Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Welcome back, player, to the world of Demon Realm.”
Ye Kong opened his eyes. The scenery reflected in them was the familiar surroundings of the Dark Mist Forest, as well as the huge mountain range beside it, which stretched upward as far as the eye could see, as though it touched the sky.
At the same time, the night sky was getting lighter, and it was no longer pitch black like when Ye Kong had gone offline.
“As expected, it’s going to be daytime soon.”
Ye Kong opened the system menu and looked at the time schedule. From the time he first logged out, nine hours had passed in the world of Demon Realm, which was equal to twice the time that had passed in real life. This was also the biggest difference between the virtual world and the real world.
Additionally, nighttime in the world of Demon Realm corresponded to 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. in the real world. When Ye Kong logged in to the game, it was already 3 a.m. in the real world—It was only one hour away from 4 a.m.
Converting this to Demon Realm in-game time, there were only two hours left before daybreak.
In light of this, Ye Kong was able to conclude, “Based on how quickly players can train at the start of the game, even a regular player should be at level two by now, right? If the player is in a guild, then they should be around level three. Only the especially good players would have just been promoted to level four.
“However, because it requires a lot of experience to go from level four to level five, coldwind would be the first and only player to be promoted to level five at dawn today, using the resources of the guild to pull ahead…
“Looks like I don’t have much time to spare.”
Ye Kong used the faint light from the breaking dawn to study the Thunder Mountain Range next to him, and their peaks, which extended into the clouds.
“Next up, I need to hurry and climb the mountain.”
Ye Kong didn’t decide to head toward the border between the Dark Mist Forest and Luna Lake. Instead, he tightened the straps holding the sword to his back, kicked off the ground, and rushed up the mountains shrouded in mist!
Patter!
Ye Kong stepped up onto a dark brown mountain boulder, and his body was fully exposed in the open under the pale bright moonlight, now that he had lost the cover of the trees. Fortunately, the sky was still dark enough to be considered night, and regular mobs had their vision range cut in half (but this didn’t affect nocturnal mobs).
The regular mobs found in this area included mobs native to the Thunder Mountain Range—
Brutal Monitor Lizard (Level 7):
Normal Grade Mob, HP 210/210
Wildfang Wolf (Level 8):
Normal Grade Mob, HP 240/240
The average level of the Thunder Mountain Range was level seven, which meant that mobs on the mountain generally ranged from levels six to eight. If a player at this stage in the game bumped into one of these mobs, they would be in trouble. The four-level difference meant there would be a Level Suppression effect, which would be enough to offset the damage players could deal.
Ye Kong also wasn’t interested in wasting his time on the mobs in front of him. The benefits of fighting them weren’t proportional to the effort needed, making it an efficient use of time.
As such, Ye Kong activated his Ghost Walk and charged up to the top of the mountain at maximum speed.
Whoosh!
Due to Ghost Walk’s special effect, the sound of Ye Kong’s footsteps had been mostly diminished. For a moment, the nearby Brutal Monitor Lizards looked up, thinking they sensed someone nearby, but not seeing anybody, they lowered their heads again.
The efficacy of Ghost Walk was mainly based on Ye Kong’s movements. When he was going at a slow pace, the skill’s effect would be maximized. Conversely, when he was sprinting, the skill’s effect would be weakened.
Thankfully, because it was still “nighttime,” the mobs’ vision range had been reduced by about half, so at the moment, they were unaware of Ye Kong’s presence as he zoomed past them like the wind.
It is worth a special mention here…
Out of all the first character classes, aside from the Ranger, who starts with the Eagle Eye skill, of the remaining 14 character classes, the Berserker has the lowest vision range, while the Swordsman and Assassin are tied for the highest.
Thanks to this, Ye Kong could clearly see the mobs in his path and plan a detour to “avoid” them.
It was indeed true that the Swordsman had terrible starting skills, but to make up for it, the Swordsman also had good base attributes. This was also the reason why the Swordsman’s starting Dexterity was higher than the Assassin’s.
Just like in multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games of the past century, when the game designer gave a hero four very strong skills, they would also weaken the character’s starting stats to balance things out. The reverse was also true—heroes with four weak skills would have stronger starting stats.
This logic could also be applied to the classes’ growth. For classes who were weak at the start of the game, without any good skills or moves, as long as they could persevere to the later stages of the game, their skills and moves would become “powerful”!
The Swordsman was such a class!
The Swordsman’s core skills, like Tempest Sword, Ground Slam, and so on, were generally attained in the middle or late stages of the game, and the methods for acquiring them were difficult. Moreover, some of the skills could only be acquired for a limited time, because when players’ level became too high, players wouldn’t be able to challenge the Nightmare Grade difficulty of the lower level instance dungeons.
However, Ye Kong had used the story event rewards to learn the core skills of the Swordsman class ahead of time!
This meant that…
Ye Kong was now able to bring out the full glory of his class!
Whoosh!
Very soon, Ye Kong, walking up the mountain ridge, reached the peak of the mountains. On his right, there was a cliff, and looking down from it, one could see a large and clear lake—This was Luna Lake!
Luna Lake was situated deep inside the Dark Mist Forest, and was surrounded by trees on three sides. Only the lake’s “south side” bordered the Thunder Mountain Range, so the lake could also be seen when looking down from the peaks of these mountains.
“As expected, the players from the other guilds have all gathered at Luna Lake.”
Looking over at the lake from this vantage point, Ye Kong received a bonus to his vision range, allowing him to see a large group of players waiting by the shores of Luna Lake.
Conversely, looking at a higher place from a low elevation would reduce one’s vision range.
As such…
Ye Kong could stand openly on the peak without being worried that the players by the lake would see him. If they looked in his direction, they would only see a cloud of mist.
“Hm, there are actually three groups gathered by the edge of Luna Lake?”
Ye Kong tallied up the people he could see and looked surprised. “That would mean that three guilds came to Luna Lake? Aside from the Yokai Legion Guild and the Conqueror of Lands Guild… The last guild, could it be the Red Maple Guild?”
During this event in his past life, five guilds had gone to the Luna Lake incident. These guilds included the Yokai Legion Guild’s superiors, the Witching Hour Guild, the Conqueror of Lands Guild’s superiors, the Sky Wings Guild, and the Moon Palace Guild, which came from the neighboring Yanan Town.
In addition to the Yokai Legion Guild and the Conqueror of Lands Guild, there were five guilds in total, split into three factions.
Because nine hours had already passed in the world of Demon Realm, the Teleporters in the cities were fully operational, so players from other cities could teleport to Qingmu Town. The fee was very expensive, though, and even guild players would feel the pinch.
According to Ye Kong’s predictions, because he had already taken the reward for “region first completion of a Super Grade story event,” the three guilds from outside the area wouldn’t participate in the Luna Lake incident.
If the benefits weren’t that great, the teleport fee alone would be enough to dissuade them.
As such, by his logic, that left only the Yokai Legion Guild and the Conqueror of Lands Guild—The two local guilds would fight over the reward for the Luna Lake incident.
In the end, an extra guild had unexpectedly turned up, and the Red Maple Guild now waited below by the edge of Luna Lake.
According to Ye Kong’s past knowledge, the Red Maple Guild was a university organization. In his past life, they were fairly famous in Qingmu Town, and they were the next largest local power, following the Yokai Legion Guild and the Conqueror of Lands Guild.
Unfortunately, without the backing of a financial power, the guild ended up disappearing into obscurity.
To tell the truth, this outcome was also “thanks” to Ye Kong’s deeds. Because he had triggered the Stygian Night Invasion to start early, causing both large guilds to suffer heavy losses, it was the Red Maple Guild, which had focused on completing regular quests in the early stages of the game, that avoided the bloodshed.
As such, the current Red Maple Guild was much stronger than the Red Maple Guild of his past life. On top of that, the Yokai Legion Guild and Conqueror of Lands Guild weren’t going to receive outside help this time, so the end result was this bizarre three-sided standoff.
The ingenious whims of fate had led to this.
“I’ve made a slight miscalculation, but thank goodness it won’t affect much…”
Ye Kong shook his head and took out a skill book from his backpack. It was an unexpected reward he had received from killing the members of the Yokai Legion Guild. It was the passive skill, Galeforce Sword.
“Now that I have this skill, I’m even more confident than before.”
Ye Kong’s eyes blazed with determination, as though a fire were burning behind them!