Chapter 104: The Agony of Skill Training

Legend of the Mage — No Ads

Besides gifting Moonlight some equipment, Lin Jia also gave that adorable little mage girl, Feng Xi, a set of low-level rare mage gear that was just right for her to use. The cute little sister was so delighted she trailed behind Lin Jia nonstop, chattering excitedly and calling out all sorts of affectionate names.

“It’s kind of strange, isn’t it? How did that Nangong Cangma manage to level his skeleton up to level 5?” the leader asked in puzzlement. “My skeleton isn’t even level 1 yet!”

Moonlight chimed in, “Yeah! Looks like he maxes out his skills as soon as he levels up. But a level 2 skeleton is way stronger than our level 0 ones. Just now, the three of us with our skeletons couldn’t even beat his single level 2 skeleton!” Though Moonlight hadn’t witnessed their first PK against Nangong Cangma’s level 5 skeleton, she was aware that skeletons could level up.

“And that mage called ‘A Good Person,’ it seems he maxed out his ‘Light of Temptation’ skill too!” Lin Jia said with a hint of frustration. “My Light of Temptation can’t even lure back a hen right now, let alone a centipede! How the hell did they manage to train those skills so well?”

“Maybe they deliberately use their skills frequently just to train them?” the fourth member guessed. “I once saw a Taoist summoning a skeleton right in front of the greatsword guards at the city gate, letting it get killed—probably to level the skeleton up. At the time, I thought he was just recklessly burning money!” Taoist skills differ from those of mages; mages only consume MP no matter the skill, but Taoists often need to use auxiliary items. Summoning a skeleton requires talismans and magic potions, while poison skills consume powders and magic potions. Overall, Taoist skills are quite costly to maintain.

“That makes sense!” the leader exclaimed. “I can’t stand it anymore! I’m going to train my skills!”

Lin Jia hurriedly added, “I’m coming too!” It seemed these two were motivated by the power of high-level skills; they were even planning to skip leveling and focus solely on skill training. The fourth member was left to team up with Moonlight and little Feng Xi to grind in the Centipede Cave.

The leader ran over to one of the greatsword guards in Earth City, summoned a skeleton, but sure enough, the loyal greatsword cleaved the skeleton into a flurry of afterimages before it could even stand upright. Excited, the leader went to the Earth City pharmacy, stocked up on magic potions and talismans, and stood by the city gate, repeatedly summoning skeletons.

Lin Jia couldn’t enter Earth City with a red name status, so he found some multi-legged bugs outside Shabak City to practice Light of Temptation. After over half an hour of trying on a single bug—unable even to lure back a chicken—Lin Jia finally succeeded in summoning it. Excited by his first little “pet,” he ran it around the map, then found another bug for them to “fight.” Unfortunately, Lin Jia’s summoned bug wasn’t very talented and lost to its kin, much to his frustration. In a fit of pique, he tried to lure the victorious bug over to replace the first, but after about ten minutes under the Light of Temptation, the bug suddenly shrieked and flipped onto its back.

Lin Jia was stunned for a moment before realizing that bugs could be summoned to death. After some experimentation, he uncovered several secrets about the Light of Temptation skill. When a monster is under its effect, its name turns yellow, and it stands still, dazed. But if someone approaches, the monster’s name turns a blood-red like a killer’s mark, and it loses all recognition of kin, attacking anything nearby—friend or foe alike.

The monster under attack, however, does not retaliate because it’s fighting a member of its own kind. Lin Jia dubbed this phenomenon “killing with a borrowed knife.”

The Light of Temptation had many other clever uses. For instance, when facing a fast and powerful monster, one could first freeze it with the skill, then find a safe spot and unleash electric attacks. But this required skillful timing and was difficult to execute under pressure for most players.

Lin Jia summoned bugs whenever he saw them. His skill level was so low that summoning was a tough process, but his main goal was to gain skill experience. Whether or not he successfully summoned a bug was secondary. If successful, he would immediately electrocute his pet to death and then summon again, repeating this cycle endlessly.

Three hours later…

Lin Jia rubbed his sleepy eyes and glanced at the fourth member, who was still grinding with Moonlight and little Feng Xi. Then he looked at the leader, who had collapsed on the keyboard, drooling and asleep. Unable to hold on any longer, Lin Jia flew back to the Red Name Village, abandoned his character in the safe zone, and curled up on the sofa to sleep.

Skill training was truly arduous and painful. Lin Jia was better off than the leader, who had already crashed after summoning skeletons for over an hour in front of the greatsword guard. Only her fingers remained pressed on the summon button. The tedious process and the late hour made it nearly impossible to stay awake; anyone who could persist was indeed a person of remarkable willpower.

The night passed without incident. In the morning, the fourth member woke the leader and Lin Jia, who both felt annoyed at having spent money just to sleep in an internet café. They had slept all night on a cramped sofa, waking up sore all over. Leaving behind the fourth member, still energetic and eager to continue grinding, they each went home to rest.

Over the next few days, Lin Jia and the leader spent their time leveling up and training skills. When tired of leveling, they returned to town to train skills. When bored of skill training, they carried potions and went back to leveling. After a whole week, the leader’s skeleton reached level 2, and Lin Jia’s Light of Temptation skill was fully trained.

One day, Gu Feng Yi Zhen sent Lin Jia and the others a message, informing them that they could now clear out and sell off their stock of rare equipment because he had already sold all his low-level gear sets. Through buying and selling, he had netted a cool 10 million gold coins!

Some players had also reached the level to purchase the high-level and rare gear they held. Taking the 10 million gold coins from the cunning merchant Gu Feng Yi Zhen, Lin Jia and his team’s total assets finally surpassed the 20 million gold coin mark!

Originally, they had about 15 million gold coins. But during the server transfer, they spent around 2 million buying non-store equipment. Over the week of skill training, the leader alone spent 1.5 million gold coins on potions and talismans for her level 2 skeleton. Lin Jia spent over 600,000 gold coins on potions training Fire Resistance Ring and Light of Temptation. Players who spent so lavishly on potions were rare—altogether, they blew through roughly 5 million gold coins in just one week. Any other player knowing this would surely condemn them as reckless spendthrifts. While many players boasted about their 200,000 to 300,000 gold coin savings, Lin Jia and his team were practically flushing 5 million gold coins down the drain!

*******

[Note from the author: Wahahaha~ Finally got back online! Here’s a chapter to get things started~ The earlier 'fantasy' version I posted was written long ago. Today, with a power outage at home, I had no choice but to come to an internet café and post this to fill in. If you’re not interested, just wait for the realistic version!]