Update Time: 2014-02-10
After leaving the class hall, Lin Zheng opened his quest log. Hmm, Horned Lizards are found in Qingfeng Forest, and Ore-Eating Beasts are in the nearby Gloomy Mine.
As for the fine iron ore, he could buy it from other players. Overall, the quest difficulty didn't seem too high; it just might take more time.
Qingfeng Forest's map description stated it was suitable for players Level 10-30 to level up. Due to the high density of monster distribution, it was recommended that players form a party before entering.
Thus, the area outside Qingfeng Forest was bustling with players seeking teammates!
Of course, some highly skilled and daring players chose to solo, like Yang Qi; soloing in Qingfeng Forest was effortless for her!
"Plate Guard seeking party! Need a tank!" a warrior who had just left Newbie Village shouted. However, his Newbie equipment made people doubt his defense and HP, so he shouted for a long time but no one invited him!
"Powerful Healer! Abundant healing!" A female priest had barely shouted when parties immediately scrambled to invite her. It was clear that priests, especially female priests, were hot commodities! They were indispensable classes in every game!
In addition, powerful DPS members were also very sought after. Marksmen and mages were highly popular, while Trap Hunters had a tougher time.
This was a class for bosses and PvP; for leveling, they truly had no outstanding qualities, lacking both output and defense.
Seeing those Trap Hunters shout themselves hoarse with few invites, it was truly a class-based society!
However, the Swordfighter class was quite popular. Their HP and defense were moderate, at least not squishy, and crucially, their output was good, with two AoE skills!
So, as soon as Lin Zheng appeared outside the forest, many people immediately invited him to join their party.
Lin Zheng's main goal right now was to complete the quest. Joining a party would definitely make the quest completion faster, as more people meant more monsters killed and more chances for quest item drops.
However, not every party was going to kill Horned Lizards, so Lin Zheng shouted: "Powerful Swordfighter here, seeking party to kill Horned Lizards! Anyone who wants me, take me!"
As soon as he shouted, a Guard walked up to Lin Zheng and said to him, "Brother, we're going to kill lizards, and we just happen to need a damage dealer. Coming or not!?"
Lin Zheng looked at the Guard. Good heavens! This guy's build, over 1.8 meters tall, all muscle, if he wasn't a Guard, who would be! With this build, his teammates would probably feel very secure!
Seeing his honest and trustworthy face, Lin Zheng also felt quite comfortable and nodded in agreement. "Player Overlord Heavy Armor invites you to join the party. Do you accept the application?"
He clicked accept, and with a sword-鳴 sound notification, Lin Zheng entered the party. At the same time, the party members' information popped up in a window.
There were five people, and with him, it made exactly six.
"Welcome to our party! I'll take you to meet the others! You can just call me Overlord!" Overlord Heavy Armor grinned.
Lin Zheng smiled in response, then followed him towards the forest. After walking for a short while, the two met their other teammates.
"Hello everyone! I am Yi Ping Daoist, a Swordfighter!" Lin Zheng introduced himself with a smile.
"Hello! My name is Longlong Longlongya! Just call me Longya, I'm a Mage!" This name choice, if you didn't know, when he said it, you'd think this guy was a stutterer.
Lin Zheng looked at this energetic Mage in front of him and immediately labeled him! An M-type! This guy was definitely an M-type!
"My name is Tifa, a Marksman!" Tifa!?
Looking at the valiant girl in front of him, Lin Zheng was surprised to find that this girl really resembled the one from Final Fantasy! Both her appearance and expression were extremely similar!
A soft girl! She was really cute!
Then, looking beside her, Lin Zheng was momentarily stunned. Whose little girl was this! At this height, she couldn't be 13 yet!
Didn't they say this game was only for people 18 and older?
"Um, didn't they say this game is only for people 18 and older?! How did this little sister get in?!" Lin Zheng pointed at the little loli.
It was better not to speak, but once he spoke, he ignited the little loli! He saw a vein pop on the little loli's forehead, and she opened her mouth and bit down on Lin Zheng's finger!
"Ah--" An inevitable scream rang out!
The little loli puffed out her face and angrily followed up with a kick to Lin Zheng, "You're the little sister! Your whole family are little sisters! I'm already 18! I'm a university student! I'm already an adult! I'm not a child! See! My being able to enter this game is the best proof! Don't you all agree?! Don't you all agree!?"
"Yes! Yes! Our Xiao Miao has grown up, good girl! Good girl!" Tifa smiled and hugged the little loli, saying.
The little loli buried her face in Tifa's chest and smiled very happily!
Indeed, very easy to coax! Still a child! Lin Zheng thought as he blew on his finger. No, he should say, indeed, she's a child!
"My name is Ji Du Chun Feng, a Rogue. You can call me whatever, 'Crazy Chun Feng' is fine!" The last teammate smiled kindly at Lin Zheng, "Xiao Miao is just like that, don't mind her!"
"Uh! I don't mind!" Lin Zheng recovered and chuckled dryly. Speaking of which, in this party, only Chun Feng seemed like a normal person. What an extraordinary party!
"Alright! All members are here, let's start killing Horned Lizards! Let's try to finish our quest before dinner!" Overlord clapped his hands and shouted.
He had some authority in the party; with his shout, the few who were fooling around also became serious, each taking out their weapons, ready to charge into the Horned Lizards' territory.
Overlord led the way, using the Guard's powerful skill "Charge." All the lower-level monsters were knocked away, leaving Lin Zheng dumbfounded. Fierce! Too fierce!
Since they didn't want to waste time on other monsters along the way, the few people followed closely behind Overlord. Before long, the party rushed to the side of a lake, which was also their destination, Breeze Lake.
The lakeside was full of huge Horned Lizards!
Horned Lizard: Level 16, Physical Attack 198-256, Physical Defense 124, Magic Defense 120, HP 1250. Lizards unique to the Breeze Lake area. Their horns are incredibly hard and extremely sharp. They prefer to live in groups.
Level 16 wasn't difficult for Lin Zheng. He could easily kill one in a one-on-one fight. The key was their tendency to live in groups. See? They gathered in twos and threes, and pulling one meant pulling three or four. If your skin wasn't thick enough and your health wasn't long enough, you couldn't tank them! Luckily, he came with a party; otherwise, it would take a lot more effort to kill 100 single-horned lizards.
"Let's get to work!" Overlord roared, gripping his axe and charging towards the nearest small group of lizards. When he got close, he let out an angry shout, using the "Provoke!" skill. The lizards all surrounded him and started attacking, and then the few people began to kill monsters with clear division of labor.
Dragonfang was the main damage dealer; after all, mages were known for their output. With one Chain Lightning, the lizards' health plummeted. However, this skill had a long cooldown, so after that, Dragonfang threw fireballs and ice bolts. Tifa, holding a bow and arrow, accurately shot at the low-health lizards, trying to eliminate them to reduce the pressure on Overlord. Beside her, little luoli Xiao Miao held a staff, occasionally healing Overlord and sometimes throwing a few magic bolts, looking incredibly relaxed.
As for Chun Feng, he had already rushed forward with his sword, bravely slashing away, but he was the one who didn't react in time and was just goofing off on the side. It wasn't until the system prompt, "Obtained one Lizard Horn!" that Lin Zheng suddenly snapped back to reality, pulled out his dagger, and charged forward.
A Swordfighter actually didn't have a Sword Blade Bow? The others were surprised and puzzled, thinking, 'This guy isn't so new that he doesn't even know how to pick a weapon, is he?!' Just as Overlord was feeling a bit down and called out to Lin Zheng, Lin Zheng had already rushed to the front line and immediately used Stomp. "Bang!" The ground trembled slightly, and several people stared in shock at the large amounts of damage floating above the lizards' heads: -700, -720, -738... It was even more spectacular than Dragonfang's Chain Lightning! This pervert! His damage output was too terrifying!
However, the few of them had seen their share of battles, so they quickly recovered. Then they found that the lizards surrounding Overlord were actually stunned. What a great opportunity! They immediately used all their skills and quickly wiped out this wave of lizards. At this moment, they were horrified to find that Lin Zheng was acting recklessly! He was actually wandering among several waves of lizards, pulling a large group of them back. Overlord's face immediately turned pale; there were dozens of them! If each bit him once, it would be enough to kill him several times over! Yi Ping, that guy, thought too highly of him!
However, to their surprise, Lin Zheng didn't lead the monsters towards Overlord. Instead, he made a turn midway, gathered the monster group into a cluster, and then suddenly leaped up, stomping down fiercely! The moment he stomped on a lizard, a flash of fire appeared, and a "Boom!" resounded. The area within ten meters was engulfed in flames, followed by countless damages floating above a thousand. It was incredibly brutal. Chun Feng immediately calculated from the damage that Lin Zheng's attack had reached around 500 points, which was absolutely top-tier attack power at this stage!
"Overlord! You've found an incredible guy!" Chun Feng muttered, and Overlord nodded in agreement. He had originally thought he was a noob, but it turned out he was a pervert!
"He's just so-so!" Xiao Miao still held a grudge against Lin Zheng. Although she now really wanted to scream and rush over to worship him, her eyes full of stars, she just didn't want this "great enemy" to treat her like a child again!
After an Explosion, although it instantly killed a large group of lizards, there were still a few that weren't affected and were now fiercely chasing their great enemy, Lin Zheng. Seeing this, Overlord quickly rushed forward to pull the monsters, otherwise Lin Zheng would be torn apart by the lizards. Lin Zheng, out of danger, let out a long sigh of relief. He was about to give the group of lizards chasing him another Stomp, but he awkwardly realized, damn, he was out of mana! His mana had always been a pitiful one point. Although it increased after his job change, he definitely only had 150 points now. If his dagger hadn't had the Spirit Gathering Aura, he probably wouldn't have even had enough mana for Explosion just now, and then pulling so many monsters would have just been a tragedy.
Sweat! He hadn't known before since he hadn't used skills, but once he used them, he realized how pitifully low his mana was. Luckily, he had the Spirit Gathering Aura, which was enough for consumption when not using major skills, after all, he wasn't a mage.
"Awesome, Yi Ping!" Overlord gave Lin Zheng a thumbs up. "I've seen several Swordfighters use this 'Explosion' skill, and their damage isn't even half of yours!"
"You're clearly stealing my job as a mage!" Dragonfang said "indignantly." As the highest damage dealer in the team, Dragonfang had always felt a great sense of accomplishment, but now he was completely outshone, tears streaming down his face!
"Hehe! I just got lucky with a good weapon at first. Later, when levels and equipment catch up, I estimate many people will surpass me!" Lin Zheng said very humbly. This was also the truth; if he didn't have any luck or progress, being surpassed would only be a matter of time.
"Who knows what will happen in the future! But you are definitely a top Swordfighter in Tianshuang City now!" Chun Feng was very fair and affirmed Lin Zheng's current strength! Lin Zheng felt a bit giddy from the praise.
"With such strong damage output from you, our mission will definitely be completed quickly. Everyone, keep up the good work!" Overlord exclaimed, and the team started killing monsters again. Through killing monsters and chatting, Lin Zheng also got to know the people in this small team a bit better. Overlord and the others were teammates they had known in "Phantom Spirit." Because they shared similar aspirations, they quickly became very good friends and have been playing together ever since. None of them had stable jobs and were now semi-professional players, except for Xiao Miao. The others also learned about Lin Zheng's current situation, and then Lin Zheng was honored to receive the nickname from Yang Qi in this team—Shengun Linzi! Lin Zheng was too lazy to refute it. Shengun is Shengun. Speaking of which, the nickname Shengun actually sounded much smoother than the name Yi Ping—Lin Zheng was full of resentment.
