Starting from Zero

Chapter 35

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Book 3, Chapter 35
Escape

I hurriedly went back into the game. Rosesaid I could take it slow but that doesn"t mean I should slack off.

First Ishould go finish my job quest. I think the old timer back at the trading centeralso gave me a companion quest to that garden. Well this would save me a lot ofeffort.

I began my escape plan according to Wayne"s suggestions.I moved out in the very early morning to make sure there won"t be many playersaround.

    I walked towards the city gate with my cloak"s invisibility skill on. Eachtime I pa.s.sed near the patrolling guards I would need to hold my breath carefully.

    Almost there. There are many NPC guards all overthe place but luckily, none spotted me. Some players have already noticed why aname is floating in the air. One who looks like a warrior, finallydecided to check it out.

    He approached my position and drew his sword, poking itat me to see if anything is under that name.

Nope, can"t hide it any longer. Ilooked at the distance. Should be able to run for it.

"Night Shade!"

    Isummoned him in a flash and jumped up. Then I canceled my invisibility andsummoned the Phantom Knights. Here goes nothing!

    That warrior poking at me is kicked away to somewhereby Night Shade. NPC guards quickly gathered. We can"t use our charge skillssince we don"t have enough s.p.a.ce. And there will only be more enemies if I staylonger. Time is critical.

    I summoned Phiona and Lucky as well. Theten knights stayed in front to clear the path. We"re dealing with level 800 guardsnow. Their leaders haven"t arrived yet.

Lucky roared and charged into the crowd.With those claws and spikes, he"s like a battle tank wrecking havoc in achicken coop. He can"t really do any serious damage to those guards, but eachtime he swipes his tail around he would knock some people flying. That isenough.

A lot of players appeared around the scene as well. Everyoneis wondering what kind of people attracted so many guards.

The fight may lookawesome on the outside, but I"m having some real trouble here. The gate is justahead but we can"t advance an inch!

    The worst part is, several guards closed it up! Hey that"s unfair.I thought they don"t shut the gates just for one player!

    We still managed to get to the gate. Now I"m having aheadache on how to get it open. The gate of Dragon State is one of thosevertical sliding shutters shaped like a floodgate. Once it"s down it will not be easy toraise it again.

    I ordered the Phantom Knights to stay behind and keepenemies away.

"Lucky! Smash the door!"

He quickly disengaged himselffrom the crowd, jumped to the gate and gave it a tail swipe. Bam! The gate didn"tmove, but I can see several small cracks on it.

"Again!"

Lucky roared and gave it another shot with all hisstrength, which caused the entire part of the city wall to shake a little. Thecity guards behind us is pushing through really fast, and it seems Lucky"s notgoing to break it fast enough.

Loong"er spoke to me: "I"ll try it!"

"You sure?"

I don"t think I"ve ever saw Loong"erusing physical attacks before. As far as I can see, rough works like breakingwalls or digging rocks are more of Lucky"s cup of tea.

"I got this! Lucky, step aside!"

Lucky movedto one side of the wall, before Loong"er rushed towards the gate. More shakingand a louder booming noise this time. The gate fell into shreds. With her longbody, Loong"er pierced through the gate archway like a running train whileknocking several figures outside the gate flying towards the fairyland. No ideaif those are players or guards.

"Go!"

Now there"s nothing to stop us!

However, moreguard swarms rushed out of the gate just behind us.

"Lucky! Destroy thebridge!"

He finished that order before I can turn around and look at it. Ijust heard a snap, then the sounds of bodies falling into water.

"Ha! Tryto catch me now!" I looked back at the guards on the other side of themoat and those struggling in the water. A middle-finger feels so nice in such a moment.

I was planning to slow down and taunt them morebefore I noticed they quickly let out a path towards the gate. A team ofcavalries charged and jumped over the city moat with ease!

Run d.a.m.n it!

We fled awkwardly until the pursuers stopped at theborder of Dragon State"s territory. Man that was not easy, any more mistakesand I"ll have to spend the rest of my life in prison!

But that"s nothing Ishould be worrying about now. I opened my quest window to check where theGarden of Life is.

I read through the texts for five minutes before I finallygave up. There"s not a single word mentioning the whereabouts of the garden. The onlything I learned is that the place is full of good companions.

    That"s both goodand bad news. Good companions means they"re terribly deadly monsters before Ican capture them. And there are a lot of them too.

    I contacted Wayne. "Hey Wayne, ask around the cityand see if anyone knows where the Garden of Life is."

    "Garden of Life? You mean the place good forfarming companions?"

    "Wait, you"ve been there before? Tell me where itis."

    "I never went there but I saw a thread on theforum talking about it. Check it out yourself, I"m busy."

    "Ok thanks!"

I ordered the knights and Lucky to keep the area safe, then I opened the forumwhile sitting on Night Shade. I soon found that thread. It"s highlighted in redtoo.

Umm. Looks like I should learn to check the forum often.

The thread iswritten by a player who went into the garden by accident. He claims that the gardenis located to the north of the Celestial City, which sits right at the centerof the entire continent. It"s a two-hour walk from the city to the garden. Thereis a dense forest around the place, and a certain valuable material fruit growsin that forest. Many players would go pick the fruits and sell them for money. Theymostly grow in the outer area so few people would wander into the depth of theplace.

You reach the entrance of the garden if you get through the forest. Thereis a Maze of Life, players will need to clear this maze as well to finallyget into the garden. There will be a minotaur monster at each corner of the maze. Theywill ask players questions instead of attacking them. Anyone giving the wronganswer or fails to give any answer in three minutes will be teleported back tothe entrance.

    The author of the post said he cleared the maze after somewherelike 30 questions, but was killed instantly as he stepped into the garden. Henever knew what killed him. Unlike player kill, there is no record showing youropponent"s name when killed by monsters. He did say that he saw the garden tobe extremely beautiful, like a paradise in childhood stories. He also heard adreamy music somewhere.

    Well, the location is all I need.

    I teleportedoutside the Celestial City and walked north as instructed in the post. I soonreached the fruit forest. As described, there sure are lot of farmers here.

    "Hey you! Stop!" Someone shouted behind me.

    I turned around impatiently. Two players. The one tothe left is wearing poorly maintained wizard robe, with a...mop stick in hishand. I guess that"s a magic rod. The other one is wearing pretty impressiveiron armor. But the rusts all over it kinda ruined his overall image.

    "What"s the matter?" They don"t look like thefriendly type but I still tried to be polite.

    The pair checked over my showy armor and the flowingcape behind my back, then gulped. The wizard whispered something to the warrior.

    I can still hear it though. "He looks strong. Tell the boss to bring somehelpers."

    "Which guild are you from?" The wizard asked me.

    "Why do you care?" That"s not really a secret, but I don"t feel likeanswering him.

    "Doesn"t matter. I saw the icon on your shoulder. Justneed to go ask the authorities for it."

    "So what doyou need? I"m in a hurry. I"ll leave now if you got no business."

    "You are going into the forest right?"

    "So what?" I"m getting annoyed.

    "We run this place. Pay an entrance fee if youwant to go pick fruits."

So that"s what"s this all about.

I stared at the two guys for a moment, then turned andwalked towards the woods without saying anything else.

    They quickly moved to block me. "Are you deaf? Pay up."

    "I"m not here for the fruits."

    "How do weknow that?"

    "I don"t care. I give you five seconds to get outof my way, or I"ll give you a free ticket back to the city instead."

Reasoning with these sc.u.ms is wasting mytime.

"Don"t get c.o.c.ky you hear? Maybe you got some nice-lookinggear but our guild will be here soon. Don"t be stupid."

The warriorfinished his call and spoke as well: "Yo, a red name! How "bout droppingthose equipment to us?"

He ran to me and drew his sword before I canrespond.

I shifted a bit to the left, dodging his attack, thenstretched my claw blade. Puff. The blade easily pierced his body.

"Howabout using your brain before attacking people?"

I pushed his corpse downto the ground. He"s already gone back waiting to be revived.

Then I walkedtowards the remaining wizard, with blood still dripping down from my claw. He froze like stone.

I lifted his robe, wiped my claw clean with it, and strolledinto the forest, leaving the poor wizard behind whose teeth are chattering as if he"s standing in arctic area, naked.

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