12. Equipment Change

Stuffed and satisfied, the three of them picked at their teeth and lazed under the relaxing afternoon sun.

“I’m guessing Lucky’s luck must be very good. After this, we must bring you along any time we farm for an item.”

“Hehe. Mn.”

“But you really should hurry and raise your levels. It’s hard for a healer at the start. You either party up or you just grind at Undead regions. Once you hit the second job change, you’d get Holy Light (Single-target attack. 150% damage to Undead and 80% to other monsters). You can farm anything then. Once you’re there, we’ll bring you as whenever we grind. You can leech some Exp or something.

“Mn, mn.”

“Also, you mustn’t be too frugal with your money. Change into good equipment. Then you’d grind at double the efficiency. Don’t keep wearing the garbage the game gives out. You are the lucky cat.”

“Mn, mn = =”

“Aah, so boring. Why are you and NonMeta so reserved? This is me caring for you. What can you say except for ‘mn’? Come, chirp for big brother here.”

“Chirp = =+”

“Pfft. Fine. I give up.” CopperPlateKing laughed and sprawled out all over the table.

“Time for class.” NonMeta pulled CopperPlate up by the neck.

“Tch. It’s already so late. I really want to skip class. Lucky, we’ve got classes at night, so we’ll be getting off to have dinner first.”

“Class…”

“Yup. Do you not have classes? Speaking of which, I don’t know how old you are still. You look younger than me, so first year in university?”

“I don’t go to school…19 years old.” Bai XiaoYu dipped his head to where no one could take a good look at his face.

“Eh? Why?”

“…”

“Offline.” NonMeta kicked CopperPlate.

“You damned…” Bastard. CopperPlateKig swallowed back the last word as he suddenly realised what NonMeta meant was for him to stop questioning it. Everyone has their own secrets.

“Well, I’m going. Lucky, work hard at your levels.”

“Mn. Bye.”

The beams of light flashed by and then there was only XiaoYu left at the table.

Classes…It’s only been a year of no classes but why do those days feel so far away? Perhaps deep down inside he was still afraid of being lonely. Though he never interacted much with the other students back then, just sitting by the side and watching them fool around was enough.

XiaoYu let out a deep sigh and raised his head. His two hands patted himself on the cheeks, “Alright. Cheer up.”

“Meow~” The little cat had been sitting on XiaoYu’s shoulders. Upon detecting its owner’s rippling emotions, it stuck out its tiny pink tongue and softly licked at his cheek in comfort.

“Hehe. Tickles.” He petted the tiny cat’s head. He’s not alone now so what’s the use of moping about? Charge, to grinding!

However, before he dived into grinding, he should clear the items on him and have a look at the market to see what he can buy.

After a walk around, XiaoYu was left a little disappointed. That’s because most equipment being sold were for those at Level 60 or above. It’s not a rare sight. The average level for AO players is now very high and there are very few of low-level newbies like XiaoYu. Items for new players are ordinary and don’t bring in much profit. So, there aren’t a lot of sellers unless they’d gathered all 20 slots worth of merchandise.

Hm? XiaoYu stopped in front of a stall. He found a very beautiful silver staff on it. There weren’t any complex embellishments and it didn’t have precious and exquisite gems on it. It was merely a simple silver staff topped with a tiny crystal. A pair of small, white, stretched-out wings floated beside the crystal. Dainty and delicate, it was very attractive.

XiaoYu squatted down before the stall and looked at the silver staff’s stats. In his mind, he prayed that it wasn’t very far off from his level and the price he had in mind. After observing the market, he realised that the higher an item’s level restrictions, the grander it looked. The silver staff’s design was quite plain, so it shouldn’t have too high of a limit.

+4 Silver Crystal Staff. Magic Attack 80 – 100 (+20). Int +4. Holy Damage +10%. Slots: 1. Level Limit: 25. Job Limit: Acolyte, Magician.

Thank goodness its requirements weren’t that high. This should be a rather good equipment for an early-stage Acolyte. Despite that, the price of 1 crystal was not within XiaoYu’s budget. Even though he’d just gotten 50 gold from the boss, he didn’t have any other savings. There’s still nearly half of the money missing. He’ll wait for a few days until he’d gotten his part from the crown. Hopefully this stall would still be here then.

“Ugh…” XiaoYu prepared to stand up and leave.

“Little healer, do you want this staff?” The motionless stall-keeper suddenly spoke up.

“Whoa~!” “Mrow~!” Both XiaoYu and the little cat on his shoulders were startled.

“Hehe. Sorry. I was on the forums just now.” Looking down at the pair of owner and pet before him who displayed the same shocked expression, BlazeTheEarth’s first impression of this player was quite good.

“It’s fine. I thought it was a Body-Double Stall.” XiaoYu steadied himself and pet the tiny cat. “Yes, I quite like this staff. But I don’t have that much money…”

“Is that so…” 1 crystal was a rather expensive price tag for a new player. Add on the fact that there weren’t a lot of new players, he’d been trying to sell this staff for a week without any interested buyers.

AO has an exchange service between real-life money and in-game cash. However, to prevent the game from being flooded and a messy in-game economy, players would not be able to survive in-game without buying in-game currency. AO also had a special rule where the player’s allowance for currency exchange would increase to a certain value gradually after Level 40. (For example, a Level 40 could exchange 100 units in a month while a Level 45 can exchange 150. So on and so forth until Level 100 where it became unlimited.)  This way, professional players could earn money and the market’s economy would be stable.

“Can I reserve it for a few days? In a few days, I’ll have the money for it.”

“How much do you have now?” Just because this newbie looked quite okay to him, he planned on letting it go if the price wasn’t ridiculous. He’d also help a new player then.

“I only have 50 gold.”

“Oh, then…” It’s only half the price. Should he sell? BlazeTheEarth measured XiaoYu up as he considered it. This player’s wide eyes looked a little upset and a little disappointed then (so he thought). That black cat was also staring tearfully at him with its big eyes. Ugh…Why does he feel so guilty and slimy when being stared at by these two pairs of wide eyes? The staff was really unintentionally farmed out and refining it only took around 20 gold coins…Just sell it to him!

“Alright. I’ll sell it to you.”

“Eh? T-Thank you.” XiaoYu didn’t think he’d be this lucky. When the saw the stall owner hesitating, he stopped hoping. All he wanted was for the owner to reserve for a few days. He’s not at Leve 25 either way so he’s not rushed.

At XiaoYu’s thanks, BlazeTheEarth felt even more guilty. Originally, it was an old equipment of his. A few days ago, his storage was full so he thought of digging it out to sell.

After inserting the staff into the trading screen, BlazeTheEarth paused and flipped through his bracelet before putting in a pair of small black leather shoes as well.

“Hm?”

“A gift. You’re still barefoot.” As he said so, he looked down at the two pale ankles peeking out from beneath XiaoYu’s Acolyte robes. In BlazeTheEarth’s eyes, wearing such crudely made and thin sandals was no different to being barefoot.

“T-Thank you.” Was today an extremely lucky day? When he was grinding, someone was there to carry him. He even dropped a rare accessory. When he’s buying something, someone gave him a 50% discount and even gave him a “buy one free one” deal.

“It’s nothing. It’s not worth much.” That’s true. This pair of leather shoes only had 4 Defence. It was essentially selling something found in an NPC store. He’d rather use it to do a good deed and deal with this guilty feeling of his ><. “Add me. After all, Acolytes and Magicians share quite a lot of equipment. Once I change my gear, I’ll sell them to you for cheap if you need any of them.”

“Okay.” XiaoYu was very happy. He obtained two equipment in one go.

“Pfft. LuckyCat. You look like it.”

“= =+” Why did everyone he befriended laugh at his name at the start?

Translator’s Comments:

Reserved (CopperPlateKing’s dialogue): What he actually said was
闷葫芦 (men hu lu), meaning silent gourd (the typical hourglass shaped gourd). It refers to people who are either not talkative or people who are mysterious/an enigma (original meaning). The source most likely refers to how the gourd is usually used as a storage device, so a silent one is one that keeps its secrets/things hidden. (Probably because it’s easy to tell what is inside the gourd by shaking it)

◄Previous •Index• Next►

11. Splitting the Hoard

“Let’s go find a shop to sit in,” Bai XiaoYu said into the Party channel as he stepped out of the portal.

He waited for a while but heard no response. Strange. It’s fine if NonMeta didn’t reply as he doesn’t like to talk but how could CopperPlate not talk? XiaoYu raised his head to find CopperPlate circling him with eyes wide as if he’d just discovered a new continent.

“W-what is it?” XiaoYu could feel himself getting flustered from CopperPlate’s stare.

“Tsk tsk. It’s rare for us to hear Lucky putting forth a suggestion without prompts.”

“…= =+”

“Hee-hee. Let’s go eat something! I’m hungry again.”

The three found a Western restaurant with only a few people sitting inside, for it wasn’t meal time yet. CopperPlateKing wanted to sit by the window when he felt his armour tightening on him. He was then pulled by XiaoYu to a hidden alcove.

“Why’re we sitting in such a remote spot…”  Even though CopperPlateKing’s mouth kept mumbling and chattering, he still allowed himself to be dragged over by XiaoYu. Otherwise, that tiny strength of XiaoYu’s wouldn’t have even be able to move him half a step.

The four-seater table in the corner was surrounded by peculiarly arranged decor. If one wasn’t observant enough, they’d never have found it.

After seating down, XiaoYu looked around and was visibly satisfied with the seating.

“Lucky, are you hiding from an enemy? Wow, you don’t look like someone who’d attract trouble in such a short time.”

“No.”

“Whoosh~”

“??!!”

Bai XiaoYu poured out everything the tiny cat had in its inventory, a pile of gold coins and a few equipment. It’s obvious they were the results from their dive into the Zombie Cave.

“Sorry. The little one picks up everything. The equipment and money are all here. There are also a few more items I’ll directly trade to you later. If I take them out now, I’m afraid it’ll affect your appetite,” apologised XiaoYu. While the three hadn’t discussed anything about splitting the loot up, XiaoYu knew that the most troublesome thing about partying up was splitting up the loot. There are large numbers of threads started on the forum every day arguing about such things.

“Aah, a crown!” shouted CopperPlateKing. It was fortunate that they’d been speaking in the Party channel the whole time or they’d be surrounded by a crowd of people now.

That’s right. That’s the crown that was on the Zombie King’s head. The market price ranged from 500 to 1000 crystals with a drop rate rumoured to be 0.1%. Even though a lot of royal type bosses would drop it, like the Zombie King and the Corpse King, there are only a miniscule number found on the market. The main reason was that average players are around LV 90, so the crown is at an awkward phase right now.

While the strongest of the ugly royal bosses, like the Zombie King and the Corpse King, are only at LV 90, they don’t look attractive at all. Except for the professional workshop parties, most boss hunters would never be able to bear the disgusting looks of those bosses and their environments and leave after a few rounds. Along with its low drop date, normal players would go mad hunting for it unless they have strong RNG luck.

Of course, AO has a few royal-type bosses with passable looks which might even be called handsome, but they’re all over LV 100. Those who’ve yet to reach the Third Job Change can’t even think about getting close to them. Not only that, there’s not a single LV 100 player yet in the entire server.

The top 10 players are all at LV 99 but it’s a big jump from 99 to 100. First, let’s not talk about the huge amount of experience needed. Players also need to complete a special quest before they can get to LV 100. The quests are random and have time limits. Once failed, the player would have to start all over again at LV 99 with 0% experience.

The reason behind such an insane design was, other than because the game company didn’t want players to grow that fast easily, mainly because the game would patch in the Guild Wars system as soon as the first player to reach LV 100 appears. Then, the era of war throughout the server would begin. Guild Wars are a test to a server’s capabilities. That’s why the company was terrified. They constantly put it through tests after tests. It’s much preferable to have the patch released late than to have an error in the server.

The crown on the table right now had a beautiful design that males crave for and females prefer. But its price wasn’t the highest it could be. That’s because it only has Strength +2 and Intelligence +2. Its stats are low, awkward and not suitable for combat at all. The combination of its extravagant exterior and trashy stats made players love and hate it.

“The crown…The crown and heart dropped at the same time. Gods, our RNG’s too good~” CopperPlateKing cried out loud with his head in his hands, danced around then buried his head in his arms again.

“…” NonMetaAssassin was really appreciative of the seats XiaoYu chose. Otherwise CopperPlateKing’s crazy behaviour would have attracted weird looks from others. Combined with XiaoYu’s ungreedy behaviour, NonMeta decided his decision to help him was correct. While it had been because he wanted to pay the other back for CopperPlateKing nearly killing XiaoYu, it now seemed like XiaoYu would make a good friend.

“Lucky, you’re really a lucky charm! We’ve been at it for two days, but we only dropped some equipment. Ignoring the crown, we couldn’t even get a normal accessory. As soon as you came, a heart dropped then a crown. I love you to death!” If there hadn’t been a table between the two, CopperPlateKing would’ve bear hugged XiaoYu.

“= =+” NonMeta’s veins popped. NonMetaAssasin was clearly unhappy with CopperPlateKing’s last sentence. He reached out and gave CopperPlate a painful hit to the head.

“Aargh!” The other cried as he held his head in pain.

“Heh heh…” XiaoYu could only give out a silly laugh. While it hurt to give away such an expensive crown, the price it would’ve sold for could last him for a whole month, it wasn’t his in the end. Even without his help, the two of them could’ve killed the boss.

“Yours. One third of the crown.” Another rare occasion where NonMetaAssassin spoke more than a few words. He pushed everything except for the crown towards XiaoYu.

“There’s no need. I didn’t help much.”

“Lucky, stop dithering. Take it. Without you, we’d have suffered for much longer.”

“But…”

“No buts. We were there to look for quest items. Without you, we’d never have gotten it.” The two had planned on a long battle so they’d stuffed their bags full of potions and food (1 stack = 100). They’d only pick up one item or equipment after emptying one slot. So most of the items were mercilessly wiped away by the game.

“Oh. Thank you.” XiaoYu swept the pile of equipment and money into his bag. It was filled to the brim. Fortunately, he hadn’t taken out some of the random items from the tiny cat’s inventory. It seemed to be time to buy a bigger bag.

“Hee-hee. Let me touch the crown for two more days. It’s so rare that I can’t bear to sell it. I’ll sell it in a few days and give you the money.”

“You don’t need to give me the money from the crown. I didn’t really help that much.” XiaoYu was already satisfied with the items he had received.

“No way. Since you’re in my party, you’re mine now. How can I let you suffer? Those items can’t even add up to the minimum worth of the crown.”

“…” What do you mean yours? Gloomy and dark clouds appeared around NonMetaAssassin.

“Erm…It’s really fine. You’ve already helped the little one level up twice. I haven’t even thanked you.” (Even though the crown’s market price was high, it’s only worth 10 gold when sold to NPCs. But for the low level TinyLuckyCat, it’s enough to level up.)

“No way. If I let my…” person suffer, I won’t be a man anymore.

“Okay!” XiaoYu loudly interrupted CopperPlateKing. He kept saying such things that others would misunderstand. He didn’t want to be massaged by katars. He could already see lightning rumbling above NonMeta’s head.

XiaoYu really didn’t think anything weird. He only felt that perhaps NonMeta had few friends because of his personality (quite like himself XD) so CopperPlateKing was very important to NonMeta. If NonMeta saw the other being too friendly with other people, he’d be jealous.

“But I’m only taking 10%. Any more and I won’t feel good.”

“Ugh, fine. Lucky, you’re really self-conscious.”

“Level up?” The clouds had finally dispersed and NonMeta opened the mouth worth its weight in gold once again.

“Oh right. When the boss died, your cat levelled up twice. I remember you were busy buffing us and didn’t hit it once.” Pets usually gain experience based on what their owner gained.

“It levels up through collecting money.”

“Eeh? So mysterious.” It wasn’t just CopperPlateKing. Even NonMetaAssassin stared at him with wide eyes.

“The little one’s species is lucky cat. It levels up by collecting money. Items are calculated according to NPC prices.” In the event his explanation wasn’t clear enough, XiaoYu showed the two the tiny lucky cat’s stats.

“Pffft. You actually named it TinyLuckyCat.”

“>////<”

“What a strange pet. I really want one now. Lucky where did you capture it?” CopperPlateKing thought it must’ve been a monster from some hidden newbie village’s surroundings. None of the low-level monsters he knew of were as cute as the little cat.

“It’s a gift from the game. I got it from the Newbie Gift Box.”

“No wonder it’s account-bound. I got a knife with no level restrictions and Attack 30. It was very good at first but then it was trash. I don’t even remember which shop I sold it to.”

“Eat.” NonMetaAssassin’s speech was as clear cut as always. XiaoYu really wanted to know what it’s like when the other spoke more than 10 words.

“Right. We’ve been chatting away and haven’t ordered anything yet. Let’s not get kicked out and look at the menu. I want ribs…”

Translator’s Comments:

Mouth worth its weight in gold: The literal translation is golden mouth. It refers to a mouth that speaks so rarely that every word is like a nugget of gold.

◄Previous •Index• Next►

10. Three-Man Team

CopperPlateKing said “help” but what it actually meant was Bai XiaoYu didn’t have to hide in the narrow corridor and aggravate the mobs one by one. Instead he can just stand in the middle of that vast expanse. First, choose a zombie he liked and fling any healing spell at it. The aggro-ed zombie will then die under CopperPlateKing’s spear or NonMetaAssassin’s katar. With one in front and one behind, Bai XiaoYu was clamped in the middle and so well protected that not a drop of water could get past their guards.

Zombies who attacked them solely because they smelled the scent of humans were even more unfortunate. Before XiaoYu could even comprehend what they looked like, they’d be swooshed away by the two.

The three formed a party. While experience would not be split equally if the party members of the quest-taker was 10 levels or more higher than the quest-taker, higher levelled players can still participate in kill missions accepted by low level party members. (That is to say a LV 15 kill mission Bai XiaoYu accepted at LV 11 can be shared to a LV 80 player, but if the LV 80 player accepted a mission at LV 21 or higher, the mission couldn’t be shared to XiaoYu.)

Anyway, killing these low level monsters was like eating entrees to CopperPlateKing and NonMetaAssassin. Such a low level mission wouldn’t waste much time either.

It’s a massacre! XiaoYu thought.

“Meow, meow, meow~” The tiny cat was so happy it could dance! It’s hands (paws) were limp from lunging for money. As the pick-up settings of their party was set to shared, any party member could pick up the dropped items.

Staring as the little cat bravely dived into the different zombie corpses and joyfully collected coins and equipment, CopperPlateKing’s jaw dropped in shock at first. Finally as his face muscles began cramping, he decided to ignore it all. Even NonMetaAssassin’s mouth twitched, though the slaughter of zombies never stopped once.

Not 15 minutes later, the 100 zombies mission was easily completed. As XiaoYu had already taken down about half of the target, he’d heard the mission complete notification ping early on right after the massacre started. He spent the rest of the time paying attention to each member’s buffs and keeping them up. If he had time to spare, he’ll fling some healing spells to leech some experience. (In AO, experience and drops are split according to each player’s total damage to a monster. The more damage dealt, the more experience gained. Even if it’s just a drop of damage dealt, the player would gain some experience. The party with the most damage dealt would have 5 minutes to pick up items dropped before others could pick them up.)

The three soon found a safe passage that could be considered spacious, and sat down for food and rest.

“Ha ha, your pet cat is really cut,” said CopperPlateKing as he munched on a piece of chicken drumstick and examined the little cat. It was so delirious with joy from collecting such a huge amount of money that it span round and round.

“Levelling?”  NonMetaAssassin too spat out a few rare words.

“?” XiaoYu didn’t quite understand what the other meant by that.

“What he meant was, your pet can level up? I think I saw the glow of a level up coming from the little cat as we were killing monsters.” CopperPlateKing filled in as a translator.

“Mn.”

“Aren’t collection-type pets unable to level up?” CopperPlateKing, the curious baby, voiced out the two’s doubts.

“I don’t know what type it is.”

“Huh?”

“The tiny cat has attack skills but it can only attack monsters smaller than itself.” XiaoYu didn’t want to conceal anything from the two because, from their interactions just now, he felt that the two weren’t evil at all and were quite caring towards a fragile little Acolyte like him.

“Hm, could it be a rare multi-functional pet? But there really aren’t a lot of monsters smaller than it. It’s probably still considered a collection-type. Um…a mutated collection-type pet,” CopperPlateKing concluded with his chin in his hand.

“Meow!” As if it wasn’t happy with the CopperPlateKing’s conclusion, the tiny cat objected with a wave of its paw.

“Eh? It understands me too? What a sophisticated A.I.”

“Can’t the other pets understand human speech too?”

“Of course not! How can there be so many pets with such great A.I., especially non-human pets.”

“Oh…” So it was his own comprehension that was in the wrong. He’d thought all pets were like the tiny cat. Looks like it’s very special. No wonder the game made it account-bound.

“Next…” NonMetaAssassin interjected.

“Oh, he’s asking what should we do next. Lucky, you got anything to do?”

“Nope.”

“Hm…The two of us still need to head back to that disgusting boss. Why don’t you come with us? Have a look and you can even leech some experience.”

“My level’s low…”

“It’s fine. With me tanking, we can even crawl around.” Other than the boss, the rest of the monsters could definitely be dealt with in one or two hits.

“Antidote.”

“Stop being so frank, you bastard! Um…The monsters and boss in that level can actually poison players. While it’d be automatically cleared in 2 minutes and your health won’t drop faster than a potion could replenish, you also know about this game’s realism. It’s very painful once you’re poisoned. So take it as an invite to help us. I will absolutely ensure you are safe at all times!” CopperPlateKing raised his right hand and swore.

“Okay, but my Poison Removal’s proficiency is very low.” The monsters here range from levels 15 to 50. XiaoYu will probably be spending a lot of time here while grinding for levels. Having two high level players acting as bodyguards as he scoped out the environment would be for the best.

“It’s fine. Fine. Um…The bastard’s very straightforward with his words. Don’t mind him.”

“It’s okay. Mr NonMeta is actually quite a good friend.” While he’s rather cold, doesn’t like talking and was even a little fierce at the start, XiaoYu’s impression of NonMetaAssassin was still a good one. These two fill in each other’s gaps and were rather interesting. They should be worth befriending.

“…” NonMeta?

“NonMeta? Hahahaha!”

“Ugh…>///<” It was only then that XiaoYu realised what he said.

Having just gotten used to using the initial words of their game ID as names for CopperPlateKing and himself, he thought that he should be calling NonMetaAssassin in that way too. But he didn’t think it’d create a separate meaning. The characters used in “NonMeta” were the same as that infamous epidemic that happened a hundred years ago, SARS. His dignity’s gone. Flown away forever.

“Haha! This nickname is nice. Lucky, you thought his name was too long as well, right? Not bad. Not bad, I’ll call him that from now on too,” settled CopperPlateKing.

“…” NonMetaAssassin didn’t voice out any objections. Perhaps he felt it was much better than CopperPlateKing’s previous overuse of bastard.

“Rest complete! Off we go to the boss’s nest!”

As CopperPlateKing had promised, he walked in front of the party to open up a path. On the lowest level, he even equipped a single-handed spear and a large steel shield instead of his double-handed Dirk Spear. The shield blocked every single drop of acid the high level zombies spat out.

XiaoYu followed a few steps behind. Once he discovered CopperPlateKing had been poisoned, he’d immediately throw out a Poison Removal. However, his proficiency was so low that it’d only succeed once out of 7 or 8 times. Poison Removal’s cooldown time was just 1 second so even though XiaoYu reacted fast, CopperPlateKing would still receive poison damage for 5 seconds or so.

“Sorry. My proficiency’s too low.” Even if XiaoYu had never been poisoned before, he could imagine how bad it felt by looking at CopperPlateKing’s furrowed brows and slightly stuttering steps.

“It’s nothing.” Although he said that, CopperPlateKing’s chest felt like it was on fire and there seemed to be thousands of ants crawling all over his body. The taste of being poisoned is really hard to swallow.

Actually, the one who was previously poisoned the most was NonMetaAssassin. That’s because the Assassin class has some resistance to poison. So for the past two days, it’d been NonMetaAssassin who was dealing with the small mobs on the way. Still, his build was a katar build and not a venom splasher. With such a short range, it’s hard for him to avoid the acid that’d fly everywhere, even if he was cloaked.

The three made their way smoothly forward. The crowd of zombies began to thin out until there were none left. The vast room around them felt deserted.

“Careful.” NonMetaAssassin had snuck to XiaoYu’s side and piped up a warning.

“Lucky, be careful. Stand 20 steps away from me. That Zombie King has an AoE (Area of Effect) acid spitting skill. The cooldown time is 5 minutes. If you’re not sure on the timing, just stay as far back as possible. Take care not to go too far as you might attract the zombies behind us.” CopperPlateKing put away his joking attitude and changed back to the more powerful double-handed spear – Dirk Spear.

“Raaargh~” A spine-chilling roar sounded out from far off in the distance. A gigantic black shadow could be seen slowly moving towards the three.

The distant muffled sounds of shuffling footsteps became clearer and soon the true appearance of that black shadow was revealed: the tall Zombie King guarded by 20 or so zombie guards.

The Zombie King had a huge body. It was more than double the size of its guards which were as tall as an average human being. Its clothes were in an ancient grand style and the shine of its lavish fabric could still be seen. Most of its rotting flesh had been covered up by these shimmering clothes.

It’s a pity that the only thing adorning its head was a crown embedded with a large blue gemstone. All the disgusting aspects that could be found in a zombie were all present on that ugly face. That face could definitely be used in the most scary horror movie of the year without needing to be tweaked.

With a sweep of his spear, a quarter of most of the guards’ health disappeared. Hence, all the zombies focused on CopperPlateKing.

NonMetaAssassin took this chance to exterminate all but one of the guards, to prevent the Zombie King from summoning another batch.

Meanwhile, CopperPlateKing had already started battling with the Zombie King. The powerful dual-handed spear raked out a large wound on the boss’s large body. Pus and rotten flesh began flying everywhere.

“Raaaargh~!” The Zombie King screeched at the sky and a big glop of acid was spat out from its gaping mouth. The other two were poisoned and their skin turned green. Their health began dropping by 100 every second.

This was probably the Zombie King’s AoE attack, XiaoYu thought. After a glance at the game’s clock to start his internal countdown, he swiftly stepped forward until the other two were in range. A series of healing, hastening and attack increase buffs were thrown at the two. Then, he began flinging Poison Removal at them without pausing.

The game’s skill failure notifications rang out endlessly. XiaoYu didn’t think the boss’s poison would be that difficult to remove. He’d already casted over a dozen of Poison Removal yet none of them worked. In spite of this, he never gave up. As soon as the cooldown finished, he’d fling out another in hopes of ending CopperPlate’s and NonMeta’s suffering earlier.

“Ding. Poison Removal successful. Skill Proficiency +1.”

…

The two were 30 levels higher than the Zombie King so they didn’t find it difficult going against it. Even if there were no healers, if they drank the larger potions in time, the one to die first would absolutely be the unlucky boss due to NonMeta’s high damage and CopperPlate’s high defense and health.

Even so, the two would be very tired. The boss was meant for parties to grind away at. That’s why previously, they’d never want to move at all before the next boss appeared. They’d find a spot with few mobs to rest.

Bai XiaoYu repeatedly retreat, move forward to maintain buffs and remove poison, then retreat, and forward again…Finally, the boss let out a earthshaking and sorrowful roar and fell to the ground, bursting into a pile of items.

“Aaah! Heart! NonMeta, get it quick!” yelled CopperPlateKing in excitement. He’d spotted that beating and faintly shimmering heart among the pile of items immediately. He didn’t think they’d be lucky this time.

“…?”Just as NonMetaAssassin was about to bend over, he felt something strange. He tilted his head, and saw a tiny shadow flash by his side and leaped straight into the pile of items.

=O=! The sudden movement startled the three. Before they could react, the items were all gone. All that was left was a very satisfied little cat lazily lounging on the floor and happily smiling up at them.

“Aaaah! My heart!” CopperPlateKing went mad.

“Idiot.” NonMetaAssassin turned a blind eye to his idiocy and turned to look at XiaoYu.

“Here. Sorry, I didn’t control the tiny one in time.” XiaoYu opened up the Pet Inventory and gave the heart over to NonMetaAssassin.

“Eeh? It’s not bound?”

“I didn’t accept the quest.” Only quest items would be bound. To the quest-less Bai XiaoYu, the heart was just another ordinary item.

“Oh, so that’s why.” With his right fist smacking into his left palm, CopperPlateKing expressed a display of sudden realisation.

“Back to city,” said NonMeta. Since the quest item’s collected, there’s no need to continue camping at the boss with its foul stench.

Translator’s Comments:

Cloaked: A state where the player is invisible and unable to be damage or healed by others, but they can still move.

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9. Friends

“Pfft. Hahahahaha!” Ignoring things like first impression or his dignity, CopperPlateKing leaned on his spear as he laughed out loud.

“…= =+” Bai XiaoYu didn’t think his name was weird at all. Calling himself CopperPlateKing, why didn’t this Knight just call himself SilverKing or GoldKing.

“Haha…Sorry, you look very cat-like…Your name’s a cat and you have a pet cat. Haha…” The other explained as he continued laughing. It’s a wonder he’s still got the breath for talking.

“…Thanks.” His parents used to say he had a cat’s face as well. They’d constantly pet his head and jokingly asked if they should change his name to Bai XiaoMao (Bai Kitten). While XiaoYu didn’t think he looked like a cat at all, except his eyes were just a tiny bit too big, he still thought it was a type of compliment.

“Ahem…So, Lucky, are you grinding zombies for experience?” Not knowing how to thank XiaoYu, CopperPlateKing felt bad for laughing and changed the topic.

“Yea, for a mission.” It’s still a little weird to hear others call him Lucky.

“You can call me CopperPlate. You…Aren’t you afraid of zombies?” Looking at XiaoYu’s awkward expression, CopperPlateKing thought he probably didn’t like this nickname. But he didn’t want to add on the “Cat” behind it. Saying that to this cat-like face will make him burst out laughing again. It’d make him imagine it. Haha…If that’s the case, he’ll just have to remove the “King” from his name.

“I’m not.” While they’re quite disgusting, he got used to it after a while.

“Just like that dead bastard.” CopperPlateKing tsked.

“…= =+”

“Oh, I’m not saying you’re like the zombies. I’m talking about a friend who’s not afraid of zombies. That bastard actually left me alone in the lowest level of the cave and ran off himself…blahblahblah.”

After silently listening to CopperPlateKing complain, XiaoYu finally figured out why he’s in the Zombie Cave even though he’s afraid of them.

CopperPlateKing had received a quest to gather medicine ingredients from a group of NPCs. One of the quests had the Everlasting Heart as a catalyst. After looking it up on the forums, he discovered that it’s only dropped by the Level 50 boss found in the lowest level of the Zombie Cave – the Zombie King.

At that time, he flew into a rage. The body’s already rotten. How can its heart not rot as well? It’s not logical! He’d wanted to abandon the quest. CopperPlateKing wasn’t afraid of anything in the world, except for scary and disgusting things. When he saw the images of the Zombie Cave on the forums, he’d lost all desire to continue. After all, the Everlasting Heart didn’t have a 100% drop rate. Who knew how many days he’d be stuck boiling in that filthy, stinking Zombie Cave?

However, an Assassin named NonMetaAssassin, CopperPlateKing’s friend who’s also a friend in real life, didn’t agree with him. He too had accepted the quest alongside CopperPlateKing. Even if CopperPlateKing abandoned the quest, CopperPlate will have to accompany him as he grinded for the Everlasting Heart. They’d been partying together ever since they entered the game.

CopperPlateKing originally planned to buy the heart. He’d roamed the markets of all the four main cities and even posted a request for one whole week. He still couldn’t get half of what they needed.

It’s not hard to understand why. The Zombie Cave was one of the most depressing grinding areas in AO. Not only was it smelly and dirty, looking at it made one felt like they were being raped. No one was willing to camp at the boss’s spawn point. Not to mention the reward offered wasn’t much. A mere 10 gold coins.

And so NonMetaAssassin instantly dragged CopperPlateKing with him into the Zombie Cave. CopperPlateKing howled and cried the whole way but he didn’t dare resist. The Dirk Spear in his hands, and the countless other items that shall go unmentioned, was a +10-quality product the other had crafted through his Profession as a Blacksmith. Numerous equipment were broken in the process. (NPC Blacksmiths can refine equipment until it’s +5. Only players whose Professions were Blacksmith can continue refining the item. The highest was +13. From +5 onwards, there’s a certain failure rate. The higher the refinement, the higher the chances of a failure, refreshing its refinement level to 10 or destroying the item.)

While he was afraid of all the monsters in the Zombie Cave, he was fine when he’s just chopping everything down along with NonMetaAssassin. But when there’s a living human being next to him, he’d be so scared that he’ll pounce on the other and pretend to be an ostrich.

After two days of camping the bottom layer of the Zombie Cave and slaughtering dozens of bosses, they finally dropped a heart. CopperPlateKing had happily rushed in and picked it up. He was prepared to use it to make NonMetaAssassin happy when the devilish voice of the game’s system piped up, “Congratulations Player CopperPlateKing for obtaining Everlasting Heart +1. Progress for Search for the Life-Saving Medicine quest at 2.0%. Quest items are automatically bound.”

B-Bound? Account-bound! Freaking binding! This had never happened in the past quests! (You just never noticed it.)

As such, this heart was thrown straight into CopperPlateKing’s bracelet. Since they still had enough potions and food, the two continued camping for the Boss so they could get NonMetaAssassin’s heart. CopperPlateKing sobbed internally at this T-T.

The two had agreed on a time when they’d get online to continue torturing the boss. CopperPlateKing was used to getting on a few minutes later as he knew NonMetaAssassin was very punctual. He’d feel safe as soon as he sees the other once he gets online. Being left alone in the Zombie Cave was a very scary matter.

However, who knew that CopperPlateKing would be staring straight at the enlarged version of the Zombie King’s “handsome” face. This boss didn’t have a set spawn point. It’d spawned right on top of where the two had gone offline. Such an intimate encounter was not one someone who was already afraid of scary things can withstand. He had nearly become the first player in gaming history to be frightened to death. He instantly ran away, yelling and flailing his spear as he went.

It was only after messaging his friend did CopperPlateKing know that the other had immediately used a Return Scroll upon spotting that boss and the crowd of monsters surrounding him. While NonMetaAssassin was at a high level (they were both at 80), he was a fragile assassin whose main stat was Agility. The cave’s environment and the density of monsters stuffed in it made it unsuitable for dodging. It wasn’t worth trying to force his way. He had planned on messaging CopperPlateKing as soon as he was online but NonMetaAssassin was still one step too late.

CopperPlateKing loudly complained about how crass the other was being but even he knew the other had made the right judgement. If it had been CopperPlateKing himself, he would’ve done the same too. It was due to the shock that he’d lost his chance to use a Return Scroll. Being stuck in combat mode, he could only persist in carving out a bloody path in search of finding a safe spot to wait it out or finding the cave’s exit. He just didn’t want to be bitten to death by zombies!

But the sea of zombies was endless. Zombies in the lower levels had a ranged attack in the first place – Acid Spit. After being covered in spit and poisoned, CopperPlateKing went berserk. That led to the sight Bai XiaoYu witnessed.

XiaoYu sympathised greatly at the disaster CopperPlateKing had encountered and patted his shoulder to comfort him.

“I’m fine. Meeting little Lucky has summoned me away from this sea of despair. Haha.” The happy-go-lucky CopperPlateKing instantly bounced back from his depression. He hooked one arm around XiaoYu’s skinny shoulders in a friendly gesture.

“Ahem. Erm…CopperPlate.”

“Hm? Little Lucky, you don’t need to be so polite. You’ll be hanging out with me from now on. Haha!”

“Is he the assassin friend you mentioned?” XiaoYu pointed at the assassin standing a few meters away with a face as black as pot. That assassin’s glare at the arm CopperPlateKing had around XiaoYu’s shoulders seemed as if it wanted to burn a hole into it.

“Erm. Ah. Hey, bastard. When did you arrive?” CopperPlateKing slowly retracted his fool of a hand. His eyes drifted around, and his hands kept fiddling with the spear’s grip. He was obviously feeling uneasy.

“…” The assassin didn’t say a word and only squinted at CopperPlateKing.

Everything was still, silent and awkward with a tinge of danger. Stuck between the two, XiaoYu didn’t know what to do with himself.

“Meow~”

Three pairs of eyes swooshed over at the same time to look at the ignorant little fortune cat on the ground. The sight scared the cat so much all its hair stood on ends. It gazed up at its owner with wide pitiful eyes. It was only hungry and wanted some fish…

XiaoYu quickly scooped the little cat up and went straight for the cave. That assassin didn’t seem like he welcomed XiaoYu’s presence. He’d better scram as fast as he can.

“Hey, Lil Lucky, wait. I’ll help you.” CopperPlateKing wasn’t foolish enough to let himself be left behind to continue the staring match with the mysteriously unhappy NonMetaAssassin.

While that bastard’s usually not talkative, years of friendship had allowed CopperPlateKing understand how to tell when the other’s in a good mood and when he wasn’t. The other was not in a good mood at all right now. He mustn’t be alone with him. Who knew if he’d be kidnapped to some desolate corner of the forest so the other can vent out his feelings at the monsters for three days and three nights.

“It’s okay…I’m fine by myself.” XiaoYu sighed at CopperPlateKing’s obliviousness. He could tell NonMetaAssassin didn’t like him in a glance, yet CopperPlateKing still followed him. He was afraid of having his throat slit open by this agile assassin.

“Don’t be a stranger, Lil Lucky. I nearly stabbed you just now. I should pay you back for it.”

“…Together.”

XiaoYu had yet to reject them in time when a shadow flashed before his eyes. NonMetaAssassin was now standing between the two of them and staring down at him. His aura seemed to say, “If you’ve got the guts not to let me follow you, I’ll kill you now.”

“Bastard, don’t be so aggressive to Lil Lucky. Not everyone can withstand your chilly attitude.” CopperPlateKing howled from behind them.

“Don’t be scared, Lil Lucky. He’s just got a bit of a face problem. He won’t hurt you.” CopperPlateKing popped his head out from behind NonMetaAssassin. He was scared XiaoYu would be scared off. It wasn’t easy befriending such an interesting and catty little friend.

“…” XiaoYu couldn’t even decline now.

“Alright, alright. What’re we standing around for? Let’s go thrash that ugly-ass’s nest. He actually had the balls to frighten me.” CopperPlateKing pushed NonMetaAssassin forward into the Zombie Cave while shouting for XiaoYu to hurry up and follow them.

Bai XiaoYu rolled his eyes. Just a little bit. He was too lazy to bother saying anything else.

Translator’s Comments:

_(:3 」∠)_ I procrastinate too much. Here’s the chapter, one day later than planned.

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8. Grinding at the Zombie Cave

Being too lazy to find more NPCs and accept a string of messy nonsensical quests, Bai XiaoYu ran straight for the Bounty Board, Prole’s special kill quest board, to see if there were any quests suitable for his level.

He looked around and chose a Level 15 quest to protect the kingdom from zombies (one cannot accept a quest over 10 levels above their own). Zombies should be in the undead category. Just in time for him to train up his healing skill’s proficiency.

Past the Southern Gate of Prole lies a patch of thick woods. The further south-east one walked, the more overpowering the scent of rot became.

Even before the cave’s entrance was spotted, XiaoYu already felt like puking. He paused by a tree and leaned on it, trying to get a hold of himself. The tiny cat’s eyes had also spiralled into mosquito coils. He’d made a mistake. He was too focused on finding undead enemies that he’d forgotten about the game’s realism. It wasn’t just restricted to what he can see but also what he could smell.

XiaoYu called up the game’s Menu and, with a trembling hand, hurriedly turned the Scent sensitivity to its lowest. All to prevent himself from dying before succeeding. To add insult to injury, it would be through suffocation by foul odour.

“Come on. Return to the Pet Space.” He lightly patted the little one’s head. He was not willing to let it suffer along with him.

“Meow…” The little cat forced itself to lift a up a tiny paw, and waved it left and right. It then buried its head inside his clothes to block out some of the stench.

Bai XiaoYu couldn’t help let out a sigh in at how amazing the pets in AO were. The AI for them sure were sophisticated. With a money-loving, food-loving TinyLuckyCat that wouldn’t leave him and was completely unwilling to enter the Pet Space, he was finally not alone anymore.

At last, they’ve crawled into the Zombie Cave. XiaoYu held his small wooden wand with a tight grip and stared warily at his surroundings. While he could faintly detect a foul stench, it was still within what he could tolerate. Once his vision adjusted to the cave’s lighting, a narrow little path lay before XiaoYu’s eyes. There were no monsters but he could hear shuffling sounds coming from further within.

He carefully walked along the path. After a turn, his field of view suddenly expanded. Although he’d prepared himself for it, the sight before him still made his hair stand on end.

The room was roughly the size of two basketball fields and filled with dozens of human zombies in all sorts of sizes. Tattered pieces of fabric hung on their bodies. What they once were, he could not determine.  The vast swathes of flesh revealed were covered in pus and bones could be seen glinting through the rot. Flying around each corpse were large flies that would swoop down for a bite of flesh once in a while. The zombies had no eyes. Their deep sockets overflowed with green slime. Something that looked suspiciously like saliva could be seen oozing down the sides of their slightly gaping mouths. Hunched over with their arms swinging, the zombies wandered around this great expanse aimlessly.

Other than the entrance which XiaoYu had just came through, a few tiny corridors could be spotted on the opposite wall past the horde of zombies. The passages were over one person tall and three wide. They looked like they lead further down the cave. However, not only a player clear out a path towards one of these passages but they must also have enough luck to have picked the correct corridor. Otherwise, they would probably loop through this type of scenario over and over again.

But Bai XiaoYu was not interested in the legendary Zombie King at all. His goal was just to kill this floor’s low-level zombies. After some careful observation, he noticed that though the zombies wander around aimlessly, they were restricted to this area only. Those that were headed for any of the small passages would turn away at the entrance. They wouldn’t enter the corridors.

Occasionally, a zombie would discover XiaoYu’s popped-up head. Only then would it lumber over with seemingly heavy feet and follow the retreating XiaoYu into the narrow passage. It seemed like the zombies would only enter the corridors once their attention was caught.

He calculated the zombie’s walking speed and began releasing healing spells as he withdrew.

-35. The white glow of a healing spell hit the zombie’s body. As if it had received a heavy blow, the zombie’s body bounced backwards. Just when he thought it would fall back on its back, it forcibly twisted its body upright, as though its feet were rooted into the ground, and continued walking towards XiaoYu.

Shuffle backwards a little more to maintain distance then release another spell. Shuffle a little more… As he was a mere few steps away from exiting the cave, the zombie finally collapsed onto the floor and burst into coins and a zombified fingernail. Lucky. If he had stepped out of the cave, the game would detect no aggressors to the zombie and make it shuffle back to its original spot with its health fully replenished.

“Meow!” The little cat perked up all of a sudden. It hopped off his shoulders and pounced at the items on the floor.

“…” Alright. He’ll admit it. His lips twitched then. And to think he was moved by the little one’s unwillingness to leave him. It probably didn’t want to leave behind the things that were dropped instead.

“Meow~” Having picked up everything, the tiny cat swayed eagerly by his feet. Its tail would even slap at his leg once in a while as if to encourage its owner to kill some more. It wasn’t done collecting things.

“…orz” Defeated once more. He shouldn’t have underestimated the little cat’s perseverance for money. Even the foul stench of the Zombie Cave cannot stop it from collecting money.

One by one, the zombies were attracted over, then defeated. Just when he thought this round of grinding was very smooth going, an accident occurred.

“Aah!” A man’s sharp shriek echoed from within one of the other passages.

 One by one, zombies far off were being batted away into the air. Only one red-headed Knight dripping with the zombies’ signature fluids could be seen. With his eyes shut tight and his long spear flailing wildly about, the Knight dashed straight for the exit passage Bai XiaoYu was standing in.

XiaoYu frowned. There shouldn’t be a boss on the first floor. This Knight’s level and Strength didn’t seem to low at all. The zombies that were struck into the air transformed into piles of items even before the corpses struck the ground. What could the Knight possibly be afraid of? If he was afraid of zombies, why did he even try grinding in the Zombie Cave?

Afraid that this blind Knight would bulldoze over him accidentally, XiaoYu hurriedly ran out of the cave. Once he’d reached a few feet away from the cave’s entrance, he turned around only to see the Knight still stumbling towards him with his eyes closed and his spear swinging.

While XiaoYu admired the Knight’s ability to find the exit blind, XiaoYu knew that if he did not stop that Knight he would be the next unfortunate soul to be sent flying into the air.

“Stop! You’re already out of the Zombie Cave!” XiaoYu pointed his wand at the Knight. Although he knew the wand would never be able to stop the Knight with the power gap between the two of them, XiaoYu would die without regrets if he could rouse the Knight from his frenzy before XiaoYu vanished into a ray of white light.

The spear stopped a mere few centimetres away from XiaoYu. Startled, the Knight eyes peaked open. As he confirmed all that surrounded him were just sunlight and trees, the Knight released a huge sigh.

At the sight of a small Acolyte in ragged clothes (System rewards = ragged in his mind), CopperPlateKing threw his spear away and leaped towards XiaoYu with wide glistening eyes as though he had seen his mother. “Finally, a living person! Awesome!”

Sadly for CopperPlateKing just before he managed to touch XiaoYu, he was struck in the forehead by a wooden wand. Looking down at the Knight’s armour still covered in all kinds of zombie fluids, XiaoYu thought, thankfully, the other person was stopped. If any of these fluids had touched his body, XiaoYu would definitely puke in disgust. Even if they would be cleared away by the game automatically in 2 minutes.

“Hm? Bleurgh…” CopperPlateKing followed along XiaoYu’s disgusted gaze onto his own body. Only then did he realise his body was dripping with unknown fluids. However disgusting one can imagine, that was how disgusting it was. The Knight immediately turned away, leaned against a tree and started dry heaving.

“Are you…okay?” Even though Bai XiaoYu didn’t want to interact with a stranger, he sympathised with the Knight at the sight of his suffering. If the one dripping with revolting zombie fluids was XiaoYu, the one dry-heaving against a tree would be him.

“I’m…fine.” CopperPlateKing weakly slide down the tree trunk and sat on the ground. The fluids on him had already been washed away. His silver knight’s armour revealed its shimmering self.

“Okay. Then, I’ll be off.” XiaoYu only had a few more zombies before his quest was done. With that on his mind, he decided to continue killing more zombies.

“Ah!” Not even a few steps away, XiaoYu heard the Knight shouting once more. XiaoYu rolled his eyes. Turning to the other, he was about to ask what’s wrong with him now when he heard, “Where’s my Dirk Spear? I spent over 100 crystals in making it!”

As soon as XiaoYu had turned around, his vision was filled with a Knight crawling all over the ground looking for his spear. It shouldn’t have been more than 10 minutes since the Knight tossed the spear away. How could it have been wiped away by the game already?

With a tiny sense of foreboding, XiaoYu stiffly glanced at his notifications.

“Your pet picked up Dirk Spear which was dropped by Player CopperPlateKing.” As he thought…

“Little one…” XiaoYu didn’t even have the strength to be angry at the tiny lucky cat anymore. He lightly flicked the small cat’s forehead, opened up its Inventory, took out the spear and handed it back to CopperPlateKing.

“Here. My apologies. My pet has a bad habit of picking up items.”

“Oh, I was just thinking how could it have disappeared. I didn’t see you picking it up.” CopperPlateKing happily accepted his precious spear. “So your pet is the type to pick up items. It was so cute that I thought it was a decorative type.” It even held its paw over where its head was flicked. So cute~ A field of blooming flowers appeared as CopperPlateKing’s backdrop.

“Erm…yea.” XiaoYu fiddled with a Return Scroll. Hopefully this Knight wouldn’t take an interest in TinyLuckyCat like the players he met last time at the flower sprite zone.

“My name is CopperPlateKing. Let’s be friends.” The red-headed Knight stretched out his hand. His mouth split into a grin, showing off 8 shiny white straight teeth. At the same time, a friend request was sent over.

“…My name is LuckyCat. Nice to meet you.” After a brief moment of hesitation, XiaoYu accepted the friend request and sent one over as well. He didn’t feel any bad intentions from this Knight. He stretched out his hand and shook CopperPlateKing’s hand.

Translator’s Comments:

First friend GET!

As a side note, I have now started another project. As things will become messy in the future, Prev/Next and Index buttons will be appearing at the bottom of each post (other than the default Prev/Next post buttons).

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