Chapter 143: Arm Strength from Fifty Years of Being Single

The barbarian's great axe was sent flying directly, tracing an arc through the air before plunging into the lake with a splash.

"Who the hell..."

Startled by the human ranger who had appeared before him like a ghost, the barbarian warrior felt a surge of panic, but immediately remembering his many brothers standing behind him, he hardened his resolve and prepared to unleash a torrent of abuse.

He was met with a swift, silent arrow.

"-220!"

The arrow pierced straight through the barbarian's chest, punching out the other side and embedding itself deeply into the ground with a soft thud. Even after the barbarian dissolved into a beam of white light and vanished into thin air, the fletching at the end of the shaft was still trembling violently.

The players who had been on the verge of charging forward were left dumbfounded by this sudden turn of events. Subconsciously, their gazes shifted to the ranger standing in front of Mother Hua: shoulder guards shaped like giant teeth, a breastplate faintly glowing with golden light...

Wasn't this the high-level foreign ranger they had encountered earlier?

A flash of white light illuminated the resurrection point, and the barbarian warrior quickly respawned. This time, however, the fellow was much more well-behaved; giving the lakeside where Lu Kuan stood a wide berth, he kept his head down and trudged back to his companions.

Lu Kuan put away his bow and swept a glance across the dozen or so players opposite him. The opposing group immediately took a synchronized step back, treating him as though he were a formidable enemy, while a few even turned around and walked away directly.

In the starter village, players suffered no penalties for dying in PK, and the initiator of unprovoked PK would be instantly executed by guards. Consequently, very few people had the idle time to pick fights in the starter village.

Yet there were exceptions—such as this gang of players who were accustomed to running amok in the starter village. If they bore a grudge against someone, they would take turns ambushing and harassing their target until the victim suffered a mental breakdown and was forced to log off in despair.

Unfortunately for them, they hadn't expected Lu Kuan's reflexes to be so lightning-fast, directly intercepting the barbarian warrior's attack. Now, Lu Kuan had full justification to retaliate and strike back at will.

Mother Hua and her companions were equally dumbfounded. Unlike the fear and shock gripping the opposite group, however, their astonishment was absolute.

Mother Hua had seen it clearly just a moment ago: Lu Kuan had deflected the barbarian's heavy axe using only a short sword, and he had done it with a single hand!

In Echo of Gods, there was a level suppression mechanic, but level suppression only affected hit rate and damage output, not base attributes. For instance, if a level 10 barbarian with 10 strength went blade-to-blade with a level 15 ranger possessing 7 strength, the one sent flying would invariably be the ranger.

"Then this Old Deer must be a strength-build ranger," Mother Hua immediately concluded.

Had Mother Hua known that Lu Kuan not only possessed a staggering 13 points in strength but also an agility stat even higher than his strength, one could only wonder what her thoughts would be.

While both sides stood frozen in stunned silence, only Lu Kuan let out a scoff of derision, thinking to himself that fifty years of bachelor-level arm strength was nothing to scoff at.

Then, acting as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened, Lu Kuan turned around and urged Deep Sea Loach, "Hurry up, don't let the silver-winged fish get away!"

"Ah? Oh, oh, oh..."

Deep Sea Loach blinked, snapping back to reality. Remembering he was still holding the fishing rod, he hurriedly resumed the fishing stance. Meanwhile, Lu Kuan pulled out the glass bottle he had purchased for 50 gold pieces from his bag and filled it halfway with water from the edge of the lake.

Before long, a small silver-winged fish was scooped up with the landing net. The moment it left the water, the silvery radiance glowing over the fish's body began to fade at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Displaying remarkable composure without panicking, Deep Sea Loach carefully unhooked the fish, gripped the creature securely in one hand, positioned his fist over the mouth of the bottle, and steadily guided the small fish inside.

"Plop~"

The little fish darted into the water, swam around a few times, and its scales once more emitted a silvery-white phosphorescence. Looking lively and agile, it had evidently returned to a completely normal state.

"Whoa~"

The surrounding group could no longer contain their astonishment and crowded closer to observe the sight in detail.

Everyone in White Water Village knew of these little fish in the holy pool—first, because they were exceedingly rare, with no reports of them existing anywhere else in the game, and second, because they died the instant they left the water. After all this time, this was the very first time anyone had ever found a solution.

"Is this bottle from that old man at the temple? Could this be a hidden quest?" Full of rising curiosity, one of them couldn't help but ask.

Lu Kuan replied, "There is indeed a quest, but your levels are too low. Even if you bought the bottle, you wouldn't be able to do it."

"Tsk tsk, I suppose so. Besides, I couldn't afford it anyway; when I went to buy it last time, they asked me for 10 gold coins. Such a total rip-off," the player said resentfully with a look of deep regret.

Lu Kuan smiled, then traded 50 silver coins to Deep Sea Loach, saying, "Here, this is the payment for this fish. Keep up the good work, everyone~"

"Alright! Let's go!"

Seeing the silver coins genuinely land in his inventory, Deep Sea Loach wore an expression of sheer excitement and couldn't help breaking into a wide grin.

"You big fool, stop daydreaming~" Mother Hua chuckled, reaching out to give Deep Sea Loach a light pinch. Snapping back to his senses, Deep Sea Loach immediately joined his companions in continuing their grand fishing enterprise.

As for those novice players who had also grown interested in the silver-winged fish, Lu Kuan couldn't be bothered to pay them any mind.

Those opponents might simply have been curious, or perhaps they too had discerned the connection between the silver-winged fish and the temple, hoping to uncover its secrets... but none of that mattered.

At present, Lu Kuan operated under a single guiding principle when doing quests: he didn't fear competitors. As long as they didn't come to cause trouble, Lu Kuan would carry out his quests step by step.

After all, no one could possibly move faster than him.

Money wielded tremendous power. Seeing that Lu Kuan truly kept his word, the four members of Deep Sea Loach's group completely settled down, focusing their minds entirely on fishing.

Midway through, the small fire elemental refreshed once more, but before the other party even had a chance to make a move, Lu Kuan sent it packing back to its respawn point.

Gradually, the afternoon arrived. As the hottest part of the day passed, the soft white light within the holy pool became increasingly prominent and breathtakingly beautiful.

By this time, Lu Kuan's glass bottle already contained nine gorgeous silver-winged fish.

In the middle of all this, Dai Guang sent Lu Kuan some wonderful news: he had also farmed enough reputation with Aaron the chef and successfully acquired the purple-tier cooking recipe.

"Haha, fantastic! What are its stats?" Lu Kuan asked happily.

Dai Guang seemed equally thrilled, his voice carrying a note of excitement: "It adds a stat to all cooked products, increasing maximum health by 5%, and it stacks with effects of the same type."

"Mm, not bad at all~"

Lu Kuan nodded involuntarily. This was indeed a stellar attribute.

The ability to stack with similar effects meant it could synergize with food items that already boosted health, maximizing the total health increase. It was bound to be an essential category of cooked goods for tanks.

"Fatty, didn't I leave you some gold coins before I left?"

Lu Kuan pondered for a moment before saying, "Take half of it to buy raw materials. Over the next few days, aside from leveling up during the day, spend all your time at night and in the wee hours of the morning strictly on cooking."

Hearing this, Dai Guang looked somewhat startled and hesitated. "That much? Half? You left me 1,000 gold coins, you know. Would spending all of that on cooking materials be too wasteful..."

Dai Guang's hesitation was understandable, because cooking skills weren't particularly lucrative at the moment. This wasn't because cooking was useless, but rather because the barrier of entry for this life skill was simply too low; anyone could learn it and whip up some food, leaving the cooked goods on the auction house virtually unsellable.