Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

An embarrassed expression was planted on Windy Hum’s face. He smiled and said, “Bro… What do you mean by that?”

“Since you are so clever and well-informed—you even know a non-existing item such as the ‘Blood Curse’… I think you ought to know what I mean,” said Lin Jie smilingly in a sardonic tone.

“Maybe it’s because you have not seen it before. I still keep a book that introduced this skill here.” Windy Hum took out a blood-red scroll from his backpack. It was all crumpled and tattered and seemed like it was passed down through the ages. He seemed like he did not understand what Lin Jie was hinting at, and he continued, “See, this is the book which recorded what the Blood Curse is! In The New Age, there are a lot of unknown stuff, like skills, and unique items. If one can find them and report them to the Holy Church, he will be rewarded handsomely.”

Lin Jie put on a look of enlightenment and looked guilty, as though he had blamed Windy Hum wrongly. He took over the scroll—but pomegranate seed-sized lumps floated up and stuck onto Lin Jie’s body!

Something’s wrong!

Windy Hum got into Enraged mode. With a spur of his long spear, he stabbed at Lin Jie’s neck—considering how close they were to each other, no one would be able to block off such a sudden attack!

This scroll was also no ordinary information scroll, but a Spell Scroll, which contained Scout Radner’s signature skill—Blood Explosion! Furthermore, this scroll was especially high in its levels. Windy Hum had observed Lin Jie’s Bone Membrane Armor from previous battles, and he knew that Lin Jie would not be able to block off this attack—because this was a scroll made by the highest commander within Blood Swamp, the Blood Wizard Larek.

No matter how strong Scout Radner was, it would still have to listen to the orders of Larek. Hence, even if Lin Jie’s Bone Membrane Armor was about to hold off the Scout’s attack, it would not able able to hold off an attack by the Blood Wizard Larek!

“Brother, considering our brief acquaintance, I shall not make things difficult for you,” commented Windy Hum as he activated the Strength’s Blessing, King’s Blessing, Holy Light’s Mark buffs. They made him looked all shiny and radiant. The tip of the Long Spear was positioned at Lin Jie’s throat, and he smiled viciously as he made an action to pierce it through, “That Holy Light Grace is really great, and superb equipment to own when our team needs to battle a Boss. How about giving it to me for free?”

Lin Jie let out a burst of great laughter, “You sure you can get it from me… just with your abilities?”

“Yes, just by myself! Blood Explosion!”

Windy Hum’s gestures were just a facade. With a quick flip of his arms, a deadly vibe was given off by the Blood Seeds, which was attacked to Lin Jie’s body. The Blood Seeds grew bigger and bigger and eventually swelled into ugly, organ-sized meat lumps.

Kaboom-

Kaboom-

Lin Jie’s body exploded into bloody mists, like a powder keg! Windy Hum’s lips curled up into a cold smile, and greed flashed past his eyes as he stuck out his hands in the bloody mists, groping around for his rewards. At this moment, a blood-red hand stretched out and gripped onto Windy Hum’s right arm.

“You…” Shocked, Windy Hum saw that Lin Jie’s body had turned to be camouflaged by Blood Swamp. Layers of blood-red bones and gelatin covered emerged out from beneath Lin Jie’s skin and covered up his body, finally ending at the more fragile parts of his body like his elbow and his shoulder blades. They condensed and formed savage-looking bone spurs at those parts.

-1,738!

The Damage Dealt figure only rose up then!

To be honest, this scroll was considered indeed powerful. To be able to cause such a Damage upon Lin Jie, despite him owning the enhanced Bone Membrane Armor—it was no easy feat!

If all the team members had attacked Lin Jie at once, Lin Jie might really be killed. However, Windy Hum was over-confident of himself—he had naively thought that the Blood Wizard’s Spell Scroll would be able to kill Lin Jie.

A wide grin spread on Lin Jie’s face. “Blood Explosion? You dare to use this technique against me? Let me show you what Blood Explosion is like!”

As his voice stopped, Lin Jie waved his hands, and four illusions flashed by. The armor Windy Hum wore broke apart, and Windy Hum stared in shock as he discovered only a few small pieces of his armor was still intact. His Defense and Health Points were also being depleted—in fact, he now had Stats lower than even a Level 25 player who only owned Bronze-Grade equipment.

Suddenly, the blood in his right hand wriggled up like a worm. With a ‘piak’ sound, his hand was ripped apart. Fresh red blood burst out from his wounds to as tall as a grown man’s height and dripped down onto Blood Swamp.

-1,583!

“Blood Explosion! How did you get to know this technique? Is it that the upgraded Bone Membrane Armor will…”

“Die, now!”

Before Windy Hum could finish his sentence, he was stabbed through by Lin Jie! Lin Jie had originally wanted to try out Blood Explosion, but he was rather disappointed that the damage caused by his Blood Explosion skill was still lower than if he had struck out by himself.

To be honest, this was something that was expectable. Both Scout Radner and Blood Wizard Larek were, after all, Mana Bosses, and Lin Jie was a Warrior. It was already amazing that Lin Jie could deal out such high damage using a Mana skill considering his job’s nature.

Windy Hum was dead! He spawned another two bottles of the Holy Light Rejuvenation Potions. Lin Jie picked them up and threw a cold look at his surroundings. He spoke, “I know all of you are observing me as souls throughout this whole while. If you guys had just stood by my side from the beginning, you would have got the majority of the gains from the battle, and me, the minority. But now… you guys have proven that you deserved nothing at all.”

Ding~

—’You have killed Scout Radner! You can go back to the Midolhaar Commander’s Room to receive your rewards!’

—’You received the Blood Seed Dagger (Gold).’

—’You received the Bloody Demonic Ring (Gold).’

—’You received the Mana Burning Wand (Dark Gold fragment).’

Other than that, Lin Jie’s Runestone of the Undead Language was swollen up. The figure displayed on it jumped to 1,400 from the original 700. One could see how valuable the Scout was from this. However, the EXP gained from killing a Boss of the commander levels was just temporarily recorded in the runestone. One could only get the real EXP points when he or she redeemed it from the Midolhaar Commander.

Picking up the rewards from killing the Boss, Lin Jie scrutinized the Bloody Demonic Ring.

Bloody Demonic Ring (Gold)

Requires: Level 30

Strength: 25

Endurance: 20

Additional effect: Your attack will have an additional 5% Life-Steal effect.

Additional effect: When your Health bar reached lower than 10%, you will gain a Shield, which can absorb 100 Damage points. When the shield is activated, your Life-Steal effect will have another additional 5%.

‘A Level 30 Gold Life-Steal ring!’ Lin Jie brightened up at this. This ring looked very cool, with a blood-red ruby engraved on top of the ring, giving off a dazzling light.

Being one of the rarest accessories spawned from killing Bosses, the importance of rings to players went without saying. For example, a Warrior could use a ring which to help increase his movement speed while a Priest player with a Mana-returning ring, etc…

Within all rings, there were three types of rings that were most valuable. First of all, the ‘Skill Ring’, which meant the ring would bequeath its owner a skill. This type of skill might be the same as one of the skills the players owned, but its cooldown period would be much longer.

For example, there was Gold equipment known as the Fire Soul Ring. Its effect was to shot out a Pyroblast. If Fire Mages got hold of this ring, they could shoot out two consecutive Pyroblasts, ignoring the cooldown period of his original skill! This could shock their opponents. However, the additional skill by the ring would have a much longer cooldown period. Even if it was just an ordinary skill, its cooldown period would be 20 times as long.

The second type would be the Life-Steal rings! For players who were always at the frontlines of battles and fights, such as Warriors, Paladins, and Bandits, the ability to replenish their health bars in time was always a challenge. With a Life-Steal ring, it would be akin to bringing a mediocre Healing job companion around with them at any one time. In the long run, they could save up a lot of money spent on buying potions. During PK fights, some might even turn the tables around with just these few more Health Points.

Last but not least, the most valuable type of ring would be the Absolute Defense Ring. Technically speaking, this type of ring could also be considered as a Skill Ring, but due to its preciousness, players tend to list it alone. By ‘absolute defense, it meant ‘invincible’ in layman’s terms! It could ignore all sorts of attacks during a short period of time, and would definitely be a great tool for winning any battles!

During one of the most famous Auction in Lin Jie’s previous life, there was once a Level 10 Bronze-Grade Ring put up for auction. This ring only had one other additional effect—increase Life-Steal effects by 30%! This Ring was being bought by the legendary MT Inksnow at the price of $6,000,000 real cash, and she wore it until she attained the highest level!

Equipping the ring, Lin Jie found that his overall Attack Power and Defense were increased. His Life-Steal effects were increased by 5% too!

Other than the Bloody Demonic Ring, the next most attractive reward would be the Wand!

Mana Burning Wand (Dark Gold fragment)

Requires: Level 35

Magic attack: 312-456

Wisdom: 36

Spirit: 25

Willpower: 14

Increase in Magic Attack: 8%

Additional effect: Burning of Mana. Your Magic attacks will cause a 10% Magic Burn Damage upon your target.

Note: The Mana Burning Wand is broken equipment. You need to gather the Mana Usurp Wand and the Mana Extraction Wand to fully exhibit its prowess.

A Level 35 Dark Gold fragment, which was high on its AP! The value of this Mana Burning Wand was on par with the Bloody Demonic Ring. If one viewed the Bloody Demonic Ring as the most powerful equipment for players within Level 30 than the Mana Burning Wand would be equivalent to the most powerful equipment for players within the Level 35! Not only did it have an unimaginable high AP, but it also had the Magic Burn effect—this was the perfect equipment for the violent Fire Mages!

Meanwhile, the Mana Usurp Wand and the Mana Extraction Wand were just Gold grade equipment. It would be easier to get them, and thus if one really gathered all three of them, he or she would be considered unbeatable! Within Lin Jie’s team, the most suitable player who should use this Wand would be Domestic Fat Cattle. However, he already had a Dark Gold Wand fragment to gather already. That wand would be better for Fire Mage’s overall Stats.

After pondering for a while, Lin Jie still decided to keep the wand in his backpack.

The other Gold Dagger was a normal Bandit’s weapon. Though it was not the most powerful, it was still considered a rather good Level 335 Dagger as it could add 30 Agility points and 3% Critical strike chance. Overall, this was also superb equipment to own.

Scout Radner was now dead through and through!

“Well, I really did make it big this time round,” mumbled Lin Jie to himself under his breath. In the beginning, he was still worried about how he should escape if all of the 200 players revived and attacked him at the same time. Now, it seemed that he had over-estimated their guts—they did not have the courage to revive and battle with him.

While it was really impressive that he could intimidate the 200 players all by himself alone, Lin Jie was beginning to feel somewhat cautious. The battle between them was, ultimately, a competition of brains and brawn. If one considered Lin Jie’s AP, he now had the Bone Membrane Armor and the buffs from the Bloody Demonic Ring. Although it would be hard for him to take on all 200 players at the same time, he felt he could still clear a path among the group and escape.

‘There’s no time to dawdle, let’s go!’

Lin Jie made up his mind and was about to summon the Tiger King Bangalash when he felt something unusual. With a slash of Broken Blade, a gust of blade auras shot like ripples from his position!

“Whirlwind!”

-1,524!

“You…”

One Bandit—more accurately, one Dark Blood Bandit—widened his eyes in horror as he was being slashed apart!

This Bandit looked familiar—and it was actually one of the three Dark Blood Bandits Lin Jie met when he was saving Orcc!

As the Bandit fell down to his death, his eyes opened wide in shock, as if his eyeballs could jump out. Till his death, he could not figure out how on earth did Lin Jie manage to discover their presence!

His Mysterious Sword, and thereby his Man-slaughtering Sword Buff, dropped to naught when he was killed by Lin Jie! After he had revived, he had stacked up the buff’s effects finally by killing 10 plus players. Yet he did not expect that he would be killed again—all his efforts for the past month had gone to waste.

Any person would go crazy because of this!

“Kill—kill him!”

Vicious voices were heard from the surroundings. The Lights of Soul flashed around rampantly. All of the 200 players revived themselves!