The Minstrel Musa

In Lin Jie's previous life, the famous Shield Specialist Inksnow had once commented that a shield specialist would be comparable to a god when he managed to turn all parts of his body to be like a shield. This was also the first impression she gave people—she had always seemed to hold a shield no matter which angle one attacked her from.

Once, 10 plus bandits had tried to ambush Inksnow. By right, there should be no shield blocking off attacks from a player's back. However, when their daggers had touched her back, a shield had appeared to protect her. This was completely incomprehensible no matter how highly skilled one might be. It invited the curiosity of many players and following that Inksnow had been hunted down by numerous players.

The equipment had only been made known to all when Inksnow had died. It was called Shemendes Iron Cloak. It was a Dark Gold equipment, but owning it would beat owning anything else in the game.

"Welcome to Kedella. Adventurer, get away after you are done with teleporting. Don't disturb my business."

There was another nickname for the Town of Kedella, the Cursed Town. In the day, this was where bad-tempered townsfolk dwelled, but at night this place was a haven for Ogres.

Ordinary townsfolk would normally be intimidated by Lin Jie's "Viscount" title.

Lin Jie remained silent. This teleporter was a Level 20 Elite in the day, and at night it would transform to a Level 30 Silver-tiered Boss.

He left the place and came to a provision shop located at the southern parts of the town.

"Put down your money and take what you want." The bearded human shopkeeper waved his hands lazily, and a panel appeared sprang out.

Kedella Cloak: This is a decorative item, wearing it can hide your name and appearance.

The Kedella Cloak was one of few types of equipment that could help to hide one's name and appearance in the early stages of the game. It was priced at one silver coin. Lin Jie equipped himself with it after he bought it. Donning the cloak made him seem more mysterious.

The Town of Kedella consisted of a typical basin terrain and was surrounded on all sides with mountains. It was a famous breeding ground of all types of Undead monsters, Spirits, and low-grade Liches, with levels between Level 5 to Level 20. Hence, it was an ideal training ground for Paladins, Priests, and Contract Summoners.

Lin Jie walked towards the eastern valleys. He was a bit unsure of his direction. In his memory, there were always a lot of Contract Summoners camping at the eastern valleys in his previous life, and unlike now, it was not as full of monsters.

Creeping silently past several Spirits and Liches, Lin Jie managed to reach halfway up the mountain. Wild weeds and trees covered the entire area, and some of the weeds were as tall as Lin Jie's waist. These weeds had sharp teeth on them, and if one were to barge in recklessly, they would die from bleeding from his wounds. Here was where the Blade Aura Executioner came in handy. A single chop would help Lin Jie get rid of a whole patch of weeds.

Shhh—shhh—

When he was done chopping off the second batch of weeds, a Spirit appeared in front of Lin Jie. He let out a bitter smile when he saw what it was.

The Minstrel Musa: Level 5 Rare Elite, Health points 700.

This fellow was one of the most sought-after Contract Pets that numerous Contract Summoners would have wanted for themselves in Lin Jie's previous life. What's more, this particular fellow in front was a Rare Elite that one could not even run into given 10,000 encounters. There would be bloodshed over it whenever it was respawned. In fact, hundreds of Contract Summoners would specially camp here just to catch this Rare Elite.

Minstrel Musa, abilities:

- Spirit Scream, it can obstruct the target from casting spells within a small range and silence them for a few seconds.

- Spirit Blast, it can damage the normal hearing of its target, once activated three times the target will be stunned.

- Spirit Control, it can snatch away its target's control over his pets and Summoned Beasts, or control its target's body for three seconds.

The Minstrel Spirit was widely known as the Sub-Magical Pet for its superb controlling powers as a pet!

Lin Jie blinked for several times. He was not a Contract Summoner, but wouldn't it be such a pity if that thing were to be contracted by other people? He took out the Broken Blade and contemplated how to best kill it.

Ding~

"Little Jie, I have decided to delete my account." Zheng Ziliang's saddened voice rang out from his communication device.

Lin Jie blinked again, and replied calmly, "Okay."

"Darn it, you won't even console me?"

"Not interested in doing that."

In Lin Jie's previous life, Zheng Ziliang had been a typical gamer fond of opening alternate accounts. Once he was dissatisfied with his job, he would delete that account; or if he decided that other jobs were stronger than his original job, he would delete his account and start training all over again. As such, he could never reach high levels for any jobs in the game.

His current job was a Mage, with the starting talent of Ice Proficiency, and he chose his basic skill to be the Ice Wall.

Lin Jie was dumbfounded when he heard Zheng Ziliang's choices. "Ice Wall is a Terrain-control type ability, why would you choose that?"

Zheng Ziliang coughed embarrassingly. "I thought I could hit people with the walls…"

Lin Jie couldn't feel more absurd by this answer. "You delete that account now and open another one as a Contract Summoner. Then come over to the Town of Kedella faster, and stop following all your strange inspiration. Follow me instead, and I will teach you how to succeed."

Zheng Ziliang's profile picture dimmed, and Lin Jie received a notification: 'Your good friend Innocent Killer has dispersed his soul, and is forever gone in this world.'

In less than two seconds, this dumb guy opened another account and came to the Town of Kedella. Lin Jie was still guarding the Rare Elite when he received a message from Zheng Ziliang, "Little Jie… Brother Jie, I just died again."

Lin Jie had no choice but to tear up a returning scroll and teleport back to the town. He caught sight of the Innocent Killer lying flat on the ground. That klutz had teased a little NPC girl and thus was killed by a slap from her. The little girl even called her dad, and the two NPCs were guarding his corpse together.

To had one's corpse being guarded by NPCs? Well done, indeed.

Lin Jie took a glance at the little girl, her name was Apprentice Sword Artist Mille. Her father's name was the Gale Swordsman·Hero.

'A Gale Swordsman? Okay, that sounds good.'

Lin Jie went up and smiled apologetically. "Dearest friends, if my friend here showed any disrespect to both of you…"

Hero stared silently at Lin Jie, and his sword came out of its sheath a little bit. "Scram if you don't want to die too."

"Revive now," said Lin Jie in a low tone.

"What?"

"Revive yourself!"

Zheng Ziliang did not hesitate and stood up at once. Hero made a striking pose, but a gust of blade aura shot past him from the left. He jumped and made several somersaults in the air before landing, but the tip of his nose was still cut by the blade aura.

-1!

Any attack against a Level 30 Elite was just plain useless.

Hero touched his nose tip, threw a surprised look at Lin Jie before scooping up his daughter in his arms. His daughter was still screaming for her dad to throw the two audacious fellows into the mountains to feed the Quilboars when they left.

"What the heck, you can scare off NPCs?" Zheng Ziliang was still rather shaken up by his encounter. Before recovering, he hollered at the pair of father and daughter, placing his hands on his hips, "Continue to kill me if you dare!"

Sook!

A gust of blade aura shot past Zheng Ziliang's right shoulder. He immediately hid behind Lin Jie again.

Lin Jie kept the Broken Blade back on his back. "Let's go. Oh yes, have you learned the Contracting Skill yet? I will bring you to get a good pet…"

"Oh I didn't, I learned the Soul Cudgel Skill instead. Though it can inflict lesser damage, I figured a magical skill with additional physical attributes might help, so I am going to allocate my Stats points to train in it…"

Zheng Ziliang was still talking gleefully about his new skills when Lin Jie could no longer bear with him. He scolded angrily, "Delete your account again! Go learn the Contracting Skill!"

"Oh, fine, fine, you are the boss, I will listen to you…" Zheng Ziliang rolled his eyes and dispersed his soul again. "Haha, me here had nothing to lose anyway since I didn't have anything to begin with."

Lin Jie don't know what to do with this guy. In his previous life, Zheng Ziliang had been full of ridiculous ideas—examples included his theories of training as a muscular Mage, a low HP level Shield Specialist, etc. Of course, all those theories had failed, but Zheng Ziliang had been still indulging in his ideas. When an ID called "The Master of Ridiculous Ideas" had appeared in the game forums and started discussing strange ways of mastering the game, Zheng Ziliang had gone even more crazy with his ideas.

'Let's hope this time he will stay on track.'

After bringing Zheng Ziliang to the spawning grounds of Minstrel Musa, Lin Jie pointed to the spirit and said sternly, "Cast your contracting spells upon this spirit continuously until you succeed! Remember to keep a distance of at least 25 yards away from it, as it will be unable to attack you then."

Finishing his words, Lin Jie handed a half backpack amount of Slow Restoring Potions, a few bottles of low-grade Invisible Potions and a returning scroll to Zheng Ziliang, That was just in case Zheng Ziliang was killed in the contracting process. Only after that did he leave with his mind at peace.

After Lin Jie had left for about half an hour, Zheng Ziliang had been casting his Contracting Spells boringly at the Minstrel when a figure appeared behind him silently.

Ding~

The figure creased his forehead and took out his communication device. "Who's there?"

"Dead Fish Eye, it's me," Lin Jie laughed. "Have you settled your stuff yet?"

Dead Fish Eye answered him yes in a low voice.

"Okay, great. Oh yeah, where are you now? Help me watch over this guy called Innocent Killer at the Town of Kedella. He's a younger brother of mine. When he was young, something went wrong with his mind. As a result, he turned out dumb. Just ensure that he stays alive, that's all. He's located somewhere around the coordinates 45615, 15668."

"Is this the favor you require from me?"

"Oh no, no, no, I am just asking you for a little extra help now." Lin Jie shook his head fervently. "As for that matter, I will tell you when I get out from where I am. That's all for now, bye."

Ta-da, the conversation was ended.

Dead Fish Eye stared at the back of the head of the fellow in front of him, who was now busily casting the contracting spells. Curbing the urge to knock him out, he felt as if a dark cloud was looming over his head.

————————

Blade Aura Executioner!

The wild weeds were cleared off, and a cave appeared before Lin Jie's eyes.

Dong-

Dong-

Every step in the cave brought back an echo that seemed to imitate the beating sound of the heart, making one feel constricted in their chest. This was a cave with narrow and winding passageways, and there was a total of four exits from the cave. As Lin Jie walked on, the images from his memory started to match what he saw. He looked for a particular passageway and lowered his body, moving forward.

He was going downwards. Eventually, he reached an open space, where an Ogre laid snoring, surrounded by rare Zhenwu Ores, which were piled up like small mountain peaks.

The Ogre August: Level 10 Elite, Health points 10,000.