Bab 39: Castle Wood

Editor: Atlas Studios

"Lin Jie, where the heck is this worn-down place?"

Zheng Ziliang frowned and stretched his hand to his right shoulder. His face was full of disgust as he swiped the dry and rotten palms onto the ground. In this half an hour, a dead corpse would fall from the sky with every step taken, and it just happened to fall onto him.

"Castle Wood," said Lin Jie faintly.

Built on the vast expanse of the mountains was the famous Blade Mountain. One side of the mountain was sharp like a blade, while the other side was like a junkyard. Before the opening of Wood Castle, entering the dungeon from the back hill was a very practical method to avoid most monsters.

But after the dungeon was opened, it was depressing. All the monsters killed in Wood Castle were thrown down. As they raised their head to look up, the corpses were like snow, making one's hair stand on end as the corpse fell onto the person.

The Wood Castle dungeon would be popular for a long time, reaching the peak of its popularity as the players' levels were raised to 10. The trial for job change needed players to gather at least one bronze set.

On the market, the price of the lower-level Poison-Antidote Potion had dropped slightly. The reason being the merchants who opened their goods to earn money disrupted the market price. Only Lin Jie remained very calm and kept the price high. For that reason, the Sky Provisions Shop had been despised by many people.

Even so, the profit of the lower-level Poison-Antidote Potion was still very high. Lin Jie's warehouse had deposited an extra 40 gold coins!

In addition, the Sky Provisions Shop gradually got onto the right track under the management of Seven Ears. 40 gold coins were used as starting money to buy a large number of low-priced goods, at least 20% were pawned goods, which could be sold to earn money after the redemption deadline.

Dead Fish Eye also contacted him not long ago, to ask when he needed to fulfill the promise, but he postponed it again and again.

"I can go for a level 5 dungeon with my level now?" asked Zheng Ziliang, lacking in confidence. He did not want to hinder him by pulling him down.

"Don't worry, I know what I am doing, or else why would I ask you for help?" Lin Jie laughed.

The two of them climbed to the top of the mountain in the pile of bloody corpses, everywhere was dark. The castle that looked like a devil's giant mouth stood tall and straight in front of them.

The crowd was like a mass of bobbing heads.

"Simple-level castle dungeon team recruiting, any MT come and join us. Let's quickly enter the dungeon."

"Any team is short of a healer? A healer with all bronze equipment is requesting for a team!"

"OMG, a priest with all bronze equipment! Big brother, please come to my team…"

The most popular job in a dungeon would either be MT or healers. Before players changed jobs, only the priest had a considerable healing ability.

Whereas the other few jobs that had the ability to heal, such as the Paladin, Shaman, Gladiator, etc., were much worse in terms of healing extent.

Several teams had their eyes lit up when they saw Lin Jie. High-level warriors with good equipment were the ones who were the most sought after. With just a hook of their finger, who knew how many teams would voluntarily invite him.

Only when they saw Zheng Ziliang did those people calm down. They all thought that he was helping a noob to level up.

Simple-level dungeons' difficulty level was not low, not to mention the trouble of bringing a liability with him! After a few minutes, only a level 5 Paladin with all blank equipment came to invite Lin Jie to join the team.

"No need." Lin Jie waved his hand and stood at the entrance of the dungeon.

Suddenly, the crowd burst into chatters, getting excited.

A team of ten people strode proudly towards the dungeon. They were dressed in black-toned clothes and had cold eyes. Even though they were the center of attention, they treated the onlookers as if they were totally invisible.

That was an expert team!

"Is that the Kingdom of Glory that is in the limelight now?"

"I have a friend who is a potioneer in this guild. The pay is $7,500 a month, and the commission will be counted separately."

"Those who have wealth speak louder words!"

The current Kingdom of Glory was different from the one in Lin Jie's previous life.

In his previous life, the Kingdom of Glory, Dark-Robed Knights and Mage Heavens had risen into power together, splitting nearly half of the Light Alliance forces. The other guild leaders who had been caught unprepared, united with difficulties and only then were they not swallowed up.

At that time, there had been countless of Kingdom of Glory branch guilds, but the number of people in the main guild had not changed. That had lasted for a whole six years.

Currently, the Kingdom of Glory was rapidly absorbing members, becoming no different from an ordinary guild.

"Did the person in charge change the plan?" Lin Jie tapped his chin and looked at the people from the Kingdom of Glory walking nearer from afar. The Eighteen Massacres was not among them, but the team's lineup was still shocking and strong.

Dual Swordsman "Cigarette Butt," Orpha "Shallow Smile"… In a few years, those names would become a legend in The New Age.

Cigarette Butt had the same job as Lin Jie, Warrior. However, what's different was that he got a very good talent skill through randomization. He would have the 'flurry' augment when equipping two one-handed weapons. As both weapons' attributes could be stacked, the attack damage was much higher than an average person's.

He was about 30 years old, and his face was very clean with sharp edges. He emitted a masculine charm with his every action or gesture. That was a man that could make any woman go crazy. If it weren't for a certain event, he would most probably still be the prince charming of many people's dreams.

Cigarette Butt noticed Lin Jie's line of sight, his eyes were emotionless as if impervious to desires and passions. However, with just this look, his first impression towards Lin Jie's equipment had already been formed. His armor was very exceptional!

Before Heritage equipment appeared in front of the public eyes, no one could discover Broken Blade's extraordinary nature.

Cigarette Butt casually walked towards Lin Jie and smiled. "How about joining the Kingdom of Glory?"

Everyone was shocked.

The guild that many people were trying hard to worm their way into was just within reach for other people.

"Not interested." Lin Jie shrugged his shoulders.

"WTF! Big brother, I am interested!" An onlooker could no longer suppress himself.

"I have it too, me too… As long as you lack people, I can join anytime."

Cigarette Butt laughed sarcastically. He habitually raised his right hand to the front of his lips with his two fingers in a V shape but awkwardly realized that there was no cigarette in the game. His face was full of dismal.

"Cigarette Butt, let's go." Shallow Smile was a woman. She was beautiful, but unfortunately, her face was like cold ice that would never melt. This made it difficult for people to have a favorable impression of her.

After following the Kingdom of Glory's team enter the dungeon with their eyes, everyone started discussing among themselves.

"Looks like the first clear of the dungeon is about to emerge."

"If the first clear is taken, some of the older brand guilds such as Triumphant Midnight's face will be lost completely."

"Why is there no news from Netherblue team yet? They were the team that took the first clear of the expert-level dungeon! This does not make sense."

"What Netherblue team, I have not heard of it before…"

The dungeon's light flashed, Qiu Yuan walked out with her face flushed red. She wore the Dark Hug Cloak that was obtained from Castle Wood. Its luster was very dim as it must be a normal piece of equipment.

On the surface, it seemed as though they had an advantage since they had a team, but they could only stay at the entrance and clear the small monsters. Qiu Yuan felt very helpless.

"You came?" When Qiu Yuan saw Lin Jie, her worries flew away. She put up a little angry face. "Hmph, you still know to come back? Bast*rd… Ahem! Hey, did you pretend not to see the message I sent you?"

Lin Jie innocently raised his outstretched hands. "I was doing a mission."

"Liar!" Qiu Yuan was ablaze with anger.

"Let me introduce to you, Innocent Killer, my brother." Lin Jie quickly changed the topic and patted Zheng Ziliang's shoulder. He then noticed that there was something different. That fellow had immediately straightened his back when he saw the beauty. Lin Jie could almost not reach him.

"Hello." Zheng Ziliang smiled, bowed and shook hands. He did all three actions in one go, very in a gentleman's and warm manner. With one look, one would know that he was not the kind of guy that would never let go if he held onto one's hand.

Qiu Yuan blinked her eyes. "Such a creepy name…"

"…" Zheng Ziliang pointed at Lin Jie. "He helped me to create my account."

"Creepy!" Qiu Yuan flashed her middle finger and despised Lin Jie.

"Bro, I think I am in love." Zheng Ziliang sent a message to Lin Jie. "Love at first sight, oh no, I think I've fallen in love. You have to help me no matter what, or else tonight I will die of lovesickness…"

Lin Jie almost splurt out a mouthful of blood. He immediately opened the shopping website and searched for rat poison and, placing an order of a total of ten pounds of it. He would poison that bast*rd tonight!

Just as he was about to pay, Netherblue walked towards him from a distance. "Long time no see."

Lin Jie canceled the order page. "Long time no see."

"Thank you," said Netherblue quietly and looked at Zheng Ziliang, "This is…"

'Wow, another beauty!' Zheng Ziliang wiped his saliva, and just as he was about to introduce himself, he heard Lin Jie say, "My son, don't mind him."

Zheng Ziliang."…"

The two of them joined the team, and Lin Jie took a look at the team's level. All team members' levels were at 6, at the point where they were about to level up to level 7.

The reason Netherblue was only farming monsters near the dungeon entrance, was not totally because their ability was too low, but it was totally because of Lin Jie's arrangement.

The monsters in Castle Wood had very high experience points, the difference in the strengths of monsters was very huge. The attributes could have a disparity of 300% and above, but the experience points were totally the same!

If one died in the dungeon, the player would lose 10% of their current experience points. If the whole team was wiped out, all the experience points received from the dungeon would be lost. According to the difficulty intensity of the Castle Wood dungeon, wiping out of the whole team was inevitable.

Therefore, even if it were grand guilds like the Kingdom of Glory, Triumphant Midnight and Ironwall Empire, etc., the outcome of clearing the dungeon would be the same. As the progress of clearing the dungeon went up, their level remained the same.

However, Netherblue's team members were different. Their experience points were always increasing. The speed of farming the monsters at the entrance of Castle Wood was 50% faster than other training grounds. They could also accumulate on the foundation of their equipment.

Now, that small team's level was higher than most players.

"Fu Sheng, how was it?" Netherblue looked at Lin Jie with anticipation.

"No good." Lin Jie shook his head. Netherblue sighed helplessly.

"This level is not enough to clear the difficult-level." Lin Jie laughed. "However, we could clear the normal-level dungeon and get that record first!"

Netherblue's face was full of excitement. "Really?"

"Yes, I am certain. However, I hope your team could do me a favor. This normal-level first clear, I want to monopolize it myself."

"Ah? Why? Big sis' appearance fee is very expensive!" Netherblue calmed down temporarily and regained her normal capable and experienced self.

"I have my own reasons, I hope you can help me this time. The appearance fee will be the first clear of the expert-level Castle Wood!"

"Deal!" Netherblue could not calm down again. First clear for normal-level and expert-level, was there any need for more consideration?

"Ah yes, we need to keep our agreement temporarily a secret, is that fine?" Lin Jie thought for a while and added.

"No problem!"

komentar 90 komentar

Pilih

KIRIM HADIAH

Bab 40: Timmy's Revenge

Editor: Atlas Studios

—'You are about to enter the Castle Wood dungeon, please choose a difficulty.'

—'Dungeon difficulty: Normal-level! Brave warrior, go ahead.'

Due to Lin Jie and Zheng Ziliang joining the team, the team needed to reduce two members.

"I am a warrior, so I will leave." Water smiled fatuously and gave a thumbs up to Lin Jie. "Good luck!"

Lin Jie shook his head and said, "Don't need to be in a hurry, you can't leave."

How could a team lack an MT? Even if Lin Jie's defense was higher than him, he still did not have enough aggro skills. If OT occurred, they would get wiped out.

"Hmph, I, on the other hand, feel that your teammate should leave," said a skinny spellcaster laughingly. His skin was pale, and his lips were obviously tainted red. Those were the signs of a Fallen Human.

Fallen Humans were human aristocrats that coveted pleasure. When players chose Fallen Humans as their race, they would be randomly born in a luxurious family, accepting their unique mission.

However, squirearchies who were opposed to commoners, their favorability towards fallen humans were negative.

Only fallen humans were able to learn dark magic in the Guild of Light, a country that valued belief deeply.

This spellcaster was called Monkey. His whole body was so dry and thin that he was left with only skin and bones. He was Mighty Wings' friend, and his personality was a bit cowardly. Originally, he was silently leeching off all the experience and drops, but he was afraid that his interest would be affected, so he jumped out and voiced his opinion now.

Certainly, Zheng Ziliang was only level 3. No matter which aspect one looked him from, he was not suitable to stay in the team.

Lin Jie raised his eyebrows and explained, "In the second half of Castle Wood, we will need a considerable number of interrupting skills. I believe that no one can grasp this technique better than him, including me."

Monkey sneered. "How can you prove it?"

Lin Jie threw a look at him. "If you can successfully release any spell within 10 seconds, I will kick him out."

"Hahaha, okay!" Monkey gave a hearty laugh and looked at the other teammates. As long as he could win that unlosable bet, he could continue leeching off the experience. As to who might be kicked from the team, why should he care?

Zheng Ziliang had a serious look. He was still quite a gentleman in front of the beauties. He looked quite handsome with unique temperament as he put the long robe-shaped cloak onto his already tall and elegant figure. He waved his staff lightly, and a hexagram array slowly appeared. From inside a mist, a banshee appeared.

Minstrel Musa!

"Come," said Zheng Ziliang calmly. He directly gave up controlling his own body and focused wholeheartedly on controlling Minstrel Musa.

Being a summoner meant there was high demand for control. A summoner that could control one's own body and summoned beasts was considered to be an expert. That was also one of the disadvantages of being a summoner. When one was wholeheartedly controlling the summoned beasts to unleash its strongest strength, their body would be extremely fragile and weak.

Only an expert could control both at once, even multitasking.

Monkey gave a cold snort, and a layer of dark shadow started to form on his fingers. That was the most basic and rubbish skill of a spellcaster, Corrosive Spell. Its channeling time was only half a second, its attack was so weak that it was unbearable to watch it. It was totally good-for-nothing.

Talking about its advantage, the only pro would be its short channeling time.

"Spirit Scream!" Minstrel Musa emitted a sharp lament. Everyone hurriedly capped their ears using their hands.

Monkey's magic was interrupted, and Dark-type magic was even silenced for three and a half seconds.

At the same time, waves of fluctuation exploded on the surface of Monkey, causing more than 10 points of damage. That was Spirit Blast.

Monkey opened up the distance between them. The silence was about to end, and as long as he could channel a magic spell, he would win!

"Corrosive Spell!" Monkey's hands moved at a very fast rate. Right at the moment before the magic was released, he lost control of his body and happily scratched his armpit.

'Spirit Control!'

"F*ck!" Seven seconds had passed, and Monkey was so angry that it made his blood boil. He clenched his teeth, opened up both hands and waves of dark halo whirled around his body.

Darkness Halo: Status Type Skill, able to add a halo marking. Each layer of marking increases 5% of dark magic damage. 10 seconds as a round, you can at most stack up to 3 times. When Darkness Halo is being channeled, you are immune to silence.

Immune to silence! 'No matter how strong you are at controlling, what can you do to me now?'

Shortly after, Zheng Ziliang gave him the answer. Spirit Blast floated lightly towards Monkey. Negligible damage appeared. Monkey's head was clouded, and he was stunned.

"Time's up," Lin Jie coolly announced the results.

"Alright, you're not bad." Monkey took a deep breath with his eyes dodging around, but he said with a smile, "Since you have the ability, I will let you have the spot! Banana, let's go, we don't want to pull them down."

Banana was the Mage of the team, he learned arcane that would become stronger in the later period.

The two of them left the team voluntarily.

Netherblue looked at the back view of the two with thoughtful eyes as they left and smiled. "Looks like I will have more matters to deal with."

"Let's go." Lin Jie did not say anymore and stepped into the dungeon.

Qiu Yuan eyelids drooped and tugged on Netherblue's sleeve. "Big sis, it's all because I pulled Fu Sheng into the team, looks like-like I destroyed your team."

"Everyone fights for their own benefits. We would have disputes sooner or later." Netherblue paused for a moment and reached out her hand to pull Qiu Yuan and Water, giving a relieved smile. Her beauty was without comparison.

————————

"Castle Wood was the private residence of the Highlord, Modorheim. This pitiful baron was a very good person. He exempted the manors nearby from tax and allowed the farmers to be able to live in comfort, with abundance in food and clothing. A farmer's son secretly snuck into Castle Wood and fell in love with a maid, but was discovered by the Highlord.

When the two of them panicked and decided to forsake everything, the Highlord gave them a small house instead. He even held a wedding for them and invited the people from the nearby manors to congratulate them.

Until one day, a wandering arcane mage came to the manor. His strong magic could change ferocious wolves into meek sheep. The wolves that were one of the four harms of the manor at one time were greatly decreased in numbers. To thank him, he obtained long-term residency rights.

The Highlord discussed knowledge about elements and life intimately with the mage and opened up the castle library for him to read. After the arcane mage discovered a book, he had fallen completely. He started using humans as guinea pigs and killed many lives.

Afterward, his experiment succeeded. He successfully invented werewolf lineage magic, allowing civilians to become brutal, strong but scary.

This is the legend of the final Boss, Galru."

Lin Jie took a deep breath and explained the history of Castle Wood.

Water did not understand why the expert wanted to tell them such things at first, but then he became attracted by the story and couldn't help but ask, "What about that baron lord? What happened to him?"

Looking at Water's expression, Qiu Yuan and Netherblue chuckled. That big boy was still very cute.

Zheng Ziliang gave a chilly reply, "In all the stories that this guy tells, the main character always dies in the end."

"Indeed, the baron died." Lin Jie glanced at him, 'Didn't I only give a pirated disc to you that does not read books? Although that disc did play a full 75 minutes of the "Complete Big Big Wolf Cooking Pheasant Sheep Soup," it's unlikely he would go so far to badmouth me, right?'

"After the baron died, he became the guardian of the castle. This pitiful guy unknowingly continued helping the person that betrayed him," added Lin Jie.

Qiu Yuan blinked her eyes. "And then?"

Lin Jie snapped his fingers. "This story was dropped from a small monster, but why? It can't be that the system is too bored right? Of course not. Let's go, we aren't entering the dungeon yet."

Just as he was talking, Lin Jie turned his head and walked towards the back of the castle to everyone's surprise.

Castle Wood was not only a castle, but it included a large manor. However, those places were not only shabby, but there was nothing to be found. Many players with strong curiosity had explored the area but had found no clues.

They walked through the worn-down manor. The blood stains that were scattered all around and broken wood that collapsed from time to time all illustrated the pitiful wasteland. Only from the splendor lights that were covered by the mud could one see its extraordinary past.

Clang—

Lin Jie accidentally kicked a cauldron, and a faint gasping could be heard from within the sudden noise.

"Someone there?" Lin Jie stood at his original spot and said gently, "We are adventurers from the City of Light and are here to help rescue the Highlord sir Modorheim."

"You-You are not a werewolf?" A weak voice could be heard from underneath. A furry palm stretched out, and its name was blood red, showing "Bloodthirsty Werewolf," its grade was Rare Elite.

"Ah!" They were all scared by the werewolf that appeared suddenly. Qiu Yuan quickly avoided it, and Water lifted up his shield, ready for battle.

Lin Jie stretched out his hand to stop them.

Just imagine, what would a normal team do when they found a Rare Elite, with a red name that all monster had while exploring the map? Of course, they would kill it! Rare Elites' drop rates were very high.

After killing the Bloodthirsty Werewolf, they would discover that nothing would be dropped beside a tattered cloth. Moreover, it would not respawn ever again in the future. NPCs in the dungeon were independent individual existence. Once they died, they would not respawn.

"I am a human," said Lin Jie.

Bloodthirsty Werewolf squinted its eyes. With a ferocious and scary face, the werewolf head slowly approached. It whiffed Lin Jie's scent and let down its guard. Then, its body gradually shrunk, becoming a big young boy with golden hair, but he was pale and thin as a skeleton.

"Sorry, but I must maintain the werewolf look. Only then I would not be dug out by those monsters and eaten up by them." He helplessly looked at the worn-down manor. "Actually I was unwilling to eat my friends' corpse, so I became the way I am now."

This boy was originally the farmer's son that accepted the Highlord's gift—Timmy. He was the only werewolf that could stay clear-headed.

"Brave warriors, I need your help," said Timmy in a solemn tone, "I will change back into a werewolf, and you all shall pretend to be my prey. I will use this as an excuse to get closer to Galru. Take this chance to kill him!"

—'Do you accept this mission? [Timmy's Revenge]?'

"Yes!"

"Very good. However, the first half of Castle Wood has already become the territory of those brainless undead. I'm afraid these disgusting monsters will not be able to understand me since they do not have brains. You will need to kill them all. We shall meet at the top of the castle." Timmy took out five bottles of potion. "These are Lineage Potions, they will allow you to gain an advantage during the battles."

—'You have received five bottles of Lineage Potion.'

komentar 113 komentar

Pilih

KIRIM HADIAH