Swhoos.h.!.+
There was a flash, and my character popped into existence inside Dawn City. The plaza was pretty close to where I was, and I could see that it was flooding with people. After the Nation War ended, every mob in Dawn Valley had experienced a level-up, turning the map into a new grinding sanctuary. This was good news, for the more players were camped at Dawn City, the less tempted the Northern Alliance would be to attack the great city.
I opened the world map and saw the usual maps such as Sunset Swamp, Dragonbone Mountain Range and so on. However, there was a new dark red map at the entrance of Dragonbone Mountain Range, and it was none other than the new map, Fortress of the Iron Halberd. I had heard that a couple of powerful NPC armies including one of the strongest, if not the strongest, cavalry were stationed here to protect Dawn City against both enemy players and the Night Creatures.
With this, Dawn City was absolutely secure. Unless the Northern Alliance collectively lost their minds, there was no way they would try to siege Fortress of the Iron Halberd by force. It would take a very strong set of teeth to chew through a super fortress like this.
Moreover, Dragonbone Mountain Range still acted as a natural barrier, and less than 10% Northern Alliance players had the skill and ability to overcome it. Therefore, it was equally unrealistic for them to trek across the mountains to lay siege on the city. The undead entrenched on Dragonbone Mountain Range alone had the ability to tear their bodies and their desires into pieces.
……
Lifting my sword, I repaired my equipment and summoned the Armored Ice Qilin Horse. I hopped onto the back of the Level 150 Earth Rank Boss mount without any problem despite being a Level 70 noob right now. The mount requirement would only apply again if it was unbound.
I whistled once, and the red-haired Phantom Wolf King awoke from its long slumber and flew out of the pet s.p.a.ce. As it turned out the wolf"s mind was still stuck at the time of the Nation War, so it was growling, baring its fangs and puffing up every hair on its body to appear as intimidating as possible. However, it quickly realized that it was inside a city overflowing with Chinese players, and that its aggression and display of violence were no longer necessary. Deflated, it ran up to my side and wagged its tail happily.
I checked my stat screen and saw very minor changes. The only problem here was my level and the ma.s.sive reduction of my hidden stats.
Beep!
System Notice: Player "Wind Fantasy" has sent you a friend request. Do you accept?
Of course I do. If I refused, Lin Yixin might just burst into the Frost Cloud workshop and challenge us to a fight to the death.
A ding later, a familiar ID appeared in my friend list once more. The difference was that Wind Fantasy was now Level 1, and she was one of the three existing Divine Generals in the entire China server!
……
After I added her to my party, I asked, "Where are you right now, Yiyi? I"ll come right over…"
I saw Lin Yixin looking at her surroundings in confusion before replying, "It looks like I"m at the starting village, and I don"t have even a single piece of equipment. Uu, what a tragedy…"
"Which starting village?"
"The 7th starting village under Floating Ice City…"
"Alright, I"m coming right now. Wait for me in the safe zone, okay? As you are now you"ll only be bullied by the baddies…"
Lin Yixin: "..."
After hanging up the call, I rode toward the teleportation formation. Every equipment piece I was wearing was highlighted red to indicate that I didn"t meet its requirements, but it didn"t matter. As long as I didn"t take them off myself, they would still function as normal. It was also why I activated Resurrection Art immediately after I came back online. I absolutely couldn"t risk dropping equipment on death because I wouldn"t be able to equip it back. I would rather lose levels than equipment at this point.
……
A lot of players and stall owners looked at me when I got close. Many of them recognized me right away—
"Wah, that"s Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, right? He"s still at Dawn City?"
"I heard that he didn"t come online for days because of Wind Fantasy. It looks like the rumors are true!"
"Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand is such a handsome boy. He had killed countless enemies with a single attack and single-handedly kept two million Northern Alliance players at bay. His Divine General Skill, Ancient Seal, is especially gorgeous. One hit was all it took to kill the person, the pet and even the fleas on their body in one go!!"
"Uu, Lu Chen is so handsome! I"ll never get off my bed if I have a pretty boyfriend like that to myself!"
"..." Everyone turned to stare at the pretty girl who made the comment.
I"m not gonna lie; that conversation nearly made me fall off my horse and instakill me. I just barely made it to the teleportation formation manager and selected Floating Ice City as my destination!
Swhoos.h.!.+
It had been a long time since I appeared on these streets, but it was no time to reminisce about the good old times. After pinpointing the direction to Starting Village No. 7, I spurred my mount and took off to the distance. With the Armored Ice Qilin Horse"s speed, it would only take 10 minutes at most for me to reach her.
However, I galloped back to Floating Ice City and went to the auction house after just half a minute or so. It was because I just remembered that I should buy some newbie equipment for Lin Yixin!
I searched for high-quality armor between Level 25 to 40, no price limit. Several choices appeared to me very soon—
Wither Battle Armor: Level 25 Gold-grade. Divine armor for all newbies! 105 Defense, Strength +20, Stamina +14. 2000 gold.
Fire Dance War Boots: Level 40 Gold-grade. 130 Defense, +25 Strength, +20 Stamina. 3000 gold.
Fire Cloud Axe (Gold-grade, Outstanding★★★): 100~175 Attack, Strength +40, Stamina +32, Attack +18%. Outstanding Property: Increases max HP by 2000. Level Requirement: 40. 12000 gold.
……
Alright, I"m picking up these three items. Everything else was trash and would only serve to humiliate our Fruit Knife G.o.ddess.
Unfortunately I couldn"t find a high-level dagger, so that was that. The Fire Cloud Axe was an excellent Level 40 weapon with very high Attack and an Outstanding Property that increased max HP by 2000. As an EXP leech, there was nothing more important to Lin Yixin than HP right now. She needed the HP to survive the high-level mobs we were going to grind later.
I bought all 3 items and bade goodbye to almost 20000 gold immediately. The cost didn"t faze me in the slightest because it was for Lin Yixin.
Finally, I exited the city and rode toward Starting Village No. 7 as planned earlier.
Twelve minutes later, I emerged from a forest and found an old, dilapidated lumberyard. Behind it was a peaceful village—the No. 7 Starting Village I was looking for—overflowing with new players. It had been more than half a year since Heavenblessed came online, but new players were still pouring into the game. There were also veterans who leveled their cla.s.s wrong and decided to start over. This was a common sight in many MMORPGs.
Outside the village, I saw a ton of newbies equipped with iron swords and sackcloth fighting against axe-wielding screaming goblins. I immediately spotted a gorgeous girl letting out a mighty shout and punching a mob with her bare fist. The unusual thing here was that she was using Barrier Break...
Thud!
Every jaw in the vicinity hit the floor with a resounding thud. Many people exclaimed out loud, "A Level 1 who knows Barrier Break? Isn"t that a Level 120 skill? What kinda hax is this?"
The unusualness of the scene was only compounded by the fact that the girl was gorgeous as f.u.c.k. The way her long hair danced across the wind, her beautiful face was scrunched in concentration and her smooth, long legs moved beneath her simple s.h.i.+rt made her look like a super expert of sorts.
"Ahh, it hurts!"
And then, the goblin counterattacked and dealt a painful blow to Lin Yixin. It was extremely comedic.
I rode up to her and one-shot the goblin. Then, I started laughing uncontrollably. Who would"ve thought that the famous Fruit Knife G.o.ddess would fare worse than even a newbie? Forget a weapon, she didn"t even have basic clothing. If she didn"t have a guild—and the system-generated guild outfit tailor-made for her—she would have to run around in her birthday suit.
"Don"t laugh! I"ll kill you!" Lin Yixin swung her fists at me in displeasure.
I controlled myself immediately and said, "Let"s go to a high-level map now, Yiyi. I"ll drop the mob to red health and let you last-hit them with Barrier Break!"
Lin Yixin nodded and sighed helplessly. "Ah, this is terrible. Level 1s have such measly MP pools that it can"t even sustain more than 1 Barrier Break…"
I silently dismounted and grabbed her hand. "Let"s go!"
"Mn."
The Phantom Wolf King acted as our bodyguard and slaughtered the blocking goblins with Claw of the Storm. The newbies immediately turned as pale as death. "Holy s.h.i.+t that pet is crazy!"
……
After we ventured into the deeper areas of the forest, the goblins turned into Level 30 Gray Bears. Alright, we"ll start here!
I hit the mob once and killed it instantly.
"I only got 10% from that…" Lin Yixin said dumbfoundedly, "The EXP I get without any contribution at all is too terrible. I may as well fight it myself…"
I said, "You"re a Level 1 now, so what can you do? Once you level up a bit and gain a bit of Attack, you can use Barrier Break to last-hit the mobs. Remember, the one who scores the last hit gets 50% of the experience!"
"Mn."
I tried to give Lin Yixin the last hit, but the Level 30 Gray Bears just couldn"t survive my attacks no matter what I tried. Even my weakest attacks dealt almost 50k damage, no s.h.i.+t it couldn"t survive.
"You know what, I"m not even going to attack anymore. I"m just going to let it attack me until it triggers Raging Flames, a 10% chance to burn 25% of the mob"s HP. After I burn it 4 times, you"ll use Barrier Break to last hit the few points of HP it will have regenerated between the ticks, okay?" I said.
Lin Yixin burst into a giggle. "Mn mn, that"s a great idea! You"re smarter than I expected, dear…"
My heart melted when I heard the endearing t.i.tle. "Yiyi, call me dear again, please…"
"Cut it out and start aggroing the mobs already…"
So I walked to the front and let the bears attack me however they liked. All their attacks missed me because my Defense was too high. It was to the point where the Gray Bears couldn"t even deal the minimum 1 damage.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh...
Flames flew out of the Battle Flame Wristguards from time to time and burned the Gray Bears" HP.
Finally, one of them dropped to almost no health, and Lin Yixin immediately a.s.sumed a battle pose and punched it with a Barrier Break!
Thud!
172!
The bear dropped, and Lin Yixin gained 7 levels in a row. A wide grin immediately broke out on her face.
……
A dozen or so Gray Bears later, we discovered that the method was more reliable than we thought and sought out Level 50 Crocodiles next. Since such mobs were considered elites, they yielded more experience!