Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-116

Chapter 116 - Substitute for Royal

At level 40, the seven main job classes would come to a divergence, where each job class would branch out into two separate pathways. Besides providing a different set of skills and spells, these two pathways would also revamp the players’ stat growth rate that was established when they first started the game. Hence, when players went for Job Class Advancement, the system would offer them a chance to reallocate the stat points that they had previously distributed.

A sizable amount of players were thumping their chests and stamping their feet in frustration when this rule was announced. Had they known that such a chance to reallocate their stats would be offered eventually, they would not have been stingy in distributing points across the different stats all this time. Quite a lot of players still had half of their points saved up, hoping to add them to the most appropriate stats after getting a good grasp of their job classes. These ‘experts’, who were boasting about their farsightedness, could only silently suffer this loss upon the announcement of this particular rule. After all, not allocating more than half the points that they were given when they had their level ups had already made their past grinding progress arduous.

It was pointless to complain now with the reveal of this new rule. With the thought of ‘letting bygones be bygones’, all started to focus their energy on researching the two different pathways of their respective job classes instead.

Warriors would branch out into Guardians and Berserkers. The former prioritized defensive capabilities, granting a more prominent hardiness than before, while the latter focused on having greater offense, becoming a character that was a deadly force to be reckoned with.

Thieves would advance to become either Assassins or Rogues. Assassins were better suited to inflicting a greater deal of damage, while Rogues were a superior version of the traditional style of a sneaky Thief.

Priests and Knights were divided into two affinities: Light and Dark. It was stated that the job classes with affinity toward the Light side would continue to possess strong capabilities in assisting and supporting teammates. Those belonging to the Dark side, meanwhile, would acquire cursing-type skills or spells.

For Fighters, their choice would either be a Brawler or Qigong Master. The former would continue to fight with bare fists; as for the latter, it was stated that with their vast internal force, Qigong Masters would acquire AOE skills on par with Mages.

Sharpshooter and Hunter were the Job Class Advancement choices available to Archers. The ability of Archers to ambush from afar remained in these two job classes, with Sharpshooters continuing to develop the forte of long-range attacks and Hunters attaining the ability to set up traps.

Lastly, there was the Mage job class where the difference in advancement lay in becoming either a Water Mage or a Lightning Mage. Judging from the official list of spells that was posted, Mages seemed to have the most distinctive differences after assaulting the Job Class Advancement. Water Mages had water- and ice-based spells that could inflict the Freezing effect; Lightning Mages had lightning- and electricity-based spells that could produce the Shock effect. Besides Mage, no other job classes appeared to have two advancement choices so different from each other. There was of course an obvious reasoning to this: No matter which pathway the Mages chose to advance forward, their job class was the only one that could rely on the previous method of focusing on an Intelligence-based build.

Besides the Fighter job class, all six members of Young Master’s Elite mercenary group had chosen a different job class out of the seven main ones. All of them currently qualified for Job Class Advancement except for Gu Fei. Since they were all gaming experts, they had yet to advance to a specific job class, and were still carefully observing and comparing the pros and cons of the two Job Class Advancement choices of their respective job classes. As for whether their efforts would be futile in the end like what had happened with their previously saved up leveling stat points, only the heavens would have the answer to that.

Royal God Call was in high spirits and raring to go once he received the Windchaser’s Emblem. Movement speed was crucial to Archers. In fact, their most common style of attacking, ‘kiting’, required the Archers to have sufficient movement speed to safeguard their lives. When it came to choosing equipment for any Archers, their footwear took priority than their weapon. Given how superb a pair of Windchaser’s Boots was and that the boots were a guaranteed reward upon completing one hundred consecutive ‘Bounty Mission’, Royal God Call clenched his teeth and resolved to get a pair for himself as well.

“How strange,” Brother Assist wondered, saying, “Your emblem and boots came from the same system that manages the ‘Bounty Mission’… Why don’t they belong in the same equipment set since they share similar sounding names?”

Green-tier equipment came in different pieces that formed a full set, and they were displayed with green font; once all the different pieces were gathered together, the hidden traits within them would be activated. The two new pieces of equipment of Gu Fei were obviously not green tier and were just gold tier, not even reaching the rank of purple tier.

Gu Fei was of course clueless about this matter. As for Royal God Call, he cared less about it, as all he wanted was a pair of Windchaser’s Boots for himself. After equipping Windchaser’s Emblem, he said to Gu Fei, “Alright, I am off to plough through the ‘Bounty Mission’. I’ll leave the level grinding over there to you.”

“Wait, what? What’s this about ‘level grinding over there’?” Gu Fei stopped him from leaving.

“I’ve been taking the beauties of your guild for level grinding every single day! I need to go plough through the ‘Bounty Mission’ now, and it just so happens that you need to level up fast, so you should go there in my stead! I’ve already told them to meet over at the tavern entrance by the east gate at 7:15 PM; you probably know them all, anyway. Alright, I’m off. Don’t forget about it!” Royal God Call disappeared in a flash after saying this.

“Ah, it’s 7 PM already? I gotta go, too!” War Without Wounds hurriedly got up as he looked at the time, “My speed is slower, so I have to leave early,” he mumbled while getting up.

“It’s time for me to do a group grinding with others, too. I’ll walk with you!” Brother Assist left with War Without Wounds.

Only three remained out of the six in the blink of an eye. Gu Fei looked around the room and at the remaining two that were closest with each other, Sword Demon and Young Master Han. “What about you guys? It’s probably time for you two to join some other groups for level grinding as well, right? Why don’t you guys take my place and go do whatever over there?” Gu Fei always trained by himself, and he currently felt pressured by the task Royal God Call had handed over to him.

“I’ve always been grinding on my own,” Sword Demon answered.

“I never grind at this time of the day,” Young Master Han replied while drinking his liquor, adding, “There’re too many people.” The time after dinner until the time before bed was always the peak hour in online games.

Gu Fei sighed. It looked like he had no choice but to participate in this party grinding as there were no other people he could count on at the moment. Gu Fei stood up and equipped the most stylish robe, Midnight Spirit Robe. Strapping Moonlit Nightfalls on his back, he then left with his hands inside his robe pockets.

To think this is actually a Mage! Young Master Han thought to himself, as he watched the departing Gu Fei from behind.

Now that Parallel World had been progressing and going steady for more than a month, a black mage robe was no longer considered unique. Where top-grade weapons emitted certain luster, top-grade clothing did not have this particular effect, making it difficult for the average players to determine the quality of the garment through their naked eyes alone. As for Moonlit Nightfalls with its purplish luster, Gu Fei had been carrying it so visibly for all to see on purpose. Life did not always go as expected, however. Those top-grade equipment looting thugs and robbers were nowhere to be found, and not even one of them made an attempt to rob Gu Fei even now.

As he drew nearer the city’s east gate, Gu Fei could already see a group of ladies gathered outside the tavern close to the gate from afar. He glanced at the time: 7:10 PM. He was five minutes early of the appointed time. Legends had it that women were unpunctual creatures, but that did not seem to be the case in-game!

He did a head count as he walked closer. There were nine people, and he recognized two: Ice Glaze and Luo Luo. There were three faces that seemed familiar, and four that he had never seen before.

Ever since the game’s official release, Amethyst Rebirth had been rapidly growing. Their initial modus operandi of recruiting only female players was unchanged, and Gu Fei remained as their sole male member as they expanded into a guild with fifty-seven members.

Guild Leader July seemed to have gotten the notion that Gu Fei did not mingle well with the rest of them. She would usually notify him about the regular guild activities, such as forming parties for grinding levels or doing missions together, while emphasizing that it was up to him to join them or not. Gu Fei, in return, would always reply: “I’m used to grinding alone.” At some point in time, July had stopped notifying him.

He would occasionally bump into some female guildmates on the streets. However, the only thing he could recall for the vast majority of them was their faces, not even able to address them by their names. Thus, he did not dare to greet the familiar looking ones on the streets for fear of mistaking the wrong people. A month had passed like this, with Gu Fei and those of Amethyst Rebirth being akin to parallel lines that never met. He was curious as to how much longer July could endure having such a member who existed only in name.

Thanks to Royal God Call’s request today, Gu Fei would finally cross paths with those of Amethyst Rebirth after such a ‘long’ time.

As he approached the nine ladies, Luo Luo and Ice Glaze just happened to have their backs facing against him. The other four did not recognize Gu Fei; there were three more that shared a mindset with him, so they did not dare arbitrarily greet this familiar looking guy for fear of getting the wrong person.

“Ahem!” Gu Fei cleared his throat lightly behind Luo Luo.

Turning around and seeing Gu Fei, she revealed a bright smile, “My. To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?”

Gu Fei smiled sheepishly, “Long time no see.” He had not run across Luo Luo for more than a month now, and that kind of duration was enough to turn a pair of close friends into strangers in online games.

Luo Luo pulled him to face everyone, “Allow me to introduce him to you all... This man here is Thousand Miles Drunk!”

“Ah!” the four ladies that were strangers to Gu Fei had a surprised look on their faces. All these new members of Amethyst Rebirth had been wondering about the remarkability of the only male player in their all-female guild. If they were to speculate using common sense, this person was either in an out-of-the-ordinary relationship with a core member in the guild or a man in body but a woman in heart.

Upon further inquiries, these two speculative gossips were quickly debunked. Furthermore, even those who were acquainted with Gu Fei, like July and Luo Luo, actually knew little about him. On the contrary, it was the two external helpers of Amethyst Rebirth, War Without Wounds and Royal God Call, who seemed to be close friends of his.

A lot of the girls wanted to dig out more information about the guild’s sole male member from those two people. Unfortunately… Those two were very attentive to the possible ‘danger’ in this regard, and their hearts would skip a beat whenever the ladies would inquire about Gu Fei. Thus, the ensuing description of Gu Fei that the two provided the girls was more or less in line with what anyone would expect from them.

However, the girls were no fools. They could naturally tell that the two men were spouting nonsense the more they said about the person in question, resulting in Gu Fei becoming more shrouded in mystery to the ladies.

The mysterious person had just appeared before them. Naturally, the four newcomers were very thrilled; all that was missing from this ‘touching’ meeting was them asking for Gu Fei’s autographs.

“Just what kind of gossips can be found on him? We must unravel them all!” was what the four of them resolved silently. This was essentially the nature of most female players; they cared less about what someone was capable of and more about what possible stories or entertainment a person could provide them.

“Since everyone is here already, shall we go?” Luo Luo asked as she sent Gu Fei an invitation to party with them.

As Gu Fei accepted the party request, Luo Luo smilingly said to him, “You are filling in for Royal, so you take the lead!” She passed the position of Captain to him after saying this. What followed soon after was a series of system notifications that popped up to inform everyone that the party had been disbanded.

“What’s going on?” All the ladies were at a loss.

“I have only 1 point to my Command value,” Gu Fei said offhandedly. In Parallel World, party, group, or team forming was not something that could be done arbitrarily. There was a stat called Command for players, which would affect the amount of people that an appointed Captain could lead or command. Five more players could be added to a party for every 1 point of Command value that a Captain had. Additional experience points for the Command stat could be earned when players took on the role of a Captain during level grinding or questing. Evidently, Gu Fei had never participated into this kind of activities before, so he could not even meet the requirement for their current ten-person party.

There was a sudden clamor among the ladies. A small party of ten people required only 2 points of Command value, yet Gu Fei did not even have that on him… It was simply mind-blowing. He’s indeed no ordinary person! the four newcomers thought to themselves, as they got all worked up.

“I’ll do the leading, then!” Luo Luo had no choice but to regroup the party and reclaim the leadership position.

The party headed in the direction of the grinding map, with Gu Fei taking the rear. The four newcomers gathered themselves together and whispered for a while before finally sending a representative over to Gu Fei’s side.

“Brother Miles~” she singsonged.

“Just call me Miles,” Gu Fei said as he broke in a cold sweat. The way he had just been addressed by the girl made him cringe inside. She was just a little girl, and it was precisely this fact that Gu Fei could not stand the way he had just been greeted. All things considered, he was still a teacher. For someone who looked like she was still a student to call a teacher ‘brother’... He was spitting blood in his mind just by imagining the interaction once again.

“Okay, Miles~” the little girl singsonged once more minus the word ‘brother’.

“What is it?” Gu Fei asked her while throwing a glance at Luo Luo in front. Luo Luo happened to glance backward at this time. When she saw Gu Fei looking at her, she threw him a flirtatious smile as well as a message. Upon opening the message, Gu Fei saw that it read: “Little loli is really cute, right?”

“What are you talking about?!” Gu Fei asked, sweating profusely.

“You won’t mind if I ask you a few questions, right?” the little girl asked.

“Of course!” Gu Fei answered.

“When did you join Amethyst Rebirth?” the little girl questioned.

“Upon its establishment,” Gu Fei replied.

“Why did you join this all-female guild?”

“They lacked people back then, and I helped nominate this guild,” Gu Fei provided this answer.

“Why didn’t we see you at all before this?”

“Uhh… I’m used to being on my own,” Gu Fei gave a vague answer.

“Are you close with Guild Leader July?”

“Just so-so, I guess!” Gu Fei honestly admitted.

“Okay, thank you,” the little girl thanked him and went back to the little group of four.

Gu Fei was dumbfounded. Is there a special significance to those questions? Uncovering inside scoops through the bits and chunks of everyday occurrences, these kind of nosy mentality was obviously not something Gu Fei understood.

Gu Fei could feel cold wind breezing through him, bringing with it a sense of danger brewing in the air. This sense of danger heightened when he saw how the four little girls huddled together and whispered among them, throwing him the occasional glances. I have no idea what they’re plotting right now… Gotta find myself a scapegoat when worse comes to worst. Thinking things through, Gu Fei hastened his pace and made a beeline to the very front of the party. He absentmindedly started a conversation with Luo Luo when he arrived beside her, “Where are we going to grind levels?”

“Yunxia Valley,” Luo Luo answered.

“Oh, I am familiar with that map,” Gu Fei said, adding, “I level grinded there a month ago.”

Luo Luo was momentarily stunned. A month ago was still the period where everyone was at level 30. Being able to grind over at Yunxia Valley at that time meant that the players possessed the capabilities to engage monsters ten levels beyond their own. A mere Mage that can actually solo grind monsters ten levels higher than his… Luo Luo deduced that Gu Fei was a formidable player, but she did not expect for him to have such incredible might. Only top-class players should possess capabilities like that, after all.

“Where do you level grind now, then?” Luo Luo asked out of curiosity.

“I’m not grinding that much anymore. I’ve been repeatedly doing ‘Bounty Mission’,” Gu Fei answered. He usually spent about two hours grinding on monsters. When compared to Sword Demon and the rest, Gu Fei did not consider his mere two hours to be a serious attempt at level grinding. And yet, if he had revealed where he had been grinding monsters on recently, it would have surely shocked Luo Luo to death. Yun Luo Summit, a level 60 grinding map, was definitely a place that the regular players had never been to before.

“‘Bounty Mission’… Is it fast to level up with that?” Luo Luo asked, feeling weird about it.

“Nope. I’m just mindlessly playing around,” Gu Fei replied.

Gu Fei’s ranking on the overall experience leaderboard had taken a steep fall. This fall was actually not that obvious in Amethyst Rebirth, where he remained an upper rank player. With their fondness for chit-chatting and gossiping daily, the Amethyst Rebirth’s ladies did not care much about the efficiency for level grinding. In fact, the time they took to actually level up was nothing impressive at all. Frankly speaking, Gu Fei had helped the ladies greatly by introducing them to the two gaming experts, War Without Wounds and Royal God Call. Had it not been for the two’s personal instructions and supports, the current levels of the Amethyst Rebirth’s ladies would have been a lot worse than they were today.

Looking to his side, Gu Fei saw Ice Glaze silently walking with lowered head alongside them. “Did Xiao Bing, my friend, here not recognize me anymore?” Ice Glaze did not greet Gu Fei even after she saw him earlier.

“Ah, that’s not it!” Ice Glaze looked up in panic.

“Don’t just focus on teasing the more shy ladies from our guild. Go and play with the little girls behind,” Luo Luo said disdainfully, pulling Ice Glaze to her side.

“What are you saying?!” Gu Fei was close to fainting, as what Luo Luo had just said implied that he had evil intentions in him, “You’re treating me like Royal!”

“Ah!” Luo Luo was taken aback for a second, finally saying, “That seems to be the case!”

“That beast,” Gu Fei mocked.

Ice Glazed suddenly laughed, “That’s what he said about you, too.”

“Why did he describe me as such?” Gu Fei asked.

“It’s nothing. It’s just that whenever he mentions you, he would always replace your name with ‘That beast!’ or ‘That livestock!’...” Luo Luo laughingly shared.

“I’m gonna hack Royal to his death!” Gu Fei declared spitefully.

The ladies all burst into peals of laughter. “What a braggart!” everyone said while pointing at him.

Gu Fei was bewildered. He did not know why such a casual remark from him would generate such a response. Of course, there was something that he was not privy about. While he was always disdaining Royal God Call for his childishness, the latter was truly an exceptional gaming expert. Although the ladies were average at best when it came to gaming, they could tell that Royal God Call was very skillful after spending some time grinding levels with him. His famous IGN ‘Royal God Call’ was already proof of his ability in the online gaming community.

At present, Gu Fei’s level was beneath Royal God Call. With him holding the Mage job class, he was actually disadvantageous against Archers. So when Gu Fei uttered that he would “hack Royal to his death”, he was treated by the ladies as a braggart.

As the nonsensical chattering went on, they finally arrived at Yunxia Valley.

The current Yunxia Valley was no longer as bleak and desolate as when Gu Fei had been grinding in it before. Presently, it was a grinding map packed with the most players to the point that all its mountains and plains were filled with nothing but people. Gu Fei looked around as he strolled along with his party, seemingly unable to find an empty spot that could accommodate ten people for level grinding.

As the party was walking onward, some of the ladies’ footsteps came to a sudden halt. Looking ahead, Luo Luo began to furrow her brows. The others were also commenting among themselves, “It’s them again.”

“What’s wrong?” Gu Fei asked.

“This area originally belongs to Amethyst Rebirth. But that gang of people couldn’t find a grinding spot for themselves these few days and took a liking to our spot. So we’ve been having numerous duels with their party.”

“Duels?” Gu Fei asked, failing to understand what she meant.

Luo Luo looked at him with an even more confused gaze.

“What’s the duel for?” Gu Fei asked again.

“To claim a grinding spot for our own! Grinding maps are always overcrowded nowadays, and nobody can properly grind for levels when players are kill-stealing here and there. So everyone resorted to—”

“Oh, I get it,” Gu Fei indeed understood the matter now. The battle-crazed city of Yueye had the same rule as well. Since grinding maps could never handle so many players grinding altogether, it was inevitable for players to clash and claim their own grinding spots. Still, a large-scale group PvP would cause more harm than good, so an unwritten rule had been set: Different groups must only send out representatives to engage in a duel. Who would have thought that Yunduan City would become like this as well? This matter showed that people’s nature was the same no matter where they were.

“Let’s do it, then!” Gu Fei urged.

“But Royal isn’t here,” Luo Luo expressed solemnly, adding, “It’s always him that took on the duels before. Besides him, there are just me with no offensive abilities and Xiao Bing who is a Mage. The levels of the others are even lower.”

“I’ll go!” Gu Fei thumped his chest.

“But you’re a Mage, too!” Luo Luo protested in shock. From a conventional perspective, Mages were often weaker in a PvP. Despite Luo Luo thinking that Gu Fei was quite competent, she did not actually think that he would be stronger than a veteran expert like Royal God Call. Gu Fei had almost died at the hands of Xiaoyu previously, after all. Something like that would never happen to Royal God Call.

Those people over at the claimed grinding spot noticed Gu Fei and the rest while they were still discussing the issue. There was no doubt that they were all familiar with one another, as that party of people started whistling and yelling, “Hey, beauties! You’re all here again.”

“How shameless you lot are! You all have lost numerous times already, yet you still keep on coming back here!” someone among the ladies yelled back.

“Perseverance! Such spirit is worth learning for all!” someone from the opposing side shouted, obviously trying to keep on acting shameless to the very end.

Gu Fei proceeded onward without even waiting for a reply from Luo Luo, “Who’s the one who will be doing the duel? Come out!”

Those from the opposing side were stumped when they saw Gu Fei, “Why is there a sudden change of person? Where’s that arrogant brat? Tell him to come out, instead!”

“He’s not here,” Gu Fei stated matter-of-factly.

The opposing gang of people had a sudden discussion in hushed tone. The fact that they still dared to come again after suffering several consecutive losses to Royal God Call meant that they had come prepared this time. In order to deal with Royal God Call, they specially found themselves a Thief expert, preparing to counter the Archer with an advantageous job class. They also managed to observe that all the ladies were not proficient and knowledgeable in PvP besides Royal God Call. Thus, they had never considered the possibility of them switching the Archer for another person.

And yet, the unthinkable happened. The player line-up of Amethyst Rebirth that had remained unchanged for days suddenly changed out of nowhere. Royal God Call was absent today, and another guy had appeared instead.

“Appraise him!” The opposing gang had no intention of losing again.

“Mage!” They were all brimming with joy when the result of Appraisal was out. Despite there being question marks displayed on some of the Mage’s equipment, nobody actually minded this minor detail. A duel with a Mage was hardly a difficult task, after all.

“So who’s up for it?” Everyone on the opposing side began to bicker among themselves for the chance to go up against the Mage. Truthfully, this party of people had purposely been clashing with the Amethyst Rebirth’ members to claim the grinding spot. Once they claimed the grinding spot for their own, they would ‘generously’ invite the ladies to grind levels together. Although it might be a little cramped with two groups of people, the ladies would presumably not reject their offer since it was still better than no place to train at all. What came next would of course be getting to know the ladies sooner or later.

This was what this party of people had in mind at first. Unfortunately, they had never anticipated that the party of moderately strong ladies would include an Archer who was a tough nut to crack. Over the course of a few days, some of them had continuously lost to the Archer. Although they enlisted the help of a Thief today, they were still feeling a little uneasy inside. Today, seeing that the expert Archer was absent and a Mage had replaced him, everyone was eager to come out and show their prowess in front of the ladies.

“Oh, right.” Gu Fei turned his head back and asked Luo Luo, “This PvP is not a fight to the death, and we’ll stop once a certain HP threshold is crossed, right?”

Luo Luo nodded her head in affirmation, as she thought to herself, Does that question have any merit? All have specifically come up with such a method to avoid having their levels dropped, so why would we be fighting to the death? She drew nearer to Gu Fei and said in a low tone, “Be careful. This PvP can be either a fair one or a dishonest one. Knowing which one it is by the time everything ends will no longer be useful to you.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be careful,” Gu Fei reassured.

Luo Luo nodded her head in acknowledgement, “Just withdraw if things don’t look good. We’ll just find another grinding spot.”

Gu Fei went numb for a second before saying, “When I said I’ll be careful, I mean I’ll be careful not to kill them....”

The ladies were flabbergasted.

The guys on the opposing side clearly heard it as well, and their blood instantly boiled. “This guy is way more arrogant than that snooty brat!” someone among them rebuked.

Gu Fei was too lazy to explain himself, and he took two more steps forward, rubbing his hands together and saying, “So who is it that I am up against?”

“Me!” A Thief emerged from the party of male players. He was originally invited today to deal with Royal God Call. The others could only look on when he stepped out, as it would be awkward to visibly compete with him for a chance to engage in this PvP.

Gu Fei nodded his head and asked, “How high is your HP?”

“What?” the Thief asked, dumbfounded.

“I’m asking for your total HP,” Gu Fei replied seriously.

“What for? Why would I tell you that?!” the Thief asked, stupefied. This is a PvP; being as secretive as possible about our stats is of course the way to go. To think that there’s someone who would ask questions like this.

“If you don’t tell me your HP value, it won’t be easy for me to hold back!” Gu Fei was still saying very seriously. He was not like the gaming experts Sword Demon and the rest who knew the algorithm related to the game like the back of their hands and could determine the opponents’ data by using Appraisal. Gu Fei did not know all these finer details. He only knew that his current opponent was a Thief, a job class with inherently low HP, and was within the range of being insta-killed by his spells. It was out of good intention that he was asking for the opponent’s total HP.

But how would the regular players be able to comprehend such a different way of thinking? As a string of admonishment echoed in the air, the Thief felt that he was being heavily looked down upon and angrily bellowed, “Hey, you punk! I want a deathmatch with you!”

The meaning of ‘deathmatch’ was obviously a fight until one of the PvPers was dead. It was a special term that was created by pretentious gamers. When they were facing opponents obviously not on par with them, asking “Do you want a deathmatch?” before a PvP would apparently make them look very dashing.

Gu Fei had of course heard of such a term before. Right now, he could only smile and say, “Is that really necessary? It’s getting harder and harder to level up these days!”

Thinking that Gu Fei was feeling apprehensive, the Thief became cockier, “Don’t mind me, please. Aren’t you afraid of not being able to hold back? I’m actually giving you a chance right now. Kill me if you really have what it takes!”