MMORPG: The Elementalist

“Hmm?”

“What’s going on?”

Helga heard Ace of Spades and Little Rice’s doubtful voices the moment she joined the chat channel that Qin Ruo had recently customized.

“Spades, Little Rice! You’re here too?”

“Big sis?”

Little Rice and Ace of Spades had only just greeted one another. They too wondered why Qin Ruo wanted to group them together in this chat channel…

It was the climax of the third phase of the Last Man Standing Contest, and therefore, they didn’t think their clan leader had the time for a casual chat.

As they were pondering, Qin Ruo spoke, “Spades, you know all the men in the clan very well, right?”

Ace of Spades, after hearing Qin Ruo’s serious tone, knew that her clan leader wanted to talk business. Thus, she suppressed all her doubts and replied, “Well, not all of them. There are about 9000 people in the clan after all. I couldn’t possibly know every single one of them.”

“I understand.” Qin Ruo nodded, “I mean, since you know most of the men in the clan… do you think it’s possible for them to swap some of their pets?”

“Why swap pets?” Helga, serious as ever, asked.

She knew something unusual must have happened. Her clan leader would usually not interfere with his underlings’ business and so, if he suddenly wanted to do this, something important must have already happened.

“Hmm….”

Ace of Spades started to ponder hard after not hearing Qin Ruo’s reply.

“It is possible for them to swap pets if it’s required of them… some clan members weren’t really satisfied with the pets they have and wanted to replace them for quite some time now. Perhaps, there were no better options, or they simply lacked the funds, or perhaps they didn’t have the time… so they didn’t replace them…”

She paused momentarily and then asked cautiously, “Clan Leader, why do you ask?”

“Ah.”

Qin Ruo realized that due to his eagerness to execute his plan, he hadn’t told the girls yet.

“Well, here’s what I’ve got in mind.”

“I am wondering if some of our men are willing to be assigned to a certain unique type of monster as their pets.”

“Certain unique monsters as pets?”

The girls were surprised after hearing this. An hour ago, their clan leader was leading all the Fallen Angels to contest fiercely in this Last Man Standing Contest. Now he suddenly wanted to talk about pets?

“Clan Leader, are you trying to establish a flying pet army?” Helga asked.

“Flying pet army? That’s a great idea! However, I want to establish something else right now—a monster knight army!” Qin Ruo calmly replied.

“Monster Knights?”

“Yes, one that players could ride as mounts and also able to break through the enemies ranks with high speed…”

“What for?”

Helga’s question was always on point.

“If we’ve got a cavalry army like this, we could use it effectively through team work. With a unified effort, everyone could break through enemy front lines!”

Qin Ruo told them what he had in mind. “Right after the Currency Exchange System goes online, the Underworld’s City Building System would follow suit too. When that happens, group and clan battles would become a common thing.”

“But we’ve got clan battles now too. Why must we acquire a unique Monster Knight army?” Helga kept pressing for answers; her questions sharp as ever. It seemed that she wouldn’t stop asking if she didn’t get all the answers she wanted.

“Those are skirmishes…”

Qin Ruo replied calmly, “The clan battles that I meant… those are going to be like actual armies. They’ll have a unified sortie therefore unified battle spirits. So, when the army emerges on the battlefield, it’ll strike fear into every enemies hearts.”

His words were calm but firm. The gravity of his words seemed as though they weighed over a thousand pounds!

“…”

Helga took in a deep breath and replied, “But Clan Leader… you’ll have to consider these. Firstly, to establish a huge cavalry troop like this, we must have existing clan members that are willing to forfeit their current pets. Secondly, if we’re using only one type of monster as pets, the cavalry’s weakness would be very glaring to the enemy. If we were to use it to charge at the enemy, it would be easy for them to take advantage of that.”

“The second one isn’t an issue.”

Qin Ruo shook his head and continued, “If the monsters possess great mobility and agility, it wouldn’t matter if they’ve got high defense in the midst of battle. Besides, they need to also possess a certain ability—Combat Aura. This monster should possess the same properties as a Swordmaster! Only this kind of monster can rush into battles using the Aura Drill, a skill that renders it immune to all kinds of attacks and debuffs! They’ll be able to break through enemy ranks quickly, without taking damage!”

Qin Ruo didn’t realize that his tone had morphed into commands and orders, “It’s not easy to find this kind of monsters. Hurry up and gather some men. Check out what kind of pets they have and then pick out the ones who want to replace their pets.”

“So, you want to us to handpick Swordmasters to join this cavalry troop, Clan Leader?”

Helga replied, this time, softer than before.

“Yes.”

Qin Ruo replied determinedly.

“But…”

Little Rice, feeling hesitant, said, “If we’re going to form a cavalry troop, we should get at least a hundred men, right?”

“At least five hundred!”

“What?”

Ace of Spades and Helga cried out in surprise.

“This many?

“Our clan has less than a thousand Swordmasters. Are we asking all of them to forfeit their pets to join the troops?”

“We’ll need to exclude the ones that have unique pets, or the ones who own pets that possess the combat prowess of Veteran Champions… as for the others, put them all in the cavalry.”

Qin Ruo’s determined words left the girls speechless.

So, he wanted to enlist most of their Swordmasters into this Monster Knight thing?

“It’s not possible.”

“How so?” Qin Ruo replied calmly, “Just tell them that we’ll be handpicking a powerful attack-type monster for them. They’ll be Fallen Angels’ first knights… and then, ask them if they’re still willing to stay in the Fallen Angels… that’s all.”

“So if they’re unwilling to replace their pets, you want to kick them out of the clan?”

Ace of Spades asked cautiously.

Qin Ruo smiled. “Well, that depends. We’ll see the progress of your persuasion… if there’s a need to kick people out of the clan, I have Fateless and Judge to do that.”

The girls were speechless again.

Even though he said “that depends”, Qin Ruo seemed to have already made up his mind to expel these people if they were unwilling to comply.

Fateless was a Bandit who always worked alone in the dark; he never cared who he offended…

And as for Judge… he was even worse off! His face was always hidden behind that metal helmet. Like a tin can, no one could see his face or his expressions ever. Besides, he didn’t like to talk to people, always giving the cold shoulder to everyone in the clan.

These two were the perfect candidates to do Qin Ruo’s dirty work. The girls couldn’t help but to think Qin Ruo had this planned out from the get go.

It was then when Helga spoke!

“Clan Leader, if you’re going to do that… I suggest you meet someone first.”

“Who?”

“This person was originally from Bauhinia League back then. He once mentioned forming a cavalry squad when we were grinding together for Experience Points…”

“Oh?”

Qin Ruo’s eyes were glimmering after hearing what Helga said.

“What did he say?”

“The Pet System was newly introduced at the time. So, we didn’t talk about it too much. He had two plans. One of those was to form a cavalry troop. He said if everyone could own a monster then it’s possible to train a legion of cavalry. He predicted that a legion of a hundred cavalry could beat three to five hundred men… he also mentioned flying monsters… but no one liked using the same monsters as pets at the time. So, we didn’t think it was possible so we didn’t delve more into it…”

“Besides, the eggs of the flying pets were quite rare at the time. Toppled with the eggs’ time to hatch… no one entertained this idea at all. Even Scarlet Bauhinia said this would be a waste of time.”

Helga then mentioned the name of this “person”.

“His name was Red Star. If you’re interested, you could seek him out for more ideas.”

“Red what again?”

“Red Star. Red, the color ‘red’. Star, the stars in the sky.”

Helga continued, “He’s not in the Bauhinia Clan now. He didn’t join Scarlet Dynasty either. Red Star’s current allegiance is with Netherspirit’s Claw.”

“Netherspirit’s Claw? The clan or the league?”

“The Clan.”

After hearing Helga’s reply, a frown was strewn upon Qin Ruo’s face.

He had never intended to let this “Monster Knight” plan to leak out to the public. If he needed to discuss this with someone, that person ought to be someone that he could recruit as one of his own. He had recently reconciled with Netherspirit’s Claw; in fact, the two Leagues had been getting along quite well lately. Netherclaw even gifted Fallen Angels several sets of Legendary equipment too. If he suddenly made one of their men jump ship like this, it would be quite thoughtless of him.

“How about his stats?”

“He’s stronger than me. His combat prowess is probably on par with Steel Dude… He’s one of the administrators in Netherspirit’s Claw clan.”

After hearing Helga’s words, Qin Ruo found himself back in the rut again.

“Then, let’s forget about him for now.”

Qin Ruo immediately forfeited his idea to meet Red Star. He did not want to cause a domino-effect, causing Netherclaw to also think the same thing.

“Alright, just proceed as planned. Find out what kind of monsters all the Agility-type Swordmasters have in their arsenals at the moment. Then, we’ll decide on the type of the monsters to be used as the knights’ mounts… We’ll act right after the Last Man Contest’s over.”

“Oh, and…”

“After we’ve determined which type of monsters to be used as mounts, we’ll need to make full preparations to farm for their eggs. Gather as many men as you can… and remember to keep this a secret for now.”

The girls nodded. Monsters didn’t drop their eggs that often so, they’ll need a lot of manpower and time to acquire enough eggs to form the Monster Knight army.

As the girls received their orders, Qin Ruo suddenly received Dinosaurcerer’s private message.

“Heh, I’ve got your Soldier Ant. See? I don’t need half a damn day to seal this thing.”

And he was right. It only took him less than an hour to do so.

Qin Ruo was glad to see him succeed this early. Then, he had another epiphany.

‘Why not include Dinosaurcerer’s Violent Army Clan too?’