Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 49 Winter Hotspring

In both lives that Ye Ci’s had lived, Steel-Blooded Battle Spear had always been a black horse.

The only difference this time was that a black horse usually only appeared in the later part of the game. Totally unlike what was happening in Ye Ci’s current life, where they had presented themselves as the black horse only two to three months after the game had started.

They’ve managed to take 2 of the 5 Automaton Formation First Five, and have become the focus of every player. They received all sorts of request on the forums to reveal the dungeon clearing video. They’ve also gotten a lot of new applicants, within a few days Steel-Blooded Battle Spear had become one of the most popular guilds within the Eastern Continent.

Even with her remarkable performance while taking command of the first squadron, her simple and concise style of command was rejected by the more conservative veteran players. However, this did not affect Thousand Sunset’s desire to rope in Ye Ci. So from that time on Ye Ci had become the only player to enjoy such extreme freedom in a guild that formerly had such a highly militarized management system.

She could literally do anything she wanted.

Although not many had knowledge of such arrangement, those who knew of it were extremely dissatisfied. Peacock Blue being one of them.

“Thousand, you can’t do this. She’ll destroy the order in our guild!”

Thousand Sunsets ignored Peacock Blue’s objection. He already knew that his action of letting Ye Ci roam freely might affect the other guild members. But after considering the fact that Ye Ci was somewhat of a loner, this influence was actually quite limited. With that in mind, Thousand Sunsets had chosen to not restrict Ye Ci’s movements.

“She is only here to help take charge of our dungeon clearing team. We don’t have to care about the rest.” Thousand Sunsets said and dismissed Peacock Blue.

Peacock Blue stormed out of the conference room in anger then ran into Zero Arsenic. They had been friends for many years, and Zero Arsenic was concerned after witnessing her anger.

Peacock Blue immediately spilled her thoughts about Gongzi You, “She’s merely a huntress, but Thousand allows her so much freedom just because she’s a friend of Leftie.”

Zero Arsenic patted her shoulder, “You know that she’s Oceanic Lantern right?”

“So what? This is Fate, not Otherworld. Everybody should be treated the same. Why does she receive such special treatment?” Peacock Blue couldn’t help but feel wronged, her tone filled with a hint of bitterness, “What’s so good about her that she attracts Thousand’s attention?”

Zero Arsenic knew that Peacock Blue held some feelings towards Thousand Sunsets, he laughed, “Hey, Gleaming Sunshine is the one who is his girlfriend, not Gongzi You. It’s unfair that you’re angry at her because of this.”

Noticing that Zero Arsenic saw through her thoughts, Peacock Blue was embarrassed and angry, “I don’t care! I just think that with such example, it’ll be hard to keep the other guild members in line.” with that, she ran away.

Zero Arsenic could only let out a long sigh. As an administrator, Peacock Blue was quite narrow-minded. Despite her exceptional administrative skills, she’d failed to see that Gongzi You would greatly aid in the growth of their guild.

Zero Arsenic, of course, did not inform Thousand Sunsets of Peacock Blue’s tantrum. In the following days, Thousand Sunsets did not give any more assignments to Ye Ci. he spent most of his time in the Automaton Formation dungeon, practicing the method of clearing the dungeon by studying Ye Ci’s video.

Despite having two of its squadron having First Five, Steel-Blooded Battle Spear still owed these achievements to Ye Ci. Thousand Sunsets had always been careful. Even if he wanted to rope Ye Ci in, she was after all someone he still couldn’t fully trust. It was only appropriate for someone who is a core member to master the way to clear a dungeon with such a high difficulty.

The elites of the squadrons, especially those who’d originally played First Person Shooter games, were all required to practice firing the cannon.

Despite it appearing easy, the players quickly learned that it was a difficult task to kill all the monsters with only 2-3 shots.

Thousand Sunsets did contact Ye Ci on the day after the first squadron was able to clear the Automaton Formation. He indirectly tried to entice Ye Ci, but the latter pretended to not understand his meaning. He could only give up and instructed Ye Ci to make preparations for the Frosty Wastes that the guild was planning to clear two weeks from now.

Ye Ci was very familiar with the dungeon. There was no specific strategy of clearing it. All that was needed was a few specified potions.

Ye Ci spent an entire week leveling up and training her Life Skills.

She was finally able to learn the Huntress’s trademark skill, “Feign Death” after reaching lvl 20.

A Hunter without Feigned Death was not a Hunter. Ye Ci had tried to loot the skill book before she hit lvl 20 but to no avail. In her moment of sadness, Ideal Height 1.7m had been the one to send her a Feigned Death skill book.

She was extremely touched.

After learning the skill Feigned Death, Ye Ci went through the Forgotten Volcanoes and arrived at the Winter’s Hotspring.

It was situated at the western part of the Eastern Continent and was crawling with monsters at lvl 40-50. But there was a special herb that grew only in that area called the Herb of Warmth.

It was a crucial material in crafting a novice Frostbane Potion. But because it was a novice-tier material it’s growth was also limited to a small area. It would only grow around the hotsprings found in the Winter’s Hotsprings map.

A novice Frostbane potion did not have a high efficiency, but it was enough to handle the frost attacks of the mobs in the Chilly Marshes. The potion could protect players from a certain percentage of frost damage and also render players immune to the frost debuff.

The herb wasn’t available from the auction house due to its unique location.

With Stealth activated, Ye Ci carefully crept towards the hot spring in the center of Winter’s Hotspring. She avoided the monsters lurking around the area, and use Feigned Death to remove aggro whenever she was detected, then used Stealth and pressed forward one again.

The entire process took her more than 2 hours.

The big hot spring in the middle of the map was called Big Hot Spring. Ye Ci was bewildered by this name. Could those developers be any lazier?

As she approached Big Hot Spring, Ye Ci noticed a gigantic tortoise resting near the hot spring and her heartbeat increased.

It was Winter’s Hotspring’s Wild BOSS, Armored Giant Tortoise.

At her level, Ye Ci could not even peek at the stats of the Armored Giant Turtle, but it was something that she still remembered quite well.

The Armored Giant Turtle was a lvl 40 monster, it was one of the few “passive” Wild BOSSes in Fate, also know as “yellow-named monster”. As long as it was left alone, it would not actively attack any of the players.

The BOSS itself was extremely tanky. Despite having a low attack value when compared to the other lvl 40 Wild BOSSes, it was still a tough opponent for a lvl 20 player to fight.

The Armored Giant Tortoise was the only monster in the vicinity.

Ye Ci started to harvest the herbs around the area, but she still paid close attention to the Armored Giant Tortoise, only barely managing to hold herself back from trying to slay the BOSS.

She knew very well that she did not have the capabilities to defeat the BOSS. But any player would feel the urge to try their luck against a Wild BOSS that was literally represented a pile of top-tier equipment as they saw it.

While waiting for the herbs to respawn after having harvested them, Ye Ci could do nothing but keep on staring at the Armored Giant Tortoise.

Despite the high amount of BUGs discovered in Fate, the Giant Armored Tortoise was an exception.

After harvesting more of the herbs Ye Ci left the area. But turned back after having walking a short distance. The temptation of the loots dropped by a Wild BOSS as well as the chance to obtain an Epic Quest was just too great for her to resist. The Armored Giant Tortoise did not have a fixed spawn point. She was lucky to have run into the Wild BOSS. If she missed this chance, she might not get another.

The situation was ideal for her. There were no other monsters around. The chances of her accidentally triggering the aggro of the other monsters were next to none.

Ye Ci finally made up her mind. She’d regret it if she didn’t even try to take down the Armored Giant Tortoise.

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