Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-181

Chapter 181 - The Woeful Experts

July’s thinking was too idealistic, as it was impossible for any group to keep everyone in it satisfied. Her way of thinking that wished to respect everyone’s wishes was quite a western concept. What China promoted was collectivism, so the minority in the country usually submitted to the will and ideologies of the majority.

On the guild channel, besides July who had not voiced her opinion, all the Amethyst Rebirth’s ladies were currently expressing their wish for Gu Fei to stay.

This was precisely what made Gu Fei confused. Amid the ladies’ chattering, Gu Fei feebly asked, “But when did I say that I’m leaving the guild?”

The whole channel instantly became quiet. The wilder the thoughts were, the further the digression became. Foe-herder wanted to use gold coins to loosen the ladies’ mouths, but it was simply to learn of Gu Fei’s IGN. This matter… It absolutely did not involve Gu Fei leaving the guild.

“Oh…” The ladies immediately stopped discussing the matter upon realizing this and carried on with their chit-chats. Only a few ladies continued to message Gu Fei in private.

“Beware of being led astray when you’re keeping bad company,” Luo Luo advised Gu Fei.

“Large guilds love to bully small guilds, so you better not join any of them!” was Will-low’s two cents regarding this matter. She had previously been oppressed by a powerful guild, after all.

“Large guilds are super annoying. It’s so pointless,” Svelte Dancer said to Gu Fei based on her similar experiences with his. Evidently, joining any large guilds she wished to was easy given her indomitable strength.

“That Foe-herder is so silly. He doesn’t even know to look for the ‘Wheat within the Mud’ when it already says so,” June’s Rain remarked.

Gu Fei felt somewhat sorry for Foe-herder’s quest debacle earlier. It was similar to taking an important exam, only to realize that the only question printed on the paper was ‘1+1=?’

Most people would definitely assume that it was a trick question, and would be having second thoughts on writing down ‘2’ as the answer. Perhaps, ‘1+1’ had other answers as well. But if June’s Rain was the one posing the question, the answer would definitely be ‘2’.

Foe-herder must have overthought things, which turned him into a laughingstock to June’s Rain. How pitiful! Gu Fei thought to himself as he headed to Ray’s Bar.

The ladies no longer had to participate in the mercenary PvP tournament since they were eliminated last night, but Gu Fei still had to join Young Master’s Elite for today’s match. Seeing that it was about time for the match, he headed to Ray’s Bar to meet up with his fellow mercenaries.

“I’ve advanced to a Lightning Mage!” Gu Fei immediately informed them this once he saw that the five were already inside the room.

“Ah?” The five eyed him in confusion.

“Thunderbolt! Strike!” Gu Fei waved his hand and a bolt of lightning descended from the ceiling. It then struck the table and a burned smell subsequently filled the air.

“Stop messing around!” Brother Assist grimly admonished as that lightning bolt had struck somewhere near him. Given Gu Fei’s high Magic Attack Power and the cramped space of the room, that bolt would have struck Brother Assist dead had Gu Fei slightly shifted his hand to his direction.

“Don’t worry. I’m not even holding my weapon,” Gu Fei said as he sat down.

“Why did you suddenly choose Lightning Affinity?” Brother Assist asked.

“I learned that Lightning Affinity has the Blink skill that can let me move from one place to another instantly. That’s something useful to me,” Gu Fei explained.

All the present experts inhaled sharply, as they knew very well what would happen if Gu Fei came to possess the Blink skill.

“Blink! How could I have forgotten?! Mages can learn Blink!” Royal God Call muttered to himself.

Gu Fei’s fighting prowess had shocked these online gaming experts time and time again. Although all of them had become friends now, the others had unknowingly been imagining Gu Fei as an opponent that they were thinking of ways to deal with.

Royal God Call, for his part, was thinking that he could now contend with Gu Fei after acquiring Svelte Dancer’s Boots of the Nimble Cloud, which gave him a faster movement speed than Gu Fei’s. Unknowingly, Royal God Call was already considering ways to deal with Gu Fei and was even thinking of kiting Gu Fei to prevent the latter from closing in on him.

While the other Mages were worrying about players engaging them in close combat, these experts were worrying about this Mage before them getting anywhere near them in combat.

Gu Fei’s unintentional reversal of a Mage’s combat method had literally flipped the usage of his job class’s many spells and skills. An example was Twin Incineration; this spell was insignificant in the hands of other Mages, yet it was a deadly spell in the hands of Gu Fei. He was even intending to use the defensive skill, Blink, as an offensive skill.

To think that a Mage can be played like this! All these experts felt amazed by this enlightenment.

“I also learned that Blink will only be available for Mages at the later part of the game, so I want to get a skill scroll for it. Hopefully, I’ll get that in today’s match,” Gu Fei made a grabbing motion with his hand.

Brother Assist shook his head repeatedly, “Do you think that the system is kind enough to provide you with that when you need it? How can anyone be that lucky?”

“So how would I get it, then?” Gu Fei asked.

“You buy it, of course!” Brother Assist replied matter-of-factly, saying, “Go to the forums and leave a post. Buying the permanent skill scroll for Blink is more realistic than you depending on luck to obtain it.”

“Won’t… Won’t that be very expensive?” Gu Fei asked apprehensively. He had already experienced earlier today how hard it was to have insufficient money.

“Mmm. The price of a skill scroll depends on how useful the skill is. The problem is that most players don’t know what the skills on the skill scrolls do, so determining their exact prices was difficult. If you trade for a skill scroll, the player will be basing its price on its known general usage in other MMOs,” Brother Assist explained.

“What is the known general usage for Blink, then? Isn’t it available in most games?” Gu Fei asked.

“Blink usually allows a player to move instantly from one place to another, yet its cool-down time is slightly long. Relying on it fully to keep up with an opponent is impossible, and it’s usually used as a lifesaving skill or to move from a place within sight that you can’t reach. Based on these, its price should be average! Having it is good, but not having it won’t be a loss, either,” Brother Assist answered.

“That’s because you don’t know how to use it,” Royal God Call interjected.

Brother Assist was expressionless, “When determining the value of an item, we need to depend on what most people understand of the item, and not the evaluation that the few experts have. If we use your knowledge to price it, Gu Fei will have to buy Blink Scroll for an exorbitant price.”

“That’s right. Don’t interject when you know nothing, kid,” Gu Fei said to Royal God Call.

“Oi, you’re now a Lightning Mage. Do you still not want my skill scroll for it?” Royal God Call intended to use that dangling carrot to make Gu Fei submit this once.

Unexpectedly, Gu Fei replied with, “Why would I want that trashy skill of yours?”

Royal God Call had never seen Electric Wall before, but he could tell from the skill description that it was similar to the Wall of Flame spell in other MMOs. It was a useful spell whose value would be higher than Blink. Gu Fei’s display of his poor knowledge of mage skills and spells made Royal God Call want to throw up blood. “You’re not a real Mage!” he angrily said.

No one bothered with him as Brother Assist merely continued speaking, “Actually, the problem isn’t the price for that skill scroll; it’s whether the skill is available on the market or not. But since everyone is participating in Parallel World’s event, some lucky player will surely get it. Any skill scroll can be given by the system to a PvP winner regardless of the person’s job class, so it should be possible to find an unlucky player like Royal—”

“You’re the unlucky one!” Royal God Call indignantly interrupted him.

Gu Fei pulled out his sword and placed it on the table, the tip of it pointing directly at Royal God Call. He then said to Brother Assist, “Brother Assist, please continue.”

Brother Assist smiled, “So you should quickly go to the forums and post your purchase request!”

“But I don’t have any money now… No matter how cheap it can be, it will still cost above 1000 gold coins, right?” Gu Fei asked.

Brother Assist nodded his head.

“Let’s pool our money together!” Sword Demon proposed, “I have somewhere over 200 gold coins.”

“I also have 200 gold coins, but I gotta leave some for alcohol,” Young Master Han said.

“I have about 300 gold coins here,” Brother Assist said.

“F*ck! You’re all rich. I only have about 50 gold coins with me,” War Without Wounds felt depressed upon learning how much money everyone had at the moment.

“Ha ha ha ha! All of you are paupers! I have—eh?! Why do I only have 400 gold coins?!” Royal God Call, who was originally laughing maniacally, was now in tears. He had earned a large sum from his transaction with Svelte Dancer, yet he had somehow spent almost all the money without noticing it. Indeed, people who did not work hard for their money would not put much value to it and would most likely spend it haphazardly.

“He he! Seems like we’re all a bit tight on cash at the moment,” Young Master Han remarked. The online experts were usually not the poor sort, especially famous top experts like them. The average gamers would actually find their hundreds of gold coins rather lavish, but in the minds of these experts, Parallel World had actually left them in quite a woeful state. Unlike their past games where they had remained glorious in every aspect, they were aware that Parallel World had someone like Gu Fei, whose capabilities was an unclimbable mountain to them. And when it came to financial matters, they were not doing that great either to qualify as ‘experts’ who could spend money like water without worrying too much.

When the rest heard Young Master Han’s remark, they stared at him disdainfully.

“Once we win this mercenary PvP tournament, our group will become very famous! Is there really a need to worry about money?” Young Master Han asked.

“Let’s not talk about the future,” Brother Assist said, “Together, we have about 1100 gold coins. I reckon that sum isn’t enough. Permanent skill scrolls are something new, so they will surely be pretty pricey. It’s also possible for you to not be the only one trying to buy it. If there’s a high demand but low supply and the price rises accordingly, it may not be impossible for you to get the skill scroll at around 3000 to 5000 gold coins.”

Gu Fei felt vexed. He had just experienced being poor, so why was he going through it once more? What was worse was the fact that the amount he needed this time was much higher. Even if he managed to sell all the useless trinkets he had amassed, they would not be enough to earn him that much money.

“Miles, quickly bag Svelte Dancer. I feel—” Royal God Call promptly shut his trap upon seeing that Gu Fei’s sword had actually moved an inch toward his direction.

“Offer yourself to others! People are distributing posters and flyers all over just to look for you, so they must be very willing to spend a large sum for you!” War Without Wounds suggested.

“They didn’t actually offer that much. The reward is only 20 gold coins,” Brother Assist commented. As everyone stared at him, he explained, “Uhm… What are you guys thinking about? I was merely passing by. Just passing by….”

“Which rendezvous point did you go to? It’s 30 gold coins when I asked how much do they offer for the reward!” War Without Wounds said.

“I have also heard that it’s 30 gold coins!” Royal God Call agreed with War Without Wounds.

Gu Fei was speechless. It seemed that Luo Luo’s worry was not unfounded, after all. He had truly found himself among some bad company.