Chapter 124: The Veteran Driver Takes You for a Ride

The fishmen here were of a higher level. Even a shot to a vital spot had failed to kill one outright, but Lu Kuan did not need to strike again. Without healing, the ensuing bleeding damage would soon claim the life of the fishman hunter.

At the very front of the battlefield, Dai Guang had already summoned two arrow boars. Together with Qingyi, they rampaged through the mass of fishmen, crushing their way forward like a pair of bulldozers.

“Bang!”

A tiny orange cat exploded amid the fishmen, blossoming into a vast burst of yellow light. Wherever the radiance passed, damage numbers immediately rose above the fishmen’s heads. It was the spirit ally summoned by Bai Keke.

Combined with A Kui’s staff effects, the battlefield erupted in flashing lights and incessant blasts. Wave after wave of fishmen shrieked and fell, and the devastating power of area-of-effect spells was displayed to the fullest.

Qingyi remained silent throughout, yet she played the most important role of all. She constantly intercepted the strongest fishmen, using her polished technique and practiced footwork to create room for her companions to cast their spells.

After two days of fighting together, Dai Guang and the three girls had grown increasingly well-coordinated, greatly enhancing the strength of the party.

The fishmen here had no ability to fight back. With only two waves of spells, entire clusters of them fell. In less than an hour, half the fishmen along the lakeshore had been cleared out, and the group had nearly completed their objectives.

“Wonderful!”

Dai Guang roared excitedly as he smashed the fishman before him to the ground with his hammer. The two magical arrow boars beside him were glowing bright red, clearly having entered their unique berserk state after killing too many monsters.

Bai Keke’s round cheeks were flushed with excitement. “This quest should reward at least a hundred reputation points. At this rate, perhaps we can raise our reputation with Clear Water Stronghold to Honored before nightfall~”

Everyone was visibly thrilled. Even Qingyi, who usually revealed nothing of her emotions, wore an expression of enjoyment after such a thoroughly exhilarating battle. Crushing monsters felt incredibly satisfying—especially when these monsters were not low-level creatures.

Lu Kuan smiled. The higher one’s reputation, the more difficult the available quests became, and the greater the rewards. That was why he had urged everyone to come over as quickly as possible.

By taking the lead in quest progress, they could effectively prevent others from competing for monsters or claiming territory. The players who arrived later could fight among themselves. His group would only leave them farther and farther behind.

“Hm?”

After cutting down an irritating fishman hunter, Qingyi unexpectedly found a small crossbow glowing green beneath its corpse.

“It dropped a weapon!”

The same thought arose in everyone’s mind at once. Getting ordinary monsters in Echoes of the Gods to drop weapons was practically harder than climbing to the heavens. They had spent two days grinding monsters around Clear Water Stronghold and had seen plenty of trash green equipment, but this was the first weapon they had obtained.

“Worn Fishman Hunting Crossbow (Fine Hand Crossbow)
One-handed

Equipment Requirement: Level 11
Weight: 3
Durability: 70%
Effective Range: 35 meters
Reload Speed: 2
Damage: +2
Ranged Weapon Trait: Accuracy -15%”

Qingyi casually posted the weapon’s attributes in the party channel, then looked at Lu Kuan. “Do you want it?”

“Put it up for auction. The attributes are too terrible,” Lu Kuan said with a laugh.

Dai Guang, standing nearby, was puzzled. “Old Lu, isn’t your hunting bow a two-handed weapon? It wouldn’t hurt to keep a one-handed crossbow as a backup~”

Lu Kuan shook his head. “That depends on the weapon’s quality. Using this thing would be slower than simply hacking away with a blade.”

He was not exaggerating.

In the near future, rangers would split into two major factions. One would be the super-sniper school, specializing in extreme long-range attacks and represented by the advanced class Marksman. The other would abandon the pursuit of precision strikes capable of killing in a single blow, instead developing both ranged attacks and melee combat—the crossbow-and-blade school.

The standard equipment for the latter was a one-handed crossbow paired with a one-handed weapon. However, this build placed extraordinary demands on weapon quality. Without two purple-grade weapons, it was virtually impossible to make it work.

Crossbows differed from bows in that their attack speed was fixed. The one-handed crossbow before them had a speed of two, meaning it could fire one bolt every two seconds.

Without a one-handed crossbow boasting both extremely high damage and exceptional attack speed, playing the crossbow-and-blade school was nothing more than a joke.

Lu Kuan’s advanced class, Beastmaster, leaned toward the latter path. But his ambitions went far beyond that. His ultimate goal was to combine the ability to kill with a single shot, powerful pets, and formidable melee combat.

Nothing encouraged players more than the sight of equipment dropping. After a brief recovery, the party charged toward the school of fishmen once more, led by Dai Guang’s wild cries.

Lu Kuan remained behind everyone else, eliminating the most dangerous monsters while constantly surveying his surroundings. Years of gaming had taught him to remain vigilant at all times.

Before long, several figures in the distance caught Lu Kuan’s attention.

It was a party of seven advancing slowly along the lakeshore. From the look of things, they seemed to be carefully avoiding the fishmen there, unwilling to provoke a battle.

Lu Kuan gave the party a warning, and everyone immediately noticed the newcomers.

“At present, I’m the only one in all of Clear Water Stronghold who can accept the quest here,” Lu Kuan said decisively. The implication was clear: those people had certainly not come to complete the quest.

A Kui shaded his eyes with one hand and watched for a while. “Maybe they’re players exploring the map? So many fishmen suddenly appeared here. It wouldn’t be strange for them to come over out of curiosity.”

Lu Kuan smiled. “That’s possible. But what do you think are the odds that all seven of them are above level seventeen?”

“Huh? What do you mean?” A Kui blinked in confusion.

“Look at the route they’re taking. It appears they’re walking around the monsters, but in reality, they aren’t far enough away.” Lu Kuan pointed toward the person at the front and patiently explained, “A level-twelve fishman hunter has an aggro range of roughly fifteen meters against players of the same level. Judging from the route they just took, they would need to be at least level seventeen to avoid being detected.”

Everyone found this novel and turned to look again. But the group was too far away. Accurately judging distance with the naked eye—down to the meter—was practically impossible.

“What does that prove?” Dai Guang asked, scratching his head.

Lu Kuan glanced toward the distant figures, narrowing his eyes. “It proves that those people aren’t hostile toward the fishmen. They must be at least neutral toward each other, which is why the fishmen aren’t attacking them. They’re probably the people doing the opposing faction’s quest.”

Dai Guang immediately understood and slapped his thigh. “They’re the guys doing the opposition quest—the other side’s people!”

“You idiot. You’re so slow to catch on,” A Kui said, shooting him a sidelong glance.

Dai Guang did not mind in the slightest. Instead, he gave A Kui a simpleminded grin, and A Kui could not help but burst out laughing.

Only Qingyi remained expressionless. She wiped the blood from her hammer against the ground and asked, “Get ready to fight… now?”

“Mm.” Lu Kuan nodded as he watched the seven figures in the distance slowly approach, pretending not to be doing so. With a quiet smile, he said, “Wait for them to come over.”