Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

All of the 13 Sword Marionettes were powerful beings that could deal out at least 1,000 damage each. Their instant explosion immediately emptied the Corporal’s remaining health bar. At that moment, Mohamed’s Demonic Sword was just 0.01cm away from reaching Lin Jie’s throat.

After a few seconds, Mohamed’s head fell down and landed with a loud ‘thud’ on the ground.

—’You have completed your Advanced Job-Change Mission. Please find your mentor and complete the Advanced Job-Change.’

Lin Jie finally heaved a sigh of relief after hearing the system notification ringing in his ears. As the saying went, “Great money and fame come from danger.” This time round, Lin Jie not only managed to get out of the tricky situation he was in with the Corporal, Sea Mage, and the Summoning Stone of Death Knight, but he had also killed all three monsters in one go, and hence gained great rewards!

Take, for example, the skill book that the Death Knight had spawned after being killed. This was a really useful skill known as the Death Grip.

Death Grip: It can be used on any targets within a 30-meter area. If the target’s Strength is judged to be lesser than your Strength, you can grab hold of the target and move them before yourself.

This was a special skill which only players from the Tribe of Darkness could get their hands on, and Guild of Light players would have great difficulty trying to learn it. Yet Lin Jie did not expect the Dark Knight to spawn this skill. As such, he had tried it on Laney and used him as a human shield when the Corporal’s attacks landed on him.

Meanwhile, Laney had spawned a lot of Blood Essence and eight pearls. Other than keeping one of the pearls for Qiu Yuan, Lin Jie gave the rest to the Mermaid Princess. The Mermaid Princess was Poseidon’s precious daughter, and it was almost guaranteed that she would repay Lin Jie with many benefits in the future.

As for Corporal Mohamed, he was Lin Jie’s greatest gain this time round! After all, he was an NPC with various unimaginable encounters—not only had he been to the Primordial ruins, he had also inherited many Heritage items. It was no doubt that Mohamed was filthy rich, and he must have owned a lot of properties.

The rewards for killing such a famed NPC were definitely much greater than killing a Boss! NPCs’ belongings were all precious items and could be taken away by players once they were killed. This was why Lin Jie had put in so much effort to kill him.

To Lin Jie, Mohamed was akin to a walking bank—and a super-scale one at that!

First of all, the City of Light Corporal Armor Set Mohamed donned, together with his ring, weapon, and shield—all 11 items in total—would make up an Epic Set in itself! Furthermore, this whole set had five most powerful effects, including ‘Warrior Skills Level 3’, ‘Hitting a target with your Forward Charge skill will allow your next ordinary skill’s cooldown time to reduce to zero’, etc… One could only imagine how powerful they could become if they donned this set of equipment!

The only trouble was that there were harsh conditions to be met for equipping this Epic Set: only sentinels who held the ‘City of Light Corporal’ rank could equip themselves with it.

‘This whole set of equipment was made with quality ores the likes of Stade Flame Ores. To show off his aristocratic vibes, Mohamed had engraved at least hundreds or more gems on it. What a wastrel he was! Don’t NPCs know that each piece of equipment had a limit as to how many gems can be engraved on it?’ mused Lin Jie as he stored the set away in his backpack carefully.

Meanwhile, he finally decided where he could put it to use. ‘I should reduce the armor into superior liquid metal. After it’s cooled, it can then be used as a substitute for many middle to high-grade materials. Meanwhile, I can use the gems to engrave my equipment. That will save me quite a sum.’

Following that, Lin Jie fished out Mohamed’s wallet from his corpse. Mohamed carried a total of 150 gold coins on himself, and if exchanged into real cash, that would be about $15,000.

Other than that, Lin Jie also found the Corporal’s Mansion Key—anyone who held this key could enter the Corporal’s Mansion freely—and a ‘Bedoya Farmland’ Land Deed. This place was a famous prospering farmland within the game, which was used to nurture medicinal herbs, and it would allow its owner to earn an increase of 20% profit when there was an abundance of crops.

When Lin Jie became the City of Light City Leader, he could then make official use of this Land Deed to grow his own medicinal herbs. This would be a great advantage for the Potioneers at his Sky Provisions Shop.

It was unfortunate that some smaller items, such as the Corporal’s token and other decorative items, had been burnt away by Mohamed while he had used the Sun Swordsmanship. If not, Lin Jie believed those antiques could fetch quite some money if he sold them off.

The only items which Lin Jie could really use for himself were just two items—one of them was a ring which he took from Mohamed’s fingers. This ring did not have many decorative items on it, and the whole ring was made from rubies. If one examined it closely, they might even feel some warm vibes emitting from the ring.

Sun Ring (Dark Gold)

Requires: Level 40

Strength: 50

Wisdom: 50

Fire Damage: 110

Chanting Speed: 10%

Critical Hit Level: 10

Additional effect: Your Sun Swordsmanship Level 1.

Special skill: Inferno Blast. You ignite all units in a zone. If the unit has the status effect of ‘Scorch’, ‘Burn’, and other fire-elemental forms of persistent damage, the total amount of Fire Damage over time is immediately dealt to the unit at once. Meanwhile, your skills’ cooldown time will be refreshed.

‘What a violent ring!’ Lin Jie was shocked—it was no wonder this ring was of the Dark Gold grade! Other than adding 50 Stats points to two of its wearer’s Stats, it could cause as high as 110 Fire Damage.

Now, what did this mean exactly?

According to the Mages’ attack calculation formula, 100 Wisdom points would roughly cause 100 points of Mana Attacks. For Fire Mages, 110 Fire Damage would mean they gained an additional 110 Mana Attack power. From this analysis, it could be confirmed that this ring would definitely be a most sought-after item by all Fire Mages!

Lin Jie thought for a while and called up his Friends Column. He tapped on his conversation with Domestic Fat Cattle.

“Who’s this? For pretty girls who want Fat Cattle Brother to help you level up, press ‘1’ and send a selfie photo over. This offer is strictly not extended to guys! I will only help anyone to level up for one hour every day, so do make your appointment asap!”

This was… an automated reply?

Lin Jie asked around and then finally got the answer that Fat Cattle had been devoting one hour of his gaming time every day to specially help female players to level up. He would bring four to five girls to a Level 10-20 low-grade dungeon, and he clearly was enjoying himself immensely with this routine. One of the female players with the name ‘Innocent Soft Girl’ had already been leveling up together with him for consecutively three days in a row, and it seemed like things between them would get real.

Lin Jie created a Pictorial of the Sun Ring and sent it over to Fat Cattle. In less than one second, his communication device rang.

“Har, hahaha… Leader Wolf, what instructions do you have for me? I was having a stomachache just now and was in the toilet, so I didn’t reply to you straightaway. Please forgive me, hehe.” Domestic Fat Cattle laughed in embarrassment.

However, Lin Jie could hear a female voice in the background saying coyly, “What’s the matter, Brother Fat Cattle? Let me help you wipe off your sweat.”

Lin Jie replied in a knowing tone, “You’re in the toilet? Why do I hear a girl’s voice then? Surely, the toilet at your house can’t be one that allows both guys and girls to use at the same time? Wow, what a high-class toilet, do let me experience it next time.”

“Cough, cough, if you ever want to come over, the girls… at my toilet will definitely be very happy,” Fat Cattle blatantly sucked up to Lin Jie, since the situation had come to be like this.

“Oh, forget it. You, take heed to level up to Level 40 before the third main plot dungeons launch, and I shall give you this ring,” Lin Jie couldn’t stand how thick-skinned this guy was, and went straight to the topic. After listing out his conditions, he added another comment, “Don’t waste all your time on helping girls! Or else, I will give this ring to Night instead.”

“Oh wth, Leader, you actually want to give such a powerful Fire Mage Ring to Night, an Ice Mage? Isn’t it akin to throwing a diamond into the toilet bowl? Nooo! You just wait and see, I am going to level up now. What’s so good about girls? The most important thing for any player is upgrading their skills and achieving their ambitions!” ranted Fat Cattle over the call, and he hung up decisively.

After all, even a homebody had dreams of becoming a hero. Lin Jie was not averse to the idea of Fat Cattle helping girls to level up, or rather, hanging out with girls when he grew tired of leveling up himself, but it seemed really too much for Fat Cattle to do so on a daily basis. Besides, Lin Jie had heard of this ‘Innocent Soft Girl’ before in his previous life. She was a scheming b*tch through and through, who just wanted to make use of guys to level up and get better equipment. There was no point for Fat Cattle to develop a relationship with this sort of girl, and thus Lin Jie was glad to break them up as early as possible.

After he finished allocating the ring, Lin Jie let out a deep breath as he fixed his vision on the last item—the Sun Demonic Sword! This gigantic sword was the accumulation of the best of the Sun Swordsmanship’s skills. It was not an equipment per se, but it also had fixed attributes and was much more powerful than ordinary equipment. However, there was a huge downside to this item—as long as this sword was ruined, the Sun Swordsmanship skill that its owner had trained up painstakingly would disappear too.

Sun Demonic Sword (Sub-Legendary Fragment)

Requires: Level 0

Attack: 0 (It will increase 100 AP along with each level of your Sun Swordsmanship)

Additional effect: Sun Blade Aura. You can emit Sun Blade Auras when you use the Sun Demonic Sword in battle, and cause undifferentiated attacks to all targets within a 10 meters area.

Additional effect: You can learn the Sun Swordsmanship.

Note: This is an inherited Heritage item from the Sun Sword Saint.

‘Now, what should I do with this item? Both Baili and Netherblue could inherit the Sun Swordsmanship. However, the downside of this sword was too obvious. If it was ruined, then the Sun Swordsmanship skill that its owner had trained up for over all that time will be gone. That will be such a drastic effect for the player.’

Lin Jie’s brows screwed up. This weapon could definitely increase his teammates’ abilities in a short time—after all, this particular Sun Demonic Sword not only would allow its owner to learn the full set of the Sun Swordsmanship, but it had also inherited all the levels which the Corporal had trained up painstakingly before! Mohamed’s Sun Swordsmanship had stopped at Level 7, and once players learned it, they could inherit half of his EXP. This would increase their Proficiency in the Sun Swordsmanship to 50% of Level 3, in other words.

Yet if anyone chose to use this item, it would mean throwing most of their abilities and time into a safe, which was not that secure in actual fact. If the Sun Demonic Sword was ruined, all the efforts they had invested into training up would be gone, and their abilities would take a dip.

However, this item seemed too valuable to put it up for auction at the Auction House.

‘Eighteen Massacres…’ Lin Jie had a flash of inspiration, and finally found the best person for this item! He immediately dialed to Eighteen Massacres and made him come over to the Hellfire Plains.

After one hour, Eighteen Massacres finally appeared in front of Lin Jie, donning an armor which had its Durability reduced to 0. He had fought past all the Hell Boars surrounding the map with much difficulty to reach Lin Jie’s position, and as such, he was all panting as he threw out an annoyed comment. “Lone Wolf, can’t you just meet me in the City if you want to see me? Are you toying with me by making me come all the way to this map?”

“It’s all for the sake of secrecy,” said Lin Jie in a solemn voice. His serious expression influenced Eighteen Massacres, who straightened up to look at Lin Jie.

“Now, here’s the best chance for you to increase your abilities. Have you completed your atonement missions? Since the information you gave me was true, I should keep my word too.”

Eighteen Massacres stared at Lin Jie blankly. Given Lone Wolf’s famous unscrupulous personality, he thought that he would have to provide some information, which he had to risk his life for, before he could get Lone Wolf’s complete trust. Yet, it was actually just that simple?

‘No matter what, I doubt if he will give me anything really good?’

“This is the Dark Source Water, drink it first,” Lin Jie handed the Dark Source Water to Eighteen Massacres. He flipped his palms and revealed the Sun Demonic Sword in his other hand. Its scorching vibes made Eighteen Massacres back off a few steps.

Eighteen Massacres stared in shock at the sword in Lin Jie’s hands, and exclaimed, “This is… a Skill Core? It must have come from a Mystic Skill Book of at least Dark Gold or above. This is an extraordinary item produced with meticulous leveling up attempts by players or NPCs who inherited Heritage skills. Once anyone gets it, not only will the person get the full set of skills, they can even gain half of the previous owner’s Proficiency in that skill straightaway. You are actually giving this item to me?”

Lin Jie’s eyes gleamed. Eighteen Massacres did know quite a bit of stuff about the game. What’s that term—’Skill Core’? It seemed like the person who had passed them all those information addressed items the likes of the Sun Demonic Sword in that manner.

One thing that Lin Jie was sure about was that Eighteen Massacres did not seem to know the downside of the Sun Demonic Sword. That was, once this sword was ruined, the skill that its owner had would disappear.

“Correct. I killed the City of Light Corporal and extracted his Sun Swordsmanship Skill Core, which he inherited from the Primordial ruins for you. You can learn it now,” said Lin Jie in a nonchalant tone. He stood in front of Eighteen Massacres. “Once I decide to cooperate with anyone, I will put my complete trust in them. I hope you understand what I mean.”

Eighteen Massacres looked at Lin Jie, and after a few seconds, he finally lowered his head in bitterness.

“No wonder The Heavenly Shield always follows your instructions and remained loyal to you, no matter how we tried to bribe him. Baili Xuanyuan had attempted numerous times to make your team betray you, but he could never succeed. Lone Wolf, I will disclose to you honestly—the previous information I gave you was not complete. You need to be aware of something right away: the Twilight Transmigration Guild from the City of Twilight has already sent their men over to tackle you. You better be on your guard.”

Lin Jie was slightly alarmed. “Twilight Transmigration? So, I see. Never mind, you start learning the skill first. I will settle this issue by myself. After you’ve learned this skill, your abilities will increase greatly. Do make full use of your time to train up your skills, and get to the core of the Three Alliances. Remember, we are still cooperating. I will go off first then.”

“Cooperating…” Eighteen Massacres looked and stared thoughtfully at Lin Jie’s retreating figure.