Chapter 395: Silent Hail Town
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The all-out-war between Lone Desert Smoke against The Dominators and Imperial Sky and the rest of the guild was just a menial war among other greater and bigger guild wars in the whole region of China. Statically speaking, wars between guilds were always present. It could be triggered for all sorts of reasons, such as the case of Mining Cave rights, a revenge war, a retribution war, and etcetera.
In the real world, there were many limitations to how people could have their way with each other. Here, they sought out a way to let out their frustration in the game. Many a thing that could not be done in real life, were free to be done in the game.
One of the most direct approach to solve one’s conflict with one another, was a slaughter fest. Zhang Yang love picking fights, but he did not favor fights with no purpose behind them. That was why he had never thrown the first punch. That being said, if someone were to be bullying him, he would not give a f*ck about popping a sword in that guy’s head. Still, since Imperial Sky and The Dominator had been on his *ss for a couple of times, Zhang Yang was finally going to give up the final f*ck that he had been saving up. He started a retaliation, and he was not going to pull his punches.
He let each of his friends (Hundred Shots, Han Ying Xue, Wei Yan Er and the gang), to lead a team of their own to search and kill both Imperial Sky and The Dominators. Targeting the grinding spot of the two guilds, they had hunted down and killed as many members as they could, until both guilds were crying for their moms. As for Sun Xin Yu and Lost Dream, they teamed up and recruited seven to eight talented and well-equipped Thief class players, and formed a small hit squad. Their main targets were the higher leveled players of the two super guilds. All of these kill attempts had left One Sword Stroke, Liu Wei, and even Humbly Gentleman cowering behind the castle wall, fearing that once they leave, they would be instantly killed.
Players like One Sword Stroke, loved to grind alone, just as Zhang Yang would. As a natural high defense Guardian, One Sword Stroke was able to tank a Thief to his death. But that was only applicable in a 1v1 fight. If a group of Thieves was to jump on him and chain-stun him, lest being One Sword Stroke, not even Zhang Yang could survive that!
Upon passing the Level 80 threshold, gaining a Level would be tough as hell. There were many occasions where One Sword Stroke had worked his *ss off to amass 30% to 40% of his experience points, only to emptied down back to zero by Sun Xin Yu and her team of invisible creed of assassins. It was lucky for One Sword Stroke that the system had removed the Level penalty, or else, it would be a better revenge for Zhang Yang.
After being killed for so many occasions, One Sword Stroke had finally sortied a team to grind together with him. However, it was not of any use. Even a tiger would want to rest after hunting; the HP bar of a player would not always be full during a monster fight, and the healer would not want to overheal. Sun Xin Yu would carefully wait for the chance to strike One Sword Stroke at the moment where his HP was at its lowest and was vulnerable to attack.
In the previous life, One Sword Stroke and Sun Xin Yu were able to gain popularity due to their constant fights. In which case, most of their fights ended with Sun Xin Yu’s loss. Without a strong guild supporting her back, she was at disadvantage, since she did not have strong equipment. In this life, however, Sun Xin Yu had been supported by Zhang Yang all the way. She was able to completely crush One Sword Stroke due to her skills, and partly because of possessing the utmost strongest equipment that she could have ever obtained. To put in comparison, Sun Xin Yu could not have a 100% rate of winning a match against One Sword Stroke. However, it is safe to say that Sun Xin Yu and One Sword Stroke would be on equal terms with each other. On the other hand, Sun Xin Yu had taken the chance where One Sword Stroke had lowered his guard, causing him to lose a competitive advantage, allowing Sun Xin Yu to completely overthrow him.
According to her report, in just one week, Sun Xin Yu had killed One Sword Stroke 11 times, and had also obtained one Level 80 Yellow-Gold tier Chest Plate from him!
Being attacked at such brutality, One Sword Stroke plotted his revenge. He had recruited his own band of assassins to kill Zhang Yang. Sadly, their plans to taking Zhang Yang’s head would only be a pipe dream. Zhang Yang had the best of the best equipment, any Guardian could have. He had many skills, which included many life preserving skills that could save his *ss wherever he was ambushed. The most OP fact was, if he was indeed being cornered to a point of death, he could easily use the [Lover’s Charm] and escape unscathed. That, or he could use the [Party Summon Order] to instantly call in reinforcement to kick their sorry *sses.
As the conclusion, the fight between Lone Desert Smoke and Imperial Sky was won by Lone Desert Smoke, by a landslide!
Still, no war is without casualties. Lone Desert Smoke had a price to pay. There were many guild members who had been killed and lost their experience points, equipment, and gold (for equipment repairing). However, Zhang Yang had no need to burn a hole in his pocket to reimburse them for their losses, since he had a Territory income! On the contrary, Imperial Sky had nothing to reimburse their side.
Eventually, Imperial Sky finally raised the white flag. Most of their players had stopped playing for 3 days. When there are no players to kill, there is no war to fight. Thus, the war was called off. On the other hand, The Dominators had long since retired.
After the three-day cool off period, an armistice was called and everything returned to the way it should be, where players could return to the field to grind in peace.
Zhang Yang had reached Level 86 so far. To reach Level 90 was not all too far, but it was hard. For the next few days, Zhang Yang had dedicated his energy and time to fully focus only on ground.
He came to the Level 80 map, Grand Canyon of Eternal Night to train. The land was so large that there were too many other side quests to complete besides the Dimensional Key Fragment. There were still two other Level 80 maps with quests to complete, but since the canyon was the nearest to Thunderstorm Castle, Zhang Yang had prioritized the map first.
Along the path to a place called the Silent Hail Town, he remembered that there was a hidden quest available there. It had something to do with the Level 100 threshold update, which was said to be one of the valuable Inheritances, called the Vampire Inheritance.
There was one major flaw of the Inheritance, and that was that each player could only receive one.
Inheritances could not be forfeited and deleted. Once a player has accepted any kind of Inheritance, he or she could never accept a second one. That meant, that if they spot another kind of Inheritance that was better than the one that he or she had possessed, they had no other means than to give up on the newer one. That was why, it is of vital importance that during an Inheritance selection, one must think twice before accepting it. For this is the literal meaning of a once in a lifetime chance.
The Vampire Inheritance was indeed a good and most favorable Inheritance which could be accepted by any player or any class.
Inheritances were classified into two types. The first being, the rarest and strongest, that is the Unique tier Inheritance. The other was the common kind which was weaker and had a more standard enhancement, which was the General tier. Hence, a Unique Inheritance had been called the S class Inheritance. The General tier Inheritances were ranked at many levels. Some which were strong enough to reach roughly at the same level or approaching the level of S class Inheritance would be dubbed as the A class Inheritance. There were Inheritances that were so bad and useless that they had only provided a 10% in a certain attribute and would be dubbed as the Trash Inheritances or the Z class.
Vampire Inheritance was classified as a General tier Inheritance with a B class rating. It was naturally strong for a good reason. However, Zhang Yang did not want it. His target was the S class God of War Inheritance! There was no reason for him to accept the quest for the Vampire Inheritance. Still, there was lose hope in completing the Vampire Inheritance in a Level 80 map. Even if he could trigger the quest and complete it, he would only be obtaining a piece of the Inheritance Shard and not the main piece. There’s absolutely no way for him to complete the Inheritance quest without entering the Level 100 maps.
However, just because he did not want it, that would not mean that other players would not want them either. As mentioned before, A classes almost, or approach the ability of an S class Inheritance. Vampire Inheritance was B class rated and was still extremely strong.
Zhang Yang riding his Gold-Eared Bear King towards the night sky of the Grand Canyon of Eternal Night. Just when he had seen the silhouette of Silent Hail Town, he heard a deafening shriek which caused Zhang Yang to pull the reins of the bear to a complete stop.
"What the f*ck was that…"
From the far side, where the forests end, he saw a human figure jumping out of the bushes. She was tall and slender, having long hair that dangled in the winds as she ran at full speed away from the forest. In her hand, she held a short and shiny dagger that reflected the stars in the night sky.
[Sherryl] (Elite, Humanoid)
Level: 83
HP: 32,467 / 83,000
Defense: 450
Just two seconds after she came out of the forest, two more shadowy figures jumped out to chase after her. Those two were vampires with razor-sharp fangs. However, unlike the Dracula, those two did not have bat wings. They were probably a lower-classed vampire. Only high-ranking vampires could have wings!
[Lower Vampire] (Elite, Spectre)
Level: 84
HP: 84,000
Defense: 450
At this time, Sherryl did a reverse somersault. The blade in her hand glittered as she flew backward in the sky. With a quick strike, she pierced one of the vampires in the chest with sniper-like accuracy.
"GRAHH!" The vampire screamed in agony as the stab in his chest started to glow in a bright white light, consuming its entire body which turned him into a dead man. Sherryl had just one shot killed the vampire!
Zhang Yang figured that the dagger must be blessed with some sort of holy water or that sort of thing. Unless the dagger was coated with holy water, there was no way that an elite tier NPC could kill an elite tier monster in one single strike.
Zhang Yang rode as quickly as he could towards the NPC and threw a {Spear of Obliteration} towards the remaining vampire.
"You’re nothing but food to us! How dare you rebel!" cried the last vampire on the scene. It then jumped towards Zhang Yang with his arms wide open, ready to stab Zhang Yang with 10 claws.
"Watch it!" said Sherryl as she hurled herself and kicked the vampire aside with a dropkick.
Zhang Yang laughed and readied his sword and shield. "Relax, I had it under control. It’s just a vampire. It could not even put a scratch on me!"
"How insolent! You dared to look down on the vampires?!" bellowed the vampire.
Zhang Yang sighed and slaughtered the mere Level 84 elite vampire. With the help from an elite NPC, the vampire was quickly killed without even the need to use any long cooldown skill. The vampire dead body turned into a clump of fine ash, leaving Zhang Yang a few [Silk], and coins.
"Warrior! You’re strong!" said Sherryl as she sheathed her tiny blade into her side.
"So are you! Where do you learn to fight like that?" said Zhang Yang with a smile.
"Hmm. Please, I must ask you to rest at my house. It’s been a long time since I had met a strong warrior such as you!" said Sherryl with an invitation.
Even though the NPC had verbally invited Zhang Yang, he did not receive any quest notification. It seems like Zhang Yang had only helped the NPC with a small chore. Perhaps it had not reached to the point of triggering a quest. Zhang Yang nodded and followed Sherryl.
Since Sherryl was on her foot the whole time, Zhang Yang unsummoned the bear and walked side by side with the NPC for close to 20 minutes before reaching the town. Since the canyon was eternally dark, the town was even darker. With the cold draft blowing across the town, carrying the frozen flakes of snow. The temperature of the entire place was close to subzero. Even though the time was supposed to be daytime, the place was only illuminated by lit torches around the town. There were close to 10 families around the town, though there were still a few kids playing in the snow in the streets. At least, that was the only source of laughter and vigor emanating from the entire town.
"Warrior, our town had always been under the threat of the vampire clan," said Sherryl as she sighed heavily. "This place…This canyon has never seen daylight. While I’m sure that other places in this land have seen day and night, this place, however, has only been blessed with endless snow and nights. We do have daylight, or as should I call it, a temporary shine. At most, we do have 3 hours of sunlight in this place every day. Those creatures hated the light, yet…they treat this place as their paradise!"
Zhang Yang nodded to acknowledge her statement. "I do have one question. Why didn’t you guys leave?’
Sherryl laughed bitterly. "Is not that we don’t want to. We couldn’t. Vampires live on blood, and their favorite was always human blood. They had enclosed us like live stocks, waiting to be eaten when they are hungry. There is no way to leave this place without being killed! It’s funny. Since it’s always snowing, we had difficulty in farming crops and food. When the situation had escalated to a point where hunting for food was an impossible task, they would hand deliver us dried up animals that have had their blood sucked dry!"
Zhang Yang started to frown.
"Worst of all, a few townsmen had begun to appreciate these creatures for delivering food! Sloths had manifested themselves in the hearts of the townsmen! They had already given up on fighting back since they were powerless, to begin with. All they can do is wait and die," said Sherryl disappointingly.
Zhang Yang frowned even harder. "Don’t those people know that, even though they could still live, but they would be under the constant fear of being the next meal for the vampire?"
"They had ways to cope with that. Although no one had ever said it out loud, everyone is always wishing and praying hard that the monthly sacrifice would not be them!" said Sherryl.
Zhang Yang nodded his head. "I understand. Let’s go."
The two of them entered the town and headed straight to her house. The brick house was slightly larger than the normal houses in town. Once they had entered, Sherryl quickly prepared the fireplace and burned a few logs to warm the house.
Zhang Yang thanked Sherryl for her kind gesture but in truth, he had not felt anything. Zhang Yang had already tweaked the sensory settings and had made sure that he would not feel the change of temperature to the extreme. "Where are your parents?"
There was a short silence when Sherryl answered with a bitter sad tone. "My mother had been chosen to be a sacrifice. My father had charged into the castle of the vampire to save my mother and had never come back." There was a sudden glint in her eyes and her voice was filled with rage. "Someday, I will drop the hammer of justice upon all these creatures!"
Sherryl excuse herself and went to prepare dinner for the both of them. After eating, Sherryl HP was recovered back to full health.
While cleaning up, Zhang Yang asked, "I understand that the vampire would only hunt humans for food. Why would they try to kill you?"
Sherryl scoffed. "I had inherited my father’s will to become a Vampire Hunter! One month after I entered adulthood, I have already killed 13 vampires!"
"Wait. You’re just 16 years old?" asked Zhang Yang, surprised.
In the game, 16 years old was considered to be adulthood. Sherryl nodded her head.
As expected of a westerner, they had the tendency to reach puberty faster than any Asian. Sherryl had a mature face and a slender, voluptuous body of a grown woman. If Wei Yan Er was present, she would definitely be jealous till kingdom come!
Zhang Yang snickered quietly and said, "If you want…I could escort you out from here."
From where Zhang Yang stood, he understood that the Vampire Inheritance quest should be located in Silent Hail Town, and the NPC who was supposed to give out the quest was Sherryl. However, from where he stood right then, he did not know where his progress was. How or where the quest started was completely mysterious to him. Even though the Vampire Inheritance was considered to be a General tier Inheritance, but the means and paths of the quest taken by players who wish to receive the Vampire Inheritance were different!
Just like a maze with four entry points, players would start quests from a different point or story, only to reach the final point, which was the quest itself. Hence, this pathway was revealed secretly by a player that had discovered and had completed the Sherryl route. It was lucky that Zhang Yang had even remembered about the quest! Among all the other Inheritance quests, this was the only one available under Level 100.