Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
—’You are about to enter the Castle Wood dungeon, please choose a difficulty.’
—’Dungeon difficulty: Normal-level! Brave warrior, go ahead.’
Due to Lin Jie and Zheng Ziliang joining the team, the team needed to reduce two members.
“I am a warrior, so I will leave.” Water smiled fatuously and gave a thumbs up to Lin Jie. “Good luck!”
Lin Jie shook his head and said, “Don’t need to be in a hurry, you can’t leave.”
How could a team lack an MT? Even if Lin Jie’s defense was higher than him, he still did not have enough aggro skills. If OT occurred, they would get wiped out.
“Hmph, I, on the other hand, feel that your teammate should leave,” said a skinny spellcaster laughingly. His skin was pale, and his lips were obviously tainted red. Those were the signs of a Fallen Human.
Fallen Humans were human aristocrats that coveted pleasure. When players chose Fallen Humans as their race, they would be randomly born in a luxurious family, accepting their unique mission.
However, squirearchies who were opposed to commoners, their favorability towards fallen humans were negative.
Only fallen humans were able to learn dark magic in the Guild of Light, a country that valued belief deeply.
This spellcaster was called Monkey. His whole body was so dry and thin that he was left with only skin and bones. He was Mighty Wings’ friend, and his personality was a bit cowardly. Originally, he was silently leeching off all the experience and drops, but he was afraid that his interest would be affected, so he jumped out and voiced his opinion now.
Certainly, Zheng Ziliang was only level 3. No matter which aspect one looked him from, he was not suitable to stay in the team.
Lin Jie raised his eyebrows and explained, “In the second half of Castle Wood, we will need a considerable number of interrupting skills. I believe that no one can grasp this technique better than him, including me.”
Monkey sneered. “How can you prove it?”
Lin Jie threw a look at him. “If you can successfully release any spell within 10 seconds, I will kick him out.”
“Hahaha, okay!” Monkey gave a hearty laugh and looked at the other teammates. As long as he could win that unlosable bet, he could continue leeching off the experience. As to who might be kicked from the team, why should he care?
Zheng Ziliang had a serious look. He was still quite a gentleman in front of the beauties. He looked quite handsome with unique temperament as he put the long robe-shaped cloak onto his already tall and elegant figure. He waved his staff lightly, and a hexagram array slowly appeared. From inside a mist, a banshee appeared.
Minstrel Musa!
“Come,” said Zheng Ziliang calmly. He directly gave up controlling his own body and focused wholeheartedly on controlling Minstrel Musa.
Being a summoner meant there was high demand for control. A summoner that could control one’s own body and summoned beasts was considered to be an expert. That was also one of the disadvantages of being a summoner. When one was wholeheartedly controlling the summoned beasts to unleash its strongest strength, their body would be extremely fragile and weak.
Only an expert could control both at once, even multitasking.
Monkey gave a cold snort, and a layer of dark shadow started to form on his fingers. That was the most basic and rubbish skill of a spellcaster, Corrosive Spell. Its channeling time was only half a second, its attack was so weak that it was unbearable to watch it. It was totally good-for-nothing.
Talking about its advantage, the only pro would be its short channeling time.
“Spirit Scream!” Minstrel Musa emitted a sharp lament. Everyone hurriedly capped their ears using their hands.
Monkey’s magic was interrupted, and Dark-type magic was even silenced for three and a half seconds.
At the same time, waves of fluctuation exploded on the surface of Monkey, causing more than 10 points of damage. That was Spirit Blast.
Monkey opened up the distance between them. The silence was about to end, and as long as he could channel a magic spell, he would win!
“Corrosive Spell!” Monkey’s hands moved at a very fast rate. Right at the moment before the magic was released, he lost control of his body and happily scratched his armpit.
‘Spirit Control!’
“F*ck!” Seven seconds had passed, and Monkey was so angry that it made his blood boil. He clenched his teeth, opened up both hands and waves of dark halo whirled around his body.
Darkness Halo: Status Type Skill, able to add a halo marking. Each layer of marking increases 5% of dark magic damage. 10 seconds as a round, you can at most stack up to 3 times. When Darkness Halo is being channeled, you are immune to silence.
Immune to silence! ‘No matter how strong you are at controlling, what can you do to me now?’
Shortly after, Zheng Ziliang gave him the answer. Spirit Blast floated lightly towards Monkey. Negligible damage appeared. Monkey’s head was clouded, and he was stunned.
“Time’s up,” Lin Jie coolly announced the results.
“Alright, you’re not bad.” Monkey took a deep breath with his eyes dodging around, but he said with a smile, “Since you have the ability, I will let you have the spot! Banana, let’s go, we don’t want to pull them down.”
Banana was the Mage of the team, he learned arcane that would become stronger in the later period.
The two of them left the team voluntarily.
Netherblue looked at the back view of the two with thoughtful eyes as they left and smiled. “Looks like I will have more matters to deal with.”
“Let’s go.” Lin Jie did not say anymore and stepped into the dungeon.
Qiu Yuan eyelids drooped and tugged on Netherblue’s sleeve. “Big sis, it’s all because I pulled Fu Sheng into the team, looks like-like I destroyed your team.”
“Everyone fights for their own benefits. We would have disputes sooner or later.” Netherblue paused for a moment and reached out her hand to pull Qiu Yuan and Water, giving a relieved smile. Her beauty was without comparison.
————————
“Castle Wood was the private residence of the Highlord, Modorheim. This pitiful baron was a very good person. He exempted the manors nearby from tax and allowed the farmers to be able to live in comfort, with abundance in food and clothing. A farmer’s son secretly snuck into Castle Wood and fell in love with a maid, but was discovered by the Highlord.
When the two of them panicked and decided to forsake everything, the Highlord gave them a small house instead. He even held a wedding for them and invited the people from the nearby manors to congratulate them.
Until one day, a wandering arcane mage came to the manor. His strong magic could change ferocious wolves into meek sheep. The wolves that were one of the four harms of the manor at one time were greatly decreased in numbers. To thank him, he obtained long-term residency rights.
The Highlord discussed knowledge about elements and life intimately with the mage and opened up the castle library for him to read. After the arcane mage discovered a book, he had fallen completely. He started using humans as guinea pigs and killed many lives.
Afterward, his experiment succeeded. He successfully invented werewolf lineage magic, allowing civilians to become brutal, strong but scary.
This is the legend of the final Boss, Galru.”
Lin Jie took a deep breath and explained the history of Castle Wood.
Water did not understand why the expert wanted to tell them such things at first, but then he became attracted by the story and couldn’t help but ask, “What about that baron lord? What happened to him?”
Looking at Water’s expression, Qiu Yuan and Netherblue chuckled. That big boy was still very cute.
Zheng Ziliang gave a chilly reply, “In all the stories that this guy tells, the main character always dies in the end.”
“Indeed, the baron died.” Lin Jie glanced at him, ‘Didn’t I only give a pirated disc to you that does not read books? Although that disc did play a full 75 minutes of the “Complete Big Big Wolf Cooking Pheasant Sheep Soup,” it’s unlikely he would go so far to badmouth me, right?’
“After the baron died, he became the guardian of the castle. This pitiful guy unknowingly continued helping the person that betrayed him,” added Lin Jie.
Qiu Yuan blinked her eyes. “And then?”
Lin Jie snapped his fingers. “This story was dropped from a small monster, but why? It can’t be that the system is too bored right? Of course not. Let’s go, we aren’t entering the dungeon yet.”
Just as he was talking, Lin Jie turned his head and walked towards the back of the castle to everyone’s surprise.
Castle Wood was not only a castle, but it included a large manor. However, those places were not only shabby, but there was nothing to be found. Many players with strong curiosity had explored the area but had found no clues.
They walked through the worn-down manor. The blood stains that were scattered all around and broken wood that collapsed from time to time all illustrated the pitiful wasteland. Only from the splendor lights that were covered by the mud could one see its extraordinary past.
Clang—
Lin Jie accidentally kicked a cauldron, and a faint gasping could be heard from within the sudden noise.
“Someone there?” Lin Jie stood at his original spot and said gently, “We are adventurers from the City of Light and are here to help rescue the Highlord sir Modorheim.”
“You-You are not a werewolf?” A weak voice could be heard from underneath. A furry palm stretched out, and its name was blood red, showing “Bloodthirsty Werewolf,” its grade was Rare Elite.
“Ah!” They were all scared by the werewolf that appeared suddenly. Qiu Yuan quickly avoided it, and Water lifted up his shield, ready for battle.
Lin Jie stretched out his hand to stop them.
Just imagine, what would a normal team do when they found a Rare Elite, with a red name that all monster had while exploring the map? Of course, they would kill it! Rare Elites’ drop rates were very high.
After killing the Bloodthirsty Werewolf, they would discover that nothing would be dropped beside a tattered cloth. Moreover, it would not respawn ever again in the future. NPCs in the dungeon were independent individual existence. Once they died, they would not respawn.
“I am a human,” said Lin Jie.
Bloodthirsty Werewolf squinted its eyes. With a ferocious and scary face, the werewolf head slowly approached. It whiffed Lin Jie’s scent and let down its guard. Then, its body gradually shrunk, becoming a big young boy with golden hair, but he was pale and thin as a skeleton.
“Sorry, but I must maintain the werewolf look. Only then I would not be dug out by those monsters and eaten up by them.” He helplessly looked at the worn-down manor. “Actually I was unwilling to eat my friends’ corpse, so I became the way I am now.”
This boy was originally the farmer’s son that accepted the Highlord’s gift—Timmy. He was the only werewolf that could stay clear-headed.
“Brave warriors, I need your help,” said Timmy in a solemn tone, “I will change back into a werewolf, and you all shall pretend to be my prey. I will use this as an excuse to get closer to Galru. Take this chance to kill him!”
—’Do you accept this mission? [Timmy’s Revenge]?’
“Yes!”
“Very good. However, the first half of Castle Wood has already become the territory of those brainless undead. I’m afraid these disgusting monsters will not be able to understand me since they do not have brains. You will need to kill them all. We shall meet at the top of the castle.” Timmy took out five bottles of potion. “These are Lineage Potions, they will allow you to gain an advantage during the battles.”
—’You have received five bottles of Lineage Potion.’
