Chapter 65: The Elemental Sword Artist

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

Augmenting Gems normally were affordable only by the rich players, professional players and Chairmen of guilds. For many people, they would prefer to change their equipment than enhance them. Also, investing in Augmenting Gems was a considered a stupid method in the game.

According to Junior Mo’s authoritative reports, one needed to enhance three areas—armor, leg guard and weapons +5—and they would be able to breeze through Normal-Level Mission trials’ Boss. If one chose to enhance his whole set +5, all kinds of Difficult-Level Mission trials’ Boss could be conquered.

‘You don’t believe it? Well, at least I believe it!’

This particular post by Junior Mo exploded as if Mars collided with Earth, and it landed with a blast onto the whole forum! However, a terrible thing was happening at the Auction House—there were not many of the Augmenting Gems left.

This situation was strikingly similar to the situation before the launch of Castle Wood!

Some quick players managed to buy some Augmenting Gems at the price of six silver coins before the news spread further, with favors from friends, their exes, neighbors, etc. They were able to make the +5 enhancement of their equipment at those three important areas.

In the end, they realized the mission was completed smoothly!

‘Enhancing the three important areas will allow one to beat the Mages’ Normal-Level Mission trials’ Bosses,’ ‘Enhancing the three important areas will allow one to beat the Shamans’ Normal-Level Mission trials’ Bosses…’

Great news like that appeared like the growth of bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

At once, the demand for Augmenting Gem increased! All players started to develop a common presumption: one would need to purchase the Augmenting Gems if they wanted to complete the Job-Changing Missions’ trials!

The demand for Augmenting Gems grew crazily, and its prices began to increase by heaps and bounds. Many profiteers earned a lot of money and were happily counting their money away in their inventories. What they did not know was that the boss behind-the-scenes had not even started his harvest yet…

———

Blood Soul Multi-Slash!

Both swords transformed into a cross and sliced the druid before Lin Jie’s eyes cleanly apart. It spawned a bright shining helmet…

‘Wow, great!’ Ever since he gathered three pieces of the Circle of Flame Breastplates, he had embarked on his fate of collecting three pieces of the Circle of Flame Helmets!

To this, Lin Jie could only let out a bitter laugh. Being unlucky was not something he could control. As the classic common saying goes, ‘when life gives you lemon, make lemonade’…

Ding~

“Boss, the thing which you wanted me to advertise, is already completed,” said Seven Ears mysteriously.

“Oh?” Lin Jie blinked his eyes. Before he left, Lin Jie had instructed Seven Ears to help to advertise the Augmenting Gems. After all, as a ‘profiteer’ himself, his main motive was to make as much money as possible.

When Seven Ears told him what happened, Lin Jie stuck up his thumb. “Good chap, so clever of you to think of this! That’s awesome!”

Items like Augmenting Gems were normally too expensive for ordinary players to purchase. One might get bankrupted just to get a set of three Augmenting Gems. To increase the efficiency of completing the Job-Changing Missions, guilds would purchase them in bulk and send their members to complete the missions in batches.

It was the same situation for opposing guilds.

So, was this a good or a bad phenomenon?

It was good!

The Bosses of the Job-Changing Mission trials were like the mentors of every job. It was difficult to beat one single-handedly, but not totally impossible to do so. In Lin Jie’s previous life, there had been hundreds of players who had completed the difficult-level missions with Beginner’s Sets. In fact, there had been a player who had finally passed the trials after challenging the Boss for a full one month period, and he had earned great respect from the other players.

After that, his performance in the game had shocked many. With steady fundamental skills, acute senses and skillful techniques, he had been regarded as the living textbook of the Warrior job!

Players could best increase their knowledge of their jobs and perfect their skills only by going through the Job-Changing Mission trials without any external help. If all the big guilds resorted to buying Augmenting Gems in a bid to increase the speed at which their members leveled up, their members would remain weak for a long time after that.

“Oh, by the way, do help me take note of a few people,” Lin Jie said sternly, “one of them is called Star Kill, and the other person is called Lost Camel. If these two people come to buy Augmenting Gems, don’t sell to them. Tell them this instead…”

Although Seven Ears was rather confused by this instruction, he still nodded his head and replied, “Yes.”

“I will hang up first then.” Lin Jie put down his communication device after giving his instruction.

A small forest trail appeared before Lin Jie’s eyes as he advanced on in the map. When he stepped onto the trail, he was astonished to discover that there were no monsters along the way.

With the trail, Lin Jie managed to bypass numerous Druids of the Flame and eventually reached the interior of the Tip of Flames. Underneath tens of burning trees, about 12 Druids of the Flame, which were in leopard forms, guarded a clear spring. Lin Jie compared the bearings of the treasure location with the treasure map, and realized that the treasure he was looking for was beneath the spring!

However, there was another treasure beside the spring—a Dark Gold treasure chest that was sparkling brightly next to the spring.

‘A Dark Gold treasure chest!’

‘A map with two treasures… What, was it literally buy 1 and get 1 for free?’

Lin Jie’s breathing fastened. He adjusted his breathing speed, calmed himself down and threw an Inspect spell at the nearest Druid.

Druid of the Blazing Flame (Leopard form): Level 15 Elite, Health Points: 7,500.

There were 12 Druids of the Blazing Flame which gathered around the spring in a circle. Making a breakthrough was hard.

Lin Jie tried calculating the aggro of each Druid by its level. Unfortunately, the 12 monsters’ aggro were locked together. As long as one of their aggro was activated, the rest would be alerted too. He would be torn to pieces if he wanted to get through just by himself.

Were there any ways to bypass this group of monsters?

All of a sudden, Lin Jie slapped his head. ‘Gosh, why do I have to play like a Bandit when I am a Berserker?’

What were the most striking talents of a Warrior? Three words could capture its essence: just do it!

That was, after all, a game still. One did not need to use a shovel and literally dig for a treasure chest. They just needed to stand at the corresponding coordinates and activate the treasure chest to get what was inside. Normally, the process of activating the treasure chests was instantaneous. In other words, this meant that Lin Jie could barge into the crowd of monsters, get the treasure first, then think of ways to get out.

Since he had the skill Undefeated Anger and these were only Elites of Level 15, this plan might work!

‘Okay, that’s it!’ Lin Jie abandoned all the previous thoughts of sneaking past the monsters. He raised his head and puffed out his chest, jumping out from behind the trees, and shouted calmly, “Oye, b*stards!”

Shoosh!

The 12 Druids turned and glared at Lin Jie. Their leopard eyes narrowed, and bloodlust was written all in their eyes.

Hunter’s Forward Charge!

Lin Jie aimed at one of the Druids and sprinted out like a black shadow towards it. He only deactivated the skill when he reached his targeted spot. As a Strengthening Skill, the Hunter’s Forward Charge would have one second of 100% speed enhancement effect the moment it was deactivated! Lin Jie sprinted past the leopard as he activated Hunter’s Forward Charge again, and dashed into the spring!

“Awo—”

“Awo—”

The Druids of the Blazing Flame activated their jumping skills. Just like any leopards pouncing on their preys, they leaped high up into the air!

Outraged Roar!

A roar tore through Lin Jie’s throat. All the Druids were stunned and fell to the ground.

Lin Jie opened the treasure map, and activated the collection progress!

‘Reading of the Treasure Map…’

7%…

16%…

There was actually a reading progress bar for it! Lin Jie couldn’t believe his eyes. Indeed, the higher the grade of the treasure map, the more irritating the activation process!

Not only that, Lin Jie started to feel chills down his spine. What happened? Didn’t he stun all the Druids of the Blazing Flame?

An elderly Druid in the form of a mountain cat sprang out from emptiness.

Prophet Druid of the Blazing Flame (Mountain Cat form): Level 15 Boss, Health Points: 13,500.

‘Wtf!’ It was actually a Druid Boss that knew how to use magic skills! Lin Jie felt as if his heart stopped. ‘I’m done for this time!’

The activation of the treasure map was stopped abruptly in the middle of the process! The Boss’ sharp claws were about to come down on his back, and all the Druids of the Blazing Flame had awakened from their stunned states by the Outraged Roar. Lin Jie would be dead in a jiffy!

“Bro, here!”

A figure appeared at the end of the forest trail. He had short hair and was clad in armor of various colors, making him look oddly out-of-place. He swung his longsword around, and just like Iceman in the X-men movie series, frost spread on the whole ground. Small chunks of ice were formed on the ground, and all the monsters were frozen for half a second.

“Attack me!” shouted the person.

Lin Jie understood, and activated Forward Charge at the person!

Whoosh!

Lin Jie’s swords bumped against the person’s stomach accurately as he transformed into a black shadow and knocked into the person. Two damages of around 70 plus points appeared.

“Woah, the damage points are so high!” The person grinned. When he saw all the monsters which started to give chase after them, he hurriedly grabbed Lin Jie and shouted, “Run!”

“Frost Nova!”

Swinging his longsword again, icicles jutted out from the ground. This would reduce the targets speeds and cause minor damages to them once they stepped on it.

Both of them ran out of the Tip of Flames before they were finally out of the aggro field of the Druids of the Blazing Flame. They threw themselves down on the ground, panting heavily.

“Thanks.” Lin Jie smiled. That player had hidden his name and identity. His face was not someone Lin Jie could identify with in his previous life too.

“You’re welcome.” the player smiled back. “You are completing a mission?”

Lin Jie nodded. “Yes, I have a treasure map.”

“Oh, I am in the midst of completing a mission too. There are some things I need in the Dark Gold treasure chest.”

Lin Jie looked at him. He was an Elemental Sword Artist, and they had even more divisions than Mages. Just to name a few, the Elemental Sword Artist jobs could be divided into the Frost Sword Artist, Fire Sword Artist, Double Ability or Triple Ability Sword Artist, etc. This was widely known by players as the most complicated job in The New Age.

Sensing Lin Jie’s wariness, the other player laughed humbly and commented, “I don’t want to snatch all the treasures for myself. What I meant was, why don’t we cooperate? You have the ability to break through, but I don’t. I have the ability to control the monsters, you don’t… erm, I think you have those kinds of abilities too. Okay then, since things turn out like this, why don’t we go in there to get what we need, and on top of that, 70% of the contents inside the treasure chest will go to you. Deal?”