Chapter 24: The Super Mutant Pet!

The Alliance’s military warehouse was bombed by the Horde’s shapeshifting trolls, reducing nearly half the stockpile to ashes. Rumor had it that a player had infiltrated the chaos and made off with some of the loot. By the next day, the incident had already died down. The traitor known as “Apathy” had been killed by the players “Healthier Kunkun” and “Winning by Gambling,” but even they failed to recover the treasures lost in the raid.

Many players combed the main city in search of the missing items, but nobody could find where the treasures were hidden. Even “Apathy,” after creating a new rogue character, failed to locate them—how could anyone else hope to succeed?

But time quickly dimmed the memory of the event, and soon the Blood Dragon’s rampage flared up again. Greenvale, which had been drawing more and more players, reverted once more to a forbidden zone.

“Damn, the Blood Dragon’s main hand is an orange axe—one hit and you’re dead!” Cloth-wearing classes simply couldn’t withstand the onslaught. One skill and a single normal attack from the Blood Dragon meant instant death. Many players, after being killed, took to the forums to vent their frustration.

“I finally saw Brother Dragon! Luckily, I switched into basic white gear, so dying didn’t matter!” A self-proclaimed fan of the Blood Dragon seemed unfazed by death. He’d donned plain white equipment before entering Greenvale, so at worst he’d only drop that gear—a loss so negligible that even the Blood Dragon wouldn’t bother picking it up.

“Frustrating, I don’t dare walk the main roads anymore. I tried to sneak around, bumped right into the Blood Dragon, and got one-shotted.” One rogue was particularly disgruntled. Stealth usually made him hard to detect, but he never expected to run straight into the Blood Dragon on the main path—an unlucky and swift end.

...

The Godwar Guild had claimed the wind serpent territory in Greenvale as their exclusive grinding grounds. Chenfeng lay in wait outside, observing their personnel distribution and formulating an ambush plan. Randomly killing lone players held no thrill for him; only striking at a guild could truly excite his spirit.

Standard grinding parties operated with tanks pulling mobs, ranged damage dealers, and priests casting heals. For convenience, healers usually clustered together, making it easier to respond to multi-directional pulls and to rescue each other in emergencies. Such an arrangement was perfect for Chenfeng.

Charge!

Whirlwind Slash!

Sweeping Strike!

Chenfeng concealed himself, found a lone mob to kill and build up rage, then leaped out the moment it died. He charged right at the healers, unleashing a Whirlwind Slash—both two-handed weapons dealing devastating dual damage. The cloth-armored priests dropped instantly. The paladins, armored as they were, could withstand a bit more, but fell just as quickly to a single Sweeping Strike.

Boomerang Axe!

With the healers gone, the tanks could be ignored. Chenfeng hurled his twin axes toward the mages, hunters, tamers, and shamans, reaping a swath of casualties as the axes carved through the back ranks and then returned, felling another group. With axes retrieved, Chenfeng made his escape. With their healing gone and much of their damage output dead, the twenty tanks, left pulling hordes of wind serpents, faced a grim fate. Because of the distance, Chenfeng had only enough time while the axes were flying to loot the healers’ drops, leaving the ranged classes’ items behind.

As expected, Godwar Guild had stationed a second party nearby, lying in wait for Chenfeng to appear. No sooner had he made his getaway than a team of rogues and warriors gave chase.

20-meter Stealth Vanish!

In the woods, Chenfeng quickly melted into the surroundings. But Godwar Guild had prepared for his troublesome 20-meter vanish—they stood still, scanning the area for any sign of movement. Chenfeng was hidden, but he hadn’t left. Should the guild make any move, he’d slip away in the ensuing confusion. After all, Chenfeng’s stealth skill allowed him to move while hidden, much like a rogue.

“Military district players!” Chenfeng realized that it was the military players who’d revealed the trick to countering 20-meter vanish. But he had a countermeasure: he placed a spear in the grass opposite his real position, using his metal manipulation talent to jostle it and create a diversion. The rustling was noticed.

“In the grass!” someone shouted, and the players rushed to investigate. As soon as they moved, Chenfeng darted away.

After three nights, Chenfeng had reached level 20. Now, he could have three pets, with one active in battle. Not wasting any time, he took Xiaoxue and the others to the Gobi Wastelands to hunt giant eagles.

Giant Eagle: flying pet. Attack aptitude: 1187, defense: 1023, stamina: 3750, mana: 1880, speed: 1440. Skills: Dodge, Lightning Weakness, Earth Weakness, Agility.

Giant eagles were considered low-tier pets, with poor stats and lackluster skills, offering little in terms of offensive power. Their only advantage was the variety of skills they could possess—Lightning Weakness and Earth Weakness were guaranteed, while Dodge and Agility were random. Chenfeng spent the entire afternoon capturing three four-skill giant eagles.

“Chenfeng, why bother catching these trash eagles? You’d be better off with rhinos, leopards, or tigers—they hit harder and help you level faster,” Lin Shanshan complained, baffled by his choices.

“You’ll see soon enough,” Chenfeng replied, fully aware that the eagles were weak—until they mutated. Back in the day, many players caught giant eagles precisely because of their abundant skills and the chance of producing pets with powerful area spells after mutation.

Everyone watched as Chenfeng took out three bottles of pale blue liquid and fed them to the eagles. Immediately, the three birds were enveloped in light and began to mutate.

Thunderbird: spell pet. Attack: 1278, defense: 1165, stamina: 4023, mana: 2219, speed: 1533. Skills: Evasion, Lightning Weakness, Earth Weakness, Chain Lightning.

Thunderbird: spell pet. Attack: 1211, defense: 1065, stamina: 3523, mana: 2019, speed: 1433. Skills: Evasion, Lightning Weakness, Earth Weakness.

Thunderbird: spell pet. Attack: 1296, defense: 1122, stamina: 4323, mana: 2445, speed: 1555. Skills: Evasion, Lightning Weakness, Earth Weakness, Agility, Chain Lightning, Lightning Spell Absorption.

A mutated pet’s stats could increase by 10% to 30%, with attack and defense seeing smaller jumps. Of the three Thunderbirds, one was superb, another decent with the group spell Chain Lightning, and the last retained only the original three skills and lacked Agility—Chenfeng promptly released it.

“Who wants this four-skill one? Once we’re back in the city, you can have Chain Lightning certified by the pet trainer. That way, you can teach it other skills without losing this one.” Chenfeng only kept the exceptional ones—if he got another top-tier pet, he’d keep it; otherwise, he’d pass them out to others. He had a hundred mutation potions ready and aimed to keep rolling for even better results, hoping for a rare second mutation.

“Me! Me!” Lin Shanshan was thrilled at the prospect of a pet with a group spell and quickly claimed it.

Chenfeng continued hunting, giving the decent ones to his friends and keeping only the best for himself. Once he’d assembled three top-tier Thunderbirds, the others watched as he fed them more mutation potions.

System: Unfortunately, your “Thunderbird No. 1” has died during mutation.

System: Unfortunately, your “Thunderbird No. 2” has died during mutation.

System: Congratulations! Your “Thunderbird No. 3” has mutated into a “Sandstorm Birdman.”

The Sandstorm Birdman didn’t resemble a bird so much as a dwarfish avian humanoid, with a pair of wings on its back and a dagger in hand for melee attacks. Its entire body was crimson.

Sandstorm Birdman: spell pet. Attack: 1400, defense: 1250, stamina: 4850, mana: 2880, speed: 1655. Skills: Evasion, Lightning Weakness, Earth Weakness, Agility, Sandstorm, Lightning Spell Absorption, Earth Spell Absorption.

“Haha, seven skills—this is the one!” Chenfeng hadn’t expected to get a Sandstorm Birdman in a single mutation; the odds were incredibly slim, and to have all the skills was even rarer.

Sandstorm: earth spell. Pulverizes soil and sweeps it up in a storm, dealing area spell damage based on spell power. Cooldown: 2 seconds. Mana cost: 100.

“I’ll register the spells first, then teach the Sandstorm Birdman new skills.” As his first pet, it deserved nothing but the best. Recently, Chenfeng had earned a tidy sum selling gear and auctioning skill books, so he had amassed quite a few rare high-level pet skill books in his warehouse.

The pet trainer could help your pet permanently remember its own spell skills, so you could add more skills without risking the loss of the original ones. You’d also gain an extra skill slot, allowing Chenfeng to swap out all seven of the Sandstorm Birdman’s mediocre passives.

Teaching skills to pets was an art—passive skills could be forgotten when overwritten, and adding a new one might knock out an old one. Chenfeng was after spell attack skills, and while one book might replace another, he had some experience from a previous session under the guidance of an analyst.

Sandstorm Birdman: spell pet. Attack: 1400, defense: 1250, stamina: 4850, mana: 2880, speed: 1655. Skills: Advanced Arcane Bombardment, Advanced Arcane Heart, Advanced Spell Diffusion, Advanced Spell Critical, Advanced Life Recovery, Advanced Divine Protection, Advanced Sensing. Certified spell: Sandstorm.

Chenfeng chose all advanced passive skills—full red skills, far superior to the blue lower-tier ones. Advanced skills were twice as effective as their basic counterparts. With such a formidable pet, Chenfeng spared no expense. Few players had reached level 20, so high-level spell skills were rarely in demand; if they were, Chenfeng could never have collected them so quickly. By now, high-level pet skill books had disappeared from the auction house, as they only dropped from bosses and were exceedingly rare.

Advanced Arcane Bombardment gave spells a 30% chance to stun the enemy for two seconds (the stun ended if the target took damage), serving as a control skill. Advanced Arcane Heart increased spell damage by 40%. Advanced Spell Diffusion expanded the area of effect by 50%. Advanced Spell Critical raised spell crit rate by 10%. Advanced Life Recovery restored 1% of maximum health per second. Advanced Divine Protection gave a 30% chance on death to convert incoming damage into health. Advanced Sensing allowed detection of stealthed enemies.

At this point, no one else possessed a mutant pet with so many skills; even future pro teams would struggle to create one rivaling the Sandstorm Birdman. Mutation potions were too scarce, and high-level pet skills hard to come by. Since the game’s launch, Chenfeng had quietly managed to gather this much—others could hardly hope for as much.

Now, all that remained was to level up his new pet and, in time, unleash the Sandstorm Birdman’s devastating area attacks.