VRMMO: Passing of the Sword

Blue Maple couldn’t tell anything about her, just as she couldn’t about him, and he could only tell that she was another player.

If Blue Maple’s coldness was one of loneliness, lack of emotion, unfriendliness to strangers, and a tinge of sadness, then this pretty young girl’s coldness was one of dreary loneliness, so cold that she could push everyone thousands of miles away, and there was something dismally sad about her.

The two of them exchanged a look in the teleportation portal as gentle winds swayed the corners of their clothes and hair.

They stared at each other coldly, and the lack of emotions made them seem so similar.

A voice that sounded very unrhythmic broke their brief gaze.

“Uh, may I ask if the two of you require the city’s map?” An NPC beside the Teleportation Portal broke the silence, probably a merchant who sold maps.

Blue Maple and this ice-cold girl glanced at this NPC at the same time, and two sets of cold eyes staring at him made the NPC feel very tense.

“Uh, may, may I ask if you wish to buy a map?” The merchant felt a little afraid as they continued staring at him coldly.

They glanced at each other coldly again, and there was some kind of tacit understanding as they turned in different directions and left.

“Uh…” The merchant was speechless as he stood rooted to the ground. “Those two are so strange,” the merchant muttered to himself as they left.

------

“This little rascal’s luck with girls and romance seems plentiful. But why is this girl being teleported from other towns? She’s also not that fellow’s disciple. Weird.” The old man was watching Blue Maple from the nether, and caught the two of them together coincidentally.

“Forget it, I’m not going to care. But the girl is quite good-looking, a pity that she’s a Thief. This kid doesn’t want to play this game properly, and he doesn’t want to grow more powerful. How can I let you succeed? My disciple has to be stronger than everyone else’s. How can I let this kid take away my bragging rights in the future? Hehehe!” The old man blocked the system’s notification to give Blue Maple the option of choice.

“The system is so annoying. Why couldn’t it send the notification after I finished talking? That’s something else I need to account for so that I can prevent the rascal’s hidden information from leaking out. But I can give it to him in secret.”

Blue Maple didn’t realize that something had appeared in his inventory.

“I have done what that fellow asked me to do. There should be no problem with the person that this rascal chooses. Time to go. I’ll let him figure out through the introductions from the Skill by himself so that he doesn’t get too comfortable and lazy.”

The old man departed.

---

Blue Maple started moving around through the city by himself. Training and leveling up was so boring, and was less interesting than exploring a new city. He had spent a lot of time switching Class a second time, and he hadn’t even had lunch yet. He didn’t need a map to explore the city, so he didn’t bother with that. A map would probably make his experience more uninteresting because the uncertain was a lot more fascinating.

I’ll take this opportunity to explore the city by myself when there’s nobody around. I can only find peace and quiet in the uninhabited wilderness outside, otherwise, Blue Maple thought to himself as he strolled along and gradually disappeared into the streets…

------

Blue Maple was casually making his way through the streets, but elsewhere, players were exploding out of their minds.

“Fuck, it’s Blue Maple again! He slew a demonized Slime when the server first opened, and now he’s the first to make his second Class Advancement!”

“I was wondering why there were no announcements for switching classes at Level 10. So, we must wait for our second time. But who is this Blue Maple? He’s so fucking fierce!”

“Have you not checked who he is? He shouldn’t be one of those experienced gamers, and there’s a high chance that he’s a very powerful individual in real life. We should keep watching him, and we should find a chance to pull him into our guild.”

“Yo, he’s that one with the same Class, or is he another one? He’s so strong. Our entire organization doesn’t have a single person who has a level high enough to switch Classes!”

“Blue Maple? Is that this guy’s name? I still can’t tell who you are, but I’ll defeat you the next time I see you!”

“Wow! The little gangster did advance his Class. Let me see… Wow! He’s at Level 33. Why don’t I send him a message to congratulate him? I haven’t sent anything to him before. No, no! Why should I congratulate him? I should be cursing the gangster not to have any Class Advancements! But he’s already done that, so I shall curse him not to be able to do so in the future. Yes, yes, just like that. Hehe!”

-----

Blue Maple was lying on his bed that night as he checked on what he had gained from his Class Advancement. His equipment rank ceiling was raised and he obtained some Skills, but he was most interested in Heavenly Fire and Nine Heavens Mysterious Ice.

However, Blue Maple checked on his Nine Heavens Mysterious Ice, and it seemed useless.

===

[Nine Heavens Mysterious Ice] (Legendary Item, Very Rare, Absorbed)

Effect: Suppressed by Heavenly Fire.

Bonus: Sealed.

===

Forget it. I’ll take a look at Heavenly Fire. The old man didn’t say anything before he left.

===

[Heavenly Fire] (Legendary Item, Absorbed)

Effect: Gives the player the Law of light, the Law of fire, and the Law of space. (Cannot be used directly).

Gives the player some abilities:

Heavenly Fire Tempering: The player can temper weapons to increase the weapon’s attack power and allow the weapon to gain Heavenly Fire’s unique effects. The weapon can eventually be fused into the player’s own body, and the player can receive a bonus from his weapon’s attack damage even if he isn’t using a weapon. (Effective against unarmed opponents, bonus from two weapons when in Dual-wielding Stance). Helping others temper their weapons can increase the player’s own attack power, and is equivalent to half of tempering the player’s own weapon, and has a chance of increasing Heavenly Fire’s bonus effects (Varies from player to player, and gives bonus to magic-type equipment), but cannot be absorbed.

Heavenly Fire’s bonus effects: Weapon invisibility (only for the player).

Fire Explosion: (Attacks have a chance of immediately dealing explosive fire damage to the target).

Heavenly Fire Fusion: The player can fuse his armor into his own body. The armor’s defensive attributes don’t change; every piece of armor increases movement speed by 5%. The armor will be fused into the player’s skin, and the armor’s defensive attributes cover the player’s entire body (movement speed bonus includes the player’s helmet, shoulder pads, bracers, trousers, leggings, and boots).

Fire Materialization: The player can turn Heavenly Fire into any weapon, armor, and other physical shape that he wishes. Heavenly Fire can materialize into a physical item outside of the player’s body, but the effects are weaker as the fire gets further away from the player.

Blink: The player can teleport himself over short distances however he wishes, according to his strength. He can choose a specific location, or he can choose a rough area to teleport to. Interference can affect the teleportation effect or lead to failure.

Spatial power can also increase inventory volume.

Flames of Heaven: The player can release Heavenly Fire directly to burn the target. Heavenly Fire cannot be extinguished when used against physical matter via normal methods, until the physical matter has been incinerated. Using Heavenly Fire against living beings deals damage and lasts for a duration according to the player’s strength, and according to the target’s fire resistance.

Heavenly Fire can absorb fire from the environment, and it can absorb flames released by lower-rank Skills. The player can release those flames after absorbing a certain amount and can deal damage according to the amount of fire absorbed. Heavenly Fire can be released outside the player’s body to absorb the natural energy of heaven and earth for the player to absorb and release to deal damage.

Heavenly Fire grants the player immunity to lower-rank fire and ice-type Skills. Resistance to medium-rank fire is 50%, ice-type Skills 30%, high-rank fire 30%, and high-rank ice-type Skills 10%. Fire-type Skills above high-rank fire allow marginal resistance, ice-type Skills above high-rank deal additional damage to players who possess Heavenly Fire.

Heavenly Fire’s Skills don’t use mana and have no cooldown. The player can use those Skills as long as he has sufficient Heavenly Fire.

Heavenly Fire’s effects can only be described as exceedingly powerful! What comes afterwards is acceptable, though.

Bonuses: Sealed.

===

So be it. The Seal can be removed anyway.

Indeed, Blue Maple had become very powerful after absorbing Heavenly Fire, and things would become unexplainable if Heavenly Fire’s bonus effects weren’t Sealed. However, the old man could remove Blue Maple’s Seal if he wanted to, so his Seal was as good as nothing.

However, Blue Maple probably wouldn’t remove his Seal so easily. Furthermore, there was an additional remark after the Seal:

The player can receive temporary and explosive bonuses to his attributes when opening the Seal, which increases with the duration that Heavenly Fire remains Sealed! The player will receive additional permanent attribute bonuses when the Seal is completely removed, which increases the fewer times the Seal has been opened.

Blue Maple didn’t know what his attributes would be like when they weren’t Sealed, and he didn’t know how powerful they would become. Furthermore, he would receive an explosive but temporary boost to all his attributes when the Seal was removed.

How powerful will I become?

Blue Maple was a little curious. However, now wasn’t the time to remove the Seal, and he didn’t know when he would do so.

Time to sleep.

------

Blue Maple finished exploring the entire city over the next few days. The city sprawled over a very large area. Blue Maple found it hard to believe that this was just a Rank 3 Main City.

Blue Maple had taken many quests to complete; he wanted to see how good his skills were. He found his way to the Swordsmen’s Guild, and realized that he could still learn normal Swordsmen’s Guild.

However, normal Swordsmen’s Skills were only low-rank Skills. Furthermore, many Skills were very similar to that of his own Class, and using them would send some of his own Skills into temporary cooldown. However, they weren’t completely useless, because he could mask his own Class with them! He could pretend to be a normal Swordsman when he needed to disguise himself.

These Skills shared ranks with his own Skills, so that they wouldn’t be Rank 1 skills when he wanted to use them.

However, the other players leveled up very slowly. The average level was only Level 27, and there weren’t many inside this Rank 3 Main City after their second Class Advancement. Rank 3 Main Cities required one hundred gold coins for teleportation, and not all players were rich like Blue Maple was.

Potions, consumables, repairing armor, and other matters were very expensive. Blue Maple didn’t have any concerns about those things, because the only things he spent his money on was food, accommodations, and repairing his weapons.

But that was a good thing, because he had a lot of time for peace and quiet.

------

Blue Maple, Level 37.

I think I shall accept another quest. It’s so boring. Blue Maple spent his entire morning in the library, and was just idling around when he decided he should find something to do.

This Rank 3 Main City’s Mercenary Union was surprisingly massive, unlike the small building inside the previous town.

This building was at least seventy meters tall, and the grand European-style structure made Blue Maple wonder if Rank 2 and Rank 1 Mercenary Unions had skyscrapers that touched the clouds.

Blue Maple had seen many large buildings before, and he wasn’t too interested as he entered to accept another quest.

The lobby was very spacious. There were many information desks, and quest boards dotted the walls all around.

“Are there any quests for treasure hunts?”

Blue Maple wanted to step forward to take a quest when he heard another player’s inquiry. The player was relatively loud, and there weren’t many players inside the hall anyway, so Blue Maple had no trouble hearing him.

Are there still such quests?, Blue Maple wondered to himself.

Every game definitely had some kind of quests that were like treasure hunts, but Blue Maple was new to games and didn’t know that.

I’ll find one too, then, Blue Maple thought to himself, and he was about to approach an information desk when…

“Hello, we have a treasure hunt quest available for a team. Are you guys willing to form a team for this quest?” an NPC’s sweet voice answered the other player’s question.

There are no others available? Blue Maple found that fact very lamentable.