Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 352 - Row, row, row your boat...

Xi Xiaotian’s ploy of tossing the coin pouch did not create any opening. It did not matter, though, as Gu Fei merely remained unmoving from his current position.

“Maybe, he’ll count the coins.” Xi Xiaotian was hoping that the man would make this rookie mistake. The man, however, merely lifted the money pouch to assess its weight before putting it inside his dimensional pocket. Xi Xiaotian’s 300 gold coins were thus expended just like that. Even if she killed this man after, she would have no way of recovering that money.

Gu Fei also revealed a wistful expression at this point. This was not due to them failing to create an opening but due to Xi Xiaotian giving the man money. He plaintively said to her, “You shouldn’t have given him money!”

He did not say this through a private message but blurted it out in the open, which clearly telegraphed to the man that Gu Fei was not planning to pay up. The man’s expression contorted with annoyance when he heard him say this.

“Speaking of which, have you thought such a situation through before?” Gu Fei was still smiling. “If someone pays while the others don’t, what will you do?”

The man’s face continued to twist, as though Gu Fei had just poked him on his sore spot. It was evident that such thorny situations happened more often than not during his extortion career, and they usually ended rather poorly, leaving him with a mental scar as a result.

Killing the players who refused to pay up after capsizing the boat and rescuing the ones who did... Such show of integrity would really go against a robber’s nature.

“It seems you’re not planning pay up, eh?” the man said this through gritted his teeth.

“That 300 gold coins you gave him will be for naught as you’ll end up in the water as well.” Gu Fei blatantly ignored the extortionist as he spoke to Xi Xiaotian. “Translocation! Blink!” He chanted the spell incantation the moment he finished talking to her.

Clearly, the man had got plenty of experience dealing with this kind of situation. Although Gu Fei could close in on his target faster than most players, the man’s way of dealing with this kind of matter had always been the same.

With his shield propped before him, the man moved to enter the water!

The person was apparently telling the truth; he could indeed very comfortable with being in the water. No matter how strong his opponents were, he was confident that he could circumvent them in his preferred environment.

“Twin Incineration!”

He heard Gu Fei chant, yet his body was already bending out of the boat.

He did not jump in, move to plunge into the water midair, or even dove into the water imposingly. All he did was simply lean his body forward in a great imitation of a man falling overboard and into the water. Although his posture lacked finesse, it was actually the most efficient way to get into the water.

Unfortunately for him, Gu Fei’s attack was much faster than that.

“Incinerate!” The incantation finished, and the man, who had leaned forward to enter the water, soon realized that he was actually falling in the direction of where heat was emanating from. When he lowered his head, he saw Gu Fei’s Moonlit Nightfalls came slashing in from an inconceivable angle and right where he was falling to, causing him to meet Gu Fei’s sword directly.

He wanted to dodge it, but it was already too late; with his body’s falling posture, he could not correct his position in time.

In the end, all he could do was look on as Gu Fei, who had also bent his body forward, fell toward the boat with his sword flashing out.

Gu Fei had anticipated the man’s move. No matter if the man jumped, fell, or slid, his body would still go sideways.

Gu Fei latched on to this sliver of chance and was prepared to send his sword out. His timing was impeccable as well; Gu Fei lifted his sword in the exact moment that the man was in a position where he could not re-stabilize himself immediately.

Whether it would be enough to insta-kill him or otherwise was the only thing left in suspense.

Although he could not utilize his shield to block Gu Fei’s sword slash, his high HP as a Guardian might be sturdy enough to withstand it.

Gu Fei’s hand sank.

The man fell on to his blade; if the man was insta-killed, he would turn into white light and quickly fade from here.

However, that was not what had happened. The Guardian glanced at his HP and saw clearly how close to death he was. The stone in his heart dropped as he waited for his body to fall into the water. All he needed to do now was to capsize the boat and finish off this arrogant Mage.

In that instant, this man planned out Gu Fei’s end.

However, he had forgotten something. He had a total of three clients onboard his boat, so he was not simply fighting against Gu Fei.

That moment Gu Fei attacked, the two ladies unleashed their attacks as well.

A black cloud formed at the tip of Vast Lushness’s staff, which swiftly contracted and imprinted itself on to the Guardian’s body. The Guardian had just slipped out of Gu Fei’s blade and was about to hit the water’s surface head-first when that attack turned him into white light.

Even Gu Fei was stunned by this. His left hand was emitting bluish light, but he never got to connect it to the Guardian’s body. Recalling that spell, he turned his gaze over to the two ladies behind him.

Xi Xiaotian was looking at Vast Lushness with a short bow in hand. She did not manage to fire off her nocked arrow as well; indeed, there were too many steps to accomplish before Archers could launch their attacks. Xi Xiaotian failed to complete the shot cycle given how quick everything went.

“Kiss of Death? You’re a Dark Priest?” the knowledgeable Xi Xiaotian asked Vast Lushness.

Vast Lushness nodded her head.

Priests could advance into either Light Affinity or Dark Affinity once they reached level 40, just like Knights. The character’s nature for either affinity would diverge with this advancement.

The first skill a Dark Priest would learn was Kiss of Death, which was an instant-cast offensive spell. While Priests were dependent on others prior to reaching level 40, Dark Priests were capable of solo grinding thanks to this level 40 skill. However, the healing capabilities of the Priests would greatly diminish if they advanced into a Dark Priest. Thus, Dark Priests were in a very awkward position as even placing them in parties became difficult to justify as a result.

The offensive skill, Kiss of Death, was nothing compared to the other job classes’ skills in terms of damage. As for the Dark Priests’ healing, it was simply not on par with that of normal Priests and even more so of Light Priests.

Having a job class that could attack and heal was actually not a bad thing, but if a party was looking to maximize the efficiency of each job class, it simply had no need for this sort of all rounder.

Although the game officials assured the players that the view toward Dark Priests would change once their level increased and they unlocked their full potential, but, at the moment, they were a still a symbol of loneliness. Those Priests who had chosen to become Dark Priests were vexed, yet they could only grit their teeth and hope for spring to come.

It was a normal for ladies to choose the Priest job class, but few of them would advance to the lonely path of the Dark Priest job class. This was precisely why Xi Xiaotian was quite surprised when she discovered that this lady Priest before her was a Dark Priest.

Gu Fei had limited understanding of support job classes like the Priest, so he was unaware of the Dark Priests’ current standing in the game. All he knew was that Vast Lushness’s skill was a great help and he nodded his head to express his gratitude for her timely assistance.

“Say, since you were planning to attack, you didn’t really need to wait for any opening, so why didn’t you just do what you did right away?” Xi Xiaotian was feeling the pain of losing 300 gold coins for nothing.

“I was waiting,” he replied.

“Waiting for what?”

“I was waiting for my PK value to drop to 28 points in two minutes before attacking; otherwise, it would jump straight back to 30 points and I need to configure the whole thing all over again. That would be really troublesome.” A squad of guards chasing after him was not an enjoyable experience. Although Gu Fei had managed to escape before, he did not wish to go through it all over again. He might be tempted to duke it out with them if there were just one or two NPC guards, but the system would regrettably always send out a full squad to pursue those with over 30 PK points.

His explanation only made Xi Xiaotian more rueful over her 300 gold coins. Her money had really been wasted. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?” she asked bitterly.

“That man’s dead, so we’ll have to row the boat ourselves.” He ignored her question and merely said this. Standing by the stern of the boat and grabbing a hold of the double blade paddles, he paddled twice. The boat turned around in a circle.

“This isn’t as simple as it looks, it seems.” He wiped the sweat off his brow and began paddling once more, turning two full circles this time.

“Let me try.” Xi Xiaotian came over and tried a few times, but she only managed to turn the boat on a spot, except it was in the opposite direction of where the boat had turned with Gu Fei’s attempt.

“You are left-handed,” he concluded.

Vast Lushness gave it a shot next, but the boat also only turned around on a spot. They had been turning around so much that the three were beginning to feel nauseated.

“We seem to have a serious problem at hand,” he remarked.

The two ladies stayed quiet.

“That man should’ve threatened us with this, instead,” he lamented.

“Let’s untie the sculls and row this boat. That should resolve the problem!” Xi Xiaotian suggested.

This was something anyone who had been to the park and rowed the boats there would know. Thus, two persons each took the left and the right respectively and did their best to row the scull on either side, allowing the small, wooden boat to push past the waves. Cool breeze greeted them even as the water surface reflected the worry etched on Gu Fei’s face.

Compared to that hoodlum’s paddling from before, the speed at which their boat moved forward was far from ideal. The sculls were slightly long to work manually like what they were doing, making it very unwieldy. Right now, the water around them appeared boundless in every direction, which subconsciously took a toll on their morale.

“Which direction should we be heading?” the three did not know where their destination lay.

“Ask those guys on the ferry. We can’t go wrong if we chase after their coordinates,” Xi Xiaotian said.

“Must you use the word ‘chase’? I doubt there’s anything in this world slower than our boat,” he lamented.

“Not necessarily. Their ship didn’t move fast as well when it churned away from the pier before. Trust the system’s shamelessness,” Xi Xiaotian said.

Vast Lushness managed to learn the ship’s coordinates while the two were arguing, and their little boat forged ahead against the waves in the said direction.