Battle

[Gliding Steps]

Li Wei immediately used his movement skill to charge at the two brothers. Although Ranger Oleg was now using two powerful daggers, Li Wei still chose to stick with his strategy. He chose to use [Gliding Steps] instead of simply charging since the skill would give him an instantaneous acceleration.

The mage was calm even as he saw Li Wei charging towards him. In an instant, Ranger Oleg appeared before him with his daggers ready. As a ranger, Oleg was naturally at a disadvantage against a warrior but with the cover of the mage, he would be able to hold his ground.

The greatest disadvantage of a ranger using daggers was the lack of skills, below level 20, all the ranger skills were dedicated to ranged attacks; if one wanted to use daggers, it would be better to go for the rogue class. However, if one persisted, then once he would reach level 20, exclusive branches of the ranger class would open to him.

"Tink Tink!"

The daggers met the two Dark Runic Sword. Li Wei tried to get through Ranger Oleg by jumping to the right but the latter quickly reacted and blocked him.

[Gliding Steps]

Using his movement skill, he abruptly changed direction to the left; the movement was fluid and fast such that Ranger Oleg did not have time to react but at that moment, the mage reacted and fired a [Mana Bolt].

"F*ck..."

Li Wei raised his swords just in time to parry the [Mana Bolt] but he still took the damage. The short delay caused by the [Mana Bolt] was all Ranger Oleg needed to recover and once again get in Li Wei's way.

He chose to stick with his strategy of taking down the mage first but was unable to break away from Ranger Oleg.

"He is too sticky... At this rate, I will not be able to get to the mage... In that case, I can only deal with the ranger first... A ranger does not have much health compared to a mage anyway," said Li Wei to himself.

He noticed that whenever he was fighting Ranger Oleg, the mage would not use any skill but as soon as Li Wei tried to break away and aim for the mage, then he would be showered with skills. The twins were perfectly coordinated with each other such that as soon as Ranger Oleg was about to take a step back, the mage would intervene and delay Li Wei.

"Since you are in the way, don't blame me!"

As soon as the words left Li Wei's mouth, he activated his ring's skill. He made a quick jump backward and pointed his ring towards Ranger Oleg.

[Chaos Sphere]

Li Wei could not wait any longer, he was already stuck in a deadlock as his HP was slowly decreasing. He made a quick jump to leave the explosion radius of the [Chaos Sphere] while casting the skill.

Until now, he had been very conservative with the use of his skill since it could only be used once per day but at the moment, it was the only way he could think of that might turn the tide.

When Li Wei jumped backward, Ranger Oleg instinctively followed him and started moving forward; with the momentum he had, it was close to impossible to change direction. Even if he wanted to dodge the attack, that would expose his twin brother behind since the three fighters were aligned in a straight line.

"Boom!"

The black sphere exploded on Ranger Oleg's body but Li Wei did not stop there. He quickly used [Gliding Steps] and launched himself towards the now defenseless Ranger Oleg.

Ranger Oleg's eyes were closed as he ground his teeth, doing his best to not shout in pain. He mustered all his strength to manage to remain standing while crossing his daggers in front of him to cover the large mark left by the explosion on his chest. A very noticeable black burn mark could be seen on his chest as all the top part of his clothes turned into rags. After years of adventuring, Ranger Oleg naturally got hurt but the pain at that time was nowhere near what he was enduring now.

However, he knew he was in the middle of a battle; he could not be distracted now. He opened his eyes just in time to see Li Wei charging at him with the Dark Runic Swords aiming for his heart.

Behind him, the mage immediately reacted, the red pendant at his neck shone brightly before exploding. Compared to [Chaos Sphere]'s explosion, this one looked more like a spark and did not cause any damage; instead, vivid red flames suddenly appeared where the spark occurred and started spinning in a circle.

"Take that! [Flame Burst]"

[Earth Wall]

As soon as he saw the pendant explode, Li Wei had a bad feeling. He immediately activated his other ring's skill. The earth wall was erected just in time between the two brothers as the sphere of fire was about to be released.

Li Wei doubted the Earth Wall would last for long; he needed to deal with the ranger within the next few seconds if he wanted to stand a chance. Ranger Oleg was already considerably weakened but if the mage intervened, all his hard work would be for naught.

As such, he did not hesitate to use all his skills, to the point that his MP became a single digit number.

[Strengthen], [Cleave], [Ghost Blade]

The powerful combo of three skills was activated, depleting the rest of Li Wei's MP. He did not hesitate to use all his MP; if he did not kill the ranger here, he would not stand a chance against the duo.

His Strength went up by 2 as he jumped while swinging his blades. As Li Wei predicted, Ranger Oleg quickly raised his pair of daggers in a defensive position to block the attack but to his surprise, the pair of Dark Runic Swords trembled for a moment as they went through the daggers without touching them. It was the effect of [Ghost Blade].

Ranger Oleg did not know how to react; it was his first time seeing something like that. He was still dumbly staring at his daggers, wondering if something was wrong with them, as the Dark Runic Swords cut through his chest at the same spot where the [Chaos Sphere] exploded.

"Ahhh"

He howled in pain and fell on the floor but Li Wei did not stop, he spun on himself before swinging his sword again. The ring at Ranger Oleg's hand shone as a white shield surrounded his body to protect him but the shield did not last for long, just two strikes were enough to destroy it.

"-17", "-19"

"Ahh, monster! You practice black magic!?" exclaimed Ranger Oleg who was desperately trying to get up. Now that his last magic protection was gone, he was completely exposed.

Li Wei ignored Ranger Oleg's comment. In the corner of his eyes, he could already see the Earth wall shaking; it was about to crumble. Against the attack of a level 15 mage, it would be a miracle if it could hold off more than two spells.

"Boom!"

As Li Wei thought, the Earth wall suddenly collapsed, revealing the figure of the mage but at the same time, Li Wei brought down his sword, slicing Ranger Oleg's throat and reducing his HP to 0. The Ranger Oleg wore a desperate expression but to Li Wei's surprise, the mage looked very calm; he did not seem flustered by the death of his brother.

"So you killed my foolish younger brother. Looks like we underestimated you but well, the outcome is not going to change. Instead, I should thank you for getting rid of my brother for me. There is no way we can both advanced by sharing the resources we've got but now, I should easily advance to Necromancer."

Mage Oleg grinned as he pointed his wand at Li Wei.

'D*mn!' exclaimed Li Wei as he jumped to the side, avoiding a [Mana Bolt].

With Ranger Oleg gone, it should have been easy to deal with the mage and yet, it turned out to be more complicated than Li Wei thought. He expended a lot of mana in dealing with Ranger Oleg and now that all his skills were on cooldown, he was unable to make his way to Mage Oleg.

The latter would constantly use his skills and to top it off, all the equipment he was wearing were also enchanted with skill!

"Boom!"

"-35"

A large red number appeared above Li Wei's shoulder as lightning exploded the table he was hiding behind.

'It would have been much easier if he did not have all these items. We are both level 15 but he has so many skills and with such a cramped up space, it will be hard to get to him without taking a hit... Using items is such a cheat...' complained Li Wei in his heart.

He peeked at the mage who was still standing at the end of the room. He still had 68 HP while Li Wei himself only had 46 HP.

The situation was not looking very good. Li Wei briefly opened his interface to check the cooldown on his skills. Suddenly, in the corner of his eyes, he noticed that one of his skills was available. Li Wei grinned. He only had 9 MP left which was far from enough to use any skills but luck was on his side.

'I guess my luck is not so bad after all. I did not know so much time had already passed. With that, it should be easy,' thought Li Wei. He hurriedly drank a Mana Potion and jumped out of his hiding place, ready to attack.

"Oh? You are no longer hiding? What's the reason for your confidence? Die idiot!" shouted Mage Oleg.

"Oh! Shadows of Darkness! Seize and destroy..."

Mage Oleg recited the incantations of his spells but he suddenly froze when he saw Li Wei use a skill. A dark sphere appeared in the palm of his hand and without a sound, flew toward Mage Oleg.

[Chaos Sphere]

"What? How can you use this skill again? You don't have any mana. Could it be that you have two pieces of equipment with the same spell?" exclaimed Mage Oleg. He panicked, messing up the last part of his incantations.

The Chaos Sphere flew across the room. Mage Oleg panicked and tried to chant a defensive spell but it was too late. The sphere exploded on his chest. "-48"

"F*ck!"

Mage Oleg cursed as he rolled on the ground in pain. He was still alive with 20 HP but before he could get up, two throwing needles sliced his neck, taking out the rest of his HP.

"Argg," with a gurgling sound, Mage Oleg looked at the ceiling with unwillingness. Nevertheless, without any HP, he lost consciousness and passed away.

Li Wei heaved a sigh of relief. He successfully got rid of two powerful level 15 NPCs. He was delighted as he stood up and looked at the desolate house. The furniture and decorations were all damage and scattered all over the place.

His gaze briefly landed on the Ring of Chaos at his hand. He smiled. "Looks like the cooldown works differently for you," said Li Wei. He had effectively used [Chaos Sphere] twice in a short period of time.

How was that possible? It was simply because while they were engrossed in the fight, time continued to flow and when he checked his interface, Li Wei noticed that the date has changed and the clock was now displaying 0:01.

Compared to the other skills who were described with a cooldown, [Chaos Sphere] was only described with 'Can only be used once per day'. As a new day started in the middle of their fight, Li Wei was naturally able to use the powerful skill.

[System prompt: Congratulations! You leveled up to level 16. You were awarded 1 free stat point]

As soon as the fight ended, the system prompt sounded to Li Wei's ears. The two hostile NPCs brought him 15000 exp each.

Li Wei smiled and this was not even the best part. Now, all that was left to do was to loot. Li Wei rubbed his hands in anticipation. With the way the system worked, all the equipment worn by NPCs would be included in the drops; this included all the equipment of Mage Oleg which were all enchanted with skills!