Chapter 122: The Astonishing Yacreau
In the underground confined room of the martial arts hall.
“Damn! So this is high martial arts descend? It really is completely different from the 2D graphics in the videos. The feel of the ground and the sense of gravity are unbelievably real.”
“I’m in! I finally got in! Now no one can stop me from digging out an underground city!”
“Any recruitment? This newbie can dig and can box. As long as you cover food, lodging, and martial skills, I’m in.”
…
As soon as the fifty newbies appeared, the entire underground confinement room was like it had exploded. Some were marveling at how real high martial arts descend was, others were begging for teams or sponsors. They already looked like veterans, completely unlike the newcomers of the previous two or three batches.
“Great! Elders, you two made it in as well.” Lu Fanchen looked at a man and a woman among the newcomers. The man was around thirty, like a giant bear. The woman was much younger, with long auburn hair, a curvy figure, and a wild air, like an elf born of fire.
These two were the saint-level existences of Mythical Paradise, Axe Saint Li Tianxing and Blade Saint Lin Xinyao. Both were veteran experts of Mythical Paradise, and their strength was no less than Zhao Hu of Heavenly Might.
“Good luck. I managed to squeeze into the top fifty right before the digging assessment deadline.” Li Tianxing, as massive as a bear, sighed. “I really don’t know what this game manufacturer is thinking, making digging the test. Digging itself is fine, it’s basically testing control over the body’s strength and how to maintain efficiency. But I never expected to only rank forty-fifth. I have no idea how this game has so many people so good at digging.”
“You’re already doing well to rank forty-fifth. I almost failed to make the leaderboard.” Lin Xinyao smiled bitterly. “If people outside found out that the two of us, saint-level experts, only scored this much, they would die laughing.”
“You two elders really don’t need to mind this.” Lu Fanchen explained with a smile. “I investigated it. Ever since this game introduced the digging test assessment, many reserved players have been studying day and night how to improve their digging efficiency. They even researched each muscle’s exertion to an astonishing degree. For your first assessment to make the leaderboard at all is already very good.”
“So what do we do next?” After listening, Lin Xinyao could only take it as consolation. “Not many of our people made it in. I took a look; we only have six people here. According to the information we had, are we supposed to dig first to earn points, then purchase martial skills to power up quickly?”
“No need, that’s too slow.” Lu Fanchen shook his head. “I already spent money beforehand to buy fifty thousand points. That is enough for the six of us to focus on advancing all the way to apprentice-level and mastering all the basic martial skills. Once we reach apprentice-level and all our basic martial skills are proficient, we will rent a B2-level weapon from the martial arts hall and go down to that team dungeon under the maze tunnel. With the six of us, even at apprentice-level, we should be able to wear down a gold-devouring unicorn rat.”
“Although the efficiency of earning points and contribution from killing a gold-devouring unicorn rat is a bit lower than at Crimson Moon Mountain, that team dungeon has not yet been pioneered by those veteran teams. It is exactly our chance to catch up. As long as we secure the first kill, I believe the reward will definitely be very generous.”
“Alright, we’ll go with your plan.” Li Tianxing and Lin Xinyao both nodded, feeling this plan was feasible.
While the newbie players were making a racket, their noise also woke Yaklo, who had been sleeping on the second floor.
“What is going on?”
Yaklo stepped out of her room and saw that there were suddenly many new members of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall on the first-floor training ground.
These new members of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall clearly had no instructors guiding them, yet each of them was either learning the breathing technique or practicing martial skills with complete disregard for the cost. Compared to the martial arts hall disciples she knew, they were more crazed by more than just a notch.
And these new members of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, after noticing her, would frequently greet her and ask if she needed any help, as considerate as angels. It made her wonder if she had gone stupid from sleeping these past couple of days.
Though this period in Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had indeed been the most comfortable days of her life.
No need to worry about being ambushed, no need to worry about whether there would be food tomorrow or going hungry, and no need to fear dying to monsters in the wilderness the next day.
You could say that apart from the synthetic food being a bit lacking, everything else in Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was great, to the point it had made her a little lazy and complacent.
“Did they wake you?” Lin Qi looked at Yaklo, who had just stepped out, and said apologetically, “They just arrived and are still excited. After today, they probably won’t disturb your rest anymore.”
“Hall Master Lin, you are back now. Does that mean there are results from Crimson Moon Mountain?” Yaklo asked curiously.
Under the temptation of the White Feather Gang, the Great Ape Gang had already decided to move against Crimson Moon Mountain. She knew Lin Qi had planned a night raid on the Great Ape Gang headquarters, and the news had even reached the martial arts hall, with the vagrants working there discussing it.
Now that the night raid had succeeded, with the Great Ape Gang’s revenge imminent, logically Lin Qi should have been staying at Crimson Moon Mountain to defend it to the death. The fact that he could come back now could only mean there was already a result at Crimson Moon Mountain.
“Yeah. From now on, there will be no Great Ape Gang.” Lin Qi nodded.
Although the Great Ape Gang had been wiped out, aside from some well-informed factions, the ordinary vagrants in the City of Light Chasing had not yet received the news so quickly. After all, the vagrants watching from Crimson Moon Mountain had all been wandering the wilderness long term, not residents of the City of Light Chasing. As for the vagrants in the abandoned area, they could only get the news once the major gangs spread it.
“The Great Ape Gang is gone?” After hearing this, Yaklo was completely stunned.
She did not think Lin Qi had any reason to lie to her, but she also could not believe that Obsidian Martial Arts Hall could stand against the Great Ape Gang. The Great Ape Gang was an old, large wilderness gang of the City of Light Chasing, with unfathomable foundation, and absolutely not something Obsidian Martial Arts Hall’s few people could contend with.
“This is no longer a secret. I expect the news will spread throughout the City of Light Chasing by tomorrow morning.” Lin Qi smiled at the dazed Yaklo.
“Really gone?” Looking at Lin Qi’s certain tone, Yaklo still could not bring herself to believe it, but Lin Qi’s relaxed expression could not be faked. After hesitating for quite a while, she said very earnestly, “Hall Master Lin, I wonder if I can work here?”
“Work? You?” Lin Qi looked at Yaklo, who had suddenly spoken, and unconsciously glanced at her crippled hands.
Although Yaklo had indeed provided him with a very important piece of intelligence, which helped him a lot, he was not being harsh when he thought that with both hands ruined, he really could not see what work Yaklo could do in Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
“My hands are ruined, but I have other specialties.” Yaklo, seeing Lin Qi sizing her up, said stubbornly.
“Specialties? What specialties?” Lin Qi looked at her again. Her looks were beyond reproach: an absolute beauty of the three-eyed tribe, and even by human standards, a top-class beauty. But in the cruel high martial arts world, that hardly counted as a specialty, especially when both hands were crippled.
“That’s not what I mean.” Yaklo saw Lin Qi’s gaze sweep over her again, and a faint blush appeared on her pale face. “I used to be an apothecary. I can make many basic potions.”
“You’re an apothecary?” Lin Qi looked at Yaklo in surprise. “Weren’t you a rogue who liked to plunder?”
In the high martial arts world, an apothecary was an even more sought-after profession than a mechanic. All the enterprises in the suburbs of the City of Light Chasing were willing to pay high prices to hire them, with treatment that even mid-level backbones of suburban gangs would envy.
It was hard to imagine Yaklo being an apothecary, someone who could have lived a good life, yet chose to learn robbery for thrills.
“You think I wanted to be a rogue?” Yaklo looked at the skeptical Lin Qi and said helplessly, “I had no choice, that’s why I wandered from city to city.”
“No choice? An apothecary’s status should be high in every city, right? Even if you can’t stay in one city, you could go to another,” Lin Qi said, confused.
For an apothecary, even a certified beginner apothecary who could make potions helpful to martial artists, their status in every city was high. All major factions would welcome them courteously. They never had to worry about having nowhere to live.
“But what if a major power found out that I had mastered an exclusive potion?” Yaklo asked.
“Exclusive potion? One you researched yourself?” Lin Qi was instantly shocked.
Any exclusive potion useful to martial artists represented massive wealth. If any major power learned of it, they would definitely do everything possible to seize it and keep the secret forever.
Under such circumstances, an apothecary without strength or a powerful background would find it very hard to survive. Even if they went to another city, that major power that knew the secret would definitely try to obtain the exclusive potion’s formula and then eliminate everyone else who knew how to make it.
“Yes, something I stumbled upon while researching on my own.” Yaklo nodded.
“Can you tell me about it?” Lin Qi asked curiously. “Of course, if you don’t want to, I won’t force you.”
“In my current state, there’s nothing I can’t say.” Yaklo did not hesitate and slowly said, “I developed a berserk potion that can slightly increase physique for a short period. The increase is about twenty percent and lasts for around five minutes. After five minutes, the body falls into a weakened state that takes several hours to recover from.”
“A twenty percent increase? You’re not joking?” After hearing this, Lin Qi genuinely felt Yaklo must be joking.
Normally, a potion that could boost strength by about ten percent for someone below martial artist level was already something suburban pharmacies would fight over.
As for a potion that increased physique by twenty percent, that was equivalent to raising both strength and speed by about twenty percent. No one had ever heard of such a potion. If someone had it, it would undoubtedly be an extra lifesaving trump card in the wilderness.
“So, Hall Master Lin, after hearing about this potion, do you still dare to take me in?” Yaklo looked at the astonished Lin Qi and asked playfully.
