48. Enemies are Bound to Meet Again The two men who went to j.a.pan eventually came online. The moment they did, they summoned all of Heretic Demons" relevant department to discuss the upcoming Guild Wars. Sakur3 had been conquered. The Four Great Seals were mentioned. In the next event, everyone"s target will be the other three fortresses" seals. If they still couldn"t take down Prole-3 this coming week and if any of the other two fortresses were conquered, the situation in the week after would be very serious.
However, all of this didn"t have much to do with XiaoYu. He just needed to follow the rules, grind up his levels and earn his money. But ever since the team training, XiaoYu realised he"d been ignoring too many of his skills. Nowadays, XiaoYu"s UI would be shimmering and shining whenever he"s training. Even if the buff was useless to a healer, he"d be constantly casting buffs on himself as long as he had enough MP and the skill didn"t require special items. All of that so he can raise his skills" Proficiency levels.
The grind in the Jiangshi Cave went on. He essentially needed to be Level 60 before he could try challenging the Pyramids. XiaoYu still had a ways to go before he reached that goal.
"With Battle-gege and Nightmare-gege here, I"m safe," said a cutesy, sweet voice from behind. XiaoYu didn"t pay any heed to her though. While there had been quite a few players pa.s.sing by, they all had healers in their party. No one would be willing to enter the lower levels and risk being poisoned otherwise. Thus, no one disturbed the solo XiaoYu. He too enjoyed the peace of being ignored.
"Ah. There seems to be a solo healer ahead." From the tone of the guy"s voice, it sounded as if that party didn"t have a healer. XiaoYu paused.
"I hate healers. They all look down on everyone else just because the Healers Alliance would back them up," replied the female voice.
"Who"d be so rude as to look down on our cute Snow?"
"That guy"s called LuckyCat or something. He"s got an insolent pet who"d pick up everything, even the drops that don"t belong to…Ah, that"s him!"
A bad feeling had already begun unfurling in XiaoYu"s gut the moment he heard the name Snow. As expected, the following sentences pointed the spearhead at him.
"Let me see. Tsk. So brash merely after Second Job change. He"ll be unbearable once he hits higher levels," said an a.s.sa.s.sin as he strutted over to XiaoYu and looked him up and down.
The wizard, Snow, wasn"t with the other wizard and archer from before this time. That"s because they felt afraid internally after the whole incident. LuckyCat was in their party. He knew their names. While the archer wasn"t in the party, he did introduce himself. If LuckyCat told the higher levelled lady healer about what happened, it"d be very commonplace for a group of healers to abruptly gang up on them one day on the road to somewhere.
Thus, they both suggested Snow apologised to LuckyCat via private messaging. Then, take a screenshot as prove and everything would be deescalated. But how could the proud Snow apologise to LuckyCat? So, the group argued and split.
This time, she found a knight and an a.s.sa.s.sin to carry her. With her skills at acting cute, she can still find new friends. Even if she parted from her old friends in anger.
XiaoYu was still in combat. He just stood there and silently waited as the party looked him from top to toe. Would he be killed again? XiaoYu wasn"t entirely sure. His hands slowly clenched into fists.
"Nightmare, no PvP. Be careful. He might record it." The knight called Battle-gege Whispered to the a.s.sa.s.sin.
"I know," the other replied.
"Hmph. You again. Don"t think you can be that cursed lucky to drop good equipment all the time," Snow said.
XiaoYu remained silent. What"s the point of explaining things to someone so self-centred? What"s the point of retorting? Better off just saving his strength. Worse come to worse, he"ll waste a Return Scroll.
"Alright, Snow. Don"t be angry. Look at him. You can tell no one wants to party with him. He"s all alone. Why else would a healer, a cla.s.s which has it the best in the game, be ignored?" the a.s.sa.s.sin commented.
"We"ll grind on our own. Leave him be. Let"s go," IndomitableBattle shot a glance at Nightmare-Demon as he led Snow away with a smile. They had already made the little healer wary of them. While straight-out killing the other would bring them a moment of joy, it might mean their photos and names, popping out grey, would be sent to the Healers Alliance.
XiaoYu let out a sigh of relief as he watched the three players leave without causing any trouble. Not everyone would kill other players at the drop of a hat. He was finally released from combat and XiaoYu looked down at the Return Scroll in his hands. He looked back at where the three disappeared off to. In the end, he decided to put it away. It was still early. He wouldn"t know what to do if he left grinding so early.
"Battle-gege, Nightmare-gege, you"re just going to let him go?" Snow pouted, an upset whine to her voice. She thought Nightmare-gege would stab the other with his a.s.sa.s.sin"s knives for her.
"There"s no grudge between us and him, Snow," IndomitableBattle patiently explained.
"But he was so mean before!"
"How mean was he? Tell me. I"ll help you think of a way," Nightmare said.
Snow wouldn"t be that foolish as to tell them what really happened. She embellished the tale and merely complained about how XiaoYu had the lowest level then. He mainly relied on her and her two friends to carry him, but because he was a healer, he refused to split any good loot he found. It was only after she beat him down through logic that he handed the gear out. Even then, he just threw it before her in disgust as if she was a beggar.
"That"s way overboard!" Nightmare-Demon exclaimed.
IndomitableBattle kept silent. He didn"t witness what had happened with his own eyes. He only had Snow"s one-sided description. Somehow, he felt that something wasn"t right. From his observation on the healer before, the other"s gaze didn"t hold any hints of disdain or superiority Snow mentioned. In fact, he found it strange how clear and calm they were.
"So, Nightmare-gege, you must help me out," Snow pleaded with her hands tugging at Nightmare-Demon"s clothes. Upon seeing hesitation in IndomitableBattle"s eyes, she smartly chose to plead with the slightly emotional Nightmare-Demon.
"Okay. I"ll help you teach him a lesson."
"You"re the best," Snow said.
"Nightmare, if you just kill a healer…"
"I know." Nightmare-Demon interrupted IndomitableBattle. "Did you forget what job I am?"
If one described the Knight"s Taunt as a faux-bug which could make players be stuck in combat mode indefinitely, then the a.s.sa.s.sin"s Cloaking was the skill for scheming while invisible.
When used, Cloaking makes the a.s.sa.s.sin invisible for a certain length of time according to Proficiency. It was meant to be a way for the frail a.s.sa.s.sin to save themselves when faced against a strong monster. The only drawback was they can"t do anything when invisible or they"ll be visible again. If one wanted to be like LittleZhuGe who could stalk other players while invisible, then one had to max out Cloaking"s Proficiency and get past the Third Job Change. Only then could they learn how to do that.
As for how to scheme and hurt others? Simple. The a.s.sa.s.sin could use their high Agility to attract the attention of a bunch of monsters, also known as pulling a train. If they suddenly Cloaked while next to the one they want to hurt, then the monsters who"d just lost their target would switch their attentions to the closest player.
The game doesn"t consider it as killed by a player. Plus, a.s.sa.s.sins had their special masks. The one who was schemed against could only swallow down the bitter pill they"ve been dealt with nowhere to complain. All because they couldn"t see the a.s.sa.s.sin"s face or name.
"You"re amazing, Nightmare-gege." When Nightmare-Demon explained the plan to Snow who wasn"t familiar with Cloaking, he was immediately praised. Before IndomitableBattle could say anything, Nightmare-Demon was already rushing off to pull aggro.
Still, all of the high-level Jiangshi on this level had ranged attacks. While Nightmare-Demon was fast enough to leave them far behind him, he was still losing health from the poisonous smog being spat at him. As he counted the monsters he had trailing behind him, Nightmare-Demon downed his potions. He was only Level 62. If he pulled too many, he might kill himself before he could harm anyone.
When the number of mobs chasing after Nightmare-Demon was about right, he moved towards where they"d b.u.mped into XiaoYu with ten Jiangshi right behind him. He hoped that foolish little healer hadn"t wandered far.
Translator"s Notes:
Gege: Suffix for brother. As this suffix is being used in context of "oppa"/"nii-san" etc (aka meant to slightly insinuate s.e.xual relations due to brother/sister complex being a thing), this will remain a suffix. Translating it to Brother x.x.x just feels as if I should be talking about monasteries and boarding schools instead.