Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Fu Sheng, are you sure you don’t want to consider again? We, Triumphant Midnight, are considered a really reputable party. If you join us, it is definitely better for you than traveling alone.”
At the Cat Demon Lair doorstep, Midnight was still trying his best to invite Lin Jie to join Triumphant Midnight. However, Lin Jie seemed to be adamant about not joining the party. Midnight then relented and decided to make his leave.
At this moment, the dungeon trembled slightly and a slim figure appeared.
Qiu Yuan looked at Lin Jie with slightly furrowed brows and head slightly down. She seemed to be really upset. Lin Jie waved his hands and asked, “Why did you come out so quickly?”
“Fu Sheng, you helped us to get first clear and yet you got treated like this, I’m sorry.” Qiu Yuan was filled with apologetic emotions. That kind-hearted girl felt that she was fully responsible for the injustices towards Lin Jie.
“It’s no big deal, this is how the world works,” said Lin Jie with a heavy sigh and rubbed his chin while looking at Qiu Yuan.
“The world, how?” Qiu Yuan’s heart thumped heavily.
“In this world… handsome dudes always invite jealousy,” Lin Jie said in a serious tone.
“Scram!”
Qiu Yuan gave him a rude stare followed by a nonchalant look and continued, “Mighty Wings had once been approached by the Ironwall Empire. He’s good, and besides, his cousin is part of the Ironwall Empire’s elite party. He is an unforgiving and vengeful person, you need to be more careful.”
Lin Jie raised his chest and laughed, “That kind of person is not worth my time!”
“Yeah!” Qiu Yuan nodded and continued, “And… it’s not that Netherblue doesn’t want to help you. It’s just that she’s invested a lot of time and effort into the party.”
“I understand.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” Lin Jie was not used to seeing Qiu Yuan acting like that, and so he changed the topic of conversation, “Since you’re out, let’s go and claim our battle rewards.”
After clearing the Expert-level Cat Demon Lair, they were able to claim the battle rewards from the NPC hunter area in front of the dungeon. The dungeon mission would offer different rewards according to its difficulty level, with the chance being 20%. Hence, the dungeon mission was very popular among players.
NPC Hunter was surprised to see Lin Jie as he asked excitedly, “The Poison Cat Monarch is dead? Wonderful, wonderful! Adventurer, thank you for all that you’ve done for us here.”
-‘You have completed the mission. You gain 17000 experience points, 1 silver coin and 120 Reputation from the City of Light. You gain an additional reward [Flogger’s Helmet (Bronze)].’
Qiu Yuan was surprised and said, “I got a Skill Book!”
Lin Jie took a look at it and laughed, “[Dark Shadow Havoc], a pretty decent ability. Next up you can find more dark-type monster maps to train. With the Dark Shadow Havoc, it would be very efficient.”
“Nah, not doing it. Those monsters are ugly as h*ck.” Qiu Yuan held on to the Skill Book and cheekily laughed.
Lin Jie looked at Qiu Yuan who was standing alone and asked, “Where did they all go?”
“Oh, they went offline. After clearing the dungeon, all of them were tired as f*ck.” Qiu Yuan waved her hands and turned the Skill Book into a ray of white light and continued, “I’m going offline to get some rest too!”
After sending off Qiu Yuan, Lin Jie looked at Netherblue. Water and the rest of them walked out from the lair. Lin Jie and Mighty Wings stared at each other, and both sneered.
“Return to the city!” Lin Jie activated the returning scroll and returned to the City of Light. He then spent 1 silver coin to rent a single-person pharmacy. The lab’s arrangement was simple, with just a table, some basic pharmaceutical facilities including Dissolving Potions, Neutralizing Potions, potion bottles and a mortar-grinder, etc.
Lin Jie leaned on the table and retrieved piece by piece the items gained from the Expert-level Cat Demon Lair.
The Augmenting Gem had a market price of 4 to 7 Silver Coins and could enhance equipment and certain stats. Enhancing to a certain level would activate a hidden stat.
Coming up next would be the best thing to look out for! Lin Jie held two scrolls, and his heart started to thump heavily.
Skill Book: [Death Rage]
Casting Resource: Health Points (HP)
Skill Description: Passive effect, every time you attack, you spend 10 HP to deal additional 2 damage.
Active skill: Available for use when HP is below 5%. For the next 3 seconds, gain 60% damage resistance, 60% attack boost, and 60% critical strike boost.
Job Restriction: Warrior
In his previous life, the [Death Rage] was Fu Sheng’s trademark ability! Once, that ability’s value was really low, and the reason was simple. Considering effectiveness, the abilities of Berserkers not only had higher effectiveness, but they were also much less dangerous. Besides, the Death Rage was a difficult ability to master. Why would a normal person be willing to have his HP reduced by 5%? Usually, players would start to consume their health potions at 20%.
Lin Jie looked at the other item in his hands and smiled.
[Ability Level Enhancing Scroll]: You are allowed to enhance 1 level of an ability. Cooldown duration is 1 month.
The Death Rage’s accepted approximated drop-rate was 1 in 10,000, and the drop location was even harsher. Before level 60, other than the once-per-30-levels job mission providing some chance of obtaining it, there was only one other route of getting it, and that was through the Expert-level Cat Demon Lair.
Even so, the Death Rage Skill Book’s price was still very cheap. Even after seven years, it was still cheaper than 100 Gold coins. That was a really intriguing matter, and the reason for that was that the Berserker’s HP control was too difficult.
However, that was the ultimate ability of the Battle Emperor! In his previous life, Lin Jie was the only Berserker to focus on the Death Rage, and that was the only time when he had the skills to compete with the best.
As the reward for getting first clear on the Expert-level Cat Demon Lair, the Boss generously dropped a scroll, the Ability Level Enhancing Scroll. As the name suggested, it could raise an ability’s level by 1 point. As a beginner’s item, it could only be used on an ability that was level 3 and below.
-‘Do you want to use the Ability Level Enhancing Scroll?’
‘Yes!’
-‘Your ability, Death Rage, has been increased to level 2.’
Lin Jie was elated.
Death Rage (Level 2): Passive effect, every time you attack, you spend 9 HP to cause an additional 3 damage.
Active effect, available for use when HP is below 5%. For the next 5 seconds, gain 120% damage resistance, 120% attack boost, 120% critical strike damage boost and 10% critical strike chance boost.
That was the Death Rage, an ability whose scaling was as high as “1”! To determine whether an ability was strong or weak, one criterion was its inherent strength and the second criterion was its scaling. For instance, the Fireball Spell was one of the Mages’ strongest basic damage-type spells, and its scaling was 0.16, meaning that every 1 level increase in ability would result in 16% increased damage.
The Death Rage’s scaling was 100%!
Feeling the raging energy within his body, Lin Jie uncontrollably clenched his fists. He did not need any practice to be able to fully understand that ability. His skills were enhanced by a huge margin!
Up next would be the unlocking of the seal on the Broken Blade, or rather the enhancement!
The Heritage Broken Blade was a Heritage Equipment and hence would definitely not have just that bit of strength. To remove its seal, countless ingredients were needed. In his previous life, during the years of possession of the Broken Blade, Lin Jie was only able to remove 3 seals.
The first seal required various kinds of rare, precious and even unique ingredients.
The second seal required an Overlord’s blood.
The third seal required… the murder of a player! Also, the player must be willing to sacrifice himself. In his previous life, Lin Jie only unlocked the third seal with great difficulty. Until just before the tournament, ‘she’ had found him and let Lin Jie kill her to unlock the seal. For an entire month, the two did only one thing every day while they were online – to kill and get killed. That happened all the way until the seal was broken.
For the fourth seal… Lin Jie recalled his memories and let out a bittersweet smile.
He took a deep breath and dispelled the memory of his previous life. He simultaneously placed the Cat Demon Claws and the Broken Blade onto the table and performed the augmenting.
The breaking of the seal of the Broken Blade required a large amount of ingredients – an Overlord’s blood, rare gold ores… Only when the enhancement of the ingredients was full could the Broken Blade be upgraded. The blood reservoir of the Broken Blade was similar to the presence of something like a progress bar. When the blood reservoir got full, that meant that the seal could get broken.
He poured the Cat Demon Claws into the strong Dissolving Potion, which was then dissolved violently, and gradually turned into a drop of dark green liquid.
This drop of liquid, under Lin Jie’s watch, was dripped onto the rusty part of the Broken Blade. The rust, under the influence of the liquid, got dissolved ever so slightly and slowly seeped into the Broken Blade, creating waves of mysterious seal characters and drawings and slowly got absorbed into the sword body.
“Ssss-”
The Broken Blade shone slightly momentarily.
[Bronze Broken Blade] (Heritage)
No job restriction
Requires: Level 1
Attack: 26-32
Strength: +7
Endurance: +7
Health Points: +150
Jump: +7
Movement speed; +9
Block: +3%
Additional effect: Stats are sealed, cannot distinguish the weapon type.
Additional ability: Army Obliteration. You spend 10 Rage points and damage your target thrice for 130% damage.
The Broken Blade’s stats were all slightly enhanced. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Slow and steady wins the race! Wielding the newly born Broken Blade, Lin Jie uncontrollably felt a wave of passion.
……
“Finding a party to clear the level 2 Grey Bear fast.”
“Lacking a Priest to kill the Elites in the wild, only one slot left!”
A plethora of voices could be heard from every direction. Many players’ eyes were fixed towards Lin Jie, eagerly anticipating the level 3 pro to be in a good mood to accept some newbies.
Lin Jie wielded the Broken Blade in his hands. The rusty Broken Blade immediately attracted the gaze of everyone away from him – how much damage would such a trashy sword even deal?
Lin Jie moved towards the Dark Servant spawning grounds and observed his own abilities. A player’s essentials consisted of only 3 things; stats, abilities, and equipment! Stats and equipment were ‘hard’ criteria whereas only abilities could be manipulated and infinitely enlarged or minimized.
In his previous life, there was a famous person whose name was Dominance. He was ranked among the top hundred in The New Age, and his name came about due to money! Dominance’s raw skills were even weaker than a rookie. But he could use his disgusting amount of money to buy himself an entire closet of Sub-Legendary Equipment. He wielded a divine shield and effortlessly entered the expert Leaderboard.
In his basket of abilities, he already had a symbol that seemed fleeting. A skilled Warrior was so only because he possessed countless abilities and combinations.
“Hong-”
The Dark Servant spawning grounds had many Light Priests and Paladins forming parties to level-up. Light Magic had a counteracting effect on dark-type monsters, and so the speed of killing them was much faster than killing normal monsters. In the middle of the Dark Servants, the [Chanter Griffin] walked about with no regard for anyone and yet not one player dared to step up and fight it.
The Chanter Griffin’s Fire magic was too scary. Players could not withstand it at all. Even if they had formed a party to fight it, they might not even stand a high chance of killing it.
Lin Jie wielded the Broken Blade and slowly walked towards the Chanter Griffin.
“What the f*ck, what is this Warrior doing?”
“Seems like he wants to kill the Boss. Third bro, quickly get over in Stealth mode and get his equipment after he dies.”
The passersby kept talking to one another, and all of them looked at Lin Jie with contemptuous eyes. The Chanter Griffin’s strength was evident and well-accepted. The Ironwall Empire had once tried to attack the Boss, and in the end, the entire 30-man party got wrecked. The Boss then became known as the synonym to the phrase ‘strangers keep out.’
‘Wild Charge!’
Lin Jie ferociously charged to the feet of the Chanter Griffin and slashed it horizontally with the Broken Blade, creating a heavy gust of wind!
-45!
‘Rage points were increased by 4!’
Lin Jie furrowed his brows as the rage was increasing too slowly. In his previous life, he was able to fill up his rage bar with just a slash. The Boss smiled eerily and waved his hands, throwing waves and waves of Dark Shadow Flames. Lin Jie did not bother to block them and merely tanked them, causing his health bar to get halved instantly.
Unexpectedly there was even someone who dared to go one on one with the Chanter Griffin! Many people stood at the perimeters to watch the fight. They all gasped and realized that that dude was capable – how did the Boss not manage to one-shot him? How much health did that dude have?
Normal players would never allocate stat points into health points, causing most players to be as thin as glass and die easily. Lin Jie took 2 heavy blows and roared as he activated [Berserk], causing his attack to become enhanced. A good 60 damage was dealt with Chanter Griffin’s legs.
‘Still not enough! Still not enough!’
At that moment, the Chanter Griffin clasped its hands in front of its chest and started chanting an old chant. A huge meteor fireball was conjured in mid-air and went crashing down.
“Flame Drop!”
Lin Jie raised his head and within his pupils, a dark green meteor gradually enlarged…
– 65!
‘Boom!’
After getting slammed by the meteorite, a deep crater was formed on the ground.
“He’s dead.” Some players clapped while those who had faster reaction were already waiting by the side for the Boss’s hatred bar to vanish before going forward to steal the equipment.
“Eh? Why isn’t the Boss leaving?”
“Dong-”
“Dong-”
A deep colliding sound emanated from underneath the meteorite, and the Chanter Griffin’s body was trembling…
-148!
-162!
The meteorite was slowly raised up and then slammed onto the Boss’ body with a loud thud. It crashed into the Dark Shadow Flames and morphed into fireworks in the air. Lin Jie’s bloody body gradually appeared within the sight of the other players.
“Death Rage!”
“Feather Drop Skill!”
Lin Jie jumped high up into the air and raised the Broken Blade above his head. The rust on the blade vanished and became a bright and well-sharpened Blade.
“Army Obliteration!” With a heavy swing, the Sword’s Breath rained down and slashed the Chanter Griffin into three parts, and it fell to the ground heavily!
-‘You have killed the Bronze-tiered Boss Chanter Griffin. You have gained 1112 EXP.’
Lin Jie blinked his eyes as he lost the over-level enhancement. The experience from killing the Boss was disgustingly low. The Boss spat out 20 Bronze coins and then dropped a light-green cape.
“For you all.” Lin Jie looked at the bystanders and smiled before turning around to make his leave.
The Chanter Griffin would not drop anything fantastic. That cape was the worst possible item that could spawn. Although equipping it would grant damage over time of 13 per second to all units around the wearer, the player would lose his HP as well… In the early stages, that damage would consume the entirety of a normal player.
“Mine, mine!”
“What the f*ck. Can’t you see he was talking to me?
“Rubbish, he winked at me, I’m his elder cousin!”
Just as the players were arguing over the equipment creating an intense air of chaos, a ray of silver light suddenly appeared. It made a curve and sped towards the back of Lin Jie’s head!
A Bandit!
At that moment, Lin Jie’s health had not been restored yet. He had merely 10% of his health.
‘Ding!’
As the dagger pierced towards him, the Broken Blade blocked the attack. When the Bandit came to his senses, Lin Jie had already turned around and pushed him away using his Broken Blade.
‘Rebel’s Fight!’ The Bandit’s health instantly got halved.
-‘You have maliciously attacked Barrier of Assassination.’
He was from the Ironwall Empire!
Lin Jie was shocked, his name had already turned yellow. At this stage, killing him would not grant any guilt at all! Indeed, waves of uneasiness emanated from the air as the Bandits and Druids all emerged from ambush and charged towards Lin Jie!
There were 6 Bandits and 6 Druids. Lin Jie was bewildered, who was it that had such strong resentment against him? With a team of 12 assassins, was he even supposed to make it out alive?
Whoosh! Claws and dagger strikes flew by his ears and left many wounds on his face. Lin Jie avoided a pair of claws and blocked with his sword, causing the incoming druids to get knocked back far away.
“Die!” A sharp voice sounded. Lin Jie’s eyes opened widely as he realized who the attacker was. He was none other than Mighty Wings!
He laughed maliciously as he stabbed right through Lin Jie’s abdomen with his longsword from the back and coldly said, “Fu Sheng, you’re a goner! I will kill you and make sure you delete your account! This is what you get for acting smart!”
-34!
Lin Jie’s health bar continued to decrease, and soon it was about to empty!
“Are you sure you can do that?” Lin Jie coldly smiled as blood oozed out from the wounds, drenching his body in blood red color.
‘Death Rage!’
“F*ck off!” Lin Jie elbowed his chin and instantly sent him flying off then he swung his longsword. A wave of Blade Aura, along with a sharp tearing sound in the air, instantly sliced Mighty Wings in half.
-188! (Critical Strike)
“Take turns and get him!”
Three Bandits charged over. One was behind, the other two surrounded Lin Jie from his left and right. The dagger changed direction in, and the dark green poison became vaguely visible. They had a look of cockiness on their faces, thinking that their plot had worked.
You are just a Warrior, did you really think you can kill the three of us at once?
Lin Jie’s gaze turned ice cold. The Broken Blade spun around in his hands, and the blade tip once again reared its head.
“Army Obliteration!”
‘Ding! Ding! Ding!’
Turning around, the sword blade accurately blocked the three daggers.
In his previous life, the Broken Blade had accompanied Lin Jie for many years, and hence he was fully familiar with all the intricacies of using it. ‘Wiping out the entire army’ was not just a single target skill. If it were one, it would not be worthy of a Legendary Weapon title. He instantly dispelled three attacks. When the sword blade clashed with the daggers, the Blade Aura burst out and pierced through the Bandits’ bodies.
-‘You have killed a commoner, your evil score +1.’
-‘You have killed a commoner, your evil score +1.’
Lin Jie’s name was in blood red. Even then he did not stop as the Broken Blade seemed to indicate to spare no one! It was also lucky for Lin Jie that the people that the Ironwall Empire had sent to follow him were all Bandits and other melee jobs. If they had been Priests, Lin Jie would probably have been dead.
It took less than 2 minutes to kill 5 of the Bandits; the Druids were also all dead!
“You, you…” The Bandit known as Barrier of Assassination trembled and pointed at Lin Jie’s most shouting, “You’re finished, you’re done for! You dare to mess around with the Ironwall Empire! ”
“What the f*ck, they’re from Ironwall Empire?”
“The Ironwall Empire tried to gang up on one dude and got wiped out instead! Hahahaha.”
“I have to share this video.”
“You’re late, I’ve already shared it.”
Barrier of Assassination’s face was flushed red as the held up his communication device.
Lin Jie coldly swung his Broken Blade. The Blade Aura emanated viciously, turning Barrier of Assassination into a lifeless corpse.
The relations between him and the Ironwall Empire should not have been so bad. It seemed like Mighty Wings was the one behind all these. His gaze gradually sank.
“There!”
“Get him!”
Nearby, a party from the Ironwall Empire charged over. There seemed to be over a hundred people. Lin Jie was shocked and anxiously started reading the returning scroll. The Town of Meyer was a safe area. As a red-named player, although he would be arrested by the guards and imprisoned, he had a decent favorability from the Captain of the Guards and hence getting on bail shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
The light symbolizing the return journey to the town started to shine.
At this moment, Mighty Wings revived, and he initiated his charge, and the sharp blade of his heavy sword was directed mercilessly towards the back of Lin Jie’s head. “Why run? Stay here, hahaha!”
Lin Jie countered with his Blade Aura and killed him again, but his body was pushed near the edge of a cliff.
Now, using the returning scroll again was too late. Lin Jie knew that he was highly skilled, but he was far away from having the skills to go up against a hundred enemies!
Not far away, The Heavenly Shield had a gloomy look.
The Ironwall Empire had lost all its reputation. Only by killing Lin Jie and chasing him out of the game could this issue be erased from memory.
“Kill!”
Looking at the sea of enemies, Lin Jie smiled and jumped off the cliff.
He had planned to be at this coordinates. As long as he could land on a random protruding wooden trunk such that he could read the returning scroll, he would be safe. To refresh the evil score was troublesome. Players could reduce their evil score by killing monsters in the wild at a rate of about 1 point every 3 hours. Serving in an organization would half the time required.
“F*ck, where did he go?”
“Oh my gosh, he jumped down.”
“Boss, he jumped down.”
“Motherf*cker, blast him!”
‘Whoosh~’
Fireballs and arrows rained down from the sky!
Lin Jie accurately landed on the protruding branch. Just as he retrieved the returning scroll from his backpack, a fireball crashed near his feet. That was just a weak branch. The moment the fireball started to burst out in flames, smoke and ash started to appear.
The branch shook heavily, and Lin Jie lost his balance, falling down all the way down the cliff.
