Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-76

Chapter 76 - Compassion Surging Out

Gu Fei’s rejection made Will-low display an aggrieved look on her face and purse her lips, “Why not?”

Gu Fei sighed, “I still haven’t cleared off all my PK points! Besides, why should I blithely kill someone for no rhyme or reason?”

“What about that No Smile, then?”

“He’s a villain...” Gu Fei suddenly thought that his answer sounded childish, as if he was coaxing a child.

“The person I want you to kill is a villain, too!” Will-low remarked.

“Oh? How villainous?”

“Just follow me!” Will-low urged.

Gu Fei gave it a thought and decided to follow Will-low.

Gu Fei was not familiar with Yueye City. Before long, he completely lost track of the streets and alleyways they had just walked. He saw Will-low halt her footsteps at a certain establishment and knock with a rhythm on its door.

The door opened not long after. A head peeked out from within and looked around in all direction. The person became very nervous when he spotted Gu Fei, “Who’s this guy?”

“Someone I recruited,” Will-low answered.

“Just one?” The person furrowed his brows.

“Let’s get inside first!” Will-low pushed that person aside and dragged Gu Fei in.

The room was smaller than Amethyst Rebirth’s guild house, and only five people including Will-low were on it. Gu Fei was at a loss as he stared at Will-low, waiting for an explanation.

“These guys here have offended a certain someone in this city. Now, they can’t even properly enjoy the game. You can only meet these guys right now, since most are offline. Some even declared that they won’t play Parallel World anymore,” Will-low explained solemnly.

“That bad, huh?” Gu Fei asked.

One of them sighed, “I was killed every time I got spotted. Can’t even join any guild or mercenary group now. How can I continue playing when people treat me like I have the plague and avoid me whenever I’m outside? I reached level 30 before, but now? I’m only at level 23! Can’t even go outside and grind. Those few grinding maps are all we have here. If I want to do a quest I still have to accept one at a fixed location, so I can’t avoid the hunt for me no matter what.”

“Move to another city, then! Stop staying in Yueye City,” Gu Fei reasoned.

“Another city...” one of them mumbled, “Where is it?”

“Trek across the Oolong Mountain Range, and then you’ll be in Yunduan City,” Gu Fei said.

The few people’s pairs of eyes sparkled, as they stood up in unison, “Let’s get going now!”

Will-low interfered immediately, “Hey! Did you guys forget that we still have to settle the score?”

“Settle what score?!” one of them asked impatiently, “We should leave right away while we still can! We don’t have anywhere to hide before, but now we have one. So we should leave this city at once!” One of the few players headed toward the door as he said that. Will-low went forward and tried to pull them back.

“Shut it!” one of them swung his arm and shoved Will-low away. They got out of the door and left, not even looking back once. Will-low stood numbly at one place, feeling extremely aggrieved that tears collected at the side of her eyes.

“Uhh… friends of yours?” Gu Fei asked.

“Maybe!” Will-low wiped the tears before they could fall with her hand.

“Just let them be! Don’t feel too bad! Why don’t you join them and head off to Yunduan City? It’s much more harmonious over there compared to here,” Gu Fei tried to convince her.

“Why’re you here in Yueye City, then?”

“I’m an exception,” Gu Fei felt embarrassed. Although he had already attracted quite a few troubles upon his arrival to Yueye City, he still had a more peaceful time here than in Yunduan City.

“I’m not leaving. I must settle this score,” Will-low said in a firm tone.

“Good luck to you, then!” Gu Fei acknowledged, thinking of leaving as well.

“Please, you’ve got to help me!” Will-low turned her two tearful eyes at Gu Fei as she pleaded, clutching one of his arms.

Gu Fei did not have the kind of soul-stirring resolve to swing his arm away like one of those guys just now. He could only sigh, saying, “It’s not that I don’t want to help, but I’m only here to take refuge. There’s a limit to what I can do, so how can I help you like this?”

“But you even managed to kill Silver Moon,” Will-low’s face was full of expectation.

Gu Fei sighed again, “Who is it that you’re talking about, anyway?”

“Vast Lushness,” Will-low said, “That fellow is vile. All we did was kill-steal monsters, and most were accidental, too. In the end, that vile fellow brought allies along to hunt us repeatedly. That person declared that if any guild or mercenary group dares to take us under their wings, they’ll be annihilated along with us. So we were driven away by everyone like rats all over the city.”

“So tyrannical?!” Gu Fei felt bewildered. This was truly an eye-opener.

Will-low continued, “Now, only Thieves like us can still come online and roam the city using Stealth. The others don’t even dare to appear online anymore.”

“How dreadful,” Gu Fei’s compassion surged out.

“Can you lend me a helping hand, please?” Will-low’s helpless expression had no doubt moved Gu Fei.

Gu Fei nodded his head in the end, “Alright! I’ll give it a try. I’m not guaranteeing anything, though! You also need to help me plan this.”

Will-low’s gloomy demeanor had shifted to one teeming with radiance and grace upon hearing Gu Fei’s promise, “Just say it. What do you need?”

“Go to the Auction House and get me some equipment, especially clothes. It must be different from what I’m currently wearing. If you see accessories with fire attack proc rate, get some of those, too,” Gu Fei instructed her.

“Ah—but I don’t have money on me now!” Will-low was stumped when she heard the kind of help Gu Fei needed.

Gu Fei took out his money pouch, separated 200 gold coins from the rest, and gave them to Will-low, “Now go!”

Will-low accepted the coins, feeling shocked. She looked as if she could not believe that this was happening. She pondered for quite a while, before saying, “You can’t stay inside the house once I leave. I’ll have to add you as a friend to give you access.”

“No need. I’ll just wait outside!” Gu Fei headed outside. He did not want to simply reveal his identity like that.

Will-low activated her Stealth and went to the Auction House while tightly holding on to the gold coins. Gu Fei did not loiter around either. He continued hunting for the target of the ‘Bounty Mission’ that he had accepted previously. Unfortunately, the target was not inside the city. As Gu Fei followed the coordinates, he noticed that he was about to leave the city gate. He was hesitating whether he should continue chasing or not, when he suddenly smacked his forehead. He remembered something crucial.

He did not add Will-low as a friend, so he had no way of contacting her. He quickly retraced his steps while he could still remember the way back. Ultimately, he managed to find the house that Will-low had taken him to earlier. He stepped forward to knock on the door, yet he could see no one when the door finally opened. Will-low canceled Stealth when she saw that it was Gu Fei.

“I thought you had left already!” Will-low vented.

Gu Fei could only smile at that as he stepped inside. Will-low took a bunch of items out of her dimensional pocket and tossed them on the table.

“Flaming Robe: adds 7 points to Intelligence and 10% more to fire damage. It cost 100 gold coins; Fire’s Blessing: a necklace that increases proc rate of additional fire attack by 6%. It cost 10 gold coins; and finally, two different Ring of Flames: the one with additional 7% proc rate cost 10 gold coins, while the one with additional 6% proc rate cost 12 gold coins. There’s an emblem that adds 7% more to fire damage, but I didn’t buy it since it costs 50 gold coins. There’re 68 gold coins remaining. Here, take them back,” Will-low finished explaining the different items and handed the gold coins back to Gu Fei.

“Hmm… Not bad,” Gu Fei said as he inspected the different items in his hands. Actually, he did not know how in-game items were priced. Even if he did know, he could not do anything about it. This was because the way Parallel World’s cities were set up was similar to that of regular MMOs with two different servers: The prices of in-game goods varied from each city or not at all!

Gu Fei swapped his old equipment with the new items. Upon equipping them, Sacred Flames of Baptism’s additional fire attack proc rate reached 49%. This was akin to the fire attack activating with every two slashes. As for his new clothes called Flaming Robe, it boosted Intelligence by 7 points and increased the fire damage dealt by its wearer, making the additional fire attack even more fearsome. Weapons’ additional magic damage could be boosted by a trait that increased magic damage.

After he changed his clothes, Gu Fei asked Will-low, “So where can we find this Vashy Lushy fellow?”

“Not online yet. But I know Vast Lushness’ daily routine! I’ll bring you to that vile person later. And then, I’ll remain on Stealth on the sidelines and see you in action!” Will-low excitedly said.

“We don’t know that for sure yet... I might be the one receiving a beating,” Gu Fei said, “There’re so many of you, yet you all couldn’t do anything to that person... Vast Lushness has a lot of allies, right?”

Will-low nodded her head.

“What’s that person’s job class, anyway?” Gu Fei asked.

“Priest,” Will-low answered.

Gu Fei furrowed his brows, as this was a job class that he had never gone up against before. Among the current seven main job classes in Parallel World, he had zero confrontation with Priests and Knights. After all, these job classes’ current skills were mainly used to assist and support other players. Carrying assaults in the frontline and ambushing others were not their fortes.

Because of Gu Fei’s tendency to overlook these supporting job classes, he had almost no understanding of them. When Brother Assist analyzed the enemies during their assault on No Smile back then, Gu Fei recalled hearing from him that Priests who focused on building their Endurance were hard to kill.

“What sort of Priest build does that person have?” Gu Fei asked Will-low, sounding very professional.

“It’s one focusing on Intelligence and Spirit,” Will-low answered.

Although Priests lacked Strength and Agility, they had great Intelligence and Spirit. Spirit, in particular, was the Priests’ strongest stat. There existed two kinds of Priest builds in Parallel World currently: Endurance-based build, which increased their chances of survival; and Intelligence- and Spirit-based build, which improved their healing spells’ bestowing speed. Most Priests would choose the Endurance-based build. As for those who preferred Intelligence- and Spirit-based build, they were usually experts confident of their ability.

Gu Fei was of course oblivious to all this, but he felt assured upon hearing that this particular Priest did not have an Endurance-based build.

While he was reflecting on this matter, Will-low happily shouted, “Ah! Vast Lushness is online!”

Gu Fei smiled faintly, “You’re probably not this happy whenever that fellow is online before.”

Will-low felt slightly embarrassed, but she regained her composure soon after, “Vast Lushness habitually leaves the Priest Academy to head to the nearest tavern. When they form into a gang, they then head out to grind levels together. But things might be a little different today.”

“Why’s that?” Gu Fei asked.

“Because you just slew their guild leader, Silver Moon,” Will-low explained.

“Your target is someone from Past Deeds, too?”

“Of course it’s someone from Past Deeds, considering how tyrannical that fellow is!” Will-low said dejectedly, before suddenly asking, “Did you really slay Silver Moon in a tavern?”

Gu Fei nodded his head.

“Where?” Will-low spread a map out on the table as she asked.

Gu Fei did not know where it was located, but he still remembered its coordinates. He pointed the location out after roughly searching through the map.

“Silver Moon and his gang were here... They’re probably waiting for Vast Lushness to get online before grinding together. If they waited there earlier, Vast Lushness probably got online at...” Will-low’s finger moved on the map, before stopping and tapping on a designated log-off point nearest to the tavern, “This Mage Academy right here.”