Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

If this was the real world, Southern Lone Blade’s corpse would probably remain on the ground, lacerated by a sword. But thankfully, this was an MMO, so Southern Lone Blade’s body was whisked away in that white light, leaving nary a trace of his presence where he once stood.

Gu Fei calmly sheathed his sword, turned around to smile at the dumbfounded three men who were in charge of the bar, “See, I told you I would be quick! It wasn’t any trouble for you guys, right?”

The three were momentarily speechless. Everything had indeed happened really quickly; from the instant Gu Fei raised his sword angering the three, his subsequent disappearance, and the three men turning to witness Southern Lone Blade getting tossed up in the air, followed by Gu Fei’s sword cleave to end his life. Everything had happened over the course of several seconds. The players who saw the entire sequence of event seemed to have all forgotten to take a breath as they tried their best to recall what had happened.

The remaining six men from Southern Lone Blade’s squad of seven were all at a loss. Southern Lone Blade had already died to Gu Fei’s sword by the time they finally realized what was going on, and thought of helping their leader.

Eternal Dominion did not give them any opportunity to take revenge either, as he had quickly slipped away next to Gu Fei after he completed his Seismic Toss.

“See you again!” Gu Fei even bade farewell to the six men, as he and Eternal Dominion proceeded to swagger off. He sent a message over the mercenary channel, “That’s one time!”

“So soon!?” Brother Assist was extremely surprised at this development. He saw that the time was not be too long after they disembarked from the ferry, so could it be that Southern Lone Blade had been standing by the Harbor, waiting for them to slay him?

“Heh, we had quite the good luck, spotting him the moment we walked off the ship!” Gu Fei replied.

“Wait for us,” Young Master Han said.

Everybody immediately made sense of the situation. After all, Southern Lone Blade must have been secretly waiting for their arrival, which just so happened to have allowed Gu Fei to expose him. But of course, the fact that Southern Lone Blade had been waiting for Gu Fei exclusively was a fact that the experts were unaware of.

“How many times do you want him dead?” Gu Fei asked. Now that the job had already begun, there was no need to keep things vague. Of course they had to first understand what their job entailed.

“Kill on. Just kill as much as you can. Didn’t you say it was a piece of cake?” A flippant line from YMH had essentially tossed Southern Lone Blade down into the bottomless ravine; it was apparent YMH did not have a shred of sympathy for the man.

“That’s true,” Gu Fei admitted. He would not even regard Southern Lone Blade as an enemy if he was alone, much less now that he had a powerful assistant like Eternal Dominion. Gu Fei had been so excited about getting into this fight that he had forgotten that Eternal Dominion was supposed to be the lead here; it should be Gu Fei who was the assistant in this situation.

“Should we keep slaying him?” Eternal Dominion asked Gu Fei. He was obviously unable to see the conversation happening in Gu Fei’s mercenary channel.

“Of course!” Gu Fei nodded. “Since we’re being paid, you can just kill as much as you want.”

“This job is really too lucrative a venture!” Eternal Dominion was visibly excited.

“I don’t know if we can intercept the man in the Warrior’s Encampment. Let’s go take a look first!” Gu Fei had plenty of experience doing this sort of thing. At this point, anybody who had been scheming would usually have set up an encirclement in the Warriors’ Encampment, in an attempt to wait for their prey to get themselves ensnared again. However, given how skilled and bold he was, Gu Fei would find nothing more enjoyable than eliminating both the target and the trap at one go, so he really could not be bothered to think too much about this.

The two man left the open bar by the beach, their figures slowly getting further and further away, but the shock they had left behind with the crowd of players stayed for the longest time.

---

This was especially true for the three men from the bar, who were looking at one another before someone finally said, “Inform the guild leader...”

Indeed, Gu Fei had been expeditious with the kill, closing the matter so quickly that there was not even time for pandemonium to set in. While his act did not even impact their business, the problem was that Gu Fei’s action was nevertheless an infringement of the rules they had set. This was a matter of face; be it expert or guild, the more outstanding they were, the more they valued their image.

Gu Fei had killed one of their patrons in their open-air bar by the beach. If they did not mete out any punishment for his action, it was possible for others to use this incident as an excuse to cause trouble in the future. Even if trouble did not find their way to them, all it would take was a snide remark or two, and people might mock their guild for being an entity that bullied the weak but feared the strong, creating a double standard for experts. This was something they simply could not stand for.

So even though Gu Fei’s action had not caused them any physical damage, the harm they did mentality-wise could not be discredited. The three men were well aware that this matter should not be casually handled, so they hurriedly contacted their guild leader about this, letting their leader determine the course of action.

---

While the guild was sorting the matter on their end, Flame Singed Clothes immediately turned to their Priest the moment Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion departed and ordered, “Paddy Scent, quick!”

The Priest’s IGN was Paddy Scent Pastures. He had been staring at the spot where Southern Lone Blade had disappeared, nodding slightly as he quickly strode over. He took out his magic staff and carefully drew out an array on the ground, before pointing his magic staff on the ground. He retrieved a little booklet from his dimensional pocket with his left hand and flipped to a page before immediately beginning to chant a spell with great vigor.

This strange scene caught the eye of plenty of other players. The remaining five players of the squad were all currently standing around Paddy Scent Pastures.

“What are they doing?”

“Just what is that guy they are enclosing saying?”

“Could he be chanting?” The posture that Paddy Scent Pastures had taken looked impossible for chanting a spell, but the fact that he was reading from a booklet made it seem nondescript.

“Is it possible that he is chanting a long string of incantations?” The intelligence displayed by the crowd was unlimited, so they were able to quickly get closer to the truth.

“What sort of spell is that?” For the phrases of this incantation to be so long that the players themselves were unable to remember it went to show that it truly had to be a remarkable spell. At the moment, all the players were staring at the position where that Priest was attempting to cast his spell when finally someone guessed, “Could it be...?!”

A white light flashed!

A barely perceptible cloud of white light floated at the space where Paddy Scent Pastures had pointed his staff. This layer of light soon emitted a flash, so glaring that people instinctively shut their eyes. Fortunately, this flash of light had disappeared entirely in the next moment, as Southern Lone Blade reappeared in that space in the same pose he was in before he died.

Blackwater was already by his side physically supporting him as Flame Singed Clothes handed him a bread and fruit. Southern Lone Blade took them, sighing before looking all around him, “They’re gone?”

The six men nodded. Paddy Scent Pastures stowed that booklet of his and hurriedly picked out a fruit to consume.

Southern Lone Blade stared at the countless strange stares around them and sighed again, “Did all these players witnessed it?”

The six of them nodded reluctantly.

Resurrection! To think the effect of that long incantation, which Paddy Scent Pastures had trouble remembering in its entirety, was actually a resurrection spell...

This was a spell never mentioned in the officially released information provided by the game company. Players had thought that the spell did not exist in Parallel World. These players from Linshui City that had just personally witnessed the entire process of the resurrection spell were all so flabbergasted at the moment. They were truly at a loss for words now that they had suffered through two stupefying instances, one after the other.

“Let’s take our leave first!” Southern Lone Blade did not even bother to consume the food he was given as he gathered the others to leave.

Innocent commoners might be implicated for harboring a fugitive king! Southern Lone Blade and his men were all professional larcenists, so they were more than well aware of the logic behind this.

The full name for this resurrection skill in Parallel World was “Rise from the Dead”, a skill that only Light Priests could learn. The Priest job class was that of a nurse-maid, but the moment they had access to a skill with the resurrection effect, they would become gods! Even though the entire process of Rise from the Dead looked troublesome, and it would take a very long time to complete the incantation, the value that this spell would provide was immense considering the loss of level and experience that Parallel World imposed upon death.

Players that were resurrected through Rise of The Dead would be completely exempted from the penalties of death. Of course, this would not include the loss of equipment, money, or any other items as a result of death; these worldly possessions would be picked up by others, so there was no way they would be resurrected along with the player.

With such a powerful skill, the cooldown was also very powerful as well, requiring up to twelves hours before the next time it could be cast. The time was cumulatively calculated, so that meant any intention to log in and out of the game would not reset this timer.

There were also prerequisites from the player the spell was cast on as well: First, the death could not have passed the five minute mark before it was cast. Second, the player must not leave the spawn point after death; and third, the player in question had to accept the system prompt when the spell was activated.

That was the reason why these men had decided to use this skill the moment they saw Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion leave in a hurry after slaying Southern Lone Blade.

After all, dropping from level 40 to 39 and level 41 to 40 were two entirely different matters, given how much greater the experience loss a level 41 would incur losing a level.

The seven hastily left the beach under the intense gazes of the players present.

Southern Lone Blade and his men did not have a shred of doubt that it would take no more than several days for all the players in Parallel World to learn of the existence of a resurrection spell in the game. Such a powerful skill would not be coveted by Priests alone, as even those teams that had a dedicated Priest attached to them would also want their Priest to get a hold of such a skill.

Logically speaking, such a skill could not be stolen, but the problem was that players who were well versed in MMO knew that a spell that did not exist in the skill tree that was officially released would usually be from a skill or spell from an equipment.

Unfortunately, Paddy Scent Pastures’ Rise of the Dead was a spell that came from his magic staff, The Staff of Resurrection.

Given Southern Lone Blade and his squad’s knowledge and position when it came to larceny, he dared surmise that it would take no more than five days, for there to be someone who would look to hire them to search for The Staff of Resurrection. Southern Lone Blade could only grimace when he thought of this. Obviously, he would have plenty of excuses to reject this particular request, but there was no way of knowing if a fellow larcenist might come knocking on their door...

Southern Lone Blade had not heard of another team of larcenists as highly respected as theirs, but he had no doubt that they existed out there. For both parties to meet up in such a manner, it was best to leave discussion of this matter for another time. Right now, he needed to continue the task at hand.

By now, the seven of them were already nearing the city gate nearest the beach.

“The two of them look to be targeting me,” Southern Lone Blade said.

The six nodded. There was no need to discuss how obvious they were in confronting Southern Lone Blade directly in an effort to kill just him.

“In that case, they will surely be over in the Warrior’s Encampment, looking to intercept me,” Southern Lone Blade said. “He now has one PK point, so we should find a way to further increase his PK Value, to better save us time and effort.”