MMORPG: The Elementalist

Meanwhile, there was also a heated war going on in the Buried City.

There had been an increasing number of players advancing to Tier 5. As more players ventured down to the Buried City to level up, the city became more and more crowded as days went by. The Buried City was only a city, one that belonged to the poor Underearth Race called home—how could it accommodate over billions of Tier 4 players?

Therefore, the city’s leveling grounds had now become scarce.

Even though every single street had several Specters’ spawn points, there were still scuffles happening at every corner. The rapid spawning rate and greater experience gain in these areas were like juicy steaks to every Tier 4 player. This essentially led to every single “civilian house” becoming strategic resources that players wrestled for.

As time passed, several areas had been divided and conquered by several powerful clans. The well-known ones claimed several dozens of “houses” as their turfs while the lesser-known clans were able to pick up some of the leftovers here and there. That was how the modern Buried City became the turfs of huge clans from two factions, leaving only a few leveling areas and also the underground corridors for the solo players.

In this new dog-eat-dog world, a new rising Angel Faction clan “Ascendant Saber” had gained influence quickly with its three thousand members and over thirty Tier 5 champions. With their sheer strength, they were also able to acquire an entire street as their turf—they were able to grind and farm for a lot of Experience Points on this street alone. Although it was just one street, due to the short spawn time for the Specters they were able to gain a considerably constant amount of Experience and loot compared to the other leveling grounds above the Mythical Continent.

***

“Xin Yu, be careful!”

“Just how many times do I have to tell you? Don’t hug the frontline too much. You’re a Bandit, not a Warrior! You’re such a goof!”

Amongst the ranks of Ascendant Saber Clan, an exotic charming looking female Elementalist was maintaining her Mana output while furiously, yet anxiously, yelled at a gutsy female Bandit.

Xin Yu, a Level 41 Bandit, was the only outsider on this Ascendant Saber Clan’s turf. Yet, they were treating her rather kindly. For one, she was brought in by their Field Commander “Pretty Woman”. After spending time with her, they also learned that she had just survived a difficult surgery—one that defied death. Thus, no one would crowd out a strong beautiful young lady like this.

However, it was also due to Pretty Woman and everyone covering her hide all the time, the newbie Xin Yu had learned to ride on the bolder tides in every single battle—turning these battles into roller coaster rides for all her teammates…

She was not like that from the start though. When she was still Tier 2 and Tier 3, after being escorted down to Buried City by Pretty Woman, Xin Yu was still scared of the lowly Specters like Skeletons, Zombies, and Hellhounds. There were even moments when she was slain by the Specters. This resulted in, for quite some time, her cowering at the rear, hiding behind everyone’s wings to level up via Party Leveling.

Then, for some reason this meek timid “little sister” suddenly turned into a “gutsy dynamite” in these three days. Wielding a Gold quality dagger, she often advanced to the frontlines and picked fights with a lone Specter as they were holding off the Undead horde.

She was facing off with a Tier 5 Specter while still being a lowly Tier 3–Tier 4 little Bandit, without much training in her class’s skills. Naturally, her bold endeavors usually resulted in deaths.

If she were to attract the attention of these Specters alone, they could kill her by just lifting a finger.

Thus, she died again and again… to the point where the Radiant Priests in their turf had mostly become Xin Yu’s personally “Resurrect Militia”— they took turns to roll out whenever they heard cries for help from Pretty Woman. Thus, there was always someone ready with Resurrection skill to save the poor girl.

Unfortunately, the selflessness of these Radiant Priests had emboldened Xin Yu even further, resulting in her putting in more efforts in the battles. This resulted, again, in more deaths. Eventually, her deaths were so frequent that they surpassed the amount of deaths of the Ascendant Saber Clan members combined.

Pretty Woman did try to talk to her—to get her open up. She was worried that perhaps Xin Yu was in some ways traumatized by the Buried City’s Underworld creatures and she was lashing out due to her fear of the city.

However, Xin Yu told her she wanted to become stronger so that she could keep up to “Brother Qin”. To achieve that, she would need to train harder and she understood that she was of no use in a team raid like this so she decided she ought to search and destroy the lone Specters that were singled out.

And she did improve after going through her weird “harder training”. She started to understand several nuances and techniques for the Bandit class. For instance, she had learned to assassinate her opponent then activate her stealth mode. A few days later, she learned to Drain and then dishing out tremendous damage at enemies before retreating to Stealth mode.

Her skills were refined as she grew—slowly growing into a true female bandit.

Yet, despite her growth, every time Pretty Woman saw Xin Yu rushing into the battlefield to attract the attention of the Specters she could not help but feel resentment toward this “Brother Qin”.

This cursed “Qin” guy…

Just how did he charm her “little sister”?

He was able to make a wonderful girl like Xin Yu to be so enamored of him. To get close to him, she was even willing to muster courage and face the terrifying Specters at close quarter combats.

Pretty Woman had tried every trick up her sleeves to get the in-game name of this “Brother Qin”. However, Xin Yu would often stray away from the topic, keeping this a secret.

Yet, Xin Yu’s equipment was updating at an astounding rate. She first started with a full set of Gold grade Bandit gears. Then, right after she advanced to Tier 4 she had already acquired the relevant gears too. It was like her sister “Xiaoxiao” was a wholesale businesswoman who specialized in trading Bandit gears.

There was one moment when Pretty Woman did think of “Qin Ruo” as the renowned Winter Demon Qin Ruo. However, she quickly rejected that idea.

In her eyes, they seemed to be two entirely different people.

Going by names alone, it was like comparing apples to oranges!

“Qin Ruo”, a name which sounded as common as mud.

But the nerve of this man! The great Qin dynasty, which united the warring states of ancient China—to associate it with the word “weak”, as though that was all the “Winter Demon” thought it deserved. What sort of person could do such a thing?

(Translator’s Note: Qin Ruo’s name in real life and in-game name are identical in terms of pronunciation but uses different Chinese characters. The former means “if” and “alike” while the latter means “weak”.)

Besides, the Qin Ruo that she knew in real life was a cute polite gentleman while the Winter Demon Qin Ruo was a stone cold Champion, who became equals to the ex-league leaders within two months. There was no way that this powerful figure was the same person as the polite office worker Qin Ruo.

They only happened to share the same name and that was all.

However, she was still curious about what kind of pet “Brother Qin” gifted to Xin Yu.

Pretty Woman still could not let go. She saw Xin Yu’s determination from the way she mastered Stealth, Sap, and other Bandit Skills to defeat a Skeletal Warrior the first time. Xin Yu had the makings of being one of the best Bandits there was ever.

Therefore, she was curious about the kind of item Qin Ruo gifted Xin Yu. If Xin Yu was playing like a normal player and was always tagging along casually, then she could still tolerate that. But, if Xin Yu wanted to excel in the game, her first pet would definitely be one of her best friends in the game.

“No. I’ll need to find out today!”

Just as Pretty Woman was making up her mind, her Elemental Perception suddenly picked up some newly spawned Specters rushing out of their field of influence and it was not the doing of their warriors’ kiting.

“Everyone, take heed!”

“The Specters have started to go wild! There’s a Winged Champion coming our way!”

Several alarms in the Ascendant Saber Clan’s clan chat went off—everyone, including the Tier 4 players, knew that when a Tier 5 player activated the Angelic or Demonic Wings, the Specters within several hundred radius meters would all go nuts.

“There’s the Winged Champion?”

Although Pretty Woman had advanced to Tier 5, she had not gotten her Divinity yet. Therefore, she looked up to the Winged Champions a lot. As the Specters were sent into a rampage, she excitedly raised her head and look at the sky.

According to the player statistics on the official forum, Angel Faction had over two hundred Winged Champions while Demon Faction had only over forty. It was this enormous advantage that they had at the moment that they could shove the Five Leagues of the Demon Faction to the other side of the Buried City. To put it bluntly, the Winged Champions were like the Guardians of the Angel Faction. And they did not usually appear in the Buried City by surprise. That was why Pretty Woman was curious to know who that was.

It was not hard to detect a Winged Champion.

The players on the ground were able to lock onto two silhouettes flying speedily from hundreds of meters away.

“Huh?

One of the Winged Champions seemed to be chasing after the one in the front. The latter was activating magic barrier while the former appeared to be a Summoner who had fused with a monster.

‘That’s new…’

A Winged Summoner was in hot pursuit of another Winged Elementalist.

Pretty Woman found this to be quite a peculiar sight.

When the two classes clashed in the air, the one that usually fell dead quickly would be the Summoner. Of course, unless the one who chased after the Elementalist was Dinosaurcerer from Violent Army Clan. Rumors had it that he was giving the Order of the Eight Gods quite a hard time. To add more, this Dinosaurcerer was also one of the members of Winter Demon’s party back then. And Violent Army Clan’s vendetta against the Order of Eight Gods was under the approval of Fallen Angels.

As Pretty Woman was pondering who the two Winged Champions were, the players in the streets were suddenly shrieking in horror.

Suddenly there was a third Winged Champion flying out and gliding rapidly toward the two Winged Champions. This third Winged Champion appeared to be rescuing the one that was fleeing from the Summoner.

And it was then, the Summoner reflexively swiftly dove toward the ground.

“No way!”

Pretty Woman and the rest of the Ascendant Saber Clan did not expect that these three Winged Champions would head right at them! In that instant, they were in total panic and had no idea how to react to this sudden change of event.