Chapter 52: Lavishly Bestowing Skill Books

The Legend of the Mage, without pop-up windows

Because the city was filled with crazed players engaged in PK battles, Lin Jia’s alternate character was attacked four times on the short journey from the safe zone in Biqi to the warehouse behind the Big Tree Butcher Shop. Fortunately, Lin Jia’s internet speed was far superior to most players—whenever he saw someone approaching, he would immediately retreat into the safe zone like a turtle pulling in its head.

After much effort, he finally reached the warehouse, but didn’t dare store items with the warehouse manager outside. Safety first—he slipped into the small room inside the Biqi warehouse, planning to deposit his belongings with the warehouse manager there.

Once inside, Lin Jia was surprised to find someone else already there! It happened to be that mad Taoist, Little Evil God. Lin Jia was astonished—hadn’t this guy said he was deleting his character? He’d disappeared earlier, and Lin Jia thought he’d already committed in-game suicide, but here he was, skulking in the warehouse.

Lin Jia greeted him with amusement, “Hey, brother! You really made a splash this time! The whole server is at war!”

Little Evil God laughed as well, “Who knew it would turn into such a scene!? But it’s exhilarating! Ha ha! Oh, right! Were you the first to pick up my stuff? Must’ve made a fortune, huh?”

Lin Jia, depositing items into the warehouse, replied, “Yep! I picked up thirty thousand gold coins, a few bundles of potions, and over ten skill books!”

Little Evil God, now stripped of all his equipment from the recent chaos, chatted naked with Lin Jia. “Did you get my Gale Blade? It’s a rare one! Attack bonus +0-1, Taoist bonus +0-2!”

“Ah?” Lin Jia was a bit surprised. “No, I didn’t! There was a horde rushing in, and if I hadn’t been quick, I wouldn’t have snagged those skill books either! Are you really quitting? You lost so many good items! Your level can’t be low, either—being able to equip Gale Blade means you’re at least level 19! Wouldn’t deleting your character be such a waste?”

That was fine, but as soon as Lin Jia mentioned deleting the character, the mad Taoist got angry and cursed, “Damn this broken server! My connection is so laggy it takes ages just to type! What’s the point of playing like this?”

“You’re still lagging?” Lin Jia ran around him curiously, feeling everything was smooth—no more step-by-step lag. “I’m fine now! Not lagging at all. There aren’t as many people online, right?”

“…” Little Evil God was silent for a while, then said, “Maybe it’s the network at our internet café! The bandwidth and system aren’t good enough. I’ve been staying at my relative’s place these days and finally reached level 20, but when I came back this afternoon, it got like this! Damn!”

No wonder… Lin Jia looked at the poor fellow with endless sympathy—how painful it must be to be cut off when the game was at its peak!

Perhaps the conversation had loosened his tongue, and Little Evil God began to ramble, “This game is too hard! Not only are skill books difficult to get, but money is hard to earn too! If I weren’t playing a Taoist, I’d have gone broke ages ago! I still haven’t gotten ‘Summon Skeleton’—I’ve tried trading some skill books for it, but no one wants to swap! Damn it!”

His words resonated with most players, especially mages. Easy to die, low burden capacity, low defense, super expensive to play, restricted access to many areas—all these factors severely limited the development of mage players. Many switched to warrior or Taoist after failing to progress past level ten. If Lin Jia hadn’t had two brothers to protect him and some extraordinary luck early on, he likely would have met the same fate. Currently, the ratio of the three classes in Legend is: Warrior 40%—Taoist 40%—Mage 20%. This alone shows how tough it is for mage players.

Lin Jia paused and asked, “You can’t get skill books? That can’t be right—where did you get so many high-level skill books? I just picked up over ten from you! One even requires level 35!”

Perhaps feeling proud of this achievement, Little Evil God started humming the theme song from ‘Little Dragon Man’, “Hehe! Want to know? I won’t tell you! I won’t tell you!”

But soon he was very dejected, “What use are those books anyway! Can’t even sell them! I bet there aren’t even any players at level 25 yet. Level 22 or 23 is the highest, and no one even looks at my level 30 skill books! I tried to trade a level 35 skill book for Summon Skeleton, and people told me to get lost! Damn! I thought I’d make a fortune, but ended up losing over a million! Now I’ve got less than twenty thousand left, all gone just now! Might as well quit!”

Lin Jia was confused, “What do you mean? You bought those skill books? From where? I’ve never seen high-level skill books at the bookstore! You spent over a million? How many did you buy? Are skill books really that expensive? Do you still have any?”

Little Evil God replied grumpily, “Level 35 skill books sell for ten thousand gold each at the shop—how expensive do you think that is? Now you can’t buy them, and each type only has a few copies, all with me… Hehe! Trying to trick me? I won’t tell you! I won’t tell you!” Lin Jia nearly fainted—wasn’t this guy already driven mad by all the excitement? Why was he acting like this?

“Oh ho ho ho!” Little Evil God cackled in an oddly feminine manner, “I have every skill book! Want some? I’ll give you a few!”

Lin Jia laughed, “Of course I do! Why wouldn’t I? Even selling them to the shop is cash! However many you have, I’ll take them!”

Little Evil God burst out laughing, “Wahaha! However many you want, you’ll take! You’re not shy at all! I’m just worried you won’t be able to carry them all!”

“You’re really quitting and deleting your character? Giving them to me is a favor! Take it or leave it! They’re just skill books, not anything rare! Right now it’s hard to get level 35 skill books, but once everyone levels up, I bet they’ll be sold in shops! Take it or leave it!” Lin Jia was quite contemptuous of this guy who was acting like he was wielding some great authority.

“Available in shops? Hehehe…” Little Evil God snickered and didn’t respond further. He ran over to the warehouse manager, likely to retrieve items. Lin Jia followed him, and saw him madly tossing skill books onto the ground. Lin Jia was stunned—he really did have loads of skill books. Because he was throwing them so quickly, all the surrounding grid squares were soon covered, some overlapping, with at least five or six books stacked at each coordinate.

Without thinking, Lin Jia stepped up and frantically clicked away. The green item-acquired notifications scrolled rapidly across the top left of the screen. Little Evil God finished emptying his bag and immediately logged off. Soon after, a new character in cloth armor appeared next to the warehouse manager, ID: ‘Little Little Evil God’—obviously the madman’s alternate. Upon logging in, he too started tossing large quantities of skill books from his bag.

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[Note: Updating half an hour early! Today’s three-chapter task is complete! No more updates tonight! Please check back at 8 AM tomorrow!]