Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 74 Buren Monastery

Ye Ci had replaced all her munitions with Novice Fire Arrows before heading to the Boneyard as undead and skeleton type monsters were vulnerable to fire type damage. Mage players who go down the Elemental Talent pathway while selecting their Talent would usually party up and farm experience points in the place.

By that time, they would have their first AOE damage skill, Starfall. 10 mages with the help of a Hunter or Ranger to pull in the mobs could level up very fast.

At this point, the Boneyard was still a decently quiet place. Chilly winds blew throughout the entire map, adding to the creepiness and the already eerie background music of the map. Ye Ci’s destination was the Buren Monastery. She did not try and fight the mobs roaming around the area. She would walk around them, or simply activate Feign Death.

Before long, she was able to reach the Buren Monastery.

According to the lore, Buren Monastery was one of the five great monasteries that were corrupted during the Great War. However, the zealots of Buren Monastery were not like the zealots in the Blue Shirt Monastery who willingly joined the Dark Side. Their zealots were one of the most faithful in the entire Dalayar Continent. The zealots fought to the last man to protect the pride of their monastery from Naga’s minions. The tenacious resistance of the zealots caused great casualties to the Dark Lord Naga’s army. Out of rage, he burned the entire monastery with his demonic flames.

The corpses of the zealots were bathed by the demonic flames and were demonized. But their owner’s craving for the Holy Light brought them grave pain and suffering. They rose from the dead, turning into skeletons to protect their once holy temple.

Although Ye Ci had read about this sad story in the library of Champion City, she was more concerned about the location of the sacred artifact in Buren Monastery. In her last life, a player claimed on the forums that the sacred artifact that eluded Dark Lord Naga was hidden in a secret place within the Buren Monastery itself.

The thread itself became a hot topic. But the person who posted that thread did it anonymously, and had not given any updates regarding the topic. Many began to doubt the credibility of the poster. As a Sorceress, Ye Ci had tried to search for the artifact, but to no avail. It was revealed after many years that there was indeed a sacred artifact in the Buren Monastery. It was a shard of the Eral Gem.

If Ye Ci was not interested in the Eral Gem as a Sorceress, then as a Huntress, it was definitely the gem that she was dreaming day and night about. The gem was split into 5 pieces during the Great War, and those pieces were placed in 5 monasteries in 5 different continents. Should all 5 of the gems be combined together, it would be a God-tier ornament that players would die for.

Ye Ci’s objective in the Buren Monastery, other than leveling up, was to find the Eral Gem shard before other players began exploring the map.

As Ye Ci stood in front of the Buren Monastery, the background music immediately switched into a sad and sorrowful one, adding a tint of dismal atmosphere to the already ruined monastery.

Ye Ci’s equipment was way better than players of the same level. With those equipment, her level difference penalty between her and the skeletons were slightly reduced.

However, Ye Ci still avoided getting tangled with too many skeletons. Before she could get to a safe farming spot, she had limited her fights to kiting one melee skeleton at a time. Ye Ci would definitely avoid confrontations with the ranged skeletons. It would be suicide to try and fight one when she was at a level disadvantage.

Fighting monsters that were at a higher level than her did give a lot more experience points.

In Fate, if the monster’s level was 5 levels above that of a player, the player would receive twice as much experience points than they normally would. If a monster was 8 levels ahead, a player would receive 4 times the experience points. Monsters that were more than 10 levels ahead of a player would yield 5 times more experience points while monsters that were 20 levels ahead of a players would reward them 10 times the normal experience points rewarded.

But… The higher the level, the higher the penalty as well. The case was especially true for monsters that were 10 levels higher than a player. They might not even able to damage it. This factor greatly limited the players’ ability to fight monsters that were at a higher level than themselves.

The skeletons within Buren Monastery itself were 10 levels higher than Ye Ci. Even she would need to kite a single skeleton for nearly 20 minutes. But whenever Ye Ci slew a skeleton, she received 5 times the normal experience rewarded and she was able to level up to lvl 21 in 4 hours.

There was an NPC that could teach players very OP skills when paid a certain amount of gold coins in the northern quarters of the Buren Monastery. The usage of the skill would be limited to only within the Buren Monastery itself. High leveled players would not even bother with that NPC, but at the current stage, the NPC’s presence was like a blessing.

The problem was that there were just too many skeletons roaming around the area where the NPC was. Ye Ci could only climb onto the nearly crumbling roof of the monastery and head northwards.

The road to the NPC was a very dangerous one. Ye Ci was spotted by Skeleton Mages several times as she moved along the roof. Had she not cast Feigned Death in time, she could really be dead. Ye Ci was able to creep her way to the top of the room and jumped in through a small hole on the roof.

Ye Ci cursed as she squeezed through the hole. It was too small. If she was of another race like a Dwarf, Orc or even Human, she would never be able to pull it off.

Ye Ci made it into the room. As she dropped in, she accidentally stepped on a piece of debris, attracting the attention of all the skeletons within the room. Feigned Death was still on cooldown, but the skeletons were already approaching to investigate. Ye Ci looked around and saw a broken beam that she could use to hide herself.

Without much time to think, Ye Ci leapt up and climbed onto the beam. She pressed herself closely to the beam, not daring to move.

Her hiding spot was 15 yards from the entrance of the room. In her current hidden state, she would be safe as long as the skeletons did not go within 8 yards of the beam.

The clattering of bones announced the presence of the skeletons. There were at least 8 of them. Ye Ci held her breath, wary that the sound of her breathing might betray her location.

The skeletons stood at the entrance and surveyed the room. They then spoke to each other with a language that Ye Ci could not understand. In Fate, every race had their own language which could only be understood by beings of the same race. There was also a lingua franca used by the races of the 5 continents but that was the only language known to the players other than their own racial language. Languages from the other races must be learned through specific items or NPCs.

The skeletons left after chattering to each other. However, one of the Skeleton Mages turned around after walking a few steps away and headed straight towards Ye Ci’s hiding spot.

Ye Ci immediately feel panic surging through her. She was not afraid of a single skeleton. But… If it saw her, it would definitely call for help. It would be the end of her.

As the Skeleton Mage approached her, Ye Ci counted the distance until it would detect her presence.

4 yards, 3 yards, 2 yards…

Ye Ci took out her crossbow and loaded it up with Flaming Arrows, ready to ambush the Skeleton Mage as it came near.

1 yard left.

The Skeleton Mage stopped. The skeletons outside of the room began chattering again, as if summoning the Skeleton Mage. It then left.

Ye Ci let out a sigh of relief. Her palms were sweating. She could’ve died back there. She slung her weapon and jumped down from the beam. She was careful, not wanting to alert the skeletons.

There was a zealot in purple robes named Hank in the room. He was dead, and all that remained of Hank was his spirit. He had not realised his own death, and thought that he was still conducting his research.

“Oh, an Elf!” Hank appeared happy to see Ye Ci, “Have words of my great research spread throughout the land?”

“Yes, Zealot Hank.” Ye Ci bowed respectfully, “Your research is very famous in the entire Dalayar Continent.”

“I knew it!” Hank’s spirit was gleeful. He patted Ye Ci shoulder, but she could not feel his touch, “And you must be here to tell me of this great news?”

“Yes, Zealot Hank.”

“Good, good.” Hank was very satisfied with the answer, “As a token of my gratitude, I will teach you one of the fruits of my research.”

A choice of 3 skills immediately appeared in front of Ye Ci…