Chapter 102 – Ancient Battlefield
Gaia was terribly unlucky. Since the Ancient Battlefield was extremely dangerous, the higher ups could not just send any commoner to their deaths, so they had to send an expert for the mission. That was why the decision of the mission taker must be at least at the level of the sixth cla.s.s enhancement. Yet, precisely because the place was one of the most dangerous places in the area, none of the other NPCs were willing to go and it eventually fell to Gaia, who had only just completed his sixth cla.s.s enhancement mission.
“Ahhh, such misfortune!” Gaia was nearly in tears when he explained his situation. He was forced to move out the very night he got the mission and head towards the Ancient Battlefield under his superior’s orders. The reason he ended up saving Fatty was purely because he was pa.s.sing by and wanted to show off his nearly acquired skill.
“I really do pity you,” Fatty patted Gaia’s shoulder. “But you can push the mission to someone like me just like how they pushed it off to you. That way you don’t have to take any risks.”
“You?” Gaia looked at Fatty in suspicion. Although he wanted to push it to Fatty, he wasn’t confident in Fatty’s ability.
“Don’t worry, I’ll definitely complete it perfectly,” Fatty wrapped his arm around Gaia’s shoulder. “A nice person like me is extremely rare. This is a chance in a lifetime. You should consider it properly.”
“Fine,” Gaia clenched his teeth. “I’ll give you the mission then wait for you to come back right here. If I don’t see you within three days, then I’ll go over there myself.”
Ding.
System Notification: Would you like to accept the mission “Investigate the Ancient Battlefield”?
“Got it,” Fatty snapped his fingers and chose to accept it.
Ding.
System Notification: You have accepted the mission “Investigate the Ancient Battlefield”.
Mission Details: Find the lost scout in the Ancient Battlefield and ask him whether there has been any changes. Time Limit: 3 days.
“I’ll wait three days for you here. Be quick!” Gaia urged and ordered Fatty to immediately be on his way.
“Big Brother Gaia, we’re not in that much of a hurry,” Fatty no longer minded so much now that he got the mission. “Say, you know that the Ancient Battlefield is terribly dangerous. I might die with my strength, so shouldn’t you sponsor me with some divine items or something?”
Gaia rolled his eyes, “You must be getting delusional. Do you think I look like someone with a divine item?”
“Ugh, good point,” Fatty was speechless. He’s even blunter than me!
“it really would be difficult for a puny a.s.sa.s.sin like you to go over though, so fine, I’ll give you some benefits,” with that, Gaia took out a book.
“Here’s a Illusion skill book I got when I was off training. I don’t have any use for it, but it’s perfect for you.” With that, Gaia handed a skill book to Fatty, then gave Fatty a push on the back. “Alright, I gave you something already. I won’t be merciful if you fail to accomplish the mission. Now, hurry!”
A smile bloomed on Fatty’s face when he saw what the skill book was for. “Don’t worry, I promise I’ll complete it perfectly.”
Fatty slapped his hand onto the skill book. A green light surrounded him as a new skill appeared in his skill bar.
Illusion: Create an illusion to confuse your enemies. It has no defense and cannot attack. A maximum of 3 illusions can be activate at any given time.
Cla.s.s Requirement: Rogue
Cooldown: 1 hour
Even though the illusion possessed no defense and no attack, it was a spectacular ability for running away. A total of three illusions alongside the user’s actual body would confuse anyone.
“Illusion!” Fatty shouted. An illusion appeared near him. It was identical to how Fatty looked and he also felt that he was able to control the illusion.
“Stealth!” Fatty called out. However, the illusion did nothing as if it was a lifeless puppet. Oh yeah, it doesn’t have any attacking or defensive ability, so there’s no way that it can use a skill.
“Run!” Fatty ordered. This time, the illusion finally moved as it turned around and sprinted off into a distance.
“Not bad, not bad.”
“Alright, go and finish the mission,” Gaia urged once more.
Fatty said his farewells to Gaia, then sprinted towards the Ancient Battlefield. However, he learned from his previous mistake. Instead of running blatantly through the woods, he chose to take smaller paths and used Invisibility to run away whenever he ran into a monster.
…
The Ancient Battlefield was several hundred kilometers away from the Central Capital. It was very fortunate that it was only in game. If it was in real life, then Fatty would have needed to run several days to reach there.
Fatty finally arrived on the outskirts just as the sky began to brighten. The Ancient Battlefield seemed to be an endless area that covered tens of thousands of millions squared kilometers of land. The place seemed to be covered a layer of mist, which limited vision to merely a few meters in the surroundings. What’s more, occasional ghastly wails and strange sounds would ring out from the depths of the area, while unknown monsters that flew overhead cast their shadows on the ground.
Fatty had a solemn look on his face as he stood on the edge of the battlefield. No wonder Gaia didn’t want to come even though he already has his sixth cla.s.s enhancement. I am getting bad vibes just standing here!
However, bad vibes was not enough to stop Fatty in his tracks. He felt a wave of cold air sweep towards him as he carefully stepped into the Ancient Battlefield. Then felt a chill and noticed a system notification.
System Notification: You have set foot in the Ancient Battlefield, causing the grudge of the battlefield to curse you. -10% in all stats until you leave.
According to what Bai Xiaosheng said, the Ancient Battlefield was the final battleground of countless great wars in tens of thousands of years. Every single way would involve armies of tens of millions of beings that included countless divine beasts, demonic beasts and even super divine beasts and super demonic beasts. An unimaginable number of soldiers ended up peris.h.i.+ng there so that the top dozen meters or so of the ground was not actually soil, but merely layers of bones!
There was indeed a side effect of so many deaths in such a place. The most obvious was the many vengeful spirits and wraiths who roamed the place, as well as the mists that covered the Ancient Battlefield, blocking it from the sunlight. It was also the mists which made the dangerous battlefield even more mysterious and sinister.
A few steps in, Fatty saw a skeleton on the ground move. It wobbled, then stood up with a blood red saber in its hand. It wore a dark armor with a crimson cape. Its sockets seemed to s.h.i.+mmer with ghastly green lights similar to will o’ wisps. It moved around a bit, then turned its head towards Fatty.
Vengeful Remains
Level: ???
…
Oh, it’s another monster that has exceeded the appraisal range.
Hah, take this! Combo Attack!
-89
-70
-65
-60
Fatty attacked the monster and was very lucky to get four hits with the use of the skill. However, the damage was pitifully low as the skill dealt less than 300 damage even with all four hits connecting.
Then, it was the monster’s turn. It swung its saber at Fatty.
-300
F*ck!
Fatty immediately scampered off using Invisibility without even drinking a single potion.
Yet, the skill seemed to be useless against the Vengeful Remains. It was not even slightly confused after Fatty disappeared. It merely continued to swing its saber towards Fatty without any hesitation. The saber sliced through the air, then just as it was about to reach Fatty, he lunged forward into the Vengeful Remain’s skeletal arms then activated Coil.
A silver python burst out from the ground and coiled on the monster. Even though the Vengeful Remains was a high level monster, it was not as ridiculous as the various boss monsters Fatty failed Coil against, so the skill was still able to successfully restrict its movement.
Fatty leaped back, drank a health potion, then panted heavily with his hands on his knees. Everything happened in a split second, but he did feel himself on the brink of death. He definitely would have died if it wasn’t because of Coil.
“s.h.i.+t!” Fatty cried out. He suddenly remembered that he didn’t set the Central Capital as his resp.a.w.n point yet. If he dies, then he would resp.a.w.n back in Black Tortoise City. Although it didn’t cost much to teleport, the teleportation token had limited uses.
Meanwhile, the Vengeful Remains started to wobble as if it was about to break free of its restraint.
Fatty discarded the thought about the resp.a.w.n point from his mind then took a few steps back. I don’t have much chance against a high level monster like this. I should finish my mission right now.
Fatty took a few quiet steps backwards, but before he could get out of combat to use stealth, he heard a crack behind him.
He turned around and saw the huge python get torn apart by the Vengeful Remains and disappeared into white light.
It can dispel the skill!? Fatty was extremely surprised. From his past experience, even high level boss monsters wouldn’t be able to break free after getting snared by Coil, but a monster that looked like it sat at the bottom of the pyramid in Ancient Battlefield actually managed to do that. Just how strong are the monsters here!?
Now that the monster was free, it turned its attention back to Fatty once more. It stepped forward with its saber and appeared in front of Fatty in an instant.
Fatty parried the blow as the monster swung its saber down. However, he still trembled as he lost a third of his health.
What powerful attacks! Fatty finally gave up all intentions of fighting. He quickly activated his newly acquired skill – Illusion.
An illusion appeared beside him, then sprinted off in the opposite direction to him.
The Vengeful Remains looked left and right. Its intelligence was unable to judge why another person appeared out of nowhere. However, it didn’t care. It just randomly picked a target to chase.
…
Ahh, I’m finally safe. Fatty finally let out a huge sigh of relief after running for a while and noticed that the monster did not chase after him. Despite that, the moment he was about to start walking again, he heard a cackle. Then… a few skeletons wobbled, then slowly stood up.
Five of them… Fatty retreated without any hesitation. This time, he ensured there were no complete skeletons first and couldn’t come to life before finally advanced deeper into the depths of the Ancient Battlefield.