Chapter 33

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Grievous Harm was one of twenty-six party leaders working at Wandering Souls Studios, a group that accepts various assassination quests and in turn earn their pay. Each leader was assigned with two followers, and almost half of the players in Wandering Souls were Thief-class. Aside from profit, another advantage of killing players was to loot their items, and since Wandering Souls rarely fail under most circumstances, their items were quite fine.

The studio itself also has a powerful intelligence network in place. They had immediately received word once Nie Fan arrived in Tajit Village, after which Grievous Harm led two of his underlings and set an ambush outside.

It was quite the unlucky day for Grievous Harm, however—first, their target noticed stalking, and then they had one of theirs killed in retaliation, something which never happened before. Moreover, with their client watching a livestream, Wandering Souls Studios would have nowhere to show their faces if they failed to kill Nie Fan!

As such, Grievous Harm was anxious to reclaim their honor, attacking lethally at the get go and with an unyielding attitude.

Even so, his first blow, intended to knock out Nie Fan was evaded. Still, he did not give up, and aimed his second strike at Nie Fan’s throat.

Life and death hung within a split second!

Watching as the sharp dagger was about to hit his neck, Nie Fan promptly leaped away while still facing the dagger.

With a slashing sound, the dagger cut through Nie Fan’s belly and another damage value just above seventy popped up over his head again. After suffering two hits, Nie Fan had finally managed to leap to Grievous Harm’s flank.

Even so, there was no chance that he would spare Nie Fan. Locking on to Nie Fan’s position with the corner of his eye, he stabbed down ferociously with his dagger.

Die!

Grievous Harm could see from Nie Fan’s HP bar that most of his HP was gone from his two chained strikes. He is definitely getting him with this one!

Thud!

A cold smile of delight flashed over his face as he watched his dagger plunge into Nie Fan’s body, but he also abruptly felt that his dagger had hit thin air. What was going on?

Then, the cheetah in front of him suddenly turned illusory before eventually fading.

He turned to find that Nie Fan had already dashed five yards away.

Moreover, his speed after Cheetahmorph was simply too swift, and it did not take more than a few steps for Grievous Harm to realize that he would never catch up.

His face turned to a frightening scowl. He was actually fooled by Nie Fan’s Phantom.

When Nie Fan pulled around sixteen yards away, he looked aside to find that the other Thief whom he dumped Black Oil on was still drenched in the sticky fluid. With a turn of his paw, he shot a Mini Fireball at the man.

Grievous Harm smiled in disdain. A mere fireball, he thought.

All classes wouldn’t have any strong offensive skills at the early game after all. No matter how powerful Nie Fan’s attack stat was, the Mini Fireball would at best knock off up to 20 HP.

Nonetheless, that Mini Fireball struck his underling with an echoing bang. The stunning wave of hit spread, almost sending Grievous Harm flying and was followed by his party mate’s blood-curdling screams.

The Thief was completely consumed in the flames and he dropped to the ground, his HP emptied within moments.

[System: Your friend Codfish has died.]

Grievous Harm took it all in with sheer shock. ‘That’s the effect of a Black Oil and Mini Fireball combo?’ He thought in horror.

There were thousands of novice skills available in the early game for all classes, with most matching with others to produce certain special effects. And since Black Oil and Mini Fireball appeared to be the least useful amongst those skills, no one expected that putting them together would cause such devastation!

After all, thousands of novice skills would at least form dozens of thousand combinations, and yet it was Mini Fireball and Black Oil that could combine for the highest damage. Moreover, Nie Fan’s skills had been buffed with the Ring of Fate to a shocking Level 5, and using that combo now meant several times the damage, even instantly offing Grievous Harm’s party member.

Indeed, Grievous Harm felt as if his heart was stabbed violently at the successive deaths of his underlings. He wanted to reclaim their items, only to find that Nie Fan was still there and eyeing the corpses like a tiger glaring at its prey.

It’s going to be bad if Nie Fan ambushed him while he tried to recover those items.

Whether it the terrifying Vines or the destructive Black Oil and Mini Fireball combo, all of Nie Fan’s skills were simply too strong that Grievous Harm felt a little troubled then.

Why did he have to be assigned such a ridiculous target?! He had fought many skilled players, even gamers from major studios—but he never even heard of someone with Dark Night’s caliber!

Intimidated by Nie Fans’ skills, Grievous Harm refrained from getting too close. He glanced at his skill bar just then to find that his Cloak skill was still on cooldown.

On the other hand, Nie Fan shot Grievous Harm a glance, and after noting that he did not dare to come to him, he started to loot the dead Thieves’ corpses.

He’s going to take those items!

Grievous Harm exploded in rage. Nie Fan was completely ignoring his presence, and started walking towards him—but when he was within ten yards away, Nie Fan released a shot of Toxic Miasma at Grievous Harm, hurtling a black cloud at him.

What? Toxic Miasma?

That rubbish of a skill, Toxic Miasma?

Grievous Harm was taken aback. What good would it do for Nie Fan to use it against him?

Be that as it may, there was no way he could be sure that it was really Toxic Miasma—just a while ago, one of his party members had fallen victim to what he assumed to be the rubbish Vine skill and the other burned to death by the minor skills Black Oil and Mini Fireball. If that black cloud was some horrific skill as well…

At that thought, Grievous Harm quickly retreated when the black cloud suddenly exploded in front of him, splitting apart before fading.

It was only after the Toxic Miasma was gone that Grievous Harm could clearly see the situation: Nie Fan had already picked up the items that Grievous Harm’s party members had dropped, while Grievous Harm himself could do nothing despite his inconsolable rage.

Nie Fan could not help chuckling when he saw Grievous Harm being scared off by Toxic Miasma. That idiot!

Even if this was his first PK, he was rewarded heavily, killing two and looting two items. Though they were White-grade, they were still Level 20 and could sell for some money. Moreover, Nie Fan learned from the fight that he was powerful enough at the moment, and killing one or two players of the same level was easy.

Nie Fan decided that he couldn’t do anything when he saw that Grievous Wound was not approaching him. Shooting him a cold glare, he then turned and sprinted away—he had things to do after all, and had no time to waste here.

Grievous Harm chased after Nie Fan for some distance as he ran, but gave up when he realized once again that he just couldn’t keep up.

It seemed that his quest couldn’t be accomplished this time around.

Xu Hong, who was still watching the livestream clenched his fist. Three of the Thieves attempting a group assault on Nie Fan ended up with two of their own dead, not to mention that Nie Fan’s ability went completely beyond what they could imagine.

“Wandering Souls Studio gamers are so weak. Three of you can’t even handle a single Druid.” Xu Hong sent Grievous Harm a very disgruntled message.

“Young Master Xu, you could see for yourself that our opponent is uncommon in ability. But be at ease, we would soon send more men—satisfaction guaranteed.” In the end, Xu Hong was Grievous Harm’s client, and he would be courteous despite his client’s rudeness.

That being said, the game had barely started and Nie Fan was already that powerful. If he continues to grow at that rate, Xu Hong would never be able to hold up against Nie Fan soon enough.

“I’ll double your pay. Send twice the number of people, and kill him until he drops to level zero!” He demanded spitefully.

“Understood.” Grievous Harm nodded.

That being said, it was not about the money—now, the reputation of Wandering Souls Studios was at stake, and they would have sent more people even if Xu Hong did not pay more. Such was their principle as professionals: whatever the price, the client’s commission must be accomplished.

After the Wandering Souls Studios received Grievous Harm’s message, they sent out five more Thieves to work under his command.

Nie Fan’s death was all but assured if he appeared at Tajit Village.