Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Everybody was dumbfounded when they witnessed this.

In less than a minute since Eternal Dominion appeared, Southern Lone Blade’s entire squad was facing the sky with their backs on the ground, while Southern Lone Blade himself was actually killed off. These six men were MMO experts through and through, yet with that one assault, they were left in a state of confusion from this terrible dilemma that they now found themselves in. The remaining five players were still lying on the ground, uncertain whether they were better off remaining on the ground or getting up.

Death was almost a guarantee if they got up and staying on the ground would likely see the same result. Was there any chance for them to put up a final struggle and save what face they had left? Not at all. Trying to struggle against someone like Eternal Dominion would just be making matters worse for themselves, so how could they salvage what face they had left? The six of them shared the same sentiment on this, and each decided to continue lying on the ground. Even though they were not physically dead, they were already dead in their spirits.

Eternal Dominion was obviously in a jovial mood right now as he extended his hand out to Young Master Han. “That’s one kill. Gimme my money!”

“How much?” Young Master Han asked.

“I’ll let you guys decided!” Eternal Dominion was truly too naïve.

Thus, Young Master Han nodded his head and rummaged through his dimensional pocket. Eternal Dominion happily waited for his payment to arrive. In less than a heartbeat, Young Master Han fished out a bottle and placed it in the palm of his hands.

Eternal Dominion was stunned. “What’s this?”

“Liquor for you to drink,” Young Master Han replied.

“Where’s the money?” Eternal Dominion asked.

“I’m currently broke,” Young Master Han explained, “Take that bottle as mortgage.”

“What?” Eternal Dominion was nonplussed.

“That bottle right there goes for about 200 gold coins in the tavern,” Young Master Han realized that Eternal Dominion must be unfamiliar with the price of the bottle he had in hand.

“That’s so expensive!” Eternal Dominion was naturally surprised. He rarely ever found himself visiting places like the tavern, much less take note of such things, so he was of course unaware that an item like this would be sold for such an exorbitant amount. Now that he was aware that a liquor could be this expensive, he quickly hugged the said bottle securely with both hands and gingerly placed it into his dimensional pocket, as if it were a prized treasure.

To think it is so easy to earn 200 gold coins! Eternal Dominion excitedly thought to himself. It seems that being a professional gamer may indeed be a viable path, after all.

Sword Demon and Brother Assist were staring at him incredulously. They simply could not believe the look of contentment Eternal Dominion was showing them right now. The sum of 200 gold coins was only enough to hire someone from the streets into taking care of an average player, but what Eternal Dominion had just done was slay the peak expert, Southern Lone Blade. That was at least worth 500 gold coins by itself! Adding the fact that Southern Lone Blade had a squad that rarely left his side, the price should range from 800 gold coins to 1000 gold coins – that was if Sword Demon or Brother Assist were the ones quoting the price.

However, Eternal Dominion was fine putting this matter behind him with just the 200 gold coins, and it was not even actual currency, but a bottle of liquor used as a check of sorts.

Young Master Han shrugged to the two men and showed them an expression saying that it was none of his business.

“How about these guys? Do you need me to take care of them?” Eternal Dominion pointed to the five remaining players, who had all given up on putting up any semblance of resistance by the looks of things.

“No need; we’ll take care of them ourselves!” Young Master Han hurriedly interjected. He could tell that there was no longer a need for a hired help, and all they needed was an executioner. They would truly be wasting money if they needed to employ someone to do something like that for them.

Having already lost the will to fight back, Sword Demon heartlessly dispatched these five helpless men as he went around to deal the coup de grâce. It could be said that Southern Lone Blade’s squad of seven truly had a bout of terrible luck just from this excursion today. Not only had they fallen out from the running as the Five Unyielding Experts and the Ten Great Adepts, all of them had even fallen below level 40, as they all underwent a bout of depression in this short amount of time. Moreover, this was just the losses they had taken from experience alone. How long these men would need to recover from the psychological scars that they had incurred today depended on their individual mental fortitude.

Having taken care of Southern Lone Blade and his team, their next target was now the BOSS. This was a reward that they had chanced upon. Nobody had expected that hunting after Southern Lone Blade would result in such a serendipitous encounter. Those men sure lived up to their namesake as a company of larcenists; their nose for profit must be an innate talent.

Just as everybody was mulling over this thought, two figures appeared from within the fog. One was larger and taller than the other, both hurriedly intruding into their field of vision. These two figures, the taller one wielding a claymore and the smaller one readying his bow, saw the many people around and yelled, “Where’s Southern Lone Blade?! Get out here and let us settle this in a deathmatch!”

Everybody turned to regard the pair.

“Where’s the guy?!” War Without Wounds roared.

“It already ended,” Sword Demon quietly informed the Warrior.

“What?!” Both these experts exclaimed in unison, looking all around them as they nervously asked, “Then, what about the BOSS?”

“That thing is still around here...” Sword Demon was a little annoyed. It turned out that the two of them were clearly only concerned about this.

“Eh, why is Eternal Dominion here as well,” War Without Wounds finally spotted Eternal Dominion among them.

“Hi, how are you two doing?” Eternal Dominion had just earned 200 gold coins and was beside himself, so he cheerfully greeted the pair the moment War Without Wounds acknowledged him.

“Where’s the BOSS?!” War Without Wounds and Royal God Call bellowed a question, instead.

“Ask Miles!” Sword Demon replied.

Hence, the two brought their question over the mercenary channel. Gu Fei was most likely busy dealing with the BOSS at the moment, since there was no reply for the longest time. Everybody took this chance to eat and replenish their HP and mana as they waited to turn their sights onto the BOSS.

It was at that moment when a weak voice came from some corner of the clearing, “I am the one who found the BOSS!”

Limp Hands...

When Southern Lone Blade and the rest had given their all for the final gambit and rushed out, Limp Hands had been following right behind them all along, but he had knowingly stepped to the side the moment the battle began in earnest. Sword Demon and the rest had ignored his existence entirely, and even Eternal Dominion had left him alone when he first appeared to pummel everyone down to the ground. The point was that this man had been standing on the sidelines watching the entire battle unfold like an onlooker, seemingly entirely unconcerned with lending a hand to either side.

Now that he saw these group of players were planning to make a move for the BOSS after slaying Southern Lone Blade’s squad, he finally could no longer hold back and said something.

Everybody turned to stare at him, causing Limp Hands to really feel his hands go limp. After all, he had personally witnessed the expert Southern Lone Blade, who was the very definition of an apex expert to him, turn into a nutcase once he went against these men.

That was the point where Young Master Han marched up to him and patted him. “Hey, noob. You’d best be on your way back to the city! A BOSS is very dangerous.”

Limp Hands felt dejected; he felt dissatisfaction well up in his heart at being treated like this, but what could he do? He could only ask pitifully, “Then, can I at least watch?”

Young Master Han did not say a word, opting to show him an indifferent expression.

Everybody got ready when Gu Fei sent out a three-worded message: “Wait a minute!”

Gu Fei was truly a beast of efficiency; just as he finished sending these three words, he himself came flying out in the next moment. This time, he looked far more worn down than before. He had been able to block the Shadowmist Assassin’s attacks successfully these last few rounds and merely had problems unloading the excess force that came from each blow, which resulted in him flying out each time. However, this time, there was a clear streak of blood from a wound as he came hurtling out with that attack. Considering how Parallel World’s simulation system worked, this amount of blood being drawn meant that Gu Fei’s injury was not negligible, which just showed that he had taken damage from the Shadowmist Assassin’s one strike this time.

Young Master Han swiftly bestowed Heal on Gu Fei just as the grey figure from within the fog moved. War Without Wounds yelled loudly, “Here it comes!” before stepping forward in an attempt to block the attack. In the end, in the time it took for him to take that first step, that grey figure in front of him had already darted past. Fortunately, War Without Wounds’ mind was quick-witted enough to discern this; his eyes followed the blurring image of the Shadowmist Assassin and exclaimed, “So fast!”

Royal God Call also witnessed the skill of the Shadowmist Assassin and was equally astonished. He had readied his bow and was about to fire off an arrow, but the Shadowmist Assassin was simply too fast that he felt dizzy just following it. He could not even get a bead on the BOSS, so Royal God Call could only release a Homing Projectile, instead, which ended up whizzing past it. Apparently, the Homing Projectile did not even manage to lock on its target at all. The movement speed the Shadowmist Assassin had demonstrated only made these two MMO experts look bad.

The Shadowmist Assassin ignored these two as it went straight for Gu Fei. In the end, the only ones able to do anything were Sword Demon, who had a good grasp of how fast it moved, and Eternal Dominion, whose skill was second only to Gu Fei out of everybody present.

The two came from the left and right, looking to execute a pincer maneuver to intercept the BOSS. Sword Demon activated his Fleetfoot and his movement speed became much faster than Eternal Dominion’s, yet he still blocked nothing. Meanwhile, Eternal Dominion directly unleashed his Spurring Meteor as he dove in from the side. While his speed was nowhere near Sword Demon’s, the Fighter managed to land a hit right onto the Shadowmist Assassin’s head.

Sword Demon, who was even faster than the Shadowmist Assassin, tried to be in position before the BOSS could do so but failed.

Meanwhile, what Eternal Dominion had done was a preemptive assessment. Instantly determining the difference in movement speed between him and the BOSS, he then dove straight to the point of intersection and accurately landed a punch right onto the Shadowmist Assassin.

Eternal Dominion’s attack was different from Gu Fei. Gu Fei was a Mage, so his Strength was weak, and he depended on his spell to deal damage. However, Eternal Dominion’s attacks were purely physical. As he already had Strength, the attacks and the damage he dealt to the Shadowmist Assassin would have a tangible effect to it; this one punch he had sent toward the Shadowmist Assassin easily caused the BOSS to reel from the blow.

Sword Demon seized this opportunity on his end and immediately dashed toward the back of the Shadowmist Assassin and plunged his dagger to perform a Backstab while his Fleetfoot was still in effect. Royal God Call had also capitalized on the staggering motion of the BOSS to send a Snipe right to its back.

At the end of the day, everybody present was experts in their fields. Nobody would miss such an obvious opportunity when it presented itself. Even War Without Wounds stomped over in an attempt to use his Charge, but he was just a tad bit too far from the BOSS and was not faster than that Snipe from Royal God Call. In the time it took for him to take two steps forward, the Shadowmist Assassin had fled and dashed back into the safety of the fog again.

This was the patented fighting style of the Shadowmist Assassin – something that those people who had seen it would be used to by now. These men were feeling rather confident now that they had mounted a successful retaliation against the Shadowmist Assassin this round. If everyone saw this BOSS dash out but were unable to score a hit, then there would be no point for them to have any further designs on it.

At the same time, Sword Demon and the other MMO experts were all thinking, We wouldn’t stand a fighting chance against this BOSS if we didn’t have people like Gu Fei or Eternal Dominion taking on the Shadowmist Assassin.

“Be careful, everyone.” Gu Fei, who was recovering after receiving Young Master Han’s Heal, stood up from the ground and began eating fruit.

Everybody quickly converged to the center, forming a formation that was similar to what Southern Lone Blade’s squad had done before. The difference was that it was Gu Fei, still eating his fruit, that was right in the middle of everyone. He had the Shadowmist Assassin’s aggro at the moment, so everybody wanted to see what the BOSS would do now that they were all surrounding Gu Fei to protect him.

“Hey, hey, then what do I do?” This time, it was Limp Hands standing all alone at the side who hurriedly asked this question.

“I’ve already told you to hurry back to the city,” Young Master Han replied without even turning his head to look at the player.