The players immediately began to disperse when they saw the Dragon. After all, everyone had seen the video made by Fate officials at that point.
And that was why Ol’ Six’s Dragon Breath did not deal any significant damage, but..
Ye Ci made a mistake, and the attack connected with one of the guards stationed at the entrance of Hero City.
And…
A system notification immediately chimed in her ears, “You’ve attacked a Hero City soldier. They will now initiate Level 1 Alert Level. Prepare yourself for combat.”
Ye Ci immediately fled the scene of the crimes. The NPCs were way formidable than the players she had been fighting. One might be able to escape from the players, but escape from the NPC soldiers was not guaranteed.
Her health was plunging rapidly from the sustained damage dealt by the musketeers of Hero City. She did not even dare to turn back, and continued gulping down Health Potions after Health Potions as she retreated beyond the range of the NPCs.
Why is my luck so bad!
“You are no longer in range of Hero City. Your wanted level in Hero City is at Level 1 (Duration: 72 hours)” just then, another system notification rang in her ears.
“What the hell is this luck!!!” Ye Ci shouted.
Having a Level 1 Wanted Level meant that a player would not be able to enter a city for 72 hours, and could not replenish his or her supplies in any maps that were under the city’s jurisdiction or they would be immediately arrested by the city’s soldiers.
Any NPCs within the city’s territory would also report the player’s location to the soldiers in real time as well.
She was able to quickly adjust her emotions. Whatever! I’ll be fine as long as I avoid the humanoid NPCs!
As for her status as a Red Name. It doesn’t matter as well! I won’t be able to clear those Sin values away that quickly! I’ll just have to spend some money to bind all the equipment to me.
Unlike the other continents with multiple major cities, the Middle Continent had only one megacity which was Hero City. Many of the cities in other maps of the Middle Continent were abandoned cities that were populated by monsters, while a number of them were populated by neutral races like Black Iron Dwarves, Drows, Goblins, and Elementals.
These races had taken part in the war against Naga, but had grown distant from the other races of the other continent as time passed. This was why they were neutral to players and were not under the jurisdiction of Hero City. A player with a high enough standing among these races could purchase items from their cities and might run into rare quests from the NPCs.
But these cities were situated in high level and very secluded maps that were still inaccessible to players.
Of course, Ye Ci was an exception.
Ol’ Six was capable of flight. And this meant that she was free to travel through maps without flying monsters.
The Middle continent was way more dangerous than the four other continents in terms of PVE and PVP as well. But despite its riches, the four other continents were still able to flourish as they were still the main bases of operations for players in Fate.
Ye Ci was reluctant to travel to high level maps. These places, while not under the jurisdiction of Hero City, were still highly dangerous. Death in these maps meant that she had a high chance of respawning in Hero City as the neutral territories around the city remained unexplored. This meant that she would be immediately apprehended by Hero City soldiers upon her respawn.
There were not many places that Ye Ci could go that were not within Hero City’s jurisdiction and was suitable for her level. The closest map was the Sorrowful Canyon.
The Sorrowful Canyon was one of the few maps in the Middle Continent without an outpost. The map was split in half by a river with lvl80-lvl85 monsters living on one side of the river and lvl100-lvl120 monsters living on the other side.
Ye Ci’s destination was of course the lvl80-lvl85 part half of the map.
With the average player level between lvl55 to lvl60, there was no risk of running into other players in the map. And with a pet like Ol’ Six, leveling would be very easy.
The Dragon had grown formidable since its evolution, and so had its appetite. Ye Ci had already learned many new recipes from Hero City, and purchased new materials as well. She knew that roasted meat would no longer satisfy her pet.
The lower level half of the Sorrowful Canyon was populated by humanoid monsters called Dark Apostles. These NPCs were dressed in black robes with a hood covering their faces. Their numbers were few, and their defences weak, but these mage type monsters could dish out large amounts of damage. Even a pet like Ol’ Six would lose a significant portion of its health from even a single attack due to level penalty despite having a health pool in the hundreds of thousands.
Ye Ci engaged these monsters two at a time, as Ol’ Six’s attacks on these monsters would often result in misses.
But due to their low defences, Ye Ci was still able to deal with the Dark Apostles, and was able to level Ol’ Six up fairly quickly due to the high EXP rewards for their defeat.
There was also a significant population of aerial monsters called Sorrow Vultures in the map. These monsters would fly 100 yards away from the ground, and were always moving alone. But due to their animalistic nature, these monsters were at a lower tier than Ol’ Six. This meant that Ol’ Six could deal with the vultures with relative ease.
A few hours of fighting yield a large number of materials such as high level cloth and feathers for Ye Ci, as well as something called Tamra’s Diary Shartd.
The shards were written in Elvish, which meant that Ye Ci could easily read the contents of each shard. She did not pay much attention to the shards in the beginning, but when they slowly grew in number, Ye Ci realised that these were not mere trash dropped by the system.
Each of the shards contained very few words, but Ye Ci was able to make out something interesting from the shards she had collected.
“…. Laura told me that Naga’s minions are coming. I’m afraid. What can Elves from the lower caste like us do? Fight? Fighting is for heroes, but we…”
“… The village is destroyed. My house did not survive. Tina is missing. I wrote this entry beside the pond where we used to date. I am sad. We did not start this war, but why must we suffer?”
“I found a new hiding spot yesterday. It’s dark here. The stench of rot and sulfur is always hanging in the hair. I think I am very close to the front lines. Why am I not afraid? Perhaps I’ve simply grown numb after so many deaths.”
“There are many corpses in the swamp to the west. Orcs, Dwarves, Gnomes, Humans, and even Elves. I managed to salvage a lot of rations from them. I think these are enough to sustain me for a month.”
“I went to the swamp again today. There was constant fighting in that area, and there will always be new corpses. I found an Elf in that swamp. She’s so beautiful, just like Tina. And she’s so young… But she will forever slumber in that cold swamp…”
“How long do I have to continue living like a rat? I’m filthy, and I’m barely surviving. I don’t feel like an Elf anymore!”
“… it has been two years. The Alliance is still fighting against Naga’s minions…”
“Ah, so it’s possible to survive from a battle? I found a survivor today. He seems to be an Elf. Poor thing, he lost his beautiful Elven ears. He is still alive. I left him there. If he’s still alive by tomorrow, I’ll bring him back with me.”
“I shouldn’t have brought him back with me. He’ll finish my rations…”
“He’s sick… I don’t think he’ll live to see tomorrow…”
“… Oh, praise the Elf King, he’s alive! Why am I so happy? Perhaps it’s because this is the first time I’m able to speak to my kin after so long.”
“He’s dead.”
“… He told me that Dau’er is dead. The pillar of the Elvish kingdom is dead. We Elves will never prosper again. I do not feel sad, but I can feel tears streaming down my cheeks…”
“Why did you give it to me?! I’d rather remain a rat! I do not want to be a hero! No! I don’t want to!”
“I must hide. Stop looking for me! Stop!”
This was how the story in the diary ended. And the rest of the story could only be completed by collecting more shards. Ye Ci could guess from what she saw that Tamra was an Elf who ran into another Elf who survived the battle against Naga’s army. The Elf brought news of Dau’er’s demise, and handed Tamra something before his death.
That item must be very important, as there were enemies looking for Tamra.
Ye Ci’s interest in Tamra piqued. She continued to collect the fragments of Tamra’s diary in an attempt to locate the Elf. She was interested in the war that happened before the game began, and had talked to many NPCs who had witnessed the war, but none of them mentioned Tamra in their accounts. Perhaps I can find clues about Dau’er once I meet Tamra.
With this thought in mind, Ye Ci headed to a place with more Dark Apostles.
