Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Everything was not over yet as the City Lord continued to speak, talking about giving out guild points, guild’s prestige rating, and such things. These were all in-game things that the players in large guilds would all pay special attention to, and those who heard this found it somewhat unbearable, wishing they could just bomb Sword Demon as the rewards continued on endlessly.

Currently, Sword Demon was thinking it to be quite a waste, because this guild prestige that the City Lord had mentioned had actually directly caused the level 1 guild Extremely Heaven Defying to become a level 2 guild. But when Extremely Heaven Defying finally merged together with Amethyst Rebirth, the level would not be combined, so all the prestige they had just earned would not matter.

When the rewards for Extremely Heaven Defying had finally come to an end, Sword Demon turned around and saw the faces of the group of city assaulters, their eyes were like smoldering red hot embers that looked like they could spit fire. He reckoned they did not wish to hear him do anything like an acceptance speech any longer, so he kept a low profile and retreated to the side.

Next up was July, now that Gu Fei had returned the guild leader position in Amethyst Rebirth back to her. After she stepped up onto the steps, the City Lord used the same lines of praise as it used on Sword Demon before, but there was no glowing light around July after it gave out the experience reward. She did a quick check of the value and saw that the experience awarded was not as dramatic as she had thought. It seemed evident that this would differ from player to player since July did not do anything particularly superb while the City War event happened. Furthermore, because she had departed from the city to go recruit players with Brother Assist, she had missed out on quite a lot of opportunities to quest.

However, when she reached the Division of Power portion for her guild, she caused yet another commotion with the crowd that had gathered; Amethyst Rebirth’s performance was a lot more indomitable than Extremely Heaven Defying, and they were presented with four Precincts as their reward. Muyun, Xiayun, Linyun, and Liuyun were all awarded to Amethyst Rebirth. The Precincts in Yunduan City were all named after the cloud (Yun) motif.

Naturally, the City Lord had also committed to allocating coin, equipment, guild points, and guild prestige rating to Amethyst Rebirth after. The city assaulters had no idea how much these were, but just from the Precincts that they were awarded, it looked like Amethyst Rebirth had gotten twice that of what Extremely Heaven Defying was granted. But actually, the city Precinct and the guild prestige that Amethyst Rebirth was rewarded with were the only two rewards that were two times that of Extremely Heaven Defying’s. Experience, equipment and guild points were personally awarded accordingly, and it had nothing to do with the City Wars contribution score the guild had obtained. This was how Sword Demon had actually gained much more experience, coin and guild points than July. Furthermore, Sword Demon was presently admiring the equipment that he had been gifted, while July essentially got no equipment reward. It was clear that her contributions for the event were not enough to impress the system.

July had also maintained a low profile and retreated to the side, taking a look at the equipment that Sword Demon was fiddling with.

“It’s a belt,” Sword Demon showed July, not taking to heart too particularly. Even though this belt was considered a top tier equipment, Sword Demon was already entirely fitted with top tier equipment. Evidently, it was impossible for the system to give out an equipment that was as unbelievably domineering and overleveled like Moonlit Nightfalls for events that they hosted. As such, the new belt that Sword Demon was just another option that Sword Demon could use, and it was not something that was too much of an improvement to what he already possessed.

This was when Ray, as the guild leader of one of the three guilds that was on the victorious side, made his way up the steps. There were great expectations from the crowd, and what happened to him was indeed very different from the two before. The City Lord was very sparing with its praise to his guild’s contributions, merely expressing a simple line of thanks, not even saying a word about his amazing battle results or crediting his efforts in the event. In the end, it did not even mention anything about Precincts or equipment as a reward. Obviously, Ray’s guild was not even qualified to have either of those awarded. The expression on the city assaulters’ faces improved quite a lot here, and after Ray backed away all crestfallen, these men were all smiles, point, and gloating.

There were a total of three guilds on the city defender’s side, and this was information that everyone was aware of. Now that the three guilds had finished obtaining their reward, what came next would be the guild members themselves stepping up to get their individual rewards. Royal God Call was very enthusiastic and was about to step forward when he suddenly saw the City Lord NPC begin moving toward him.

The city assaulters were suddenly all in a flurry of excitement because they could tell that the direction the City Lord was headed to them, and this was a treatment that neither Extremely Heaven Defying and Amethyst Rebirth received!

Sword Demon and the others did not think too much about it however. This was because they were all very certain that in terms of reward, Gu Fei was the only one who had earned enough for an entire guild. Gu Fei had completed the quest that decided the outcome of the City Wars event for Yunduan City, taken down an encampment, and it was unknown just how many players he had slain during the course of all his clashes with the city assaulters… Now that the City Lord had personally made its way down, could it be taking the initiative to present Gu Fei’s reward?

This was what Sword Demon and the others had thought, but if the City Lord were to turn away like that, all the guild leaders that led the city assaulters would be making a fool of themselves once more, blushing redder than the midday sun, now that they were crowding around the NPC all excited. Unexpectedly, these players had actually guessed correctly; the City Lord had indeed taken the initiative to approach all their smiling faces, only to douse them all with a bucket of cold water.

“The whole lot of you ruffians! I’m not going to blame any of you and will even forgive you for your transgression. Hopefully, this will reform your turbid souls, so all of you better conduct yourself appropriately!” The City Lord held them all in contempt as it brashly said its piece. Then with a wave of its long sleeves, the NPC turned round and left.

The guild leaders on the city assaulter’s side were all petrified. The City Lord had not spoken directly to any one of them, nor did it put out any sort of reward. Could the system have messaged them to come here just so they could hear this speech of condemnation?

These guild leaders were all slightly offended, but they could only curse the heavens impotently. Everything had been orchestrated by the system, so there was no way that they could vent their frustration toward this in any degree at all. The guild leaders were all bearing a chest full of anger raging inside them, so much that it burned their faces and ears red, though they lacked any way to release it.

Gu Fei and the others had only watched and treated this like a scene from a show. Meanwhile, the City Lord left in a huff, immediately entered the City Hall as an NPC from its entourage stepped out and declared that the rewards for everyone else could all be retrieved from the Logistics department. Gu Fei, Sword Demon and the others all involuntarily looked over to Ray. If their memory did not fail them, he had been working for the Logistics department as part of his Faction quest during the city war.

“What about us? Are we getting nothing at all?” The guild leaders of the city assaulters were protesting loudly. Even though they know it was useless, they simply needed to vent their own displeasure right now.

But who would have thought that the NPC actually understood their complaints? Turning back with a stony gaze, it scornfully swept its eyes over this group of ‘ruffians’ and coldly scoffed, “You guys are eligible as well; properly experience the magnanimity and largesse of our distinguished City Lord!”

When all these guild leaders heard what the NPC said, that there was still a reward set aside for them, they immediately demonstrated magnanimity of their own. None of them were about to get caught up over how the NPC had ridiculed them! However, the reward that they got was no more than just a gift, so none of them cared to even fantasize about getting anything like what Amethyst Rebirth or Extremely Heaven Defying had gotten. They reckon it might be about the same as what Ray had been given, who had wordlessly left with the reward unknowingly, without any fanfare whatsoever.

Where was the Logistics department? Asking any NPC here in the City Hall’s courtyard and the answer would be made known. It was personal rewards from here onward, so Sword Demon and July both relayed this information to their guildmates. These two guilds planned to merge into one after everyone had retrieved their own rewards. That was when July told Sword Demon a very refreshing piece of news: When the City Lord had bestowed upon Amethyst Rebirth guild prestige, they had managed to level up and become a level 4 guild, which meant the guild would have a 500 player limit after the merging process was completed.

Gu Fei was going to head over to the Logistic Department and retrieve his reward at this time, when he discovered that everyone had their eyes on him when he turned to look behind, including the 800 guild leaders that represented the city assaulters.

“What is this about?” Gu Fei asked.

“What do you think? We’re all curious about what sort of reward you’re getting!” Sword Demon answered.

“It’s not going to be some overleveled equipment again, is it?” Royal God Call said.

“I don’t think so. No matter how well he scored, the system would only reward him with two pieces of equipment, maybe even three. But there’s no way it would give an overleveled equipment, right?” Sword Demon came to this conclusion after a thorough analysis.

“I would be more than happy if it gives me a pair of rings like what Slyris got,” Gu Fei quipped.

“How shameless!” Everyone exclaimed in unison. Even though there were no Aptitude requirements for the accessories in Parallel World, players were able to deduce the grade through the traits and stats that it provided. Slyris’ pair of rings that gave her mana regeneration was indubitably an equipment that went well beyond the present grade of the equipment players could obtain right now.

“Are the rings considered overleveled as well?” Gu Fei was of course unable to tell.

“Most definitely,” Sword Demon very confidently nodded.

“That’s a real shame,” Gu Fei sighed.

In the time they were chatting, everyone had already made their way over to the Logistics department in Yunduan City, which was actually a warehouse to the side of the City Wall. There were guards stationed outside the entrance, with several NPC manning the treasury, it was evident that they were already prepared to give out the rewards to the players.

When Gu Fei walked up, everything became quiet at that very moment. All of them had put down what they were feeling about redeeming their own reward as they stared at Gu Fei.

Gu Fei came forward and spoke with the NPC.

Interaction was equivalent to confirming your identity, and in that instant, the reward that ought to be given would be presented.

A single flash of white light. Naturally! Everyone thought to themselves. In the end, the flash of light did not stop at just that one flash as a second one soon followed.

Everyone’s mouths were hung agape. This man had actually managed to level up twice consecutively.

Before everyone could even recover, that NPC handed over a sack of gold coins, as well as a blue hat.

What’s that?” Sword Demon and the others were of course already crowding around him by now.

[Magical Pointed Hat: 10% Increased mana capacity, +10 intelligence, +5% Spell damage]

“These traits…” July said. The traits were considered top tier, yet it felt like it was very incongruent with what Gu Fei had managed to achieve.

“But look at how pointy it is!” Royal God Call marveled.

“In terms of height, this hat you got is surely an overleveled, top grade item!” Sword Demon had also gasped. The Magical Pointed Hat in Gu Fei’s hands was conical in shape, and it looked like it was at least 30 centimeters tall.

“Try it on!” Royal God Call said.

Thus, Gu Fei equipped the hat, and immediately brought laughter to over 800 players.

Gu Fei was embarrassed, quickly taking it off. However, that image had already been sealed in the minds of these people in that one moment, and all 800 of them were still laughing hysterically over it without any signs of stopping.

Gu Fei was not the kind of person who would raise his hand impulsively at such matters, but he had no qualms threatening people a little. Now that Gu Fei had slowly formed a mental image in the hearts of all the players, he glared fiercely at the crowd around him.

All 800 players instantly quieted down. Whether they feared him or otherwise, they knew that offending Thousand Miles Drunk was most definitely not a good thing.

Gu Fei was holding onto that hat in his hands, uncertain how he should take care of it. Royal God Call suddenly thought of something, “What sort of headgear do you have on right now?”

Aside from his headgear, Gu Fei was already covered in top grade equipment, But it was mainly his Moonlit Nightfalls and Midnight Spirit Robe that were simply just too eye-catching. Those who were familiar with Gu Fei would automatically ignore all the other equipment that he wore. Now that Royal God Call had this thought, he realized he did not have any impression as to what equipment Gu Fei had worn.

“My headgear? I’ll wear this when there’s a need for it,” Gu Fei fished out a piece of cloth from his dimensional pocket. Royal God Call took a look and was bursting with anger when he saw it was a piece of cloth that Thieves used to keep their faces covered. Gu Fei was truly a failure of a Mage.

At this time, there were already guild leaders with sharp eyesight that came out, such as Brave Surge.

“What’s the matter Miles, why don’t you seem to be very satisfied with that equipment?” Brave Surge called out as if he was very familiar with Gu Fei.

“Just look at it,” Gu Fei holding out the Pointed Hat to Brave Surge so he could have a look for himself.

Brave Surge was annoyed! Who cares about how it looks!? He wanted to know about its traits.

His impatience almost got the better of him, but Gu Fei was not a fool as to only show Brave Surge the hat for the looks itself and had already displayed its stats and traits for all to see.

“Oh…” The players looking over all hummed, before they heaved a sigh of relief after.

While the hat was a good piece of equipment, it was not exactly overly formidable. The players present were all guild leader level, so most of their equipment were about that grade. Take Brave Surge for example, who was not exactly as envious after taking a glance. The Mage’s circlet that he was presently using was even slightly stronger in terms of its traits, providing +12 Intelligence and increasing his spellpower by 8%. As for the 10% increase in mana capacity, that trait alone was not enough to make a Mage jealous. Most Mages had more than enough mana to use, so having an extra 10% was hardly anything critical. Instead, it was Priests that would enjoy having such a trait for their equipment instead. With how quickly they would expend their mana, every bit counted to ensure their endurance in battle.

That was the casual critique Brave Surge gave when he saw the traits on that hat.

Gu Fei was very enthused hearing it, turning around to ask Sword Demon and Royal God Call, “I also think that this hat suits Young Master better.”

“You’re only thinking that because you find it rather ugly, and want to make him look ugly, yeah?” Sword Demon had seen through Gu Fei.

Gu Fei merely laughed in response.

“Just how much experience did you get?” This was when Sword Demon began conversing with him a little. A level up was a level, but the experience points that a player needed would increase as well; lacking 1,000,000 experience points means a player would level when they gained 1,000,000 experience points. However, for Gu Fei to increase to level 42 and then to level 43 without even a pause in between, Sword Demon could already be certain that the number of experience points that Gu Fei had been given was well beyond what he himself had earned. Ultimately, when Gu Fei did the calculations, they figured out that it was not just twice that of what Sword Demon had gained. Sure enough, Gu Fei had killed quite a lot of players.

The other guild leaders all felt a lot better when they learned that the equipment Gu Fei was rewarded was just average, and so they began surging over to retrieve their own reward. Nevertheless, all of them realized how foolish they had been for their evaluation of Thousand Miles Drunk’s reward as ‘just average’; the reward these guild leaders received were no more than a paltry sum of experience, a few gold coins. This was no more than just peanuts! Forget about the equipment, the system did not even give them any guild points or prestige. In fact, the NPC in the Logistics department even added, “What you’ve done, it’s already thanks to the magnanimity of the City Lord that none of you had your guild points and prestige subtracted.” The reward they had gotten from this event was completely incomparable to Thousand Miles Drunk had gotten.

However, there were still some city assaulters who had a sudden flash of white light when they redeemed their rewards. But upon further probing, those players were apparently not too far from leveling themselves, which really showed how paltry the experience reward they received was. The City Lord had viewed everyone equally and gave them a consolation prize, but it was very apparent that in terms of the contributions that they had poured into this City Wars event, the City Lord had merely viewed it all as sabotage, so it was perfectly logical for them not to be rewarded.

By now, there were other players who had got the news and made the trek over to retrieve their rewards. It turned out that the NPC that shouted out the statement from before actually acted as an announcement from the system that informed everyone eligible for the reward to visit the Logistic department.

Yunduan City’s City Hall courtyard had never been so lively before. But it was a good thing that the City Wars event had already ended, so not every single 200,000 or so players from the over 800 guilds were online at the same time. Even if they were online now, plenty of them were not in any sort of rush to come back when they heard how little coin and experience points they could obtain. Many who were far away had even expressed that they would come and retrieve it at a later time when they happen to pass by. After all, the system did not mention any sort of time limit to this.

Meanwhile, the players from Extremely Heaven Defying and Amethyst Rebirth were all full of vigor. They had long been looking forward to finding out what reward they have earned, not to mention their urgency to merge the guilds after they got their rewards.

While Gu Fei and the others had departed after redeeming their rewards, they bumped into some players who were on their side. Notably, they spotted Drifting and his party of three stepped out of the City Hall, who quickly waved to Gu Fei when their eyes met, “What did you get for your Faction reward?”

“Faction reward?” Gu Fei was surprised.

“That’s right. Have you not gone to retrieve it yet?” Drifting asked.

Gu Fei and Sword Demon looked at one another. That was right! They had both done a bit of questing for their Factions respectively. Sword Demon did not have any follow ups on his end, but that was an understatement for Gu Fei. His Faction quest had follow-ups that followed up one after another, leading him all the way till he took down five of the enemy encampments. Sword Demon already had an inkling suspicion that Gu Fei’s Magical Pointed Hat was completely incompatible with the feats of greatness that he had accomplished. It now seemed like Gu Fei’s real prize would come from his Faction.

“Quick, let’s go!” The others were even more excited than Gu Fei.

Gu Fei went, but that was when these excited players realized that there was no way for them to tag along; the City Hall did not allow the average player entry. Even though Sword Demon belonged to a Faction, his League of Assassins hardly saw the light, figuratively. It was in contrast to the openness and glamor of a governing body in charge of the city. Drifting and his two compatriots had already run off to the Logistics department to get their reward, so they did not follow Gu Fei either. Actually, they were unable to see anything even if they wanted to tag along anyway. Since they were in a different branch than Gu Fei, they lacked the permissions to enter the Vigilante Corps Chamber as well.

Reaching the familiar doors of the room, Gu Fei pushed open the doors and stepped right in. Everything appeared as before, though the Captain was evidently looking at him with much warmth in its eyes. It even took the initiative to step away from the desk and pulled Gu Fei’s hand close to give it a good shake. The other soldier NPCs were also looking at Gu Fei with much admiration in their eyes.

“Thousand Miles Drunk, it’s all thanks to you this time!” the captain boomed.

Gu Fei nodded, not trying to be modest.

“You’ve contributed greatly, and the City Lord had expressed his wish to meet you in person!” it continued.

“Oh? Where are we going?” Gu Fei asked.

“Follow me,” the captain led Gu Fei out the door. It appeared that his reward would also be presented by the City Lord.

Sure enough, the City Lord was that same NPC from before, and the place where the City Lord was residing could no longer be called an office; it was essentially a grand hall. In this circular hall with a circle of pillars that supported the ceiling above, large and spacious, there was just the City Lord alone seated behind a single desk and chair. The guards and followers etc. in the room were all standing. Indeed, the treatment that a City Lord got was extraordinary.

“Thousand Miles Drunk, greet the City Lord,” the captain bowed toward the City Lord.

Gu Fei ignored this and just stood there. The City Lord nodded its head and swiveled out from behind the desk to begin another speech once more. Unexpectedly, it was the very same one it had done moments ago outside the City Hall, the only difference being the subject of ‘guild’ turning into his IGN and so forth.

After it was done, the City Lord finally clasped his hands together, “A loyal warrior needs to be rewarded.”

And with that, Gu Fei heard the sound of the system prompt. His Bounty License was promptly promoted to Grade 2.

“Is that my Faction reward?” Gu Fei muttered to himself.