH!
  
  Standing under the tree, I hesitated for a long time, finally, with much regret, I left.
  
  No, no, no, I did not give up. Far from it, I decided that even if I have to wait till the seas are dry and rocks crumble, I"m going to subdue it.Until I get the [Silver Feathered Bird Illustration], I would hunt and hunt and hunt..
  
  
  
  .....
  
  
  
  I randomly walked around in the rainforest collecting Silver Leaf Herbs and killing Silver Feathered Birds. Some would find this boring, to simply walk while doing repetitive tasks but I viewed it as an opportunity to sharpen my skills. This is nothing compared to those time when I waited for 36 hours in deserts, waiting for that rumored cross-border drug deal. During that time, I lied in wait without moving nor eating, even when ghost crabs crawled over my arms, I did not dare to move. Compared to that, the difference between the two is like heaven and earth.
  
  After 5 hours of slaughtering, it was 8pm. Only god knows how many Silver Feathered Birds I"ve killed. Either way, through this, I was able to raise my level to 15. In addition, during my hunt, 5 White Tiered item dropped and combining all the Copper Coins that dropped, my purse became 7 silver coins heavier, Unfortunately, my Bramble Thorn Sword only had 10% of it"s durability left. Looks like I would have to go back to Ba Huang before continuing to hunt.
  
  
  
  Jie Jie.
  
  Another Silver Feathered Bird rocketed towards me, hastening it"s death. The Silver Feathered Bird"s angry chirp still lingered in the air when my Bramble thorn sword slashed it twice, killing it instantly. The moment it died, my heart skipped a beat. It dropped 2 items, the first was a green cloak and the other was... an illustration card. After 5 hours of hard work, did I finally find what I needed?
  
  
  
  Bending down, I picked up the illustration card. It was a [Silver Bird Illustration]! Without thinking twice, I used it, and it changed into a ray of light that fell into illustrations handbook, My illustration was now a page longer
  
  
  
   [Silver feathered bird]
  
   Attack: ????
  
   Defense: ??
  
   Health: ???
  
   Agility: ????
  
   Magic: ??
  
  
  
   Skill: [Feather Strike]
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  The Silver Feathered Bird"s attributes of 3,5 stars in attack and 4 stars in agility should be enough to meet the prerequisites of an attack pet. For now, it should be a top tier attack pet. The only weakness to it would be it"s low defence and magic ability but that shouldn"t matter too much since the main use of pets right now is to help it"s owner raise his level, not to decide the outcome of a battle.
  
  
  
  Moreover, when I picked up the green cloak, a grin spread across my face, good stuff!
  
  
  
   [Silver Feathered Cloak](Black Iron Tier)
  
   Type: Cloak
  
   Defense: 30
  
   Strength: +4
  
  
  
   Level requirement: 15
  
  
  
  ................
  
  
  
  Cloaks are not specific to any class, like chain-mail, leather armor or cloth armor. This means its defensive abilities are generally weaker than the other defense oriented equipment. But for me, who only has 29 defense points, the cloak adds an extra 30 points in defense which would double my defense. It definitely is worth my trouble of killing Silver Feathered Birds for 5 hours!
  
  
  
  With the green cloak, the looks of a newbie finally disappeared. More importantly, my attributes also rose a huge deal -
  
   [Xiao Yao Zi Zai](Trainee Healer)
  
   Level: 15
  
  
  
   Attack: 101-112
  
   Defense: 59
  
   Life(Health points): 240
  
   Magic(Mana points): 210
  
  
  
   Charm value: 0
  
  
  
  59 points of defense, that definitely makes me a beginner tank(person who can take lots of damage)! My heart was filled with joy, raising my Bramble Thorn Sword, I rushed to the location where I first found the level 1 Silver Feathered Bird. I hope to god that the bird hasn"t been killed or sealed. That bird is as good as mine and anyone who dares touch it will feel my wrath.
  
  
  
  After returning to the tree where I found the level 1 bird, I took a look around, and sure enough the same level 1 Silver Feathered Bird was still lingering around, great!
  
  
  
  Excitedly, from my inventory, I pulled out the 2 Sealing Cards,worth an impressive amount of 1 Silver Coin each. Even when I locked the Sealing Card onto the Silver Feathered Bird, the bird kept happily chirping. The seal card, meanwhile, reflected the success rate of sealing the Silver Feathered Bird - It was 27.4%.
  
  
  
  The hell! Even though it"s only a low grade sealing card, the success rate shouldn"t be that low, right? I"m only carrying 2 sealing cards, time to ask for lady luck"s blessings again!
  
  
  
  Shuaaa.
  
  
  
  I suddenly casted the sealing card, which immediately caused 6 bolts of light to descend, trapping the Silver Feathered Bird between them. After doing so, the bolts of light started to flicker, changing from bright to dark and back to bright. After several seconds. the lights shattered, signalling the failure of the seal.
  
  
  
  "Fuck!"
  
  
  
  Anger swelled up within me, that was an entire Silver Coin wasted! Likewise, the bird is enraged by my attempt to seal it and does a rotating dive at me. Paa! The blow lands, in front of my chest, a small 14 shows up, meaning that I took 14 damage. Incredible, for a level 1 [Feathered Strike] to deal that much damage, the potential damage at higher levels can"t be overlooked.
  
  
  
  Steadying myself, I pull out the second and final sealing card.
  
  
  
  Shuaaa!
  
  
  
  The card flies through the air and hits the bird, the bolts of lights that descend, once again, start to trap the Silver Feathered Bird. Even though the huge suction coming from the sealing card pulls the bird down, the bird doesn"t give up and struggles to break free. Quite a few times, when I thought that the bird had finally been sealed, it rises up again, desperately struggling against the bolts of light. At the last moment, when the effects of the sealing card started to die off, I prayed for the bird to give up struggling: Birdie please stop struggling, I promise I"ll feed you the best millets that come from Shu Bei Zun An!
  
  Finally, it seems as if my prayers had been answered and a ray of light, brighter than the others, surged forward and pulled the Silver Feathered Bird into the card. In an instant, the Silver Feathered Bird had disappeared, and my pet slots, which were empty before, now had a silver bird inside of it.
  
  
  
  Diinng.
  
  
  
  System Notification: Congratulations, you have successfully sealed "Silver Feathered Bird", Because you are the third player to have successfully sealed a pet, you will recieve an additional reward of 2000 experience points and 1 point of charm!
  
  
  
  .....
  
  Shuaa!
  
  
  
  A familiar golden ray of light appeared above me, I had reached level 16! Shockingly, sealing pets gives experience! In addition, I was also rewarded with one point of charm, even though I don"t know what it does, it definitely is going to be useful...
  
  
  
  I opened the pet slots and found out the Silver Feathered Bird"s stats, mmm, it seemed like it was very powerful -
  
  
  
   [Silver feathered bird]
  
   Level: 1
  
  
  
   Attack: ??? ?
  
   Defense: ??
  
   Health points: ?? ?
  
   Agility: ????
  
   Magic: ??
  
  
  
   Skills: [Feather Strike]
  
   Excellence: 47%
  
  
  
  ......
  
  Looking at my pets stats, I understood that all Silver Feathered Birds had the same star stats and the only distinguisher between a good Silver Feathered Bird and a bad one is probably the Excellence level of the bird. For example, my Silver Feathered Bird had a 47% Excellence which represented it"s superiority within the Silver Feathered Birds. But what exactly does the 47% Excellence mean?
  
  
  
  In complete silence, I open up the forums to gather intel about this new pet stat, Excellence.
  
  
  
  Finally, after a long time i found the appropriate intel.
  
  
  
  [Excellence]: Generally speaking, the difference between two pets" stems from the pet"s Excellence percentage. A pet"s attributes can be calculated through having it"s foundation attributes * (1 + Excellence). This means that Excellence determines a pet"s potential.
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Oh, so in my case, with a superiority of 47%, my Silver Feathered Bird would have 47%(1 + 47%) higher stats than a regular Silver Feathered Birds. But it also raises a larger issue, a pet with an Excellence percentage of 100% would have twice the stats compared to a pet with an Excellence percentage of 0%! Motherfucker, pets that have low Excellence percentages are as good as useless.
  
  
  
  I looked at my Silver Feathered Bird"s stats again. Because of it"s Excellence percentage, this SIlver Feathered Bird could only be counted as a middle tiered pet. My fervent joy at sealing this Silver Feathered Bird disappeared with the less than optimal stats of the bird. Whatever, my Bramble Thorn Sword doesn"t have much durability left so I should go back to Ba Huang to repair it. At the same time, my inventory is almost full because of the sheer amount of Silver Leaf Herbs that I managed to collect. As for this Silver Feathered Bird, I don"t plan to raise its level, it"s not because of it"s low stats but rather because I need to sell it to raise money to buy the Alchemy Pots for the Silver Leaf Herb!
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  A recall scroll costs the enormous amount of 1 gold, I might not be able to afford it, but I can run back to Ba Huang.
  
  
  
  After dashing all the way back to Ba Huang City, repaired my equipment, I went to the northern square. The northern square was extremely busy, the yells of players trying to advertise their items was deafening.
  
  
  
  "Selling a level 9 White Tiered mail armor! It gives 40 points in Defense! It"s a must for knights, swordsmen or monks! At a humble price of 1 silver, do not miss this opportunity!"
  
  
  
  "Selling Grass Fruit! Price is 4 Copper Coins per Grass Fruit! It"s a lot cheaper than buying Grass Fruits from NPC stores! Young heros, you should buy one for your girlfriend healers and even if you don"t have a girlfriend this will help you get one!"
  
  
  
  Selling a level 5 Black Iron Tiered dagger! It"s attack is 12-15 and adds a point in Agility! Assassins come and see! Selling it for cheap, please tell me how much you think this worth, but if you don"t have 20 Silver Coins, don"t waste my time!"
  
  ......
  
  
  
  I looked in my inventory, it seems like I have nothing that would sell well. Instead, I buy 50 Alchemy Pots and refine 50 [Silver Leaf Pill]s. After refining the pills, I place the 50 level 2 pills in front of me, setting the price at 40 Copper Coins each which is cheaper than the prices of NPC stores. I had set up a mini-stall!
  
  
  
  Shortly afterwards, I summoned my sealed Silver Feathered Bird. Showing off the stats of the Silver Feathered Bird, I shouted loudly : "Freshly sealed pet, a Silver Feathered Bird that focus" on attack and agility. It has the skill [Feather Attack]. It definitely is one the best attackers right now! Come now and bid your prices!"
  
  
  
  My yell evidently had a huge effect, right after I finished, my stall was surrounded by people who were bidding eye-opening prices -
  
  
  
  A level 11 warrior with White-Tiered equipment: "Brother, how about 80 Copper Coins?"
  
  
  
  Another level 15 girl healer showed off her quite gruesome body before saying: "Handsome, I want it! How about 40 Silver Coins? Why don"t you sell it to me? Wait, do you have a girlfriend, if you don"t, you could give it to me as a gift, right?"
  
  
  
  The bystanders all started laughing when the healer shamelessly said that. I awkwardly stood there, thinking, even if someone gave a a Silver Feathered Bird with 100% Excellence, I still wouldn"t ever be even close to you.
  
  
  
  The offers kept coming in but no one offered more than 1 Gold Coin, maybe it"s because it"s because a majority of the money that everyone owned, went to buying potions. Or maybe it"s because monsters only give a couple of Copper Coins on death, thus making the idea of having 10000 Copper Coins unrealistic. But despite all that, I knew that the bird was worth at least 5 Gold Coins, any less than that would be selling it short.
  
  ......
  
  
  
  After waiting about 20 minutes, finally, a young gunner came out of the crowd. His arm was covered in a black light, yup, he had a Black Iron tier leather wrist protector. In addition, he was level 18 and his ID was "Run Quickly Little Pig", this was a real buyer!
  
  After seeing my Silver Feathered Bird, Run Quickly Little Pig"s eyes showed a deep desire but he quickly hid his desire and displayed a bored expression. He wanted to haggle the price down!
  
  
  
  I smiled at him: "Hello there, are you interested in buying this?"
  
  
  
  "This Silver Feathered Bird, what"s your bottom line? Don"t try to inflate the price!"
  
  My tongue darted over my lips before I replied: "A lot of people want this, you and I both know this. The lowest I"ll go is 5 Gold Coins, any lower and I won"t be selling it. At this time, when no one has a pet, having a pet would allow for the owner to raise his level a lot quicker. You should know this, and therefore, this pet is definitely worth every Copper Coin."
  
  Run Quickly Little Pig nodded: "Yup, I understand. Can you wait a moment? My boss is coming here right now."
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Soon, the crowd was split by a level 18 swordsmen. With his sword, he immediately came to my stall, laughing: "There really are pets in Ba Huang City? Ha ha, I love my luck, this pet is as good as mine!"
  
  
  
  I said: "5 Gold Coins please."
  
  
  
  "5 Gold Coins? That"s ridiculous!" The swordsman said shockingly, suddenly as if he remembered something, he said: "Fuck, it"s you!"
  
  
  
  .....
  
  
  
  I looked up, at his player ID and also received a shock. In front of my was Tyrant of Western Chu, my good old "friend"...
  
  
  
  Shuaaa.
  
  
  
  I cleared the stall and smiled at Tyrant: "I"m not selling it anymore!"
  
  
  
  "Hey, wait..." Run Quickly Little Pig hurriedly stopped me, saying: "Brother, don"t let a little grudge prevent you from doing business. You see, my boss here, really, really wants this pet. Before, you said you wanted 5 Gold Coins, alright it"s a deal, 5 Gold Coins for the pet!"
  
  
  
  I winced and leaned against the rough City Wall. With my arms folded across my chest, I smiled and said: "If I"m selling to Tyrant of Western Chu, then I want 20 Gold Coins and not a Copper Coin less. Still want to buy it?"
  Chapter 16 - Mortal"s Scroll
  
  "What the hell? 20 Gold Coins?!" The Tyrant of Western Chu was obviously angry, but he done anything to me. It seems like he really wants this Silver Feathered Bird.
  
  
  
  On the side, Run Quickly Little Pig whispers: "Ying brother (common name for friends in chinese), we must buy it, you said it before, if we want to stand at the top of Ba Huang City, we need to be one step ahead of others. Look, the number of people under us, our equipment and levels are quite impressive, but we don"t own a pet. This is the first pet to appear within Ba Huang City, so if we buy this Silver Feathered Bird, we would be the first ones to own a pet in Ba Huang City."
  
  
  
  The Western Tyrant gnashes his teeth, saying: "But...But 20 gold coins is too expensive, this guy is clearly trying to take advantage of us!"
  
  
  
  Run Quickly Little Pig gave a small laughter: "Brother, with your position and status, do you really care about 20 Gold Coins? Hmpf, I"ll take care of this..."
  
  
  
  Tyrant of Western Chu purses his lips and nods: "Mm."
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Piggy quickly spins around, looks towards me and smiles: "Xiao Yao Zi Zai, we will accept your price, 20 Gold Coins, for this Silver Feathered Bird. But, give us 10 minutes to gather the money, as you know, everyone at most carries a few silver coins, and 20 Gold Coins is no small amount."
  
  
  
  I nod, "Alright, I"ll wait for 10 minutes, go!"
  
  
  
  "Yes!"
  
  
  
  At the same time, my phone rings. Like before, it is forwarded into <>, looking at the number, it"s Wan Er"s...
  
  
  
  "Li Xiao Yao. I"m hungry you know..."
  
  
  
  "Currently I can"t leave the game, give me 10 minutes okay? I"ll come to the girl"s dorm in 10 minutes, wait for me, okay?"
  
  
  
  "Hurry up!"
  
  
  
  Ending the call, I continue waiting. Before the 10 minutes are up, Quickly Run Little Pig comes running back. We exchange goods, 20 Gold Coins for me, 1 Silver Feathered Bird for him. Waa, the dazzling sparkle that the Gold Coins give off is really gorgeous. Taking advantage of others whenever I can, damn, that was a vicious deal.
  
  
  
  With the trade complete, I no longer have anything to do.
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  After the Tyrant of Western Chu got his pet, he wanted to kill me. But since, this is a city safe zone, no matter how little IQ he has it can"t be that low. So he glares at me with killing intent before picking up his sword and bitterly walking away. He"s probably going to level up his new Silver Feathered Bird pet, because a pet without levels is undoubtedly weak.
  
  
  
  My situation is a lot easier. Before, there were plenty of Silver-Leafed Herbs in my bag for me to use, the only problem was that I had no Alchemy Furnace and thus no way of refining the herbs. But, now that I have money, I can buy as many Alchemy Furnaces as I want. Every Alchemy Furnace costs 20 copper, and every bottle of Refreshing Water costs 10 copper. I rush to get my Alchemy level up to level 3 before doing anything else. Level 2 potions can sell for 50 copper, so that"s a profit of 40 copper, but that amount of profit is nothing. Level 3 potions on the other hand can sell for 5 silvers at the NPC store, this is the way to earn money!
  
  
  
  Remember that 1 Gold Coin = 100 Silver Coins = 10000 Copper Coins
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Kneeling at a corner of the plaza, I used [Alchemy] 300 times, and finally, my bag is full of level 2 Silver-Leafed pills. At the same time, a "Ding" sound appears, after spending 120 pieces of silver coins, I finally reach level 3!
  
  
  
  Ding!
  
  
  
  System Notification: Congratulations! Your Alchemy level has risen up to LV-3, and because you are the first LV-3 Alchemist, you receive a reward: Charm +1!
  
  Another point in Charm, nice!
  
  
  
  Even leveling up rewards you with charm, this is wonderful. Who knows how much Charm Lang Wan has, she would probably enter the game and have a message pop up:
  
  
  
  System Notification: Congratulations! Because you are more beautiful than others with a 34D attractiveness, you receive a reward: Charm +5!......
  
  If that happened then I would would definitely quit!
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Standing in the plaza, I shout, "FRESHLY MADE LEVEL 2 POTIONS! RECOVERS 100 MANA! ONLY 30 COPPER PER POTION! ON SALE NOW! COME HERE IF YOU WANT TO BUY SOME!"
  
  
  
  The surrounding sound immediately drops, and within the crowd, a young girl fiddling with her dagger suddenly stops, and glances towards me. Her look trigger a familiar melody, "Only because the crowd looks at you for a split second more, they will never forget your face. I can only dream if one day we can meet again, I will miss the loneliness..."
  
  
  
  "Hey!"
  
  
  
  The young girl walks forward, awakening me from my musical world. She looks at me, with a strange glare, "You are quite strange, do you not want to do business? Are you really selling level 2 potions for 30 copper coins each?"
  
  
  
  I focus my eyes and look up. Wow, this girl is quite the beauty, although her equipment are all white tiered, and the ups and downs of her body is very charming. Her dagger looks like a Black Iron, and her face is really beautiful, mm, it"s a minimal of 8 points, at the same time, there are words floating on top of her head, almost trying to say, "Do not anger her"... This is a rose with thorns---
  
  
  
  ID: Yue Qin Qian [LV-19] Trainee Assassin
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Level 19 assassin, she probably has no difficulty in killing the my level 16 healer that only has cloth armors. I can"t anger her, can"t anger her, I must improve my attitude!
  
  
  
  A radiant smile appears on my handsome face, I lower my head to look at her and ask, "Yep, 30 copper coins per potion. How many would you like?"
  
  
  
  Qing Qian smiles, "That"s good, I"ll take as many as you have!"
  
  
  
  I look into my bag. I have a total of 300 bottles, but I need 50 for personal use, so I say, "I have a total of 250, do you really want them all?"
  
  
  
  "Yes, give them all to me!"
  
  
  
  "Okay!"
  
  
  
  I open the trade window, put in 250 bottles of potion, and Qing Qian also quickly puts in 75 silver coins, and says with a sweet smile, "Thank you!"
  
  
  
  "You"re welcome!"
  
  
  
  I turn around and prepare to leave, but she stops me, "Wait, where are you heading?"
  
  
  
  I turn my head and ask, "Hm, why?"
  
  
  
  Qing Qian tilts her head while looking at me, and smiles, "How about this, add me as a friend, and in the future if you have any high-leveled potions, tell me and I"ll buy them. I will always need them."
  
  
  
  I am a bit surprised, "You are an assassin, do you really need this many potions?"
  
  
  
  "Oops, I forgot about self introductions. Actually, I am a manager level personnel from Prague Guild. My Position is Deputy Chief Officer. Prague"s Guild, you"ve heard of it before right?"
  
  
  
  I nod my head, "Mm, I"ve heard of it, in <> there"s also a guild called that, it was one of the top 10 guilds in the country."
  
  
  
  "Mm, that"s good. " Qing Qian looks deeply at me, "If you created that many level 2 potions, your alchemy level must be level 3 right? Sooner or later, we will have a great need for level 3 potions, how about...how about you join our guild, and become our head alchemist? We..."
  
  
  
  She smiles shyly, "We have a lot of benefits~"
  
  
  
  I breathe deeply to fight against the temptation, "No thanks, I like running around solo, and I don"t like having restriction from guilds. Especially a big guild like yours, where I need to follow orders from above. I am a person who enjoys going around solo."
  
  
  
  Qing Qian pouts her mouth, with a regrettably-looking smile, "That"s fine, I won"t try and force you, since we are friends from now on. If you have anything you want from my guild, feel free to contact me!"
  
  
  
  "Mm, thanks!"
  
  
  
  "OK, then I"m off..." Qing Qian turns and walks a few steps, then suddenly turns around and whispers, "Xiao Yao, I will remember you, from now on we"re friends...."
  
  
  
  "Okay....."
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  I stand there with my heart pumping dangerously fast, and silently cursing myself for being useless, then I start to do my own things.
  
  
  
  The Prague"s Guild, they certainly know what they"re doing, using such a beauty to draw people in. Who knows how many players were charmed and joined the Prague"s Guild. It must not be a small amount. Sadly, it is ineffective against me since these days I"ve been following the out-of-this-world beauties Ling Wan Er and Dong Cheng Yue around. Because of that, my immune level against these powerful beauties have been greatly increased!
  
  
  
  Looking at the time, 10 minutes has passed already! Crap, disconnect quickly!
  
  
  
  As I flew towards the girl"s dorm, from far away, Ling Wan Er looks at me and stomps her feet, "Arg, Li Xiao Yao, you useless **** had us standing for 11 minutes!"
  
  
  
  Dong Cheng Yue smiles lightly, "He must have had something busy in the game right? Or else he wouldn"t have let you stand around..."
  
  
  
  I walk up and say, "Sorry I"m late, I was busy in the game!"
  
  
  
  Lang Wan mocks, "Oh? You just reached level 10, what could you have been busy with? Were you trying to get a girlfriend by guiding level 1 girls around?"
  
  
  
  I cough, "Oh you think too much. I was just creating some level 2 mana potions and doing business..."
  
  
  
  "Creating potions?" Wan Er had her eyes wide open looking at me, "You finished the starting quests for being an Alchemist?"
  
  
  
  "Ohh? What about it?" I look at the beautiful Miss, "Have you not finished it?"
  
  
  
  Wan Er"s face became red, a rare expression, and doesn"t look at me anymore. Even my own heart wavers by this little girl"s behaviour. It would be great if she kept this face.
  
  
  
  Cheng Yue teases her as well, "Wan Er wanted to become a pharmacist, but when answering the instructor"s questions, she answered all three of them wrong, so now she has to wait until tomorrow to try again..."
  
  
  
  I tighten my face, since I"m afraid if I laugheout loud I would probably get killed by Wan Er.
  
  War Er faintly glanced at me, "If you want to laugh then laugh, we wouldn"t want you to hurt yourself, would we?"
  
  I wipe away some tears, "Nothing of that sort! I just thought that m"lady is so smart, the system must have been bugged for you to get the answers wrong...."
  
  
  
  Ling Wan Er: "See, even he knows. Like I said, there must have been a bug..."
  
  
  
  Cheng Yue says, "Ah...I feel like my IQ will get dropped by you two, let"s go and eat...."
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  With a table full of food, the three of us sit around it and eat.
  
  
  
  "Li Xiao Yao, how are the monsters around Ba Huang City, is there anything special about them?" Wan Er looks at me, and adds another sentence, "Oh, I"m not talking about the monsters above level 15, only the ones under level 15, since I know you can"t possibly beat anything past level 15..."
  
  
  
  My mouth twitched slightly, "...I"m already level 15..."
  
  
  
  Cheng Yue"s mouth opened slightly, "Wow, your level is increasing pretty fast! You already reached level 15 after this short amount of time!"
  
  
  
  I laugh a bit, "I haven"t been to the other cities, but I would guess it"s probably the same right? The special thing about Ba Huang City is the city badge, which is , attack and defense +3%."
  
  
  
  "Ah? There"s a city-wide buff?" Wan Er opened her attractive small mouth.
  
  
  
  I was shocked, "Don"t tell me that you"ve haven"t went and gotten a city badge?"
  
  
  
  "We really didn"t..."
  
  
  
  I opened up my cellphone, searched around for a bit, and said, "Ah, Fan Shu"s city emblem, every player receives an undroppable . "s effect is absorbing your online time"s energy, converting it into EXP and gives it to the player. In other words, players from Fan Shu should be leveling up the quickest."
  
  
  Wan Er silently eats her rice, whining, "When we get back let"s get the . I"m so pissed. I was wondering why that barbaric knight that we just PKed had a floating scroll on his arm..."
  Chapter 17 - Seven-Star Herbs
  
  In Ba Huang City, on the crowded eastern exit of the plaza, I carried my newly repaired Bramble Thorn Sword and parted through the crowd. I"ve decided that I have to reach level 18 soon, preferably by the end of this morning, and reach level 20 as quickly as possible reach, so that I can be recognized in my occupation.
  
  After a player is recognized for his occupation, he can use new skills specific to his occupation. For example, as a trainee healer, the skills available are limited to [Hemostasis] and [Encourage], then after graduating from a trainee, they can also learn to use skills like [Heal] and [Therapy], etc. The good thing about [Heal] is, at level 1 it recovers 150 HP, at level 2 it recovers 300 HP, it"s triple the effect that Hemostasis has!
  
  
  
  So I walked out the city gate and took a look at the mini-map. I can"t raise my level by wandering mindlessly. So, since I also need to pick level 3 herbs to make level 3 pills. The level 3 potions created from [Alchemy] by a player can recover 200 MP, while the level 3 pills sold by the NPCs can only recover 150 MP, and they sell for 5 silver coins. So, it is quite worth to buy the potions created by a player This is a quite a rare business chance! According to Yue Qing Qian, it seems like no one in Ba Huang City has reached level 3 in [Alchemy], so it seems I am the only one, yep, this is a one in a lifetime chance!
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  ?Seven-Star Pill?: Recovers 200 MP, Seven-Star Herb x3, Refined Water x3, Alchemy Furnace x1
  
  
  
  The main ingredient for level 3 pills are Seven-Star Herbs. They usually grow deep within Clear Rainforest. In addition, within the rainforest, there is a valley called the Seven-Star Valley. Unsurprisingly the majority Seven-Star Herbs can be found within that valley, and the distance from the city to the valley is about 30 minutes. Usually players are unwilling to go that far, just to fight monsters, and even if they do go, they find a group to party with, since if there are many high leveled monsters there.
  
  
  
  Sha sha, the breeze rattled through the leaves, disturbing the serene grace of the forest. Follow the narrow path, I slow down and take a look at stats. I"m at Level 16, 250 HP, 177 attack. I should be able to solo the monsters Seven-Star Valley.
  
  
  
  Taking care to avoid the level 15 Silver-Feathered Birds, they didn"t give much experience and would only dull my blade. With Bramble Thorn Sword hidden within my cloth clothing, the appearance of me, a cloth profession holding a heavy sword, is quite humorous.
  
  
  
  After 20 or so minutes, I look around and see a slope towards a valley. My mini-map is also showing that I"m right next to Seven-Star Valley. Hooray, I have arrived!
  
  
  
  As I take out my sword and prepare to dash into the valley, I suddenly hear sounds coming from the other side of the forest.
  
  
  
  "Get your act together guys! We have arrived at the Seven-Star Valley. This is our first group activity, no excuses will be tolerated!"
  
  
  
  Crap, I better hide!
  
  
  
  As I hide behind some trees, a total of 10 people come out the forest. The leader of the party is holding a sword on one hand, with shiny dark armour covering his body. Then I become thunderstruck at what I see. It"s Tyrant of Western Chu, level 19, and the players in his party seem to be his underlings. In fact, Piggy comes running up Tyrant of Western Chu. In addition, there are two elf archers, flying 20 yards off the ground, overseeing the area.
  
  
  
  I hold my breath and dare not to say anything..
  
  
  
  On the shoulder of Tyrant of Western Chu is the Silver-Feathered Bird pet. Incredibly,it"s already level 16. The speed at which pets level up is pretty quick, huh?
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Tyrant of Western Chu turns around to talk to the approaching Piggy, "Piggy, are you sure there"s a boss in this Seven-Star Valley?"
  
  
  
  "Yes boss. At 6 am this morning, one of my friends was killed by the boss here. The monsters in Seven-Star Valley have really high levels, so we need to be careful since we didn"t bring enough healers this time."
  
  
  
  "Oh? Two healers is not enough?"
  
  
  
  "Ehh, how should I say it. Killing bosses places a lot of stress on the healers, they need to use Hemostasis carefully or our casualties will be every serious. Looking at a replay of the player you guys killed, that Xiao Yao healer, he performed Hemostasis really well, if we have two healers with that kind of control, then killing this level 20 White-ranked boss would be a piece of cake."
  
  
  
  "Don"t you dare mention Xiao Yao Zi Zai. Next time I see him, I swear I will skin him alive, and take back my Bramble Thorn Sword. That sword has 35 attack on it! The one that I use now only has 21 attack..."
  
  
  
  "Boss, if we want to stand on top of Ba Huang City, we need to find players with potential such as Xiao Yao. As you know, guilds such as the Prague"s, the Flying Dragon"s are also settling in Ba Huang City. We have quite a lot of rivals, and even though we had 200+ players, it may not be enough anymore. "
  
  
  
  "I know, I"ll pay attention. But if this Xiao Yao comes out, I"ll be sure to kill him, just you wait and see!"
  
  
  
  "......"
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  I watched Tyrant of Western Chu"s group go into the valley from afar and waited until I could no longer see them anymore. Since they have two elves flying around, I can be spotted easily. I"m quite doubtful I can win a 1v1 against Tyrant of Western Chu, and with his group of 10 people, there is no doubt that I will die instantly.
  
  
  
  After waiting ten minutes, I take my Bramble Thorn Sword and enter the Seven-Star Valley. This valley is quite large, so it"s quite easy to avoid Tyrant of Western Chu"s group and find herbs. You know what they say: Less PKing, more monster eliminating, only then shall your level keep escalating!
  
  
  
  Stepping on a pile of crumbled rocks at the valley"s entrance, I stick my head forward and look into the valley. It seems that the entire Seven-Star Valley is windy, and there is no shortage of high-leveled monsters within it. 10 meters away from me, there"s seems to be a group of wolf monsters. One of the large wolf, whose body is covered with red fur and strangely, green grass, growls menacingly at me. Its level isn"t low either...
  
  
  
  ?Wild Wolf? (Normal Monster)
  
  
  
  Level: 18
  
  
  
  Attack: 77-100
  
  
  
  Defense: 30
  
  
  
  Health: 500
  
  
  
  Skill: ?Whirling Claws (LV-2)?
  
  Description: Wild Wolves, a group of creatures that occupy the wilderness, seen to attack players and pets. Although Ba Huang City sends troops to annihilate them long ago, the Wild Wolves still go on abnormal rampages around Ba Huang City.
  
  
  
  .......
  
  
  
  Looking at the creature"s attributes, I"m a bit shocked. It"s obvious that I can"t fight this, no, it wouldn"t even be a fight, it would be a one-sided massacre and obviously not in my favor. With an attack of 100, my cloth armor defense has no way of holding up. So I grab my Bramble Thorn Sword and go around the bushes, then I turn slightly right and go straight towards the middle plain of the valley. This way I"ll avoid the hordes of creatures in the forest.
  
  
  
  Far away, in the open grassland, Tyrant of Western Chu and his 10-man team are killing monsters. He shouts out, then a golden hexagram glows and hovers over the edge of his sword. Sha sha! The Wild Wolf receives a combo of two slices and loses almost 300 HP. it makes me jealous looking at the special combo moves that Tyrant of Western Chu has, it"s both elegant and powerful, unlike himself.
  
  
  
  Looking at my own skills, other than [Turmoil Sword], the rest of my skills are centered around healing and buffs. If I want a main attack move, then I need to create a new skill. Thankfully, it"s possible within this game. But, creating skills is no easy feat, if you don"t have enough experience or practice, you can"t create one. By my estimates, only 2 or 3 players in the entire game have made unique skills.
  
  
  
  Whatever, money comes first. As long as I have an active and strong heart, this era belongs to me!...
  
  
  
  I avoid Tyrant of Western Chu"s training group like the plague, and enter the eastern region of the Seven-Star Valley. Stepping on the soft moist grass, I have a slow walk in the jungle.Of course, I would like to be anywhere but there in the jungle where wolves could ambush me at every angle but I have be in the jungle to get the Seven-Star Herbs. Theres a saying for this, no danger means no gain. Before long, I see dots of lustre on top of the rocks that are in front of me. Awesome! So I race ahead, and indeed, on top of the rock is a seven-coloured herb,growing like grapes on a vine. It"s the level 3 Seven-Star Herb!
  
  
  
  After picking countless amounts of Silver-Leaf Herbs, my [Herb-Picking] skill was already level 3. I take out my shovel, carefully trace along the roots of the Seven-Star Herb, and gently dig it out. This is a basic herb picking technique, in various books that I read before, they also say: "The sap of plants come from the roots". A lot of medicine use roots as it"s ingredients, the same should probably be able to be applied to the Seven-Star Herbs in front of me, and..done!
  
  
  
  After digging the herb out, a sound rings--
  
  
  
  Ding!
  
  
  
  System Notification: Congratulations! You have collected ?Seven-Star Herb?x2
  
  
  
  Indeed, if you pick up the herbs with the roots, you get double the amount. Looks like my magnificent plan to create level 3 pills is no longer so far away now!
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  While I still absorbed in the frenzy of uprooting the Seven-Star Herbs, I heard a low growl behind me. Grrrr! On instinct, I drop the shovel and spin around. Holy crap! A Wild Wolf was about 10 meters away and ready to pounce.
  
  
  
  Raising my hand, I draw my Bramble Thorn Sword. [Turmoil Sword] immediately actives, giving me an extra 10% attack damage, which is currently +11.7 attack. When I level up later and get better gear, this 10% bonus attack damage will become more useful but it"s still quite an impressive skill right now.With such a great effect, [Turmoil Sword] deserves it"s rank of being an rank SS skill. The SS rank is inferior only to the SSS rank, so it should be a near God-Tier skill right?
  
  
  
  I go and slash at the wolf. The Bramble Thorn Sword arcs through the air and lands on head of the Wild Wolf. Ouch!
  
  
  
  "142!"
  
  
  
  Good attack! At the same time, the wolf jumps and also slashes at me with his claws. Weirdly, there"s some sort of red glow on the tip of its claws. Wait! It"s?Whirling Claws (LV-2)? . Before I can finish my thought, the wolf"s claws reach my shoulder, gifting me with a wave of pain. I assure you that the pain was not fake, it felt like my shoulder just got hit by a brick. At the same time, my HP also dropped by 119 points!
  
  
  
  I wave my hand to cast Hemostasis which recovers 100 of my HP. At the same time, I continue to attack, two continuous strikes. Although they both are solid hits, I don"t push on it and prepare my legs to dodge when the Wild Wolf attacks. After eating the two attacks, the wolf suddenly pounces. Should I dodge left, right, LEFT. But I didn"t dodge completely, even though I could have sworn that I dodged the attack, my speed was lacking and the hit glanced off me. I lost 71 HP, looks like this won"t be too hard as long as the wolf doesn"t use his skill too much.
  
  
  
  Every time the wolf attacks, I leap away trying to dodge its attacks, but I fail time after time because of my lack of speed, and finally I give up trying to dodge. The Wild Wolf"s agility is high, far higher than mine, and even if I dodge earlier, I would still get hit because the wolf would see me shifting and change it"s attack accordingly. I"m not going to bother anymore, I"ll attack it straight on...
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  I hear the wolf cry Wuuu. A final howl before it drops dead beside me. I pick up the coins, and turn to leave, it was tough beating it, but I must move on, there"s money around here, I can smell it.
  
  
  
  After picking quite a few Seven-Star Herbs, I realize that the Seven-Star Herbs only grow on rocks, so in the valley, I circle around the scattered rocks, trying to find stalks of Seven-Star Herbs. If my luck hold up, I shouldn"t run into Tyrant of Western Chu"s group.
  Chapter 18 - It"s a Small World
  
  In the mountain valley, I stood on top of the warm corpse of a huge wolf.
  
  Opening the [Alchemy] menu, I selected the Seven Star Pill"s recipe. The recipe required 3 Seven Star Herbs, 3 bottles of Refined Water and finally an Alchemy Furnace. Since I had all the materials necessary, all that"s left was for me to confirm the refinement.
  
  
  Ding!
  
  
  
  System Notification: You have succeeded in refining a?Seven Star Pill?. Your [Alchemy] proficiency has increased by 1. Because you are the first player to refine a Seven Star Pill, you are rewarded with an extra point in charm.
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Great! I earned a point in my charm stat. Although I still do not know what the charm stat does, surely it"s something useful. Also, since I won"t be the first player to reach level 20, or the first to have a level 3 attack combo, I can only strive to be number one in [Alchemy]. At least for now, I"m unrivaled in the art of [Alchemy] which is heartwarming.
  
  
  
  
  
  Putting away the Seven Star Pills and taking hold of my Bramble Thorn sword, I kept moving forward. Along the way, I kill the attacking wolves and gather the scattered Seven-Star Herbs that don"t appear as often as I would like them to appear. While my efficiency isn"t at it"s maximum, the gains from the grinding is quite welcoming.
  
  
  
  After nearly 2 hours, I had gathered over 112 batches of Seven-Star Herbs, But if I want to achieve level 4 in [Alchemy], I would need to refine 1000 Seven-Star Pills. The materials that go behind refining 1000 Seven-Star Pills are staggering. I would need 3000 batches of Seven-Star Herbs, in addition to 1000 Alchemy Furnaces and another 3000 bottles of Refined water. This is one of the reasons as to why top guilds are able to have first class production players.The casual player simply cannot afford to compete with such harsh resource requirements.
  
  
  
  While being in a guild has it"s advantages, my own advantages are also quite significant. I can fight monsters and heal myself at the same time. The only consumables that I require are mana pills which I produce myself. So, I"m basically a self sufficient production line. In addition, after selling the Silver-Feathered Bird, I gained 20 Gold Coins, a incredible amount of wealth, which will be my fund for the materials that are vital in my level raising in [Alchemy].
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Continuing forward, I reached the center of the Seven-Star Valley. At the center,the grass that was abundant before, became scarce. In addition, I hear a waves of howling from in front of me.. When I climb on top a short hill to locate the source of howling, the scene in front completely shocks me. At least 100 level 18 wolves were proudly howling towards the sky. In the middle of the howling wolves, there was a wolf that had golden fur covering its body. Undoubtedly, that was the Wolf King, a level 20 Gold-ranked boss, sitting there arrogantly. Behind it, there"s a large cave. Without a doubt, that cave is the Wolf King"s nest.
  
  I licked my lips, and thought if the Wolf King has this many underlings guarding it, then I shouldn"t even think about fighting the Wolf King. But on the other hand, the Wolf King"s nest could be worth investigating, who knows, maybe there could be some special herbs inside? But if I just stroll on in, I would be the next meal for the wolves in front of the cave. Maybe I should see if I can enter through an alternative "entrance" above the cave?
  
  Scaling the mossy rocks, I discover that the Seven-Star Herbs are grown more and more densely as I get closer to the Wolf"s cave. Careful not to let a single herb go to waste, within 10 minutes, I"ve picked over 100 batches of Seven-Starred Herbs!
  
  Ka cha!
  
  I carefully wedge my Bramble Thorn Sword into the surrounding rocks, and gently excavate the Seven-Star Herbs as if the herbs were my own children.
  
  Sha sha!
  
  As I pulled up the roots of a Seven-Star Herb, suddenly the grass and dirt around it slide down. They all slid into beyond my sight with a Sha sha sound. Did I dig through the cave?
  
  With utmost caution and a trembling heart, I kneel down and peek into the hole that I made. Faintly, a string of light appears within the remaining sediment. Could it be that this hole connects to the Wolf King"s nest? There might be a chance for me to go into its nest! Wouldn"t the nest of a level 20 Gold-ranked boss have tons of precious treasures?
  
  
  
  My heart is pumping like there"s no tomorrow... Hehe, my chance has come!
  
  I take my Bramble Thorn Sword, and I start digging my way towards the cave. The small hole that I peeked through is becoming bigger and bigger, and before long, the dirt started to drop down by its own, and a small hole appears.
  
  Bam!
  
  The tip of the sword strikes a rock, instantly, a Peng sound rings and a soccer-sized rock falls down and hits one of the Wild Wolves in the cave. At the same time, the entire hill trembles, making me hang on to the hole I made with bone-white hands. After carefully examining the cave, the cave seems just like the weak Lego castles that children make. A bit of shaking, another hole, and I fear that the whole cave might collapse on its own. I don"t want to see that happen.
  
  Suddenly, I hear unnatural sounds, it"s almost as if... players! The noise was made by players!
  
  I quickly hide behind some rocks, and peek out. Coming out the forest is a group of players, and just not any group, it"s the Tyrant of Western Chu"s group! Finally, they"ve killed the surrounding Wolves, and advanced towards the Wolf King. In fact, Tyrant of Western Chu is at level 20! A swordsman at level 20, I wouldn"t want to mess with him!
  
  Looks like this party wants to clear a way to kill the Wolf King.
  
  Their team composition is very well balanced. Within the party, there is are two level 19 Monks with high HP and high Defense who would act as the front line, two Magicians that provide DPS, two elf archers, two healers, Piggy with a gun, and the leader as well. For this party, killing this level 20 Gold-ranked boss shouldn"t be too hard for them.
  
  I make a quick decision, I"m not going to meddle with their affairs. I"ll enter the Wolf"s nest first, since I can see there are plenty of Seven-Star Herbs in there. After all, my main responsibility right now is to increase my proficiency in [Alchemy], everything else comes second. The main purpose of my trip to this valley was to collect Seven-Star Herbs, and not to interrupt Tyrant of Western Chu"s plans. I gain nothing by doing so. Besides, I am not the type of person to hold a grudge for a long time. Even though Western Tyrant has harmed me before, why should I care about his lowly life now? Hmph, just wait until I create a SSS level attack .. then I"ll have a showdown with him...
  
  ......
  
  Pa!
  
  I jump down, and land gently on the inside the cave. A Wild Wolf near me quickly rushes up to kill me, sorry, rushing to its death is what I meant. With my Bramble Thorn Sword, I kill it with 4 strikes. Afterwards, I look around, unfortunately, my sight isn"t adjusted to the darkness. After about half a minute, my eyes finally adjust, and when I look more carefully, I see that the cave has a few more Wild Wolves, but more importantly, the walls have enough Seven-Starred Herbs to make me drool! I better quickly collect them!
  
  5 minutes later, I killed 10 or so Wild Wolves, and even though their attack damage is very high, as long as I keep proper HP management, it"ll be very hard for them to kill mee. I can both heal and attack at the same time, I"m the Unbeatable Healer Swordsman!
  
  After finishing off the Wild Wolves, I take out my shovel, and carefully collect the Seven-Star Herbs littered in the Wolf King"s nest. After nearly an hour, I completely wiped out the populations of Seven-Star Herbs within the cave, collecting near 2000 batches of the herb, my picking efficiency is godly! Just a bit more and I"ll be able to raise my [Alchemy] level to 4, but sadly I don"t have the supply of Seven-Star Herbs has been exhausted by me.
  
  Continuing deeper in the cave, it seems to be no treasure within the cave. At least thats what the bones on Wolf King"s resting place, and some smelly feces tell me... As a member of the royalty, why would you put the toilet next to the bedroom!?
  
  ......
  
  I spin around and prepared to leave, my mission is complete!
  
  At the same time, I can hear a really intense battle happening outside the cave. Pinning myself against the cave wall, I take a peek outside. Woah, the Wolf underlings, about a hundred, had all been killed, and now Tyrant of Western Chu"s group just started to battle the boss. The Monk who"s holding a wooden rod get a "X" scratch on his face.Seeing the considerable damage from that attack, the two healers clumsily hurry to heal him. At the same time, the magicians keep launching their fireball, dwindling the Wolf King"s health. Currently Wolf King"s health is around 10000, and is slowly but surely decreasing. I"m guessing in about 5 minutes the Wolf King will lose his life.
  
  Standing at the entrance of the cave, I think about my situation. If I dash out now, I am certain I"ll get seen, then I"ll die very painfully because of Tyrant of Western Chu"s hatred for me. But if I let them kill the Wolf King, the chances are that they would leave after defeating it. So I just need to wait a bit longer...
  
  ......
  
  Grrrr!
  
  I hear the angry cry of the Wolf King. Obviously it"s enraged with its claws flying left and right taking the monk"s HP to about 20% or so, but the healers, clumsy but reliable, quickly recover his health before he takes another hit from the Wolf King. On the other side, the Wolf King who doesn"t have any healers, has its health reduced to about 10%, 1000 HP.
  
  Piggy smiled when he saw the end in sight: "Haha, good job guys! Let"s finish this up!"
  
  "I expect some Gold-tier equipment from killing this boss!" Tyrant of Western Chu was also quite excited.
  
  "Don"t joke around boss, the first Silver-tier equipment haven"t come out yet, and even the first Bronze-tier equipment haven"t come out yet, the best equipment in Ba-Huang City are Green-tier equipments, and you"re thinking about Gold-tier?"
  
  "Ha! Let"s kill it then we"ll know!"
  
  But at this time, the Golden Wolf King growls with anger, its fully body starts to emit a blood-red glow!
  
  .......
  
  "Wha.. The boss is in a frenzy?!"Tyrant of Western Chu, readied his weapon, preparing for the vicious assault of the Wolf King.
  
  Who would have guessed... The Wolf King spun around and went straight into the cave!
  
  "It"s not going into a frenzy, it"s escaping! Hurry and chase it!"
  
  I was shocked as well, the Wolf King flashed straight past me and went into the depths of the cave. Such a coward... When you can"t win, you just go into the cave and hide?
  
  ......
  
  Tyrant of Western Chu comes chasing after the Wolf King, and when he sees me, his whole face becomes livid with anger.
  
  "The Xiao Yao bastard is here! Kill him!!"
  
  Whir...
  
  With his sword arm shaking from his anger, a golden hexagram starts to form at the edge of his sword! The attack is coming!
  
  ......
  
  Shasha!
  
  The skill finishes in an instant, and while Tyrant of Western Chu"s attack was very powerful, in the split second before it came down, I understood its path and dodged with my quick feet. A huge "MISS" pops up at my previous position. I successfully dodged the first strike! This is the instinct that I"ve gained from these few days from trying to read the movements of the wolves, subconsciously, I was forming a dodging skill!
  
  "MISS!"
  
  "145!"
  
  Unfortunately, I could only dodge one of the two strike from his combo. The sword mercilessly hits, and my soul nearly breaks. Tyrant of Western Chu"s damage is a bit too high isn"t it? If he landed that combo, I would have already been dead!
  
  ......
  
  Shasha...
  
  The unsteady ground in the cave sinks slightly from our weight. Unlike Tyrant of Western Chu, whose eyes haven"t gotten used to the darkness, I can see the two Wild Wolves approaching Tyrant of Western Chu! My chance has come!
  Chapter 19 - Bloody Dagger
  
  
  
  Roar!
  
  
  
  The two Wild Wolves leap towards Tyrant of Western Chu"s back. Since he was the closest to the Wolves, it"s only natural that he becomes the target for their attacks. After using [Hemostasis] on myself, I take my Bramble Thorn Sword and rush ahead to attack Tyrant of Western Chu as well. I slice horizontally with an ordinary sword attack, but I am lacking in practice....
  
  
  
  Whoosh
  
  
  
  "95!"
  
  
  
  Tyrant of Western Chu"s HP decreased by a chunk, and in addition the two Wild Wolves behind me also raises their claws and used [Whirling Claws] LV-2. Tyrant of Western Chu"s health immediately drops into the red zone, and his face turns into a shade of deep purple. Knowing that he is at a disadvantage, he turns around and run,
  
  
  
  "Healers!" yells Tyrant of Western Chu.
  
  
  
  His two healers quickly runs towards him. Crap, I"d better not let these two healers heal him, or else I won"t have any chance in winning!
  
  
  
  I lower my sword and quickly chase after Tyrant of Western Chu. One of the healers rushed up to him, and the staff started glowing to heal Tyrant of Western Chu, but I quickly catch up and slice towards the healer"s neck with my Bramble Thorn Sword.
  
  
  
  Whoosh!
  
  
  
  "274!"
  
  
  
  A critical hit, instant death!
  
  
  
  Ding!
  
  
  
  System Notification: You have killed player [Drizzling Rain]. Sin +100 points, you"ve become a "Chaotic Player"!
  
  ......
  
  
  
  "You...Xiao Yao you bastard!" says Tyrant of Western Chu, full of anger.
  
  
  
  I don"t bother responding to him, and after taking a hit from Tyrant of Western Chu, I quickly cast [Hemostasis], and run towards the second healer with my Bramble Thorn Sword. I slice towards the healer"s chest, and the damage shows as "161". With cloth armor and only investing stat points in magic, the healer is defenseless against my attack. After 1.5 seconds, I quickly slice again. The healer can only stand there shocked, without any thoughts of healing herself, and dies with a cry.
  
  
  
  Bang!
  
  
  
  I hear a gunshot sound, and immediately afterwards, Piggy enters my vision, running with a gun in his hands. He shoots me from afar and takes out 74 Health Points. At the same time, Tyrant of Western Chu comes and attacks me with a powerful strike!
  
  
  
  "111!"
  
  
  
  I quickly withdraw, and keep running back. I use the familiar terrain to my advantage, and run into the flat-grounded cave. At the moment when Tyrant of Western Chu"s group enters the cave, they"ll see nothing but pitch darkness. While they cannot see me, I will take this chance and escape!
  
  
  
  "Boss..."
  
  
  
  The two elf archers also rushed with Tyrant. I take advantage of their blindness, and with a raise of my sword, I slashed twice, and finished one off. Simultaneously, an arrow appears in my chest, and my Health becomes next to nothing. My mana pool has almost reached its limits, so I cannot cast [Hemostasis] anymore. Well, I already killed 3 people, theres no need to go any further, or else this will get ugly!
  
  
  
  Tyrant of Western Chu"s vision adjusts to the darkness and he comes running and shouting after me.
  
  
  
  "Xiao Yao you bastard! Stand still, I will cut and burn you until nothing but ashes remain!!"
  
  
  
  I grin a bit. Well since it"s come to this, you can"t blame my heart for being so ruthless...
  
  
  
  Pa!
  
  
  
  I parkour step on the walls and spring into the air. In the air, I squeeze myself through gap between the rocks where I came down earlier. Down below, Tyrant of the Western Chu"s group, a total of 7 people, chases after me. With their killing intent, my skin started to get goosebumps.
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  I escape the cave, and emerges into the blinding sun. I quickly spin around and use my sword to hammer on the moss rocks. From my experience before, this is an important pressure point for the cave, and it seems to support the entire cave.
  
  
  
  Bam!
  
  
  
  Sparks fly out, and the rock completely crumbles under my sharp Bramble Thorn Sword. Following that, the rocks around it start to collapse into the cave, what a scene!
  
  
  
  BAMBAMBAM!
  
  
  
  The entire hill deforms in a split second, and dust goes in every direction from the Wolf King"s nest. In the blink of an eye, the Wolf King"s nest has been completely crushed by the hill"s collapse. After I wobble on top of the sinking hill, I slide down onto the collapsed cave. At the same time, I hear cries from under my feet. Tyrant of Western Chu, Piggy, and all the others got crushed by the rocks, and were now dead!
  
  
  
  In the same instant, I hear a system announcement--
  
  
  
  Ding!
  
  
  
  System Notification: The first Gold-ranked Boss [Bloody Wolf King] has been killed by player [XXXX] via a special method. As a reward, the player gains 3 charm!
  
  
  
  [XXXX]? Who"s that? I think and look around...Oh! I have 5 charm now, so that player is me! Sadly, since I didn"t kill it manually, I didn"t get any experience points, or else I would have risen from level 18 to level 20, or maybe level 21, or even possibly level 22....
  
  
  
  Tyrant of Western Chu"s groups have died, and they would need about 10 minutes or so to revive. I should scram before they revive. Oh wait! I still have one more thing to do!
  
  
  
  I pick up my Bramble Thorn Sword and run towards the Wolf King"s corpse. I still haven"t picked up the items that the Wolf King dropped, and I can"t possibly be wasteful like this, these treasures are the rewards for my bravery and intelligence...
  
  
  
  I quickly savage the area, and after 3 minutes, I noticed some gold fur under a pile of rocks. Chipping away at the rocks for a bit longer, I see the Wolf King"s corpse. I flip the corpse, and I see two dropped items, plus a reward of 2 gold coins! I"m rich baby~
  
  
  
  Picking up the gold coins and the equipment, I can see a dagger that has a reddish-tint suffused over it. The other equipment is a green leather chestplate. It looks pretty good, and with a flick of my wrist, a window appears with the statistics of my new equipment--
  
  
  
  [Bloody Dagger] (Green equipment)
  
  Attack: 55-90
  
  Agility: +5
  
  Others: Increases the instant-kill rate by 0.1%
  
  Level Required: 20
  
  [Green Chestplate] (Green equipment)
  
  Defense: +17
  
  Strength +4
  
  Level Required: 20
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  My mood instantly turns great, my goodness, who knew that the boss would drop two Green-ranked equipment? Although its not Silver-ranked, it is still a lot stronger than Black-Iron Ranked equipment that I have. In addition it is a level 20 Green equipment, and to the top players that are around level 20 right now, it is a priceless artifact! I"m rich again baby~
  
  
  
  < Green -> Bronze -> Silver -> Gold -> Purple -> Emperor -> Sacred -> Saint -> Divine -> God>>
  
  
  
  I put away the Bloody Dagger and the green chestplate in my bag, and I take my Bramble Thorn Sword to prepare to leave. Going along the mountains and blending into the forest, I disappear in an instant. Even if Tyrant of Western Chu"s group revives, they will have no chance of finding me, since the Seven-Starred Valley is enormous. They can"t split up and try to find me, because they can"t defeat the level 18-20 monsters individually, so they can only move together or else it"s game over for them.
  
  
  
  But, the boss and the drops have been stolen, plus they all dropped one level. Looking at Tyrant of Western Chu"s short temper, I think with every fibre of his being, he really wants to cut and burn me until nothing but ashes remain...
  
  
  
  Indeed, before long, a paid System Announcement is transmitted through the air--
  
  
  
  Ding!
  
  
  
  System Announcement (Tyrant of Western Chu speaking): "Xiao Yao Zi Zai! You better remember today"s events you bastard! You are not only angering me, you are making an enemy of the entire [Wrath of the Heroes] guild! Just you watch, I will personally wipe you away from the face of the earth, and on that day, you will deeply regret your actions today!"
  
  
  
  This player speaker system is pretty effective huh. 10,000 yuan (~$1600) to speak once, this guy must be pretty damn rich!
  
  
  
  Well, since my name is in red because I killed players, I need to continue killing monsters. Every monster kill reduces my sin point by one, so I after 300 monsters kills my name will return to normal. But whatever, this suits me fine, I can level up while I kill monsters!
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  But, before long, I hear a drop sound. It"s a message from a friend, and I only have one person on my friends list. The extremely beautiful, the charming, assassin Yue Qing Qian, Deputy Chief of the Prague"s Guild.
  
  
  
  "My friend Xiao Yao, what have you done to anger these insane people from [Wrath of the Heroes]?" asks Qing Qian.
  
  After thinking for a while, I give her a reply."We had a small argument back at the starting village, and just now we had some slight problems in the area around Ba Huang City."
  
  "It seems that you haven"t dropped any levels. You killed them?" she asks again.
  
  "Yeah, I killed two healers, one archer." (Xiao Yao)
  
  Qing Qian seems pretty surprised. "Wow! Very impressive. If I"m not mistaken, you are also a healer. What kind of attack allowed you to take out three of them? Last time I saw you, you were wearing a sword on your belt. Tell me, what kind of healer also uses a sword? "
  
  
  
  I smile a bit. "Well...I am a person who doesn"t go by the standards, so I took the Berserk Healer route, all my points are put into strength."
  
  "I see, I see. You really are one strange fellow. Oh yeah, how"s your alchemy level?"
  
  "It is level 3 now, I"ve already started making level 3 pills."
  
  "Ah good." She sends that with a smile-emoticon, and continues. "Then I"ll put an order down. Level 3 pills, at least 1000 batches, can you provide it?"
  
  "Yep, no problem. 1000 batches. But, the Seven-Starred Pills recover 200 MP, 50 MP more than what they sell at the NPC store. So looking at the price, I will sell it at 5 silver coins per pill, same price at the NPC store. I"ll let you know when I have everything prepared."
  
  "Okay, no problem. I"m going to go now, you go on and play. But be careful, if you die while having a red name, you will drop a lot of your materials and equipment."
  
  "Don"t worry. Oh yeah, I still have two more items, would you have any interest in them?"
  
  "What are they?"
  
  I send the pictures and attributes of the Bloody Dagger and the green chestplate to her, and after a few seconds, she sends me a call request.
  
  "Wow! How did you get your hands on these Green-ranked equipment?" she asks with a voice full of excitement.
  
  "Trade secret. If this gets out, I can"t do anymore business can I? Do you have any interest in these?" I reply with a smile.
  
  
  
  Of course I do! Level 20 Green-ranked dagger, this could be the first ever Green-ranked equipment! I do want it and you can give me a price, but throw in a discount in name of our friendship!"
  
  "Fine..." I go quiet for a second to think. "The Bloody Dagger will be a bit expensive though...How about this, I"ll sell you the dagger for 5 gold, plus the chest plate for 2 gold. A total of 7 gold, it shouldn"t be expensive right?"
  
  "Yep, deal!" Her eyes seemed to twinkle when she finished up the deal in call window.
  
  "Okay, when I finish killing the monsters to clear my red name and return, I"ll get these to you."
  
  "Okay!" Qian Qing says with a smile, but quickly adds another sentence. "Wait! Xiao Yao, you are a kind person..."
  
  
  
  "Thanks, you are kind as well..."
  
  
  
  "Yep, we are both good people..."
  
   Chapter 20 - My First Earnings
  
  Ca!
  
  My Bramble Thorn Sword slices through the neck of the Wild Wolf, and the later falls to the ground with a stream of light. I don"t even know how many monsters I"ve killed, but I"m level 19 now, one step closer to the important promotion of level 20! At the same time, I"ve collected many different cloth armor, but the defense that even the best cloth armor gives is uncomparable to the powerful attacks of the Wild Wolves.
  
  
  At the same time, I look through my skill window. Up until now, it seems like no one understands the concept on how to make their own skill. There is a simple reason for this. Everyone is bad. Well, to be honest, if custom skills were easily made, this game world would be in complete chaos right now.
  
  
  
  
  
  After carefully looking through the requirements for creating a combo skill, I realized quite a few things. A combo skill is a skill that effectively uses attacks, defenses, dodges, and knockbacks to force one"s opponents to be one step behind, making the opponent unable to defend or dodge. Afterwards, one"s attacks would easily land while the opponent"s would be weak and useless. Although I can do such complex combos in real life, in the game, the requirements for making a skill are a lot more harsher. The power, angle, and timing has to be perfect, or else you will not be able to create your own skill.
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  While killing the Wild Wolves, I thought about the past. Even though I trained under the old man for many years, the only technique that he passed down was very simple, it used attacks to suppress the opponent. In reality, he didn"t even tell me the name of the sword technique. Perhaps even he didn"t know himself, since there was no specific set of motions for this sword technique, rather it was more like a lot of attacking moves that did not correlate to one another.
  
  
  
  Cha!
  
  
  
  I thrust my Bramble Thorn Sword forward, and with a Puchi sound it pokes a hole straight through the Wild Wolf"s neck. Using the momentum, I slash left, pulling the sword free and spin my body, landing a heavy and powerful strike on the Wild Wolf"s forehead. Stab, slash, and punch. Using this simple combo, I"ve defeated mountains of Wild Wolves, but sadly, even after using them countless times, the requirements for creating a new skill still are not met. I wonder why...
  
  
  
  Well screw it, let me level up before thinking about it too deeply!
  
  
  
  Also, I realize that the 3 attacks thats I"ve been using are all ordinary attacks, so even if they really triggers the requirements for making a new skill, the power of the skill won"t be too strong. I should master the melee attacking skills in games, then combine two or more skills to make a custom combo skill. Of course, the combo would need a good finisher attack, because only then will my attacks be classified as dangerous!
  
  
  
  While killing wolves, I kept on picking Seven-Starred Herbs. Soon, 3 hours flash by, I even forgot to eat lunch! But, my experience is at level 19, with 94% completed. Only 6% left until level 20!
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  My red, chaotic name turned back to normal a long time ago since I"ve killed so many monsters. At the same time, I hear some walking sounds coming from the far side of the forest. More players huh. It a group of 5 players, all level 18-20. They looked at me from afar and then went on their way. I have no intention of bothering them either, so I grab my sword and leave. There are over 3200 batches of Seven-Star Herbs in my bag, and that"s the result of only one day of herb-picking! In fact, I have enough for me to get my alchemy level to 4, and with this, I should be the first alchemist to reach level 4!
  
  
  
  Half an hour later, I return to Ba Huang City and after repairing my equipment, I sent Yue Qing Qian a message: "Qing Qian~ I"ve returned to the city now, I"ll wait for you at the Northern plaza entrance. If you want the weapon and the armor come quickly!"
  
  
  
  Tick!
  
  
  
  I received a message from Qing Qian, "Okay, I"ll get there in a minute!"
  
  
  
  Whoosh!
  
  
  
  In the distance, the bright flash of a teleportation scroll blinks, and the beautiful assassin appears. It"s Yue Qing Qian.
  
  
  
  "Xiao Yao!"
  
  
  
  She waves to me from afar, and quickly runs over. Waving her dagger, she smiled. "It seems like it"s time to get rid of my level 7 Black-iron dagger!"
  
  
  
  Surprised. I stared at her, "Did you just...use a city return scroll?"
  
  
  
  "Yep!"
  
  
  
  "That"s, that"s 1 gold coin!" I say heartbrokenly.
  
  
  
  Qing Qian flashs another charming smile, "Nah, one gold coin is nothing. Prague"s Guild has over 2000 players near Ba Huang City killing monsters, which is enough to allow the top few hundred players to use money freely. Besides, Xiao Yao you are one of my precious friends, when you call for me, how can I not come?"
  
  
  
  My face blushes slightly. "I really can"t bear it... Whatever, let"s trade!"
  
  
  
  "Okay!"
  
  
  
  Opening the trade window, I put in the Bloody Dagger and the green chestplate, while Qing Qian puts in 7 gold coins. How generous, this Prague"s Guild is really rich!
  
  
  
  I felt a bit curious, and ask, "Qing Qian, how many people are in your guild?"
  
  
  
  She blinks her eyes, and replies with a smile, "There are currently 40 thousand people registered online, but a lot of people didn"t get the gaming helmet early, so there are only around 2700 people who entered the game, and they are all in Ba Huang City. Of the 60 thousand players who entered Ba Huang City, there are 2700 players from the Prague"s Guild!"
  
  
  
  After speaking, Qing Qian looked at me weirdly, "Xiao Yao, you should join our guild! Look, you"ve already angered those crazy people at [Wrath of the Heros], and you"re all alone. If you join Prague"s guild, we"ll go and eliminate [Wrath of the Hero Lords]!"
  
  
  
  My heart leaps at the benefits of joining, but I quickly dispel that thought. "Nah, it"s fine. I"ve already been accustomed to being alone. Moreover, I am not used to being ordered around, let"s just leave it as that..."
  
  
  
  But Qing Qian continues, "Look. You are at level 19, and you"re almost at level 20, you can get promoted soon! When you learn the true healer skills such as [Heal] and [Therapy], you would become one of the most important players in our guild..."
  
  
  
  I laugh, unable to hold it in, "Now now, don"t try to convince me anymore, or else I"ll think you"re selling insurance... "
  
  
  
  She laughs as well, "Fine, I"ll leave it as that. Are you planning to start making some Seven-Star pills?"
  
  
  
  "Yep. Are you going to stay here and watch me make the pills, or will you come back in a while?"
  
  
  
  Sha!
  
  
  
  Qing Qian pulls out the Bloody dagger from her waist, waved it a bit in front of my face, and smiled, "The attack on this dagger is pretty high, I"m going to go out the city to kill a few monsters. When you"re almost done brewing up your potions, send me a message, then I"ll come find you. How"s that?"
  
  
  
  "Perfect."
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Seeing Qing Qian leave the city, I immediately go a material store to buy a whole bunch of refined water and alchemy furnaces. Level 3 pills cost 3 bottles of refined water and one alchemy furnace, a total of 50 copper coins, or 0.5 silver coins. But, every pill can sell for 5 silver coins, this is an absurd amount of earnings! My chance to make big money is here!
  
  I open up the alchemy window, and finish creating a pill~
  
  System Notification: You have successfully created [Seven-Starred Pill] x1, [Alchemy] familiarity +1!
  
  System Notification: You have successfully created [Seven-Starred Pill] x1, [Alchemy] familiarity +1!
  
  System Notification: You have successfully created [Seven-Starred Pill] x1, [Alchemy] familiarity +1!
  
  System Notification: You have successfully created [Seven-Starred Pill] x1, [Alchemy] familiarity +1!
  
  
  
  ......
  
  I get a pretty good feeling when I see my alchemy level continuously rising. After nearly two hours of pill making, finally I stuffed my inventory full of Seven-Star Pills, and the system also pops an alarm to tell me reward my hardwork!
  
  Ding!
  
  System Notification: Congratulations! Your [Alchemy] level has risen to LV-4, and since you are the first player to reach [Alchemy (LV-4)], you are rewarded with 4000 experience points, and charm +2!
  
  Shaa!
  
  A stream of light falls upon me, and I automatically level up to level 20. I finally reached the level where I can get promoted!
  
  Putting all my points in strength, I feel like a complete new person~
  
  [Xiao Yao Zi Zai] (Healer Trainee)
  
  Level: 20
  
  Attack: 126-137
  
  Defense: 64
  
  HP: 290
  
  Mana: 260
  
  Charm: 7
  
  ......
  
  As I continue creating more pills, I send Qing Qian a message. When she comes flying in from the north door, holding the Bloody Dagger, I had almost finished using up my materials.
  
  "Finished?"
  
  "Mm. So you want all 3000 pills?"
  
  "Yep, wait a moment, let me grab some money...."
  
  "Okay!"
  
  A few minutes later, a level 21 male elf player, grasping a longbow, comes flying down. It seems like he has already been promoted to an official archer. He takes out a bag of coins and throws it to Qing Qian. At the same time, he observes me and smiles, "So this is the person, the healer swordsman that you"ve been talking about, Qing Qian? Quite a person huh..."
  
  "Hello...."
  
  "Okay, I"m leaving now, my team still needs me!"
  
  He tightens his grasp on the longbow and stomps both feet on the ground. Instantly, he flies up and out of the city. Impressive, the speciality of the elves really is something, they can both fly and run...
  
  ......
  
  I open up the trade window, separate the 3000 pills into 5 separate trades. 600 pills per trade. Qing Qian also carefully gives me 30 gold coins per trade, which equals a grand total of 150 gold coins! When I finally finish the trades, my total balance is also around 150 gold pieces. When I bought the alchemy furnaces and bottles of refined water before, I spent around 15 gold coins, now I earned it all back in one go.
  
  
  
  Looking at my satisfied face, Qing Qian laughs a bit, "Xiao Yao, now you are probably the wealthiest person in the entire Ba Huang City, how are you going to spend all this money?"
  
  
  
  I paused before continuing, "Isn"t there a currency market or something in [Destiny]?"
  
  
  
  "Ah? You want to sell the gold coins?"
  
  
  
  "Yep, the selling prices are the highest right now!"
  
  
  
  "True." Qing Qian smiles a bit. "Looking at the current market, 1 gold coin can bring you about 20 Yuan (~3.2 dollars) or so. These 150 gold coins can bring you quite a bit of money huh. Do you really have an urgent need of money right now?"
  
  
  
  I shamefully nod my head, "Yep, I have an urgent need of money right now. In my little friend group, I am nicknamed the "Penniless God"...."
  
  
  
  "Pff.. Well then "Penniless God", I wish that you prosper eh?"
  
  
  
  "Mm, okay...."
  
  
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  After receiving the pills, Qing Qian didn"t leave, but instead tilted her head and looked at me, "Xiao Yao, you"re already level 20, how about you go get your promotion quest! I"ll even help you finish the mission!"
  
  
  
  I gave it some thought and replied, "Nah, its fine. I"m pretty confident in my own abilities. If I really do need help, then I"ll call you at that time. You are the deputy chief of the Prague"s guild, I don"t really want to trouble you."
  
  
  
  "Ah, that"s fine then."
  
  
  
  Qing Qian spins around and leaves, while I logged onto the official game website. I enter the "Treasure Grove" section, which is the virtual and reality economy market. Naturally, there are people who are selling gold coins. I scan across, and I find out that there are people selling 1 gold coin for 30 Yuan (~4.8 dollars)! I"m not going to be that greedy, so I post a offer of 100 gold coins for a price of 2500 Yuan (~400 dollars) for them. Hopefully someone buys them!
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Clapping my hands, I think its time to get promoted! The level 20 healer skills are waiting for me!
  Chapter 21 - Spider Queen
  
  In the job training center, the healer instructor stands at the same spot as before, with her long hair drifting in the wind. When she sees me walking up, she immediately shows a sweet smile, "Oh, young healer, you have grown quite strong now. Would you like to get promoted?"
  
  Well then, this NPC is quite observant!
  
  I nod, "Yes teacher, I would like to get promoted!"
  
  "Okay!"
  
  The instructor smiles and stretches her hand forward, "First, you must pay me a processing fee of 10 silver coins before I can start your promotion mission!"
  
  "Okay...." I give out 10 silvers. After all, I no longer have a lack of money!
  
  The instructor stretches her neck looking at me with an amused expression, "Good. If you want to become a real healer, you must complete this test. Come. This is a sheet of sheepskin. If you enter the graveyard at the south of the city, you will find a spider"s cave there. Find the gravestone at the deepest part of the cave and jot down the text written on the gravestone. That is your mission. But be careful, there are many dangers inside the spider cave, you may die a very painful death!"
  
  My whole body trembles a bit. But the mission didn"t care if people were willing to do it or not, it was forced on you...
  
  System Notification: You received the training mission [The gravestone text in the Spider Cave]! (Mission difficulty: Level C)
  
  Mission Description: Enter the spider cave and jot down the text found from the gravestone deep inside the cave. You are not allowed to form teams. If a player forms a team, or accepts healing from other players, then the mission will instantly fail. At that, you will need to wait another 72 hours before re-applying for the mission!
  
  ......
  
  My god, this is quite harsh. I"m not allowed to team up nor accept any help from other players! Qing Qian said she would help me out, but she probably didn"t know about this requirement huh?
  
  Walking out the door and opening the player lists, I take a look at the list of healers in Ba Huang City. The highest level for healers is level 23, but they are all trainee healers, none of them have been promoted! Well of course, this quest is really harsh and it makes absolutely zero sense. Clearing a level C mission is impossible for a sole healer. But for me, the healer swordsman who can attack and heal simultaneously, this should be a piece of cake.
  
  In the entirety of Ba Huang City, there are over 1000 healers who are over level 20, but none of them have been successfully promoted. That speaks for itself, I"m guessing most of the healer"s heart have been broken at the impossibility of completing the quest....
  
  Well, taking my Bramble Thorn Sword, hum a song, and leave Ba Huang City, heading straight towards the graveyard at the south. The minimap even recorded the location of the spider cave, this"ll be a piece of cake. But at this time, I suddenly hear a system alarm--
  
  Ding!
  
  System Notification: Congratulations! Your offer at the [Treasure Grove] of 100 gold coins has been bought by player XXX with 2500 Yuan. After a 10% trading fee, you receive 2250 Yuan, it has all been sent to your card with the number of 6227002008730084***!
  
  (That"s the author"s card number)
  
  ......
  
  Checking my bank account, yep, it seems my total balance is over 10,000 Yuan, I"m rich baby~
  
  Night quickly falls while I travel to the graveyard in the south. Near the graveyard, a few soldiers from Ba Huang City seem to be guarding the graveyard. They were all holding long spears and looking at the crows on the trees. They seem to be chatting about something. Hm, since there are NPCs, I wonder if there"s any simple quests for me. Since I"m out here already I might as well kill a few extra monsters.
  
  Walking up to them, I hear the conversation that the NPCs are having.
  
  "Yeah, those crazy poisonous brutes are getting crazier and crazier these days...." The captain sighed deeply. "Not only do the cows and sheep get attacked by the spiders, even our transportation team got attacked! I even hear that a few people got killed by the poison from the spiders and because of this, commander threw a fit at the guards of the transportation team...."
  
  Another soldier says, "Well it can"t be helped... Those brutes are really sinister...."
  
  The captain looks up, towards me, and says, "Oi, you there. Are you an adventurer from Ba Huang City? Why are you eavesdropping...."
  
  I reply, "Boss, I am willing to lend you a hand. Tell me, how can I help you guys?"
  
  "Huehue...." The captain"s eyes taunted me. "A small healer, how can you possibly help us? Can you enter the spider cave, and bring us back 100 spider fangs?"
  
  I nod, "Yep, I can!"
  
  The NPC looks shocked, "Alright, then show us your strength! This is a reward poster. If you collect 100 spider fangs and give them to me, I will reward you greatly!"
  
  Pacha!
  
  A blood-red reward poster is dropped into my inventory, a necessary component in this quest--
  
  System Notification: You received the quest [Slaughter in the Spider Cave]! (Mission difficulty: Level B)
  
  Mission Description: Enter the spider cave and kill the spiders within the cave. Bring back 100 spider fangs to the captain of the soldiers. If you do so, you will receive a grand reward. If you can kill the Mother Spider, you will receive an even greater reward!
  
  ......
  
  I got the quest. Time to go!
  
  Entering the graveyard, I see random skeletons wandering around. They are all level 19 monster, better avoid them. Killing them takes too much time, so I"ll deal with them after I find the spider cave!
  
  Going around, I open the leaderboards for Ba Huang City and scan through them. Waa, there are indeed plenty of skilled players, and I"m at... Eh, I"m not in the leaderboards huh....
  
  1) Yan Zhao Warrior, level 25 Swordsman
  
  2) Admiral Li Mu, level 25 Swordsman
  
  3) Yue Qing Qian, level 24 Assassin
  
  4) Flying Dragon in the Sky, level 24 Mage
  
  5) Yue Wei Liang, level 24 Assassin
  
  6) Admiral Bai Qi, level 24 Berserker
  
  7) Fierce Tiger, level 24 Berserker
  
  8) Admiral Wang Jian, level 24 Swordsman
  
  9) Basaltic Robber, level 23 Archer
  
  10) Student of He Shi level 23 Trainee Healer
  
  ......
  
  
  
  The amount of players who have already been promoted is over ten thousand. This competition is quite scary, because I haven"t been promoted yet, and I am quite a long ways off from the top. Oh well, I"ll slowly catch up. Now this leadership board is only players from Ba Huang City. If I include the players from the other two cities, Fan Chu City and Jin Li City, I think I would be ranked in the 100 thousands. It is even said that the players in Ba Huang City are the most inferior of the three major cities... I feel like crying now....
  
  
  
  As I collect more information, it seems that the first ranked player, Yan Xiao Warrior, is not just any player. He is the guildmaster of the Prague"s guild, meaning he"s the boss of Yue Qing Qian. In addition, the 3 players in the leaderboard, Admiral Li Mu, Admiral Bai Qi, and Admiral Wang Jian are undoubtedly from the same group. It is getting pretty exciting here in Ba Huang City, heroes popping up left and right, something interesting is bound to happen soon!
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Sasa....
  
  
  
  Stepping on the fallen leaves, I went into the graveyard and reached the location that the minimap indicated. But I don"t see the entrance to the spider cave. Rather, I am standing in front of a huge gravestone. Where is the entrance to the cave?
  
  
  
  Looking at the gravestone, I see that there are a list of initials carved into it--
  
  
  
  "Wu Shi Zhe, began his journey as a scholar. After three years, he began to practice martial arts. During an archery session, he hit one of the drum officials and was forbidden to continue down the path of martial arts. Afterwards, he became a doctor, fairly well known for his works. Later, he formulated a new recipe, and upon ingesting the new medicine, he died."
  
  
  
  "These guys...."
  
  
  
  As I was reading the text, my eyes became wider and wider. What is with these talented yet stupid game designers!?
  
  
  
  I heard some rustling sounds coming from under the gravestone. The leaves started to move around, then suddenly a blood-red shadow appears, giving me a fright.It"s a spider thats about the size of a CD, but unlike normal spiders, it has a blood-red body--
  
  
  
  [Blood Spider] (Normal monster)
  
  
  
  Level: 20
  
  Attack: 85-105
  
  Defense: 40
  
  HP: 700
  
  
  
  Ability: [Life Steal (LV-3)]
  
  
  
  Description: The guardian of the spider cave. These spiders draw and drink blood, enough so that they can recover themselves in the middle of battle. They are very hard to deal with.
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Oh, so the spider cave is directly under this gravestone! Make way!
  
  
  
  My Bramble Thorn Sword flashes forward, and I perform my proud 3-strike combo: Stab, slash, and punch. I need about 3 seconds to perform this combo, and although it takes a bit of time, every strike lands squarely on the spider. The spider violently shakes, and cries out. Three damage numbers pop up--
  
  
  
  "112!"
  
  
  
  "91!"
  
  
  
  "123!"
  
  
  
  Indeed, the last strike was the strongest. If only the last strike became a swordsman"s heavy strike, or some skill that the swordsmen have, it would have been deadly!
  
  
  
  After the three strikes, the spider counter attacks. But I respond to this resistance by healing myself, and retaliate with 2 more strikes, and I finish it off. After it dies, I pick up the 7 copper coins that it drops.
  
  
  
  Bending over, I use my Bramble Thorn Sword and poke the ground. The leaves separate, and a cave invisible to the outside appears. Down below is the spider"s cave, so it"s a hidden area!
  
  
  
  As I was slowly going down the cave entrance, I slipped! Falling into the spider cave, I dropped about 10 meters down before landing on solid ground. After propping myself up, I analyzed my surroundings. It seems that the environment is fairly damp, and very dark. From afar, I notice a red shadow quickly heading this way. Oh great, another Blood Spider. Because my vision in this area is greatly affected, I can only see about 3-5 yards away, the easily defeated Blood Spider becomes much more dangerous.
  
  
  
  After killing the Bloody Spider, I hear a Pacha sound. A spider fang dropped! I picked it up and put it in my inventory, time to continue on.
  
  
  
  The spider"s cave has a lot of twists and turns, and there are Blood Spiders everywhere. But after killing dozens of them, a new type of spider shows itself in front of me. The body has an emerald green color, it"s a poisonous spider!
  
  
  
  Hiss.....
  
  
  
  Emitting some strange sound, the poisonous spider jumps towards me. I slash with sword to kill it, but before I land my second strikes, the spider sprays poison at me, and I get a dose of it on my face--
  
  
  
  Tick!
  
  
  
  Battle Notification: You have been poisoned. Every second you lose 10 HP for 10 seconds!
  
  
  
  I quickly cast [Hemostasis] to heal. No matter how long this battle stretches on, I, as a healer, am not afraid of some poison!
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  After wandering around in the spider cave for about an hour, I had collected over 70 spider fangs. But, I have yet to reach the end of this cave. So I continue on. Suddenly a bright light pierces my eyes, and I reach a Great Hall. From a distance, I can see a huge gravestone in the hall, and behind it an immense crystal coffin, which emitted an a unholy green beacon; truly a remarkable work of craftsmanship. It seems like this room was the resting place of an old general. But not only that, theres an enormous green spider peering on top of the coffin. It has a radius of almost 2 meters, and it repeatedly shoots out poison, drenching the coffin as it feasts on the old bones of the once mighty warrior.
  
  
  
  "Nasty....."
  
  
  
  I frown, and also scan the spider. Ah, it"s the boss, the [Spider Queen], level 21 Silver-ranked boss. It seems this will be an interesting fight....
  Chapter 22 - My First Bronze Equipment
  
  ?Spider Queen?(Silver Boss Monster)
  
  Level: 21
  
  Attack: 0-0
  
  Defense:100
  
  Hit points: 50,000
  
  Skill: ?Spawning Spider Eggs?
  
  Description: The Spider Queen corrodes and feeds on the bones of the ancient deceased, absorbing the strength of the dead to produce unlimited spiderlings. This has filled the cave to the breaking point, therefore the Spider Queen must be killed to contain the epidemic of spiderlings in the South Tomb.
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  I went silent, while examining the attributes of the Spider Queen, I was shocked by it"s stats. A 0-0 attack value for a level 21 boss monster, what kind of monster is this? This could indicated one thing, the Spider Queen would mass produce spiders, instead of directly attacking me, like a hive.
  
  
  
  In the spider hall, besides the Spider Queen, there were also 12 level 21 poisonous spiders. I can probably attract the poisonous spiders to attack me without aggroing the Spider Queen, then after finishing them off, I can finally aggro the Spider Queen. I can only hope that my healing capacity will be capable of keeping up with the consumption of my health points.
  
  
  
  The plan has been set; I immediately start executing it.
  
  
  
  I lure one poisonous spider after another, slaughtering them all 5 minutes later. Only the Spider Queen is left, her huge body trembles slightly, but no spawning has been initiated. She doesn"t seem to have been aggroed.
  
  
  
  I started carefully examining the hall, the Spider Queen was encased in a huge coffin. The coffin and the wall that it was touching made a 60 degree angle, if I could stand in the corner, only 4-5 small spiderlings would be able to attack me, while the rest would have to wait for their turn. So as long as I can sustain my health, this would be my chance!
  
  
  
  Shasha
  
  
  
  My foot slipped on some dust, and I glide to a distance of approximately 3 meters from the spider queen, thereby aggroing it. Her huge body began shivering, pushing out a small round green egg, it rotates a little and then ruptures, out comes a small poisonous spider.
  
  
  
  I quickly examined its attributes...
  
  
  
  ?Small poisonous spider?(Ordinary monster)
  
  
  
  Level: 20
  
  
  
  Attack: 40-50
  
  
  
  Defense: 20
  
  
  
  Hit points: 100
  
  
  
  Description: Spider Queen"s spiderling
  
  ......
  
  
  
  I am overjoyed! As expected, these small spiderlings don"t pose a threat. With their low attack and defense, this quest is truly possible! Raising my sword I start slashing at the broodmother, she shivers, losing 57 hit points. Her defense is so high that I almost can"t damage her at all
  
  
  
  Meanwhile, the Spider Queen is constantly convulsing and twitching, which mass produces new spiderlings. It sure is fast, and the majority of them are poisonous spiderlings. They soon form a small group around me, endlessly attacking. Unfortunately for them, each attack only takes out 7-8 health, so my level 2 hemostasis can easily sustain me.
  
  
  
  Pop
  
  
  
  Suddenly i get a burst of pain from my ankle and lose over 30 points of health. When I take a closer look, a fire spiderling had appeared. It had an immense attack power of a hundred points. This amount of damaged poses a threat!
  
  
  
  The Bramble Thorn sword slices through the fire spiderling, dealing a fatal blow of a hundred damage, problem solved. Without worry, I let the poisonous spiders hit me, while I continued to hit the Spider Queen.
  
  
  
  As my striking power is limited, even though I"m a healer swordsman, I can only deal around 2000 damage a minute. Because the Spider Queens has tough defensive abilities, my attacks are limited to around 50 damage every 1.5 second, this is going to be an extremely long fight.
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  After a full half hour of constantly hitting, the Spider Queen health is down to 8%. However my cloak"s durability is only at 15%, sooner or later my equipment will break, hopefully it isn"t before the Spider Queen"s health drops to rock bottom.
  
  
  
  Fortunately, the Spider Queen doesn"t have an enraged state, so a few minutes later it"s health is finally depleted.
  
  
  
  "Please, drop Silver-ranked equipment...!"I pray deeply for high-end drops, unknowing that even Green-ranked equipment was very rare, and Bronze-ranked equipment is only a luxury for the top players, so how could a Silver-ranked equipment drop?
  
  
  
  Whoosh!
  
  
  
  My Bramble Thorn sword passes through the forehead of the Spider Queen, causing green slime and blood to splatter in all direction. The life of the Spider Queen"s quickly vanished and with it her spiderlings also dropped lifelessly to the ground.
  
  
  
  I quickly clean my face of the layers of venom that had been sprayed on me, before looking towards the body of the Spider Queen for equipment drops. A golden ray emerges announcing I rose to level 21.
  
  
  
  Pop!
  
  
  
  Jumping over the corpses, I head towards the sole two pieces of equipments. One is a pair of cloth boots, which are delicate looking and caused my heart skips a beat in delight. The other drop is a lightly glowing, oddly shaped, brass ring.
  
  
  
  I reach out and pick up the equipment, quickly viewing the attributes of the boots
  
  ?Flame boots?(Green Tier)
  
  
  
  Type: Cloth armor
  
  
  
  Defense: 12
  
  
  
  Magic Power: +5
  
  
  
  Passive: Increases the effectiveness of healing spells by 10 points.
  
  
  
  Requirement: Level 20.
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  I"m overjoyed at how truly great this item is. First, it gives an extra 12 points in defense. Second, it gives an increase of 5 in magic power and lastly there"s 10 extra points for my healing spells!
  
  
  
  I immediately equip the flame boots. They feel delicate and nice - Finally, I"m no longer barefooted.
  
  
  
  Continuing onto the glowing brass ring, I wipe it clean to reveal a golden surface. The attributes which appeared on the screen, gave me a huge ear to ear smile.
  
  
  
  ?Ring of the Berserker?(Bronze)
  
  
  
  Endurance: +12
  
  
  
  Passive: Increase the attack damage of the user by 7
  
  
  
  Required level: 20.
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  My mind goes blank at the eye popping stats of the ring. It"s a Bronze-ranked equipment! Amazing! Not to mention, it"s a ring that is very suitable for me.
  
  
  
  After equipping the ring I look at my stats. They"ve increased quite a bit!
  
  
  
  [Xiao Yao Zi Zai] (Trainee healer)
  
  
  
  Level: 21
  
  
  
  Attack: 131-149
  
  
  
  Defense: 77
  
  
  
  HP: 384
  
  
  
  MP: 290
  
  
  
  Charm: 7
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  12 points extra in endurance increases my HP by 84. Although healer only get 0.7 health per point in endurance, 84 health is better than nothing, not to mention that it"s almost ? of my original health. There are also 10 extra points in effectiveness for healing spells from the boots, making this trip quite worthwhile, or should I say, I turned quite a good profit this trip.
  
  
  
  As I proudly stand on top of the coffin, I pick up the spider fangs in the hall. Once I collected enough for my quest, I could not pick up any more. So I leave to finish the quests, and to become the first healer to get promoted!
  
  
  
  Pacha!
  
  
  
  I accidentally stepped into a bush and a pair of dried out, bony hands shoot out towards me. They grabbed my left leg, scaring my soul out of me! I swing my sword mindlessly, and shout "Don"t try to harm me monster!"
  
  
  
  The branches in the bush are chopped into pieces, scattered left and right... I look closer, and I find out that it was only a corpse, sucked dry by the Spider Queen. It gave me quite a fright though....
  
  
  
  I turn around and left the spider cave. Ahh, the fresh night air from outside. Quite relaxing....
  
  
  
  Coming to the guard outpost at the graveyard, I hand the spider fangs to the NPC soldier captain. His mouth opens wide, "Wow! You actually killed that evil Spider Queen! That must have been quite the adventure, you are our hero! Come here, young adventurer. Collect your reward!"
  
  
  
  Ding!
  
  
  
  System Notification: You finished the quest [Spider Cave Slaughter], and you receive 7000 experience points. Since you also killed the Spider Queen, you receive and extra reward item: [Killer Bee Seal].
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Oh, I even get a seal?
  
  
  
  I take new seal out of my bag, and I wave my hand to use it. The seal turns into a flash of light and disappears within my Seal Book. I click on it to check out the stats. Ohhhh, the killer bee is a lot better than the Silver-Feathered Bird, pets really are one of the necessities for early game leveling~
  
  
  
  [Killer Bee]
  
  
  
  Attack:?????
  
  
  
  Defense:???
  
  
  
  HP:????
  
  
  
  Agility:?????
  
  
  
  Magic Power:???
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Starting out with 4.5 stars worth of attack and agility, it would serve well as a player killing pet, though it can also make leveling up easier and more efficient! But to put use to this seal, I need to find the actual Killer Bee. I wonder where the Killer Bee comes from... I even opened up the official wiki, but I couldn"t find any information. The company for <> is so stingy. Trying to get information about <> is like trying to take a loan from a bank, they won"t give money/information to a person who truly needs it.
  
  
  
  Whatever, I"ll just return to the city to get my promotion!
  
  
  
  I run straight to Ba Huang City and find the healing instructor. The beautiful healing instructor is still standing tall with her staff, giving off a young vibe. She looks at me, and gives a charming smile, "Ah, my dear, have you finished your quest?"
  
  
  
  I take out the sheepskin, already carved with the text from the gravestone, and give it to her.
  
  
  
  "I"m finished....."
  
  
  
  The instructor seemed shocked, "Okay, young healer. You"ve allowed me to see hope. Come, this reward belongs to you. You are now a real healer!"
  
  
  
  Ding!
  
  
  
  System Notification: Congratulations! You have finished your promotion quest. You have been promoted into a healer! Also, since you are the first player to be promoted into a healer. Special reward: Charm +5!
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  I already have 12 points of charm, but I still don"t know what charm is for...
  
  
  
  I keep on chatting with the instructor. At the same time, two learnable skills pop up in front of my face--
  
  
  
  [Heal (LV-1)]: Recovers 150 HP of the target"s health, cooldown of 6 seconds, costs 10 mana. Requires level 20.
  
  
  
  [Therapy (LV-1]: Heals injuries(negative status condition), costs 10 mana. Requires level 20.
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  [Heal], it"s the upgraded version of [Hemostasis] and has a recovery power that is 3 times stronger than [Hemostasis]. Since, I can also use the two skills in rotation, as long as I don"t get one-shotted, I"ll be able to recover. [Therapy], I don"t need to use for now. When players receives a large amount of attacks, over a long period of time, they will produce injuries that reduces their fighting power. That"s when [Therapy] comes into use, but since players at this stage just die before injuries start to occur, [Therapy] is useless.
  
  
  
  With the flick of my finger, I learned both skills. Now I am the first healer to be promoted in the entire server!
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Ringring!
  
  
  
  I receive the incoming call, its Wan Er, "Li Xiao Yao, disconnect and come down. It"s pretty late, and I have some stuff that I want to say to you!"
  
  
  
  "Coming!"
  Chapter 23 - He"s Mine
  
  It"s 8 p.m in the school"s bar.
  
  There"s some light music playing in the bar, casting a calming spell on the patrons of the bar. The bar is a place where a lot of the students in the school come to relax after a hard day of courses, and of course there"s a large portion of people who come here find their true love.
  
  
  
  I have no interest in love, because Wan Er, who"s sitting in front of me, is staring at me with her large, beautiful eyes.
  
  
  
  Putting down my cup, I say, "Miss. I"ll leave if you stare at me any longer..."
  
  
  
  Wan Er purses her red lips, and asks again, "Did you really get a bronze ring? You"re not lying are you?"
  
  
  
  "It"s true!" I nod deeply.
  
  
  
  With a sulky expression, Wan Er looks at Cheng Yue, who"s at her side, and mumbles, "Yue.. Why does this guy have such good luck... How is it possibly that he got a 12 endurance ,7 attack bronze ring? Ahh,.. God why.... "
  
  
  
  Cheng Yue smiles lightly, "Probably because Xiao Yao is handsome..."
  
  
  
  Wan Er glares at me, "How is he handsome, he looks just like Bi Fu Jian... " [1]
  
  
  
  "....."
  
  
  
  After a while, Wan Er continues, "Oh yeah, school starts in 2 days, so, there will be a welcoming dance party tomorrow night. Cheng Yue and I got the invitations. Li Xiao Yao, you come too, and familiarize yourself with our new classmates."
  
  
  
  "Welcoming dance party?" I widen my eyes, "I don"t dance...."
  
  
  
  "There"s no problem, just be there and it"ll be fine. I also hear that there"s some good food there~"
  
  
  
  "Yep, let"s go!"
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  I sip my cup of tea, and ask, "Miss. You got the [Mortal"s Scroll] right?"
  
  
  
  She nods, "Yep, the experience gain is quite a lot! Every hour I gain 5% of my current level"s experience! Even if I stay idle for an entire day I can almost level up."
  
  
  
  I ask, "Do you know if this also applies to the higher levels?"
  
  
  
  Cheng Yue laughs, "Impossible, don"t think about it. When a player reaches a high level, then the level difference between this city and the other cities will only rise, then wouldn"t all the players from Ba Huang City and Jiu Li City all come over? Oh yeah Xiao Yao, what level is the highest level player in Ba Huang City?"
  
  
  
  "Level 25, a swordsman called Yan Zhao Warrior, who is the guildmaster of the [Prague]"s Guild. "
  
  
  
  "Ah, so it"s him..." Wan Er opens her mouth about to talk but then bursts out laughing.
  
  
  
  That look made all my hairs stand up, "What"s wrong? Is there a problem with this Yan Zhao Warrior?"
  
  
  
  Cheng Yue replies, "Prague"s guild was also a guild in <>. Yan Zhao Warrior is a 50 year old guy, his control in game is quite good, but his strongest point was his power to persuade people to join his guild. Because of him, the almost extinct [Prague]"s guild was rebuilt. You"re in Ba Huang City, is it possible that you joined [Prague] as well?"
  
  
  
  I shake my head with a smile, "Nah, I"m not planning on joining any guild for now."
  
  
  
  Wan Er looks at me, "Why not?"
  
  
  
  I stick out my chest, "That"s because... it"s very simple. This gaming helmet is a gift from you, so therefore, I"m waiting for you to take me in. In the future when you create your own guild, or join into other guilds, I"ll follow you in."
  
  
  
  After hearing that Cheng Yue couldn"t stop herself from laughing, "Good thinking Xiao Yao. I"m thinking of creating a guild, why don"t you join mine...."
  
  
  
  "No!" Wan Er"s voice was a pitch higher than usual.
  
  
  
  "Why not?" asks Cheng Yue.
  
  
  
  "Because... Because he"s mine!"
  
  
  
  "Is that so? Yours huh....." Cheng Yue laughs villy.
  
  
  
  Wan Er lowers her head immediately, her whole face had become a deep crimson. After a few seconds, she regains her composure, lifts her head up, and coldly looks at me, "Actually.. this guy"s gaming skills are barely decent. In my dad"s words, he"s a noob and is mostly likely to spend time setting up stalls to sell items. Oh how I pity that limited edition flame red helmet..."
  
  
  
  "......."
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  We stayed in the bar until 10 pm. Afterwards, I escorted the two beauties back to the girl"s dorm, and continued to wander around in the dark for a while. After clearing the coast, I jumped on top of the same tree to observe the surroundings. At 15 degrees south-east is a security uncle sitting and smoking. In addition, at 35 degrees north-east, there"s a person in a black trench coat sitting on the stone bench in the small park. Unless you look closely, you won"t notice him.
  
  
  
  Without a doubt, they are hidden guards pre-arranged by Lin Tian Lan for his precious pearl, Wan Er. The old man must have been troubled quite a lot. Who knows how many people he sent into this university. As for me, according to Tian Lan"s instructions, I am to be Wan Er"s friend, classmate, and also the trump card, last line of defense in this school. Therefore, my position is very important.
  
  
  
  I breathe deeply, 1000 meters in front of Liu Hua University is a police station, so it is extremely safe here, at least there shouldn"t be any problems at night. These two personal guards also seem to be extremely observant. The atmosphere around the two was different, the two were probably part of Special Ops teams. And they"ve definitely killed before, or else they wouldn"t be able to emit this kind of special, trained aura.
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Returning to my dorm, I immediately fell asleep when I reach my bed. I sleep soundly until the next morning. After waking up I went and bought breakfast for Wan Er and Cheng Yue. While standing in front of the entrance to the girl"s dorm, the dorm manager fiercely looks at me, and says one sentence, "Brat. If you put dare to even place a foot in this building, I will break your legs!"
  
  
  
  I involuntarily shiver at the threat, and rethink my actions of delivering the breakfast upstairs.
  
  
  
  A few minutes later, a beauty comes running down, it"s Cheng Yue in her pink skirt. Her two slender legs are quite eye-catching in the rising sun.
  
  
  
  "What do we have today?" She asks while tilting her head.
  
  
  
  I smile, "Red bean bun, milk, bread, help yourself~"
  
  
  
  "Okay."
  
  
  
  Cheng Yue grabs the breakfast from me and says, "Xiao Yao, don"t forget that tonights the dance party! Wait for us here at 6 P.M. Dinner is also served at the dance party!"
  
  
  
  "Okay..."I nod with a smile, "Then I"m leaving!"
  
  
  
  "Wait!"
  
  
  
  "What is it?"
  
  
  
  She smiles, and says, "Just now, Wan Er told me, when both of us reach level 30, we"ll go and visit Ba Huang City and find you there. We"ll see what kind of mess you"ve got yourself into in Ba Huang City..."
  
  
  
  I feel a bit awkward, "What.. What mess are you talking about? I"m just...going with the flow in Ba Huang City, there"s nothing wrong with that right.... Oh right, Cheng Yue, what is your game IDs? I"ll join you when I get on!"
  
  
  
  "No need, when we get to Ba Huang City, you"ll know who we are when you see us!"
  
  
  
  Without waiting for me to say anything, she quickly runs up the stairs with her skirt, a gust of wind passes... Ah, it"s pink....
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  I set a goal for myself while returning to my place. Today"s mission: Reach level 22. After that, I"ll find my next path to fortune: The killer bees. Even though I have a seal for the kill bee, I need to find the bees before I can actually seal it. Although I"m a healer swordsman, my attack damage is not enough, so I need to have a strong pet to compensate for this weakness!
  
  
  
  Cha!
  
  
  
  When I go online, I"m at the job training center, so I turn around and leave. I have a few hundred level 3 Seven-Star pills in my bag, which instantly restore 200 MP, which is more than enough for me.
  
  
  
  At the northern entrance of Ba Huang City, near the forest, a vampire bat is roaming around. The little bats near the city have the lowest level, and their attacks are also one of the weakest out of all the monsters.
  
  
  
  Walking in front of the bat with my sword in hand, the bat starts rushing forward while chirping at me, and activates its blood-sucking attack, but it only took out 12 HP.
  
  
  
  I raise my hand, and cast [Heal].
  
  
  
  Cha!
  
  
  
  "+12!"
  
  
  
  My HP is back to full, and at the same time, I gain 1 skill experience point. By allowing the vampire bat to attack me repeatedly, I can cast [Heal] to gain more skill experience. Repeating this cycle for an hour or so, [Heal] and [Hemostasis] finally reach level 3. At this level, casting [Heal] recovers 450 HP, which is over my maximum points. [Hemostasis], on the other hand, recovers 150 HP, which is more suitable for me.
  
  
  
  During the entire training process, countless amounts of players look at me with pity, shaking their heads--
  
  
  
  "Look, that healer is really an idiot, he"s not even retaliating against the bat!"
  
  
  
  "He really is an idiot!"
  
  
  
  "A shame, he is quite good looking!"
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  After finishing this mission, I smoothly kill all of the annoying bats with my sword, and then find a place under the tree to rest. I start looking through the forums, looking for information regarding the whereabout of the killer bees. Not long after, my eyes land on the name of a place on the map--Poisonous Grassland
  
  
  
  The Poisonous Grassland is south-east of Ba Huang City, roughly 15 minutes or so of traveling, and it consists of level 22-25 monsters. Yesterday, there was a group of players who went there, and pointed out that the main monsters of the Poisonous Grassland are wasps, so there"s a possibility that there might be some killer bees within them! Okay, let"s go!
  
  
  
  I bring my supplies, repair my equipment, and start to leave. The journey of an adventurer begins!
  
  
  
  I walk along a small road. After ten or so minutes, I see a small forest full of sunshine, and I can also faintly hear humming sounds, it looks like I"ve arrived at the Poisonous Grassland!
  
  
  
  "Ah, bro, run! Damn! These guys are vicious!"
  
  
  
  Suddenly I hear cries in front, and I see one elf archer holding a longbow flying out of the forest, but right behind him is a huge wasp, as big as a washbasin! The bee stings the elf in two quick successions on his body and two large damage numbers appear--
  
  
  
  "121!"
  
  
  
  "240!"
  
  
  
  The combo attack instantly kills the elf. After he dies, the wasp"s slowly returns peacefully to where it was from. On the ground though, there is a berserker holding a battle axe, running for his life, with his face flustered, "What the hell?! Who said that the monsters here are easy prey? Our healer couldn"t even keep up with the damage! What should we do?!"
  
  
  
  After saying that, he suddenly stops, then flames appear on his battle axe. He yells, "Fire axe!"
  
  
  
  Bang!
  
  
  
  The wasp chasing him gets knocked back, and receives by 221 damage. This is the berserker"s level 10 skill, [Fire Axe]. It adds fire damage to the next attack, but the wasp still has around 70% HP left. Its stinger suddenly starts to glow, a golden hexagram! This move seems familiar... Oh! Its a level 3 combo attack!
  
  
  
  Shasha!
  
  
  
  A LV-3 combo attack can attack 2-3 times, and this time the combo successfully pulls off all three attacks, totaling to a damage of 400. The berserker, who had all his points put into damage, has his 300 HP evaporated in an instant. He cries out while kneeling to his death, his level is dropped down from 22 to 21... what a shame...
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Shasha....
  
  
  
  Stepping onto the grassland, I circle around the corpses, and avoid any players around the area. I don"t care about any compromises or grouping up, I will enter deep into the Poisonous Grasslands by myself. I have superb healing skills decent attack damage.1v1ing a wasp, shouldn"t even break a sweat!
  Chapter 24 - Baby Bobo
  
  Circling the dense forest, I stay out the Poisonous Grassland. Along the way, I see many different types of flying insects such as the deadly wasp I had seen before. I went in closer and read the information about the monster--
  
  [Bumble Bee] (Normal Monster)
  
  Level: 22
  
  Attack: 79-114
  
  Defense: 40
  
  HP: 600
  
  Ability: [Combo (LV-3)]
  
  Description: The lords of the Poisonous Grassland, these wasps are the most vicious of the grassland. Even a mighty beast, such as a tiger, can"t do anything about them.
  
  ......
  
  "Bumble Bees huh...." I squint my eyes, "Like Bumble Bee from Transformers..."
  
  Clang!
  
  
  
  I draw my sword, emitting a gust of air. [Turmoil Sword]"s effect immediately take place, raising my attack by 10%, my attack damage should be 165 now. I"m sure I can break through the 40 points of defense that the Bumble Bee has. But before I could plan my attack, the Bumble Bee notices me and quickly rushes towards me, stinger first. There"s no golden hexagon, the first attack is definitely a normal attack!
  
  97!
  
  Ow... The instant the Bumble Bee"s stinger connected with my arm, I sent my Bramble Thorn Sword forward attempting the stab, slash, and hack combo. But, once the Bumble Bee took my first strike, it activated Combo (LV-3), the stinger starts to glow, it attacked me with three strike combo!
  
  
  
  110!
  
  +450!
  
  121!
  
  214!
  
  +150!
  
  
  
  That scared the hell out of me, but luckily, I"m still alive. In the short amount of time between the attacks of the combo, I used [Heal] on myself. The level 3 [Heal] recovered 450 HP, which almost returned me to full health. I add [Hemostasis] after the combo finished, and my health recovered to around 50%. I go completely pale. Damn! No wonder that 7-man team got annihilated, the attacks of the Bumble Bee are powerful.
  
  Pa!
  
  
  
  I slash at the Bumble Bee angrily and slice the Bumble Bee 8 times. It dies with a jiji sound, and its body falls down, giving me a fair bit of experience points and 11 copper coins. Copper Coins are always a good thing.
  
  I open up the map, and at the deepest point within Poisonous Grassland, the green grassland becomes a dark shade of crimson. Yep, the high level monsters should be in that area. All I need to do is waddle in there. As long as I carefully heal myself between the combo attacks of the Bumble Bees, they won"t be able to instantly kill me, and being a healer, as long as I"m not dead, I can recover my health.
  
  ......
  
  After more than an hour, stepping over countless Bumble Bee corpses, I enter the deeper part of the grassland. Sadly, the Bumble Bees haven"t dropped a Bumble Bee seal, or else I would be rich right now with Bumble Bee pets. The Bumble Bee"s attack level is 4 stars, which is higher than the Silver-Feathered Bird, if I can seal one, I will become undoubtedly be rich!
  
  In front of me is a thorny bushes. Not the one to be deterred, I wave my sword and cut a path. Finally, when I slice aside the bushes and look up to examine my "art work", a flower scent floats in the air and rushes to my nose. On the grassland beyond the bushes, I see a colourful wasp flying around, emitting an annoying bzzz sound. In addition, their stringers look strangely metallic, they are what I was trying to find - Killer Bees!
  
  I slowly approached the nearest Big Wasp, when it was about 20 meters away, I greedily read the attributes of the monster. Know thyself and thy enemy, thou shall not be defeated in a hundred battles!
  
  [Killer Bee] (Normal monster)
  
  Level: 24
  
  Attack: 94-154
  
  Defense: 50
  
  HP: 700
  
  Ability: [Combo (LV-3)]
  
  
  
  Description: The lords of the Poisonous Grassland. Even mighty beasts such as tigers can"t do anything about them.
  
  ......
  
  
  
  When I look at the attributes for the Killer Bee, my heart skipped a beat. My God, 154 attack damage! Used with the combo ability, I might not survive to see the next day. This is quite challenging!
  
  Approaching with light steps, I attack first!
  
  Sha!
  
  
  
  I rush out my hiding place and cast level 2 [Encourage], which raises my attack by 2%. Even a tiny bit makes a difference! I draw an arc, and slice horizontally.
  
  
  
  Bang!
  
  
  
  117!
  
  
  
  The killer bee"s body flies backward from the power within the strike. But almost immediately, it buzzes back to initiate it"s counter attack. It"s a Combo! While it stabs me continuously, I nearly run of out of HP, but I take the chance and cast [Heal]!
  
  
  
  174!
  
  180!
  
  +35??4!
  
  172!
  
  
  
  I barely escaped with my life, that was way too scary. Although I have some decent armor, it"s still a cloth armor and against high leveled monsters, it"s too weak, bah!
  
  
  
  I heal myself at the exact right time, and save myself from death. The rest of the fight is a lot easier since the cooldown for the combo is quite high. But even without combos, the Killer Bee is quite formidable. After managing to kill the Killer Bee, I covered in cold sweats. How is this a normal monster? This is more like fighting with a boss for survival!
  
  
  
  The first Killer Bee didn"t drop any equipment, so I continued on. I cruised around some Killer Bees, checking their levels before I made a move, But even then, I didn"t find a single level 1 Killer Bee...
  
  
  
  After fighting countless Killer Bees and not finding a level 1 Killer Bee, it"s nearly noon so I eat my lunch box, and continue on.
  
  
  
  I kept hunting the Killer Bees in the Poisonous Grassland until 3 p.m. I keep repeating the same movements, I kill some Killer Bees, then they respawn again, then I kill them again. I repeat this over and over and will keep repeating it until I find a level 1 killer bee!
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Finally, the reward shows itself. When it"s almost 4pm, a level 1 Killer Bee appears!
  
  
  
  Shaking from excitement, I hold onto a small tree for support. To calm my nerves I take a breath. The level 1 Killer Bee is happily dancing around in the fields, Afraid that the level 1 bee will fly out of my grasp, I immediately take out a hefty stack of seals. Since I was quite rich, I had bought 100 seals for this moment! This level 1 Killer Bee is mine!
  
  Sha!
  
  The seal flies out, and envelops the head of the level 1 Killer Bee. Like before, a hexagram bolted down with light flies down. But the Killer Bee resists, violently darting out of the hexagram. Slowly the lights fade, the sealing had failed. The bee happily flies back into the flowery grassland...
  
  But I gnash my teeth and persist. With a 24% chance of sealing it, I will be successful!
  
  I keep on trying, and on the 5th seal, finally, the Killer Bee stops darting out of the hexagram. With a flash of light it enters my pet storage. I"m going to be rich now!
  
  I excitedly open up my pet list window. The attributes for the Killer Bee show up on the screen, pretty good--
  
  
  
  [Killer Bee]
  
  Level:1
  
  Attack:?????
  
  Defense:???
  
  HP:????
  
  Agility:?????
  
  Magic Power:???
  
  Excellence:74%
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Excellence of 74%! This is a fairly high-end pet, and that 4.5 stars worth of attack can cause people to drool over this pet or flinch when the pet is flying at them. This is good stuff!
  
  With unmatched excitement, I decide that I"ll keep this Killer Bee. My first pet!
  
  As I was about to release the Killer Bee to level up with me, I noticed something glittering in front of the forest, undoubtedly another Killer Bee respawning. But it"s a black shadow appears!
  
  No, that"s not right. I"ve seen plenty of Killer Bees respawns, but the respawn of this one is very slow, but very elegant as well!
  
  I rub my eyes, and continue watching. Within the golden glow, a wasp similar to the killer bee respawns, but it is also different. The wings have a faint golden colour, and the stinger is golden as well. Its body is sturdy and strong, it"s thin shell lightly sparkles under the sun. It"s like a huge bee with armor!
  
  I look at the attributes of this strange creature, and I almost faint away. Oi, its level 1! It"s really level 1!
  
  
  
  [Bee Overlord] (Elite Monster)
  
  Level: 1
  
  
  
  Description: The evolved state of a Killer Bee. A monster that is said to be a killer in legends, the Bee Overlord has uncomparable attack power and agility, it is a nightmare to poachers, and the murderer to many heroes.
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Looking at my seal window, the Killer Bee seal is flashing on a column. When I open the seal information window up, not only is there a picture of the Killer Bee, there is also a seal for the Bee Overlord, apparently the Bee Overlord still counts as a Killer Bee! This is great, I can seal the Bee Overlord!
  
  
  
  Buzz!
  
  
  
  My mind goes blank, at the surprise! It"s an elite-ranked monster and level 1! And monster seals are so rare that they are like 10 point beauties, rare and unobtainable. But for me, I have the seal for Killer Bees which means that I can seal Bee Overlords. This only means one thing, God, I"m going to make a fortune!
  
  
  
  Hovering over the Bee Overlord drawing"s head is the sealing chance--11%. Hm, I can take this slowly, I"ll seal it eventually. There"s nothing to be afraid of when I have 95 seals!
  
  
  
  Cha!
  
  
  
  I throw out the first seal, but it was easily shaken by the bee and [MISS] pops up. The Bee Overlord flies at the same spot in circle, it"s taunting me...
  
  
  
  Cha!
  
  
  
  I send out my second seal, and after 1.5 seconds, [MISS] pops up again. The bee continues to taunt me.
  
  
  
  Third seal! Taunt!
  
  
  
  Fourth seal! Taunt!
  
  
  
  Fifth seal! Taunt...
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Luckily I am a patient person, I was about to go insane after missing 87 seals. How is this an 11% chance, it"s more like 1%!
  
  
  
  On my 91st seal, I throw it out, and like the 90 times before, a hexagram appears. I mutter, "I pray to you God, please have mercy on me!"
  
  
  
  The Bee Overlord buzzes non-stop, but unlike before, it stays in the hexagram. Slowly, the Bee Overlord shrinks smaller and smaller, and with a sha sound, it goes into the seal. With a flash it enters my pet window!
  
  
  
  I immediately open the pet window to look up the Bee Overlord"s attributes. At that moment, my heart really felt like it was going to stop! The stats are too good. The wasted seals have all been compensated for~
  
  
  
  [Bee Overlord]
  
  Level:1
  
  Attack:?????
  
  Defense:????
  
  HP:????
  
  Agility:?????
  
  Magic Power:???
  
  Exellence:97%
  
  
  
  ......
  
  
  
  Compared to the Killer Bee, the good point about the Bee Overlord is that the attack is 5 stars instead of 4.5 and it"s defense rose by 1 star. The rest of the stats are the same. Like the Killer Bee, the Bee Overlord"s HP and magic power are pretty low, but the agility is pretty high. But the most important stat I need is attack damage to compensate for my low attack damage, and the Bee Overlord has huge high attack damage, so that"s good enough for me. With my [Heal] and [Hemostasis], the Bee Overlord"s will be able to sustain high damage and keep dishing out high damage!
  
  
  
  More importantly, it has 97% in excellence, which I"ve never seen before!
  
  
  
  My heart is going crazy, and I immediately call out the Bee Overlord and lead it to kill monsters. I have one more thing that I need to do, I need to create a name for my pet. If I call it "Bee Overlord" it"ll be a bit too domineering. With this pet that is full of damage, I need a cute and adorable name, so it can hide the killing intent!
  
  
  
  After thinking for a while, I happily give the Bee Overlord a new name--Baby Bobo.
  
  
  
  Ah, what a fearful name!
  
  
   Oh Baby Bobo.Your name will go down in [Destiny] history! You will become an unshakable force. You will be honored for centuries, feared by all!
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