Chapter 38: Castle Wood

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

“Lin Jie, where the heck is this worn-down place?”

Zheng Ziliang frowned and stretched his hand to his right shoulder. His face was full of disgust as he swiped the dry and rotten palms onto the ground. In this half an hour, a dead corpse would fall from the sky with every step taken, and it just happened to fall onto him.

“Castle Wood,” said Lin Jie faintly.

Built on the vast expanse of the mountains was the famous Blade Mountain. One side of the mountain was sharp like a blade, while the other side was like a junkyard. Before the opening of Wood Castle, entering the dungeon from the back hill was a very practical method to avoid most monsters.

But after the dungeon was opened, it was depressing. All the monsters killed in Wood Castle were thrown down. As they raised their head to look up, the corpses were like snow, making one’s hair stand on end as the corpse fell onto the person.

The Wood Castle dungeon would be popular for a long time, reaching the peak of its popularity as the players’ levels were raised to 10. The trial for job change needed players to gather at least one bronze set.

On the market, the price of the lower-level Poison-Antidote Potion had dropped slightly. The reason being the merchants who opened their goods to earn money disrupted the market price. Only Lin Jie remained very calm and kept the price high. For that reason, the Sky Provisions Shop had been despised by many people.

Even so, the profit of the lower-level Poison-Antidote Potion was still very high. Lin Jie’s warehouse had deposited an extra 40 gold coins!

In addition, the Sky Provisions Shop gradually got onto the right track under the management of Seven Ears. 40 gold coins were used as starting money to buy a large number of low-priced goods, at least 20% were pawned goods, which could be sold to earn money after the redemption deadline.

Dead Fish Eye also contacted him not long ago, to ask when he needed to fulfill the promise, but he postponed it again and again.

“I can go for a level 5 dungeon with my level now?” asked Zheng Ziliang, lacking in confidence. He did not want to hinder him by pulling him down.

“Don’t worry, I know what I am doing, or else why would I ask you for help?” Lin Jie laughed.

The two of them climbed to the top of the mountain in the pile of bloody corpses, everywhere was dark. The castle that looked like a devil’s giant mouth stood tall and straight in front of them.

The crowd was like a mass of bobbing heads.

“Simple-level castle dungeon team recruiting, any MT come and join us. Let’s quickly enter the dungeon.”

“Any team is short of a healer? A healer with all bronze equipment is requesting for a team!”

“OMG, a priest with all bronze equipment! Big brother, please come to my team…”

The most popular job in a dungeon would either be MT or healers. Before players changed jobs, only the priest had a considerable healing ability.

Whereas the other few jobs that had the ability to heal, such as the Paladin, Shaman, Gladiator, etc., were much worse in terms of healing extent.

Several teams had their eyes lit up when they saw Lin Jie. High-level warriors with good equipment were the ones who were the most sought after. With just a hook of their finger, who knew how many teams would voluntarily invite him.

Only when they saw Zheng Ziliang did those people calm down. They all thought that he was helping a noob to level up.

Simple-level dungeons’ difficulty level was not low, not to mention the trouble of bringing a liability with him! After a few minutes, only a level 5 Paladin with all blank equipment came to invite Lin Jie to join the team.

“No need.” Lin Jie waved his hand and stood at the entrance of the dungeon.

Suddenly, the crowd burst into chatters, getting excited.

A team of ten people strode proudly towards the dungeon. They were dressed in black-toned clothes and had cold eyes. Even though they were the center of attention, they treated the onlookers as if they were totally invisible.

That was an expert team!

“Is that the Kingdom of Glory that is in the limelight now?”

“I have a friend who is a potioneer in this guild. The pay is $7,500 a month, and the commission will be counted separately.”

“Those who have wealth speak louder words!”

The current Kingdom of Glory was different from the one in Lin Jie’s previous life.

In his previous life, the Kingdom of Glory, Dark-Robed Knights and Mage Heavens had risen into power together, splitting nearly half of the Light Alliance forces. The other guild leaders who had been caught unprepared, united with difficulties and only then were they not swallowed up.

At that time, there had been countless of Kingdom of Glory branch guilds, but the number of people in the main guild had not changed. That had lasted for a whole six years.

Currently, the Kingdom of Glory was rapidly absorbing members, becoming no different from an ordinary guild.

“Did the person in charge change the plan?” Lin Jie tapped his chin and looked at the people from the Kingdom of Glory walking nearer from afar. The Eighteen Massacres was not among them, but the team’s lineup was still shocking and strong.

Dual Swordsman “Cigarette Butt,” Orpha “Shallow Smile”… In a few years, those names would become a legend in The New Age.

Cigarette Butt had the same job as Lin Jie, Warrior. However, what’s different was that he got a very good talent skill through randomization. He would have the ‘flurry’ augment when equipping two one-handed weapons. As both weapons’ attributes could be stacked, the attack damage was much higher than an average person’s.

He was about 30 years old, and his face was very clean with sharp edges. He emitted a masculine charm with his every action or gesture. That was a man that could make any woman go crazy. If it weren’t for a certain event, he would most probably still be the prince charming of many people’s dreams.

Cigarette Butt noticed Lin Jie’s line of sight, his eyes were emotionless as if impervious to desires and passions. However, with just this look, his first impression towards Lin Jie’s equipment had already been formed. His armor was very exceptional!

Before Heritage equipment appeared in front of the public eyes, no one could discover Broken Blade’s extraordinary nature.

Cigarette Butt casually walked towards Lin Jie and smiled. “How about joining the Kingdom of Glory?”

Everyone was shocked.

The guild that many people were trying hard to worm their way into was just within reach for other people.

“Not interested.” Lin Jie shrugged his shoulders.

“WTF! Big brother, I am interested!” An onlooker could no longer suppress himself.

“I have it too, me too… As long as you lack people, I can join anytime.”

Cigarette Butt laughed sarcastically. He habitually raised his right hand to the front of his lips with his two fingers in a V shape but awkwardly realized that there was no cigarette in the game. His face was full of dismal.

“Cigarette Butt, let’s go.” Shallow Smile was a woman. She was beautiful, but unfortunately, her face was like cold ice that would never melt. This made it difficult for people to have a favorable impression of her.

After following the Kingdom of Glory’s team enter the dungeon with their eyes, everyone started discussing among themselves.

“Looks like the first clear of the dungeon is about to emerge.”

“If the first clear is taken, some of the older brand guilds such as Triumphant Midnight’s face will be lost completely.”

“Why is there no news from Netherblue team yet? They were the team that took the first clear of the expert-level dungeon! This does not make sense.”

“What Netherblue team, I have not heard of it before…”

The dungeon’s light flashed, Qiu Yuan walked out with her face flushed red. She wore the Dark Hug Cloak that was obtained from Castle Wood. Its luster was very dim as it must be a normal piece of equipment.

On the surface, it seemed as though they had an advantage since they had a team, but they could only stay at the entrance and clear the small monsters. Qiu Yuan felt very helpless.

“You came?” When Qiu Yuan saw Lin Jie, her worries flew away. She put up a little angry face. “Hmph, you still know to come back? Bast*rd… Ahem! Hey, did you pretend not to see the message I sent you?”

Lin Jie innocently raised his outstretched hands. “I was doing a mission.”

“Liar!” Qiu Yuan was ablaze with anger.

“Let me introduce to you, Innocent Killer, my brother.” Lin Jie quickly changed the topic and patted Zheng Ziliang’s shoulder. He then noticed that there was something different. That fellow had immediately straightened his back when he saw the beauty. Lin Jie could almost not reach him.

“Hello.” Zheng Ziliang smiled, bowed and shook hands. He did all three actions in one go, very in a gentleman’s and warm manner. With one look, one would know that he was not the kind of guy that would never let go if he held onto one’s hand.

Qiu Yuan blinked her eyes. “Such a creepy name…”

“…” Zheng Ziliang pointed at Lin Jie. “He helped me to create my account.”

“Creepy!” Qiu Yuan flashed her middle finger and despised Lin Jie.

“Bro, I think I am in love.” Zheng Ziliang sent a message to Lin Jie. “Love at first sight, oh no, I think I’ve fallen in love. You have to help me no matter what, or else tonight I will die of lovesickness…”

Lin Jie almost splurt out a mouthful of blood. He immediately opened the shopping website and searched for rat poison and, placing an order of a total of ten pounds of it. He would poison that bast*rd tonight!

Just as he was about to pay, Netherblue walked towards him from a distance. “Long time no see.”

Lin Jie canceled the order page. “Long time no see.”

“Thank you,” said Netherblue quietly and looked at Zheng Ziliang, “This is…”

‘Wow, another beauty!’ Zheng Ziliang wiped his saliva, and just as he was about to introduce himself, he heard Lin Jie say, “My son, don’t mind him.”

Zheng Ziliang.”…”

The two of them joined the team, and Lin Jie took a look at the team’s level. All team members’ levels were at 6, at the point where they were about to level up to level 7.

The reason Netherblue was only farming monsters near the dungeon entrance, was not totally because their ability was too low, but it was totally because of Lin Jie’s arrangement.

The monsters in Castle Wood had very high experience points, the difference in the strengths of monsters was very huge. The attributes could have a disparity of 300% and above, but the experience points were totally the same!

If one died in the dungeon, the player would lose 10% of their current experience points. If the whole team was wiped out, all the experience points received from the dungeon would be lost. According to the difficulty intensity of the Castle Wood dungeon, wiping out of the whole team was inevitable.

Therefore, even if it were grand guilds like the Kingdom of Glory, Triumphant Midnight and Ironwall Empire, etc., the outcome of clearing the dungeon would be the same. As the progress of clearing the dungeon went up, their level remained the same.

However, Netherblue’s team members were different. Their experience points were always increasing. The speed of farming the monsters at the entrance of Castle Wood was 50% faster than other training grounds. They could also accumulate on the foundation of their equipment.

Now, that small team’s level was higher than most players.

“Fu Sheng, how was it?” Netherblue looked at Lin Jie with anticipation.

“No good.” Lin Jie shook his head. Netherblue sighed helplessly.

“This level is not enough to clear the difficult-level.” Lin Jie laughed. “However, we could clear the normal-level dungeon and get that record first!”

Netherblue’s face was full of excitement. “Really?”

“Yes, I am certain. However, I hope your team could do me a favor. This normal-level first clear, I want to monopolize it myself.”

“Ah? Why? Big sis’ appearance fee is very expensive!” Netherblue calmed down temporarily and regained her normal capable and experienced self.

“I have my own reasons, I hope you can help me this time. The appearance fee will be the first clear of the expert-level Castle Wood!”

“Deal!” Netherblue could not calm down again. First clear for normal-level and expert-level, was there any need for more consideration?

“Ah yes, we need to keep our agreement temporarily a secret, is that fine?” Lin Jie thought for a while and added.

“No problem!”