004 Monster-Luring Contest!

“Morning Breeze, regroup at Clearwind Plains!” Morning Breeze had just taken down an elite level 8 giant tortoise when he received a message from Cheng Xue, calling him over to regroup and level up together.

Rage: Aura skill. Increases all party members’ physical and spell critical hit chance by 5% within a 50-meter radius, and grants you an additional 2% physical critical chance. (Prerequisite: Warrior)

It finally dropped! Morning Breeze picked up a crimson skill book and wiped away a tear of joy. This warrior aura skill was hailed as a national treasure—even two years after joining the game, he never managed to acquire it. At that time, it was rumored that only twenty warriors worldwide possessed this aura.

The game had been live for four days now. Morning Breeze had put his physical training on hold, determined to gain an early advantage in these initial stages and prepare for his future tank specialization. All the major team pros and studio players were pulling all-nighters, grinding quests and levels to get a head start. Every new game designated by the Olympic Games Association was a nightmare for pros and studio players; there were no holidays, only endless overnight sessions.

Morning Breeze, too, had been up for several nights in a row, but he wasn’t power-leveling to class change—instead, he hunted elite monsters nonstop, collecting every skill book he could possibly learn now and after advancing. Now, with the rare “Rage” aura in hand, he had finally graduated from skill farming. In this game, skill books had no level restrictions but dropped at abysmally low rates, especially control and ultimate skills. If not for the fact that elite monsters near the main city had a higher drop rate during the first week, he wouldn’t have pushed so hard.

Name: Duan Morning Breeze
Level: 8
Race: Elf
Class: Warrior
Specialization: None
Strength: 138
Constitution: 102
Intelligence: 28
Agility: 33
Spirit: 27
Right-Hand Damage: 93–120
Left-Hand Damage: 81–97 (unless using specific offhand skills, left hand cannot use skills and only deals 50% normal damage)
HP: 728/728
Rage: 0 (max 100; gain Rage by using skills or taking hits, spent on certain abilities)
Defense: 89
Physical Crit: 8.45% (Rage Aura provides 7% physical crit)

Over the past four days, Morning Breeze had slain a fair number of elite monsters, but each elite only granted the experience of maybe twenty normal mobs. The time spent searching, waiting for respawns, and actually fighting them far outweighed the XP gains. His level had fallen behind as a result. If skill books weren’t so hard to come by later, he never would have passed up this power-leveling window. Now it was too late for most people to hunt elites for skill books—nearly all the elites near the main city had been killed a dozen times, and drop rates had plummeted. Skill book prices were soaring. If Cheng Xue and the others saw the over two thousand skill books in Morning Breeze’s warehouse, they’d be speechless with shock.

When Morning Breeze arrived at Clearwind Plains, the others were already gone. After asking around, he learned that the petite campus beauty Lin Shanshan had called over a level 11 shield warrior to help tank mobs and had simply left with the group. Normally, Morning Breeze would have been glad for the chance to hunt more elites and maybe score another national-level skill book, but since he was already here, he decided to see what this level 11 shield warrior was capable of.

This party was stacked: the two campus beauties, Lin Shanshan and Yu Jing, both healers, were usually reluctant to play with Morning Breeze. Cheng Xue was a mage, and the last member was Miyazaki Kaoru, a music and arts school F-cup bombshell and rogue, whose light armor barely contained her assets, revealing a tantalizing cleavage. Usually, one healer was enough for leveling parties; here, there were two, and neither had learned shadow spells yet, so their kill speed was poor. Everyone was level 8.

When Morning Breeze finally caught up to them, the level 11 shield warrior was tanking three level 12 Plain Tigers. The two healers were spamming “Quick Heal,” the mage was unleashing Blizzard, and the rogue was darting around the edges for finishing blows.

“Is the Night Guild’s tank really this bad? I usually pull at least five mobs at a time!” Morning Breeze knew this was the biggest guild in University City—funded by several rich and influential students, they’d hired studios and were growing rapidly, even rumored to be aiming for the pro league. It was pathetic that, with two healers, this guy only dared pull three mobs one level above himself. Morning Breeze managed five with the same support, even when the healers weren’t cooperating.

“Oh, the ‘expert’ is here? How many mobs do you dare pull this time?” Lin Shanshan strutted up to Morning Breeze after the fight, deliberately puffing out her chest. She’d clearly brought this warrior to make him look bad. Usually, Morning Breeze would pull five mobs a level higher, netting nearly as much XP as three mobs four levels higher. Lin Shanshan, however, was focused on mob level, not XP.

The Night Guild tank, called Night#IronBull, had planned to sit and eat bread to recover HP, but seeing Lin Shanshan speak to Morning Breeze, he wandered over, amused. “So this level 8 guy is your tank? No wonder you’re not leveling.”

“How about you tank for us instead?” Lin Shanshan offered.

It was obvious she was trying to edge Morning Breeze out. Normally, he wouldn’t care to be in such a party, but since Cheng Xue was here, he’d come. Now he was being openly replaced—this was a slap in the face.

“Sure, I can tank plenty and keep it stable. I’ll get you all to level 10 fast and help with your class change quests,” IronBull said eagerly. Though his guild was pushing for level 15 and dungeons, leveling with four gorgeous women was well worth a scolding from his leader.

Class-changed shield warriors had many more tanking skills, especially defensive stances that increased armor and damage reduction. Even a non-class-changed level 10 warrior was no match for a classed shield warrior, let alone level 8 Morning Breeze. Lin Shanshan had brought this tank specifically to humiliate him.

Arrogant! That was how the Cobra Organization had always described Morning Breeze’s temperament. Whether in training or on missions, he always had to be the best—no one ever stepped on him. When the organization had him hone his abilities in games, they assigned him as a berserker, sending him on PK missions to unleash his wildest side. Now, he had no interest in tanking, but to be stepped on like this? Unacceptable.

“You say you can tank more mobs, and more steadily? Then let’s see who can tank more, and more reliably!” Even if he was going to leave, Morning Breeze would do so on his own terms—not because someone forced him out. He glanced over IronBull’s gear: all low-level black iron, just like his own—not much of a difference. From what he’d seen earlier, IronBull didn’t have many shield warrior skills.

“Oh? A level 8 warrior wants to show off in front of the ladies? Fine, pick your mob,” IronBull sneered. He relished the thought of showing up Morning Breeze in front of these beauties. Even with his class advantage, Lin Shanshan clearly wanted Morning Breeze to lose face.

“The same Plain Tigers you just pulled—level 12,” Morning Breeze replied, equipping his shield and one-handed sword. He was eager to see Lin Shanshan’s and Yu Jing’s reactions when he outperformed their chosen tank.

“All right then. IronBull just tanked three level 12 Plain Tigers. If you can hold those, we’ll add more. But don’t blame us if you die,” Lin Shanshan said, already anticipating a show. She kicked IronBull from the party and added Morning Breeze.

Cheng Xue looked worried. “Shanshan, Morning Breeze is only level 7 and hasn’t class-changed. Isn’t this a bit much—?”

“Xue, don’t worry. He said it himself. A man should know his limits,” Lin Shanshan cut her off, eager to see Morning Breeze embarrass himself.

A level 8 warrior versus level 12 Plain Tigers! IronBull started recording the fight—he planned to post the video on the guild’s forums and let everyone see Morning Breeze fail in front of the beauties.

Instead of charging in, Morning Breeze calmly approached a Plain Tiger and struck once, then immediately dashed to another tiger, slashing and then jumping away to avoid its attack. After drawing two tigers, he backed off, switched to a throwing spear, and hurled it with Heroic Throw, dealing 47 damage to a third tiger—successfully pulling all three.

—38
—38
—38

As the three Plain Tigers closed in, Morning Breeze stomped the ground with a Thunder Strike, dealing area damage and paralyzing the tigers, reducing their attack and movement speed by 30%.

Cleave!

—122
—94
—92

He blocked the tigers’ attacks with his shield, then brought his sword down in a sweeping arc from right shoulder to left hip. This was the warrior’s Cleave skill, striking 1 to 5 targets in front—130% damage to the main target, 80% to others. The key was that only monsters actually hit by the blade took damage, and the skill’s effectiveness depended on execution. With nearly two years of warrior experience, Morning Breeze’s skill completion rate was above 90%; IronBull’s was maybe 60–80% at best—he could never maximize Cleave’s power.

—48 (blocked 21 damage)
Parry
Parry!

Plain Tigers attacked every 2.3 seconds. By staggering their attack timers as he pulled, Morning Breeze could use his shield to block each attack separately. The first hit was only partially blocked, but the next two were fully parried—zero damage.

Warriors gained Rage quickly when taking hits, even when parrying. With this, Morning Breeze kept up a steady rotation of Cleave and Heroic Strike, maintaining solid threat.

Cheng Xue began casting Blizzard for AoE damage, Miyazaki Kaoru darted behind the mobs for quick attacks, and Lin Shanshan, after a slight hesitation, cast heals on Morning Breeze—but with noticeable delays, clearly trying to restrict his healing. Yet neither she nor Yu Jing expected Morning Breeze’s blocking and parrying to be so flawless—he took very little damage.

“A real expert…” The women had no idea just how skilled Morning Breeze was; they assumed he just had good gear. But IronBull, an experienced tank, saw the truth: an unclassed level 8 tank handling three level 12 Plain Tigers with ease, blocking or parrying every attack and never taking a full hit—this was true mastery.

Even so, IronBull refused to believe he’d lose to Morning Breeze. Surely, when they each tried five tigers, Morning Breeze would collapse!

Next, IronBull tanked four tigers, then Morning Breeze did the same. Lin Shanshan kept healing Morning Breeze less than needed, but he endured it. They kept increasing the number of tigers. When IronBull tried six, he couldn’t block and parry like Morning Breeze and had to pop Shield Wall for 60% damage reduction just to survive.

When Morning Breeze took on six tigers, IronBull thought he’d have to use Shield Wall as well—but he was wrong. Morning Breeze not only pulled six tigers but split them into two groups of three, so only three could attack him at once. Even then, IronBull assumed the back three would break off and attack the mage during Blizzard, but Morning Breeze dashed to Cheng Xue with a protection skill, then leapt back with a Heroic Leap, landing with an area attack that dealt 300 critical damage—securing all the threat.

“Your turn!” Morning Breeze said, turning to IronBull after finishing off the six tigers. Now it was time to try seven. He had already demonstrated his advanced footwork—could IronBull match it?