Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 165 - A Ditch

Young Master Han, Sword Demon, and Brother Assist turned around to stare at Gu Fei. Behind him, Royal God Call and War Without Wounds were listlessly walking over as well.

“Can you really do this without hesitation?” Brother Assist asked Gu Fei, saying, “You’re in the same guild as them, after all.”

“He he!” Gu Fei chuckled, “Why don’t you ask Young Master how he died.”

Young Master Han rolled his eyes, visibly annoyed.

“But it’s a group of ladies, and each of them is as pretty as a flower!” Brother Assist said instead.

Gu Fei coughed, “Young Master doesn’t lose to them in that aspect, either.”

Brother Assist and Sword Demon froze in place before they swept their eyes over to Young Master Han and Gu Fei, heading to the side to snigger.

Young Master Han’s fists were tightly clenched, but Gu Fei quickly stopped anything from happening by widening his steps and waving the sword in his hand, “Let’s go! Let’s go!” With that, he used his fast movement speed to temporarily keep his distance from Young Master Han.

Gu Fei was the first to climb up the peak, looking far across the map. Only twenty-six players were participating in this match so the PvP arena’s size was not large, allowing Gu Fei to quickly discover the ladies’ figures. The other five men reached the peak shortly after, gazing over to the ladies’ direction as well. The ladies were gathered together and were not making a move. It was very different from their usual action of running all over the place without any specific direction.

“What’s the matter with them? Are they not coming over? What are they doing all gathered together?” Brother Assist asked.

“Chatting!” Gu Fei replied with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

“How do you know that?” Brother Assist asked.

“My message notification is about to make me deaf...” Gu Fei sighed in frustration. He had yet to open the guild channel, but he was already busy just by replying to all the ladies’ private messages. Twenty enemies were what this match pitted against Young Master’s Elite, yet Gu Fei had to pretty much handle the entire Amethyst Rebirth’s inquisitiveness by himself. Their gossiping nature was as mighty as Gu Fei’s fighting prowess. Furthermore, he had to deal with fifty of such foes – truly a crazy task.

Meanwhile, War Without Wounds seemed to have aged by ten years and Royal God Call repeatedly muttered to himself, “Grape... My Grape....”

Gu Fei could barely handle all the messages being sent to him, but the two men’s brokenhearted expression made him want to comfort them: “Hey, you two. Don’t feel so down. They are only a little curious about me, that’s all.”

“Every relationship begins with a little bit of curiosity,” War Without Wounds said with a heavy heart.

“And their curiosity toward you is definitely not just a little bit,” Royal God Call quipped.

“We’re finished...” War Without Wounds and Royal God Call looked at each other, a miserable smile forming on their faces.

Gu Fei was speechless....

“Are we still fighting this match or what?!” Young Master Han bellowed.

“Let’s fight, let’s fight! Let us properly bring our chapter to a close with this break up,” Royal God Call stroked his bow.

War Without Wounds patted his back, “This world is truly lonely. It’s a good thing you and me are brothers-in-arms.”

Royal God Call paused for a moment before saying, “I think you should stop treating me as such! Honestly speaking, we don’t share a common language, and there are at least three or four generation gaps between us. It isn’t your fault, though. Just you being ancient—”

When War Without Wounds grabbed and tossed Royal God Call down the hilltop, the other three men sighed in relief, “The world is finally quiet again.”

“Get down here! I’ll have a deathmatch with you!” Royal God Call who had been tossed down the hillside was now covered in dirt. Did people not say that friends were scarier than enemies? No one would be guarded against a friend patting his or her back. If even Gu Fei suffered from War Without Wounds’ ways, Royal God Call would naturally not be an exception.

That was how the two started cursing at each other, with one up the hill and the other by the foot of it. All the while, Gu Fei was crazily sending out messages. Young Master Han, Brother Assist, and Sword Demon exchanged looks and sighed, “Seems like it is still up to us, three.”

“Talk to them some more; I guess that can be considered as you diverting their attention,” Young Master Han instructed Gu Fei as the three began to descend from the hill and head toward the ladies’ spawn point.

“Hey! Wait for me!” Gu Fei chased after them as he kept replying to the ladies’ messages. War Without Wounds also went down the hilltop, cursing Royal God Call all the way. In Young Master Han and the other two’s eyes, the three men were no more than walking sacks of meat.

“We’ll talk more after this match!” Gu Fei sent this reply a hundred times first before the ladies finally stopped sending him private messages. He heaved a huge sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off his forehead, “It’s finally over.”

Royal God Call and War Without Wounds were still arguing with each other as they lamented their poor fortune. One moment they were bickering, the next moment they were commiserating with each other. Gu Fei finally regained his sanity after finishing his task of replying to all the ladies’ messages. He could not stand to hear what the two were telling each other, so he hurriedly asked on the mercenary channel for the whereabouts of Young Master Han and the other two who had gone ahead first, swiftly making his way toward them.

The ladies are done with their chitchats, so it’s probably time for them to move out. With the reckless and wild manner in which they advance, AOE spells are essentially useless in dealing with them... It’s better to head over there and slay them one by one. Svelte Dancer will most definitely jump out and block me. It’s hard to tell what might happen if that woman takes me on while the rest of the ladies sneak up on me from the sidelines, so I better seize the initiative and finish off Svelte Dancer. As Gu Fei was pondering on what he should do, he saw Brother Assist squatting in a ditch straight ahead. From the way he looked about from time to time, Gu Fei judged that Brother Assist had the potential to join the Forever in Flowers Guild. Gu Fei called out to him, “Brother Assist!”

Brother Assist turned his head back and smiled, “You finished?”

Feeling somewhat awkward to answer his inquiry, Gu Fei simply jumped into the ditch and asked his own question, “What are you doing here? Where are Sword Demon and Young Master Han?”

“They found somewhere else to stage an ambush,” Brother Assist answered.

“Where?” Gu Fei peeked from the ditch and stealthily looked around.

Brother Assist poked his head out as well and pointed at a nearby mound with his hand, “Young Master’s there! I don’t know where Sword Demon went.”

“How are we fighting them?” Gu Fei asked.

“Their movement is a mess, so we’ll take care of them one by one when they fall behind!” Brother Assist.

Gu Fei smiled as he said, “That’s the way they are.”

“Ah! Someone’s coming!” Brother Assist’s eyes sharpened as he whispered this, quickly pulling Gu Fei down to hide once more.

However, someone among the ladies had pretty good eyesight and she exclaimed, “Ah! There are two heads over by that ditch!”

Gu Fei and Brother Assist exchanged looks. “How did she notice us from over there?!” Gu Fei asked, shocked.

“Let’s just move to another spot quickly. The other ladies will probably be coming here very soon!” Brother Assist suggested.

“But it’s good that they are coming over here!” Gu Fei pulled out his sword.

“Oh...” Brother Assist nodded his head in realization. Taking out his scepter, he was about to bless Gu Fei when he paused and asked, “Which of your stats should I boost?”

“Speed!” Gu Fei automatically replied.

“I don’t have that yet,” Brother Assist answered.

“Then what do you have?”

“Health, Strength, Resilience, Intelligence, and Vitality.”

What’s Resilience for?” Gu Fei asked. The term was not part of the six common stats found on a character.

“It increases physical defense.”

“And Vitality? Does it boost the Spirit stat?”

“No, that boosts magic defense.”

“Oh, can’t you just give me everything?” Gu Fei asked. He had received a Priest’s Heal before, but he had never gotten a Knight’s Blessing yet.

“Nope,” Brother Assist answered.

“I guess you can just add—f*ck! Dodge quickly!” Gu Fei did not get to finish his words as he felt something flash by above his head, signifying that a Mage had just thrown a spell on them.

Gu Fei and Brother Assist would have to climb out of the ditch if they wanted to escape it, yet there was insufficient time to do so right now, so they crouched to the left and right respectively. Gu Fei was confident in his speed, but Brother Assist’s speed worried him. While running onward, he looked backward. Just as he had expected, Brother Assist failed to escape the AOE of the opposing Mage’s Descending Wheel of Flames. Thankfully, it was just a normal flame wheel, so Brother Assist did not get insta-killed.

Gu Fei sighed in relief. It was then that the temperature around him began to rise. A boom rang out as he got struck by a flame wheel as well. Feeling depressed, he straightened himself and asked aloud, “Who threw that?! Could you throw it a little more accurately?!”

With his understanding of the ladies, he believed that this was someone throwing a spell off target, which resulted in it accidentally landing on Gu Fei’s head.

Indeed, a blushing Ice Glaze beyond the ditch cried out, “Ah! I’m so sorry....”

“Xiao Bing? I remember that your accuracy isn’t this bad!” Gu Fei said as he clambered out of the ditch.

Four ladies stood waiting outside the ditch: two Mages, one Priest, and one Warrior. Mages, Priests, and Warriors with normal stat point distribution had similar speed, so these four players ended up roaming the PvP arena together. This was how the Amethyst Rebirth’s members divided themselves into groups and how Gu Fei ended up being paired with Svelte Dancer most of the time when PvPing. After all, nobody else could match their speed in Amethyst Rebirth.

“Uhmm...” Gu Fei did not know to say to them. Usually, he would not need to talk and would just sweep his sword to attack. Since he knew these people, he felt the need to explain himself.

Gu Fei quickly realized that the worry Brother Assist had previously raised was sound; it was indeed very difficult for him to actually attack these ladies. Using Young Master Han as an example was simply inapt. Young Master Han truly deserved a good thrashing, so not a sliver of hesitation had been present when Gu Fei had beaten him up. As for these ladies, Gu Fei needed to mentally prepare himself before he could move against them.

Unexpectedly, the ladies reacted faster than Gu Fei. The Warrior suddenly came back to her senses as she shouted, “Right! Miles is the enemy right now, so quickly attack him!”

“Oh, yeah!” The rest of the ladies also woke up from their daze, and the Mages immediately chanted, “Descending Wheel of Flames! Descend!”

Gu Fei did not move from his spot. The ladies’ spell-casting was too wild, so he was afraid that he would end up getting hit by their flame wheels if he moved about carelessly. He figured that it was safer to wait until the flame wheels had appeared before moving.

Fire formed in the air. Lifting his head, Gu Fei saw that neither of the flame wheels had missed their mark and dutifully dodged to the side as he raised the sword in his hand, “Fireball! Shoot!”