reign of the hunters

Chapter 8 Clingy Wolf

Ye Ci chose to hide her ID as usual.

Just then, a golden word ‘World’ flashed across the screen.

“Congratulations player **** for being the first to complete the dungeon “Icy Cave” on Normal mode, Rewards: 10 gold coins, system prestige 5000 points.”

……

“Are they even human!? The game has only just started and someone already cleared the dungeon! What the hell?!”

“Must be an alpha tester!”

“Alpha Tester my ass! Fate never had an alpha release…”

……

A random Human player

“Boss, should we investigate…?”

“It must have been those group of people who entered first. It’s just a normal dungeon. There’s no need to muster a large force over something like this. Just look for someone to keep an eye out on the situation,” a human cleric calmly replied in the private chat after killing off the last monster.

A random Orc player.

“Little Seventh, go check who cleared the dungeon.” An orc warrior announced his order through the private chat.

……

Lukewarm Water, who had just ran into the Lycan Black Forest, heard the system announcement and scratched his head. “To think someone has already cleared the normal dungeon… Just who is it?” Then realisation suddenly hit him.

The Icy Cave seemed to be within the Elven Forest. If his source was reliable, it should be around the place where he and that Gongzi You had met.

Could it be that…..

Lukewarm Water shook his head, then reconsidered inwardly. “Even if her skills are great and her positioning was good, there’s no way she could have cleared the dungeon so fast. Moreover… the system didn’t announce that it was a party, so it seems like it was cleared by a solo player. Moreover, she is a huntress… That shouldn’t be possible.”

Just as he was grasping onto the situation, the external guilds were getting noisy in the voice chats all because of this incident.

Since the game server was just opened, there weren’t any guilds created yet, therefore no one was able to use the guild voice chat provided in the game. Due to that, the major guilds were all using an external voice chat system for easy communication with their guild members.

Lukewarm listened to the animated chat within the guild. He had some hunches, but since he wasn’t too sure about himself, he’d rather remain silent instead of bringing it up to the guild.

In contrast to the liveliness of his guild, the guildmaster of Blank Space spoke calmly as he usually did. “If you guys have time to discuss this, why don’t you all quickly grind to raise your levels? It’s just a dungeon on normal mode. Our target is to conquer the dungeons on Hard and Expert mode.”

As a person who rarely spoke in public channel, his single statement immediately garnered the support from all of the players. After chatting for awhile, he switched into the Management channel. “Nine Nights, go investigate the person who cleared the dungeon. Don’t forget to identify which guild he is from.”

“Roger.”

Ye Ci, who had been in the Icy Cave the whole time, had no idea how much of an uproar a single system announcement message had caused in the entire Fate. She just knitted her eyebrows together, studying the few items in her hands.

She had thought that being able to get her hands on a heaven-defying passive skill book like the Strength Conservation would have allowed her to be on the road of fortune. However, reality had proven that an unlucky person like her would not escape the clutches of bad luck so easily.

Other than dropping the 2 quest items that she needed, along with 3 Weapon Exchange Crystals, she only received 2 bottles of medium health potions, 40 silver coins, and a White grade dagger from the 3 BOSSes!!

What the hell!?

What in bloody hell was that!?

She got the First Kill! And she did it SOLO!

No matter how you saw it, a Blue grade weapon should most likely be dropped instead!

How did it turn out like this! Not only was there no Blue grade weapon, there wasn’t even a Green grade weapon in sight!

Who had ever heard of a Boss dropping a White grade weapon!? Who?! This basically just broke the history record among all the disgraces a game could have.

She sighed a few times before accepting her fate and dumping these items into her bag. As Ye Ci wearily looked at all the rubbish she had picked up from the dead bodies along the way, she only felt like crying a stream of tears.

Exiting the Icy Cave dejectedly, she cleared the contents of her bag at a shop just outside of the Forest of Stone. After that, Ye Ci once again marched valiantly into the Icy Cave.

She believed that she’d eventually get something nice if she kept trying. After all, there was no way she’d be so unlucky every single time.

Nevertheless, reality had proven time and time again that Ye Ci’s luck was just that bad.

She repetitively visited the Icy Cave about 7 or 8 times. The crystals used for weapon exchange had been accumulated to almost 30, yet she still didn’t manage to get even one of the Icy Cave’s signature weapon from the Icy Series on her hands.

Her experience points were instead going up rapidly and, in the blink of an eye, she was nearly level 8.

Ye Ci sat beside Shator’s dead body, crying invisible tears and looking at the loot in her hands.

No way. Could it be that her luck was completely used up after getting that Strength Conversion skill book?

The arrows she had on her right now were almost depleted too. To waste her time any further here was pointless, so Ye Ci decided to return and stock up at the Newbie’s Village first before coming back again.

The Crystal that exploded from the Boss’ body could be exchanged for Green grade equipment at the Altar of Molor. Although these equipment were slightly inferior to the weapons dropped in the dungeon, they were still way better than those extremely expensive white grade weapons sold in stores.

For people like Ye Ci who had farmed from dungeons yet weren’t lucky enough to obtain equipment drops, these Green grade equipment were their best options.

With the 30 crystals she had on her hands, she only had enough to exchange for one equipment. After pondering for a long time, she finally decided to trade for a pair of shoes.

Molor’s Boots: Defense 11. Endurance +1, Speed +1.

Defense and endurance didn’t matter much to Ye Ci. That little extra boost of speed was what she needed the most. As long as her speed was high enough, it would bring her attack and evasion up to another level.

She took a few steps after putting on her Molor’s Boot. They felt slightly more comfortable than the Newbie’s Shoes. However, the appearance of these shoes were still too normal looking and weren’t much different than the Newbie’s Shoes.

But she couldn’t care less about it. At least no one would be able to tell what was different about her.

Upon her arrival to the Newbie Village, Ye Ci immediately ran towards the Village Chief.

“Oh, it is you, my hardworking Huntress. I thought you must have been eaten by Shator. I truly didn’t expect that you would be able to return here unscatched. It seems like the blessing of the Elven King Dau’er is upon us.” The Village Chief was about to babble on with his meaningless monologue again.

For the sake of the rewards, however, Ye Ci smiled and waited for him to finish with his useless words instead of choosing to skip.

She had always known that the rewards for this type of quest were not bad, but she did not expect them to be so favourable.

1 Gold Coin and 1 Talent point.

Ye Ci couldn’t care less about the money. Compared to the money, that one Talent point was far more priceless.

In Fate, characters beyond level 10 would be able to learn different Talents. Every Talent emphasized on different areas which could in turn affect the future growth of each character differently.

Every player was allowed to select different Talents, and everyone was also allowed to select up to 3 Talents at the same time. As long as you had enough Talent points, there would be no issues if you maximized every Talent attribute.

The only concern was that…

In Fate, the game would reward one Talent point each time a player leveled up. Additional Talent points would need to be collected through some specific First Kills or quests of a similar nature.

In other words, under the condition where players had the same level and equipments, players with more Talent points would have more heaven-defying character attributes.

This was also the reason why Ye Ci’s mood was lifted.

The Village Chief continued to chatter on for awhile before announcing the second quest. This was still to be carried out at the Icy Cave but her target this time was the Icy Cave’s Boss on Hard mode, Shator.

“Huntress, you will definitely be rewarded handsomely if you are able to return to me with the head of Shator.” The corner of the Village Chief’s lips curled into a smile, after which he motioned for Ye Ci to come closer. “But you are not allowed to tell Guard Officer Tony that it is you who killed Shator,” He whispered.

Ye Ci raised her eyebrows. This Newbie Village’s Village Chief who appeared to be a simple and honest man was apparently not too honest. It seemed like he intended to take credit for the head of Shator and find Tony for rewards.

Since he was unkind, then he shouldn’t blame her for being unjust.

To Ye Ci, she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if she didn’t slaughter this fat pig that had voluntarily presented itself on her front door. She crinkled her eyes and gave him a non-scheming smile. “Of course, Village Chief. I will surely follow your orders, only that…” She trailed off here and didn’t continue her sentence.

She believed that a treacherous man like him would definitely understand what she had meant.

As expected, the Village Chief quickly nodded in agreement. “Of course.” Ye Ci then found another Skill Book in her hands. “If you can bring the head of Shator back without letting a word of it escape…”

The Village Chief trailed off and paused for a moment like Ye Ci did just now, as if he still had more to say.

Ye Ci promptly looked at the book in her hands.

Fire Arrow Crafting: Crafts arrows that deal fire damage. Requires: Mid Tier Arrow Crafting.

Ye Ci raised an eyebrow – this book was good, but she didn’t have the Arrow Crafting Skill. This meant that the book was of little value to her.

Looking at Ye Ci who wasn’t too satisfied, the Village Chief continued calmly. “My young Huntress, you will have bread as long as you have enough wheat.”

Oh, so that was how it was going to be…

Ye Ci couldn’t help but secretly spit. This Village Chief was a sly old fox through and through! He went as far as to bait her with a carrot that she couldn’t sink her teeth into. Was he treating her like a donkey?

For the sake of that one Talent point, however, she’d still play the role of the donkey.

And so, like two unscrupulous businessmen with their respective ulterior motives, they joyously reached a deal with dazzling smiles on both their faces.

The Icy Cave on Hard mode was not somewhere Ye Ci could solo play. She looked at the time and found out that it was about 9 at night. Without much hesitation, she went to somewhere secluded in the Newbie Village and logged off.

After having casually found something to eat, she received a call from her parents who bombarded her with questions and ordered her around as usual. It was almost as if they were afraid that Ye Ci would starve herself to death.

Not long after, when she had finally hung up on her parents’ call, Liu Chang’s call came through.

The two of them exchanged a few pleasantries. Liu Chang could hardly even wait for Ye Ci’s question and had already jumped straight to showing off to Ye Ci. “Let me tell you this! My Lycan Summoner had reached level 3! Did you know that! My speed of levelling up is simply terrifying! Let me tell you this, I formed a party with a few people and I am now hunting the Poisonous Spider in the Lycan Black Forest! If anyone bullies you, just tell them my name, the Clingy Wolf. Big Sister got your back!”

Chapter 8 Clingy Wolf

Ye Ci chose to hide her ID as usual.

Just then, a golden word ‘World’ flashed across the screen.

“Congratulations player **** for being the first to complete the dungeon “Icy Cave” on Normal mode, Rewards: 10 gold coins, system prestige 5000 points.”

……

“Are they even human!? The game has only just started and someone already cleared the dungeon! What the hell?!”

“Must be an alpha tester!”

“Alpha Tester my ass! Fate never had an alpha release…”

……

A random Human player

“Boss, should we investigate…?”

“It must have been those group of people who entered first. It’s just a normal dungeon. There’s no need to muster a large force over something like this. Just look for someone to keep an eye out on the situation,” a human cleric calmly replied in the private chat after killing off the last monster.

A random Orc player.

“Little Seventh, go check who cleared the dungeon.” An orc warrior announced his order through the private chat.

……

Lukewarm Water, who had just ran into the Lycan Black Forest, heard the system announcement and scratched his head. “To think someone has already cleared the normal dungeon… Just who is it?” Then realisation suddenly hit him.

The Icy Cave seemed to be within the Elven Forest. If his source was reliable, it should be around the place where he and that Gongzi You had met.

Could it be that…..

Lukewarm Water shook his head, then reconsidered inwardly. “Even if her skills are great and her positioning was good, there’s no way she could have cleared the dungeon so fast. Moreover… the system didn’t announce that it was a party, so it seems like it was cleared by a solo player. Moreover, she is a huntress… That shouldn’t be possible.”

Just as he was grasping onto the situation, the external guilds were getting noisy in the voice chats all because of this incident.

Since the game server was just opened, there weren’t any guilds created yet, therefore no one was able to use the guild voice chat provided in the game. Due to that, the major guilds were all using an external voice chat system for easy communication with their guild members.

Lukewarm listened to the animated chat within the guild. He had some hunches, but since he wasn’t too sure about himself, he’d rather remain silent instead of bringing it up to the guild.

In contrast to the liveliness of his guild, the guildmaster of Blank Space spoke calmly as he usually did. “If you guys have time to discuss this, why don’t you all quickly grind to raise your levels? It’s just a dungeon on normal mode. Our target is to conquer the dungeons on Hard and Expert mode.”

As a person who rarely spoke in public channel, his single statement immediately garnered the support from all of the players. After chatting for awhile, he switched into the Management channel. “Nine Nights, go investigate the person who cleared the dungeon. Don’t forget to identify which guild he is from.”

“Roger.”

Ye Ci, who had been in the Icy Cave the whole time, had no idea how much of an uproar a single system announcement message had caused in the entire Fate. She just knitted her eyebrows together, studying the few items in her hands.

She had thought that being able to get her hands on a heaven-defying passive skill book like the Strength Conservation would have allowed her to be on the road of fortune. However, reality had proven that an unlucky person like her would not escape the clutches of bad luck so easily.

Other than dropping the 2 quest items that she needed, along with 3 Weapon Exchange Crystals, she only received 2 bottles of medium health potions, 40 silver coins, and a White grade dagger from the 3 BOSSes!!

What the hell!?

What in bloody hell was that!?

She got the First Kill! And she did it SOLO!

No matter how you saw it, a Blue grade weapon should most likely be dropped instead!

How did it turn out like this! Not only was there no Blue grade weapon, there wasn’t even a Green grade weapon in sight!

Who had ever heard of a Boss dropping a White grade weapon!? Who?! This basically just broke the history record among all the disgraces a game could have.

She sighed a few times before accepting her fate and dumping these items into her bag. As Ye Ci wearily looked at all the rubbish she had picked up from the dead bodies along the way, she only felt like crying a stream of tears.

Exiting the Icy Cave dejectedly, she cleared the contents of her bag at a shop just outside of the Forest of Stone. After that, Ye Ci once again marched valiantly into the Icy Cave.

She believed that she’d eventually get something nice if she kept trying. After all, there was no way she’d be so unlucky every single time.

Nevertheless, reality had proven time and time again that Ye Ci’s luck was just that bad.

She repetitively visited the Icy Cave about 7 or 8 times. The crystals used for weapon exchange had been accumulated to almost 30, yet she still didn’t manage to get even one of the Icy Cave’s signature weapon from the Icy Series on her hands.

Her experience points were instead going up rapidly and, in the blink of an eye, she was nearly level 8.

Ye Ci sat beside Shator’s dead body, crying invisible tears and looking at the loot in her hands.

No way. Could it be that her luck was completely used up after getting that Strength Conversion skill book?

The arrows she had on her right now were almost depleted too. To waste her time any further here was pointless, so Ye Ci decided to return and stock up at the Newbie’s Village first before coming back again.

The Crystal that exploded from the Boss’ body could be exchanged for Green grade equipment at the Altar of Molor. Although these equipment were slightly inferior to the weapons dropped in the dungeon, they were still way better than those extremely expensive white grade weapons sold in stores.

For people like Ye Ci who had farmed from dungeons yet weren’t lucky enough to obtain equipment drops, these Green grade equipment were their best options.

With the 30 crystals she had on her hands, she only had enough to exchange for one equipment. After pondering for a long time, she finally decided to trade for a pair of shoes.

Molor’s Boots: Defense 11. Endurance +1, Speed +1.

Defense and endurance didn’t matter much to Ye Ci. That little extra boost of speed was what she needed the most. As long as her speed was high enough, it would bring her attack and evasion up to another level.

She took a few steps after putting on her Molor’s Boot. They felt slightly more comfortable than the Newbie’s Shoes. However, the appearance of these shoes were still too normal looking and weren’t much different than the Newbie’s Shoes.

But she couldn’t care less about it. At least no one would be able to tell what was different about her.

Upon her arrival to the Newbie Village, Ye Ci immediately ran towards the Village Chief.

“Oh, it is you, my hardworking Huntress. I thought you must have been eaten by Shator. I truly didn’t expect that you would be able to return here unscatched. It seems like the blessing of the Elven King Dau’er is upon us.” The Village Chief was about to babble on with his meaningless monologue again.

For the sake of the rewards, however, Ye Ci smiled and waited for him to finish with his useless words instead of choosing to skip.

She had always known that the rewards for this type of quest were not bad, but she did not expect them to be so favourable.

1 Gold Coin and 1 Talent point.

Ye Ci couldn’t care less about the money. Compared to the money, that one Talent point was far more priceless.

In Fate, characters beyond level 10 would be able to learn different Talents. Every Talent emphasized on different areas which could in turn affect the future growth of each character differently.

Every player was allowed to select different Talents, and everyone was also allowed to select up to 3 Talents at the same time. As long as you had enough Talent points, there would be no issues if you maximized every Talent attribute.

The only concern was that…

In Fate, the game would reward one Talent point each time a player leveled up. Additional Talent points would need to be collected through some specific First Kills or quests of a similar nature.

In other words, under the condition where players had the same level and equipments, players with more Talent points would have more heaven-defying character attributes.

This was also the reason why Ye Ci’s mood was lifted.

The Village Chief continued to chatter on for awhile before announcing the second quest. This was still to be carried out at the Icy Cave but her target this time was the Icy Cave’s Boss on Hard mode, Shator.

“Huntress, you will definitely be rewarded handsomely if you are able to return to me with the head of Shator.” The corner of the Village Chief’s lips curled into a smile, after which he motioned for Ye Ci to come closer. “But you are not allowed to tell Guard Officer Tony that it is you who killed Shator,” He whispered.

Ye Ci raised her eyebrows. This Newbie Village’s Village Chief who appeared to be a simple and honest man was apparently not too honest. It seemed like he intended to take credit for the head of Shator and find Tony for rewards.

Since he was unkind, then he shouldn’t blame her for being unjust.

To Ye Ci, she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if she didn’t slaughter this fat pig that had voluntarily presented itself on her front door. She crinkled her eyes and gave him a non-scheming smile. “Of course, Village Chief. I will surely follow your orders, only that…” She trailed off here and didn’t continue her sentence.

She believed that a treacherous man like him would definitely understand what she had meant.

As expected, the Village Chief quickly nodded in agreement. “Of course.” Ye Ci then found another Skill Book in her hands. “If you can bring the head of Shator back without letting a word of it escape…”

The Village Chief trailed off and paused for a moment like Ye Ci did just now, as if he still had more to say.

Ye Ci promptly looked at the book in her hands.

Fire Arrow Crafting: Crafts arrows that deal fire damage. Requires: Mid Tier Arrow Crafting.

Ye Ci raised an eyebrow – this book was good, but she didn’t have the Arrow Crafting Skill. This meant that the book was of little value to her.

Looking at Ye Ci who wasn’t too satisfied, the Village Chief continued calmly. “My young Huntress, you will have bread as long as you have enough wheat.”

Oh, so that was how it was going to be…

Ye Ci couldn’t help but secretly spit. This Village Chief was a sly old fox through and through! He went as far as to bait her with a carrot that she couldn’t sink her teeth into. Was he treating her like a donkey?

For the sake of that one Talent point, however, she’d still play the role of the donkey.

And so, like two unscrupulous businessmen with their respective ulterior motives, they joyously reached a deal with dazzling smiles on both their faces.

The Icy Cave on Hard mode was not somewhere Ye Ci could solo play. She looked at the time and found out that it was about 9 at night. Without much hesitation, she went to somewhere secluded in the Newbie Village and logged off.

After having casually found something to eat, she received a call from her parents who bombarded her with questions and ordered her around as usual. It was almost as if they were afraid that Ye Ci would starve herself to death.

Not long after, when she had finally hung up on her parents’ call, Liu Chang’s call came through.

The two of them exchanged a few pleasantries. Liu Chang could hardly even wait for Ye Ci’s question and had already jumped straight to showing off to Ye Ci. “Let me tell you this! My Lycan Summoner had reached level 3! Did you know that! My speed of levelling up is simply terrifying! Let me tell you this, I formed a party with a few people and I am now hunting the Poisonous Spider in the Lycan Black Forest! If anyone bullies you, just tell them my name, the Clingy Wolf. Big Sister got your back!”