“I’ve not seen you for a long time.” the man smiled as he pulled down his hood.
Ye Ci was surprised to see him, “Yup. But why are you here, Autumn?”
The owner of the voice was none other than Spotless Autumn. He stood at the entrance of the encampment, and Ye C could see a brand new staff with a gleaming emerald gem on his back. The staff’s appearance was nothing out of the ordinary, but a weapon that was owned by Spotless Autumn would naturally have very good stats.
“Why can’t I be here?” Spotless Autumn pursed his lips, “Your words are hurtful as always.”
Ye Ci petted him on the shoulder, “Why is a man like you more petty than I am? What I mean is why are you in such a low level map? Are you up to something again?”
Spotless Autumn was completely baffled by her words, “Well look at you… This is not a low level map, the monsters are all at lvl65 to lvl70. It’s considered high level by most of the players. Besides, I’ve been laying low. I’m not here for the same reason. You’re the one who’s up to something.”
“Heh…” Ye Ci raised an eyebrow, but she did not continue the sentence, for Spotless Autumn’s next words had aroused her interest.
“I found a hidden place beneath the cathedral. Do you want to go have a look?”
Ye Ci did not want to let go of such an opportunity, but with the condition of her quest and the presence of another member in her party, she needed more information to make a decision. Not every hidden spot in Fate would guarantee a bountiful loot, “Why are you being so nice?”
“Good things must of course be shared with my friends” replied Spotless Autumn.
Ye Ci narrowed her eyes, she did not believe his words by even the slightest bit, “I want the truth.”
Spotless Autumn clutched at his hair. Why must she be so smart… “It’s nothing, really. I just thought that…”
And he was cut off mid sentence by Ye Ci, “Autumn, my patience is not without limit.”
Spotless Autumn shot her a glare, and she returned his gaze. “Alright then! The monsters in that place are too strong, I can’t beat them alone.” he finally relented, “I was about to call for helpers, but I saw you, so…” he shrugged.
A smile appeared on Ye Ci’s lips, “So you need my help to save money?”
“Hey hey hey!” Spotless Autumn was embarrassed when his little ploy was seen through by Ye Ci, “Why are you so not cute? Can’t you at least pretend to be stupid just this once?”
“Just what sort of place is that?” his protests fell upon deaf ears, “Even a top player like you couldn’t handle the monsters? What’s in there?”
“It’s where the leaders of the Alliance were buried.” Spotless Autumn handed an old note to Ye Ci, “Here, have a look.”
“…. They once led the Alliance against Naga, and here they are buried…” there were only a few words on the note.
Excitement coursed through Ye Ci’s heart. Does it mean that this is where the leaders of the alliance were buried? Wait… Doesn’t it mean that I”ll be able to find the Elven King Dau’er? She knew that she had to explore the place no matter the cost.
“F*ck! You’ve got to be kidding me! Why am I so unlucky!” exclaimed Spotless Autumn as Ye Ci was still reading through the content of the note. She looked up, and noticed that the man had taken a fighting stance. His target was none other than Fleeting Time who had just come back from buying supplies.
Fleeting Time had apparently forgotten about Spotless Autumn. Or rather, he knew the name, but did not know that the person standing before him was the victim of his wrath, “A friend of yours? Why don’t you introduce him to me?” he smiled at Ye Ci.
Ye Ci stared incredulously at Fleeting Time. Has he forgotten about Spotless Autumn? Did he not remember the guy who he killed in the wisteria garden? He probably even received bounty for that too.
Then again, one can not expect the butcher to remember the faces of the animals he killed.
It was not the best metaphor.
Spotless Autumn’s expression changed, “Gongzi You, did your lover forget that he killed me?” He sent a private message to Ye CI.
Ye Ci immediately shot him a glare, “Say that again, and you’ll die an even more painful death.”
Spotless Autumn gave her a warm smile. ‘I know what’s up.’ was written all over the man’s face much to Ye Ci’s anger. With Fleeting Time still looking at her expectantly, Ye Ci let out a sigh and pointed at Spotless Autumn, “This is Spotless Autumn of the Southern Continent.” she then pointed at Fleeting Time, “This is Fleeting Time of the Western Continent.”
Fleeting Time adjusted his gaze to Spotless Autumn. He was smiling at the man, but the smile did not reach his eyes. Do you think I did not see you flirting with her? Little Gongzi is definitely not in the wrong. This means that this bastard from the Southern Continent is the one at fault.
And Fleeting Time was someone who would always have his revenge.
Spotless Autumn felt a chill crawling down his spine.
He immediately regretted his decision to greet Gongzi You and ask for her aid. Gongzi You have brought nothing but bad luck to me! Why haven’t I learnt from my past mistakes already?
I better take my leave. Compared to the money he had to spend for hired help, Spotless Autumn treasured his experience points even more. The loss of experience points upon his death was way greater than the expenditures to hire helpers.
Of course, it was not because of his lack of confidence for Gongzi You’s capabilities as a player. It was out of fear for Fleeting Time and the sinister smile on his face.
Of course anyone would be afraid of the man capable of defeating him so easily.
“You see… There’s some emergency that I have to attend to…” began Spotless Autumn.
But Ye Ci spoke up before he could leave, “Autumn found a big hidden map under the cathedral. It seems to have something to do with the leaders of the Alliance. I want to go have a look, what about you?”
“So we might be able to clues about Dau’er?” Fleeting Time nodded after a moment of consideration, “Let’s go then. I hope we can end this quest soon.”
Don’t ignore me like that! Spotless Autumn could only stare helplessly at the pair of hunters. Didn’t I say that I have to leave? Why am I being ignored?
But he was completely helpless against the two players who were many times stronger than him.
Fleeting Time saw Spotless Autumn as a thorn in his side, and Spotless Autumn was afraid of Fleeting Time. But this did not stop the trio from forming a party. They were all top players of the game, which meant that they were naturally very skillful players. The only thing they needed was some time to get used to working with one another.
Spotless Autumn led the two Hunters around the cathedral, and then into an abandoned prayer room. Many of the furniture and decorations in the room had already crumbled into pieces, and the room itself was covered by a thick layer of dust.
Spotless Autumn walked up to the empty altar left in the room, and began touching a hidden mechanism behind the altar. A with a soft click, the alter began moving slowly aside, revealing a dark entrance.
He lit a torch, and took the lead into the entrance with Ye Ci and Fleeting Time following closely behind. The altar moved back into its original position once the trio had walked through the entrance.
With the dim lighting from Spotless Autumn’s torch, Ye Ci could see the narrow corridor leading underground clearly.
Spotless Autumn spoke up after a short silence, “There are a lot of Phantoms in the corridor. They are Elite monsters, and they are fast, and have high resistance to crowd control skills.” a chilly gust of wind blew towards the trio right when he finished his sentence, “They’re here!”
Ye Ci and Fleeting Time immediately prepared themselves for battle. But due to the limited space in the corridor, Ye Ci was not able to summon her pet. Fleeting Time on the other hand whistled and a cobra appeared.
From the status of the snake as a teammate, Ye Ci could guess that it was Fleeting Time’s pet. But Spotless Autumn spoke up before she could even comment on the pet, “Say, is this your pet Fleeting Time?”
“You have a problem with my pet?” Fleeting Time raised an eyebrow.
“No, not at all. But wasn’t your pet a bat? How did it turn into a snake?”
“Don’t you know that a Hunter can own more than one pet?” Fleeting Time snorted.
“A bat.. A snake… Are you trying to collect the Five Poisons?” Spotless Autumn chuckled.
“Yup! It’d be nice to get a golden cicada while I’m at it too.” Despite his back and forth with Spotless Autumn, Fleeting Time was still paying attention to his surroundings. He immediately directed his pet to attack when a faint glow appeared from the bend ahead.
The snake shot forward like a coiled spring, filling the silent corridor with its hiss. And a mechanical sound followed after. It was not a sound that Ye Ci was familiar with.
The answer was quick to appear before Ye Ci, as a few Black Skeletons lumbered into view, swinging their weapons as they charged at the trio.
Black Skeletons?
Undead monsters were the bane of the Hunter class. Arrows did not deal a lot of damage to Skeletons, and spirit type enemies would not take a lot of damage from arrows as well unless the Hunters were using Holy weapons. There were only two ways a Hunter could effectively deal with an Undead opponent: With their pet, or by engaging them at melee.
Fleeting Time had chosen the former, while Ye Ci used the latter. She pulled a Green quality hammer that she had obtained earlier as a loot drop and swung it at the knee of the skeleton closest to her.
She broke the knee of the Black Skeleton with a loud crack, and the monster’s speed was drastically reduced. Spotless Autumn immediately threw up a Fire Wall, dealing fire damage to the enemies, while Fleeting Time continued directing his pet against the opponents so that Ye Ci would have more chance to break the knees of their opponents.
The trio had never discussed their strategy before, but they were able to work with each other like members from a party who had known each other for a very long time.
