Zhan Long

Chapter 77 - Promotion Preparation

Note: 6 Chapters! Just realized that this was my 100th post too!

We were eating congee late at night outside of the school on a snack street.

Stirring the congee with her spoon, it seemed like Wan Er didn’t have much of an appetite. She raised her head, looked at me, and asked, “Have you really decided to join [Vanguard]?”

I couldn’t help but laugh, “This is the fourth time I’m saying this. I’m not joining them, but rather I’m being employed and helping [Vanguard] to kill a boss. Feng Han is quite greedy, so I think he wants to get the Guild Creation Tablet as soon as possible.”

On the side, Cheng Yue pursed her lips and said, “To get the tablet you need to kill a boss that’s over level 50 and over gold-ranked, moreover the drop rate isn’t high, and it’s not something you can do quickly. I think Feng Han is thinking too wishfully, and if Xiao Yao helps [Vanguard] like this, it’s not too appropriate…”

“Why?”

Wan Er squinted her eyes and said, “Because Cheng Yue and I have decided to join [Hero’s Mound]. The guild master of [Hero’s Mound] Q-sword has been said to be the #1 fighter, clashing with Feng Han, so those two don’t get along too well. I just hope that we don’t need to clash swords, that wouldn’t be too fun…”

I pursed my lips and said, “Don’t worry. I’m only helping [Vanguard] to kill this boss; anything else has nothing to do with me.”

“Mm, that’s good. Oh yeah, you accepted the employment of [Vanguard], what’s the salary?”

“Killing one boss will get me 1000 Yuan (~$160), transferred directly into my bank account. Also, if it drops any equipment that can be used by heavy armored classes, then I take priority on it. Those are my conditions.”

“Those conditions are very attractive, what do they see in you…”

“…”

Cheng Yue smiled on the side, “Don’t tease him any more Wan Er…That’s right. Xiao Yao, your class right now is Scavenger of Dragon City, and it seems like it’s a swordsman-based hidden class right? You can equip heavy armor and you can also heal. That’s the reason why they employed you right?”

I nodded, “Mm. Outside of Ba Huang City, Fierce Tiger from [Flying Dragons] had a dueling ring arranged, and he said whoever can beat him gets 100 gold, so I took the duel. I used my [Combo] to kill him, and coincidentally Feng Han saw it, so that was the start of this mess.”

“What?!”

Wan Er suddenly stood up with her skirt fluttering around, and she stared at me in a daze. She seemed to have a hard time believing what I said, “You…You already made your own [Combo]?”

“That’s right…” I smiled, “Use your cellphone to look online, and check all the players that have their own combos. You should be able to find my name…”

“Oh?”

She sat down, looking shocked. She took out her cellphone and searched around, then she opened her small mouth and said, “Eh…[Strength of a Thousand Men], S-rank [Combo], 5 strikes, total time consumed 1.2 seconds… Such a strong [Combo]…”

I raised my bowl, finished off the congee in my bowl, and smiled, “Yeah!”

Wan Er raised her head, looked at me and asked, “Are you really good at swordsmanship?”

“What do you think?”

On the side, Cheng Yue spoke up, “Oh I know. At the beginning of school Xiao Yao had a longsword covered in black cloth on his back, and I thought that he was only carrying around a sword in school to impress the women, but I never would have thought that you actually knew any swordsmanship…This…To make an S-rank [Combo], you need to be either proficient in reality, or you would have to have some perfect talent in the game to do that…”

I thought for a bit and said, “Actually, making your own [Combo] isn’t as hard as you might think it is. The important thing is beginning from the first strike, every attack must not allow any resistance from the opponent and force the opponent to be unable to control themselves. With that, the chain of attacks won’t be interrupted. The last strike is the killing strike, and any skills that help with increasing damage would increase the strength of that strike.”

After saying that, I looked towards Wan Er and smiled, “Wan Er, you’re an outstanding, nimble assassin with fast attack speed. If you make a [Combo], then you can do at least 7 strikes within 2 seconds. Remember to properly find the attacking rhythm. If you can control the rhythm, then you can control the battle!”

Wan Er widened her eyes, stareed at me with those deep, black gem-like eyes, and nodded her head, “Mm, I understand…”

I smiled, “That’s good…”

Wan Er lowered her head to eat the congee, and didn’t look at me anymore. Cheng Yue though was smiling on the side, “It looks like even our genius young lady has times where she needs to ask for guidance… How rare…”

“That’s right Xiao Yao!” Cheng Yue asked again, “When is [Vanguard] planning to kill the boss?”

“24 hours later, so they’re requesting me to get to level 40 within 24 hours. After getting skills for the second promotion, we’ll go and challenge the level 50+ boss…”

“Which means you’re not free tomorrow?”

“Why? You guys are planning to do something?”

“Wan Er and I were planning to go to Xixi Wetlands to have a stroll, but since you’re busy, then next time?”

I put down my spoon, “It’s fine, I’ll go with you two to Xixi Wetlands tomorrow. I’m Wan Er’s bodyguard, so where she goes I need go as well, this is the requirement for my job. I’ll just rush to level 40 tonight and it’ll be fine.”

“Then that’s good… We’ll meet at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning, and we’ll eat lunch there.”

“Okay!”

……

Late at night, I returned to the dorms. I needed to work hard and rise straight to level 40 this night, so I could go to Xixi Wetlands tomorrow.

Whoosh!

I appeared in the middle of Ba Huang City, and looked at my experience bar. 11% in level 39. I was neither close nor far until level 40, so after some thinking, I decided that it was better to level up around Dragon City. Because, the instant I leveled up, I could go and ask for a promotion from my instructor. I didn’t even know what the second promotion of a Scavenger of Dragon City would bring; I just hope it would be a good skill…

I prepared equipment, refilled potions, and after some bits and bobs, I left!

After 1 hour of traveling, I reached Dragon City. From afar, I saw smoke rising, and found Beast Tamer Dalin starting a barbeque. This guy, he ate every day, but I didn’t see him getting fat, and rather his muscles were really admirable. This barbarian’s physique was not something you could easily compare to.

I took my sword, walked up, and asked respectfully, “Instructor, is there anything I can do for you?”

The tamer pointed towards the east and said, “One mile out, there’s a forest, and in there some hot red peppers are grown. Boy, if you gather some of those peppers within 20 minutes, and sprinkle them on my lunch, I would be very thankful for your help…”

This guy, he wanted me to help me with his barbeque?!

I immediately nodded with respect, “As you wish instructor!”

My left foot stepped on the ground, and a hexagram appeared. My level 39 Baby Bobo flew out, and circled around my shoulders while flapping his wings. Although his 768 attack damage wasn’t as high as mine, there was still possible growth. Besides, pets were for assisting players, and after players gained a certain amount of levels and equipment, pets were naturally unable to catch up. But, Bobo’s stinger was still here. In the current stage, with the exception of heavy armored monks and knights, he would do quite a bit against others.

The season around Dragon City was autumn, and I could feel the withering of the living things in the wild. I walked around for a minute, and in front of me, I could see dots of red in the forest ahead. It was the peppers that Dalin wanted.

As I was walking up to pick them, suddenly I heard some rustling around me, something was here!

Bang!

The dirt exploded in front of me, and a porcupine that weighed at least 100 kg appeared in front of me. A level 42 monster and the spikes around its body returned 20% of all damage dealt to it!

I stepped on the soft dirt and attacked. A golden hexagram started to appear on my sword, and I used [Combo] on the porcupine. A chain of damage numbers flew up——

“401!”

“397!”

“408!”

At the same time, I received the damage from the spikes, and my Health dropped as well——

“80!”

“79!”

“82!”

……

Bobo also started his attack, and I took the chance to rush up. I stood behind the huge porcupine, and I founnd its most vulnerable and defenseless area, the butt! Using my [Combo] to attack here had the best chance of success. This game’s design was so similar to reality and very logical, so every small detail could determine whether you lost or won. As I was killing monsters, I wouldn’t easily put down my guard. Even if I was killing a chicken, I would use my full power to kill it!

The 5 strikes went out screaming, and the porcupine cried out while being attacked. I swept my feet, and after the 3 strikes, I started my 4th, ram!

Bang!

The porcupine wailed and screamed, but I also wailed and screamed. My face and chest had holes in them now, and it hurt quite a bit. I couldn’t ram these kinds of monsters…But, with that one ram, I stunned the porcupine for a short while, and I used the strongest strike out of the 5——[Wind Blade]!

“878!”

Looking at the damage, I got some satisfaction. The damage from [Strength of a Thousand Men] was extremely strong, and it should be the strongest [Combo] at this point, or else Wan Er wouldn’t be that surprised. She was, after all, one of Fan Shu City’s top 3 players, and had seen quite a few battles.

Blood splashed out, and the huge porcupine was killed and the porcupine dropped a few silver coins.

I knelt and picked up the silver coins. After that, I started picking the peppers, and before long, I had collected a huge pile. After walking for a bit, another huge porcupine appeared, and I quickly killed it off. The 20% return damage didn’t do much to me, plus I had [Heal]. The current me could both attack and heal, and my dueling strength was top class!

After collecting quite a bit of peppers, I stood up, and held one porcupine in one hand and the other porcupine in the other, and dragged their corpses back. Porcupine meat was actually pretty tasty, back in my mission days I ate quite a bit of it. Even when we ran out of canned food, me and my 7 other comrades relied on porcupines and mountain chickens to fill our stomachs. After equipping the AWSM gun with silencers, we sniped the pheasants from afar, and the accuracy was way sharper than a hunting rifle. Thinking back, I did miss those flavors…

……

Rustle…

The porcupines’ corpse carved a deep ditch along the dirt and sand as I walked back to camp. I arrived at the camp, threw the porcupine on the side, and said, “Instructor, I brought the items back, and two fresh porcupines.”

Dalin’s eyes flashed, and smiled, “Boy, your growth is something that is worth noticing; perhaps I was wrong when I first saw you. You are not the shame of Dragon City, but rather our fresh blood. Captain Frost has good insight, and your growth has proved this. How about this, peel the skin of the porcupine and cook it. I brought some wine here, and since you are my student, will you drink a cup with me?”