Chapter 199 Mutual Benefits

Message to my fellow Malaysians below

As Ye Ci’s consciousness began to fade, she heard an angered roar, and the hand choking her throat suddenly loosened its grip.

Ye Ci fell onto the ground, dazed. Her remaining consciousness registered that she was still alive, and as long as she was not dead, she had to carry on the fight. She stood up on shaky legs, and saw Ol’ Three biting down hard on Buru’s arm. The pain had caused the Werebeast to loosen its grip, thus saving Ye Ci’s life.

The enraged Buru began flinging Ol’ Three around as it hung on to his arm. This caused Ol’ Three’s hitpoints to plunge.

“Damned panther! How dare you get in my way!” Buru was finally able to dislodge Ol’ Three from his arm, and threw it on the ground. The panther let out a whimper, appearing to have sustained serious injuries. Despite that, it struggled to stand on its feet, determined to carry on the fight.

After being distracted by Ol’ Three, Buru’s attention was focused solely on the panther. Ignoring Ye Ci, Buru walked up to Ol’ Three, ready to end its life.

Ye Ci steadied herself. Stars filled her vision. She shook her head, and lifted her crossbow with trembling hands. “Buru! I am your opponent!” Ye Ci shouted with a hoarse voice, and fired all her high damage abilities on Buru.

Despite being at the verge of fainting, Ye Ci was able to miraculously hit Buru’s vital spots, dealing critical damage to her opponent.

Suffering from the tremendous amount of damage, Buru had only 1.1% of his hitpoints left. To make matters worse for the Werebeast, Ye Ci’s passive drained him of his already dwindling mana. He was no longer able to cast any spells.

Buru was thoroughly enraged. Giving up on any form of ranged attacks, he charged at Ye Ci. However, there BOSS did not shift into his animal form as he did not even have enough mana to transform himself. Ye Ci backed away, firing arrow after arrow at the BOSS.

She finally ran out of arrows when Buru had only 0.1% of his hitpoints left.

Ye Ci stood gasping for air 20 yards away from Buru, who was in no better condition himself. He was also at his limits. He was only able to stand upright through sheer force of will. Both parties glared at each other with bloodshot eyes, waiting for the slightest sign of weakness, ready to pounce on each other.

Ye Ci knew that it was not the time to wait. She slung her crossbow. Even though Hunters would become vulnerable when an opponent managed to get within 8 yards of them, Ye Ci did not forget that as a Huntress, she fought monsters in melee combat before she reached lvl5. Although a Hunter’s damage output in melee range was not as high as a Warrior’s, it did not mean that Ye Ci was unable to achieve victory.

She drew out her dagger and short sword. A cold glint reflected off her weapons.

“HAAAHH!” Ye Ci let out a shout after taking in a deep breath. It was a primitive and simple way to hype herself up for combat. She then charged at Buru. The outcome of the battle depended on this one hit. This was her last chance.

Echoing Ye Ci’s thoughts, Buru let out a roar and charged at Ye Ci, swinging his staff around as he went. He was ready to engage the Elf in melee combat.

2 ranged characters that were not adept at melee ranged were locked in combat, with both parties determined to fight to their last breath.

Even if Buru was just an NPC, he had earned Ye Ci’s respect. Such intelligent and tenacious monster was few and far between. Even if their ideologies were different, Buru was still a worthy opponent.

“Clang!”

“Pchit!”

The sounds rang out almost simultaneously. Ye Ci could feel a stabbing pain on her body, and she noticed that she had only 2% of her health left. Damn! Even for a class that was bad in melee combat, Buru’s damage was just too high!

Under the darkening evening sky, a fire pit not far away cast its dim light on the two combatants. Ye Ci stared at Buru’s face, while the NPC glared at Ye Ci. The two had performed their last hit, and they stood unmoving, as if they were statues.

Ye Ci was gasping for breath. She took a glance at Buru, and found that his HP bar was empty. He has been defeated, but why wouldn’t he fall? Ye Ci did not have the answer to that question.

“Hehe… Elf… You’re a worthy opponent.” Buru let out a smile, and his body tumbled backwards, and the impact of his fall reverberated in the quiet forest.

Buru has fallen.

It was a pyrrhic victory for Ye Ci.

“You are the first player to slay the Swamp Of Sorrows World Boss, Werebeast Shaman Buru. Do you wish to hide your ID?”

“Yes.” replied Ye Ci as she let out a long sigh. The system notification began flooding the World Channel. It was a glorious moment for Ye Ci, but she was tired. She sat, or rather slumped onto the ground as her legs buckled beneath her. She realised that she no longer had control of her body. She could not even move even a single finger.

She knew that it was the fatigue penalty that was imposed on her by the system due to prolonged combat. The effect of the penalty was very serious during its first 30 minutes duration. Players would be unable to move, and have their mana and hitpoints recovery severely lowered. Taking a glance at her HP bar, Ye Ci noticed that she had only 3% of her hitpoints left. If a monster appeared, it would be able to kill her easily.

Fortunately for Ye Ci, monsters would tend to avoid Buru’s territory. Ye Ci was able to lay next to Buru’s corpse unharmed for 30 minutes while staring up into the night sky. Even when she could finally move after 30 minutes, Ye Ci’s body was still heavy with fatigue. She struggled to get up on her feet and walked up to Ol’ Three.

It took Ye Ci almost 10 minutes to cover the short distance between her and Ol’ Three. The panther let out a soft whimper as its owner walked up to it, as if it was trying to console its master despite the pain. Looking at the gaping wound on Ol’ Three’s side, Ye Ci fed a bottle of potion to the panther. She had quite a lot of her mana left, but she was too fatigued to cast Pet Healing.

Ye Ci caressed Ol’ Three on the forehead as it gulped down the potion. It purred and narrowed its amber eyes. A sliver of warmth crept into Ye Ci’s heart. “Thank you, Ol’ Three.” Ye Ci patted Ol’ Three on the head and dismissed her pet.

She stood up slowly and walked up to Buru’s corpse.

Due to her extremely bad luck, even a World BOSS like Buru did not yield much of a loot. She was only able to obtain a ring, 3 Perfect Gems and a treasure map from the BOSS. The gems could be used to enhance equipment, but only one of the 3 gems were of use to her despite their high level. Ye Ci decided to keep the gems for later use for when her guild members have managed to level up or when the prices of gems in the auction soared. It would be a waste to use them right away at this stage of the game.

Ye Ci was very satisfied with the two other loot drops. The treasure map was her Main Quest item. It was a fragment of the map to the Elven King Da’uer! She need four of the fragments to form a complete piece of the map. This was the second piece of map she obtained - 10 months after launch of the game.

Any quest related to the Elven King Dau’er would never be simple. Such quests were usually very troublesome, and Ye Ci was very excited because the fragment of treasure map dropped. As for the two other pieces of the map, Ye Ci was in no hurry. She believed that she would be able to complete the quest eventually.

The final item she obtained from the loot was a ring. It was a purple quality ring.

Buru’s Ring:

The only souvenir Werebeast Shaman Buru brought along with him as he was exiled from Werebeast Territory. The ring is Buru’s most treasured belonging.

Purple Equipment, level requirement: 0

Agility +42

Strength +54

Intelligence +47

Ability:

Dark Dispersal (Remove all negative debuffs when used. Cooldown: 3 minutes)

The ring was was perfect for a Druid. Despite having a high Agility and Strength stats that were favourable for Hunters, the ring offers a high level of additional Intelligence as well. This meant that it was not the perfect item for a Hunter. However, Ye Ci paid no heed to this fact. Such stats could always be remedied in the later stages with of the game through gem casting and equipment refining.

The most important thing about the ring was its ability, Dark Dispersal.

In the state that she was, Ye Ci had no skill that could allow her to remove any negative debuffs. In a BOSS fight or a PvP battle, she would be crippled if she was hit by any crowd control skill. With this ring, she would be able to remove all the debuffs on her, greatly increasing her survivability. The only downside to Dark Dispersal was its cooldown time. The 3 minutes was just too long. Ye Ci would definitely laugh like a madman if Dark Dispersal had a cooldown of only 1 minute.

It was still better than nothing.

In a situation where Dark Dispersal was her only option, the 3 minutes cooldown was worth it.

As she equipped the ring, Ye Ci noticed the presence of another ring. It was the Ring of Precision dropped by Fleeting Time. The ring was one of the reasons she was able to defeat Buru on this day. However, she somehow felt that the ring was sticking out like a sore thumb. Ye Ci creased her eyebrows and removed the ring from her finger, storing it into her inventory. She would never admit that it was Fleeting Time’s ring that had contributed to her victory over Buru. Ye Ci stubbornly insisted that she would have been able to defeat Buru even without the ring.

She was very certain.

Ye Ci did not forget her purpose of coming to this place. She was here for the Spirit Soothing Grass that was needed by Lord Moore.

The Spirit Soothing Grass would usually grow on the Abandoned Altar that was behind Buru. The altar had been abandoned for a long time. Even the foundation of the building had begun to crumble away. Blades of grass squeezed themselves out from the cracks on the altar’s ground, and vines growing along the altar’s walls painted the chalky altar with specks of green. Even with the darkening of the sky, the altar looked as if it was full of life.

Ye Ci found a few plants that were luminescent. It was the Spirit Soothing Grass that she was looking for. Not knowing how many of the Spirit Soothing Grass did Lord Moore need, Ye Ci picked every one of them in sight.

Despite the good night vision possessed by Elves, Ye Ci scooped one of the logs out from the firepit to use as light source and began searching the altar. It was a habit that she picked up in her years of gaming. She would scour every inch of a newly discovered place as it might be the only time she would visit the place. She would seize every opportunity and make the most out of them..

Ye Ci circled around the altar and found nothing. She summoned her little red horse and rode towards Dark Clay City.

Perhaps due to the fact that the death of Buru has granted Ye Ci good luck, or perhaps the monsters in the forest were already asleep, Ye Ci did not run into any enemies on her way back to Dark Clay City.

As there was no time limit to complete her quest, Ye Ci headed to one of the many taverns in Dark Clay City and rented the best room. She directed the tavern staff to prepare a hot bath and a nice warm meal for her to remove her fatigue.

After a hot bath and a nice, warm meal, Ye Ci laid on the bed for a rest.

She then logged out of the game. It was already late at night in the real world just like the time in game. Bai Mo had just finished his bath at the time. As he whistled happily on the way out of the bathroom, he ran into Ye Ci who went into the kitchen, ransacking it for food.

He stared at Ye Ci’s pale face and saw her tired expression. It was as if she had been to hell and back. He called out to her, “Little Ci, what have you been up to? You look awful.”

Ye Ci who was exhausted did not have the energy to spare to play word games with Bai Mo. She rolled her eyes at him and spoke up weakly, “Did you leave anything for me?”

“Yup. Get seated, I’m going to warm the food up for you.” noticing Ye Ci’s lack of energy, he knew that Ye Ci was exhausted. Without a single word, he walked into the kitchen and prepared a meal for Ye Ci.

Ye Ci slumped onto the sofa in the living room. Although the battle with Buru was not fought with her own flesh, the long hours of intense battle had exhausted her mentally. She was tired even after logging out of the game. She was nauseated when she thought back about her battle with Buru.

Ye Ci turned on the television. She closed her eyes, listening to the soap opera that was being aired. She could not even comprehend a single word. She was tired. The only thing that was occupying her mind was the need for sleep.

After an amount of time in mental oblivion, somebody tapped lightly on Ye Ci’s shoulder. She opened her eyes, only to find Bai Mo staring at her, “Little Ci, dinner’s ready. Go eat before you sleep.”

“Alright.” Ye Ci forced herself up. Bai Mo handed her a bowl of rice, and set the dishes on the table in front of her. They were all her favourite dishes. The food was exceptionally appealing with steam rising from them.

Despite her exhaustion, Ye Ci’s tummy rumbled in the face of good food. She immediately began wolfing down the food.

Bai Mo sat on a bench beside her and smiled, “Eat slowly. I’ve eaten my fill. I won’t take your food away.”

After sweeping through the first bowl of rice like a typhoon, Ye Ci finally slowed down after Bai Mo offered her a refill.

“What have you been doing? You look dead tired.” asked Bai Mo.

“Fighting against a World BOSS.”

“Werebeast Shaman Buru?”

“Yup.”

Hiya minna-san! How's everything going? Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! What an epic battle between Ye Ci and Buru rite??

Today is a very speshul day for Malaysia. We're having our 14th General Election people! I'm hoping for the best for my country, my the righteous rule Malaysia for the years to come, and lead Malaysia to prosperity!

Calling out to all the artistic souls out there: WE NEED FAN ARTS! AND WE NEED IT BADLY!!! (I'm addicted to fan arts at this point) SO DON'T HESITATE IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING YOU WANT TO SUBMIT! YOU CAN SEND THEM TO ME VIA EMAIL! I DON'T CARE IF IT'S A STICKMAN DRAWING GODDAMMIT! xDD (Fan art submission email: [email protected])

To all my fellow Malaysians who might be reading this:

Today is the most important day of our beloved nation! Are you ready to vote? Are you ready to make a change? Let's all fulfill our duty to our country! Every vote matters! No matter which party you support, your vote matters! Every vote counts! Let us all head out and cast our votes on this very special and important day for Malaysia! The election today will decide what happens to Malaysia in the next 5 years, so let us all head out and vote for who we think is the fitting ruler of our nation!

Tak kira apa parti yang kita sokong, tak kira apa ideologi kita, keluarlah mengundi! Rakyat lah yang berkuasa dalam negara ini! Pilihan raya pada hari ini akan menentukan masa depan negara kita dalam lima tahun yang akan datang! Jadi marilah kita keluar mengundi! Kita sama-sama mengundi demi negara kita yang tercinta!