Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Many players were currently spread out in a strip that went deep inside the Mountain Bandits’ encirclement, and these people were unwilling to relinquish their current position to the enemies despite Sooto blocking their path forward. Thankfully, there were quite a lot of players participating in this battle and the absence of those players that went delving into the enemies’ ranks created space for the players behind to fill in. With these players reinforcing the position and holding the line, the Mages could now come forward and find a chance to unleash their spells. Previously, these Mages were worrying about hitting their comrades who had been clashing with the Mountain Bandits by accident from their position behind the Archers.

“Why don’t I give it a shot? Just get a few men to protect me as I cast my spell.” Drifting, the publicly recognized number one Mage of Parallel World, confidently held his magic stave aloft. Drifting needed to be in the frontline of this fight for him to kill off swathes of enemies just like Gu Fei. However, in such a chaotic fight and with everyone engaging the Mountain Bandits coming from every direction, the movement of monsters as well as the players could easily interrupt the Mages’ spell-casting. Gu Fei could only cast Descending Wheel of Flames boldly because he had the top player in the entire game, Svelte Dancer, protecting him. Besides, the fact that he could take on a Boss by himself without being at a disadvantage attested to his extraordinary fight prowess!

“That...” As Youthful Reflection mulled on how he could form a defensive line at Svelte Dancer’s level for Drifting, Silver Moon suddenly raised his arm, “You three, defend him!”

The three Guardians beside Silver Moon lifted their shields called Bulwark of Imprisonment and jogged toward Drifting.

Drifting was astonished. “Guardians? Will these three be enough to defend me?”

“Don’t worry!” Silver Moon assured Drifting, “They have exceptional defense.”

Drifting plunged right into the enemies’ formation with the three Guardians protecting him. Drifting kept hearing the sounds of attacks hitting the shields, yet the three men remained immovable like mountains, and he was unhampered in the least as he stayed within them.

“Descending Wheel of Flames! Descend!” Drifting finally cast.

None could tell who had a more monstrous Spell Damage between Parallel World’s number one Mage and Gu Fei since Drifting’s Descending Wheel of Flames had the ability to obliterate every Mountain Bandit nearby as well.

Drifting was like an accurate artillery; having invested all his points into Intelligence, he was able to dish out the highest Spell Damage possible each time. Moreover, Drifting’s equipment was focused on increasing either his Intelligence or his magic damage output. Even his top-grade magic staff could release power necessary to kill a lot of level 30 Mountain Bandits. His step-by-step approach in terms of equipment and spell usage let him maintain absolute power. In contrast, Gu Fei was entirely dependent on his two pieces of overleveled equipment; while he possessed incredible might right now, it was only a matter of time before it fade in the face of advancement, be it in gear or skills, as the game progressed further.

Under the three Guardians’ impenetrable protection, Drifting could freely unleash his spells. This led to another string of players carving another path out of the blockade. While everyone was admiring Drifting’s high Spell Damage, Drifting for his part was feeling awed by the three Guardians’ airtight defense. These men did not just have frighteningly high defense; they were extremely good at guarding him as well. The three completely adapted to his fighting tempo, not even bumping into Drifting once as they prevented any attacks from reaching him.

No second Boss appeared to block their path, so this string of players successfully broke through to Youthful Reflection’s utter delight. With this path carved out successfully, the players that had been hindered by this mountain range’s terrain were now able to head over to the open plains ahead. These players finally experienced the vastness of the plains outside the mountain pass. Everyone fanned out and basically encapsulated the Mountain Bandits in their encirclement this time.

The sound of the ensuing slaughter reverberated in the air! The players had been impatiently watching the fight from afar and had been wishing to lend a hand, but they were blocked by the mountain’s terrain. Their thirst for blood had since left them parched. Right now, each of them was bravely engaging the foes with ferocity comparable to the monsters before them.

Dealing with the level 30 Mountain Bandits was already nothing more than child’s play to these level 40 players. With the monsters’ loss of their terrain advantage, nothing really needed to be said about the eventual result. For fear of the players becoming reckless and suffering unnecessary casualties, Youthful Reflection incessantly reminded them to be careful.

The Mountain Bandits were very quickly disposed of, but the duel between Gu Fei and Sooto appeared to be far from over. Sooto’s defense had significantly risen with him wearing clothes. Moonlit Nightfalls’ Physical Damage was superficial at best, so Gu Fei replaced it with Sacred Flames of Baptism after he had cast Twin Incineration twice.

Gouts of flame continued to flare with his Ring of Subdued Lightning proccing from time to time. The electricity that crackled at his blade’s sharp edge with his every strike was visually stunning, especially since it was accompanied by the sound effect for thunder. While it was unknown how much damage it dealt, his strike would often cause Sooto to spasm as if he were break-dancing. The players gawked at this; all of them wondered about the sort of weapon Gu Fei’s Chinese broadsword was for it to cause such an effect.

Besides Gu Fei’s mage robe that was shown with question marks on its description window, they could tell that his other equipment, including the level 30 Sacred Flames of Baptism, was all nothing out of the ordinary! The surrounding players, especially those that liked consistency and disdained anything that bore the term ‘chance’, had never considered equipment that increased the proc rate of his weapon’s additional fire attack to be anything but trivial or impractical in combat.

“OP! He’s too d*mn OP!” Since his equipment was nothing short of average, they could only focus on Gu Fei’s skillful swordplay. While his swordplay seemed simple with him mainly dodging Sooto’s attacks, the players could feel that this was not really the case. They did not know how to describe the scene unfolding before them and could only gawk at the two combatants.

“Uhm... Should we lend a hand?” quite a few men asked, as everyone recalled that Gu Fei was actually fighting a Boss! What sort of gamers would they be if they did not take this chance to steal the Boss kill?

Guttural bellows came from these players. “Quickly assist him!” they gave such a righteous reasoning even as they dove toward the Boss with the intention of stealing it.

Bosses represented a huge chunk of experience points, coin-filled pouches, and the possibility of gold- or purple-tier item drops. With such wondrous rewards, the players abandoned everything from their discipline to their teammates as they rushed toward Sooto as if he were their father.

Gu Fei was actually feeling aggrieved that no player offered to help him when the fighting ebbed, so he promptly felt comforted when many players surged toward him like flowing lava from a volcano that had erupted to provide assistance.

With attacks coming from every direction, Sooto could no longer devote his strikes to Gu Fei like before. Feeling quite bored, he gave Sooto a slash or two before he retreated from the fight while wiping his brows with his sleeves.

The eyeballs of countless players almost fell out of their sockets when they witnessed this. Many of them were feeling distressed at being unable to attack the Boss due to cramped space available for fighting Sooto, so Gu Fei’s casual retreat from the frontline as if this did not matter to him filled them with joy.

It was fine if a player could not take advantage of this situation due to his inability to fight the Boss, but Gu Fei was clearly capable of soloing Sooto. To be able to give up this kill... They suddenly felt that this Mage was incomparably noble and outstanding.

The other members of Young Master’s Elite made their way over and began lecturing Gu Fei for his action. They knew how different Gu Fei’s thought process was compared to the average gamers; he was someone who simply did not care for Boss drops or any potential gains, which explained his readiness to let the others take the kill from him.

Gu Fei listened to their nagging as he ate a banana, saying once he finished, “Reward? Why worry about that?! Anyway, I heard there’s a rule where the item that a monster drops will go to the player that deals the most damage; isn’t that right?”

They were momentarily stunned by this statement. Brother Assist turned his gaze over to the skirmish, “Hmm... With many people attacking Sooto, it seems it will truly be difficult for any of them to deal more damage than you did. But!” Turning his gaze on Gu Fei once more, Brother Assist quickly added, “That’s only if you are not in the same party! Everyone has already formed a party together, so that rule won’t apply!”

“About that... I didn’t join the party,” Gu Fei admitted.

“You didn’t join the party?!” Everyone was shocked.

“Yeah. I declined the invitation since Silver Moon sent it...” Gu Fei explained.

They had joined the party purely to take advantage of Silver Moon’s King’s Command. His skill could only affect players in the same party, and anyone who was not in the same party as him would be unable to enjoy its effects. When Silver Moon was forming the party for this operation, Gu Fei unhesitatingly rejected his invitation.

Having understood the truth of the situation, the men of Young Master’s Elite could not help but find the players’ desperate attempt to deal damage at Sooto rather comical. Only Brother Assist was still fretting, “Uhm... The person that lands the last attack will also gain ‘priority’. If it happens to be someone of the same party, it is still possible for the team priority to supersede yours!”

“Guess it can’t be helped, then. Who knows when the last hit will land?” Gu Fei helplessly chirped.

“Maybe it’s now.” Royal God Call answered jokingly.

“Is that so?” Gu Fei played along with him. Pulling out Moonlit Nightfalls, he pointed it toward the skirmish and chanted, “Thunderbolt! Strike!” A streak of lightning arced down from the heavens and into the crowd of players, striking Sooto squarely on his head. The hair upon Sooto’s head got fried to crisp, and a puff of wispy smoke lingered on him as he convulsed for the last time in today’s fight.

All, including Gu Fei, were dumbfounded and their mouths hung agape. That’s really fortunate of me! he muttered to himself.

“Well, the drops will surely belong to you now; no two ways about it,” the others said.

“Can’t be helped, then,” Gu Fei sighed as he squeezed his way into the crowd, asking, “What dropped?”

These players who had wasted their time beating Sooto up glared at the Mage contemptuously, “We’ve been had! This guy is utterly despicable and shameless!”