Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-98

Chapter 98 - Begin Research

“So that’s how it is!” Seeing Royal God Call’s lewd expression, Gu Fei was of course unwilling to be labeled as the same sort of person.

Luo Luo continued speaking, “That’s why our attitude toward you has changed. As for you staying in our guild, that boils down to whether you’re happy to be part of it or not. We’ll let you decide on that. If it’s me, I won’t stay in a guild if I’m unhappy.”

“If that’s the case, then I guess I’ll stay!” Gu Fei smiled. Deciding whether to leave the guild or not based on his happiness was ludicrous, as he had never taken to heart something like being a part of a guild. Actually, he had never expected to find himself socializing in a guild and playing the game with a bunch of people. Since he felt that it would not affect him much, he would just stay in Amethyst Rebirth. In any case, Gu Fei only wanted to leave the guild after he had seen how unhappy the ladies were with him in it. Now that his departure would instead garner their ire, the easygoing Gu Fei would naturally not mind staying.

“He he! That’s much better,” Luo Luo giggled.

“I’ll take my leave first,” Gu Fei smilingly said as he got up, pointing at Will-low, “This lady here is the one I’m planning to introduce.”

“Hello! My IGN’s Will-low,” Will-low genially introduced herself as she walked over.

“I’m Royal God Call—ah—f*ck, Miles! What’re you doing? Let me go!” Royal God Call was about to approach the seated Luo Luo, but he was strong-armed by Gu Fei into leaving. However, an Archer’s Strength was higher than that of a Mage. No matter how much force Gu Fei used, he could not make the struggling Royal God Call to even turn around. In the end, Royal God Call managed to free himself from Gu Fei’s grasp.

“I want your help in researching about Mages,” Gu Fei told Royal God Call.

“Oh? Just ask me if you’ve got anything you don’t understand,” Royal God Call announced loudly; nobody knew who he wanted to hear that.

“Let’s first find a place to fight monsters and study!” Gu Fei suggested.

“Ah…” Royal God Call looked at Gu Fei before looking at the two ladies, as if he was making a truly difficult decision. Finally, he walked toward Will-low and said, “I'm leaving with Miles first. Let’s keep in touch!”

Will-low nodded her head.

Royal God Call followed Gu Fei out of the tavern and quickly asked, “Where did you meet so many beauties?” He began to count with his fingers, “There’s one, two, three… I’ve met three ladies that seem to be pretty chummy with you. Quick, share to me how.”

“We simply know one another. We’re not that ‘chummy’,” Gu Fei said.

“How humble! Miles, you’re really humble,” Royal God Call complimented, continuing, “Tell me how you get to know them, then.”

Gu Fei nodded his head and suddenly threw two gold coins to the ground, shouting, “Hey, ladies!”

The two female players walking in front of them turned around reflexively.

“You dropped your gold coins,” Gu Fei pointed to the ground.

The two ladies looked to the ground and shook their heads, “Those aren’t ours.”

“No way. I saw these gold coins drop from your bodies,” Gu Fei claimed.

“That’s not possible!” The two were dumbfounded. Their gold coins were inside their dimensional pockets, so it was impossible for them to accidentally drop anything.

“Is that so? My mistake, then.” Gu Fei walked forward and picked up the two gold coins.

The two ladies continued to fix their gazes on him, so Gu Fei asked, “Shall I share these with you two?”

The ladies hurriedly shook their heads. Gu Fei then placed the two gold coins back inside his pocket and strutted off. When they were a bit far from the ladies, he said to Royal God Call, “See that? That’s how I get to know the ladies.”

Royal God Call was speechless.

“If you want to get to know the ladies, you should strike up a conversation with them. Speaking with them is considered as getting to know them, right? It’s like asking others ‘What time is it now?’ But you’ll need to invest a little; if those ladies were audacious, they would pocket the gold coins then and there,” Gu Fei taught Royal God Call.

“They’re definitely not audacious, but you’ve looked like a fool,” Royal God Call retorted.

“That’s just an example of how it’s done. I wasn’t after the results. You should try doing it when you get the chance! It’s just basic knowledge,” Gu Fei explained.

“That’s how you usually carry yourself?” Royal God Call asked suspiciously, “Aren’t you a teacher?”

“So what if I’m a teacher? If you, students, can have your puppy loves, why can’t we, the teachers?” Gu Fei countered.

“Teacher… I think you’re not the least bit honest,” Royal God Call muttered.

With that, Gu Fei stopped pulling Royal God Call’s leg. Now that the two had exited Yunduan City, he seriously asked Royal God Call, “Where’s the best grinding map for Mages?”

“Yunwu Basin. The monsters there are slow and have low magic resistance,” Royal God Call answered.

“How do we get there?” Gu Fei asked.

“This way,” Royal God Call led the way.

After half an hour passed, the two were lost.

“It should be here!” Royal God Call mumbled, as he took out a small booklet.

Gu Fei was startled at the sight of his booklet; the thought of Royal God Call being possessed by Xiaoyu even crossed his mind. He drew closer and took a look. While it was a booklet similar to Xiaoyu’s, the content of it was vastly different. Xiaoyu’s booklet was filled with records of various NPCs and their relevant information, as well as clues regarding quests. Royal God Call’s booklet, on the other hand, was filled with coordinates of NPCs and locations.

“Let me have a look,” Gu Fei took the booklet and flipped over to Yunwu Basin’s coordinates.

Thinking that Yunwu Basin was not just a point but a large piece of land, using just a set of coordinates did not seem logical. Leafing through Royal God Call’s booklet, he saw that Yunwu Basin’s coordinates actually took up two full pages.

“What are these?” Gu Fei’s body shuddered. He had been fooled; Royal God Call’s intelligence was not high at all. Gu Fei thought that he could learn from Royal God Call about the Mage job class. At this rate, would Gu Fei not just degrade himself if he actually learned from him?

“All these coordinates are part of Yunwu Basin! Why couldn’t we find it?” Royal God Call grabbed his booklet back and gripped it tightly, looking all around him.

Gu Fei no longer expected anything from him and sent an inquiry to Brother Assist.

When Brother Assist directed him to the correct way, Gu Fei could not help but complain about his situation with Royal God Call. Brother Assist guffawed, “Don’t place your hopes on him. That guy’s got no sense of direction. If Royal took forever finding his way with simpler coordinates from an MMO, what more with the coordinates from this full-immersion game? Can he even tell his cardinal directions?”

“Royal, where’s east?” Gu Fei asked.

“Over there, I think,” Royal God Call pointed toward the south.

Gu Fei sighed. It was exactly as Brother Assist had said. How would a person who could not even tell the cardinal directions find his way using general coordinates? He took the lead after this, and the two quickly arrived at Yunwu Basin.

Yunwu Basin was indeed the most suitable map for Mages to grind. Mages were running all over the place with packs of monsters trailing after them. The Mage closest to Gu Fei and Royal God Call zigzagged across the field, amassed a lot of monsters after a short distance, and turned around to cast Descending Wheel of Flames. As the leftover monsters closed in on the Mage after his magic bombardment was over, he quickly ran off to attract more monsters.

Gu Fei looked around. Many Mages all over the place ran in ludicrous patterns and shapes, and each was more brazen than the other. However, the most brazen was still the person together with Gu Fei.

Now that Royal God Call no longer had to worry about searching for this place, the bitter expression on his face disappeared. A look of utmost concentration was now on its place as he put a hand beneath his chin, pointing and evaluating each Mage around them. Almost all the Mages in the area received criticism from him, such as “F*ck! That guy’s an idiot. He’s pulling the monsters so far that half of them have stopped chasing after him”, “That guy’s another idiot! He’s bombarding the monsters when they’re not densely packed yet”, “Holy f*ck! Fireball, Repeating Fireball, and another Fireball! The heck is that grinding method”, “Ha ha ha ha ha! I’ve finally seen all kinds of noobs! That guy’s running too far away that the monsters are outside his casting range”, and so on….

Finally, Royal God Call snapped, “I spit on all of you. None of you are fit to be seen!” He then turned to Gu Fei and asked, “What are you researching about that you need me here? Are you trying to offend my eyes with this spectacle?”

Gu Fei stopped himself from conking Royal God Call and answered, “I want to try weaving spells into my kung fu. I feel that it would make things more interesting.”

“Kung fu? What kung fu?” Royal God Call was at a loss.

“This kung fu!” Gu Fei slashed a clean curve in the air.

“Stop teasing me,” Royal God Call chortled as he slapped Gu Fei’s blade aside, “What kung fu? I think you’ve read too many wuxia novels.”

Gu Fei did not say another word and just sent Sacred Flames of Baptism cleaving toward Royal God Call.

“What are you doing?!” Royal God Call felt terrified by that sudden attack. Even if he knew nothing about Gu Fei’s sword skill, he at least knew of his battle record. Moreover, Archers were notoriously terrible at close combat. He had no doubt what would happen if he and Gu Fei PvPed.

Gu Fei did not reply as he used his Chinese broadsword to chase Royal God Call’s neck.

Royal God Call evaded for quite a while before finally realizing that Gu Fei’s blade would stop short of connecting to his neck by three centimeters. No matter how he moved, Gu Fei’s blade would follow his neck as if it was an extension of Royal God Call’s body. Royal God Call immediately stopped moving, and Gu Fei’s blade stopped moving as well, merely three centimeters away from his neck. Royal God Call yelled, “Peak control! That’s what Sword Demon mean when he said peak control!”

Gu Fei did not say anything further. He did not know how to communicate properly with this gaming shut-in. It’s tiring to explain my kung fu; might as well let him think it’s this peak control thingy!

“Uhh... yeah, peak control. How do you reckon I can weave spells into it?” Gu Fei did not hesitate to ask the simpleton.

“That… Are you thinking of incorporating spells into your melee combat?” Royal God Call had an epiphany, “That’s too OP! Spells from close range!”

“So what do you think? Interesting, right?” Gu Fei asked.

“That… It’s kind of...” Royal God Call felt stunned, “Using spells when you’re in melee range… That’s something I’ve never researched about.”

“You did not?” Gu Fei was quite disappointed by his revelation.

“Mhm. Death usually comes once a Mage is forced into melee. The closest thing that I’ve researched about is how to increase my survivability after engaging in close combat. This… This…” Royal God Call trailed off as his expression slowly became trance-like.

“What’s the matter?” Gu Fei asked.

Royal God Call was in tears, “Why did I not choose to be a Mage this time?! Why didn’t I think of trying such a method to play a Mage?!”