Chapter 037: The Third Level of the Fragrant Stone Tomb
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The server was becoming increasingly sluggish. The official announcements from the Legends team kept popping up in the chat, assuring players that the congestion issue would be resolved soon. Multiple new servers were being debugged, and once ready, the current player base would be distributed among them, allowing everyone to choose their desired server for character migration.
However, for Lin Jia and his two brothers, these messages were merely background noise. Server congestion didn’t affect them too badly; with a bit of patience and perseverance, they could still play—though the speed and risk fluctuated quite a bit.
After a hard-fought return to the E-shaped short wall on the second level of the Fragrant Stone Catacombs, where they had just battled for ages, Lin Jia once again unleashed a torrent of lightning at the horde of monsters trailing behind them.
It took only half an hour for both Lin Jia and their youngest brother to reach level 21. The eldest, a Taoist, lagged behind at just over 50% towards level 19. For safety, he switched to the Gale Blade his younger brother had outgrown and donned a pair of durable gloves for a modest boost in defense, temporarily disguising himself as a warrior.
After leveling up, their enthusiasm for grinding began to wane, especially with the server not running as smoothly as before. The eldest couldn’t help but suggest, “Let’s go check out the previous level. This is getting so boring!”
The other two immediately agreed, especially Lin Jia, who’d been trying to wedge something onto the F1 key to spare his aching finger from nonstop pressing. After all this time, his fingers were throbbing with pain—a break would do them good.
But their youngest piped up, “Wait! Let’s try killing that monster in the corner one more time and see if it drops anything else!” Unfortunately, this time the monster gave nothing to these hopeful brothers—not even the few piles of gold coins and potions it did drop were within reach, left stranded in the corner. The brothers could only console themselves with, “Maybe it only drops stuff the first time?”
No longer aiming to clear out every monster, the three brothers slowly made their way through the second level of the Catacombs and the connecting passage beyond, only engaging necessary foes and avoiding unnecessary ones lurking in the corners.
After rounding a bend, the three once more crawled through a narrow opening. With experience from previous crossings, they reverted to their usual formation: youngest brother leading, eldest in the middle, Lin Jia bringing up the rear. Anticipating tougher, denser monsters on the next level, they used a random teleport scroll to dash back to town, restock on potions, and hurry back to the entrance before the monsters respawned.
As soon as they entered, the youngest brother shouted, “Crap! Run!” Lin Jia, just about to click into the entrance, was startled by the shout and stopped in his tracks. He whipped his head around just in time to catch a glimpse of the red-and-black blur flashing across the screen as his brother escaped.
“Heal me, quick! Heal me!” the youngest urged their eldest, who promptly restored the third of his health he’d lost. The server had lagged noticeably as he crossed the threshold, and before he could even see the new map, he’d already lost a third of his health.
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“It’s full of red-and-black boars, scorpions, snakes, moths, and those tire things. The map’s still the Fragrant Stone Catacombs, but I bet each level has higher-level monsters!” The youngest dashed in and out again, losing another quarter of his health before shaking his head in frustration. “No good! The old method won’t work—I can’t take more than a couple of hits from those boars!”
This time, the eldest and Lin Jia got a clear look at the other side of the entrance—the third level of the Catacombs. It was even more densely packed than the second; as soon as their youngest crossed, he was immediately swarmed by at least three wild boars.
“But the third level is much more spacious than the second, and there don’t seem to be any electric zombies. If we can squeeze into a corner and set up a human wall, the experience will be even better than the second level. Easier to lure, easier to escape…” The youngest glanced at his brothers, seeking their opinion. “What do you think?”
“No electric zombies? That’s better than the second level! Those things are such a pain!” The eldest complained. The second floor was a midpoint, containing monsters from both the first and third levels, but the third was a pure high-level monster map. Though the electric zombies weren’t the strongest, their ranged attacks could hit Lin Jia, the little mage, behind the human wall. In comparison, the third level might actually be safer.
After some thought, the youngest traded some super mana potions to Lin Jia, while Lin Jia and the eldest handed over their surplus healing potions to him. They stuck to their usual pattern: the youngest would tank, the eldest would stack up behind and summon a skeleton to draw monster aggro, and Lin Jia would enter last to quickly clear the crowd.
Easier said than done. The youngest, unable to withstand the attacks of three wild boars or scorpions, could only rely on chugging potions as soon as he entered. Lin Jia even gave him all four of his life-saving sunwaters.
“Ready?” The three exchanged glances and, after a brief nod, filed into the entrance. This time luck was on their side: the monsters had shifted positions after being disturbed by the younger brother’s earlier in-and-out. So, as they re-entered, the first wave that could reach him at the entrance were just a wedge moth, a tire, and a scorpion. Aside from the scorpion, which hit as hard as a boar, the others weren’t as deadly, and with potions and healing from the eldest, the youngest could just about stay alive.
After successfully stacking up, the eldest immediately summoned her skeleton to draw the attention of the monsters in the back row, stopping them from pushing forward. The skeleton was quickly smashed to pieces, but it managed to attract most of the monsters’ attacks. Summoning a skeleton only cost a talisman, and the eldest kept her mouse pointer firmly on her brother, fingers darting between the healing and summon hotkeys.
Lin Jia’s defense was now higher than the youngest’s, but as a mage, his health was low—a poor choice for tanking despite the armor.
They followed their usual routine: first take out the crazed, spitting bat-mosquitoes, then clear monsters from the perimeter. Over thirty red-and-black boars, wedge moths, scorpions, and more surged forward in waves, snorting and hissing, desperate to break the brothers’ defense. The youngest ignored the action onscreen, focusing instead on the circular blood vial in the lower-left corner, which showed his remaining health. If it dropped below four-fifths, he gulped down another potent healing potion. The eldest, hands trembling, carefully picked out her brother’s figure amid the overlapping silhouettes and landed healing spells with precision.
Lin Jia stared at the dozens of monsters outside, gritting his teeth as he zapped them one by one with lightning. In that moment, he resolved to hit level 24 as quickly as possible to learn the area-of-effect spell Firewall. Anything less was just too frustrating.
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(Trouble: I’m back! But I need to sleep first—I’m dead tired! Updates will resume this afternoon!
Many friends have said they can’t understand the dialects in the story, so from now on I’ll stick to distinctive but easy-to-understand ones. If I really need to write something more complex, I’ll add a translation!
Also, I found two very interesting websites—after checking them out, you should be able to understand the Wuhan dialect!
“Teach Yourself Wuhan Dialect”:
Complete Official Level Four Wuhan Dialect Exam:
Lastly, did you enjoy the song sung by that Wuhan girl yesterday? Here’s her website. If you liked it, you can download her other cover songs—she’s a web singer with a strong Wuhan flavor!
Click here to view the image link: Page 3/3