《Second Life: Welcome to Gaia》 Game Mechanics Game Mechanics Note: This section will be updatedter. BASE STATS Strength: increase a character''s physical damage. 1 ATK and 0,5 max weight capacity will be added for every point invested. Agility: increase a character''s evasion or flee attack speed and movement speed. 1 Flee, 0.05 ASPD and 0.5 movement speed will be added for every point invested. Intelligence: increase a character''s magic attack, max MP (mana points), and magic defense. 1 MATK, 5 MP, and 1 MDEF will be added for every point invested. Vitality: increase a character''s max HP, physical defense, and magical defense.10 HP, 2 DEF and 1 MDEF will be added for every point invested. Dexterity: increase a character''s uracy (hit), critical chance, critical damage, and reduce cast time. 1 HIT, 0.2% critical chance, 0.5% critical damage, and 0.5 cast time reduction will be added for every point invested. Constitution: increase a character''s max HP, stamina, defense, magical defense, and weight capacity. 3 HP, 2 STA, 1 DEF, 0.5 MDEF, and 0.5 weight capacity will be added for every point invested. Resistance: increase a character''s resistance. 1% resistance will be added for every point invested. Faith: increase a character''s magical attack, magical defense, evasion, uracy, and miracles, and hexes damage. 0.5 MATK, 1 MDEF, 0..5 FLEE, 0.5 HIT, and 0.5% miracles and hexes damage will be added for every point invested. Attunement: increase a character''s slots for skills, spells, miracles, or hexes. 1 slot will be added for every point invested (max 30), 1 slot will be added for every 3 points invested (max 50), and 1 slot will be added for every 5 points invested. Lucky: increase a character''s critical chance, critical damage, and drop rate. Can influence quests. 1% critical chance, 2% critical damage, and 20% drop rate will be added for every point. Charisma: influence your rtionship with NPCs and quests. Note: The character''s load impacts the movement speed. Between 25% to 50% of max weight capacity, decreases movement speed by 10%. Between 51% to 75% of max weight capacity, decreases movement speed by 25%. Between 76% to 100% of max weight capacity, decreases movement speed by 50%. yers can''t run or battle with a weight above 100%. ... BASIC CLASSES Fighter: Archer: Mage: Doctor: Thief: Swordsman: Merchant: ? ......... EQUIPMENT SLOTS [Helm] [Body Armor] [Pants] Footgear] [Paldrons] [Bracers] [Gloves] [Belt] [Ring] x 2 [Amulet] [Artfact] [Main hand weapon] [Off-hand/ Shield] ........... TIERS (Level of apprenticeship) Tier 0: Apprentice (Assistant, Learner, Novice, Beginner, Neophyte, Greenhorn) Tier 1: Journeyman (Associate, Peer) Tier 2: Advanced Tier 3: Master Tier 4: Grandmaster Tier 5: Hero ? ...... SKILL PROFICIENCY Level 1: Novice Level 2: Intermediate Level 3: Advanced Level 4: Peak/ Expert Level 5: Master Experience Chart (Lv. 1-10) Experience Chart (Lv. 1-10) I will update this Experience Chart with new information in the future. Level EXP to next Level 0 ..... 300 1 ..... 660 2 ..... 1,080 3 ..... 2,640 4 ..... 3,840 5 ..... 4,560 6 ..... 5,040 7 ..... 5,460 8 ..... 6,000 9 ..... 6,600 10 ..... 7,200 Items (Spoiler - Chap. 24) Items (Spoiler - Chap. 24) The items are ssified into 12 ranks: trash, wood, bronze, iron, silver, fine-gold, dark-gold, tinum, adamantium, epic, legendary and divine. A [Acid Bottle] (consumable) Description: A bottle holding a highly corrosive acid. Can be used in alchemy. Effect: Sprinkle on an enemy to lower its defense (Def-10). . B [Basic Scroll of Teleportation] (Scroll - consumable) Description: It can immediately transport you to thest city you have been to. Effect: Teleport you to the Teleportation Hall of thest city that you have been to. Cast Time: 5 seconds. . [Begginer''s dagger] (wood, one-hand weapon: dagger) Atk: 17 Description: A dagger forged for greenhorns. Level requirement: 0 ss requirement: Novice Durability: 30/30 Weight: 10 . [Bread] (Consumable) Description: A flour-based dough that has been leavened and then baked. One unit can satiate a character for a whole day. Effect: Restore 20 HP. . C [Cage''s key] (Quest item) Description: Can open a specific cage in the devil''s camp. . [Communication Stone] (Tool) Description: A device for transmitting voices over a distance. Effect: Enable a yer to make a long-distance call to one person at a time. . [Cotton Gloves] (Trash, Armor: Gloves) Description: A simple piece of clothing. Def: 2 Level requirement: 1 Durability: 10/10 Weight: 2 . [Cotton Pants] (Trash, Armor: pants) Description: A simple piece of clothing. Def: 2 Level requirement: 1 Durability: 10/10 Weight: 3 . D [Dinosaur Leather Shoes] (Bronze, armor: Footgear) Description: Leather taken from the most tender part of a dinosaur, but don''t ask from where. DEF +15 Level Requirement: 3 ss requirement: Fighter, Swordsman, Thief, and Archer. Durability: 40/40 Weight: 10 . E . F [Fighter''s leather gloves] (Bronze, Armor: Gloves) Description: A pair of leather gloves with bronze details that are very suitable for fighters. DEF + 5 ATK + 5 Level Requirement: 5 Durability: 40/40 Weight: 3 . [sk of Oil] (Misceneous) Description: A bottle containing oil. It''s definitely not edible. Can be used in alchemy. . G . H [Hood] (Trash, Armor: Hood) Description: A simple piece of clothing. Def: 2 Level requirement: 1 Durability: 10/10 Weight: 5 . I . J . K [Keremeet Leavings] (Quest item) Description: A little ball of phlegm. Note: Can not be stored. . [Keremeet Ramains] (Quest item) Description: A big ball of phlegm. . L . M [Macho-man Headband] (Bronze, Armor: Headgear) Description: A leather headband dyed pink made for males (not really). DEF + 6 STR+ 1 Level Requirement: 5 Durability: 40/40 Weight: 2 . [Minor Healing Potion] (Consumable) Description: Replenish a character''s life. Effect: Restore 40 HP. . [Mother-inw''s Tongue] (Misceneous) Description: This item can be a tool of the devil. Can be used in alchemy. . N [Novice Healing Potion] (Consumable) Description: Replenish a character''s life. Effect: Restore 20 HP. . P [Phlegm Helmet] (Trash, armor: headgear) Description: A helmet made of hardened phlegm. It stinks but helps protect your head. Def +2 Level requirement: 0 ss requirement: unrestricted Durability: 20/20 Wight: 2 . [Potion of Gossip] (Recipe) Description: A potion that can make monsters or NPCs say everything you want to know after consuming it. . Q . R [Rod] (Wood, weapon: One-handed Staff) Description: A simple magic wand. MATK +15% Level requirement: 5 ss requirement: Mage Durability: 30/30 Weight: 10/10 . S [Scroll of Cleansing] (Scroll - Consumable) Description: It rid the mind of all impurities. Effect: Reduce poison and curse effects by 20%. Cast Time: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 2 hours. . [Shoes] (Trash, Armor: Footgear) Description: A defective product sold at a discount price.. Def: 2 Level requirement: 1 Durability: 10/10 Weight: 5 . T . U. V. W [Water Bottle] (Consumable) Description: A bottle with drinking water. Two units can satiate a character for a whole day. Effect: Restore 10 HP. . [Wooden Mail] (wood, armor: body armor) Description: The only remains of a poor soldier. Def+4 Level requirement: 1 ss requirement: unrestricted Durability: 30/30 Weight: 20 . [worn-out panties] (Trash, armor: pants) Def: 1 Level requirement: 0 Durability: 10/10 Weight: 1 . [worn-out slippers] (Trash, armor: footgear) Def: 1 Level requirement: 0 Durability: 10/10 Weight: 1 . X . Y . Z Skills/Spells/Miracles/Hexes (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Skills/Spells/Miracles/Hexes (Spoiler - Chapter 24) A . B [Bash] (Skill) Description: You strike hard and violently your foe. Effect: You attack your enemy with ATK equal to (100+20*Skill level) %. Secondary effect: Has (1+ Skill level) % chance to Stun the target. Cost: 1 AP Cooldown: None ss Requirement: Fighter, Swordman . C [Cure Wounds] (Miracle - Active: Utility) Description: Treat a wounded target. Effect: HA target you touch regain health points equal to MATK + (1*Skill Level/2)% Cost: (10+Skill Level*2) MP Cast Time: Instantaneous Cooldown: 3 seconds Property: Neutral Range: Touch Weapon ss Requirement: Unrestrict ss Requirement: Doctor and Merchant . D . E [Endure] (Skill) Description: I can endure everything. Effect: Increase a yer defense and magic defense by 80% for 10 seconds. The yer bes immune to flinch and stun, while the skill is active. Cooldown: 3 minutes. ss Requirement: Fighter, and Swordsman . F [Fire Bolt] (Spell - Active: Offensive) Description: Create a bolt of fire to hit your enemies. Effect: Hit the target with one Fire Bolt with damage equal to (100+Skill Level*5)% of MATK. Cost: (1+Skill Level*2.5) MP Cast Time: (2 + Skill level*0.25) seconds of concentration Cooldown: 1 second Property: Fire Range: 30 meters ss Requirement: Mage . [First Aid] (Skill) Description: Heal yourself for 5 HP or an ally for 10 HP. Cooldown: 5 seconds Requirement ss: Novice . G . H [Heal] (Miracle - Active: Utility) Description: I will heal your heart. Effect: Heal a target HP for {MATK*(1+Skill Level/2)}. Cost: (10+Skill Level*10) MP Cast Time: 1 second of concentration Cooldown: 10 seconds Property: Holy Range: 30 meters Weapon ss Requirement: Rod ss Requirement: Doctor and Holy advanced sses . I [Ice Bolt] (Spell - Active: Offensive) Description: Create a bolt of ice to hit your enemies. Effect: Hit the target with one Ice Bolt with damage equal to (100+Skill Level*5)% of MATK. Cost: (1+Skill Level*2.5) MP Cast Time: (2 + Skill level*0.25) seconds of concentration Cooldown: 1 second Property: Ice Range: 30 meters ss Requirement: Mage . J . K . L [Lucky Hit] (Skill) Description: Luck is as good as a skill if it gets results. Effect: Your critical chance increase in (30+ Skill level*2)% for 1 minute. Cooldown: (20 - skill level) minutes ss requirement: Unrestricted . M . N . O . P [y Dead] (Skill) Description: Youy on the ground like you were dead and lose all agro from monsters. You can''t recover HP or MP(mana points) while pretending to be dead. Cooldown: 1 minute Requirement ss: Novice . [Provoke] (Skill) Description: Come hit me, sucker! Effect: Lowers the enemy DEF by (3+3*Skill level)% and increases their ATK by (1+Skill Lvl)% for 10 seconds. Cooldown: (20 - skill level) seconds. ss requirement: Fighter, Swordman . Q . R . S . T . U . V . W . X . Y . Z Quests (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Quests (Spoiler - Chapter 24) A [A Eunuch''s regret] Description: Help eunuch Hao Haoxue change his life. Type: Unique Difficult: S Objetive: Bring the recipe to Hao Haoxue. Progress: Step 1: Kill the Goblin Chieftan (0/1), acquire the Wonder Potion recipe (0/1). . B . C [Collect 100 Soft Silk] Description: The tailoring is in need of [Soft Silk]. The item drops from [Giant Silkworm]. Requirement: level 1 Type: Repeatable Difficult: C . [Collect 20 Poison Mushroom] Description: The Assassin Guild requires [Poison spore] for potion-making. Drop from [ck Mushroom]. Requirement: level 0 Type: Repeatable Difficult: D Reward: 40 exp, and 30 coppers. . [Colect 100 Mushroom spore] Description: The Alchemist Guild requires [Mushroom Spore] for potion-making. Drop from [ck Mushroom]. Requirement: level 0 Type: Repeatable Difficult: D Reward: 40 exp, and 30 coopers. . [Collect 20 Slime Ball] Description: The Alchemist Guild requires a lot of [Slimes balls] for potion-making. Drop from [Slime]. Requirement: level 0 Type: Repeatable Difficult: D Reward: 10 exp, and 20 coppers. . D . E . F . G . H . I . J . K [Kill Karemet and collet his remains] Description: The Alchemist Guild will pay a high price for a piece of him. Type: Unique Difficult: S Reward: 4 Silver and quest (Unknown) . [Kill 50 slimes] Description: The number of slimes is increasing at an rming speed resulting in problems in the harvest. They need to be eliminated before they destroyed all the harvest. Requirement: level 0 Type: Repeatable Difficult: D Reward: 20 exp and 10 coppers. . [Kill 100 Boas] Description: The snake''s poption next to the city is increasing exponentially and the farmers are suffering from its attackers. Objective: Kill 100 [Boa]. They are located in the area southwest of the city. Requirement: Level 5 Type: Repeatable Difficult: B Reward: 300 exp, and 4 Silvers. . [Kill 200 Crookroaches] Description: The city''s sewers are infested with monsters and the City Hall issued an extermination order. Requirement: level 1 Type: Repeatable Difficult: D . L . M . N . O . P . Q . R . S . T [The Green Hat] Description: Sometimes even being a busybody can help enlighten others. Type: Special Objective: Help the gentleman to find the truth about his wife by himself. Difficult: D Reward: 50 exp., [Scroll of Cleansing], and [Basic Scroll of Teleportation]. . [The hard way to be a fighter] Description: Commander Xia Hou Lian wants to test you to see if you have the traits to be a true fighter. Type: Unique Difficult: S Progress: Test of Awareness (0/1), Test of Commitment (0/1), Test of Determination (0/1), Test of Discipline (0/1), Test of Courage (0/1), and Final Test (0/1). . [Thest hope of a hopeless man] Description: Even a man without hope can wish for a miracle. Objective: Kill the Devil and look for the drunkard''s family whereabout. Requirement level: 4 Difficult: A . U . V . W . X . Y . Z Bestiary (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Bestiary (Spoiler - Chapter 24) A . B [Boa] (Normal) Description: Get too near and you will get the tightest hug that you have ever had. Level 5 HP: 572 . C . D . E . F . G . H . I [Imp] (Elite) Level: 3 HP: 2,000 DEF: 15 . J . K [Keremeet] (Champion) Level 5 HP: 1000 . [Keremet leavings] (Elite) Level: 2 HP: 300 . L [Legion Devil] (Elite) Level: 4 HP: 500 DEF: 15 . M . N . O . P . Q . R [Red Slime] (Normal) Level: 1 HP: 50 . S . T [Tiny Devil] (Normal) Level: 3 HP: 50 . [Tyranossaurus Rex] (Elite, weakened) Level: 3 HP: 2,000 . U . V . W . X . Y . Z Character Information [Jun Xie] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Character Information [Jun Xie] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Note: The character information will be updated throughout the novel, so I can focus on the essential info. . yer: Ye Yan Character: Jun Xie Level: 5 ss: Fighter HP (Health Points): 113/113 MP: 10/10 STA (Stamina): 22/22 AP (Action Points): 26/26 ATK (attack): 10+30 (40~40) MATK (Magic Attack): 1+0 (1~1) DEF (Deffense): (15+ 25)+53+9,3=102.3 (-5% dmg/ damage redution) MDEF (Magic Deffense): (8,5+25)+0+3.35=36.85 (-5% dmg/ damage redution) HIT (uracy): 11.5 Flee (evasion/dodge): 7.5 ASPD(Atack Speed): 0.55 Critical chance: 2.8% Critical damage: +6.5% Cast Time Reduction: 4.5% Movement Speed: 8.55 km/h (90%) [10% reductionbecause of weight] Drop rate: +20% Weight: 51/108.5 (47%) EXP: 3,850/4,560 Skills: [Lucky Hit], [Endure], [Bash], [Provoke], [Iron-blooded Warrior], [Iron Skin], [Empty Slot], [Empty Slot]. . Base Stats: STR (strength): 9+1 AGI (agility): 7 INT (intelligence): 1 DEX (dexerity): 7+2 VIT (vitality): 4 CON (constitution): 7 RES (resistance): 3 FAI (faith): 1 CHA (Charism): 3 ATT (attunement): 8 LUK (special): 1 Racial traits: Human start with 3 BP bonuses; gain 1 extra SP (skill point) every 20 levels. ss feature: You don''t spend stamina using a shield, and gain a 5% damage reduction in both DEF and MDEF. Guild: Base Points: 0 Skill Points: 0 . Resistance: Stun: 7% Poison: 7% Silence: 7% Bleeding: 7% Sleep: 7% Stone curse: 6% Freeze: 7% Curse: 7% Blind: 7% Confusion: 7% ..... EQUIPMENT . [Fan of the wine] (Bronze, one-hand weapon: Fan) Description: A all-around weapon with bronze hidden des in its stem and a jug of wine painted on it. Appears to be a normal utensil until it''s toote. ATK + 25 DEF + 25 STR +1 DEX +2 Level requirement: 5 ss requirement: Fighter, Swordsman, Thief, Merchant, and Doctor Durability: 40/40 Weight: 10 . [Wooden Mail] (wood, Armor: Body Armor) Description: The only remains of a poor soldier. Def+4 Level requirement: 1 ss requirement: unrestricted Durability: 30/30 Weight: 20 . [Cotton Pants] (Trash, Armor: Pants) Description: A simple piece of clothing. Def: 2 Level requirement: 1 Durability: 10/10 Weight: 3 . [Dinosaur Leather Shoes] (Bronze, Armor: Footgear) Description: Leather taken from the most tender part of a dinosaur, but don''t ask from where. DEF +15 Level Requirement: 3 ss requirement: Fighter, Swordsman, Thief, and Archer. Durability: 40/40 Weight: 10 . [Fighter''s leather gloves] (Bronze, Armor: Gloves) Description: A pair of leather gloves with bronze details that are very suitable for fighters. DEF + 5 ATK + 5 Level Requirement: 5 Durability: 40/40 Weight: 3 . [Hood] (Trash, Armor: Hood) Description: A simple piece of clothing. Def: 2 Level requirement: 1 Durability: 10/10 Weight: 5 ... SKILLS . [Lucky Hit] (Skill - Active: Utility) (Level 3) Description: Luck is as good as a skill if it gets results. Effect: Your critical chance increase in (30+ Skill level*2)% for 1 minute. Cooldown: (20-skill level) minutes ss requirement: Unrestricted . [Endure] (Skill - Active: Defensive) (Level 1) Description: I can endure everything. Effect: Increase a yer defense and magic defense by 80% for 10 seconds. The yer bes immune to flinch and stun, while the skill is active. Cooldown: 3 minutes (Each skill level decrease cooldown by 10 seconds) ss Requirement: Fighter, and Swordsman . [Bash] (Skill - Active: Offensive) (Level 2 - Novice) Description: You strike hard and violently your foe. Effect: You attack your enemy with ATK equal to (100+20*Skill level) %. Secondary effect: Has (1+ Skill level) % chance to Stun the target. Cost: 1 AP Cooldown: None ss Requirement: Fighter, Swordman Proficiency: 1/1,000 . [Provoke] (Skill - Active: Defensive) (Level 1 - Novice) Description: Come hit me, sucker! Effect: Lowers the enemy DEF by (3+3*Skill level)% and increases their ATK by (1+Skill Lvl)% for 10 seconds. Cooldown: (20 - skill level) seconds. ss requirement: Fighter, Swordman Proficiency: 1/1,000 . [Iron-blooded Warrior] (Skill - Passive: Defensive) (Level 3) Description: You have an unyielding soul of a true warrior. Effect (Passive): Increase your DEF and MDEF by (5*yer level) and gain a +(2*Skill Level)% bonus in both attributes. Secondary Effect: Increase all resistance by 1%. yer: Jun Xie . [Iron Skin] (Skill - Active: Defensive) (Level 1) Description: You irradiate a metallic luster as your skin turned to iron. Effect: Raise your DEF and MDEF by 100% but decrease ASPD by 40% for (30*skill level) seconds. Cooldown: 20 minutes ss Requeriment: Fighter ... BAG ITEMS (20 slots) . [Basic Scroll of Teleportation] (Scroll - consumable) Description: It can immediately transport you to thest city you have been to. Effect: Teleport you to the Teleportation Hall of thest city that you have been to. Cast Time: 5 seconds. Quantity: 2 . [Communication Stone] (Tool) Description: A device for transmitting voices over a distance. Effect: Enable a yer to make a long-distance call to one person at a time. . [Scroll of Cleansing] (Scroll - Consumable) Description: It rid the mind of all impurities. Effect: Reduce poison and curse effects by 20%. Cast Time: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 2 hours. Quantity: 1 . [Keremeet Leavings] (Quest item) Description: A little ball of phlegm. Note: Can not be stored. . [Macho-man Headband] (Bronze, Armor: Headgear) Description: A leather headband dyed pink made for males (not really). DEF + 6 STR+ 1 Level Requirement: 5 Durability: 40/40 Weight: 2 . [Minor Healing Potion] (Consumable) Description: Replenish a character''s life. Effect: Restore 40 HP. Quantity: 10 . [Bread] (Consumable) Description: A flour-based dough that has been leavened and then baked. One unit can satiate a character for a whole day. Effect: Restore 20 HP. Quantity: 10 . [Water Bottle] (Consumable) Description: A bottle with drinking water. Two units can satiate a character for a whole day. Effect: Restore 10 HP. Quantity: 20 . Money: 0 Gold, 8 Silver, 30 Coppers ... BANK ITEMS (200 slots) . [Acid Bottle] (consumable) Description: A bottle holding a highly corrosive acid. Can be used in alchemy. Use: Sprinkle on an enemy to lower its defense. Def-10. . [Begginer''s dagger] (wood, one-hand weapon: dagger) Atk: 17 Description: A dagger forged for greenhorns. Level requirement: 0 ss requirement: Novice Durability: 30/30 Weight: 10 . [sk of Oil] (Misceneous) Description: A bottle containing oil. It''s definitely not edible. Can be used in alchemy. . [Mother-inw''s Tongue] (Misceneous) Description: This item can be a tool of the devil. Can be used in alchemy. . [Potion of Gossip] (Recipe) Description: A potion that can make monsters or NPCs say everything you want to know after consuming it. . Character Information [Spell Bound] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Character Information [Spell Bound] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Note: The character information will be updated throughout the novel, so I can focus on the essential info. . yer: Hu Ling Character: Spell Bound Race: Elf Level: 5 ss: Mage ..... EQUIPMENT [Rod] (Wood, weapon: One-handed Staff) Description: A simple magic wand. MATK +15% Level requirement: 5 ss requirement: Mage Durability: 30/30 Weight: 10/10 ... SKILLS [Fire Bolt] (Spell - Active: Offensive) Description: Create a bolt of fire to hit your enemies. Effect: Hit the target with one Fire Bolt with damage equal to (100+Skill Level*5)% of MATK. Cost: (1+Skill Level*2.5) MP Cast Time: (2 + Skill level*0.25) seconds of concentration Cooldown: 1 second Property: Fire Range: 30 meters ss Requirement: Mage ... BAG ITEMS (20 slots) [Minor Healing Potion] (Consumable) Description: Replenish a character''s life. Effect: Restore 40 HP. Quantity: 7 . [Bread] (Consumable) Description: A flour-based dough that has been leavened and then baked. One unit can satiate a character for a whole day. Effect: Restore 20 HP. Quantity: 6 . [Water Bottle] (Consumable) Description: A bottle with drinking water. Two units can satiate a character for a whole day. Effect: Restore 10 HP. Quantity: 12 . Money: ? Gold, ? Silver, ? Coppers ... BANK ITEMS (200 slots) Character Information [Demon Fox] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Character Information [Demon Fox] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Note: The character information will be updated throughout the novel, so I can focus on the essential info. . yer: Qian Zhong Character: Demon Fox Race: Spirit Beast Level: 5 ss: Archer Racial traits: You can transform into a fox beast. You have a 30% bonus in movement speed. ss feature: ? ........ EQUIPMENT ........... SKILLS ... BAG ITEMS (20 slots) [Communication Stone] (Tool) Description: A device for transmitting voices over a distance. Effect: Enable a yer to make a long-distance call to one person at a time. . [Minor Healing Potion] (Consumable) Description: Replenish a character''s life. Effect: Restore 40 HP. Quantity: 5 . [Bread] (Consumable) Description: A flour-based dough that has been leavened and then baked. One unit can satiate a character for a whole day. Effect: Restore 20 HP. Quantity: 5 . [Water Bottle] (Consumable) Description: A bottle with drinking water. Two units can satiate a character for a whole day. Effect: Restore 10 HP. Quantity: 10 . Money: ? Gold, ? Silver, ? Coppers ... BANK ITEMS (200 slots) Character Information [Conan] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Character Information [Conan] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Note: The character information will be updated throughout the novel, so I can focus on the essential info. . yer: Tang Yunfan Character: Conan Race: Half-orc Level: 5 ss: Fighter ss feature: You don''t spend stamina using a shield, and gain a 5% damage reduction in both DEF and MDEF. ..... EQUIPMENT ... SKILLS ... BAG ITEMS (20 slots) [Minor Healing Potion] (Consumable) Description: Replenish a character''s life. Effect: Restore 40 HP. Quantity: ? . [Bread] (Consumable) Description: A flour-based dough that has been leavened and then baked. One unit can satiate a character for a whole day. Effect: Restore 20 HP. Quantity: ? . [Water Bottle] (Consumable) Description: A bottle with drinking water. Two units can satiate a character for a whole day. Effect: Restore 10 HP. Quantity: ? . Money: ? Gold, ? Silver, ? Coppers ... BANK ITEMS (200 slots) Character Information [Dovakin] (spoiler - Chapter 24) Character Information [Dovakin] (spoiler - Chapter 24) Note: The character information will be updated throughout the novel, so I can focus on the essential info. . yer: Xiao Yunqing Character: Dovakin Race: Dragonborn Level: 5 ss: Mage ..... EQUIPMENT ... SKILLS [Fire Bolt] (Spell - Active: Offensive) Description: Create a bolt of fire to hit your enemies. Effect: Hit the target with one Fire Bolt with damage equal to (100+Skill Level*5)% of MATK. Cost: (1+Skill Level*2.5) MP Cast Time: (2 + Skill level*0.25) seconds of concentration Cooldown: 1 second Property: Fire Range: 30 meters ss Requirement: Mage Character Information [I Love Skooma] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Character Information [I Love Skooma] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Note: The character information will be updated throughout the novel, so I can focus on the essential info. . yer: Xiao Zhan Character: I Love Skooma Race: Werecat Level: 5 ss: Thief ..... EQUIPMENT ... SKILLS Character Informatio [Mad Dog] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Character Informatio [Mad Dog] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Note: The character information will be updated throughout the novel, so I can focus on the essential info. . yer: Xiao Feng Character: Mad Dog Race: Wolfman Level: 5 ss: Swordsman ..... EQUIPMENT ... SKILLS Character Information [Snow White] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Character Information [Snow White] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Note: The character information will be updated throughout the novel, so I can focus on the essential info. . yer: Xiao Xiao Character: Snow White Race: Dwarf Level: 5 ss: Doctor ..... EQUIPMENT ... SKILLS [Cure Wounds] (Miracle - Active: Utility) Description: Treat a wounded target. Effect: HA target you touch regain health points equal to MATK + (1*Skill Level/2)% Cost: (10+Skill Level*2) MP Cast Time: Instantaneous Cooldown: 3 seconds Property: Neutral Range: Touch Weapon ss Requirement: Unrestrict ss Requirement: Doctor and Merchant . [Heal] (Miracle - Active: Utility) Description: I will heal your heart. Effect: Heal a target HP for {MATK*(1+Skill Level/2)}. Cost: (10+Skill Level*10) MP Cast Time: 1 second of concentration Cooldown: 10 seconds Property: Holy Range: 30 meters Weapon ss Requirement: Rod ss Requirement: Doctor and Holy advanced sses Character Information [Thumbelina] - (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Character Information [Thumbelina] - (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Note: The character information will be updated throughout the novel, so I can focus on the essential info. . yer: Gu Ning Character: Thumbelina Race: halfling Level: 5 ss: Doctor ..... EQUIPMENT ... SKILLS [Cure Wounds] (Miracle - Active: Utility) Description: Treat a wounded target. Effect: HA target you touch regain health points equal to MATK + (1*Skill Level/2)% Cost: (10+Skill Level*2) MP Cast Time: Instantaneous Cooldown: 3 seconds Property: Neutral Range: Touch Weapon ss Requirement: Unrestrict ss Requirement: Doctor and Merchant Character Information [Mage of the Cold Nights] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Character Information [Mage of the Cold Nights] (Spoiler - Chapter 24) Note: The character information will be updated throughout the novel, so I can focus on the essential info. . yer: Ning Xin (Female) Character: mage of the Cold Nights Gender: Cross-gender (male) Race: Elemental Level: 5 ss: Mage ..... EQUIPMENT ... SKILLS [Ice Bolt] (Spell - Active: Offensive) Description: Create a bolt of ice to hit your enemies. Effect: Hit the target with one Ice Bolt with damage equal to (100+Skill Level*5)% of MATK. Cost: (1+Skill Level*2.5) MP Cast Time: (2 + Skill level*0.25) seconds of concentration Cooldown: 1 second Property: Ice Range: 30 meters ss Requirement: Mage . Chapter 1: VRMMORPG Second Life Chapter 1: VRMMORPG Second Life Today is November, 20 of the year 2096, fifty years after the end of the chaotic days. This period was named as such because the world, as a whole, was passing for a very difficult period on what pandemics became recurrent, the hate for others or things for no reason becamemon, and theck of empathy for the suffering of others took another level, making the world almost unfeeling. People didn''t want to change their habits even knowing that it could hurt others or themselves and their family members. The intolerance got strength making many conflicts surge around the world like civil wars or between countries. This chaotic scenery culminated in the Third World War, on which the advanced weapons and means of transportation yed an important role in the genocide that urred in many countries. All of those events resulted in the death of more than one-fifth of the world poption, bing a stain in human history that will never be forgotten. The sadness, sorrow, and despair would always leave a mark on those that experienced this tragedy. But all those things made people start to rethink their actions and behaviors, changing the world in a way that anyone has thought was possible. Luckily those years are long gone and the world has reached rtive peace. Now people became united and empathize more with the suffering of others, be it in their own countries or in rtion with others, resulting in fewer international conflicts and an increase in the interaction between people of different nationalities. The intolerance decreased, but not vanished, as probably never will. The anti-discrimination movements (especially of race, sex, and disability rights) gained strength and affect society heavily, influencing the change of beliefs and behaviors of the world poption, and reforming thew of different countries. In this scenery, CyberTech, a technologypany, took the world by storm releasing a virtual reality system on which people could learn in a more effective way by simting all kind of situations that would be impossible otherwise, like training in defusing bombs, creating scenarios that could help in phobias treatment, or simting surgeries with living patients and many other applications. These simtions are made using a virtual reality helmet that makes the connection of brain electrical signal with the CyberTech system[1]. The virtual reality system could only simte situations to facilitate people''s learning, and not make people gain knowledge by injecting it into their minds. This technology''s research proved that the human mind can''t stand a sudden infuse of information and can only learn by experience and adaptation. People''s beliefs influence directly the simtions because they are used to think in a way and can''t easily change their world''s view. If they tried simting staying underwater for too long, for example, they will feel like drowning after some time because humans can''t breathe underwater, and if the simtion doesn''t stop, their real-life body will stop breathing and the person will die. Later, thispany developed a game named Second Life, on which they put together the simtion programs of various fields, building a single system with a God A.I.[2] that controls everything. Thepany developed the initial worldbuilding, including the sses and initial quest, and will not be responsible for theter updates, but they still have the power to turn off or reset the system in case of some huge problems surge. The only part of the game that CyberTech still controls is the game forum that can be essed from inside or outside the game. In this way, thepany would get the money from the game from taxes and some data insert in the game bypanies and the government requests. And their only expenses would be the energy to keep the system working and the management of the forum. The CyberTech announced that the game would only be improved and not closed, so the yers would have the feeling of experience another life without the risk of it end at any time. It also said that they, nor any otherpany, would create a new game in the future to substitute Second Life, so the yers can truly invest in the game, be it time or money, with no worries. The God A.I. system has the capacity of learning so it will not be outdated in the future and will keep improving. CyberTech could ensure the yers that any Virtual Reality Game from anotherpany would surge in the future because thepany holds the patent of this technology and monopolize the market, preventing it from happening. Second Life is a VRMMORPG made based on the world''s geographic space, and human history, mythology, and literature. Using the mapping of the Earth globe, they created a virtual reality world called Gaia where many real and fictional races live and interact with one another. The difference between Earth and Gaia is in the fact that in the game world did not exist modern cities and skyscrapers, and its history is very different from mankind. Mythical and legendary beings, monsters, and other creatures and characters from people''s imagination are living freely in Gaia, just waiting for yers to unravel their mysteries. ........ [1] I know I am bullshitting here, but it''s fiction. But maybe something like that will be possible in the future because there are researches about using the electrical signals of the brain to activated external devices likeputers or prosthesis. [2] More advanced than the Sk of Terminator. Chapter 2: Joining Second Life Chapter 2: Joining Second Life In a lifetime, people go through many situations that can make them a little depressed or cause an existential crisis, like when you start to think about what to do in the future, what career to pursue, or how to eat that delicious looking desert you saw on tv with no money to buy it. Ye Yan just graduated from a famous university in City B, China, and doesn''t know what to do with his life. He was undecided on what job to choose and ended up without looking for one. Now, he is unemployed with no perspective of what to do in his life. In the past, his parents wanted him to be apany administrator like his mother, so he attended business sses when he didn''t like it, but he just went with the flow because he didn''t have anything he wanted to do. His mother was a valiant and hotheaded person that spanked Ye Yan every time he made mischief, which resulted in him being afraid of her and believing that women are very dangerous creatures that you can''t mess with or the consequences couldn''t be imagined. Most importantly, women with Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) must be avoided at all costs. Ye Yan''s father was the opposite of his mother and the only person that could calm her down. He always had a zen attitude, never get angry, and could be an excellent shield for Ye Yan when his mother was in one of her moments. His parents had always been the people closest to him and those he admires the most too. When they died two years ago, it was difficult for him to ept and made him feel lost and without a goal. He finished his studies because once he starts something, he will see it to the end, liking it or not, but he didn''t know what to doter. [What do I do with my life? I don''t have a job, a house, or a girlfriend, only some money left by my parents, a college certificate, and my freaking virginity! I''m almost a loser! The only thing I like to do is gaming and fighting. I need some kind of sign to enlighten me about what to do with my life.] Ye Yan thought to himself whileying down on the couch, covering his face with his arms. While Ye Yan was having an internal debate about his options, he heard Tang Yunfan''s voice and at the same time, a pillow hit him in his stomach. "Get up! Or do you intend to stay on the couch all day long?" "Why do you are being so noisy?" Ye Yan said while sitting with a not-so-good temper. "I had an idea that can solve our money problems. We can be professional yers in Second Life! Great idea, right?" Tang Yunfan said with an "I''m the best" kind of face. "My brother told me that the game will have many opportunities to make money because of the number ofpanies that will be joining the game. What do you think? Why don''t you stop moping around in the house ande y with me?" His friend is always trying to find ways to earn money from games. Coming from a poor background, he is very concerned about his finances and started to ys games with the intent of earn money to help pay his bills. There was a time when he yed as a priest and started to sell heals and warp portals for the game currency that heter exchanged for money. Ye Yan shares an apartment with three friends that he knows since high school, Qian Zong, Tang Yunfan, and Hu Ling. After graduating from high school, they started sharing an apartment because they study or work nearby. Everyone, but Tang Yunfan, started their university studies in the same college while he works as a frencer, epting any kind of job that he could get. Tang Yunfun is the older among the four, with tall stature, oval-shaped face, military hairstyle, and muscles all over his body, which he acquired through hardbor. When Ye Yan heard what his friend said, it was like the sky opened, and he heard the angels singing. "The signal". Ye Yan took it as a sign that he should try it, because ying games is something that he likes to do, and if he could use it to make a living, even better. It is the sign he was waiting for, not an excuse to y games, but a real sign. Ye Yan''s serious face bloomed with smiles as he thought that he finally found his path. "Are you crazy? You forgot your pills?" Tang Yunfan said while rolling his eyes. His friend''s reaction makes him contemte the idea of taking him to a detoxification clinic for help because his current behavior is too abnormal. "Never mind that. Just tell me more." Ye Yan readily changes the subject because there''s no way he would exin his thoughts to his friend. "Second Life will be like apletely new world, where people can extend their lives. You see, they advertise that one real-life hour equals two hours in the game, so it can extend the lifetime in a way. Many people are already thinking about the game as a second chance for them to remake their lives!"Tang Yunfan bes very excited while speaking. "You said something aboutpanies joining the game, but what do you mean exactly by this? I know that Second Life will be the first VRMMORPG[1] that ever existed and can bring many mary opportunities to people, but to have so manypanies joining the game are a little too much, right?" "My brother told me that, and I don''t know the specifics, but I think they are trying to enve people even more with more work hours in-game. They are even financing the game helmets to their employers." "Humm. If we can make a living only by fighting in a game, we really lucked out. Fighting and making money while gaming, it would be heaven." He always can speak freely with his best friends, unlike what happened when he needs to speak with others. Ye Yan is a handsome young man with a diamond-shaped face, short hair, and a side fringe hairstyle. He is a typical nerd, studious, shy, andcks some social skills but he is good at fighting and always portrays a serious and confident look. "With you all brawn and no brain personality, it will suit you really well." Ye Yan teased his friend. "Fuck! I will kick your ass pretty good in the game that you will regret even have been born." "Haha. You say this because you can''t hit me in real life, even being strong as an ox as you are." Ye Yan started tough, happier than he had been in a long time. "Fuck!" "You know if you continue to curse like that, maybe in the game will start to appear the phrase ''I will wash your mouth out with soup''." In one of the games they yed before, the system always notified the yers that were swearing with this kind of message, making them starting to type them with abbreviations. "Yeah, I remember that." "I think we will bepanions, my friend. I''m joining Second Life as a professional yer with you". When Ye Yan said it, he would never imagine that this decision would change his life forever. ...... [1] Virtual Reality Massively Multiyer Online Role-ying Game Chapter 3: Game news (New Version) Chapter 3: Game news (New Version) "Ye Yang, look at this!" Qian Zhong yelled so Ye Yan could hear him. "What the hell! You know what time is this now?" Ye Yang yelled back, throwing a pillow at him. Qian Zhong has been using his desktopputertely, so Ye Yan had started to sleep with headphones because of the noise, but it didn''t work well when someone has the intention to wake him. Qian Zhong is short and a little on the fat side with a heart-shaped face and an undercut hairstyle. Because of his appearance and happy-go-lucky personality, he always looks cute but imagines himself as a virile man. "CyberTech released new information about Second Life! Come to see this!" Ye Yan and his three friends decided to join Second Life together. Qian Zhong is the most anxious of the four friends. He spends all day long looking for new information about the game and some nights too. He normally is very carefree but since he knew about Second Life, he became a little obsessed with the game. He didn''t have ess to VR before, so now, he is almost going crazy wanting to try it. The quartet has already purchased the game helmets and are only waiting for the game to be released. The helmet isn''t exactly cheap and not everyone can afford it, but with the incentives that the government is giving, more and more people are buying it, even more so, after the announcement that the game will be free. But nothing is really free in this world, probably there are many ways for CyberTech to make money in the game, so they exchange the money to buy the game for the increase of Second Life''s poption which will bring them even more money. "What it says? Ye Yan gave up the idea of continuing sleeping because his friend wouldn''t let him. "First it''s some information about the duration of gaming time. We can''t y more them twelve hours a day. If someone stays logged in for eighteen hours, the game will disconnect him and will make the person only stay connected 8 hours a day maximum for the next 5 days. And if someone stays logged in for more than twelve hours a day for three days, he will receive the same punishment." "It''s not good for health anyway. And it will make things fair for people that work and don''t have much time to y." Ye Yan thought of something else and said. "Imagine what would happen to someone like Tang Yunfan. He sometimes forgot to eat ying console games, what would happen if there is nothing stopping him to y? Maybe one day, we could find him half dead in his bed, without the energy to even get up[1]." "And some people are worse than him and don''t have anyone to go and see if they are dead or alive. Thinking better now, this restriction is a good thing." Qian Zhong looked afraid when he thought of the implications that a VR game could have on some yers. "What''s more it says? Something about the sses?" Ye Yan wants to know about sses and skills so he can make his character build and prepare for the game. The faster you progress into the game, the better will be the rewards and the advantagespared to other yers, and nning is essential to have a fast start. "It says we will begin with level 0 and" "I never imagined that!" Ye Yan said in a sarcastic way. Be awake at 3 a.m. to hear useless things was making him irritable. Even more, because he could know all that after dawn. "Hey! Let me finish first!" Qian Zhong yelled, starting to lose his patience. "Go ahead." "So it says that everyone will begin as a novice and can apply for the job change ss at level 5. It will be a basic ss and we can do another job change at level 20, where we can choose a specialized ss." "Probably, in the beginning, we will only be familiarizing with the game and the real start will be only after level 5, like in other games. And if we can change sses againter, it means that the game will get more diversifiedter." Ye Yan analyzed. "It makes sense." "Anything else? It says which sses we can choose from?" Ye Yan is more interested in information that could help him make his character. "There are seven basic sses: fighter, swordman, thief, mage, archer, doctor, and merchant. There''s nothing about the specialized, but it mentions hidden and unique ones. I think I will choose to be an archer. What about you?" "Hum. A fighter will suit me well." He has lots of fighting experiences in real life and as this is a VR game, he could use it to his advantage. "Anything else?" "There will be two factions in the game: the Righteous and the Dark. Some races are exclusive to each faction. And that''s all. It looks like we don''t will be getting more news until the game release in two days." "I think it is enough to not let people feel lost about the game." "Yeah. And about the factions? I prefer to y as a righteous man." Qian Zhong said, what makes him earn a raised brown from Ye Yan. "I will choose the righteous faction too because I had enough of the dark side already." Ye Yan startedughing remembering their wild days in high school[2]. "Too bad. Our teachers always thought of you like the devil himself". Ye Yan was often challenged by people from other schools that heard of his fighting prowess, and even if he didn''t want to fight, others always go to him to make trouble. And as he always ends up beating the crap out of them, leaving them ck and blue, plus his serious and confident face, he became known as Evil Monarch (Jun Xie) in the neighborhood. But even before he got this title, he already had another nickname, The Devil, that was affectionately given to him by his nanny when he was only 7 years old because he made her life hell. "Hey! At least, my scores were high." He never neglected his studies. His mother would never ept a score less than perfect and the only time that it happened was when he was 10 years old, and his ass bes redder than blood as a result. She was the only person that had made him feel fear in this life. "Now that we know the sses, we can choose which one to y, it will be better for us to start thinking of our partyposition too." Qian Zhong started to be excited again. "I hope that Little Ling will choose to be a doctor. Yunfan isn''t gonna be one, I''m sure. And we will need a healer for our party. Or maybe we can invite some girl to beautify the team too." "We will need to count on Little Ling then. He is the one popr with the girls." Ye Yan sighed. ...... [1] Someone I know yed Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, on Nintendo Wii, a long time ago for 18 hours straight, only having a 5 minutes interval for lunch. [2] They are just remembering their rebellious days. There is no BL (boy love) here. My sister''s dirty mind thought more about it, so it''s better to rify. Chapter 4: Welcome to Gaia Chapter 4: Wee to Gaia The release day finally arrived. Two hours left to theunch, the quartet decided that they will leave the cleaning for tomorrow even the apartment being almost uninhabitable. There are dirty socks thrown across the floor, even in the kitchen, and leftovers are scattered around the living room. When it was almost time, they showered andy in bed with their helmets on, waiting for the moment they could finally log in to the game. 3...2...1... Ye Yan appeared in a very spacious room, with a metallic wall and no doors or windows. Just when he started to wonder what to do a voice spoke to him. System: "Wee to Second Life. In just a few moments, you will start your new life in Gaia, a world where history and fantasy mix, allowing you to interact with legendary beings and famous historical and fictional characters. In this world, magic and sword make thew." System: "Please remember you can only have one character in the game. If you want to change, you will have to delete your current one and wait 3 full days to create another. Now, please choose your faction." System: " You can choose between the Righteous faction or the Dark faction. Your choice will determine the races that you can choose from." "I choose the Righteous faction." System: "Are you sure?" "Yes." System: "Righteous faction selected. You can pick one of the following races: human, elf, half-elf, dwarf, half-orc, fairy, Halfling, beastman, spiritual beast, and elemental." "Wow, I can be a spiritual best too." System: "Please make your choice." "Human." System: "Are you sure?" "Yes." System: "Race selected: human." System: "Please choose your gender: male or cross-gender. If you want to start the game with the opposite of your birth sex, please chose cross-gender." "MALE!" System: Are you sure?" "This system is trying to fuck with me now." "YES. I''m male. You want me to put my pants down?" System: "Gender selected: male." System: "You can edit your character appearance or keep the current one. You can change your looks between 15 to 30%, making yourself neutral, more beautiful, or uglier."A mirror appeared in front of Ye Yan so he could see how his character would look like. "I want to change my appearance by 30%. Neutral." The appearance in the mirror changed and he bes a person with looks simr to himself but different at the same time, neither more beautiful nor uglier. System: "Do you want to change your hair color or style?" "No". System: "Do you want to use the present appearance?" "Yes." "Are you sure? Once you confirm, no change can be made." "Yes." System: "Please choose your in-game name." "Jun Xie" System: "Are you sure?" "Yes." System: "Chosen name: Jun Xie." "Verifying your real-world location: China: City B. ordingly with the real-world location you will be teleported to City of Ji in the Yan Empire in 10 seconds." 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1... Ye Yan was teleported to a ce that looks like an ancient Chinese city. System: "Wee to Gaia. We hope that you will have a wonderful second life." Chapter 5: Character information Chapter 5: Character information Ye Yan looked around and saw a very long and spacious road with many people walking by, some wearing luxurious and other simple clothes and there are people just like him, wearing worn-out clothes and with confused looks on their faces. Each one of these has a mark above their heads indicating they were yers. Each NPC (Nonyer character) looks so real that if it weren''t for the absence of the mark, anyone would think they were real people. Their expressions vary from neutral to disgust while looking at the yers. System: "Wee to Gaia. We hope that you will have a wonderful second life." System: "As you are a new yer, the system is starting the tutorial." System: "Please use your mind to open your character information." Ye Yan tried to think about it and his character information appeared in his mind. It wasn''t like a page emerged in front of him so he could look into it but more like he knew everything about it without having read. The sensation he felt wasn''t particrly bad but ufortable like someone was invading his mind and reading his thoughts. System: "First step: Open character informationplete." . yer: Jun Xie Level: 0 ss: Novice HP (Health Points): 40/40 MP (Mana Points): 10/10 STA (Stamina): 10/10 AP (Action Points): 11/11 ATK (Attack): 1+0 (1~1) MATK (Magic Attack): 1+0 (1~1) DEF (Deffense): 3+3 (-0% dmg/ damage redution) MDEF (Magic Deffense): 2.5+0 (-0% dmg/ damage redution) HIT (uracy): 2 Flee (Evasion/Dodge): 2 ASPD (Atack Speed): 0.3 Critical chance: 0.2% Chitical damage: +0.5% Cast Time Reduction: 0.5% Movement Speed: 6 (100%) Drop rate: +0% Weight: 3/100 (0,03%) EXP: 0/300 Skills: 1 slot ... Base Stats: STR (strength): 1 AGI (agility): 1 INT (inteligense): 1 DEX (dexerity): 1 VIT (vitality): 1 CON (constitution): 1 RES (resistance): 1 FAI (faith): 1 CHA (Charism): 1 ATT (attunement): 1 LUK (special): 0 Base Points: 5+3 Racial traits: Human start with 3 BP(base point) bonuses; gain 1 extra SP (skill point) every 20 levels. ss feature: Guild: .... System: "You have points to distribute. Please allocate them." As he intended to y a physical attack ss, Ye Yan chose to allocate 3 points in strength, 3 points in agility, 1 in dexterity, and 1 in constitution. .... yer: Jun Xie Level: 0 ss: Novice HP (Health Points): 43/43 MP: 10/10 STA (Stamina): 12/12 AP (Action Points): 11/11 ATK (attack): 4+0 (4~4) MATK (Magic Attack): 1+0 (1~1) DEF (Deffense): 4+3 (-0% dmg/ damage redution) MDEF (Magic Deffense):3+0 (-0% dmg/ damage redution) HIT (uracy): 4.5 Flee (evasion/dodge): 4.5 ASPD(Atack Speed): 0.4 Critical chance: 0.4% Chitical damage: +1% Cast Time Reduction: 1% Movement Speed: 8 (100%) Drop rate: +0% Weight: 3/103 (0,029%) EXP: 0/300 Skills: 1 slot . Base Stats: STR (strength): 4 AGI (agility): 4 INT (inteligense): 1 DEX (dexerity): 2 VIT (vitality): 1 CON (constitution): 2 RES (resistance): 1 FAI (faith): 1 CHA: 1 ATT (attunement): 1 LUK (special): 0 Base Points: 0 Racial traits: Human start with 3 BP bonuses; gain 1 extra SP (skill point) every 20 levels. ss feature: Guild: ..... System: "Now open your status change resistance." Ye Yan thought about it and the new information appeared in his mind. Resistance: Stun: 4% Poison: 4% Silence: 4% Bleeding: 4% Sleep: 4% Stone curse: 3% Freeze: 4% Curse: 4% Blind: 4% Confusion: 4% System: "Second step: Open status change resistancesplete." System: "Now open your equipment information." Ye Yan began the game with only 3 pieces of equipment and one bag with 20 slots. [worn-out panties] (Trash, armor: shirt) Def: 1 Level requirement: 0 Durability: 10/10 Weight: 1 . [worn-out panties] (Trash, armor: pants) Def: 1 Level requirement: 0 Durability: 10/10 Weight: 1 . [worn-out slippers] (Trash, armor: footgear) Def: 1 Level requirement: 0 Durability: 10/10 Weight: 1 . "No weapons. Maybe I will have to punch the monsters to death". ''It will be good to punch something. There is a lot of time since myst fight''. System: "Third step: Open status equipment informationplete." System: "Now open your inventory." Ye Yan looked at how poor the characters began. He opened his bag and could visualize the items inside. There are four tabs in his inventory: consumables, equipment, tools, and misceneous. But every slot was empty. His possessions sum up to three worn-out pieces of equipment and 20 copper coins. System: "Fourth step: Open status equipment informationplete." System: "Tips: Look for the Adventurers'' Guild." System: "Your tutorial has ended." "Where is the Adventurers'' Guild?" Ye Yan thought while scratched his head. "Maybe I should ask one of these NPCs." Ye Yan discovered that the city has four branches of the Adventurers'' Guild'', near the gate of each direction. After asking around, he finally arrived in front of the biggest pagoda that he has ever seen with the name ''Adventurers'' Guild'' on a sign. This building is even bigger than Liaodi Pagoda, with a hexagonal shape, about 100 meters in height, 10 floors, and 80 meters wide. Its entrance faces the south like every important building of the city. "Wow! This ce is huge." He entered the building and was stunned by its interior and the number of yers there. Inside there are tworge counters, one next to the other on the right side, the notice board on the left, manyrge tables with many about ten chairs each, and in the back of the room, there is a stairway to the second floor. "It looks bigger inside. There are so many people and NPCs here." "Hello! My name is Cheng Yongliang, and I am in charge of the neers. If you are interested in registering in the guild, you can go to that woman over there, the one with a nice ass." "What?" Ye Yan just shook his head and went in the direction of the woman of the ''nice ass'' that was at the counter closer to the entrance. There is a queue so he had to wait for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, he was looking at the other yers to see if he can recognize one of his friends but Ye Yan gives up in the end because there are too many people and probably his friends had changed their appearance too. "Please fill out this form." He looked at the paper and his data was filled in automatically. "Thank you. Now you go upstairs to a room on the second floor to receive instructions". Ye Yan follow the directions and arrived in a room filled with yers. He sat down in one of the empty chairs while the instructor began to speak. "My name is Li Xaoli, and I am the neer''s instructor. You are inexperienced in how the world works, so I will be exining the basics." The NPC began to exin about the world and basic information about stats, like what each ss needs to focus on and all that. Nothing new to yers that are used to ying games. "Each neer will receive a kit from the guild containing 10 bottles of [Novice Potion], 1 [Beginner''s dagger], 1 [City of Ji Map], and 1 [Basic Teleportation Scroll] that can teleport you to the City''s Teleportation Hall. Now you can go to learn some novice skills from instructor Yuan Heng andter look for quests at the notice board in the main hall." Ye Yan looked at the map. The City of Jin was designed as a big square surrounded by high walls with three gates next to each other on each side. Within the city, there are nine north-south and nine east-west roads on what the north-south roads measure 20 meters wide while the east-west, only 15. If we divide the city into nine squares, three rows of three squares. The ones next to the vertices can also be divided the same way because of the roads. The others that draw a plus sign are organized in four by three with 12 areas in a rectangle format. The central square of the plus sign is located in the pce where the mayor and officers reside. The ancestral temple of the ruling house is to the left of the pce, the temple to the god of the soil is to the right. The pce and the other important buildings of the City of Ji face east direction to honor the Sun God (Tai Yang Gong), the guardian deity of the city. The central market is located behind it, west of the city. After analyzing the map, he looked at the other items. ''Finally, I got a weapon''. [Begginer''s dagger] (wood, one-hand weapon: dagger) Atk: 17 Description: A dagger forged for greenhorns. Level requirement: 0 ss requirement: Novice Durability: 30/30 Weight: 10 . After equipping the dagger, he went to the instructor next door so he could learn some skills. There are two skills for the novice. Skill: [y Dead] Description: Youy on the ground like you were dead and lose all agro from monsters. You can''t recover HP or MP(mana points) while pretending to be dead. Cooldown: 1 minute Requirement ss: Novice . Skill: [First Aid] Description: Heal yourself for 5 HP or an ally for 10 HP. Cooldown: 5 seconds Requirement ss: Novice . Ye Yan could only learn one of the two skills because there is only one slot avable, so he picked [First Aid] that could help him more than the other [y Dead]. After learning the skill, he went down the stair and looked at the notice board for quests for his level. The notice board has quests with various level requirements. Ye Yan saw four quests that he could do now. Quest: [Kill 50 slimes] Description: The number of slimes is increasing at an rming speed resulting in problems in the harvest. They need to be eliminated before they destroyed all the harvest. Requirement: level 0 Type: Repeatable Difficult: D . Quest: [Collect 20 slime ball] Description: The Alchemist Guild requires a lot of [Slimes balls] for potion-making. Drop from [Slime]. Requirement: level 0 Type: Repeatable Difficult: D . Quest: [Collect 100 Mushroom spore] Description: The Alchemist Guild requires [Mushroom spore] for potion-making. Drop from [ck Mushroom]. Requirement: level 0 Type: Repeatable Difficult: D . Quest: [Collect 20 Poison mushroom] Description: The Assassin Guild requires [Poison spore] for potion-making. Drop from [ck Mushroom]. Requirement: level 0 Type: Repeatable Difficult: D . Ye Yan went to the counter further away from the entrance to apply for the quests. "I will take the [Kill 50 slimes], [Collect 20 slime ball], [Collect 100 Mushroom spore], and [Collect 20 Poison mushroom] quests. After the attendant registered the quests, he left the guild and went in the direction of the East Gate. Chapter 6: The first kill Chapter 6: The first kill ''Now I finally can read the game news.'' Ye Yan walked to the City Gate while looking for useful information on the forum. The way to look at the information on the forum and the character information are totally different. In thetter, you only need to concentrate and the data would appear in your mind; but the information on the forum or others, like item description, the yers will need to effectively read to increase the realism of the game. People can''t know their bone density or how many liters of blood there are in their bodies just looking at it and it''s the same about the character information. As the saying goes, ''Time is money'', so Ye Yan wasted no time and rushed to the Adventurers'' Guild before, or else he would be stuck in there for who knows how long with so many people logging in the game now. Second Life has more basic stats than most of the games that he yed before. But the old console games can''tpare with a virtual reality ones. With the game release, the forum managers posted some of the game information. The system is controlled by a god A.I. but the forums are still being managed by CyberTech employees. Future updates totally created by the system would automatically send their basic information to thepany so the managers could post it on the forums. First, yers can start the job change quest at level 2 but they can just finish thest step at level 5. To start the quest, yers will need to go to the Adventure Guild and look for an NPC called Qiao Qiuyue afterpleting at least two quests. The NPC will give a letter of rmendation and guide the yers to the location where they will apply for the job change quest and each ss will start their job change quest at different locations. When a yer reaches level 20, the specialized job advanced quest will be avable. Each region will have an exclusive ss besides the shared ones. yers that want to job change in another region will have to apply for an exchange with the Mayor so they will be teleported to the others region to do the quest and will be teleported back afterpleting it. The Yan Empire has four exclusive sses: Cultivator (fighter, swordsman, thief, and archer), Magic Cultivator (mage, doctor and fighter), Luminous Dancer (thief, doctor, and swordman), and pill master (merchant and doctor). After the job change, the yers would keep their original skills and new ones specifically for the new sses, making a wide variety of character builds. Regarding equipment and stats, it reports that characters can equip 14 items: headgear, body armor, pants, footgear, belt, gloves, bracers, pauldrons, cape, bracers, one amulet, two rings, and one relic. Some equipment will have slots for gems and runestones. Equipment of tinum rank or superior can be enchanted. The equipment has durability and when it reaches 0, it will be broken. Only items of rank adamantium or superior can be repaired. Some attributes like charism and attunement can''t be increased with equipment. Basic movement speed begins at 6 km/h and can only be increased with agility. Strength: increase a character''s physical damage. 1 ATK and 0,5 max weight capacity will be added for every point invested. Agility: increase a character''s evasion or flee attack speed and movement speed. 1 Flee, 0.05 ASPD and 0.5 movement speed will be added for every point invested. Intelligence: increase a character''s magic attack, max MP (mana points), and magic defense. 1 MATK, 5 MP, and 1 MDEF will be added for every point invested. Vitality: increase a character''s max HP, physical defense, and magical defense.10 HP, 2 DEF and 1 MDEF will be added for every point invested. Dexterity: increase a character''s uracy (hit), critical chance, critical damage, and reduce cast time. 1 HIT, 0.2% critical chance, 0.5% critical damage, and 0.5 cast time reduction will be added for every point invested. Constitution: increase a character''s max HP, stamina, defense, magical defense, and weight capacity. 3 HP, 2 STA, 1 DEF, 0.5 MDEF, and 0.5 weight capacity will be added for every point invested. Resistance: increase a character''s resistance. 1% resistance will be added for every point invested. Faith: increase a character''s magical attack, magical defense, evasion, uracy, and miracles and hexes damage. 0.5 MATK, 1 MDEF, 0..5 FLEE, 0.5 HIT, and 0.5% miracles and hexes damage will be added for every point invested. Attunement: increase a character''s slots for skills, spells, miracles, or hexes. 1 slot will be added for every point invested (max 30), 1 slot will be added for every 3 points invested (max 50), and 1 slot will be added for every 5 points invested. Lucky: increase a character''s critical chance, critical damage, and drop rate. Can influence quests. 1% critical chance, 2% critical damage, and 20% drop rate will be added for every point. Charism: influence your rtionship with NPC and quests. Note: The character''s load impacts the movement speed. Between 25% to 50% of max weight capacity, decreases movement speed by 10%. Between 51% to 75% of max weight capacity, decreases movement speed by 25%. Between 76% to 100% of max weight capacity, decreases movement speed by 50%. yers can''t run or battle with a weight above 100%. . ''I will have to remember everything .'' Ye Yan sighed. "Yunfan definitively will bug me to help him. He always says that too much information gives him headaches." His friend is very good at battle in-game but always has problems understanding moreplex information, which is really strange because he is good at using skillsbos and the like. Sometimes Ye Yan doubts if his friends really have difficulty withplex information or are justzy. ''With this info, I now know how to distribute my stat points.'' That previous news just mentioned the main attribute of each ss, probably for yers do not feel lost when they are required to distribute their points in the tutorial. Ye Yan equipped his beginner''s dagger and looked at its attributes. ''Not bad! My attack power is now 21. Let''s see how the slimes in this game are. I need to release some stress.'' He took 20 minutes to get to the East Gate with his speed of 6km/h. He tried to run from time to time too but it burns his stamina really fast. After 30 more minutes of walking, he finally got to the area with slimes. This ce is a vast tnd with some widely spaced trees. There are slimes of different colors scattered across the field, blue, red, yellow, green, white, brown, pink, and purple. The slimes look like a ball of phlegm, slimy and sticky, mostly the green and yellow ones. ''It''s really disgusting! I didn''t know we could feel like throwing up in a virtual reality game but I''m almost doing it just by looking at them. I will keep to the blue, red, white, pink, and purple ones.'' Since young, Ye Yan has a weakness in disgusting things, upsetting his stomach every time he saw one. He has to thank his parents for that. Ye Yan drew his dagger and begin his attack on a [Red slime]. [Red Slime] (Normal) Level: 1 HP: 50 . "What the fuck!" Almost all his attacks couldn''t hit the monsters. As the FLEE of the slimes is higher than Ye Yan''s HIT, he is having a hard time trying to attack them because they keep jumping and dodging. It looks like he is trying to hit a fly with a chopstick. Luckily they have Def 0, so each when it did hit, they took -21 damage and only need three hits to kill one. System: ''You have killed a [Red Slime]. 1 exp gained!'' "Fuck! I will need to kill 300 slimes to level up." Ye Yan rage has reached max level when he discovered that he would have to stay near the disgusting slimes for a long time. He started to imagine the slimes were those hateful rich kids of his high school and started a rampage. Chapter 7: New equipment Chapter 7: New equipment A yer wasughing wildly with dead slime bodies all over around him. Ye Yan just discovered that he could dodge the slimes attacks using his natural reflex that was cultivated since young when he was pressed to evade the clogs that his mother threw at him. He feels like paying back to the slimes for what they made to him before, as they were jumping around and dodging his attacks and look like saying ''you can''t get me, haha''. Now he is the one that is dodging the slimes and not one slime had hit him. Ye Yan continues to improve his dodge skills while killing slimes and ck mushrooms. He has killed 234 slimes and 90 ck mushrooms so far but only slimes give experience. He had met some [Bigrvae] too. Now he is only 3 experience points from level up. He bent down to pick the loot on the ground and discovered that a piece of equipment has dropped. . [Phlegm Helmet] (Trash, armor: headgear) Description: A helmet made of hardened phlegm. It stinks but helps protect your head. Def +2 Level requirement: 0 ss requirement: unrestricted Durability: 20/20 Wight: 2 . "I don''t think I need defense that much. I going to sell it in the auction house." There are things that a man could not do and walk around with phlegm in his head is one of them, so he decided that selling the item for money. Ye Yan is almostpleting all his quests. . Quest: [Kill 50 slimes] Description: The number of slimes is increasing at an rming speed resulting in problems in the harvest. They need to be eliminated before they destroyed all the harvest. Requirement: level 0 Type: Repeatable Difficult: D Progress: [Slime] killed 50/50. Note: Report back to the Adventurer Guild. . Quest: [Collect 20 slime ball] Description: The Alchemist Guild requires a lot of [Slimes balls] for potion-making. Drop from [Slime]. Requirement: level 0 Type: Repeatable Difficult: D Progress: [Slime ball] collected 20/20. Note: Report back to the Adventurer Guild. . Quest: [Collect 100 Mushroom spore] Description: The Alchemist Guild requires [Moshroom spore] for potion-making. Drop from [ck Mushroom]. Requirement: level 0 Type: Repeatable Difficult: D Progress: [Mushroom spore] collected 90/100. . Quest: [Colect 20 Poison mushroom] Description: The Assassin Guild requires [Poison spore] for potion-making. Drop from [ck Mushroom]. Requirement: level 0 Type: Repeatable Difficult: D Progress: [Poison mushroom] collected 19/20. . He killed 3 more slimes and leveled up. System: ''Congrattions. You level up. You gained 3 BP (basic stat points) and 1 SP (skill points).'' . yer: Jun Xie Level: 1 ss: Novice HP (Health Points): 34/48 MP: 10/10 STA (Stamina): 12/12 AP (Action Points): 14/14 ATK (attack): 5+17 (22~22) MATK (Magic Attack): 1+0 (1~1) DEF (Deffense): 4+3 (-0% dmg/ damage redution) MDEF (Magic Deffense):3+0 (-0% dmg/ damage redution) HIT (uracy): 5.5 Flee (evasion/dodge): 4.5 ASPD(Atack Speed): 0.4 Critical chance: 0.6% Chitical damage: +1.5% Cast Time Reduction: 1.5% Movement Speed: 8 (100%) Drop rate: +0% Weight: 13/103 (13,3%) EXP: 0/660 Skills: [First Aid], [empty slot] . Base Stats: STR (strength): 5 AGI (agility): 4 INT (inteligense): 1 DEX (dexerity): 3 VIT (vitality): 1 CON (constitution): 2 RES (resistance): 1 FAI (faith): 1 CHA (Charism): 1 ATT (attunement): 2 LUK (special): 0 Base Points: 0 Racial traits: Human start with 3 BP bonuses; gain 1 extra SP (skill point) every 20 levels. ss feature: Guild: . Ye Yan decided to begin to allocate 1 point in attunement each time he levels up until level 4 so when he job change, he can have space for atst 5 skills. He continues to kill slimes and ck mushrooms until hepletes the quests. But before going back to the city, he decided to look for a stronger monster to try it out and see if he can defeat it. Ye Yan walked to an area far from the city and entered a region with closely spaced trees. He looked around for only 1 min when he saw a giant slime. . [Keremet leavings] (Elite) Level: 2 HP: 300 . "Holy shit! Why the fuck all these monsters need to be this disgusting and worse, this thing stinks." He tried to cover his nose and became stunned that it works. Ye Yan started the fight with one hand always covering his nose and with the dagger in the other. He only needs one hand anyway. He began to feel his opponent and discovery that he could dodge with ease although just one out of ten attacks could hit the monster and unlike the slimes, this monster has some defense. Miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...-6...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...-6...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...-6...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...miss!...-22! (critical hit)...miss!...miss!...miss!... The monster''s HP continues to decrease during the battle until it finally died. System: ''You have killed [Keremet leavings]. 50 exp gained.'' Ye Yan smiled while picking the loot. He was feeling pleased with himself for his achievement. He got to kill an elite monster alone and it is a very rare thing, but he only got it because of his super patience, or else he would have been killed soon after the beginner of the battle. With 0.4 of ASPD, he can only attack 0.4 times in one second, in other words, each attack took more than 2 seconds. Even if he didn''t have to dodge the monster attacks, it would take at least 7 minutes for him to kill the monster. The first kill of a monster always has the drop rate double and the quality of the items is one rank better. The elite dropped 3 good items and some misceneous that he could sell to an NPC. . [Wooden Mail] (wood, armor: body armor) Description: The only remains of a poor soldier. Def+4 Level requirement: 1 ss requirement: unrestricted Durability: 30/30 Weight: 20 . [Acid Bottle] (consumable) Description: A bottle holding a highly corrosive acid. Can be used in alchemy. Use: Sprinkle on an enemy to lower its defense. Def-10. . [Keremet leavings] (Quest item) Note: Take it to the Alchemist Guild. . "I am lucky today. Even dropped a quest item!" Ye Yan decided to go back to the city so he could turn in the quests and go to the Alchemists'' Guild after. Chapter 8: Alchemists Guild Chapter 8: Alchemists'' Guild On his way back to the city, Ye Yan saw many parties killing slimes. They normally areposed of 5 people of which three are trying to hit the monsters while the other two are using [First Aid] to heal them. They are TRYING to hit the monsters because the slimes are jumping all over and dodging while attacking them back at the same time. It''s a pitiful sight. They were more like sandbags than yers. If it wasn''t because of his fighting experiences, Ye Yan would too be covered with bruises, at least, until he uses [First Aid] on himself or drinks a potion. The yers that were killed by the slimes had their bodies drowned in that substance making a terrifying scene. Ye Yan became, even more, determined to never die to these sticky creatures. If he would die, it will have to be with dignity. Ye Yan took two hours to arrive in the Adventurers'' Guild Branch closer to the East Gate. The City of Ji is the second most popted city of Yan Empire so it has four branches of the guild, each of them near one of the gates. He barely made it inside and had a difficult time getting to the NPC to turn in his quest. He goes to the counter further from the entrance where yers apply and turn in the quests. There is six attendant there, all females, the three to the left are for getting the quests and the three on the right are for turn in. Only the one in the middle was avable. The NPC has long ck hair, a cute face, and a ginormous breast that looks like two basketballs. ''She must suffer from back pain. The Adventurers'' Guild Leader must be a lusting man for sure. Most of the female NPCs here have big boobs or ass.'' Ye Yan is not a teenager full of hormones anymore, even there, he never was the kind of person that ogle woman on the streets, he just looked at some porn in the middle of the night. He turns in the four quests and received some experience and money as a reward. These quests are mostly to help the yers level up faster and get some money to buy useful items. . Quest: [Kill 50 slimes] Reward: 20 exp and 10 coppers. . Quest: [Collect 20 slime ball] Reward: 10 exp, and 20 coppers. . Quest: [Colect 100 Mushroom spore] Reward: 40 exp, and 30 coopers. . Quest: [Colect 20 Poison mushroom] Reward: 40 exp, and 30 coppers. . Ye Yan is now with 242/660 of experience of level 1and he has a good way to go yet to be level 2, so he decided to look for quests avable for level 1 yers. There are only two quests on the notice board. . Quest: [Kill 200 Crookroaches] Description: The city''s sewers are infested with monsters and the City Hall issued an extermination order. Requirement: level 1 Type: Repeatable Difficult: D . Quest: [Collect 100 Soft Silk] Description: The tailoring is in need of [Soft Silk]. The item drops from [Giant Silkworm]. Requirement: level 1 Type: Repeatable Difficult: C . Ye Yan applied for only one of the two quests. He decided to do the [Collect 100 Soft Silk] quest and look for some more monsters to kill in the area. But before leaving he will go to the Alchemists'' Guild to start the quest. When he got there, he was stopped by an NPC soldier. "Stop! This isn''t a ce for beggars. Get out of here right now!" "But I have an item that may be of interest to the members of the guild." "A beggar can''t have anything that interests our esteemed alchemists. Get the hell out of here right now or I will make you go without a hand." The soldier said while drawing his sword. Ye Yan got some distance away from the guild and started to ponder. ''Can I only start this quest when I am of a higher level? Or maybe... I should change my equipment?'' He looked at his appearance and he indeed looks like a beggar. He is still using the [Worn-out shirt], [worn-out pants], and [worn-out slippers] from when he started the game. He hadn''t equipped his new [Wooden Mail] yet because it weight 20 so he would be over 25% with a decrease of 10% of movement speed. He equipped the [Wooden Mail] and tried to enter the guild again. This time he got to go in. The Alchemist Guild is very spacious but not so big as the Adventurer Guild. There are many shelves filled with books and potions on disy. All the people inside, NPC''s only, are wearing luxurious clothes and have an air of superiority. Ye Yan asked a clerk if he could meet the manager but was refused right away. The clerk looked at him with disgust, like he was a fart stinking the air he is breathing. "The manager is not someone that everyone can meet. Go back to where you came from." The clerk said shooing him away. ''Are every Alchemist Guild''s NPCs this snobbish?'' He took the [Karemet Leavings] from his bag and showed it to the clerk. It stunned him and he readily changed his behavior. "One moment. I will notify the manager." Four minutester the clerk came back followed by a small old man, better to say, an old gnome. He looks at Ye Yan measuring. "Hum. Came with me, boy." The old gnome just said it and started to walk away. Ye YAn follows him to a room richly decorated. "Quick. Show it to me!" The old gnome didn''t even waited for him to pass through the door to ask. He handed the item to the old gnome and waited for him to evaluate it. After five minutes, he began to talk. "My name is Zhong Mingyu and I am the guild''s manager. Where did you get this item?" "I killed a monster called [Karemet Leavings] and it dropped from him." Ye Yan thought it was unnecessary to hide it from the NPC. The old man measured him again. "You are only a novice and don''t look that strong but the fact that you defeated that monster shows that you are a formidable adventurer. This is a part of a terrifying monster that disappeared long ago. But looking at the preservation status of this residue, I''m afraid that the monster is still alive and not far from the city. Although Karemet is strong, his body is like a treasure trove. Each pound of him can sell for 1 silver and it can be used to make powerful potions. So what do you think, young man? Can you kill this monster and bring back his remains to me?" System: "Zhong Mingyu has a quest for you. Will you ept it?" "I will kill the monster and sell his remains to you." Ye Yan decided to remind the gnome that he would sell the item after seeing this greed look. "Good." The gnome said a little unhappy because he didn''t like the fact Ye Yan talked about selling it because now he will really have to pay and can''t trick him anymore. NPC can trick yers if thetter doesn''t make clear the terms of the agreement. "Take this [Instion box] and use it to collect the items." Ye Yan opened a parchment and looked at the quest details. The quest details and the forum can be essed through this parchment that he got when he started the game to make things more realistic, but he only has to think about what to write to thinks appear in it. . Quest: [Kill Karemet and collet his remains] Description: The Alchemist Guild will pay a high price for a piece of him. Type: Unique Difficult: S ''Wow! A difficult S quest!'' The quest can be ranked in six levels of difficulty: S, A, B, C, D, and E, being S the more challenger one. "I will take my leave them." "Go go go." Ye Yan left the Alchemist Guild and went to look for equipment that he could buy at the market with his 1silver and 10 coppers. Every 100 coppers equal to 1 silver coin and 100 silver equal to 1 gold coin. He purchased four items. . [Shoes] (Trash, Armor: Footgear) Description: A defective product sold at a discount price.. Def: 2 Level requirement: 1 Durability: 10/10 Weight: 5 . [Cotton Pants] (Trash, Armor: pants) Description: A simple piece of clothing. Def: 2 Level requirement: 1 Durability: 10/10 Weight: 3 . [Cotton Gloves] (Trash, Armor: Gloves) Description: A simple piece of clothing. Def: 2 Level requirement: 1 Durability: 10/10 Weight: 2 . [Hood] (Trash, Armor: Hood) Description: A simple piece of clothing. Def: 2 Level requirement: 1 Durability: 10/10 Weight: 5 . If Ye Yan wears all his equipment now he would weigh 45 (43,4%), so his movement speed would decrease by 10%. Ye Yan unequipped his [Wooden Mail] so he could walk faster and only put on his hood. When he got to the city gate, it was already dusk in the game so he looked to the sky to know the time. In Second Life the time is the opposite of real-time. When he started the game, in real-time was 8 p.m., but in the game, it was 8 a.m. And if a yer wants to know the time it is, he would have to look at the sky while thinking about the time o''clock, to know the answer. Now, are almost 15:00 p.m. in the game and 7:30 a.m. in real-life. The day of the game has 48 hours, 24 of the day time, and 24 of the night time. It is veryte now, so he decided to log out of the game. Chapter 9: The quartet Chapter 9: The quartet Ye Yan logged off from the game and opened his eyes. He was feeling strange after staying for so long in the game and was having a difficult time adjusting to his own body in real-life. After about one minuteter, he sat on his bed and took off his game helmet, shaking his head to wake up and dispel the weirdness he was feeling. He stayed one more minute staring at nothing before get up and store the game helmet in his closet. He loosened his muscles a little and went to the kitchen to make breakfast but found the fridge almost empty. There are only ingredients to make congee, so he started cooking right away because it would take more than one hour for the food to be ready to eat. Ye Yan let the rice simmering and went to do some morning exercise in the live room, mostly push-up and squats. He is used to training every morning since before stopped using diapers because his father always took him to his dojo to teach him how to fight. At that time, as a child, he thought his father was just ying with him and onlyter he understood that he was doing training in fighting. His father was a martial arts master, so he wanted his son to be as strong as him or more. That''s why Ye Yan be so powerful today and remains undefeated until now. In the beginning, his father had wanted Ye Yan to rece him in the dojo one day but gave up on the idea because of his son''s personality. When he finished his exercise, the congee was ready so he took a portion to eat and left the rest for his friends. Ye Yan didn''t mind cooking for them, at least, since they wash the dishes for him. That''s endless working, no matter how much you wash them, always there is more. Only after Ye Yan finished his breakfast, his friends began to appear. They have been in the game for more than fourteen hours and now they became like famished wolves eating in a desperate way. "What you were doing online until now? It is too dark to kill monsters outside of the city and it''s not good to stay lying down for so long and remember, there''s a time limit that we can be in the game. " To be fair with the night works, there are quests that be avable only in the night period of the game, like exterminate ghosts, explore haunted houses, catch thieves, and the like. But they wouldn''t have time to do those quests because they have been in the game for a long time now. "I was looking around in the city. There are many shops, and the NPCs look so real. But I''m not doing it anymore. I''ve been robbed by a street urchin NPC and now I only have 18 coopers." Tang Yunfan said feeling indignant. "18 coopers? But you should have, at least, 110 coopers afterpleting the quests. You have spent so much?" Ye Yan asked curiously. "I didn''tplete the quests yet. Those slimes are too fucking annoying and difficult to kill. Wait! Did you finished them?" Not only Tang Yunfan, but Qian Zhong and Hu Ling looked at Ye Yan with a mix of amazement and curiosity. "Yes. I have found out that if we use our reflex and reaction speed, it became easy to dodge them." Second Life is a virtual reality game, but the yers are chained to their ways of think so they can''t just start to use inhuman reflexes and abilities just because they were in a game. "Fuck! Why I didn''t think about it before. I was standing there like a target for those slimes to hit." Tang Yunfan said. "Me too. But I have the excuse of not knowing how to fight." Hu Ling said looking down on Tang Yunfan. "The same here, but in my case, it was because the target is bigger." Qian Zong said patting his round belly, making all of themugh. "So what are the names and races that you guys have chosen? Asked Qian Zhong curious. "My in-game name is Fox Demon and a chose the spirit beast race. It was so cool in the beginning..." Qian Zhong sighed. As Ye Yan''s three friends always change their character names, and just chose one when needed, they decided to discuss names and sses only after the release day. "What happened?" Tang Yunfan inquired. "Well... The spirit best race has the special ability to change into the animal they chose in the character creation. I chose to be a fox, they are so majestic, but after I started ying I discovered that my fox form is a puppy. A fucking cute puppy! I am so manly, how can I be a fucking puppy?" Qian Zhong said enraged. "We are just novice now. The fox form will probably mature as you level up." Ye Yan trayed to calm his friend while muffling hisughter. Tang Yunfan and Hu Ling didn''t even try, they justughed their ass off. "Laugh now! You will see when I be stronger and kill all of you in PvP (yer versus yers). Shit! But what can I do now? Ask the monsters for a pet?" Qian Zhong was indignant, even more so with his friendsughing at him like that. "Enough! You didn''t say your in-game names yet." "I chose the human race and my in-game name is Jun Xie." Ye Yan was the first to answer because the others were still trying to calm down. "Really creative! You just used the nickname given by others. No imagination at all." Hu Ling said teasing Ye Yan that just look back at him with a serious face. "I''m an elf named Spell Bound. I will be a mageter. You could help me leveling as you can kill the monsters easily." Hu Ling has been acting as a healer, using [First Aid] in a random party before, but the experience that he could get like that was really little. "I choose to be a half-orc and my in-game name is Conan." He liked the Conan movie version of 2065 very much so and as he intended to make a barbarian-like character, he chose this name. "You and those American action movies..." Hu Ling said shaking his head. "You didn''t say what you were doing until sote yet. I bet that Little Ling had met a beautiful chick in-game." Qian Zhong gave Hu Ling a meaningful look. "Hey, why do you call everyone but me brother? It''s always Little Ling. You should call me fourth brother." They have been calling each other brothers since high school. Tang Yunfan is the oldest one, so he is the First brother (not the elder brother). Qian Zhong, even with his baby face, is the second in age, so the second brother. Ye Yan is the third brother and Hu Ling is the youngest among them, so fourth brother but they are used to call him Little Ling because when they were in the first year of high school, he was very little and looked more like a child than a teenager. "There are seven years we call you like that. You should just get used to it." Tang Yunfan didn''t intend to change the way he names him. "And you didn''t answer." "I have been talking with some people I meet in the game and one of them was desperate like you two." Hu Ling said pointing to Tang Yunfan and Qian Zhong. "He told me that the best ce to know pretty girls in the game is the restaurant. Many girls are going there to eat their belly full and, as one of them said, they can eat a lot and have no regretster because you didn''t get fat in the game, so no diet is needed." "Hey! What is the problem with a little fat? Look how I am so fatlicius. Humpf. And why did you point at me and First bro and not Ye Yan?" "Ye Yan problem is not that he cannot get girls but he always bes shy and portrays a serious face that those girls just think they don''t have a chance with him." Hu ling said and turn to Ye Yan. "I really wonder what passes in your mind when those girls approach you. That gangsta-like face you do is hrious when we know that you are only being shy." the three of themughed at Ye Yan making the tip of his years be red. "I will go to a game restaurant tomorrow. Will you go with me, first bro?" "You are just giving an excuse to tasty the game food, right? You are a foodie after all." "The word is gourmet." "Forget about him. Ye Yan will carry us today, right?" Hu Ling asked but not asking Ye Yan. "I got a quest to do that looks to be difficult. Maybe if you three go with me, it would be easier." The four agreed to meet at the East Gate after they log inter today. Chapter 10: Keremeet Chapter 10: Keremeet At 6 p.m. the four friends started to log in to the game. Each of them appeared in a different location of the city and walked in the direction of the East Gate. Ye Yan had log out from the game at the East Gate and would have to wait for them to arrive so he decided to look at the nearby shops to see if there is something useful that he could buy with his 50 coopers. There were many stalls on both sides of the street, some with a better aspect them the others. Most of the items being sold were cosmetics and didn''t give a bonus in stats, not even defense, but all of them were priced more than 1 silver. Some stalls were selling a variety of delicious-looking food that would make his friend drooling. Ye Yan was taking his time looking over everything until he saw something that made him look green and his legs wobbly. The most traumatic thing that happened in his life was when he bes five years old and his fathers thought him big enough to start eating some ''manly'' foods. So every damn week his parents took him to eat some delicacy that consists of bugs of various types. Both his parents eat it without any problem but Ye Yan always thought that it was disgusting to the extreme. They were always saying that it was good for health and was rich in protein and nutritious. But for Ye Yan, he was just eating cicada, crickets, and fucking cockroaches. After two whole months of these tortures, Ye Yan bes broken and ill. He didn''t even want to leave his bed anymore. When his parents found out what caused him to became like that, they be remorseful and never forced him to it those bugs again, but it was toote because the trauma hadn''t left him until now. Every time he sees something disgusting he feels like throwing up and that''s why he is having a hard time at the beginning of his time in the game. Others thought of him as a little unmanly when they found about his weakness, but that''s because or they never had to eat a damn cockroach in their lives, or are used to eating it. In thetter case, he only feels pit. He vows to himself that he would never marry someone that likes to eat those disgusting things. The Adventures'' Guild quest avable to level 1 yers consist of killing crookroaches and silkworms. The monster crookroach that can be found in the sewer is definitively the damn cockroach, the most hateful of the bugs. Ye Yan decided to take the [Colect Soft Silk] quest because he thought that maybe he could get some from his friends because they know of his problems and he always helped them in games before. Ye Yan went back to the gate and waited for his friends while trying to calm his stomach and it didn''t take long for them to begin to arrive. The first was Fox Demon that was changing forms every 10 minutes because, as his character is too young, he cant keep a stable form yet. He keeps changing from a cute little fox puppy to a handsome chubby man. Ye Yan really likes this friend of his, and always thought of him as a little brother, even being younger them him. About 10 minutester, Conan arrived looking tired and almost short of breath. Probably because he tried to run and became out of stamina. His appearance really is like the barbarian, looking as if he juste out of a bodybuilder magazine cover. Spell Bound arrived soon after Conan, looking like the prince charming without the white horse. Maybe an impoverished version of the prince charming because of the worn-out clothes, but his elven appearance plus 30% of beautification made the woman on the street turn their heads following him. "What the fuck! What kind of look is this?" Conan couldn''t stand the sight of his friend like that. "I''m naturally handsome, this elven appearance just enchanted it a bit, butpared with your half-orc looks, I must look like the most handsome man ever existed. You are alwaysining that you can''t get a girlfriend but still chose a half-orc look. I really don''t know what to think." Now that the four of them reunited, they went in the direction of the ce Ye Yan had killed the Keremeet Leavings. As the quest to kill Keremeet could be difficult with they still being level 0, the quartet started to kill slimes to gain experience whilepleting the quests. Ye Yan exined to them how they should move to evade the slimes, but only Conan has improved his dodge skills. As the four of them were in the same party, they were sharing the experience the monster give them. Spell Bound was in the Adventure''s Guild when he logged in, so he got the [Party Scroll] from there before meeting with his friends. To register a party, all the members need to sign the scroll, so they could start to share the experience. Everything in the game was thought to be the most realistic as possible so the human mind could adapt to it easier andter when they would start to use some superhuman powers, they don''t will have problems using their skills because everything would be changing gradually. The human mind would let a man fly because they are programmed to think that man can''t fly, so it will need some adapting to it first. They continue killing the slimes until everyone leveled up and decided to go looking for [Keremeet]. On the way, Ye Yan got to level 2 and he distributes his 3 BP in constitution, dexterity, and attunement. yer: Jun Xie Level: 2 ss: Novice HP (Health Points): 56/56 MP: 10 STA (Stamina): 12/12 AP (Action Points): 17/17 ATK (attack): 5+17 (22~22) MATK (Magic Attack): 1+0 (1~1) DEF (Deffense): 5+ 10 (-0% dmg/ damage redution) MDEF (Magic Deffense):3.5+0 (-0% dmg/ damage redution) HIT (uracy): 6.5 Flee (evasion/dodge): 4.5 ASPD(Atack Speed): 0.4 Critical chance: 0.8% Chitical damage: +2% Cast Time Reduction: 2% Movement Speed: 8 (100%) Drop rate: +0% Weight: 45/103 (43,5%) EXP: 0/1080 Skills: [First Aid], [empty slot], [empty slot] . Base Stats: STR (strength): 5 AGI (agility): 4 INT (inteligense): 1 DEX (dexerity): 4 VIT (vitality): 1 CON (constitution): 3 RES (resistance): 1 FAI (faith): 1 CHA: 1 ATT (attunement): 3 LUK (special): 0 Base Points: 0 Racial traits: Human start with 3 BP bonuses; gain 1 extra SP (skill point) every 20 levels. ss feature: Guild: . Every time he got one level, his HP increase by 5 points, and his AP increase by 3 points, plus the bonus from the stats, his HP reached 56 points and DEF, 17 points. Now that they will go to fight a difficult battle, Ye Yan had put on all the new equipment so he could tank the monster better. "It was here I killed the monster that dropped the quest item. I think that the monster I need to kill isn''t away from here." Ye Yan looked around and chose to go further into the forest while killing the monsters that they find along the way. "Look at that!" Fox Demon point in a direction. One of the perks of being a spiritual beast is the better visionpared to the human race. They looked in the pointed direction and saw [Keremeet] there. It was a big goop thing of green color with a kind of human-like face on its superior part made of the same substance. [Keremeet] (Champion) Level 5 HP: 1000 Ye Yan took a deep breath and started to try thinking of it as data, not a real disgusting thing. And this Keremeet, at least, didn''t stink. He gave a war cry and started the battle. Now that he is heavier because of his new equipment, he is having a hard time dodging the monster''s attacks but, as the monster is hitting him in 7 points when he fails to dodge, it means that he would die in 4 hits if he wears only his old equipment. Ye Yan became the party''s tank and tried to keep it focusing on him, while Conan and Fox Demon were attacking it. Karemeet has 17 of defense, so Conan with his 7 str and 3 dex could take 7 HP of the monster on every hit, but he takes 4 seconds to attack, and Fox Demon could take only 1HP of the monster with his 4 agi and 6 dex, but his attack speed is the same as Ye Yan, 2.5 seconds per hit. And Spell Bound is running from one side to the other using [First Aid] on his friends, mainly on Ye Yan. The scene is very messy, but they are taking the monster''s HP steadily, and luckily it didn''t have any HP recuperation skill or it would be impossible to kill. When it finally fell, the four sat down on the floor to rest because the battle was very consuming. System: ''You have killed [Keremeet]. 265 exp gained (Experience shared by four, 5% of experience bonus by killing a monster 3 levels higher). "Wow! So much experience! I am almost leveling up again!" Fox Demon said. "Me too!" "Me too!" Conan and Spell Bound said at the same time. They were very happy with the experience they gained, even more so, because they got a 10% bonus for 4 levels of difference. "What did it drop?" "I will look." Ye Yan went to pick the items dropped by Keremeet. There were 4 items in total. [Rod] (Wood, weapon: One-handed Staff) Description: A simple magic wand. MATK +15% Level requirement: 5 ss requirement: Mage Durability: 30/30 Weight: 10/10 . [sk of Oil] (Misceneous) Description: A bottle containing oil. It''s definitely not edible. Can be used in alchemy. . [Provoke] (Skill Book) Description: Come hit me, sucker! Effect: Lowers the enemy DEF by (3+3*Skill level)% and increases their ATK by (1+Skill Lvl)% for 10 seconds. Cooldown: (20 - skill lvl) seconds. ss requirement: Fighter, Swordman . [Heal] (Skill Book) Description: I will heal your heart. Effect: Heal a target HP for {MATK*(1+Skill Level/2)}. Attribute: Holy ss requirement: Doctor . [Keremeet Ramains] (Quest item) Description: A big ball of phlegm. . "We lucked out today!" Ye Yan showed the items to his friends and everyone decided that the [Rod] would go to Spell Bound, the skill book [Provoke] would stay with Ye Yan because he is acting as the party tank and they would keep the [Heal] for the doctor they would invite to the party. . Quest: [Kill Keremeet and collet his remains] Description: The Alchemist Guild will pay a high price for a piece of him. Type: Unique Difficult: S Progress: Kill Karemeet (1/1), collect Keremeet remains (1/1) Note: Take it to the Alchemists Guild. . After the fight, they went back to the city to turn in their quests. Chapter 11: Job Change Quest Chapter 11: Job Change Quest After they arrived in the city, Fox Demon, Conan, and Spell Bound went to the Adventurer''s Guild to turn in their quests, while Ye Yan has gone to the Alchemists'' Guild to meet the old gnome named Zhong Mingyu. Before entering the Alchemists'' Guild, he wore his new equipment again, so the guards would not stop him. Ye Yan always takes off his equipment and wears his worn-out clothes when walking, so he would not be over 25% weight and have a decrease in his movement speed. Inside the guild, he asked one of the attendants to meet the old gnome and was taken to the guild manager''s room about five minutester. "So you didn''t die! I''m impressed!" The old gnome said musingly and then, like if he had thought about something, he uttered: "Now, show it to me!" Ye Yan hesitated for a moment when he saw the old gnome''s behavior. He was looking at him in a very cunning way, making it look as if he was thinking about how he could trick him. But in the end, he handed the item to him. "These are really [Keremeet] remains!" The gnome said after examining the items. "I can pay you 1 silver for it." ''This treacherous little man! Or gnome.'' He said before that one pound could sell for 1 silver, and in the box has, at least, 6 pounds (~3kg). But now, he is trying the buy everything for only 1 silver. Not even in his dreams! "I remember you said that one pound could be sold for 1 silver, but you are trying to buy six pounds with 1 silver now. And for the rarity of this item, I think that it can be sold for 8 silvers minimum. If you don''t want to buy it, I will offer it to others and I''m sure they would give me an even better price." Ye Yan stretched out his hand for him to return the item. In thest few games he had yed, because of the high A.I. of the NPCs, he would always haggle with them, so he knew that he shouldn''t just ept his offer. "Wait! I only have 4 silvers with me now, because I had to buy some expensive alchemy ingredients. But I can give you something even more precious than silver, what do you think?" "Please, speak." "I can give you a chance. The Alchemists'' Guild needs to deliver some items to the pce, and I can arrange for to you be the one that will do it. No one can enter the pce without permission and do you know how hard it is to get one? That may be your unique opportunity to get in there, so you should seize this opportunity. What is your answer?" The gnome really knows how to sell his product well. He thought that maybe he could get a good quest inside the pce, so he decided to ept the offer. The gnome is good, making him not only get less silver but be the delivery boy of the guild as well. "I ept your terms." "Great!" System: ''Youplete the quest [Kill Keremeet and collect his remains]. You gained 500 exp.'' The old gnome paid Ye Yan the 4 silvers and asked him toe back in five days to take the items that he will deliver to the pce because they are not ready yet. Probably he is too low level now to take this quest at the moment. After leaving the guild, he went to the Adventure''s Guild to start his job change quest. Inside the guild, he asked an attendant about the job change quest and was taken to the second floor to meet an NPC called Qiao Qiuyue. She is a very beautiful woman with long ck hair, a triangr-shaped face, and an air of elegance that made her look powerful. ''Miracle! This NPC is t-chested!'' All other women NPCs that Ye Yan saw in the Adventure''s Guild had generous breasts, so he became surprised with this woman before him. "What do you want to talk about with me?" Qiao Qiuyue said with a face that means business. "Just say it." Ye Yan hesitated a little. Even she being an NPC, he became shy. "I am level 2 now and would like to apply for my job change quest." "Hum. You are the first of those greenhorns that have got to this level. Not bad! You can start your training now and chose a ss that would be the basis for your future career. What do you would like to be? There are seven basic sses that you can choose from: mage, doctor, archer, fighter, thief, swordman, and merchant." "I want to be a fighter." "To be a fighter, you will not only need to be strong but be brave and sturdy as well. I will write a letter of rmendation for you to deliver to Commander Xia Hou Lian in the Military Camp. It is located in the northwest part of the city." She wrote the letter and handed it to Ye Yan. "Go now and don''t tarnish the Adventure''s Guild reputation." Ye Yan took the letter and walked in the direction of the Military Camp. On the way, he could not help but feel amazed as he looks at the streets. So many people were ying the game already, the NPCs passing by looked so alive and the stalls on each side of the street were so detailed with some even selling paintings. It looked like the moves about ancient time but with many beggars, plus the half-orcs, dwarves, beastmen, elementals, puppies, and pointed ears, but, mostly elvens. He thought of what Spell Bound said about the elven appearance being the best among all the races in the game and that people who want to be more beautiful, would choose it. The Military Camp upies the entire northwest of the city and is surrounded by a long wall that makes it impossible for people to see what is happening inside. When Ye Yan got to the gate, he showed the letter of rmendation and asked to meet with Commander Xia Hou Lian, the head of the fighter''s division in the Military Camp. One of the soldiers that are responsible for the gate security took Ye Yan to see the fighter''smander. On the way there, he saw many tends and training facilities. The NPC, Xia Hou Lian, was in the innermost part of the camp giving instructions to his subordinates in a very stern way. He is using a special armor made of a mix between thin leather and metal tes. His hair was long tied up in a knot at the top of his head, like the other human male NPCs in the city. The reason for not cutting them was because the hair, body, and skin are considered a gift from their parents, and damaging them is considered unfilial, and the men must keep their hair tied up in a knot or bun rather than just let them go loose, otherwise, it is considered unrefined and improper. Commander Xia Hou Lian looked at Ye Yan measuringly when the soldier told him about the letter. "What is it, boy?" "My name is Ye Yan and I came from the Adventurer''s Guild to take the test to be a fighter." Ye Yan said and handed the letter to themander. "Hum. That witch thinks highly of you to write this letter personally. She normally hands this kind of thing to one of her assistants to do." Ye Yan thought that maybe because he was the first to start the quest, it was different. What he didn''t know was that every first yer of each city would have a differential treatment. "You look strong to a novice but it isn''t enough to be a true fighter. You need to have courage, determination, awareness, discipline, andmitment. To know if you have the right traits needed to be a fighter, you will have to do six tests, which the final one will determine if you can be a true fighter. And, as that witch wrote the letter herself, it means you are strong enough to stand a harder test than those greenhorns, so your test will be a little special. Will you take it or you just take the easier way?" Themander said, giving him a sinister smile in the end. System: ''Commander Xia Hou Lian has a quest for you: "The hard way to be a fighter". Will you ept?'' "I will ept your test." He decided to ept the quest even being a little afraid of it be more than he can handle. But if you are given an opportunity like that and do not ept, it would be a waste. Harder quests normally mean that the reward would be better, so given the opportunity, he epts it right away. "Very good! This is the spirit, boy!" He said pping Ye Yan on the back, almost making him fall forward because of the force. "Your first one will test your awareness. It is the most vital tool of a fighter. Awareness is to perceive with rity the truth of what is happening without interpretation or opinion. It is essential because it is the state of consciousness that allows us to discern between the facts and the Truth, between the story and the lies in our mind. The realm of our mind is filled with false perceptions and false beliefs, on what can make us use our intelligent reasoning to make bad decisions. The mind is clever, but it is also full of assumptions and limited by our world-view. Conscious awareness allows us to see clearly, instead of being blinded by these false beliefs." After his long speech, themander took a military token and handed it to him. "Here. With this token, you can walk freely in the Military Camp in the future. Now you will go to Xia Hou Yuan to take the awareness test. Go and don''t disappoint me." Quest: [The hard way to be a fighter] Description: Commander Xia Hou Lian wants to test you to see if you have the traits to be a true fighter. Type: Unique Difficult: S Progress: Test of Awareness (0/1), Test of Commitment (0/1), Test of Determination (0/1), Test of Discipline (0/1), Test of Courage (0/1), and Final Test (0/1). The quest that he got is unique, which means that no one else can take this test again. Ye Yan became excited with the rewards that this quest could give him, but he knew that such a quest should be very difficult. He mustered his courage (wishing with all his heart that the quests do not involve anything disgusting), and left themander''s ce, following a soldier to the NPC that will give his first test. ... The Chinese had the tradition of keeping their hair long until the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). [The body, hair, and skin, all have been received from the parents, and so one doesn''t dare damage themthat is the beginning of xiao. ssic of Filial Piety] Based on "Common Sense Wisdom Based in the Four Agreements". Chapter 12: Test of Awareness Chapter 12: Test of Awareness The Military Camp in City Ji has soldiers of different races mix together training in swordsmanship, archery, and fighting. The ce that the soldier is taking him is located on the far side of the camp, between the archery training ground and the city''s wall. When he arrived, he found out that the NPC he needs to meet is outside of the city. The soldier only brought him here so he could ride on one of the horse wagons that were going in the same direction as him. Xia Hou Yuan is a Buddhist monk that lives in a temple located in one of the mountains in the northeast of the city. Ye Yan finally understood why you can start the quest so soon. That is because the yer will have to walk so much before the quest ispleted, that he would be level 5 at the end. He rides on the horse wagon until it got 5 km (~3,1 miles) from the temple. It took 3 hours for him to arrive in the ce nearer to the temple and the experience that he had on the wagon was something that he doesn''t want to repeat any time soon. It felt like he had been kicked in the ass for 3 hours, and when it passed over a pothole, he almost had to grit his teeth and even took 5 of damage. He had to use [First Aid] on himself because of a ride on a horse wagon! A person with hemorrhoids wouldn''t stand even one minute of it. When he got out of the wagon, he massaged his ass and started to hike the mountain. It only took 2 hours, between hiking and killing monsters, to get to the temple on the top. The Buddhist Temple was basically a circr three stored pagoda 10 meters wide, surrounded by gardens with all sorts of medicinal herbs. Ye Yan got near the herbs but a monk gave him suspicious looks, so walked in his direction instead and ask about Xia Hou Yuan. The monk made a sign that he should follow but didn''t say a word. When he met the NPC, he introduced himself, showed him the military token Xia Hou Lian gave him and asked about the test, but he didn''t say anything and looked at Ye Yan in a neutral way for about 5 minutes. When Ye Yan thought that he should do something and that maybe this is a part of the test, Xia Hou Lian spoke. "This token is very special. It represents that my brother thinks highly of you and believe you capable of showing the true power and spirit of a fighter. This test is not something that anyone that aspired to be a fighter can challenge. Only one every hundred years can do this test in each city of Yan Empire. "I will lead you to the ce where you will do the test. You need to remember that true awareness means to recognize that you are at war with the darkness of ignorance, and theck of it, will let ignorance grow." "Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril. You need to forget all you preconception and look for the truth because in the truth, is the answer." The monk spoke a lot but Ye Yan didn''t understand anything. All of it was just too confusing to him now. The monk leads him to a ce where there was a two-meter diameter circle made by many little stones. That was an array that would teleport him to the test location. He entered the array and a white light engulfed him, making him blind for five seconds. When he could see again, he discovered that he was in a vast field and there was a vige about 1 km(~0,62 miles) away. He decided to go there to look but he couldn''t walk, it was like his body didn''t understand that he was in another ce now and he could get out of the array. Even his mind was having a hard time trying to adapt. He feels as he has gotten motion sickness. He stood still for five minutes and started to walk in the vige direction, but as he got near, he began to hear screams. In the vige, people were running and screaming while a giant monster was attacking them. It is a 5 meters (~16 foot) tall chicken with golden feathers all over its body. Ye Yan''s first reaction was to go and fight the chicken so he could save the vigers, but he remembered what the monk said: "Look for the truth because in the truth, is the answer." This is a test and he doesn''t know what is the reason for the golden chicken to be here. So he decided to ask, but all the vigers only said that the monster wants to hurt them and asked him to kill it. Ye Yan hesitated. Should he kill the golden chicken? He doesn''t think the test would be that easy, but maybe, it isn''t the test and the vigers would give him the real testter. He stood before the golden chicken and decided to talk to it, even feeling really stupid doing so. "Stop! I don''t want to hurt you, but if you continue to hurt the vigers, I don''t will have any other choice." Differently from what he imagined would happen, the chicken spoke. "My child! They took my child! I can''t let them torture him anymore. They knapped my child! Those monsters. They want his golden feathers. I want my child back!" The golden chicken yelled. Ye Yan turned to the vigers and asked if the chick is with them. But they didn''t need to answer because their faces betrayed everything. "It''s a monster. What is the problem of selling ou eating it? You are a human adventure, so you should kill this monster. We will give you half of its golden feathers." One of the vigers said. Ye Yan was indignant because he almost helped those viins to kill the mother chicken, and they were just been greed. "Nooooooo!!! My child! You can''t eat him. Where is my child?" The golden chicken started to fight the vigers once again in despair. Ye Yan turned to one of the vigers and started to speak in a stern tone. "Give the golden chick back to his mother, now! Or I will help her look for it." Even the NPCs started to fear Ye Yan''s angry face and went to retrieve the chicken''s child. ''Fuck! First, the hen that Laid the Golden Eggs, and now, the My Little Yellow Chick!'' When the vigers bought the chick, Ye Yan could see its appearance. He wasn''t golden like his mother, but yellow. And there are missed feathers in his wings. "Mother!" The chick runs to his mother while crying. It would be moving if the characters weren''t a golden giant chicken and a yellow chick with many bald spots. ''My little yellow chick Fits right here in my hand In my hand! And whenever he gets hungry To look for bugs, he scratches the ground! My little yellow chick Fits right here in my hand...'' ''Fuck! Fuck! Now this music got in my head and it won''t go.'' Ye Yan became irritated because the music started to repeat again and again in his mind. System: ''Test of Awarenesspleted. Go back tomander Xia Hou Lian for more instructions.'' After the chicken took her child and left the vige, Ye Yan went to the array location. He got inside and it lit immediately. When he got back to the temple, Xia Hou Yuan showed his praise lowering his head, andter, started to meditate, ignoring him. So Ye Yan began to make his way back to the Military Camp. ................ Sun Tzu. Art of War. Chapter 13: Mage and Archer Job Change Quests Chapter 13: Mage and Archer Job Change Quests When Ye Yan left the temple, he remembered of the [Teleportation Sroll] that he received when he registered on the Adventurer''s Guild. He didn''t use it before because he was saving it for a moment that he would really need it, like now. The scroll can be purchased at the Adventurer''s Guild for 5 silver, which is a price that he can''t afford now. He opened the scroll and read the content aloud, and when he finished, he was transferred to the Teleportation Hall in City Ji. Again, Ye Yan had to wait sometime for his body and mind to adjust, because the mind can''t understand what happened fast enough, even he being more than aware he is in a game, but his mind can''t ept it right away. When he left the Teleportation Hall, the sky was already bing dark, so he looked up and discovered that it was 7 a.m. in real life. He has stayed 13 real-time hours in the game, 26 hours in-game. So Ye Yan resolved to log out and do his morning routine, which consists of exercise and breakfast. He left his room thinking about how this virtual reality technology is so advanced because he can y while sleeping. He was always told that he needs to sleep because his brain demand rest, but it looks like his brain didn''t stop and he feels nothing strange. When he arrived in the kitchen, he remembered having seen something on a News Program about it some time ago. It looks that CyberTech discovered a way for the mind to rest and be active at the same time and the simtions or the game works like a lucid dream. As our minds are active but resting during the dreams, so the same happens in the game. This time, Tang Yunfan was already up and had just eaten his breakfast. "You log off early today." Said Ye Yan. "Yeah. But there''s no way out, I need to work. They called me yesterday and asked if I could go today because someone got a sick leave. And until I starting to get some real money in Second Life, I need to work to pay my bills. I can''t depend on you guys for everything. I''m going now or I will bete." He said almost ruining to get his things so he could go to work. "Have a good day at work!" His friend worked since high school so he could help his mother at home and ended up with bad grades because he was always too tired in sses, that is why he couldn''t get into university and started to work full time after he graduates from high school. Now that his mother remarried, he could save some money and not work so hard anymore but he never rxed and always say that money can never be enough and he needs to pay his bills. They wanted to pay the food expenses but he never let them do it, his pride wouldn''t permit it. A momentter Qian Zhong came to eat his breakfast whileining. "Why is this game like this? I will be poor at this rate. Damn thieves!" "What happened?" Ye Yan asked curiously. "Some people started to do the job change quest to thief. Do you know what is the first step of their quest? Steal someone! They got a level one thief skill called Steal that enables them to rob people. This skill can only take 1 copper each time and they are required to steal 100 coopers! You need to stay very alert in the city now, there are thieves, or future thieves, everywhere. Some have been caught by the city''s soldiers but it only made them more cautious. The city is not safe anymore!" Qian Zhong was exasperated. "Hahahahaha! This is new! At least they are just robbing coopers. Have you imagine if they could rob people''s clothes too?" Ye Yanughed at the situation. "I want to see if you be the one that is robbed by them. Humf." Qian Zhong became indignant by his friend''s reaction to his plight. "Do you forgot what happened to thest thief that tried to rob me?" "Well. That guy even asked to be sent to jail to get away from you. But in the game, things could be different and you can be like me, almost coinless." "I want to see them try." "But what if it is a sex woman thief? You would just be paralyzed and made it easy for her." "....." Ye Yan abstained ofment because it can really happen to him. Later, they found that Hu Ling had the same experience as Qian Zhong but he didn''tin as much. Both of them had started their job change quests too. Hu Liang decided to be a mage so he went to the library to start his quest. The first step of the mage''s job change is the test of knowledge, which consists of an examination of five book''s content, and among them was one about the Four-Elements Theory of Aristotle. "I know that mages need to control the elements but to know so much and so many different things and theories about them is too much! Why do I need to know about all that when I''m burning someone''s ass? It''s absurd!" "You only need to read some old books, it''s easy. I have to learn how to use a bow, like, really learn. I will only pass this first step when I hit, at least, the 7or 8 rings of the target. The NPCs are trying to teach me but it will take a long time for me to get there, I can only hit the 2 ring by now. And how is your test, third brother?" "I have to pass 6 tests, but it looks that mine until now are more like about my beliefs. And I don''t know how the next tests will be." "Lucky you! I never thought that the fighter''s test was so easy. Tsk." Qian Zhong started to envy Ye Yan. "That''s because fighters aren''t sophisticated or knowledgeable enough to do moreplicated things." Hu Ling disdained. "Hey! You just say this because you are jealous!" Ye Yan decided not to tell that he is doing the hard version of the test to avoid more of Hu Ling''s poisoned tongue. As Hu Ling is a rich second-generation heir and he only goes to his familypany two times a week, and Qian Zhong is a programmer that works from home, they didn''t need to go out, so they talked about the game until it was 5 p.m. Each day they are starting the game early than the day before. Ye Yan login into the game right before the dawn in the City Ji, so he took his time going to the Military Camp. When he arrived at the Military Camp, the sun had already risen, and the soldiers just let him pass because of the token. The NPCs in this game can sleep, so he can''t see them at any time like in other games. He went straight to themander Xia Hou Lian tent and meet him when he was going out. The NPC looked surprised at him and asked Ye Yan to follow him back to the tent. "You impressed me, boy! Not only you passed the test but make it so fast. You are a promising future fighter. You need to remember to learn with these experiences you are having to better yourself. Now that you havepleted the first test, do you are ready for the second challenge?" System: ''You havepleted the Job Change Quest: the first step. 200 exp. gained." System: ''Congrattion, you level up. You gained 3 BP and 1 SP. Ye Yan distributes his BP in Attunement, Strength, and Dexterity, putting one point in it. Now he has 61HP, 23 ATK, and 7,5 HIT, and four skill slots. And as the only skill he has at the moment is [First Aid], he didn''t need to use his SP yet. "I''m ready for the next test." Ye Yan answered with conviction. "Very good! Now you will go meet my younger brother, Xia Hou Ming at the swordsman area, he will give you the second challenge, the Test of Courage. Good luck, boy!" He turned to one of the soldiers at the entrance of his tent and said. "You, take him to meet my little brother!" "Yes, sir!" Ye Yan followed him to another area of the camp. ............... Aristotle believed that four ssical elements make up everything in the terrestrial spheres: earth, air, fire, and water. Standard targets are marked with 10 evenly spaced concentric rings, which generally have score values from 1 through 10 assigned to them. Targets are colored as follows: 1 ring & 2 ring white, 3 ring & 4 ring ck, 5 ring & 6 ring blue, 7 ring & 8 ring red, 9 ring, 10 ring & inner 10 ring yellow. Chapter 14: Test of Courage (and patience) Chapter 14: Test of Courage (and patience) On the way to meet with Xia Hou Ming, Ye Yan feels that the soldier leading him starting to be a little strange, and his nervousness could be sensed easily. But what could have made him like this? They were just walking and there is no danger or, at least, it is what he thinks. Because of the soldier''s behavior, Ye Yan started to be vignt and observed his surroundings more attentively. But even when they arrived, nothing happened, what puzzled him. The NPC was in the swordsman training ground sparring with a soldier, but it looked more than a spar. If the soldier wasn''t using metal armor to cover his entire body, he would have been shredded to pieces already. Xia Hou Ming was fierce and powerful and the soldier could only try his best to not suffer too much, sparks could be seen every time his sword hit the metal armor. The poor soldier couldn''t even touch Xia Hou Ming during all the duration of the battle and you could see for his expression that he wants to be anywhere but here, and Ye Yan almost could see tears running down his face. Finally, the battle ended, to the relief of the poor soldier. "You need to train more. With this level of swordsmanship, you can''t stand even one minute in a real battle. Now go train more because the next time I will not take easy on you." Ye Yan thought that if that is taking easy on him, how it will be if he doesn''t. And now he finally understood why the soldier that lead him here were behaving like that, this Xia Hou Ming is not someone a normal soldier could face without cowering in fear. Xia Hou Ming looked at them and asked. "What is it?" "Comander Xia Hou Liang o-order me to-to bring this person to meet you." The soldier stammered in fear. "Humpf. You can go now." Xia Hou Ming can''t stand these scared soldiers. "What you want from me?" He looked at Ye Yan approvingly because he returned his gaze without any hint of fear. "My name is Jun Xie and Commander Xia told me to seek you for my Test of Courage." Ye Yan showed the special token to him. "Haha. He never sent anyone to me before for the test. It looked like he really thinks that you can do it. Come with me." Xia Hou Ming showed such a sinister smile in the end that made him get goosebumps. Ye Yan followed him to a ce with an array like the one of the first test. "This is the entrance of the Test of Courage. Let''s see if you have real courage or just have more guts than those soldiers. I''m too tired of those cowards." Ye Yan looked at him with an interrogative gaze after hisst statement. "You think they are brave but they are just afraid. Most of them became soldiers because they didn''t have any other way of surviving. The world is not as beautiful as it looks, people are starving and some of them even sold themself to very. The lucky ones are working as maids and manservants" Xia Hou Ming shook his head as if he wants to shake away the sad thoughts. "The reason I consider them cowards is that they only looked so brave when confronting an enemy because they are afraid of death, but not death by the enemy''s hands but by execution. If a soldier deserter, they will be killed, so they try their lucks in battle which they consider the easier way. If they fear death by the enemy and confront them even so, I would admire them but that''s not the case. In truth, they are just worthy of pity." He makes a brief pause and advises Ye Yan. "Someone told me a long time ago something that I still remember: ''I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear'', because ''Fear and courage are brothers'', so you need to always go ahead even if you are afraid. But remember: ''Being terrified but going ahead and doing what must be done, that''s courage. The one who feels no fear is a fool, and the one who lets fear rule him is a coward''. Now go." ''Great! I''ve just being called a coward by an NPC. But he says this because he never has eaten a fucking cockroach.'' Ye Yanined to himself while entering the array. This time, he didn''t feel so bad after the teleportation because his mind is already adapting to it, but he is starting to think that he turned blind because after 5 minutes had passed, he is still seeing nothing but dark. Suddenly, he heard the system voice in his ear. System: ''Go back?'' he thought. ''No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!'' So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter[4]." "So I''m not blind, it''s just too dark here. Phew." Ye Yan understood that he needs to try to find a way out of this dark ce, but when he gave his first step, the system sound came again. System: ''Your pain adjustment was disabled. You will feel 100% pain until the end of your trial.'' "Fuck! I''m not afraid of some pain but there''s a big difference between getting an injection and fall in a deep pit. Hum, maybe for Qian Zhong there is no difference..." His friend runs away from an injection as if it were the devil. After about 1 hour of walking in the dark, feeling the wall and the floor, he finally arrived at the exit. He was blinded by the light at first, and as it returned to normal, he could see and feel where he was. There is hotva everywhere around him and he couldn''t see any way to get out of the cave without having to pass through it. System: ''You have passed the first trial of the Test of Courage. 200 exp. gained. Did you wish to continue or you will go back and take the test on normal difficult? You only have one chance, if you die in the test, you will not be able to challenge the hard mode again and will need to wait three days to start the quest again on normal mode.'' "I''m already here, so I will continue." Ye Yan started to look around with even more attention. He tried to get near theva but it was too hot that he started to feel dehydrated and began to take damage, so he went back to the ce he was before. System: ''When we are afraid, we ought not to upy ourselves with endeavoring to prove that there is no danger, but in strengthening ourselves to go on in spite of the danger[5].'' "Tsk. Can the system read minds? I have thought about sacrificing some of my items to see if it was some kind of illusion." The CyberTech system can only connect with people''s minds and cannot read or input information. Ye Yan tried to analyze everything once again, and when he looked up, he saw some indentations on the Vulcan''s wall. It would be really difficult to climb but there''s no other way. It''s better to die trying than do nothing. System: ''There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid[6]." ''The system could give me a rope and not be saying these quotes''. Ye Yan climbed the Vulcan''s wall while swearing without stop. Maybe cursing gave him the energy to continue. At least, he only felt tired while climbing or it would be hell because of the 100% pain adjustment. When he got to the top, he found out that he would have to go down the Vulcan now. At least, going down is easier and Ye Yan sometimes even used his worn-out clothes like a mat for him to sit and slide without the risk of not being able to stop because the terrain is not too steep. System: ''You have passed the second trial of the Test of Courage. 200 exp. gained. Did you wish to continue or you will go back and take the test on normal difficult? You only have one chance, if you die in the test, you will not be able to challenge the hard mode again and will need to wait three days to start the quest again on normal mode.'' "Of course I will continue." If he gives up after everything, he could only p himself for his stupidness. System: ''Can a man still be brave if he''s afraid?'' ''That is the only time a man can be brave,'' his father told him[7].'' When Ye Yan heard the system this time, he knew it means trouble. And to show that his assumption was right, a giant adult [Tyrannosaurus Rex]e running in his direction. It was 4 meters high and 12 meters long and its head is more than 1,4 meters long. ''The system is crazy? He is only a novice now and his weapon are the same as a kitchen knife. How he can defeat it?'' He started to run while trying to think about something helpful. System: ''When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don''t adjust the goals; adjust the action steps[8].'' ''I want to kill who had the idea of the system saying these quotes here!'' While running, he saw a cave not far away and went directly to there. Luckily, the Tiranossaurus is too big for the cave, but the cavern is small and there is no other way for him to get out. System: ''It''s not the size of the dog in the fight, it''s the size of the fight in the dog[9].'' "Tsk. It''s not a dog, but a damn T-Rex, and a furious, or hungry one at that.'' Ye Yan began to think that maybe it was talking about himself. He is littlepared to the dino, but he never was afraid of a fight. "Man up, Ye Yan!" He decided to give it a try and left the cave. When he was about to start a fight, he noted that the dino was hurt and was moving very slow now. Maybe he was hurt before and when he tried to get to him, the wound got worse. Ye Yan has two options now, he can escape or he can try to fight. He chose thetter. If he can''t defeat it, he still can run. . [Tyranossaurus Rex] (Elite, weakened) Level: 3 HP: 2,000 . As the monster was weakened, his stats were lowered, including his flee and defense (FLEE 3, DEF 10). So Ye Yan could hit it in 13 damage per attack. His battle turns out unexpectaly easy. He could dodge and attack the monster without problems and he didn''t even take damage. About 9 minutester the T-Rex was dead and it even dropped two items. System: ''You have killed [Tyranossaurus Rex]. 200 exp. gained. The monster gave only 200 of experience, probably because of the quest. System: ''You have passed the third trial of the Test of Courage. 200 exp. gained. Did you wish to continue or you will go back and take the test on normal difficult? You only have one chance, if you die in the test, you will not be able to challenge the hard mode again and will need to wait three days to start the quest again on normal mode.'' "Continue! Continue!" He said while taking the items. . [Lucky Hit] (Skill Book) Description: Luck is as good as a skill if it gets results. Effect: Your critical chance increase in (30+ Skill level*2)% for 1 minute. Cooldown: (20-skill level) minutes ss requirement: Unrestricted . [Dinosaur Leather Shoes] (Cooper, armor: Footgear) Description: Leather taken from the most tender part of a dinosaur, but don''t ask from where. DEF +15 Level Requirement: 3 ss requirement: Fighter, Swordsman, Thief, and Archer. Durability: 40/40 Weight: 10 . "Holy Shit!" Ye Yan couldn''t believe his luck, both items could be used by him immediately. He learned the skill and used 2 SP to increase the skill to level 3, and equipped the dino shoes. "Now I am more prepared for what I will have to confront in the next step." Ye Yan walked for some time and arrived in a little vige. When he just asked the first NPC where he was, a [ck Dragon] flew over them andnded inside the vige, attacking everything, including children! Even knowing that he couldn''t defeat it and that they were NPCs, Ye Yan forgot about the test and tried to distract him for the vigers to escape. He gave a war cry and ran in the direction of the dragon. System: ''You have passed the fourth trial of the Test of Courage. 200 exp. gained.'' System: ''Sometimes standing against evil is more important than defeating it. The greatest heroes stand because it is right to do so, not because they believe they will walk away with their lives. Such selfless courage is a victory in itself[10].'' System: ''Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows ack of courage[8]. and you proved you are brave and righteous.'' All of a sudden he went back to the camp, where Xia Hou Ming was waiting for him. "Hahahahaha. You proved yourself as a brave warrior that one day will dazzle all with your might." Ye Yan was still trying to understand what happened and suffering the effects of teleportation when he heard the NPC. "Good! Very good! But you must remember that being brave doesn''t mean we looking for trouble[11]. Now go back to meet my elder brother and continue your tests." System: ''This world demands the qualities of youth; not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the life of ease[12].'' ''Fuck!'' Ye Yan showed his middle finger to the system in his mind and went to meet themander. ..... [1] Nelson Mand [2] Proverb [3] Piers Anthony [4] J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit [5] Mark Rutherford [6] L.Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz [7] George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones [8] Confucius [9] Mark Twain [10] N.D. Wilson, Dandelion Fire [11] Mufasa. The Lion King [12] Robert F. Kennedy Chapter 15: Test of Discipline Chapter 15: Test of Discipline It is still midday in the game, so Ye Yan could do another test before he needs to logout. He went to meet themander and found him in the fighter training camp giving instruction to five soldiers that were with him. Xia Hou Lian said to him to wait while he finished teaching the soldiers. About 20 minutester, the Commander lead him to his tent for them to speak. He looked at Ye Yan in an approving way and started to speak. "You really impressed me. The Courage test is considered one of the most difficult between the five. The only person that got to finish this test in thest 100 years was my grandfather, Xia Hou Dun, and he told me some about it. The test can test not only your courage but your patience too. Unfortunately, I didn''t pass the Test of Awareness before so I couldn''t continue with the tests, and only now, I be wise enough to understand the test''s true wisdom." System: ''You havepleted the Job Change Quest: Test of Courage. 200 exp. gained.'' "But the Test of Courage isn''t as simple as it looks. The trial tested more than a person''s courage, it tests their determination to reach their goal. Even in face of a spell that tried to annoy and tempt you on your trial, you have made your decision and follow it until the end. In truth, you have passed not only the Test of Courage, but the Test of Determination as well. Congrattions!" System: ''You havepleted the Job Change Quest: Test of Determination. 200 exp. gained.'' ''Two for the price of one? Great! I love these sales promotions.'' Now Ye Yan only needs 280 of experience to level up again. He requires to be level 5 to doplete the quest, so he hopes that the next quests can give him even more experience points. "Your next challenge will be the Test of Discipline. You will need to show the ability to restrain yourself even in front of the most trying things. You need to control your impulses, desires, or emotions for the sake of improvement. You need to forge yourself in the fire of your willpower. You have to follow your path without straying in the face of obstacles. And self-control is the skill needed to achieve any goal or desired oue. So, Jun Xie, the power to pass this test is in your own hands. Now follow me." Themander led Ye Yan to another room with two arrays identical to the others. He pointed to the one on the left and said. "This array will take you to your next trial." Ye Yan was teleported to the entrance of a cave and behind him is the ocean, so he can only go ahead and enter the cave. This time he almost didn''t feel any strangeness in his body after the transfer. The cave is veryrge and has torches on the wall every 3 meters. Ye Yan followed the torches and after 20 minutes of walking, he meets three half-orcs NPCs. They are higher than Ye Yan by three feet, have grayish skin, jutting jaws, prominent teeth, sloping forehead, and coarse body hair. "Who is this runt?" One of the half-orcs asked the other. "I don''t know. Hey! Who are you? And what are you doing here?" The other half-orc asked in an aggressive way. "This is no ce for a weakling like you because in this cave there are powerful monsters that will make you piss yourself." They started to mock him. Ye Yan''s temper started to re, but he remembered that this is the Test of Discipline which means that he will need to have good self-control. So he reasoned with himself that they are NPCs and he should ignore them. ''What they said just now?'' The half-orcs were still mocking him when he was trying to hypnotize himself. "He is so TINY that even their females wouldn''t want him. Haha. I bet they wouldn''t resist us, the human male equipment looks really tiny. Hahahahahaha." "Who the fuck is tiny?" Ye Yan started to see red, but he tried to calm himself down again and started to repeat the same phrase like a mantra. ''Patience is the virtue.'' ''Patience is the virtue.'' ''Patience is the virtue.'' ''Patience is the virtue.'' ''''I will fucking kill them.'' ''Patience is the virtue.'' "Hahahaha. The TINY guy got angry. I''m sure it is because of frustration, he must be a virgin. What female would want that little thing." The rage in Ye Yan was getting into a never seen proportion. He turned his back to them while still reciting his mantra. He never was in a situation like that before, where he needs to restrict himself, bet he will lose too much if he gives in to his anger. Ye Yan is no saint and he is almost exploding now. "Look! He knows that what we are talking is the truth and showed his ass to us. Hey Tiny! Sorry, but we only like females." And that was thest thing Ye Yan heard before he loses reason and charges at them. He looked like a devil with red eyes and an insane expression. He doesn''t even know how, but he got to beat the three up. And when hees to himself, he discovers that in truth, the three half-orcs were demons. The three were Tiny Devils that used an illusion spell. They were small and weak red devils, with bat-like wings and a scorpion-like tail. . [Tiny Devil] (Normal) Level: 3 HP: 50 . Ye Yan killed the three of them very easily with the help of his knife. Before he was so furious that he even forgot to take his weapon out... "Humph. Mine is bigger than your head. Humpf." The devil makes fun of Ye Yan calling him tiny but their species is named Tiny Devil, so they were frustrated being called like that all the time. When the three little devils died, a little fairy no bigger than the [Tiny Devil]s appeared. "You proved yourself disciplined enough to stand the devil mock for so long. I even thought you didn''t know what dignity is. Have good self-control is a good thing but you cant lose self-respect in doing so." Ye Yan could see that the little fairy wasughing at him. ''After everything that I have to endure, now I''m being seen as an idiot by a ti..little thing like that.'' He didn''t want to even say the tiny now. System: ''You havepleted the Job Change Quest: Test of Discipline. 200 exp. gained and one skill book'' When Ye Yan finished hearing the system voice, the fairy takes the skill book from thin air. The [Tiny Devil]s didn''t drop anything but, at least, he got an item from the quest. "You showed yourself an expert in this skill." She said while handing him the book. . [Endure] (skill book) Description: I can endure everything. Effect: Increase a yer defense and magic defense by 80% for 10 seconds. The yer bes immune to flinch and stun, while the skill is active. Cooldown: 3 minutes. ss Requirement: Fighter, and Swordsman . "Now you need to prove yourmitment with the Righteous Faction by standing against evil. Ahead of us are a powerful demon and you are the only one thates to this ce, so you became responsible to kill it". ''At least, after everything I had to suffer, I got an incredible skill. Wait, she saidmitment? Buy one, get one free again?'' Ye Yan went ahead and saw that the cave became wider and there is a devil of the same height as the [Tiny Devil] there. This monster is almost identical to the [Tiny Devil], the difference is that this one is purple. And, as it happens when he can see the true appearance of a low-level monster, he could immediately know its name when looking at him, like what happens when he concentrates to see his own character information. And the only data that he can see is its name, not the level and HP. . [Imp] (Elite) Level: 3 HP: 2,000 DEF: 15 . Ye Yan started the fight. He attacked and tried to dodge when needed, but sometimes he got hit by the [Imp], which attacked him with his trident. [-8] (damage dealt)...dodge.... [-8]....[-8]....dodge....-3 (damage taken)...[-8]...[-8]... dodge...[-23!] Ye Yan activated his skill [Lucky Strike] which increase his critical chance to 37%. [-8]... [-23!]... dodge...[-8]... [-8]... dodge....[-23!] The battle continued until the little devil died. System: ''You have killed [Imp]. 200 exp. gained.'' System: ''Congrattion, you level up. You gained 3 BP and 1 SP.'' "Not bad! You killed that vile creature that has always tried to court me. Humph, as if I would want something with him." Ye Yan looked at her with an using look. "Hey, don''t get me wrong. They are from the Dark Faction, and liked to kidnap beautiful females to do who knows what." "Ok." "And now that you defeat it, I finally can escape this forsaken ce." It was the only thing that he got from the [Imp]. The little fairy started to recite a spell and after 5 seconds they appeared in the room with the two arrays. This time, as it was too sudden, Ye Yan suffered some motion sickness again. "You are back!" Themander said smiling, but soon noticed the fairy. "And this is?" "Don''t know." "WHAT? I have been apanying you there and you don''t even know my name?" The fairy bing incensed. "You never told me." He said with a serious face. "Ohh! My name is Evy! You need to remember it for next time or I will dye your hair. Humpf. Now, I need to go to my queen." And the fairy was gone. "What was that all about?" Themander asked. "Too much sugar, probably[1]." "...." Themander looked at Ye Yan and started to analyze him. "I can see that you not only passed the tests, but became strong as well. " System: ''You havepleted the Job Change Quest: Test of Commitment. 200 exp. gained.'' "You really are a warrior that can be seen only once every hundred years. Are you ready for the Final Test?'' "Yes!" "Good! The final test is nothing more than you starting to show that you are a fighter in spirit. We received a letter asking for helping to save a vige in the southeast of the city because they have been attacked by evil beings. Your mission is to go there and solved the problem. Here is the map with the vige location and a [Basic Teleportation Scroll] for you came back after the end of your mission. Good luck!" "I''m leaving." Ye Yan got the impression that this mission isn''t as simples as themander made it out to be. When he left the Military Camp, it was almost dusk, so he logs out to begin another day in real-life. [1] The first time a child eats sugar, the effects are more obvious. It is like you gave an adrenaline injection. Later, they became used to it. Chapter 16: The devils and the drunkard Chapter 16: The devils and the drunkard Today when Ye Yan left his bedroom, he discovered that his friends were up already and talking in the living room. "What happened for you guys to be up so early today?" He asked curiously. Even before Second Life''s release, his friends were used to wake upte, except Tang Yunfan when he had to go to work. "Did you forgot that we have stayed more than 12 hours in the game two days straight? If we didn''t log off early today, we would be punished and be unable to log in to the game for more than 8 hours a day, during five days straight." "Hum. I have been logging out of the game about 30 minutes beforepleting twelve hours of gaming every day, so I don''t need to worry about it. But you have to remember to do some exercise too because staying lying down for so long isn''t good for your health." Ye Yan was used to sleeping for 8 hours, but now that he started ying Second Life, he began to stay longer in bed. "Yeah, we know. Now, go get some food and join us." Hu Ling said pointing to the kitchen like a king ordering this vassal. Ye Yan got the fried dough and sour milk that his friends left for him and went to the living room while eating. "We are discussing the job change. How long you will take to finish the quest? Some people already got their new sses. We need to hurry or we will be left behind by them." Qian Zhong looked like he wanted to go back to the game right away. "What? How is that possible? They can''t get to level 5 so fast. Do they found some kind of glitch?" Ye Yan couldn''t believe that some yers could have leveled up so fast like that. "You should exin things better." Hu Ling pped the back of Qian Zhong''s head. It looks like the merchant ss has an advantage that others don''t have. In the merchant quest, the yers need to earn money, and if the speed that you can get it is fast enough, the NPCs of the Chamber of Commerce will recognize their skills and sell them a certificate proving that they have the qualifications to be a merchant and enable them to exchange money for experience until they get to level 5. As the yers that chose to be a merchant normally are people that don''t y like the others and stay in the cities selling things and the like, it''s not that unfair that they can get this shortcut." Hu Ling exined the situation. "But we can''t rx because those game addicted are leveling fast now. They stayed almost 18 hours a day for three days straight, so they could level faster than others in the beginning, even with the punishmentter" "Maybe we should st..." "No. We can''t exchange our health for little advantage or it would be worseter on." Tang Yunfan cut off Qian Zhong right away. "We need to focus on leveling and job change as soon as possible. We have to recruit more people for our party and future guild too." Their n is to form a strong guild so they could have an easier time making money in the game while enjoying the game. "In 4 days the money exchange between the game and real-life will be opened and I will have enough money to pay for the guild registration, so we need to prepare." Hu Ling is the Mr. Money Bags of the party and will be the treasurer of their guild. He made a deal with his father that if he could administrate well the guild, he wouldn''t be forced to work in the family''spany now that he had graduated. He didn''t like to work there and having to go twice a week while he was studying was already his limit. "Now I know why they didn''t enable this function from the beginning, if they had, it would be even easier for the merchants." The yers that chose this ss probably would invest money in the game, so they could have an almost instant leveling now and reap huge profitster on because of the advantage that could get now. Hu Ling looked like to have remembered something amusing and said to Ye Yan that has finally stopped eating to take a breath. "Oh right, today I got to recruit some people to join our party. Do you remember the Xiao brothers?" "How could he not remember? The oldest of them kept following Third Brother everywhere, so much that we even thought that he wanted to be more than friends with him, at least until we found out that he just wanted Ye Yan to teach him how to fight. Hahaha." Tang Yunfan saidughing. "They will join us? Great. And is their sister ying too? I remember that Second Brother had a crush on her." Ye Yan is happy that their party is starting to take form. He is used to be the leader of their group but he is not a really social person, so the responsibility of invite others was put most on Hu Ling that is a social butterfly. "Yeah, she is." Hu Ling said whileughing so much that tearse out of his eyes. "She will the healer of our party." "What''s wrong?" Ye Yan couldn''t understand his friend''s reaction. "She chose to be a dwarf. From a cute girl, she became a bearded woman. It was so funny when Second Brother saw her that I can''t help butugh only by remembering that." "Cough." Ye Yan disguised hisugh. "Which sses the Xiao brothers have chosen?" "The older of them is a fucking Dragonborn! I didn''t even know it was an option because I chose the half-orc and didn''t even look at the other race''s subtypes. His in-game name is Dovakin and he chose to be a mage. Xiao Zhan''s in-game name is I love Skooma, he is a werecat and will be our party''s thief. And Xiao Feng''s in-game name is Mad Dog, he is a wolfman and wants to be a swordsman. Now we will need only one more healer and a dps." Tang Yunfan was happy that their party is almostplete. A standard party for dungeon normally has 10 yers. "Good. When everyone gets to level 5, we can start challenging dungeons. It''s the best way for us to get good equipment and make some money." Ye Yan wants to job change fast so they can really start the game. Until now everything was more like a tutorial, except the job change part. "Finally! I need to make some money, I have almost run out of it." Tang Yunfan started to rub his hands in excitement. "I will try to recruit two more people, but it has to be two sexydies to beautify our party this time because the only woman in the team now, hurt the eye just by looking at her." Hu Ling said. "I will help to recruit. Maybe my puppy form can be useful." Qian Zhong said smiling. The puppy form really suited him, because now if he was in his animal form, he would be shaking his tail. They continued to talk about the game and each one started to do their thingster. ..... During his walking to Tuvas, the Vige that asked for help, Ye Yan kept killing the monsters on the way. They were between levels 1 to 4 and gave him a good amount of experience, which he needs so much now. Currently, he has 420 exp of the 3,840 that he needs. The vige isrge and old, but the houses are well-preserved e resistant. Very few people were walking on the streets and most of them looked like they just left a tavern because the smell of liquor can be felt from afar. The vige is at risk but these people drank so much that they can''t even walk straight, even more, hold a weapon. "Yo beggar! Hey, I''m calling you. Go away! We don''t have money here, we are all fucked up already." The drunkard shooed Ye Yan away and started talking to anyone in particr. "Those devils wille back soon and I prefer to be too drunk to see what will happen. And maybe I will be drunk enough to not feel pain when I die. hehe." He never imagined that he would be looked down on by a drunkard. He needs to get new clothes for walking soon or it may interfere with him getting quests. He changed his equipment and looked much better, like a soldier with simples clothes, a wooden piece of armor, and leather shoes. "Commander Xia sent me here to help." He decided to talk to him. "Oh! So you were in disguise so the devils wouldn''t know about you. Smart!" He is speaking fluently for a drunkard, but if there are even studies that say people can improve their ability to speak in foreignnguages more fluently under the effect of a ss of wine[1], why this one can''t speak better too? "Please tell me what''s happening in this vige." Ye Yan only saw these drunk people in the streets, the sobers were already gone long ago, so he can''t help but ask him. "On a nightst month, those devils appeared in our vige and started to kidnap people. We tried to resist at first but they have the ability to summon others and if even one is too strong for us to defeat, confront many are suicide. So we tried to hide from them and they soon were gone, but the relief didn''t take long because they came back one weekter, and that''s when we send the letter asking for help. There is one week since then, so they shoulde back again today or tomorrow. And seeing that you are alone, I think you should try to hide if you want to survive." "What about you? Don''t you want to survive?" "Me? I don''t have anyone anymore. They took my wife and childst week and I can''t do anything about it but drunk until I drop dead." The drunkard sounded depressed. "Don''t you know anything about what happened to them?" "No. They came and go with the wind. There is no way for me to know where those devils took my family." Suddenly the drunkard looked at Ye Yan like he just had an idea. "You were sent from the city so you should be strong. Can you look for them? Please! You are my only hope now." "Ok. I will do it, but... what if they are already dead?" Even if it is an NPC, talk about the probability that his family was killed made him ufortable. "They were taken by devils, I don''t have much hope already. If they are alive, I will be the happier man alive, but if not, I want revenge for them. Please help me kill those devils. I don''t look like it but I have money and can pay for your services." System: ''The unknown drunkard has a quest for you. Do you will ept it?" "Don''t worry, I will help you." "Thank you! You can find me in that tavernter. And I will try not drunk myself to death before you came back with news about my family." The man staggered away after speaking. . Quest: [Thest hope of a hopeless man] Description: Even a man without hope can wish for a miracle. Objective: Kill the Devil and look for the drunkard''s family whereabout. Requirement level: 4 Difficult: A . As it is still early for the devils to appear and the vige is desert now, Ye Yan decided to look outside the vige for monsters so he could farm some experience until before dusk. [1] That''s true! At least about the research of the effects of alcohol on speaking fluently. Hard to believe, but it''s true. Maybe the researchers want an excuse to drink a little. Who knows? Chapter 17: New battle tactics Chapter 17: New battle tactics When it was a little before dusk, in the area around the vige, a strange dark fog started to cover everything in its way, giving an ominous feeling to anyone that got near it. The birds flew away in the instant that the fog starts to appear, and the other animal had got away from it as soon as they felt its presence. Three creatures emerged from the dark fog, all of them had the same height as humans but they have red skin, pointed teeth, two horns, and a long but thin prehensile tail with a triangr tip. These three strange beings walked to the vige and started to look for people. Ye Yan saw the three devils enter the vige and he tried to decide if he should fight them now or just follow them when they leave. He remembered the drunkard told him that they were gone with the wind, so maybe he could lose them as soon as they leave the vige. So, he decided to fight and try to find a way to follow themter. These devils are a part of his job change quest, so they can''t be above level 5, which means that he has a chance. Ye Yan observed the three devils and decided to try to fight with them one at a time. He hid behind some walls and tries to spy on the devils. When one of them enter an adjacent street far from the others, he thought that as a chance and prepared himself to ambush the enemy. . [Legion Devil] (Elite) Level: 4 HP: 500 DEF: 15 . When the devil passed near him, Ye Yan activated his [Lucky Hit] while jumping on him and stabbed his back with the beginner''s dagger. He discovered that sneak attack and backstab give double damage when executed, which made him understand that a yer can use a variety of battle technics while fighting in the game, not only skills. As Second Life is the first immersive VR game that ever existed, many aspects of the game are yet to be discovered, and the yers need to forget what they have known so far from other games because most of them would only confuse the yers and slow their progress. He had discovered that he could use his real-life abilities to dodge, but he didn''t though the where or how he attacked the enemy make difference, that''s why he only discovered it now. The Legion Devil was caught off guard by Ye Yan''s attack and took two seconds to react. He turns and used his tail to hit Ye Yan, that dodge it and stab the devil in his stomach. The devil used [Tail whip] on him, but he was faster and jump to the left, evading it, making the devil furious. The devil tried to hit him several times, but Ye Yan proved to be slippery as an eel and the devil couldn''t even touch him. In the course of the battle, Ye Yan tried other battle techniques like hitting the weak spots of the devil and found out that they were very effective and give bonus damage. -8.... dodge..... -12(50% bonus)... dodge..... -12... -8... -8... dodge... The battle continues without Ye Yan take damage and only the devil''s healthy points decreasing. When its HP reached 50 (10%), he used [Summon Ally] and two more Legion Devils appeared. Seeing that his situation bes critical, he focuses his attacks on the first Legion Devil because he has little HP remaining. Ye Yan tried to dodge the other two [Legion Devil] that were gang up on him to the best of his abilities, but with three of them, he was having a hard time trying to fight. After 40 seconds, he finally got to kill one of the [Legion Devil]s, but his situation still wasn''t very good because there are two enemies with full healthy attacking him. Yan Yan analyzed his situation and decided that if these [Legion Devil]s also summon more allies, he would give up and escape, and try to found another way toplete his quests. He evaded the w attackers of the two, going far enough for him to drink one of the [Novice Potion] that he received when he registered in the Adventurer''s Guild, restoring 20 HP and continue his battle. In the course of the battle, Ye Yan started to use martial arts moves while fighting, even it not being very effective, because attacks that don''t use weapons are calcted based on his attack power, not considering the additional attack given by the weapon. And, as the minimal damage that a monster or yers can receive when they are hit is 1 even if the defense is higher than the attack, Ye Yan continues to hit them in every part of his body that he could to take a little of HP. -8... -1... -1... -1... -1... -1... -1... -1.... -8... The battle turned in a way that he was damaging them more with his kicks than with the weapon, and sometimes he could even kick the two at the same time. The fight against the monster in a game started to look more like a street fight of one versus two. The devils would only attack using their ws or tails, so after some time he became used to the pattern of their attacks and the fight be easier. Even more, after he discovered that he could ''block'' their attacks if he hit a part of the enemy body in a way that would deflect it, like kicking the devil''s arm while he tried to use his ws[1]. Ye Yan looked like he was dancing while fighting, using backflips to dodge and kicks the two at the same time, or by following the motion of the devil''s tail, he sidesteps and used his leg to back kick, deflecting the tail of one while stabbing the other in the chest. And as the proverb says "Little strokes fell great oaks", Ye Yan, slowly but surely, was hitting them until they fell. Luckily, they didn''t summon more allies and he even feels that the battle was easy in the end, because he is used to fighting many people at the same time. At the end of the battle, he was feeling battle thirst and wanted to fight the other two as soon as possible. Thest battle gave him so much satisfaction that he doesn''t want to stop anytime soon, so he took the loot on the ground and decided to look for the others. . [Mother inw''s Tongue] (Misceneous) [2] Description: This item can be a tool of the devil. Can be used in alchemy. . Ye Yan: .......... He put the two items in his bag and looked for the others. He found another one not very far away and didn''t try to ambush him as he had done before, he just jumped on him and started the fight. This battle was like the one before, except that Ye Yan started using his martial arts techniques from the beginning of the fight, making it end very fast. The monster dropped only one item and the summons didn''t drop anything like the first three Legion Devils. . [Potion of Gossip] (Recipe) Description: A potion that can make monsters or NPCs say everything you want to know after consuming it. . The recipe can be very useful in the future when they need information about some treasure or something like that. Ye Yan thought of the drops and started to understand the rtions of the two. He still remembers his mother speaking about her mother-inw, using the same poisonous tongue that she used her mother-inw of having. When only one of the three devils remained, Ye Yan knew that he couldn''t kill this one and thought about what he would have to do to find the drunkard family''s whereabouts. He found thest devil near the entrance of the vige, taking a young woman with him, so Ye Yan decided to just follow him to where he would take the woman. But it was not easy for him to sneak around, trying to follow the devil without being noticed. The devil took the woman to a cave in the middle of the forest. Inside there was an array that would teleport them to another ce. Ye Yan waited for a little and decided to follow them through the array, hoping that he wouldn''t fall directly on the enemy base. .............. [1] The only martial art that this author had practiced before is ''Capoeira'', so I will use some of its moves to describe the fights. [2] I like my mother-inw, and I am not saying that all of them gossiped. Some can be a real blessing. Chapter 18: The devils camp Chapter 18: The devil''s camp In a ce in the underworld, a light surged contrasting with the dark and ominous ambient, indicating that a person just passed through an array. The ce is dark with some leafless trees and a dense fog that covered the sky and make it difficult to see 2 meters ahead. Ye Yan only saw scenery like this in horror movies, making him feel like a ghost will pop up at any time, and to think that he is in this ce looking for a devil makes you wonder about what you are doing. He couldn''t count on his vision to look for the devil, so he concentrated in his surroundings, trying to hear some sound that could help him to find the way the devil had gone, but the only sound he could hear was the hooting of an owl and the howl of wolves. Maybe meet a werewolf is a possibility here. After a while, he gave up on trying to found them by the sound and tried to look at any discernible detail that he could found. When he looked at the ground, he discovered some footprints and was surprised because he never thought he could find them in a game. Even after some days ying, he still didn''tpletely adapt to the game, because in his mind, certain things aren''t possible in games. He had ying detective games before and used footprint to find the criminal, but using it here was not a thing that ever passed in his mind. Ye Yan followed the footprints until he started to hear voices, but it was a strangenguage that he never heard before. He tried to see what was happened but the fog was too thick, so he had to crouch while moving in the direction of the voice to make it harder for him to be found. He even started to think that maybe he should have chosen to be a thief ss, because he is bing an expert in skills like sneak, ambushes, backstab, and now crouching. When he began to discern some silhouettes through the fog, he stopped and went in the direction of the wall that he could see near the devils. He moved soundlessly while crouching and tried to hear any other sound, but to no avail. When the devil started to go away, Ye Yan followed them moving close to the wall to make it difficult for him to be detected. They entered the camp and walked further inside. When he got to the entrance, he didn''t saw anyone guarding it, so he entered and hide behind some bushes and started to look around to see exactly where he is and if he could find the people that were kidnapped. The fog was almost nonexistent inside the camp, making it possible for him to see around the ce. What he thought was a stonewall of a building, in truth, was the wall of a dry gorge. Inside the gorge have some tents and in the central part of the camp, there is a big cage with about twenty people inside, 7 humans, 4 half-elvens, 2 tigerman, 4 dwarves, and 3 halflings. He analyzed everything so he could decide how to act. This time there are fifteen [Legion Devil]''s, which means that he will have to defeat forty-five devils in total. This ce is not like the vige that the devils would separate and be far enough from it other for them to hear anything. Ye Yan found a strategic location near the entrance where the fog was thick and waited for only one devil to get near enough for him to bait him with a pebble. After about ten minutes, he got to make one move in his direction alone and enter the fog. They started to fight and luckily the others didn''t hear them. Ye Yan used the same techniques that he used before and just deflect the attacks without dodging them. He tried to use the devil as a training partner while there is only one, so he could fight betterter when he would be more used to this type of fight where his objective was not only attacking them but hitting as fast and as many times as possible. When the devil finally used the [Summon Ally], Ye Yan stopping the training and started to get serious, he activated [Luck Hit] so he could finish the battle as fast as possible. As the cooldown of the skill is very long, he will only get to use it one time for battle maximum. He got to kill them one at a time until the eighth becauseter they started to walking in pairs inside the camp. Ye Yan decided that he should just take 2 at a time now because he only has five more hours of gaming before being forcefully disconnected for reaching the maximum time of gaming permitted and he would be punished if that happens too. He started the battle with two this time and focused in one until he and his summons were dead, so he would have to fight with four maximum. When the first devil summoned two more to the battle, Ye Yan couldn''t dodge them as well as before, so he had to drink two novice healing potions during the battle and now he only has seven more potions for him to use. He started to get used to the battle and dodge better, even doing a cartwheel to dodge and hit the four at the same time. It was a fest of -1 damage. And Ye Yan decided he should look for equipment that suited more his fight style. When he killed the Twelfth devil, just 3 more remained and he had to fight them at the same time. The fight was extremely difficult when the first devil summoned two more, totaling five monsters. Ye Yan used every move he knew would be effective in the fight to helping him dodge and hit more than one devil, like moves that could hit them but don''t knock them back because it is ineffective with the low strength of his character. In this fight he had to use all the novice healing potions he had, leaving not even one. When thest demon fell, Ye Yan breathed a sigh of relief. He deserved a very delicious dessert today after all the work. Even in the game, he could feel his stomach growling from hungry and he started to think about food, a lot. The devils up until now only dropped mother-inw''s tongue, but thest three dropped very good items. . [Fighter''s leather gloves] (Bronze, Armor: Gloves) Description: A pair of leather gloves with bronze details that are very suitable for fighters. DEF + 5 ATK + 5 Level Requirement: 5 Durability: 40/40 Weight: 3 . [Bash] (Skill Book) Description: You strike hard and violently your foe. Effect: You attack your enemy with ATK equal to (100+20*Skill level) %. Secondary effect: Has (1+ Skill level) % chance to Stun the target. Cost: 1 AP Cooldown: None ss Requirement: Fighter, Swordman . [Macho-man Headband] (Bronze, Armor: Gloves) Description: A leather headband dyed pink made for males (not really) DEF + 6 STR+ 1 Level Requirement: 5 Durability: 40/40 Weight: 2 . [Cage''s key] (Quest item) Description: Can open a specific cage in the devil''s camp. . Ye Yan looked at the items but when he looked at the headband appearance and description, it burned his eyes and his hands trembled. The item is extremely good and it probably only dropped because it was part of an S difficult quest, but to equip such an item really can hurt the heart. He decided to keep it in his bag and only use it if he really will need the extra strength and defense. He used the key to open the cage and free the NPCs. They thanked him and some asked for help to find the way out of camp, while the 2 Tigerman were kicking the devil''s dead bodies to vent their hatred. He continues to speak with them, but he didn''t know how to ask if some of the humans are the family members of the drunkard. It''s not like he can just say "Hey, any of you are the wife and child of a drunk man in the Tuvas Vige?". Ye Yan leads them to the array at a very slow pace because he needs to follow the footprints and some didn''t want to hold hands as a precaution for them do not to get lost in the fog. They finally arrived at the array location and they almost fought to be the first to pass through it, making Ye Yan act like a school teacher and ordering them to form in a queue, so they could enter orderly. This array is different from the others that he used before because it is only 1 meter wide and only 2 people can pass at a time. After everyone passed, was Ye Yan''s time, and even feeling a little nauseous, he felt much better having gotten out of that ce. Chapter 19: New Weapon Chapter 19: New Weapon The forest was different from before, the full moon permitted him to see the sparsed trees and the grass, making it easier for him to find his way back to the vige. On the other side of the portal, if he got close enough, even with that dark fog, he could see the footprint on the ground for some reason, maybe some special effect of that ce. Now that he thought about it, there was no moon in there but the sky was full of stars and he could see the camp as if he was using some kind of night vision sses. Ye Yan leads everyone to the vige, which is deserted because of thete hour. Some of the NPCs thanked him again and went to look for an inn, and the two tigermen looked at him like they want to say something but it was too difficult for them to do so. They were like a fusion between man and tiger, they had the body structure of a human but were totally covered by thick fur, had sharp ws, a long tail, and a feline face with two triangr ears. "We are owning you now, so if one day you go to the Tuna''s Region, just look for us there and we will help in whatever you may need." They said their piece and left as if they don''t want to be there a second longer. Only the vige residents were left. And Ye Yan tried to think about which of the two children was the drunkard''s son. Luckily it didn''t take long for him to find out because one of them was kidnapped alone while the other was with his mother. "I had met a man before that asked me to look for his family and for what he said I think he was referring to you two. He asked me to look for him in that tavern when Ie back, so can you two wait for me while I will go there and fetch him?" He asked the mother and son before they went home like the rest. "Are you sure that person is my husband? It''s so strange because he doesn''t drink alcoholic beverages, so why he would wait for you in a tavern?" The woman looked really confused and Ye Yan thought if this NPC is really that drunkard''s wife, she is in for a big surprise. Ye Yan went to the tavern. It''s an old wooden building with a hanging advertisement g containing a very big "wine" character written on it. The interior has some sparsed tables and a counter on the corner, with few people inside drinking, eating, or gambling. Everything was surprisingly clean and quiet, maybe because they knew about the devilsing tonight. He looked around and tried to find the drunkard that, even now, he still has to know the name. Ye Yan was in a rush for time now, because he only has 50 minutes of in-game time remaining before he will be forced to disconnect. He spotted him in a corner staring at a jug of wine, and thankfully not drinking, or it would be difficult to take him to his family. "I came to get you. Let''s go, your family is waiting for you outside." Ye Yan didn''t have time to waste now. "They... Are they really alive?" The drunkard couldn''t believe what he was hearing. "Yes. Let''s go, now!" He doesn''t have the patience to speak with him with so little time remaining. "Hahahah" He was very happy to know his family was alive, but all of a sudden his expression changed as if he were in pain. "What can I do now? If my wife sees me like this... she... she will use the broom on me! Please, save me if she tries to hit me with some makeshift weapon!" He pleaded Ye Yan, almost crying thinking about the unavoidable consequence of his acts. He didn''t expect such a reaction from this NPC, but remembering how his own mother used the broom to hit him the first (and only) time that he had gone home drunk, he could understand his plight very well. "I will protect you when you two meet. Now, let''s go!" Ye Yan leads him to where he left the woman and child while the drunkard (that is currently sober now) followed him like he was going to a funeral. When they arrived where he left the two, Ye Yan confirmed that they were the wife and son of the drunkard for the way they were looking at it other. He looked like a deer that has been caught by a hunter and the woman gave him a very beautiful smile that could melt the heart of anyone that sees it, but for some reason, it made him got goosebumps all over his body. "So while we were in the hands of those devils, you were drinking with your friends?" She said it with a sweet smile but emanating an aura of a psychopath getting ready to kill. "Now that you are reunited, I need to go back to City Ji. So..." Ye Yan is rushing against the time now, he needs toplete his quest and disconnect before the system does it for him. And he wants his reward before it or he might be without any if it takes too long. "Thank you for bringing them back. Here, it is an heirloom passed down to me from a powerful schr ancestor. I could never use it, but you may bring the true potential of this weapon. And nothing is more precious than my adorable wife and good soon to me." He said it full of meaning, in a way that says "You see, I''m even given an important item as a reward for him bring you back, so you need to take it easy on me. . [Fan of the wine] (Bronze, one-hand weapon: Fan) Description: A all-around weapon with bronze des hidden in its stem and a jug of wine painted on it. Appears to be a normal utensil until it''s toote. ATK + 25 DEF + 25 STR +1 DEX +2 Level requirement: 5 ss requirement: Fighter, Swordsman, Thief, Merchant, and Doctor Durability: 40/40 Weight: 10 . "You are wee. And now I need to take my leave. Goodbye!" Ye Yan became excited when he saw his new weapon, but he didn''t have the time to appreciate it well. He used the (basic Scroll of Teleportation) and went back to the city. Chapter 20: Fighters Badge Chapter 20: Fighter''s Badge The game poption is increasing exponentially every day and the City of Ji is one of the cities that are receiving most of these yers, making it be more and more lively. The diversity of races are increasing too, now a few days after theunch of the game, you can see various types of spirit beasts, elementals, beastman of different kinds, half-orcs, elvens, half-elvens, halflings, and fairies on the streets. The city''s NPC poption was made up of mostly humans, making it the race with most people at the moment the game was released, but now the elvens and half-elven are almost surpassing the number of humans because it is the preferred race of the yers. When Ye Yan left the Teleportation Hall, he was surprised by the difference that urred in the game in just a few days, because even being night time now, the streets are full of people walking in every direction and the NPCs are adapting to this situation well, opening stalls in both sides of the street. He thought that he should look around these stalls some other time when he is free, but now he went to a corner and log out of the game. Ye Yan got up from the bed feeling his whole body sore because he had beenying down for so long. So he stretched his body and went to the kitchen to eat and now, after almost 18 hours without food, he can eat almost anything. "What happened that made you stay in the game for so long?" Tang Yunfan asked worriedly. "My quest could only bepleted at night, so I had to stay logged in and as I didn''t know if I logged out before it, would interfere in the quest, I just waited there. I almost run out of time, but I get toplete my quest before I log out and got an amazing weapon too." He was feeling satisfied with his new weapon because it not only has incredible stats but is very cool as well. Ye Yan talked to his friends while getting some food from the fridge and didn''t even waste time heating it, because hunger really is the best seasoning and it can even substitute the heating process. "So are you a fighter now? I am in thest step of my quest now and I think that it will only need 3 more hours toplete. Little Ling is almost finishing his quest as well, but Second Brother will take a little longer because of his transformations. Heheheh, you can''t use a bow with tiny paws, right?." Tang Yunfan is very excited that all of them are almost level 5 andpleting theirs job change quests. "Not yet." He made another pause to eat and spoke again. "I need to turn it in first." "OK, ok! Eat first, you can talkter." They gave up trying to talk to him because he looked like someone that was on a hunger strike for days. They updated him about everything that has happened with them and their quests and about thest two party members that they had found. Afterward, he did some exercises and used the Home Broker to see how his investments are going and if there are some new ones that he could make. Ye Yan''s money basicallyes from the dividends paid by thepanies that he has some shares. His mother used to invest in shares of many profitablepanies and taught him everything, so he could earn some money himself. And this is what has helped him now because even when he didn''t know what to do for a living, he at least had some extra ie. It''s not enough to make him rich but it paid his bills. He used his desktop untilte today because he had been in the game for too long before, so now he decided to wait until almost midnight to log in again. As the Stock Market operating 24/7 now, he can use his Home Broker at any hour to make investments. He prefers to use the good and old desktop to make this kind of operation than the modern device with a 3d projection that everyone is using now, same have a wristwatch format and others bracelet, etc. His desktop has a better security system than all the other devices that his friends or himself use because it works as a physical server too, Qian Zhong''s idea. At midnight, Ye Yan logs in the game again. He ran outside of the city and killed 20 slimes so he could finally level up again and reach the level requirement forpleting the quest. Maybe if he came back before it, the Commander could give him another quest for him toplete before the job change. He was a little far from the Military Camp, so he walked around one hour to get there, and he went directly to where Xia Hou Lian was so he could finallyplete his quest. "Do youplete the assignment that I gave you?" Xia Hou Lian asked with a very serious face. "Yes. The vige has been attacked by devils that were kidnapping their residents, but I got to follow them through an array to their camp that was located in a strange and ominous ce. I Killed the 15 [Legion Devil]''s that were in there and rescued the prisoners." He decided to describe everything, so the NPC wouldn''t doubt him. "You probably have followed them to the Underworld, that is the ce where those dark creatures live. I would never think that they found a way to open portals to our world. I will bring this information to the Supreme General, so he will know what to do. Thank you, without this information, we would continue not knowing about those dark beings'' activity." He went to a table in the middle of the tent that has some maps on it and started to write a letter. "Congrattions! You passed your test with honours and proved that you are a true fighter. This is a medal that symbolizes your status as a fighter." Xia Hou Lian put a badge on Ye Yan''s left chest. The badge is silver with a sword and shield design and it looked like it is fixed in his chest. "Here, show this letter in the Adventurer''s Guild for them to register your new ss. And these skills will help you reach new heights in your path as a fighter." He handed a letter and two skill books to Ye Yan. "I will report everything to the General now. You may go." System: ''Youplete the quest [The hard way to be a fighter]. You gained 500 exp., a [Silver Fighter''s badge], and 2 skill books.'' . [Iron-blooded Warrior] (Skill Book) Description: You have an unyielding soul of a true warrior. Effect (Passive): Increase your DEF and MDEF by (5*yer level) and gain a +(2*Skill Level)% bonus in both attributes. Secondary Effect: Increase all resistance by 1%. yer: Jun Xie . [Iron Skin] (Skill Book) Description: You irradiate a metallic luster as your skin turned to iron[1]. Effect: Raise your DEF and MDEF by 100% but decrease ASPD by 40% for (30*skill level) seconds. Cooldown: 20 minutes ss Requeriment: Fighter . "Thank you. Now I will take my leave." Ye Yan puffed up with pride for finally be a fighter and went to the Adventurer''s Guild to register. The guild was full of people like always. ye Yan didn''t waste time and went directly to the guards that stay in front of the stairs to ask where he should go to register his new ss. Now that he became a fighter, the NPCs started to look at him in a better way and not as a nobody anymore. They lead him to the same room that he spoke to Qiao Qiuyue for the first time. "Good! You have be a true fighter and not one more of those half-assed fighters out there. I knew that you have it in you before. Congrattions. This is the certification that you had job changed." She handed him a stroll with his data and some instructions on it. "But you have to remember that it is only the beginning of your journey and you are only an apprentice now. Work hard and you will soon be a professional in your job. And now that you have proven your worth to the guild, you can use this [Comunication Stone] to speak with others and you became eligible to take more serious tasks. Now go and help our Adventurer''s Guild reach new heights." System: ''[Silver Fighter''s Badge] is now active. You gained a bonus of +3 STR, +2 AGI, +2 DEX, +3 VIT, +3 CON, +2 RES, + 2 CHA, and +1 LUK.'' "Thank you." Ye Yan went out in a transe. He never thought that afterpleting changed sses, he would gain so many stat bonuses. He is itching to test his newbat power now. ....... [1] It is not like "I can shine" like a teen vampire, but more like Metal Mario. Chapter 21: The Purple Palace Chapter 21: The Purple Pce When Ye Yan left the Adventurer''s Guild, he thought of going outside the city to test his new power but decided against it because if he goes there, it would waste too much time. And as he had yet to go to the pce, he decides to do the delivery for the Alchemist''s Guild while his friends are doing thest step of their job change quests. He got the items in the Alchemist''s Guild, that now are ready for delivery, and took them to the Pce. The Purple Pce is in the center of the entire city. It is 961 meters long from south to north and 753 meters wide, covering an area of 0.72 sq km ( 0.72 km / 0.28 sq mi) and is surrounded by a 10-meter-high wall, which is 3.4 km (2 miles) long [1]. There is a 52-meter wide moat around the pce as the first line of defense against enemies and at each corner of the Purple pce, stands a magnificent watchtower, which is heavily guarded by soldiers. There are four gates, one in each direction of the Pce: the Meridian Gate on the south, the Gate of Divine Might on the north, East Glorious Gate on the east, and West Glorious Gate on the west. Ye Yan went through the east gate, across an expansive brick-paved square, to reach the main entrance of the pce, the East Glorious Gate[2]. There are 81 doornails on the gates of the Purple Pce, arranged in nine rows by nine rows [3]. When Ye Yan passed through the gate, he saw the splendor of the Pce and it took his breath away. The mainframes of all buildings were built with high-quality wooden beams and columns, including whole trunks of precious Phoebe Zhennan wood from the jungles in the southwest of the Yan Empire. The carpenters used interlocking mortise and tenon joints to build the great pce buildings without nails because they are considered violent and inharmonious. The Purple Pce''s main colors are red and yellow. The walls, pirs, doors, and windows were mostly painted in red, which is regarded as a symbol of good fortune and happiness, and you can see the yellow on the roofs, which is a symbol of supreme power and only can be used by the imperial family[4]. The Purple Pce isposed of three parts: the defenses (moat and wall), the ceremonial Outer Court, and the residential Inner Court. It consists of more than 90 pces and courtyards, 980 buildings, and over 8,728 rooms. As the Purple Pce is considered a divine ce because it is where the Emperor, the Son of Heaven, resides, it is a forbidden ce to ordinary people. So the guards stopped Ye Yan and didn''t let him enter until they confirmed with one of the imperial eunuchs [5] if he could be there. A eunuch called Hao Haoxue lead Ye Yan to a building in the outer court, where he took the items from him and looked if everything was alright. After he keeps away the medicinal herbs and potions, the eunuch started to look at Ye Yan in a strange way that made him got goosebumps all over. "You are not from the Alchemist''s Guild, I can tell just looking at you because you don''t have the same air of arrogance of those alchemists. So... Who are you?" "My name is Ye Yan and I am an adventurer. I was just helping the Alchemist''s Guild with the delivery this time." He spoke a little ufortable, without knowing what the eunuch want from him. "Hum. Good, very good! If you are an adventurer, it''s the best. I need help with something that only an adventurer can do, and as I can''t leave the Pce, I didn''t have a way to contact one before." Hao Haoxue became excited as he spoke. "I will be honored to help. Please tell me what you need." Ye Yan finally felt like exchange some silver for his entry into the Pce was worth it. "What I need is not something easy to acquire. I heard that the Goblin Chieftan of the goblin''s tribe that invaded the mountain forest in the northeast of the city acquired a recipe for a very precious potion that can help me. What I need is that you kill him and bring that recipe to me as well as its ingredients, and I will pay you handsomely for it." System: ''Eunuch Hao Haoxue has a quest for you. Will you ept it?'' "Don''t worry. I soon will bring it to you." The ce that the eunuch wants him to go is the first dungeon avable in the region and only level 5 yers can enter, and probably this Goblin Chieftan is one of the bosses of the dungeon. And as he is bound to go there anyway, the better. "Good. My life will depend on you now. Please take care and bring those items to me as soon as you can. You are my only hope." The NPC acted a little too dramatic that Ye Yan thought maybe this quest is more important than it looks at first. He opened the scroll that has the quest''s details and took a look. . Quest: [A Eunuch''s regret] Description: Help eunuch Hao Haoxue change his life. Type: Unique Difficult: S Objetive: Bring the recipe to Hao Haoxue. Progress: Step 1: Kill the Goblin Chieftan (0/1), acquire the Wonder Potion recipe (0/1). . This [Wonder Potion] must be a real treasure with this name and the ability to change the eunuch''s life. Maybe he can use this recipeter to help his future guild. The eunuch leads Ye Yan to the West Gate that is on the opposite side of the one he entered and apanied him until he was out of the Pce because he can''t walk alone inside the Pce. On his way back, he could see from afar the imponent rows of mystical animal statuettes ced along the ridgeline of halls that were only for official use[6]. Stone and bronze lions can be seen beside the entrance of many halls [7] guarding the ce, and they are positioned in pairs with the female on the left and the male on the right. Rows of auspicious animal statues, such as dragons, phoenixes, and lions, were ced along roof ridges of the important halls to invoke prosperity and good fortune. And to keep the birds fromnding on the roofs, so as to retain the cleanliness and magnificence of the Pce, the slope of each roof was made higher and the roof spine wider than the width between a bird''s ws so that birds are unable tond on the roofs. Also, the roofs are made of zed tile, which is very slippery, making it impossible for birds tond on them. Ye Yan observed everything so if he needs to enter the Pceter, it would be easier for him to find his way inside. The majestic Outer Court has no trees, probably to make it difficult to assassins to hide there, so it would be no ready matter to find a ce in this part of the Pce where he could conceal himself. He noted that one of the areas in the west part of the Pce that he could see from afar, has an architecture different from the rest, with a strong Arabic style [8] but don''t know what is the meaning of this, maybe it is a very important ce. In the Pce, he could see many cats that the eunuch told him belonged to the imperial concubines. At least they aren''t dogs or it would make it more difficult if he wants to enter the Pce in secret in the future. Ye Yan left the Pce and decided to apply to some quests from the Adventurer''s Guild so he could farm some experience while his friends are still doing their quests. On the way to the West Branch of the guild, he saw a man holding a travel bag, with formal clothes and most important, a very shocking green hat. After seeing it and the way the yers wereughing at him while he kept a clueless expression, Ye Yan couldn''t stand still and went to speak with the NPC. "My name is Ye Yan and I am an adventurer. Can I ask you something if you don''t mind?" "My name is He Zhixing. It''s a pleasure to meet you." He curled his left hand and sped it with the right, then ced both hands above the left hip and did a small curtsy, bowing slightly with knees bent. "Feel free to ask" "Well... Why are you wearing a green hat?" The NPC was so polite that he didn''t know how to tell him about the green hat. "This?" He took off his hat and show it to Ye Yan. "This hat was given to me by my dear wife. She told me that this hat can give me luck in my travels and serve as a kind of amulet of protection." He said smiling. ''Oh no!'' How he will tell this NPC about the meaning of the green hat? And that his dear wife may not be very loyal to him. System: ''You started the quest [The Green Hat]. Now you need to look for a way to the clueless gentleman to find the truth by himself.'' ''Ow, who would know that we can get quests like that?'' Ye Yan thought to himself. "You see... In truth, the green hat doesn''t have a very good meaning and probably your wife doesn''t know about it. So you should go back to your house right now and tell her. I will apany you so I can tell her personally, what do you think?" Ye Yan spoke with a calm face. "Sounds good. I think my wife would never have imagined it, poor thing." He leads Ye Yan to his house which is located in the Southwest part of the city. He followed him and looked at the quest details on the way. . Quest: [The Green Hat] Description: Sometimes even being a busybody can help enlighten others. Type: Special Objective: Help the gentleman to find the truth about his wife by himself. Difficult: D . Ye Yan:... He really is acting like a busybody. At least it is a quest and maybe it can give him something good. As he already started it, so he will make it to the end. .... [1] I am using the characteristics and measures of the Forbidden City (China) to describe the Purple Pce. [2] The main gate in the Forbidden Pce is Meridian Gate in the south. [3] In ancient times, the number of doornails symbolized status. Nine is thergest singr number, symbolizing supremacy. [4] During the Ming and Qing dynasties. [5] Eunuchs, or ''non-men'', are men that said bye-bye for a certain important part of their bodies. Both parts were removed, generally with a single sh of a small, slightly curved de of about 14,5 cm. The local anesthetic during thete Qing dynasty was hot chili sauce, and the parts to be removed were disinfected by washing them three times in hot pepper water. These emascted men served as pce menials, spies, and harem watchdogs. The eunuch system came to an end when it was abolished on November 5, 1924. And all this was because the emperor didn''t want to wear a green hat, be a cuckold, get horns and many other variants depending on the culture. [6] The number of animals is different based on the importance of the buildings. You can see nine animals on the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the most important structure in the Forbidden City, and seven on the Pce of Earthly Tranquility, the residence of the Empress. [7] In Chinese culture, the lion is the king of the animals and is regarded as a symbol of power and strength, and is popr as symbolic guardians. [8] It is named Yude Hall and is in the northwest of the Hall of Military Eminence. It was built as a bathroom in the Yuan Dynasty (12711368). The Yuan Dynasty set its capital in Beijing, and a Persian architect was involved in the design of Beijing. He brought Persian architectural ideas to China and designed the Arabic-style bathroom. Fonte: China highlights Chapter 22: A busybodys reward Chapter 22: A busybody''s reward He Zhixing leads Ye Yan to his home, talking a lot on their way about his life and how his wife is beautiful and kind. And Ye Yan''s only thought is how he got himself in this situation where he has to break an NPC''s heart. He will never do such a thing again in-game or real-life. When they were getting near his house, his neighbors looked at him with surprised expressions, probably because he got home so early when he should be traveling to another city. It looks like everyone knows about his wife''s affair, and Ye Yan was the only nosy person that couldn''t stand the situation and had done something. When they arrived, the NPC made a strange expression. Ye Yan followed his look and saw a male pair of shoes. "Maybe my wife has visitors." He shook his head as to throw away his thoughts and lead him inside. Some loud sounds came from the interior of the house. They follow the voices to a ce that should be a bedroom and, finally, the NPC looked like to be doubting something. The house is small and only has a little courtyard and 3 to 4 rooms, so they find it right away. Ye Yan was afraid of what kind of situation they would find when the door open. Many things were passing in his mind, making the tip of his ears be red. All of a sudden, He Zhixing opened the door abruptly and he heard two people scream from inside. "Zhixin! What happened? Why you came back?" His wife asked a little exalted while trying to hide something. "..." "You almost scared me to death now!" "Who is this person?" He asked with a serious expression. "I think I can''t hide it from you any longer." She sighed. "This is He Gongmin. She is teaching me how to embroider, and I want to make a dress for your birthday." She said timidly. "And who is this? This is our room. Other men shouldn''t be here." Ye Yan never thought that the situation would y as such. He had misunderstood everything. He should have remembered his job change quest and not jump to conclusions without knowing the facts. "Sorry! Excuse me. I will wait outside." He got away from there like his butt was on fire. After a while, He Zhixing and his wifee and he had to exin the meaning of the green color. And while doing so, he didn''t know how much ashamed he felt about everything. Now he understood how bad it can be if a person jumps to a conclusion without knowing all the facts. "What?" She almost yelled the word while covering her mouth. "I would never think... such a thing..." She looked so full of regret that even Ye Yan pitied her. "He said that using this color would bring fortune and happiness." "Who told you that?" He Zhixing asked his wife. "It was Hao Xianya." ''Pa''. He smacked the table with force. "How dare he? Trick you like that is unforgivable!" He looked at Ye Yan and asked. "Hao Xianya is our neighbor. He is very strong and I had to admit that I am not his opponent in a fight, so can you help me with this? If you beat him for me, I will give you two scrolls that I have in my possession." System: ''He Zhixin has a quest for you. Will you ept it? This is the opportunity for you to wash away your shame.'' "I will help you. Just show me where I can find him." Ye Yan felt like even the system isughing at him now. He will never speak about this situation to others. "Good. Please follow me." He Zhixing took him to the front of the house near his and called the other NPC out. Hees out with a sarcastic smile on his face. "Did you change your hat? That one suited you so well." Hao Xianya said with his hyena''s voice and dog face. The beastman looked as if asking for a punch. So, as Ye Yan wanted to end this quest as soon as possible and get away from this ce, he just beat him up until the wolfman started to meow. The wolfman wasn''t strong, he is only a level 3 NPC, so it was easy for him to defeat him. The problem was that Ye Yan used him to vent his frustrations and the result was that the NPC became unrecognizable. Ye Yan sighed in satisfaction, thest time that he had done stic surgery for free on someone was a long time ago, and he felt so good and rxed now. It was much better than meditation. "It''s done! Now I need to go." "Oh, right, right. Here are the scrolls that I told you before." Even the NPC was surprised by Ye Yan''s barbarian ways. When he asked for him to beat him, he thought about a few punches and not a total make-over. System: ''Youpleted the quest [The Green Hat]. You gained 50 exp. and 2 scrolls. . [Basic Scroll of Teleportation] (Scroll - consumable) Description: It can immediately transport you to thest city you have been to. Effect: Teleport you to the Teleportation Hall of thest city that you have been to. Cast Time: 5 seconds. . [Scroll of Cleansing] (Scroll - Consumable) Description: It rid the mind of all impurities. Effect: Reduce poison and curse effects by 20%. Cast Time: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 2 hours. . "Thank you and now, goodbye!" Ye Yan runs away as fast as he could until he emptied his stamina bar. He doesn''t want to even remember this shame, and from now on, he will remember to look for the facts before deciding anything. After the fiasco, he went to the Adventurer''s Guild to look for some quests to do while he waits for his friends toplete their quests. The quest board was filled with all kinds of quests that vary from clean somece until defeat a [Beheemoth]. The only quest that Ye Yan could do now and that wasn''t a waste of time for him because of the bad rewards, was to kill 100 [Boa]. He applied for the quest and gave up on the [Collect 100 Soft Silk], a level 1 quest that he didn''t even begin before. . Quest: [Kill 100 Boas] Description: The snake''s poption next to the city is increasing exponentially and the farmers are suffering from its attackers. Objective: Kill 100 [Boa]. They are located in the area southwest of the city. Requirement: Level 5 Type: Repeatable Difficult: B . Ye Yan purchased 10 [Minor Healing Potion] for 10 coppers each, 10 [Water Bottle] for 1 copper each, and 5 [Bread] for 3 coppers each, so he wouldn''t have to worry about healing potions and food soon. After the purchase, he went to the area where the snakes are located to kill them while waiting for some news from his friends. When they finish the job change quest, the yer receives a [Communication Stone] that enables them to speak with others in long distances. A yer can do a specific quest to get this item at level 5 too, so it isn''t necessary for them to job change to get it. He chose to do this kind of quests until he has enough money to buy at least 5 [Basic Teleportation Scroll] so he will not waste too much time walk here and there while doing quests and it will make it possible for him to go far from the city. When he arrived at the location, he didn''t need to look for them because he was attacked at the moment that he entered the area. The [Boa] is a 2-meter long green snake with a broad, triangr head and elliptical, slit-like eyes, resembling a cat, which are characteristics of a poisonous snake. . [Boa] (Normal) Description: Get too near and you will get the tightest hug that you have ever had. Level 5 HP: 572 . He started the battle and saw that a snake is very different from all the other enemies that he had a fight with until now. They are very fast to attack and can wrap themselves around people, and if they bite, a yer will get poisoned. Ye Yan dodges the snake attacks but had a very difficult time trying to attack because they were very fast to evade him too, and even faster when they tried to hit him back. He could only battle one at a time or he would just be poisoned to death, even before killing one. Now he understood that at level 5 the yers can get a ss, but the monsters got an upgrade as well. If he didn''t have such a high defense, it wouldn''t be possible for him to do this quest alone. Chapter 23: Skill Proficiency Chapter 23: Skill Proficiency The snakes were attacking Ye Yan viciously and without stopping, but he was adapting fast and soon started fighting 2 or 3 at the same time. The difficulty that he was experiencing is because he stillcks good equipment for his level, most of the ones he uses are level 1 or 3. The drop rate of equipment is very low and as he leveled up so fast, there was no time to farm, resulting in his character being very poor in terms of equipment. If his job change quest wasn''t of S difficult, the quality of his items would be really bad. His weapon and gloves can be considered a luxury that few yers can have ess to in this stage of the game, even more, the skills that he got are almost unreachable to 98% of the yers. Dungeons and quests have always been the best way to get good equipment in most games, but some are too difficult for normal yers toplete, making the good items a luxury that only elite yers can have ess to, or to people that have enough money to spend. This situation usually bes more apparent, the more you progress in the game. Ye Yan is trying to not use his skills but only basic attackers and techniques as a form of training and it is proving effective because hisbat abilities are improving very fast. And the snakes are bing a very good training partner for him to improve his dodge capabilities. In addition to evasion, he is polishing his attacks and defense with the fan. Ye Yan couldn''t be more pleased with the weapon that is reveling to be the most suitable weapon for him, because it not only can be used to attack but it can be used as a shield too. It didn''t have the same defensive power as a heavy shield but it can block attacks well. When the snakes attack, he opens the fan and puts his left hand behind it to help keep it steed while blocking. Ye Yan is fighting the snakes as if he was dancing in a very elegant way. He is dodging the snakes'' attacks while keeping his left hand behind his back and using his right hand to open the fan and shing against them or using his right hand to hold the fan and his left to stead it to defend. He is bing so proficient in it that his dodges and attacks are pure and simple now, without any excess movements. And every time that he kills a snake, he fans himself leisurely. After getting used to the snakes, he started to mob them and use his skills to help in killing them and train for when he will be inside the dungeons. He used [Provoke] to lower their defense, so they would take more damage from his attacks. System: ''You used the skill [Provoke] sessfully. You gained 1 proficient point[1]. Every time you use an active skill (Offensive or Defensive) sessfully, you will gain proficiency points in the referred skill. Please look at the details of your skills for more information. The system will not keep updating you about proficiency points in the future, so for you to have a more realistic experience in Second Life.'' . [Provoke] (Skill - Active: Defensive) (Level 1 - Novice) Description: Come hit me, sucker! Effect: Lowers the enemy DEF by (3+3*Skill level)% and increases their ATK by (1+Skill Lvl)% for 10 seconds. Cooldown: (20 - skill level) seconds. ss requirement: Fighter, Swordman Proficiency: 1/1,000 . When Ye Yan discovered that a piece of new information appeared in the skill''s detail, he understood that some info will only be revealed after he unlocks certain functions in the game[2]. He continues to use his skills to familiarize himself with them and gain proficiency. When he used [Bash] the damage dealt was very high, but he discovered a not-so-good thing, the skill consumes AP, but this stat didn''t recover with time. He probably will have to learn some skill that regenerates AP in the future, until then, he will have to save the skills that cost AP to use only in critical times. . [Bash] (Skill - Active: Offensive) (Level 2 - Novice) Description: You strike hard and violently your foe. Effect: You attack your enemy with ATK equal to (100+20*Skill level) %. Secondary effect: Has (1+ Skill level) % chance to Stun the target. Cost: 1 AP Cooldown: None ss Requirement: Fighter, Swordman Proficiency: 1/1,000 . After he had killed the 100 [Boa]s, he started to walk back to the city. The game is making the yers walk so much that if it was in real life, they would be prepared to run in Marathons. He wants a fast mount or some kind of skill that could help with it, but it seems that only yers above level 20 can start the quest to acquire one. When he was halfway to the city, his [Communication Stone] reacted. "Hello! This is Ye Yan speaking." He answered the call in the same way that he does in real life. "Hahaha! It worked! And you even forgot that it is a call in the game and used your real-life name. Hehe. Where are you now? I just registered myself in the Adventurer''s Guild and am ready to some action." Tang Yunfan was really excited that now he has the minimum level to do dungeons and he knows that it will be the best way for them to get some good equipment. He is already calction how many dungeons they could do in a day, and how much surplus equipment they would have to put for auction. He wants to take advantage that their level is high, so they could sell items to other yers that are having a harder time leveling. He is even thinking about carrying yers to level up for money. Tang Yunfan was so lost in his excitement that he forgot that if he didn''t utilize this advantage to get more distance in levels to the other yers, he will only waste all his efforts until now. "I am almost in the city. You need to calm down because it is already toote to do any other quests or something like that today. I will turn in my quests in the guild and logoff. You should do the same because you are ying twice the time that I am." Ye Yan started to y at midnight today, but his friends are ying since before 6 p.m. "Ok... I will look at some shops before I logout. Second Bro and Little Ling should be finishing their quest soon too. They told me that they should finish it today, so tomorrow we can start dungeoning." "Do the others are finishing their job change too?" He was surprised that they got a 10 yers party almost ready. "Yes. Even Xiao Xiao that I thought would take a little longer, was almost finishing it thest time I speak with Little Ling." "Good! I almost can''t wait for our party to get together." .... [1] The proficiency will be a little like in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, in which the damage of the skill (or the numbers of attacks) will increase when you mastered a skill. [2] I will be updating the Database as the pieces of information are being introduced in the novel. Chapter 24: The first conflict Chapter 24: The first conflict "Finally!" Qian Zhong was thest to log out of the game today, and when he got to the living room, he began to yell in excitement announcing his arrival. "What happened?" Tang Yunfan asked while smiling at his friend''s enthusiasm. "I became an archer! It was difficult but worth it. And I got a bow and some quivers with 100 arrows each as the quest''s reward, hehe." He was almost jumping all over the room. "The three of us had already job changed. You don''t need to do all this spectacle just because of this." Hu Ling scolded him. "You know that it was more difficult for me toplete the quest because of my transformations. I had to wait 10 minutes every time I became a fox. It is so unfair!" "A puppy, no a true fox yet. And it''s not unfair in the least because the spirit beast''s racial trait is a bonus of 30% in movement speed. If your race didn''t have this disadvantage at the beginning of the game, every spirit beast would have a higher level than the other races. "What''s important now is that everyone is ready to party together and do dungeons. Everyone agreed to meet in the North Branch of the Adventurer''s Guild to apply to start the dungeon together. Now that I think about it, you guys didn''t tell me who are thest two party members yet." Ye Yan looked at Hu Ling for an answer. "Well... I got two girls to join us, but... You need to see for yourself. All the prettydies that I know are low-level and don''t will be enabled to do dungeons until 3 to 4 dayster, so I invited two special girls to our party." Hu ling told him while looking a little ufortable. "What do you mean by special? What is the problem with these two girls?" Ye Yan inquired. "They are not normal. Why all the girls that joined our party have problems? First, that Xiao girl chose to be a female dwarf and looks worse than a bearded woman in a circus. And now, one is a halfling and looked like a child. If I look at her for more than a quick look, I would feel like a pedophile, and it''s a no-no for me. Thest one... She decided to y as a cross-gender as a form of support for her gay brother. Yes, bro, thest girl that joins our party looks like a big man with a sexy woman voice, it gives me goosebumps every time I heard her voice, but what I can do? Few yers are at our levels and didn''t join a party yet." Hu Ling looked like to be in pain when he told them about the girls. "Puff." Ye Yan was drink water when he heard Hu Ling, so couldn''t keep it in and spite everything on him. "Fuck! Can you be a little more ssy?" He Ling got a shirt that was on the couch to wipe himself. "Hey! It''s mine!"Tang Yunfan pulled his shirt from him, but not before Hu Ling wipe himself. "You know that shirt was full of my sweat, right?" "Fuck!" Hu Ling runs to the bathroom. What he hated the most is to have contact with other male sweat. .... At 6 p.m. in real-life time, all ten members of the party meet in front of the Adventurer''s Guild. Finally, Ye Yan could know the rest of the team. The team is formed by two fighters, three mages, one archer, one thief, one swordsman, and two doctors. The two new girls are Thumbelina, a doctor halfling, and Mage of the Cold Nights, a male elemental mage. And the other woman on the team, Xiao Xiao, is a dwarf doctor named Snow White. All of them entered the Adventurer''s Guild''s building and applied to enter the dungeon so they would receive some item to help them, like potions, water and food, and a pass that they will need to show to the soldiers guarding the entrance of the Mountain Forest for them to be allowed to enter the dungeon. In this way, only yers that job changed or level 8 and higher can enter the dungeon. Contrary to what the others thought, Ye Yan was happy with the teamposition and with the three women because with them being like that, he doesn''t will feel nervous as happen when he is near any other woman. Before they go to the Mountain Forest, Ye Yan asked the two doctors to decide who will get the [Heal] spellbook that dropped from Keremeet a few days ago. Snow White won in the rock-paper-scissors and got the spell. They walked for one and half hours to get to the Mountain Forest. There, they showed the pass to the guards and went in the entrance direction, but just before they entered the dungeon, another group of yers arrived and tried to stop them. "Stop right there!" Someone said, but they pretend that they didn''t hear them and keep going to the entrance. "Do you guys are deaf?" Someone ran and stopped in front of them. "We told you to stop!" "You want to speak but we chose not to hear. Now get out of our way." Ye Yan said calmly. "What? Do you know with who you are talking?" The guy started to yell. "Please, anything but these cliche lines. Can''t you think about something more original to say?" Spell Bound said looking down on him. "What? You!" He said pointing to Spell Bound. "Did this guy read a Viin Guidebook?" Spell Bound said to his friends while pointing to him with his head. "You, you, you." He didn''t know how to respond and started to repeat the same word. "Tsk, really boring." Spell Bound smirked. "We are from yers Guild and will be entering the dungeon first. You guys should go back because this isn''t a ce for noobies." The one that looked like the leader said to them. Ye Yan looked at him measuring. "Noobies?" He shook his head like saying ''So sad, the number of brain dead people are increasing so muchtely''. He sighed. "First, there is no guild emblem on your chest, and don''t will be for a long time because it is too expensive right now without the money exchange between real life and the game. Second, no noobies are at level 5 at this stage of the game. Andstly, I really like to beat cocky people like you, so if you want to continue with your nonsense, I will be pleased in showing you the fate of those that don''t know their ce." "What? Do you dare to speak to me like that?" The party leader said. Spell Bound facepalms himself. "Beat them already or they will kill me with so many cliche lines." "dly!" Conan said and attacked the one that stopped them before. "Kill these nobodies!" The party leader ordered them. Ye Yan sighed and started his killing spree. The equipment of the other party is a little better them theirs but thebat abilities of Ye Yan and Conan were on another levelpared to them. Both of them were taking more than one enemy at a time and the rest were shared between the other members of the party. The mages, thief, and swordsman attacked the two doctors of the other party first and killed them fast with [Fire Bolt] and [Ice Bolt], which were the basic spells that the mages get as a reward in their job change quests. They have to choose one between two spells as rpense at the end of their quests, so Spell Bound and Dovakin chose Fire Bolt, and Mage of the Cold Nights got Ice Bolt. . [Fire Bolt] (Spell - Active: Offensive) Description: Create a bolt of fire to hit your enemies. Effect: Hit the target with one Fire Bolt with damage equal to (100+Skill Level*5)% of MATK. Cost: (1+Skill Level*2.5) MP Cast Time: (2 + Skill level*0.25) seconds of concentration Cooldown: 1 second Property: Fire Range: 30 meters ss Requirement: Mage . [Ice Bolt] (Spell - Active: Offensive) Description: Create a bolt of ice to hit your enemies. Effect: Hit the target with one Ice Bolt with damage equal to (100+Skill Level*5)% of MATK. Cost: (1+Skill Level*2.5) MP Cast Time: (2 + Skill level*0.25) seconds of concentration Cooldown: 1 second Property: Ice Range: 30 meters ss Requirement: Mage . The werecat thief, I Love Skooma, and the wolfman swordsman, Mad Dog, ganged up on one mage at a time to kill it faster. And the physical sses were taken care of by Jun Xie (Ye Yan) and Conan. While the dwarf doctor, Snow White, used the miracle [Heal] to cure the party members, and both Thumbelina and herself use [Cure Wounds] to treat them. . [Heal] (Miracle - Active: Utility) Description: I will heal your heart. Effect: Heal a target HP for {MATK*(1+Skill Level/2)}. Cost: (10+Skill Level*10) MP Cast Time: 1 second of concentration Cooldown: 10 seconds Property: Holy Range: 30 meters Weapon ss Requirement: Rod ss Requirement: Doctor and Holy advanced sses . [Cure Wounds] (Miracle - Active: Utility) Description: Treat a wounded target. Effect: HA target you touch regain health points equal to MATK + (1*Skill Level/2)% Cost: (10+Skill Level*2) MP Cast Time: Instantaneous Cooldown: 3 seconds Property: Neutral Range: Touch Weapon ss Requirement: Unrestrict ss Requirement: Doctor and Merchant . They defeated the enemy party in just 1 minute, but when the doctors were healing the party memberster, a little problem urred. "What the fuck! You, get away from me!" Qian Zhong yelled at Thumbelina. "What''s the problem?" She asked without understanding the reason for his extreme reaction, but when Ye Yan, Conan, and Spell Bound looked at her weapon the three of them said "Ahnnn" at the same time, as they got enlightened. "Huahuah. You don''t know but your weapon is the problem." Conan couldn''t contain hisugher. "Why?" She continues without understanding what is going on. "Shut up!" Demon Fox yelled at him because he doesn''t want the others to know about his weakness. "Hehehe. The fat here is afraid to death of syringes, and that is exactly what you have in your hand." Spell Bound told them. "Pfft!" The others couldn''t contain themselves andughed at the situation. "Stop it and let''s get inside the dungeon." Qian Zhong looked at Snow White and said pointing to Thumbelina while trying to do a cute face. "Please, take care of me and don''t let that one get near me, ok?" "Don''t worry." She answered smiling at him. When everyone was in full health, they got ready to enter the dungeon. Chapter 25: White Birch Mountain Forest Chapter 25: White Birch Mountain Forest The entrance of the Mountain Forest is a very simple but beautiful Paifang[1], with two wooden pirs onto stone bases that are bound together with two wooden beams. The pirs are painted red and the roof was covered with red-colored tiles. In the lower of the two beams is written ''White Birch Mountain Forest'' with beautiful calligraphy[2], but the ''White Birch'' was marked with an "x" and the name Goblin was engraved rustically on top of it as if to dere ownership of the ce. This is the only way to enter the dungeon because all the ces around the mountain are formed by very closely spaced trees, thorny bushes, and rocks, making it impossible for even a cat to pass through it. When the party was entering through the gate, they heard the system message asking them to choose the difficulty of the dungeon. System: Please select the dungeon difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard, Torment, Nightmare, or Hell. "Which difficulty do we should choose? Hell mode probably has the best drops." Conan asked Ye Yan, that looked back at him with pity. "Idiot!" Spell Bound didn''t mince his words. "We arecking in equipment right now, with most of them being level 1. To challenge a high difficult mode like this is suicide, even more considering that the doctors in the team don''t have any resurrection skills. I battled some level 5 snakes before and discovered there is a huge difference between level 4 and 5. The dungeon''s monster must be even more powerful than those snakes, so if we chose a higher level, we will be team wiped after 5 minutes after entering the dungeon or earlier. And this will be the first time that we will be fighting as a team, so we need to train our teamwork before tried something that will need more chemistry between the members. There is the fact that we don''t know the map too. The better we can do now is choose the normal difficulty and challenge the others as we get better equipment." The dungeons have limited daily entry ording to the difficulty. The Easy mode has unlimited entries, the Normal mode can be challenge five times a day, the Hard mode, four times, the Torment mode, three times, the Nightmare mode, two times, and finally, the parties have only one chance to enter the Hell mode daily. "It''s not like we are some time travelers that know everything that can happen inside the dungeon. It will be lucky if we can defeat all the bosses in the first try on Normal mode already. I have read that the monsters in Second Life have a strong AI and are not limited to certain attack patterns, which will make it harder to finish the dungeon." Hu Ling added. "I got it. Normal mode, it is." Conan said while feeling disheartened. He is thinking about when he will finally be able to stop doing his frence jobs and focus solely on the game. Ye Yan chose the Normal mode and they entered the dungeon. System: You have entered ''White Trees Mountain Forest'' on Normal Mode. When they entered the dungeon, it was like they had just continued walking and not changed the map. Even from outside, they could be seen walking further inside. If another party wants to enter the dungeon, they will have to wait until they can''t see the team that got in before them. And when they enter, it will be a different stance, they just won''t feel it. "Remember to stay together and don''t roam around alone. I will go in front, followed by Mad Dog and I Love Skooma. The mages need to follow behind them, and the doctor should positioning themselves between the mages and Conan, which will be protecting our rear. Stay in position while we go further." Ye Yan instructed. Ya Yan''s party walked further inside and a few secondster couldn''t be seen because the vegetation of the area is too close together. Ye Yan had to change position with Conan because another kind of weapon is needed to open the way, to cut the branches that block the way. After 5 minutes, they arrived in a clearing and could change back to the original positioning. Not far from them, there are a group of 3 goblins working. They are humanoid creatures, with about 120 cm in height, green skin, t faces, broad noses, pointed ears, wide mouths, and sharp fangs. They were only using loincloths and a weapon holster on their backs or their waist. They have a different kind of weapon each. "They are of your height Thumbelina. What do you think?" Mad Dog said smiling meaningfully and got a middle finger gesture back as an answer. "It looks like they areying traps there. I saw those traps many times when I was doing my job change quest. The dungeon should have many hidden traps." I Love Skooma warned his teammates. "They probably are here as a way to remember us that the monsters aren''t our only problem in the dungeon. Do you learned some skill to disarm traps?" Ye Yan asked the thief. "No, but I got the passive skill [Perception] that makes me feel the danger in an area of 2 meters around me." I Love Skooma answered. "That will help. Let''s wait for a little to see if one of them gets away from the rest or we will have to fight all three at the same time." Ye Yan said to his teammates. They waited for only 3 minutes when one of them separated from the others and went to a ce near them. . [Green Goblin] (Normal) [3] Description: These small, mischievous and malicious creatures are always looking for opportunities to get their hands on some treasure. Level: 5 HP: 432 . Ye Yan got near the monster and used [Provoke] to stabilizes the agro faster. The Goblin''s HP is lower than the snakes that he fought before but his defense is higher. Ye Yan''s normal attacks can take only 13 damage or 14 to 15 under provoke. After 6 seconds, he gave a signal to his teammates to attack. The difference between the monster inside and outside the dungeons is in the strong AI of the dungeon monsters. But Ye Yan doesn''t know if it is only because of the dungeon or the race of the enemy, after all, this is the first time they battle a humanoid monster, not counting the devils of his job change quest. The Goblin has an ax that he knows how to make use of. He is attacking Ye Yan from various angles and never used the same patterns. Ye Yan is using the same technique that he fought the devils before but this time, he is using his fan to help deflect the attacks. In this way, he kept the Goblin in ce while tanking, making it easier for his teammates to attack. Although the Goblin defense is high, it can''t be said of his magic defense. They are weak to the fire and ice magic, making the three mages damage them in about 27 HP with every spell. The swordsman is attacking with his normal attacks and using [sh], and the thief and Conan are only using their normal attacks. With all of them working together, the Goblin didn''tst for more than 10 seconds after the other started to attack. When he fell, nothing dropped from him but it is the first monster so there are still many more in the dungeon. "This monster is not very strong, so I will tank the two others at the same time." Ye Yan said then looked at I Love Skooma. "Do you think there is any trap in the area near the goblins?" "I can''t say for sure. I will walk beside you using my [Perseption] until before we get in the aggro range." "Good." They went near the goblins and Ye Yan pick a stone from the ground and threw it at them to attract their attention. In this way, he will not risk step on a trap for getting in a ce that I Love Skooma didn''t use his skill on. Every member of the party is an elite yer, so even this being the first time that all of them fight together, the teamwork was good and they killed the Goblins easily. With Ye Yan tanking the monster, the doctor keeping everyone in full health, and the other attacking, the battle ended in less than 40 seconds. "Is it just my impression or does it seem too easy even for a beginner dungeon?" Ye Yan barely finished talking when they started to heard buzzing sounds. The sound of battle before attracted the attention of the other animal of the forest and now, it is toote for them to do anything but fight. ... [1] Paifang, also know as pailou, is a traditional style of Chinese architectural arch or gateway structure. [2] White Birch (Baihua) is a slender, fast-growing tree with thin bark and bears catkins. There is a mountain on the west side of Beijing, China, named like this. But in the novel, the vegetation is different from the real ce. [3]In this dungeon, they are one of the goblin subtypes from European origins. There are many subtypes of goblins in the world, belonging to different cultures: Dokkaebi is a goblin subtype from Korean mythology and folklore; the Tengu are from Japan and China, Gremlin from the United Kingdom and North America (the USA and Canada only), the Redcap from Ennd and Scond, the Chupacabra (Goat Sucker) from Puerto Rico and Brazil (there are reports of appearances of this creature two decades ago), and many other subtypes. Chapter 26: Swarm Chapter 26: Swarm The forest was rtively quiet a few seconds ago, but now it bes noisy, loud buzzing sounds could be heard each time nearer to the yers. The buzzing wasing from all sides, making it difficult for them to hear each other speak. "I fell like something entered my ear. This sound is making me crazy!" Demon Fox said, covering his ears trying to lower the sound, but with little sess because the buzzing was too loud for it to work. One minuteter, they could finally see the origin of the buzzing sounds. A swarm of hundreds of bees came out of the forest''s trees and surrounded the team members. Each one of them was about 30 cm in height, striped in yellow and ck, have twopound eyes, two antennae, two giant wings on its back, four legs, and a big and terrifying stinger in the tip of its abdomen. The bees weren''t strong but the number could make up for theck of strength. And there are, at least, three hundred of them. . [Giant Apis Cerana] (Normal) [1] Description: These bees can swarm over and stinging you to death. Level: 5 HP: 40 . "Shit! What will we do now? Just looking at them, I feel goosebumps all over." Demon Fox said, looking at the sting of the honeybees that looked worse than any injection that he had ever seen in his life. "We can only fight them, of course. Better you fight with us, I know you, so if you try to run away because of your fear of the sting, I will make your life hell." Spell Bound warned his friend that where looking like he could flee the battle at any moment. "Do you think I am the kind of person that would abandon a friend because of this?" Demon Fox asked indignantly. "Yes! That''s why I''m warning you." Spell Bound said with an ''It''s obvious'' face. "Hey! It is something I would do in another kind of situation but I am not someone that would run away when a friend needs me." Demon Fox dered like it was an oath. "I believe you". Snow White said smiling kindly at him but the effect wasn''t so good with a bearded face. "Thank you. You are the best." Demon Fox saidplementing the phrase with an ''even with this kind of face'', in his mind. "Get ready for battle, guys! They are almost here!" Ye Yan warned his teammates while trying to think of a strategy to counter the honeybees. "Stay together. Mages and doctors in the center. The other make a circle around them. Kill as many as you can and try to attack more than one at the same time." The mages can only attack one bee with each spell and they use clothes that have low defense, turning them into an easy target. "And Demon Fox, control yourself!" Demon Fox, after the job change, stoped transforming every 10 minutes but if he became nervous, he would turn into a puppy again, like now. After the words of Ye Yan, he got back to normal and tried to control himself with every fiber in his body. The honeybees started to attack them but as space was limited, just a few could fight them at the same time. Ye Yan was using his fan as it was a fly killer swatter, killing them extremely fast. And because of their 0 defense, he could kill one with each attack of his weapon. He turned into a killer bee machine himself. The other members were not bad either. Conan was moving his big two-hand weapon like an electric fan, protecting the team and killing the bees. Mad Dog was doing the same but with two one-hand swords. I Love Skooma was using his attack speed to kill them fast using a knife in each hand. The mages could one-hit them too, but their attacks were slower because of the cast time and cooldown of their skills. The doctors were helping the team members and Fox Demon, drawing strength from his fear, was attacking in a freezing, using his skill [Triple Shot] to hit 3 bees every time he uses the skill. With the team working together, attacking and protecting each other, the honeybees'' numbers were lowering fast. But some idents inevitably happened. I Love Skooma was swarmed over by more than 6 bees that started to flutter, increasing his temperature, making him take fire damage [1]. The other were fast and started to attack the bees to save their teammate while the doctors were keeping him alive. System: Your teammate ''I Love Skooma'' was cursed. "Beware of the curse! Try to no let them swarm over you" Ye Yan yelled at his teammates because the buzzing were too loud to them to heard him. All party members started to get closer to each other until there is no space for a bee to pass through but enough for the mages and doctor to use their skills. Ye Yan used Provoke every time it was off cooldown, to lighten the burden over his teammates. His passive skill [Iron-blooded Warrior] make him take little to no damage from the honeybees but he still feel the stings pricking his skin. And thanks to his dodging skill and attacks, the didn''t get swarmed by the bees, even when he got 1 meter away from them while circling around trying to reduce the bees that can go in their teammates direction. Like that they can focus more in attack the beed from above. System: You have been affected by the curse [Allergy]. . [Allergy] (Curse) Description: You have been sting by bee and it started a allergic raection. Effect: The yer will lose 10HP every 30 seconds. Duration: 3 hours. . After took so many stings, Ye Yan was cursed by them. Before, I Love Skooma have been cursed because he was caught in the [Swarm] skill that have 100% change to inflict curse, but they have a 5% chance to curse on every [Sting] attack. And as Ye Yan got stinged so many times, he got cursed even with his curse resist of 7%, that decrease the chance from 5% to 4,65% and the effects by 7%. After more than half a hour, they finally killed thest of the bees. The battle was exhaustive, but they gaining a lot of experience points and drops from them. They yers went to collect the drops of the bees and two drops from the goblin that they neglected before because of the bees. The items that drop from monster or yers will only disappear after 5 hours, so they weren''t worried and if it came to worse, they would try to get as many drops before they died. The yers didn''t drop item upon death inside a dungeon as happen outside, but they still lose 1% experience points. That don''t look much but in higher levels this can mean more than a hundred equal level monster worth of experience. The yers they killed before lose 1% of experience each, but they were lucky because any item dropped. The chance of a equipment drop upon death is 10% and a bag item is 1%. And if a yer is cursed with [Heven Punishment], that happen when they attack another yer first, the experience lost and the chance of drop item upon death is double. The items that drop didn''t go to the yers bag but are kept in the [Party Contract Scroll] for 20 minutes until they distribute everything ording with the party contract rules and conditions, like if the items will be distribute ording to the party leader decisions or if any yer can apply to get the item. In this case, the contract will decided at random which yer will get it. The items dropped were basically potions, some level 3 equipment, and mieus items. . [Back Stab] (Skill Book) Description: A traitorous attack in the back of the target. Can only be used from behind the enemy. Effect: Damage the target in 30 + (20*Skill Level)%. Note: This attack can build aggro. Have 1% change to steal the aggro from the tank. Cost: 1 AP Cooldown: 1 minute ss Requeriment: Thief, Fighter, and Merchant . [Minor Healing Potion] (Consumable) Description: Replenish a character''s life. Effect: Restore 40 HP. . [Honey] (Consumable) Description: A very sweet and yummy product made by many kind of bees. Can be used in culinary or to made medicine. Effect: Restore 35 HP. . [Bee Sting] Description: A sting from a bee. This item get various original names as people got a test of it. Can be used to make poison. . [Compoud Eyes sses] (Wood, Armor: Headgear - Middle) Description: A cool sses that can make the wearer look like a fly. The sses can protect the eyes but obscure the vision. DEF + 6 Decrease vision range in 20 meters. Level Requeriment: 5 Durability: 30/30 Weight: 1 . [Sting de] (Bronze, Weapon: Dagger] Description: A balse made with bee stings. The tip of the de can cause additional damage. ATK + 20 DEX + 2 Level Requeriment: 5 Durability: 40/40 Weight: 8 . [Short Sword] (Bronze, Weapon: one-hand sword) Description: The more basic of the sword model. Even a idiot can use it. ATK +30 STR +2 Level Requeriment: 5 Durability: 40/40 Weight: 20 . Ye Yan handed the dagger to I Love Skooma that can use two at the same time, and the short sword to Mad Dog. And Thumbelina get the sses making a hrious figure when she wear it. He give the [Scroll of Cleansing] that he got from a previous quest to I Love Skooma to lesser the effects of the curse on him because he has less HP than him. "Wow, this is what is called dungeon drops. Both weapons were of Bronze Rank." Mad Dog eximed. The weapons that he and I Love Skooma hold were only Wooden Rank and the attake were very inferior to the new ones. "But get alive from the attack of so many bees was to easy matter. Who would imagine that the three goblins were the real trap?" Dovakin said a little indignant. He thought that a Normal mode dungeon would be easier. The difficult that the bees pose to yers were low, the problem is that the current yers equipment weren''t good enough to challenge dungeons. ost of them would have died instantanealy because even if the honeybees defense was low, their attacks were high and they can use skills too. "Now that we saw and feel how difficult the dungeon can be, we have to be more alert and try to use alternative methods of attacks in the battle as we have with the bees. Ye yan instructed his team. "And the drops are really good too. We can get more equipment and skills too." You could almost see two hearts in the eyes of I Love Skooma as he said it looking at his dagger. "I want new equipment too." Thumbelina said it in a serious way but with her height and child-like face, it looked like a child asking for a cookie. "Don''t worry, I think that everyone will get good item until we finish the dungeon." Conan said like a parent trying spoiling his child. "Let''s continue! We are only in the beginning of the dungeon yet." Ye Yan remembered the others that they had just entered the dungeon. ..... [1] Apis Cerana is an Asiatic honey bee, native to southern, southeastern, and eastern Asia. They use the same attack described but on hos. Chapter 27: Goblin Encampment Chapter 27: Goblin Encampment The party followed a human-made path in the forest while observing the surroundings attentively. There are many slender white trees with thin, peeling bark and catkins, all around, and the ground is covered by dry leaves, sounds of birds and of the wind blowing the trees could be heard. You can see the trees leaning slightly to one side because of the wind. On the ground, there are many ants walking in line to different ces and some tracks left by snakes. Ye Yan felt that if they weren''t in a dungeon, the scenery would be very rxing except for the snakes. He even imagines tying up a hammock between two trees for him to take a nap on it. I Love Skooma went first to see if there are any traps on the way because of his [Perception] skill. Luckily, there were only three traps but he managed to identify their location and disarm them. They were very simple traps that didn''t require any specific skills to disable or evade. One was a simple rope, almost touching the grounding, connecting two trees, and if you stumble upon it, a mechanism, consisting of a thick trunk attached by a rope, would activate and go in the person''s direction. The other was a rope arranged in a circle that would activate when someone steps on it, trapping him or her in the air. The third was a hole with sharp stakes inside and covered with leaves as camouge. There was a fourth but a wolf was caught on it and its body became covered by so many thorns that even the Pinhead [1] would be impressed. They walked for around 10 minutes until they started to heard voices speaking in a strangenguage, probably, the goblins'' tongue. They hid behind the trees and slowly approached the ce where the voices came from to see the situation there. Ye Yan made a ''keep silence'' gesture and observed the goblins. There were, at least, 10 goblins working inside an encampment. Some were walking hold firewood, others talking in the corner and thest two were cooking. He doesn''t know what was inside that cauldron but if the rotten smelling from there is any indication, must be something that died a very long time ago and even the worms didn''t want it. Not only Ye Yan but his teammates as well, covered their noses when the stench got to them. Ye Yan''s face was bing green at an rming speed that the others started to worry about him. The technique of taking a deep breath to calm down didn''t work in this situation, so the only option for him was kind of trying to hypnotize himself. If they have to kill only these goblins, they would do it easily and fast but if other monsters appear like the honeybees from before, it would be very difficult to deal with. They retreat a little to discuss the situation and decide the strategy they will use. "What do you guys think?" Ye Yan questioned them. "Difficult to decide. If more monsters appear because of the battle sounds..." Dovakin normally is very reckless but he is not dumb enough to go on a suicide mission. "Can you tank them? How many you can take at the same time?" Conan asked Ye Yan. "They are the same type and level of the goblins before, so if everyone works together, we can fight all of them at the same time without a problem." Ye Yan said to the others. "I can take two to three of them." Conan was a fighter like Ye Yan and he knows martial arts in real life, which can help him in the battles in Second Life when he uses martial arts techniques in the fights. Tang Yunfan has been training in martial arts since high school because Ye Yan took him to the school of martial arts of his father to train. At that time, he had a strong body build already but it only serves to help him take a beating without going to the hospital often, which was very important to him because he didn''t have money to pay for medical bills. He had been bullied a lot when he was younger because the rich kids that studied in the same school as him like to pray at the ones with financial situation lower than them. And that was how he meet Ye Yan for the first time, he was been beaten by two rich kids and their followers when he appeared out of nowhere and helped him. Afterwards, he was scolded by him because he didn''t react and just took a beating. And he didn''t understand until now how, after that, the two became best friends. "I can take one." Mad Dog is a swordsman but he can fight the monster if it is a one versus one. Outside of the dungeon, he had no problems fighting monster but the ones inside are much stronger than others. As they are fighting in the Normal mode, he can solo one but on harder difficulties, it will be impossible, even with better gear. "I can take one too." I Love Skooma have more agility than the rest of the team, so evading are easier for him. All of the team members are elite yers that have goodbat abilities in the game, that''s why they got to level 5 so fastpared to other yers that started the game at the same time as them. "I can solo one too." Dovakin is a mage but he has goodbat abilities and knows martial arts. He chose to be a Dragonborn because of his physical advantages. He is building his character to be a battlemage, not a pure intelligence one. He is a battle maniac, but he had always yed as a mage in games, so he decided to try this kind of build that he though suit him better. "Good. Now, we will be inside the encampment with a bonfire to keep the other monsters away, so I think it is rtively safe for us to battle them, but we need to be alert and ready to react if something unexpected happens." Ya Yan though that, probably, in this kind of situation, no other monster shoulde to add to the fight. "Conan, you will take the two goblins that are cooking. Mad Dog, I Love Skooma and Dovakin, you guys will take those with firewood and I will fight those that are talking at the side. I will go first to attract them and you guys will aggro one at a time and take it away to fight, but remember to stay near me, so I can use provoke if something goes wrong. Mages, you focus fire on the goblins attacking me. Are you ready?" Everyone nod and follow Ye Yan to the encampment of the goblins but they stayed hidden until he signals them to go. Jun Xie went crouching to a ce next to the goblins and used a sneak attack to inflict more damage. The others soon reacted and started to attach him. The five goblins were attacking him but ye yan deflect their attacks easily and when it was too difficult to evade or deflect, he used his fan the defend, and his left hand to support the fan, like that it does the role of a shield in the battle. Now that his strength is higher than before and his attack reaches 15 without a weapon, he is inflicting much more damage with hisbo attacks, which he used his entire body to attack them. He takes a little more them 2 seconds on every attack but as he is using both hands and his legs to hit them, it looked like he was faster than it. He can use his two hands at the same time, the right hand that is holding the fan can damage them in 13HP on every hit, and his left hand and legs, when he uses it, inflict 1HP damage because it is the minimum damage that an urate attack can do even if his defence is higher than the attack, except for Lord or higher ranked monster. Soon, the other goblins find out that the encampment was under attack and went to fight him. He redirected the fight to the middle of the encampment and signalled the other to start attaking. Conan was the first to go and he aggroed two that were cooking previously. Mad Dog and I Love Skooma attract one each, and Dovakin was thest to pull one goblin from the mob surrounding Ye Yan. Demon Fox, Spell Bound and mage of the Cold Nights started to throw spells and arrows one after the other on the goblins attacking Ye Yan. Soon, all of them were killed by thebined attack of the four yers. After that, as the other monster were almost dead too, each one started to attack a different monster. Ye Yan went to help Conan, Spell Bound attacked the one fight against Mad Dog, Mage of the Cod nights threw her (or his) spells over the goblin I Love Skooma was fighting, and Demon Fox helped Dovakin, that may be his brother-inw in the future. With the teamwork together, soon all the goblins were dead and luckily, nothing unexpected happened during the battle. ....... [1] Pinhead - an antagonist of the Hellraiser Franchise. Chapter 28: Set Equipment Chapter 28: Set Equipment The party collected all the drops from the ground excitedly, wishing that the items would be equipment pieces that suit them. They are elite yers with highbat abilities but, most of their gear is of low level and rank, in other words, weak for their current level. But to get good equipment takes time to get because they would have to farm or do quests, so they exchange it for a fast level up. They can get better gearter after all. But now, they are suffering the consequences of being undergeared because the dungeons have a high requirement for equipment. They only can challenge the Normal mode White Birch Mountain Forest dungeon because of their great battle abilities because their equipment is too weak even on easy mode. If a normal yer tries to challenge the Normal mode with the same equipment as them, the result would be terrible, they wouldn''t get past the first monster. The White Birch Mountain Forest is the most low-level dungeon of the region around the City of Ji and was created with the objective of gearing the yers of the region, helping them get better equipment, skills, and spellbooks. So the drop rate of such items in the dungeon is high, even in easy and Normal mode. When the party looked at the items dropped, they became excited because of the quality of the items they got after killing just 10 goblins, that they killed so easily. But what they didn''t though was that it is necessary to fight all goblins at the same time because it is impossible to pull only one or two monsters from the encampment, increasing the difficulty of the battle in a way that only high geared yers or those with goodbat abilities can challenge. . [Goblin''s Spauders] (Wood, Armor set: Shoulder) Description: A piece of armor used by goblins. This armor was made in a way that it can adapt even for tall people to use. DEF + 10 Level Requirement: 5 ss Requirement: Any physical ss Durability: 30/30 Weight: 4 (Goblin Armor Set) [Goblin''s Leather Corselet] [Goblin''s helm] [Goblin''s Leather Pants] [Goblin''s Spauders] [Goblin''s Leather Boots] [Goblin''s Bracers] [Goblin''s Belt] Set - 2 pieces Bonus: You gain DEF + 10 Set - 4 pieces Bonus: You gain DEF + 15 and DEX +1 Set - 6 pieces Bonus: You gain DEF +20, STR +2, AGI +2, VIT +2, and 50 HP. . [Goblin''s Pants] (Wood, Armor set: Pants) Description: A piece of armor used by goblins. This armor was made in a way that it can adapt even for tall people to use. DEF + 7 Level Requirement: 5 ss Requirement: Any physical ss Durability: 30/30 Weight: 3 (Goblin Armor Set) . [Loincloth] (Wood, Armor: Pants) Description: A piece of fabric that only covers the essentials. DEF + 5 Level Requirement: 5 ss Requirement: Unrestricted Durability: 30/30 Weight: 2 . "Look at these set items. Third Bro, you got lucky this time. They suit a tank and will be a great help in boss battles." Tang Yunfan is a fighter but he chose to y as a pure-DPS, so Ye Yan is the only one that ys as the tank in the party because of his hybrid build the focus not only in attack but in defense as well. With his martial arts techniques, plus the fan that can be used as a shield, he can tank the bosses without problems. Later, maybe he would have to get more defensive items and skills but for now, it is enough. Ye Yan equipped the two pieces of the Goblin''s set, increasing his defense by 15 points. He has now around 120 of defense and became almost invulnerable in this Normal mode dungeon. "Well, now we need to decide which yer will get the loincloth. I will pass." Dovakin said trying not tough but without much sess. His Dragonborn face became distorted by hisugh resulting in a strange sight to behold. A reptile smile really hurts the eyes. "I''m using the Goblin''s Pants already." Ye Yan didn''t want the equipment and was looking forward to knowing who would be courageous enough to use this loincloth. The rest of the team members looked at one another and everyone decided to give up on the item. Use such a thing would be too embarrassing, and just a few points in defense are negligible for them. So Ye Yan kept the item to put in the auction houseter. The rest of the drops were only some [Goblin''s teeth] and [Goblin''s ear] that Conan kept in his bag, to save them for posterior use. Every character begins the game with a 20 slots bag, so they have a limited quantity of space to store the items until they buy another bag. Because of it, they started to distribute the drops in a way that wouldn''t fill their bags. After keeping the items, the party looked around the encampment to see if anything is hiding that they can use. Many times in previous games, they found trunks or random items hiding somewhere around the map. They discovered a wooden chest that was 30 cm in width, 20 in height, and 20 in-depth and was hidden in a ce difficult o find, that they only discovered because of a mixture of luck and good observation. Inside the trunk was the [White Birch Mountain Forest Map]. With this map, it would be possible for them to continue the dungeon without worrying about getting lost in the woods. They were worried before because they didn''t found a path leading to the next stage of the dungeon and thought that they would have to enter the woods and look for a way out. They followed the map and entered the woods through the location indicated on it and tried to walk in a straight line to the top of the mountain. They were attacked by many gigantic insects along the way, like ants, spiders, centipedes, and snakes, and they defeated them easily. Sadly, they only drop items that were parts of their bodies. After some time, they got to another clearing and looked around. It seemed empty but they weren''t dumb enough to believe it and step inside without making sure it is safe or where the enemies are located. After observing the ce, Fox Demon noticed that the foliage on the ground, in the middle of the clearing, was moving slightly to the side. When they observed the ce carefully, they discovered that there is a spider camouged among the foliage. The biggest spider they have ever seen was hiding in the middle of the clearing to surprise attack the yers that pass near it, which would instakill most of those that didn''t have high defense. . [Giant Bird Spider] (Chieftan) [1] Description: A very aggressive and venomous spider that likes to surprise attack its prey. HP: 1200 . "The dungeon''s first boss looks dreadful." Thumbelina looked at the spider that is so big that its fangs are of the same height as herself. It has a hairy body with dark-brown color, eight eyes, eight legs, and two fangs ready to bite. Snow White nods her head vehemently agreeing with Thumbelina. She hates spiders and seeing one of this size makes her remember why she chose a healer ss this time as well. When she yed console games with her brothers before, they made her create a healer to help them, then she got used to it and had always yed this kind of role in games. She wanted to y a mage this time but when she thought that she would have to fight monsters, she gave up on the idea. "It looks like there are no other monsters here but the boss. Let''s use the standard positioning to fight him. I will test its strength now. Wait for my signal to attack." Ye Yan instructed his friends. In the standard positioning, the tank would aggro the boss while the close-range DPS attack him not very far from the tank, the long-ranged DPS would stay as far away as the skill range permit, and the healer would situate themselves between both groups of yers because their skill range is lower than the mages and archers. Ye Yan started the fight with the skill [Bash] and took 26HP of the boss. He made a quick calction and concluded that the boss''s defense is equal to 30, then their attacks would do very low damage but they can kill it if he can tank the boss until the end. The boss attacked him with his front legs and he decided to take the hit to know how much damage he would take by the boss''s attacks. He only lost 12 of his 113 health points that represent about 10,5% of his total life. To someone with 118 of defense, it is a very huge amount. "Try don''t get hit by the boss or it can instakill you guys if it uses a more powerful attack. Be careful!" He started to build aggro and after a few seconds, he signaled to his teammates to start attacking. Ye Yan dodged the boss leg attacks and started to hit his head (cephalothorax) and the front legs, so his teammates could focus on hitting the abdomen that looked to be the weak spot of the boss. Their physical attacks were inflicting about 5 damage, the fire spells, 12 damage and the ice spells could take 8 HP of the boss life. Sometimes, the box raised his two front legs and used [Venomous Bite] to attack, but Ye Yan seded in dodge or shielding himself using his fan every time. When the boss health reached 10%, he entered berserker state, gaining a 20% increase in damage and 10% speed boost. This increase in speed put some pressure on Ye Yan that had to start to defending more. When he used his fan as a shield, he needed to be very precise becausepared with a real shield, a fan is smaller. The boss started to use a new move, a skill in which he raises his front legs and shoot webs from it and the spinneret in the tip of his abdomen[2]. From afar, Ye Yan''s moves look as if he was doing some kind of strange exercise and contortions because some angles that his body form are very weird to the spectators. Normally, his dodging skills are more elegant looking but his movement speed and attack speed in the game is lower than in real life, then he needs to improvise to evade the boss, otherwise, he wouldn''t have time to do so. After thebined attacks of his teammates and him, the boss fell, dropping a lot of items on the ground. System: Congrattion! You level up. You gained 1 BP and 1 SP. ... [1] The Chinese Bird Spider is one of the most dangerous animals in South China. It normally only attack insects and small rodents, but if they bite a human, the person should run to the nearer hospital or would suffer from severe nerve damage, and can even die if not treated. [2] The tarants are like the spider-man, they can shoot silk from spigots in their feet to climb slippery surfaces. Chapter 29: Beating them again Chapter 29: Beating them again After killing the boss, Ye Yan finally reached level 6. The higher the level is, the harder it is to level up but, at least, the experience the yers lose upon die is 1% otherwise, the majority of the yers would only lose experience inside dungeons and gain none. He put the three points in strength to increase his attack and the equipment load, that is what he needs most now. The boss dropped 5 items, one [Spider Fangs], two [Spider Legs], one [Cobweb], and one skill book that can be used for thieves, swordsmen, and merchants. . [Enchant Poison] (Skill Book) Description: You use a poison sk to apply poison to a shing weapon. Effect: The weapon gains additional poison damage equal to the damage of the poison used for 5 minutes Cost: 1 Poison sk Cast time: 5 seconds Cooldown: 15 minutes Weapon Requirement: shing weapon ss Requirement: Thief, Swordsman, and Merchant. . Monster drops usually are items that you could get from their bodies or skills and spells rted to the monster''s abilities. An example of this is the skill [Enchant Poison] that dropped from the spider boss, it can apply poison to a weapon, like the boss can use its fangs to bite and envenom their targets. Ye Yan handed the skill book to I Love Skooma that won it in a rock, paper, and scissor game against Mad Dog and asked Spell Bound to keep the rest of the items. They continued towards the next encampment where they defeat every goblin as they had done in the previous one and afterward, they moved on to thest part of the dungeon that showed on the map. ... "That was difficult. Thest boss is on a different levelpared to the others." They had just left the dungeon after a battle of 10 minutes duration against thest boss. "Yes. But I think that we could challenge the Hard mode next because our equipment is a little better now and even thest boss being difficult, we defeated him without too much pressure." Ye Yan didn''t think that choosing the Normal mode again would be worth it. The drops weren''t good enough and he wants to do something more challenging. "I agree! And the drop rate and quality of the items should be better in Hard mode too." Dovakin would agree with Ye Yan 99% of the time because he sees him as his idol. Ye Yan''s knowledge, talent, skill, and proficiency in martial arts turned him into a God-like existence in Dovakin''s eyes. That''s why Spell Bound and the others had doubted his sexuality and led Ye Yan into beating him in the past. "Everyone agreed, then let''s stop wasting time and enter the dungeon again." Conan started to rush his teammates because he wants to equip himself and start to gather some surplus items as soon as possible, so they could sell them now that the exchange between real-money and in-game currency will begin in two days. They entered the dungeon again but on Hard mode. This time, they knew the map and the monsters they could find in it but they still were careful. The thief walked some meter in front of the party trying to sense if there were any new traps on this level. They couldn''t avoid the swarm at the beginning of the dungeon but, this time, they were prepared for them and had an easier time, even the honeybees being stronger than before. The White Birch Mountain Forest on Hard mode became easier than in the Normal mode for them now that they know the terrain and the monsters'' special attacks and skills. They got used to the dungeon and started to challenge it one time after another. Each run took around two to three hours on Normal and Hard modes, and between three and four hours on Torment and Nightmare. Theypleted a total of one Normal mode, two Hard mode, three Torment mode, and two Nightmare mode dungeons in a day. After so many dungeons run, all of them reached level 6 and got new powerful pieces of equipment and skills. Ye Yan almostpleted the Goblin armor set and got a new skill that could generate AP, so now he can use [Bash] without worry about empty his Action Points. They decided to log out next to the dungeon gate, making it easier for them to enter it again the next day. The goblins inside the dungeon dropped many Minor Healing Potions, then they didn''t go back to the city to restock and just logout to rest because even if there is no mental strain, it is tiring to do so many dungeons again and again. Ye Yan and his friends decided to rx after log out of the game, watching some movie, eating, or doing nothing at all. Hu Ling didn''t go out to meets his current girlfriend, Tang Yunfan, luckily, didn''t have work today, Qian Zhong, like always, was faffing about instead of work on his new project, and Ye Yan didn''t go to look at the stock prices. They sat on the couch or the floor and spend the day loafing around in the living room. At 6 p.m., they logged in to the game again to challenge the Hell mode of White Birch Mountain Forest Dungeon for the first time. At each new level of difficulty they challenge, the monster became stronger and smarter, making it almost impossible for normal yers to finish a high difficulty dungeon. When everyone was preparing to enter the dungeon, another group of yers with more than 20 people arrived near them. "I knew we would find you here. Now, you will regret ever getting in our way!" Someone yelled at them from 20 meters away. "Not again!" Spell Bound sighed covering his forehead with his right hand. He recognizes the one that spoke as the leader of the party they met before, that said to belong to the yers Guild. "Do theye to try their luck again?" Mad Dog looked at them and remembered that thest time, they were extremely lucky and didn''t drop any item when they died. "We, from yers Guild, never let others bully us. Now you will face retribution for what you have done!" The party leader said in a righteous tone, like if he was a hero of justice ready to fight viins. "Invert ck and white became so popr that any pig does it nowadays." Spell Bound could not help himself andment. "How are you?" Ye Yan asked with a confused look. He knows that his kind of people love attention and the best way to deal with them is to ignore or treat them like someone not worth remembering. Sadly, his memory is excellent and he rarely forgot something, so he does remember who the idiot in front of him is. "Pfft!" Some of his team members couldn''t hold theirughter. "You! I am one of yer Guild''s future vice-guild leaders. Bow down now and I may spare you and your teammates." He said looking at Ye Yan with hate. "Here we go again. Can''t these people speak anything less cliche? At least be original or try to use some very cool movie quote and imitating some character voice. Listen to the same thing, again and again, is tiring, you know." Spell Bound said to the enemy party leader while showing an annoyed face. He hates those arrogant people that think they are the center of the universe and look down on others. It was because of people like this that others had prejudice toward him before. This kind of people thinks that only because they are rich, they can do whenever they want to others. And it results in many hating the rich. "Stop wasting time with this trash. Let''s just kill them and be over with it. I had stationed some people next to the graveyard to kill them when they leave there. They will keep killing these people until they drop every single piece of equipment they have." A thief next to the party leader whispered to him. "Good," he said smirking. "They will see with who they messed with. Humpf." "Kill these people for me!" He ordered his underlings. They run and attacked Ye Yan''s team, which wasn''t any bit afraid. Thest time, they defeat them easily and this time, even the enemy having more people, would be easier, because now, they are geared with good equipment and have more powerful skills and spells at hand. They went into formation, with physical ss in front and the magical sses, mages and doctors, behind. Each mage got a new spell from the dungeon and learned how to use it in abo, increasing the damage they deal. They didn''t wait for the enemy to attack first. The system can judge who takes the initiative like before that the enemy encircled them and the system considered it as they initiating the fight. The God-system in Second Life is very fair and judge ordingly with the situation, then it is impossible to cheat it, baiting the enemy into attacking. Ye Yan used his skill [Bash] on them, which could kill every one of them with one or two attacks. He didn''t want to waste too much time on them, so he used his strongest skill, which doesn''t have a cooldown, until he spent all his AP. He could use his new skill [Roar]ter in the dungeon to regenerate AP, so he isn''t worried. The mages started to use theirbo spells in the opponent tanks. Dovakin used his new skill [Water Ball] to throw a ball of water in an area 1 meter wide, wetting 2 to 3 enemies at the same time. Mage of the Cold Nights use [Ice Bolt] on one target and Spell Bound use [Lightning Bolt], both inflicting triple damage in the wet enemies. The other party members used powerful skills as well to kill them as fast as possible. I Love Skooma use [Bellow the belt] to deal a huge amount of damage and inflict [Pain] on the male targets, Mad Dog use [sh] and [Chop], Conan attacked with the [Clive] skill, and Demon Fox used [Sharp Arrow] and [Triple Shot]. In the end, the battle against the 30 enemy yers finished faster than thest one against 10. But this time, they weren''t as lucky because many items were left in the ce their bodies fell. Now that the bother is gone, they can finally enter the Hell mode dungeon. Chapter 30: Hell Mode Chapter 30: Hell Mode To challenge the Hell mode of a dungeon, the yers need good equipment and skills, and the higher their stats, the more chances they will have toplete it. That''s why, after Ye Yan thought about the matter, he took a deep breath and equipped his headgear. The one point in strength and the six in defense that it gives aren''t much but can make a difference in the dungeon. "What the hell is that?" Spell Bound widened his eyes so much that it looked his eyes were going to pop out from the eye socket. "Pfft." When the others looked at him, they tried to hold theirughter but couldn''t. Conan looked at him shocked, Qian Zhong started tough widely, Snow White covered her mouth to hide her smile but the mirth in her eyes was obvious, and the others justughed. Ye Yan is using many parts of the Goblin armor set and before he put on the headgear, he looked like a powerful warrior. He is wearing a leather corselet, pants, and boots with wooden protection, appearing very cool. But when he put on the pink leather headband, his glorious image took a 180-degree turn. The feeling that he passes is indescribable. You can''t know if he is a warrior that a little girl yed makeup with before he left for war, or if he was making some kind of cosy to sing "I want to break free" from Queen. "Why are you wearing pink of all colors?" This is the color for sissies![1]" Demon Fox couldn''t understand why someone manly like Ye Yan would use a little girl''s color. Sadly for him, when he spoke these words, he didn''t saw the look the Snow White was giving him. Poor Demon Fox, he spoke badly of the favorite color of the girl he likes and now he will pay for it. "It''s Salmon! The color is salmon, not pink." Ye Yan said these words even when the item description is written pink. "If you say so." Spell Bound said smirking. "Don''t worry, you are still manly," Dovakin said pping Ye Yan''s shoulder, trying to cheer his idol but almost got misunderstood again. Unbeknownst to them, one of the party members was looking at them meaningfully while imagining many potential BL stories that she could write with the two as main characters. Mage of the Cold Nights is secretly a fushoji and can''t see two male friends that her dirty mind started to work, even when the males in question are totally straight. If Ye Yan and Dovakin knew what is on her mind, they probably would order an exorcism. After so much mockery, Ye Yan almost took off the headgear but it would really be helpful in the dungeon so he swallowed his pride and with the tip of his ears red, he led everyone through the Dungeon Gate. System: You have entered White Birch Mountain Forest on Hell mode. As soon as they entered, an ominous feeling took over them. The map was the same but a thin mist was covering everything, decreasing the visibility only a little but giving a ghostly air to the environment. When they got to the clearing with the three goblins, they noticed the first difference between monsters on Hell mode and the other difficulty modes. The three goblins turned from normal monsters into elites, which means that, probably, the bosses should have upgraded one rank as well, from Chieftan into Lords. "What are we gonna do if those honeybees turned into elites?" Demon Fox asked worriedly. Fight hundreds of normal bees is hard enough already, but if they are elite monsters now, it will be impossible. "We will be fucked, that''s what will happen."Spell Bound answered him. An upgrade in rank is not the same as a simple increase in attack, defense, and intelligence. It is like a Chihuahua turning into a Mastiff, and with more spells or skills. "If those bees are elite monsters now, it would be too overpowering. I don''t think they had an upgrade in rank as well and if they do, their numbers should be less." Ye Yan gave his opinion. "You may be right. Let''s hope you are right." Conan said almost praying for things to be like Ye Yan said. They defeat the goblins and when the honeybees appeared, it really turns as Ye Yan said. They are elites now but the number lessened, only twenty of them attacked the party. The battle was very difficult and the mages almost died, luckily, Ye Yan has the skills [Provoke] and [Roar], so he steals the aggro of the monsters. Conan got the skill [Provoke] in thest dungeon run and helped Ye Yan when his skills were on cooldown. When they killed thest one of the twenty honeybees and started to rx, another wave with twenty bees arrived in front of them and started to attack. The bee''s number, in truth, wasn''t less as they thought but divided in waves. They had to defeat 15 waves of bees before they could finally rx a bit. They took a break of 10 minutes and move on in the direction of the encampments. The items dropped were of excellent quality and the drop rate increased, at least, by 100%pared with the Torment mode. Every member of the party arrived in thest encampment with better equipment, skills, and spells. Thest encampment had ten elite goblins holding different types of weapons and a chieftan goblin that uses two-hand weapons. The problem is that they will have to fight all eleven monsters at the same time. The monsters this time can''t be shared among the yers because their attacks are too high and can instakill everyone but Ye Yan and Conan. Thetter wouldn''t fare much better than the others because he focuses on damage and has little defensepared to Ye Yan. Ye Yan didn''t know where to find the goblin chieftan that he needed to kill so he could progress in the quest [A Eunuch''s Regreat] because he didn''t appear in the previous modes and all the bosses in the Hell mode should be Lords. But now, he finally found out, he is an extra boss that only appears in Hell Mode. Now he needs to kill it and get his drops. The strategy they decided to use consists in use control skills to lessen the pressure on Ye Yan while he tanks the monster. Spell Bound learned the skill [sh] that can inflict blind in an area 2 meters wide for 3 seconds and he will use it when the situation bes critical. Ye Yan started the battle using [Provoke] that lower the monsters defense for 10 seconds and activate [Iron Skin] to withstand the monsters attack at the beginning of the battle because even if his dodge abilities are superb, fight against eleven monsters and one of them being a boss is not something that yers at this stage of the game can attain. Ye Yan started overexerting himself to deflect as many strikes as possible while his friends focus on one goblin at a time to kill it fast and decrease the pressure on him. The battle is hard. He is mostly deflecting and defending while using [Dizzy Punch] on the boss every time it is off cooldown. The skill deal damage and can stun the target for four seconds, three because the boss is a chieftan. He is using his new area skill [Cleave] that is helping him build aggro and can attack multiple monsters with ateral swing, alternating with [Provoke] and [Roar] to keep the aggro stable and deal some damage. And when it is almost impossible for him to continue, he signaled at Spell Bound for him to use [sh] so he can breathe a little. Every time he defends using his fan, it leaves his arms painful because his strength is lower than the boss and it is more difficult to deflect his attackspared with the mob. He is fighting using the fan in his right hand and his weaponless left hand together with his legs to deflect the monster''s strikes. He is making the most of his movement speed, attack speed, and skills to deflect the monster attacks while controlling them and prevent an OT(off-tank) from happening. Conan and the others are hitting the monster from behind while they focus on Ye Yan. Conan is using his area skill [Clive] and the one-target skill [Impale] to deal a huge amount of damage. I Love Skooma and Mad Dog were attacking the goblins with synchrony so perfect that it looked like they were performing a dance or a strange ritual because their bodies were covered in blood. The mages were the ones that deal the most damage with thebination of their skills that they learned after many hours of studying about the elements in their job change quest. When the Goblin Chieftan was the only monster remaining, he entered the berserk state increasing his attack power and speed. He started to use [Whirlwind] to attack all the yers around him. If it was not a timely [Dizzy Punch] that seed in interrupting the attack, the other physical sses would have died without a doubt. Conan, that failed to evade on time, was hit by the boss and left with only 10 health points. With only Ye Yan tanking and the mages and himself attacking, the boss HP was reducing slower than before but steadily. After 3 minutes, he finally fell and the drops scattered on the ground. Ye Yan fell together with the boss but not because his health points reached zero, he just was too tired from the battle that he couldn''t keep standing anymore. Even it being only a game, he could feel the tiredness for overexerted himself in his body and need some rest before they go to fight thest boss in the altar some hundred meters away from the encampment. The others collected the loot for them to distribute ording to the sses and needs before resting a little too. "Oh my! I just find out a dirty secret of the boss!" I Love Sooma was left with wide eyes and an open mouth after seeing one of the items the boss dropped. He would never imagine that he would find such a thing in the game. ....... [1] Pink became a girly color only after World War II. Before, boys wearing pinks and girls, blue were verymon. The Nazis arrested thousands of LGBT individuals, mostly gay men and, as Jews were forced to identify themselves with yellow stars, the gay men in concentration camps had to wear arge pink triangle and the lesbian and prostitutes had to wear a ck triangle. Pink is thought to have calming effects and many prisons are dye pink to try to pacify the prisoner a little. For this same reason, a University of Iowa football team painted the visitors'' locker room at Kinnick Stadium pink in 1980, and in 2005, they added pink lockers and urinals! Chapter 31: Gnolx, The Goblin Sorcerer Chapter 31: Gnolx, The Goblin Sorcerer The rest of the party looked at I Love Skooma with a questioning look, curious to know what he is talking about. Dovakin, I Love Skooma elder brother, couldn''t take the suspense anymore and pped the back of his brother''s head. "Spill it out! What is it that left you so shocked? Wait, you said dirty secret? What do you mean?" "It is better you look for yourselves." I Love Skooma had collected the item and it is being kept inside the Party Contract'' space now, then any member can look at its description by opening their copy of the contract, which show the description of any item that the party store inside its magic space, except if it was made in a way that only the party leader can see its content. The contract can identify all equipment until Gold Rank and other non-rare items. If something more precious and rare dropped, the yer will have to use a special identify scroll to know its properties because only the type of item can be known by simple looking at it, as they can have a variety of colors and some times are even made of pyrite, also called as fool''s gold, or have false gems decorations that can fool peoples eyes. When they looked at the item description, silence took over the ce and a light red color started to tinge the faces of every party member, except by Mage of Cold Nights, that is used to read about certain... things, and Spell Bound that is almost unable to feel shy after so many experiences in the area. Snow White and Thumbelina, in particr, be like ripe tomatoes and looked at I Love Skooma like they want to kill him for bringing this item to attention. Ye Yan, different from the rest, kept a serious expression and if it was not for the tip of his ears became bright red, no one would know that he was shy. . [Vibra-finger] (Tool)[1] Description: Its novel design allow localized massages in needed areas. Theck of proper massage can bring many problems and this gum-massager can help you. You will experience a most sensational invigorating and stimting feeling, which is a wonderful morning bracer. Can be used as often as desired. Do not oil the gum massager, as it is so constructed that oiling is unnecessary. Dentists rmend. Effect: Can be used to mix liquid potion ingredients. . "It''s only a gum massager. What was all that nonsense about? It''s good that even the monsters want to have a healthy mouth" Dovakin admonishes his brother. He is the older of the four siblings but his simple mind and nativity result in him being misunderstood several times, in a wide variety of situations. And is this personality of his that inspire Mage of the Cold Night to write a new BL story with him being the passive MC and Spell Bound would be the ML. [2] "Yeah, right. His rotten teeth are the proof of this". Spell Bound said sarcastically but Dovakin nodded his head agreeing with him. He can''t understand when someone is being sarcastic at all. Ye Yan asked Spell Bound to keep the item in his bag because he is the only one that looked fine with having the item (but not). With the item stored, they end the subject and started to distribute the other drops. "Conan, you lucked out this time!" Ye Yan said handing the skill book [Whirwind sh] to him, now he can use the same attack as thest boss, spinning his weapon around, striking everything. "I wasn''t the only one." He said looking back at Ye Yan, that finally could take off the pink headband and equipped the Goblin''s Helm, thest piece of the Goblin''s armor set. After Conan learned his new skill, they left the encampment and entered a narrow stone path that leads to the altar at the top of the mountain. To learn a skill, the yers should practice the skill moves until they could do it rtively well, then they should be able to use itter. The area at the top is 200 sm (m) of tnd and the altar is located in the center. When they arrived there, they looked through the thin haze and could see Gnolx, the Goblin Sorcerer, performing a ritual at the stone altar far away. He was sacrificing a goat on the rectangr stone altar, which has blood dripping from it to the floor. It is not the best view for those with a fragile stomach or sensible mind. Gnolx stood in front of it with his long red hooded cloak, a blood-covered knife in his right hand, and a glowing blue sphere floating above his left hand. The cloak covers his face in a way that makes it impossible to see his face even if they were in front of him. . [Gnolx, The Goblin Sorcerer] (Lord) Description: This powerful goblin is the leader of the goblin n that invaded the White Birch Mountain Forest. He single-handed defeated all the strong creatures that lived there before their arrival. Level: 5 HP: 10,000 . "Gulp. This is going to be difficult." Conan looked at the boss and broke out in cold sweat. The boss now gave a totally different feelingpared to before. It''s like they had confronted a street cat before and now, they have to fight a powerful and ferocious tiger. Just looking at it caused chills to run throughout his body. In thest dungeon runs, Ye Yan was like a monkey dodging the boss''s powerful spells while making the boss keep his focus on him, leaving his friends free to attack. But the boss was too slippered and never stays in the same ce for more than 5 seconds. He always ran away or can use the skill [Blink], which enables him to teleport short distances and has a cooldown of 10 seconds. This makes Gnolx be the most time-consuming boss they have ever confronted. Everyone got ready and Ye Yan got in the boss''s aggro range while the others waited next to the entrance. Gnolx perceives someone approaching and turn in Ye Yan''s direction, and looked at the others after. He raised his left hand and recited an incantation to seal the area for them to be unable to leave. In some boss battles, when you enter the location the boss stays, some kind of traps would close the ess passage, making it impossible for the yers to turn back and in other cases, you can try to run and find the best ce in the map to fight him, but in this cases are the risk of other monster appearing. Ye Yan used [Provoke] for the boss to focus on him and tried to get near him but the boss was even smarter them his version in the other difficulty modes. He used a simple Fire Bolt on him and moved away. As a pure magical ss, the boss knew that he shouldn''t let him approach himself, so he keeps getting away and when finally could get near enough, the boss use [Blink] to teleport 10 meters away from where he was before, annoying Ye Yan to no end. The only way for him is to use [Dizzy Punch] to stop the boss time enough for him to attack and stabilize the boss''s aggro on him. Luckily, the boss''s movement speed is very slow and he can''t cast any spell while walking, giving him the chance to approach the boss and start attacking. When he got to the boss, he immediately used [Dizzy Punch] to stun him. The control effect has 2 seconds of duration because the boss is a Lord-ranked monster and he is of Tier 0, Apprentice Fighter. The monsters are divided into ranks, rank 0 - Normal, rank 1 - Elite, rank 2 - Champion, rank 3 - Chieftan, rank 4 - Lord/Lady, rank 5 - Highlord/ Higdy, rank 6 - Greatlord/ Gready, rank 7 - Gradlord/ Grady, rank 8 - King/Queen, rank 9 - Emperor/ Empress, and rank 10 - Divine/ God/ Goddess. Every difference in rank decreases the control effect of skills by 12.5% and some high-ranked monsters can even have passive skills that give high resistance or immunity to control. These 2 seconds of stun were more than enough to permit Ye Yan to attack using [Bash] dealing 51.2 damage on the boss. Gnolx has a high magical attack and defense but its physical defense are very low, with only 30 points. Ye Yan followed it with [Clive] taking another 28.4 HP from the boss and a normal attack dealing 17 damage. Gnolx weakness is in the fact that he doesn''t have any skill that permits him to attack while receiving damage and a spell that can not have its cast interrupted. Inpensation, his spell can kill any yers with one spell, except Ye yan because of his passive skill [Iron-blooded Warrior] that grants him good magical defense, but he would survive with only 15 of his 168 healthy points. Ye Yan signaled to his friends started attacking. They spread across the map in the case the boss use some area spell and started attacking. After the cooldown of his spell ended, Gnolx used [Blink] again to open some distance and used [Fire Wall] to keep Ye Yan e the others away from him while he moved further and prepared to unleash his spells on them. Ye Yan bypassed the FireWall to get to the boss while the others positioned themselves to attack. The battle will be tough and they only hoped that all of them could survive until the end. ...... [1] Vibra-finger was a product for sale in the 1950s, in which the people''s dirty minds didn''t associate it with other uses (I hope). I used parts of the instruction manual and packaging to create the description. [2] With my little sister shipping the straight characters I create, I decided to write this one like that in her honor. There are so many BL drawingstely when you looking for animes'' pictures that I''ve be traumatized, never will look at Goku and Vegeta in the same way again. Chapter 32: Gnolxs ultimate skill Chapter 32: Gnolx''s ultimate skill Fight against opponents that know teleportation spells are very tiring, to begin with, and add his high magical attack, made this battle a tough one. Ye Yan only thought was how to get near the boss that was casting a very powerful spell. He knew this because the cast time of the skill is long and the longer the time needed to cast a spell, the more powerful it is. He would need, at least,5 more seconds to reach the boss and it would be toote to stop him. "sh!" Ye Yan yelled to Spell Bound to cast his skill, so he could disorient the boss and he wouldn''t know where the yers are for him to hit them urately. "Don''t stay still! Keep running!" Ye Yan recognized the spell because the boss was doing the same gestures asst time, in the Nightmare mode, and that is why he told his friend to use the skill to make the boss temporarily blind, while he continues to ran to the boss. Spell Bound''s spell [sh] struck the boss at thest second but it couldn''t interrupt the boss attack, he just made him cast it in the same location the yers were at that time before he was struck by the spell and not following the yers with it. [Meteor Rain] is a multitarget spell that can reach the entire area with a spacing of 4 meters (~4.78 yards) between the fireballs[1]. The boss can redirect the fireballs to attack a specific location as they learned in one of the previous runs but, at least, at that time the spell power wasn''t as powerful as it is now. While Gnolx was reciting the spell incantation, a 200 meters wide (218 yards) magic circle appeared about 15 meters (17,9 yards) above their heads. It was a red circle with a five-pointed star inside and some strange symbols. They could feel the pressure emanating from it, which was so strong that caused shivers on them. They knew just by looking that getting his by it would mean instant death. Many fireballs started to fall from the magic circle and they tried to evade to the best of their abilities. Luckily, the boss only knows the low-level version of the skill, or every single party member would die instantly because a higher-level version would shorten the space between the fireballs. The yers were running around covering their heads as if it was a hailstorm, even knowing that doing it wouldn''t make any difference but it was a subconscious instinctive reaction after all. "Look at the direction where it is going to fall first!" Ye Yan saw that they continue to run like chickens in the henhouse and gave more instructions. He told them to run before, so the boss couldn''t aim at them, but now they need to look at the fireballs to predict where they will fall to be able to evade it on time as they aren''t real meteor and they can follow it with their eyes because their speed is not high. They didn''t think of it before because it is an entirely new situation for them and as Ye Yan is used to unexpected things happening to him while fighting, he could keep a clear head to analyze the better course of action to take. The words of Ye Yan wake them and they start to observe the fireballs route. If they had kept running like before, the magical sses would fall very fast because of theirck of agility, resulting in their low movement speed. Ye Yan activated [Lucky Hit] when he reached the boss and started attacking using [Bash]. He was lucky enough to trigger the skill''s secondary effect, stunning the boss for 2.5 seconds. The stun induced by [Bash] has an original duration time of 5 seconds but it was reduced by half because of the boss''s rank. The time was short but he could use [Clive] to deal damage and prevent the boss from using spells. The boss tried to run but Ye Yan is faster them him and kept using normal attacks on the boss. A pure magical ss will never outrun a physical one without using spells, except in the cases that the opponent is using very heavy armor without agility bonus or didn''t spare any points in the stat. It would be like asking a sedentary bookworm to race against a soldier. Even if the soldier is overload with a heavy backpack, he would outrun the other in the end. The battle continues and the other physical ss yers reached the boss as well, starting their attacks. They took turns attacking the boss fr him to be unable to cast spells because now, won''t have any time interval between attacks. Ye Yan can attack once every 1.53 seconds with his weapon. he normally uses his left hand to attack in the meantime but it is not as effective because the low damage can be ignored by the boss and don''t interrupt his cast time. Attacks that aren''t higher than the enemy defense can deal 1 damage but don''t have any other effect like trigger a skill or effect. The mages started to attack from a distance away usingbinations to maximize the damage because the boss has high magical defense and their damage is reduced by 40%. Dovakin kept casting [Waterball] that do a little damage and can wet the enemy, while Spell Bound and Mage of the Cold Nights use [Lighting Bolt] and [Ice bolt] respectively. Both spells gain an increase in damage when used on wet enemies. They kept attacking the boss until he uses [Blink] again which is an instant spell and can''t be interrupted and they have to start all over again, reaching the boss and attacking. The battle continues in this rhythm until the boss''s healthy reached 10% and he went berserk, increasing his magical attack and casting skills faster them before. Gnolx used [Blink] to move away and cast [Fire Wall] to keep them from approaching himself, so he could use his ultimate skill that has a long cast time, even now that his cast time decreased, and can be used only once in the battle. The boss used the skill [me Terrain] and all the area at the top of the mountain went ame, burning the yers and himself. The boss is specialized in fire magic, so his resistance to this element is very high and he used this advantage to try to kill them while he receives little damage. Ye Yan heard so many curse words, even from the originally cute Snow White, after the boss used the skills. He didn''t have the time to pay attention to them, he just yelled for them to attack because the boss HP is almost reaching 0. Ye Yan used [Provoke] on him to decrease his defense and activated his skill [Endure] so he could stand the mes. With a healing potion in his left hand and his fan on the right, he spends his Action points using [Bash] repeatedly to deal the maximum damage on the boss. Spell Bound yelled "The Hell with all this!" like a war cry and kept attacking until his healthy points reached 0 and his body fell to the ground. Mage of the Cold Nights died almost instantly when the boss used his ultimate skill, being an ice elemental, she/he has a weakness to fire. Dovakinst 3 more seconds than Spell Bound but died anyway. The doctors, I Love Skooma and Mad Dog died soon after. Only Conan and Ye Yan resisted and kept striking the boss. Ye Yan kept fight like an alcoholic that couldn''t stand a second without a shot. Ye struck the boss with his right hand and used his left to take the potion to his lips. Conan''s body fell on the ground after 5 seconds, leaving Ye Yan to take the boss''s remaining healthy points. And 1 second before the boss could use [Blink] again, he used [Bash] one more time to take thest 30 HP of the boss. System: Congrattions to Jun Xie, Conan, Spell Bound, Demon Fox, Dovakin, I Love Skooma, Mad Dog, Snow White, Thumbelina, and Mage of the Cold Nights for being the first party to clear the Hell mode of White Birch Mountain Forest! Your achievement will be written in the annals of City of Ji history. The announcement could be heard by every yer in the City of Ji influential area. ...... [1] I''m using the International System of Units to measure things in this novel, but I am trying not to forget to write the conversion to US customary units. Chapter 33: Loot Chapter 33: Loot City of Ji Region System Announcement: Congrattions to Jun Xie, Conan, Spell Bound, Demon Fox, Dovakin, I Love Skooma, Mad Dog, Snow White, Thumbelina, and Mage of the Cold Nights for being the first party to clear the Hell mode of White Birch Mountain Forest! Your achievement will be written in the annals of City of Ji history. The announcement shocked all yers that had started to challenge the dungeon. Even after seven days, many yers have yet to reach level 5 and don''t know how hard it is inside the dungeons. Only a small portion of the yers know how incredible is the achievement of Ye Yan''s party. Up until now, only a small amount of yers in the entire world had cleared the Hell mode dungeon, not even one hundred yers have achieved this. The territory of Gaia is divided into many Kingdoms, Empires, and neutral areas. The difference between the two types of countries is that the area of an Empire is much biggerpared to the Kingdoms. And Neutral areas are locations that normal NPCs can''t ess, the ocean area, the underground, cities in the sky, and some special dungeons. The countries in Gaia are divided into provinces or states, and each one of them isposed of one main city and many towns. The City of Ji is the main city of Ji Province that is one of the most populous provinces in the Yan Empire but one of the smaller in size. Every city or town of the real-world had a corresponding town or city in Gaia, and every one of them has an initial dungeon, totaling around ten thousand level 5 dungeons in the world. Even the towns with only one tavern and very few hidden houses in the middle of the forest have a low-level dungeon. Those dungeons can be inside mountains, forests, caverns, or in the basement of some tavern. Among this huge amount of dungeons, less them a hundred had been cleared and Ye Yan''s party is one of the 88 parties that have got such achievement. In Yan Empire, they are the second party to clear the Hell mode of the level 5 dungeon. The first team was from Huating Province and they had clear it less than two hours ago. While people in all City of Ji region were wondering who they are, but Tu Ye Yan was smiling from ear to ear after leveling up once again after gaining so much experience in one go. But with his friends'' bodies scattered on the ground plus the huge amount of blood, his smiling gave his friends a sinister feeling. When they died inside the dungeon, their bodies and souls separated, permitting them to see the battle but without Ye Yan or the other yers that were also in soul form to see them. One minute after the battle ended, five soldiers that were previously patrolling near the dungeon gate, appeared at the top of the mountain and their healer used [Resurrect] on the dead yers while Ye Yan was collecting the loot. When the NPCs arrived, they looked in the loot direction with greedy eyes, making him rush to get the items faster. They thanked the team members for the services provided to the Empire and rewarded each yer with 1 influence point in the City of Ji for exterminating the enemy that had invaded the White Birch Mountain Forest. Every time yers clear the Hell mode of a level 5 dungeons, they are rewarded 1 influence point if the yers were of level 9 maximum. After saying their piece, they opened a gate and left through it, leaving it open for them to passter. "I never thought I would have an extracorporal experience in this life. It is really a strange sensation." Demon Fox said shrugging. "Yes. To know that everyone was there as a soul but don''t see anything give me the creeps and I was in soul form as well." Mad Dog said looking a little scared. He became afraid of ghosts when he was 8 tears old after a trip to an ancient temple that he could swear was haunted. He never found out that his older brothers were ying a trick on him. Ye Yan looked at them inquisitively, wanting to know what they were talking about because he did not die in the game yet, then he doesn''t know how it is to be dead in the game. Spell Bound told him about his "afterlife" experience and that they became afflicted by the curse [Ressurected Soul] after reviving, which decreases their healthy points, attack, magical attack, and defenses by 30% for 1 hour. Because of this, they decided to take their time looking at the loot and searching for any treasure that may have left behind. They opened the party contract scroll and looked at the loot details. As this was not only the first clear of the dungeon but was on the Hell mode too, the quality and quantity of the items increased by a rank, making every team members smile. The boss dropped some misceneous items, a few pieces of equipment that would upgrade the team''s power, and 3 spellbooks. . [Ritual Knife] (Silver, One-hand weapon: dagger) Description: A knife specially forged to conduct rituals. Good for conduct sacrifices from rabbits to humanoid creatures. This knife has a self-cleaning function that doesn''t let the blood dry on it. ATK 35~40 DEX +1 5% chance to cause bleeding Requirement Level: 5 ss Requirement: Thief, Swordsman, and Merchant Durability: 50/50 Weight: 10 . [Manteau] (Silver, Armor: Cape) Description: This cloak can cover the wearer entirely body, protecting others from his/her ugliness. His aerodynamic shape enables his wearer to increase his/her movement speed and jump ability. Movement Speed + 20% Jump height + 1 meter AGI +3 DEF + 20 Requirement Level: 5 ss Requirement: Any ss Durability: 50/50 Weight: 10 . [Arcane Orb] (Silver, One-handed weapon: Orb) Description: A ss orb empowered with Elemental Fire magic. The blue me inside, which gives color to the orb, is hotter than its red version. MATK 40~50 Requirement Level: 5 ss Requirement: Mage Durability: 30/30 Weight: 10 . [Cloth Tunic] (Silver, Armor: Body armor) Description: A simple tunic for mages. Its design makes its wearer look wiser even if only in appearance. MP + 20 MDEF + 15 Requirement Level: 5 ss Requirement: Mage Durability: 50/50 Weight: 10 . The spells were divided between the 3 mages. Mage of the Cold Night can''t use any fire spell or she/he would hurt herself while attacking, then she got the spell [Blink]. Dovakin character was building to be a battlemage, and as powerful area spells would be a waste on him, he got the spell [Fireball]. Spell Bound got the powerful [Meteor Rain], bing the first member with an area spell. After distributing everything, they resolved to go back to the city to register their new guild. Spell Bound said that they should take advantage of the free promotion from the system announcement (Thumbs up for the system) to create their guild and start recruiting as soon as possible. Todayplete seven days since the game release and is the day that the Currency Exchange Bank opens, then Spell Bound would exchange his real-life money for game currency and use it to pay for the guild registration at the Adventurers'' Guild and buy some necessities for the guild. He has always been a legit money warrior that can draw his enemies in cash. He had paid a huge amount of money to yers to kill who weren''t pleasing to his eyes in previous games but, this time, his father restricted the amount of money he can spend in the game. Spell Bound made a bet with his father and if he can''t start to earn some profit in 3 months, he will have to leave the game and start to work at his familypany. Ye Yan''s party went back to the city and proceed to the Adventurers'' Guild, except Spell Bound that went to the Currency Exchange Bank first to get the 10 gold coins needed for the guild registration. When everything was ready, they went to the third floor of the guild to speak with one of the guild managers and register their guild. She, like most of the guild''s NPCs, is a woman with a powerful airbag and the only reason that she didn''t fall forward is that her rear is big enough to maintain the bnce of her body. The NPC adjusted her sses and started to fill the registration with the information provided by the team about the members. She stopped and asked them: "What will be the guild name?" Chapter 34: Registering the guild Chapter 34: Registering the guild A guild''s name needs to be chosen wisely because it represents the identity and values of a guild. A good name can make the guild stand out among the others and be recognized by the yer. The best choice would be a name that represents the yers'' vision, is cool sounding, is a symbol of power and prestige, and also unique. A poor name choice can be an obstacle to the guild''s development, bringing trouble while recruiting or even drive yers away. A guild called Loser, for example, will hardly prosper in a game because no elite yer would like to be known as a Loser''s guy. Silly and funny names can attract yers but they are usually weaker than others and rarely get any amazing achievements. There are exceptions, but very few cases. Ye Yan and his three best friends had discussed the guild name before and decided on two names. They thought about the possibility of the first name already been used, then they thought a second option is needed for precaution. If at the moment of the registration, they didn''te out with a suitable name and give up registering, the Adventurers'' Guild will not return the coins paid for the service, it will be kept aspensation for their lost time. When the manager asked them about the guild''s name, Ye Yan answered with the first name they chose. "The name of the guild will be Proud Wanderers." Ye Yan told her smiling proudly as he thought about how great this name is. The ten party members approved of it as all of them are fans of the novel that gave rise to the films entitled "Swordsman". The first movie of the franchise was remade in 2086 and continues to be a sess until now. "Wait a moment. I will ascertain the avability of this name." The manager said while standing up and went to the bookshelf to get the book with every guild registered in the Adventurers'' Guild until now. "I''m sorry. This name is no longer avable." The manager looked for the name in the book and said when she found it. The look on the face of every one of Ye Yan''s team was so sad and full of regret for beingte that anyone can see how sorrowful they are feeling. The NPC manager looked at them with pity when she saw the grief write all over their faces. People at a funeral would be more lively than them. "Please choose another name. I am sure the next name will bring more sess to your guild." The manager said as if coaxing a child. "The name of the guild will be Immortals". Ye Yan told her worriedly. They had only chosen these two names and if this is already used too, he doesn''t know what to do. Should they chose another one on the spot or lose the gold coins that had costed a little fortune? The name Immortals is more popr than Proud Wanderers and the probability of it be unavable is bigger than their first choice. "Let me check." The manager looked at the book again but, luckily, it wasn''t there. When they heard the manager say the name is avable, all ten of them breathed a sigh of relief. "Are you sure this is the name you want for your guild?" She asked to make sure. When they answered affirmatively, she registered the new guild on the book. When Tang Yunfane up with the name Immortals, Ye Yan liked it right away. This name made him remember the Legend of the Eight Immortals [1] and it means someone that became a god[2] through cultivation but Tang Yunfan inspiration in choosing it was the Hignder movies, in which, equals to its main character, also looks immortal. There are 110 years since the release of the first movie in 1986 and it is still popr. Tang Yunfan is a big fan of American movies then all his ideas taken from them. From this moment on, they are members of Immortal Guild. Ye Yan is the Guild Leader because he always has been a kind of leader in their inner circle. Hu Ling aka Spell Bound is the treasurer of the guild and one of the Vice Guild Leaders together with Dovakin. After finishing the registering procedures, they went downstairs. Even after getting an imposing guild name, Mad Dog was still sad because he really likes the name Proud Wanderers. "It''s a pity that we couldn''t be called Proud Wanderers..." Mad Dog said sighing. "Yes. Now we can''t use ''Augh on the blue sea'' as our theme song. Truly a pity." I Love Skooma said it and started to sing and soon after, the others started singing too. . The blue sea isughing, the tidal waves are surging up on both shores Drifting along with the waves, I only remember today The blue sky isughing, the tidal waves of human society are numerous andplicated Who will win, who will lose, only Heaven knows The rivers and mountains areughing, the misty rain is far away How many temporal affairs in human society have the waves erased? The pure wind isughing, unexpectedly provoking feelings of loneliness The magnanimous feelings still remain .............. Themon people areughing, no more loneliness Yet the magnanimous feelings in me are still . Right after they started singing, a bard appeared from who knows where ying a yueqin[4]. The team singing and the bard ying his musical instrument made the atmosphere of the Adventurers'' Guild be livelier. Soon, the guild employers and everyone else that was visiting the guild got into the mood and start to sing along with them or p to the rhythm of the music. They never thought their singing would get such an oue. The Adventurers'' Guild looked more like a tavern from fantastic stories now than a real tavern in the game. Some dwarves sat on a table in the corner were cheering with beer mugs in their hands. A real dwarf never stays away from their elixir of life for long. Where you see a dwarf, there is beer next to him, inside or outside of the battlefield. This situation proved, one more time, how advanced the NPCs A.I. is. When the music end and they were going the sing another one, one of the Adventurers'' Guild managers, an elf with a stern face, used the spell [Silence] to shut everyone up. "This ce is not a tavern. Please refrain yourselves." He said out loud to everyone to listen and looked in Ye Yan''s party direction. "It is forbidden to sing in this ce. If such a thing happens again, punishment will be given to the offenders." The elf said it with such a cold look that they feel chills through their bodies. "Sorry. It wasn''t our intention to disrupt things in the guild." Spell Boud said amiably to the other elf. He thought that as the elves are usually haughty, they should prefer to speak with someone of their race. After the elf manager dismissed them, they went out of the guild feeling ashamed but smiling at the same time. Starting a party inside the guild was a very exciting experience that they will not soon forget. Establishing their guild andmotionter made them forget to ask in the guild about the reward for the first clear of the Hell mode dungeon that they were promised. But now that they were almost kicked out of the guild for causing amotion, they decided to wait to receive their reward. There is not a time limit to get it anyway. Now that the guild is registered, they can start recruiting yers, then Spell Bound, taking advantage of their current fame gained clearing the Hell mode of White Birch Mountain Forest, wrote a recruitment notice on the forum hoping to attract strong yers to their guild. While Spell Bound was work on recruiting, Ye Yan went to the Bank to open the guild storage, Conan went to put the surplus items they got for auction House and the others went to the City''s Hospital to look for quests. After opening the storage in the Bank, Ye Yan finally took a look at the Wonder Potion Recipe he got from the Goblin Chieftan. ........... [1] The Eight Immortals are a group of legendary heroes of ancient times who fight for justice and vanquish evil, ording to Chinese mythology. They appeared in many stories nowadays. There is mention of them in video games like Fear Effect 2 (2001) andic books. They help the Collective Man (Chinese hero - mutant) protect China in the X-Menic book. [2] The Chinese gods and immortals are two different entities altogether. The first are beings that have nothing to do with mankind and lives in the sky to rule the world. The immortals were humans that be "gods" through self-cultivation, mix with ordinary people, and can travel between this world and the world beyond. [3] Augh on the blue sea is the theme song of the movie Swordsman (1990). [4] Chinese lute resenbling a full moon (Yue means moon). Chapter 35: Wonder Potion Recipe Chapter 35: Wonder Potion Recipe The city of Ji only has one hospital to serve the entire NPCs and yers poption. When someone, NPC or yer, bes sick or hurt and doesn''t have anyone to heal them, they need to go to the hospital to get treatment. In ces far from cities and towns, there are many monsters that inhabited those regions which can infect people with all kinds of diseases. yers would have to look for treatment in the hospitals when these powerful diseases can''t be cured by their doctors or other types of healers. The NPCs are in the same situation, looking for help in the hospitals when there is no other option avable. That''s why the hospitals are always filled with people. Luckily, it is big enough to amodate so many people, having who knows how many underground floors. CyberTech and the government of most countries signed a partnership when immersive virtual reality technology was created. The government would help thepany getting the necessary data of all kinds of things, from diseases and treatment until the explosion power of bombs, to make the simtions more urate. They too help in find volunteers for thepany to obtain data about the sensations brought by different things and stimuli, like the food vors, touch, pain, dizziness and even tickle. In return, they could use the simtions for a reduced price and have exclusive simtions for the military forces, etc. Now that this technology has advanced, the partnership changed, permitting the government to add in the game anything that could help their countries and its people. This includes facilities in the game for military training, medical training, and the migration of real schools andpanies to the game. Thesepanies would have to pay a kind of rent to the government and 60% of the money would go to CyberTech. And is because of this integration between the real-life and the virtual world that the game is called Second Life. It is not a simple game but the continuation of life but in the virtual world. The ce where the medical training urs in the game is mainly in the hospitals. There the medical students and recent college graduates can learn and train their skills. These people have to register in the Prefecture of the region where they live, then when they enter Second Life, the hospitals will be ready for their arrival and put them to work as trainees. The professional responsible for teaching them are professors from many universities across the globe that signed a contract with the government of their countries. The universities pay them a reduced value for using the game to simte a multitude of health problems. In this way, their learning bes more thorough. In return, the medical knowledge in the game advance through the experience of the yers with their patients, human and NPCs. These yers that enter the game to learn or work in the hospital could job change to a doctor right away, only in the case of the professors, they would get advanced to the tier respective to their real-life experience at a maximum of tier 2. And they would gain experience to level up by working but a doctor with a high level in the hospital didn''t mean they can join a party to kill monsters because they wouldck the spells and miracles to do so. The hospital in the City of Ji has many underground floors and a special wing exclusive to traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. If a yer wants to be seen faster at the hospital, they need to pay for the medical treatment, and if they didn''t mind waiting a bit, they can receive treatment for free while helping the medical students and residents gain experiences in a win-win situation. The City''s Hospital looks like a pce, it''s a wide two-story building surrounded by a 2 meters high (~6.56 feet) wall and with arge garden between the wall and the building. When Demon Fox and the others arrived at the hospital, they saw a great flow of people, yers and NPCs,ing and going from it. As Snow White and Thumbelina had been there before because of their job change quest, they knew where they need to go to apply for quests. Snow White led them to a reception on the west wing of the building that has a spacious area inside, with many chairs evenly spaced, a Quest Board on the left side, a balcony to turn in the quest on the right side, and arge balcony at the back of the room where yers and NPCs can apply for the quests. They went to the Quest Board first. There are many quests avable with requirements ranging from level 0 to 80. The higher level quests needed special requirements and should be taken directly from the manager. They decided to apply to some level 5 and 6 collecting missions with high rewards. The level 6 quests are of A difficulty and the level 5, S difficulty but thetter is of a lower level, so the difficulty of the quest would lesser. They waited for Conan to join them, then they could leave for the ce where they can find the items and monsters from the missions. After everything was ready, they stopped at the Bank to store their items and went to the river in the west of the city. While they were applying for quests, Ye Yan was looking at the Wonder Potion Recipe that is a part of his quest [A Eunuch''s Regreat]. The first step of the quest was to kill the Goblin Chieftan and get the recipe. Now, he needs to collect the ingredients of the potion but it will not be easy because the difficulty of the quests is S level. . [Wonder Potion] (Recipe) Ingredients: 50g Witch''s powder, 50g Stardust, 3 Deer''s antlers, 3 Tunicate, 2 Starfish, 1 Smander, 1 liter of alcohol, 1 tablespoon of Vinegar, and 1 sk of Potion of Rejuvenation Potion. Method of Preparation: ... . Just by looking at the ingredients, Ye Yan knew how hard it should be to gather everything. The item stardust, for example, if it is something even a little simr to the real world, he''s fucked. Stardust is particles remaining from a supernova explosion at the end of its life, in other words, it is the remains of an extremely massive star that run out of nuclear fuel and copses under its own gravity and bum. He knew that many years ago was possible to see a supernova with their naked eyes but it and get the stardust are two different things altogether[1]. Now, where he would find such a thing? He is praying that stardust is something like the dust in possession of someone called Star. And the item Witch''s powder? He didn''t think that he will have to kill a witch, put her body to dry, and grind it into powder after. As there is no information on the recipe about where he should get these things, his only choice is to go to the library to look for them. Qian Zhong had asked for this kind of information in the Adventurer''s Guild before and almost got the Dumbbel because the people that know all this didn''t have time to speak with mere apprentices. They shoo him away saying that he should learn to search on his own. Ye Yan went to the library. The magnificent building gives a feeling of omnipotence like there is nothing out of its reach. No one knows if it is because of the powerful mages that almost live there or the powerful books and magical tools stored there. The library is a 300 meter wide (328 yards), four-story building with a red roof and dragon statues ced along the roof ridges. The entrance gate is guarded by two soldiers, one with a broadsword held on his waist and the other with a longsword on his back, and one mage holding a wooden staff. Before Ye Yan got to enter the library, he was stopped by the guards. "Who are you and what you want to do in the library?" The soldier with the broadsword asked with a serious face. "My name is Jun Xie and I am looking for information about some items." Ye Yan answered them with an equally serious face. Anyone looking at them would think they were discussing some serious problem and not about the qualification to enter a library. "It looks that you are registered in the Adventurers'' Guild, then you can pass but you are restricted to the first floor." The soldier said with regret showing all over his face, which puzzled Ye Yan. When he passed through the entrance gate, he listened to the soldiers talking. "Tsk. I thought I could scare him away like thest one. He ruined my fun." The soldier that spoke with him early said. "It is because they know you are all bark and no bite." The other soldier makes fun of him. "You two should stop behaving like children and go back to work." The mage lectures them. Ye Yan shook his head and keep walking inside. ...... [1] ording to researchers from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a binary star system will likely merge and explode in 2022. This will be the first naked-eye nova in decades. Chapter 36: Library Chapter 36: Library When Ye Yan passed through the entrance hall and could see the inside of the library, he doubted if he is still inside the library or if have been teleported to another ce. The ce is so big that it seems to have no end, with rows after rows of bookshelves. The library''s interior looks like the dream of every bookworm. There are many magical chandeliers lightning all the ce and each of the 50 light balls from every one of them is more potent than any 150wmp. The floor and the bookshelves are made of polished wood, giving a feeling of cleanness and wisdom to the ce. When Ye Yan looked at the splendor of the ce, he bes jaw dropped for one whole minute beforeing to himself and look around for the reception. Next to him, on his right side, there is arge balcony with two mage attendants, a male and a female. Both of them are wearing long formal gray robes with a coat of arms representing the Yan Empire on their chests. He became so amazed by the ce that he didn''t even notice them until now. He approached them and the male mage spoke politely to him. "Wee to the City of Ji''s Library. Can we help you with something?"The male mage asked him while the female just smiled sweetly at him. She wore sses queue suited her well, making her cuter. "My name is Ye Yan and Ie here to find the location of some items. There is some catalog that I can read to find it here?" He answered him while looking at what seen to be thousands of bookshelves. "Yes, there is. This is Miss Yao and she will help you locate what you need. You only need to pay one silver for the service" He said, nodding to the female attendant. Ye Yan only thought that the library looks more like a slot machine now wanting the user to lose his pants trying to get something from it. "[Replicate]." She used the book that is in her left hand, which showed to be her weapon, and cast a spell. Soon after, another Miss Yao appeared beside the original. "This way, sir." She walking with him to the central part of the library while exining about the library. Each library in Gaia contains every book released in thenguage of the country and the author of these books in real life receives the royalties for every time yers read it and 90% of the book value if they purchased a copy of it in the library. If a yer wants to read a book in anothernguage, they will need to make a request on the library and pay 10% more for the book in taxes. She leads Ye Yan to a kind of altar in the center of the library. There is a table made of gold and precious gems on this altar and each side of it points to one of the four directions. Each side has a picture of one Chinese legendary animal adorned with gems on it, the ck Tortoise on the North, the Azure Dragon on the East, the Vermilion Bird on the South, and the White Tiger on the West. The ck Tortoise, Xuan wu, was depicted with a snake wrapped around it and the symbols of winter, longevity, and water on both sides and above. The union of the ck Tortoise and the snake was thought to have created the earth by the ancients. The Azure Dragon, Qing Long, is an eastern dragon with an elongated body and the symbols of spring, benevolence, auspicious, and wood on each side. The Vermilion Bird, Zhu Que, is a beautiful phoenix with the symbols of summer, Good fortune, and fire. And the White Tiger, Bai Hu, is an imposing white tiger with ck stripes and symbols of autumn, guardian, and metal. A magnificent huge book is closed on the table. Its cover is made of leather and has a circle with a five-pointed star inside and a closed eye in the middle. The book emanating so much pressure that it''s difficult to get near it. The "Miss Yao" made a gesture with her right hand as if she was shooing something and the pressure disappeared. Probably, the yers can only get near it with one of the library''s NPCs. She brought him up the altar and in front of the book. "This is a Divine Artifact called Book of Knowledge. This book is was given to us mortal by the gods a long time ago and can answer any question of the mundane world." She said with an air of deference while looking at the book."You only need to say what you want to know and the Book of Knowledge will show the answer." "I wan..." Ye Yan started to speak but the female mage gave him a look as if saying ''show respected or get out of here!'', then he stopped what he was saying and started again. "Can the Honorable book of Knowledge answer my humble question? I would like to know where I can find the following ingredients: Witch''s powder, Stardust, Deer''s Antlers, Tunicate, Starfish, Smander, Alcohol, Vinegar, and Rejuvenation potion." He said everything in one go. When he finished, the eye in the cover book opened almost scaring him to death. The human eye on the book cast a scrutinizing look at him and the book opened on its own, turning several pages until it stopped and the two pages that were previously empty start to appear written characters, and he started to read it. Witch''s powder: Can be found killing [Eriovixia Gryffindori]. This spider originated from the Kan Forest in Hindu Empire invaded Yan Empire by its southwest and now they are living in the middle of the Empire, inside the pyramids. . Stardust: Can be found in the astrology room in an Ancient Pce near the pyramids. Deer''s Antlers: Can be taken from deers found in any forest of the Yan Empire. Tunicate: Can be found floating in the ocean waters or attached to rocks, docks, ship hulls, and other hard surfaces bathed by the ocean water. Starfish: Can be found under the sea on the entire coast of the Yan Empire. Smander: Can be found near water in the entire Yan Empire. Alcohol: You can purchase it from the Alchemist''s Guild. Vinegar: You can purchase it from the Alchemist''s Guild or in most of the restaurants of the Empire. Rejuvenation potion: You can purchase it from the Alchemist''s Guild. . Some of the ingredients can be purchased in the city but to get most of them, he should go to different parts of the Yan Empire to collect. Now, what he needs most is money to buy the ingredients in the Alchemists'' Guild and to pay to use the arrays because if he wants to walk to those regions, it would take half a year at the minimum. When Ye Yan finished reading a little light balle out of the book and went to his right hand. The little light ball materializes into a scroll with the same information the read on the book written on it. After getting what he needed, he left the library and went to the Alchemists'' Guild to look at the ingredient''s price. He will buy itter, as he may need every single coin he has now to afford his travels through Yan Empire. Chapter 37: Partnership? Chapter 37: Partnership? The library isn''t far from the Alchemists'' Guild, so Ye Yan resolved to go there and look at the prices. He is a little afraid the items would be too expensive for him now, mainly the Rejuvenation Potion, that he never saw in the potion shops before. After bing a fighter, the guards of the Alchemists'' Guild don''t look down on him as much as before, but he still could see the disdain in their faces, because, for them, he isn''t up to standard yet. He entered the guild and went to speak with one of the attendants from a balcony further inside, that is responsible for selling the items created and produced by the guild. "Hello. I would like to know the prices of the alcohol, vinegar, and Rejuvenation Potion." Ye Yan said politely. The attendant looked at him with so much disdain that he thought the attendant wouldn''t answer. "If you are poor, you shouldn''t be here. We are here to sell things to serious customers that have the intention of buying our items and not to waste time on some nobody thate here only to look around and don''t have money to purchase anything." The attendant said arrogantly. Ye Yan cursed the NPC a thousand times in his mind but instead of giving voice to his thoughts, he took a deep breath to calm down and spoke seriously. "If I want to know the price, it means that I have the intention of buying it but even if it wasn''t the case, you still are an employer of the guild and should serve its customers, all of them. Being snobbish isn''t good for business. Please tell me the information I want to know or I will have to speak with Zhong Mingyu about theck of manners of the guild''s employers. Humpf." Ye Yan used the manager''s name to put some pressure on the NPC. When the attendant heard Ye Yan say the manager''s name as if he is close to him, the guild''s employer knew he is in trouble, then, his attitude changedpletely, turning from disdain to a ttering expression. "I''m sorry, sir. I have eyes but fail to recognize Taishan[1]." He said while bowing and rubbing his hands. "The vinegar cost only 20 coopers for a bottle. The alcohol normally can''t be sold to non-affiliated alchemists because there are so many cases of illegal production of alcoholic concoctions by ordinary people that caused intoxication on the poption, even some deaths were registered. Because of this, the Emperor decreed that selling it tomon people is to be considered a crime deserving of getting hanged, then we can''t sell it but if you speak with the manager maybe he can help you." He said with a sorry face. "And the Potion of Rejuvenation can only be made by grandmaster alchemists and they only sell it to people with high status but maybe, the manager can help you with this too." In other words, he should speak with the gnome manager. That guy will try to take even his underwear for this help and Ye Yan still would be owing him a favor. Ye Yan sighed. "Could you tell Zhong Mingyu that Jun Xie wants to speak with him?" Ye Yan asked. He is in the Alchemists'' Guild already, he can, at least, know how much blood these favors will cost him. "Wait a moment, sir." The attendant said and went to speak with the manager. Five minutester, the attendant came back and asked Ye Yan to follow him to the manager''s room. He entered and closed the door. "Did you find another good item?" The gnome asked with a face written rogue all over it. "Not this time. I came here because I need two items to prepare a potion from a recipe in my possession. The attendant before said that maybe you can help me. I need alcohol and Potion of Rejuvenation." Ye Yan told the gnome the objective of his visit. "Hum. And what potion is it?" The gnome asked him before answering his question. "Wonder potion." Ye Yan didn''t think there is a problem in saying it, so he answered honestly. "Did you said Wonder Potion?" The gnome asked with his eyes wide in disbelief. "Yes." Ye Yan said, nodding his head. "Hahahahaha! This recipe had been lost a long time ago and the only information I have about it is that someone in the pce knows its whereabouts. I would never expect to finally find it. Hahaha!" The gnome looked to have be crazy. he started tough and speak as if the recipe already belong to him. "Let me see! Let me see!" The gnome said, stretching his right hand for Ye Yan to deposit it there. [Swindler! He is a fucking swindler!] Ye Yan couldn''t stop thinking that this gnome is a big cheater. If he let him see the recipe, he will learn it and Ye Yan himself would get nothing. He probably only let the information about the rarity of this recipe slip because of his overexcitement. "Sorry, but I can''t show it to you. This recipe is very precious as you know." Ye Yan said as a way of increasing the price of the recipe. And he needs toplete the quest yet too, so he will only negotiate a copy of the recipe, not the original. In the game, the alchemists, cooks, cksmiths, and other professionals just need to know the content of the recipes, so he can make any amount of copies of the recipe as he wants as it would make no difference in the creating process. "It is indeed precious but the items you want are not simple to get either. And if you are interested in making this potion, you should know that it requires a master alchemist at the very minimum. But don''t worry, in front of you are a master alchemist that is willing to help you." The gnome said to him smiling but Ye Yan could see the glee and greedy behind that smile. "So, what is your offer?" Ye Yan resolved to not beat around the bush anymore and asked. "I thought of a way that will help both of us. What do you think about a partnership?" The gnome said, smiling very sweetly and blinking his eyes faster. When Ye Yan saw the gnome''s expression, he felt goosebumps all over his body. He is really afraid about what he will say after trying to throw his gnome''s charm at him. He shuddered just thinking about his expression. "What kind of partnership?" He asked. "You will give me the recipe and sign a contract stipting that you will never pass this recipe to anyone else. In return, I will concoct the potion for you as much as you want, providing that you bring the ingredients required to me. What do you say? A good deal, right?" The gnome said smiling. [The Hell it''s a good deal! Swindle! Cheater!] Ye Yan cursed the gnome''s nine generations in this mind. The gnome gets the exclusivity to use the recipe and he not only just get the potion, but he has to bring the ingredients for him to make it as well. "It''s not eptable. I am the leader of a guild and my guild members should need it in the future. There is the person that told me about this recipe too. He probably just wants the potion but I need to make sure first." He resolved not to say that this contact is from the pce or the gnome could say that he only entered the pce because of him and try to take advantage of it. "Humm. You go speak with this person and if he only wants the potion, you can sign a contract with me for the rights of this potion with a use about the use by your guild only. But if the contents of the recipe are leaked by your guild, you will have topensate me." The gnome proposed. "This is still not fair. The exclusive rights value is higher than what you are offering me." Ye Yan knew he has to bargain or he would get almost nothing. He truly pities those people that don''t know about the need to bargain with the NPCs yet. The new yers will enter the game with the notion that NPCs should always be honest and without hidden meanings to their actions. Only those with game experience know a little about how high the NPCs A.I. can be. "1 gold and that is myst offer!" The gnome said after thinking a little. "Three gold, minimum." Ye Yan made his counteroffer. "Hum. I ept your offer. Now go speak with this contact of yours ande back soon." The gnome said opening the doors gesturing for him to get out. The gnome practically shooed him away from his room. Looking at the gnome expression, he is sure that he got swindled once again. Ye Yan sighed and left the Alchemists'' Guild. On his way to the pce, he stopped by the Auction House to see if any of the ingredients could be found there, but with not much hope. As he predicted, not even the deer''s antlers were put for auction. He browsed for a while to see if he has luck in finding something good but with no sess. The only thing he got from going to the Auction House was the money, totaling 18 copper coins, from the Phlegm Helmet that he put for auction some days ago. He became really surprised to find someone interested in such an item. He had asked for 20 coppers as starting price and it looks that someone bought it with nopetition. It was sold for 20 copper coins, deducting the Auction House tax, he got 18 coppers. After leaving the Auction house, he went to the Purple Pce, the home of the Yan Empire''s Emperor. The ce looks a little more lively thanst time, with many officials going in and out of it. One hour after he asked to speak with the eunuch Hao Haoxue, he appeared and led him inside the pce. Ye Yan told him that he got the recipe and about a part of his deal with a master alchemist. "I only need the potion. I was worried before and thought about asking you to contact an alchemist for me, now I''m relieved. When you get the potion, bring it to me immediately and I will reward you handsomely." The eunuch said, putting his right hand on his own chest. "Good." Ye Yan spoke a little more with the eunuch while he took him to the pce Gate again. They passed by some official on the way out and Ye Yan recognized some of them that didn''t change appearance. He had seen them on tv before. The most important person among them is the governor of the province he resides in real life. Ye Yan had heard before that many officials passed to do their reunions in the game but he didn''t know if it were true until now. He never thought he would be in close proximity to the governor someday. Life in the game is something else, even influential people like them are not out of their reach. He left the pce and went back to the Alchemists'' Guild while hoping the gnome wouldn''t try anything funny about the contract. ..... [1] This expression means he failed to recognize a great person. Taishan is a prince from a Chinese story or History(I''m not sure) that was mistaken for amon people. Because Shan means mountain, sometimes it is tranted as Mt. Tai. Chapter 38: The Old Shop Chapter 38: The Old Shop When he got back to the Alchemists'' Guild, an attendant readily went to notify the manager that Ye Yan was back in the guild. After only 3 minutes, he came back to lead him to the manager''s room. "Did you spoke with that contact of yours?" The gnome asked as soon as he entered the room. "Yes. He said his only interest is in the potion, then if the terms are the same as we discussed before, we can sign the contract." Ye Yan told him. "Good. I had prepared the contract beforehand, so we wouldn''t waste time with these trivialities." The gnome said, handing the contract to Ye Yan to sign. He took the contract and look at it. "Do you have a magnifier?" He asked because the font size is very little and while it is possible for him to read it if he brings the scroll close to his face, he is afraid that the gnome had written something so little that he can''t see with his naked eyes. His vision in-game is a little worse than it is in real life, because he, like most of the inhabitants of the big cities, uses a bionic lens[1] to improve his vision while in the game he did not have ess to such a gadget yet. "No." The gnome answered smiling. Looking at his smile made him be more suspicious. As there is no other way, Ye Yan took the paper up to 5cm from the eyes and started to read. The contract is written exactly as they discussed before, so he signed it and handed the recipe to him, getting his 3 gold coins in return. Ye Yan told him that he would gather the ingredients and bring them to him as soon as possible, for him to make the potions. The gnome told him what he knew about the pyramids and the sea monsters, and sold him a pill for him to breathe underwater before he left the guild. Before he left for the sea, Ye Yan contacted his friends to know where they are now because they didn''t get the reward from the Adventurers'' Guild yet. But most of his friends are away from the city except by Spell Bound, that called Ye Yan to join him to do a quest. They agreed to meet in front of the Adventurer''s Guild near the north gate. "Why did you took so long to get here?" Spell Bound said impatiently. "Did you forget how far it is from the Alchemists'' Guild to here?" Ye Yan took a pulled rickshaw[2] to get to the north gate faster but, even the NPC running five times faster than Ye Yan, it took several minutes for him to arrive. "Ok, ok. Come with me!" Spell Bound pulled Ye Yan to go with him to a little shop not far from the gate. The shop is old and needs maintenance. The only indication that it is a shop is the signboard above the door written Shop only with calligraphy so strange that the person may suffer from Parkson[3]. Spell Bound opened the shop''s door with caution, afraid of it break in his hands. "Excuse me, sir". Spell Bound said while entered because the shop does not have a bell to notify the people inside of their presence and he doesn''t know if it is open or close at the moment. Inside the shop is no better them the outside. The floor and the walls need repairs, the old balcony has more termites than wood and there are so many spider webs that a hundred spider should live there. "Oh, it''s you again. So this is the friend you spoke of before?" The shop owner asked him. He is an old man with long white hair, sses, and a roundback. "Yes, he is. He will help me gather the item necessary for you toplete your invention." Spell Bound told the shop owner. "Great! I am sure that with both of you, soon I canplete my creation." The old man said excitedly. Ye Yan epted the quest and both of them left the shop. They need to kill special spiders that weaves its web with wire. There is a cavern not very far from the city that serves as these spiders'' nest. Spell Bound entered this shop before and the old man was almost crying inside because to spent all his family''s money on his invention but couldn''tplete it. He needs onest item so he can finish the prototype. Then, the owner asked him to get [Wire Web] for him but he advises that the location is too dangerous for him to go alone and he would need one more person to enter the cave. That''s why he asked Ye Yan to join him. As they are near the north gate already, they walked there. And to save time, Ye Yan wore simple clothes with almost no weight and piggybacked Spell Bound. As a mage, Spell Bound focuses mainly on intelligence and dexterity, leaving no points to agility, and because of it, his movement speed is very slowpared to Ye Yan, even with his movement speed with a 25% penalization. Ye Yan, rotating between running and walking, soon arrived in front of the cave indicate on the map the old man gave to them. He changed into his battle gear whileining to himself about the sacrifices he needed to do to save time. Spell Bound that hadn''t to do any effort, looked at his clothes and passed his hands over it to take the wrinkles out. "We need a better way of transportation as soon as possible." Spell Bound told Ye Yan. After listening to what his friend said, Ye Yan pondered with he should punch him in the face or not. The temptation is big, but they have to kill the spiders now. He sighed and decided to leave it for when theyplete the quest. The cave isn''t big and they would have difficulty fighting inside, so Ye Yan decided to kite the spiders while Spell Bound would wait for him outside of the cave and when Ye Yan is near enough, he would tell him through themunication stone, so he would cast his new spell [Meteor Rain] in the entrance of the cave. As the spell has a long cast time, he wouldn''t wait for him to appear for him to start casting. When Ye Yane out of the cave, there were about a hundred spiders following him. Every one of them is the size of a basketball and is silver in color. When he saw Spell Bound, he started to run as soon after, the fireballs started to fall. This spell is different from the one used by the Goblin Sorcerer. It is very weak but the space between the fireballs is only 1 meter. The spell killed almost all the spiders and the few survivors were killed by Ye Yan''s attacks and Spell Bound''s firebolts. The spiders were very weak to fire damage, so the spells could kill it with only one hit. Every time the cooldown of Meteor Rain end, Ye Yan went into the cave to attract more monsters until the cave became empty. Afterward, they entered the cave and started to collect the wire webs. There were webs all over the cave, with some having dead bodies wrapped by the wires, which gave them some other types of items like snake bones, wolf''s fang, and other such things. There is no chest but the loot was good enough already. When they got out of there, their bags were so full that they had to leave some wire webs behind. Because of this, they saw the need to get a new bag as soon as possible. "Wait!" Ye Yan said to Spell Bound. "I forgot something." "What?" Spell Bund answered him. "This!" Ye Yan gave a good punch on his friend''s face, leaving him like a panda bear. "So refreshing!" He felt really good after the punch. "The fuck! Why did you do this?" He knew he can''t defeat him in a fight, so he didn''t even try to get back at him. At least he had done it in the game, which he adjusted the pain to the minimum. "You deserved it for being an asshole." "Tsk. l will make the other let the dishes for you to wash today." Spell Bound doesn''t like the dishwasher machines because he didn''t think the pans and dishese out of it clean enough. And he says the special detergent used is bad and all that. That''s why they had to wash it with their own hands. They had tried to pay someone to do the housework but every time there was a problem, from falling in love with Hu Ling (or his wallet) to theft. After they argued enough, they walked back to the shop and handed the wire webs over to the excited old man. "Haha. With this, I canplete the prototype and will have enough to make two more. I will get to work right away. You two cane back tomorrow to see my finished work." The old man said it and ran away through a door to his workshop. As it is toote already, they log out of the game, wondering what the old man''s invention would be. ........ [1] Since 2015, apany had announced that it had seeded in producing an intraocr lens that could improve the vision, shifting the focus of a human eye from a distance to a very close range without perceptible timeg. Goodbye to bifocal sses. [2] A pulled rickshaw is a mode of human-powered transport by which a runner draws a two-wheeled cart that seats one or two people. [3] It is a brain disorder that leads to shaking, stiffness, and difficulty with walking, bnce, and coordination. Luckily there are medications to help control the sintoms. Chapter 39: Rewards Chapter 39: Rewards Ye Yan logged out of the game and went to the kitchen to eat something. He looked around, but there is no sign of his friends. Hu Ling usually takes a bath after log out every day and, as he has a dateter today, he will stay in the bathroom for hours before eating his breakfast. He is vain, or stylish as he prefers, and takes more time to get ready to go out than his mother when she had gone shopping in the past. When Ye Yan finished his breakfast, he sighed and washed the utensils he used because he understands Hu Ling''s temper well enough to know he should have asked the others to not help him with the dishes this time. After washing everything, he returned to his room to do some exercise. After his bath, hey in his bad thinking. He feels happy, really happy (except for the fact he had to wash the dishes before). There is so long since thest time he felt like that. After the death of his parents, he felt lost, like something was missing, and never finding true satisfaction in the things he did. But now, he feelsplete for some reason. When he was ying with his friends challenging the dungeons, he feels right, like it was exactly what he should do. He feels like a weight has been lifted off his chest. The feeling of helplessness and anxiety is gone now. He likes how he is in the game, fighting and striving to be strong. He had the goal of bing the strongest yer in the city before, but now, he feels it is not enough anymore. He has a guild now, it is still small, with only ten members, but he wants to expand it, to grow strong together with his friends. He doesn''t want to be the number 2 in the Yan Empire, but the number 1, and gain glory to his country when he will visit other ces in the future. He wants to make his guild be recognized by everyone, this is his new goal, his ambition. His mother always told him that when he needs to do something, to needs to do the best, not do things to the best of his abilities. If his goal can be reached simply using the best of his abilities, he will not have to exert himself much for him to reach it, but if his goal is something considered unreachable, it will force him to break his limits time and time again. He will make his guild into the best one, that is his goal. He just needs to outline strategies to help him achieve it. While Ye Yan was thinking about the steps he needs to take from now on, Hu Ling was in the kitchen looking at the sink and smiling because Ye Yan had washed the dishes, which he hated to do. In truth, he didn''t mind using the washing machine, but at the time, Tang Yunfan couldn''t pay the same amount as the others for the rent of the apartment. Ye Yan hates washing dishes, Qian Zhong iszy and he doesn''t want to do this kind of work, so he came out with this idea, leaving the house shores to Tang Yunfan for him do not feel bad in paying less than the others. If he tells the truth now that he is paying the same as them, it would hurt Tang Yunfan''s pride, so he prefers to wash the dishes than seeing his friend sad because of this. Hu Ling might look futile and shallow but he has a good heart and values true friendship very much. Many people try to get close to him but he knows it is only because of interest, which makes him give even more importance to true friendship. No matter what happens, he knows that he can count on his friends. And when they fight like before, it never gets too serious. Ye Yan punched him in the game because he knows it wouldn''t hurt him at all, he never would do such a thing in real life. Hu Ling smiled and thought about what he should do next to Ye Yan. His objective is to make his friend learn to rx more and be more sociable. He grinned and started to eat his breakfast. At 6 p.m., Ye Yan logged in the game again and wait for Spell Bound, so both of them could enter the shop together. Both of them entered the shop, which now looked different from before. The floor and walls were fixed, the door and the balcony looked new, and they couldn''t see a single spider web in the entire shop. "You came!" The old man said. "I showed my prototype to one of the rich merchants of the city and he decided to invest in it. I don''t need to worry about money and materials anymore. And I could get it thanks to both of you. As a token of gratitude, I will give one copy of my creation to each of you. Here." The old man was smiling from ear to ear while taking the items from his space bag. "A bicycle!" Ye Yan and Spell Bound said at the same time. They never thought it would be a bicycle. They looked at each other and smiled. The day before, they wereining about the fact they had to walk everywhere. It isn''t a mount but it will be very useful. "Bicycle? Hum, it''s a good name. I had named it a two-welled mount before, but the name bicycle looks better." The old man gave one bicycle to each of them and asked them to help him advertise his invention to their friends. He will start to sell the bicycle tomorrow in the shop for 1 gold. The bicycle is expensive to yers at this stage of the game but it is very useful because it increases the movement speed of yers from 100% to 300%. And the decrease of movement speed by excess weight has no effect while the yer is riding a bike. yers can only get mounts after level 20, so this increase in speed now is very useful. Ye Yan put his bike in his space bag and thanked the old man before Spell Bound and he leaves the shop. They used themunication stone to speak with their friends and agreed to meet with them in the Adventurers'' Guild near the West Gate. Ye Yan and Spell Bound mounted on their bicycles and went to the agreed ce. Everyone on the streets looks at them with wonder while they passed. This is the first time the NPCs saw a bicycle and were curious. The yers widened their eyes and almost blocked their way to ask where they got the bikes from. Ye Yan is riding slowly because Spell Bound''s movement speed is less than his. That, plus the fact his friend is showing off, waving at people on the street, was making it even slower. Some girls, and one guy, waved back at him, which inted Spell Bound ego even more. When they arrived at the Adventures'' Guild, the others were waiting for them in front of the guild. They looked at them curiously and started toin. "Where do you got these bikes from?" Qian Zhong asked a little angrily. He felt abandoned by his friends. "Why you two didn''t tell us about the bikes?" Conanined like a little bullied wife, making everyoneugh. His behavior and appearance do not match, creating a funny picture. Spell Bound told them about the shop. They will go there tomorrow and Spell Bound will finance the bikes for them using the money exchange. They entered the guild and were led upstairs to the room of the same elf that lectured them before. In his room, they be extremely well behaved, making a line, shoulder to shoulder, looking at the elf sitting behind his desk. The elf adjusted his sses with his right hand and with a serious face, started to speak. "So you are the group that made a great contribution to our city. I never thought the rioters who provoked disturbances in the guild yesterday would have such achievement." He said seriously. Ye Yan and his team kept quiet. As the saying goes, Silence is gold. They waited for the elf manager to say everything before speaking. "Your help in exterminating the goblins in the White Birch Mountain Forest enabled the city to gain ess to the mountain again, so the guild decided to reward you with 20 silver coins, and 1 ring each. In addition, the guild posted your names in the Hall of Fame, increasing your reputation within the city. Congrattions! But remember, with great poweres great responsibility[1]. You are famous now and became an example to many people, so act wisely or you might lead others to do wrong things." He emphasized thest part as a reminder of what happened the day before. System: Your reputation in the City of Ji has increased by 10 points. You gained charisma + 1. Your name was written in the Hall of Fame of the City of Ji. The Hall of Fame shows every great achievement of the yers in the game. Each city has its own Hall of Fame with achievements at the level of city, country, and world. Certain dungeons and quests are only recognized by the city''s region, others are big enough to be acknowledged by the country or even the world. Every team member received a little silver box with a random ring and was "invited" to leave afterward. The elf manager doesn''t have the patience to speak with them for long. They do not even have time to open the little box. They left the guild and opened their silver box. Each of them received a different ring that suited their sses. Ye Yan received the Fighter''s Ring from the box. . [Fighter''s Ring] (Silver, Ring) Description: A ring made of silver with no ornament. STR +5 Critical Chance +5% yer: Jun Xie . Ye Yan readily put the ring on, improving his character''s strength. The 5% boost in the critical chance will improve his damage a lot. After putting the ring on, everyone decided to go do their own things. Ye Yan will go to the coast to get the items for his quest, Hu Ling will stay in a VIP room of a restaurant waiting for the yers that chose to apply for their guild, and the others will do a guild quest they got in the Adventurer''s Guild before they met today. When Ye Yan was readying himself to leave, he got a system notification. Chapter 40: New Curse Chapter 40: New Curse When Ye Yan got on the bike to go to the Teleportation Hall, he got a system notification. System: You have been affected by the curse [Stink]. . [Stinky] (Curse - Level 1) Description: You haven''t showered in 7 full days and started to stink, please take a bath URGENTLY. Take note that personal hygiene is important no matter where you are. Effect: You are stinking. It will attract certain kinds of monsters and keep others away. Charisma - 10. Duration: The effect only will end after you take a bath. Note: Every time you stay 7 full days without a shower, you will stinky. This curse will get worse with time. . As soon as Ye Yan heard the notification, a vile stench reached his nose, making him cover it but to no effect because the bad smell wasing from himself and was too strong. Now he can understand why the equipment Pox Faulds that he used in a previous game could deal high poison damage to the people and monsters around him. He may not have taken physical damage but the psychological damage he suffered is high and he is feeling like throwing up. He started to get desperate to get the bad smell off him. Ye Yan is not the only one that could smell the stenching from him, his friend felt it too and they took many steps away from him, trying to get as far away as possible. "What in hell is this? You are stinking!" Spell Bound said while covering his nose. "You need a bath!" Ye Yan didn''t stay to exin to them about the curse, he just ran to the nearby inn to take a bath as soon as possible. They soon will understand what is happening without the need of him telling them. Ye Yan was affected by this curse first because he didn''t stay long creating his character and entered the game very fastpared to his friends. The curse only takes effect after 7 full days without a shower. And it justpleted 7 full days that Ye Yan first entered Gaia. His friends took a lot more time in the character creation, dying their entry into Gaia, so it will take a little more time for them to be affected by this curse. Luckily for Ye Yan, there is an Inn near the Adventurers'' Guild, or else, not only will he have to stand this stench for more time, he would have received a notification from the guards, saying that he is disrupting public order. Basically, he would be known as a pig by the guards of the city, and this humiliation is not something he wants to pass. Anyone that receives a notification by the guards would get a penalization of -1 point of reputation, or more, depending on the level of the crime. yers with a negative reputation would be known by their infamy in the NPC cities. If the infamy is high, the NPCs can be aggressive and even try to kill yers on the spot. The infamy can be acquired by being reported to the guards for killing, stealing, and many other ways, but be infamous because ofck of hygiene is the worse of all. Onlyter, Ye Yan will know that he escaped getting this stain on his reputation. He was really lucky for being near an Inn and reacting fast enough. The Inn is a four-story building with a big signboard written ''The Purple Pig" above a wide door. When Ye Yan entered the inn, he saw a balcony with a female attendant just in front and he went directly to her, but when he got near, the female NPC took a few steps back and look at him with disgust. "I need a room and a bath." He said quickly, ignoring the reaction of the female NPC. He doesn''t know if the rooms are equipped with showers or bathtubs, so he requested it in the reception to not waste time. "You sure do. It will cost 10 silvers for the room, plus 10 silver coins for a simple bath. You can request a VIP service too, but that will cost 1 gold coin." The female NPC said while covering her nose and little impatient because Ye Yan is polluting the air of the inn with the stench emanating from him. Ye Yan put 20 silver coins on the balcony because the NPC didn''t want to get near, not even to receive the payment. She just asked one of the employees to show Ye Yan to his room, gesturing him to make haste because she wants Ye Yan out of her sign as soon as possible. The manservant led Ye Yan to a room on the third floor and left hurried. Ye Yan was feeling downcast. He thought if he was outside, he would start to attract vultures because he smells more like carrion than a human. Ye Yan looked around and saw only a bed, a wardrobe, and a bathtub. He didn''t waste time and took off his clothes in a haste to enter the water. When he entered the bathtub, the stench disappeared right away, letting him breathe freely. And when that happened, he finally remembered he didn''t tell his friend about the curse before leaving, so he got hismunication stone and called them to exin the situation. Luckily, they hadn''t got cursed yet. They were already in the inn because they follow Ye Yan after seeing him acting so strange but at a distance, of course. After bathing for 5 minutes, a system notification sound again. System: You are no longer cursed. System: You received the buff [Clean and Fragrant]. . [Clean and Fragrant] (Buff) Description: After a good bath, you feel light and refreshed. Effect: You will restore 10 healthy points every 30 seconds. Duration: 24 hours. . "Wow! Good buff!" Ye Yan didn''t know that he could get buffed by taking a bath. He didn''t know that he needs to shower in the game too, but now he will remember to bathe once a day if possible. He got out of the bathtub, dried himself with the towel, and wore his clothes again. The equipment can be put on almost like clothes, they are bigger when the yers wear it but adjusted themselves to the yers'' buildter. Like that, the equipment is easier to wear but it is impossible to change during battles. Only weapons can be changed while a yer is fighting. When he got downstairs, he finally could ask the attendant about the VIP option. As a simple bath could give him such a good buff, maybe the VIP option could upgrade it. "The VIP room is more spacious and luxurious than a simple room and enables the guest to receive visitors, to a maximum of ten people. In the normal room, the guest can only receive a maximum of three visitors." The attendant exined with a friendly tone now. "And in a VIP bath, the guests can soak themselves in a luxurious ce with servants to help them wash their backs, male or female, guest''s choice." Ye Yan gave her a strange look after listening to the exnation, making her exin further. "This establishment does nothing considered illegal, sir." She said with a serious face. Ye Yan remembered that in all those ssical dramas that he saw before, rich people always had servants helping them to bathe. Thinking of it, the feeling of strangeness disappeared. Ye Yan waited for his friends downstairs, sitting on a chair in the corner next to the stairs. Soon, his friends started to get downstairs. Every one of them was exhaling the scent ofvender, just like himself. They talked a little about the stinky curse and the buff they gained, and soon, everyone went on their own way. Ye Yan left the Inn, got on the bike, and went to the Teleportation Hall. The Teleportation Hall is a three-story wide building with runewords written all over it. When Ye Yan entered the building, he went further inside, where there is a huge map painted on the wall. The map is a representation of the Yan Empire with all the teleportation points shown as blue dots. The map is very simr to the China map but with some differences due to the terrain and the difficulty of the humans to delimit the region. Ye Yan looked at the map and chose to go to a port city not very far from the City of Ji. He spoke with one of the NPCs from the Teleportation Hall that took him to the array that leads to Tientsin City. He bought a [Return Scroll] linked to the City of Ji for him toe back to the city after he gathers all the items for the quest, and paid 40 silver coins to use the array. Just like that, he said goodbye to a good portion of his money. Ye Yan entered the array and the NPC activate it, teleporting him to the port city, Tientsin. Chapter 41: Tientsin Chapter 41: Tientsin When the light on the array disappeared, Ye Yan was already in Tientsin City. He looked around and noted that the Teleportation Hall in this city is very simr to the City of Ji, except this Teleportation Hall is almost emptypared to the one in his starting city. Ye Yan went to the wall next to the entrance gate, on the right side. On the wall, there is a map of the city''s region, showing all the locations known to the NPCs of the city. Ye Yan looked at the map, trying to memorize the city''s configuration for him to find the ces he needs to goter. When he left the Teleportation Hall, he saw the city bustling with activity. There are many yers and NPCs on the street,ing and going everywhere, some in front of stalls buying delicacies exclusive of the city, and many of the other items being sold. On his way to one of the Auction Houses of the city, he passed for a stall selling fishing rods made of bamboo. He decided to buy it because you never know when you would need to use such a tool after all, and it only cost only 1 silver per unit. Ye Yan never experienced fishing. The rivers andkes near his home are polluted and even with the new regtions and even with the government of many countries working to keep the water of rivers and seas clean, the pollutants dumped on them through many years are too much to be clean in just a few years. At least, now, people are aware of the importance of preserving water resources and stopped throwing trash and chemical in the sea and rivers. Near the stall selling fishing rod, there is a shop selling all kinds of potions and consumables. This shop had water-breathing pills selling for only 10 silvers each, the same pill he brought from the gnome manager of the Alchemists'' Guild for 20 silver coins. He knew that gnome couldn''t be trusted. He thought that buying some pills and selling them in ces far from the coastter, could help him make some money. He purchased 10 pills and went to the Auction House. There, he looked for the items he needs to gather for his quest but found none. The items avable in the Auction House are basicallymon goods that he could found in the City of Ji, except by water property'' spells and skills. Luckily they are cheap, so Ye Yan purchased three units of the spellbook [Buble] and three [Water Strike] for 20 silver coins each. On his way to the dock, he stopped by the Post Office to mail the spells to his mage friends. He spent 30 cooper coins to send three mails. Soon, the couriers will deliver the spells to his friends. Every courier has a tracking tool that enables them to find people whenever they are. Gaia has the most efficient courier the world has ever seen. They do the deliveries anywhere, except in dungeons and quest maps, and in these cases, the courier will do a second try three hourster, and ast one, after another three hours. If, after three tries, he still can''t do the delivery, the yer will have to get it in the Post Office of their starting city. Afterward, Ye Yan finally went to the docks. There, he went under the wooden pier and entered the water. It was so cold that he started to shiver, but he endured it and looked around the wooden pier pirs for tunicate. They are basically barrel-shaped sacks with two openings that water passes through and lives attacked to rocks, docks, and other superficies. He used his Beginner''s knife to kill and harvest it. They are like the mushrooms that he killed at the beginning of the game, having high health points and defense, but are immobile and can''t attack. Ye Yan''s attacks, even with his fan, didn''t surpass the tunicates'' defense, always dealing 1 damage. Then, he used his knife to kill and remove them from the pirs. When he thought to have harvest enough or that he could be an ice cube if he continues in the chilling water, he left the underside of the pier. He walked in the docks, shivering, and soon started to run, trying to get warm but it proved almost ineffective. When he was looking like a crazy person, running from one side to the other, a charitable soul cast [Warmth] on him. The spell dried his clothes and warmed him up. He looked at the person that helped him and discovered that it is a cute kitty girl. She is not a werecat like I Love Skooma, that has a feline appearance, but is a normal girl with a pair of cat ears and a long cat tail. He thought the girl looks very cute and pretty like that but soon, he started to get worried. [Thinking she is pretty like that make me a furry? No, no, no.] Ye Yan thought and shook his head to put the thought away. "Thank you." Ye Yan thanked the girl for her helping him and looked at her friends after, nodding at them as a way to extend the thanks. "It''s ok. You looked like you need some warmth." She said smiling, but soon, she got red because she noticed the way she phrased it. "Why you need to mind about this noob. Anyone knows that the water is too cold to simply enter it without any kind of cold resistance. If you try to help any idiot we meet, it will just waste our time." An elf swordsman said loud enough for Ye Yan to hear. At the beginning of the game, the scene of people running to warm themselves was amon currency because they didn''t know the water was so cold. But now, everyone in the city has this knowledge and the elf didn''t though Ye Yan could be from another city because it is very rare for yers to travel far away at this stage of the game, after all, most of the yers are level 5 or lower. yers with a ss badge on their chest are still a rare sign. Ye Yan stared at the five yers team. There is a male fighter Dragonborn, a cross-gender female doctor elf, a female archer harpy, the arrogant male swordsman elf that called him noob, and the mage catgirl that helped him by casting [Warmth]. Soon after the elf speaks badly about Ye Yan, the other members of the team look at him frowning. The guy is always too arrogant and likes to call others noob, while he is slowing people down because he is the less skilled of them and makes many mistakes that got them wiped before. This and the fact that he is always acting haughty, making them want to kick him out of the party. They have tolerated him until now because his family is close to the dragonborn''s family, but their patience is running out now. When Ye Yan was pondering about what to say because, even if the elf was rude, one of his team members helped him, the dragonborn reprehended the elf. "Stop it. Do you need to act like that all the time?" The dragonborn said sternly. Ye Yan could notice the dragonborn''s seriousness by the tone of his voice because his reptile face doesn''t have many expressions. The dragonborn is one of the races in the game known for having a poker face. "I''m really tired of you. Because of this behavior of yours, many handsome guys are keeping away from me." The doctor elf said with killing intend directed to the swordsman elf. "How is it my fault? You are obviously are a trap!" Elegant Sword, the elf swordsman, yelled at the doctor. "If there is any trap here, it''s you. You are a jerk that always pretends to be a good guy in front of the girls. Disgusting!" My girl, the elf doctor, yelled back and started to beat him up. The elf swordsman really sucks. He can''t even beat a doctor. Ye Yan wondered how he got to level 5 andpleted the job change quest, but after observing for a while, he found out that the equipment he is wearing is top-notch at this stage of the game. He probably is a money warrior thatpleted his quest because of his good equipment brought by money. "Hey! Aren''t you going to stop him?" Elegant Sword yelled to Ashardalon, the dragonborn. "Not this time. I''m tired." Ashardalon said. He is not lying, he really is tired. He is tired of this snobbish guy that is always getting into trouble. Ashardalon''s mother asked him to take care of Elegant Sword in the game and he feels that he should be canonized already for having endured him for a whole week. But he is no saint and not even his mother can make him tolerate Elegant Sword for one more day. "You! You will retreat it!" Elegant Sword said, ripping his [Party Scroll], and left. When a party scroll is ripped, the yer will automatically leave the party. And, as it will not count as a friendly fight anymore, My Girl stopped hitting him or the guards would notify her, or worse. Ye Yan never imagined that he would witness team infighting out of nowhere. But for the way that guy was acting, they are better without him. Chapter 42: Strange Couple Chapter 42: Strange Couple After Elegant Sword leaves the party, every member showed a happy face. My Girl is the one that looked the happiest among them. "Finally that fucker is gone!" My Girl said smiling. He looked at the Dragonborn worriedly and spoke again. "Letting him leave like that will get you into trouble?" "It''s ok. I couldn''t stand him any longer. I''m sure my mother will understand." Ashardalon said. Elegant Sword is always taking advantage of their family rtionship to get financial opportunities and bully others. But it ends now. He will speak with his father when he logout and discuss how to deal with him. "Sorry about that, handsome guy." My girl said it and winked at him coquettishly, making Ye Yan froze. "Stop it, Xuanchen." Harpy, the female harpy archer, said, pping the back of My Girl''s head. Seeing this, Ashardalon and Hello Kitty started to smile. "Sorry, We made you witness an embarrassing situation." Hello Kitty said to Ye Yan. "It''s ok." He answered seriously. When she spoke to him, Ye Yan started to feel shy and reacted like he always does when a pretty girl talks to him, entered machine mode. He became serious and his body was almost paralyzed on the spot. Ye Yan normally is serious but friendly, not overly friendly. Because of this, they didn''t notice his reaction, only his friends know him enough to note the difference. "I am Ashardalon. Nice to meet you." The Dragonborn introduced himself. He knows that someone that has already job changed must be strong and they need more members for their party to do dungeons. He thought about inviting Ye Yan to join them because Ashardalon got a good impression of him, seeing that he look stable while thanking Hello Kitty and isn''t easily provoked. "These are my friends. This is Hello Kitty, my little sister." He started to introduce his friends. "Hi!" Hello Kitty said shily. Ye Yan nodded at her mechanically. "This is My Girl." He introduced his friend, that gave Ye Yan another wink. "Don''t mind him. He is a jokester. In truth, he is married to Harpy." He said introducing the other member. Seeing the frown on Ye Yan''s face, he exined. "We didn''t tell Elegant Sword about it. He always gets pissed at My Girl, so he decided to keep it a secret to see if we could get rid of him early." After the exnation, Ye Yan finally understood. The discussion between Elegant Sword and My Girl before, and the fact he is married totally confused him. My Girl is a very yful person that loves to y tricks on people. Anyone can escape when he is intended to do something. He works for Arshadalon as an ountant. Sometimes, Arshadalon thinks that working with numbers has made him go crazy. My Girl is a forty years old man, he is married to Harpy and they have two children together. Their children are studying in the Imperial School in the northwest of Tientsin, in a restricted area that only teachers and underaged yers can enter. Harpy is Ashardalon''s secretary. She behaves like a shrew normally and everyone calls her harpy, even her husband, but he calls her that as an affectionate nickname. She is his Pretty Harpy, Lovely Harpy, or other such names. After They introduced themselves, nodded at them. "My name is Jun Xie. Nice to meet you guys. Thanks for helping me. I didn''t know that the seawater was this cold." "Aren''t you from Tientsin?" Arshadalon asked because he thought it is strange for Ye Yan to not know this. "I am from the City of Ji. I just came here to look for some items." Ye Yan decided to tell them about it because they may have the starfish that he needs. "Oh." Hello Kitty said a little downcast. She wanted Ye Yan to join them, but now, it will be difficult. Ashardalon observed Ye Yan more attentively and finally noted the guild insignia on Ye Yan''s chest. Not only that, he discovered that the ss badge is not made of bronze as theirs, but silver. "Do you belong to a guild?" Ashardalon asked, even knowing the answer. "Yes. My friends and I created a guild. If you guys are interested, we are recruiting." yers that had changed ss at this stage of the game must be strong, then they are more than wee to join the guild. "You are one of the yers that cleared a Hell mode dungeon, right?" Harpy asked Ye Yan before Arshadalon had the chance to answer him. "What? Really? Cool! I don''t mind joining but I''ll follow the boss''s decision. He always knows what is best for us." My Girl said, fawning over Ashardalon. His wife only shook her head at her husband''s antics. "Yes. We got the first clear yesterday, before creating the guild. We just started recruiting, so there are only a few yers in the guild." YeYan exined. Arshadalon had the intention of refusing but after discovering that Ye Yan''s guild was formed by strong yers, he started to ponder. He doesn''t want to create his own guild. His goal is to be a strong yer and what''s better than join people of the same level or strong than him? And as the guild was recently created, who join now will have more opportunity than those that jointer. There is a level 10, twenty-man team dungeon, and if he joins now, he can be a member of the party that will try to go for the first clear. "Do you have aplete twenty-man team?" Arshadalon asked. "Not yet." Ye Yan answered. "We would like to join." He decided to ept. He is looking forward to the challenge of try to get the first clear. "Great! I''m sure there are many handsome guys there." He said with a wicked smile which earned him a stern look from his wife. Hello Kitty also likes the idea of joining Ye Yan''s guild. Chapter 43: Mini-dungeon Chapter 43: Mini-dungeon After the four yers decided to join Immortals, they treated Ye Yan even more amicably, which is not always a good thing. My Girl, seeing how serious Ye Yan is, started to flirt with him to see his reaction, winking and throwing kisses at him. Ye Yan can''t understand such a person. He is married with children but is ying as a woman and flirting with men in front of his wife, no less. My Girl says it''s funny while his wife''s mouth keeps twitching seeing her husband''s antics. Ashardalon and Ye Yan talked about the guild, their future ns in the game, and theposition of the twenty-man team they need to form for future dungeons. Spell Bound had inquired in the Adventures'' Guild and discovered that at level 10, besides the 10-man dungeon, there are a 5-man mini-dungeon and the first 20-man dungeon in the game. In the City of Ji, the 20-man dungeon is a haunted mansion that belongs to a Duke, which will reward those that help him to get rid of the ghosts inside it. There is a mini-dungeon of levels 5 to10 in the City of Ji and the other cities, but they are easy and mainly made for those that hadn''t yet change sses. Their difficulty consists only of Easy, Normal, and Hard mode. And that''s why Ye Yan and his friends went directly to the 10-man dungeon and didn''t mind about the 5-man mini-dungeon. Areas away from the cities can be more challenge than this mini-dungeons, so they went there directly after they had enough of the 10-man dungeon. Tientsin has one 5-man dungeon and starfishes can be found inside it. Ashardalon and his team had entered the mini-dungeon before and they told Ye Yan about the starfish after they knew that he needs this item. But starfish is a rare monster that appears around once every twenty dungeons. It can be used to make water property equipment through a quest, so it''s very difficult to find it in the Auction House, and when it appears, the price is very high and yers buy it instantly. Ashardalon and the others decided to enter the mini-dungeon with Ye Yan, to increase the farm speed. Ye Yan wants, at least, three starfishes to prepare the potion, and this means he would need to do around 50 to 60 runs to get the quantity he needs if he is lucky. The dungeon doesn''t have a daily entry limit, then they can challenge it as many times as they wanted in one day. Ashardalon''s team took around 40 minutes to clear the dungeon before, but now they have Ye Yan. With him, they should improve their clear time because not only Ye Yan is an elite yer that was in the first clear party, but they don''t have Elegant Sword to hinder them. Ashardalon''s party thought that helping Ye Yan now should improve their rtionship and he would help themter. But, before they take Ye Yan to do the mini-dungeon, they led him to an NPC on the beach. Zhang Wei is an NPC instructor that teaches yers how to swim for only 5 silver coins. The mini-dungeon as well as many other quests in the coastal region requires the yer to know how to swim because many of those quests are underwater. yers that tried to enter the water without learning the skill first, drowned or were killed by the cold. Zhang Wei gave a waterbreathing pill to Ye Yan and cast a protective spell on him, making him immune to cold for a small amount of time, then led him to the water. As Ye Yan already knew how to swim in real life, it was easy for him to learn the skill. He followed the instructions of the NPC andpleted everything on the first try. yers that did not know how to swim could use the NPC to learn this skill that they could use in real life. And no matter the time the yer required to learn, they will not have to pay any extra coins for it. After he followed thest instruction of the NPC, she led him out of the water. "Congrattions! You are a fast learner and can swim freely now." Zhang Wei said smiling at him. System: Congrattions, you learned the passive skill [Swim] at level 3 - advanced. "Thanks, instructor." Ye Yan said politely. With the skill Swim, Ye Yan can do quests underwater, if he eats a Waterbreathing Pill, and will not sink into the water like a potato sack, making glub glub until he dies. When the yers started entering the water in the beginning, they didn''t know they would need to learn how to swim and thought they would float in the water like magic as the characters in many other games do. But soon, they discovered that they do need to know how to swim and happened in the worse way possible. Many yers entered the water and sank immediately, making glub glub sounds that were so loud that yers and NPCs could hear them from the beach. Every ability the yers need to performed certain acts in the game, like swimming, riding, and flying, required the yer to learn a specific skill. If a yer wants to ride in the future, they need to learn how to do it. They can''t just mount on an animal in any way they want and have their asses glued to it, enabling them to ride it at any speed. The ability skills have proficiency like most of the skills, needing the yer to master it and the level of proficiency that the yer will begin depending on the level of the skill that he shows to the instructor to the limit of level 3, advanced. After Ye Yan learned the skill, they took him to speak with an NPC in a shop near the beach. The shop is made of naval wood with wooden flor that ends in a pier 10 meters further in the water. The shop works harvesting oysters and freshwater pearls in a ce not far from the city [1], buttely many monsters appeared in the region disrupting its business. That''s why the shopkeeper is recruiting adventurers'' teams to clear the ce of monsters. They epted the quest and got on a small wooden rowing boat that only fit the NPC responsible for rowing the boat, plus five more people. The NPC took them to a region around 1km (0.62 miles) away from the shop and told them to enter the water because that was to mini-dungeon "entrance". They ate the Waterbreath Pill that tasted like roasted fish seasoned only with salt and entered the water. When Ye Yan swam underwater before while learning the skill, it was very near the beach and didn''t show many examples of marine life. But now, Ye Yan could see many little fishes swimming, forming shoals in various shapes and colors. The scenery was so beautiful that Ye Yan was dazzle for almost one entire minute. After hees back to himself, he filled Ashardalon and the others that were standing waiting for him not very far. They could understand Ye Yan''s reaction because the first time they entered the dungeon, their reaction was the same as him. The crystal clear water together with the marine life gives birth to the scenery that any photographer would like to capture with their cameras. The only problem is that they didn''t have a skill that enables them to speak underwater, but with the difficulty level being very low, it is not really a problem for them. They started to swim, looking for monsters, and found some red crabs not far from them. They were about 4 feet high and 6 feet wide, 8 legs and 2 pincers, with the right one being double the size of the left pincer. There are many Red Crabs in the region and to increase efficiency, they started to mob the monsters to kill them together. Ye Yan and Ashardalon went to kite them and reunited next to the rest of the party. Different from drynd, the speed underwater is very slow because they have to swim to the locations and there is the water''s tensile strength that hinders the movement underwater, making the attack speed reduce to half of the original value. Ashardalon and Ye Yan got the monster together and started to attack. Both of them hitting the monster while using physical skills. Harpy was shooting arrows at them as if the bow was a machine gun and sometimes using the skill [Arrow in the Knee], killing the monster on the spot. Hello Kitty was throwing her ice and water property spells, [Ice Bolt] and [Water Ball], to kill the monsters. She only used these two spells because she can''t use the lightning spells while she is underwater or it would damage them as well and the others spells that she knows are utility spells. They started to mob monsters and kill them until they cleared the area of every Red Crab. Then the Giant Red Crab that was sleeping under the underwater ground got out of it, shaking his pincers from one side to the other as if he was dancing, spreading the sand everywhere. .... [1] China is thergest producer of cultured pearls in the world. The country has a long of harvesting pearls from saltwater oysters. The region of Hepu and Behai had active marine pearl fisheries as early as the Han dynasty (3rd century AD). Information was taken from: Zhu C., Southgate P.C., Li T. (2019) Production of Pearls. In: Smaal A., Ferreira J., Grant J., Petersen J., Strand (eds) Goods and Services of Marine Bivalves. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96776-9_53 Chapter 44: Power of Faith Chapter 44: Power of Faith The 10 foot tall (3.048 meters) Giant Red Crab emerged from the sand, moving his pincers from one side to the other, with bubblesing out of its mouth. Probably, if he wasn''t underwater, he would have roared. . [Giant Red Crab] (Chieftan) Description: A Red Crab that suffered mutation and grows much more than the normal Red Crabs. Level: 5 HP: 1,000 . The five yers entered position to attack. Ye Yan and Ashardalon were in front of the boss, while My Girl was not far behind them because most of the healing skills he knows, need direct contact to be used. Hello Kitty keeps a good distance from the Giant Red Crab to cast her spells from a safe ce. And Harpy stayed in half the distance of Hell Kitty because the passive skills that every archer in the coastal region needs to learn, [Wet Shot], enable her to shot her arrows underwater but the ranged distanced is halved. It is impossible to archers to use their shooting skills underwater without the Wet Shot skill because of the water''s tensile strength. This is also the reason that the attack speed of all the weapons is halved, as well as the movement speed of yers, except for those with race traits that enable them to use their full speed underwater. The Giant Red Crab is a boss of a low-level mini-dungeon created mainly for novice yers, and because of this, he is very weak, even in the hard mode version of the dungeon. When they just entered the water, the system asked them to chose the difficulty of the dungeon and as the hard mode was the only one that they wouldn''t waste too much experiencepared with the other options, they chose it. The monster outside of this dungeon gives the same experience as the one in normal mode, but the monsters in this dungeon are weak, so they don''t give much experience, and the hardy mode is the only difficulty mode in which the monsters can bepared to level 6 monsters. For them, that are elite yers, a normal monster at level 5 or 6 is a waste of time now that they know many skills. For them, killing these monsters is like killing cockroaches with a slipper. They are agile but one hit usually is enough to kill them. The boss has more defense than its normal version, making them a little more hard to kill, but it is like a cockroach too. It just has a little more health points and defense. Ashardalon started the battle like a shield hero, hitting the monster with his shield as if he was using a hammer. He uses a two-handrge Bronze Shield to battle and normally doesn''t use a sword and shield as normal tank yers. When the Giant Red Crab attacks him, Ashardalon uses his shield to defend himself and counterattack soon after with it. As it is a low-level monster, they didn''t wait for the tank to stabilize the agro and everyone started to attack at the same time. Ye Yan is using his fan to hit the target but the boss''s shell is very hard and Ye Yan''s weapon is a shing weapon that can be used as a thin shield. Weapons like hammers and axes are better for this kind of monster with a hard shell. Ye Yan can only do a good amount of damage when he hit the Giant Red Crab eyes, but this crab is the type that has its eyes close to the body and keeps his pincers next to it, making it impossible to hit the region. The boss only attacks with his two pincers or using bubbles. [Bubbles] is a water property spell that mages and some races can use. In the water, water property spells and skills gain bonus damage and some characteristics that only appear in the water. The bubbles can stagger yers, pushing them away and this ability bes more powerful inside water. Ye Yan and the other started attacking the boss and it took only one minute to defeat him. It was a very easy battle for them. After only 12 minutes after they entered the dungeon, they have already cleared off the first area and killed the first boss,pleting half of the dungeon. As the Waterbreathing Pill enables yers to breathe underwater for 3 hours, one single pill can help them do many dungeon runs. They not only are getting more experience with their fast runs but are saving money too. People can''t breathe underwater, that''s a fact, and this didn''t change in Second life or the simtions created by CyberTech previously. The fact they can''t breathe underwater in the game is not only because of the limitation of the game but, mainly, because of the limitations of the human mind. The belief the humans have in this does not allow people to do that in the game. In a lucid dream, if a person wants to fly, they would have difficulty doing so, because people are half-conscious and their beliefs and notions would interfere. In the game, it is the same. But when they eat the waterbreath Pill, it is different. The yers are in the game and they know the pill is an item that can enable them to breathe underwater. The faith the yers have that the pill will work as it says, makes it possible for them to breathe underwater. The power of faith is an incredible thing that can do what would be impossible otherwise. It can even make people heal or make people ill. If someone is not feeling well psychologically, the body of this person will show signs that something is wrong. They will believe that is sick. Stress is an example of how the mind can influence the body, it can cause stomachache, heart problems, ulcers, and many other problems that humans don''t even know yet. That''s why the Tradicional Chinese Medicine (TCM), when treating people, think in the whole scenery, not only in the specific things. The body, mind, and environment are important in the treatment. If a person believes that he or she is not well, he will not be well. This is the power of faith. This can bring problems to the body but also can help people. The power of faith can heal. You can see cure by faith in many cultures. it is seeing easily in aboriginal cultures. The shamans or healer works to cure people in rituals that unite medicine and religion, scientific knowledge and faith. But it is not the only one, but normally people have more difficulty in the Christian religion to think of it can be not only because of superior power but because of the power of the faith they have. People have faith that some medicine will work, and many times it really works, even if the medicine is fake. The belief that they will be cured, makes many people really be cured. It is seen more easily in cases rted to pain, depression, sleep problems, and some other cases. This is called the cebo effect in medicine. Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well as many medications used in others cultures, is effective. Not all, but many are. But sadly, many times people ignore it, thinking that western medicine is better. The prejudice about any other type of medicine caused the world as a whole to lose so much that we will never know the exact extent of it. Some scientists research these lost medicines. Some research about Mexican aborigines shows that before the Europeans arrived in America, the natives knew more than two thousand medicinal nts, could do surgeries, treat bone fractures, and had obstetrics techniques more advanced than the European in 1400. The natives could even cure serious illnesses, such as syphilis[1]. So much knowledge was lost in History. When yers eat the waterbreath pill, they believe that it will be effective but the effect can change from person to person. Some people will feel difort, others will feel the same as in drynd, and there are people that can''t breathe underwater even after eating the pill because their minds tell them they simply can''t breathe underwater. Everything in the game depends on the ability of the person''s mind to adapt. After using the teleportation arrays so many times, Ye Yan''s mind got used to it and he doesn''t feel dizzy anymore. But there are yers that, even after using it more times than Ye Yan, have yet to adapt. Many things in the game will be a challenge for the yers'' minds, mainly after level 20, when they will encounter more situations that will test the limits of their minds. Some abilities and skills can be influenced by the yers'' minds. The spells or skills that enable yers to fly will be one of the more challenges for the yers to learn. Even knowing that they can fly in the game, the yers will have a hard time trying to leave the ground and fly in the sky. Their normal thinking will prove to be an obstacle they have to surpass to do many things in the game, or they will be unable to use many powerful skills or spells that can help them defeat their enemies. The power of faith will be tested time and time again while the yers are living in the game. ........ [1] Research carried out in Mexico, led by Professor Dr. Rafael Valdez Aguiar, doctor of medicine and history at the School of Medicine of the Universidad Autnoma de Sinaloa (UAS). Chapter 45: Shoals Chapter 45: Shoals When you are strong, some things became easy, as what happened in the battle against the Giant Red Crab. This boss can be considered easy for yers that had changed sses and for elite yers, it is easier, even in the hard mode. In this battle, Ye Yan didn''t deal much more damage than the others because this is the first time he battles a boss underwater and his weapon isn''t the best choice for this boss. It was like hitting a rock with a kitchen knife. The fan is an all-around weapon that can be used to attack and defended but its damagees from the shes using the sharp des hidden in the fan stem. Because of this, Ye Yan started to make a list of things he needs. The first item is a new space bag and the second, is new weapons for different situations, like thrust and smash, and elemental weapons. But now, Ye Yan only has his fan to attack and he will have to make do with it. The worse part of the fight with the Giant Red Crab was not the low damage he was inflicting on the boss but the fact that while they were fighting, My Girl was dancing and imitating a mermaid. He was dancing, shaking his hips, and throwing kisses. Sometimes, the poses looked like he would do a magical girl transformation. The visual impact of the scene was too heavy for anyone to stand. Ye Yan received critical damage with stagger effect from it. The other party members are already used to it but it is the first time Ye Yan has met a person like that. My Girl is too crazy for someone like him to stand. Ye Yan likes to fight and study and his circle of friends is restricted. The more strange person he knew in the past was He Ling and he is only a rich yboy, no more than this. The girls of his party are not normal either, but the strangeness is in the fact that they chose characters that don''t suit them, at least, it is what Ye Yan thinks. But My Girl is different. He is a man! My Girl is a man that behaved more coquettish than any woman that he has ever seen in his life, even in movies. If he didn''t know My Girl is a man, those things would be a little less shocking but everything put together became too scary for Ye Yan. Now, My Girl is a part of this party and he has to learn how to live with it. But while he didn''t adapt to it, his eyes will keep burning every time he sees such a scene. After the boss died, they started to collect the loot on the ground. There were just misceneous items that can be used as materials for creating weapons and equipment. The best weapon in the game is the personalized ones that are crafted by forges, NPCs or yers. Using one silver weapon as the base, for example, a forge can craft a gold weapon using enough materials. Or they can forge weapons from zero, using only materials. Everything depends on the level and creativity of the forges. yers that are real-life forges will have an advantage while forging because of their experience. To forge each weapon, the forgers take a long time, from hours to days, and their experience increases ording to their sess rate. They receive little experience when it is unsessful. Second Life, different from other games, has sses specialized in crafting items and some other professions. There are sses for yers that want to adventure in the world which begins as fighter, archer, thief, and swordsman. Some sses are focused on craft or other professions as cksmith, Alchemist, Cooker, Lawyer, and others. And there are sses that can do both, as doctors, mages, Devil''s Advocate (Dark Faction), and merchants. The yers that don''t want to fight monsters would go to the Crafters'' Guild, Trades'' Guild, or any other guild specific of a ss or profession, as soon as they enter the game to start learning the skills necessary for the ss they chose. After they collected everything, they swam to the next area of the mini-dungeon. In this area, there are shoals of Dwarf pufferfish[1]. They are 10 inches long (~25cm) and attack together. The problem of this part of the mini-dungeon is not in the power of the monsters but in their quantity. If they could use lightning spells it would be easy but they can''t, because if the mage uses it underwater without any skills to help the party members, the mage would die before finishing casting the spell. Only electric property weapons could do more damage to them but no one in the city has got their hands on one yet. The party has to clear all the Dwarf pufferfishes for the boss to appear, so they went to the shoal nearer them and started the fight. Ashardalon went first. He used his shield to smash the pufferfishes, starting the fight. But because they were swimming underwater, he couldn''t smash them to the seafloor, so the damage was halved. Ashardalon started to use his two-hand Large Bronze Shield as if it was a giant flyswatter. He is moving it in a frenzy, like a child ying Hulk smash everything using a hardcover book half its size. The pufferfishes soon started to inte, they became a kind of balloon with a fishtail that is five times bigger than their original size. When they have done it, their physical resistance increased, because now, they have an airbag to cushion the impact. This time, the other members of the team waited for Ashardalon to stabilize the agro before acting because even if their attack power is low, the high quantity can stun the yers, making them unable to move for a few seconds. After a few seconds, Ashardalon signaled them to attack and they started to use their skills and spells. Ye Yan didn''t wait together with the others. He helped Ashardalon tank some monsters but Ye Yan is not as effective as him when tanking many monsters at the same time. That''s the difference between a full tank and a hybrid build. Ye Yan can use his martial prowess to help him lessen the gap between his character and a full tank or a full attack build, but there are things that even his ability can''t help and this is one of these cases. Ye Yan normally uses his fighting abilities to help him deflect the monster''s attackers, needing to dodge and defend less, but do this in a fight against a big amount of monsters is totally impossible. He has only four limbs after all, and even if he uses his bottom to help as some goalkeeper has done in certain ser matches, it doesn''t increase the efficiency by much. Ye Yan used the fan on his right hand to make sushi of pufferfish and punched the fish balloons with his left hand. Every time his punches turn out to be critical hits, he looked like the hairy version of the one-punch man, killing the monster with only one punch. My Girl was supporting them from behind. But, sadly, the shemale can''t do anything without attracting attention to himself. He is using his skills and spells doing a lot of different poses that looked like he was dancing, imitating magical girls when she attacks. And to think that My Girl wants to be a cleric when they turn level 20 is a little too much. He will taint the sacredness of a cleric ss. My Girl will probably be the only cleric in the game that would be more like a striper than someone with holy abilities. At moments like this, Ye Yan feels relieved that yers can''t speak underwater at this stage of the game, or not only his eyes will burn to see such a scene, but his ears would be pierced by the nonsense words of My Girl. Ye Yan is afraid about when My Girl and Spell Bound get together at the same party. He only prays that he can keep his sanity in the future. Ye Yan is very serious sometimes and is not used to such ys. This is a new experience for him and he is having a hard time adjusting to it. Harpy is not far from them and is the one that is doing the most damage among them. She can one-hit the pufferfishes with each arrow. The piercing power of the arrows didn''t have their damage reduced after the Dwarf Pufferfishes became ballon-like fishes. And Hello Kitty, the only normal girl of both parties, is casting her spells from a distance, killing one monster with every spell. They attacked the monster in this pattern, again and again, until they cleared all the area. When they killed thest Dwarf Pufferfish, they saw a big Goblin Sharking in their direction. It is the uglier shark they have ever seen in their lives. On TV, the sharks looked much better than this one. As the Goblin Shark approach them, they entered formation and got ready for battle. ... [1] Dwarf pufferfish is a freshwater fish and its maximum documented size is 3.5 cm (1.4 in), making it one of the smallest pufferfish in the world. Different from the game, they are not found in saltwater. They can be found in southern Karnataka in Southwest India. When they inte, they look like a balloon, but please don''t use it as such because it is cruelty against animals. This author had done such a thing as a child when I didn''t understand things well, ying with pufferfishes, throwing them to my friends. Chapter 46: Goblin Shark Chapter 46: Goblin Shark The Goblin Shark approached Ye Yan''s party at high speed, leaving a trail through the water. The Goblin Shark has bizarre, sinister looks with pinkish-gray color because of its almost transparent skin, an overhanging snout that is tremendously elongated, yet ttened, forming a de-like appearance. His protruding jaw with its nail-like teeth can be seen even with his mouth closed is the main reason that makes this monster looks so scary[1]. The Goblin Shark has a length of over 12.6 feet (3.8 meters), with small eyes, a bby body, and soft skin. This characteristic makes its defense be lower than most of the shark species found in the game. His small eyes don''t let him see very well but the Goblin Shark has a sensor in his long snout that enables him to know where other living creatures are located. . [Goblin Shark] (Chieftan) Description: A deep-sea bizarre creature that left his original ce and went to look for easy food in other elsewhere. Level 5 HP: 3.000 . When the cute Hello Kitty saw the Goblin Shark, it almost scared her to death again. Every time she sees the boss, her cat ears started to twitch and her tail went straight right away, creating a funny picture. No matter how many times she battles this boss, her reaction is the same. Even being afraid of this boss, she never thought about back out of this fight because she is a part of the team, and they need to help each other. Harpy, being a woman with nerves of steel, looked at the boss as if it was a simple fish that she can kill with a single sh. She is the embodiment of a math teacher described in movies. Just calcting how long it would take to kill it this time. Harpy''s husband, unlike her, is behaving in the most shameful way. It looks as if he was screaming, trying to seek protection behind his wife. My Girl never gets tired of doing this kind of thing. Ashardalon only shook his head seeing such a scene, gave a sign, and started tanking the boss using hisrge shield. This mini-dungeon only has two bosses, the Giant Red Crab and the Goblin Shark. After they defeat the boss, they only need to open the chest half-buried on the seafloor to finish everything they can do in the dungeon. Ashardalon is having a difficult time maneuvering underwater because he can''t jump or dodge easily as he does in the drynd, he can just swim. The Goblin Shark, different from the Giant Red Crab from before, move and attack fast, making it difficult for Ashardalon to defense. He started to take a good amount of damage, making My Girl get serious for the first time, and show Ye Yan that even being the party''s clown, he is a very efficient healer. Aquatic battles are very difficult for yers not used to it and even those that have been ying underwater for the most part of the game, still have a difficult time in battles. That''s why many yers had chosen to farm experience in other ces that they don''t will need to be underwater. Those that chose to do the mini-dungeon normally chose the easy mode. They do this, not because of the dungeon being difficult in its entirety, but because thest boss is too hard for them. Seeing the situation, Ye Yan signaled Ashardalon for them to change roles. Ye Yan used provoke make the boss direct his agro to him for a few seconds and started to attack using his fan on the right hand and punching it with his left. The Goblin Shark is very vulnerable to shing attacks, and every attack leaves a scar on the boss''s body. The boss like most of the monsters of the game has a powerful regenerative power. They can mend their wounds very fast, but this ability only enables them to close the wounds and doesn''t grant him health points regeneration power. Only weapons with a bleeding effect prevent the wounds to close, making the enemies receive damage over time (DOT effect). Ye Yan is better than Ashardalon in a one versus one fight and as he learned to use his weapon to help himself in dodging, he is better for the tank role in this boss fight. The Goblin Shark can attack using [Bite], in which the boss bites its enemies, piercing their skin with its nail-like teeth, inflicting bleed on them. And if the amount of damage the yers receive from bleeding excide 300 HP, the boss enters its berserk state early, making the fight harder than it already is. Ashardalon party learned about it after experiencing the boss love bites a few times. This is one of the reasons why Hello Kitty is scared of it. In one of the previous battles of her team against the Goblin Shark, the boss entered berserk early and killed Ashardalon. After it, every yer experienced the boss''s teeth nailing their skin. Hello Kitty had thought she would be eaten alive by the boss, but luckily, she died first. But not before seeing the boss eating the body of one of her teammates. It''s because of gory scenes like this that only yers after 18 years old can adventure away from the cities, and some yers prefer to choose safer sses to y. Some yers think in a different way than the rest. For them, the fact they aren''t in real danger makes the game less attractive to them. They like to feel the adrenaline rushing through their bodies as they pass for situations that can even cause their own death. Besides the [Bite] skill, the Goblin Shark can use [Tail Whip], and [Lunge]. His attacks are very fast and can hit hard, dealing a good amount of damage. But the boss has two ring weaknesses, the difficulty to maneuver and his low defense. Ye Yan started attacking the boss, exploring its weakness to dodge and attack without receiving damage. He moves his fan to help himself when dodging the boss attacks and kicked the boss on its side in the middle of the dodge. The Goblin Shark was swimming from one side to the other, trying to hit Ye yan but without sess. It looks like Ye Yan was ying with him. Ashardalon and the others were observing Ye Yan fighting the boss as if they were watching a show at the Aquarium. My Girl and Hello Kitty started to p their hands seeing the show, and even Ashardalon and harpy, with her serious face, joined them apuding. The scene made them feel so mesmerized that they forgot to attack the boss until Ye Yan had to shake his hand, pointing to the boss for them to remember they are still in the boss battle. Unlike the previous boss battle, Ye Yan could finally shine, showing to the others why he is one of the yers that got the first clear in a Hell mode Dungeon. After Ashardalon and the others started to attack, the boss''s health points started to decrease fast because of its low defense. The hard part of this boss fight is in the high speed of the boss and in the difficulty of the yers in dodging its attacks. When Ye Yan started to tank the boss without taking damage, the boss fight became child''s y for them. After receiving many shes from Ye Yan''s fan, hit by Ashardalon''s shield, pierced by Harpy''s arrows, hit by the Ice Bolts of Hello Kitty, and even the Needle Attacks from My Girl that had no one to heal and could helping to attack, the boss was left with only a little fraction of his health points. The boss was battered so much that when he entered the berserk state, he looked like he was a child crying and hitting uncontrobly to vent his frustrations. After, a few more spells and skills, the battlees to an end with the Goblin Shark''s body floating in the water. They collected the materials left by the boss and Ashardalon led them to the wooden chest they could see from a distance. ........ [1] The Goblin Shark was discovered in 1898. It is a deep-sea creature that can be found in some areas of the Antic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, but it is mostmonly found off the coasts of Japan. The average length of the Goblin Shark is approximately 5 feet (1.6 m), however, thergest recorded length is 12.6 feet (3.8m). Chapter 47: Clear Record Chapter 47: Clear Record Ashardalon led his four teammates to a ce not far from where they fought the Goblin Shark. There is a 1-meter length (3.28 feet) wooden chest, half-buried on the seafloor. The mini-dungeon has its map delimited by seaweed, for yers to know where they have to go in the dungeon. People that try to pass through the seaweed would leave die wrapped by them. In this way, yers know the exact size of the map and can explore everything. As the yers explored the map, they discovered the wooden chest that only can be essed after the yers defeat the Goblin Shark. If they try to open the chest before killing the boss, it would enter the berserk state and kill the yer opening it. When they got to the chest, they didn''t found the starfish that sometimes appear over the chest. The chance of the starfish appearing is one to twenty, so it is normal for them not to find it on the first try. Ashardalon opened the wooden chest and picked up the items inside. When My Girl saw the items, his eyes shone a strange light and he started to pump his fist in the air. In a previous dungeon run with his team, one of the two pieces of the [Wooden Bathing Suit Set] had dropped, and now, the other piece of the set appeared in the chest. . [Wooden Bathing Pants] (Wood, Armor Set: pants) [1] Description: A fashion and resistant bathing suit made of wood. This bathing suit is indicated to modest and shy girls. Def + 6 Level Requirement: 5 Restricted to female and cross-gender (female) yers. Durability: 30/30 Weight: 1kg (Wooden Bathing Suit Set) Two-pieces: Increase the duration of the Waterbreathing Pill by 30%. . When they distributed the items, My Girl got the [Wooden Bathing Pants] and Ye Yan and the others got seashells, which is a material for crafting, and some money. After they distributed everything, they swam upwards until they reached the boat. When they left the water and entered the boat, they received a system notification. System: Congrattions for breaking the Oyster Farm Mini-Dungeon clear record. Time: 25:15:16. Rewarding 150 experience points and one wooden box. The five yers were pleasantly surprised by the news. Now, their names are written on the boat floor, showing their achievement to anyone that does this mini-dungeon. Only the clear records of Hard Mode dungeon and above are shown to yers, as well as the first clear party of the Hell Mode Dungeons. These achievements are written on the walls of the City Hall and next to the entrance of the respective dungeons. Next to the entrance of the White Birch Dungeon Forest that Ye Yan had clear previously, there is a big stone with their achievements carved on it. But the most important is that their names are in the City Hall because there, many yers can see, even after they passed the level of the dungeon. But only the first clear of the Hell Mode dungeon and its fastest clear, also of Hell Mode, are shown on the walls of the City Hall. The highest difficulty of the first mini-dungeon of the game, which levels go from 5 to 10, is the Hard Mode, then their achievements will only be shown on the boat floor. The boatman took five wooden boxes from his space bag and handed one to each of them. These boxes contain random items with mainly wood quality, but there is a 0.01% chance of the item be one level above. Ye Yan opened his box and it was a piece of white coral. The others had simr luck, except by My Girl and Ashardalon that got a starfish and a bag with beach sand respectively. The luck of My Girl had always been good. He was the first member of the party that got full bronze equipment and got a quest that rewarded him one point in the Luck stat. My Girl sold the starfish to Ye Yan for 20 silver coins, which is considered a very cheap price because it is normally sold on the Auction House for double this price. My Girl offered to give the item to Ye Yan but he refused, after all, they are already helping him farming the item and if he just epts it, he would feel that it would be too much, then he bought it from him. After this, they plunged into the water again to start another dungeon run. In the end, they only had to do 23 dungeon runs for Ye Yan to get 3 starfishes. They were super lucky, getting the starfish at runs number 15 and 23. That, plus the one My Girl got in the wooden box, added up to three starfishes, the number that Ye Yan needed. With each starfish, the alchemist can try to do the wonder potion to times, each tries needing only two arms of the five-arms starfish. While they were doing the dungeon runs, they got to reduce the clear record eighteen times. And every time they break the record, they got experience points and a wooden box. Just the experience from the reward for fast clear, they got 2.700 exp. That, plus the experience they got from the monster, made the other party member level up to level 7, and Ye Yan only needs 900 more experience points to get to level 8. He thought that doing these dungeons runs would slow down his leveling but he got to level very fast instead. At least now, he doesn''t need to feel guilty anymore, thinking that he is hindering his teammates'' leveling. Sadly he can''t break the record repeatedly. After theirst dungeon run, the sky was getting dark, showing that Ye Yan had stayed in the game for almost 24 game hours. They went back to the city and stoped at the Bank to store their items. Ye Yan needs a new bag as soon as possible because the one he has is almost overflowing with things. There isn''t even one empty slot in his bag. The Bank is a special building. When people look from the outside, it looks like any other construction, but the inside is different. It is very big and its walls have details in gold and there are many guardian statues, also made of gold. To go to his private room, Ye Yan has to ask one of the attendants to take him there. The bank''s attendant went inside another room and brought back a magical scroll that he trow in front of Ye Yan. The scroll irradiates a golden light and a door appeared out of thin air. Ye Yan passed through it to get to his bank storage. There are many shelves, chests, and cabs for him to store his items inside. Everything is tidy with no item out of ce or on the floor. Ye Yan put each item in its ce. Some crafting material he put on chests, others in the cab. He stored everything until he was left with only the essential items in his bag. He got some money from the dungeon runs but he didn''t store his money because he might need it soon. He will need money to buy another standard bag in the shop and will look at the Auction House to see if he can find the others quests items, even if the change is minimal. yers can store their money in the bank. They can enter their storage rooms or simply leave them with the attendants. The important thing is that yers shouldn''t hold much money with them because they can lose money upon death or can be robed by thieves. Every yer can have a maximum of three bags. If they want more bag space, they will need to change their bags for a higher quality one with more slots. When Ye Yan left this bank storage room, the others were already waiting for him outside. My Girl was the first to leave the bank because he just how his items inside, not minding organizing them. His bank storage room has a pile of items in a corner that increases every time My Girl enters there. Ashardalon and Hello Kitty put their items inside the chests but didn''t organize them. Harpy, like Ye Yan, put everything in their ces but faster than him, showing how efficient she is. After they left the bank, they went to a shop near it to buy a second storage bag. The other teammates felt the need to buy another one too, and now they finally got enough money to do it. On the way there, My Girl started to yell, saying someone tried to take advantage of him. A yer with his or her entire body hidden by a long cloak dumped into My Girl while walking and when he started to yell, the yers started to run. Ye Yan soon understood that something was wrong and got on his bike to chase the yer. The cloaked yers didn''t imagine that he or she would be followed by a yer on a bike, so when Ye Yan Jumped from the bicycle on top of the cloaked yers, he/she was taken by surprise and let out a cry, which scares Ye Yan, making him be paralyzed on top of the yer. .... [1] In 1929, the Spruce veneer bathing suit was created. It was described as simple, cheap, modern, and fashionable. Chapter 48: Light Fingers Chapter 48: Light Fingers "Get off me right now, you pervert!" The cloaked yer yelled at Ye Yan with a female voice. Ye Yan never imagined that one day he would be called a pervert by someone. He had always been serious and keep a distance from the opposite sex. Maybe because his mother traumatized him too much, he never could keep calm near females but he does want to get a girlfriend one day. Only one. He never could understand why some guys wished to have a harem or y around with more than one girl at the same time. Ye Yan always thought that one woman gives too much work, more than one is suicide. Only a masochist would stand it. Ye Yan got up and stayed one meter (3.28 feet) away from her, with his face burning from embarrassment. But his face showed nothing of what he was feeling. Only if people look at his ears, they can see that its tips are bright red. "Sorry." Ye Yan said with his poker face that never shows emotion easily, even more, when he meets strange people or girls. When Ye Yan spoke, he didn''t saw that behind the hood that covers the other yer''s entire face, the female yer gave a wicked smile. She got up suddenly and was prepared to run away when two city guards appeared and hold her by her shoulder, one on each side, making it impossible for her to escape. "Shit!" The female yer started to curse. "Shut up!" One of the guards frowned when he heard her curse and yelled at her, exerting more pressure on her shoulder. At this time, Ashardalon and the others arrived. My Girl felt divided between yelled at the thief that stole her space bag or asking Ye Yan where he got the bicycle. But he thought that he could ask Ye Yanter, the most important thing now is to get his space bag back. The skill [Steal] enables yers to only steal money at the beginning. Starting from level 5, the thief can steal the yers'' bags, but the chance is very low. The chance can increase at level intermediate of skill proficiency and above. For the female thief to have snatched My Girl''s space bag, the level of her steal skill must be high and the skill needs to be, at least, at a level intermediate in proficiency. She must have focused her skill points on the Steall to get to this level. But, even if she got the space bag, she got caught by the city guards at the end, to My Girl lucky. Because of the skills of the thieves in the game, yers need to keep their awareness high all the time or they might be robbed sooner orter. That''s why yers shouldn''t keep many things stored in their space bags. There are magical anti-theft scrolls that yers can use but they are expensive and few yers can buy them at this stage of the game. And the higher the quality of the bag and the items inside, the higher the quality of the anti-theft scroll is needed. The unlucky yers that have their bags stolen, need to go to their respective guilds to get a newmunication stone, city map, etc. After paying a fee, of course. "Do you want to press charges?" One of the city guards asked My Girl. "No..." My Girl did want to see this thief in jail but after seeing the re of his wife, he decided to forget about it. It''s only a thief doing what thieves do after all. "As the victim didn''t press charges, we will let you go this time, but you might not have the same luck the next time." The guard that was pressing heavily on her shoulder said and let her go, leaving afterward. "I''m not saying thanks. I was only doing a thief''s honest work here to make a living and you got in my way." Light Fingers red at Ye Yan with anger. Light Fingers is using the game to make money and the fastest way she thought to do it is robbing people. Unlike in real life, robbing people in the game is not a real bad thing, except if you get caught or for the person who was robbed. Light Fingers discovered that she is really good at this, then she started to train and invent new creative ways to steal. The money she got in the game until now enable her to pay her apartment rent, pay her bills and she didn''t even spend half of the money from the game to do that. Light Fingers is a very sessful thief. If Tang Yunfan knew about it, he would roll on the ground while crying in regret for not choosing the thief ss. When Ye Yan and the others heard what Light Fingers said, their faces became full of ck lines. Thief''s honest work? Thief and honesty are two opposite things that can''t be connected. To someone say such a thing without feeling shame but pride instead, required skill. "Just forget about it." Light Fingers said, taking off her hood and showing her face. Light Fingers is a beauty. Even if she had changed her appearance, bing more beautiful, her original looks shouldn''t be bad. She is a human thief, a race she chose to not attract too much attention. She is 165 cm tall (~5.41 feet) with a thin body and no breast. Her body is very inconspicuous and doesn''t attract attention even if she tried to disguise herself as a male yer. "As we meet, just consider it fate. I am Light Fingers. Here, take this," she said giving them a card with her name and ID for others to contact her. Like a phone number, the yer''s ID is necessary for others to contact through themunication stone. There are many people with the same name in the game, so the system-generated ID is a must to know which yer they want to speak to. When Ye Yan and the others looked at the card that Light Fingers gave them, their jaw dropped. . [Light Fingers - "The best thief in Yan Empire" ID #8618415318649 "I am eptingmissions"] . "If you guys need a thief someday, call me. My price is the better in the region. You just need to say who and where. The rest is on me." She said winking at them. After she gave them her card, she left, looking for her next target. Ye Yan looked at the card and thought about throwing it away. He is not the type of person that does this kind of thing and if he needs to do something simr in the game, he can just do it himself. After thinking for a while, Ye Yan resolved to keep the card and give it to Hu Ling. He is the one that likes to pay others to bully those he thinks are not pleasing to his eyes. At least, he only does this to bad people, so Ye Yan thinks it''s ok. After the unexpecting meeting, they went to the shop to buy a new bag for each of them. The shop sells misceneous things, from potions to equipment, but everything in the shop is of a low quality. If yers want high-quality items, they need to go to specialized shops. As Ye Yan doesn''t have money to buy a higher quality bag, he just purchased two more standard bags. Now he has three space bags, which are the maximum that a yer can hold. Ye Yan tied the three bags in his belt. This is a ce that he can ess easily but is ore risk in case someone wants to rob him. My Girl purchased one bag and he put it inside the upper part of his undergarment, making his breasts fuller and making it difficult for thieves to rob him. He got this idea from his mother. She used to put money inside her bra when going out. Not only money but cards, her document of identity, and her keys. He always wondered how his mother could put so many things inside her bra without it look deformed. After they left the shop after everyone makes their purchases. When they were shopping, Ye Yan knew that no one got the first clear of the Hell Mode of the level 5 dungeon in Tientsin City. He thought a little and called some of his friends to do the dungeon. Their party has five members, then they only need five more people. Ye Yan chose to call over Demon Fox, Conan, Snow White, Mage of the Cold Nights and I Love Skooma. The ten-man dungeon, like the mini-dungeon they had challenged, is underwater. Arches and mages do the most damage underwater, but fire spells are ineffective and lighting spells can kill the cast when used underwater. Spell Bound and Dovakin have basically only this kind of spells, so they aren''t a choice. Every ten-man dungeon or above has traps, then a thief is necessary. They only need one more doctor and Snow White is the best choice because she has more skills than Thumbelina. Ye Yan called his friends and told them about the need to learn the skill swim before entering the dungeon. Everyone agreed to meet at 6 p.m. in real-life''s time to start challenging the ten-man dungeon. After resolving everything, Ye Yan said bye to his new friends and log out of the game. Chapter 49: A mages perk Chapter 49: A mage''s perk Ye Yan went to the kitchen to eat something. He is so hungry that his stomach started to grow. Images of creamy custard bun, custard egg tarts, lotus paste century egg ky puff pastry, pineapple bun, red bean, red bean ky puff pastry, and roast pork bun. When he opened the fridge, all his hope for a good breakfast went down the drain. There''s nothing in the fridge, not even a single egg. He would be content with a simple sesame bread with fried eggs with how hungry he is right now, but he can''t even eat bread with water because there is no bread in the damn kitchen. Ye Yan wants to kick Qian Zhong right now for forgetting to buy food. He was responsible for market purchases this week. Qian Zhong has been going out on dates with Xiao Xiao these days and excluded everything else from his mind. For someone that loves food like Qian Zhong, forgetting to buy it is a big deal. Ye Yan had heard about people that lose weight after breaking up but, maybe, Qian Zhong will be one of the few that lose weight while dating. He had noticed that Qian Zhong had lost a little weight these days, and now, he knows why. Ye Yan doesn''t know if it is a good thing because he had heard Xiao Zhan, I Love Skooma in the game, saying that Xiao Xiao likes chubby guys. She thinks they are cute. And if Qian Zhong continues to lose weight, maybe he will be considered less attractive to Xiao Xiao. As there is not a single thing he can eat in the apartment, he will have to go to the Bakery to buy something. There is a week that Ye Yan didn''t set a foot out of the house, then it will feel good the have the sun on his skin again. He needs to start run in the morning again and not just exercise in his room, or his body will suffer from a deficiency of Vitamin D. For someone like Ye Yan that likes to fight, deficiency of Vitamin D is a huge threat because it can cause muscle weakness, bone pain, fatigue, joint pain, low energy, sour mood, and even more frequent illness. There is only one week that Ye Yan started to y the game, and in all this time, he didn''t go out of the house. If this continues, he will be a recluse. Ye Yan likes to stay at home but stay long periods of time without sunlight is not healthy. Ye Yan went to the bakery two blocks away from his apartment. The shop was crowded with people, and he had to wait for three minutes in a queue to be attended. While waiting, he kept looking at the delicious foods showcased inside the bakery. Everything looks so good that his hunger increased, and his stomach growled out loud. People started looking around to see who made the sound, but they couldn''t find out that it was Ye Yan, because he keeps a serious face that looks to say ''I would never act so impolite''. But if letting others know that his stomach is growling from hunger would let him be attended first, he would dly say out loud it was him. He purchased different types of buns and pastries. He would have brought the delicious-looking strawberry cake if he had more hands to take everything home. But it will be a priority in his next visit to the bakery. Ye Yan left the bakery fast without the need to stop to pay because the shop has a camera that identifies the customers and can know everything that he consumed or brought, and would automatically debit the amount spent in his ount. After leaving the bakery, Ye Yan wasted no time and started to chomp on the buns while walking back home. When he just entered the apartment, his friend almost pounced on him. They were like a pack of hungry wolves, looking at the bag with the bakery goods. He handed the bag to Tang Yunfan. If he waited a little longer to do so, he would get attacked by his friends. Tang Yunfan and the other went at it like they didn''t eat in days. Only after they were satisfied, they start to talk with Ye Yan. Hu Ling started saying that the 100 slots of the guild are finally upied. When a guild has just been created, it is at level 0, with a maximum capacity of 100 yers. Only after these yers do some guild quests, the guild get experience to be upgraded. While Ye Yan was doing his quest, his friends were doing a quest to help the guild umte experience, but they got only a tenth of the experience necessary for upgrade it to level 1. Ye Yan called his friends to do the dungeon in Tientsin because when you do quests or challenge a dungeon with only members of the same guild, their guild gains experience points. And get the first clear of a Hell Mode Dungeon, can not only give experience but reputation points as well. Most of the first clear of Hell Mode''s level 5 dungeons in the Yan Empire was taken by other parties. No one got the first clear of the dungeon in Tientsin, probably, because most of the dungeon is underwater, making it harder for yers toplete it on Hard Mode, even more, on Hell Mode. "I have worked a lot for our guild, then you guys should give me some red envelopes as a reward for my hardbor." In the game, there are two types of red envelopes[1]. One contains money and the other, experience points. When a yer opens an experience red envelope, he can receive from 30% to 100% of the experience points the sender put inside it. The sender transfers his own experience points when he put them in the red envelope. "It is not like you isn''t getting experience points while doing these things." Qian Zhong said. He didn''t want to give his hard-earned experience points to Hu Ling that, actually, has about the same experience points as him. Hu Ling is responsible not only for the recruiting but to get useful information for them. As a mage, he got a passive skill that enables him to gain experience points while reading. The more the mage learns, the more experience he gets. This makes the mages have more knowledge about the game than other sses. But it has a bad side. As the library contains every book written, it includes erotic and pornographic books as well. Then, it gave birth to many perverted mages in the game. "Fine." Hu Ling said grudgingly. "How is your quest going, Third Bro?" "Basically, I only need to go to the Xi'' An, in the center of Yan Empire to get the rest of the items." Ye Yan told them. "Good. The faster you do this, the faster we will be able to get our own guild residence." Hu Ling discovered that they can get a shortcut in the way to acquire their guild''s residence inside the Pce, but it is too difficult to enter it if you aren''t an official. And officials are unable of using this privilege to help others. Only yers that entered the pce by their own means can start a quest to get a property in the City. As Ye Yan already entered the Pce, they are one step closer to getting their guild residence. Ye Yan nodded at Hu Ling. He too wants to get it as soon as possible. "After we get the first clear, I will continue the quest." "Great. I will make the preparations." Hu Ling smiled as he remembering something, and said, " I almost forgot. Thanks for giving me that thief''s information. She will be very useful. Those idiots from before tried to ambush our party again. They didn''t seed but I think they reverse a punishment. I will ask this thief to steal everything from them until only their underwear is left." After saying it, hu Ling gave them an evil smile that they know he really mean it. ......... [1] The red in Chinese culture is a symbol of energy, happiness, and good luck. Sending red envelopes is a way to send good wishes and luck (as well as money), as well as a form of protection. They are mostmonly associated with New Year but are also part of many other asions as a way of sharing good luck and blessings, like births and weddings. The color of the envelope is very important. If you give a white envelope, the meaning is not the same because it is often be exchanged at funerals. The amount of money has meaning too. It can never include the number 4 (4, 40, or 400) because its pronunciation sounds like the word for death. The number 8, on the contrary, will bring luck and prosperity. The custom of giving red envelopes originates in some of the oldest stories of the Chinese New Year. As the legend goes, a demon known terrorized children while they slept on New Year''s Eve, and parents would need to keep them awake all night to protect them. One a New Year, a child was given eight coins to y with to keep him awake, but he fell asleep with the coins on his pillow. The demon appeared, but as he went to touch the child, the coins, that in truth were the Eight immortals in disguise, produced a powerful light that drove the demon away. Chapter 50: Underwater Tunel Dungeon Chapter 50: Underwater Tunel Dungeon "I think I''m in love." When they were talking about some guild issues, Qian Zhong blurted it out. "What?" Tang Yunfan almost spiled the soy milk he was drinking. That came out of nowhere. He wasn''t prepared for it. "Puppy love. How cute!" Hu Ling couldn''t help but tease his friend, knowing that he hates when people refer to him as cute. Ye Yan kept silent. He knew his friend would admit he likes the girl sooner orter but he didn''t think it would be so soon. He only hopes his friend remembers to buy food next time. Qian Zhong is in love but the food is more important than it. Ye Yan understands nothing about rtionships, so he can''t know what his friend is thinking et al. He used his logic to conclude Qian Zhong like the girl. "You are not sure?" Ye Yan asked. After forgetting to buy food for them, he says he is not sure? Qian Zhong was always the first to remember things when the topic was food, but now, he forgot about it. His mother said before that people acted in an abnormal way when they love someone. This is the only logical exnation for the way Qian Zhong is acting. Why he is doubting that? "I don''t know. How someone can know if they are in love?" Qian Zhong asked Hu Ling that is the one with experience with rtionships. "I think he a guy see his girlfriend with shit in her forehead and don''t run away, it must be love[1]." Tang Yunfan said with a serious face. "What?" Tang Yunfan said after seeing the expression on his friend''s face. "Only you can say something like that." Hu Ling shook his head. "Who asks for your opinion?" Qiao Zhong said rolling his eyes. "Little Ling, what you think?" "I have no idea. As you yourself called me before, I am a yer. There is no such a thing as feelings involved and the girls I go out with know it too." Hu Ling said sincerely. Qian Zhong signed. If Hu Ling can''t help him figure it out, so no one else can. Tang Yunfan knows nothing about it because up until now, he never dated. He imagined that when he gets a girl in the future will be after hitting her on the head and dragging her by her hair, like in the cartoons about cavemen. And there is no way he would ask Ye Yan because if he answers, he might say something worse than Tang Yunfan. Qian Zhong decided to forget about it. Sooner orter he will found out. The four of them became silent all of a sudden until Hu Ling remembered something and asked Tang Yunfan. "You don''t have work today?" Hu Ling remembered that Tang Yunfan would work for two more days before starting to focus only on the guild. They discussed it before and Hu ling would pay a sry to the main team of the guild until they started to make a good amount of money in the game. "I am not going back there. I am too embarrassed to do so." Tang Yunfan said with a tinge of red on his face. "What happened?" Hu Ling and Qian Zhong said at the same time. No matter what happened, it must be something funny to cause Tang Yunfan to blush. Tang Yunfan sighed, resigned to tell everything. The others wouldn''t leave him in peace until he does so. "The guys there weremented about a piece of strange music. I don''t think that can be really considered music but never mind. They asked me if I had seen the video of this ''music''.When I said no, the guy working in the audiovisual room took me there and yed it for me to see. The music only has one phrase... that is also the music''s name. The phrase is.. well... Fuck yourself on your own... You know. And if having to listen to it wasn''t bad enough, the volume was found enough to be heard in the reception room. The boss answered the phone call in the reception room with the sound of this music as background. We discovered itter because the one the called her told us about him. Heughed so much telling us. I really don''t have the face to go there again [2]." Tang Yunfan said everything without pause. After he finished, Hu Ling and Qian Zhong couldn''t hold it anymore and started tough the ass off. Even Ye Yan couldn''t hold it in andughed together with them but in a moderate way. After Tang Yunfan told them what happened, theyughed at him all day long until they entered the game again. They agreed to meet in front of the Adventurers'' Guild in the east part of the city, the one nearer the sea. The members that hadn''t learn the passive skill [Swim] logged in the game early than them to do so. Now, they can start the dungeon without problems. They entered the Adventurers'' Guild together and went to get the quest. The Adventurers'' Guild discovered that some pirates,ckeys of Zheng Yi Sao [3], the most powerful pirate in History, have smuggled dangerous alchemic potions to Yan Empire. The guild found the hiding ce of these pirates but they are without the manpower to stop them. That''s why the guild is recruiting brave adventures to defeat those pirates and get the dangerous potions for them before it is toote and they use the potions to hurt the citizens of Tientsin City. Ye Yan and his team epted the quest and went to the ce indicated in the map given by the guild. There is a soldier camp there. Ye Yan spoke with the captain of the soldiers. They told him they were sent by the Adventurers'' Guild to help them defeat the pirates. The captain show relief on his face after hearing it. When they were speaking with the captain, another party arrived to start the dungeon. But different from the party they meet outside of the White Birch Mountain Forest, they looked friendly. The all-male party is there to do the dungeon as them, but they are not preparing to challenge the Hell Mode. "Hello!" The team leader of the other party said to them. "It''s the first time you guys are running this dungeon?" "Yes. We just arrived." Qian Zhong said to them with a friendly smile. "I wish you guys good luck. You will need it." The team leader said while looking at the girls in the team, which gave Ye Yan''s party a bad feeling. "Thanks for the warning." Qian Zhong said politely. As Their party arrived first, they were led away by one of the soldiers before the other party. The soldier took them to a wooden rowing boat that fits around ten or eleven people. There are exactly ten oars on the boat in every one of them is sitting next to one. It''s obvious that they will be responsible for row the boat. They looked at the boat floor and saw that another party had cleared the Torment Mode of the Dungeon. They didn''t recognize the yers'' names but the symbol next to the name is the same one that was on the yers from the party they just met. The symbol of the guild is a surfboard and the name is Beach Boys. It looks like the other party is not only ying around. They are theirpetitors. They hope that soon, their names will also be on the boat. The soldier started to give orders for them to rowing in this or that way until they get to the exact location where is the entrance of the dungeon. While rowing the boat, My Girl started to sing to relieve his boredom, and soon, the others join him. . "Row row row your boat Gently down the stream Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily Life is but a dream Row row row your boat Gently down the stream Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily Life is but a dream" . The soldier didn''t join them but was smiling while they sing. After forty minutes rowing the boat and hearing My Girl sing, they were almost put a dirty sock on his mouth. After some time listening to the same thing, again and again, even a saint would want to kill the singer. Luckily they arrived or they would have to enter the dungeon with only nine members because Harpy almost threw her husband on the sea. At least the boat will be here waiting for them and they don''t need to rowing here again if they want to do the dungeon again. only if they went back to the city, they would have to do the same process again. The entrance of the dungeon is an underwater cave and they will have to look for it after they dive into the seawater. The water is clean and they can see things a good distance away. Soon they found the entrance of the cave. When the party started to enter the cave, they heard a system notification. System: please select the dungeon difficult: Easy, Normal, Hard, Torment, Nightmare, or hell. As this will be their first time in this dungeon, they had decided on the Normal Mode. System: you have entered ''Underwater Tunel Dungeon'' on Normal Mode. ..... [1] This part is not fiction! It happened in real life with someone close to me. How it happened, even the person with shit in her forehead doesn''t know. [2] Sadly, it is also not fiction. This happened with this author more than 10 years ago. [3] Zheng Yi Sao, also known as Ching Shih, was a female Chinese pirate leader from the 19th century. She was a former prostitute, a fearsome pirate, andter, a gambling house owner. She has been called the most sessful pirate in history. She was the unofficialmander of the Guangdong Pirate Confederation, which wasposed of 400 junks and between 40,000 to 60,000 pirates in 1805. Chapter 51: Marine life Chapter 51: Marine life After the party entered the underwater cave, everything bes dark because the sunlight doesn''t reach inside the cave. When they just started to worry about what they should do, a little ball of light appeared near them, lightning their way through the cave. Hello Kitty, luckily, know the skill [Cast Light], and she used this skill to cast the ball of light to illuminate an area 30 meters radius around them. The ball of light will follow the caster whenever she goes. Many utility skills don''t have attack power but are indispensable in various situations in the game, like [Cast Light], [Warmth], [sh], and others. Now that they have a way to see in the dark, they can continue their way through the dungeon. The background story of this dungeon is about a spy among the pirates that escaped the cave where they were keeping the alchemic potions smuggled through this underwater tunnel. After escaping, he told the people from the guild about the potions and the danger they can bring to people. The potions can make life being mutate, and became insane. If it falls into the wrong hands, that would be a disaster. Because of that, they are recruiting adventures to retrieve those potions, as NPCs adventurers from the guild are engaged in a battle against Zheng Yi Sao and the Guangdong Pirate Confederation. As they dive further into the underwater tunnel, they can''t help but stop a few times to admire the beauty of the ce. Their heads keep turning from one side to the other, as they gaze in awe at the masterpiece of nature. Sadly, it is very difficult to see a ce like this in the real world nowadays because of the human impact on the environment. The underwater tunnel is full of different types of lifeforms, from mature coral poptions and thrivingmunities of sponges to fish, zoonkton, and other marine life. Sponges of various bright colors cluster among the corals across the tunnel, from red, yellow, and orange to violet and even, ck. There are some white calcareous sponges, but they are few inparison with the others. There are a wide variety of passive fish species swimming inside the cave that didn''t represent a risk for them, thus Ye Yan and the others didn''t attack them. Some individual endangered red coral, also known as colonies, spread their vibrant crimson branches from the walls and ceiling of the tunnel. The ghostly polyps waving in the water current as if they were greeting all those who pass by. To see red coral as they are now is not something that can happen in real life. Being an endangered species, red corals are rarely seen. The few red corals that scientists know are kept preserved since the beginning of the century, or else, they would be extinct by now. Since the Neolithic era, red coral has been harvested in an uncontrolled way. They are polished and fashioned into jewelry and are considered a potent charm by different cultures. It was believed to have the property of vitalizing life energy, with his red color symbolizing ''blood''. It also represents prosperity and is both effective for business and love. Ancient Romans used to hung branches of coral around their children''s necks to protect them from danger. The coral was a precious medicine in ancient China. They believe it could brighten the eyes and bnce excess and deficiency in the blood. Japanese believed that coral could dissolve in poison. Thus they were made into charms called ojime that were worn dangling from the waist until they were needed to test for toxins. In the West are simr beliefs. The red coral powder, together with others ingredients could be used to cure the most violent vomitings. However, the potion was so expensive to make that their cost-benefit was questioned. In Second Life, like in ancient medicine, the coral, mainly the red one, can be used to craft charms, amulets, and to make potions. Sadly, the coral of this region are under Tientsin City''s protection and they can''t harvest them or they will be thieves in the city and be taken to jail as soon as a soldier sees them. They kept swimming through the underwater tunnel, staying close to the temptation all the time. They know how valuable the red corals are in the game but they can''t touch it. This situation is almost the same as showing a very fat roasted turkey to someone that is suffering from hunger and saying he can see but not touch. Their value of the red coral is widely divulged in the city, thus everyone knows its value. Probably, it is to purposefully tempt yers tomit theft in the areas protected by the city. Further in the tunnel, some stgmites are growing from the cave floor and stctites hanging from the ceiling. And they could see fewer corals and other marine lifeforms. All of a sudden, I Love Skooma, that was swimming in front of the others, stopped and signaled them to stop as well. Because of his skill [Perseption], I Love Skooma could feel danger nearby. He looked around but could see nothing strange. He decided to swim further to see if he can locate the origin of the danger. He signaled the other to wait and asked Hello kitty to cast another light ball on him, using some strange gestures, like pumping his fist in the air and opening and closing his hands. When he gave up on doing it, he tried to use his body to write the word ''light''. after a lot of contortion, Hello Kitty finally understood what he means and used [Cast Light on I Love Skooma. Cast Light normally is automatically used on the caster but it can also be cast on another yer. With a ball of light beside him, I Love Skooma moved forward into the tunnel. Soon, the stctites started to move and fall one after the other. Luckily, I Love Skooma was prepared and evaded them using [Burst of Speed] to increase his speed. His legs started to move so fast that it could rece a boat''s engine. The thief needs to have nerves of steel to stand these situations. Those who chose this ss and specialize in traps are the ones that took more risk in the game. These yers are holier than the clerics. They need to always be ready to sacrifice themselves for their team because they can be sliced, pierced, empaled, decapitated, and burned at any time. As the thief needs to risk so much and many times isn''t recognized for his efforts, few thieves want to y as trappers. Those that do so are fought over by the stronger teams, increasing the gap between the top guild teams and normal yers'' teams. After the area was clear of traps, I Love Skooma signaled his friend to move forward. They continued swimming until they saw something that couldn''t be unseen. The females of the party started to blush uncontrobly, except by Mage of the Cold Night that got some novel ideas from the scene. The males had a different reaction. Some of them thought they entered hell, others thought it funny. My Girl was the only one that, like always, make a show when he saw those marine creatures. he acted like an innocent girl being molested by a pervert. What they saw are no other than dozens of Urechis Unicinctus, also known as fat innkeeper worm but mainly known as penis fish[1]. It is a marine spoon worm in East Asia, found in China, Korean and Japanese coasts. The penis fish bodies are about 10 to 30 cm long, cylindrical in shape, and with yellow-brown color. But contrary to real-life, in the game, they are aggressive and can throw poisoned needles from a hole in its tip that should be its mouth. The damage is not high but if a yer is hit by the needles many times, the yer will get poisoned and start to take damage over time. Ye Yan and the others started to attack the penis fishes, using their weapons and spells. Luckily they a frail and only need one hit to die. The problem is that the males of the party started to feel pain in their hearts after shing it. But the main source of pain in their guts wasing from Hello Kitty and My Girl. Both of them are portraying a psycho look on their faces. Their smiles while killing the penis fishes could scary any male yer that sees such a scene. After seeing Hello Kitty killing the penis fish, I Love Skooma that was interested in the girl, changed his mind right away. He started to imagine what she could do with a guy if she became dissatisfied with him. The male party members started to ignore the psycho girl and continue to kill the penis fishes in front of them. ..... [1] They are appreciated in Korean cuisine. Chapter 52: Underwater Communication Chapter 52: Underwater Communication The needle spitter penis fishes were weak to shing and magical attacks, however, smashing weapons couldn''t damage them. Because of this, Ashardalon had to store his shield in his space bag and took a two-hand sword that he kept inside his bag for situations like this, where his shield is ineffective. If it was in the drynd, Ashardalon could smash it to the ground. In this way, even monsters immune to smashing damage can be crushed to death. But it is impossible in the water, not just because of the reduced speed that enables the monster to escape before the process end, but also because the yers didn''t walk on the seafloor. If yers are swimming, it will be difficult to crush the monsters on a hard surface. yers can use their creativity to smash marine monsters on underwater cave walls to deal damage but it is hard to achieve and even harder to do it repeatedly to do constant damage. Ashardalon, using his two-handed sword, which is three to four times the size of the penis fishes, started hitting his targets. . [Penis Fish] (Normal) Description: This marine spoon worm has a very peculiar appearance. Level 5 HP: 150 . The ones that are having a harder time dealing damage to the penis fishes are Harpy and Demon Fox because it is not easy to hit them with their arrows, even with the help of the system. It is too difficult for the archer to hit small or moving targets. For normal yers to be able to hit the monster, they just need to aim in the monster''s direction for it to hit. However, if the archer can aim at the weak part of a monster like its eyes, the damage dealt would increase more than it would when using other weapon types. They continued shing and freezing the penis fishes until every one of them was killed. They collected the loot but most of the team members didn''t want to keep it. As happens with most monsters of the game, the items dropped from the penis fishes are the things that originally belong to them, as parts of their bodies or something they are holding. The bodies of the penis fishes were the loot dropped. It could be used as cooking ingredients or to make potions. Another item that dropped from the monster was poisoned needles that could be used to craft weapons. From the two items, only the needles were fought over, while the other one went to My Girl''s space bag. Ye Yan doesn''t even want to know what My Girl will do with it. After storing the loot, they went further into the tunnel. Soon, they started to see other types of marine life, like fishes, crabs, and turtles. But contrary to real life, these creatures were aggressive, and some even have strange expressions on their faces, like the turtle that looked like it was giving an evil smile. Ye Yan doesn''t like to hurt animals. He learned from his father that live creatures should be cherished and only could be killed if it is for eating. He hates when people hurt animals for fun. When he was a little child, despite enjoying fighting, he wasn''t violent but everything changed after he saw other children hurting a cat. Those cruel children put a rocket in the cat''s ass to see it explode[1]. It was just too cruel that Ye Yan couldn''t stand it and beat down those children. After it, every time he sees someone being bullied, he went to help. Sometimes, humans prove to be worse than monsters from books. Not even Edgar An Poe could think children could be capable of such cruelty with a cat. For Ye Yan, bullies should be beaten until they understood that there is punishment for their bad deeds. Ye Yan always thought that being good all the time is not good because those that try, will be trampled by others. He always remembers a quote from Nolo Machiavelli, one of the great thinkers of history, that says ''Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound toe to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.'' Ye Yan is not a bad person but he can learn how to be bad when it is needed. His mother taught him that he should be strong because if someone tries to bully him, he should bully them back until they regret it. Contrary to his father, his mother was hotheaded and always got herself into trouble. Because of this, they could never stay at the same ce for long or his mother would go to jail for beating their neighbors. Every ce they lived, there was a problem with one of their neighbors. Sometimes was noisy, others were because the neighbor pets would enter their house, and many other simr situations. Because of this, Ye Yan''s family always rented houses, never buy one. Ye Yan looked at the monsters that are like real animals and started to attack. These monsters are stronger than the penis fishes, but they could fight more than one at the same time without problems. As the party has two tanks now, both of them attached 3 monsters each, to speed things up. Ye Yan is tanking three Grouper Fishes while Ashardalon is fighting three Wicked Turtles. . [Grouper Fish] (Normal) Description: A giant ugly fish with tasty sh. Level 5 HP: 1000 . [Wicked Turtle] (Normal) Description: This evil turtle shows its evil thoughts on its face. Level 5 HP: 1500 . As Ye Yan can move underwater faster than Ashardalon, this arrangement was the best, because the turtles are fast but the grouper fishes are faster than them and also has a harder time maneuver. Ashardalon used his shield to smash the wicked turtles while activating his skills to build aggro. He used [Provoke], and [Roar] for the monster to focus their attacks on him and attacked using skills as [Shiel Strike], [Shield Bash], and [Shield Boomerang]. Ashardalon''s build is focused on using his shield to attack and defended, thus he chose skills that focus on the shield. Ye Yan is different from Ashardalon. He uses his own abilities to tank the monsters, not relying on equipment. It makes him weaker than other tanks in defense, making the monster''s attacks sometimes fatal if hit. He depends on his passive skills to mitigate the damage taken when necessary. After a few seconds of Ashardalon bashing the turtles and Ye Yan performing an aquarium show as he evades and attacks the grouper fishes, they signaled for the others to attack. They have agreed beforehand in using some gestures to represent certain actions. Thus they can understand most of what the signals mean. Just when they need to say something that they didn''t design a signal that the problems arise, as happened when I Love Skooma asked Hello Kitty to use the Cast Light Spell. At times like this, people who know Sign Language have an advantage. In real life, people use theirmunication devices to trante othernguages, including Sign Language, thus most people don''t learn thenguage. In Second Life, deaf people use Sign Language tomunicate and others, like in real life, can use theirmunication stone to trante. Or deaf people can use themunication stone to trante what others are saying to Signnguage. This trantion can only happen if the Sign Language is from the same country as the othernguage, otherwise, they will need to do a quest first. Some deaf people decided to usemonnguage in the game but many didn''t because they see deaf as a culture with their ownnguage and giving it up is the same as negating everything they achieve until now. As Ye Yan and the others don''t know CSL (Chinese Sign Language), they have to use creative ways to make others understand them underwater. When the Wicked Turtles used a skill that others never saw before on Ashardalon, they didn''t know what was its effect on him. Ashardalon tried to make some gestures while fighting for My Girl to use the spell [Dispel] on him but with no sess. No matter how much Ashardalon signaled My Girl, the other couldn''t understand a thing. After some time fighting with his strength reduced because of the turtle''s special skill, Ashardalon gave up and made a signal to My Girl that almost any person in the world can understand, the international sign of ''Fuck you[2]''. My Girl couldn''t see that Ashardalon attacks be weaker because the amount of damage the monster takes doesn''t show to yers, only the severity of the wounds. Only when the battle was almost ending, My Girl noticed that Ashardalon attacks are hurting the monster very littlepared to the beginning of the battle and used the Dispel on him. After having his strength back to normal, Ashardalon would have yelled Hallelujah if he could. The team focused their attacks on the Grouper Fishes first because their defense was lowpared to the turtles and they killed them fast, and focus fire on the turtles after. ... [1] This cruel act traumatized this author as a child. [2] In some countries, the middle finger really represents ''Fuck you'' in Sign Language. In Japan, if you make the sign with both hands, the meaning is different, it''s the gesture for siblings. Chapter 53: Gigantic Wicked Turtle Chapter 53: Gigantic Wicked Turtle The Wicked Turtle looks like the cartoon version of the Grinch, with an evil smile and the green. It basically has only two skills, [Bite] and [Rapid Spin]. The turtle has such a powerful bite that it can tear off pieces of sh from the yers, dealing a good amount of damage. Lose a thinger is the lesser worry the yers will have. The other skill is Rapid Spin, in which the turtle retracts his head and limbs into the hull, and started to spin, hitting everything around it. When the Grouper Fishes died, Ye Yan started to attack the turtles. They have hard shells but this time, he was prepared and changed his fan for a hammer that he kept in his space bag. The only problem is that it is the worse kind of smash weapon sold, the cheapest in the shop. Ye Yan bought a thrusting sword at the same time he purchased the space bags. Ye Yan also got a smashing weapon to cover all situations that there is a need for shing, thrusting, and smashing weapons. The turtles were weak to smash attacks, then Ye Yan used his hammer to hit it. Thrust weapon also could be used be he would have to always hit on the holes where the head and the limbs of the turtle is located, which would be very hard to do, even more so because the turtles keep using Rapid Spin to attack. Soon, all three turtles were smashed and frozen until they dye. Sadly, they have crushed the turtles'' hull so much that only one wasn''t broken in the end, bing one of the drops. As it is extremely hard to keep the shell intact, the drop rate of the item is very low. They only got it because of pure luck. . [Turtle Shell] (Bronze, Heavy Armor: Body armor) Description: A armor made with a turtle''s shell that can negate shing attacks. Def + 70 Immune to shing attacks + 15% physical damage reduction Requirement Level: 5 Durability: 40/40 Weight: 70 kg . The heavy armor is suited for tanks, thus Ashardalon got the item. Ye Yan uses a hybrid build and prefers not to use heavy armor, but medium armor. He uses his own straight and agility to deflect the monster''s attacks instead of using heavy armor and being a punching bag for the monsters. After Ashardalon changed armor, they continue swimming further into the tunnel. Now, the team looked like they were just out of a Halloween party, with one human, that looked to be a soldier, one adolescent puppy that took the dog paddle to another level, one wet werecat that is uglier than a wet furry cat, a chicken woman, a psycho catgirl, a bearded female dwarf, a barbarian half-orc, a crazy bitch elf, a bearded male human ice sculpture with a girl''s heart, and a ninja turtle with a draconic head and a shield tied on his shell. Ye Yan is the only human on the main team of the guild, which proves that humans are not very popr among yers because it isn''t strong or cool enough for them. Prejudice has always existed and it seems that it always will. In the game, other races have some prejudice against human yers, thinking they are toomon, boring, and weak. And because of this, many yers look down on Ye Yan before knowing him. If humans are looked down on by the members of the Righteous Faction, among members of the Dark Facion it is even worse, because there is a predominance of heteromorphic races. Ye Yan and the others swam until they got to a spacious area with a Wicked Turtle five times the size of the ones they fought before. . [Gigantic Wicked Turtle] (Chieftan) Description: This turtle grew much bigger than the others of its species and be alone, without a female turtle to apany it in its old age. Even if it bends, he will continue without a partner. To vent the frustration of not getting a partner, the Gigantic Wicked Turtle likes to kill those that were brave enough to pass through his territory. Level 5 HP: 5.000 . The Gigantic Wicked Turtle is about 16.4 feet long (5 meters) and must weigh a few tons. If the turtle shell drops this time, it probably can be used to make a swimming pool for the guild. Looks like there is a mountain in front of them, and not an animal. There are many tes forming the turtle shell. On each of their tes, there is a rune draw, which gives the turtle a mystical air. As Ye Yan will fight using a two-handed hammer this time, and his abilities to dodge the boss attacks will decrease because he can''t use his fan to help himself evade. That''s why Ashardalon will be the tank this time. That is the bad side of using a hybrid build. There will always be moments that Ye Yan will not be able to use his abilities and techniques to rece hisck of stats. Like now. Ashardalon started the fight using [Provoke] on the boss to attract it and build a good amount of aggro at the same time. Ashardalon was using his shield to attack the boss, but even hisrge shield is nothingpared to the mountain-like monster in front of him. He is trying to hit the boss''s head but every time he attacks, the boss retracts his head. When the boss does this with that evil smile, looks like he is ying around with Ashardalon. As it is too hard to hit the turtle''s head, he started to attack its shell. He continued fighting alone for a few more seconds until he signaled the others to attack. They started to attack the boss with every kind of skill they know. Conan and Harpy started to use a different strategy this time. They used their special skills that can damage the boss plus the help of Mage of the Cold Nights that is using her race skill [Frozen Touch] to change the property of the arrows, giving it the ice property. Luckily, Frozen touch is a passive skill, thus Mage of the Cold Nights didn''t need to stop casting her spell for the skill to have an effect. Demon Fox and Harpy just need to make the arrow touch Mage of the Cold Night skin for it to change from neutral to ice property. The problem is that they are doing it a little too fast and sometimes they poke her with the tip of the arrow, making her receive 1 damage every time such an ident happened. It isn''t really hurting her but he wants to make Demon Fox have a taste of it. Just thinking about how Demon Fox is afraid of Needles, brought a sadic smile to Mage of the Cold Nights'' face. Ye Yan started to hit the boss with his two-handed hammer and using Clive and Bash every time he can. Sometimes he holds the hammer with his left hand for him to punch the boss using the skill Dizzy Punch that can stun the boss for a few seconds. Sadly, he can''t use Bash more than 32 times in the battle because this is the maximum number of action points he has. And as he isn''t ying the tank role this time, he can''t use [Provoke] to gain action points or he would take the aggro from Ashardalon. Seeing the battle, Ye Yan thought about a creative way to increase the damage and help Ashardalon defended some of the boss attacks, like [Bubble] or [Water Gun]. At least it is easy to know which skill the boss will use because a specific rune on the boss shell will light every time he uses a skill. But this strategy will be left forter because he can''t exin things for them now. The Gigantic Wicked Turtle, like the turtles before, can use a curse to decrease a yer''s strength, but this time My Girl is aware of this and used Dispel on Ashardalon as soon as Ashardalon''s attacks looked weaker. My Girl''s performance now earned a thumbs up from Ashardalon. He only changed a finger, but it makes the meaningpletely different. They continued attacking the boss and trying to understand the boss attack pattern as much as possible for they use this knowledge when challenging a hard difficult mode in the dungeon. The boss is not a robot. His attacks will keep changing but certain moves will always repeat, helping them to find what they intend to do next. They continue attacking until the boss became enraged and started to use Rapid Spin. He is so big and hard now that it is very difficult for yers to do melee damage. Ye Yan, maybe thinking he can act like Thor, started to swim with his hammer in front of him. He activated his skill Lucky Hit and started to move his legs in the water to push him forward to attack. Chapter 54: Ye Yans nightmare Chapter 54: Ye Yan''s nightmare The team members looked at Ye Yan attacking the Gigantic Wicked Turtle as a superhero, but Ye Yan is not Thor and the cheap hammer he is using is a wood quality item, not the divine weapon Mjolnir. Ye Yan attacked the boss and soon after, taking advantage of the boss''s moves, he got away from it. After seeing Ye Yan''s moves, the other physical sses started using simr methods to deal damage to the boss. Soon, the boss died and his body started to fall to the underwater cave floor. The battle was hard because they have still to get used to this kind of battle and the boss is too strong in the water. If they were fighting it on Hell Mode, the team wouldn''t stand even two minutes against the boss. They were fighting on Normal Mode this time, thus it was hard to defeat the boss but not impossible. The boss only dropped some pieces of turtle meat, turtle skin, and shell tes after dying. They hope thatter, in harder versions of this dungeon, the boss drops something better. They can use the skin and the shell tes to make armor, and the meat to cook. But the items aren''t valuable. They continue swimming and killing monsters until they finally could see the end of the underwater tunnel. After defeating the second boss, they could finally reach the area where the tunnel changes to drynd. After more than one hour of swimming, and fighting while swimming, they were really happy for walking on drynd again. Sadly, Ye Yan''s happiness wouldn''tst long. In truth, whates next will be worse than a nightmare for him. After walking through the tunnel for a few seconds, they got to a wide area that looks to be the pirates'' storage. The area is very spacious with many old wooden chests scattered in the cave. They didn''t enter the cave as soon as they got there but waited for some time to observe the ce. They look around and when I Love Skooma was going to walk inside to look for traps, he noticed something moving next to one of the chests on the right side of the cave. I Love Skooma pointed to the reddish-brown thing moving in the distance. Soon, they observed many spots, simr in color, moving all over the cave. "Fuck!" Conan and Demon Fox cursed at the same time, apanied by screams from Hello Kitty, Snow White, and My Girl. "The battle doesn''t even begin and we already lose three members," Conan said exasperated. "Hello Kitty and Snow White can fight at long distances, so there is no problem. And My Girl isn''t serious." Ashardalon exined to Conan and Demon Fox. "We weren''t thinking about him." Both Conan and Demon Fox looked at Ye Yan that was paralyzed on the spot. Ye Yan''s body stayed at the same ce it was when he entered the storage cave. They would think he was petrified if it wasn''t for the fact that his body is shaking uncontrobly. Ye Yan wasn''t cursed or attacked by some skill. The reason he is like this is that he is paralyzed by fear. The only thing in his mind now is the monsters he is seeing from a distance. [Cockroaches! Cockroaches! Dozen of cockroaches!] Ye Yan is repeating these words again and again in his mind. He thought he was safe from the Crookroaches when he decided to not do the quest on the sewers. But now, in a ce surrounded by water, where he had to swim to reach, those damn creatures appeared. [How can this damn thing appear everywhere? No matter where you are, one fucking cockroach always pops out of nowhere to haunt people.] Ye Yan''s mind stopped working. The thought about cockroaches fried his brain, making him unable to fight. "What''s happening?" Ashardalon asked when he noticed Ye Yan''s actions or theck of them. "Ye Yan is terrified of cockroaches. He usually runs away when he sees one, but now..." Demon Fox said and look at the dozen of cockroaches in the distance, "Maybe too many cockroaches are fatal for him." Conan sighed and continue to exin after Demon Fox. "When he was a child, his parents made him eat strange things, including cockroaches. He became traumatized and now he can''t see those disgusting things that ''this'' happen." Conan pointed to the paralyzed Ye Yan when he was almost done speaking. "I have eaten part of a cockroach in the past too, but I don''t have this problem. It was inside the bread and when I felt a strange taste, I looked at it and found out that there was a cockroach inside. It was a terrible experience but I got over it soon after." Mage of the Cold Nights told her own life experience to the others, which provokes a reaction in Ye Yan. When Ye Yan heard what Mage of the Cold Nights said, he turned his head and looked at her with pity in his eyes. For the first time in his life, Ye Yan felt that someone had a worse experience with food than him. At least, those disgusting things were reared in captivity and sterilized before eating. However, in Mage of Cold Nights case, she ate a disgusting cockroach fresh from the sewers, and maybe with residues of substances that he does not even want to know what is made. Just thinking of that, Ye Yan started to get goosebumps all over his body. Strange how things are. When you think that another person has a worse experience, you sometimes start to thought about your own experience in a not-so-heavy waypared to before. It is not that Ye Yan is no longer terrified of cockroaches but he thought that maybe he can try to fight them. They are not real after all and there is no way that he will eat such a thing ever again. Poor Ye Yan, he doesn''t know that in truth, he eats cockroaches pieces every week. Ye Yan loves to eat chocte but average chocte bars contain insect parts. ording to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there are more than 60 insect pieces per 100 grams of chocte. Food manufactures are legally allowed to produce food with traces of insects like cockroaches parts. They are considered[span] safe[/span] for consumption if not eaten in excess because it is considered natural contamination. He was never afraid of cockroaches and the like but he always remembered the taste of it when he sees one. That''s why he wants to be as far away he can from it, so he can also keep the memory away. Ye Yan tried to man up and took a step forward. He took a deep breath and continue approaching his friends. Conan and Demon Fox looked at Ye Yan in awe. They would never think that would be a day when he could walk normally, or at least almost normally, with cockroaches not far from him. "You will tank them." Ye Yan said to Ashardalon. He took a step forward in the path of ovee his trauma, but it didn''t mean he can stay in front of so many disgusting things with no problem. Ye Yan took another deep breath and took the weapon with the longest handle he has stored from his space bag. His hammer has only a 1-meter long handle. It isn''t much but better than nothing. He wished he had a broom now, to help him kill those things. At least, Ye Yan is in a better situation than I Love Skooma that only has his daggers or poison skills that need the touch action, to fight. Everyone got ready for battle and Ashardalon went forward to attract the cockroaches. . [Crookroach] (Normal) Description: Sewers creatures from the other side of the globe that were taken to the Yan Empire through ships. This cheating cockroach can trick anyone to get a free ride. Level 5 HP: 100 . The crookroaches they were going to battle are the most disgusting of them all, the American species, but the size of the Madagascan cockroaches with 5 to 9 cm (~1.9 to 3.54 inches). Ye Yan feels a little luck for the cockroaches in the game to be bigger than normal. It is easier to kill like that and the chances of it survive and craw over the weapon in the direction of his hand and feet is small. After Ashardalon started the fight with a dozen of crookroaches, keeping them away from the others using his shield, his teammates started to attack. Ye Yan stayed behind Ashardalon while using his hammer to kill the crookroaches. He is using his hammer in a very strange way, as he is holding it by the tip of the handle, to stay the bigger distance away as he can from the monsters. Although the party has to face many cockroaches, they started to smile seeing Ye Yan''s actions. They never thought it possible that someone like him would act in this way. While the others were fighting whileughing at him, Ye Yan was only hoping that Ashardalon could control the situation well, because there is no way in hell that he would use his skill [Provoke] and [Roar] to help him. Luckily, they soon killed every crookroach in the area, for Ye Yan''s relief. After the fight ended, the yers went to open the chests while Ye Yan waited for them at the exit of the area. He prefers to stay as far as possible from the cockroaches'' bodies. Those things can even live without their heads for days. He didn''t trust that every one of them is really dead.[ol][li data-annotation-id="eddeb113-1a24-fa6d-ded4-d181e66b6e4d"]How can it be considered safe? We are eating cockroaches parts![/ol] Chapter 55: Pirates! Chapter 55: Pirates! Every team member, except Ye Yan, went to open the old wooden chests. There are eight in total and they hope they can get good things from them. When they got near the chests, they could see adamantium locks on the chests, which means that they need the key, high-level skill and proficiency in lockpick, or high-quality tools. And in case they try to open it using brute force, their weapons should be, at least, of adamantium quality. They start to think that this dungeon was made to y around with yers, tempting them but denying to give them the goods. First was the red corals and now the chests. While they became dispirited after found out about the locks, Ye Yan was congratting himself for his wise decision. He had stayed in the cave exit when his friends went to the chest like hungry wolves. Because of this, he got a title! The system judged him as a non-greedy person as he didn''t try to open the chest and now he was blessed with a good title in the game. . [Non-greedy] (Title) Description: You are a virtuous person that can''t be tempted by treasures tomit bad deeds in the name of greed. Effect: Permanently increase your luck and charisma by 2 points. . Ye Yan decided toment about the title at the end of this dungeon run, or his friends'' dissatisfaction would increase too much. Conan and Demon Fox looked suspicious at Ye Yan''s almost smiling face. They knew that something good must have happened for him to be happy with cockroaches nearby, even if they are dead. Even after receiving questioned gazes from his friends, Ye Yan kept tight-lipped. It would do him any good to speak about the title with them now. As Ye Yan said nothing, they give up trying to know. They left the storage cave and followed the path to the wharf, where a pirate ship is docked. They looked at the wharf''s area from a distance. There is only the wooden wharf with some boxes scattered and a big pirate ship at the end of it. The wooden pirate ship is 60m in length with 46 broadside cannons, 2 swivel guns, many fire barrels, and around 30 members of the crew could be seen working on the deck. This part of the dungeon made everyone excited. They will have the opportunity to fight against pirates on a pirate ship, no less. Most of the members of the party had yed pirates as a child, male and female. Conan was the one that most yed pirate among them. He used a stic sword, a ck scarf, and his mother''s ck bra to make an eye patch. But his mother soon confiscated his makeshift eye patch. Afterward, she confiscated his stic sword too because he was ying fighting with his friends like in video games. [span]They drew the life bar on the floor and marked it whenever someone ''drew blood'' from the other.[/span] When someone lost a tooth, his mother took their tools away and forbade them to y fighting again. There are around 30 pirates on the ship deck and maybe more inside they aren''t seeing. They are very close together, thus it will be impossible to fight them separately. In I Love Skooma mind, he imagined himself as an expert assassin, climbing the ship from its sides, cutting the throat of the pirates without the others notice what was happening, and throw them out of the ship. Maybe in the future, he will have the opportunity of doing it, but now, he doesn''t have the weapons, skills, and ability to do it yet. However, he will strive to be a top assassin in the future. The race he chose is the better, in his opinion, for this ss. The werecat has the advantage when climbing and his body can pass through many extremely narrow ces that is impossible to other races. I Love Skooma sighed, thinking that he can only achieve these things in the future, and got ready to raid the pirates'' ship. There is no ce for them to hide while passing through the wharf. The boxes are smallpared to them and it would be ridiculous to even try. Mainly Ashardalon and Conan, both are from Dragonborn and half-orc races respectively, and not even two boxes stacked can hide them. Ye Yan gave the idea of fighting on the wharf. In this way, they can fight a small number of pirates at the same time. The wharf has only 150 cm width (~5ft) and they can fight only three at the same time. The wharf is about two meters above the water and there are many almost-impossible-to-climb rocks between the ce they are and the water. And even if the tide goes up, they will have a hard time trying to reach them. They decided to send I Love Skooma to attract them because of his agility but My Girl pesters them so much that they let him go do the job. Better let him do it on Normal Mode than in harder difficulty modes. While the others waited next to the wharf, My Girl walking through it as if he was walking through the catwalk, moving his hips while doing it. Soon the pirates noticed him, but for some unknown reason didn''t attack right away, but start to whistle instead. One of the pirates even starts to yell obscenities to My Girl from the ship. "Hey! She is a shemale! Do you really want her?" One of the pirates said to the one yelling obscenities. "What about it? After months on the sea without a woman, even a table with a skirt would be attractive." The pirate answered his friend. It''s really hard for them to find a woman because of their ugly appearance. Some even reject them when they tried to pay for their services. And seeing someone now, they only thought they were blessed. While they were looking at My Girl, he threw kisses at them very coquettishly and turned around, walking back to where his teammates are. Ye Yan and the other were watching everything from a distance with their jaw dropped. They couldn''t even imagine that such a thing would happen. Everything is too shocking to them. Seeing the behavior of My Girl, they threw hidden nces at Harpy to see her reaction because My Girl is her husband after all. But contrary to what they thought, she didn''t show any reaction to the scene. In truth, Harpy is too used to it to mind about her husband''s oddities. "This is what you really can call a trap!" Conan couldn''t help but say it to the others. "This is a honey trap in an entirely new level!" Everyone, except the serious Harpy, nodded their heads when they heard what Conan said. They were still in awe about what they had just seen to say something. My Girl walked back to them, still shaking his hips with a queue of pirates following him like zombies, without taking their eyes off his ass. If a cartoonist draws this scene, he or she would picture it as a woman walking and zombies with wolf heads following her. When My Girl reached the end of the wharf, near their location, they got out of their hiding ce and surprise attack the pirates. Ashardalon changed ces with My Girl and blocked the passage for the pirates to stay restricted on the wharf. Using hisrge shield, Ashardalon didn''t let anyone pass through him. While Ashardalon was tanking them, Ye Yan jumped over the pirates and used their heads to cross to the other side. He was too fast for the pirates to reacted, and when they did react, it was toote, because Ye Yan was already at their rear, blocking their retreat. This time, Ye Yan acted as a top fighter, showing why others admire him. He used his fan open to sh the pirates and closed it to defend against their swords when needed. Harpy and Demon Fox were on a privileged location, firing their arrows at the pirates in the middle, while Hello Kitty and Mage of the Cold Nights throw their spells on them. As Snow White and My Girl have nothing to do because Ye Yan didn''t take damage and Ashardalon was taking very little damage, both of them started attacking the pirates too, throwing needles at them. I Love Skooma couldn''t take them in a melee fight, so he took a boomerang he kept on his bag for this kind of situation and start to throw it at them. It deals less damage than throwing knives but, at least, he can''t lose it as could happen with the knives. Sometimes, Ye Yan would kick one of the pirates out of the wharf or they would fall because it was overcrowded and they staggered at taking an arrow or hit by the boomerang. When it happens, Hello Kitty uses her lightning skills that could damage all those that fell in the water at the same time. Soon, every one of the 30 pirates was dead, leaving their weapons on the wharf. The loot from the pirates that fell in the water is as good as lost now, at least, they were of low quality because they were in the Normal Mode version of the dungeon.[ol][li data-annotation-id="f121e6b7-f9f9-0401-0743-06505b74dc76"]I liked to y fighting as a child, but it ended badly for my cousin.[/ol] Chapter 56: Captain Antonio Chapter 56: Captain Antonio After distributing the loot, they walked through the wharf to get to the pirate ship. They look around to see if there is any hidden ce on the cave walls but found nothing. From far away, people only can see a giant rock on the water and no one would though that there is a giant cave inside. The cave is very big with a wide opening from where the pirate ship entered. The sunlight entered through the cave entrance, lightning the entire ce. And there are torches tied on the wharf to illuminate the cave at night. This isle, like many others in the game, was created by a volcanic eruption. This is one of the few differences between the geographic space in the real world and Gaia. As there is more water thannd on the surface of the globe, many inds appeared to increase the proportion of drynd. In this way, yers will have more ces to explore without the need to swim and there will be more ces on the sea for the ships to dock. In Gaia, the movement of tectonic tes urs more than one thousand times faster than on Earth, increasing the volcanic activity, and making the geographdscape be in constant transformation, with mountains and inds appearing and natural disasters happening. This, plus the yers'' impact on Gaia, makes the virtual world be in a process of constant changes. When Ye Yan and his teammates reached the ship, they looked around but found no pirates on the deck, thus they explored the ce a little before entering the ship''s cabins. As they explore the ship, they meet more pirates working on some cabins and downstairs, but they killed them fast and didn''t attract too much attention. On the storage of the pirate ship, they found a pirate cleaning some blood on the floor whileining about the injustice of him having to clean everything alone. The pirate was so absorbed by his thoughts, that he only noticed their presence when I Love Skooma''s dagger stuck his back and he cried out in fright and fear. "Sometimes this game is too realistic!" I Love Skoomained while fanning his face with his hands. "This pirate''s bad breath is so bad that it looks like he swallowed sewage." "With the number of rotten teeth he has in his mouth, it is not surprising." Demon Foxmented. "Who told you to stay so close to him." Snow White said to her brother, which earned aining gaze from him. Everyone smiled seeing the exchange of the two. Dovakin, Mad Dog and I Love Skooma always spoil their sister and when she scold them for anything, they feel extremely aggrieved. At least, Snow White is a sensible girl and never troubles others, or with the way her brothers act in rtion to her, she could hurt many people. After they explored the entire ship, they went to the captain''s cabin. This room was locked before, so they left it forter. Now, when they tried to open the door, it worked and the door opened but what they saw inside wasn''t what they expected to find. The captain of the pirate ship was a tall and muscr man with a short ck beard and stylish mustache. His appearance matches the image of pirate they have in their minds but what he was wearing is far away from what they imagine seeing on a pirate captain, or any pirate. The robust man was wearing a dress and a pink one at that. Not only that, when they entered, they saw the pirate captain dancing shaking his hips in My Girl''s style. "Who are you? And how dare you enter the captain''s cabin, my cabin, like that?" The pirate captain yelled at them while making a heroic posture that would really make him look impressive if he was not using a pink dress knee-length, showing his hairy legs. Ye Yan and his teammates couldn''t speak after the visual impact of the scene they had seen. They are used to My Girl antics, but this is the first time they saw an NPC like that, and a boss at that. They were awestruck and took a few seconds to recover to their normal state. Luckily, the boss didn''t attack right away but observe them first. The captain scrutinized every one of them until his eyes focused on My Girl. The moment the boss saw him, the boss blushed. He blushed! At the same time, the yers heard a system notification. System: [span]Captain Antonio[/span] [1] fell in love with My girl. He now takes double damage from all sources while My Girl is attacking but, because of jealousy, the boss attack power increases by 25% while attacking male yers. "What?" My Girl didn''t expect it and he started to get goosebumps all over, seeing the lecherous away the boss is looking at him. When My Girl cried out in surprise, everyone looked at him trying to hold theirughter. It isn''t the time for it, but it is too hard to hold back theirughter because the situation is just too hrious. "It is not my fault!" My Girl looked at Harpy with pleading eyes. He really wants to hide behind his wife now. "Humpf." Harpy snorted and almost kicked My Girl in the boss''s direction. Sometimes, she asks herself why she loves someone like him. "Concentrate on the boss!" Ye Yan said, taking everyone out of their state of astonishment. Ye Yan went to attack the boss. He started the battle using [Provoke] to make the boss direct his attack to him and start building aggro. And as the skill lower the boss defense, the damage Ye Yan deal on him will increase for the next 10 seconds. The boss tried to hit Ye Yan but he used his fan closed to defend against the boss Dao [2], deflecting it to the side. He fought Captain Antonio for a few seconds and signaled his friends to freely attack the boss. As Ye Yan is controlling the captain and has the ability to keeping the boss''s aggro on him, the other yers started to use their skills to the max, dealing a huge amount of damage. They trust Ye Yan wouldn''t let the boss go off-tank (OT). Because of the bonus damage that the boss would take if My Girl attacks him, he started throwing his needles at the boss. Captain Antonio, on normal mode, didn''t do much damage on yers when he uses AOE skills (Area of effect)pared with harder modes of the dungeon, thus they only need one doctor to heal them, giving My Girl the chance to attack the boss without having to worry about his teammates. "I can''t forgive you for stealing this beauty from me. Only someone as powerful as me deserves such a beauty!" The boss started to speak as he attacked the male yers with his AOE skill [Breath of Rum][3] that can inebriate the yers, dealing damage and decreasing their physical and magical attack. Snow White and My Girl started to use [Dispel] on the yers to end the debuff effect, starting from Ye Yan and I Love Skooma. When My Girl used his skill to help Ye Yan, the boss be enraged sooner than he should. Bosses normally enter in the berserk state when their health points lower to 10% of the total, but when the yer that the boss fell in love with helps another yer, it makes the boss jealous to the extreme, bing enraged earlier. The pressure on Ye Yan increased but he still could tank the boss without problems. In the Hell mode, My Girl will have to just attack the boss and ignore the other yers until the boss bes enraged at 10% HP. It will pressure Snow White, but not so much as having the boss enraged for almost all the duration of the battle. Luckily they had learned about it on Normal Mode, or they would suffer party wipe for sure. Ye Yan is one of the few members of the party that never died before and he wants to keep things like that for as long as he can. Ye Yan continued fighting the boss using his fan opened with his right hand to sh the boss and punching him with his left while kicking him from time to time. Even Ye Yan being tall and strong, his body didn''t look as muscr as Conan. Andpared with the boss he almost looked pitiful, because the boss looks like a very tall bodybuilder, the size of a door. Ye Yan is attacking using all his limbers to max his damage but as he does so, he looks like a child trying to hit an adult. The scene is funny but no one noticed because they were too focused on not having their ass burned after the boss threw a small firebomb at them. ... [1] Named after a Shakespeare work''s character from The Merchant of Venice. [2] Dao is a traditional Chinese saber. It was one of the weapons used by Chinese pirates in the 18th century. [3] Rum is a liquor distilled from sugar often associated with pirates.[ol][li data-annotation-id="5264d568-9850-e19f-3b0b-fae74ad4f8a7"]Character created after Captain Shakespeare from the movie Stardust, a new version of the novel written by Neil Gaiman.[/ol] Chapter 57: The captains death Chapter 57: The captain''s death When Captain Antonio''s health points reached 50%, he started to throw small firebombs at the male yers of the party. The explosions weren''t big and could only damage an area of 20 cm radius. The problem is that the uracy of the boss is very high and he throws the small firebombs like a baseball yer throwing curveballs. The target of the boss is always the yers'' asses, maybe because of some ass fetish, and when it hit, it deals fire damage and burned their ass. Sometimes, the armor catch fire and the yers need to roll on the ground to extinguish it. Hello Kitty and Mage of the Cold Nights have water spells to help them but it isn''t enough. Hello Kitty started to cast water balls and threw them on her teammates that are in need. In this way, the water balls only put out the fire and do not damage them. Hello Kitty is throwing a water ball every time the cooldown of the skill end. The situation is not good for the yers suffering from ass burning, but Hello Kitty keeps a malicious smile on her face. She is having so much fun throwing water balls on their bottom that she wished the boss continues burning them for a long time. While Hello Kitty is enjoying herself, Mage of the Cold Nights is having a hard time. If she was using a female character, she wouldn''t have problems but she chose to be a cross-gender. In the character creation, a yer can choose to y using his birth gender or cross-gender, if he or she wants to y with a character of the opposite sex. When the information about genders was released when they started to promote Second Life, there were many discussions about gender. In the beginning, the developers want the yer to have a free choice between male and female, without having to select an alternative, but many people startedining about it because they wouldn''t have a way to know the yer''s real gender. If Second Life is like the old games, they wouldn''t mind but it isn''t. A yer can have more intimate contact with others and some can''t ept it if they, one day, fall in love with someone andter discover that the man or woman, in truth, is of the same gender as him or her. In this way, people can''tin about being misled into believing they were with a woman butter discovering that the said woman has a third leg, like some football yers after being caught with transvestites. Thus, to avoid possible futurewsuits, thepany decided to create a new option. Some saw it as a new form of prejudice but others thought of it as a conquest achieved after a lot of struggle because even at the end of the 21st century, most countries have yet to eliminate the prejudiced thoughts on people''s minds. Mage of the Cold Night chose to be a cross-gender in Second Life, not only to support her brother but because she was really tired of being looked down on by male yers when they discover she is female. She always bes mad when people think she can''t be an outstanding yer for being a woman and she decided to try a new approach, because even if she got on the games'' leaderboards, male yers thought it was by luck, or using someone else help, or even that she had lied about her gender. Sadly, even after so many years of fighting against prejudice, it still exists. And when it looks to be getting better, there is always someone or something that led others in having prejudiced thoughts. People want to reach real freedom, but it is not really possible while such thoughts are present in people''s minds. Mage of the Cold Nights is suffering in this boss battle more than others, not only because she is an ice elemental that has a weakness to fire damage but because she is a male cross-gender. If she was a [span]female-cross gender[/span], the boss would fell in love with her as well, but in her case, it will only make the boss feel jealous and envious, trying to hit her more times than the others with his firebombs, that is an attack in which the boss throw the bombs on multiple yers and can''t be stopped by using provoke. Ya Yan and Ashardalon are trying to help the other yers by deflecting the bomb''s trajectory or protecting them with a shield, but when the boss uses this attack, he throws too many firebombs for them to stop before it reaches their teammates. Ye Yan is using his hands to deflect the trajectory of the firebombs, making a circr movement with his arms to turn the firebomb in the boss''s direction. It deals a good amount of damage on the boss, even more, if he had used his skill [Breath of Rum] just before throwing the firebombs. Although they were having a hard time fighting this boss, they were dealing a good amount of damage to him and lowering his health points fast. Their onlyint is the fact they feel this boss is harder than thest boss of White Birch Mountain Forest. Captain Antonio is indeed harder to defeat them the goblin sorcerer because a human NPC is smarter than one from the goblin race, plus the area they have to fight is very small. From the beginning of the battle, they keep fighting the boss inside the captain''s cabin. However, the fact this dungeon is harder than the other, means that the reward would be better in quality. After five minutes of fighting the boss, Captain Antonio finally died, falling on the floor of the ship in a very strange position. It wouldn''t be so strange if the boss had changed clothes before the battle, but he kept fighting with his knee-length pink dress full of frills. And when he threw the firebombs he simply put his on his back to take the firebombs from who knew where. When he died, he had to fall in a way that looked like he would do a gynecological examination. And for the relief of all yers, he was using underwear. However, he wasn''t using male underwear but pink panties. "This is what we can call inglorious death!" Conan said while looking at the way the boss''s body fell on the ground. They are used to seeing the monster bodies in strange positions when they died in games before, but seen it on the screen is very different from witnessing it happening before their own eyes. Now that the boss died, they started to plunder his body, looking for something valuable they can take. In the end, they could only get three items from the boos, his Dao, the pink dress, and his pirate''s hat, which he didn''t took off even after put the pink dress on. A captain can lose his pride, but can never his hat. . [Dao] (Silver, One-handed weapon: saber) Description: One of the four traditional weapons of the Yan Empire. A single-edge traditional Chinese swordmonly used by pirates. It is primarily used for shing and chopping. Its de is made of silver but doesn''t give additional damage against werewolves. ATK + 40 AGI + 2 STR + 1 Level Requirement: 5 ss Requirement: Unrestricted Durability: 50/50 Weight: 5 kg . [Pink Dress] (Bronze, Armor: Body armor) Description: A knee-length pink dress used to make the wearer look cute but sex, showing the wearer''s leg. This dress with bronze details didn''t provide much defense against attacks but can dazzle the eyes. Especial effect: Lower the attack power of male enemies by 2%. Def + 5 Level Requirement: 5 ss Requirement: Unrestricted Durability: 40/40 Weight: 2 kg . [Pirate''s Hat] (Silver, Armor: Headgear) Description: A impressive leather hat with silver details that represents the power of the captain. Especial effect: Lower the physical and magical attack of all pirates in a 20 meters radius. DEF + 5 STR + 5 CHA + 5 Level Requirement: 5 ss Requirement: Unrestricted Durability: 50/50 Weight: 1 kg . The loot makes all party members drolls over it. The items are too good for a normal dungeon. What they don''t know is that as this dungeon has a high degree of difficulty, the reward for finishing it on the first try while on the level range of the dungeon, increased by one tier. They discussed who would get the items and decide to keep the saber for Mad Dog, because this sword despite being unrestricted, is more suited for swordsmen. My Girl for the Pink Dress and Conan got the Pirate''s hat from the random decision of the Party Contract. As Mad Dog isn''t doing the dungeon with them, I Love Skooma kept the saber in his bag to hand it to his brotherter. Now, with the new item, they will have an advantage while fighting the pirates in thest part of the dungeon. it will be very useful in harder modes when the monsters are stronger. After looting the boss, they looked around to see if there is anything in the boss cabin they can use. After turning the whole cabin over, they finally find a bunch of keys in one of the dresser drawers. Looking at the keys, they soon thought about the wooden chests in the storage area full of cockroaches. They finally thought that maybe the dungeon isn''t ying temptation with them.[ol][li data-annotation-id="791cb28f-c400-38ee-77c6-1ecb0bf1b71d"]A character can choose to look like the opposite sex but retain his or her reproductive organ.[/ol] Chapter 58: Moby Dick Chapter 58: Moby Dick The party members went to the storage cave full of dead cockroaches to open the wooden chests with the keys dropped by the boss. Ye Yan followed his friends in a good mood despite the ce he is going, because he had finally leveled up again. When he started to fight thest boss, he needed just one experience point to level up, and as the boss gave them 500 points the experience, 50 after being divided among ten yers, he leveled up and has 49 of the 6,000 points he needs for the next level. In Second Life, yers need a lot of experience points to level up and as the low-level monster gives few points of experience, it is hard for yers to level up. It may take days for yers to level up, even in the first levels. Ye Yan distributed the three base points and one skill point he got for leveling up. Three points are not many but can help a lot at this stage of the game when pieces of equipment give few base points. Ye Yan followed his friends happily until his serene expression disappeared and his mouth started to twitch. Even if he can stay near enough of them to kill now, he still doesn''t feel well seeing so many cockroaches. His stomach started to feel upset as soon as he saw the dead cockroaches scattered on the ground. While Ye Yan was trying to keep the taste of the cockroaches away from his mind, his friends started to open the wooden chests. Inside the first chest, they found dresses and skirts. In the second, there were panties of all colors. And the third chest contained only a suspicious leather whip with no attack power. Every wooden chest they looked at until now contained useless things that the boss should be keeping locked like this because of shame. Finally, on thest wooden chest they opened, they found many potions inside. But sadly, they were quest items they need to hand to the NPCs. This dungeon really made them mad. First with the red coral and the locked chests. Later they had their hope up when they found the keys for it to tuned out a joke. Really hateful. And Ye Yan chooses this time to tell others about the title he acquired. He thought nothing about the chests being full of useless things or about the red coral, so he didn''t think that his friends would be mad about it too. Now that they hadpleted the dungeon, Ye Yan thought it would be the best time to tell them. Maybe his brain didn''t work well because of the dead cockroach''s presence, making him forget the reason why he didn''t tell them in the first ce. When Ye Yan told them about his title, his friend looked at him with so much resentment that he almost could feel it on his skin. "Sorry." Ye Yan said, thinking they were angry because he didn''t tell them sooner. Found nothing in the chests isn''t something so important for them to be mad at it after all. What he didn''t understand is that the sum of everything is more them enough to make them mad. It is like someone constantly shows you a delicious cake, asks you if you want some, andter everything falls to the ground before you have the chance to get a taste. Arshadalon took the Return Scroll from Ye Yan, which he received from the soldier that led them there, for them to return to the boat. After that, they gave a cold shoulder to Ye Yan and activated the Return Scroll. Conan and Demon Fox just look at it thinking of how low Ye Yan''s EQ (emotional quotient) is. When they got back on the boat, they handed the potions to the soldier,pleting the dungeon quest and receiving 50 experience points of experience each. Now they only need to dive into the water again to restart the dungeon. After this first experience doing an underwater dungeon, they decided to take it to step by step, challenged a new difficult mode every time, until they each the Hell Mode. Their levels are higher than when they challenge the White Birch Mountain Forest but this dungeon is harder and they need to get a little more experience with this kind of battle. Thus they entered the dungeon again and again until they finally could challenge the Hell Mode. When they dived into the water this time, they chose the Hell Mode and soon noticed that the water was getting cloudy the deeper they went. As the visibility was low, hello Kitty used Cast Light to help them find their way into the dungeon. They first defeated the penis fishes that seemed to be using steroids. They were stronger and could spite the poisoned needles faster them in the other difficulty modes. When they got to the first boss, they used the strategy though by Ye Yan. Ashardalon was defending and attacking using his shield and I Love Sooma was helping him like a submarine''s engine and propeller, pushing him in the boss direction, using his skill [Burst of Speed]. With thisbination, the attack power of Ashardalon increased a lot and he had an easier time defending. Thisbo move, plus the attacks of the other members of the party, helping them defeat the boss in less time they have thought they would take. When they got to the second boss, the battle was harder than against the Gigantic Wicked Turtle. This time, they were fighting against Moby Dick, a very fierce monster with 10 meters (32.8 ft) length total and a 2-meter length head. . [Moby Dick] (Lord) [1] Description: This giant sea cucumber or penis worm also know as Phylum Priapulida[2] is one of the various species of penis fish. This monster suffered a mutation that made it grow and erge in a normal way. Level 5 HP: 10,000 . They started attacking the Moby Dick as they had done before. Ye Yan tanked the huge thing like he has done against the Goblin Shark inside the mini-dungeon, dodging the boss at thest moment, when it is attacking, kicking it to deal damage and get away from the boss. The others started attacking after Ye Yan signaled them, casting a myriad of ice spells and hitting it using shing attacks. If Spell Bound were there, he would be thinking that the developers of this dungeon should have a phallus obsession or something like that. This boss is agile and can spite acid from the opening on its head. But every time he tried to pee on one Ye Yan, he dodges it and shes the boss with his fan. The battle against Moby Dick was a little harder because of the boss''s speed, which enables it to dodge many physical attacks. However, with Ye Yan''s underwater dodging ability, he took little damage and the doctors could concentrate on the melee sses that were damaged by Mody Dick when the boss hit the yers near it while fighting Ye Yan. The melee yers need to get near the boss to fight, but as the boss keeps moving, they are often hit by it. While the melee yers were having a hard time, the ranged sses were easily casting spells and firing arrows on the boss. One time, Harpy, by a stroke of luck, fired an arrow that entered through the opening on the boss''s head, dealing five times more damage than the normal damage of the skill. When it happened, all the male yers, unconsciously, covered their weak parts, while their bodies trembled and their body hair stood on end. After seeing it, they speed things up, to kill the boss as fast as possible. Have to fight Mody Dick was bad enough without seeing this cruelty. After Moby Dick went berserk, its speed and strength increased. Ye Yan and the ranged yers almost don''t feel difference, but the melee had to y hit and run, or they would die. The battle take a little longer but soon, Ye Yan activated Lucky Hit and gave a finishing blow using Bash, dealing a huge amount of damage and killing the boss. .... [1] Moby - adj. Large, immense,plex, impressive [2] Phylum Priapulida was named after priapus, the god of animal and vegetable fertility. In Greek religion, he is the son of Dionysus, the wine god and his mother was either a local nymph or Aphrodite, the goddess of love. His cult was originally in Asia, in the Hellespontine regions, centering especially on Lampsacus. He was represented in a caricature of the human form, grotesquely misshapen, with an enormous phallus. The ass (an animal of the horse family, which is typically smaller than a horse and has longer ears and a braying call) was sacrificed in his honor, probably because the ass symbolized lecherousness and was associated with the god''s sexual potency. Chapter 59: There and back again Chapter 59: There and back again When Moby Dick died, the experience bar of many party members was filled and they finally got to level 8. They got a lot of experience while challenging the different modes of the Underwater Tunnel Dungeon, however, they couldn''t bepared to the experience gained on the Hell Mode. A proof of this is the experience given by the bosses. On Normal Mode, the bosses give 1.000 experience points, which when shared by ten people, each one receives 50 points. The experience given by a boss on Hell Mode is five times the amount on Normal Mode, plus a 10% bonus for it being the highest level of difficulty of the Dungeon. Only 10-man dungeons and above gives the extra experience on Hell Mode. On Normal Mode, the experience gives by the monsters has no multiplier, in other words, is the standard. On Easy Mode, the experience is halved. On Hard Mode, the experience is doubled. On Torment Mode, the experience given by the monster is three times the amount on Normal Mode. On Nightmare Mode, yers get four times the standard amount. These multipliers are a great help for elite yers getting experience because only the strongest yers can challenge high-level difficulties with the minimum level required to enter the dungeon. In level 5 to 10 dungeon as White Birch Mountain Forest, level five yers that challenge higher difficult are very few, only truly elite yers can do that. Normal yers have a difficult time even challenging the Easy Mode of the dungeon at level 5. Ye Yan and his friends wanted to farm on Hell Mode of the White Birch Mountain Forest before, but it is too time-consuming because the monsters are very stronger and smarter than in the other modes. And they be mentally exhausted after the dungeon. After looted the boss body and found some good things. In addition to the cooking ingredients, they found five acid nds that they could take to an alchemist for refining and make potions. After distributing the loot, they kept moving forward into the dungeon. This time, Ye Yan had an easier time fighting the cockroaches. He fought them without hiding behind Ashardalon. He was brave enough to stay in front of the cockroaches that escaped Ashardalon''s shield barrier, to kill them with his hammer and his stomach didn''t be as upset as before. If too many cockroaches went through Ashardalon, Ye Yan would take a step back and send Conan as his shield, because he is willing to do so, of course. After all, Conan is the official cockroach killer on the quartet. Every time they find one, Tang yunfan is responsible to deal with it. It is difficult for them to see one, but once a cockroach entered their apartment, flying through the window. However, most times, they find cockroaches on the street at night, mainly when the temperature is too high. Because of this, they always have a hard time trying to take Ye Yan to hang out at night. Finally, they got to the final part of the dungeon. My Girl became a trap again, attracting the pirates to the wharf. Ye Yan and Ashardalon blocked the pirate''s passage at the front and rear, and the others used ranged attacks. This time, they tried to let fewer pirates fall on the water because the loot on Hell Mode is too good. And if it falls on the water, it will be hard for them to get it, or depend on the item, it can be lost. When they opened the wooden chests for the first time, they found many useless items inside and no one wanted to take them. However, Ye Yan took the suspicious leather whip and stored it in his bag. When the others saw it, theyughed at him a lot, but Ye Yan didn''t tell them why he decided to keep it. When they finally knew how Ye Yan wanted to use it, they just wanted to kick themselves for not thinking about it. Ye Yan used the whip as a rope, so they could enter the water to loot the pirate''s bodies that fell on it and get out of the water without problems. On Torment Mode, they just threw all pirates on the water and killed them fast, but many items had been destroyed, including a piece of a treasure map, thus they started to be careful and not let the pirates fall. After defeating all the pirates on the wharf, they entered the ship. This would be the hardest part of the dungeon but with the [Pirate''s hat], the physical and magical attack of the pirates was lowered by 5%, plus the [Pink Dress} My Girl is wearing, reduced the pressure on the yers by a lot. With this advantage against the pirates, they continue on the killing spree until only the boss was left. Before entering the captain''s cabin, Snow White used a skill she learned on the previous day, [Chiken Blood Injection]. She didn''t use this before thest boss because he needs one bottle of [Chiken Blood] for each application and it onlysts 20 minutes. Using it before thest boss would be too wasteful. . [Chiken Blood Injection] (Skill - Active: Utility) [1] Description: You inject [Chiken Blood] on an ally or yourself to make the patient strong and healthy. Effect: Increase the target strength, agility, vitality, and physical and magical attack by 15% for 20 minutes. Cost: One bottle of [Chicken Blood]. Cast time: 5 seconds per injection. Cooldown: 2 seconds Property: neutral Range: Touch Weapon ss Requirement: Injection ss Requirement: Doctor . Snow White started injecting Chicken Blood on the yers and tel Demon Fox to be thest because she knows he is afraid of injection. After Demon Fox was stabbed by the injection, Snow Whiteforted him, caressing his left arm, under the angry gaze of I Love Skooma. Even his bother being mad for her to caress Demon Fox in front of him, she couldn''t help herself after seeing the pitiful and cute face of Demon Fox. He can show begging puppy dog eyes even in human form. Seeing this scene, I Love Skooma imagine how he should take revenge on Demon Foxter forying a hand on his little sister. Technically, it is his sister that is touching him, but it is all the same for him. He will find a way to hire a strong nurse in real life to inject him with all kinds of vines that he probably didn''t take before. It will be for his own good after all. When everyone was read, they entered the captain''s cabin. This time, the dress Captain Antonio was wearing changed to red and would look sexy if the one using it was another person. The battle began the same as before, with Captain Antonio falling in love with My Girl and wanting to attack all the male yers. Ye Yan started tanking the boss before he made his move, using [Provoke] and the others only attacked after he gave them a signal. Everything went as in the previous dungeons runs, but the pressure on yers is bigger because the boss is much stronger and smarter than on the previous battles. After the first time that they fought Captain Antonio, My Girl kept using her needles to attack the boss and let the role of healing and use [Dispel] for Snow White, so the boss wouldn''t be enraged before they lowered his health points to 10%. The pressure on Snow White for being the only healer of the party is high but thanks to Ye Yan''s abilities as a tank, she could cope with it. After many Underwater Tunnel Dungeon runs, Ye Yan started to have an easier time deflecting the boss attacks, even it being stronger and never keeping an attack pattern. After all, the boss knows that the same attack does not work twice on the same knight (or yer). As the boss only start using firebombs after being enraged, the only attack that could hit the other yers is [Breath of Rum] but with Snow White [Dispel] and Ye Yan tanking the boss, they could easily cope with it. In moments like this, they could feel the difference between having a good tank at the party and amon one. With the tank was another person, even Ashardalon, they would have been wiped out a long time ago. ....... [1] Chicken-blood therapy (jixie liaofa) was popr in China during the Cultural Revolution, in which it was practiced mainly by vige doctors in the 1960s. It attracted the attention of health authorities, who investigated the practice, decided it was dangerous, and pped a ban on its use in 1965. However, the anti-intellectual, anti-elitist climate that seized the country after the Cultural Revolution broke out the following year forced the Ministry of Health to reverse the ban, and the therapy began to be heavily promoted, first in Shanghai and the capital, and then across the country. Taken from: China Heritage Quarterly. Chapter 60: Beer, singing and fighting Chapter 60: Beer, singing and fighting As they keep fighting Captain Antonio, they feel how powerful the injection of chicken blood is. It not only increased the damage they deal on the boss but increased their survivability as well. On Hell Mode, the boss attack and defense are higher than on other modes, thus without this buff, the boss would be taking very little damage from their attacks. Ye Yan used his closed fan to deflect the boss attacks and open to attack or defend when needed. Sometimes, Ye Yan couldn''t deflect Captain Antonio''s strikes and need to use his fan as a shield. To defend, Ye Yan opens his fan and puts his left hand behind it as support to stand the boss''s attacks. The fan is the most suitable weapon for Ye Yan. It can attack, defend, help deflect attacks, and still can be used to fan himself in an elegant way. That''s why, if he didn''t find another fan, he will just pay a forger to upgrade it, using some of the material he has stored. Upgrading a weapon is very expensive but it can increase its power by a huge amount. Not only that, but yers can personalize it and put some cool gadgets on it as well. However, everything depends on the materials used when forging or upgrading weapons and equipment. When choosing the material for upgrading or forging, the yer needs to be very creative and think about how it should be used. Thus, when they hand the items to a forger or any other craftsman, the yers need to say how it should be used because the craftsman will not think like the yer. A yer can hand a red fabric to a tailor, wanting a cool red blood tunic, representing violence and aggressiveness but gets a sensual dress instead. When crafting, attention to detail is very important because it can change the shape and power of an item. Even the sewing thread used to sew an outfit can change its quality. If a tailor uses a silver sewing thread but the other materials are of very low quality, the result would not be a silver quality cloth armor. Luckily, Ye Yan is a very creative person and already thought about the modifications he will do on his fan. It will not have as many functions as an umbre can have, but it will also be very powerful. The only problem is that it will be very expensive. Ye Yan continues to use his strength to help himself deflect and defending the boss attacks using his fan while punching and kicking the boss to deal damage at the same time. And when he hit the boss with an open fan, he always aims at the boss''s joints or other weak spots to deal more damage, like the throat and the groin. While Ye Yan was tanking the boss, the others didn''t remain idle. They were using all kinds of skills to deal damage to the boss. Arrows, and lighting and ice bolts hit the boss one after another, together with My Girl''s needles. Needles are normally very cheap but if you need to buy too many, it will cost a lot of money. And at the speed My Girl is using his needles, he will have to spend a lot of money to restockter. While Ye Yan is tank Captain Antonio from his front, Ashardalon, Conan, and I Love Skooma is attacking him in the back. Ashardalon is hitting the boss using hisrge shield, while I Love Skooma is taking advantage of his agility to attack the boss almost nonstop with his daggers, only pausing when the boss attack in a way that could hit everyone in close proximity. Conan, like Ashardalon and I Love Skooma is hitting the back of the boss. He is using a two-handed sword, thus he is a little slower than I Love Skooma but faster than Ashardalon to attack. As their attacks have different tempos, they don''t get in the way of each other. It looks like they synchronized their attacks to show off. Conan, wearing his pirate''s hat, started to sing to motivate his friends in the battle. He thought it would be a goodplement in a battle against a pirate. Conan: "The pirate ship ising, We know it''s on its way, The pirate ship ising, We''ve seen it in the bay. . A skull and crossbones on the mast, A wild and noisy crew: The pirate ship ising And it''s after me and you!" . After Conan started to sing, the others started to smile, feeling the pressure of the boss battle decrease. And soon, they started to ding along with Conan, singing the chorus. Everyone: "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum, pirates like to have their fun! Yo-ho-ho on the ''Salty Breeze'' as they sail the seven seas." . Conan: "The captain wears an eye-patch, A cuss in his hand, And on the bridge beside him, His faithful pirates stand. . A skull and crossbones on the mast, A wild and noisy crew: The pirate ship ising And it''s after me and you! . Everyone: "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum, pirates like to have their fun! Yo-ho-ho on the ''Salty Breeze'' as they sail the seven seas." . Conan: "They''re seeking gold and silver And jewels of every kind, They''ll board each sailing vessel And take what they can find. . A skull and crossbones on the mast, A wild and noisy crew: The pirate ship ising And it''s after me and you!" . Everyone: "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum, pirates like to have their fun! Yo-ho-ho on the ''Salty Breeze'' as they sail the seven seas." [1] . After they started to sing, they felt more motivated and attacked the boss ferociously, mainly the melee sses. Snow White even started to drink while battling, but it wasn''t rum but beer. She took a big mug of beer from her space bag and drank everything in one gulp. If other races drink so much beer, they would feel tipsy, but a dwarf will only feel refreshed. Dwarves have a racial trait that when they drink beer, they will recover a portion of stamina and mana and started to regenerate both resources for 5 minutes. There is no doubt, no matter where they are or what they are doing, the beer is a dwarf best friend. After drinking her tonic, Snow White felt reinvigorated and started to heal her friends faster them before. Because of the cooldown, Snow White can''t drink beer durant the entire battle, so she drank one before they entered Captain Antonio''s cabin and another when the boss was getting enraged. After Captain Antonio went berserk, My Girl didn''t need to worry about using his skills on his friends because he was already enraged, so he started to take turns between healing his friends and attacking the boss, because while he is attacking, Captain Antonio will receive double damage from all sources, so he needs to keep hitting the boss for them to kill it faster. Captain Antonio started to throw firebombs randomly on the male yers after he became enraged but always aiming at their ass. However, after practicing in the other difficulty modes, Ye Yan became an expert in deflecting the bombs, sending them back in the boss direction. Ye Yan became so good at it that 50% of the firebombs were sent back, hitting the boss. Among the firebombs that Ye Yan couldn''t deflect, about 25% were blocked by Ashardalon, and the other 25% passing through him, hitting mainly Mage of the Cold Nights. Some of the firebombs hit Conan and I Love Skooma, which now have to attack from a distance because the boss would always attack in a way that would hit yers behind him when fighting Ye Yan. I Love Skooma was using his boomerang to attack the boss but Conan didn''t have a ranged weapon. He can only be a meat shield to protect Mage of the Cold Nights from the firebombs. Conan has a higher defense than other yers as a fighter, plus Mage of the Cold Nights'' weakness to fire damage, make it be the best choice as he can''t attack the boss now. As only being a meat shield is too boring, he starts to sing again to motivate his teammates. Music has always motivated soldiers during battles. Even many books found in the Bible speaks about how music was used by soldiers to help them win important battles. Conan: "Can you coil a line? Can you lift a ton? Can you live with worms and have a lot of fun? Can you fool a mate and never feel his pain? Can youugh at a hurricane? . So you wanna be a pirate? Yeah, you wanna be a pirate? Oo, oo oo! Can you crawl down through a hatch? Do you look good in a patch? ''Cause that''s a pirate! . So, you wanna be a pirate? A hooky, spooky, kooky pirate? Oo, oo oo! Can you stay up in a tower? Go a month without a shower? That''s a pirate! Can you swab a deck? Can you swing a sword? Can you give a speech with a single word? Hoist a sail? Can you dig a trench? And can you stand the stench? So you wanna be a pirate? Yeah, you wanna be a pirate? Oo, oo oo!" [2] . The music indeed increased the morale of the yers, except by Ye Yan, that only thought that he would never want to be a pirate as described in the song. Luckily, the boss died before Ye Yan also went berserk and tried to kill hisfriend. He like music but when it is too much, it starts to get annoying. While Ye Yan was pondering if he should help his friend shut up, he heard the system announcement. ........ [1] The name of this song is ''Pirates!''. [2] Fragment of the music ''You wanna be a pirate''. Chapter 61: Fashion items Chapter 61: Fashion items When the boss finally fell to the ship''s floor in another inglorious position, they heard two system announcements. System: Congrattions to Immortals'' yers Jun Xie, Conan, Ashardalon, Demon Fox, Harpy, I Love Skooma, My Girl, Snow White, Hello Kitty, and Mage of the Cold Nights for being the first party to clear the Hell mode of Underwater Tunnel Dungeon! Your achievement will be written in the annals of Tientsin City. Rewarding 1000 experience points, 1 skill point, and a random reward from the Adventurer''s Guild. Tientsin Region system Announcement: Congrattions to Immortals'' yers Jun Xie, Conan, Ashardalon, Demon Fox, Harpy, I Love Skooma, My Girl, Snow White, Hello Kitty, and Mage of the Cold Nights for being the first party to clear the Hell mode of Underwater Tunnel Dungeon! Your achievement will be written in the annals of Tientsin City history. Only their party could hear the first announcement, thus others don''t know the reward given by the system for getting the first clear. However, the second announcement was heard by every yer in the Tientsin region. In this way, the system can protect the yers, hiding the parties'' reward when theyplete important quests, get the first clear of a dungeon, and beat the previous clear records. Every team member started to celebrate their achievement. Mostly Ashardalon, My Girl, Hello Kitty, and even Harpy, because this is the first time their names are announced to an entire region. Arshadalon smiled with pride. He knew that following Ye Yan was the right choice. When he joined the guild, he knew it would help them achieve many things, but he never would imagine that it would be so soon. Hello Kitty is pping her hands in excitement and even started to wag her cat tail like a dog. Ye Yan was smiling at their new achievement. He knew that it would help increase the guild''s poprity in the game. Conan was very happy. The announcement is helping him be famous and increasing the chance of him getting a girlfriend, but he can get a bonus. As a member of the main party of the guild, Conan started to getting paid for ying, so he didn''t need to be desperate to get equipment and sell it for money. And every time his party gets an achievement that promotes the guild, he will receive a bonus in his sry. While Conan is counting the money he will receive, Demon Fox, Snow White, I Love Skooma, and Mage of the Cold Nights were congratting each other for appearing in an announcement again. Harpy gave an almost imperceptible smile to show her mood, but she soon became serious again and red at her husband that was making a spectacle of himself again. After ring at her husband, her mood got better again because she received a call from her children, that are studying in a school in Tientsin City, thus they heard their parents'' names in the announcement. Her children were so happy that it looks like it was them that got the achievement. When they finally calmed down, they looted the boss''s body, leaving him only with his red panties. Everything else went to their space bags. . [Sexy Red Dress] (Silver, Armor: Body armor) Description: This above the knee length dress hug your body like a second skin and edge across your curves, entuating them. If worn by the right person, this dress can even tempt a saint, making them aggressive while lowering their defense. Especial effect: Increase enemies'' physical attack by 1% and lower their defense by 2%. Def + 8 Level Requirement: 5 ss Requirement: Unrestricted Restriction: Can only be used on male yers or cross-gender males. Durability: 50/50 Weight: 2 kg . [Dao] Gold, One-handed weapon: saber) Description: One of the four traditional weapons of the Yan Empire. A single-edge traditional Chinese swordmonly used by pirates. It is primarily used for shing and chopping. Its de is made of silver but doesn''t give additional damage against werewolves. ATK + 60 AGI + 4 STR + 3 Level Requirement: 5 ss Requirement: Unrestricted Durability: 60/60 Weight: 8 kg . [Red Shoes] (Silver, Armor: Footgear) Description: These self-adjusting shoes can be worn by any yer. They can''t help in battle but have the ability to charm others. CHA +2 Level Requirement: 5 ss Requirement: Unrestricted Durability: 50/50 Weight: 1 kg . [Small Firebomb] (Consumable) Description: A small urn filled with ck powder that inflicts fire damage when explodes. Effect: Deals 50 fire damage on an area 20 cm radius. Type: Throwable item. . This time, the loot was very good. They got another Pirate''s Hat and many other items. However, something upset them. Mad Dog didn''t participate in the dungeon run but is the yer that got the better items. The only gold quality item that dropped until now is a sword suited for swordsmen. In addition, they had already got silver saber before. They really can''t understand why the swordsman is so lucky. They distribute the items among the team members before they go to the storage. Conan got the Small Firebombs, so now he has a ranged item. The red shoes will be put on the guild storage on the bankter for the guild members to get them when they will need it to do a quest because of the charisma given by the equipment. And the Sexy Red Dress was taken by Snow White, but she certainly is not the right person to wear it, because she looks like a barrel wrapped in red cloth or a gas cylinder with a red cover. That, plus her beard, created a very funny picture. After they stored the loot, they got the chests'' keys and went to the storage to retrieve the alchemical potions. This time, when they opened the wooden chests, they got a surprise because there were very good items inside them, from equipment and consumables to fashion gear. Fashion gear is different from normal equipment because has little to no power or defense. They are just customization items that yers can use to look different or decorate an item. They found four fashion items, among them, two could be worn by yers. The other two were a skull and crossbones design that they can pay a craft to draw on any item and a white hair dye. . [Knife in Skull] (Silver, Fashion: Upper arm) Description: This stylish tattoo of a skull with a knife stuck in it, gives dangerous air to the wearer. Especial effect: You will look good. Level Requirement: 5 ss Requirement: Unrestricted Restriction: yers over 18 years old Durability: Unbreakable Weight: 0 kg . [Pirate''s Earring] (Silver, Fashion Headgear: Middle) Description: This fashionable silver hoop earring can be put on the left or right ear, giving the wearer a scoundrel style on males. Especial effect: You will look good. CHA +1 Level Requirement: 5 ss Requirement: Unrestricted Restriction: Male yers Durability: Unbreakable Weight: 0.05 kg . Conan readilyy im to the tattoo. He thought that it would make him look very cool. He was ready to fight for it if needed. Looking at how Conan want the tattoo, they let him get it without a fight. They will have other opportunities of getting fashion items. And the fashion design can be used by any guild member, so they can personalize a piece of equipment if they want to. The earring was taken by Ye Yan because Demon Fox and Conan said that it would look cool on him, and maybe it could change a little his always serious expression when near girls. The earring indeed made him look different. It gave Ye Yan a baneer[1] air. Besides the fashion items, they found many misceneous materials that they can use to upgrade or forge weapons and equipment. Not only that, but they also found a piece of red coral inside the chest that they can sell for a good price or use to craft amulets for them. After clearing the wooden chests, they could finally leave the dungeon and take a rest. Consecutive dungeon runs tired them a lot. .... [1] Pirates are men and women who attack ships or coastal towns in an attempt to rob them or capture prisoners for ransom. They are thieves with a boat that tend to use violence and intimidation to get what they want. Pirate is a general term to describe any misbehavior when there''s some water and a boat involved. They do not discriminate when ites to their victims. Any nationality is fair game. Privateers were men and ships in the semi-employ of a nation that was at war. Privateers were private ships encouraged to attack enemy ships, ports, and interests. They had the official sanction and protection of the sponsoring nation and had to share a portion of the plunder. The Baneers were a specific group of privateers and pirates who were active in thete 1600s. The wordes from the French boucan, which was smoked meat made by hunters on Hispani out of the wild pigs and cattle there. These men set up a business of selling their smoked meat to passing ships but soon realized that there was more money to be made in piracy. Corsair is a word in English applied to foreign privateers, generally either Muslim or French. The Barbary pirates, Muslims who terrorized the Mediterranean from the 14th until the 19th centuries, were often referred to as "corsairs" because they did not attack Muslim ships and often sold prisoners into envement. [Taken from Britannica and Thoughtco.] Chapter 62: The Beach Boys Chapter 62: The Beach Boys While Ye Yan and his team were celebrating their new achievement, another party was not even a bit happy about it. The Beach Boys guild''s main team had finally managed to defeat the Gigantic Wicked Turtle on Hell Mode without being wiped out and were going full of hope to the next part of the dungeon when they heard the system announcement. They were advancing slowly through the dungeon because they have only one chance daily to challenge the Hell Mode, thus caution was necessary. But they have never thought that someone would steal the first clear from them. It was a big blow to their party. They had been doing this dungeon for days and they got the first clear on Nightmare Mode today, but when they started to challenge the Hell Mode, someone was faster than them and got the first clear, bing famous in the entire region. This is not easy to swallow. They feel like shipwrecks swimming to get to a beach and when they finally could see it, they felt a cramp and drowned. They normally are friendly and don''t look for trouble with others, but this time they really want to beat the hell out of the other party. The Beach Boys'' main team feels that losing the achievement is unfair to them because they deserve it after everything they passed to get where they are. That''s why they decided to challenge the other party because if they defeat the members of Immortals, they can, at least, get a little fame to help them recruit new guild members. They just want to know who the members of Immortals are. They didn''t think the party they want to challenge is Ye Yan''s team because they had just started to do the Underwater Tunnel Dungeon. And as they don''t know the Immortals guild''s emblem, they are clueless about the fact they have met the other party before. They were hiding the fact they were fighting for the first clear from others, even with their names written on the boat, and Ye Yan and the other didn''t tell them their objective in the dungeon as well. The system announcement is a sound message the yers heard or, in the case of deaf yers that decided to not change in the game, they can see it through theirmunication stone, which vibrates to show the message. Because of this, they will need to get back to the boat to see the details of the Immortals'' team, as their achievement is written on the boat''s floor now. The Beach Boys'' members decided to give up the dungeon run and went back to the boat, tearing the Return Scroll they receive from the soldier on the boat. They aren''t in the mood to continue dungeoneering now. On the boat, they look at the names of Ye Yan''s team with hateful eyes, wanting to summon Immortals members on the boat for them to beat them up. When most of them were fantasizing about a scene full of blood and ck eyes, the wolfman member of their team named Lust Boy recognized the Immortals Guild''s emblem. He remembered that Ye Yan and the others had that symbol on their chests. He remembers it very well because he had been ogling Harpy''s boobs when they met the other party. He was so amazed by it that he felt the urge of writing the message ''amazing chest ahead'' on the floor. The Yin-Yang symbol with a flying sword in front of it is the symbol of Immortals Guild, which means that Ye Yan and the others are the people they start to hate so much. When Lust Boy told his findings to his teammates, they went silent for a minute. They knew that Ye Yan and the others just started challenging this dungeon today. If they just needed one day to get familiar with the dungeon and clear it, that means they are very strong yers and not easy to beat. Now, they started to wonder if they should challenge the other team or not. They analyze that they have about a 10% chance to win, but they don''t want to give up without a try. They just hope that the Immortals'' team is good in PVE (yers versus monster) but bad in PVP (yer versus yer). In the end, they decided to give it a try. Even if they lose the fight, at least, they will have vented a little. Thus, they rush back to the city and went to the Adventurers'' Guild nearer the city''s Teleportation Hall. As they only know Immortals team members'' names but not their contact information, they have to proceed with the challenge through the Adventurers'' Guild. They also could convince an NPC from the Adventurers'' Guild to give Jun Xie contact information, however, to do this, they need a high amount of charisma to convince him or bribe him or her using a higher amount of money than the required to challenge the other party. They paid the Adventurers'' Guild and the guild publicized the challenge. In this way, the Immortals'' team will be almost obliged to ept their challenge or they will be known as cowards in the city. After the challenge was publicized, many yers and NPCs inside the Adventurers'' Guild started to discuss it. After the Immortals team got the Hell Mode of Underwater Tunnel Dungeon first clear, they became famous among the yers in Tientsin City. And now, with this challenge, everyone became excited about it because they want to see how powerful this guild is. Now, the Beach Boys members just need to wait for them to ept the challenge. ... While everyone was discussing the challenge, Ye Yan and the others were in the Bank depositing the items they got from the dungeon runs, oblivious to what was happening. When they left the Bank, a courier appeared and handed a white envelope to Ye Yan, leaving soon after. He was the one who received the letter because he is the team leader. Ye Yan opened the envelope and saw the letter of challenge inside. He read the letter''s content and showed it to his friends. The letter was very clear about the challenge. If they didn''t ept it in the next 48 in-game hours, they would be known as cowards by the NPCs of the city, decreasing their charisma by 1 point while they are in Tientsin City. The penalty for refusing the challenge is high, thus only teams of simr status can challenge each other, and the higher their status and influence in a city, the higher will be the amount of money need to issue a challenge. As the Beach Boys got many first clears (from Normal to Nightmare modes), even if it wasn''t announced by the system, they have enough status in the city to challenge them. Ye Yan and his team members decided to ept the challenge but they want to schedule it for tomorrow. This way, they can take advantage of the free advertisement to increase their fame in the city. Not every yer wants to take part in a guild yet and some don''t even know what a guild is or its importance in the game. That''s why it is paramount for guilds to increase their fame among the yer poption. They need to attract yers to increase the guild''s power and enable them to do more things that are impossible with few yers. Hu Ling is trying to contact some idols in real life and invite them to their guild because they can increase the guild''s fame and attract the fanbase of these idols to their guild. This is one of the strategies that Ye Yan and Hu Ling have thought while they were discussing how to increase the guild''s poprity. As the time in-game is shortpared with everything they need to do there, Ye Yan has been discussing and deciding things about the guild outside of the game to make the most of the time in the game while still working on the guilds issues. Being in the management team of a guild in a game like Second Life while having to be strong to support the growth of the guild is a work that takes the entire day. Luckily, the time in Second Life passes slower than in real life, or they wouldn''t be capable to deal with everything. Now that their guild is taking form, Ye Yan can''t be idle while in his home. As the guild leader, the responsibility on him is higher than on the others, except by Hu Ling that need to help the guild be profitable or his father will force him to ve himself in their family''spany. When they entered the Adventurers'' Guild, they went to speak with one of the NPCs on the second floor about the challenge. They ept it but schedule it for the next day in the arena on the north side of Tientsin City. Soon the guild entered in contact with the Beach Boys'' team through themunication stone and confirmed the time and ce of the duel. To issue a challenge, they need to send a formal letter, but to confirm, the guild just needs to make a call to them. After the NPC told them the duel was confirmed, Ye Yan asked Mage of the Cold Nighs to post about the duel on the Tientsin City forum, because she looks to be good at writing. He only doesn''t know about what she is used to writing. He would ask Hu Ling to do this, but he is in the City of Ji, thus he can''t ess the forum of Tientsin City. After they finished dealing with the duel, they went to the room of one of the guild managers to get their reward. Chapter 63: Red Envelope Chapter 63: Red Envelope The ten of them were forming a line in the manager''s room, shoulder to shoulder, looking at the guild''s manager. The manager is a middle-aged aquatic elf warrior. He is robust and tall with long limbs, turquoise eyes, short blue-green hair, gills visible in both sides of his neck, and blue skin with white stripes and patches. His fingers are almost twice the size of the humans and are connected by a thick webbing between them. The aquatic elf is one of the elf subraces, which has the ability to breathe underwater, and it is the elf subraces with less affinity with magic. They arerger and heavier than other elves and have thick skin that protects them from the cold of the deep water, keeping themfortable in freezing temperatures, like how theyer of fat under the skin makes seals and other marine animals warm. Arvastan Brighwave, the aquatic elf manager looked at them in a measuring way. He couldn''t see how this group of young people could have defeated those pirates without suffering casualties. Except by the half-orc and the Dragonborn, the others look frail and delicate. After observing them for a few seconds, the elf warrior spoke in his deep voice. "Congrattions forpleting the mission of killing those pirates and taking the smuggled goods from them. Those alchemical potions were tested and were proved they were indeed extremely dangerous tomon people." "Many lives were saved thanks to all of you." Arvastan continues to say, "I don''t know how you got to do that (with that skinny body of yours - hepleted in his mind), but no matter how, your achievement deserves a reward." The aquatic elf look at them again and concluded that they must have a good weapon to help them defeat those bandits. The pirates are nothing to him but are very strong to the young people in front of him. That''s why he decided to help them upgrade their weapon and equipment to increase their survivability. The artificial intelligence of the NPCs and monsters in Second Life is like nothing the human had ever seen before. They have history, personality, and thoughts of their own that made each one of them unique in Gaia. The environment can shape human learning and behavior, which can also be considered reactions to the environment [1]. Thebination of the individual''s subjectivity, the environment, and the people''s reactions to the social interactions and the environment encourages learning and behavior. The family history, social interactions, and the environment in which a person lives directly influences the way a person is. This is the same with the NPCs and monsters in Gaia. They can change through their environment and social interactions with yers. In this way, not only the geographic space of Gaia but the NPCs and monsters will change with time as well. The aquatic elf warrior decided, among the items he thought would suit as a reward, to give Ye Yan''s party a free one-time upgrade to their weapon and equipment. When he decided which item to give them, he wrote ten letters, one for each party member. His writing was rushed and the calligraphy was almost unreadable, but like works in a drugstore understand what doctors writing in their medical recipes, the craftsman can understand what the eld warrior wrote. When he was done writing the letter, he put each one of them in a red envelope and handed it to Ye Yan and the others, that politely ept the reward from the elf warrior. "After help protecting the lives of the citizens of Tientsin City, you guys gained a little fame among themon people. And to show how the Tientsin City values your help, your names will be posted in the Hall of Fame in the City Hall for all those that pass through there can see what you have done for the city. System: Your reputation in Tientsin City has increased by 10 points. You gained charisma + 1. your name is written in the Hall of Fame in Tientsin City. System: Your reputation in the Adventurers'' Guild in all Yan Empire increased by 5 points. As it is the second time they got a first clear in a Hell Mode dungeon, their names started to be know by NPCs in branches of the Adventurers'' Guild in other parts of Yan Empire. When Ye Yan and the others saw what was in the red envelope, they be ecstatic. Mainly Ye Yan because he already thought about upgrading his weapon. And as he needs to use this free chance in the next two days, he will go to the craftsman soon after he leaves the Adventurers'' Guild. The others hadn''t thought about upgrading their weapons and equipment yet but now they will do it or they will lose the opportunity. They only hope that the material they have right now is enough for the upgrade. Ye Yan likes his weapon a lot, so he had already thought about how he wants to change his fan and prepared the necessary materials to do it. After thanking the elf warrior, they left his room and went downstairs. My Girl was very happy about the fame gained in the city. So happy that he started to sing the same song that didn''t get out of his mind since the battle against Captain Antonio in the Hell Mode. . "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum, pirates like to have their fun! Yo-ho-ho on the ''Salty Breeze'' as they sail the seven seas." . Sadly, when Ye Yan and the others noticed what he was doing, it was already toote, because a bard started to sing along with My Girl while ying his yueqin[2]. And soon, every NPC and most yers in the Adventurers'' Guild started to sing along with them. Conan and Demon Fox yelled at him to shut up at the same time, but they couldn''t even finish before they were interrupted and everything bes silent. When Ye Yan and the others saw the elfing down the stair, their only thought that is that it''s over. Ye Yan sighed, put covered his forehead with his right hand, and said in his mind: "Not again". The elf manager that appeared looks like a copy of the one that admonished them in the City of Ji, with little difference between them. This elf manager is the cousin of the one in the City of Ji, that''s why they looked so alike. "It''s you guys again. My cousin warned me about some rioters'' adventures that messed things in this guild. I never thought I would have the displeasure to meet the routers that he spoke about." The elf manager spoke angrily to them. It looked that this time they will not escape punishment. While Conan, Demon Fox, I Love Skooma, Snow White, and Mage of the Cold Nights showed a horrified expression on their faces, and Ye Yan looked more serious than when a girl speak with him, Ashardalon and the others just sowed confusion. They didn''t understand what was happening at all. The elf just wanted to make them suffer now, for disrupting his beautiful, pacific and calm world. He was listening to the ssical Chinese music Silent is Gold yed with a bamboo flute when, suddenly, he started to heard screams and shouts from downstairs. He became so mad that he almost broke his recording stone. The only reason the stone is safe now is that his strength is not high enough to break it or else, it would be broken without repair. Now, he only wants to punish those who spoiled his day. The elf manager took them to a room where he can speak with them without interruptions. This is not his room, of course, he doesn''t want his room to be tainted by the rioters. He first admonished Ashardalon, My Girl, Harpy, and Hello Kitty. And after he vented a little on them, he ordered them to get out of his sight. After the others left the room, the elf''s gazended on Ye Yan, Conan, Demon Fox, I Love Skooma, Snow White, and Mage of the Cold Nights. He looked at them, one by one, with his stern expression, chilling them from head to toe. They feel as if they were in their first years of school and their teaches caught them making a mess in the ssroom or fighting in the interval. "As you don''t know how to repent, I will forbid you to enter in any Adventurers'' Guild of Yan Empire in the next three days." The elf manager said. He wants to punish them more severely but as they got a little fame in the Adventurers'' Guild, he can''t do things too hard or his superiors would cause him of hurting the interests of the guild. System: You are forbidden to enter any Adventurers'' Guild branch for the next three days. System: You acquired the title [Partygoer], increasing your charisma withmon folk by 3 points while decreasing your charisma by 2 with serious and nobles NPCs. ... [1] Environmentalist learning theory. [2] Chinese lute resembling a full moon (Yue means moon). Chapter 64: Weapon upgrade Chapter 64: Weapon upgrade When Ye Yan heard about the new title, he became speechless. He never liked loud music and being in crowded ces and, but now, he became known as a partygoer. It is not funny, not funny at all. . [Partygoer] (Title) Description: You are a party lover. Whenever you go, you will shake things up. Effect: Increase your charisma when speaking withmon people by 3 points and decrease your charisma when interacting with serious people and nobles by 2 points. . Ye Yan concentrated and visualized the details of his new title. It is not entirely bad, but it would be better if he hadn''t got it because now, he will have problems speaking with nobles NPCs and he is afraid of it messing things up in his quest. He will need to speak with an NPC inside the pce to get the territory to build their guild headquarters, so with this decrease in charisma, he may lose the chance of getting the quest. And if he has to put on the red shoes to speak with NPCs in the pce, he will feel really strange. If he has to sacrifice his dignity for the growth of the guild, so be it, but he will try everything before having to resort to it. After being almost kicked out of the Adventurers'' Guild, literally, they met Ashardalon and the others in front of the guild. When Conan exined what happened to them, My Girl, like the sensible person he is, almost rolled on the ground fromughing so much. He really is someone that deserves a beating. After putting them in this situation, he not only doesn''t feel bad about it, butughing uncontrobly. "No more singing!" Ye Yan only said this phrase to My Girl. He knows that it isn''t really his fault but, even so, Ye Yan wants to beat him so bad that he almost couldn''t hold himself back and do it. After agreeing about meeting in front of the arena tomorrow, each yer went looking for the craftsman that would upgrade their weapon and a piece of equipment for them. Ye Yan went to the General Craftsmen'' Guild looking for someone that could help him upgrade his fan. The General Craftsmen''s guild headquarters is a building simr to the Alchemists'' Guild but, as they are not as famous as the alchemists or the forges, the ce is not as luxurious or impressive as both guilds. The ce can even be described as messy. Inside the five square pagoda looks like a market, full of peopleing and going all the time. Some craftsmen that don''t have their own shop put a nket on the floor, sit down, and advertise their work. Sometimes, so many craftsmen do it that make the ce cramped and people have a hard time even passing through them to get to the balcony. The artisans that do things this way are those that can only produce low-level goods, thus they don''t have enough money to buy their own shop in the city. However, they are exactly what Ye Yan is looking for now. After the investment of yers, these craftsmen can change their lives in the future, buying their own shop or giving up and changing professions, or even keeping their status quo[1]. Ye Yan is the only one among his friends that want to upgrade a special kind of weapon, thus only he went to this guild. The others went to the Forges'' Guild. The fact the craftsman he is looking for is in this guild is good news for Ye Yan, because their services are cheaper than forgers. They recruited some apprentice craftsmen to their guild, to help them do future upgrades but while they don''t reach enough proficiency in their skills, they can''t help the guildsmen upgrading even the more simple weapon. Ye Yan looked around with difficulty because the ce was crowded but he saw one craftsman with many fans around him in a nket on the left side of the guild, near the wall. Ye Yan passed through the crowd of yers and NPCs with difficulty but reached the craftsman after a few minutes of pushing and excuse me. He doesn''t want to pass through this experience again. Not only he had to stand people pressing on him from all sides, but he thinks someone even groped him! It was worse than getting on the metro at peak times. He thought about jumping on peoples'' heads to get there but it would sure make him be kicked out from the guild. The artisan is a bald old man with and a mustache, a long beard, simple clothes, and a perverted face. Only the turtle shell on his back was missing to be the copy of a certain martial arts master. "Hello. I would like to upgrade my fan. Can you do this?" Ye Yan asked the bald old man. The old man looked at Ye Yan and noticed that his guild emblem has a yellow edge, representing his status as guild leader. "Of course!" The old man answered enthusiastically. "You just need to tell me what you want and hand the materials. Don''t worry, I will price it ording to the material and your needs. It will be a very fair price but if you introduce a pretty big-breasted woman to me, I make it for free! What do you think?" The old man started speaking with a ttering look on his face but soon his face started to change, showing a perverted expression. Ye Yan ignored the old man''s suggestion and showed him the materials he had gathered to upgrade his weapon. He showed the old man a light blue fabric that he got in one of the wooden chests in the Underwater Tunnel Dungeon, some sharp throwing knives, a gold bar, wire web, bee needles, and poisoned needles, together with his fan. Ye Yan told the old man what he has in mind and the old man thought a little and said he would need at least five hours toplete the upgrade. It would cost him one gold coin if he seeded and 30 silver coins if he fails. however, if he fails, Ye Yan would lose his fan and as it was a quest item, he can''t get another one easily. The old man said that the sess change is about 80%, so Ye Yan decided to take the gamble and handed everything to the old man. He decided to do it now, not only because he didn''t want to go back to the craftsman guild soon, but also because of time. Doing it now, he will not waste time walking to and from the guild and can go do his quest soon after the duel tomorrow. It is a risk to do it now because if his fan breaks in the process, he would have to use another weapon in the duel. But in the worse case scenery, he can use his hammer and go hulk on them. Then he decided to do it now. After handing everything to the old man, he waited next to him, observing all the process of upgrading. If his weapon needed a forge, he would just hand everything and leave, onlying back at the time when the forger ends the upgrade. But, because the craftsmen that can be found in this guild can''t be trusted, he needs to wait. The craftsmen services here are cheaper, but if he didn''t wait next to them, the craftsman can take his items and run away with them. While waiting, Ye Yan observed the old man''s work from time to time and used hismunication stone to speak with Spell Bound. Even if their guild is homeless right now, they have much work to do. After his guildmatespleted many quests in the Adventurers'' Guild, plus the experience give to them by the 10 points influence they got whenpleted the first clear of the Underwater Tunnel Dungeon as a guild, they could upgrade the guild to level 1, increasing the limit of yers the guild can have. Ye Yan and Hu Ling invested a huge amount of money for the guild to grow faster in the initial stages. This, plus the equipment they deposit in the Guild Storage in the Bank (because the guild still doesn''t have a headquarter) help the new guild members to increase their level faster. The guild members that made use of the guild resources need to sign a contract with the guild because if they decided to abandon the guild, they could just steal the items and the guild would suffer, thus, for this kind of situation to not happen, they have to refund the guild for the items and pay a 20% the item value as penalty. After seeing the old man busy himself with his work, arranging the des in the fan, and molding the gold bar using his own hands, Ye Yan had to admire the old man for his expertise. After five hours, Ye Yan finally could see his upgraded weapon. And he didn''t even need to ask the old man, because it is clear that he seeded. ..... [1] Status quo means the existing state of affairs, particrly concerning social or political issues. To maintain the status quo is to keep things the way they presently are. [Dictionary] Chapter 65: Legendary Fan clues Chapter 65: Legendary Fan clues After the old man was done upgrading Ye Yan''s folding fan, he looked at it with pride and stretched out his arm with an open hand. It was clear that the old man would only hand the fan to him after receiving his payment. Ye Yan readily put the letter in the old man''s hand and took his folding fan. He looked at his upgraded fan full of happiness and was eager to use it. Not only the fan is stronger than before, but now, it has new functions and skills. . [Upgraded Fan of the Wine] (Silver, one-hand weapon: Fan) Description: A all-around weapon with gold outer guards, hidden des as sticks, and a beautiful blue leaf with a jug of wine painted on it. Appears to be a harmless folding fan until it''s toote. Special Skill 1: [Throwing Needle] (Active) - throw ten needles at the target when activated. Required recharge. Each needle has a base ATK + 30. Special skill 2: [Ranged shing Attack] (Active)- Throw the fan at the target while holding it by a wire attached to it. Special skill 3: [Evil Bane] (passive) - Increases damage against Evil beings by 10%. [1] ATK + 60 DEF + 50 STR + 4 DEX + 3 AGI + 2 CHA + 1 Level requirement: 8 yer: Jun Xie Durability: 50/50 Weight: 4 kg . Thinking about the duel tomorrow, Ye Yan gave a wide smile. His new weapon will make its debut in great style. The fan''s first use will be taking the blood of his enemies. Ye Yan is extremely satisfied with the upgrade results. Now he can use his weapon to not only sh, defending and deflecting attacks but to smash enemies as well, using his fan''s strong golden guards as if it is a club. And he can use poisoned needles and bee sting in ce of the needles to increase the damage dealt while poisoning the target. The old man looked at the letter and send the bill to the adventurers'' Guild through hismunication stone. "Stop gawking at the fan and congratte me for my excellent work!" The old man said to Ye Yan proudly. "Thank you for your services, sir." Ye Yan said politely. It is better for him to be on good terms with this NPC because he will certainly use his services again in the future. The old man nodded at Ye Yan, satisfied with the way he acted. "As you look to be a very promising youngster, like folding fans like me, and is the leader of a guild, I will tell you a secret." The old man whispered to Ye Yan. When he heard what the old man said, Ye Yan gave him full attention. Maybe the 3 bonus points in charisma from the new title helped him get a quest from the NPC. "I have clues about Zhongli Quan folding fan." The old man whispered so softly that Ye Yan almost couldn''t hear it. Zhongli Quan is a Chinese mythological figure and one of the Eight Immortals in the Taoist pantheon. In Taoism, he is known as "Zhengyang Zushi" which literally means "True-Yang Ancestor-Master". He represented the military man and is often pictured as a Fat Man with his bare belly showing. In legend, Zhongli Quan wields arge fan that can resurrect the dead and transform stones into silver or gold. Among his many powers were transmutation and the knowledge of the elixir of life. The power of each one of the Eight Immortals can be transferred to a tool of power, a kind of a talisman associated with a certain meaning, that can give life or destroy evil. Together, these eight tools are called "Hidden Eight Immortals" or "Covert Eight Immortals". When the old man told Ye Yan about the folding fan, he knew right away about what he was talking about, because the legend of the Eight Immortals is very famous in China. "Please tell me." Ye Yan said politely but he couldn''t disguise the excitement in his voice. "I can tell you but you need to do me a little favor." When the old man said it, Ye Yan got a bad feeling about it, even more, when he saw the perverted expression on the old man''s face. "What do you want me to do?" Ye Yan asked while hoping that it wouldn''t be too bad. "As a guild leader, you should have many contacts, so you could introduce a pretty woman to me. I like the big-breasted ones." The old man said with a perverted smile on his face while moving his hand in the air as if he was fondling two big melons. Ye Yan has a hard time even looking to this perverted old man. He kept wondering why he didn''t try entering the Adventurers'' Guild because the guild is full of watermelon women. Even being a little disgusted by the old man''s antics, Ye Yan thought that he can''t let this chance slip by. It is a legendary item after all. At least, it is in real life, thus in the game, it must be of legendary quality at minimum. So, for the greater good, My Girl needs to be sacrificed. Most NPCs don''t know the difference between male/female and cross-gender. They only can differentiate in special cases as what happened with Captain Antonio. yers can differentiate between genders by the mark above the yer''s head. Male yers have a blue diamond mark, females have a red diamond mark, and the cross-gender mark is purple [2]. The marks are used not only to differentiate between gender but yers and NPCs as well. However, sometime soon the system may remove the mark because some people can''t y well because of the marks above their heads. The difort they feel is so great that it prevents them from ying normally. Ye Yan thought about using My Girl to get the information from the old man without an ounce of remorse. My Girl likes to flirt with people after all and it will be for the greater good. "I agree. But we should meet in another ce." Ye Yan didn''t want toe back to this ce soon. "Good, good, very good." The old man was almost salivating, thinking about the woman Ye Yan would introduce to him. "My name is Dai Liuxian." The old man said, showing hismunication stone to Ye Yan for them to exchange contact information. "Just call me when you got the woman for me, and I will go to your location right away." The old man started to rub his hands in excitement. Ye Yan felt a little bad after seeing the old man''s expression. He started to feel like a human trafficker or a pimp. But soon, he remembered my Girl almost rolling on the ground fromughing and the bad feeling flew away. After leaving the Craftsmen'' Guild, Ye Yan went to a tailoring shop to upgrade his gloves. Different from his fan, normal equipment can be upgraded in the popr smithing and tailoring shops that can be found in every street of the main cities of a region. There is a tailoring shop near the Craftsmen''s Guild, thus Ye Yan went there. Ye Yan is using an Armor Set and the set''s items can only be upgraded together or they will lose the set bonus, so he wouldn''t choose any of the set pieces to upgrade. His ring is very strong but it is considered an essory, thus he can''t use the free upgrade and the item is too good for him to risk breaking it. Among his pieces of equipment, the most suitable for upgrading is his gloves because he also wants to give some attack power to them as he is used to punching his enemies in battle. The shop has many showcases with leather and cloth armors inside and a very elegant and luxurious balcony further inside. When one of the shopkeepers saw Ye Yan, he readily went to him. He is the one using simple clothes among them. The others are more richly dressed and look snobbish. "How can I help you, sir?" the shopkeeper asked him politely. "I want to upgrade my gloves." When Ye Yan said it, the shopkeeper looked at Ye Yan''s hands and used his identification skill. "This glove needs an associate tailor to upgrade. Pleasee with me." The shopkeeper led Ye Yan to a room in the back of the shop. There, Ye Yan saw a robust female human working on leather armor. After the shopkeeper does the introduction, he left the room. "Spit it out! I don''t have much time." The woman didn''t stop her work to speak to Ye Yan and just yelled at him to say what he wants. She wasn''t polite to him because not only she is extremely busy, but Ye Yan is a low-level yer as well. The only reason she attended him is that he is the guild leader of a level 1 guild and he has made some contributions to the city. If it wasn''t the case, she would just hand Ye Yan''s things to one of her apprentices. After Ye Yan handed the items to the female tailor and said what he wanted to be done on his gloves, he left the shop. It would take ten whole hours for the gloves to be ready, so Ye Yan would log out and get it when he logs againter. Ye Yan is really thankful for his status as a guild leader and the influence he got in the city because an associate tailor has more chance of sess than an apprentice. Even if low-level items have less chance of breaking, I still can break, thus if he can lessen the chances of it happening, the better. ..... [1] The fan first appeared in China during the 10th Century AD. Besides Zhongli Quan, one of the eight immortals, using the fan to revive the dead, many other gods also use the fan to drive away evil. From a Feng Shui perspective, it has been said that fans have the power to deflect negative ''chi'' (energy) that has been directed your way by a hostile source. [2] Blue+red=purple. Chapter 66: Its time to duel! Chapter 66: It''s time to duel! After exercising and eating, Ye Yan, Hu Ling, Tang Yunfan, and Demon Fox started to discuss the guild''s affairs. Now that the guild is level 1, the yer limit in the guild increased from 100 to 1,000, and they need to chose carefully the yers who will upy these slots. The first hundred yers were mostly people they knew in real life or people indicated by friends. However now, they will start expanding the recruitment to unknown yers, which means they will have to be careful. They not only need to look if the yer is strong enough but if the yer is trustworthy as well. If in the beginning, the guild started to recruit any yer, it will be doomed to fail without a doubt. The yers that will be the base of the guild can determine its strength and sess, thus it is very important to pay attention to quality. Hu Ling contracted some yers to help him in the management of the guild. They will be responsible for analyzing yers'' data and experiences, organizing the guild storage that is still in the bank, analyze yers'' contributions, and help distribute yers in parties ording to their level and expertise. There is too much work to do in a guild. Luckily, they can don''t need to do everything by themselves. Ye Yan is responsible to led the main team in the game, as well as get a property for them to construct the guild headquarters. Hu Ling and another yer are responsible for gathering information for the guild. Demon Fox and Snow White are meeting contracted yers in real life to know them better. And Conan and the others are organizing farming teams for Torment, Nightmare, and Hell Mode of White Birch Dungeon Forest. With level 7 yers and better equipment, they can clear the dungeon on Nightmare Mode without problems. The Hell Mode is still hard but worth it because of the good equipment that drops from the dungeon. And good equipment equals stronger yers. The guild''s objective now is to make yers get stronger. The stronger, the better. In this way, they can get more achievements and will have an easier time fighting for territory. They know that the key for the guild to be profitable is in the properties, that they can rent for a good amount of money in the future. Manypanies are creating their own guild for this purpose. They need property for their virtualpanies because many of them have migrated from real life to the game. The rent in the game should be lower than in real life and they didn''t need to worry about transport and food for their workers. They will only pay for the working hours that can be extended for a few hours in the game. They still need to pay taxes to the country, of course. A least, the daily time limit can help people not be exploited too much by thepanies and they can use the daytime in real life to rx, increasing the live quality of the poption. Not only that, but thew about work applies to the game as well, but with few changes. yers can work in virtualpanies for 12 game hours (6 hours in real) life maximum, so they can enjoy part of their game hours really ying the game. The expanded time wasn''t created forpanies to exploit the workers after all. The game creators want to make Second Life a way to help people use the virtual world to increase their knowledge and help in society''s advancement. This is the ideal they want to achieve. The simtion creators want to increase the proportion of real-life hours and simtion time but the human mind can only stand the double-time. More than that and it would cause serious health problems to the yers. Many shops also want to migrate to the game but they will need to wait for when yers start to own properties in the game. But while waiting, these shops are getting ready, scanning their goods for future virtual sales. For now, only a fewpanies that signed an agreement with their respective government could rent the game property in advance. But the property would soon be owned by yers and they would pay the rent to the owner, plus the tax to the game cities that would retain 10% of the amount and deposit the rest in the government ount in the real-life bank. .. When Ye Yan got back to the game, he went straight to the Tailoring Shop. When he logged out before, he was inside an Inn next to the shop, thus he took only two minutes to get there. Because some thieves can take advantage of when yers just log in to steal from them, yers try to enter an Inn before logging out. If a yer tries to rob people inside an Inn, they will get caught without a doubt, so it is a safe ce to log out. When the female tailor handed him his new gloves, Ye Yan bes ecstatic because it turns out much better than he expected. . [Upgraded Fighter''s leather gloves] (Silver, Armor: Gloves) Description: A pair of leather gloves with silver tes like a knucklehead, that is very suitable for fighters. Right Hand: Was adjusted to help to hold a weapon more firmly. Left Hand: This glove was modified to inflict damage to enemies. DEF + 15 ATK + 30 DEX + 2 STR + 1 Level Requirement: 8 Durability: 50/50 Weight: 3kg . After thanking the tailor, Ye Yan didn''t wait for her to kick him out and left the shop. After eating his daily bread and water, which is the minimum a yer needs to eat to not gain weakness status from hunger, Ye Yan got on his bike and went to the arena. The arena is a wide courtyard surrounded by high walls. Inside, there is a huge tablet where is written the inner courtyards'' names and who is fighting inside or if it is empty. The inner courtyards are divided by high walls and each one of them has arge area for fighting, a grandstand, and two small hexagonal pavilions, one at each end. The pavilion next to the inner courtyard entrance has a small balcony where is an NPC collects 5 copper coins from yers who want to watch the fighting as the entry. The pavilion on the opposite side is protected by magic and can''t be touched by yers. Inside, there is a magical device that can change the environment of the inner courtyard ording to the yers'' wishes by a not-so-small fee. Ye Yan and the others had agreed to meet in front of the arena. As it is almost the agreed time, when Ye Yan got there, only Demon Fox and Snow White hadn''t arrived yet. Spell Bound, that decided to watch the fight, was there together with the others. He will take some photos with themunication stone to post in the forumter. He had publicized the duel in the forum to attract public attention and when they beat the other team, he will post the photos in the forum for the guild to gain more poprity. Spell Bound is very confident about this team battle. He knows Ye Yan''s fighting capabilities and had run some dungeons with half of the others, so even if it is not real life, he believes that Ye Yan can beat the other team together with the other members. Up until now, Spell Bound hadn''t seen Ye Yan lose a fight, and he thinks it will not be the first time. Spell Bound had got the information about the other team and showed it to the yers that have arrived before Ye Yan. They recognized their opponents as the yers they met on the beach before. They just don''t understand why they want to challenge them because when they met, the other party was very friendly and their team has done nothing to offend their rivals. Not matter why they issue a challenge, Ye Yan and the other will fight them and use it to increase their guild fame. Ye Yan looked at his teammates and noticed some differences in their equipment. Their weapons in particr look much more impressive than before. When passerby yers look at them, they could even feel a kind of pressure emanating from them. Conan in particr, with his bulking body, pirate hat, and the knife stuck in a skull in his upper arm, plus the half-orc face, making him look very intimidating. When all team members arrived, they entered the arena and were led to an inner courtyard by one of the attendants. As the duel was promoted by the Adventurers'' Guild, they don''t need to register or pay in the main counter to use one of the inner courtyards. When they entered the inner courtyard reserved for them, the other team hadn''t arrived yet, thus they started talking about their upgraded pieces of equipment. Among them, only Demon Fox bad luck when upgrading his equipment. His belt broke and he bought a new one from the guild storage, but the quality is inferior to the one that broke. When the other team arrived, they look at each other for a few seconds. Each yer with a different thought. Ye Yan was anxious to use his new weapons and when he saw the other team, he just has one thought, "It''s time to duel!". Chapter 67: Beach Boyss secret weapon Chapter 67: Beach Boys''s secret weapon ''We are fucked!'' This is the only thought in the mind of some of the Beach Boys team yers. When they entered the fighting area of the inner courtyard and looked at the opponent team, they noticed their equipment that was full of traces of silver or bronze. They knew the other team was good because they had got the first clear of a hell mode dungeon but they didn''t think it was this good. While the other team is using silver equipment, they still have many pieces of wood quality equipment and the best pieces they use are only bronze. What they didn''t know is that Ye Yan and the others had got two hell mode first clears and not one. Because of this, their equipment is much better than they thought. The system announcement about the first clear of a dungeon is only heard by those in the region, thus they don''t know about the other first clear''s teams, except by the Proud Wanderers team. The Proud Wanderers Guild is backed by a Chinese multinationalpany that is paying a high sry for its main team for them to get as many first clears as possible. With this, they also promote theirpany and its products in a win-win situation for the team andpany. Because of the great advertising campaign, many Chinese and non-Chinese people know about the team. While Proud Wanderers'' team got five first clears so far and is known as the best team in Yan Empire, Immortals Guild is only known by the people of City of Ji and Tientsin City or Beijing and Tianjin in the real world. And both cities don''t know they got the first clear of the other city. That''s why they need to publicize their guild and achievements, so more people will know about them and want o to enter their guild. "They just got one first clear. Maybe they were lucky when they got it. We can''t have defeatist thoughts now. We can''t know what will happen without fighting." Sharknado, their team leader, tried to motivate the other members of his team. "Yeah! At least we can vent on them. And don''t forget, we have our secret weapon!" Silver Surfer remembered the others. "We really have to use this? It can affect us as well..." A team member said. "But we will be prepared for it, while they don''t," Sharknado said. "Are you ready? We are counting on you if things aren''t going well." Sharknado said to Weapon of Mass Destruction, the yer responsible for using their secret weapon. "I''m more than ready. I''m ready to give it a go right now." Weapon of Mass Destruction told the others. "No! Only when I give you the sign, ok?" Sharknado told Weapon of Mass Destruction. After both teams met, they bowed to each other as etiquette before the duel and got in position. One team on each side of the fighting area. After the NPC responsible for judging the duel gave a signal, the battle officially started. Ye Yan approached the other team, jumping in the middle of them when he was near enough, and used [Roar] to attract every attack to him. When a skill like Roar or Provoke is used, the yers need to attack the yer. If they are casting a spell or using a skill, those attacks would be directed at the yer which used the provoking skill. And if melee yers didn''t use a skill, their bodies will be attracted to the other yers as if the is a metal and the other, a super ma. While the ranged sses need to attack or use a spell or they will be paralyzed from rage for 10 seconds. As the attracting effect of [Provoke] has a reduced durationpared with the effect on the attack and defense, don''t attack the yer that used the skill is not worthwhile. So, when Ye Yan used [Roar], every member of the other team, including the doctors, attacked him at the same time, because all of them were in the area of effect of the skill. As Ye Yan activated [Iron Skin] almost at the same time he used [Roar], the attacks wouldn''t kill him on the spot and it would give the doctors enough time to heal him. While Ye Yan was in the middle of the enemies, Arshadalon approached the melee yers from their left side with hisrge shield raised, and start to push and group them next to Ye Yan. The physical ss yers that tried to attack from a distance were soon pushed to a position between Ye Yan and Ashardalon. Because of his strength and choosing lighter pieces of equipmentpared with normal tanks, Ye Yan''s equipment load kept under 25% of the total, which enabled him to use his full speed. This, plus his agility and equipment, made Ye Yan move very fast, taking their enemies by surprise. But they soon recovered and started to put a distance between them, while attacking with everything they got. However, every member of the immortals'' team is a highly-skilled yer and didn''t give the other party a chance. Ye Yan was fighting more than one yer at the same time, using his upgraded folding fan and glove. Sometimes he even punching a yer while shing another at the same time. And, as he wanted to test his weapon''s new functions, he shook his fan in an enemy doctor''s direction, firing poisoned needles on him. The doctor didn''t get poisoned but took a huge amount of damage from the skill. Sadly, Ye Yan can only use the skill one time because it needs a recharge and he didn''t have time to do this during this battle. And when the doctor would heal himself, Ye Yan dodged the fighters'' attacks and threw his open fan at the doctor, shing his right arm, and pulling it back soon after. When the doctor thought he was safe and could finally heal himself, Mage of the Cold Nights cast [Ice Bolt] on him, finishing him off. The other doctor doesn''t even have time to act when his friend died not far from him. He had just used [Heal] on another yer and could only use skills that required touch, thus he hadn''t time to get to him before it was toote. I Love Skooma approached the mage farther to the right and attacked him using his dagger. He looked like a machine with both hands in perfect sync, not giving enough time for the mage to use a spell. As the mage doesn''t have the [blink] spell, he can only run, trying to get away from him. But sadly for him, he got a [Arrow on the Knee] fired by Harpy and be incapable to run, turning into easy prey for I Love Skooma. The other members of the Beach Boys team weren''t having a good time either. They looked more like sandbags in the hands of the Immortals'' team. The situation of a werecat mage, in particr, provoked pity in the yers watching the battle. He was uglier than any wet cat they have ever seen because of the [Water Ball] cast by Hello Kitty and soon turned into barbecue after the [Lightning Bolt], almost getting ready to eat by those that have this kind of preference. Even Spell Bound that was so excited watching the battle that looked like a cheerleader, started to take pity on him. The Beach Boys'' yers started to only think about venting as much as possible on them and forget to protect the only doctor of the team, that was suffering under the attacks of Conan, Harpy, Demon Fox, and mage of the Cold Nights. Under the focus fire of four yers, the doctor didn''tst even 5 seconds and died. Everything happened so fast that when Sharknado noticed their situation was bad, two doctors had died. As the situation was almost hopeless, he gave a sign for Weapon of Mass Destruction to use their secret weapon. he didn''t want to use this because they will suffer as well, but it is the only way they thought would give them enough time to attack the opposite team. They probably wouldn''t win, but he is confident that they can kill at least one yer after using their secret weapon. When Weapon of Mass Destruction saw the Sharknado''s sign, he gave a very malicious smile that provoked goosebumps in all his teammates. For their secret weapon to be more effective, they need to group immortal''s members close to each other, thus after the signal, they started to lead the Immortals'' yers to the ce closer to the mages. This was a suicide tactic but they only want revenge now. So, under the attack of the enemies'' party, they got to group the Immortals'' yers. Ye Yan noticed what their enemies were doing and thought they would use arge-scale spell because they can''t use items in a duel. Asrge-scale spells have a long cast time and can be stopped using skills, he thought about taking advantage of everyone being in the same ce and finishing off the other team. But things didn''t happen as he thought they would and they suffered under the devasting attack of Weapon of Mass Destruction. Chapter 68: Weapon of Mass Destructions true power Chapter 68: Weapon of Mass Destruction''s true power When everyone was in position, Weapon of Mass Destruction lost the wicked smile on his face and started to get serious as he concentrated on his task. He positioned himself in the middle of the enemies'' yers to maximize the damage and got ready to use his true power. Weapon of Mass Destruction is one of the three mages of the party. He is tall and thin with small muscles in his upper body and uses a long blue robe that makes him look elegant. Weapon of Mass Destruction''s appearance in real life and in the game is the same and different at the same time. His face is the same but his body got some weight in the game. In real life, he is very skinny and wears a pair of sses because he doesn''t like to use contact lenses. He is the kind of person that eats a lot but never gains weight. He is the kind of person that you don''t know if you envy his metabolism or if you just want to beat him until he bes swollen all over. Inside the game, Weapon of Mass Destruction looks like to have passed by the same experience of spiderman because he took off his sses and gained a few muscles. Weapon of Mass Destruction started to look very serious and an expression of concentration appeared on his face while he summons all his strength to attack. When Ye Yan discovered that something was not right, he heard a very powerful sound that scared him. It looks like someone used a gun next to his ear. And a few momentster the air became unbreathable. The stench that reached his nose was so powerful that Ye Yan felt like fainting and vomiting at the same time. The other members of Ye Yan''s team didn''t have it easy as well. Snow White''s face makes her very suited to her in-game name now because she became so pale from nausea she was feeling that she almost became really white. Because she was caught off guard, when the members of the Beach Boy team focus fire on her, she didn''t react and was killed almost instantly. My Girl also did not have luck after the surprise attack. His reaction was not so bad as Snow White''s, but he was so surprised that the opponent team killed him before he could do anything. The other members had simr reactions but as the opponent team focus fire on the doctors first, they had time to reacted and counterattack in time. Ye Yan was the first to react but his actions made others think of him as a selfish person. He used his folding fan to fan the stench away. His movements were so fast that he almost broke the limit of the speed that is restricted by his stats in the game. After using his fan to keep the stench away, he was safe but his friends didn''t have the same luck. Those that can use one-handed weapons could fight using only their right hand, while the other covers their nose. And those that use two-handed weapons became out of the battle for a few seconds until the stench is gone. While all this was happening, Spell Bound was yelling nonstop from the grandstand. "It''s foul y! It''s foul y! Judge! Judge! Do something!" Spell Bound was indignant with the situation but there is nothing he could do but yell. The poor judge wasn''t near the yers but he was also affected. He started to vomit on the spot, only stopping to curse the rotten yer that provoked this situation. Weapon of Mass Destruction loves to eat and has a weakness to fast food. When he saw the many things inside the game, he decided to prove it all. And because of this, he discovered that a yer could fart in the game. After the first time he ate a huge amount of food, he received a curse that made him want to fart. That time, he surrendered to the desire to fart and found out the destructive damage it could cause to the people around him. Farting in the game can''t cause physical damage but the psychological damage is heavy. After many times being cursed, because he couldn''t stop eating the game''s delicious food, he learned how to control the fart. He now can hold it in and expel it when he wants, provided that it doesn''t take longer than 20 minutes after he is done eating. Because of this, he became one of the most powerful yers in their team in PVP. When he is losing the fight, he can always take advantage of the curse to surprise attack his opponents and win the fight. It worked so many times that his win rate in PVP is higher than the other members of his team. His ability to use a curse to win a fight is the Weapon of Mass Destruction''s true power. His family nicknamed him Weapon of Mass Destruction when he was a small child because even there, he already could make people run away. He never thought that his nickname would be so meaningful in the game. After the initial impact of the surprise attack, the yers recovered and started to fight back full of rage and indignation. It almost looks like they entered in a berserk state. Ye Yan used the fan''s ranged attack to y the Beach Boys'' yers. He was using his fan as a whip with a ded tip. Ye Yan was shing them with a vicious smile and bloodshot eyes. It was like he was performing a killing dance. He used his left hand to punch the yers in front of him while using the other hand to move his whip-like fan. Ye Yan was fighting like he wants to obliterate the other team as fast as possible. Of course, he started to do this after his teammates and he focuses fire on Weapon of Mass Destruction, killing him on the spot. The others could live a second longer but he doesn''t. Someone that could give such a low blow doesn''t deserve to live. After Ye Yan and the other started attacking madly, the battle only took a few more seconds to end, leaving only them and twelve corpses in the fighting area. When the judge confirmed their victory, he used the skill [Resurrection] on the dead yers for them toe back to life. My Girl, being My Girl, had to be resurrected in a grand style. When he came back to life and before the light covering his body was gone, he stood up in low motion with his hand in the air in the form of ''V'' and yelling "Praise the Sun!" Maybe My Girl has the calling to lead cultists because when he has done it, some NPCs yers in the grandstand started to do the same thing. It looks like the worshipers of the Sun god spread out of the City of Ji. Originally, only NPCs in the City of Ji worshiped the Sun god as he is the patron god of the city. But now, the cultists of the Sun God can be found in many parts of the Yan Empire. After a few seconds of silence after seeing such a scene, the yers started to talk, or curse. Demon Fox pped his chest and told Snow White he would get justice for her. Someone farted and made his girlfriend smell it. He, as her boyfriend, needs to do something. As they had already killed Weapon of Mass Destruction once, Demon Fox decided to only curse him and advise the other to never get in his way again or he would beat him down to the ground. But in his mind, he thought about Light Fingers. Maybe he could also hire her services because she is really good at her work. Even Spell Bound had praised her, which is a very rare thing. My Girl asked why they decided to challenge them, but he didn''t get an answer from them. They couldn''t say that Ye Yan and the others had stolen the first clear from them because it not only would be childish but it''s not the truth. The first clear is there for the best party to get, no one can reserve it. Thus, as both parties had nothing more to say and the little argument between Demon Fox and Weapon of Mass Destruction ended, they left the Battle Arena and each one went to do their own things. Spell Bound was thest yer to leave the Arena because he was writing the post on the forum. He touched the Forum Scroll and a pen was summoned from it, so he could write the post in the way he wants. Luckily, when yers use the scrolls, they turned hard to make it easier for yers to write on them. After posting the photos and write about the fight, Spell Bound''s post was seen by many yers in Tientsin City, increasing the fame of the guild. He thought about posting it in other cities'' forums but give it up because it is too soon for that. They don''t have the financial support of bigpanies and they can wait for when they clear dungeon that has a wider system announcement. Until then, they need to focus in strengthened and expanding their guild in both City of Ji and Tientsin cities. More than that would do the guild no good. Step by step, slow and steady is the key. Chapter 69: The Eight Immortalss good fortune symbols Chapter 69: The Eight Immortals''s good fortune symbols Before they started to fight, Ye Yan told My Girl he would like to ask a favor from him. Thus, when everyone was leaving, My Girl followed Ye Yan to a restaurant near the Battle Arena. Ye Yan thought that as he is trying to convince My Girl to help him, he can at least pay for a meal. Both of them sit at a table in the corner of the restaurant alone. Harpy didn''t join than because she was going to visit their kids at school. "What is it you want to talk about?" My Girl asked coquettishly. He really likes to see Ye Yan contorted face when he flirts with him like that. "Don''t tell me... Do you fell for me?" My Girl said, making an expression of astonishment. "You see... I am not avable. I am a married man and love my wife. Even if you are handsome, you can''t have me! I belong to my beautiful wife!" My Girl spoke so seriously in the end that anyone would think Ye Yan is really trying to seduce him but because he is loyal to his wife, he will never surrender to Ye Yan''s charms. Some people even threw suspicious nces at Ye Yan to see who is trying to ruin a marriage. Listening to what My Girl said, Ye Yan''s face started to get red from rage or embarrassment. It is hard to know. Ye Yan tried to restrain his temper or he would strangle My Girl before getting to convince him to help with the perverted old man''s request. He took a deep breath to calm down and started to exin what he need My Girl to do. "He just asked me to introduce a woman to him. Nothing more. After doing this, he will tell me some clues about a legendary item. I can''t let this opportunity pass." Ye Yan said seriously. "I would never think you would be like that. You look serious but are a pimp at heart." My Girl said while shaking his head to show how sad he is with this revtion. When he said it, the nces Ye Yan is receiving from other yers start to turn a little hateful. "If you are going to sell me to a perverted old man, you need to make it worthwhile. I''m not cheap." When the fury building in Ye Yan''s heart almost exploded, he heard My Girl say he didn''t mind whore himself. After listening to My Girl, Ye Yan doesn''t know how to react. After a few minutes of speaking with My Girl, his brain had suffered so many blows that it isn''t working normally anymore. Ye Yan thought that he should take My Girl to the old man as soon as possible or he will turn brain dead soon. Ye Yan really has to admire Harpy. She is so smart and efficient, even after being with My Girl for so many years. After promising to get high-quality and sexy pieces of equipment for My Girl, he epted being introduced to the perverted old man. As Ye Yan didn''t want to waste time, he contacted the old man through themunication stone and asked the NPC to meet them in the restaurant they are staying. After the NPC agreed, Ye Yan asked to change to a private room because their conversation can''t be heard by others. He didn''t ask for a private room before because it is expensivepared to a normal table. However, he should have got one in the beginning because My Girl is not someone that can be seen in public because he always does something outrageous. Soon after they got into the private room in the restaurant, a waitress led the old man to the room. The old man got there so fast that Ye Yan wondered if he was near the restaurant or if he used the teleport spell to get there. When the old man entered the room, he was finishingbing his long white beard. His mustache had received the same treatment earlier. When the old man entered the room, his eyes glued on My Girl and his face got even more perverted as he started to salivate and move his ten fingers as if he wanted to grab something. The old man smirked uncontrobly while ogling My Girl. He looked so satisfied that he stopped trying to grope the waitress. The waitress sighed in relief and was more than happy to leave the old man in the room with them. She turned and closed the door before going downstairs. "Let me do the introductions. This is... Her name is My Girl." Ye Yan said My Girl''s name with difficulty. This is the first time he refers to him by name. He had always called just you when speaking to him. Because people would feel embarrassed when calling him by his in-game name that he chose this name. "And this is Dai Liuxian, the craftsman I told you about." Ye Yan finished making the presentations and before he says anything else, the old man almost jumped on My Girl with a perverted smile. This time My Girl didn''t y around as usual. For the first time, he felt bad because of the situation. The NPC makes him feel goosebumps all over his body in the way he looks at him. He felt molested and even cover the essentials using his hands in the case the old man has some x-ray skill. "Now that we are done with the introductions, please tell me about Zhong Li Quan''s fan clues." Ye Yan didn''t waste time and asked the old man. "What? But we didn''t even talk yet." The old man said pouting. Ye Yan looked away and continue to talk before the old man starts to throw a tantrum. "You just asked to be introduced to a girl and I have done it. Now, tell me what you know." Ye Yan stood between My Girl and the old man when speaking to show that he needs to tell him about the clues or he can''t even look at My Girl. "You put me in this situation and now you need to protect my chastity." My Girl whispered from behind Ye Yan. The old man gave a deep sigh and started to talk. "When I was young, my friends and I went to an ancient temple that was built in honor of the Eight Immortals. And, in a hidden chamber inside the temple, there was an ancient scroll with clues to the locations of the legendary items that have the power of the Eight Immortals." "So... Do you have clues about all eight legendary items?" Ye Yan interrupted the old man''s tellings. "Yes. But we agreed about exchanging the fan''s clues for the introductions. If you want something else, you need to give me something else to make it worthwhile for me." The old man said with a perverted smile on his face while trying to see My Girl that is hiding behind Ye Yan. After hearing the old man, Ye Yan turned his head and looked at My Girl that looked back at him with a ''don''t you dare'' expression. "Hum. If you tell us the clues about all eight items, I will let you touch." Ye Yan spoke a little vague, thus My Girl would have a way out of the situation. However, after saying it, he started to feel killing intent behind himself. "I agree!" The old man said excitedly. "Now, tell us." Ye Yan rushed the old man. "The Zhong Li Quan''s fan is believed to have the power to revive the dead and materialize gold and silver out of thin air. There is a picture of what I believe is the Valley of the Dragons next to the fan[1]." "The Li Tieguai''s gourd is said to contain the holy nectar of the Gods that could cure any illness. There is ake inside a mountain drawn next to it." "The He Xianggu''s lotus is believed to have the ability to improve physical and mental health. There is a picture of ake with an isle in the middle together with the lotus image." "Han Xiang-Zi''s flute can make flowers bloom at will, soothe wild animals with its music, and divert the negative flow of energy. It should be in a kind of forest with a cave." "Lu Dong-bin''s sword has the power to y demons and cut anything. It should be in a cave full of crystals." "Zhang Guo''s bamboo cane can make the holder invisible. It should be in some ancient alchemyb." "Lan Caihe''s basket of flowers is believed to bring longevity. It should be on an altar on an ind with all kinds of flowers around it." "And Cao Guojiu'' casts looks to be in some sort of theater." "That''s all that I know. Now, came here beauty! Let me feel you!" The old man said with a very big smile on his face. ... [1] The items and powers belong to the Eight Immortals in the Chinese legend. Chapter 70: Resuming the quest Chapter 70: Resuming the quest "That''s all that I know. Now, came here beauty! Let me feel you!" The old man said with a very big smile on his face. Ye Yan could feel My Girl freeze behind him. If My girl wasn''t someone from his guild, he would let the situation continue for a little more time. After everything he made Ye Yan pass through when they were downstairs made him enjoy what is happened very much. Sadly, he has to stop it. Thus, Ye Yan asked My Girl to reach out one of his arms and let the old man touch his hand. When the old man heard Ye Yan''s instructions, he became indignant. "This is not what we agreed. I want to touch her buns!" The old man yelled at Ye Yan. "We agreed that you could touch her. And you will but only her hand. You don''t specify where, so it''s up to us to decide." Ye Yan spoke very firmly to show that he will not change his mind. The old man was going toin again,but suddenly his eyes lit up as he had an idea. "If I can only touch her hand, she could..." "No!" Before the old man was done talking, Ye Yan interrupted him because he knew that nothing good woulde out of his mouth. The old man sighed and promised himself to always specify everything when he is going to make any deal in the future. As there is nothing he can do about it, the old man went to touch My Girl''s hand but, because Ye Yan told him that they didn''t specify how long it would take as well, he had to do it quickly. After being fooled by Ye Yan, the old man left the restaurant resigned. He wants to see My Girl again but next time, he will be careful while negotiating with Ye Yan. The old man is the best craftsman concerning fans, thus he knows Ye Yan will look for him again. He already decided to ask to grope My Girl''s buns next time. When thinking about the next time he will see My Girl, the old man showed a very perverted smile on his face. In the restaurant''s private room, My Girl was looking at his hand as if it is the most disgusting thing he has ever seen. He wants to cut off his hand and throw it away because he still can feel the wetness caused by the old man''s saliva. "Don''t forget my times." Before leaving the room, My Girl threw a death re at Ye Yan because he was molested because of him, but he didn''t forget to remember Ye Yan that he needs to get the items they agreed. Ye Yan paid and left the restaurant as well, going in the Auction House''s direction. But before he got on his bike, he called Hu Ling to ask him to look for information about the Valley of the Dragons. He probably can''t go there now but the more he knows about the ce, the better. He should have imagined that the Eight Immortals would be present in the game in a way. Many other games, stories, andic books had mentioned them, sometimes as the Eight Immortals and others, using other names. In the Marvel universe, the Eight Immortals appeared in one of the X-menic books, protecting China along with the Collective Man when a mutant named Xorn massacred a small vige. In the Immortal Iron Fistic book, one of the Seven Immortal Weapons, which are seven supreme king fu masters, called Fat Cobra came from Peng Lai Ind. And the Eight immortals are said to live on a group of five inds in the Bohai Sea, which includes Mount Peni. There are mentions of the Eight Immortals in some of Jackie Chan movies in the previous century. They had important roles in games, novels, graphic novels, and even their ownic book. Ye Yan suspects that the Valley of the Dragon is in one of the five inds of the legend, but he needs Hu Ling''s help to know for certain. If Spell Bound can''t find any information about the ce, he will look for it in the library. When Ye Yan looked at the list of items in the Auction House, he finally found Deer''s antlers. There were two units of the item and he purchased it by 10 coopers each, that was the buy-out price. He didn''t have time to waste waiting for the end for the auction of the item two hourster, and it was cheap, so he purchased it on the spot. Now he only needs the rare items that he will o go to the middle of the Yan Empire and those he can buy from the Alchemists'' Guild and restaurants. He got the smander and one deer''s antler from guild members that dropped the item. Ye Yan had deposited the money in the yer''s ount in the Bank before and they deposited the items in his bank ount. yers can deposit things in other yers'' ounts in Gaia but they will never have ess to it afterward. Deposits and transfers in the game work like in real life and the only difference being that the items and money from other yers stay in a separate ce for yers to organizeter. It is good because some can yers receive all kinds of items. They can''t mail others if you don''t know their game ID but it is possible in the bank if you exin who is the person whose ount you want to deposit the items. After depositing the deer''s antlers in his ount, Ye Yan finally could resume his quest. The quest is his priority now because it is linked to the Pce, where he can get the quest for acquiring a property for the guild. Spell Bound told him that the ce he needs to go is a level 10 area, thus getting to level 8 is a great help to him but if he waits too long, the advantage that he got for entering the Pce at the beginning of the game will be gone. After leaving the bank, Ye Yan got on his bike and rushed to the Teleportation Hall. There, he asked one of the attendants to lead him to Xian City''s teleportation array. Luckily, it only cost 70 silvers instead of the 1 gold coin he thought he would need. After passing through the array, Ye Yan got in Xian City''s Teleportation Hall, which was very simr to the ones in both City of Ji and Tientsin City, but the wall''s decoration is different. On a wall in the center of the Teleportation Hall, there is a map of the city. It was built simrly to the City of Ji. The city is like arge square divided into nine parts, where the City''s Hall is in the central square. Ye Yan looked at the map and found the ce he needs to go. The ce with the most pyramids is in the north of the Xian region. From what Spell Bound discovered about the ce, there are more than 40 pyramids in there but the one the needs to go is one of the smaller ones and is located nearer the city aspared to the others. When Ye Yan went to the Library thest time, the Book of Knowledge showed the location he needs to go to get the items. As a powerful divine artifact, it didn''t show every location where the items can be found but the best ce where Ye Yan could go at this stage of the game. As a low-level yer, Ye Yan can''t ess many ces in Gaia yet, and if he tries to enter an area where have monsters with levels far above his own, he would be killed for certain. After Ye Yan analyzed the map carefully, trying to keep everything in his mind, he left the Teleportation Hall and went in the pyramids'' direction. Because he is banned from entering the Adventurers'' Guild for three days, he can''t get any useful quests there to do while looking for Stardust and Witch''s powder or even getting a map of the region. He could purchase the city''s map in a shop but only a few ces sell it. And it could take hours for him to find it. The yers in the city got their map from the Adventurers'' Guild, so none of the yers'' Ye Yan asked knew where he could buy it, and they wouldn''t sell their maps to him either. He also didn''t have luck asking the NPCs, so he just gave up and follow the map he saw in the Teleportation Hall. Luckily, he has a good memory and sense of direction. After three hours riding his bicycle, he finally saw the pyramid where the items are located. The pyramid-shaped mound is a huge artificial earth hill with a mausoleum inside. There is a small opening on the ground about 1.5 meters (~5 feet) in front of the pyramid, leading to the mausoleum inside. Ye Yan started to walk down the stairs, but everything became too dark for him to see things around him after a few steps. However, Ye Yan was prepared. He purchased a firefly in the bottle to light his way in the mausoleum thest time he went to the Auction House. Now, with the firefly in the bottle in his left hand, Ye Yan started to explore the mausoleum. Chapter 71: The Mausoleum Chapter 71: The Mausoleum Ye Yan walked down the stairs, going deeper inside the mausoleum. After a few minutes, he reached the end of the stairs but the path continues into a long and narrow passage. Ye Yan keeps walking with difficulty in the dark corridor because the ground has many bumps and even with the light provided by the firefly in the bottle, he can''t see everything around him. The firefly in the bottle isn''t the best option as a light provider but it is one of the cheapest and safest ways to illuminate his path. If he used a torch, it would illuminate a bigger area but he would need a lighter, and a mausoleum is not the best ce to use fire because it could have mmable gases inside. Ye Yan can''t use magic, so cast light isn''t an option, andnterns are sold in few shops in limited quantities, so when he discovered about them, it was already toote because everyntern in the shop was sold out and he didn''t have the time to wait for it to restoke. The firefly provides just dim lighting and creates a light show that could almost blind the eyes with its shing lights. The mausoleum''s environment, plus the shing lights created a ghostly scenery, giving the impression that a ghost will pop up at any time. On his way out of the narrow corridor, Ye Yan killed a lot of rats that rushed at him from some opening in the passage''s walls. Every one of the rats was about the size of a cat or a dog. They looked very ugly and their furs were full of dust and mud. And the smell... it looks like the rats started to rotten while they still are alive. Ye Yan was holding the bottle with his left hand and shing the rats with his right. Sometimes he kicked the rats when they attack him in groups. Ye Yan''s kicks didn''t deal much damage but they could fend off some rats while he deals with the ones in front of him using his upgraded folding fan. Ye Yan had to keep his awareness in the max at all times in the mausoleum because many times he had to perceive the attack when the light was out. If the rats were normal animals, it wouldn''t be a problem but these monsters were level 10, two levels higher than Ye Yan and they not only have high defense but their attack power is high as well. . [Mausoleum Rat] (Normal) Description: This long-tailed rodent often is found in mausoleums all around the world. Sometimes you can see them eating the remains of corpses. Level 10 HP: 800 . Ye Yan is feeling very lucky inside because if he had gone to this mausoleum before upgrading his weapon, he would have a difficult time killing these rats. And if the first monsters he meets in the ce are this strong, the ones he will meetter will be even harder to kill. After shing his way through the rats, Ye Yan finally got out of the passage. He arrived in a wide area but he can''t see much of it because of the dim light. After observing the area for some time, Ye Yan noticed something moving not far from him. It looks like a beetle with a long neck and a green-blue metallic color. The giant beetle went in Ye Yan''s direction, attracted by the light from the firefly. When the beetle got near him, it stopped and start to sparkle like a teen vampire. When it happened, Ye Yan knew something bad was about to happen. That''s why he started to move around, looking for ces that could help him hide if needed. He didn''t move far because if he meets another beetle, it would only make things worse. Five seconds after the beetle started to sparkle, he opened his wings in a way that stood parallel to Ye Yan. The sparklesing from its wings condensed in a ball of blue light in the middle of them and a ray of dazzling blue light went in Ye Yan''s direction. Before the ray of light reached Ye Yan, he jumped to the right, dodging the magic attack. Luckily, the beetle takes a long time to cast magic or it would be too hard for him to dodge in the darkness without leaving the area where he is. Using the scroll that could identify monsters until level 20, Ye Yan discovered what kind of monster he was fighting. . [Agra Cadabra] (Elite) [1] Description: This ground beetle, also known as the elegant canopy beetle, can use magic to kill its prey. Level: 10 HP: 1,200 . Ye Yan has to evade the Agra Cadabra''s magic attacks in a small area. Thus, he stopped observing the beetle and decided to attack it in closebat. From what he noted so far, the magic rays of light can''t reach the area close to the beetle. If the beetle tries to do it, he would get hurt by his own attacks. After analyzing the situation, Ye Yan rushed to the Agra Cadabra and stood under its neck and head. He used his fan to sh against the monster''s neck because it looks to be its weak spot. As the beetle couldn''t use his magic, he tried to hit Ye Yan with his front legs or his long neck. Every time the monster tried to attack him, Ye Yan dodged it but keeping close to the monster. Every time Ye Yan dodges, he uses his fan to sh the boss while doing so. He never stopped attacking the monster, even when it isplete darkness. Ye Yan didn''t use any skill to fight the boss because he decided to use this fight to train himself in this kind ofbat. His father always taught him that he needs to use all his six senses in a fight. He needs to use his eyes to see his opponent, his ears to listen to his enemies'' breath and the environment, his nose to smell, his skin to feel the variations in pressure of the touches, and try to concentrate to feel the danger around him. And his mother taught him to use his mouth to talk dirty to confuse his opponents if necessary. She always said that the tongue is one of the most powerful weapons that exist. Sadly, she suffers a lot from it because her mother-inw love to speaks badly of her because she thought Ye Yan''s mother stole her son. Ye Yan concentrated on the fight, trying to predict Agra Cadradra''s next moves. This exercise is very good for him. It will not only help him in the game but in real life as well because hecks this kind of fighting experience. Every time they fought in the past was in light ces. Most of the time, he fought in open areas, but sometimes, he fought people in bars or other such ces. When it happened was because his friends dragged him to some brawl. Ye Yan continues to fight the Agra Cadabra until the monsters fell to the ground. When the monster died, Ye Yan didn''t loot his body but went looking at the area to see if there is another monster nearby. And it showed to be a good decision because there was another Agra Cadabra going in his direction. The monster didn''t fight Ye Yan before because the beetles never work together in fights. They always fight alone. That''s why the other Agra Cadabra was waiting for the other beetle to die for him to start attacking. Ye Yan became really happy with the appearance of a new fighting partner because now he can continue to train and gain fighting experience in dark ces. This fight kept the same pattern as the previous one, with Ye Yan dodging and attacking with his fan. He didn''t use his fan to defend because he needs his left hand as support when using the fan as a shield. Without it, the fan could bend and it would not only make the defense ineffective but it would damage his folding fan as well. After fighting three more Agra Cadabra in the dangeon, Ye Yan finally cleared the entire area and could loot their corpses. They dropped some of his body parts that could be used to upgrade weapons and equipmentter, and some magic sources that are small crystals with magic power inside. These magic sources can be used to enchant weapons, giving them additional magic damage. When Ye Yan saw the magic sources, he started to hope to find more such beetles inside the mausoleum. ... [1] Agra Cadabra is one of the over five hundred species of Agra beetles. This ground beetle has narrow heads and long, constricted necks. The tarsomeres, or the "feet" of the beetle, are wide and equipped with pads, allowing the beetle to grip leaves as it moves about and rests on nts. Adult beetles are nocturnal and attracted to lights, and have anti-predator secretions that are offensive to predators; they have been noted to repel bats. Chapter 72: The astronomer ghost Chapter 72: The astronomer ghost The fight against the Agra Cadabra in the dark before helped Ye Yan a lot. Every time he was practicing blind fighting before, he never felt a sense of crisis because he knew that he would never get hurt for real. But now, this kind of fighting experience made him really exceed his limits. Ye Yan''s father taught him how to train his eyes to see the details that usually escape us when looking at things. He trained Ye Yan to expand his field of vision and to defocus his vision for him to pick up the slightest movement very quickly and see colors more vividly when picking up details of what he is seeing[1]. So, when the light is on, Ye Yan focuses on his surroundings, trying to memorize the details to assist him in battle when everything went dark. However, most of the battle happened when it is dark. Luckily, he trained in this kind of battle a lot before, so even if he hadn''t true blind fight experience, he can hold his ground. When training, his father put coins over Ye Yan''s eyes and blindfold him, so he would need to use his other senses to perceive everything around him. When the eyes are open, people usually depend on it and don''t use their other senses to the max. When fighting in the dark, Ye Yan kept his ears and nose open as far as possible and ced the tip of his tongue on a specific point to entuate his senses. When the body is positioned in a precise way, it expands the body''s awareness and heightened the feeling of his body, permitting him to adjust the strength used more correctly. Doing all this will develop and expand the parts of the brain which deal with information gathering. This can heighten the senses and don''t will let people be taken by surprise, enabling them to not act by reflex but having a high reaction speed. After a lot of training and experience, this reactiones so naturally, that looks like the fighter is acting by reflex. This is like using a sixth sense to perceive danger, but it can only be active after training their five senses to the max. Ye Yan, after more than ten years of training with his father, had reached this so-called sixth sense, enabling him to fight the Agra Cadabras with rtive ease. In truth, he felt that he could perceive danger more easily while fighting them because he could feel the killing intent of the monster while fighting. As a child, Ye Yan wished one day to reach the legendary seventh sense, being capable to create miracles. This was his dream after reading stories about some legendary knights. The eighth sense is something that is beyond his imagination, so he didn''t even though about it as a child. He is only using bronze mixed with silver pieces of equipment, and the seventh sense is an ability that only those who wear gold pieces of equipment could have, except if you are one of the chosen ones. Now, the grow-up version of Ye Yan just thinks of the seventh sense as fiction. The sixth sense he reached is more than enough for him to exceed most fighters in battle. And using the monster in the mausoleum to train will sharp this sense even more with real battle experience. After Ye Yan stored thest magic source he got from the Agra Cadabras, a mist appeared in the middle of the chamber. It was silver in color and could be seen even in the dark. After a few moments, the mist took form and Ye Yan could see a human silhouette. Ye Yan knew that the ce was suited for ghosts, so when one appeared in front of him, he thought it was very normal and something that should be. The ghost looks like an ancient schr using formal attires representing his official position, a jade pendant tied to his waist, and a folding fan in his hands. The ghost is the urate representation of a schr in novels and books. "Finally I''m free! Now I can finally get my revenge!". The ghost said happily. After he opened his mouth, he didn''t look like any ghosts Ye Yan has ever seen before in movies. The ghost looked at Ye Yan thoughtfully. And after a few moments, he started to speak to him. "The magic in this ce locked my soul and didn''t allow me to get deep into this mausoleum. But now, I''m free and can finally kick the ass of that hypocritical ruler." "Sadly, it''s only in this chamber... I can still feel the magic further inside and it will not allow me to get near the inner chambers." The ghost spoke while walking from one side of the chamber to the other, holding his folding fan closed and touching his chin with it. "As you proved to be strong enough to kill these beats, you might have the ability to help me exact revenge on that tyrant ruler that demanded my death. I will reward you for your help, of course. What do you think? Will you help me?" Thinking about the reward, Ye Yan almost readily said yes but he thought a little and decided to understand the situation first. "Who are you? And why do you want to get revenge?" Ye Yan asked first. He doesn''t even know the ghost''s identity yet. "You can call me Ho. I was an astrologer in the Emperor Chung K''ang court but that tyrant ruler ordered his soldier to decapitate me! look at this!" The ghost said and held his head, raising it above his body for Ye Yan to see that he was indeed deacaptated[2]. "Do you want to know why, right? The answer is that I fail to predict a fucking eclipse of the sun." The ghost spoke so indignantly that he lose his elegant schr posture and started to use vulgar words. In ancient China, people believed that events in the sky reflected events on earth, and the Emperor, as the son of Heaven and the one that was given the right to rule by Heaven itself, should be capable to interpret the signals in the sky and predict the events of the sky and their rtions with happening in the human society. Aet appearing in the sky, for example, could mean something important and unexpected was about o happen on earth, like a major battle or the birth of someone of great importance to mankind. The ability to predict the events in the sky and interpret the Heaven designs shows the power of an emperor, so it is of vital importance that the ruler be capable to predict the movements of the sky urately. The astrologers, or astronomers because as elsewhere in the ancient world there was no distinction between both, were expected to watch the sky carefully and kept urate records of the movements of the stars,s, and any happens in the sky because everything in the sky represents the Heaven designs. The astrologers were also responsible for producing the calendar each year, which contained predictions of major events in the sky in order to affirm the emperor''s divine link to the heavens and ultimate power[3]. As a Royal astrologer, Ho was in a difficult position. If he failed to predict an event, the emperor''s power might appear diminished and political rivals could take it as an opportunity to rebel and install a new emperor. When dynasties changed, it was considered that Heaven intervened to give the responsibility to rule to a more worthy line. And when Ho failed to predict the sr eclipse, the Emperor punished him with decapitation. But he was only a normal man and didn''t have superpowers to predict things and he didn''t the knowledge necessary to calcte when an eclipse would ur. Ho has always done his work well. He has cataloged the sky, making notes every time an event happened in the sky, and drew everything he saw. But, because he failed to calcte one fucking eclipse, he lost his head, literally. Ho is not reconciled. If the Emperor has the power to interpreter the sky given to him by Heaven, why is it his fault that he was caught by surprise with this eclipse of the sun? Everything is the Emperor''s fault! So, Ho wants the Emperor to pay for his crimes against him and for fooling people. Even if Ho doesn''t find the Emperor''s ghost in the mausoleum for him to beat him up himself, he could at least tramp all over his body, kicking and stomping on it. Only in this way he can vent his anger and finally ascend to Heaven. .... [1]This is how you train your senses in some martial arts. [2] This event was described in ancient books and happened about 2159 BCE (Before Common Era) in China. Taken by BROWN, F. Crawford. The Eclipse in China. In: Popr Astronomy, vol. XXXIX, n. 10, 1931. (SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System) [3] SUN, Xiaochun. Connecting Heaven and Man: The role of astronomy in ancient Chinese society and culture. In: International Astronomical Union Symposium, n. 260, 2009. (SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System) Chapter 73: This isnt a safe place Chapter 73: This isn''t a safe ce Hearing the ghost''s story, Ye Yan started to pity him. Living at that time should have been really hard formon people and the pressure put on astronomers was very heavy. There are no Chinese records of sr eclipses from 2159 to 776 BCE. Maybe no one wanted to be a royal astrologer anymore because they were afraid of being killed after failing to predict an eclipse. Some believe that it happened because of the burning of books by the emperor who unified China, while others think it was not the case, but who knows the truth? No matter what is the truth, it doesn''t change the fact that the astrologer Ho was decapitated and is now a ghost yearning for revenge. The astrologer Ho failed just one time and got this kind of punishment [1]. Maybe ancient people had never heard of the phrase ''to make mistakes is human'' andmitted inhuman acts against people that make them. But no matter what, Ye Yan doesn''t like this kind of tyrant that treats human lives as tools that he can dispose of as he wishes. Ye Yan still has a hard time trying to understand how, at the beginning of the 21 century, many people went to protest against democracy and wants to make the president into the Emperor (or King) of a nation[2]. After listening to the astrologer Ho, Ye Yan decided to help him and epted his quest. Ye Yan needs to clear their way through the mausoleum until no magical power remains for the ghost to be able to materialize. After epting the quest from the ghost, Ye Yan left the chamber by the right passage, entering another corridor. The initial chamber has four gates, one in each direction. The first, Ye yan used to enter the chamber and the other threes lead to unknown locations. Ye Yan chose a random gate to enter, trying to find the monster which drops the witch''s powder. The ghost couldn''t help Ye Yan saying which passage leads to the inner chamber where the emperor''s coffin is located because he doesn''t know. His soul has been locked in the entrance of the mausoleum by magic and he couldn''t walk freely and explore the ce. Now, Ho can only follow Ye Yan''s path after it is clear of any magic source. The ghost is feeling a little down because he is too useless. He tried to kick a little stone on the ground but not even this he could achieve. The poor ghost got depressed and would have hung his head to the side if he did not think it would drop down as he does so. He could only wait in the chamber, drawing imaginary circles on the ground with his fingers until he feels the passage is clear and he can walk inside. Ye Yan walked in the passage, unaware of the ghost''s feelings. He killed a few more rats on his way through the passage and stumbled into two traps that luckily didn''t kill him. Maybe all the training has sharpened his senses, enabling him to use his sixth sense to perceive the danger or he was just lucky to notice something strange on the ground, but when he was going to take a step into the trap on the ground, the stepped back. He looked at the ground more carefully and noted that the part of the ground in front of him is different from the rest. Ye Yan crouched and passed his hand on the area in front of him. He felt that the floor in this area is smoother than the rest and was done with more care and attention. Ye Yan can''t see well with the dim light of the firefly, so he is trying to use each of his senses to the max to increase his survivability. He is using his eyes to see the details of the area, his ear to hear any sound that can indicate an enemy or a moving trap, the touch to feel the ground and the walls for any indentation or different texture, and his nose to smell any different scent in the air. In the case of the rats, he can feel their presence long before they appeared before him because their stench and rotten smell can be felt at a long distance. Ye Yan didn''t mind the rats even with the stench. He could care less if snakes, scorpions, spiders, and beetles appear before him. However, he is hoping from the deepest of his soul that there is no cockroach in the mausoleum. Ye Yan looked at the ground and decided to test it, thus he put some strength in his hand as he pressed the ground with it. Soon, the ground began to fall apart as if it had been made of sugar and many wooden stakes could be seen in front of him from the left to the right wall, leaving no room for Ye Yan could walk over. Luckily, the area is just about one meter long and Ye Yan can jump over it and continue on his way in the corridor. he just hopes that the trap ends there and when he touches the ground again, this is hard and normal ground and not another trap. After jumping over and getting in the other side, Ye Yan breath a sigh of relief. However, it didn''t take too long for him have to jump again because he had touched a thin tripwire as soon as he put his other feet stepped on the ground. The tripwire activated the crossbows hidden in the walls and it fires many bolts in Ye Yan''s direction. Ye Yan jumped again and when he reached the ground, he readied himself to evade another trap but this time he was in a safe ce. After the second jump, Ye Yan had arrived at the entrance of another chamber. He looked around in the dim light, trying to utilize every moment that the light was on to see as many details of the ce as possible. The light alternated between on and off every two to three seconds and Ye Yan has to take advantage of the few moments when the light is on. When the ce lighted after three seconds of total darkness, a big head appeared in front of him all of a sudden, like in horror movies scenes made to scare people. However, Ye Yan was prepared because he had heard a very light sound of something approaching him. It was another Agra Cadabra that was attracted by the light and maybe to the smell of fresh meat. Ye Ya stepped to the side, evading the big head, and used his folding fan to sh against it. He stood under the monster''s neck to impossibilities the monster to attack using magic, and make it hard for the monster to reach him. The battle was like the previous ones but this time he got to kill it faster than before. It happened not only because he stopped using the Agra Cadabra as a training partner but because he became proficient in this kind of battle and the way the monster attacks. Ye Yan went around the chamber killing the beetles he found. Like in the previous chamber, there were only five Agra Cadabras in it. When he killed thest one of the beetles, a golden light appeared in the middle of the room. After looking attentively at it, Ye Yan noticed that it wasn''t a treasure chest that pops out after he defeated the monsters as he hoped, but it was another type of monster that was sleeping in the middle of the room. After Ye Yan killed the five Agra Cadabra, the sleeping monster woke up and his wings started to shine a golden light. Ye Yan used the scroll to identify the monster and soon after dark line appeared on his face. He bes speechless with the scientists'' creativity in naming animals'' specimens. . [Colon Rectum] (Chieftan) [3] Description: A poor, rounded fungus beetle with a golden color resembling a gold ore and that have done nothing to deserve such a name. Level 10 HP: 2,000 . The golden beetle didn''t move. It just raised its wings and many balls of golden light appeared in front of them. After only two seconds, the golden balls of light went in Ye Yan''s direction, trying to hit him. Ye Yan dodged the golden balls but when he was thinking about closing the distance between him and the golden beetle, the boss was already casting another round of light balls. ..... [1] Some critics believe that the astronomers Hsi and Ho did not simply fail to predict the eclipse but they were rebels and didn''t observe the sky in a kind of conspiracy against the Emperor. [2] It is this author that has a hard time trying to understand what passed by some people''s minds when they had done that. [3] This beetle with an unttering name can be found worldwide and is one of the examples of how scientists can be a little too much creatives sometimes. Chapter 74: Colon Rectum Chapter 74: Colon Rectum Ye Yan had to dodge one round of light balls after another. He almost had no time to breathe. He kept dodging the light balls, running from one side to the other of the chamber. A least, the light balls provide enough light for him to see the entire room, thus he has more space to use in the battle. The chamber is a wide square room whose walls are decorated with murals describing the emperor''s life. On a wall, there are ancient Chinese aristocrats on horseback, hunting deer. On the other, show the emperor on his throne with his empress by his side and many officials bowing to him. And the other walls look to have soldiers painted on it The chamber has a deteriorated marble floor and four columns inside to support the ceiling. In the past, the columns should have vibrant red colors, but now, the color has faded over time, losing its magnificence. It''s a shame that Ye Yan couldn''t appreciate the beauty of the ce, but he was too busy dodging the light ball and looking for a way to approach the boss without being hit by its magic attacks, to have time to look at it. After one minute just evading the light balls, Ye Yan finally got close to the boss. He stood in front of it, opened his folding fan, and shed the boss, just to discover that its carapace was so hard that he had done almost no damage to it. Seeing that shing attacks were almost ineffective, Ye Yan closed his fan and started to hit the boss like if he was using a club. Ye Yan used the gold guards of his fan to smash the golden beetle''s head with it. It didn''t deal much damage but was much better than using shing attacks. -60... -30... -30... -60... The only drawback is that using his fan closed, his attack speed is slower than using the open fan, taking almost one second more in each attack. But, as he is also using his left hand to punch the boss, he can deal more damage than if he was only using his open fan, even if the attack power of his upgraded glove is half of the fan. While Ye Yan is attacking the boss, it isn''t idle. The Colon Rectum is moving its wings, producing a loud buzzing sound and a strong wind, trying to make Ye Yan lose his bnce. Because of the boss attack, Ye Yan is having a hard time hitting the boss because of the wind force. Not only it is difficult for him to keep the stand in front of the boss, but his attack speed also decreased. Ye Yan has to keep close to the boss to attack and avoided the light balls while trying to not be so close, because sometimes, the boss tries to use his own weight to press Ye Yan on the floor. The boss looks heavy and slower but in truth, it is very fast and can take Ye Yan by surprise at any time if he is not careful enough. Ye Yan tried to attack the golden beetle legs because they look frailpared with the rest of its body. He opened his fan and tried to sh it, so the beetle could have a hard time movingter, but it was ineffective because the fur on the boss legs is hard like steel. He closed his fan and tried to smash the boss legs after seeing it can''t be shed, but it also proved ineffective because the countless steel-hard fur also cushions the attacks, not allowing the impact of the attack to damage its leg. As there is no other way, Ye Yan kept in a position in front of the boss and almost under its head. The problem with this position is that the boss''s head seen from below is ugly and disgusting. While fighting, Ye Yan could see a secretioning out of the mouth of the beetle that looked like saliva and stinks a lot. This battle is hurting all his senses. Even his sense of touch is suffering in this fight because every time he bumps into the boss''s legs, he feels a strange sensation as if many ants were crawling over the part of his skin that touched the boss. [It''s so easy in the books! Why reality is so different from fiction?] Ye Yan thought to himself. Every battle against monsters in novels shows how heroic the main leads are while defeating the most grotesque creatures in the world. It never mentions that they had to stand so many disgusting and stink situations. Probably, all the heroes have a strong stomach to withstand so much without even wanting to throw up. Or the monsters from novels are strong but cute in appearance. Maybe not cute because it would make people pity them. it should be more like cows, not cute but also not ugly. Every novel monster definitely should be like hell cows, evil creatures that do not disgust and you will not feel too bad about killing them. Ye Yan tried to disable his sense of smell and continue to fight the golden beetle, giving his all in the fight. He stopped testing the boss and started to use his strong skills to deal damage to the boss. Ye Yan kept fighting using his fan as a club while using his left hand to punch the boss, sometimes inflicting stun on it after using the skill [Dizzy Punch]. The funny thing is that, as the folding fan is not very long, Ye Yan looks like his mother when hit him with her slipper, or as if he was trying to kill a giant cockroach with a slipper. Maybe it should change to a beetle because Ye Yan would never for the life of him, use such a short-range weapon to kill a cockroach. When the Colon Rectum''s health points reached 10% of the total, it started to spit its poisoned saliva in Ye Yan''s direction, creating an even more disgusting scene. At this time, Ye Yan started to speed things up. He activated [Lucky Hit] and started to use [Bash] as much as possible. After a few more seconds, the Colon Rectum''s body fell to the ground with a thud. As the golden beetle didn''t have an increase in defense as happening with the monsters inside dungeons, he could kill it alone, even it being level 10 and he, level 8. The only downside of killing the boss is that now there are no light balls to illuminate the room, so he can''t see the walls clearly now. When he was fighting the boss, he saw some interesting pictures on the wall. If he is not mistaken, the walls show that there is an egg in the mausoleum and it looks very precious. He will have to look more carefully to find a clue about its location. Ye Yan crouched next to the boss''s body and started to get the intact items left by the boss. Items that show as trash can''t be used as material for upgrading or are wanting by NPCs, so yers never try to store them in their bags. Some yers withpulsive hoarding could do it but as the names say, it is trash. And contrary to what happens in real life, they can''t be recycled or reused. The items Ye Yan got from the Colon Rectum were his legs, antennae, pieces of golden carapace, an acid nd, and a big crystal of magic source. After gathering everything, Ye Yan went in the direction of the wall he remembers having the information about an egg. He stood in front of the wall and raised the bottle with the firefly to better light the mural with the painting of the egg and soldiers near it. The mural shows a story about soldiers defeating a powerful monster that was oppressing a ck dragon and in thanks for being rescued, it gave the soldiers a green egg. Ye Yan followed the mural to know the rest of the story. In another part of the mural, the leader of the soldiers appears giving the egg to the emperor in a very respectful and reverent posture, while the other soldiers are bowing to him. He touched the green egg painted on the wall and unexpectedly it has a different texture from the rest of the mural. He looked more carefully and saw that the egg was a green stone stuck in the wall. Ye Yan used some strength and the greenstone moved, enabling him to remove it from the wall. Ye Yan looked at the stone, turning it to see if there is any kind of mark on a symbol on it, but as he found nothing special, he stored it in his bag. Maybe the greenstone can be usefulter in the dungeon, so he intends to take it out in another chamber to see if it has a reaction. If not, he can at least use it to upgrade some equipmentter. As there is nothing more for him to do in this room, Ye Yan entered in the only other passage in the chamber except by the one he got there. But this time, he will move with even more caution than thest time because he knows that it should have more booby traps waiting for him there. Chapter 75: Goatdalf, the gray Chapter 75: Goatdalf, the gray Ye Yan walked carefully through the corridor. The winking light just illuminates the area around him and he can''t see far in the passage, so he has to keep high awareness or he would die without knowing what happened. At times like this that Ye Yan thought the thief is a very good ss indeed. At least, they would be good tomb robbers but inpensation, they have lower survivability and could hardly take down one of the elite monsters in the mausoleum alone, even at level 10. Ye Yan had a hard time getting to the next chamber. On his way there, he had stepped on another tripwire after being attacked by rats and was almost hit by hanging iron balls full of 20cm (~8 inches) long nails. Luckily, his reaction speed is high and he dodged on time or he would be dead for certain. But, there is nothing he can do if he wants to enter a tomb in the game. The ancient emperors and other officials and generals filled their tombs with traps to stop tomb robbers from disturbing their eternal rest[1]. Ye Yan has survived until normal thanks to his training of awareness and with luck, he will continue like that until he got the two items he needs. When Ye Yan got to the entrance of another chamber, he stopped, stored the firefly in his space bag, and looked at it carefully. This room is different from the others in the mausoleum. It is a square room with walls decorated with murals and four columns to support the cer like the previous one. However, this room has many magic torches attach to the walls that provided light to the entire room. Every torch has a fluorescent blue me that was surely created by magic because no normal fire can have this color. Ye Yan observed the entire room but only found one monster inside. In the center of the room, there is a furry animal lying on the ground with two horns slightly twisted on its head. This furry animal probably can use magic like most of the monsters in the mausoleum, so Ye Yan has to be more careful when approaching it. When he took his first step into the room, the goat woke up and got up, looking at Ye Yan with naked hostility. The goat has medium-length gray fur, two slight thorn horns, and a long gray-brown goatee. The goat is very different from others of its species in real life because it not only is four times the size of a normal goat, but it also has an impressive aura that you could almost see condensing around it. The goat stomped his right front hoof on the ground and spoke with his slow and gravelly voice. "You shall not pass!" The goat indicated by this action that he would not let Ye Yan go further into the mausoleum. Ye Yan used his identify scroll to know some rough information about the monster. . [Goatdalf, The Gray] (Chieftan) Description: The Goatdalfs are wizards capable of using powerful spells. The color represents the power that the monster holds, with the gray color being one of the weaker among them. Level 10 HP: 2,000 . Ye Yan barely looked at the scroll when Goatdalf, the gray, started to attack. The chieftain''s horns shone a blue light and a blue ball of light appeared between its horns. Soon after, the blue ball of light went in Ye Yan''s direction. Ye Yan dodged the light ball but, when he thought he had escaped, the ball of light started to expand, bing 1 meter wide (~3.3 feet). Ye Yan had no time to think, he just reacted, jumping away from the big blue ball of light. In the region where the ball of light touched the ground, everything turned dark. The light ball was so hot that it even left a burning mark on the ground. After this, Ye Yan understood that the goat is not ying around. It wants to make a barbecue of him and maybe eatter. Goats are herbivorous animals but this is not a normal goat and they do have a reputation of eating anything before them. After listening to Hello Kitty describing the gory scene of how the Goblin Shark ate her friends in a dungeon run, Ye Yan started to be suspicious of any monsters in the game that can bite. After seeing that the spell deal no damage to Ye Yan, the goat boss didn''t cast another spell but rushed in Ye Yan''s direction. However, Goatdalf didn''t run like other goats. The boss ran on the air like one of Santa''s reindeer. You could see the goat''s legs moving while it rushes at Ye Yan but its hoofs were touching nothing but air. The goat looked like a manifestation in the flesh and bones of the Patronus, in the way it is running in the air. When Ye Yan thought the goat woulde directly at him, it changed direction and started to run around him, doing a perfect circle. Ye Yan saw the strange actions of the goat and decided to go to another area of the room to leave the circle made by the goat''s movements. This decision proved to be wise, as when he just left the circle, a blue light shone in the area, indicating the activation of an array. After the blue light faded, only burning marks could be seen on the ground. The pieces of marble floor were destroyed and even part of the reddish, sand soil became ss[2]. When Ye Yan noticed the destruction made by the goat''s magic array, he felt cold sweat running down his back. If he hadn''t left the circle on time, not even his bones would have left. Even if Ye Yan use [Endure] and [Iron Skin], plus his passive skills, he could stay alive after being hit by it. He had noticed that the magic light was hot before but he never thought it would be so hot. If the gray goat can use spells like that, Ye Yan can''t even imagine what its white version can do. What Ye Yan needs to do now is get closer to Goatdalf because mages usually aren''t very good at closebat. The problem is that Goatdalf is not like normal mages, it not just can run fast but also looks physically strong. Ye Yan calmed down and started to think. He passed through many things to get there, he can''t let an old goat get in his way. Clear this mausoleum is very important to him because he needs the items only found here to create the Wonder potion, which can open a shortcut in the process to get a property. Not only that, but he got a unique quest from the ghost that can bring him good benefits. And if he dies, he will fail the quest given by the ghost, which will cause the ghost to not trust Ye Yan anymore, making him unable to get the quest again. And the next person that defeats the Agra Cadabras will get the quest instead. Ye Yan cleared his mind of any extra thoughts and concentrated on the fight. He threw his fan at the goat, taking it by surprise, and rushed at him. After he got halfway to the goat, he spun around himself, pulling his fan and throwing it again with the help of his move. When he threw his fan again, he rushed to the boss, punching him using his skill [Dizzy Punch] that luckily, stunned the boss. The stun didn''t take more than two seconds, but it was enough for him to stabilize himself, locking the boss in ce. Now that he got next to the boss, he can''t let it open a distance from him. Thus, he started attacking the boss and use a type of footwork that can help him move around the boss faster. And every time the boss wants to put a distance between them, Ye Yan intercepts him and doesn''t let him escape. Not only that, he threw his folding fan from a position under the boss and took it back from above, wrapping the boss with the thin wire to keep it in ce. The downside of using this method is that he will have a hard time using his fan to attack, but the most important thing now is not to let the boss get away from him. As the boss can''t use arrays or his spells on Ye Yan, he started to use melee attacks. He raised his front legs and tried to hit Ye Yan using the skill [Stomp]. When the boss attacked him, Ye Yan couldn''t dodge or he would have to drop his fan, so he used it as a shield to defend. Luckily, the boss''s physical attacks have low power and Ye Yan could defend against it easily, using his left hand to support the fan. After using this strategy, the battle that looked like that would be very hard, turned easy instead. ..... [1] Booby traps can be found in some Chinese tombs but an example of a very dangerous tomb with borate traps was built by Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor to unify China. Some believe that it is the most dangerous tomb in the world. Up until now, his mausoleum has not been excavated by archeologists because they fear unforeseen traps. From what was registered in ancient books, the first emperor''s tomb has liquid mercurykes and rivers inside, and archeologists indeed found that the soils near the tomb have abnormal amounts of mercury, which increase as you approach his grave. [2] To make sand melt, you need to heat it to roughly 1700C (3090F). Chapter 76: Ritual of the Black Goat Chapter 76: Ritual of the ck Goat The fight against Goatdalf, the grey, has been very easy for Ye Yan until the boss entered the enraged state. When the boss entered in a berserk state, his eyes became red like blood, his fur got darker, red mes started appearing on his hoofs, and a blue magic circle appeared on his forehead. After its transformation, Ye Yan started to feel an evil aura emanating from the boss. At the moment the boss became enraged, Ye Yan took his fan back because he could feel that its wire wouldn''t stand the boss''s strength, and took a few steps away from the boss. The mes in the boss hoofs were so hot that Ye Yan couldn''t stand the high temperature and had to abandon his advantage and think of a different way to fight the boss. After the boss''s transformation ended, it stood in only his hind legs and gave a thunderous ''maa'' that could be heard from a long distance. The goat looked impressive after his change but the only thing in Ye Yan''s mind is an urge to cross himself because the Goatdalf had turned into Baphomet in front of him[1]. Ye Yan almost guessed right about what happened. For him, Goatdalf didn''t be enraged but must have done the Ritual of the ck Goat. The truth is that when the boss''s health points reached 10%, he sacrificed himself in the Tribute to Shub-Niggurath Ritual, losing his soul and turning into a ck goat. however, as he lost his soul, he became a puppet of the deity[2]. Now, the boss isn''t as smart as before and gained physical attack power. If Ye Yan tries to fight the boss in the same way as before, he will die for sure because the boss attacks are too powerful for someone to fight it without the support of a healer. In a fight one to one against the boss, Ye Yan could dodge the boss or defend to lose fewer heath points as possible, but after he entered the berserk state, the boss gained a summon skill that enables him to summon up to 3 Dark Youngs of the woods. The Dark Youngs are pitch-ck tree-like creatures, with the main body being a trunk with big puckered maws dripping green goo in the middle-front, and ropy root-like tentacles instead of branches and leaves. They are around 8 feet tall (2.5 meters), have a pair of stumpy, short hoofed legs, and smells like an open grave. The maximum number of Dark Youngs the skill can summon is one thousand and they usually have between twelve to twenty feet tall (3.6 to 6 meters), but it depends on who is realizing the summoning ritual. Gandalf, the gray that now is ck, is just a level 10 monster, thus he can only summon three such monsters to help himself in battle. However, for someone like Ye Yan that is fighting alone in the ce, it is enough to give him a huge headache. Luckily, they are weak to shing attacks and are considered evil creatures, so Ye Yan gained bonus damage from the monster''s weakness and the passive skills of his upgraded fan. . [Dark Young] (Summon - Normal) Description:The Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath is an evil creature with deadly, ropy tentacles that can only appear on the surface of Gaia when summoned by the Tribute to Shub-Niggurath Ritual. Although ugly, this creature can be seen as adorable by a certain skeletal being. Level 10 HP: 500 . With the addition of tree monsters, the pressure on Ye Yan increased and the fight became harder than he could expect. Now, Ye Yan has to dodge four monsters at the same time while attacking them. At least the Dark Youngs are slow or else it would be almost impossible for him to kill the boss. Ye Yan decided to kill the summons first because they have lower HPpared with the metalhead version of Goatdalf. The tree Dark Youngs walk very close together in Ye Yan''s direction, so when he attacks them, he tries to fight against the tree simultaneously and make use of them as shields from Goatdalf''s new orange-red fireballs. As the Dark Youngs have a weakness to fire, the boss attacks inflicted huge amounts of damage on them. The problem is in how to use the boss to damage them because he is always changing his spells and position in the room. Ye Yan started to hit the Dark Youngs together, using his area skill. As he only has the area skill [Clive], he transformed normal attacks into area attacks using fighting technics that prolong the movements with the help of specialized footwork. After a few seconds fighting the Dark Youngs, Ye Yan finally heard the system notification that he was waiting for a long time. System: Congrattions, your skill [Dizzy Punch] have increased in proficiency level, turning from Novice to Intermediate. Your skill gained a 30% increase in damage. Ye Yan almost yelled hallelujah out loud from happiness. Dizzy Punch is the skill that Ye Yan uses the most, that''s why it increased in level first. However, the other skills are close to leveling as well, mainly [Provoke] and [Lucky Hit]. This increase in the damage he got is not much but can help him a lot. mainly in a situation like this, in which he is fighting against multiple enemies at the same time and every increase in damage can take a little of the pressure off him. Ye Yan is fighting the Dark Young in a triangr formation, where he is positioned in the middle of the triangle''s base, in a way in which he can hit the three of them at the same time while he is not surrounded by enemies from all sides. Ye Yan is fighting, using the skill [Dizzy Punch] every time it just is off cooldown to stun one of the three Dark youngs and help himself dodge the tentacles'' attacks. As Ye Yan is not a fan of tentacle''s y, he is trying to kill the beasts as soon as possible for him to be able to fight the boss. He had already lost a lot of time in this room. After a few minutes of dodging and slicing tentacles, the tree of them fell to the ground like an old and rotten tree. However, Ye Yan doesn''t have time to rest because now, his makeshift shield died and the boss fireballs went directly at him. Ye Yan rushed to the boss, moving in ''Z'' to evade the boss''s spells, and used [Provoke] as soon as he got near the boss. Now the boss is slower than when he was in his gray form, so Ye Yan will not need to use the wire of his fan to wrap the boss and can use both hands and legs to fight. Before he looked like someone holding a goat by a leash with his right hand while punching it with his left. But now, he looked like to be effectively fighting an evil monster with everything he has. Ye Yan is taking rounds attacking the boss because of his high temperature. Each time he approaches the boss, he punches, shes, and kicks to deal damage on the boss while using it to put a distance between them. He was fighting the ck goat in this way until he took thest drop of the boss''s health points. After the boss died, Ye Yan breathed a sigh of relief and fell to the ground in a sitting position. He is too tired to do anything now. Even the loot can wait for him to recover a little. After a few moments, the astronomer ghost appeared in the room, smiling from ear to ear and pumping his fist in the air. The ghost was behaving as if he already have exact revenge. "Good! Good! Very Good! I feel that I am just one step from getting my revenge. I can feel that tyrant''s presence from here. He must be in the next room. However, I can feel that he isn''t alone. There is a huge magic power in the next room, so take care and fuck them good!" The ghost was so happy that he started to use vulgar words again in the end. After the was done speaking, the ghost gave a smile so evil that he look more like the viin than the victim. ... [1] Baphomet was a pagan invention or gnostic idol or deity that the Temrs were used of worshipping, which waster embraced by various ult and mystical writers. The first known mention of Baphomet was in a letter written in 1098, describing the Siege of Antioch during the First Crusade. [2]Shub-Niggurath is a fictional deity created by H. P. Lovecraft. She is often associated with the phrase "The ck Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young", and is also referred to as Lord of the Wood. Chapter 77: The last boss Chapter 77: Thest boss After hearing the ghost say that the boss is in the next room, Ye Yan looked at the imposing bronze double door decorated with pictures of the four beasts, the dragon, the phoenix, the turtle, and the tiger, that leads to the next chamber. Beyond that door, probably is thest boss of the dungeon and the ghost emperor, and with luck, a chest full of treasures. But, before going to the next room, Ye Yan has to get his loot. He looked at Goatdalf''s body and went in its direction. While walking, he threw nces to where the Dark Youngs'' bodies were before. As summoned monsters, their bodies disappeared upon death, not leaving one single item behind. Ye Yan sighed, shook his head in a tentative to shoo away the greedy thoughts, and kept walking. From Goatdalf''s body, Ye Yan could get his horns, four Magic Source Crystals and one fire source that was among the boss''s fur, and one summoning scroll that Ye Yan can''t even imagine from where it came from in which was beside the boss''s body. Ye Yan looked around the room and saw nothing that he could store in his bag. The only thing he misses doing is examine the murals. He looked at the mural but found nothing unusual, only the images of the lustful emperor and more than 40 women around him who should be his concubines, and images of the emperor in his throne with people bowing to him. Ye Yan shook his head at seeing the pictures of so many women around the emperor. "That''s why there are so many dramas about the Pce''s conspiracy. There is no way so many women could stand each other." Ye Yan looked at the emperor on the mural and sighed with pity. "They did not just have to share a man but it still had to be an ugly one. Rich people always have sess with women..." After examining the murals and finding nothing, Ye Yan went to the double doors. They are almost 3 meters (~9.85 feet) tall and look very heavy. Ye Yan pushed the doors but they didn''t move. He tried again but using more strength this time and they moved a little. Luckily, Ye Yan''s ss has high strength, or else, he wouldn''t be able to open the doors. If an archer, or other low-strength ss, enters the dungeons alone, killing all enemies until they got here, they will still be stuck in this room without a way to pass through. That''s why ces like this are indicated for parties and not for single yers. As happened with the need for strength in this part of the dungeon, other ces could have areas where only could be essed using arrows or magic. After almost a minute of pushing the double doors, They finally opened enough for him to pass through them. The chamber inside is around four times the size of the others in the mausoleum. It is heavily decorated with murals on the walls and old banners whose paintings faded with time. There are many torches with magic blue fire in the entire extension of the walls. There is a marble floor just after the doors but it ends after about two meters (~6.5 feet), where you can see the beginning of a river made of liquid mercury. There are many small bronze mountains amid the mercury rivers There is a straight line narrow passage to the center of the chamber where a copper coffin [1] is located in the middle of a ceremonial array made of bronze vessels and other implements. Looking at the chamber cer, Ye Yan could see the representation of the night sky with the mains constetions of ancient china. The constetions of the four beats could be seen clearly in this version of the night sky. Ye Yan entered the chamber but soon after, he jumped back. Just as his body left the chamber, many bolts crossed the ce he was beforeing from both sides. Luckily, it wasn''t from the front or he would be dead. Seeing this scene, Ye Yan felt cold down his spine. After suffering so much from the booby traps in the mausoleum, he gained an instinctive feeling about traps. He took a deep breath and tried again, but this time, when he jumped back, nothing happened. Ye Yan walked inside the chamber, looking at the other side of the chamber, trying to see the far side of it. Suddenly, the ghost of a potbellied man with luxurious clothes appeared above the coffin, sitting in a leisure manner. And not far from him, there is the biggest spider he has ever seen in his life. The spider is big but what made it look so big is the hat-looking thing in its superior part. Ye Yan looked at the scroll to identify the monster. . [Eriovixia gryffindori] (Lord) Description: Also known as Sorting Hat Spider, it came from the mountainous Western Ghats region of the south-western of Maurya Empire in search of new magic sources. This brown spider has the shape of a hat with a curved hat-like tip, and what looks likes the form of a face in the middle, with eyes and mouth. Level 10 HP: 4.000 . When Ye Yan saw the monster''s description, there was only one thought on his head, "I''m fucked!" For Ye Yan now, fighting a chieftan monster is already very hard. He does not have confidence in defeat this boss but, no matter if he can kill it or not in the end, he will give it his all. When Ye Yan was getting ready to fight the boss, he heard a system notification. System: You have been affected by the curse [Mercury Poisoning]. . [Mercury Poisoning] (Curse - Level 1) Description: You inhaled mercury vapor and your body started to suffer from it. Effect: You will suffer a decrease in your five senses by 5% for every level of the curse. The poisoning will build as long you stay in the mercury zone, increasing the level of the curse every two minutes. Duration: The effects will gradually disappear after leaving the mercury zone. Note: When the curse reaches level 10, you will die. . "I''m double fucked now!" After seeing the curse, Ye Yan almost when insane, thinking about his bad luck. Not only he will have to defeat a lord-level boss, but he also has to do it in less than 20 minutes, or else, he will die without the boss even hitting him. Ye Yan took a deep breath to calm down and went to the coffin area. He decided to use the ce for him to stay there while throwing his fan at the monsters. The only thing he has to do is forget the ghost of the potbellied emperor cursing and trying to hit him without sess[2]. Ye Yan doesn''t have time to waste with the ghost''s pitiful attempts to hit him. After he stood in position, Ye Yan threw his fan to sh the boss. When he saw that it could cut the boss, Ye Yan gave a sigh of relief. He was afraid of shing attacks to be ineffective. If it was the case, he would have a very hard time trying to hit the boss. However, Ye Yan''s relief didn''t take long because he discovered that he wouldn''t be able to stay at the same ce for long. The boss threw a magic web in Ye Yan''s direction, which would make him unable to move in case he gets stuck in it. Ye Yan could only jump on one of the small bronze mountains to evade the magic web. The bronze mountains were firm and he could walk on them without the risk of fall in the mercuryke. The drawback is that while he stays on the small isles, the mercury poisoning curse builds twice faster, leaving him in a difficult situation. As he can''t stay next to the coffin for long, he can only speed things up. Ye Yan observed the magic web as noticed that it didn''t disappear after touching the ground, which means that if to went there again, he will still be trapped by it. Ye Yan continued to fight, throwing his fan at the boss again but looking at the coffin''s area from time to time to see if the web would disappear while counting the time. After 10 seconds, it finally disappeared. Seeing this, Ye Yan gave felt that he have a chance to win, even if it is small. If the web wasn''t gone, he wouldn''t be able to fight the boss because he wouldn''t have a ce to stay, and he couldn''t be very far because of the range of the weapon. When Ye Yan started to get a little hope about killing the boss, he saw the hat shine and many light blue balls appeared around it and soon, all of them went in Ye Yan''s direction. ........ [1] Some people believe that the coffin of the first emperor of unified China was made of copper. I will use copper coffins in ancient Chinese tombs of emperors from before and after China to be unified. [2] He was only the emperor of a region, not of the entire China. Chapter 78: Desperate times call for desperate measures Chapter 78: Desperate times call for desperate measures The boss threw many magic blue light balls in Ye Yan''s direction, and with no space for him to dodge on the small isle, he had to jump to another one not far from him.Luckily, Ye Yan can jump around 3 meters away, or else, he would be hit by the magic balls or fall in the mercury river[1]. After Ye Yan stepped on the other isle, another round of light balls went in his direction, making him jumping have to jump again. After the boss started attacking, Ye Yan did not have time to throw his folding fan at the spider. He became a little frustrated because he is in a rush against time. In a few seconds, he will lose another 5% of his senses capabilities and he has dealt almost no damage to the boss. Ye Yan focused on the battle and tried to keep away any distracting thoughts that could hinder him in using his abilities to the max. While jumping from one small isle to the other, Ye Yan kept observing the boss and the area around him. There are eight small isles around the boss and some not far from them that Ye Yan can use while fighting. He decided to use the small isle in the battle, jumping from one to the other clockwise, changing the pattern and using the other isles from time to time or the boss can just predict where he will go next and use a web there, just waiting for him to be trapped. The problem is that the boss has eyes on his back. The sorting hat spider has a big hat that hidden its vision, but the hat''s eyes enable it to see everything around. Looking at the hat, Ye Yan could see that different from what he thought, the hat looks like a separate entity, which keeps showing a smirk on what looks like to be its face and keeps looking at Ye Yan with contempt. The boss can throw his web from its from or from behind. The only difference is that when it throws the web from its front, it raises its entire body and turns the ass in a way that its spinneret can aim at Ye Yan. At least the boss is not moving around the room. He is staying in the same small isle he was when Ye Yan entered the room. Just the reach of his skills is very far, enabling him to throw his spells in any part of the chamber. Ye Yan starting to circle around the boss, throwing his fan every time he faces the sides of the boss. In this way, he only needs to worry about the magic balls. However, each time he threw his open folding fan, he needs to jump to another small isle and go to the other side of the boss to attack again. He can''t stay in the same ce for more than a few seconds. Ye Yan kept using this strategy against the boss while hoping that he wouldn''t run out of time. After about four minutester, Ye Yan had already lost 25% of his five senses. His vision started to get blurred at a distance, he loses part of his sense of smell like when he got the flu, his hearing is so as good as before and he felt like his entire body went a little numb, making it harder for him use his fan because sometimes because he can''t feel his body well. In the way the battle is progressing, Ye Yan will lose his senses and be unable to fight before the boss''s health points reach 50% of the total. That''s why he decided to change his strategy. Many strategies passed through Ye Yan''s mind but no one of them could increase the speed that the boss is losing health points. Ye Yan only thought of one way to speed things up in this fight, but it is too dangerous and any mistake can be fatal. However, that''s the only way in which he can have a chance of winning. Ye Yan just took a few seconds to decided his course of action but after decided, he didn''t waste time and jump in the direction of the small isle where the boss is located. In the middle of the jump, Ye Yan threw his fan at the tip of the spider hat like Indiana Jones using his whip. But he is not Indiana Jones and he is using only a silver wire.However, Ye Yan is bing proficient in using his folding fan new functions in the most varied situations. He will never be like Indy that can use his whip to disarm enemies, move around, or pull love interests closer to him, but he can work things out. After his fan wrapped around the hat''s tip, Ye Yan pulled the wire in a way to help him go to the part of the hat next to the tip. He wrapped part of the wire in his own right arm to keep him in position, tied to the hat and started to punch the boss. His punches didn''t do as much damage as the fan, but as he doesn''t need to worry about the boss attacks in this position, he started to deal much more damagepared to before. Ye Yan started to punch the hat''s eyes, even if it doesn''t do more damage than other ces, he can at least feel the satisfaction of taking the smirk out of the hat''s face using his fist. Ye Yan just wanted to have a knife in his boots, so he could also thrust it in the hat with every kick. He can''t do it now because he is using an equipment set but it is a good idea forter. As few pieces of equipment drop from monsters, forging and upgrade is how the yers get most of their equipment. And the most stronger will always be those created by yers with care, creativity, and high-quality materials. However, only elite yers use this method to get good equipment. Normal non-rich yers can only buy junk items from NPCs or other yers to use and try to upgrade their items to a little better version of the trash pieces of equipment they are using. After a few seconds of punching and kicking the boss, Ye Yan gave a sigh of relief because the boss didn''t use his magic balls on him or it would hurt itself. Ye Yan doesn''t know if he should really feel relief or regret because if the boss did use the magic balls, he could make it cause damage only on the boss, increase the damage dealt. But it would increase the pressure on him by many times. he is having a hard time keeping tied to the spider in the way it is. As the Sorting Hat Spider can''t use his spells, it started to jump around, trying to get Ye Yan away from his back, or hat. Ye Yan is feeling like he was riding a bull in a rodeo, or maybe say that he is riding a frog would be a little more simr to his situation right now, because the spider is jumping from one isle to the other like a frog. Even having to hold tight on the silver wire, while hitting the boss, the spider''s health points is decreasing very fast. When the boss''s HP reached 10% and it became enraged, Ye Yan could only use 35% of his senses. He can only see the region around him, is almost deaf, can''t smell anything, and is fighting depending on his poor eyesight because he almost can''t feel his own hands and feet. When bing enraged, the boss started to jumping faster from one small isle to the other, while his hat started to try biting Ye Yan and casting arcane magic bolt spells on him. Luckily, the hat didn''t learn how to throw curve spells or Ye Yan would be fucked right now. And it wasn''t forck of trying, because the hat was twisting the mouth, pitifully acting trying to spit bolts to the side without sess. After being enraged the boss couldn''t hit Ye Yan using his magic but inpensation, its defense increases a lot, making it harder for Ye Yan to kill it soon. After many desperate attempts to throw Ye Yan away from the boss, and many punches and kicks from Ye Yan, the boss finally died, leaving his body with its eight retracted legs and an unreconciled face on the hat. ..... [1] For what was written in historical documents, inside the chamber with the coffin of Emperor Qin Shihuang, the floor was an exact copy of the China map known at that time, with bronze representing thend and the liquid mercury, the rivers. There was an ancient turbine made using an underwater river and a set of gears to drive the liquid metal, making the mercury river keep flowing like a real river. Chapter 79: Damned if you do, damned if you dont Chapter 79: Damned if you do, damned if you don''t System: Congrattions! You have level up. You gained 3 base points and 1 skill point. As soon as the Sorting Hat Spider fell, Ye Yan heard the system notification telling him that he had leveled up. Ye Yan was really surprised by it because he had reached level 8 just yesterday and thought it would take at least until tomorrow for him to get one level. The experience he got from the mausoleum was huge. Ye Yan was killing monster two levels higher than him alone and many were elite at the very minimum. And he even killed a Lord-level monster in the end. Even if killing monster two levels higher than him didn''t give a bonus in experience, the amount it gives is higher than level 8 monsters. And the amount of experience he got from the elite monster and bosses was too huge. Thest boss alone gave 1,200 experience points. However now, Ye Yan didn''t have time to be happy with his level up or get his loot. The only thing he has in mind now is how he can get out of the room as fast as possible. If he stays in the room a little more time, he will die for sure because of mercury poisoning. The problem is that he is on a small isle now and his vision is very bad. Now, he only depends on his memory to get out of there. Luckily, he has been paying attention to his surroundings all the time while he was fighting the boss, so he has a notion about where he is now. When the boss was almost dead, he had jumped to the area near the entrance of the chamber, thus he must be near the doors. The problem is how he will get there. If he steps on the mercury river, he will die on the spot, and if he doesn''t move, he will die after a few more minutes. Now, he can perfectly understand the phrase ''Damned if you do, damned if you don''t''. He needs to jump to get out of there but not only he has no idea where he willnd, but also he almost can feel his legs to do so. [A blind jump with numb legs. It''s just too great!] Ye Yan wanted to be positive but even his thoughts have gained a sarcasm intonation. When Ye Yan was going to fall in despair, he remembers something and looked up. The artificial sky on the cer was made in a way that the stars can shine like the real sky and each of the four sides has the representation of one of the legendary beasts painted on it, decorated with many precious gems. Ye Yan cannot see the paintings and the stars are so blurred that the stars of the constetions turned into a single thing in his eyes. However, he can identify the color of the blurs. Except for the white blur from the stars, Ye Yan can see two colored blurs, blue and red, representing the Dragon and Phoenix. The gems in the ck tortoise are ck and can''t be seen shining and the gems on the White Tiger are of the same color as the stars, thus can''t be identified by Ye Yan''s eyes. From what he remembers, the Azure Dragon was painted above the double doors of the chamber''s entrance. Thus, he has to go in the blue blur direction. Now, the question is how he will do it. Ye Yan wants to hit his head on something to see if he can get the answer. But he will only get a concussion with he does it. He starts getting impatient because he doesn''t know how to get out of his predicament and starts to tap his close fan on his left hand. If he could see things around him, he would be walking from one side to the other now. Suddenly, an ideaes to his mind and he taps the fan on his head thinking about how stupid he is that he hadn''t thought of it before. He first hit the ground with his fan while listening to identify the sound, and after that, he threw it not far from him, where he is sure that there is liquid mercury for him to find out how is the sound of the fan hitting it. Ye Yan concentrates to use what''s left of his senses to the max and threw his fan to the east, the side representing by the Azure Dragon. The first time he threw the fan to help find his way out, he could hear a very light sound. This means that the fan has reached the liquid mercury. He pulled the fan back and thanked the auto-clean function of the weapon, or it would bepletely contained by the mercury. He threw it again and this time there was a different sound. It was very low because Ye Yan can hear almost nothing but he could differentiate it from the sound before. This sound was very simr to when he hit the ground. He pulled the fan back and measured the wire to know the distance he has to jump. It would be so simple if there was something that he could wrap the silver wire to get to the other side. Ye Yan took a deep breath and took a leap of faith. If he gets it right, he willnd on another isle, if not, he will be fucked, having to do start from the very beginning again. It''s a pity that there is no haystack for him tond after his leap of faith like in other games. The leap took only three seconds, but during this short time many things passed through Ye Yan''s mind, most of them being words not good for children to hear, and he felt imaginary cold sweat running down his back. When hended safely, He smiled and sighing with relief. He looked in the dragon''s direction and finally saw the double doors. it was very blurry but he could identify it. Thankfully, he will need only one more jump to get there. Ye Yan gave another leap andnded on the marble floor. he looked around a found out that he almost died because hended only two feet away from the border. Afternding, Ye Yan didn''t waste time and walked out of the room, trying to get as far as possible from there. When he got out of the chamber, he heard a system notification saying he was in a safe ce and that the mercury poisoning level would start to decrease now. After he heard it, Ye Yan threw himself on the floor, feeling nothing while doing so because his entire body is numb. He has lost almost all sense of touch. Thest few minutes were very exhausting for him and he just wants to rest a little. He doesn''t even want to move a finger now. He just hopes that no one will appear here to stole his loot because he had to leave everything there. While he was resting, the astronomer ghost appeared in front of him. He was so happy that he started tough and if he wasn''t a ghost, Ye Yan suspected that he would try to kiss himself. The ghost looked at Ye Yan and noticed that he would move soon, and even wanting to confront the emperor''s ghost now, he decided to wait because it wouldn''t be fun to tramp over the emperor if he can''t show it to anyone. Thus, he started pacing in the room. After a few minutes, Ye Yan was cured and could enter the chamber again. He was not only anxious to get his rewards but he can''t stand the astronomer ghost anymore. The ghost was so excited and anxious that he couldn''t stop walking and say how anxious and excited he was as if it wasn''t obvious. Not only it, but he was pacing in circles around Ye Yan. If the astronomer wasn''t a ghost, Ye Yan would make him into one without a doubt. The first thing he did when he entered the chamber was going straight to the spider''s corpse. Ye Yan was pleasantly surprised when he saw all the loot he got. For the first time in the game, Ye Yan felt that he got lucky with something. He has to always work hard to get things in the game, and he often got almost nothing in return. Even when the chances are high of getting an item, he sometimes gets nothing or is suited to someone else. If people don''t prioritize the tank in dungeons, he wouldn''t be wearing aplete equipment set right now. He looked at the items that dropped from the boss satisfied. First, he stored the Witch''s powder in his space bag. it is an essential item for making the Wonder potion, and the only way for him to get it now is by killing the Sorting hat Spider. After he put the item in a safe ce, he looked at the other goods. Chapter 80: The little white egg Chapter 80: The little white egg While Ye Yan was getting the loot from the boss'' corpse, he was trying to ignore two ghosts rolling on the ground. For him, it didn''t look like a fight between enemies but another kind of fight. They look so suspicious in that position, like when you see a photo of MMA fighters on the ring taken from a weird angle in which one of them isying on the floor and the other is between his legs with his pants a little down. You know the truth of what is happening, but the picture is too much. When Ye Yan entered the chamber, he went straight to the spider''s corpse and didn''t even spare a nce at the emperor''s ghost but it wasn''t the same for the astronomer ghost. After Ye Yan stored the five magic source crystals that the boss dropped, the astronomer ghost entered the room, and as soon as he saw the other ghost, he rushed at him, ready to punch and kick. For some reason, the emperor is immune to the magic power and can stay there without a problem. After a few seconds of a catfight, the two started rolling on the ground. For Ye Yan, that looked like a catfight because he never saw men fighting like that. The astronomer even pulled the emperor''s hair and tried to scratch his face. In truth, the women Ye Yan know can fight much more mainly than them. After he spared a nce at the two rolling on the ground, Ye Yan shook his head and resumed gathering the loot. Besides the witch''s powder, Ye Yan got some good items and materials from the boss. From the Sorting Hat Spider, Ye Yan got three spider''s legs, a spider''s spinneret, two venom nds that the spider didn''t use because it prefers to use magic, two spider''s eyes, one spider''s fang, one piece of equipment called Witch''s Sorting Hat that is a smaller version of the hat-like thing on the spider''s back, and some pieces of the carapace. Besides the spider''s body parts, Ye Yan got one cobweb that can be used to trap enemies, one magic scroll of the Arcane Balls Spell, and a Weapon Mod recipe. When Ye Yan looked at the recipe, his eyes started to shine. It was a recipe that can be used to modify a weapon in specific ways that can''t be attained by using only the yers'' or NPC''s creativity. . [Spider Web] (Weapon Mod Recipe) Description: You can modify your weapon, making it be able to shoot Spider Webs to immobilize a target for a few seconds. Items Required: 5 Silk nds, 1 Spider''s Spinneret, ... . Ye Yan looked at the mod and became excited but soon he calmed down after seeing the items required for creating the weapon mod. From all the items required, he only has the Spider''s spinneret, the others he has no idea how to get. He will have to leave the information gathering to his mage friend. After he found out about how a mage can get experience reading, he would always throw any research work for Spell Bound. Luckily, Spell Bound contracted mages to exclusively do this kind of work, or else he would do nothing else in the game besides gathering information. And Spell Bound has no vocation to be a ve. He has to manage the guild and Ye Yan definitely wouldn''t pay him for it. After storing everything, Ye Yan went in the direction of the ghosts. He still has more than 15 minutes to do what he needs in the chamber, which is looting the room andplete the astronomer''s ghost quest. After getting next to the coffin, Ye Yan looked at the two ghosts that continue to fight on the ground. It looks like the astronomer has the upper hand in the fight. He keeps smashing the emperor''s belly uncontrobly with a rhythmic movement of both hands. And suddenly, the emperor tried to get the upper hand, changing their position and pressing on the astronomer ghost''s body, he was kneed in the groin by the astronomer. The emperor lived a life full of extravagances in which he only knew how to eat, drink and visit his concubines'' rooms. Thus, he is unable to fight even a frail schr like the astronomer. After being hit on his weakest part, the emperor was paralyzed from pain,ying on the ground with both hands covering this little friend. The astronomer ghost wasn''t satisfied by just this, so he started to kick the emperor with all his strength while cursing and saying things that a child would in a situation like that. Ye Yan looked around the coffin and the room and found nothing but wine vessels of all kinds, so he decided to stand by the side, waiting for the astronomer ghost to finish his business[1]. After two minutes, Ye Yan started to lose his patience. It looks like the astronomer doesn''t have the intention of stopping soon, so Ye Yan decided to remember him of the promise he made. Ye Yan wants his reward and not stay there, wasting time seeing two ghosts fighting. "Now that you are already here and vented a little, it''s time for you to give me the reward for clearing the mausoleum from magic sources and bringing you here." Ye Yan said while reaching out his right arm with his hand open for the ghost to hand his reward. The astronomer ghost looked at him as if he have seen a ghost, which is really strange, as he is a ghost himself. Looking at the ghost expression, Ye Yan got the sensation that he was fooled by the ghost. When Ye Yan thought of taking a magic source crystal from his space bag to expel the astronomer ghost from there, the ghost started to speak. "Wait! it''s not like I will not give you anything but that I''m a ghost, so how can I carry something with me?" After listening, Ye Yan took a deep breath, trying to control his temper, and threw a murderous look at the ghost. "As I said, I will give you something, but it is information. I know where you can find the powerful artifact Silk As of Comets. With it, you can reach new heights." The astronomer ghost said before Ye Yan does something to him. After the ghost says the location of the artifact, he resumed kicking the emperor. It looks like thousand years of ressentiment cannot be vented in a short time. After getting the information about the artifact from the ghost, Ye Yan remembered the greenstone he got before in the mausoleum. He looked around one more time, trying to find anything that could resemble the greenstone. When he thought that maybe, he can just use it in another room or that it has no other function, Ye Yan noticed that in front of the coffin, there is a ce different from the rest. There is a kind of shallow hole on the floor that you can only see if you look carefully. It looks like the greenstone can fits perfectly on it. Ignoring the astronomer looking at him and the emperor ghost stillying on the ground with a pained face, Ye Yan put the greenstone in the hole on the ground. After that, the greenstone shone and a ce in the lower part of the coffin opened, showing a white egg measuring 100 cm in length and 6 cm in width. Ye Yan readily took the egg in his hands and examined it. The egg looks like any normal egg, just a little bigger and oblong. As Ye Yan understands nothing about eggs, thus he will look for an NPC that can identify the egg because no scroll he has shows information about it. After storing the egg, Ye Yan looked at the astronomer ghost that looked satisfied now, as if he had done everything he wanted and left nothing behind. A few momentster, the astronomer''s ghost shone a white light, and he disappeared from the world to be reincarnated. As the only thing left in the chamber is the emperor rolling in pain on the ground, Ye Yan left the room, going back to the first room entered in the mausoleum. The room has one entrance and three passages. Ye Yan entered in just one to get to the end of the mausoleum. The other two kept unexplored until now. He chose one of the passages and entered it but in the end, there was only a dead end. Except for three Agra Cadabras, there is nothing else. At least he got the magic source crystals from them. The other passage was the same, the difference is that he almost died there and it just to explore the room. It was not with it at all. It not only was full of deadly booby traps, but it also didn''t have even a monster or some treasure. After he makes sure he had explored everything, Ye Yan left the mausoleum and went in the direction of the abandoned pce nearby, where is not only the Silk As of Comets but also the stardust that he needs for the potion. .... [1] Bronze ceremonial wine vessels were found in many ancient Chinese tombs in various shapes, as with a human face, in the form of an elephant, and others. Chapter 81: Palace ruins Chapter 81: Pce ruins After riding a bicycle for one hour after leaving the mausoleum, Ye Ya arrived in front of the ruins of an ancient pce. Looking from outside, there was almost nothing there. The walls surround the pce were dpidated and missing many parts where people could see the interior of the pce. Where once was a beautiful and majestic garden, now became some kind of ghostly forest, with the vegetation growing uncontrobly. And the pce was in ruins, with a few structures still standing. Ye Yan only hopes that the astrology room is intact or he doesn''t know how to find the items, but if it was easily found, the NPCs would have looted the ce already. But, no matter what, he needs to find the ce for him toplete his quest. Only when he is done with it, he can try to get properties in the city. He needs atst two pieces ofnd, one for the guild residence and another to rent. Until now, they only are spending money on the guild, but there is no other way because if they want it to be sessful soon, they need this initial investment. It is not like they can cheat their way to sess. They have some extra pieces of equipment that they got from dungeons, but it is not worth selling them for money because they would earn very little from it. And even if the apprentice forgers they contracted could produce high-quality items, they wouldn''t earn much because very few people would be crazy enough to spend a fortune on items around level 5. As Ye Yan is the only one that got inside the pce among the guild members, he is the one responsible for getting the properties. However, it is better this way because if another yer got it first, he or she wouldn''t hand it over to the guild. The person would sell the property to them for a very high price or to someone else, which wouldn''t be a good thing for them, either way. Ye Yan entered the pce ruins for an opening on the wall and reached inside where there was a garden a long time ago. In front of him are bushes that grew to a height taller than him and he will have to pass through it to get to the ruins of the pce courtyards. He knew the direction he has to go because, from outside, he could look over the bushes to see the other side. Ye Yan changed his fan for a knife with a long de for him to open the way out between the bushes and tree branches. He walked carefully through the bushes while keep his awareness to the max, listening to every sound around him. He could hear the birds singing from many trees around him, the sound of the wind blowing the leaves and bushes, and the sound of running water not far from him where should have a water stream. As even using his memory, he is having a hard time finding his way out, he decided to follow the water sound. With luck, the water is clean and he can refresh himself. At this time, half of the daytime has passed and the sun is in the zenith [1]. it is very hot and he can feel his head temperature increasing so fast that soon he can fry an egg on his head. His armor is not light and heats up his body a lot, making him sweat. In other words, he needs a bath. In the way he is now, it wouldn''t take seven days for him to start stinking again. The heat is not the only problem, the leaves of the bushes are like des, cutting the areas with exposed skin, dealing -1 damage on him from time to time, and the branches often scratch his skin. But this is a problem he will have until his flee stat is high enough for him to evade even the leaves. The flee works like a protectiveyer that deflect the attacks if the dexterity of the enemy isn''t high enough. It can be bypassed by yers'' ability in case they have high uracy and always hit on the weak spot, but if a yer has high agility and flee, they hardly would be hit. If a yer standstill, his flee will be 0, so he will surely be hit and even a level 1 monster would be able to kill a high-level yer. It just would take a long time because every time an attack hits, even with high defense, it deals -1 damage. While Ye Yan was walking through the bushes, he was attacked by some rats and poisonous snakes. However, they were just normal monsters and he didn''t take long to kill them, even having a hard time dodging their attacks because of the many branches around him. When Ye Yan finally reached the water stream, he had already take -30 damage from the leaves and branches. The water stream looks to surround a good part of the pce and in some parts has very small waterfalls to enchant its beauty. Ye Yan looked at the water carefully to see if there is some monster inside. When he saw it was clean of any animal he decided to enter in the water, even knowing that if it is like in real life, the danger is in the creatures that cannot be seen with the naked eye, like the brain-eating amoeba that enters in the head through the nose and starts to eat the person''s brain. Even knowing the risks, he couldn''t stand the heat for long. Right now, he is feeling hotter than a woman in menopause. After entered the water, he felt refreshed all over. He didn''t take long and soon got out of the white. This time, he didn''t receive a buff for been clean because it will only happy when a yer bath using water and soap. His body is clean now, but not fragrant. After he cooled down in the water, he rested a little and took the time to eat bread and drink some water. yers need to eat one time a day and drink two bottles of water or he would be weak but it this simple food doesn''t give any extra stats as happens when they ate delicacies from famous restaurants in the game. Ye Yan, like most adventures in the game, passes his days on just bread and water. For now, he doesn''t have the time, nor the money, to spend in luxurious restaurants. After resting and eating, Ye Yan finally entered the pce ruins, looking for the ce indicated in the Book of Knowledge. While he was bathing and resting, he kept his awareness to the max because since he entered through the walls, he is feeling like someone is observing him but he has no idea who or what it is. He doesn''t think it is a yer, because it would be very hard for someone to follow him through the bushes. The only logical option is that it is a monster or an NPC. He hopes it is only a monster, NPCs should be smarter and harder to kill. Ye Yan looked at all the rubble in front of him and only thought about how hard it will be for him to find what he is looking for. It is like looking for a needle in the haystack. He decided to look at anything that resembled an astronomical instrument or drawings and painting of anything associated with the sky because there is no other way for him to find something otherwise. Ye Yan walks through the ruins, looking carefully at anything that could show clues of what it once was, and while doing so, he kept throwing surreptitiously nces around, trying to discover who or what is following him. After four long hours of looking around, he finally found something. It was a painting of some men looking at the sky. And if didn''t represent that he must have found the location or at least be near it, nothing else would. Soon, he found other clues and there was a small passage to the inside of the ruins that he can only pass after crouching. He is sure that it will take him to the astronomy room but it is very dangerous because of the stones and pieces of rotten wood around that look like they would fall at any time. Ye Yan doesn''t want to enter before he solves his stalker because the chances that this person or monster would but him in this ce is very higher. That''s why he decided to sit on the ground and pretend to meditate with his eyes close to see if his stalker would show himself. After closing his eyes, Ye Yan concentrated to listen every sound around himself. Suddenly, he not only heard someone approaching but also could feel a a sensation like daggers on his neck. He opened his eyes to see who was attacking him and found out it was not an NPC or an animal but something else. ... [1] Zenith is, simply speaking, the highest point in the sky from an observer''s perspective. Chapter 82: Man-eating Flower Chapter 82: Man-eating Flower After Ye Yan opened his eyes, he immediately dodged, jumping to his right. If he had taken just one second long, he would be hit by a vine. The monster attacking him wasn''t an animal or an NPC, but a nt. It surely is a carnivorous nt, but different from any other that exists in the real world. This carnivorous flower has a thick stem,rge leaves, some vinesing out from the stem, aerial roots, and one spherical purple flower that splits in half, creating a huge mouth in the middle, full of thorns like fangs to trap prey. When the flower is with its mouth closed, it looks like there are red lips on it, which may be this color from the blood of its victims. When Ye Yan saw this carnivorous nt, he was surprised. He never imagined that his stalker would be a nt, even more so, because he didn''t smell anything from it as what happens with big carnivorous nts. They usually give off a rotten smell to attract their victims. Maybe because this nt has strong and long vines to catch prey and it can walk, there is no need for additional functions. And different from the walking nt in real life, Socratea exorrhiza, which can only walk one meter a year, this carnivorous nt can walk extremely fast. It uses its vines to grab trees or other things and use them to propel it forward, and with this, it can reach around 2.5 meters per second or even a little more than that. Ye Yan did a somersault while dodging and soon got to his feet, looking at the carnivorous nt that seen to have just get out of an old game. While looking at the nt, some thoughts about jumping on top of the nt head tree times to kill it, passed through his mind. Ye Yan shook his head to shoo away thoughts about an old game and concentrated on the battle, or he would turn into the flower next meal. The carnivorous nt uses its many vines to attack Ye Yan in sequence. Every time he dodges one, another vine appears in his way, attacking him without mercy and not giving time for him to even breathe between his dodges. He evades the vines with jumps, somersaults, tumbles, and star jumps. The way he was dodging make him looks like a gymnast or a cheerleader. After a few seconds of dodging vines no stop, he finally could stop to breathe and identify the monster quickly. He wants to know the level and rank of this monster because it is the first time he has fought against a monster so strong. Not even the bosses from Hell Mode Dungeons can bepared with this nt in attack pattern. Of course, a monster from Hell Mode has much more health points and defense than a normal monster, but he still can stop to take a breath a little. If they attacked Ye Yan in the same way this nt is doing now, no matter how many healers the party has, he would die for sure. "Shit!" After looking at the basic info about the carnivorous nt in the scroll, Ye Yan couldn''t help but curse. . [Man-eating Flower] (Elite) Description: This is one of the many species of carnivorous nts, but different from most of the others, it is capable of eating big animals. However, his favorite dish is humanoids, mainly humans. Man-eating Flower hates the taste of chicken, that''s why they don''t eat elves because they taste like chicken. It absorbs the salts from its prey to nourish itself because it can''t absorb them from the soil. Level 15 HP: 2.000 . Ye Yan never thought he would stumble on a level 15 monster so soon. No wonder the nt was so strong. It makes him apprehensive but excited at the same time. To fight something that is six levels high than him will be a good challenge. After Ye Yan barely finished reading, the vine attacks restarted, but they were even more ferocious this time. Ye Yan decided to test the vine strength to see if he could deflect or defend against it because it will be harder if he has to fight the boss while have to dodge all the time. Ye Yan opened his upgraded folding fan and used his left hand to support it while he tried to defend himself from the vine. Luckily, his body wasn''t perfectly behind his fan or the vine would have been thrust by it. The vine was so strong that it pushed the fan out of the way and kept going forward. He tried to deflect the vine with his close fan as well but it also wasn''t sessful because the flower strength is too much higher than his own. While trying to deflect the vines, Ye Yan discovered that not only they are strong but they are also hard to cut, and even if he got to cut it, the man-eating flower looks to not have taken any damage. Thus, he probably will have to attack its main body to inflicting damage upon it. The problem is how he can approach it with the nonstop vine attacks. He needs to must all his power to dodge the vines. This battle will test his agility, dexterity, and strength, all at once. He took a deep breath and rush at the man-eating flower while dodging the vines thate from all sides. Ye Yan ran at max speed, but it was draining his stamina quickly, so he decided to slow down a little or when he reached the boss he wouldn''t be able to even jump to dodge. As he slowed down a little, he had to depend more on his ability to evade attacks. Sometimes he jumped to dodge but e started to try a different dodge technique. However, it will consume too much mental power, making him exhausted faster. Ye Yan concentrated, trying to use his basic instincts to help himself in battle in addition to his five senses. Only by mixing it together, he could achieve the use of the sixth sense in the battle. After deciding on another strategy, he readily put it into practice, concentrated to use every one of his senses to the max. Every time he felt the vines approaching him, he just shifted his body a little instead of dodge, jumping to the side. Sometimes, he shifted his body to the left, others to the right, and there are times that he bent the body back and forth. As time passed, Ye Yan became more proficient in using this form of dodge. He even slowed more to save stamina for when he is near enough the monster to rush at it. In the way he was acting in the fight, any onlooker would think Ye Yan was filming a movie and thatter, the director would make his dodges in slow motion to create a special effect. Only the ck leather clothes will be missing to give the final touch. When Ye Yan was only 5 meters from the boss, he rushed at it, opened his fan, and started to shing against the spherical flower with a mouth full of teeth. He shed the monster with his fan left and right while dodging the vines like he was performing a dance. He even spun a few times. The boss, as a monster six levels higher than him, has very high defense and each hit took a maximum of 50HP per hit when using a skill. Thus, the battle would take a long time to end. If Ye Yan gets too tired before the monster dies, the one who will die will be him. To Ye Yan''s surprise and amazement, he found out that the weak spot of the man-eating flower was the top of its head. Thus, he didn''t resist and jumped on top of the flower, kicking it and sometimes turning upside down to sh it andnding on the ground soon after. Despite the strain of the fight, Ye yan started to enjoy himself. It was like a living action of a ssic game. Maybe he can even get a coin when the monster dies. After a few minutes of kicking, the boss finally fell, but no coin appeared over his body and there is no tongue out of his mouth. Seeing it, Ye Yan felt like something was missing but it is another game after all, and there is nothing he can do. Ye Yan got a lot of vine from the man-eating flower, salt, thorns, and stem, that he stored in his bag. After looting the monster, he entered through the opening in the rubble. Inside, there is a short dark passage that he had to use the firefly in the bottle again to light his way through it. He just hopes that this is the right ce and not a rabbit hole. Chapter 83: Ye Yan in the wonder room Chapter 83: Ye Yan in the wonder room When the Man-eating Flower died, Ye Yan received a huge amount of experience from the monster because it was not just a level 15 elite, but it was 6 levels higher than him, which gives a 35% bonus on the total amount, totaling 1,500 experience points, that he got all alone. It still will take a long time for him to reach the 6,800 experience points necessary for him to level up, but if he can kill more high-level monsters, he can make a shortcut to level 10. Fighting monsters of the same level of man-eating flower will put pressure on him, but it will be worth it. He is still a low-level yer after all, and even if he dies, he will just lose 1% experience, which is a low amount, considering that the level 15 monster gave him 22% of the total necessary for him to get to level 10. That''s why, after getting out of the astrology room, Ye Yan decided to look for monsters of the same level of the carnivorous nt in the region. This will be the best solution, being that he can''t enter the Alchemists'' Guild to get quests until the afternoon of the day after tomorrow. When Ye Yan entered through a hole in the rubble, he felt that he entered the rabbit hole. However, he didn''t take any suspicious pill to start to have hallucinations. The hole was getting narrower the deeper it was. When he entered, he had to crouch, but now, he needs to crawl across the passage. And all the while, holding a bottle with the firefly inside. He hopes if finds some monsters inside, it will be a cute rabbit or even a snake, and not a disgusting cockroach. The walls of the hole are made of colorful rubble that, with the shing light of the firefly, gave Ye Yan a strange sensation, like if he was having hallucinations. His only thoughts now are that he needs antern as soon as possible because he can''t continue in this way. And as he can only use the firefly for one week before he dies if not set free, he will have to get another light provider anyway. After a few minutes of crawling inside the narrow passage, Ye Yan reached an exquisite room that was almost intactpared with the ruins outside. In the room, there are some tables with all kinds of instruments on top of them. Some were small but others were big. Some astronomical apparatus was on the floor because of their size. In the middle of the room, there is a table with two cups of tea that should have been forgotten there a long time ago. Ye Yan was looking around the room when suddenly, a sound as something falling came from his left, leaving him alert immediately. He looked at the origin of the sound and saw a tabby yellow cat with long, white eyebrows and mustache, giving it a wise style. The cat walking rxed to the table and jumped over it. After that, it stood there, looking at Ye Yan. "This is the astrology room of the Ancient Royal Pce and I am its guardian." "You are an adventurer that came looking for this room''s treasures but it is impossible for someone like you to get something from here. Only a mad person would try." The cat sad, while moving his right paw and showing his sharp nails. "Why and what is your name?" Ye Yan frowned when he listened to the cat and asked. "Me? You can call me master cat if you want. I forgot my own name a long time ago." The cat said while looking everywhere but at Ye Yan. It seems he is lying about forgetting his name but there is no way of knowing what. "Why you said that I would be mad if I try to get something from here?" Ye Yan went straight to the point. "I am the guardian of this ce and no one can pass through me. If you try, you will die. That simple." The cat licked his paw and use it tob his mustache before answering him. Ye Yan looked at the cat that seems harmless at the moment and decided to use his scroll to identify its level. However, when he looked at the cat''s information, there was nothing there, just a lot of question marks. After seeing that the scroll can''t identify it, he knew that the cat must be very powerful, at least level 20. Thinking a little, he decided to continue talking with the cat because must be a way for him to get the stardust or the Book of knowledge wouldn''t have indicated this location. "I need stardust and I know that I can only find it here, so I would like to know if we can make a deal? I will not leave here without it." Ye Yan decided to try making a deal with the cat but he thought that he should say he wouldn''t leave without it to show that he already made up his mind. "Hum. Interesting. You really are a mad person but who was not, among every great person that once existed? To achieve something, you need to be different, thinking in another waypared with the others. Those that have the same thoughts as everyone else will only be just one more person among the others." "And what is madness other than thinking and acting differently from others. The madness, the abnormal, can often achieve heights that those considered normal will never know to exist." The cat said and start to measure Ye Yan. "Maybe, you are mad enough to reach the pinnacle one day. But first, you have toplete my challenge." The cat said after a pause. "The challenge will be simple. You only have to find one item that represents catastrophe among the many wonders in this room. Ye Yan started to look around the room and chose to start with the left corner of the room. There are many ancient Chinese astronomical instruments and rare documents on the table. As the Yan Empire is a virtual representation of China, everything in this room is something created by the Chinese in the long history of his country. The Chinese were meticulous in keeping astronomical records, chatting the heavens, and recording phenomena, with the main purpose being to record time urately, something they started to do with great uracy. In ancient times, astrology and astronomy were the same and interdependent at the same time, having a connection with the spirit world. However, unlike other cultures charting the stars at this period, astrologers were separate from astronomers and their specific job was to interpret urrences and omens portended in the sky, while the astronomers have to chart regr events, such as lunar eclipses, and calcted when some events would ur. The Chinese astrologers were more like shamans at that time, not like other astrologers that are the union of both. The astronomer Ho could be considered an astronomer but also an astrologer, thinking from the point of view of others cultures. Ye Yan found many sky charts in the room. There was one with the system of the zodiac designed to help guide the life of people on Earth, also called the ''yellow path'', as a reference to the sun traveling along the ecliptic. Like Western astrology, this chart has twelve houses along the yellow path. They just aren''t the same as the 12 greek constetions. There were other scrolls, recording other astronomical phenomena, such asets, sunspots, novas, and sr res. These scrolls look very ancient but it is normal because the Chinese made such observation long before any other culture. Looking at the scrolls, it looks like they tried to catalog every single star in the sky. They defined the constetions by one major star, called the king, the alpha in today''s astronomy, and it was surrounded by princes. Ye Yan opened another scroll. This was a document showing the calendar with twelve lunar months, and the year was calcted to be 365.24281481 days long [1]. There were also bones and shells inscribed with the Plough and symbols for the Azure Dragon and White Tiger, two of the four regions or directions on the table. There was an armiry sphere on a corner. It is a metal sphere consisting of intersecting scaled circles, which allowed the observer to give each star a coordinate. There are so many things in the room that Ye Yan felt again like finding a needle in the haystack. And he still doesn''t even know what he is looking for. After hours looking for the thing that represents catastrophe, he started pondering if he should give up for today because it is gettingte and he is in the game for too long today. When he decided to ask the cat if it would be a problem in the case he stops looking for today and resumes it tomorrow, he remembered the artifact that the astronomer Ho told him about before. Maybe it is not a coincidence that the ghost told him about this item. And Ye Yan remembered to have read somewhere that aet was seen as a symbol of disaster in ancient China. Thus, he opened the scroll with many drawings ofets inside and showed it to the cat as the item he asked Ye Yan to find. .... [1] Zu Chongzhi (429-500 CE), a notable Chinese polymath, using self-designed instruments, proposed that the year was 365.24281481 days long, a measurement that almost no different from modern measurements. Chapter 84: The Dodo Chapter 84: The Dodo When Ye Yan showed the Silk As of Comets to the cat, he kept silent for a few seconds. When Ye Yan thought that he had made the wrong choice, the cat started speaking. "Hum. It looks that you have some knowledge, but theory without practice can''t help you in the long run. Meow." When the cat meowed at the end of his speech, he started to cough to disguise it. He can''t lose his dignity as a master. "Now, I want to see how mad you can be in order to achieve what you want. Seeing that you are only level 9, killing the monsters outside can be challenging enough for now. There are some powerful monsters that walk around the pce ruins, and what I want you to do is to kill them and bring back to me some proof of it." "The first monster I want you to kill is the Man-eating Flower. A powerful nt that grows in this region. I don''t think you will have problems finding it. Just beware that it is very smart and likes to surprise its prey." The cat chose exactly the monster Ye Yan just killed. He just doesn''t know if this is a good or a bad thing. Ye Yan only hopes that he will not have to wait for it to respawn for him to kill it again. Then, he decided to tell the cat that he already killed it because, maybe, he can have an alternative option. "Hum. I see." The cat raised his head a little and made a slight movement with his muzzle as if he were sniffing something. "Indeed. You have the smell of the Man-eating Flower in your body. So, just show me some proof that you have really ughtered it." When the cat asked for proof, Ye Yan readily showed him the stem and vines he looted from the monster''s body. "Hum. As I can still smell the monster in you, I will treat it as youpleted the first task. However, you need to remember that if more than one hour pass after you kill a monster or if you take a bath, the monster smell will disappear and it will not count." "It looks like you indeed have some madness in you, but are you mad enough? Breaking through the barriers of what is considered normal, of sanity, is not an easy matter. You are already good like that, but can you be great?" The cat spoke and took a break to groom himself. "There is a Dodo that likes to walk around the north area of the pce ruins. This monster shouldn''t exist anymore but it not only came back to life but it still came from another region of the just to steal my food sources." Another pause for the cat to do a little more grooming. "However, I am a pacifist and can''t kill it just because of some personal problem. I believe that we should only kill something with the objective of eating." He looked at Ye Yan in the eyes. "The Dodo''s meat could be very beneficial to you. I am sure you will find it very delicious. So, kill it and don''t leave a feather behind, but don''t eat it because it can easily make one choke to death, and the exitter would be even worse. It looks like you gave birth to a chick." Ye Yan looked at the cat, only thinking that he could have kept thest part for himself. After getting the new quest from the cat, Ye Yan crawled back to the pce ruins, andter, he went to the north area to look for the Dodo. There are many rubbles in this area and just a few trees. You can see the water stream in the left part of the area, giving a bucolic feeling. From afar, Ye Yan saw a big chicken run. First, he thought it was a Chocobo butter, he understood it should be the Dodo that the cat asked him to kill. To make sure it is the right monster, Ye Yan used the scroll to identify it. . [Dodo] (Elite) Description: This flightless dove-like monster was an extinct animal endemic to the ind of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, but some scientists made ite back to existence. However, they injected some foreign DNA into it, changing some of the Dodo''s original characteristics. Level 18 HP: 2.500 . "Shit!" Ye Yan couldn''t help but curse. This monster is also an elite but it is two levels higher than the Man-eating Flower. He must be really mad to want to fight this monster alone. However, even having this thought, he is excited about fighting a monster so powerful. The Dodo has a greyish plumage, a tuft of curly light feathers high on its rear end, a grey and naked head, a beak with ck and yellow colors, and legs stout and yellowish, with ck ws. The Dodo also has some characteristics that aren''t from its species like cat''s eyes, a ck mark around the eyes like a pair of sses, and a walking stick-like third leg. Ye Yan looked at the Dodo, took a deep breath, and started approaching the elite monster. Soon, the Dodo noticed Ye Yan approaching and rushed at him at full speed, aiming his beak at Ye Yan''s chest. Ye Yan saw the Dodoing in his way and he opened his folding fan, getting ready for battle. When it reached him, Ye Yan spun, evading the attack while saying "Ol!" He couldn''t help himself. He imagined that his fan was a red fabric at the moment and even he not liking bullfight because it causes unnecessary suffering to the animal, he is enjoying dodging the Dodo in this way. After passing by Ye Yan like that, the Dodo soon stopped, turned his body, and looked at him with eyes full of hate. The Dodo raised his third leg and stomp it on the ground after, showing what he wanted to do to Ye Yan. Looking at the hole left on the ground by the Dodo''s stomp, Ye Yan felt cold sweat running down his back. He has to say that even this third leg being strange, to say the least, its attack power is impressive. Now he understood the difference between the Dodo and the Man-eating Flower. He is sure that only one hit is needed to kill him. Thus, he will have to be extremely careful in this fight. The Dodo kept rushing at Ye Yan, trying to attack him with its beak. Ye Yan decided to fight the monster dodging it and attacking at the same time. Every time the Dodo passed by him, he would spin with his right arm outstretched holding his fan, and sh the monster with it. The speed of the monster started to increase after each onught. Noticing this, Ye Yan started to kite it to the direction of one of the few trees in the area. He decided to use it as support in the fight. Ye Yan threw his fan at one strong branch of the tree and started to swing on the fan''s wire as Tarzan with the vines. While he was fighting this way, a strange thought passed through Ye Yan''s mind, that made him feel relief one more time for not having to use the pink headband anymore. He didn''t want to have anything remotely simr to the legendary knight that like pink and used chains in battle. What Ye Yan doesn''t know is that, because of this thought, he will suffer less from Mage of the Cold Nights imagination in the future. If she saw Ye Yan in pink, using chains-like wire, she would want him to use his body heat to warm Dovakin in one of her stories. As a Dragonborn, Dovakin depends on the heat of the environment to regte his body temperature, so he would need Ye Yan''s warmth on cold nights. Luckily, Ye Yan will never know what he escaped from. In all the duration of the battle, Ye Yan kept swing on the wire and attacking the Dodo with punches. In this way, the fight took longer but it was safer because the Dodo only uses physical attacks that need contact with the enemies and, as Ye Yan kept dodging, there is no way for the Dodo to hit him. If Ye Yan didn''t use such a strategy, he would have died already because the Dodo is very fast and strong. It just would need one hit to kill Ye Yan. In this way, even the elite monster being powerful, it can do nothing but recent Ye Yan''s trick. In the end, nor its normal attacks, nor its enraged attacks, could hit Ye Yan, that only needed to have the patience to kill the Dodo. When the boss finally fell, Ye Yan''s eyes shone in excitement. The experience he gained was very high. The Dodo alone gives 1,150 experience points, plus the 80% bonus for being eight levels higher, it gave a total of 2,070 experience points. If Ye Yan kills a little more monsters like that, he will be able to level up again. However, he doesn''t have time today because it is already veryte and he needs to go back and turn in the quest to the cat. Thus, he looted the Dodo''s body and went back to the astrology room. He didn''t have time to look carefully at the items dropped but he knew that they should be of great quality. A pity that he can''t use them now because of the level limit. That''s why his friends don''t farm high-level monsters. They not only can get experience faster when killing monsters of the same level as them because they are easy to killpared to high-level ones, but they also can''t use the items left by them. Chapter 85: Crazy Rabbit in a hat Chapter 85: Crazy Rabbit in a hat When Ye Yan came back to the astrology room, the cat was sitting on the table grooming himself. "I finish the task you gave me." Ye Yan told the cat, showing him some of the Dodo''s feathers. "Hum. You must really be mad for fighting this one with your actual powers. You must be swift as a mouse to be still alive." The cat said while licking his right paw. "But, no matter how you did it, you helped the world by getting rid of an eyesore." "That dirty thing like to eat the same things as the great me. Humph. He thought of itself like a cat, but it didn''t have the elegance, charm, cleanness, strength, intelligence, coolness, and beauty of a cat, and most important, it is not lovable at all." The cat said disdainfully. "You proved yourself worth. You have enough madness in you to be a great adventurer but, is it enough for you to be excellent?" The cat said, looking at Ye Yan in the eyes. Ye Yan''s first thought wasn''t about the challenge but if there will be another taskter when the cat said those things. First was good, after was great, and now he asks if he can be excellent. Maybe he will ask him if he can be perfect in the future. As if reading Ye Yan''s mind, the cat started speaking again. "Don''t worry. This is thest task I will give you but also the most difficult. If you pass, you will have proved yourself worthy of what I have in mind for you." The cat takes a short break for grooming himself. "A mad rabbit is living in the pce ruins, disrupting the lives of others. It is always in a hurry, but I don''t know what it is in a hurry for. You can easily recognize it because the rabbit is white, fat, and always red clothes and a hat." "What do you think? Are you mad enough to fight it, or will you settle for being just great?" System: Master Cat has a quest for you. Will you ept it? Quest difficult: SS. When Ye Yan heard the system notification, he was in a trance. A SS level difficulty is no simple matter, and his chances ofpleting it are very low, but the chance of him dying while doing it is extremely high. The quests he received from the cat didn''t show the difficult status, just the objective and type. However, they should be at least A or even S level. And both were too damn hard already. He onlypleted them because he was alone and use the environment to help and his martial arts training. If he was to be the tank in a party to fight them, it would be a total wipeout because he couldn''t tank these monsters for the party. Now, this SS-level quest made him feel like he bit off more than he can chew. But no matter what, he needs to get stronger, and what better way of doing it than challenge stronger opponents. "It is toote already. Can I do it tomorrow?" Ye Yan asked the Cat. If he went out now, it not only would be more dangerous because it is dark outside, but he still would have problems because he is in the game for too long already. "Yes, you can. There is no time limit for you toplete the task since you do this with the same power as you have now. You just have toe back within one hour after killing it." The cat exined to him. "Then, I will ept the task." After getting the answer to his question, Ye Yan chose to ept the task right away. "You can sleep in that corner." The cat said, pointing to a ce in the room. After nodding to the cat, Ye Yan went to the corner indicated by the cat and before logging out, he looked at the quest''s details. . [The way of madness] (Quest) Description: You need to prove yourself to the Master Cat. He can only ept someone mad enough to reach the top. Type: unique Difficult: SS Objective: You must kill the Crazy Rabbit in a hat without dying. Progress: Kill Crazy Rabbit in a hat (0/1), went back to Master Cat within an hour after killing the Crazy Rabbit (0/1), and show the spoils of the battle to Master Cat (0/1). . After reading, Ye Yan just thought that there is something strange about the quest. The description speaks about the cat epting him if he passes the test, but what does it mean? He has no idea. He just hopes to be able to know because if he dies, the quest will fail and he will not be able toplete it anymore. After logging out, Ye Yan looked out the window and saw the stone forest that is the capital of the country. There are so many buildings and people walking in the streets, so many cars that if things didn''t change, people will reach the ces where they want to go faster on foot. Ye Yan breathed the city air that is cleaner than decades ago because of the changes in public policies and regtions, plus the change in the cars that stopped using fossil fuels. He closed the window and started to do his morning routine, which now includes running outside because he needs some morning sunlight, or his body wouldck vitamin D. When he was done talking with his friends about his current quest and discussing the guild, the entire day had passed, and Ye Yan could go back to the game because it must have dawned in the game by now. When Ye Yan entered the game again, he just greeted the cat and prepared to leave to do his task. "I will wait for your good news." The cat said and then, he made a dismissing gesture with his paw. "Or the notice of your death..." The cat said after Ye Yan left the room. Then, he justy down on the table to take a nap. After leaving the room and crawling his way out of the hole, Ye Yan looked around to see if there were monsters nearby and where he should go to look for the Crazy Rabbit. Far away, to the right, there are the remains of a high wall that Ye Yan can use to see a good part of the area. He decided to go there to look around. He used the rubbles and the holes in the wall to climb to the top. Getting there, he could see almost the entire area, from where was the original garden to the wall on the other end of the pce ruins. Next to this wall, there was something white and red running fast. And for what the cat said, there is a high chance of it being the Crazy Rabbit. After checking that the white dot kept running only in that region, Ye Yan left the wall and went to that ce. When Ye Yan got close enough to see the appearance of the monster, his jaw dropped. The monster looks like Roger Rabbit after gaining a little too much prosperity weight and using a chimney-pot hat. The rabbit''s hat is divided into four parts, two red and two cks, and in each part, there is a card symbol. On the red parts, there are a ck spade and a ck club, and in the ck parts, there are a red diamond and a red heart. With this appearance, the rabbit looks like a gambler addicted that likes to eat a little too much. Even more so, with that face that looks like it just got out of a cartoon. But, no matter the monster''s appearance, he just needs to kill it. However, contrary to what his appearance indicates, this monster should be very strong because of the quest''s level of difficulty. Before approaching the monster, Ye Yan took a good look at the area, trying to find something he can use to gain an advantage in the battle. He just found a few sparse trees and a ce where he can climb the wall. Sadly, the monster wouldn''t wait by the wall for him to climb and leap attacking like in some other games. As there is nothing more he can do before the battle, Ye Yan took a deep breath and started to approach the Crazy Rabbit in a hat. When the rabbit perceived Ye Yan''s presence, it started to madlyugh while pointing at him. [This rabbit definitely smoked some strange substance!] Looking at the rabbit, Ye Yan started to think that this monster should have eaten some "rabbit" weed or smoke something improper because, even for a crazy rabbit, it is too abnormal. When Ye Yan got around 5 meters (~16,4 feet), the rabbit jumped in front of him. The rabbit was so fast that Ye Yan almost didn''t have time to dodge. Luckily, his reaction speed is high or he would have been licked by the rabbit. Yes, licked. The monster didn''t try to scratch him or kick but lick him. Maybe the monster would use the germs to kill him because with that bad breath and the almost green saliva running down from its mouth, not only the number of germs should be high, but it probably is highly toxic as well. Ye Yan would feel tremors through his body even if Jessica Rabbit tried o licked him, even more with the one doing it being a crazy rabbit that must never have seen a toothbrush in its entire life. Seeing the type of attack the rabbit is using, Ye Yan understood an important thing in this battle. As the rabbit is crazy, he should expect the unpredictable. The rabbit may use things that he would never think in this fight. Chapter 86: BOOMerang Hat Chapter 86: BOOMerang Hat After getting ready for anything the Crazy Rabbit might do, Ye Yan started attacking again. He used his open folding fan to sh against the monster, together with punches from his left hand and kicks that do not do much damage but could help a little. However, the rabbit was fighting simrly to Ye Yan, or more urately, the rabbit was fighting like a kangaroo, attacking with punches and kicks. Suddenly, the rabbit jumped back and yawned like a lion. Meanwhile, Ye Yan didn''t stop his attacks. He threw his fan at the Crazy Rabbit while still holding it by the wire and performing attacks from a distance. When the rabbit yawned, nothing happened. He just stood there while being a punching bag for Ye Yan. However, at the moment the rabbit yawned, Ye Yan received a system notification. System: Congrattions, you are naturally immune to yawn. Your mind is naturally immune to low-level hypnotic skills. Ye Yan has heard about yawn being like low-level hypnosis and if people have an urge to yawn after seeing someone doing it, they could be hypnotized. Maybe, it''s true, at least in the game it is. Being naturally immune to hypnotic skills is a good thing. At least, he will not need to worry about it in the future, as it looks like there are such skills in the game. Noting that the skill was ineffective against Ye Yan, the Crazy Rabbit didn''t try to use it again and soon started o attack, but this time, he put his right hand, or paw, on his lower back and took a teacup from who knows where and threw it at Ye Yan. Maybe the rabbit has a pocket that works as a space bag on his clothes, and that''s why he could take such a thing out of nowhere like that. It is better to think like that, as the game has such things, unlike the old Batman tv series where the hero takes a shield from his behind and anyone with a little imagination knows from where it came from. The Rabbit started to throw one teacup after another at Ye Yan, who was dodging them easily, despite the speed in which the rabbit was throwing them. While dodging, Ye Yan keeps approaching the Crazy Rabbit, ready to fight at a close distance, which he excels in because of his real-life experiences and abilities. Ye Yan keeps deflecting the Rabbit''s attacks with his fan and left hand while hitting him at the same time with his free limbs, but the Crazy Rabbit is too strong, and even if he deflect his attacks, Ye Yan takes some damage. Feeling his health points lowering, Ye Yan starts to get away from the rabbit for him to drink a health potion and think about what he should do next because if the fight continues in the same way it was, he will run out of health potions and will die soon after. However, the Crazy Rabbit didn''t give him time to do more than drink a single potion. The rabbit took his hat from his head and threw it at Ye Yan like a fucking boomerang. With a single nce at the hating in his direction, Ye Yan knew that it was not like the teacups the rabbit threw at him before. This knowledge didn''te from the speed of the hat or the des in its brim but the lights emanating from it. The hat looks like a bomb that is ready to explode at any time. When the rabbit threw his hat, the four cards symbols started to glow in sequence, like a roulette wheel. But soon, it stopped, and the ck club was the only one still glowing. When the hat with the glowing ck club got near Ye Yan, it exploded like a powerful bomb, throwing stones and dust everywhere. Luckily, Ye Yan didn''t wait to be blown into pieces. When he noticed the strange lights in the hat, he threw his fan at a tree branch not very far from him and pulled the wire at the same time he jumped, for him to get as far away as he could from the ce he was before. When he saw the result of the explosion, Ye Yan feels cold sweat run down his body. The explosion created a crater in the ce he was previously. If he took a second longer to get out of there, he would be in Hell by now eating soup. He congratted himself for his quick thinking while starting to run from the tree and in the rabbit''s direction, taking advantage of the fact that the Crazy Rabbit went retrieve his hat next to the crater. He activated his Lucky Hit skill and started to use Bash to deal as much damage as possible on the rabbit. As Ye Yan decided to put his base points in strength and agility evenly, the power of the skill wasn''t as powerful as it could be if he had more strength but his attack speedpensated for hisck of strength. Now, Ye Yan can perform one attack every second. This attack speed is already fast for normal people but for someone like Ye Yan, it is slow. In real life, his speed is faster than in the game and because of this, he feels like his body is heavy in the game. When people are trained to perform certain actions at high speed, they can reach inhuman numbers. An example of this is the mechanics of F1 Races, which can change the four tires of a car in only 1.82 seconds[1]. And Ye Yan has trained his body to fight very fast. His punches are powerful but what makes him more deadly is his speed, in which he can perform many attacks at the same time others could do just one. Up until now, Ye Yan always feels like something is holding him while fighting, and because of this, he can''t perform his best. Even his body being the same as it is in real life, his speed isn''t, so he can break his limits in the game and perform things he couldn''t in real life for hisck of experience, but at the same time, he knew he can do better than this if it was in real life. After many years of using his body to fight, any change of it can represent a huge difference in hisbat abilities. As he chose he keep his body as it is in real life, the difference is just in the speed. It means a lot in the game but if he chose another race of body shape, it could be much worse than it is now, mainly when dodging and deflecting attacks because he knows exactly how far he can reach and the little moves he can do to dodge. If his body were a little different, he wouldn''t be able to do that because he would have to not only get used to his new body but also train it until he could perform moves almost on instinct without problems. And it would take a lot of time to reach, the time he didn''t have. His friends asked him why he chose to be a human when he could be anything else in a game in which you can choose from dwarves and elves to a fucking Dragonborn. He knew that he would suffer from it because everybody looks down on humans but for an experienced fighter like him, stay in a body he is used to is his greatest advantage in the game. And he decided to change all the glory and beauty of other races for this advantage he has in using his own body. When the Rabbit took his hat back, Ye Yan started to get away from him again, but always staying near enough for him to attack with his fan and not very far from the tree for him to use it to escape because who knows when the rabbit will use his BOOMerang hat again. Ye Yan threw his fan and started swinging it to sh the Crazy Rabbit. He dealt a good amount of damage in this way. However, the rabbit soon threw his hat again, but this time, the was that stayed glowing at the end, was the red heart. When the hat got near Ye Yan, it emanated a white light that healed Ye Yan instead of taking damage. And he only knows it because the range of his healing skill is bigger than the explosion, or else, he would lose the chance. Because of this skill, Ye Yan understood how the hat works. It is a gamble hat that can deal damage or help the enemy, however, he doesn''t know the odds of something good happening instead of bad. He can only pray to when it reach him the next time, it will be something good. ............ [1] The record was achieved by Reb Bull in 2,019. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!