Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-189

Chapter 189 - Translocation

“Where did you get this?” Gu Fei asked, dumbfounded.

Svelte Dancer pouted indignantly, “It's the crappy game company’s fault. They did not explain things properly… I thought I could create a unique skill tree through the use of the permanent skill scrolls. After purchasing this Blink Scroll, I was told by the system that I have to become a Lightning Mage to use it.” For the players, game companies would always be the ones at fault whenever there was something that did not go as intended.

Gu Fei asked, “So how many skill scrolls did you manage to collect?”

“Why would I buy more after getting tricked into purchasing this one?” Svelte Dancer knocked Gu Fei’s head dismissively.

“So you’ve only gotten one skill scroll, and it happened to be Blink. Are you sure you’re not MY lucky star, instead?” Gu Fei said as he placed his hands on the scroll. Light flashed between Gu Fei’s fingers and entered his body. The system then notified Gu Fei that he had learned a new spellㅡTranslocation: Blink.

“You’ve used it?” It was Svelte Dancer’s turn to be flabbergasted this time.

“Yup!” Gu Fei answered as he opened up his skill window and read the following description: [In exchange for a certain amount of mana, the caster can bend time and space to instantly appear at the place he or she is thinking of...]

Killing intent! Gu Fei felt shocked at the intense killing intent emanating from someone near him. He turned his head and saw Svelte Dancer glaring at him with murder in her eyes, as if she was moments away from tearing Gu Fei apart.

“What?” Gu Fei hurriedly asked.

“Who said you could use it?!” Svelte Dancer asked angrily.

“Then why did you pass it to me?” Gu Fei was at a loss.

“I just wanted to show it to you!” Svelte Dancer replied.

“But you can’t use it!” Gu Fei reasoned.

“I could sell it! That’s still money!” Svelte Dancer screamed in frustration.

“Why don’t you sell it to me, then?” Gu Fei bargained.

Svelte Dancer immediately stuck her hand out, “2000 gold coins.”

“So expensive…” Gu Fei stuck his tongue out in defeat.

“I bought it for 1800 gold coins, so I’m only earning 200 gold coins from you,” Svelte Dancer was quite transparent when it came to doing business.

Gu Fei nodded his head and stuck a hand inside his dimensional pocket. He retrieved his coin purse and passed it over to Svelte Dancer.

His casualness about the whole affair surprised Svelte Dancer. Taking the purse, she muttered, “I didn't know that you’re actually a wealthy man...”

Gu Fei sheepishly smiled, “There are only 200 gold coins inside that. Consider that as the profit you’ve made. As for the scroll’s purchase price, I’ll pay you back in installment since I don’t have that much money on me.”

Svelte Dancer grudgingly accepted the payment from Gu Fei after she counted the money in the pouch and confirmed that there were indeed only 200 gold coins inside. As for whether Gu Fei would really fork out the other 1800 gold coins eventually, she could only hope that he truly was a man of his word.

“I’ll appear in their formation and cast a spell while they are still confused. Cover me a little,” Gu Fei smoothened his robe. At this moment, the Archers of Traversing Four Seas were still peppering them with arrows, yet those did not pose any threat to the two given their fast speed. Once Svelte Dancer fully recovered her HP, the two leaped out of the trench once more.

“Translocation! Blink!” Gu Fei promptly chanted once he regained his balance. To use this defensive skill, Gu Fei had to point at the direction he wished to teleport to as he chanted. In this case, the location was the very center of the Traversing Four Seas’ archer formation.

Meanwhile, Svelte Dancer darted in front of Gu Fei and used her body and dagger to block the arrows heading their way.

Gu Fei felt the space around him distort upon completing the incantation. While the Thieves would become blurry and transparent when using Stealth or Vanish, Mages would appear as if they were torn apart when using Blink. Right now, the nearby players saw Gu Fei’s figure shatter like pieces of glass that faded into nothingness in the next moment.

When Gu Fei completed his spell chanting, a second spatial distortion also appeared at the same time at some place else on the PvP arena. Compared to how his figure cracked and disappeared into thin air at his initial location, the enemies could witness the sight of the shattered pieces of glass reforming into Gu Fei’s figure over in that location.

Translocation: Blink was truly instantaneous. Gu Fei barely blinked his eyes and the scenery before him had already changed to that of another location. He turned around to look at where he had originally been and saw that Svelte Dancer was still blocking the arrows over there. That was also when he realized one big problem: His Blink did not allow him to reach the intended location that he had pointed to moments ago.

Gu Fei was behind Svelte Dancer moments ago, and yet he was now barely five meters in front of her even after he had casted Blink – a long way off from the position he had pointed to just then!

“Why did you blink there for?!” Svelte Dancer fumed.

“I don’t know!” Gu Fei was at a loss. He was certain that his finger had not pointed wrongly, so why was he only teleported at such a short distance?

The skill description for Blink did not mention a limitation for the distance that a player could travel; it only mentioned that the distance one could travel would be proportionate to the mana consumed. Glancing at his mana pool, he saw that it had barely been reduced. Therefore, it was definitely not an issue of insufficient mana that had caused the disparity in the distance he had traveled.

Before he could make sense of what had happened, the enemies had already launched their second volley of arrows. And this time, the arrows were fired off under the effect of Homing Projectile that traced after its enemies. Compared to the other skills, the distance covered by this skill was actually shorter, but these five meters that Gu Fei had suddenly advanced to had effectively brought him into a range where Homing Projectile could reach him.

Ever since the squad of Archers started their assault from the very beginning, Youthful Reflection had been slowly steering the Archers closer to the trench as they fired off arrows precisely because he wanted the two’s hiding place to enter Homing Projectile’s range. This way, the two targets would certainly be eliminated once their heads appeared out of the trench again. But that was no longer necessary, as Gu Fei had just kindly delivered himself to them. The Archers did not hesitate to fire off arrows on Homing Projectile at him, and dozens of arrows could be seen coming straight toward Gu Fei’s direction in the next moment.

One could not actually ‘dodge’ the arrows empowered by the Homing Projectile skill, and getting rid of these arrows was only possible by either deflecting them all or running until the skill duration ended. For Gu Fei, of course he could deflect several of them, but he had no way of parrying all hundreds of arrows at once. Even Svelte Dancer had given up on covering for Gu Fei when she saw this scene, as she knew deep down that it was unlikely for him to escape this aerial assault. With a sigh, she chose to return into the safety of the trench.

Gu Fei desperately tried to throw out a spell at the Archers, but this attempt ended in failure as dozens of arrows lodged themselves into Gu Fei’s body, eliminating him without suspense.

Just as he was sent out of the PvP arena and into the plaza by the Main Hall of Guilds, Royal God Call’s message arrived: “Did you just use Blink?” Royal God Call was part of the Traversing Four Seas’ archer formation and was even one of the Archers that had fired off arrows on Homing Projectile at Gu Fei. Therefore, he clearly witnessed everything that had just occurred in the skirmish.

“Yup,” Gu Fei answered.

“Where did you get its skill scroll?” Royal God Call asked.

“I bought it from Svelte Dancer,” Gu Fei replied.

“How much?”

“2000 gold coins.”

“You’re really rich!” Royal God Call exclaimed admiringly.

“I’m paying it in installment… I’ve only paid her 200 gold coins for now,” Gu Fei admitted.

“She is rich, anyway... and given how close you two are, you should have just asked her to give it to you as a gift!” Royal God Call remarked.

“We’re just friends. And being rich is no reason for one to gift people things arbitrarily,” Gu Fei lectured Royal God Call.

“Tsk!” Royal God Call ignored his words.

“How is Svelte Dancer faring?” Gu Fei was busy being skewered by arrows that he did not have the time to check on Svelte Dancer’s situation.

“She nimbly hid back inside that trench,” Royal God Call informed him.

“Finish that fight quickly. Come and experiment Blink with me once you’re done,” Gu Fei said.

Gu Fei’s carelessness on relying on a new-found spell had caused him his death. With him being defeated, even just handling twenty or thirty Archers alone would be a tall order for Svelte Dancer to overcome, let alone clashing with the entire archer formation of Traversing Four Seas all by herself.

The match ended just as expected. Each of the ladies scattered all over the map was found and killed off, letting Traversing Four Seas secure an easy victory. Amethyst Rebirth was finally put down and would no longer be able to mess around in the guild versus guild tournament. Given the guild’s strength, it was already fortunate of Amethyst Rebirth to make it this far in the PvP tournament.

The ladies knew their limits well. Honestly speaking, the ladies were not really saddened by their elimination from the guild versus guild tournament as they were not that interested in it in the first place. When everyone was sent out of the PvP arena, they merely expressed a few casual remarks about losing the match before putting the entire matter behind and leaving cheerfully to do their businesses.

In the end, Svelte Dancer seemed to be the only one that was truly saddened by losing the match. She had been busying herself by participating in the mercenary and guild tournaments, but with the elimination of her mercenary group and guild, she was suddenly left without a purpose and was currently feeling very depressed.

As for Gu Fei, he was also feeling very despondent over losing such a viable reason to slay people with no consequences. He and Svelte Dancer shared a moment of depression until Royal God Call squeezed his way out of Traversing Four Seas and found the two of them sitting at the corner of a wall.

Royal God Call temporarily abandoned his passion for magic when he saw the beautiful Svelte Dancer. Cheerfully greeting her, his eyes barely registered Gu Fei’s existence.

Svelte Dancer was currently in a bad mood. She easily surmised that Royal God Call was part of the enemy camp’s annoying archer formation upon seeing him here and knowing his job class, so Svelte Dancer barely greeted him. Singing a sorrowful song, she swiftly left.

“Ah… Her voice is so melodious,” Royal God Call said as he watched her walk away.

“Grape!” Gu Fei called out.

“Ah!” Royal God Call quickly turned around with a solemn expression on his face, yet he found not even a trace of Grape.

Gu Fei sobbed in his heart. Royal God Call was truly the type of man who lusted for every lady. Compared to Sakurazaka Moony, Royal God Call was actually more reprehensible.

Royal God Call realized that Gu Fei had just been teasing him when he saw no traces of Grape. He felt slightly embarrassed inside, so he hurriedly changed the subject and engaged Gu Fei in a discussion about the Translocation: Blink spell. Royal God Call asked Gu Fei to explain in greater detail his status at that time of using the spell – chanting speed, finger and eyes’ direction, etc.

Gu Fei was dumbfounded when Royal God Call began a lengthy tirade about ten possible reasons for being teleported by the skill short of the intended location. At the end of his speech, Royal God Call casually asked, “So which among these do you think is the reason behind it?”

“I think it’s because I just learned the skill. My low proficiency in it prevented me from being teleported far,” Gu Fei felt quite ashamed of his rudimentary gaming knowledge.

“Oh… That – That’s probably a reason, too,” Royal God Call was actually feeling more ashamed than Gu Fei inside for not considering that possibility.