Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-178

Chapter 178 - The Birth of a Lightning Mage

Gu Fei asked wryly, “Is that so?” It’s true that he is an employee of the gaming company, but surely he can’t just magically turn a Lightning Mage into one that has freezing effect, right? Besides that effect, Gu Fei wanted nothing else.

“Why do you wanna choose Water Affinity?” Fleeting Smile asked, wanting to understand the players’ fundamental thought.

“Freezing effect,” Gu Fei replied.

“Hmm, this…” Fleeting Smile was at a loss for words. If that was really the reason, then he could do nothing about it.

This effect was the specialty of Water Affinity, after all. Fleeting Smile would be shooting himself on the foot if he said that Water Affinity’s freezing effect could not compare to Lightning Affinity’s paralyzing effect, as they were the ones who had created the two affinities’ systems.

Right now, he could only emphasize on Lightning Affinity’s positive aspects. Many players had not chosen Lightning Affinity because they had not discovered its advantages.

“A player won’t be able to use skills when under the paralyzing effect. Someone who has no access to his or her skills is as dangerous as a monster that is drawn on paper. You’ve been playing Parallel World longer than I have, so you should understand what I mean. Lightning Affinity has many instant-cast spells, too. If you’re able to use those spells well, you won’t have to allocate many points toward Spirit and can pump them all into Intelligence if you prefer. Adding the Lightning Affinity’s high damage output, the attack you dish out will be very frightening!” Fleeting Smile was alarmed as he finished saying this, as he felt that the reasons he had just given might not sound attracting to Gu Fei, the full-Agility Mage. He has a full-Agility build, so it’s practically useless to tell him how Intelligence or Spirit could affect his abilities.

What Fleeting Smile did not realize was that something he had said actually moved Gu Fei.

Instant-cast spells!

This was something tempting to Gu Fei. Among his Fire Affinity spells, only Twin Incineration was an instant-cast spell. Gu Fei preferred using it precisely because he could easily mix it into his kung fu. Evidently, that was the advantage of instant-cast spells to him.

Thinking about it more, Gu Fei's Twin Incineration actually already had a high Magic Attack Power to complement his sword style. Was there a need to acquire more instant-cast spells? He merely wanted to use his kung fu, so what was the point of getting all those instant-cast spells if he could not slow his enemies down with the freezing effect of a Water Mage?

As Gu Fei pondered on this, Fleeting Smile continued to promote the wonders of Lightning Affinity. Gu Fei took the chance when Fleeting Smile was taking a breath to ask, “Does Lightning Affinity have the freezing effect?”

Feeling annoyed at having wasted his breath to explain Lightning Affinity’s advantages to Gu Fei, Fleeting Smile remarked, “If it is just the freezing effect, plenty of weapons out there have that as an effect. As for the paralyzing effect of Lightning Affinity, it is rarely found in weapons!”

While his argument made sense, it was not applicable to a Mage. In Parallel World, a player needed to directly hit his or her opponent with a weapon to activate its effect. As for a Mage, casting a spell did not require him or her to make contact with the target. Was there even a Mage out there who would use his or her magic stave to whack people directly?

However, this warped logic that was not applicable to most Mages highly fit Gu Fei’s fighting style. He was once more moved by Fleeting Smile’s argument, yet doubts quickly surfaced on his mind again, “Why would I need to use a weapon with freezing effect if I have access to the freezing spells as a Water Mage? That would just be me doing something unnecessary!”

Fleeting Smile patiently reasoned, “I’m only worried that you’re choosing Water Affinity solely for its freezing effect, resulting in much regret in the future. Lightning Affinity is really awesome, too!”

“I say, isn’t it unfair for a scrupulous gaming employee to guide players in their decision-making?” Gu Fei asked. Fleeting Smile obviously wanted to convince Gu Fei toward choosing Lightning Affinity.

“Preposterous!” Fleeting Smile hurriedly refuted, saying, “It’s just that so many Mages don’t seem to have insight on the advantages that Lightning Affinity provides, which is why I’m elaborating so much here. I just hope that a certain someone would make a sound decision. I just don’t want players regretting their decisions later.”

“So what are the advantages of Lightning Affinity?”

“Weren’t you listening to me all this while?” Fleeting Smile asked, irked.

“Actually, I only need Water Affinity’s freezing effect to reduce my opponents’ fast speed. That way, I can easily chase after them,” Gu Fei explained.

“Easily chase after the enemies?” Fleeting Smile was shocked, “But Lightning Affinity is more suitable for that!”

“Why?”

“Because… Lightning Affinity has the Blink skill!” Fleeting Smile revealed.

“Blink?” Gu Fei was in a daze.

Blink was a skill that the Mage job class would have in most games, except its name varied from game to game. Some MMOs called the skill ‘Spiritual Teleportation’ or other similar sounding names, yet its effect remained the same: It allowed the user to move from one place to another at a certain distance instantly.

Gu Fei had little experience playing other MMOs, so he did not know of this. Flipping through his spell guidebook to get a basic idea of the skill, he asked, “What does it do?”

“It allows a Mage to move from one place to another instantly. The skill is part of Lightning Affinity in Parallel World. It’s not indicated in the official skill tree, though,” Fleeting Smile explained.

“Move instantly!” Gu Fei was no longer just feeling moved by Fleeting Smile’s speech. Having fast movement speed was nothing compared to being able to move instantly, after all!

“What level will this skill be available?” Gu Fei asked. He could barely wait to try it out.

“Uhm... It’s quite a late game skill, but it can be learned through skill scrolls,” Fleeting Smile answered.

“Lightning Affinity, it is!” Gu Fei resolved.

“Hmm, that—” Fleeting Smile still wanted to add more, yet Gu Fei already had electricity crackling all over himself. Clearly, he had already begun the process for Lightning Affinity Initiation.

It was too late to regret anything at this point, as the process of advancing a job class could not be stopped by simply pressing the ‘stop’ button.

[Congratulations Player Thousand Miles Drunk for your successful Job Class Advancement to a Lightning Mage! Your magic has already integrated the properties of lightning.] Gu Fei was notified by the system of this after a short while.

At the same time, he had acquired his first spell as a Lightning Mage....

[Thunderbolt

Effect: Can strike a target with heavenly lightning.

Incantation: Thunderbolt, Strike]

Gu Fei was quite speechless, asking Fleeting Smile, “When you said Lightning Mage’s spells are faster to cast, did you mean that their incantations are shorter?”

The most basic mage spell, Fireball, was the only other incantation with two words. To think that level 40 Lightning Mage spell would also be a two-word incantation. Somehow, the amount of words in an incantation seemed to determine the casting speed of a spell.

In fact, many Mages had practiced hard to ensure that their pronunciation of such incantations would be clear and concise.

“Of course, not! Casting spell is really faster as a Lightning Mage. You’ll understand this once you cast a spell,” Fleeting Smile vehemently denied.

“Okay!” Gu Fei nodded his head in satisfaction. He liked fast. “Anything else that you would like to add about Lightning Affinity?” Gu Fei asked Fleeting Smile. He remembered that Fleeting Smile seemed to be about to say something regarding Lightning Affinity while he was undergoing the initiation for it.

Fleeting Smile’s heart thumped fast when he saw how lively Gu Fei was being. Have I unintentionally done something inappropriate again? I somehow want to establish a cordial relationship with him, yet I have ended up giving him a huge helping hand. Have I actually helped him become more formidable?

Gu Fei who had brought his full set of kung fu skills into Parallel World indeed broke the game’s framework in a way. Despite being a Mage, he was closer to possessing a melee job class.

Blink was originally a spell intended to let a Mage escape pursuit or distance himself or herself from the enemy. With Gu Fei likely acquiring it in the future, some sort of cataclysmic event might result from this foreseeable unholy matrimony.

Fleeting Smile had indeed unintentionally led Gu Fei on to an even brighter future.

“Oh, yeah! I have something I’ve been wanting to ask you,” Gu Fei quipped when he noticed Fleeting Smile remaining quiet for quite a while.

“What is it?” The energy Fleeting Smile had shown when enticing Gu Fei to take Lightning Affinity was now gone and on its place was listlessness.

“Take a look,” Gu Fei took out Moonlit Nightfalls and passed it over to Fleeting Smile.

The muscles on Fleeting Smile’s face twitched. His wish to ban Gu Fei from the game was being strongly tested right now. How could the other players on his same level compete against him when he possesses this weapon that is leagues beyond others?

However, Gu Fei did not know of Fleeting Smile’s current state of mind and merely asked, “This sword is called Moonlit Nightfalls. Can you see its traits?”

“No need. I know about it,” Fleeting Smile replied. Some pieces of the top-grade equipment found in-game were the proud creations of them, and Moonlit Nightfalls was among those. Fleeting Smile knew very well the sword’s traits and value without looking at it.

“This sword has a skill called ‘Impending Nightfall’ that I haven’t been able to meet the conditions for use even now. What exactly are these conditions?” Gu Fei asked.

“You naturally won’t be able to meet the conditions for it, since you’ve not even fulfilled the equipment requirement,” Fleeting Smile replied.

“Is that so?” Gu Fei felt a little disappointed. He would have tried finding a way around this restriction if there had been a workable method. In the end, it was because he failed to meet the equipment requirement to utilize the sword’s full potential.

Reaching Moonlit Nightfalls’ Sword Aptitude and Spell Aptitude requirements was necessary to unlocking the sword’s full potential. Gu Fei had been depending on his Midnight Spirit Robe to somehow meet the Spell Aptitude requirement, yet his Sword Aptitude still had a long way to go.

According to the current players’ experimentations, adding points toward Strength could increase one’s Sword Aptitude. Gu Fei’s Agility had yet to reach a level he was contented with, so he did not plan to allocate his points toward Strength at present. Besides, he was only curious of Moonlit Nightfalls’ skill and was not in a rush to acquire it. When it came to a PvP, Gu Fei still mainly relied on his kung fu skills.

In fact, Gu Fei found insta-killing a whole swath of enemies with Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno as insipid despite others deeming it as something amazing and OP. Thus, Gu Fei had nothing else to add once he heard Fleeting Smile’s reply.

This ensuing silence instantly made Fleeting Smile feel depressed. He had just decided to no longer help Gu Fei out, so he had been planning to coldly reply at him if he asked for information about Aptitude. Who would have guessed that Gu Fei would not bother to pry any further or ask another question.

Just as Fleeting Smile was about to say something, Gu Fei waved his hand to him and said, “Carry on with what you need to do, then. I’m logging off.” In a flash of white light, Gu Fei had disappeared.

“AHHH!” Fleeting Smile felt so dismayed by Gu Fei’s anti-climatic response that he really wanted to give himself a good stab with a knife.