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Chapter 9 - Artisans of Combat
Hooooowl!
The sound of the wolves could be heard as it resounded throughout the valley. Like the nocturnal predators that they were, they hunted in the dark with their superior night vision and sense of smell. Unlike the sluggish wolves that were fought in the earlier levels, these wolves were significantly smarter and stronger.
The Corrupted Dire Wolves were wolves that were driven insane through the dark forces of magic. The condensed mana in their bodies strengthened their bodies beyond their level and it also allowed them the ability to use a unique variety of skills called Wolf Magic.
Unique Magic was a form of magic that was race exclusive and very difficult to fight against since it wasn’t not like traditional skill. Some races have specific class passive such as the Troll’s unique regenerative abilities or the Dark Spectres that can manifest darkness as a weapon.
Wolf Magic was a strange form of Unique Magic. There were various separate abilities that greatly enhanced the Corrupted Dire Wolves’ combat prowess. One of their unique skills was that they could create several Doppelgangers of Darkness that moved independently of the wolf. Since the Corrupted Dire Wolves looked exactly the same as the Doppelgangers it was very difficult to defeat the real body. If not defeated quickly then the wolf’s Doppelganger skill cooldown would reset and then it would recast it to create more wolves.
Unlike traditional wolves, the Corrupted Dire Wolves traveled alone thanks to their Unique Magic. This made them slightly easier to handle since they would not attack in great number with an increasingly larger number of Doppelgangers. However, that did not make each individual wolf any less fierce.
“This should be the place.”
Sun said after he had led them through the valley.
“Sun are you sure that this is a good idea?”
Yong Li asked with a hint of concern in his voice. The wolves were between the levels of 270 to 300. However, he had read in the message boards that parties with an average level of 320 had a difficult time hunting these monsters.
“What level you each of you?”
Sun asked to be sure. As long as they weren’t too low level then the monsters wouldn’t pose any real danger to them.
Sun had reached level 300 about a month ago and Alena had reached around level 150 from her month of assisted training with Sun. That, of course, didn’t mean their true combat ability.
“We’re around level 250.”
That was the main reason for their concern. It was very difficult to fight monsters of a similar level for most users, much less monsters of a higher level. Most users depended on their stats and the system assistance for fighting. As they leveled up, some users began to gain some combat sense and fight without relying on the system’s help.
However, most users did not gain this form of combat awakening even after reaching level 300. This was mainly caused by hasty fighting tactics used to speed up hunting at the cost of skill training and combat expertise.
Much like the situation in the Basra Caverns where the users simply leveled up by nuking waves of monsters with countless area of effect skills. Even if the experience was good, the amount of skill training was non-existent and combat ability became stagnant.
Assisted hunting was also a major problem. It was not like Sun’s assisted hunting with Alena. Sun helped Alena by purchasing her new equipment and by healing her during combat. Moreover, he would give her buffs to hunt monsters that were stronger than her.
However, sometimes he would not give her buffs in order for her to raise her skill expertise. The monsters that they hunted varied from time to time in order to give her sufficient combat knowledge and he would assist by telling her tactics to fight each monster with.
The problem was the assisted hunting that other users had was that none of these ideas were used. Assisted hunting with other users mainly involved a lower level user leeching off a higher level user. The higher level user would severely weaken the monster and let the lower level user deal the finishing blow to receive a large portion of the experience. Because of this, their skill expertise suffered and the users had no idea of real combat.
“So all of you are around level 250?”
Sun asked to confirm.
“Yea...it’s not a problem is it?”
Yong Li asked with a slight bit of concern. They were more than certain that Sun was higher level than them since he gone on expeditions with the Royal Knights of Kallamore.
“No, it should be more than enough.”
Sun said to relieve them of their worries. Though level 250 was lower than the average monster level in Kallamore, it wouldn’t pose that much of a problem. Many of the Knight Apprentices that he had gone on training expeditions with in Kallamore were around that level. With the proper tactics, monsters of higher ranks can be fought much easier than normally.
“By the way, what level are the two of you?”
Da Xia asked with a curious look on her face. It had been quite some time since they had seen him and she was wondering how strong he was now. Back in the Rosenheim Kingdom, Sun had been around level 170 after they had finished the dungeon together. They, on the other hand, were around level 150. They had not seen each other in a few months so they had wondered how strong he was now, though in real life they had only not seen him for around 2 months.
“I reached level 300 awhile ago.”
They were all shocked. Level 300 was a large breaking point between a high level and a lower level user. Since the experience curve was exponential, it became much more difficult to level up as they progressed. Most users had to fight lower level monsters due to the hunting difficulty and thus received an experience penalty.
The five of them had barely managed to reach level 250 by hunting similarly level monsters with their good teamwork. Most PuGs could not hunt monsters of the same level because their teamwork was bad, especially when there were classes with skills and attributes that the other party members were unaware of. Teamwork played a critical role in hunting and that was why the five of them had managed to reach level 250 in the time that they did.
They were more amazed at Sun though. He was more than 50 levels higher than them in the same period of time. Even if he was affiliated with the Church of Freya, most players could not perform the same results in such a short period of time. Though, for the most part, it was due to the fact that he slept in the game where time moved more rapidly he could hunt more often and that he hunted monsters that were much stronger than him.
Users affiliated with the Church could not receive many quests due to their difficulty level but Sun had built up enormous amounts of familiarity so they had confidence in his abilities.
“What about Alena?”
They asked since they had not seen her with Sun before. So that meant that he had adopted her in the last two months in real life so she could not be that high level.
“Well she started around a month ago so she’s only level 150. But she’s more than enough to help with the hunt. I’ve taken her on a few expeditions with the Royal Knights before.”
They could not have been more surprised. Since she had only started a month ago, then that meant that she had been adopted by him immediately after they had parted in Kallamore.
However, this was due to a difference in the understanding of time. Since the first month of the game had to be spent behind city walls, they understood that it had been two months since she had started the game. However, to reach level 150 in one month of gameplay was remarkable.
The problem with this understanding was that one month in real life meant four months in game. However, Sun had managed to level her up to level 150 within one month in game, which was 1 week in real life.
“Are you sure that she’ll be alright?”
Even so, level 150 was far too low level to be hunting monsters that were nearly twice her level. The rest of the party was concerned with this and cautioned Sun.
“It’s no problem. I took her solo hunting here once so it’ll be fine.”
Sun was more than capable of killing a single Corrupted Dire Wolf by himself, though it would take awhile. He had taken Alena out here once to get experience with fighting monsters that were much stronger than herself. Though it was impractical to fight monsters that were much higher level, she was able to fight one with Sun’s assistance and managed to kill one after several hours.
“If you say so…”
Feng Yun said with some doubt still left in her eyes. It was understandable since the monster was higher than level 270.
Ding~
The sound of a small alarm went off in the surrounding area. Sun’s Alarm spell had found the presence of an approaching enemy.
“Here’s one now.”
Sun said as he quickly cast support magic on everyone. Though support magic greatly improved their stats, far beyond what they were expecting, they still did not feel very confident since the monsters were much higher level than them.
A large black wolf came entered into the valley. This wolf was much larger than traditional wolves and its fur was extremely thick, giving it a strong defense. Despite its size, there were clear signs of its quick mobility and power disposition.
“What should we do?”
Hou Yi started panicking. Archers were a strong class at fighting at a distance but poor in close combat. Fast moving monsters such as wolves were difficult enemies for them.
“Start fighting. I’ll give advice as the fight goes on.”
Sun said as he continued to cast some more support spells on them.
Da Xia and Yong Li took to the front of the battle since they were the tanks and physical damage dealers. Feng Yun provided combat assistance by using assassination skills whenever she got a chance. Xuehua and Yong Li attacked from a distance using ice magic and arrows.
However, the wolf proved very difficult to fight. Soon after combat started, the wolf activated its unique magic and summoned its Doppelgangers. Since it was an unique magic and not an active magic Da Xia was unable to use her unique job trait of absorbing magic.
Assassination skills became much more difficult to use since it was difficult to find the real body.
Yong Li, the tank of the party, now had to deal with a larger number of enemies. The same could be same for the ranged attacks. The attacks became much more difficult to use now that the enemies had become larger in number.
‘Well, that should be long enough.’
After seeing them struggle in battle for a few minutes, Sun decided it was time to step in.
“Elemental Sight!”
Sun focused his mana into his eyes and picked out the magic composition of each of the wolves. Since the Doppelgangers were being created from mana, the real body was comprised of elements other than the darkness elements. However, without waiting for Sun to pick out the real body, Alena had already let out a shot.
“Fire Scatter Shot!”
Using her Magic Marksman skills, she shot out a large area of effect fire rain arrow shot. It’s damage wasn’t that special and there were better skills that could be used, but in this situation it was the best skill. This was because the targets of the spell could be chosen.
The arrows of fire rained down on all the wolves. The damage was miniscule but her goal had been achieved. Notching an arrow into her bow, she fired the next shot.
“Radiant Arrow!”
After building up mana into the arrow, she fired it at one of the targets. The arrow shot out at an incredible speed and struck its target. The wolf let out a high pitched yelp as the arrow struck and blood flowed from its wound. A glowing mark was left on the wolf’s wound.
The rest of the party was amazed at how she had figured out the real from the rest of the fakes.
Sun quickly praised her for her achievement before he started to act. First, he started by casting a slow spell on all of the wolves to take away their mobility. Then he used Light Binding to mark the real wolf. Though Light Binding was a more effective spell on larger creatures and the undead, it was still effective to a lesser degree on normal monsters.
The fighting continued now that the real wolf was marked. Yong Li and Da Xia took turns tanking the damage from the wolves while the others focused on attacking the real body. After a couple of minutes the real wolf fell over and died, leaving behind a mana stone and some items.
“How did you do that?”
Da Xia was puzzled at how the two of them had managed to identify the real body of the wolf. All of the wolves had looked exactly the same to them.
“Let me explain…”
Sun began to explain exactly what had occurred in that battle before. At the beginning of the fight, the wolf had cast its unique magic. A very difficult magic to fight unless you knew how to counter it. In his case, Sun had cast his Elemental Sight in order to distinguish the composition of each of the monsters. However, there were several other methods to finding the real body as well.
Such was the case for Alena. Her first skill was Fire Scatter Shot, a relatively weak spell but the main purpose of the skill was its large AoE fire properties. The skill could target several enemies several times. This made it a very difficult skill to dodge. The fire shots had rained down on the enemies, dealing incredibly low damage.
However, the purpose of the attack was not to deal damage but determine the real body. Though similar in appearance, the real body of the wolves was physical while the others were physical masses of mana. The Doppelgangers would simply receive damage, but the real wolf’s fur would be slightly singed from the fire attack. The Doppelgangers could not handle changes in physical appearances after they were created. The skill would have to be recast in order for the Doppelgangers to have the appearance of damage from the real wolf.
Alena noticed this with both her eyes and by the smell, and thus she picked out the real body of the wolf.
Her second skill was Radiant Arrow, which she had used due to its powerful damage and its incredible speed. She had fired the arrow to its target, and then marked it for the rest of her teammates to attack.
“So that’s how it is.”
Yong Li nodded in understanding at the end of Sun’s explanation.
“Each monster has its strengths and weaknesses so you need to find the best way to fight against them. This is why I decided to have us fight against the Corrupted Dire Wolves first since they have a weakness that can easily exploited since they hunt alone.”
The experience that they were getting was good but nothing amazing. The purposing of fighting the wolves first was to build up their understanding of the way of combat. Naturally the wolves still gave decent experience and the quest rewards were good, but the purpose of this quest was to get them skilled enough to take on much higher level requests.
Now that they understood the theory behind it, Sun made them think of a number of different tactics they could use to fight against this specific monster. Though these tactics would not work on other monsters, the idea of this mind exercise was to get them into the habit of understanding a monster’s attack patterns and devising methods to counter them.
They came up with a few tactics that would work. At the start of each battle, they would each use a tactic to try to find the real wolf’s body. The initial attack from each of them was weak but its purpose was to find the real body.
Such tactics included Feng Yun’s poison coated attacks. Though damaging poisons would not be very effective on a monster with high magical resistance, its supplementary effect was sufficient in finding a real body. The Doppelgangers would not be affected by the poison but the real wolf would show observable signs of being poisoned.
Each of them had developed a tactic against the wolves. One such method was throwing sand at their eyes. Unlike the Doppelgangers which moved according to magic, the real wolf was the only one capable of sight. Sun made sure that they didn’t stick to one tactic in order to get them to come up with a variety of different combat methods.
***
Surely enough, as they gained more understanding of combat, the pace of hunting increased considerably. At this point, Sun decided that it was time to increase the difficulty a bit.
“I’m going to stop using some support magic.”
“What?”
Yong Li was completely confused, as was the rest of his party. However, Xuehua was a mage so she quickly understood what he had meant by that.
“Ah. I see.”
“What is it?”
Feng Yun asked inquisitively. It was against the norm of all party hunting to stop using support magic in a fight.
“Skill training.”
Xuehua answered correctly.
“Skill training?”
As a mage, Xuehua constantly had to use various spells and needed to train all of them so that they could be useful. The rest of the party was still not catching on and Xuehua didn’t speak in complete enough sentences for them to understand. So Sun had to step in to explain.
“By using support spells, I increase your combat abilities so that you do more damage. However, by doing this that means that you deal less attacks to the enemies. So even though hunting speed increases, the amount of skill training that you do will decrease. Since the Corrupt Dire Wolves are higher level than you are right now, that means that you can get a good amount of skill training by hunting them. I plan on removing the buffs that increase damage, but leaving the buffs such as increased attack speed and movement speed. Increasing your skill levels is more important than increasing your level right now since it’s going to be important to take on higher level quests.”
With that idea in mind, Sun removed the party blessings that increased damage but continued to cast the other support spells. The speed of hunting decreased considerably, which was understandable since the damage buffing spells were gone. However, thanks to the high level of the monsters, they were able to gain a decent amount of skill expertise from hunting.
***
Soon enough they had managed to kill enough wolves to complete the quest. Aside from the wolves they had collected a significant amount of mana stones and loot. The downside to hunting the wolves was that they didn’t have very good equipment drops.
“There’s one thing left to do here.”
Sun declared once they finished off the 200th wolf.
“What is that?”
Yong Li was rather glad that they were actually able to complete the quest. All they had to do now was report back for their reward.
“Boss fight.”
Alena answered for him. Sun had been unable to fight the boss wolf before because it was impossible for him to solo it since he was a priest and the wolf boss would not show up when he had come with the Royal Knight expedition due to their large numbers.
“Are you sure? Bosses are really difficult to beat.”
They had not fought that many boss monsters until now. Aside from the one that they hunted with Sun back in Rosenheim, they had not fought that many due to their absurd difficulty.
“It shouldn’t be a problem.”
Sun had fought many monsters that were much stronger than these wolves. Even though he had not fought against the wolf boss, he had gone on expeditions for the church which involved hunting boss monsters that were much stronger than the wolf boss.
There was a definite purpose for hunting the wolf boss. Unlike the other Corrupted Dire Wolves, the Corrupted Dire Wolf King dropped very good items. As the king of the wolves, the Wolf King dropped a special mana stone that they could turn in for a considerable reward from the castle.
Sun looked on his map for the location of the Wolf King. He had gotten the map from the Church so there was an incredible amount of information about hunting grounds written on it. The location of various bosses were noted on it as well.
After a short trek, they soon reached the Wolf King’s territory. Unlike the other areas, the Wolf King’s territory was rather desolate. There were hardly any monsters around due to the Wolf King’s ferocity. Any creature that invaded its territory would be ruthlessly killed. The only reason it had not appeared before was because it was threatened by the large number of Kallamore Royal Knights. However, for a small party of 7 people, the Wolf King would definitely attack.
“Prepare for combat. The Wolf King should be showing up any moment now.”
Now that it was time for a boss fight, Sun cast all the support spells that he had. The Intermediate and Advanced rank holy spells increased their combat abilities by an enormous margin.
The effects were much stronger than usual because Sun had taken out his Pope Staff of the Church of the God of Light. He did not use this staff often because it was a very important item. However, since this was going to be a tough fight, he decided that it was a good idea to use the staff to get its various effects.
Equipping the staff, he received a large increase in all of his priest related stats and increased effectiveness of holy spells. Mana cost of higher tier magic was decreased as well. The damage rating on the staff was very high as well so he could cast much stronger attack spells with it.
A gigantic wolf appeared at the top of the valley. Using its great agility, it descended the cliff and faced against them.
“Ruuuuuuaaaaah!”
The Wolf King let out a powerful roar that shook the air. Due to its boss monster status, it had an incredible amount of fighting spirit.
All of the other members received skill penalties because of their low fighting spirit, with the exception of Sun. Sun had accumulated a large amount of fighting spirit thanks to his constant battle against higher level monsters. Alena also had built up a good amount of fighting spirit, but she was lower level than him and had fought considerably less battles so her skills still ended up being reduced.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
However, there was a way to clear away the confusion of battle.
“Nothing can stop our justice. Holy Crusade!”
A holy spell that reduced the effect of enemy fighting spirit. It’s use was limited because it would not be used in large scale combat. It was a skill that was developed during the warring period of the churches. In order to command each holy platoon they needed a skill that could remove anxiety by using holy power. The skill was limited to a small group but its effects were invaluable.
This skill was created as a weakened form of a much superior skill. The original skill had originated from the Sacred Relic of the Church of Freya, the Fargo’s Crown which allowed supreme rule over the church’s army.
Since this was a skill that he had only gotten recently, he had not had enough time to fully train the skill. However, thanks to his high priest related stats and the Pope’s Staff, it’s effects were still enough to greatly lessen the effects of the Wolf King’s fighting spirit.
Sun decided to take the first move.
“Light Binding!”
A very powerful skill against large monsters. It would greatly restrict the monster’s movements and they were very difficult to break.
A strange black light flashed and dissolved the chains.
The Wolf King cast a spell to counter the Light Binding. Unlike the other Corrupted Dire Wolves, the Wolf King was capable of other magic than Doppelganger.
Soon enough, the Wolf King cast its Doppelganger skill. However, by this point, the party already knew to mark the Wolf King to differentiate it from its clones.
Sun decided to try one more time.
“Light Binding!”
This time the target of the attack was not the Wolf King but his Doppelgangers. Sun threw a large number of chains to hold down its Doppelgangers and chained them together so that they can’t move freely.
As he had expected, the Doppelgangers were unable to cast magic. Since the Wolf King did not dispel the chains on the Doppelgangers, the spell it had used earlier was a self-cast spell.
Seeing as the Wolf King was capable of removing debuffs from itself, Sun decided it was best for him to stick to healing and attacking.
His party members had not be idle during this fight. As a two handed sword user, Yong Li took to the battle to deflect the Wolf King’s attacks from the rest of his party.
The Wolf King gathered mana into its mouth to fire off a magic attack…
Which was intercepted by Da Xia’s unique sword passive which allowed her to absorb enemy magic spells and convert it into mana. Since the Wolf King did not finish casting the spell, she was able to absorb the entire spell.
Feng Yun was an assassin so she would constantly attack whenever she had the opportunity. She would stealth and then appear to attack the Wolf King. Since the Wolf King had incredibly high defense and health, she could not get any fatal blows.
“Feng Yun, focus on immobilizing it instead!”
Sun yelled out to her.
Rather than trying to deal fatal damage, Sun recommended that she should attack vital points on its body, such as its joints and tendons, in order to decrease its combat ability.
“Hyaa!”
She struck a powerful blow with her dagger at the back of one of the Wolf King’s legs. The Wolf King quickly aggroed her, but Yong Li stepped forwards and stabbed at its forelimb with his greatsword to recover the aggro.
“Rapid Shot!”
Hou Yi and Alena rapidly shot arrows at the Wolf King. However, the Wolf King simply swatted them away or shook them off. At that moment, the wolf king suddenly got stabbed in its shoulder with an arrow.
While they had shot arrows rapidly at it, Sun had told Hou Yi to shoot a skill shot arrow into the air so that its trajectory would hit the Wolf King on the way down. Since Alena’s attack damage wasn’t very high due to her level, she could still shoot arrows to create a diversion for the real arrow attack.
The Wolf King roared in frustration as it retaliated. It tried to charge its way at the archers but then it stopped.
It would be more accurate to say that it was forced to stop.
Mid-pounce, the giant Wolf King was struck with an Omni-Directional magic spell.
“Prison of Eternal Ice.”
Giant ice spikes surrounded the Wolf King from every direction and converged onto its location. It was a very powerful spell but its cast time and its cooldown was enormous. Sun had suggested that it was better to use a larger spell instead of many weaker spells because the ice status effects would not work on it and its magic resistance was very high so it was better to rely on a powerful physical ice magic.
“Roooooooaar!”
With a powerful roar, the prison of ice shattered as the Wolf King broke through. It had taken a significant amount of damage and was hemorrhaging blood badly but, as expected of a boss monster, it still had a lot of health left.
“It’s not over yet.”
Sun said with a smile on his face. Due to reaching Advanced Holy Mastery, Sun was able to cast up to 2 holy spells at the same time. He kept one of his hands completely devoted to healing spells, but he had been casting another spell on his other hand for quite some time now.
“Take this! Sword of Light!”
Sword of Light was a spell that he also received from reaching Advanced Holy Mastery. Like the name implied it was a spell that created a sword from holy light to strike down an enemy. Countless blades of light formed into the air around Sun as he cast the spell.
He thrust his hand forward and on his command the swords flew to the weakened Wolf King. Normally the Wolf King would be able to dodge an attack of this speed, but it had been severely weakened throughout the course of the battle. The swords of light stabbed into the Wolf King all over its body and then they exploded.
The combined explosion caused severe burn damage all over the Wolf King’s body. Both spells, despite being in their beginner skill ranks, had caused significant amounts of damage to the boss monster.
Ultimate level spells were extremely powerful since they were extremely useful in large scale battles such as war. Even if it was in the beginner rank, it was still capable of laying waste to a large number of enemies. With this in mind, Sun decided to train this skill more often in the future. The biggest problem with the skill was its huge cast time but that could be solved by preparing the skill before the start of the battle.
Sun had another skill called Holy Burst, but it was a much weaker skill in comparison.Though it had an instantaneous cast time, Holy Burst was only capable of magic damage while the Swords of Light dealt physical and magical damage. So Holy Burst was not very effective on monsters with high magic resistance or those that weren't weak against holy magic. Another problem with Holy Burst was that it consumed all of the user’s mana. So it was better to use Swords of Light than Holy Burst.
The Wolf King spat out blood from the immense amount of damage it had taken but it was not dead yet. Fearing for its life, the Wolf King began to flee from battle.
“Light Binding!”
The chains of light dragged the Wolf King back down to the valley. It used its magic once more to dissolve the chains but this time it failed. Due to its rapid loss of health and its current state of confusion, it’s dispel magic had failed to be cast.
“Finish it off!”
Sun yelled since its state of confusion would not last long.
“Okay!”
A cheery voice yelled out as she dashed towards the back of the Wolf King.
“Dancing Blades!”
The dagger slashed several times across the back of the Wolf King’s neck and severed its head from the rest of its body. Thanks to its current state of confusion, the damage from a critical attack was doubled. This made the skill much more powerful.
“Yay we won!”
Feng Yun yelled out after finishing off the Wolf King. Soon after the Wolf King faded away and left behind some items.
In the middle of the pile of items was a large mana stone, which was an item that they could turn in for the quest. Aside from that a couple of equipment items, which seemed to have been made of the dead Wolf King’s pelt.
“Identify.”
[Wolf King’s Claws Durability: 120/120 Defense 30 Attack 10
Gloves made from the fur of a very powerful Wolf King. It has a incredibly high amount of defense for leather gloves and they have been enchanted to increase attack power. Blessed with the spirit of the wolf, the wearer will have increased chance of critical attacks and gain night vision.
Restriction: Rogue related class. Level 260. Agility 600.
Options:
+10 Agility
+5 Luck
+20 Fighting Spirit
+5% Critical Strike Chance
+You are now able to see in the dark]
[Magic Wolf Cap Durability: 100/100 Defense: 20
A cap made from a powerful Wolf King’s fur. Having been made from a Corrupted Dire Wolf King, this cap has received powerful magic enchantments. The wearer of this cap will be able to summon a shadow wolf familiar to fight for them briefly.
Restriction: Mage related. Level 260. Intelligence 700.
Options:
+10 Intelligence
+10 Wisdom
+15 Fighting Spirit
Special Skill: Summon Shadow Wolf Familiar
Shadow Wolf Familiar will be summoned to battle for 10 minutes. After use, the summon skill will have a cooldown of 30 minutes before it can be used again. The summoned familiar will be level 300.]
Both of these items were of Rare type quality. Though the effects of the gloves were only decent, they had considerably high defense and had the unique quality of boosting attack damage. The cap, on the other hand, had decent defense but had a highly unique effect. The wolf summon would definitely be useful but its usefulness would decrease after around level 350.
“It’s fine.”
Sun said after he noticed the reluctant look on Feng Yun and Xuehua’s faces. These items, even though they were good, were not items that he could use. He could get a fair amount of money by selling them, but it would be better if they used them instead.
“Is it really?”
Feng Yun asked despite the fact that she really wanted the gloves. She felt rather bad since items rarely ever drop for the priest class so she knew that Sun never really found much gear.
“Like I said. It’s fine. Just put them to good use.”
Sun waved it off. But seeing that they still felt bad about it, Sun walked up to the pile of items and picked out a few things.
Fang of the Corrupted Dire Wolf King(3)
Corrupted Dire Wolf King Leather(10)
Aside from those two rare crafting materials, Sun picked out a few other pieces of random loot. There were enough materials to craft a high level bow and armor for Alena.
“These will be Alena and mine’s share then. We’ll take it to a crafter to get it made into something, and while these can be made into potions.”
Some of the items he had picked out from the pile were items that the two of them could use in Potion crafting.
“Thank you Sun.”
The two of them expressed their thanks to him. As for the rest of the party, since he had already picked out what he wanted, he decided to let the rest of them split the loot how they wanted.
Since Feng Yun and Xuehua had gotten some good items already, the rest of them decided to split the items evenly.
Luckily Da Xia found a few items that she could exchanged for contribution and Honor stat points. Hou Yi and Yong Li were content with some loot that could be sold to a merchant for a decent sum of gold.
As for raw materials, such as ore, they split it evenly among everyone.
***
Now that they were done with the quest, they decided it was about time that they headed back to the castle.
Naturally they needed to turn in the quest that they had just completed. Heading to the quest office, they turned in the quest as well as the mana stones.
“So the quest you went on was the defeat 200 Corrupted Dire Wolves. Have you managed to bring back any mana stones?”
The quest receptionist inquired.
The party reached into their magical bags of holding to get the mana stones out. From hunting over 200 Corrupted Dire Wolves, they had managed to collect about 120 mana stones.
“That’s a good amount of stones.”
“What do you plan on using these stones for anyways?”
Sun asked curiously.
“Mana stones can be used for a large number of purposes. The main use for them is for crafting magical items, using them as a catalyst for spells, and as a reliable fuel source.”
Sun then thought about the Wolf King’s mana stone, which was significantly larger than the ordinary ones.
“Then how about this one?”
Sun took it out of his bag to show to the quest attendant.
“Ah, that one’s pretty large. For something as large as that, you can take it to the castle mage and he can compensate you for it. The rest of these smaller ones are mainly going to be used by the mage’s guild in town. As for your compensation for defeating the wolves and collecting the stones…”
The quest attendant reached behind the counter and shoveled some stuff inside several bags. He then passed the bags to each person in the party.
“This is your reward. You have done us a great service.”
Ttiring!
[ Defeat the Corrupted Dire Wolves Quest has been completed!
The Corrupted Dire Wolves had recently occupied a valley near Seinbain. These monsters would scare away the nearby wildlife and attack travelers. However, now that the monsters have been cleared away, the trading route to the southern region has reopened.]
+You have leveled up.
+Contribution with the Kallamore Kingdom has increased by 25.
+Familiarity with the Kallamore Kingdom has increased by 10.
+You have received 40 gold.
Each of their rewards for completing the quest had been different. For the most part, they all received gold, experience, familiarity and contribution. Since Sun was over level 300, he did not receive that much experience. He was already at 88% when he turned in the quest and now he had leveled up with 2% left over. So his current level was 303.
Although the experience was rather low for him, the experience that everyone else got could be considered a significant amount. It was enough for each of them to level up twice and it was a significant amount when it was combined with the amount of experience they had gotten from hunting. When they had started the quest they were around level 250 to 253, but now they were all around level 259 to 261. Since they had only spent three days hunting, gaining about 10 levels was amazing.
Da Xia benefited the most from the quest. Since she was a knight, she gained a total of 5 Honor points for completing the request.
Ttring!
[ Quest update
The Castle Magician’s Crystal
You can trade the Wolf King’s mana stone with the castle magician Arun for a reward. Recently he has been researching mana stones and has been looking for a large one. Head to the Royal Mage quarters.
Difficulty: E
Compensation: Ask Arun.]
“This is amazing.”
Yong Li could not believe that the quest would give this much experience. Monster extermination quests did not usually give a lot of experience but they were much lower level than the average level stated on the quest. For completing the quest, they received a bonus to the amount of experience gained. Though they did not have that much contribution yet, if they continued to complete quests then you would be able to get rare weapons and armor from the treasury.
“Let’s go to the Royal Mage quarters. See you soon!”
Sun waved goodbye to the quest attendant as they left to the magic division of the castle.
***
Walking into the study, they saw a number of robed figures walking around and tinkering with various magical reagents.
“Is there someone named Arun here?”
He asked one of the mages that was grinding up something that looked like a root.
“Arun? He’s over there.”
The mage pointed over at a man with a black robe and a pointy black hat, then returned to grinding his root into dust.
“Are you Arun?”
Sun asked the man that looked like he was around his mid-thirties.
“Why yes I am. Who is it that is asking?”
The intellectual looking man turned around and replied.
“My name is Sun and these are my friends. We have recently come across an item that we heard that you would be interested in.”
Arun looked him over behind saying.
“Very interesting...a priest from the Church of Freya. You don’t see many of those walking around anymore. All you really see are Holy Knights. Ah! Forgive my rudeness. What is it that you have brought me?”
Sun reached once more into his magical pouch of transdimensional holding to retrieve the Wolf King’s mana stone.
“I heard from the quest attendant that you were looking for something like this.”
Arun took a took over it and said.
“That’s perfect. It’s exactly what I need for my research. All the other stones that I’ve been using have been too small. Give me a moment for me to refine this.”
Arun took the mana stone and went to his work station.
He took the mana stone and extracted the energy from it. Then he used some strange looking magic and condensed it into some metal.
After some sparks and flashes of light, and various strange sounds, he stood back up and walked over to the party once more.
“Here is your reward. I have refine the mana stone for your use.”
Arun handed each of them a necklace made from that strange metal that he had been working on.
“What is this?”
Arun began to explain the purpose of the necklace.
“Well you see, the closest thing to call this would be a mana storage container. The mana stone that you gave me was the source of mana. Using that source, I imbued the metal with the same properties as the stone. Now these necklaces are capable of storing mana in them. So you can store mana into these necklaces to replenish your mana pool.”
Sun nodded in understanding as he checked the item.
“Identify.”
[Mana Storing Necklace Durability: 200/200 Stored Mana: 0/12570
A necklace that the user can store mana in. The necklace can be used to restore lost mana. This item was crafted by the Magical Scientist Arun from the Kallamore Kingdom’s Magic Division. The maximum amount of mana that can be placed in the necklace depends on the user’s maximum mana pool.
Restrictions: Bound upon equip.
Options:
Mana can be stored into the necklace.
Mana can be restored by the necklace.]
‘This is amazing.’
Everyone thought at the same time. It was like having a second pool of mana to use. Even though it gave to stat increases, having a large pool of mana was incredible. Furthermore, the necklace storage capacity increased along with the user’s mana pool so the item would never become obsolete.
“Thanks a lot Arun.”
“It was my pleasure. Now I can continue my research.”
Arun went back to his table with the rest of the mana storing metal he had made. Taking a swig from a beaker of fluids, he continued his work with magical science.
***
For now they all decided to take a day’s rest. Since they needed to do stuff in real life they couldn’t play for too long at a time. They had taken a few breaks during combat, but for the most part they needed to sleep and do real life stuff.
Of course, Sun didn’t know any of this and just thought that they were resting at an inn. In the time that they were resting, Sun decided it was a good time to get the two of them a good meal.
After a hearty dinner at that strange restaurant from before, Sun went to a craftsman to get the materials processed into equipment for Alena.
Whenever his friends were online, they went to the castle and received a quest. Now that he had taught them how to fight, they could clear quests much easier than before. Their skill training was now much higher than other users of their level and they actually had combat sense now. The main focus of their questing was to become stronger, so they were leveling up both their character level and the skill levels. As they completed more quests, they received more contribution and Da Xia received more Honor.
Although they were becoming stronger with each quest, the number of monsters attacking Seinbain did not decrease at all. There were certainly a large number of adventurers hunting the monsters in Seinbain but there monster population seemed to continue to grow.
***
A few months had passed since the Hero Weed had battled against the Undead Legion led by the despicable Lich Shire. A great heat wave had come and passed during this time. However, there was still evil that was festering in unknown places.
A large clan of Forest Trolls yelled out in horrible agony. They were one of the largest clan of monsters in the Kallamore Kingdom.
With limbs of its allies littered all over the floor, Troll King was now at the mercy of a strange person. Stabbing his hand into the Troll’s chest, he ripped out its heart and crushed it. Discarding the hunks of meat, he lifted his hand and let the drops of blood drip into his mouth.
“Ah, it’s nearly time.”
An unusual and insidious smile appeared on his face as he bathed in his madness.