Chapter 24

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Nonetheless, the Blazing Goblin Warrior never stopped struggling and continued bellowing in its rage.

The Bloodthirsty Vine was almost breaking!

Nie Fan glanced over at Xue Yu. His friend’s performance had surprised him, and his improvement was certainly clear—with time in his hands, Xue Yu could really become a skillful player given his perfect timing just now.

“Xue Yu, get over here!” Nie Fan yelled into the team chat.

Xue Yu quickly dashed to Nie Fan’s side when he heard him, with Nie Fan giving him everything that remained in his bag, including the Sparkling Dust and Gravity Javelin.

“Use these items whenever you find a chance. We’ll talk later, after we get rid of the Blazing Goblin Warrior!” Nie Fan quickly told him—it would be troublesome if the monster was freed from its restraints.

That being said, Nie Fan had a lot of items in his bag. After looking through some of the attributes of those items, Xue Yu quickly drew out one Gravity Javelin, found a position and promptly launched it at the Blazing Goblin Warrior.

Meanwhile, with a crack, the Blazing Goblin Warrior had violently broken the Bloodthirsty Vine into pieces. But at the same time, it was struck by the Gravity Javelin with a dull thud, and it shrieked once while stumbling three steps backwards.

Black Oil!

Then, before the Blazing Goblin Warrior could find its balance, thick dark grease drenched over its face once more.

Xue Yu realized in surprise that the items Nie Fan gave him were really useful. Between Nie Fan’s attacks, he would unleash Sparkling Dust or Gravity Javelins—even if the effect would not be ideal on every instance, it more or less impedes the Blazing Goblin Warrior’s movement.

“Where did you get these stuff, Nie Fan? Remember to buy more next time so that Suyue and I don’t have to stand in a corner and do nothing.” Xue Yu exclaimed excitedly, finding the Gravity Javelin especially handy.

Nie Fan rolled his eyes. “Did you think those stuff comes cheap? Keep using it like this and we’ll be penniless soon enough.”

“Hehe, forget it then.” Xue Yu chuckled dryly.

Still, the Blazing Goblin Warrior could no longer withstand Nie Fan’s continuous barrage. With a long howl towards the skies, it staggered and dropped to the dirt, its armor having been charred black like a heap of ashes.

“It’s finally dead.” Lin Suyue breathed a sigh of relief.

That being said, Xue Yu had used up every last pile of Sparkling Dust and Gravity Javelin, whereas Nie Fan himself used two bottles of Novice Mana Potions.

“Did it drop any items?”

Nie Fan headed to the Blazing Goblin Warrior’s corpse, arched his back and combed through it. He found a Gem Shard and one item, the latter of which was a Cleric’s staff.

[Staff of Healing: Level 20 required, Copper-grade, Attack 32-38, Spirit +3, Healing +3, Durability 35/35]

“It’s a fine Cleric staff,” Nie Fan said, and traded that item to Lin Suyue.

The trio’s eyes then turned simultaneously to the Level 25 Copper treasure chest. Players hardly encounter treasure chest, even normal ones—and this was a Copper-grade.

In the end, there are always surprising discoveries when it comes to exploring a new map.

The trio was excited and hopeful despite not knowing what lay inside too.

They could only hope that their luck was not too horrible since it was possible for some poor players who found only White items in Copper treasure chests.

Nonetheless, Nie Fan opened the chest and reached inside, feeling around until one item entered his hand.

It feels like… a tome?

“What is it?” Xue Yu asked anxiously.

After feeling around some more and making sure that there were no other items in the treasure chest, he fished out that item.

It was a Skill Tome.

The totem of a cheetah on the gray cover of the tome immediately caught Nie Fan’s attention. It looked as vivid as real life, its eyes flickering with captivating faint red radiance.

‘This is it!’ Nie Fan thought in irrepressible excitement.

He had journeyed far and wide in search of it, only to find it so easily—one of the most important Skill Tomes for Druids in the early game, Cheetahmorph!

1

And being one of the most necessary skills for Druids in Morphing, its drop rate in the early game was relatively low. As a matter of fact, most Druids only learn that skill when they reach Level 30.

Druids are divided into five major classes: Elemental, Support, Plant-type, Summoners, and Morphing. Cheetahmorph would prove useful to each class, not to mention that it was necessary for Nie Fan to learn multiple morphing skills since he chose it as his minor talent. Furthermore, morphing skills grants Druids formidable close combat ability, along with various special abilities.

As a skill, Cheetahmorph was very similar to Lycanmorph were similar since they buff the user in terms of speed, attack speed, and concealment, although their specialty varied as well: Lycanmorph’s significantly increases the user’s affinity for close-range fights to the point that they would not lose out to close-quarter fighting units. On the other hand, Cheetahmorph specializes in speed and concealment, adapting the user to escaping and ambushes while losing out in melees.

That being said, the Cheetahmorph Skill Tome obtained from a Level 25 Copper treasure chest appeared to be a strengthened version, which made Nie Fan especially excited.

[Phantom Cheetahmorph: Skill level 1, morphing duration: 10 minutes; cooldown: 1 hour, MP cost: 85]

[Talent Buff: -25% Mana cost (Arcane Endowment)]

[+10% Attack Speed (Feral)]

[+36% Speed (Feral)]

[+10% Attack (Hunter’s Wrath)]

[-6% Defense (Unarmored)]

[Lurking: Cheetahmorpher becomes invisible.]

1

[Phantom: Creates a phantom to confuse opponents. It has no attack ability and could be seen through with Scout.]

[Morphing state can be removed.]

[Level 20 required.]

Even at skill level 1, the basic effects of Phantom Cheetahmorph was already very good. It lasts a long time and increased the user’s speed drastically. It was acceptable even if the cooldown time was 1 hour, but the mana cost was just a little too high, consuming almost half of Nie Fan’s MP in one use. On another note, Lurking and Phantom were quite useful skills as well, but Nie Fan must reach Level 20 to learn the skill itself.

‘Still, that isn’t too far,’ he thought.

“It’s a Skill Tome of an upgraded version of Cheetahmorph. It would fetch over three thousand bronze coins in the market.” Nie Fan told Xue Yu and Lin Suyue, brandishing the tome in his hand.

They were not envious upon learning that he obtained a supercool skill, but earnestly happy since they never minded the differences between themselves and Nie Fan. They shared all glory and sufferings, after all.

Although it was a little ridiculous for one Skill Tome to be worth more than three thousand bronze coins, it remained that Strengthened Skill Tomes were different from Rare Skill Tomes.

There would always be fewer Rare Skill Tomes, but the skill they hold might not actually be powerful, and could actually prove useless. Meanwhile, Strengthened Skill Tomes were upgraded versions of mainstream skills, but drops were actually frequent compared to Rare Skill Tomes. That being said, when learning a normal skill, a player could opt to overlap it with the Strengthened version of that skill, although its skill level would revert to Level 1 too.

“Can you learn it now?” Xue Yu asked, curious to see the effect of that skill.

“Have to wait until I’m level twenty.” Nie Fan said, shaking his head.”

“Which we would be soon at the rate we are leveling at the moment.” Lin Suyue added beside them.

Nie Fan’s right hand gently stroked the cheetah totem on the cover of the Skill Tome while he grinned.

It was a good start.

Stuffing the Skill Tome into his bag, he then looked up and said, “A fine catch for the day. Let’s keep going deeper.”

The reward from opening the treasure chest had stirred their spirits.

Numerous straw huts stood beside the winding path. Still, they could only see some roaming Blazing Goblins as they looked towards the depth, and there was no telling where the depths were.

Innumerable variables fill the path ahead, but Nie Fan’s heart was filled with power once he remembered that it was a place his own father had walked.

If his father could do it back then, he could too!