Chapter 66 (Contested Territory)
In two days, the Courage Challenge would begin. On the ranking list, I had dropped back to the sixth in the world. I was the third in China, and in the city’s ranking list, I was still leading far ahead. Murong Shan Shan had dropped to the third rank, perhaps because today, she enjoyed the snow too much. Little Ants on the Tree Leafs — Ye Qiu was in a sudden already at Level 26 and placed second in the city’s ranking, with Murong Shan Shan next at the same level. Following behind her was Mad Warrior. Lu Xue Han and Xin Yu respectively placed fifth and sixth. As for the other people in the ranking list, I didn’t know them. The people who were on the list before had been pushed down the list already. Clearly, the compet.i.tion was very intense.
Those people selling the skill books this afternoon couldn’t be overlooked either since their boss had picked up a secret Cla.s.s Promotion mission. In [Moon Monochrome], I had never heard about secret Professions. If during the compet.i.tion, suddenly a player with a secret profession showed up, then all the previous battle plans might need to be changed. Perhaps, in the future, the development of [Moon Monochrome] would shift more toward these secret professions as to provide surprise elements.
Our group’s currently selected five players could be considered the elites of Hurricane City. Xin Yu, Lu Xue Han, and I were all on the city’s top-ranked player list. Xu Lin at Level 25 only placed 14th in the city and failed to enter the top-ten list. And the last selected person, Li Qing, her rank was at over three hundred with her Level 23. Although she wasn’t very powerful, but wouldn’t drag us down either.
Based on what I currently knew, the largest threat to us would be Murong Shan Shan’s and Ye Qiu’s team. Ye Qiu’s PK skill was formidable that even I would need to be cautious when dealing with him. With his quite high level, I estimated his Talent and equipment wouldn’t be bad either.
Still, the most troublesome would be Murong Shan Shan. Her Attack was much higher than mine. If our low health Cleric, Lu Xue Han, were to be killed, the situation might be disastrous for us. Once Cocoa and the other girls could coordinate well to prevent Murong Shan Shan from dying, she could kill our group member one by one. Furthermore, there was still that Thief ‘Tou Tian Zhe’ who bought my dagger. If he were to join Murong Shan Shan’s team, then it would be even more difficult for us. Except for me, the others weren’t much capable to avoid the Thief’s sneak attack. As soon the Magician or Cleric had been insta-killed, our situation would be doomed.
Mad Warrior’s team was unworthy of any attention. After all, those high money spender only had good equipment without the playing skill. [Moon Monochrome] isn’t a game where people with high-level equipment would be invincible. Especially in a 5V5 duel situation, the operating skill and response speed would be most important!
As I was thinking about those things, I had arrived at Wild Horse Plain. Not too far away, there was a large pack of Prairie Wolves, a Level 31 Beast type creature. My current Level 28 already had 94% of Experience, so I should be able to rise to Level 29 in about half an hour. Ever since pa.s.sing the 25th level, the advancement had been much more difficult. It took almost two days for Murong Shan Shan to rise to Level 26. When she was at Level 25, Lu Xue Han was at Level 21, but currently Lu Xue Han had already reached Level 25. It wasn’t that she leveled faster than Murong Shan Shan, but the escalation speed to level up would significantly slow down after Level 25. All the players, after rushing to Level 25, couldn’t have the same leveling speed anymore.
The experience gained from killing the Prairie Wolves weren’t small, but together with the gold coins ratio, it was still lacking. The crucial point was the very low drop rate of equipment and gold coins. After buying those three skill books, I was at the lowest point of money deficit. If I couldn’t get enough money, I might not be able to learn new skills when I got to Level 30. Not to mention the cost for repairing equipment was also very high, it was really not a small expense.
Out of my expectation, to rise to Level 29, I had to kill the prairie wolves for almost one hour. There weren’t any equipment drops, and the money was also not much, so I only managed to collect three gold coins, despite having killed off the whole large pack of Prairie Wolves already. Behind the wolf pack was a cliff that separated the Wild Horse Plain and Hurricane City.
There weren’t any monsters near the cliff, but following down along the cliff was a very narrow mountain path. The narrow path was covered with bushes on both sides that it was hard to spot, but the bushes density were quite different that I was able to notice it. Since staying here at the Wild Horse Plain to kill the fur-monsters would bring me nothing sweet, and what I needed right now were equipment and money, I would as well just take whatever this would lead me to.
Followed down the small path, suddenly, with a ‘Swish’, the system configured map disappeared, and the system prompted: You have entered a Contested Territory – Alley of the Autumn Wind!
I was slightly surprised. Contested Territory? It wasn’t the first time I heard about this concept, but to actually encounter one by myself? In the forum, someone did mention about contested territory, but it was usually kingdoms and not cities or villages that are competing for turf, where someone would be temporarily be stationed in a camp as part of a small army’s unit. It was said, in contested territory, one could get access to other countries, which would mean someone could go to the areas of other servers before the inter-city transport was made open, to have a glance of the situation of other cities, in this case, servers. But with the current player’s level, it shouldn’t be possible. According to someone who tried and died three times, the monster’s level in contested territory couldn’t be seen, and within one hit, half of his health was gone.
I hesitated a while, but still advanced onward. Since this map was connected with the Wild Horse Plain, the monster’s level here shouldn’t differ much, at least there wouldn’t be a monster that could instakill me.
The farther I moved onward, the surrounding became more gloomy, dews gradually appeared everywhere. A ‘baji-baji’ sound could be heard whenever I stepped the ground with my boots, which was the only sound here on this narrow path.
I had been walking for nearly twenty minutes, but still, there were no monsters in sight. This mountain path seemed to have no end. Going down the slope, the light became darker and darker, and when I looked up at the sky, I could only see the precipice of the both sides of the cliff, which seemed like to form “a line of heaven”.
“d.a.m.n, was it wrong to come here?” I cursed in a low voice.
After continuing for another ten minutes, a ray of light could be finally seen in front of me. When I walked around a cliff, suddenly, there was a light in front of me. A very bright light pierced my eyes causing a pain. No, even my body felt the pain. How could this be?
System prompt: You were attacked by a Swamp Guardian, 68 points of Health lost!
I was shocked. Obviously, I didn’t see any monsters. How was this possible?