Chapter 029: A New Coordinate Bug?

After a mist of white rose from the ground, a snow-white human skeleton climbed out. Judging by its emaciated frame, it was hard to imagine this as a summoned creature fit to serve as a Taoist’s meat shield. Yet the leader, overjoyed at her new “beloved child,” was beside herself with delight, shouting, “Wow! So cute! And my baby is so white!”

Lin Jia and the fourth brother nearly toppled over in disbelief. Wasn’t that obvious? What color could a skeleton be besides white? Baby? More like sweet and sour ribs!

But that was not something one should say to a woman, especially not to a formidable one like the leader. Otherwise, her instinct to defend her “child” would most likely result in a live PK between the two brothers and her.

The fourth brother, frustrated as he watched the leader madly dash about with her bony companion, called out, “Good job! Good job! Don’t get too excited! Hurry up and level! It’s been over an hour, and we haven’t gained a single level! The others are probably way ahead of us!”

The leader chuckled sheepishly, realizing her brothers were getting impatient. She quickly reformed the party, and was the first to cast a talisman that hit a wandering black wild boar in the distance. Once the monster’s attention was drawn, her skeletal minion dashed forward on its stick-thin legs, the sound of its bones clacking, and swung a tiny hatchet at a wild boar far more “well-fed” than itself.

However, since the skeletal minion was still “young and ignorant,” it charged in too far ahead, not only attracting the black wild boar she had targeted, but also a black, slug-like evil larva, two electric zombies, and a scorpion snake. Before it could even land its first blow, a flurry of electric beams and heavy blows sent it crashing to the ground, shattered into a pile of bones without so much as a groan.

“Oh no! My child!” wailed the leader in agony, struck by the pain of losing her cherished summons the instant she acquired it. Throwing caution to the wind, she charged into the fray, casting talismans and hurling flying daggers at the group of monsters.

“Damn it!” cursed the fourth brother, grabbing his horse-slaying blade and rushing forward to help. Lin Jia, laughing gleefully, kept his distance and used his lightning cards like a sniper, targeting the electric zombies among the monsters to lighten the leader’s vengeful assault.

“Summon another one! Summon another!” the fourth brother shouted desperately, reeling from a rolling attack by the black evil larva and unable to withstand the beating from several wild boars. He reminded the leader that resurrecting her “baby” cost only three talismans.

At last, the leader, her senses returning after being bitten a few times, retreated a few steps from the encircling monsters, quickly restored her health, and summoned her skeletal minion once more.

Now that the leader had leveled up, and with the fourth brother’s solid defense, the two could hold their ground in such battles. With Lin Jia’s heavy long-range firepower, the seven or eight monsters were soon eliminated. The leader couldn’t help but complain, “Why is my baby so useless?”

The fourth brother sighed, “It’s just a level-zero skeleton. What do you expect? Maybe it’ll get stronger later. For now, it’s only good for taking a few hits for our second brother!” In Legend, skills could be leveled up, each maxing out at level three. The power gap between each level was far from simple addition—the effect would increase geometrically with each level. Unfortunately, skills didn’t level up easily; sometimes it took tens of thousands of uses to gain a single level.

The leader, stung by this realization, quieted down and went back to luring monsters. With the fire talisman skill, it became much safer and more convenient. She would lure dangerous monsters from afar, and the three brothers, plus the skeletal minion, would slice them down with ease. Then she and the fourth brother would charge ahead to gather monsters within a safe range and let Lin Jia slaughter them.

The second level of the Fragrant Stone Catacombs had a high drop rate, but the distance was much greater than the first floor, making it difficult to purchase supplies. Though Lin Jia was a powerhouse, his potion consumption was enormous. Every so often, the leader or the fourth brother would have to dash back to town to sell loot and buy large quantities of super magic potions.

As Lin Jia clicked his mouse, aiming bolts of lightning at the monsters the fourth brother had rounded up, he complained, “This damn game is so annoying in some ways! Once you enter the caves, it’s pitch black, and even outside, the lighting flickers on and off. It drives me crazy—I can’t see a thing. Lightning is hard enough to aim, and now hitting monsters is even harder!” After a couple of days growing familiar with the wizard class in Legend, Lin Jia realized that the accuracy of spells was an issue. Just because you aimed at a monster didn’t guarantee a hit; sometimes even a landed strike would deal no damage.

This might have been related to “magic defense” or “magic evasion,” but the specifics still needed research. Fortunately, when facing groups of monsters, it didn’t matter which unlucky one got hit. When a monster was lured away from the mob, the leader and her skeletal minion would faithfully block in front of Lin Jia, tying up the enemy. So Lin Jia could focus on aiming, not dodging, which saved time and conserved mana. The only regret was that wizards had such low carrying capacity; they simply couldn’t carry enough potions. Even with his two brothers sacrificing most of their pack space to help him stock up on super magic potions, they still ran out quickly due to the high consumption.

“All right! That’s done! Let’s move a bit further ahead,” Lin Jia said after slaying the last red wild boar. Red wild boars were harder to kill than the black ones, yet yielded less experience. If not for the leader and the fourth brother being unable to withstand the wild boars’ attacks, Lin Jia would have rather skipped these potion-draining creatures.

After an “L”-shaped bend on the second floor of the Fragrant Stone Catacombs, they entered a square stone burial chamber. Within the crenellated walls and small alcoves, a great number of monsters lay in wait. Because they needed candles to see even a small area underground, the three brothers dared not venture recklessly. Usually, the leader would go ahead as a guiding light, the fourth brother protected Lin Jia from the rear in case monsters respawned, and Lin Jia walked between them, attacking monsters by the leader’s light. If the leader hadn’t practiced her caretaker role so well these past days, this technical job would have been impossible.

When the leader took a few cautious laps around the “L”-shaped corridor, she unexpectedly triggered a wave of more than twenty monsters. Not expecting so many to spawn at one spot, she shouted, “Run!” The other two, well-coordinated, didn’t even look at her screen before turning and fleeing.

When Lin Jia raced back to the cleared safe zone and was about to turn and pick off the pursuing monsters, the fourth brother suddenly exclaimed, “Hey! That’s weird! There are a ton of monsters on that wall!”

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(Trouble: Wahaha! I’m back! No more typing in internet cafés—I can finally resume updating two chapters a day! Special thanks to everyone in the comment section who’s given me so much advice. I’ve forgotten many of the old storylines, so I’m especially gathering memorable stories from Legend:

1. If you have any nostalgic stories from your time in Legend, feel free to post them in the comments. I’ll consider weaving them into The Wizard as a shared memory. You can include your old Legend ID and those of any friends you mention as characters. (Just describe the events; I’ll handle the details.)
2. If you once owned any rare or unique treasures, let me know. Even if they aren’t relevant now, the protagonist will need some impressive gear when the overpowered equipment appears later on.
3. If you spot any data errors in the story, please point them out. I’ve only played the wizard class, so I’m not too familiar with the Taoist and warrior stats. If possible, could someone post info about Taoist weight limits, Taoist power, and similar details in the comments?

There will be another chapter tonight to make up for yesterday’s missed update!

Finally, I hope everyone will click that thing below!)

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