THE PALACE ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN

LUO YAN quickly dodged the incoming vine that tried to attack him. But the moment he jumped, another vine entangled his left foot. He took out his long knife and tried to cut it. But another vine surrounded his right hand holding the knife. Then soon, his whole body was being constricted by the vines, along with both his hands and feet. He could feel his HP slowly dwindled. The tighter the vines were, the faster his HP decreased.

This was going to be tricky.

He couldn't breathe. He could even feel his internal organs being crushed. He gripped the knife tighter and then, with all his strength, he slashed it upward. The vines constricting him instantly broke and then it slowly disintegrated into dust. Luo Yan didn't wait and immediately jumped away from that area. 

A ping sounded in his ear, a sign that he killed a new monster. He opened his Monster Index and a book appeared in front of him. On the latest page, a new information was written.

Blight

- A monster that was indistinguishable from a tangle of vines. It often remained motionless but when you entered its attacking range, it would immediately attack. Constricting their enemies until they were crushed and stopped breathing. They grew fast and could quickly invade a forest settlement until it was rendered useless.

Level: 8

Type: Common

So that thing was the Blight. He needed to kill 30 of those to finish the Elder's task. He looked at his HP which was decreased by a quarter. He was careless. When he entered the Northern area, he should have been ready and expect an attack at any time. Instead he just walked in all leisurely, like he was taking a hike or something. 

It's probably because his journey here had been smooth so far, so his alert level was less than normal. In short, he became complacent. Good thing he's already at level 9. Being a level higher than the Blight allowed him to overpower it. Even if it was only by a tiny bit.

He took 10 red berries from his Items Tab and ate it. It tasted like sweet strawberries. Red berries could restore a little amount of HP. He picked a lot of berries on his way here. He didn't want to use the five small red potions he had for such a little thing like this. He planned to reserve it for when he found the caused of why there's an invation of Blights here in the Northern area. He would probably faced a stronger monster then. 

Luo Yan didn't want his game avatar to die here while fighting just because he didn't have enough red potions with him. Because then, he would be revived at the Origin Village. Then he had to start his journey all over again. He did think of buying crystal coins online so he could buy more potions at the Pharmacy, but he thought better off it. 

This was just the beginning. There's no need to waste money at this early stage of the game. Besides, there's a lot of berries in the forest. He could easily use that instead.

He jumped to the top of the tallest tree around him to get a bird's eye view of the forest's Northern area. Luo Yan saw a lot, and he meant a lot, of vines dangling on trees and also lying on the forest ground. If he was looking carefully earlier, he would have noticed it immediately. He couldn't tell whether it was a normal vine or a Blight. Well, if he couldn't differentiate the two, he'd just attack both.

Now that he knew what to look for, he would be prepared for any sneak attack. Today was Sunday, he had no tutoring lessons. So he could play for a long amount of time. Maybe he could finish this task today. 

With that, he jumped down directly on the area with the densest vines.

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On top of a certain mountain stood a palace. Its structure was similar to those of the ancient palaces built during those long gone dynasties. There was a huge hall inside where two people were currently sitting at opposite sides on the long table.

One was a man with red-orange hair and a pair of lion ears on top of his head. His eyes were golden-red. There's a lion's tail swishing back and forth on his back. His skin was a rich honey color. He was wearing a pair of opened white jacket, completely showing off his chest muscles, and a pair of black pants, fitting snugly on his long legs.

The other was a little girl who looked like she was five or six. The girl had short bubblegum pink hair and a pair of pinkish eyes. She was wearing a white robe, covering most of her porcelain white skin. On her back was a pair of beautiful butterfly wings. Crystal dust fell down from it every time she moved.

"Did you read that thread on the forum? They're calling us fallen champions! Fallen! How could they even think of attaching that word to us?" the man said, quite emotional.

"Well, we did only take the championship trophy during the first season," the girl said with indifference. Her attitude was totally not in line with her cute appearance. "And that was already four years ago. So, it's kind of justified."

The man looked even angrier. "Hey, Su Yuqi! How can you say that? Don't you have any pride in being a member of our team?"

The girl named Su Yuqi just shrugged. "Even if we're not champions, we could still play the game. So it doesn't really matter."

Bai Ze - the man with lion ears and tails - almost vomited blood. What kind of damn logic was that? He knew he shouldn't talk about this thing with this girl. But what could he do? She's the only one here. Acurately speaking, aside from their captain and the two of them, their team had no other members. There were another two members, but those two suddenly retired because they decided to study overseas, and then travel around the world after they graduated. Because of that, their team's comeback was even more impossible now.

"We should recruit new members. The Rookie Carnival will take place four months from now. We should look for new members there," he said decisively.

"You should tell that plan first to Captain."

Bai Ze suddenly had a complicated expression on his face. Because that's the crux of the problem. The reason why there's only three of them in this team was because their Captain just couldn't be bothered in recruiting new members. Probably because after getting the championship for the first season of the game's now very famous tournament, they held a recruitment activity and it just turned into a huge mess. After that, their Captain just refused to hold another one.

And then, he became busy being a beta tester for the game that he'd rather do that instead. The other three members of the team didn't mind. Because they're all weird and he, Bai Ze, was the only normal one. 

If Bai Ze knew this would happen, he'd probably just make his own team at the very beginning. He sighed. Who was he kidding? Even if he went back in time, he'd probably still choose to be in this team. Who told him to be a good brother to their captain?

"I'll talk to Ji Yun," he finally said pertaining to their captain.