Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Over at Linyin City’s Bounty Assignment Hall, the door was pushed open, and Ye Xiaowu coolly stepped out. No Smile and Silver Moon, who were anxiously standing outside, rushing over to his side the moment they saw him appear. “How was it?”

“It was indeed those guys.” Ye Xiaowu nodded.

“M*th*rf*ck*r! They truly wanna ruthlessly hunt me down till I’m backed into a corner!” Silver Moon spat.

“I’m returning the emblem to you.” Ye Xiaowu passed the Windchaser’s Emblem back to No Smile. Young Master Han and the others made a slight mistake in their deduction; Ye Xiaowu did not borrow Cool Apple’s Windchaser’s Emblem but No Smile’s, instead. The item was not exactly rare in Yueye City, and it had long since been discovered for its use as an escape mechanism. After No Smile’s experience dying for ten consecutive levels, why would he not make preparations to prevent such an eventuality from happening again?

“That trick’s pretty good.” Silver Moon already had such an idea to procure himself one.

“I’ll help you grind one out when I have the time,” No Smile offered.

Silver Moon nodded. The two were close like brothers after spending a whole night gaming together.

“Did you notice who picked up your Torq of Leadership?” Ye Xiaowu asked Silver Moon.

“Nope…” Silver Moon was in a foul mood. He was mauled by the crowd every single time he stepped out of the safe zone in Baishi City, so with his corpse always being mobbed, there was no way he could pick out who had looted his dropped equipment.

“At the very least, it’s not someone in the Ten Guild Alliance,” No Smile said.

“Can you confirm that?” Silver Moon asked.

“If it’s someone from the Alliance, there’s no way they’ll keep mum about it.” No Smile patted Silver Moon. Back then, anyone who had managed to give Silver Moon a punch in the process of his bashing would have boasted about it proudly over the guild channel for a whole day. Had anyone been able to loot off Silver Moon’s equipment, the perpetrator would have most likely bragged about it for a whole month.

Understanding what he meant, Silver Moon spat out his saliva to show his distaste.

“Do you know how many people joined you?” Ye Xiaowu asked No Smile.

“I’m not too sure myself; there were too many people that ended up joining in! Besides, most of them are from Baishi City, so we’re not too familiar with them,” No Smile replied.

“Old Broken has left for Baishi City for a whole day, but he hasn’t picked up any leads yet.” Ye Xiaowu sighed.

“Actually, I have yet to complete the chain quest that I got this item from. I was thinking that perhaps if I continue and finish it, perhaps I can get something similar from the other rewards down the road,” Silver Moon suddenly said with perfect composure.

“Oh? What’s the name of this chain quest?” Ye Xiaowu asked.

“The Failed Odyssey,” Silver Moon answered.

“Hmm… There’s no such reward,” Ye Xiaowu casually remarked.

“Ah? Then, what else is there?” Silver Moon maintained the same casual tone to match as well.

“I don’t know,” Ye Xiaowu did not provide an answer this time.

Silver Moon did not bother to inquire any further. Making eye contact with No Smile, their expression betrayed the slightest trace of puzzlement.

“The chances of such equipment appearing at this game’s current stage are extremely low. Your Torq of Leadership might very well be the only one in the entirety of Parallel World,” Ye Xiaowu said.

“So, what do we do?” Silver Moon was anxious.

“Let’s wait for news from Old Broken first!” Ye Xiaowu said.

“Oh. What about that trip you’ve just made? Did you succeed in leaving that Mark on any of them?” Silver Moon asked.

Ye Xiaowu nodded. “Still, we have wait to when they are alone. Right now, we simply don’t have the power to confront their entire team head on.”

“Yes!” Silver Moon and No Smile nodded. “What exactly is that Mark you mentioned? Can we see it?”

“You guys want to see it?”

The two nodded vigorously.

“Come with me.” Ye Xiaowu took the lead, and the two somehow ended up trailing after the man, all the way into the Alchemy Room provided for players inside the Academy.

Ye Xiaowu brought the two men over to a console and deftly pulled out a bunch of reagents from his dimensional pocket one after another. Placing them on a desk, he proceeded to use the various apparatuses to weigh, measure, and eventually store the final chemical compound into a beaker. After pouring it in a decanter of an unknown concoction and swiftly dissolving everything within the beaker, the final product was then splashed over a blank scroll that was already placed on the desk. Ye Xiaowu muttered a few lines of words as his right hand skillfully wrote on the scroll, using the splashed solution like it was ink. A silver glow followed his finger’s motions accordingly above the scroll, and sparkling dust fell onto the scroll. Flicking the scroll with the back of his finger, Ye Xiaowu quickly rolled up and sealed it. It was now ready for use.

“Done.” Ye Xiaowu chuckled to the two men.

Silver Moon and No Smile were not the only two staring dumbfoundedly at this entire sequence. The other players busying themselves over their desks around the room were also drawn to Ye Xiaowu’s performance. These players were using the desks at sixes and sevens, each of them having dirty faces as they busied themselves with their work. They uttered expletives in their rage whenever their concoctions failed. None was even half as adroit as Ye Xiaowu.

Once the crowd returned to their senses, they quickly rushed over. Before Silver Moon or No Smile could ask Ye Xiaowu anything, they were pushed far at the back as a circle of players crowded around Ye Xiaowu.

“Bro, how did you do it so perfectly like that? Teach me!” A player, whose entire head and hair had traces of char, excitedly pleaded.

“What did you just do? Is that a scroll?” A lady, who had been smeared with a multitude of colors from unknown reagents, asked even as she wiped the sweat off her forehead. She stared intently at the scroll still sitting on the desk.

“That’s right; teach us!” Even more players cried out.

Ye Xiaowu was at a loss on how to react at this. “I didn’t do much. It’s just a normal spell scroll. The method is the same as what everyone has been doing. Just be careful not to make any mistakes when you’re matching the reagents and practice the method of casting till you have it down pat; that’s all there is to this.”

“Then show us once more!” Plenty of players had just noticed what Ye Xiaowu was doing when he was halfway through the process, so they were hoping that they could watch the entirety of it this time.

“All right!” Ye Xiaowu could not simply decline such sincere gazes, so he took out his reagents once more, retrieve a blank scroll, and did the entire procedure from start to finish with the same dexterity as before.

“Done.” As another scroll sealed itself again, Ye Xiaowu turned to acknowledge the crowd.

A round of applause sounded, with many players cheering loudly.

“There’re so many reagents, and the technique’s very complex; is this a high-level spell scroll?” Some of the more skilled players pointed out.

Ye Xiaowu nodded.

“What spell is it?” Someone expressed their curiosity, but Ye Xiaowu merely smiled without answering.

“That’s too brilliantly done, bro; do it again!” another said.

Ye Xiaowu helplessly replied, “I can’t do that; I’ve run out of the necessary reagents.”

The crowd turned to look at Ye Xiaowu’s desk, and sure enough, the reagents needed to create the spell scroll was thrice the quantity they had seen on the most difficult recipe they knew of, with some reagents they were not even in the least bit familiar to them. All of them were Alchemists, so they could tell that this was a high-level spell. Obviously, the production cost such a high-level spell would be equally high as well. The man had already demonstrated this once for them and that was already sincere enough. Whether he truly ran out of the reagents or otherwise, these people did not bother to find out. However, they were all eager to see an expert at work, so someone called out, “Then, show us something easier!”

This suggestion was met with great approval from everyone. Without any choice, Ye Xiaowu picked something simpler. Casually picking out a few reagents and directly throwing them into the flask that held the solution, he shook them lightly a few times without unravel a blank scroll and threw them straight into a flask, instead. When his left hand shook the bottle, it caused the solution to splash onto the scroll, yet the excess did not spill out. Ye Xiaowu’s right hand was already swiftly and nimbly gesturing in the air as he chanted something. A flash of light occurred, and the solution was no more. He took the scroll out from the flask – it was completed just like that.

This time, the crowd was really struck dumb by what they had witnessed. From the reagents that he picked out, quite a few Priests could tell that he was creating the spell scroll for ‘Heal’. This was a spell that all Priests would know, yet Ye Xiaowu’s technique was so quick and fastidious that it reached a degree of unattainability, especially since he had done so without even unfurling the scroll. No one had truly ever seen this method before.

“You can do it like that, too?” someone cried out, astounded.

Ye Xiaowu smiled and pulled out the fresh spell scroll, opening it up to rinse that player with the white glow of Heal. There was no shred of doubt among the players present any longer. Maintaining their dumbfounded silence for a while, they burst into applause yet again.

“Once more!” someone cried out from within the crowd, amid the loud spatter of applause.

Silver Moon and No Smile were currently on the outer rim of this crowd of players, hopping and jumping away before they were able to catch a glimpse of the scene.

“Do you even know Alchemy?” Silver Moon asked No Smile.

“Why the f*ck would I? Who’s gonna practice that crap?!” No Smile cried out.

A bunch of players turned around and glared at him angrily.

No Smile hurriedly wrapped his left hand over his right fist, apologizing to everyone with a beaming smile. He was afraid that a maniac like Thousand Miles Drunk would be hiding in this crowd, offended by his flippant remark. There was no way he was going to bear being chased down the street and hunted down endlessly.

Silver Moon did not dare to be glib, either, carefully sending a message to No Smile: “No wonder that guy’s level is so low. It turns out he’s been practicing his crafting skills.”

“Yeah, so useless,” No Smile expressed. There was no doubt that Silver Moon and he had fallen into dire straits before, but they were also originally forerunners in their respective job classes’ leaderboards. They would need to reach a certain level of focus on leveling, so they might have dabbled with crafting, but they were of the same mind regarding it being a waste of time to become proficient in it.

“F*ck. When will this end…” Silver Moon continued to peer in on his tiptoes.

Ye Xiaowu was surrounded by these Alchemists. He demonstrated for 18 straight rounds until he created spell scrolls for all the Priest spells he had learned once, which were often sold by players. Even the other players, who were also fellow Priests, requested for him to show it a few more times. Those who were not Priests each wore an expression filled with grief as they were unable to witness the amazing techniques of this master Alchemist being used on skills and spells from their own respective job classes.

Silver Moon and No Smile were nearly annoyed sick of waiting for everything to end beyond the circle of players when they finally heard Ye Xiaowu announce, “Brothers and sisters, I still have things to do today, so I’ll end it here today, all right? I’ll gladly give pointers the next time we meet.”

Seeing that they all held the man up for quite some time, the crowd felt embarrassed to keep him any longer. Quite a few of them requested for Ye Xiaowu to accept them as friends, and there was even a lady forlornly trailing after him. “Big brother, when are you coming back? I’ll be waiting here for you…”

F*ck! Silver Moon and No Smile cried out in their hearts. He’s even managed to flirt with a lady in such a manner!

“Quick, quick. We don’t have much time!” The two, who could no longer bear it, hollered this. Squeezing their way in before they dragged Ye Xiaowu away from the crowd.