Reign of the Hunters
chapter-226

The Black Iron Dwarf paused to take deep breaths but started coughing so hard that it seemed his lungs were about to be coughed out. Ye Ci could feel her lungs hurting as well just by looking at the Dwarf.

“Oh I can’t do this, I need medicine for my illness.” The elderly Black Iron Dwarf suddenly opened his bloodshot eyes. He clutched at his chest with one hand while grabbing hold onto Ye Ci with another, “good Elf, quickly to go the nearby Black Wind Mountain and get some Cloudy Grass, otherwise it’ll be too late for me.”

After saying so, the elderly Dwarf fainted in Ye Ci’s arms.

He couldn’t have died right…It was only after Ye Ci held a hand under the Dwarf’s nose and felt a faint breath that she confirmed he had only fainted. Thus, she placed him in the rock crevice and covered him with some grass before heading out to this Black Wind Mountain to collect some Cloudy Grass.

The Dwarf had so much energy while talking to her earlier, but not only did he not tell her the clue, he even sent her on a collecting quest.

Ye Ci silently complained a bit, then summoned Ol’ Four and headed towards Black Wind Mountain.

At this point in the game, the average levels of players were not high, and Home of Lesser Demons was a small, unremarkable regional map of the Eastern Continent, so there were no other players around. Ye Ci rode Ol’ Four across the scorching plains of Lesser Demon Sanctuary while occasionally dodging the magic attacks of the nearby Lesser Demons.

Although Ye Ci was a solo player from the moment she entered the game, at times like this she could not help but feel slightly bleak, as if she was forever alone. Continuously repeating the same potentially meaningless activities would make anyone exhausted.

Just as she was about to step onto the Black Wind Mountain map, Ye Ci stopped and bent down to pat Ol’ Four’s neck and quietly said, “Ol’ Four, do you ever feel lonely?”

Ol’ Four craned his neck to see the person on his back and let out a strange sound. There was a trace of warmth in those golden eyes as he growled. It did not actually understand what Ye Ci said, but the strong negative emotions it felt from her also affected its mood.

Ol’ Four quietly growled, as if comforting Ye Ci.

It was lucky that Ye Ci was not a particularly emotional person. Her melancholy today was partly due to the desolateness of this map. It must be said that Fate did a very good job. With maps like this, if one turned on the background sound, one would not only hear realistic sound effects, but also tear jerking music. In her previous life, Ye Ci did not realise that the background sound could be turned off, so did not take much notice of it.

As Ye Ci raised her level and became more familiar with her skills, she found that the background sound actually had an affect on a player’s mood, to the point where it would even affect one’s performance. From that point on, Ye Ci never turned on the background sound again.

Ye Ci patted Ol’ Four’s neck and tossed him a few pieces of high level Roasted Meat. As Ye Ci’s level rose, so did Ol’ Four’s. However, he became increasingly picky about his food; Ol’ Four had absolutely no interest in normal food anymore. Even if he ate it, there would be no increase in happiness.

Black Wind Mountain was a small mountain to the north west of Lesser Demon Sanctuary and could not be more different. Not only was the lighting dim and dark, but even the rocks and trees were gloomy. Although the lighting in Home of Lesser Demons was not great either, at least one could still see a fair distance away, completely unlike this place. If a player with low night vision came here, they could lose quite a bit of health just by falling into the holes all over the roads.

Elves had decent night vision, but Ye Ci still hopped off Ol’ Four’s back to carefully walk forward. There was not any complicated terrain; only a narrow road littered with various sized rocks and pitfalls. If one was not careful, it would be easy to fall into these holes. Although the fall would not cause a large drop in health, the lingering pain would last for a long time. In the game, a DPS’s body was their weapon and thus would never allow themselves to be injured before a battle. Pain was accumulative, and a lot of accumulated pain could affect one’s speed and the outcome of battles.

This rule was the same no matter if one was a DPS or some other job, but was more obvious for DPSs.

In her previous life, Ye Ci rarely went to Lesser Demon Sanctuary, let alone Black Wind Mountain. Therefore, she had to carefully look at the map when moving forward even though she had a basic understanding of Black Wind Mountain.

Black Wind Mountain was once an abandoned mine, its environment even worse than Home of Lesser Demons. When Lesser Demon Sanctuary was taken over by the Lesser Demon army, the young and strong Lesser Demons exiled the old, weak and disabled to Black Wind Mountain. Life was fragile but also strong; this held true for all races.

The exiled Lesser Demons did not die, but went through generation after generation of evolution and growth to become even stronger than the Lesser Demons – Dark Lesser Demons. This kind of demon not only had strong attack and defense, but was also capable of stealth.

They would often enter Stealth and hide in various places to wait for the arrival of prey.

It was because of this that Ye Ci did not ride Ol’ Four any further. She was afraid that Ol’ Four would rush too far into an ambush and cause her death too.

Lesser Demons were only lvl55 to lvl58, but liked to live in groups. Ye Ci had to be careful of the Dark Lesser Demons as they were even more powerful than normal Lesser Demons..

Although Ye Ci was already lvl60, there were still many skills she had not yet learnt. This was because she had not run many dungeons or defeated BOSSes lately, and thus did not see any skill books.

With something like skills, it was not necessarily the more the better. One needed to be proficient in those skills to fully realise their potential. When an expert had many skills, it was easier for them to find a suitable skillset. On the other hand, newbies would just be wasting skills if they did not know how to use them.

At times, all it took was one move to distinguish experts and newbies.

Black Wind Mountain only had one narrow entrance, with plains in front and behind, which resulted in strong winds rushing through all year round. Even if the wind was not that strong originally, once it entered the narrow passage, it would become a sharp, penetrating wind that stung one’s skin.

Ye Ci stood next to the mountain, observing that narrow passage. The plains at the entrance and exit of the passage caused the wind that swept through to pick up dust, which caused a noticeable drop in visibility. However, only someone with night vision or good detection abilities would be able to tell that the wind actually had colour.

Ye Ci only figured this out when she attempted to go through the passage and the wind actually cut her cheek, and kept dropping health, otherwise she would not be so cautious.

This place was middle of a gourd, with the middle especially narrow. It was impossible for Ol’ Four to pass through, so Ye Ci unsummoned him and summoned Ol’ Three. Compared to Ol’ Four’s large body, Ol’ Three was more suited to this type of terrain. Ol’ Four was an Epic-tier monster, but when unable to use any skills, even a normal animal would be of more use. Ol’ Three was summoned for the first time in a while, and was very happy as he followed Ye Ci.

It has been five minutes since Ye Ci entered Black Wind Mountain, but there was still no sign of monsters. This was an abnormal situation. Ye Ci did not think that there were suddenly no monsters in this area, rather, she had not truly entered the monster zone.

Dark Lesser Demons were quieter than normal Lesser Demons. Normal Lesser Demons would occasionally growl, and if a player heard it, then one could estimate the distance between them and the Lesser Demon. However, the Dark Lesser Demons were as quiet as the dead.

Ye Ci calculated how long it would take to pass through the narrowest part of the passage. If she crouched down and used Sneak it should only take one or two seconds. When Ol’ Three crouched on all four feet it only reached mid thigh, and would not be hit by the cutting winds, so they should be able to pass through easily. Ye Ci considered the passage here. Its appearance was very strange, as if predicting that the road after would be dangerous. If there were many Dark Lesser Demons hiding behind it, how could she safely pass?

Ye Ci stood there for several seconds before making the decision to move ahead. Sometimes the answer would appear after the problem presented itself. If she hesitated here, then she would never be able to move forward in life.

Ye Ci crouched and ordered Ol’ Three to stay put before using Sneak to have a look at the entrance.

Hunters were not Thieves, and did not have the Detect skill. During dangerous situations, Ye Ci must rely on experience and skills to increase her awareness.

Ye Ci concentrated on her task. As soon as she entered the passage, her entire body was tensed in preparation for whatever was behind the passage.

“Grrr…” A sudden shrill and rough sound came from right next to Ye Ci. It surprised her so much that she hesitated for a moment. In a battle, victory was often decided in a moment. It was because of this moment of hesitation that Ye Ci saw a Dark Lesser Demon appear right in front of her, and cast a Pause debuff.

This was bad.

Pause: the victim is no longer able to move or use any skills.

In Fate, there were many control skills such as Dizzy, Fear, Pause, Paralysis, Freeze, etc. However, a purely DPS class like Hunter did not have many control skills, and did not even have one skill to release them from control skills. This was why the Hunter class had a so called eight yard zone.

Eight yards was the closest shooting range for Hunters and was also just out of range of control skills. That is to say, if Hunters kept an eight yard distance between them and their enemy, then they would almost never be hit by a control skill. If the enemy closed in, then Hunters could only rely on their own evasion skills to avoid the opposing control skills. This meant that if the enemy was strong enough, then as soon as Hunters failed to evade a control skill, they would die.

For Ye Ci right now, this was the worst case situation. As a Sorceress in her previous life, she had many control skills, so it was easier for her to deal with these Dark Lesser Demons. Now, she directly ran into a Dark Lesser Demons due to her low detection ability, and was even hit with a control skill!

Even though Ye Ci was already lvl60, her luck was really bad. The first Dark Lesser Demon was actually a lvl50 Squad Leader. This rendered her level advantage practically useless.

Pause lasted six seconds.

Dark Lesser Demons Leaders had high attack. One attack would cause Ye Ci to drop 1000-2000 health. This was very scary for someone like Ye Ci who did not have much health to begin with. However, what was even scarier was that Dark Lesser Demons liked to move in groups…

Ye Ci believed that even though she could only see one Dark Lesser Demons, after it growled, there would be other Dark Lesser Demons that rushed over. That would be extremely bad.

Hiya minna-san! Long time no see! Exam’s finally over! And I’m currently having a vacation in my grandma’s house here in Penang (somewhere in Bukit Mertajam if we have peeps from Penang here).

Here are a few small, happy things I would like to share!

Stay calm, must stay calm.

One must remain calm in these kinds of situations.

As the Dark Lesser Demon started attacking Ye Ci who was still under the effects of Pause, she took stock of all her skills and equipment and felt a moment of inspiration.

Darkness Dispersion

Able to disperse all negative statuses, including Pause

This was a skill from Buru’s Ring that had a three minute cooldown and was indispensable in moments like this.

As soon as Ye Ci could move again, she immediately crouched and rolled to where Ol’ Three was hiding behind the mountain. This all happened within one to two seconds. Dark Lesser Demon Squad Leader did not have time to react before its prey disappeared. It paused, then howled. As it had lived in darkness for a long time, Dark Lesser Demons had vastly superior Night Vision compared to elves. Even Ye Ci’s quick movements were unable to shake its gaze, and it rushed towards her.

The hole that Ye Ci hid in was very narrow and hard to find, but close to the passage, and formed a thirty degree dead spot from the wind. It was very safe in this spot. The Dark Lesser Demon Squad Leader discovered Ye Ci and rushed towards her. It did not care about being exposed to the wind at all. It’s only thought was to catch its prey.

Ye Ci chugged a Health Potion and pulled out a short sword to wait for the Dark Lesser Demon.

Being stuck in this hole had the advantage of forcing the enemy to be exposed to the piercing winds. Based on the height of the Dark Lesser Demon, the cutting winds would cause some damage, and the enemy only had a fifty percent chance of hitting Ye Ci. However, being stuck here also meant she lost the advantage of the eight yard rule and had to use a short sword and Ol’ Three to attack.

This kind of attack naturally did not feel as good as using arrows, but could slowly grind away the enemy’s health.

Attacking from a safe place was actually quite common in the game. As long as it was used well, then it was possible to kill monsters very quickly. For hunters, using arrows in such a narrow place greatly reduced the attack power, so many chose to attack from safe places like this.

Trip

Failed.

Trip

And it failed again

Trip was one of the few control skills of Hunters, able cause the enemy to fall and be unable to get up for six seconds. As Ye Ci very rarely engaged in close combat, her Trip success rate was only at 30. Every Trip that she used failed, which made Ye Ci grit her teeth in anger.

Why is my luck so bad?

Skill came off cooldown.

Trip.

Success.

Finally! Ye Ci immediately used an Aerial Strike. This skill was the most effective close combat skill that Hunters had with a three second cooldown. It not only caused 200 close combat damage, but also had 150 additional damage bonus. As the Dark Lesser Demon Squad Leader was lying on the floor from Trip, Ye Ci’s Aerial Strike triggered the damage bonus and two deep wounds appeared on its back. That one strike shaved away a large amount of health, and with Ol’ Three’s attacks, the health of the Dark Lesser Demon Squad Leader gradually dropped to zero.

The Squad Leader cried mournfully before it turned into a corpse. The whole battle took less than twenty five seconds. This was a fairly long time for Ye Ci, but was not bad considering it was close combat. However, as she was attacking the Dark Lesser Demon Squad Leader, other Dark Lesser Demons started arriving. They growled as they ran forward, but were stuck behind the Dark Lesser Demon Squad Leader.

Lesser Demons and Dark Lesser Demons were the lowest ranking Demons with low intelligence that only knew how to blindly attack their prey. The entrance to the hole Ye Ci was hiding in was very narrow, and only one Dark Lesser Demon could enter at a time. It was as if they were lining up to be killed. When one was killed, another one stepped up.

The eight Dark Lesser Demons that came were all grinded to death by Ye Ci.

When all the Dark Lesser Demons were killed, Ye Ci let out a sigh of relief. This was way too tiring! If she did not have many health potions, she probably would have died. She rested for a while to recover her health before trying her luck at looting the corpses.

Who knows if it was because her luck recently was very bad, or if the computer took pity on her but the Dark Lesser Demons all yielded Blue Grade equipment. Although there was not any for Hunters, these lvl50 equipment would sell for a nice sum at an auction. Something was better than nothing. For someone currently lacking money like Ye Ci, she would definitely not turn down a chance to earn money.

As the entrance of the hole was very narrow, the Dark Lesser Demon corpses formed a big pile right outside of it. Ye Ci could only start looting from the top and push the corpse off to the side to reach the next one. This continued until she reached the Dark Lesser Demon Squad Leader at the bottom of the pile.

The Dark Lesser Demon Squad Leader did not drop any equipment, but dropped a thick Skill Book.

Please let it be a Hunter skill book.

As she prayed, she pulled out the skill book to see “Flashbang” written on it.

Yes!

It was a Hunter skill book.

Flashbang: able to throw a Flashbang in any direction to light up a 20m radius around it. In that 20m radius, all Stealth and Concealment will be ineffective and will not pull aggro. Duration is 20 seconds and cooldown is 30 seconds.

This was one of the few detection skills Hunters had and was very useful in battle. Before the expansion pack, the monsters of all the continents were low levelled and did not pose too much trouble for players. However, after the expansion pack , the monsters were higher levelled with a wider variety of skills such as Stealth and Sneak. These skills which were once regarded as fairly rare became a common sight.

Therefore, whether it was grinding levels or running dungeons, having a Thief with high detection was a must. However, if a player was grinding by themselves or played a solo class like Hunter, then they must have a certain level of detection.

A detection skill like Flashbang was specially for Hunters.

The Flashbang was shot out using a bow and in this way could reach the furthest shooting distance of a Hunter. Like this, Flashbang was extremely useful for Hunters to decide how to use the terrain and number of enemies to the greatest benefit.

Perfect timing! Ye Ci was just wracking her brains thinking about how to lure the Dark Lesser Demons in for close combat when this skill book dropped into her hands.

Ye Cu quickly learnt the skill and shot a Flashbang close to the recently killed Dark Lesser Demon Squad Leader.

Whoosh.

The Flashbang headed towards the directed area, forming a beautiful arc in the air before it landed and exploded in a flash of yellow fire. Although the fire was not very bright, the light produced by it lit up a full twenty meters around it, showing all the Dark Lesser Demons that had used Stealth to hide.

How could monsters ever beat players like this? If a player was exposed by the fire, then they would immediately attack Ye Ci, but these Dark Lesser Demons only stupidly stayed in their original position without any reaction at all.

The twenty second duration was long enough for Ye Ci to clearly see all of the surrounding Dark Lesser Demons. There were seven in total, but were not bunched together and instead formed groups of two, two and three. There were more than five yards between the groups, so if Ye Ci hit one of the groups, then at most only the demons in the same group would also be lured in and the other two groups would not be affected.

Like this, the difficulty was greatly decreased.

Ye Ci first used Empowered Hunter’s Mark on the closest Dark Lesser Demon, then shot a Confuse Arrow at the other Dark Lesser Demon in the same group.

The Confuse Arrow could Stun the target for 12 seconds and lower the movement speed by 80 but the target would snap out of it if attacked. The Dark Lesser Demon hit by the Confuse Arrow immediately stood up and started to slowly stagger towards Ye Ci. The other demon hit by the Empowered Hunter’s Mark growled and rushed towards Ye Ci.

Ol’ Three immediately rushed charged forward while Ye Ci remained in her original position. She used all her single target skills and was rewarded by the cry of the Dark Lesser Demon as it died before even reaching her. Ye Ci used Empowered Hunter’s Mark on the remaining Dark Lesser Demon still affected by Stun while Ol’ Three moved forward to finish it off.

The following two groups was just rinse and repeat, but when she was fighting the group with three Dark Lesser Demons, Ye Ci had to use two Confuse Arrows continuously and lagged behind by a second. That second was exactly when Stun wore off, but it was not a big deal for Ye Ci. She just had to shoot another Confuse Arrow.

With Flashbang on hand, Ye Ci’s exploration of Black Wind Mountain was a lot easier. The Dark Lesser Demons were higher levelled than the normal Lesser Demons outside, so did not respawn as quickly. As Ye Ci killed her way in, she picked up a fair few pieces of equipment. Very quickly, she reached the end of Black Wind Mountain. There was a human sized hole that blew out gusts of bone chilling wind. Inside, broken rails and rusted mine carts could be seen.

It looked like this was once a mine.

There were a few purple herbs growing on the side of the hole. After taking a closer look, Ye Ci saw that they were the Cloudy Grass that the elderly dwarf had requested, and quickly harvested a few. Just as she was about to leave, Ye Ci heard terrifying mournful wails from inside the mine. In this kind of miserable windy environment, if someone was not brave enough then they would be sweating from fear, but Ye Ci was long used to these kinds of environments. Her only reaction to the sound was to peer towards the entrance.

There was something strange about this place.

Giving up while being so close was not in Ye Ci’s nature. Just as she was about to head into the mine, there was a notification from the system.

“Once removed from the soil, Cloudy Grass will wilt.”

Ye Ci quickly looked at the upper left corner of her status and saw a countdown.

There was even a time limit!

If it was like this, Ye Ci could only temporarily give up on the mine and quickly return to the elderly dwarf to hand in her quest. This quest was related to the mithril mine after all. Compared to a mystery mine, the mithril mine was more important.

The Dark Lesser Demons still had not respawned so Ye Ci summoned Ol’ Four and rode him out. Although the rough rocks did scrape against Ol’ Four, it’s thick scales prevented any damage.

As soon as she exited Black Wind Mountain, Ye Ci hurried towards the elderly dwarf’s hiding spot and shoved a Cloudy Grass into this mouth. Soon, the deathly grey skin recovered to the normal black of Black Iron Dwarves.

“Oh elf, my good elf, you really brought me Cloudy Grass.” The elderly Black Iron Dwarf let out a sigh, “you are worthy of Ha’er’s trust, and worthy of the Black Iron Dwarves’ trust.”

So this Black Iron Dwarf was called Ha’er. As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Ci received a system notification.

“Your Prestige amongst Black Iron Dwarves has reached Friendly.”

Directly to friendly? Originally her Prestige amongst Black Iron Dwarves was only halfway there, but who knew that rescuing one Ha’er would increase her Prestige all the way to Friendly. It looked like this Ha’er had a high position amongst the Black Iron Dwarves, otherwise how could her Prestige be raised so quickly when even all those quests from Jasmine barely did anything?

Black Iron Dwarves were very familiar with mines. If Ye Ci could raise her Prestige for Black Iron Dwarves then that basically meant that she had unlimited access to information about mines. Although information regarding the mithril mine was top secret right now, even higher grade mines would appear in the later years of Fate. As long as she could build a good relationship with Black Iron Dwarves, then Ye Ci would not have to worry about those things.

Thus, Ye Ci became more respectful towards Ha’er.

“You are a hero, Ha’er. It is my honour to be able to do something for a hero.” Ye Ci sincerely flattered Ha’er. Ye Ci thought, such cheesy things she would only say to an NPC. Even if a player promised great benefits, she still probably would not be able to say it to them.

“You said I was a hero?” Flattery was evidently very effective on Ha’er, and his eyes immediately lit up. “Elf, why do you call me a hero? I am merely a normal miner.”

“You would not have been the only person to leave home in search of precious ores.” Ye Ci smiled and continued, “but you might be the only one to persist until now. To be able to be so dedicated in one’s dream makes you a hero.”

“Oh, good elf, you really are Ha’er’s good friend,” said Ha’er, who looked so moved it looked like he was about to burst into tears. “Everyone says Ha’er is stupid. Only you understand Ha’er. Ha’er is very touched.”

“You have reached Intimate with Ha’er”

“Your Prestige amongst Black Iron Dwarves has increased by 1000.”

The two continuous system notifications surprised Ye Ci. It looked like Ha’er was not only an important NPC for finding the mithril mine, but was also a key to raising Prestige amongst Black Iron Dwarves.

Ye Ci comforted Ha’er for a while before he smacked his head saying, “ah, how could Ha’er forget the most important thing – my hand drawn map.”

Map.

The map.

Ye Ci trembled with excitement. It was exactly this map that she wanted.

Hiya minna-san! My vacation to Penang ended and I’m now back in Melaka…. Which means… More chapters! I’ll be translating my ass off until the end of my sem break! So…. Expect a high frequency of release eh? xDD

How’s everybody doing? I hope all is well! Sem break is so much better when I know that I’ve passed all my subjects lmao…

This chapter is brought to you by Aang! Our lovely translator in training! Enjoy!!

As always, teaser next page! First in the comments type: FIRST BLOOD!