Leiu stopped at the Eastern Gate of Black Mountain City, first glancing at the Lv60 Guards and then at the stretch of plains to the East and North. There were no monsters nearby, the vicinity of the city was mostly consistent of adjacent farms and stables.
Still, Leiu caught sight of dozens of players, most of whom were wandering alone, either enjoying the sight or completing random quests. Overall, considering the spaciousness of the place, the sense of crowdedness was gone..
Leiu purposely didn't take quests that required him to kill the low-leveled monsters commonly found 'around' the city, just beyond the farms.
The rewards, and the targetted monsters were simply too weak for him and not worth wasting time on. Instead, he tried his best to target quests that required to venture into high-leveled areas.
There was 3 types of monsters in this area: First were Black Mountain Boards, Lv11 to 13, second were Tongue Frogs, Lv13 to 15 and near a small lake South of the city, and third were Lonely Slimes, Lv15 to 17.
Amongst these three, only the Lonely Slimes interested Leiu, but he didn't go out of his way to seek them. They were found West of the city, and, for classes that couldn't use magic, they were notoriously hard to kill.
Leiu stuck to the main road and marched towards the woods, which were several hundred meters North-East of the city. He saw Players grouping up to take down an Elite Boar that was over 2-meters in height.
There were also solo-Players minding their own business and either killing or skinning Boards.
'I saw in the Forums that there were non-combat Classes. They seem to be highly-sought after and not easy to obtain. Hmm don't they fear being attacked? They don't have any defensive or support Skills, so anyone could just go and kill them. Perhaps they're from famous Guilds? Or They have some buffs that render them intargetable by other players?'
After a 10-minute walk, Leiu stopped in front of a Boar and readied himself. He wanted to test himself against it and gauge his prowess now that he got a new class and a new skill. Once it spotted him, the bulky boar broke into a straight charge, though its speed wasn't remarkable.
Compared to the wolves, it was easy to dodge to boar and strike at its flank. It only took three hits to empty to kill the monster.
'The body doesn't disappear like in the Beginner Area. Although, after confirming with the System, I still get the loot.'
The amount of experience earned was very little, as for the money, he only looted 61 coppers, it was more than the wolves but it was still not a big amount.
After his brief fight, Leiu continued walking for a bit more until he entered the woods. He had two objectives to accomplish here: Gather particular fruits known as 'Galara' and kill Crazy Apes.
The Crazy Apes were at least Lv20 with some even reaching Lv24, or so the quest stated, at least. They were going to be more challenging than simple boars or leaping frogs.
Although he wasn't sure if he could handle a group of Crazy Apes, Leiu had enough confidence to take one of them. His stats were somewhat for someone at his Level, and he had a good weapon, one which was better than those offered in the shops.
The deeper Leiu delved, the fewer Players he saw. Eventually, it was only him and the pine trees surroundings him. Wary, held White Edge and carefully advanced, keeping his guard up and perking his ears for any unusual sound.
Fortunately, the Galara Fruit he needed were easily found and obtained, but, so far, no Crazy Apes appeared.
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"Elina! Quick! Shoot your fireball at it!"
"Jack! Quit shouting and distracting me, I'm trying but it keeps jumping around, I can't get a proper aim!"
Not far from him, approximately 60 feet or so, Leiu noticed a Party of 4 Players. 2 Girls and 2 Guys. The girls were on the back, one was wearing a robe and holding a wooden staff with a finger-sized gem on its top, and the other was holding a bow.
'A Mage and an Archer or Ranger.' Deducted Leiu after looking at them once.
As for their companions, the one who shouted at his Mage friend was holding a sword and wearing a heavy plate armor.
The last Player was hiding behind a tree a couple of feet away from the other three: He was on a thick branch 10 meters above the ground and was probably waiting for a chance to sneak attack the enemy.
'A thief? Or maybe an Assassin. I can't get a good look at his weapon from here.'
This group of four was surrounded by 4 Crazy Apes, with one additional Ape corpse lying not far away from them.
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It wasn't that hard to figure out their situation. From the way they were panicking, it was certain they were ambushed by 5 Crazy Apes.
Leiu noticed them backing out bit by a bit while fending off the relentless attack of the hideous and screaming Crazy Apes, which were not only agile, but considerably strong as well.
The sword-wielding guy, albeit fighting a Crazy Ape on his own, was doing alright. His two female companions, on the other hand, not so much. They were getting targeted by the remaining Apes, which kept jumping down from atop the tries and even throwing hand-sized stones at them.
Leiu watched the battle from a distance, silently judging their teamwork and imagining what he would do if he were in their shoes. He had yet to fight Crazy Apes, but he concluded that, at most, he would be able to contend with two of them, anymore would result in his death.
As for helping them, that was out of the question. They were complete strangers, and getting involved in matters that didn't concern him would always result in problems.
At this rate, these four Players were going to die and revive in Black Mountain City. Their Level would decrease by 1 and their gear would lose a lot of Durability, but that was about it. They could, and probably would, just group-up and return here again.
As their situation was turning for the worst, Leiu prepared to leave the area and look for his own targets only to see them abandon fighting and start their desperate flee.
Whether by coincidence or not, they were running straight towards him with the Crazy Apes right on their tail. The one at their lead was the 'thief', whose mobility was greater than theirs.
'It's pointless to run away now... and it doesn't matter if they did it on purpose or not.' Leiu sighed and charged right at them, much to their surprise.
Seeing this unknown cloaked Player rush in their direction, the four of them were confused. Still, none of them tried to stop him as they were more worried about Crazy Apes. In fact, they thought of Leiu as an arrogant Player who thought he could take on four apes by himself.
However, when they saw him close in on the 'thief' and then swing his swords, they quickly realized his intentions. It was mostly foolishness of their part as Leiu's attack directly connected with the target, whose health was already low due to the battle.
[Invisible Strike]
The two successive hits emptied what little remained of the Player's Health, causing him to die.
Seeing that the assassin was dead, Leiu turned around and rushed at the rest. Whether they, by fleeing towards him, had bad intentions or not didn't matter that much to Leiu. This was no more than an opportunity for him.
..
The Mage and Archer, who had been behind their now-decreased friend, clearly saw the hostile Player strike decisively and with lightning-fast speed.
Frightened, they stopped in their tracks and instinctively looked to their leader, the sword-wielding man. He was the one who instructed them to run toward the unknown Player. The two girls weren't stupid, they knew what the plan was, but when their friend was killed so suddenly, they felt wronged.
Sui, the archer, was still shocked by this turn of events, couldn't react in time as Leiu already appeared close to her. In contrast, her friend Elena, reacted swiftly by raising her staff and readying a spell.
Although PVP was not common this early in the game, the man was clearly planning on finishing them, nonetheless, Elena wasn't going to sit idly by and await her death.
The spell was cast quickly, causing a fireball to appear and shoot toward Leiu, who was dangerously close to Sui.
Elena wanted to buy some time until their other friend could provide assistance, however, Leiu didn't dodge out of the way, much to her surprise.
The ball of vermillion flames clashed with the icicle, resulting in clash of energy that dissipated both of them. With that danger out of the way, Leiu continued his charge and raised White Edge, about to finish off the Archer.
He could see that she was panicking and very inexperienced. Even when she had been fighting the Crazy Apes, her aim was awful and her fear was apparent. She wasn't used to these kind of situations, nor was she an experienced Player, so to speak.
"Sui! Dodge!"
Sui was awoken by her friend's voice but it was too late as Leiu was already upon her, his sword came slashing at her throat, aiming for a fatal strike.
The sharp white-edge of the sword hit its mark, piercing through the flesh and a bit of blood to come out.
Sui could only watch as he Health rapidly decreased, but what frightened her was the sight of blood dripping from her wounded neck.
Leiu could see that his strike dealt more than 80% of her Health and she would most likely die from blood loss if she didn't take any Health Potions, therefore, he jumped back, dodging another fireball cast by Elena.
Seeing her friend fall to the ground, about to die, Elena gritted her teeth and cast [Fire Fox].
The magical fox, small in size and enveloped by flames, squeaked and then leapt at Leiu, who retaliated by firing two [Icicles] at it. Fortunately, this managed to stop it, allowing him to follow up with [Carving Shot].
White edge was slashed horizontally, creating an a visible white beam, which sliced the Fire Fox in half. Amidst the dispersing flames, Leiu was struck by a small fireball, which made him stagger backwards and lose 25 Health Points.
Elena managed to reach her friend and urge her to drink a Health Potions. Moreover, their sword-wielding friend finally arrived, bringing with him the 4 Crazy Apes.
"You! why did you attack us and kill my friend!"
Chul, his face red with anger, shouted at Leiu. He wanted to shift the blame and sound righteous and oblivious.
In response, Leiu merely shrugged his shoulders.