Translated by: LittleShanks
To be proofread later by: Flowerbridgetoo, Bigredcomrade
Chapter 17 – Lacerate
Nie Yan opened up his textbook. All manner of complex equations from mathematics to theoretical physics entered his eyes. In a surprisingly short amount of time, he managed to quickly solve all of them. He noticed that since his reincarnation, his cognitive abilities appeared to have become noticeably better in comparison to his past self. Despite not reaching the degree where he had photographic memory, his memory had still improved quite significantly. Moreover, he felt his mind had become sharper in comparison to his former self. For example, he had finished twice the amount of work in half the time when he was studying.
In addition, there was an even more astonishing discovery. Despite exercising with such high intensity for quite a long period of time, he felt neither the slightest bit of fatigue nor weariness. In fact, after every training session he felt his strength had increased in small yet noticeable increments.
Nie Yan was quite satisfied with his current body. As long as his body received the proper amount of nourishment, it would rapidly transform, similarly to the way it did during his senior year of high school in his former life, and quickly rise in stature. There was only one complication; the nutritional supplements he required were simply too expensive. At present, the cost still wasn’t something he was able to support. The lowest quality nutritional supplements had a price tag of around five hundred dollars, while medium quality ones could cost upwards of several thousands. His household carried only two portions; one of which he had already used prior in the morning.
Finally at five o’clock in the afternoon, Nie Yan entered the game once more.
When he reconnected to the game, he discovered an endless amount of Water Spiders skittering around him in all directions. It appeared that every single monster in the vicinity had respawned.
Fortunately, players would be invulnerable for thirty seconds upon reconnecting. They would appear in an ethereal state as if they were a spirit. In this state they would not only be unable to attack, but monsters would also be unable to attack them as well. Nie Yan took a detour around these Water Spiders, and then swam away from the area where he had concealed himself.
After thirty seconds had passed, he began farming the spiders in the surrounding area once again. At the moment, he had already gathered twenty-five Fine Silks. In addition, he also had five Rare Fine Silks that he obtained from the Water Spider Leader the day prior.
With his current hunting speed, Nie Yan estimated that it would take about three more hours for him to complete his quest.
When I return to town, I’ll definitely have to make more money. The next time I come across a gathering quest like this, I’ll just buy the needed materials from the market instead. This way there’d be no need for him to go through the tedious labour of gathering it himself.
After about another hour, Nie Yan received a notification—it was from Yao Yao.
「Nie Yan (Nirvana Flame), where are you right now?」
「I’m still farming Water Spiders. Why? What’s the matter?」He never stopped hunting Water Spiders, even while he chatted with Yao Yao. He stabbed out with his dagger while using Assassinate, killing a nearby spider. The spider flipped over and curled up as it died..
「My friends and I went to the Treant Forest earlier in the morning.」
「Oh.」
「Huh, you’re not going to ask how it went?」
「There’s no need for me to ask.」Regarding this Treant Forest, Nie Yan understood this instance quite well. Originally in the past, it had taken he and his friends five attempts to pass through the instance. If the party didn’t have Warriors with at least sixty defense and two hundred and twenty health, they stood absolutely no chance. Therefore it was impossible for for them to clear the instance.
「Alright, it was just like you said. Our party was completely wiped. We didn’t even manage to get to the Treant King. Also, one of my friends wants to meet you. We’re going to try and clear the forest again tomorrow. So… can you join us then?」
「Let’s wait for your Heavy Knights to upgrade their defense first, then we’ll talk. I’ll see if I have the time by then. However, tell your friend this: In exchange for joining you guys in the Treant Forest, I want to act as the party leader. Furthermore, every single Thief item that drops will go to me.」There was a rather decent Thief cloak that dropped from the monsters within the Treant Forest .
「You want to be the party leader? Why?」
「I don’t trust anyone else with leading a team.」
「This… I’ll have to ask. Giving every Thief drop to you is going to be a bit difficult. We have a Thief in our party as well…」Yao Yao’s party was set so that drops were distributed equally among their members.
「If your team captain doesn’t agree to it, then so be it.」Nie Yan really didn’t want to make things awkward and difficult for Yao Yao on purpose. However, the Thief in Yao Yao’s party was especially unpleasant in Nie Yan’s eye.
「I’ll go ask our captain…」Nie Yan’s harsh demands lowered Yao Yao’s impressions of him by quite a bit.
Yao Yao’s team captain was a woman named Yu Lan (Blue Feather); her profession was a Berserker. The deepest impression Nie Yan had of this woman was the large pair of breasts on her chest. Her Berserker armor tightly fitted around around her body while accentuating her curves—particularly in the chest area. The gap in her armor also exposed an extreme amount of cleavage. When he recalled this, he couldn’t help but slightly tremble.
However, Nie Yan would never dare to provoke Yu Lan. Normally she was friendly and amiable, however if someone were to irritate her, then her fiery temper would become as large as the pair of breasts on her chest. He remembered that there was a time when another player decided to tease her. Yu Lan ended up chasing and killing that player until he had dropped five levels.
In this way, this beauty could only be gazed at from afar. She could neither be toyed with, nor treated with disrespect. Otherwise, one would very likely find themselves toyed around with instead.
「Also, there’s one other thing… Other than the Thief drops, I also want the jewel that the Treant King drops when it dies.」Nie Yan said without a hint of politeness or restrain.
「We all just want to run the dungeon and give it a try…. But you…! How can you act in such a selfish way!?」Yao Yao stomped her feet and ended the call. She was furious and frustrated to the point where glistening tears began to flow out of her eyes. She noticed that yesterday, after fighting and completing the same missions together, they matched each other quite well. Because of this, she felt that Nie Yan was a decent person.. It was to the point where she wanted to get to know him better and befriend him. Yet she never thought that, again and again, Nie Yan would continuously crush her good impression of him that she had kept deep within her heart.
Nie Yan indifferently smiled. At times, attempting to explain would instead be superfluous.
Yao Yao hung up the call in anger.
「Ha…」Nie Yan softly sighed. If they were instancing together, it would be better to make some things clear. Otherwise, when the time came, disputes would certainly arise in the future.
At the Tellak Town transport point, Yu Lan’s team had assembled together in the area. In total, there were nineteen individuals gathered together. Among them, the most conspicuous were Yu Lan, who was wearing blue armour, and Yao Yao, who was wearing a White coloured mage-robe while standing in the center.
Like the stars gathering around the moon, everyone there had gathered around, placing these two beauties at the center. Naturally, the team had other decent looking women as well. However, compared to the two beauties in the center, they could only entirely serve as the background.
Yu Lan had a tall curvaceous figure, along with long slender legs that were quite alluring. In addition, she had grown up to be quite a beauty. Her looks could be rated at the highest quality. Despite appearing in her twenties, she fully gave off the charm of an adult woman, particularly her large voluptuous chest that provoked an enticing attraction to one’s eyes.
On the other hand, Yao Yao was another sort of beauty. With her whole body covered in a white robe, her delicate oval-shaped face, and her hair tied in a ponytail, she looked pure and beautiful, causing others to be moved by her lovely charm.
“Yao Yao, what did he say?” Yu Lan asked when she saw Yao Yao disconnect her voice chat.
“He said if we’re going to go together, he wants to be the party leader, have all the Thief equipment drops go to him, and he also wants the jewel that drops from the Treant King!” Yao Yao’s face was red from anger. Originally, she was quite excited in introducing Nie Yan to Yu Lan, and maybe having him become a good friend in the process. Never did she expect that Nie Yan was actually that kind of person.
“Yao Yao, you’re just really too naive. These kinds of people are everywhere. He’s definitely a liar with no strength trying to cheat equipment from us,” said a Thief by her side. He appeared to be in his twenties, and actually looked rather handsome.
Yao Yao wanted to refute these words on Nie Yan’s behalf, though after a second thought, she was too angry to bother. She didn’t know why, but for some reason she still somewhat sided with Nie Yan in her heart. Nie Yan was really strong; she didn’t feel that he was scheming for equipment or anything that intolerable like Chen Bo was trying to make it out to be..
“That’s not necessarily true. If he already knew that the Treant King would drop a jewel, it means he’s definitely gone to the Treant Forest before. Not only that, but also cleared it as well. The fact that he was able to go through the instance with a team to the very end, proves that his ability in a team isn’t weak. Moreover, he’s significantly more experienced than us. So him asking to be the party leader, and receiving all the Thief drops plus the jewel really isn’t that excessive at all. Since he was able to frankly state out his demands to Yao Yao, it signifies that he had done so with a clear conscious.” Yu Lan patted Yao Yao’s shoulders. “Yao Yao, you don’t need to mind it.”
After listening to Yu Lan’s words, although she was still a little angry at Nie Yan, Yao Yao felt significantly better in heart, and revealed a relieved smile.
Seeing the beautiful smiling expression on her face, Chen Po felt his heart sink. He didn’t know why but this Nie Yan that had suddenly appeared caused him to feel a sense of foreboding.
“We’ll rent a piece Bronze-tier Heavy Knight equipment tomorrow. Tell him, we’re inviting him to do the Treant Forest tomorrow,” Yu Lan said. She had already began her arrangements.
“Hmph, I’m going to ignore him the whole morning. I’ll talk to him again in the afternoon.” Yao Yao pouted.
“Alright, you can contact him again in the afternoon.” Yu Lan nodded with a smile.
Nie Yan was still killing Water Spiders. His luck wasn’t bad as three Fine Silks dropped in succession. Looking at his bag, he already had twenty-nine of them. Only one more was needed to finish his quest.
Nevertheless, it appeared hunting monsters early in the morning had its own benefits. The drop frequency for various items was comparatively higher.
After killing another Water Spider, Nie Yan reached out with his right hand to fish out the items. What did I get? As he held the item up to get a book look, he noticed it was a Thief skill book.
Skill book: Lacerate
Skill description: Thieves can use their daggers to slash at an enemy, causing them to bleed profusely and receive bleed damage every second.
Required for use: Action (requires weapon)
Skill attribute: Slashes a target creating an open wound. Attack +1. Causes five points of bleeding every second for six seconds.
Skill cooldown: 30 s
Profession Limitation: Thief, Warrior, Paladin; can be learned by any faction.
Lacerate was a Basic Skill that synergized really well with Assassinate. It could follow after Assassinate, causing additional lacerations that would bleed an enemy of five health every second for six seconds.
As for it’s killing power… although the damage of Lacerate plus its additional bleed damage was slightly weaker than Vital Strike, it was still a considerably decent skill.
Presently, what Nie Yan lacked the most was precisely this skill.
After learning the skill, Nie Yan turned to face another a Water Spider. Suddenly, he received another notification from his voice chat. This little girl… she’s sending another call request.
Nie Yan answered her call. However, there was an awkward silence between the two that lingered on for what seemed like an eternity.
「You know… I originally planned to ignore you and never talk to you ever again, but… I’m an adult who’s willing to be magnanimous, so I won’t bother stooping to your level and arguing with you. My party is going to farm in the Treant Forest tomorrow. So are you going to come or not?」
Nie Yan couldn’t help revealing a faint smile after imagining the adorable expression Yao Yao’s pouting face.
「Tommorow… I—」
「No need to explain yourself if you’ve other business tomorrow. Just tell me whether you’re coming or not—yes or no?」
Nie Yan was just about to speak, but Yao Yao interrupted him in the middle.
「Alright. Just tell me the time tomorrow, and I’ll definitely be there.」 Nie Yan helplessly smiled. He could be considered to have thoroughly given up when it came to this little missus.
「Hmm… now that sounds better. Good! We’ll call you over tomorrow morning. Are you busy?」Yao Yao was quite pleased with Nie Yan’s reply. Not waiting for him to speak further, she immediately hung up.
Hmph! Little boy, see if I can’t discipline you, Yao Yao thought proudly to herself. When she imagined the distressed look on Nie Yan’s face she couldn’t help but giggle to herself.
「Doot! Doot!」Hearing the sound of the call ending, Nie Yan bitterly smiled.It seems tomorrow I’ll have to go for a run in the Treant Forest. Afterwards, he continued killing Water Spiders while speeding up pace.
Once he got received the Lacerate skill, there was a significant and obvious increase in his hunting speed. One Assassinate followed by Lacerate allowed him to effortlessly kill a Water Spider.
「Ding!」
A melodious jingle—the system notification rang out. Nie Yan had risen to Level 3.
After a while, he finished collecting thirty Fine Silks.
I’m finally done. Nie Yan swam towards the island to hand in his quest.
System: Player Flying Stone has deposited one silver into your personal storage.
「Expert, the strategy your provided was really useful! We’ve already cleared the Fallen Shaman Camp. The other silver has already been deposited into your storage.」Stone informed Nie Yan in excitement.
「 I’ve received it. Is there anything else you need?」With the two silvers from Stone plus his recent earnings, he almost had a three silvers. With this, he could be considered to have some capital.
「One of my friends said they’re going to form a party to hunt in the Agmota Muddy Wetlands the day after tomorrow. Do you want to come?」Stone asked with a hint of expectation.
「I’m going to be busy the day after tomorrow.」The Agmota Muddy Wetlands were still a somewhat difficult. Though seeing as Stone’s party was able to clear the Fallen Shaman Camp, it seemed their strength wasn’t too bad.
「Ah… nevermind then. Expert, do you have a guide for the Agmota Muddy Wetlands as well…?」
「Ahhh…!? Do you think I’m some kind of god? Agmota Muddy Wetlands is the most difficult Level 3 instance. You think I’m able to make up a guide for it this quickly?」He couldn’t keep offering to sell guides for dungeon instances. Otherwise he’d end up attracting too much suspicion from others. Besides, it would be better for him to wait for a good offer when Stone and his team were first wiped a few times attempting the instance.
「Ehh! I-I’m sorry. I was just thinking out of habit…. haha.」
[TN: After having finishing this chapter, I’m starting to think; damn, Stone is definitely best girl. Yao Yao better watch her back. (ﾟдﾟ;) -> (;ﾟдﾟ)]