Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 6 The Impolite Black Wolf

Although Zol was a rather depressed person, he was quite orderly. After receiving Lemmy’s letter, Ye Ci had leveled up from lvl 4 to lvl 5. Zol wasted no time in teaching the two lvl 5 skills to Ye Ci, Slash and Bow Proficiency.

Not only that, Zol even rewarded a Green Bow to Ye Ci because she had been highly praised by the other NPC’s in the newbie village.

Sharp Bow: Attack damage 4 -10, Attack Speed +1%, Level Required: 5, Class: Hunter.

Although instructors would hand out weapons to players, the quality of the weapon depended highly on their mood. Most of the players received White equipment, while the slightly luckier ones would get Green equipments. Only the truly lucky ones might have the chance of obtaining a Blue equipment.

Apparently, Ye Ci’s luck was pretty average in this case.

She did not complain. Her past life had taught her to appreciate what she had. She had learned not to reach for something beyond her grasp; she had learned not to be greedy. This brought her peace and closure.

She opened her Character panel and looked at her stats.

ID: Gongzi You

Race: Elf

HP: 250

MP: 120

Endurance: 25

Stamina: 12

Strength: 15

Intelligence: 12

Agility: 26+2(Race Attribute)

Speed: 2

Balance: 12+1 (Race Attribute)

Perception: 6+1 (Race Attribute)

Trait: Sneak (Racial Attribute), Concealment (Class Attribute), Sly, Diplomacy, Leap, Roll, Haggle.

The stats points of every class in Glory were automatically distributed by the system. Of the eight main stats, speed was the only one that needed to be increased by having good equipment. The other seven stats would increase by a total of 16 points whenever a character leveled up.

All the classes were provided with 16 points. The only difference was the distribution of those points.

For example, whenever a Hunter or Huntress leveled up, the system would distribute their stats points as followed:

Endurance: 3, Stamina: 2, Strength: 2, Intelligence: 2, Agility: 4, Balance: 2, Perception: 1.

All the stats were perfectly balanced in their own ways.

Such automated distribution had its pros and cons.

The good thing about it was that it avoided the creation of characters with totally broken stats, while keeping the balance between different classes. The downside to it was the heavy dependency of players on equipment and skills to gain an edge on their opponents.

But from what Ye Ci could see, this was how Glory Corporation earned its money.

When players relied heavily on skills and equipments, Glory Corporation would earn big, as players would definitely invest more money into the game when the Game Coins and Real World Cash Conversion System opened.

After closing the character panel, Ye Ci straightened up her newbie clothing and headed for Icy Cave.

Before she could reach Icy Cave though, she needed to visit a place called the Crossroads.

All the other classes in Fate, with the exception of melee classes, required different consumables. Mages required different materials to cast their spells, healers required certain mediums, while Hunters and Rangers that used bows require arrows.

These consumables normally cost quite a lot.

That, of course, was only a small matter. What troubled players the most was that high grade consumables were not sold in shops. As for where they were sold...

Only Ye Ci and God Himself knew.

As Ye Ci left the newbie village, she could see a lot of players along the way. Some grouped together in twos and threes while others worked alone. They waved about the beginner weapons gifted by the system and busied themselves with leveling up...or rather, stealing monsters away from each other.

Ye Ci let out a sigh. She was glad that she managed to enter the game half an hour earlier. If she had entered the game at 14:00 hours just like these people, she would be drowned by the tide of people leveling up. Would she still be able to go to the Icy Cave?

A Huntress’s base movement speed was 2. It was higher than melee and mage classes, but to Ye Ci, it was very slow.

She took a staggering half an hour to reach the Crossroads that was not very far from the newbie village.

She even felt hunger after reaching the Crossroads.

She slowed down and walked towards a small wooden house at the side of the Crossroads. Natasha the Elf was sitting in a corner of the house with arrow crafting materials scattered around her feet, but sets of completed arrows were already stacked on the table.

Ye Ci greeted the Elf and stated her business. Natasha was not surprised. She even handed a set of arrows to Ye Ci without raising her head.

Ye Ci smiled and shook her head after inspecting the arrows, “Natasha, I want better ones.”

Hunters and Huntresses could use 3 types of arrows before they leveled up, namely Crude Arrows(1 damage) , Wooden Arrows(3 damage) and Copper Arrows (6 damage). The prices of these three types of arrows were different as well.

Each set of Crude Arrows cost 1 copper coin, each set of Wooden Arrows cost 20 copper coins, and a set of Copper Arrows cost 1 silver coin.

A freshly lvl 5 Huntress would normally not have more than 10 silver coins. They would have even less after purchasing some essentials. Their arrows of choice could only be the cheapest Crude Arrow.

The arrows handed to Ye Ci by Natasha were the cheapest Crude Arrows.

However, she underestimated Ye Ci. Despite her newbie equipments, she had collected 12 gold coins after being awarded by the system for obtaining the “First Blood” for 2 quests in a row.

With her wealth, Ye Ci would naturally prefer Copper Arrows over Crude Arrows.

Ye Ci fished out 10 silver coins from her pocket for ten sets of Copper Arrows. Of course, if the capacity of her quiver could accommodate a hundred sets of arrows, she wouldn’t mind purchasing all hundred of them at once.

That was enough to provoke a reaction from Natasha. She glanced at Ye Ci with her cold purple eyes and handed 10 sets of Copper Arrows to Ye Ci.

Ye Ci received the arrows with respect and left after placing them in her quiver. Before she could leave, she heard an unfamiliar voice, “Young Huntress, how would you like to begin your journey?”

It was Natasha. Ye Ci was somewhat surprised. She thought that the NPC was mute. In her past life’s memory, Natasha never spoke once to any player.

“From Dau’er’s past. I will follow the Elven King’s footsteps.” Ye Ci replied with one of the village chiefs sentences after a moment of thought.

Natasha raised her eyebrows and her ears jerked all of a sudden. She closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath before saying, “Go, young Huntress. May Elven King Dau’er stay by your side.”

She continued making more arrows after that, as if nothing had happened.

Ye Ci waited for more words from Natasha, but soon left the house disappointed. She entered the dense and quiet forest from a hidden path at the north.

The Elven Forest was the name of the forest surrounding the Elven newbie village. The forest was so big that it was endless. The only thing Ye Ci knew about it was that it contained a lot of Elven newbie villages, as well as 3 prep-Dungeons.

The trees in the Elven Forest were enormous. One could only see the trunks and dense leaves of the trees when raising one’s head. Only tiny glints of sunlight were able to pass through the leaves, as if they were stars that warmed up the forest floor. With layers of leaves carpeting the ground, it gave off a soft and wet feeling upon walking through it.

Unknown species of plants and mushrooms flourished under the leaves.

Ye Ci walked down a hidden path stretched into the deepest parts of the Elven Forest, buried by the leaves.

It was deadly quiet except for the occasional level 4 and 5 monsters loitering around.

A prerequisite quest must be completed before entering the Frost Cave. Avoiding monsters along the way, Ye Ci reached the Altar of Molor situated in the heartlands of the Northern Elven Forest.

A few robed, low level priests were muttering on the altar.

“Young Huntress, I’m sure you’re here to help us. The Elven King did not abandon us.” The lead priest was happy to see Ye Ci.

“What can I help you with, honorable Priest?”

“The Rat Men from the Icy Cave stole my badge while I was sleeping. Oh! Do you know that!? It was very important. The Grand Priest will be here for inspection in a few days, if he finds out that I lost it, I’m finished!” A pained expression surfaced on the priset face, and he cast a sly glance at Ye Ci. He chuckled and said, “Huntress, if you could help me to get that badge back, I will make it worth your while...”

Ye Ci accepting the quest while sighing internally. These NPC’s were very good fighters, but they were still using players as their runners.

“Hey! You there, gimme a hand!” Ye Ci could hear a clear shout coming from her back just as she was about to enter the Icy Cave.

Turning around, Ye Ci could see a black wolf running towards her, with a horde of spiders in hot pursuit!

“Don’t just stand there! Hurry up, take care of some of them for me!” Shouted the black wolf to Ye Ci impolitely while running.