Qiu Yuan

"Hoo…" Lin Jie sat down and took out some bread and water to consume to restore the health points and mana lost from the battle.

"If I were you, I wouldn't sit just at any place to rest," a serious female voice sounded from behind him, "If I were someone with bad intentions, you would have been dead and level-downed, losing all your battle gains."

She was dressed in a light purple full body dress and held a Shadow Magic Staff, which was the reward of the mission [The Lure of The Ghost]. Although it was a Blank Equipment, other than the fact that it did not add any additional stats, it did not lose out to Bronze Equipment. That was one of best early game Blank Weapons that players could get!

However, all those were not of Lin Jie's concern because the moment he saw how she looked, he had lost his ability to think rationally.

'Qiu Yuan…'

While Lin Jie had been training hard for the War of the Gods, two girls had been supporting him. One was the one he would never ever forget and for whom he would try his utmost best to repay. The other was her…

The way those two had met was particularly interesting. Qiu Yuan had wanted to get a Gold chest, and she had gotten chased down by the Dark Shadow Wolves of the entire White Cloud Valley.

Lin Jie had happened to be nearby and saved her. The two were supposed to not have much interaction and just part their ways. However, Qiu Yuan had gotten thick-skinned and asked Lin Jie to help her with her quest to open the Gold chest. That was how the two had formed their friendship.

After that, it had become the story of how Lin Jie, under the influence of his own ego and her looks, repeatedly helped her and ended up becoming her… good friend.

Due to Qiu Yuan, Lin Jie had gotten to know that girl. She was Qiu Yuan's roommate and also the girl of Lin Jie's dreams. Eventually, they had gotten together. However, the story that had ensued made Lin Jie unsure of whether to cry or laugh.

Qiu Yuan would often appear and act as a third wheel. Even during the time when Lin Jie had been feeling "high" from drinking and decided to have sex with the girl, Qiu Yuan had appeared and stopped Lin Jie, leaving with the girl, who was red with embarrassment.

On the second day, Lin Jie received a message, 'Don't even think about flirting with my wife!'

"Looked enough?"

Coming back to reality, Lin Jie awkwardly realized that he had been staring straight at Qiu Yuan. He hurriedly looked elsewhere and smiled. "Thanks."

Indeed, the critical hit nearing the end of the Boss' life had to do with her! Qiu Yuan's job was a Shadow Priest - the most unpopular job among all Priests! That job was meant to provide healing to some extent but could not compare to the jobs practicing the way of the Holy Light - the Holy Priest and Ascetic Priest. That job was also capable of using dark shadows to attack enemies, but its damage was meager, and hence, it was considered as a definite fringe job.

The only thing worth mentioning was its various crowd control abilities.

The skill that Qiu Yuan used was the most essential skill of the Shadow Priests, the [Dark Speech]. That skill could conjure an assembly of shadows to attack enemies, causing fixed damage - 5 points of dark shadow damage per second. It was affected by skill level and magic attack and lasted for 6 seconds. When that skill critically hit the enemies, their critical strike chance would be reduced by 10%.

The level 3 Rare Elite's critical strikes against Lin Jie had a 100% chance, but just by reducing it by 10%, there was a chance for a miracle! Lin Jie's luck was exceptionally good, as he consecutively avoided the two critical strikes using just that 10% chance!

Since Qiu Yuan had appeared here holding her Shadow Magic Staff, she must have definitely accepted the sequel mission to the [The Lure of The Ghost] - to collect [Bone Dust]! Although the price of [Bone Dust] was not high, its drop rate was especially low, and it was only available here.

After accepting the mission, NPC would teleport players to the shore of the Spirited Lake of the Undead. However new monsters would not spawn to this place, and hence, players needed to search for four runes before they could temporarily possess the ability to revive corpses.

The sequel mission was to collect 50 sets of [Bone Dust].

It sounded very cumbersome, as it definitely was. However, the mission reward was a level 10 ability of a Dark Priest. Enjoying the benefits of having a level-10 skill prematurely was definitely worth a player's sweat!

Lin Jie picked up the items dropped by the Rare Elite's body. Other than the [Undead's Hatred], which was about the size of a brain, there were also a pair of boots and a skill book. That was considered a massive drop!

[Decomposed Battle Boots] (White)

No job restriction

Requires: Level 2

Defense: 2-4

Movement Speed: +1

It was not a bad pair of War Boots. On the contrary, it was useful as it could even help remove the pain of walking barefoot.

The other Skill Book had a carving of a light purple flower on it. It seemed like it was not just an ordinary Skill Book!

Skill: [Kiss of the Dark]

Casting Resource: Mana

Skill Description: The caster can shoot a dark laser-beam at a targeted enemy within 30 yards, dealing 10 points of basic damage. When the target is infected with the Dark Speech Skill, 5 additional points of damage are dealt.

Job restriction: Priest

"This skill book is for you." Lin Jie smiled.

The Kiss of the Dark was a rare direct attack skill in the Shadow Priest's skill inventory. Although it was useless in the later stages of the game, at the current stage of the game, having an additional output skill was a huge boost in a player's capability!

Qiu Yuan crossed her arms and pouted. "No need. I was just helping in passing, bye."

Lin Jie smiled bitterly. It was definitely his lecherous look that left a bad impression on her. Well, any girl would feel disgusted by being stared lecherously on their first meet.

In his previous life, it was him who had saved her. At that time, Qiu Yuan had been more open and cheerful, unlike now; the only thing on her face was a polite smile and nothing else.

Naturally, after his second chance to life, many things would change. It was better to leave some things to progress steadily, letting them flow. In his previous life, they had become best friends, but who knew what they would become in this life.

However, Lin Jie did not obstruct her and just said, "If you don't mind, we could form a team. I can directly summon the Undead."

"Oh?" Although Qiu Yuan did not really like that guy, since he could help her save a large amount of time in her mission, she saw no point not forming a team. She nodded and said, "Let's form a team. Let me put it straight, we will share equally the dropped items, and all of the [Bone Dust] will be mine. I don't want that skill book."

Lin Jie nodded and sent a team request.

Qiu Yuan's temper was worse than a bull, and he knew that.

-"Player?? (Name hidden) joined the team."

Lin Jie smiled bitterly and did not speak anymore as he used his Death Language Potion to revive a corpse. This corpse was a normal Undead and had better than normal stats compared to a handicapped corpse. However, with the help of an additional person, killing it was not that difficult.

Qiu Yuan only knew the Dark Speech skill. 5 damage per second was really not that significant. She tried her best to use the Dark Speech skill to cover the Undead's eyes, but the 10% reduction in critical strike chance was seemingly ignored.

And in line with a gambler's fallacy, having used that skill to avoid two consecutive strikes, it would appear that Lin Jie would not enjoy the reduced chance of critical strikes for a long time.

-12!

-11!

…

Compared to Qiu Yuan's damage, Lin Jie's damage was much more effective! To feed his ego and also to add some relief to an otherwise tense situation, Lin Jie unleashed his Blade Aura attack. The bronze sword and the Blade Aura attack immediately killed most of the Warrior players that Qiu Yuan knew.

"Thud-"

The Undead fell and dropped a set of [Bone Dust] and [Wretched Thoughts].

"Bone Dust!" Qiu Yuan was delighted, as she stored it away.

Lin Jie conveniently asked, "What mission do you need the Bone Dust for?"

"Hmm."

"I have 12 sets of Bone Dust here, and I have no use for them. I'll give them to you." Lin Jie retrieved his [Bone Dust] and smiled.

"It's alright, thanks," Qiu Yuan politely declined.

Lin Jie did not pursue it, as he composed himself and continued killing monsters.

Qiu Yuan looked at the back view of Lin Jie fending off monsters on his own and snorted.

'No use trying to act gentlemanly now!' To a girl, the first impression was very important. That line of thought was relevant to her female roommate…

However, Lin Jie's skills did impress her. Accurately maintaining distance control, dealing weak-point damage in every three strikes and making use of blindspots to destroy Undeads were things that only a high-skilled expert could achieve!

With time, the chemistry between the two improved greatly. Lin Jie naturally did not have to say anything, as they had worked together many times in his previous life. However, Qiu Yuan thought that this feeling was peculiar - Lin Jie would execute everything that she had thought.

For a good two hours, the two of them had not talked at all.

Yet Lin Jie's steady way of luring monsters and superb skills eventually did impress Qiu Yuan, as her disgust completely vanished.

"Be careful!" At that moment Lin Jie screamed.

While reviving a corpse, Lin Jie surprisingly discovered a rotten handicapped corpse. Little did he expect that after dripping the Death Language Potion, the corpse would disintegrate due to being extremely decomposed. The Death Language Potion ended up touching a Warrior-class corpse! This was an Elite-level Undead!

The instant it was revived, the highly intelligent warrior locked on to the target with no melee battling abilities, Qiu Yuan, and charged forward!

The warrior's decomposed face got scarily close to Qiu Yuan's nose. Its rotten smell and hideous face scared the sh*t out of Qiu Yuan!

In the new age, dark creatures normally had a safe look. To become an expert, one had to keep training to become immune to the hideous looks of such Undeads! If someone was afraid of ghosts, they would find it very difficult to survive in this world.

Currently, Qiu Yuan's emotions were nowhere near as stable as they were in the previous life. When the Undead got close to her, she was already scared out of her wits!

At that moment, the Undead flew out with a whoosh!

Lin Jie held his longsword up high and did not care that he had only half of his Health Points left, as he pushed the hideous looking Undead Warrior away!

-29!

-21!

…

The Elite Warrior's damage was far weaker than that of the Rare Elite's, but was still rather high! Lin Jie had to keep repeatedly retreating, as his health was dropping dangerously low!

Qiu Yuan panicked and continuously cast the Dark Speech skill to cover the warrior's eyes. However, the 10% reduction in critical strike chance was of not much use, as Lin Jie was dealt a large amount of damage again and had only 10 health points left!

As death was near sight, Lin Jie gritted his teeth and poured the Death Language Potion all over the floor!

'Ding~'

'You have used the Death Language Potion and successfully converted the [The Wandering Corpse] into your servant.'

A desiccated skeleton stood up and got pushed by Lin Jie towards the Elite Warrior to soak up his damage! Lin Jie went all in and used the Death Language Potion's effect to successfully save himself!

Lin Jie started to use the servant as a shield, soaking up the damage, while he was on the offense attacking the Elite Warrior! Every time the Elite Warrior attacked, the damage was soaked up by the servant!

As time went by slowly, the health points of the Elite Warrior continuously dipped.

'Boom-'

The servant had been slashed into pieces, and Lin Jie's sword's breath had successfully penetrated the Elite Warrior's chest and killed it!

The Elite Warrior dropped five sets of [Bone Dust] and three sets of [Wretched Thoughts].

Lin Jie opened his bag and was elated. He had collected 30 sets of [Wretched Thoughts] for the mission!

The [Perfect Potion Mastery] was at hand!

"Hey… thanks."

Qiu Yuan patted Lin Jie's back as her words came off as soft as a mosquito's sound.