Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

“Does Southern Lone Blade really have that much ambition? Is this for real?” Royal God Call muttered immediately.

With that, the three men turned to look at Slyris. What was the point of admitting to this matter by her volition? They simply could not understand her reason for doing so. Gu Fei was still the most straightforward and directly asked, “What’s the reason for telling us all this so suddenly? Are you asking for trouble?” He then gripped his sword more tightly. If Slyris was requesting for him to slay her on the spot, he would gladly oblige.

Slyris returned his gaze. “It seems that you guys are hunting for Southern Lone Blade; I wanted you to know that I’m the one who hired him to do it, so if you have issue with him because of that, you can directly come at me rather than trouble the man.”

“Oh...” the three hummed in acknowledgement. Gu Fei nodded his head. “Lady, I greatly admire your spirit and willingness to bear the consequence of your action, but you are mistaken. I only learned about that man’s intention to loot my equipment from you right now; I am hunting him for a different reason, but since you’ve been so forthright with me, I shall extend to you the same courtesy. The truth is that I am also employed by someone to slay him, but I feel regretful after hearing that from you. If I knew that he is after me as well, I would not work so hard to locate the man and would just randomly choose a spot for him to seek me himself...” He heaved a deep sigh of regret once he was done saying this.

Gu Fei’s words left Slyris feeling stunned. This was when he thought of something and said, “Oh, yeah. Since you’re his employer, I wonder if you can perhaps tell him where I’m located right now and get him to quickly come after me?”

Looking at his sincere expression, Slyris’s icy countenance melted into boundless curiosity. She had no idea how to answer this request of his and eventually replied, “I don’t think I can help you with that. The man has just informed me a while ago of his decision not to complete my request, even going as far as to return my deposit along with the penalty fee for the cancelation.”

“And you just agreed? How could you indulge him like that? It’s far too unprofessional of him to call it quits as and when he wishes.” Gu Fei was peeved.

Slyris was once more put on the spot. Even the lass that had been munching on the bun was stunned by this strange man’s seemingly rigid mindset.

“So, do you have any idea where he went?” Left with no other choice, this was his only question at the moment.

“Nope.” Slyris shook her head.

He heaved a heavy sigh once more.

“What do we do now?” Royal God Call asked.

“Since we can’t find Southern Lone Blade at the moment anyway, why don’t we all sit down and share a drink or two?” War Without Wounds once more raised this suggestion.

“That’s a great idea; I support this!” Royal God Call happily nodded in agreement.

“Oh, yeah!” Gu Fei suddenly said.

“Whoa, Miles agreed as well. Alright, ladies. Let’s all go in and have a drink.” The two men were extremely excited.

“That’s enough out of you two!” Gu Fei was done with their antics.

The two of them stared at him in bewilderment, scratching their heads.

Gu Fei continued to address Slyris, “Since you hired him before, you should know of the method to contact him, right? Do you mind telling me how you go about doing it?”

Slyris was not foolish, either. Hearing his question, she instantly made the connection. “Are you thinking of luring the man out?”

Gu Fei nodded.

Slyris promptly replied, “I can’t help you with that.”

“Why not?”

“This is an agreement between the two of us. Just as how they will never reveal their employer’s information, as their employer, I won’t betray the method in which they can be contacted as well. Plus, I think they’ve already foreseen the method you’re trying to attempt right now,” she explained.

“This agreement of yours... sounds like a gag order of mutual coercion,” he said.

“That may be so! While I didn’t explicitly tell them to keep my identity a secret, I should still uphold my end of the bargain,” she said.

Gu Fei nodded. It turned out that this was a lady of principle. Everybody would stand firm when it came to their principle, and any attempts to criticize or even admonish their stance would merely be a fool’s errand. Gu Fei had no wish to be that sort of fool, so he could only sigh. “Since that is your wish, I guess that’s all there is to this matter.”

“That’s all there is. Awesome. Let’s all go and have a drink!” War Without Wounds and Royal God Call cheered.

“You can all do what you wish; I’ll continue to stroll about,” Gu Fei said.

“Ohhh! Well, good luck with that!” The two men’s eyes were not even looking at him at this point. They could hardly wait for him to leave, either; otherwise, the ladies would not even look their way. Their only concern was if the ladies decided to reject their invitation.

“Hold it!” Slyris abruptly shouted.

Gu Fei turned his head to face her.

“I am curious. Regarding me employing them to loot your equipment, you...” Slyris of course found this strange. Anyone would find this to be perplexing. In such a situation, even if it had not resulted in a duel of life and death, the target would at least not have acted so aloof and unconcerned toward the issue like how Gu Fei was acting right now.

“Oh, that’s what you mean!” Gu Fei turned around fully this time, but his answer once more left Slyris baffled. “I am extremely grateful that you spent money on hiring someone to try and hunt me down. Next time, I hope you won’t find someone as unprofessional as Southern Lone Blade. Do find someone who will have more backbone and possess a relentless fighting spirit. Thanks a lot!”

“You... You...” Slyris was absolutely stumped right now.

Gu Fei turned around to resume his stroll before suddenly turning back. “Oh, yeah. Do you still wish to see my equipment?”

Here it comes! Slyris thought with shock, so, in the end, he still wishes to seek revenge on me. She mentally prepared herself to dodge his incoming spell.

In the end, all she saw was him fishing out a booklet and quill from his dimensional pocket. With Moonlit Nightfalls wedged under his armpit, he jotted down something on the booklet. While they were all wondering what he could be writing, he stopped scratching with his quill, proceeded to tear out that piece of paper, and then lifted it over to Slyris, as if it were a name card. “That’s the stats for my equipment. Take it and slowly admire it, I guess!”

Slyris’s brain went blank. Unconsciously receiving the paper from him, she brought it to her eye level. The stats and traits he had written on the piece of paper would indeed elicit a scream from any player, but her thoughts were in turmoil right now, so nothing she saw really registered in her mind.

“I’m leaving now,” Gu Fei bade War Without Wounds and Royal God Call farewell before throwing in a reminder, “take good care of Royal; don’t lose him.”

“Ahhh! Just leave already!” Royal God Call shooed Gu Fei away. To actually say such a thing in front of these babes, his image would really be ruined.

Gu Fei turned and left, disappearing into the fog in no time. Slyris was still clutching the paper with a stunned look. It was, instead, the lass, who had slid right up to her, that exclaimed after taking a peek at the piece of paper, “Wow! That’s amazing. He’s probably bluffing, right?”

Slyris seemed to have been jolted out of a dream by her remark. Taking a proper look at the numbers listed on the paper, she was naturally amazed. Forget about the high Spell Damage of Moonlit Nightfalls, just the additional traits of the sword left her feeling dazed. What was the most eye-catching was Midnight Spirit Robe’s trait, which was the very same trait Gu Fei could not make sense of in the beginning, and what Royal God Call was unable to fully understand regarding ‘Spell Mastery +1’.

It was not exactly uncommon to find equipment with trait that increased Spell Mastery nowadays, but most would only increase it by a certain percentage. After an extensive research by a majority of Mages out there, it was discovered that this particular trait not only increased Spell Aptitude but also improved all types of proficiency of a spell in the Mage’s arsenal. The higher the proficiency a spell had, the more effective it was when cast, and the Spell Mastery trait’s purpose was to strengthen proficiency and increase a player’s spell power. One could say that its effect fully represented what it meant to have true ‘Spell Mastery’.

With how spell proficiency would increase alongside with continuous spell usage and the lack of an official statement about it having an upper limit, anybody could just imagine how powerful Spell Mastery would become as a Mage’s proficiency increased. Thus, Spell Mastery had become a top-tier trait that all Mages yearned for. As for Gu Fei’s ‘+1’, it was indeed exactly as how Royal God Call had surmised back then; this ‘+1’ was actually 100%. This meant that if Gu Fei had a spell proficiency of 2000 in Twin Incineration, he could dish out the power of a 4000 proficiency Twin Incineration the moment he wore his Midnight Spirit Robe. Although doubling the rate of proficiency of a spell or skill did not directly translate into doubling the damage output, the huge increase was, nevertheless, frightening.

Slyris had no idea if there could be items in Parallel World that would increase Spell Mastery by a crazy amount of ‘+2’ or even ‘+3’, but she was positive ‘+1’ was the highest she had seen currently, and the fact that the item possessed such high value in this top-tier trait meant that Midnight Spirit Robe was more than enough to be worn by Gu Fei for his entire gaming life in Parallel World.

“Sis, is this for real?” the lass asked after reading all the traits listed on the paper.

“Ladies, I assure you that it is all true.” It was unknown when Royal God Call had made his way over to stand beside the two women. He had personally seen Gu Fei’s equipment with his eyes, and it was indeed so illogical he was naturally unable to forget about it. Casually skimming through the paper, he knew that it was not even off by a point. More importantly, he finally found his chance to speak to these two ladies.

“Come on; let’s head in and talk about this over a drink or two!” War Without Wounds was a veteran when it came to grasping a chance as well.

At this moment, Gu Fei was on his way to the next tavern. Southern Lone Blade having a client like Slyris in the previous tavern meant that he might have another one out there. Perhaps, they had chosen to come to this city because they had matters to settle here. That was what Gu Fei thought even as he used the mercenary channel to inform the others about his recent serendipitous encounter, making a point to suggest his thought of luring Southern Lone Blade out by hiring him to do a job.

Such a matter would obviously be in Brother Assist’s wheelhouse, as only this information expert could carry out a task of this nature. He agreed, but his understanding of Southern Lone Blade as a person led him to believe that it was unlikely for the latter not to have thought of such a potential entrapment. It would not hurt to try, though, so Brother Assist still dove into his friends list and connections to find out more.