Chapter 573: Hidden Age

When a joker stopped joking, something must really be going on.

When someone so talkative only used four words to express himself, something must be wrong!

Lin Jie realized something was off and followed Hardworking Pants. He knew Hardworking Pants had something really important to tell him!

They entered Hardworking Pants’ room, which was full of misplaced runes. Hardworking Pants closed the door behind them carefully and turned to Lin Jie. “Leader, I want this to stay between you and me.”

“Okay, go on,” replied Lin Jie.

“You are a pro. You should know that there are more than killing monsters to level up. For Living job gamers like us, we can create items to gain EXP. The system states that it is for the diversity of the game, but that’s a lie.” Hardworking Pants took out an ancient book.

It was very dusty and contained many words that they could not comprehend. This language did not belong to The New Age. “Upon studying this book, I found this job called Jewel Artist. They can progress just like our combat players!”

Lin Jie was shocked. “Jewel Artist?”

“Yeah! They absorb the aura when items such as equipment, potions, and runes are formed. It can trigger a change in their life. They are further categorized into other professions, but they are lost in the record. The book says if we collect the items Jewel Artists left on the island, we can open some treasure, or… unfold some piece of history.”

“Expansion pack?” asked Lin Jie.

“Yes! Very likely. But that’s not our goal. Imagine we had the content of the expansion pack all to ourselves! We would be…” Hardworking Pants stopped and looked at Lin Jie, waiting for him to figure out.

Lin Jie was shocked by how creative Hardworking Pants was. He was a genius! Be it equipment or skills, they were not the most powerful things in this game—every individual was!

“You are very right!” Lin Jie praised him. “But for now, we are still not ready for such a thing yet. Keep the book secure. Can you study the Brilliant Circle of Life first to see if you can gather any information? Inform me at once if you find anything about that Hidden Age.”

“Sure, right away.” Hardworking Pants held the Brilliant Circle of Life and used his skills to examine it.

Lin Jie stood at the side and did not make a noise.

All jobs in The New Age required true skills. It was not as easy to use the skill and let the program run. Rune Masters needed to physically examine the runes. If he were not careful, he could damage and destroy the rune.

Time passed quickly, and Hardworking Pants was staring at the rune hard. His right hand was in position, waiting for the right moment. He was very fascinated by how the rune was working.

Lin Jie continued to wait.

Both of them stood still for three hours!

“Here!” Hardworking Pants shouted out of a sudden and took out a piece of the rune when it was rotating at a weird angle. He showed it to Lin Jie and said, “This is the core of the rune. I will start to examine it now!”

When Hardworking Pants was on it, his body started to glow. The wordings on the book became clearer, and suddenly, a bright light came out of the book.

Hardworking Pants’ level increased three times!

Ding~

—’You have decrypted the Primordial Rune. You are awarded with a 20% increase in all weapon proficiency.’

Weapon proficiency referred to how well one could use the weapon, and it increased its Attack’s lower limit. Lin Jie Attack was 1,728-2,102, with the weapon proficiency, his new lower limit was changed to 1,829!

After some time, the glow was gone.

Hardworking Pants opened his eyes and said, “I was rewarded with a 30% speed increase when using runes and three additional levels. I made the right decision!”

“Where did you get the book?” asked Lin Jie.

“I used to explore Dark Shrine’s library with Eighteen Massacres and found the book there,” replied Hardworking Pants, honestly. “Lone Wolf, try to spot such items too.”

Lin Jie said solemnly, “Sure!”

Hardworking Pants smiled. “It feels so good…”

“What?”

“Teaching people! I’ve recorded everything down! Codename Lone Wolf is paying attention to my lesson! I’m so proud!” Hardworking Pants laughed.

Lin Jie rolled his eyes. He patted on Hardworking Pants’ shoulder and said, “Good work anyway!”

Hardworking Pants kept smiling, but he felt very touched deep down.

Then, a system prompt message appeared.

Ding~

—”Congratulations to player “Codename Bu Yi”. Her team “Savage Blade” has obtained the first clear of Fallen Abyss. They are rewarded with 400,000 EXP, 50 gold coins, 1,000 Guild of Light Reputation Points, and additional Dark Gold Skill Book!”

—”Congratulations to player “Codename Thousand Miles…”

—”Congratulations to player “Codename Innocent…”

…

Lin Jie was stunned. “Fallen Abyss? Fourth Main Plot Dungeon?”

“Eh? Boss, you didn’t know? It opened a week ago.” Hardworking Pants looked at Lin Jie and said, “Bu Yi told me that they left you out on purpose because they wanted to show you how good they were… Wait, why are you so lost? Don’t look at me like that! I tried contacting you!”

He was indeed very talkative. Lin Jie did not ask anything, and he already got the answer.

Lin Jie did not know what to say. Bu Yi was afraid to interfere with Lin Jie’s mission and led Savage Blade on her own. It was the first competition after all the companies had invested in The New Age, and it was very difficult for them to get this first clear. They did it!

All Lin Jie could do was give them a treat. Thus, everyone was gathered at Sakura’s bar.

The Savage Blade team arrived and sat down. “Get us some drinks! This guy here will pay for them.” They totally let loose and enjoyed their time. Lin Jie could see how tired they were. It was no easy feat for them to defeat the Boss without his prior knowledge.

Mixed Breathless gargled down a bottle of beer and said Nice!”

“LOL, Eighteen Massacres must be so pissed!”

“Who would have thought Qiu Yuan was this good?”

“All thanks to her, we got the first clear.”

Everyone was engrossed with the conversation, and no one explained to Lin Jie what happened. He only learned the whole story after Bu Yi sent him a private message him.

It was an intense competition to get the first clear of Fallen Abyss. Steel Allies, Vampire City, and Knight’s Glory were catching up with Brotherhood really fast in terms of speed due to all the investments they had received. Every guild would have some elites in them. They might not have good equipment before, but with an investor, it was not an issue anymore.

All guilds had started to fight the Boss, Knight•Leuch, almost at the same time. All teams had faced wipe-out lots of times, so they slowly got the hang of it and started making progress. Since Lin Jie had not been there to lead the team, the members had started brainstorming many creative ideas, and they made the most progress in fighting the Boss. The Kingdom of Glory was on par with them.

At the very last moment when Savage Blade had been about to land the final hit on the Boss, Eighteen Massacres had appeared in the fight with two other guys. One of them was Space Mage Zi Mo. He had used a forbidden skill and torn space-time apart to force-enter the dungeon Savage Blade had been at. The forbidden skill required a huge amount of mana, and they had called 300 Dark Priests to give him the mana to do so.

Beside Zi Mo, there had been a Dark Priest named “Best Mana Potion”. It was said that she was a trusted relative of Zi Mo. When Eighteen Massacres had entered the map, he had immediately channeled AOE skills and tried to get both the Boss and Savage Blade. But, he had gotten stabbed at the back when channeling. It was the Dark Priest beside Zi Mo! When she took off her mask, everyone saw it was Qiu Yuan!

In the end, Eighteen Massacres lost, and Savage Blade won.

“Qiu Yuan… where is she?” Lin Jie asked immediately. Ever since she had left the team, she had blocked all communication, and he could not get in touch with her at all.

“Soon, you will be able to meet her.” Bu Yi winked. “But now, we have another problem…”

“What?”

“The Dark Shrine is attacking us.”

Just as she finished speaking, a system prompt message popped up!

—’System announcement: Blood Sub-Shrine of Dark Shrine is targeting the City of Light! Warriors of the City of Light, get your weapon and fight!’