Chapter 86: The Third Party
Although there were guesses in my heart, it was not the right time to experiment, so I had to put it aside for now.
First, I needed to learn the skills.
The first one was Charge, which could be learned after reaching level 20, but I forgot about it due to the events that followed.
As expected, Starry could naturally learn this skill. Seeing the addition of Charge in my skill bar, I felt good about myself. With Dance of Chaos and Ice Moon Slash, I already had three control skills!
Next were Sound of Healing and Blink.
Brother Shiu and Cute Orange could also use them after level 20, but, somewhat shamelessly, these two skills could only achieve maximum effect when used on oneself. If the Wishcaster could not learn them, I would reconsider.
Transformed into a blonde girl, I took out the skill book.
By the way, what exactly is the positioning of the Wishcaster profession? Whether it’s control or damage, both are top-notch. If I had to say, it looks more like an advanced profession that combines a bard and a mage.
Sure enough, the learning process went smoothly, and the skill book transformed into two streams of light that remained in the skill bar.
The maximum distance for Blink is 40 yards, the same as Charge.
Moreover, Blink is instant-cast; as long as one reacts quickly enough, it’s completely possible to avoid a missed Charge.
The main difference between the two is that Charge comes with stun and damage, while Blink can traverse normal terrain, which is a form of balance.
As for Sound of Healing, using my current magic attack to release it could achieve 1200+ healing, far exceeding the single-target healing of high-end priests at this stage.
However, this skill has a cooldown of two minutes, making it difficult to use in regular battles and hardly usable in boss battles. The continuous healing with shorter cooldowns that priests can provide is still indispensable.
Glancing at my friend list, Nangong had already logged in. His level was 18.
I felt a bit guilty for not having interacted with them much while focusing on leveling up these past few days.
After some thought, I decided to send a message.
“Nangong, do you have any activities today?”
“Zanny? I feel like I haven’t seen you in months,” Nangong replied.
“That’s too exaggerated; we just saw each other a few days ago!”
“I can’t help it; the past few days of grinding monsters have been too fulfilling. What about you? It seems like Yuhua has put you on the top wanted list? 10,000 for your head; thinking about it makes it quite tempting,” Nangong chuckled mischievously.
“What? Why didn’t I know about this?”
“It was just yesterday; weren’t you guys fighting in Maple Flower Forest? Although Yuhua has a lot of people, they are just a bunch of rabble. Bullying our small party of scattered players is one thing, but Mingxiao is someone not to be provoked,” Nangong reminisced.
“However, Zanny, you are quite impressive! Mingxiao actually agreed to help you beat up Yuhua! Now, Fengchen Yanhua and Shattered Star have become the prominent figures of Yunshui City!”
“…” Those people from Yuhua really love to stir trouble. “Forget about that for now; do you guys have plans today?”
“Today…? I was thinking of trying out the Barren Land.”
“What the hell! You four physical classes, with no healer, going to fight the physically defensive Fast Beast?” I said mercilessly.
“Damn! You think I don’t know? It’s mainly because there are no monsters to grind; the monsters in Maple Flower Forest are too low-level. The Treants are of the right level, but they are too hard to find, making it inefficient. If we don’t switch to another monster soon, we won’t keep up with the leveling pace of the main party,” Nangong said helplessly.
This is a problem faced by many players: whether to be content with mindlessly grinding low-level monsters or to bravely explore and face new ones? New monsters represent more opportunities and risks, and a careless move can lead to losing a level, which takes hours to recover.
“Let’s go to Shattered Rock Ridge; take me with you,” I suggested.
“Shattered Rock Ridge? Where is that?”
“Just go north of Maple Flower Forest; how can you not know after training there for a few days?”
“The forest is so big, and if you’re not careful, you can be sneak-attacked by a Treant. Who dares to go there? Wouldn’t it be counterproductive if we get one-shotted?”
“It’s fine; I’ll lead you there!” I said confidently.
…
According to the original plan, today I was supposed to take Youyou and the others to use the Tower of Forgetting pass.
But I felt something was off.
Out of curiosity, I had previously tried to use the pass, and the pop-up window showed that a maximum of 12 players could form a team to enter.
Considering the strength of Star Cat at Gold Grade, this pass definitely does not lead to an ordinary place.
If I carelessly took them over, it was likely that everyone would drop a level.
Moreover, since the number of players hadn’t reached the limit, it felt like a waste.
Therefore, I planned to level Nangong and the others up to 20, and by the end of today, Brother Shiu and the others should also be reaching level 20.
After reaching level 20, new skills could be learned, and with more control skills, the grasp of combat would be significantly better.
In total, there were 11 people: Brother Shiu, Youyou, Brother Hai, the new priest, Nangong, Zimei, Chuxue, Traveler, plus myself and Starry, and let’s not forget Cute Orange.
That still left one spot open.
“By the way, Zanny, didn’t I mention last time that Zimei brought along two priest girls as well? They will also join us.”
… One more person? Cute Orange, sorry, there’s no spot for you.
I thought without any psychological burden.
…
After buying breakfast, I finished it with a bottle of milk and bread, bringing one for Brother Shiu as well and placing it on the table.
Around 8:30, Nangong’s group was all online. It seemed they had made an agreement to go online at this time, and everyone was quite punctual.
On the other hand, Brother Shiu and Brother Hai had yet to log in. Where did that grinding enthusiasm go in the past few days? Now they were starting to sleep in.
However, it was fine that Youyou was online; I told her to relay the message.
I really wanted to take her along, as Lord Xisi’s output undoubtedly surpassed some high-end players. But taking her along would likely slow down Brother Shiu and the others’ leveling pace, so I decided against it.
…
Starry was now quite famous, often needing to put on the gray cloak’s appearance in the streets to not draw too much attention.
Therefore, when she let down her cloak, everyone was stunned by her beautiful looks.
“Zanny… you must have gotten close to the stunning beauty Starry in real life, right!?” Nangong said with a hint of jealousy.
Close to a beauty? There’s no such person in reality!
Zimei expressed her discontent, “Zanny bro, you lied to me! Last time, you said it was a chance encounter; it clearly looks like you are dating!”
Traveler scoffed, “Pretending to be a single dog every day in the group, haha!”
Chuxue asked confusedly, “But they haven’t done anything, right? It’s just leveling together.”
“Xiaoxue, you don’t understand this~,” Jiangxia said knowingly, appearing close with them. “Our party has more girls, so those two can’t dare to act too close.”
Traveler and Nangong inexplicably took a hit.
“And Fengchen Yanhua and Shattered Star, they are recognized as a couple on the forum!”
“They were inseparable in Beginner Village, until the third party—Endless Sea—appeared, complicating the situation.”
“The aggressive third party inserting themselves caused cracks in the sweet relationship, and…”
“Jiangxia!” Wencheng interrupted, how could the main characters talk about this openly? Such matters should be discussed privately!
I was dumbfounded; which deity was babbling nonsense on the forum?
