Black Oil

"Do you have any questions?" Nola the tutorial fairy asked, smiling.

"None. Enter game," Nie Fan replied, knowing that the questions Nola could answer were only superficial, and he did not have to waste time here.

"Very good. Welcome to the world of magic."

[System: Game initializing…]

With a white flash, Nie Fan appeared in a run-down village. There were only five to six low old houses and two to three dozen NPCs dressed in a variety of strange clothing—no other player had yet to appear on the small path laden with gravel at the center of the village. At the moment, most of them would probably still be considering the class and talent that suits them or asking the tutorial fairies for information, and there would be rarely any who would come in so quickly like Nie Fan.

The sights around were as genuine as it was in reality. Nie Fan could not help but draw in a deep breath and open his senses to the world around.

Be that as it may, time was of the essence. He still had things to do before the players entered by droves, and he quickly turned on his attribute panel to check his talent and attributes. He hence breathed a sigh of relief after taking a look at his major talent panel—just as his father had told him, picking Plant-type as his major talent would earn him a talent status: Crossing Thorns!

[Crossing Thorns: Druids could travel through certain areas unaffected, such as forest, thorn bushes, swamps, rockpiles, and lush vegetation areas. Also grants immunity to Swamp and Spiderwebs, and a 30% chance for immunity from bind-attribute spells.]

'That is what I wanted!' Nie Fan thought excitedly as he headed to the center of Tajit Village.

There would be a shabby library there that was built from wood, but it was the tallest building in Tajit Village. Aside from the main area beneath, there was a mezzanine upstairs under the roof that was grown full of moss.

Inside the library, Nie Fan noticed a very old man dressed in worn mage robes, a tall sharp hat, and was wearing a jet-black redwood staff.

He was Solamu, the librarian here.

"Greetings, revered elder." Nie Fan bowed in salutation, putting his right hand before his chest.

"Greetings, young man." Solamu smiled faintly. "You are the first one to arrive. Every youth of Tajit Village may select two skill tomes to cultivate their basic skills. As the first one to arrive, you may choose one minor skill tome as a reward."

The library sold scores of skills tomes, but most of them were expensive. Nonetheless, each player was allowed to choose two for free when they start playing, and there were many skills to choose from, allowing them to match their skills as they would prefer.

Being the first to arrive, Nie Fan would additionally obtain a minor skill tome worth at least hundreds of bronze coins!

"Thank you, revered elder." Nie Fan smiled and headed deep into the library. It was rather dark inside and there were around six bookshelves around him, each neatly arranged with various skill tomes for basic abilities of various class, including Mini Fireball, Sword Strike, and Snowball.

Nie Fan himself chose a basic skill from the corner of the third bookshelf: Black Oil!

Most players would never choose an almost cheating skill like Black Oil since it basically had no offensive effects. All it did was summon a pile of oil into the opponent's hand, and apart from grossing out the target while also slowing their movement, it did not appear to be of much use.

Still, the black oil summoned came from the plant saps, which was just enough to be categorized as Plant-type magic.

Then, after walking a few laps around the bookshelves, he took the tome for Mini Fireball. He could learn elemental magic even if his main talent was not elemental albeit to weaker effects.

Aside from those two tomes, he had also taken the skill tome of Harvest for gathering herbs.

After choosing those three skill tomes, Nie Fan left the library. There were more players on the streets now, and they were looking around or talking to NPCs, trying their hand on newcomer quests. Still, it was clear that they were left disappointed—they could never clear those quests without learning beginner skills.

When some of the players saw Nie Fan step out of the library, they paused for a moment before making a dash inside as well. Be that as it may, it would take some time until they could choose their favorite skill tomes from the many tomes offered.

Meanwhile, with a swift move of his hands, Nie Fan's three skill tomes turned into three streaks of white light, and his skill bar was added with three skills.

There were around three dozen of newcomer quests that can be accepted after a player's first skill learning. That being said, most players would accept those quests as the game intended, but Nie Fan wouldn't—those burdensome quests take too much time and were a lot less rewarding.

Be that as it may, players would not have the coins to purchase potions without doing newcomer missions, and was therefore likely to run into danger when leaving the village. Moreover, they would drop a level below if they die, and would be forced to stay offline for five hours, making it a major headache for players.

However, Nie Fan had already thought about the solutions for all those problems.

After learning his skill, Nie Fan dashed wildly out of the village. He would rather level up before others did than to level up with a large group, which in turn would slow his progress as being in a group meant competing for kills.

Beyond the village was a red plain that went as far as the eye could see. It was as if it had been dyed in blood, giving an impression of a bleak and tragic vastness.

[System: You have discovered the Blood Shade Plains]

It was said that this place was an ancient battlefield where millions of armies had fallen.

Nonetheless, Nie Fan did not pause for a moment and started towards the depths of the Blood Shade Plains, although his voice channel rang while he was still sprinting. It was Lin Xinyan, player ID Woody—they had added each other on a chat tool before entering the game, and the chat could be used in-game, displaying every friend playing in his friend-list.

"Nie Fan, where are you now?"

"Tajit Village." He replied.

"I'm at Moxxi, which is just nearby. Come over, Nie Fan, it would take at most half-an-hour—we'll group up to level up, and my classmates have also invited a few professional gamers."

"No, it's fine." Nie Fan refused. He had already made his plans and definitely would not waste his time going to Moxxi.

"Nie Fan, it's better if you come since leveling alone is definitely slower than leveling in a group, not to mention it's dangerous and you could easily die." Lin Xinyan persuaded him. She believed that he would have a hard time training alone, and it would be a problem if he couldn't keep his place in her cousin's studio.

But in spite of whatever she had said, he refused her goodwill once again, and kept to his original plan and ventured deep into the Blood Shade Plains

***

Meanwhile, the group of twelve players were ready in Moxxi Village, one of the twelve villages in the Blood Shade Plains.

"That braindead Nie Fan!" Lin Xinyan stamped her feet and grumbled to herself—Nie Fan insisted on leveling up in Tajit whatever she might say, and she certainly could not kidnap him here. "I gave you my heart, and you gave it away the very next moment! I don't care anymore! Just don't regret it later!"

Ever since that night when he helped her with acupuncture, she couldn't help recalling the vaguely intimate scenes then which left her heart throbbing. Still, it was an unexpected emergency, and Nie Fan himself was forced to do that.

"Xinyan, is your friend coming?" A Holy Knight player asked. His ID was 'Tracer', and he stood around one point eight meters—making him a little taller than Nie Fan. He also had a handsome face and was the type girls would prefer, although he did feel a hint of danger from the look on Lin Xinyan's face, and began inwardly projecting the relationship between Lin Xinyan and that friend of hers.

"Let's get started. He's not coming." Lin Xinyan said dully.

"What a pity. Well, there's no helping it if he can't come. It would certainly have been quicker if he trained with us—our formation would definitely reach top ten in Kelfield." Tracer said proudly as he rejoiced inwardly. It seems that Lin Xinyan's friend would rather play solo, and with himself rather not having an unwanted person tagging along, he would have more time with Lin Xinyan.

"There's not much time. Let's hurry up and go." Lin Xinyan said with a bored tone.

Hence, the twelve-person party left for the Blood Shade Plains as well after they had completed their preparations.

***

Nie Fan had been running around the Blood Shade Plains for a dozen minutes. He decided that he was at his destination after checking his coordinates and the landscape around him: the grass was knee-high here, and while most players would have their movement slowed by 30% and above, he was slowed by just 10% thanks to Plant-type, his main talent!

As he looked towards the distance, he found many humongous spiders crawling around the plains, each of them standing at the frightening height of a human!

Giant Spider, Level 3, HP 120!

The Giant Spiders were a difficult monster for players in their early levels. Though they moved slowly, they had the Spiderweb skill that could catch hold of their opponent and keep them immobile, allowing them to approach their target and attack with their toxic fangs and inject a poisoned state. They were also highly resistant to physical attacks and have high HP, although their only weakness were fire spells. Nonetheless, since Spiderweb was still a bane of mages, players below Level 5 would never try to challenge them alone.

And yet, Nie Fan was certainly prepared since he had picked these monsters to level up with. After all, his talent was immunity towards Spiderweb!

He headed towards one particular Giant Spider and stopped around ten yards away. Noticing him, the Giant Spider squawked and lunged towards Nie Fan's position.

Nie Fan held his position and started to chant his spell.

Black Oil, six seconds!

When he finished chanting, a pile of black goo appeared over the Giant Spider's head and splashed down on it, the thick liquid wetting it all over.

The Giant Spider promptly slowed. The dark oil over its body left its movement extremely sluggish, and it reacted by launching its Spiderweb skill at Nie Fan… albeit with no effect.

Nie Fan took a few steps back and started to chant another spell: Mini Fireball!

A scorching ball of flame appeared out of thin air in front of Nie Fan and arched through the air and shot towards the Giant Spider, smashing it with a bang and causing 2 points of damage.

With a difference of three levels between Nie Fan and the Giant Spider, the damage on the monster was pathetically low.

Still, in the instant that the Mini Fireball struck, the Giant Spider's entire body was set ablaze with a whooshing sound, trapping it in the fire—it was the effect of the black oil being ignited by the Mini Fireball.

[-32]

[-36]

[-37…]

One frighteningly high damage value after another popped up over the head of the Giant Spider. Amidst its shrill cries, the creature's HP kept dropping by the notches and it soon dropped to the ground altogether.

Glancing at his EXP bar, Nie Fan saw that his experience points had bloated up to 82% after the Giant Spider croaked.

So fast! He could not help but think in shock.

It was unimaginable for a Level 0 player to kill a Level 3 monster with just two skills after all.

The Tajit Library had thousands of different skill tomes, each having different effects: some leaned heavily towards attack, others on defense or control, but many were created with complementing effects. Seizing the convenience of closed testing, Nie Fan's father had tested countless combinations of skills, eventually discovering that the match between Black Oil and Mini Fireball was most devastating in damage, and basically peerless before Level 30.

Nie Fan tried it once to extraordinary effect!

He then searched around the Giant Spider's body and found a pair of broken boots he could wear at Level 3 which also adds +2 Defense.