Chapter 63: Tidal Flat Exploration

When everyone was getting ready to challenge the new dungeon, Edward’s party who were part of the pioneer team were on a tidal flat nearby, their steps leaving footprints on the damp sand.

This place was very close to the sea, and accompanying the slightly fishy smell of the sea were the sound of waves, and the chirping seabirds were quite loud too. That being said, the sounds coupled with the scenery of the vast sea and sky made the entire image complete.

Other than the five in Edward’s party, Vela who was Angora’s right-hand woman tagged along with them this time.

In this world, other than when it was absolutely necessary, most people wouldn’t travel by sea, or even go near to the sea at all.

The reason was simple—There were many times more monsters in the sea than on land, and even near the shore.

Even if someone was walking on the land by the shore, it would be easy to get attacked by amphibious monsters…

Like now, for example, when a monster that looked like an anomalocaris with a shell that resembled armor jumped out from the sea and attacked the party!

As the cream of the crop among all the players, the party reacted quite quickly and got into formation—Joe who had class changed into a Spirit Swordsman blocked the monster. Edward, Gou Dan, and Vela were in charge of attacking and kiting, while Eleena and Jessica were in charge of healing and buffs.

After a short while, the sea monster wailed in pain as it dropped dead, disappearing into the sand after leaving behind two forelegs that looked like saws.

Joe had barely gotten hurt and had snatched the final strike on the monster, his eyes practically sparkling with glee. “This class is so awesome!”

As the first player that had successfully class changed into a Spirit Swordsman, so he was still experimenting with his skills, but even with the simple help of the familiar spirit, it already had significantly impacted his battle style.

Like the sea monster from earlier, if he was still in his earlier class, he would definitely have lost at least a third of his HP from tanking the hits for so long.

After getting the familiar spirit that could tank and attract aggro for him, he could exchange the target of the enemy between him and the familiar spirit to break its combos and prevent them from getting in all the damage.

Not only was it easier to tank damage and defend his allies, but he would also get to damage the enemy even more.

In terms of overall contribution, his damage was only lower than Edward who focused on attacking, and this was after he had been focusing almost completely on defense, and only started attacking with Evil Blade mode at the last minute. It seemed that if a Spirit Swordsman completely went with the skill tree of the Evil Blade, it would definitely have the highest attacking power in this update.

“So class change seems much stronger than regular classes… Why didn’t you class change into a Shadow Rogue, Mr. Doug?” After she saw Joe’s performance in battle, Vela asked the other person who had qualifications to class change in the party: “You’re Level 15, unlike me who’s just Level 10, right?”

“Ahaha….I wonder why? I actually don’t know myself…” Gou Dan scratched at the back of his head sheepishly.

“Don’t listen to him, the only reason why he didn’t class change was because he didn’t want the archery that his dad taught him to be lost in his hands.” Edward started chewing his own party member out. “Only because Shadow Rogues can’t use bows and arrows.”

“Leader, why are you like this?” Gou Dan groaned. “Does it make you happy by embarrassing me?”

“Yes, it makes me very happy! Look, mages don’t even have a chance to class change and can just eat Sourboo Fruit(a fruit like a lemon) at a side in envy. You have the chance to class change, but you gave it up, so of course I don’t feel happy about it!” Edward replied directly, before advising, “The chance to grow stronger is right in front of you, so don’t give up, don’t you ever stop… 1”

“What are you saying, leader? I think that the God of Games has his own meticulous plans for not directly class changing us after we’re high leveled enough. Perhaps rangers can even class change into other classes that are focused on archery in the future?” Gou Dan guessed. “Or else it wouldn’t be rational for rangers to be able to do archery in the first place, so He must be planning something for us!”

“Did you think of this by yourself?” Edward asked, his brow furrowed.

“No, it’s just that a lot of the other rangers plan to give it a moment before class changing too, without changing right away.”

Edward seemed to want to retort even further, but Vela didn’t plan to let the party start fighting over this, so she spoke up to cut them off beforehand.

“Not that I’m displeased about it, but is it alright to let such a young child join us?”

Vela looked at the silver-haired girl who was happily licking a lollipop and asked worriedly.

Feeling Vela’s gaze on her, Eleena hid her packet of sweets and candies and gazed at her warily, not planning to share the candy that she had received from Xi Wei.

Edward set aside his confusion after hearing her question and decided to ask the ‘archbishop’ Xi Wei about it the next time they met. He rubbed his cheeks that had become a little stiff from the sea breeze, before smiling.

Not even him, but Joe Gou Dan and Jessica all smiled, as if Vela was telling a joke.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover, Ms. Vela. If it were just in terms of battle power, she’s probably the strongest of us all.” Edward reassured.

“…Are you joking?’ Vela evidently didn’t believe in what Edward said.

To this, Edward shrugged nonchalantly, almost rolling his eyes at Vela.

“If you don’t believe in our strength, why did you ask us to help you with this quest in the first place? Wouldn’t it be good to ask Mr. Marni and Mr. Ivan, or even Princess Leah’s party?” Jessica didn’t want things to get awkward between them, so she tried to redirect the conversation.

“Mr. Marni has been helping Lord Angora build and expand the merchant roads of the town, so he didn’t have any time to do this mission. Princess Leah, on the other hand, was quite keen on doing this quest, but as soon as she went, “My loyal followers, it is time to expand Tierra and make history!”, Elder Vanke dragged her away with an exasperated expression…”

Hearing her words, Joe and Gou Dan’s expression crumpled. So it wasn’t because she believed in them, but because she had no one else to ask?

Suddenly, Eleena stopped in her steps.

Edward was about to ask why she did so, before his own expression turned serious, raising his hand to stop Vela who was about to speak, and whispered with a voice that only the party could hear. “We’ve been surrounded.”