Chapter 226 Flashbang (Part 1)

The Black Iron Dwarf paused to take deep breaths but started coughing so hard that it seemed his lungs were about to be coughed out. Ye Ci could feel her lungs hurting as well just by looking at the Dwarf.

“Oh I can’t do this, I need medicine for my illness.” The elderly Black Iron Dwarf suddenly opened his bloodshot eyes. He clutched at his chest with one hand while grabbing hold onto Ye Ci with another, “good Elf, quickly to go the nearby Black Wind Mountain and get some Cloudy Grass, otherwise it’ll be too late for me.”

After saying so, the elderly Dwarf fainted in Ye Ci’s arms.

He couldn’t have died right...It was only after Ye Ci held a hand under the Dwarf’s nose and felt a faint breath that she confirmed he had only fainted. Thus, she placed him in the rock crevice and covered him with some grass before heading out to this Black Wind Mountain to collect some Cloudy Grass.

The Dwarf had so much energy while talking to her earlier, but not only did he not tell her the clue, he even sent her on a collecting quest.

Ye Ci silently complained a bit, then summoned Ol’ Four and headed towards Black Wind Mountain.

At this point in the game, the average levels of players were not high, and Home of Lesser Demons was a small, unremarkable regional map of the Eastern Continent, so there were no other players around. Ye Ci rode Ol’ Four across the scorching plains of Lesser Demon Sanctuary while occasionally dodging the magic attacks of the nearby Lesser Demons.

Although Ye Ci was a solo player from the moment she entered the game, at times like this she could not help but feel slightly bleak, as if she was forever alone. Continuously repeating the same potentially meaningless activities would make anyone exhausted.

Just as she was about to step onto the Black Wind Mountain map, Ye Ci stopped and bent down to pat Ol’ Four’s neck and quietly said, “Ol’ Four, do you ever feel lonely?”

Ol’ Four craned his neck to see the person on his back and let out a strange sound. There was a trace of warmth in those golden eyes as he growled. It did not actually understand what Ye Ci said, but the strong negative emotions it felt from her also affected its mood.

Ol’ Four quietly growled, as if comforting Ye Ci.

It was lucky that Ye Ci was not a particularly emotional person. Her melancholy today was partly due to the desolateness of this map. It must be said that Fate did a very good job. With maps like this, if one turned on the background sound, one would not only hear realistic sound effects, but also tear jerking music. In her previous life, Ye Ci did not realise that the background sound could be turned off, so did not take much notice of it.

As Ye Ci raised her level and became more familiar with her skills, she found that the background sound actually had an affect on a player’s mood, to the point where it would even affect one’s performance. From that point on, Ye Ci never turned on the background sound again.

Ye Ci patted Ol’ Four’s neck and tossed him a few pieces of high level Roasted Meat. As Ye Ci’s level rose, so did Ol’ Four’s. However, he became increasingly picky about his food; Ol’ Four had absolutely no interest in normal food anymore. Even if he ate it, there would be no increase in happiness.

Black Wind Mountain was a small mountain to the north west of Lesser Demon Sanctuary and could not be more different. Not only was the lighting dim and dark, but even the rocks and trees were gloomy. Although the lighting in Home of Lesser Demons was not great either, at least one could still see a fair distance away, completely unlike this place. If a player with low night vision came here, they could lose quite a bit of health just by falling into the holes all over the roads.

Elves had decent night vision, but Ye Ci still hopped off Ol’ Four’s back to carefully walk forward. There was not any complicated terrain; only a narrow road littered with various sized rocks and pitfalls. If one was not careful, it would be easy to fall into these holes. Although the fall would not cause a large drop in health, the lingering pain would last for a long time. In the game, a DPS’s body was their weapon and thus would never allow themselves to be injured before a battle. Pain was accumulative, and a lot of accumulated pain could affect one’s speed and the outcome of battles.

This rule was the same no matter if one was a DPS or some other job, but was more obvious for DPSs.

In her previous life, Ye Ci rarely went to Lesser Demon Sanctuary, let alone Black Wind Mountain. Therefore, she had to carefully look at the map when moving forward even though she had a basic understanding of Black Wind Mountain.

Black Wind Mountain was once an abandoned mine, its environment even worse than Home of Lesser Demons. When Lesser Demon Sanctuary was taken over by the Lesser Demon army, the young and strong Lesser Demons exiled the old, weak and disabled to Black Wind Mountain. Life was fragile but also strong; this held true for all races.

The exiled Lesser Demons did not die, but went through generation after generation of evolution and growth to become even stronger than the Lesser Demons - Dark Lesser Demons. This kind of demon not only had strong attack and defense, but was also capable of stealth.

They would often enter Stealth and hide in various places to wait for the arrival of prey.

It was because of this that Ye Ci did not ride Ol’ Four any further. She was afraid that Ol’ Four would rush too far into an ambush and cause her death too.

Lesser Demons were only lvl55 to lvl58, but liked to live in groups. Ye Ci had to be careful of the Dark Lesser Demons as they were even more powerful than normal Lesser Demons..

Although Ye Ci was already lvl60, there were still many skills she had not yet learnt. This was because she had not run many dungeons or defeated BOSSes lately, and thus did not see any skill books.

With something like skills, it was not necessarily the more the better. One needed to be proficient in those skills to fully realise their potential. When an expert had many skills, it was easier for them to find a suitable skillset. On the other hand, newbies would just be wasting skills if they did not know how to use them.

At times, all it took was one move to distinguish experts and newbies.

Black Wind Mountain only had one narrow entrance, with plains in front and behind, which resulted in strong winds rushing through all year round. Even if the wind was not that strong originally, once it entered the narrow passage, it would become a sharp, penetrating wind that stung one’s skin.

Ye Ci stood next to the mountain, observing that narrow passage. The plains at the entrance and exit of the passage caused the wind that swept through to pick up dust, which caused a noticeable drop in visibility. However, only someone with night vision or good detection abilities would be able to tell that the wind actually had colour.

Ye Ci only figured this out when she attempted to go through the passage and the wind actually cut her cheek, and kept dropping health, otherwise she would not be so cautious.

This place was middle of a gourd, with the middle especially narrow. It was impossible for Ol’ Four to pass through, so Ye Ci unsummoned him and summoned Ol’ Three. Compared to Ol’ Four’s large body, Ol’ Three was more suited to this type of terrain. Ol’ Four was an Epic-tier monster, but when unable to use any skills, even a normal animal would be of more use. Ol’ Three was summoned for the first time in a while, and was very happy as he followed Ye Ci.

It has been five minutes since Ye Ci entered Black Wind Mountain, but there was still no sign of monsters. This was an abnormal situation. Ye Ci did not think that there were suddenly no monsters in this area, rather, she had not truly entered the monster zone.

Dark Lesser Demons were quieter than normal Lesser Demons. Normal Lesser Demons would occasionally growl, and if a player heard it, then one could estimate the distance between them and the Lesser Demon. However, the Dark Lesser Demons were as quiet as the dead.

Ye Ci calculated how long it would take to pass through the narrowest part of the passage. If she crouched down and used Sneak it should only take one or two seconds. When Ol’ Three crouched on all four feet it only reached mid thigh, and would not be hit by the cutting winds, so they should be able to pass through easily. Ye Ci considered the passage here. Its appearance was very strange, as if predicting that the road after would be dangerous. If there were many Dark Lesser Demons hiding behind it, how could she safely pass?

Ye Ci stood there for several seconds before making the decision to move ahead. Sometimes the answer would appear after the problem presented itself. If she hesitated here, then she would never be able to move forward in life.

Ye Ci crouched and ordered Ol’ Three to stay put before using Sneak to have a look at the entrance.

Hunters were not Thieves, and did not have the Detect skill. During dangerous situations, Ye Ci must rely on experience and skills to increase her awareness.

Ye Ci concentrated on her task. As soon as she entered the passage, her entire body was tensed in preparation for whatever was behind the passage.

“Grrr…” A sudden shrill and rough sound came from right next to Ye Ci. It surprised her so much that she hesitated for a moment. In a battle, victory was often decided in a moment. It was because of this moment of hesitation that Ye Ci saw a Dark Lesser Demon appear right in front of her, and cast a Pause debuff.

This was bad.

Pause: the victim is no longer able to move or use any skills.

In Fate, there were many control skills such as Dizzy, Fear, Pause, Paralysis, Freeze, etc. However, a purely DPS class like Hunter did not have many control skills, and did not even have one skill to release them from control skills. This was why the Hunter class had a so called eight yard zone.

Eight yards was the closest shooting range for Hunters and was also just out of range of control skills. That is to say, if Hunters kept an eight yard distance between them and their enemy, then they would almost never be hit by a control skill. If the enemy closed in, then Hunters could only rely on their own evasion skills to avoid the opposing control skills. This meant that if the enemy was strong enough, then as soon as Hunters failed to evade a control skill, they would die.

For Ye Ci right now, this was the worst case situation. As a Sorceress in her previous life, she had many control skills, so it was easier for her to deal with these Dark Lesser Demons. Now, she directly ran into a Dark Lesser Demons due to her low detection ability, and was even hit with a control skill!

Even though Ye Ci was already lvl60, her luck was really bad. The first Dark Lesser Demon was actually a lvl50 Squad Leader. This rendered her level advantage practically useless.

Pause lasted six seconds.

Dark Lesser Demons Leaders had high attack. One attack would cause Ye Ci to drop 1000-2000 health. This was very scary for someone like Ye Ci who did not have much health to begin with. However, what was even scarier was that Dark Lesser Demons liked to move in groups...

Ye Ci believed that even though she could only see one Dark Lesser Demons, after it growled, there would be other Dark Lesser Demons that rushed over. That would be extremely bad.

Hiya minna-san! Long time no see! Exam's finally over! And I'm currently having a vacation in my grandma's house here in Penang (somewhere in Bukit Mertajam if we have peeps from Penang here).

Here are a few small, happy things I would like to share!

1. This just came in on the day my exam ended! HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THAT FKING DRESS PEOPLE!

2. I just got like a very good fking roll in Fate/Grand Order with like 3 summon tickets!

3. I've passed all my subjects for this exam! Don't know the grades yet, but it's confirmed that I've at least passed!

This chapter is brought to you by Aang! Our lovely trainee that will be with us for awhile!