Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

“I’ve gotten rid of him,” Gu Fei straightforwardly said as he handed over the quest item, “He made a fool out of everyone by using this to transform himself into a lycanthrope.”

After taking a good look at the item, the stout Werewolf expressed his shock, “He’s a Werewolf Lord! No wonder he’s so strong!”

“He’s alright, I guess...” Gu Fei could only say so as he did not actually have the chance to witness how strong the Werewolf Lord was. Ironically, he had in fact had the chance to do so last night. The Werewolf Lord, unfortunately, fled with his tail between his legs once he had received a slight injury.

“You did us a favor. We are also eternally grateful that you have kept your promise to not expose our identity to others,” the stout Werewolf sincerely said, adding, “To prevent the occurrence of a similar dilemma, can you leave the Fang of the Wolf King in our hands?”

“Sure,” Gu Fei immediately acquiesced.

“To express our gratitude...” The stout Werewolf went inside his room and rummaged through the bottom of his bed. Gu Fei could feel his heart sinking. The reward from Chief Edwin was at least properly stored inside a drawer. How great could this reward be if it was tossed haphazardly by the stout Werewolf under his bed?

But Gu Fei’s eyes lit up when the stout Werewolf emerged and faced Gu Fei once more.

The stout Werewolf was holding a sword. The blade had an expensive wine’s purplish shine to it, while its surface was shrouded in a layer of black luster. The weapon exhibited the qualities of a top-grade weapon from its naked appearance alone.

The stout Werewolf handed it over, and Gu Fei eagerly accepted it.

Moonlit Nightfalls.

The weapon’s traits gave Gu Fei quite a shock. Not only did the sword possess a very high Physical Attack, it also had a fair share of Magic Attack, which was superior than the Magic Attack of the stave July had gifted him.

The magic staves’ main offense was naturally their Magic Attack. However, the term ‘Physical Attack’ would be listed on the magic staves’ traits window as well. This was because magic staves could technically function as physical weapons. As for weapons like sword, dagger, or saber, they would usually not have the word ‘Magic Attack’ displayed on their traits window. Compared to all those weapons, the current sword in Gu Fei’s hands not only had high Magic Attack listed on its traits window, the Physical Attack was very substantial as well.

Two more traits could be seen further down. [Sword Aptitude 170%. Spell Aptitude 170%]

Even more traits were displayed below. [10% proc rate for critical attack, plus 10% increase in critical damage. +20 Agility. +20 Intelligence. 20% increase in attack speed. Usable skill: Impending Nightfalls... Conditions are not met; skill unavailable.]

It was terrific! The finest weapon! No matter how much of a noob gamer Gu Fei was, he could still tell how powerful the sword was based on its traits.

Even Sword Demon’s Frost Memories dagger, which Gu Fei had once considered as the finest weapon so far, paled in comparison to this sword right here.

Although Frost Memories was fine, it was just gold-tier equipment in the end. Moonlit Nightfalls, on the other hand, was purple-tier equipment.

Purple-tier equipment was the strongest gear in Parallel World if treated as a standalone item. The only one stronger than it was green-tier equipment. But green-tier equipment came in a set. Thus, players had to collect each piece and activate the hidden traits first before the green-tier equipment could unleash its full potential. Therefore, green-tier equipment was inferior to purple-tier equipment in terms of individual use.

“Look! Look at my sword!” Gu Fei excitedly shoved the sword to Xiaoyu so that she could admire it as well.

“Woahhhhh!” Xiaoyu exclaimed as she looked at the sword before asking, “Sword Aptitude... Spell Aptitude... What do they mean?”

“No idea!” Gu Fei replied, “But they must be incredible.”

“Why?”

“Because you can’t see these words on the usual weapons,” Gu Fei took out Sacred Flames of Baptism and checked its traits once more. Sure enough, the word ‘Aptitude’ was missing on the traits window.

“That’s rad!” Xiaoyu returned the sword to Gu Fei, “I want to do a quest like this as well.”

“You will get your chance!” Gu Fei patted Xiaoyu.

“Both our quests are done,” Xiaoyu said as they left the stout Werewolf’s house. Just as they stepped outside the door, a beam of white light enveloped Gu Fei.

“What happened?!” Xiaoyu was startled into pulling out her axe.

“Chill!” Gu Fei said to her immediately, “I’m fine. It’s just a level up.”

“What’s with the sudden level up for no apparent reason?” Xiaoyu asked.

Gu Fei glanced over at the system notification. The system had sent Gu Fei a message when they exited the stout Werewolf’s house. [Completed the chain quest ‘Eddie’s Mission’ with a rate of 95%. Experience points and coins rewarded.] Apparently, the experience points Gu Fei had acquired were enough for him to reach level 31.

“I’ve earned plenty of experience points!” Gu Fei was dumbfounded. The rewards for this particular chain quest were simply too astronomical. Including Flames of Baptism that had received a new trait after being plated with silver by Chief Edwin, Gu Fei received a total of four equipment and an unexpectedly hefty amount of experience points from this quest. On the other hand, the monetary reward was not that grand, as Gu Fei found that he had only gained fifty more gold coins upon checking his money pouch.

“That’s a given,” Ye Xiaowu, who was observing from afar, smiled wryly as he saw the shocked expression on Gu Fei’s face. It would have been strange if the experience points given were insufficient to even raise one level of someone who had completed a chain quest beyond his league. Furthermore, the traits listed on the two final rewards – Spell Mastery, Sword Aptitude, and Spell Aptitude – had yet to be made available for the low-level gear equipped by the low-level players. Ye Xiaowu was left speechless since Gu Fei had access to those traits now after acquiring that fine equipment from this chain quest.

Ye Xiaowu felt depressed when he saw Gu Fei’s glum look upon obtaining the Midnight Spirit Robe. He really wanted to stab Gu Fei at that moment. He dared feel displeased with such an item? Luckily, Ye Xiaowu calmed down once he saw Gu Fei’s reaction upon obtaining the Moonlit Nightfalls.

“Come on. Let’s go back!” Xiaoyu urged.

“Back to where?”

“Yunduan City! I’m calling Master Kang,” Xiaoyu replied.

“Easy there. We’re not in a hurry,” Gu Fei said, “We’ve put effort into trekking a mountain range for three hours just to reach this faraway city. Let’s roam around some more first! Don’t you want to see what kinds of quests they have around here?”

Xiaoyu’s eyes beamed, “You’ve got a point.”

“It’s best if you accept a quest that requires you returning to Yunduan City to complete it. That way, it’s even more worthwhile for you coming here,” Gu Fei rambled on with his silver tongue, while Xiaoyu kept on bobbing her head. Finally, she decided, “You’re right! I’ve made up my mind to stay in Yueye City for a few more days. Go ahead if you’re leaving. There’s no need to wait for me.”

“Well, I feel a little tired already. I’m logging off once I get into the city,” Gu Fei said.

The two left Yeguang Village and headed to Yueye City.

All the surrounding players in Yueye City behaved audaciously, just like the players in the local grinding zones. Gu Fei and Xiaoyu had already witnessed four or five different brawls while they traveled from Yeguang Village to Yueye City. Those players were very brutal with their fights, never stopping until their opponents were dead. Gu Fei and Xiaoyu carefully went past them, trying not to get involved with the local brawls.

The current Gu Fei was still bounded by the PvP penalties he had incurred previously. About ten hours had passed since he went online in Yunduan City. He still had twenty hours to go before he could clear off all his PK points. It would be somewhat dangerous to enter a city at his current state, but Gu Fei did not give it much thought right now. The chain quest that he had completed gave him a thorough mental workout, and Xiaoyu, who was beside him all that time, did not actually contribute much aside from physical labor. Having been forced to rack his brain and ponder on for a long period of time, Gu Fei considered grinding a whole afternoon to be less exhausting. Hence, at the moment, he only cared about logging off and resting in reality.

When the two entered Yueye City, Gu Fei immediately waved goodbye at Xiaoyu and headed toward a nearby player to inquire about the nearest log-off point.

That player was quite taken aback upon hearing that Gu Fei had come from another city. So once the player had pointed Gu Fei toward the right way, the former also made his own inquiries on how to get to the city the latter originated.

“There’s no way of settling down in Yueye City, anymore. It’s too chaotic. It’s one skirmish after another every single day. Nobody even bothers grinding once reaching level 30; all everyone does is PvP all day!”

“Why’s that?” Gu Fei could not understand.

“That’s because level 30 is when everyone will need to accumulate a large number of experience points! Think about it! Imagine the experience points you now possess are equivalent to a mid level 30; once you get killed by others, the loss of points you’ll suffer is equivalent to dropping from level 29 to level 25. Is it worth it? Nowadays, all are afraid to suffer such a huge loss, so they refrain from grinding further. But they can’t bear to watch others reach a higher level either. In the end, it turns into this endless cycle of PvP where everyone is trying to stop the others from leveling up further,” the player explained to Gu Fei.

“Can’t believe there’s such a thing here,” Gu Fei was bewildered.

“Well, we don’t really have a choice when all are too afraid to grind over here. All we can do is hone our crafting skills... The players over here in Yueye City have very high crafting skills, by the way. So if you want to get yourself new equipment or procure some kind of medication, you’ve come to the right place,” the player continued to brief Gu Fei on how things were locally, before he asked, “Oh, yeah. I forgot to ask you this. What’s the name of the city you came from?”

“Yunduan City,” Gu Fei answered.

“Holy sh*t! Yunduan City?! The one with the Close Combat Mage?” the player exclaimed.

“Close Combat Mage?”

“How can you not know? It’s someone with the serial number 27149. He’s ranked first on the Wanted Players list of the ‘Bounty Mission’ right now. Apparently, this person’s a Mage who allocated all his stat points toward Agility and engages in close combat. Super rad. He managed to make short work of a Thief and dropped his level eight times... Hot dang! It’s simply amazing. A player with such caliber should settle down here in Yueye City. I bet he’ll fit right in.”

On the surface, it seemed like Gu Fei was keeping a straight face. Inside, a surge of emotions had risen. He was thinking about how he had nowhere to display his kung fu in reality, yet he had already caused quite a stir and gained countless admirers by simply unleashing a bit of it within this VRMMO. Gu Fei considered kung fu as a weapon for fighting, and only in such a chaotic world could he receive the greatest form of respect for it.

Gu Fei was lost in his thoughts about kung fu, while the player was lost in his thoughts about Gu Fei’s attire.

“You said a while ago that the nearest log-off point is this way, right?” Gu Fei asked while pointing at the street ahead.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll be on my way, then. See you around,” Gu Fei parted ways with the player.

“Bye,” the player said as he nodded.

Gu Fei walked down the street. While looking at the departing figure, the player opened his mercenary group channel, “I found an easy target.”

“How easy?” someone asked on the channel.

“A black mage robe. Have you seen it before?” the player asked.

“What kind of traits?”

“Couldn’t appraise it...” the player answered.

“F*ck. Isn’t your Appraisal skill at rank 8, already?”

“Da*n you! Haven’t you heard of the phrase, ‘There’s always someone better’? It’s not like rank 8 is the ceiling for this skill,” the player replied indignantly.

“Even his Appraisal has been honed to a rank higher than ours... Doesn’t seem like he’s just a regular guy... Do we have what it takes to mess with someone like that?”

“Relax! It’s not a problem. For some unknown reason, he came here from another city. He’s all alone. Who else can we target but him? You lot better get moving. He’s on his way to a designated log-off point.”

“Which route did he take?”

“The C route!”

“F*ck. Isn’t that a long way to the safe zone?”

“Doesn’t change the fact that we still have to hurry up. I’ll go after him now,” The player entered Stealth mode and slowly followed behind Gu Fei.