Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 165 How Did You Know That?

The strong wind blew, and not only in a single direction. Sometimes it blew northwards and westwards, while at times the wind blew southwards and eastwards. There was no sign that the wind would stop.

Ye Ci’s long, pointed Elven ears twitched in the wind. She detected a distinctive sound mixed in the howling of the wind. It was something foreign to the natural sound of the map, and it was not the rumbling of the Ogres as they moved about. It was something that Ye Ci felt very familiar with.

She sat quietly on the hill for a short moment and noticed that the sound came with the southeastern wind but she could hear nothing when the wind was blowing from the northwest. Apparently there was something going on at the southeastern side.

After feeding Ol’ Four, Ye Ci climbed onto his back and headed southeast.

“Heading southeast” sounded simple enough, but actually pulling it off in a place like the Mausoleum of Blades was no simple feat. The mountainous terrain meant Ye Ci would need to traverse past mountain after mountain just to reach the southeastern sector of the map.

Ye Ci, however, was in no hurry. The further she went, the clearer the sound was. She listened intently to the source of the sound. It was the dying wail of Ogres as they were slaughtered, followed closely by the sound effect from a very specific character class.

But... What class was that?

Ye Ci kept her eyes shut, trying to discern the sound.

Frost Ray, Bursting Flames, Giant Fireball... Ye Ci could identify each ability cast by the player. It was a Sorcerer. As a top Sorceress in her last life, Ye Ci knew the sound effects of the class’ abilities very well.

It was quite a shame. Due to her playthrough as a Huntress in her current life, Ye Ci had grown unfamiliar with the Sorceress class. Listening to such sounds reminded Ye Ci of things in her last life.

Judging from the sound, there was only one player in the area, and for a Sorcerer to be able to reach a place like this alone, it was not through luck. The person was a skillful player. Ye Ci originally wanted to refrain from interrupting the person, but since she was unable to discover the secrets of the Mausoleum of Blades, she decided to join the person in leveling up. Perhaps she could get something out of it.

With such thoughts in her mind, Ye Ci made her way towards the source of the sound.

After traversing through yet another treacherous hill, the source of the sound was finally in sight.

It was an open basin. In a map such as the Mausoleum of Blades, such a basin was very rare. The place was small and very well hidden. One could even miss this place entirely if one was not paying attention even when he or she was near the area.

There were little plants in the basin, with only ferns and some occasional azalea covering the ground, which was rather fitting for a dry and chilly place like the Mausoleum of Blades. The azaleas were in scattered groups of twos and threes, giving off a lonely feel.

In such a desolate place however, was a huge number of Ogres. They did not appear to be from the same tribe and were roaming around. Each Ogre stayed clear of each other’s territory. It was the perfect solo-leveling spot.

A Sorcerer in light green robes was standing in a corner of a basin that was near a cliff’s wall. The Sorcerer was raising his staff and channeling spell after spell. First came the crowd control (CC) abilities, then the damage over time (DOT) abilities and a few high damage single spells. The Sorcerer cast his spells within 20 seconds, and an Ogre fell onto the ground with a loud rumble right before it could reach him. Of course, there were times when the Sorcerer’s aim was off, and he was forced to use his Ultimate to blast away the incoming ogres. Despite taking a few hits, the Sorcerer was able to endure.

Right after the monsters around were slain, the Sorcerer would immediately sit on the ground and munch on replenishment to recover his hitpoints and mana. It was not an efficient way to level up, but with the Sorcerer being the only player around, there was nobody else that would steal his kill and disrupt his fight. This meant that the player was able to easily dispatch the Ogres near him. This was a rather effective way of leveling up, especially when the level of the monsters in the map was at lvl 40. Despite being slower and dangerous, the Sorcerer would be able to receive more experience points, the Sorcerer was able to level up quicker.

There were times when Ye Ci’s superb vision was not a good thing.

This was one such occasion. Ye Ci could turn around and leave after spotting the mage. But she knew who he was after setting her eyes on him. With that, she no longer wanted to leave.

The player was an acquaintance of Ye Ci. Even though she was not very close with the person, they’d had a few fights before. More importantly, they both knew a certain someone who was an asshole.

Perhaps it was because of that reason that Ye Ci made up her mind to greet the person.

She rode down the hill, easily getting rid of any Ogre that stood in her way, and arrived before the Sorcerer.

He had expended great effort in discovering this perfect leveling spot, and thought that no one would be able to get this far. The sudden presence of another player would of course cause some bad mood. It was something that could not be described with words. If he realised that the player who appeared in front of him was someone that he had a conflict with, his displeasure would definitely increase. If he then discovered again that the player was not somebody he was able to defeat, the depression in his heart would be something that even the best linguist in the world would be unable to describe.

NightAndDay was experiencing such a feeling. He looked at Gongzi You who was riding on her dinosaur and put on a smile with trembling lips. It was a smile that did not reach his eyes. He held back the urge to curse out loud. F*ck! What the hell was this luck!? Why would such a person appear in a place like this!?

“Hi!” Ye Ci waved at NightAndDay as a form of greeting. Truth to be told, she was in an excellent mood, especially after witnessing the changes of the expression on NightAndDay’s face from discrepancy to surprise and finally confusion.

“Hey.” NightAndDay replied without much enthusiasm, “Gongzi You, what a coincidence that we run into each other in this place.”

“Oh, I happened to be passing by.” Ye Ci replied truthfully. Of course, she happened to pass by intentionally. She was not lying at all.

Keep up your bullshitting. You happened to pass by in this place where even birds would not take a crap? Do you think I’m dumb? These were the exact thoughts of NightAndDay. A thousand “f*ck yous” flew through his mind, but he was unable to voice out his thoughts. He could only chuckle dryly in response to the smile on Ye Ci’s face, “What a coincidence... What a coincidence...”

“I see that you found a good leveling spot.” Ye Ci jumped down from Ol’ Four and stood not far away from NightAndDay, “It’s no wonder your level increased by a lot these days. I haven’t heard any news of Tang Dynasty exploring new dungeons for quite a while. Looks like it’s because you’re busy leveling up.”

NightAndDay exploded after Tang Dynasty was mentioned by Ye Ci, “What? Gongzi You happened to be passing by and wishes to exact revenge on me while she’s at it?”

Ye Ci raised her eyebrows and snorted, “Why should I? You’re not the one I have enmity with.” with that, Ye Ci’s lips form into another sincere smile, “I have to thank you for your willingness to retreat on the other day. If the fight continued, Upwards Ho! would have suffered a serious blow.”

NightAndDay’s expression darkened when he was reminded of the incident on that day. He turned around, and said with an indiscernible tone, “My thoughts were not on the fight, it’s meaningless anyways.”

Ye Ci narrowed her eyes at NightAndDay’s back. She could feel the presence of some hidden meaning within his words, and there was something troubling his mind. It was something that Ye Ci could not understand. Although she was not interested in somebody else’s trouble, she could still manage a wild guess. It seemed that it had something to do with the affair between Into the Sunset and Wandering Cloud.

Then again, could any man stand an affair between his lover and his best friend? Even if he was unsure, but as soon as his suspicion is aroused, it is nigh impossible to brush it off so easily.

Despite not regretting her action and despite her hatred for Wandering Cloud, such an underhanded method was something she would like to avoid. She then sent a party invitation to NightAndDay after a brief moment of thought

NightAndDay looked at her incredulously, “What the hell are you doing?”

“You can’t clear away so many Ogres alone anyways. Let’s party up, it’ll quicken up our leveling speed.”

NightAndDay could see Ye Ci’s sincerity and understood that she was not here for revenge. She was correct as well. He’d witnessed Gongzi You’s destructive power first hand and knew that she was a very skillful player. Partying up with her would definitely speed up his leveling progress.

With that, NightAndDay accepted the party invitation.

Ye Ci was already at lvl42. She barely received any damage from the Ogres. She rode on Ol’ Four and pulled hordes and hordes of the monsters at a time and then took them out with Rain of Arrows. Watching that experience gauge rising rapidly was a very satisfying experience.

However, the two remained quiet throughout the entire process.

After clearing away all the monsters on the basin, the two sat down for a rest. The astonishment that NightAndDay felt when he first saw Ye Ci in action was gone. He appeared calm. He silently retrieved a bottle of wine from his inventory and handed it to Ye Ci while gulping down another bottle of his own. He then took in a deep breath, looked square at Ye Ci, and squeezed out his question word by word, “How did you find out about that thing?”

Hi minna-san! Ohaiyo!! Jimmi is having monday blue, but Jimmi does not wish for his readers to experience monday blue! Here’s a chapter to cure your monday blue!

Anyways *cough cough* *clears throat* as we know.... Steam sales is coming.... *cough cough* Anybody wants to sponsor Jimmi some games? *cough cough* I-i-it’s not like I want Fallout 3 GOTY edition! B-baka! jk XD

So... Enjoy the chapter folks! Don’t forget we always have a teaser next page! Desu Vult!