Bai Mo shook his head, “No, people will find out about the investigation no matter how discreet we are. And once it was discovered, it will only sow doubt in the hearts of our guild members.” and he continued with a smile, “Upwards Ho! will remain a small guild. This is something that we will have to deal with in the future. Losing our calm now will only benefit those who wish to do us harm.”
Timely Rain, who was usually unflappable was shaken because the Mithril ore vein was involved. This was something that would affect the future economy of the entire Eastern Continent. Bai Mo’s words, however, was enough to help him regain his composure.
“Do we just ignore this?”
“Yup. Gongzi You is the one who holds the quest lock. There will be no problem as long as she doesn’t activate the next stage of the quest. What we should do now is to level up, and make sure that our elites are well equipped. With that, we’ll be able to protect her when the time comes. We will definitely lose the Mithril ore vein if we fail to achieve that.” Bai Mo knew the value of the Mithril ore vein, but Upwards Ho! at its current stage was still too weak.
The guild would not be able to hold the Mithril ore vein. Maintaining the current status quo was the best course of action at this point in time.
Timely Rain knew that Bai Mo’s words rang true, and he set his mind to the task of improving the guild’s elites instead while still keeping an eye out for any suspicious activities.
Ye Ci munched on some roasted meat and washed them down with a bottle of spring water, replenishing her Stamina.
She was tired, but her situation had improved. She knew that nothing good would come out of her meeting with Zero Arsenic. Someone as sly as him might have figured out the secret behind the quest lock, and might even have known about the Mithril ore vein. As someone who is serving the old master and Unbridled Willow, he would naturally not want to see the possession of the Mithril ore vein falling into the hands of another guild, especially the Iron Blood guild.
Especially when Thousand Sunsets’s Iron Blood is the sworn enemy of the Battle Spear guild.
There was a high chance that Zero Arsenic knew about the Mithril ore vein, which was why he set out to have a meeting with Ye Ci. He knew that Ye Ci’s guild was not capable of defending the ore vein. The Battle Spear guild was still a large guild of 2 million members even when it was not considered a major guild, and it had the strength to provide the security needed by Upwards Ho!. Under such circumstances, Ye Ci would have to fork out half of the ores produced by Upwards Ho! mines to pay for the safety provided by Battle Spear.
From what she had learned from Green Hill’s Moon, the old master of Unbridled Willow and Thousand Sunsets had no plans to pour more resources into Fate. His current investment in the game was just a probe to feel out the market. If Zero Arsenic was able to secure a deal with Ye Ci, the old master would definitely allocate more and more resources into the game. The Battle Spear guild might even end up taking over Upwards Ho! and becoming a new superpower in the Eastern Continent, and all of Ye Ci’s hard work would be undone in the process. She was not someone who would watch as the fruits of her labor was used to pave the way for the success of somebody else.
Heh, what a cunning man.
A sneer appeared on Ye Ci’s face.
Does Zero Arsenic really think that he can manipulate Upwards Ho! that easily? Does he really think that I’m just someone who happens to have good mechanical skills and some knowledge about the game?
Zero Arsenic was wrong. Ye Ci was a reincarnator from the future. Even if she was not able to control or predict the changes in Fate, her past experience was still something that could allow Upwards Ho! to stay ahead of its competitors.
She must lay down all the groundworks for Upwards Ho! before the arrival of Golden Era. She was curious. Where will Upwards Ho! be in the future. As for those who looked down on her guild…
How will they end up?
Of course, before Ye Ci could do any of that… She must find a way to leave this strange map.
Ye Ci stood up, and began to explore her surroundings. The island was filled with lush green trees. Ye Ci felt as if she was in a tropical rainforest.
Despite the beautiful scenery, there was an unspoken rule in Fate that such a lush forest would be filled with a large number of beasts and venomous insects.
This was not a problem for Ye Ci, as Hunters, especially the Elven ones, were always known as survival experts in the wild. With their racial trait, the Elven race enjoyed a very high stealth status compared to members of the other races. A jungle or a forest is somewhere that an Elven Hunter would feel like home.
Ye Ci summoned Ol’ Four, and began wandering around in the forest. She was quick to encounter her first monster.
It was a python that had coiled itself under the shade of a tall coconut tree, glaring at Ye Ci and Ol’ Four. The snake’s green scales was intimidating as it reflected light from the glaring hot sun. A Detection skill told Ye Ci that the snake was a lvl65 normal monster. It had a higher level than Ye Ci, but was not a threat as it was not an Elite.
Ye Ci was wary of the venom of snake type monsters due to her limited amount of antidote, and was forced to engage her enemy at a range. The snake’s movements, however, was faster than she had expected. She had trouble tracking the snake even with her high Agility. With her high Balance, Ye Ci was able to even the odds by leaping around the forest and kiting the snake, dodging its attacks and occasional spray of venom while dishing out attacks of her own.
Knowing that even the tiniest splatter of venom would deal a massive amount of damage, Ye Ci was always on a constant vigilance during her battle with the snake.
Every creature has its weakness, and an attack on a creature’s weakness in Fate would result in a critical hit that would multiply the damage of the attack by 10. A snake’s weakness is naturally at the spot 7 inches away from its head [1], but hitting the spot was no easy task as the snake was constantly on the move as it track Ye Ci’s movement with its head. Despite her best attempts, Ye Ci was not able to get to a favourable position that would allow her to launch an arrow at the snake’s weak spot. She was annoyed. She whistled at Ol’ Four and immediately entered Stealth.
Despite its size, the python’s intelligence is next to zero. It could not comprehend the reason behind the sudden disappearance of its foe. It’s focus lingered on Ye Ci’s last known location before Ol’ Four came lumbering at the snake at full speed. Prey! A glint of excitement appeared in the snake’s eyes as it dashed after Ol’ Four.
Just then, Ye Ci appeared behind the snake and fired an arrow right at its weak spot.
Precision and accuracy are important qualities of a Hunter. Of course, it was something that was easier said than done as the trajectory of an arrow was affected by a lot of factors. A Hunter must take the distance of a target, its movement speed, and other external factors that might affect the flight of the arrow into considering before firing off a shot.
This was the only way to guarantee a hit.
And this was something that Ye Ci was not able to achieve when she first became a Huntress. Her accuracy and precision came from all her failures and hours upon hours of actual combat.
Sometimes, the difference between an expert player and a top player could be just one tiny bit.
The arrow fired by Ye Ci flew straight and true, and buried itself into the snake’s weak spot as it was still preoccupied by Ol’ Four’s presence. The scales at the snake’s weak spot was soft, but they look just the same with the rest of the snake’s body. A hit, however, would be a fatal blow to the snake and would even cripple its movements.
The snake its head hissed in pain as her Black Feather Arrow struck its mark. It then slumped onto the ground as wave after wave of shudder racked its body.
Ye Ci was satisfied with the damage indicator that was displayed in red. Her attack dealt 7,000 damage to the snake, which was more than 3 times the amount of the damage that she could deal with her normal attack. The snake was even afflicted with a “Bleeding” effect, and damage values could still be seen floating on the snake’s head.
There was even a “Pain” buff that reduced the snake’s movement speed by 70%, making it an easy target to Ye Ci.
It did not take long before the snake fell with a shriek and disappeared into a flash of light and experience points. Of course, Ye Ci’s level was already at its maximum, and she was not able to level up. The experience points were stored into a special gauge that will then be used to level Ye Ci up once the patch was introduced into the game. What came as a surprise to Ye Ci, however, was the fact that the experience gained from the snake was displayed as the experience gained by a player with maximum level would usually not be displayed by the system.
Of course, this was something trivial that was not worth Ye Ci’s attention. She walked up to the snake and retrieved her arrows from the animal’s carcass. She was trapped in an unknown map and there was no telling that if she would ever have a chance to resupply. Every arrow counts. thought Ye Ci to herself.
The snake offered a meagre loot of a gold coin, some silver coins, and some miscellaneous items.
The drop rate of items from monsters above the level of 60 was significantly lower. Of course, this was something that Ye Ci did not mind as her inventory was limited.
With her spoils of war stored in her inventory, Ye Ci then began to harvest the snake’s carcass with a knife, and obtained some high quality snake meat, a piece of slightly torn snake skin, a snake gall, and a number of its ribs.
Ye Ci stared at a spotless white rib in her hand and brushed the tip of her finger against the pointed end of the rib. She immediately felt a sharp pain as her finger was punctured by the rib. This thing would make a nice arrow! thought Ye Ci to herself and a plan began formulating in her head.
I’m in a tropical rainforest, which means that there will be a lot of snakes and beast type monsters around. No matter how well I conserve my arrows, they are bound to be depleted when their durability run out. I’ll be in deep trouble if I can’t leave this place before my arrows run out. But… if I can craft these ribs into arrows… Doesn’t it mean that I don’t have to worry about having a shortage of arrows again?
Ye Ci’s Arrow Crafting was only at the medium tier and had been stuck at a bottleneck for some time. This would make arrow crafting harder for her. Every support-tier job in Fate gave the players the ability to create their own unique blueprints or recipes, but the failure rate was high for low tier players. Crafting an arrow with the bone would pose a rather difficult challenge for Ye Ci.
Knowing that she would not be able to create an arrow with the dozen of ribs in her inventory, Ye Ci roamed the forest, hunting down animals that she encountered. By the time she logged out from the game for dinner, Ye Ci had collected a large number of ribs. The sky in-game was already dark when she logged back into the game.
As she was in a forest, wood was something that Ye Ci had in abundant. She was able to start a fire and roasted some meat for Ol’ Four and herself before getting to work.
She heated a piece of rib with the fire, softening the bone up so that she could mold it into shape. She then proceeded to refine then shape of the arrow with her knife. This was the simplest way to craft an arrow, but was also a tedious task for Ye Ci.
The bones were either not soft enough or were too brittle. A smile mountain of discarded bones were slowly piling up by Ye Ci’s foot with each of her failure. Even Ol’ Four that despised raw food could barely hold itself back. It would be such a waste to not munch on those bones.
Ye Ci who would lose track of time when she was focused. The passing of time and the number of failures meant nothing to her. This was also why she was able to spend such a long time in the National Library, and was also why she refused to give up on crafting a new arrow.
Even when her stockpile of ribs were dwindling, Ye Ci continued her action baking a rib with the fire, molding it, and refining it…
The monotonous process had trained Ye Ci’s body into getting used to the movements necessary to craft an arrow, just like how her body was able to get used to firing off an arrow. Everything happened by reflex.
“Congratulations for inventing a new arrow! Please name the arrow.” a system notification chimed in without warning.
Ye Ci let out a long sigh when she heard the system notification. She was not especially overjoyed by her achievement. It was as if Ye Ci had recognized the fact that there was nothing that she could not accomplish.
She studied the arrow she held in her hand. The arrow was smooth and white, the tip of the arrow was fused with its shaft, and the feathers that were supposed to be at the bottom of the arrow was replaced with the scales of a snake.
The stats of the arrow was quite impressive as well.
Unnamed arrow: 120-200 Physical Damage. Effects: Piercing damage, causes “Bleed” to enemies. Level Requirement: lvl 50.
The arrow had a slightly lower damage value than Ye Ci’s Black Feather Arrow, but its effects were very rare, especially for an arrow that could be produced by medium-tier Arrow Crafting, and consumed less materials than a Black Feather Arrow as well. This made it more cost-effective than a Black Feather Arrow.
“Bone Arrow” Ye Ci blurted out the first name that came into her mind, and it was immediately registered by the system.
“Congratulations for naming the new arrow. Rewards: 300 Arrow Crafting mastery points.”
Eh? What the heck? Ye Ci was dumbfounded. I’m able to get such a huge amount of mastery points just by crafting an arrow? Thought Ye Ci as she glanced at her Arrow Crafting. Her skill had leveled up because of her creation of the Bone Arrow.
Translator’s note:
After like 50,000 years I finally figured out why “Bloody Steel” sounded wrong to me. Since I now have a better translation, the guild name of Thousand Sunsets’s guild shall officially be “Iron Blood” starting from now, while Unbridled Willow’s guild, “Battle Spear” shall remain as it is. If you see any “Bloody Steel” in previous chapters please let me know so that I can make amendments on those chapters. In fact, I’d like to seek your help to look for them so that I can get them changed to “Iron Blood”