MMORPG: The Elementalist

Climbing up the snowy slope, Qin Ruo deactivated his Elemental Perception: Water again as he cautiously ascended to the peak. He glanced down quickly at the small snowy valley upon reaching the top.

The small valley that was covered with ice and snow looked like it was covered by layers of thick velvet hair. It was like a gentle and serene paradise. A pack of Snow Wolves, which blended into the ice and snow, gathered in the valley. Some of them crawled while some of them stood still. They looked like fifty piles of snow with irregular shapes. If one did not look at them properly, one would not have noticed them.

Even though the targets were found, the situation was far more different than Qin Ruo had imagined it to be…

His initial plan was to rely on his Elemental Perception: Water to slowly lure the targets of the first quest to the open and kill them one at a time. But looking at the current situation, tsk… all fifty Snow Wolves were in a pack. As far as Qin Ruo knew, the moment he startled any one of those wolves, all fifty Snow Wolves would be alerted to his presence. By then, all fifty Snow Wolves would run out in excitement like a bunch of officers going after a robber.

Making up his mind, Qin Ruo instantly turned around and lied on the ground of snow, feeling like a withered plant.

Depressing.

He had boasted to Slayer’s Heart and the few ladies had said that he would have no problem in taking on the Snow Wolves and the Yetis a moment ago. F*ck this… it seemed that the problem was huge now. Even a Snow Wolf that was the easiest to handle was fifty times more difficult to handle now. Was there be a system that tortured people like that? How despicable!

After scorning at the system, Qin Ruo calmed himself down. He turned around and glanced quickly at the other islands. He wondered if he could still choose the other quests now. Having an Aquamancer to battle against Water-type monsters would not give him much of an advantage.

Sighing aloud, Qin Ruo gave up on trying to change his quest and turned back towards the island and looked at his environment. He started observing to see if there was any terrain that could give him an upper hand.

After taking a closer look, Qin Ruo felt his depression slowly fading away. Surprise, nervousness, and excitement replaced his depression. He swiftly glanced through the entire small valley, then he looked at his current position as he seemed to have learned something.

That was it!

The system did not intend to really torture the players to death on this land. There were also three other slopes around the valley. The other three valleys were obviously steeper than the one he was currently on. They were not easy for anyone to climb on. The one he was on was slightly less steep. There was also a concaved passage in the middle of that slope. As long as the wolves were stuck in a limited space, even if the pack was huge, it was not possible for the wolves to escape the fact that they have to get into a single-line formation to fit into the space before getting to Qin Ruo.

It was just that…

Even though the space of that concaved passage was not really wide, it was enough to easily fit about three to five Snow Wolves at one go. Although Qin Ruo could use his Frostramparts to make the passage narrower, if he needed to kill those wolves one by one, he had to exhaust a lot of MP Potions to do that. Each Frostrampart used up 1 MP per second while Aquabarrier would use up 2 MP per second. Furthermore, using his Magic Attacks to kill one monster meant wasting at least 30 MP! Not to mention that once the battle had begun, Qin Ruo would definitely not be given a chance to catch his breath. They would constantly attack him. Even if Qin Ruo made sure that there was no mistake or accident during the battle, he would still have to waste at least ten bottles of MP Potion (M)!

Making up his mind, Qin Ruo inhaled deeply. Killing five Tier 3 Snow Wolves would burn MP Potion (M) that cost over 60 gold coins without getting any EXP in return. Not to mention that the risk of failing the quest was extremely high… it was not worth it at all!

No deal! Definitely not!

The moment joy slipped away from him, Qin Ruo furrowed his brows and began to look for other alternatives. Although he had equipped himself with fourteen sets of MP Potion (M) and had yet to even use any of them, he would still need to spend one full set of the MP Potion here to handle the Snow Wolves. What should he do if he faced even more difficult challenges afterward? Perhaps he would have used up all of his potions before he could even meet the Wintry Vájra. He might end up failing his quest and getting nothing out of this. So, the pure consumption method was the worst way for him to do this.

Instead of using that method, it was actually better for him to die now and get out of here.

***

After a few torturous minutes, Qin Ruo had thought of a few possible scenarios in the small snowy valley. In conclusion, it was the distance or being killed by the wolves before he ran across the valley. There was no terrain that was advantageous to him at all.

After some thinking, he roared in frustration. Then, his eyes on the small sapphire lake behind him.

The small lake was less than a hundred meters away from the spot where Qin Ruo was. It was faint blue, as shallow as the water outside the island. Qin Ruo started to wonder. If a one meter tall Snow Wolf went into the lake to pursue Qin Ruo, where the resistance of the lake water was present, would the wolf stand with its feet touching the bottom of the lake to fight, or would it be just like a puppy trying to swim while battling Qin Ruo? How would it be like if that really happened?

Quickly glancing at the Snow Wolves in the valley, Qin Ruo thought about how he would lure all of them into that lake… he sniggered and smirked. He had decided.

***

Back in the valley, fifty Level 39 noble-looking Snow Wolves were roaming around. None of them was aware that they were secretly being watched. All of them seemed to be comfortably enjoying their time and the soothing atmosphere in the snow. Some were grooming their snowy white hair like narcissists.

Suddenly…

One Snow Wolf that was furthest in the outer-ring realized something. It rolled and stood up on its feet. Before, it was extremely lazy and comfortable. But now, it was fully alert, serious and fierce. With deep and ominous roars, the wolf revealed its fangs and growled.

Fifty pairs of ferocious eyes reflected an adventurer who wore violet clothes and held a golden magic staff. He was alone when he stuck himself at the entrance to where the wolves were. There were traces of Water Elements gathering in that spot. He taunted the wolves from where he was.

Awoooooo!

One of the Snow Wolf, which first discovered the presence of their enemies, howled. The other forty-nine Snow Wolves behind that wolf followed suit.

The howling of the wolf echoed through the entire valley. It sounded like the howling was being broadcasted with a megaphone, scaring Qin Ruo who was luring the monsters until he was soaked in cold sweat. If he did not see that the wolves suddenly charging towards him out of the sudden, he would have misunderstood those wolves, thinking that they were trying to summon their “brothers and sisters” from the other islands to help them.

Qin Ruo saw his plan working. Without saying a word, he turned around and started running.

The distance between the entrance to the narrow passage and the small lake was less than a hundred meters. The distance between the Snow Wolves and where Qin Ruo stood was also about a hundred meters. However, as they were playing tag, Qin Ruo managed to arrive at the lake before the Snow Wolves were able to get near him. The Snow Wolves came out of the passage in a very orderly manner. They closing in on him now.

Qin Ruo did not dare to let his guard down. He rapidly cast a Frostrampart from the snow.

“Explode!”

The moment when the word “explode” was said, Qin Ruo also activated his Aquamorph and charged straight at toward the small lake, transforming himself into water. Naturally, the resistance that came from the lake water was gone. His movement speed had also improved and he rapidly moving to the center of the lake.

Qin Ruo was startled and happy at the same time because of the feedback he got from the system. Although the Snow Wolves had high resistance and resilience against the Water Magic Attacks, the fact that each of his attacks could reduce more than 100 HP had given him some hope.

He regretted not setting up his Twelve Frostrampart Formation when he was still stuck at the entrance to the passage. He could have detonated all the Frostramparts at the same time when the Snow Wolves were gathered behind him when he was moving away from the entrance.

The amount of HP for each Level 39 Snow Wolf was only 1,800 points. If the Frostramparts were all detonated at once, the result should be satisfactory…

But then again he had considered about what he should do, and he was actually dumb enough to lure them to the middle of the small lake. Now that he looked at his action, he felt stupid.

Fortunately for him, the lake was a good battlefield as well.

***

The horde of Snow Wolves did not lose their target despite the fact that Qin Ruo had activated Aquamorph. Their sense of smell was still strong enough to sense Qin Ruo’s position.

Splash! Splash!

The Snow Wolves lunged into the lake one after another.

Qin Ruo was surprised and happy when those Snow Wolves went into the small lake, all of their four feet touched the bottom of the lake as they approached Qin Ruo. Their movement speed was reduced by a lot. Although the sound and the momentum of the fifty Snow Wolves leaping into the lake were extremely spectacular and amazing, for Qin Ruo, those wolves were, now, no threat at all.

Qin Ruo stood in the middle of the lake. He then deactivated Aquamorph!

He allowed the Snow Wolves to approach him slowly, he rapidly cast an Aquabarrier and an Aquashield as he swiftly controlled two transparent Aquarampart of two meters wide in front of him. He also started mentally calculating, ‘Casting Aquamorph would use up 7 MP. Casting Frostburst would use up 4 MP. Casting Aquabarrier would use up 4 MP. Casting Aquashield would use up 5 MP. Casting two Aquaramparts would use up 2 MP. The remaining MP should be 123 points.’

He should be able to pull that off.

The Snow Wolves had finally forced themselves near enough for Qin Ruo to enter their attack range. Skills such as Icicle Barrage, Frostburst, Frostlances, and Frost Arrows were thrown at Qin Ruo with loud howling. As the number of Snow Wolves entering the attack range increased, the Magic Attacks that were launched at Qin Ruo increased as well. The attacks became more densely packed together with each passing second as attacks were showered upon Qin Ruo.

Boom!

Aquaramparts popped up one after another like wild beasts that suddenly emerged as they rose before Qin Ruo with “raging roars”.