Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-244

Chapter 244 - Lasting Sentence, Dying Breath

Parallel World was a harmoniously paradoxical world!

Although the ferocious Werewolves’ attacks were bestial, the visual effect for them was mellow. Nightmare of Death did not get injured by the Werewolf’s tight hold; instead, it was the beast’s two bites that sent him on a one-way ticket toward Yunduan City’s spawn point for Thieves. The white light that took him away was brighter than usual – a clear indication that Nightmare of Death had dropped equipment.

There was a clear difference between the chances of someone with no PK value to drop equipment and someone with PK value. The more PK value someone had, the higher the person’s drop rate would be.

Nightmare of Death’s PK value of 5 points was not considered low, so it made sense for him to easily drop equipment once he was killed. Before being transported to a spawn point, Nightmare of Death heard the clanking sound of his equipment dropping. Working in this particular ‘field’, he was very sensitive to this sound. He promptly checked his entire body when he revived at the Thieves’ Union and his eyes immediately filled with tears from deep regret that no words could describe.

Before all this, his companions had cautioned him many times to store all his equipment in the warehouse when he had volunteered to become the bait with 5 PK points for this operation. Unfortunately, Nightmare of Death had felt that this operation was foolproof. Even if they failed and Gu Fei managed to kill him, he would be sent to prison at worst; he was not going to drop equipment or lose a level as a result of it. Who would have expected that Gu Fei would use the Werewolves to deal the killing blow on him?

The three pieces of equipment that Nightmare of Death had dropped lay silently on the ground. He only had 5 PK points after all, so not many items of his dropped. Still, such a penalty of losing equipment and level was truly satisfying when it befell an enemy. As Gu Fei shared this good news to him, the usually calm Sword Demon perked up and said, “I’m going to the Thieves’ spawn point now….”

Gu Fei quietly prayed for Nightmare of Death, as Sword Demon’s tenacity did not lose to his. In fact, Sword Demon was far scarier than him when it came to gaming. Gu Fei would only kill someone until that person logged off, and he would go offline himself shortly after. Sword Demon, meanwhile, played MMOs as if it was his lifeblood; Gu Fei was not even sure if the word ‘offline’ existed in Sword Demon’s vocabulary. There was a high chance of him camping outside the Thieves’ Union for a whole day. This was what was called ‘corpse camping’ in World of Warcraft back in the days. Parallel World had no corpse to camp, only the determined would keep vigil by a spawn point.

What made Gu Fei even sorrier was that Nightmare of Death would surely be unable to escape Sword Demon’s clutches since Gu Fei’s ‘Bounty Mission’ was still active! His set of coordinates was being updated every minute, which Gu Fei unhesitatingly relayed to Sword Demon while he waited for the Werewolves to disperse. Nightmare of Death’s three pieces of equipment were still lying on the ground, and it would be a pity to not pick them up.

Gu Fei still did not know of the Werewolves’ aggro range, so he could only keep his distance from them. He would go ahead and kill the Werewolves if there were only one or two, but with so many of them hovering over the equipment, Gu Fei could only patiently wait for them to go away.

After several minutes, most of the Werewolves had wandered off, and only two remained in the once crowded clearing. Gu Fei gripped his sword and rushed forward to engage the two in a skirmish. Striking the Werewolves with Sacred Flames of Baptism, Gu Fei accurately hit the wounded spots with Moonlit Nightfalls next; he exchanged blows with the monsters for quite some time. Gu Fei actually got scratched by one of the Werewolves, but he fortunately managed dodge the rest of the attack, so it only dropped his HP by half. Attempting to employ high precision attacks on the two Werewolves was indeed difficulty, yet Gu Fei steadfastly pushed himself to do so; after ending the life of the second Werewolf, Gu Fei heard the clatter of equipment falling.

“My luck is pretty good today!” Gu Fei exclaimed happily.

As the players progressed through the game, they all realized an important truth: the higher a monster’s level was, the lower its drop rate was. A majority of the players that were at level 40 did not actually possess high-grade equipment. The system-operated smithies only sold white-tier equipment up to level 30, so the market essentially did not have higher level equipment despite the demand for it.

The equipment that the level 70 Werewolf had dropped was even rarer because of this. Gu Fei bent down, picked the item up, and checked what type it was. It was a dagger. He did not carry out a thorough inspection of it and merely picked up Nightmare of Death’s dropped equipment. They were two daggers and one small ring.

Gu Fei was speechless. In a short span of time, he had actually gotten himself three daggers.

Gu Fei closely inspected the items. The dagger that the Werewolf had dropped was called Wolf’s Fang. Such high-level equipment had 270% Dagger Aptitude… Besides that, it was only white tier! His luck was not that impressive, after all. Still, the two daggers that Nightmare of Death had dropped were definitely unusual. Gu Fei gasped audibly when he saw that they were actually green tier! The two daggers were long and short respectively. The long dagger was called Lasting Sentence while the short dagger was called Dying Breath. According to the description, this weapon set was called ‘Lasting Sentence Dying Breath’. It seemed to be a two-piece set.

Lasting Sentence’s Dagger Aptitude was at 220%, while Dying Breath was at 210%. Lasting Sentence provided Dagger Enhancement of 30%, increased damage by 10%, boosted Strength by 10 points; as for Dying Breath, it had traits that gave 30% Attack Enhancement, increased attack speed by 10%, and boosted Agility by 10 points. Besides all these, the green-tier equipment’s unique traits were active, the proc rate of Fatal Blow was increased by 15%, as well as increased the effect of Fatal Blow by 15%, and it possessed a skill called ‘The Duet of Mayhem’.

Just like Gu Fei’s Moonlit Nightfalls, the system did not provide a description for the item skill.

Gu Fei could tell that the daggers were not run-of-the-mill from their damage output alone. This was especially the case with Lasting Sentence; the damage it could deal was well beyond the level 40 Warrior’s current weapon with its Dagger Enhancement trait. Given the attack speed of daggers, their damage was usually lower than other weapons’. A top-grade dagger could not match a common-grade sword’s or axe’s damage output. Since the dagger in Gu Fei’s hand could deal higher damage, it was clearly leagues beyond the current weapon level just like his Moonlit Nightfalls.

As for Dying Breath, its traits were clearly focused on speed. Gu Fei held Dying Breath and brandished it about for a bit, ascertaining that it was handier than the other daggers he had used before. This was despite Gu Fei not meeting the Dagger Aptitude requirement to tap on the weapon’s full potential.

He was unsure how Nightmare of Death had acquired the equipment. Gu Fei would bet that the items were stolen goods. As he was thinking of this, he posted the details of the spoils of war on the mercenary channel for his fellow mercenaries.

This was inside a game, so a person did not need to key in the details of an item on the chat window. As long as a player was holding on to the equipment, he could directly share its details on the channel.

The Young Master’s Elite’s experts could definitely assess the value of equipment far better than Gu Fei. No one typed anything on the mercenary channel for quite some time after Gu Fei had shared the equipment’s details to everyone.

“Uhm… Is anyone here?” Gu Fei asked with uncertainty.

“What amazing daggers, and they’re a set!” Brother Assist exclaimed, “Based on the stats, they’re at the level 55 standard, right?”

“Yes…” The dagger specialist Sword Demon affirmed as he asked, “Coordinates?”

“What?” Everyone was clueless.

Gu Fei quickly sent over Nightmare of Death’s latest coordinates. He was preoccupied with fighting the Werewolves and was later enraptured by the equipment, so he inadvertently stopped sending Sword Demon the minute update. Sword Demon had been grasping at straws all this while.

“What are you two up to?” Sword Demon and Gu Fei seemed to be speaking in codes, so everyone was at a loss.

“We’re hunting!” Gu Fei replied.

“What happened?” everyone asked. They were used to Gu Fei bounty hunting and never bothered to inquire after his activities. While it might be normal for the usual groups of friends to help one another, Gu Fei would feel annoyed at them if they were to help him with his bounty hunting, as it was his pastime in Parallel World. Since Sword Demon seemed to actually be helping Gu Fei with it today, everyone’s interest could not help but be piqued.

“My bounty target happens to be that guy who has killed and looted Sword Demon before… What’s his name again?” Gu Fei had long forgotten the person’s name.

“Nightmare of Death.” The self-proclaimed Information Expert Brother Assist, meanwhile, did not. He would never skip recording even the tiniest detail in a game. Rumors had it that he had a whole slot in his dimensional pocket that was specifically designated to contain all the information he had collected thus far.

“Yeah, that guy. I looted the equipment from him, too,” Gu Fei admitted.

“That gang has quite the haul from their equipment looting, huh,” Young Master Han languidly stated.

“Coordinates,” Sword Demon curtly asked once more.

Gu Fei faithfully passed the information over quickly.

“Where are you right now?” Sword Demon asked.

“Suoyun Village. I’m about to head back!” Gu Fei replied.

“Suoyun Village? But that’s a level 70 grinding map! What are you doing over there?!” the experts exclaimed in shock.

That was when Gu Fei very casually posted the details for Wolf’s Fang.

When the experts saw Wolf’s Fang’s damage output, they could immediately tell that the equipment was at level 70 or higher despite it only being white tier.

“You can deal with Werewolves? That’s a monster thirty levels higher than yours!” Brother Assist yelled this out in disbelief. Everyone knew that Gu Fei could kill monsters twenty levels higher, but they did not expect him to be capable of dealing with a monster beyond that level. How did he manage to breakthrough by another ten levels?

“This item here happens to completely nullify a Werewolf’s regeneration.” Gu Fei posted the details of Sacred Flames of Baptism on the mercenary channel, asking, “Have you seen this ‘Sacred’ trait before?”

His question was once more met with silence, as it was the first time that they had seen such a weapon trait.

“I even got this from that guy’s death today!” Gu Fei somewhat got addicted to ‘flaunting’ upon discovering the pleasure of it.

Everyone carefully checked the details out and abruptly scolded him, “What sort of trashy item is that? Throw it!”

“Disgraceful!”

“It’s not half bad!” Gu Fei said cheerily. He had somehow found some joy in getting a contrasting reaction from them. In actuality, Nightmare of Death’s dropped ring was also a decent item, yet it appeared rather shabby when compared to Lasting Sentence and Dying Breath. Since he dared to flaunt a decent item before them, these experts felt quite insulted.

“Coordinates,” Sword Demon cut in just at the height of their uproar.

Before Gu Fei could reply, Sword Demon suddenly said, “Oh. No need anymore. I’ve spotted him.”

Over by Yunduan City’s south gate, Nightmare of Death had an uneasy expression on his face. He seemed to be waiting for someone.

“You lost Lasting Sentence Dying Breath? F*ck! How bad is your luck?!” one of his friends sighed privately when they heard what had happened.

“That’s depressing, and you lost them both in one go, too.”

“Where are you now? Be careful so that he doesn’t find you!”

“I’ve gotten his ‘Bounty Mission’, so I know that he’s still far from me!” Nightmare of Death informed.

“You’ve got his, but he’s got yours, too. That means he’s also aware of where you’re currently at!” another friend reminded him.

“Ahhh…” Nightmare of Death realized how moronic he was being.