At Deathknell Town, in the mayor’s room.
Lin Jie stood upright in front of a corpse, like a sharp blade piercing into the sky. He closed his eyes slightly and his palm, pointing at a random direction. Battling scenes flashed in his brain. Earlier, as he had been battling with Alpistin, Lin Jie had comprehended many techniques, but the battle intensity was just too high, so even Lin Jie had been unable to learn them in just that instant. He stood there for nearly an hour before he gradually opened his eyes.
“The rhythm in battle is not grasped just by one side. One must grasp the rhythm of the other side or forcibly pull them into one’s battle rhythm.” Lin Jie’s eyes gleamed as he was deep in thoughts. The Undead General’s battle prowess was indeed extraordinary. In the last moment, he had used Clomaros’ Kill, which was obviously stolen from the God of War. If it were not for Lin Jie saving his Dark Chaotic Hole as his trump card, he might have been instakilled by that skill.
Ding~
—Mission notice: You have killed Alpistin. Summon the Spiritual Envoy. It can connect you to the God of War and send you back to the City of Light.
“Huh?” Lin Jie looked at the mission notice. If he chose to finish his mission now, he could be able to complete this God of War’s trial, but he would also lose his qualifications to continue staying in the Tribe. If he left just like that, would it not be a huge loss? Since he had not come to the Tribe just for the mission, and a chance to stay in the Tribe was an extremely rare one, Lin Jie had to earn some benefits first!
Also, he had not finished carrying out his plan!
Lin Jie squatted down to search Alpistin’s body, but to his disappointment, that Hero-Level Boss did not drop anything, and the items on him even disappeared into thin air. Such an itemless Boss was rare!
Lin Jie thought for a while and just simply stuffed Alpistin’s corpse into his Space Package. No matter what, he was a hero of the Tribe. Li Jie could at least obtain quite a reward if he gave it to the Holy Church, right?
After storing away the corpse, the chaotic environment gradually dispersed, and the dark aura, which filled up the space, also disappeared. The map revealed its original appearance—an unpretentious study. All the books were sealed with Dark Magic, and the only book, which was opened on the tabletop, was the one Alpistin had been reading earlier.
Lin Jie walked towards the table and saw that what was written in the book was not Tribe language, but Guild language! Lin Jie was astonished. ‘A book that could interest such a hero, just what was recorded in it?’
That book was extremely old. There were even plenty of marks and stains from Dark Magic left on the edges of the pages. Some of the words on the book were clear, while others were blurry and could not be read. It looked like the book was too old, so many words and its contents had disappeared. Alpistin was using Dark Magic to repair the book; thus, a portion of it was revealed. Lin Jie read the book carefully, in the first 20+ pages, most of it was about the experience of using sword-type weapons, it was difficult to read and understand.
True sword experts could only write such a thing. The making of The New Age was relatively strict and ingenious, who knew how much resources had been spent?
Lin Jie did not understand the book as he was just a normal person. However, after reading all the words, he could still obtain a reward according to judgment by the game system.
—’You have read the notes of Sword Demon Arktox. When you use sword-type weapons, you will receive 20 points of damage enhancement. When you equip sword-type weapons, a difference of 5 levels can be ignored.’
—’You learned the skill [Nukitsuke].’
Lin Jie was elated. Such a skill was actually hidden within the book! The effect of ignoring 5 levels when using sword-type weapons, since Lin Jie equipped Broken Blade, was selectively ignored.
[Nukitsuke]: It requires the weapon to have a sheath to be activated. When you unsheathe your sword, an arc Blade Aura will be produced simultaneously and deal 300% damage to the surrounding targets. It will also cause them to temporarily enter the Stiffening state. Cooldown time is 10 minutes.
The rarity of Nukitsuke could be compared to Clomaros’ Kill as such a skill was obtained from other lands, according to The New Age history records.
Meanwhile, in Lin Jie’s knowledge, the origin of such a skill was naturally Japan. The Japanese Samurais’ Nukitsuke was recorded in many films and television works of the old days. The instant the sword was unsheathed, that sword slash, which was difficult to notice and defend, would definitely deal a fatal injury!
However, in reality, the people who knew such a skill was not many. That was because to accurately insert the sword into the sheath was extremely difficult. Thus it was hard for many Yamato samurais to successfully learn the Nukitsuke despite studying it painstakingly. Instead, the seppuku[1] which was quite well-known, was invented.
After inserting Broken Blade into the sheath, Lin Jie held onto the hilt, then calmed himself down and concentrated. Afterward, he suddenly pulled it out! The Blade Aura produced from the Nukitsuke was released into the distance like it was riding the wave and instantly sliced the surrounding bookshelf into two. Many books were split into halves and scattered on the ground. The strength of the skill was quite powerful and could catch people off guard—it could be a trump card up his sleeves!
After almost destroying everything in the surroundings, Lin Jie immediately wore his cloak and left Deathknell Town, heading to the Royal Capital of Darkness. Although there was an obvious aura of the living on Lin Jie, which surprised the guards, with the Warlord Token, pretty much nothing happened. As for players, they did not dare to provoke Lin Jie since Tribe’s hierarchy was too obvious. A person with the Warlord Token would definitely be someone powerful within the Blood-Sucking guild, who would dare to provoke such a person?
Therefore, everything was quite smooth and relaxing for Lin Jie as he walked on the streets.
Shortly, he arrived at the Mercenary Guild and released a mission named [Search For NPC Yuri] on the mission board, then he turned and left.
In less than half an hour, a relatively familiar voice could be heard—it was Graceful Snake!
“Have you finished considering? Are you planning to cooperate?” asked Graceful Snake in a hopeful tone.
“You… are from an organization named Scarlet Mercenary, right?” Lin Jie did not directly reply to her but simply asked something else.
Graceful Snake’s voice was a little low as she said, “Yes, originally it was imitating the all-popular Brotherhood from the Guild, but… some problems occurred, so we had no choice but to disband. Some of us also became free mercenaries while others even went to work for Blood-Sucking, which had annihilated us.”
“Do you want to take revenge?”
“Huh?”
“If you want to take revenge, let your leader negotiate with me,” said Lin Jie.
“Temporarily, I am the leader,” replied Graceful Snake.
“You are not. If the lot of you want to grab this only chance to take revenge, then don’t hide anything from me.” Lin Jie hung up the call.
In less than one minute, Lin Jie received a message: Truman Town.
That town was right beside the Royal Capital of Darkness, but there were already few players left in the novice town. Even players who newly created an account would not stay in the town. Instead, they would follow the various game walkthroughs to look for the most suitable strategy to level up. When Lin Jie arrived, there was only an Undead player wearing a new player’s shirt standing at the town’s gates.
“Hello, my ID is Tenka Fubu[2].” His age was around 45 years old and gave people a bold and heroic feel. He stretched out his hand and said, “I created the Scarlet Mercenary organization.”
“You were oppressed?” asked Lin Jie.
“That’s right, very tragically so. I had to delete my account. Only then would my comrades not be eliminated and bleached.” A shred of pain flashed in Tenka Fubu’s eyes.
“Hehe, or could you say to covertly preserve your strength so that you can develop and grow?” Lin Jie smiled.
“…”
Lin Jie changed the topic and asked, “How many people do you have now? How many people can you gather near the Royal Capital of Darkness? I want to hear the truth.”
Tenka Fubu stared at Lin Jie for a long time before he heaved out a long breath. He stretched out three fingers and said word by word, “30,000.”
“Tsss…” Lin Jie gasped. He was an amazing guy to have actually developed the organization to 30,000 people, even under such a situation where they were suppressed to such an extent. This person’s patience was otherworldly!
Tenka Fubu had not created an organization in Lin Jie’s previous life, but he had created a guild, also named Scarlet Mercenary. However, this person’s development strategy had been extremely high-end. After creating a guild for less than one year, the guild had already developed to the extent that many guilds felt threatened. In the end, Scarlet Mercenary had been suppressed and forced to disband. Such a genius had also been oppressed until he had been unable to get back up. It was the same in this life too. However, he had imitated the Brotherhood’s organization mode, so he just split the organization and silently developed.
“You lack a chance now, right?” asked Lin Jie.
“That’s right! Blood-Sucking dominates the Royal Capital of Darkness. It’s not that simple to change that unless there’s a devastating blow to them, which will weaken them greatly. First, the situation in the main city must be chaotic so that we can take the opportunity and make a move, seizing the city in the mess.” Tenka Fubu’s eyes gleamed with wisdom—it was obvious he was coming up with all kinds of schemes.
“I’ll give you a chance now, but I have a condition,” said Lin Jie calmly. “After succeeding, I want you to provide 3,000 strong Orc Slaves and 3,000 physical strengthening materials for free. Also, after the camp war is released, you will ally with another organization. Do you agree?”
At that moment, Graceful Snake, who was standing at the side, could not help but exclaim, “You’ve gone crazy! Do you know how much those cost?”
“Snake, don’t talk.” Tenka Fubu grinned. “I agree.”
“It’s simple when talking to clever people.” Lin Jie smiled and said, “Three days later, Royal Capital of Darkness’ gates.”
“Got it, leader,” replied Tenka Fubu.
…
At the Royal Capital of Darkness.
Dark Emperor silently entered the underground hub in the center of the city. The source of the Undead race’s strength was hidden there—Dark Holy River. It was also worshiping the strongest divine equipment—Fallen!
That God of War’s trial was simply too confusing. Although Lin Jie had to sneak into Tribe, it was extremely dangerous, but the price Dark Emperor had to pay was not small either. Destroying Fallen was equal to him committing the crime of treason—he would not be able to stay in the Undead main city anymore. However, he had already decided to head to the Orc main city once he completed his trial mission. He would head to the front lines of the battlefield, and while exploring the map, he would accumulate battle merits. In the future, when he had enough battle merits, he could stage a coup in the Royal Capital of Darkness and directly snatch the main city.
“Divine equipment, Fallen…” Just as Dark Emperor wanted to stretch out his hand to touch it, the ring of a prompt message could be heard in his ears.
“I want to increase our transaction number! 3,000 slaves, do you agree?” shouted that Guild player crazily in a hysterical voice from the other side.
[1] It is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai, but was also practiced by other Japanese people, later on, to restore honor for themselves or for their families.
[2] Tenka Fubu, a motto that Oda Nobunaga came up with after his victory in Mino. It literally translates as “under the sky, practice force”. It has a double meaning, the first being “to acquire the world, one must use military means”. The second being “one must rule his empire by force”.
