MMORPG: The Elementalist

The Earth-type Divinity with a yellowish halo around it appeared on the palm of the Appraiser like a newly deshelled egg. The moment the item was positioned back onto the appraisal counter, all players inside the hall were awe-struck. Qin Ruo was exceptionally joyful as his heart was filled with indescribable satisfaction.

‘It’s real! A Divinity crystal!!! But why does it manifest in such a way?’

Qin Ruo was left dumbfounded by the discovery. The data reflected in his mind when he picked up the Divinity proved that it was an Earth type.

‘Perhaps because this was dropped directly from the Cyclops Commander Galbis? Yeap! That must be it.’

Qin Ruo had obtained two Divinity Crystals prior to this: the first was directly taken from the treasure chest hidden inside Spectral Commander’s cave while the second was rewarded after completing the Advancement Quest.

‘Oh right, I almost forgot the other matter…’

In the wake of his train of thoughts, Qin Ruo suddenly remembered something very important!

The Cyclops Commander was a Tier 4 Ultimate Boss. Its difficulty was almost equivalent to a Tier 6 Megaboss. ‘So logically, the cave it habituated should have stashed some valuable loot, possibly a treasure like Divinity or anything of equivalence!’

Thinking as such, Qin Ruo heart burned with desire. He eagerly packed the Earth-type Divinity into his Ring of Honor under the watch of the bunch of players inside the center and left the appraisal shop in a hurry.

Permanent Lock was initially leaning on the counter and had dozed off. He was astonished by the Divinity Crystal in Qin Ruo’s hand and looked blankly at the delighted old Appraiser. As soon as Qin Ruo left the counter, he followed him without a second thought.

“Hey, where are you going?”

Greatly excited, Qin Ruo almost forgot he was actually with someone else. He took a glance at the equally excited Permanent Lock and asked him out of the blue, “Are you interested to go visit Galbis’ Lair with me one more time?”

“Ah? Why the second trip?” Permanent Lock was first bewildered, then his eyes lit up with realization. He spoke keenly, “You are planning to loot Galbis deserted cave, am I right?”

“Are you interested?” Qin Ruo asked him the second time, more impatiently.

“Damn! Of course, I am!” Permanent Lock almost burst with excitement, but not long later he realized something and frowned in worry.

“Wait, just the two of us? Wouldn’t it be too dangerous?”

Although the strongest inhabitant of Galbis’ Lair had been eliminated, it was still stuffed with few thousands of Tier 5 and 6 Advanced Monsters, in addition to some Tier 5 Boss or Tier 6 Minibosses. These creatures are not to be taken lightly and they are certainly not very “Bandit-friendly”.

“Well, of course, we won’t be going alone.”

Qin Ruo had has a taste of the Cyclops Army’s iron defenses formed inside Galbis’ Lair. So, naturally, he knew how tough and dangerous it will be to set foot in that place with just the two of them. He explained to Permanent Lock patiently, “We will go to Moonrise City and recruit some help first.”

***

At the moment, while most players on the Mythical Continent were still in a frenzy in regards to the Winter Demon’s feat of slaying the Tier 4 Ultimate Boss Galbis, only those Tier 5 Champions from his own Clan were not aware first hand that their Clan’s Honor Points had just skyrocketed by four extra digits. They were currently focused wholeheartedly on the Journey of Honor.

Ever since Fallen Angels was established and subsequently being widely recognized as the current No. 1 Clan in the Angel Faction, the members of the Clan, including the wing-equipped Black Rock and Apocalypse, Judge, Subjugator, and Snowleaf had been busy cruising through the Mythical Battlefield the entire time. Most of them no longer cared about the Honor Points or the Clan Honor Ranking.

Right until Fateless who scavenged alone at Mythical Battlefield lamented through the Clan channel, only the group realized that their Clan Leader, Qin Ruo’s Honor Points were shockingly raised to 2000.

“Good heavens!”

“What did he do this time?” Even within the same Clan, their response was not very different from the majority of the players of H&G.

Since the Tier 5 clan members usually operated alone before this, they did not have that many information sources or immediate contact to get the latest news from. Thus, it was normal that none of them had heard of what happened.

This was when the sounds of the three pretty ladies who ran daily errands for the Clan barged in the Clan’s channel. “According to the news from the Demon Faction, someone saw our Clan Leader slay the Cyclops Commander Galbis…”

“Galbis? What’s that?” Black Rock was as ignorant as always.

Stunned by the groundbreaking news delivered by the three pretty ladies, Subjugator, and few others turned to Black Rock with a disdainful expression. Subjugator then told him grimly, “What’s that? That is a Tier 4 Ultimate Boss you moron.”

“Er….”

***

“Well played, boy, well played. Accomplishing such a huge feat without a word beforehand.”

“You, my friend, are very inconsiderate to your subordinates.”

Qin Ruo’s voice call reached just at the right time. Both Subjugator and Fateless took this opportunity to berate their Clan Leader.

Judge and Snowleaf decided to keep quiet. Black Rock, meanwhile, was the only one still out of his mind. He waited for Subjugator and Fateless to stop before he asked, “So Qin Ruo, I bet the Ultimate Boss was easy to deal with? Since you are able to achieve it alone. Why not we go find one and take it out. Such a convenient way to earn Honor Points. Ouch… Why are you hitting me, Judge? Shit! Don’t you start too, Subjugator…”

Qin Ruo could imagine how the pitiful Black Rock was currently being trashed by the two Warriors and chuckled. He waited for them to settle down, then only continued, “We will talk about the Ultimate Boss when we meet, Black Rock. Right now, I need you and Apocalypse to come back to town for a while.”

“You wish to go back to Galbis’ Lair? We are not very far from there. Let’s go together. I think we will be there about the same time you fly over.” Judge words were on point, as always. Qin Ruo was surprised how quickly Judge managed to figure his true intention.

“It will be nice to have everyone. We will make the arrangements then.” It felt good to talk to those with bright minds. Qin Ruo could save the energy on long-winded explanations and only needed to provide them direct order. He then teleported to Moonrise City together with Permanent Lock.

In the meantime, he had also given Violet Orchid a call.

Including the Water Divinity Crystal in his Ring of Honor, Qin Ruo now had two extra Divinity Crystals in possession. The Water-type was reserved for Xiaoxiao and he planned to pass the newly acquired Earth-type to Violet Orchid.

If Violet Orchid were willing to fuse with it, then this would certainly boost Bauhinia Clan’s status. The more Divinity-fused players there were, the more attention the Clan would get, and as a result, the prestige of the clan would be elevated too.

“Earth-type Divinity?”

Violet Orchid responded enthusiastically after she received the news, but she did not intend to accept the kind gesture. “As a Radiant Priest, I have no use of Earth-type Divinity. I am looking for a Light-type.”

Qin Ruo nodded in silence. It’s definitely more logical for a Radiant Priest to fuse with Light-type Divinity. He then changed target. “How about Brother Slayer? He is a Warrior, so Earth-type Divinity should suit him.”

“Your Brother Slayer also says he doesn’t need it. You should keep the Divinity for yourself. Anyhow, you are a Clan Leader yourself now. You should place Fallen Angels as your top priority. Although we are close, please consider your clan more. In my opinion, you should pass the Divinity to Judge or Subjugator. Giving to them is not very different from handing it to your Brother Slayer.”

Violet Orchid paused a while, then resumed in a more matter-of-fact tone, “Other than that, I reckon it will be best if Fallen Angels and Bauhinia could keep a distance for the time being. If we showcase too much of our closeness this early, other Clans from the League might boycott us. You should watch out too.” Violet Orchid initially did not plan to tell this to Qin Ruo. However, for the past few hours alone, Fallen Angels had taken the spotlight and surpassed the other four major competitors of the Angel Faction in terms of popularity. Violet Orchid believed the news that Qin Ruo had gained another Divinity would soon spread out too following the defeat of the Tier 4 Ultimate Boss. It would be too late if she did not warn Qin Ruo to behave more modestly now. “Try not to overstretch, or else your premature fame may break fairly easily.”

After being warned by Violet Orchid, Qin Ruo walked out the city gate of Moonrise deep in thought.

‘Overstretch? Why does Sister Violet have such concern all of a sudden?’

***

Seeing that Qin Ruo was preoccupied along the way, Permanent Lock could not stand the boredom and negligence. So he struck a conversation. “Hey, tell me. Your Clan has a Bandit called Fateless right? Say, if I duel him, who will probably come out on top?”

“Eh?” Qin Ruo was drawn back to reality by Permanent Lock and answered mindlessly, “Well, I will bet on Fateless.”

“Why?” Permanent Lock narrowed his eyes. It was clear that he was not very happy with the answer provided.

“Instinct.” Qin Ruo and Permanent Lock had undergone the transition from enemies to being acquaintances. So the former explained carelessly, “Your Elemental Camouflage is indeed great. But after Tier 5, almost all Bandit will have this ability to avoid being detected by Elementalist’s Perception. On the other hand, Fateless had never relied on Elemental Camouflage, dated way back before he had made a name for himself. His strength is his mastery of lurking and assassinating in Stealth mode.”

“…” The scowl on Permanent Lock’s face loosened a little.

Qin Ruo continued to analyze, “Fateless’s ability has not been completely understood yet, not even by me. Though he is popular, his ability is usually modest and secretive. He never exposes all of his tricks, and I think this is one of his way of surviving as a Bandit that you are lacking. Your abilities are fairly limited. You have nothing new other than Elemental Camouflage and the stealthy Two-headed Lizard. Sooner or later, the Lizard Bandit name will eventually be buried by newer and more outstanding Champions.”

“Tsk.” Permanent Lock cocked his head. He seemed disgruntled by Qin Ruo’s opinion. “Don’t try to bluff me. Do you know how many Tier 5 players I have killed?”

Qin Ruo grinned and answered calmly, “No matter how many people you kill, your ability and skill set will not improve if you always pick on weaker opponents.”

“Humph? You considered those I have killed weak?” Permanent Lock grumbled in disagreement.

“To you, at least,” Qin Ruo remained calm and proceeded insistently, “You always kill them when they are alone. You are a Bandit that is able to lurk near and break their shields. We call those ambushes, which can hardly be regarded as a fair one-on-one fight. A well-executed sneak attack, that’s all.”

Qin Ruo raised his tone a little at this point. “But the one near Galbis’ Lair? That’s different. That’s what we call a real challenge, a meaningful fight. Try to recall: sneak killing a lone Tier 5 Elementalist with 100% success rate; or like just now, killing your target under the enemy’s nose, then fleeing and killing the next target successively…

“Now tell me, which one do you think is more challenging? Which one inspires you more? Which one gives you more sense of accomplishment?”

Permanent Lock thought long and deep after listening to Qin Ruo. He could not find any solid argumentation to rebut Qin Ruo.

Few minutes passed before Permanent Lock suddenly turned his head toward Qin Ruo and exclaimed, “Damn! Is this the reason why you never invited me to join your Clan?”