Evenly Matched!

Dwarf Paladin Autraes and Elf Warrior Duan Chenfeng seemed to be playing their own games, each with hidden motives. One relied on his high intelligence and cunning, while the other counted on his quick reflexes and superior skills as a gifted assassin. When it came to stats, the dwarf paladin did have the upper hand, but in terms of technique, Chenfeng was stronger, having played games for two years.

[Kill Goblin Engineer Jiamar]: Elimination quest. Go to the southern island off Ghana Sea, find the goblin engineer Jiamar, and kill him. During the quest, you must slay at least 100 goblins to avenge the dwarf Daru with their blood. Time limit: before reaching level 35. Reward: 25% experience (quest can be shared by up to five people).

The dwarf paladin’s plan was to use this quest to get Chenfeng killed. After learning a bit about the paladin’s ways, Chenfeng could more or less guess that this guy loved pitting his wits and skills against others, never conceding in either.

“Sounds good! I think this quest is actually pretty interesting. Consider this our first operation as partners!” Chenfeng accepted the quest, ready to play the game with him. He felt that his own class wasn’t anything special, but when it came to surviving, he had never been afraid of anyone.

“Looking forward to working together!” said Autraes. But in his heart, he was thinking, This is our first and last collaboration. Soon, your magic ring and all your gear will be mine.

Chenfeng nodded, stroked his chin, and pretended to ponder for a moment before saying, “I’m fine with teaming up. But what if the goblin engineer Jiamar drops a pile of loot when he dies? How do we split it? I think seventy-thirty is pretty fair.”

Smart, as expected. Sorting out loot distribution before heading out, especially when you’re not the party leader, is always wise. Chenfeng knew that for a quest that only gave experience as a reward, the real value lay in the boss’s drops. The dwarf paladin knew this too, otherwise he wouldn’t have taken the quest. He’d planned on swiping the loot, but realized that wouldn’t work, so he needed another plan.

The dwarf paladin clapped his hands and smiled. “That’s why I love teaming up with Chinese players—you understand how to distribute loot. Your seventy, my thirty is perfect!”

“What do you mean ‘your seventy, my thirty’? I meant I get seventy, you get thirty!” Chenfeng found it amusing how the guy played dumb. There was no way he’d let the other guy take seventy percent; teaming up already felt like a loss.

“Isn’t courtesy a traditional virtue of yours? Aren’t you Chinese? You should remember, I took the quest and found the target, so seventy-thirty in my favor is only right!” Of course, the paladin knew Chenfeng meant seventy for himself, but he wasn’t about to agree to that—he’d never let himself take a loss. Besides, the quest was in his hands, and he was the one who found Jiamar. Why should Chenfeng get the lion’s share?

Bringing up traditional virtue—this German guy was something else. Chenfeng shrugged. “Of course I’m Chinese, and courtesy is a traditional virtue. But my personal principle is that such courtesy is reserved for Chinese friends, not for you. As for why I get seventy, the reason’s simple: I’m better than you! The more capable should get more, isn’t that how it goes?”

“You’re better than me?” The dwarf paladin found Chenfeng’s arrogance amusing. He’d seen proud players before, but none quite like Chenfeng, who even tried to use it as leverage in negotiations.

“How about we duel, then?” Chenfeng ignored the paladin’s doubts and made the suggestion as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

You’re a Shapeshifter. Bear form for tanking, wildcat for damage, tree form for enhanced healing—a true jack-of-all-trades. Even so, the paladin wasn’t afraid, since he could also tank, heal, and deal damage without changing forms. What concerned him was Chenfeng’s stealth in wildcat form, plus the strong invisibility skill his magic ring likely granted, and his innate mobility skill—making escape easy.

A moment’s thought made it clear: if Chenfeng couldn’t win, he’d just run, but the paladin couldn’t do that. At best he could use his invincibility and a hearthstone to return to the main city, which meant trekking all the way back and wasting time. He didn’t want that—far too inefficient, and not to his advantage.

This guy was sharp! The dwarf paladin realized Chenfeng was no slouch, either—coming up with this reasoning on the spot. He was banking on the paladin not daring to fight. And he was right; the paladin had nothing to gain from a duel. If it came down to a fight, Chenfeng could just lure patrols over, vanish, and leave the paladin no choice but to hearth out.

“My strength is at least equal to yours, but fighting would just sour things between us—how would we work together afterwards? I’ll compromise: sixty-forty, final offer.” The paladin felt he had to give ground. Chenfeng didn’t have enough reason to demand seventy, he just wanted a bigger share.

Goblin engineer Jiamar was holed up in a stronghold—no way to solo him. Chenfeng’s thinking was the same as the paladin’s: he just wanted a bigger cut. But seeing the paladin give way, he figured he could push a little further.

“I can compromise too: sixty-forty, in my favor. Otherwise, we go our separate ways and I do my quest alone!” Chenfeng decided to push the paladin and see what kind of person he really was. Could he finish the quest alone? Didn’t he want the magic ring?

You’ve got to be decent!

The paladin looked down on Chenfeng, thinking he was too greedy, always pushing for more. So he simply said, “Fine, we’ll go our separate ways!”

The moment he said it, both of them regretted it. Neither would get the other’s gear, especially the magic ring. Yet, neither left, both still sitting in the tree.

Serves you right for being greedy! Just wait, I’ll make you cough up your loot later! The paladin saw Chenfeng hadn’t left and relented. “Fifty-fifty, then! If you’re still not satisfied, you’re just not being sincere.”

Swallowed your pride, haven’t you? Chenfeng pretended to hesitate. “Very well. But who gets first pick? Dice roll?”

“Roll?” The paladin realized this was an important question and suddenly had an idea. “How about we keep rolling; whoever gets the higher number picks an item, and if you keep winning, you keep picking. That’s still a fifty-fifty split, and I trust my own luck!”

I just found an orange chest as soon as I entered the main map and even got the city command token—why should I fear a test of luck?

“I’m pretty lucky too!” Chenfeng agreed, but remained wary inside. Maybe the paladin was trying to distract him.

Looks promising! The paladin, thinking up ways to deal with Chenfeng, began outlining the situation: “Jiamar is inside the main building of the stronghold. Sneaking in is going to be tough...”

“Tough for you, maybe. For me, it’ll be easy. Come nightfall, I can get in anytime.” Chenfeng interrupted, deliberately cutting him off to show that what the paladin couldn’t do, he could.

“Fine, you can get in. Please don’t interrupt.” The paladin continued, “There are 210 goblins patrolling outside the stronghold. Inside, there are about 20 to 30 goblins—hard to count exactly. Within a thousand meters of the stronghold, there are 300 goblin patrols. Getting in to kill Jiamar won’t be easy.”

“What’s your plan?” Chenfeng asked bluntly, not wanting to waste time.

“I’m thinking we clear out the patrols outside, then draw out and kill the goblins inside. That’s the safest way. Or, we could both sneak in at night, but that risks causing a commotion—unless we can instantly kill Jiamar.” The paladin preferred the first method. “Clearing the patrols gets us honor, experience, and loot. Can’t go wrong.”

Of course you prefer the first plan, Chenfeng thought. The paladin would never sneak in. If Chenfeng drew attention and vanished, the paladin would have to use his invincibility and hearthstone. He wouldn’t die, but it wouldn’t go well for him.

“Fine,” Chenfeng agreed, then raised a point. “There are only two of us. You’re a paladin, so you should tank. I’m a leather class—better for me to heal in tree form.”

Tanking is risky and prone to accidents, especially on a main map where other patrols could show up and overwhelm you. Healers could easily escape, so Chenfeng wouldn’t tank.

“My tanking’s not great, honestly—I tend to get teammates killed. On the other hand, my healing’s solid: fast casts, good effects. You can tank in bear form, right? I think tanking isn’t about armor type, just whether you can take the hits. Don’t worry; I’ll keep you alive.” The paladin had never tanked, preferring to heal and control the battle from the rear.

“Bear tanks have weak defenses, poor skills. You know my class is a jack-of-all-trades—good at everything, master of none. You’re the strong one, with all three talent trees, so you should have no problem tanking.” Chenfeng still refused to tank. This was a main map, a wild group, and his teammate was a schemer. There was no way he’d trust his life to the paladin.

“I’ve never tanked before, so that’s that. How about we split the patrols and take them out one by one? You lead the patrols away, and I’ll pick them off.” The paladin gave up on the tanking idea.

Chenfeng thought for a moment, then agreed. Even if things got dangerous, he could escape with his wild mobility or stealth skills, and the patrols would chase the paladin instead. Then he could bait out the paladin’s invincibility and play with him slowly.

In truth, Chenfeng’s defensive gear wasn’t great—only a level 25 blue set. The paladin’s level 30 gold set was two grades higher. Chenfeng decided to test his luck with a group of three level 34 patrols. He couldn’t go wild, just play it safe.

All three were goblin warriors. Chenfeng leapt from behind a tree, used wild charge, and immediately drew aggro. He took three hits, losing 30% of his health in an instant—each goblin’s skill taking off 10%, which was terrifying.

Where was the healing?

Chenfeng quickly retreated, having taken the hits but received no healing. Only after withdrawing did he see the paladin had tripped coming over and only then hurriedly tossed a heal.

Savage Defense!

Immune to 60% of physical damage for 3 seconds, 6-second cooldown, 60 rage! A bear tank’s staple immunity skill. Chenfeng wouldn’t trust the paladin’s healing, so he made sure to keep this skill handy. It was great, but cost a lot of rage—100 points max, and this used over half.

“Your healing isn’t as good as mine, and my gear’s not as good as yours. You should tank.” Chenfeng’s epic set claws were strong, especially since they added flat damage.

“A paladin’s healing shines over time, trust me. I promise you won’t die.” The paladin kept healing, but then tragedy struck: a nearby group of five patrols joined in and surrounded Chenfeng.

Wild Mobility!

Chenfeng dashed twenty meters away, shifting into wildcat form to stealth. Vanishing transferred all aggro to the paladin, and the goblins charged at him. But the paladin had foreseen Chenfeng’s escape, tossing an iron grenade into the air toward Chenfeng’s position.

Grenades hurt friend and foe alike. The paladin’s grenade missed the goblins, since they weren’t close, but the blast forced Chenfeng out of stealth, restoring his aggro and sending all the goblins after him.

“Sorry, you ran and the goblins all turned on me—I got nervous and slipped...” the paladin explained before Chenfeng could speak.

Chenfeng couldn’t say much—he had run, after all, so he couldn’t really blame him. This time, Chenfeng tried to escape with stealth again, but the paladin still managed to blow his cover. Fortunately, the newly arrived goblins ignored Chenfeng and swarmed the paladin instead.

Tranquility!

Autraes’ unique skill, which removed all aggro from a target—including himself. Now, all eight goblins converged on Chenfeng.

Clever trick!

Chenfeng hadn’t expected the paladin to have so many tricks up his sleeve. He realized the paladin wanted to get rid of him here, not wait until after killing Jiamar. Seeing the paladin use up his skills, Chenfeng turned and fled.

This time, Chenfeng didn’t use his strong invisibility. He just used sprint to run away, suspecting the paladin had a way to counter his escape. He decided not to use his best escape unless it was his last resort.

Didn’t use invisibility?

The paladin frowned. He’d planned to use his ring’s skill to swap states with his teammate, but Chenfeng’s move foiled him. People who can run well are hard to kill. Shapeshifters, unlike paladins, aren’t slow—goblin patrols would have a hard time catching up.

Once he was out of the paladin’s sight, Chenfeng activated strong invisibility and escaped. The goblins, unable to find him, returned to look for the paladin, but by then Autraes had already fled.

“Ungrateful guy, running off by himself,” the paladin cursed in party chat. He didn’t want this interesting rivalry to end so soon—this was only round one. Both sides were evenly matched, each showing their fangs.

“Nothing I could do! My teammate was too nervous and slipped—I was afraid your grenade would kill me!” If you say I ran, I’ll say you threw grenades. What can you say to that?

“Teammates need to trust each other, you know? If you hadn’t run, I wouldn’t have gotten nervous. Let’s try again: this time, I’ll tank and you heal and dps.” The paladin knew he couldn’t waste more time—they needed to clear the patrols quickly. Soloing would be too slow, but with Chenfeng’s help, much easier.

“Just don’t run or get too nervous—or I’ll use invincibility or Blessing of Protection to escape, and our partnership is over,” the paladin warned, making it clear he didn’t want any more tricks.

“What’s there to be nervous about? I can heal and dps, and you can toss out the occasional heal too. My dps is strong. If I need to focus on healing, I’ll shift to tree form, but switching from wildcat to tree requires passing through human form—wastes time.” Chenfeng agreed it was pointless to keep this up; they needed a tougher boss to really outplay each other.

“You need to anticipate. If you see my health drop fast, shift to human and heal me, then switch to tree form after the global cooldown. Once my health’s up, switch back.” The paladin shared some pointers.

Chenfeng was familiar with tanking, but not healing. He’d just cast heals without understanding spell speed or bonuses. If not for the paladin’s advice, he wouldn’t have thought of this method.

The first round ended in a draw, no one revealing their true intentions. Now, it was time for round two.