The Wandering Dwarf

—'You have entered the opposite shore of the Spirited Lake of the Undead.'

When the Feather Drop skill's effect ended, Lin Jie fell to the ground.

The Spirited Lake of the Undead was a magical lake. When players fell into it, they would be damaged by decomposition for 50 points per second. Any person's first instinct upon getting damaged by this would be to escape as soon as they could!

However, if one could withstand more than 20 ticks of the corrosive damage, they would gain a [Corrosive Immunity] buff, allowing them to become immune for 30 seconds to the damage from the Spirited Lake of the Undead. This 30-second window would be enough to swim across to the other end of the lake. However, with the help of the Feather Drop Gem, Lin Jie had saved a great deal of time.

The opposite shore of the Spirited Lake of the Undead was one of the few places where monsters would not respawn.

The cold and damp ground granted visibility of the dense pile of bones. The dead bodies of humans and various creatures were strewn everywhere like trash.

Lin Jie looked around and found a dying Dwarf on the shore, which looked like a mass grave. His eyes were seemingly peacefully closed. If it had not been for his shivering lips, anyone would have thought he was dead.

That NPC had no name, or rather, his name was simply 'The Wandering Dwarf.' In his previous life, the first player to arrive there was known as the 'Seven Ears,' who was a young hothead. When he had attained level 10, he had been shocked to discover the Spirited Lake of the Undead hidden in the Stumbling Forest. Hence, he had started his heroic but tragic adventure.

The first time he had entered the water, he had died!

The second time he had entered the water, he had died!

When he first triggered the [Undead Immunity] sequence of events, he had only been level 5. After Seven Ears had completed his mission, he had arrogantly pasted the entire process of the mission on the forum and even displayed the reward for completing the mission - the Perfect Potion Mastery.

That had caused countless adventurers who had been hesitating along the lake to feel much regret. Lady luck only dawned upon the prepared—that adage was not for show.

Seven Ears had made a name for himself through the Perfect Potion Mastery, and had been bought over for a high salary by the Kingdom of Glory, eventually becoming known as the 'Potion King'!

Recalling his previous life, the images in Lin Jie's mind gradually became clearer. He had a shocking memory of the in-game data and stats. When Seven Ears had announced the flow of the mission, even though it could no longer be replicated, Lin Jie could still remember it.

To save the Wandering Dwarf, one needed to fork out 10 pieces of fresh meat, which had the same effect as bread but was better-tasting and hence cost as much as one bronze coin per piece. Even Lin Jie could not afford that huge amount of extra cash.

However, the Spirited Lake of the Undead contained many piranhas, whose flesh could serve as a substitute, just weaker.

Lin Jie gathered a few pieces of rotten, maggot-infested flesh on the land filled with dead bodies and carried the flesh towards the Spirited Lake of the Undead. In reality, due to the overly pronounced simulative nature of The New Age, players had to overcome their own psychological issues first. If one were weak, timid and did not dare to face the abominable-looking Undead, one would find it very difficult to survive in the later stages of the game.

Hence, The New Age had become the training ground for females to steel them up.

[Rotten Flesh]: Consumable, reduces 20 health points every second, lasts for 10 seconds.

Lin Jie felt a deathly chill and hurled the Rotten Flesh into the water. The smell of blood and flesh spread throughout the Spirited Lake of the Undead, and the piranhas swimming around in the lake eagerly rushed over. One piranha bit the Rotten Flesh and tore it apart. However, Lin Jie's finger was cut by the tearing as well.

-8!

Blood spread among the lake. Hundreds of piranhas excitedly hovered below the water surface. It seemed like they wished they had legs so that they could rush up to the land and devour Lin Jie!

"Come up kids." Lin Jie had no fear, as he held up a huge piece of Rotten Flesh and threw it in the air. The enticing smell captured the eager looks of the piranhas, as the flesh landed on the land.

The hungry and tortured piranhas could not resist the urge of consuming the Rotten Flesh, as they jumped out of the water to devour the flesh.

-20!

-20!

…

Having lost the nourishment of the water, the health points of the piranhas dipped sharply, and they ended up dying.

Lin Jie was glad, as he used his long sword to slice off the piranhas' gills and stored them in his bag.

In reality, the mouth of the piranha was two-thirds of its body, and hence the lips that were full of sharp teeth could not be consumed. The tail was poisonous as well. The only part that could be consumed was the disgusting gills.

Lin Jie replicated the same method and gained 10 sets of piranha gills.

'This thing has a much smaller amount than fresh meat…' Lin Jie looked at the piranha gills which filled merely half of his palm and then glanced at the piranhas waiting eagerly at him to throw them more Rotten Flesh. He let out an evil smile, dug a hole in the ground half a yard deep and threw all the Rotten Flesh!

'Flop… flop…'

Hundreds of piranhas jumped onto the land and madly sank their teeth into the flesh, losing their lives after a few seconds.

—'You have gained piranha gills.'

—'You have gained piranha gills.'

…

Lin Jie looked at his bag. He had 101 pieces of fish gills which should be enough to feed that dwarf.

Carrying a bag full of his spoils, Lin Jie walked to the Wandering Dwarf.

"Save me… give me food… please…" the Wandering Dwarf's eyes suddenly opened, as he feebly spoke.

—'Do you accept the Wandering Dwarf's request?'

"Yes!" Lin Jie thought about it and retrieved some bread for him.

"Smack!"

The Wandering Dwarf hit the bread away with his palm and shouted, "I don't eat these! Give me something edible!"

-120!

Due to the fact that he had shouted those words, the dwarf's Health Points had been reduced in half.

Ding~

— Mission notice: The Wandering Dwarf seems to be uninterested in the food of the living. The Spirited Lake of the Undead seems to have some food. Gather 100 sets of this food and hand them to the wandering Dwarf. You have five minutes.

Lin Jie was astounded, but he immediately figured it out!

The Potion King Seven Ears had not posted the correct mission flow onto the forum! If players were to repeat this mission once again and foolishly follow the process flow and brought the fresh flesh to the dwarf, they would realize that the dwarf did not consume those sorts of food! During the time that players fought valiantly to get the piranhas, the dwarf would have starved to death.

'Cunning!'

His idea was to make use of false information to prevent a second player from learning the Perfect Potion Mastery skill!

"Here, have it." Lin Jie handed all of the fish gills to the dwarf, who opened his mouth and signaled for Lin Jie to feed him. Lin Jie grabbed the fish gills and threw them into the dwarf's mouth.

"Oh, thank you." The dwarf swallowed 100 fish gills in one go, sat up with difficulty and smiled, "Had it not been for you, I would have starved to death."

'Ding~'

—'You have completed the request of The Wandering Dwarf. You have gained 3000 experience points. You have gained Starting Health Potions × 10. You have gained the Starting Special Health Potion × 1.'

Lin Jie was elated. They were Health Potions!

Starting Health Potions could instantly restore 120 health points. The cooldown of potions were two minutes, items that could save lives. The large amount of experience points allowed Lin Jie's experience bar to spike to the maximum. He was about to level up.

[Starting Health Potion]: Helps you restore 120 Health Points and temporarily increase your maximum Health Points by 60, lasts for 10 minutes.

"As you can see, I am a Potioneer." The dwarf grabbed a piece of Rotten Flesh from the ground and swallowed it in one mouth. "I still have not asked for your name young man. What is your name?"

'Ding~'

—'Do you want to tell the suspicious dwarf your name?'

A few options appeared in front of his eyes:

1. Tell him your name.

2. Reject.

3. Maybe I need some other lines.

"Indeed." Lin Jie's suspicion of Seven Ears not having given the real information was more likely to be true now. NPCs had a high level of intelligence. Below level 10, players had system guidance for answering questions from NPCs. When players were over level 10, all answers would be given solely by the players themselves!

Lin Jie looked at the dwarf chewing on the Rotten Flesh and recalled something, 'When Seven Ears announced the presence of the dwarf, the Dark-Robed Paladins Guild had sent members to this location and immediately after, this dwarf NPC went missing. There was speculation that the Dark-Robed Knights Guild might have completed a particular hidden mission.'

Looking at the ensuing information notice, among the Dark-robed Knights Guild, there was one who had suddenly risen up to power!

'Could this be related to this NPC?'

Lin Jie chose option 3 and said, "A name is nothing but a code in the previous life. Would I look the same after dying? If this is the case, what point is there in asking for a name?"

The dwarf laughed, grabbed a piece of Rotten Flesh and held it in front of Lin Jie, "Good! I'm starting to like you. Since you see so clearly, it would not be that difficult to eat a piece of Rotten Flesh, would it?"

Looking at this piece of Rotten Flesh, Lin Jie almost puked. Even with seven year's worth of in-game experience and mental fortitude, he could not bring himself to face matters of this sort.

At the current stage, players' psychology would never have been so hardy. Anyone would probably have rejected it!

Lin Jie gritted his teeth and smiled, "The nature of all objects is the same. What could be so difficult about eating a piece of Rotten Flesh?"

'Kacha-'

He bit into the Rotten Flesh. To his surprise, Lin Jie found that this meat tasted surprisingly fresh! Turning back to look, he realized that it wasn't a piece of Rotten Flesh he was holding, it was actually a piece of fresh and tender Barbecued Lion Meat! It was a high-class food that only high-level Cooks and Potioneers could work together to produce.

'Ding~'

—'You have consumed Barbecued Lion Meat. Strength +1.'

—'Potioneer Allaso's favorability of you has increased by 100.'

Lin Jie opened his eyes. Allaso, this person was the head of the Liches, Allaso!

What constituted a catastrophe? There was no accurate definition. To a normal person, Undeads were a catastrophe! As a researcher of Undead Magic and Dark Magic, Liches faced the banishing by residents of the mainland and got exiled to a corner in the mainland.

When the Devil catastrophe happened, players and NPCs died in huge numbers. They had to retreat to the Atlas Peak to survive. The group of Lichen ostracized by many however suddenly appeared and acted as the primary defense force, neutralizing the attacks of the devils and paying a huge price for their efforts.

Allaso was the head of the Liches! It was no wonder that The Wandering Dwarf went missing after the mission's announcement. It was no wonder that after the information board was put up, somebody had risen to power. That was it!

"Young man, I need some information. Can you help me?" Allaso asked with a smile.

'Ding~'

—'Do you accept the Potioneer Allaso's request?'

Lin Jie gladly accepted.

"This is the Death Language Potion. Use this to revive the body of the dead, defeat them and bring me their [Wretched Thoughts]." Allaso paused and added, "I will give you a reward you deem sufficient."