East of the City of Stars.
To call this place a forest seemed a little generous; to call it a wood seemed a little mean. Once, this had been dozens of li of unbroken green. But after the Hour of Fate vanished, the Tower of Fate’s agitation set demonic energy leaking outward — and this forest, sitting in damp and shadowed ground, drank in and hoarded that far-off energy greedily. In three years, the vegetation had taken on a faint gray-black cast, and the pleasant, clean air had disappeared entirely, replaced by an oppressive, deathly stillness.
Under such conditions, most of the animals here had slowly demonized, some lightly and some severely, turning what had been an ordinary forest into a gathering place for demon-beasts. And so the forest’s name had changed too — to the Demon Shadow Forest.
“All right. This is the place.”
Ye Tianxie stopped at the forest’s edge and turned. “Everyone ready? The monsters in here should all be level 15 and up, so be careful. Pojun, I’ve no worries about you. Just make sure you keep Qiushui covered.”
Su Feifei felt a small sweetness at that. If Zuo Pojun was covering Murong Qiushui, then it meant… he would be covering her.
“Feifei, focus on protecting yourself and on healing… and don’t get too far from me.”
“Understood.” Su Feifei answered quietly and gave her staff a small wave. Every piece of gear on her was blank-stat… Well — in truth, Ye Tianxie had no expectation whatsoever that she would contribute anything. At present, she was, in the purest sense, dead weight.
“Don’t worry, Second Brother. I may only be level 13, but my HP is over a thousand — a good deal more than yours, eh?” Zuo Pojun equipped his bronze shield and one-handed sword and thumped his chest. Where Ye Tianxie had dumped every free attribute point into Strength, Zuo Pojun had put every last one into Constitution… a pure-tank Guardian.
The Guardian is the guardian soul of a player party, the indispensable defensive wall for challenging high-level bosses. On changing from apprentice Guardian to full Guardian, a Guardian’s HP and defense surge once outright — and beyond that, where every other player gains 10 HP and 1 defense per point of Constitution, a Guardian gains 15 HP and 1.5 defense per point, along with a flat 20 HP on every level-up. That is the Guardian’s privilege. And the price is a feeble offense: in raw terms, a point of Strength grants a Guardian only 1.5 attack.
Zuo Pojun at level 13 had already broken a thousand HP, with defense approaching two hundred, which made him beyond question one of the finest Guardians of his level. The Guardian is the safest class — and, because of that pitiful offense, also the class least likely to ever make a name for itself. What is gained is paid for.
Ye Tianxie said nothing at all. He genuinely couldn’t bring himself to announce the two-thousand-plus figure sitting behind his own HP bar and crush the man’s small, fragile heart.
“With Second Brother, I have never known the meaning of fear… Ugh! This fat oaf standing in front of me will only block my view of gazing up at Second Brother.” Murong Qiushui equipped his steel bow, swaying his head as he said it. Had Zuo Pojun not understood him quite so well, that explosive temper would inevitably have kicked him into the trees.
“Right — Pojun, take this.” Ye Tianxie drew the level 10 silver Savage Bull Bracers from his pack and traded them over. It was the only item he owned that any of them could actually use.
“S-silver-tier.” Zuo Pojun took them, his eyes blazing with excitement, and after reading the stats the blaze intensified considerably. He hurled away the bracers he’d been wearing, snapped the new silver ones on, raised his wrist, banged it together in delight, and admired it. “Ahh. Now that I’ve seen what silver-tier stats look like, I realize this whole set of mine is junk… Qiushui, look. Handsome? Jealous? Hahahaha!”
Murong Qiushui curled his lip in contempt, then whipped his gaze to Ye Tianxie, bit his lip lightly, and said in the most simpering possible voice, “Second Brother… does little me… get one too…?”
Had this been a woman, genuine and unadulterated, that coquettish tone would have carried enormous lethality… Coming out of a man’s mouth, the lethality multiplied geometrically. The instant that “Second Brother” left Murong Qiushui’s lips, Ye Tianxie, Zuo Pojun, and Su Feifei broke out in gooseflesh as one.
“We’re going in.” Ye Tianxie wisely opted to ignore him and led the way into the Demon Shadow Forest.
Zuo Pojun threw Murong Qiushui a look of withering scorn and hurried after Ye Tianxie, that enormous frame of his moving like a small hill on the march. As for Ye Tianxie producing a silver-tier item, neither of them was in the least surprised. Who alive understood his abilities better than they did?
Inside the Demon Shadow Forest, the light dimmed noticeably — and more striking still was the eerie silence, a silence so complete it was frightening. Not an insect’s chirp, not a beast’s cry; the stillness alone made the heart beat faster.
Su Feifei edged nervously closer to Ye Tianxie and asked, quietly, “Tianxie… this place is a little frightening. How long do we have to be in here?”
She had kept her voice as low as she could, terrified of waking something. It was the first time in her life she had experienced a scene with this kind of grim, sepulchral atmosphere, and though it was a game world, it was in no way distinguishable from standing there in the real one. She simply couldn’t control the fluttering in her chest.
“If the City Lord wasn’t lying to us, the quest target is at the exact center of this forest. If we keep moving, it’s roughly an hour. We’ll avoid the monsters where we can and get there quickly,” Ye Tianxie said.
As he was speaking, the undergrowth ahead of them convulsed, and six or seven brown shapes came bursting out, hurtling straight at him.
Zuo Pojun and Murong Qiushui both reacted instantly. Murong Qiushui sprang back a step, bow and arrow appearing in his hands together. Zuo Pojun strode forward, planting himself in front of the group, sweeping his shield forward and blanketing the oncoming shapes with a Mass Taunt while bellowing with real presence, “Come on then!!“
On the change from apprentice Guardian to full Guardian, the single-target taunt became the Guardian’s signature Mass Taunt, drawing the aggro of every monster within a certain radius. And Zuo Pojun had barely planted his feet when a shape flashed past him.
Demon-Touched Civet: Level 15. HP 600. Originally an ordinary civet, driven into a frenzy by the influence of demonic energy. Will attack any living thing that comes near.
Innate: None. Skills: None. Weakness: Having taken on the darkness attribute, it now has a degree of fear toward light and fire.
“Dragon Shadow Slash!“
Ye Tianxie’s body tore sideways like a bolt of lightning, flickering past the eyes of all three of them — a five-meter dash that amounted to near-teleportation. Of the seven civets that had just burst out, four were struck by a Dragon Shadow Slash whose line had been chosen for maximum effect, and all four had their HP emptied in an instant. Then he stepped, spun, and the Hour of Fate came around with him, sweeping at the three remaining civets as they landed.
-669, -672, -669!
One arc of black shadow caught all three, drawing up three crimson numbers and three overlapping cries of anguish.
Dragon Shadow Slash, turn, sweep — a second and a half all told, and the seven civets were corpses on the ground, coppers and potions scattered around them.
Under Zuo Pojun’s Mass Taunt, all seven had locked onto him… but he had barely finished casting it, and before a single attack could land, he discovered the enemy had already been wiped out. He stood there petrified, eyes wide, mouth open wide enough to fit his own shield into.
And Murong Qiushui had just drawn his bow… with no time whatsoever to loose the arrow. He lowered it and sighed up at the sky. “Bright moon, you could not possibly understand the surging of my heart at this moment… Oh! What is it that I see…”
In under two seconds — a span in which Zuo Pojun, Murong Qiushui, and Su Feifei had no time to react at all — seven level 15 monsters had been annihilated.
“Tianxie… you’re incredible…” Su Feifei, who a moment ago had been badly startled by the civets bursting out, clasped her hands to her chest without meaning to, murmuring it half-dazed, the light in her eyes very nearly outshining the stars.
“Let’s move. Carefully. It’ll certainly be more dangerous ahead.” Ye Tianxie walked on as though nothing had happened.
“S-Second Brother, you, you, you, you… you’re just too—” Zuo Pojun, finally recovering, swallowed hard, his words coming out in a stammer. A casual swing and an entire group was wiped out, with attack power exceeding 600. That was a level of damage no player at this stage could possibly possess… And that lightning dash, that lightning turn — all he’d seen was a shadow flicker and seven civets were already on the ground.
What he wanted to say was: That’s monstrous.
Tian Moxie had already been monstrous — but back then he’d had an ordinary class, marginally better gear at most, and overall attributes not much above an ordinary player’s. His strength had come from near-miraculous positioning, reflexes, judgment, and analysis. And now, those enormous damage numbers told Zuo Pojun that his attributes had far outstripped ordinary players as well… which meant he had gone from being a monster to being a very large monster.
Terrifying talent stacked on top of terrifying attributes. How the hell was anybody else supposed to live?
A hidden class in the World of Fate… could actually be this horrifying?
(End of Chapter 146)