Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 93 A Hunter’s bottleneck

Tragedy comes without warning, and things were not always predictable.

It was originally an auspicious and peaceful Spring Festival, but in the end tragedy struck.

On the morning of the second day of the new year, Fate’s system had just finished updating, but before Ye Ci and Bai Mo could even go online a phone call arrived.

The call was from an old classmate of Zuo Xiaolan and Ye Nantian. Ye Ci did not know what transpired in the conversation. She only knew that even before the call had ended, Zuo Xiaolan had already started crying. Zuo Xiaolan was a strong and optimistic woman. Even if she would at times shed some tears while watching Korean dramas, she was able to have a normal conversation with Ye Nantian right after, “The inflation nowadays, even a steamed bun is now a buck each.”

For a woman like her to be crying so profusely, Ye Ci and Bai Mo felt their hearts likewise constricting in sympathy. They immediately attempted to console Zuo Xiaolan who continued crying without giving them answers. Ye Nantian who was standing at a side let out a long sigh and told them the news.

Zuo Xiaolan did not do well academically when she was young and was always looked down upon by her teachers. Her class teacher, however, treated her very well. He did not look down on her and instead gave her special treatment. Zuo Xiaolan’s family was very poor at that time. When her pants were cut open during the winter and her family could not even afford to repair it, her class teacher simply bought her new ones.

It was because of her class teacher that Zuo Xiaolan managed to graduate from high school. In Zuo Xiaolan’s heart, her class teacher Mr. Tan was like a second parent to her, and she would always pay him a visit every year. In fact, Mr. Tan had treated every student very well, and he was well-respected among the student body.

Mr. Tan’s family was on a plane trip to Europe for a 10-day vacation when the flight was met with mishap. There were no survivors. The only remaining member of the family was Mr. Tan’s grandson who was sick at home.

The class rep immediately contacted all their classmates by phone once he had learned of the news. Zuo Xiaolan was the first to be informed as she was closest to the city that Mr. Tan was living in, and that was also the reason why Zuo Xiaolan broke into tears.

Zuo Xiaolan could no longer sit still. She stood up and began packing her bags, preparing for a trip to City A. No one stopped her, and Ye Nantian began packing his stuff as well. Ye Ci wanted to go along, but she was stopped by Bai Mo.

“All right, I’m going, you stay at home.”

“I’ll go, you stay.” Ye Ci shook her head.

“Forget about it. It’s the new year, there are people everywhere. If a little girl like you tags along, uncle has to take care of auntie and you at the same time, don’t go and create more burden for him. If I go, at least I’ll be able to help out.” Bai Mo patted Ye Ci on her shoulders, “Besides, it’s the new year! No restaurants are open, what do you want me to eat if I stay home alone?”

Noticing that Ye Ci was about to protest, Ye Nantian spoke up, “Little Ci, just listen to Bai Mo. Stay at home and look after the house.”

Since even her parents had spoken, Ye Ci could only agree to it, despite feeling worried.

The trio headed straight for the train station after they were done packing their stuff.

As City A was quite near, they were able to buy tickets for the train quickly and by 3pm they would be on a train to City A. By the time Ye Ci got home from sending the 3 of them off, it was already 2 in the afternoon. She was still worried, and even called Bai Mo and insisted that he call her back the moment they arrived at their destination. After a simple meal, Ye Ci went online.

The game’s update was completed.

The update opened the Guild Battle system and the Nemesis system. It meant 2 things: Fate was not afraid of their players fighting, and Fate was encouraging fights between players.

Other than that, one of the most significant updates was the changes in the cities. An exchange bank had appeared unnoticed in almost every city, with new special NPCs. With Red Lake City as an example, an exchange bank appeared right between the shops that Ye Ci had bought, and the city instantly became bustling with life.

There was previously only one exchange bank in the Eastern Continent, situated in Champion City. Players who wished to exchange real world cash with game coins could only perform their transaction in Champion City, no matter where they were from. It was just too money and time consuming to travel to Champion City. With an exchange bank open in every city, players no longer had the need to travel far far away to Champion City.

With that, the player population in Red Lake City soared. After all, there were quite a few maps around the city that yielded a lot of items, as well the presence of several small dungeon clusters nearby. A number of far-sighted guilds had recognised the strategic placing of Red Lake City and moved their guild encampment to such a backwater place, bringing with them prosperity.

As she walked in the packed Western District, Ye Ci’s eyes narrowed as she surveyed the shops around the exchange bank. She felt an unspeakable joy in her heart. It was her one true moment when she felt that being someone who reincarnated paid off.

The guild chat was livelier than usual after Bai Mo’s advertisement. A lot of players had applied to join Upwards Ho!, adding a lot to the workload for the administrators Icy Cold Little Hands and Timely Rain. Ye Ci had to apologise to them in Bai Mo’s stead and explained to them the reason leading to his inactivity.

The duo, however, laughed candidly, “Gongzi, what are you talking about? Having Upwards Ho! being one of the major guilds in Fate has always been our wish.”

Feeling guilty that she was unable to help out, Ye Ci directed Overflowing Ink and Mi Lu to tighten up the training schedule of their party members for Upwards Ho!’s push into the Frosty Wasteland Inner Sanctum 5 days later.

After receiving their instruction, the two immediately marshalled their parties and headed to the Frosty Wasteland. Not only were the two good commander material, they were hardworking and eager to learn. They’d managed to forge Upwards Ho! players from a ragtag band of amateurs into a well-oiled fighting machine. Ye Ci had even heard from Bai Mo that they’d cleared the Frosty Wasteland Hard difficulty. This deeply impressed Ye Ci.

As a dummy vice leader, Ye Ci felt that that was the only thing she could do.

She was already lvl 29, which was the bottleneck for Hunters. The main cause for that was the limitations in terms of Talent Points. There was literally nothing special for Hunters during their lvl 29 to lvl 35 stage. This however, did not hinder Ye Ci that much as her Talent Points were way higher than that of an average Hunter.

The second cause was the limitations when it came to skills and abilities. The skill books yielded in the current stage were not good for Hunters. In actuality, all the other classes were affected, but the Hunter class was the one affected the most. Skill books suitable for the current stage were just very rare and their prices were high. Luckily for Ye Ci, her level advantage meant that she was able to acquire the skill book from auctions before everyone else. Despite that, the 2 skill books that were sought after by Ye Ci had not appeared.

One of them was an AOE damage skill called “Random Shot,” while the other was a skill used for ambushes and pulling monsters, “Disguise.”

Ye Ci refused to believe that not even one of either skill book had dropped. People were just too smart and they knew that skill books were very valuable. This was not a knowledge exclusive to a reincarnator like Ye Ci, but was known by all administrators of the major guilds as well. If they came across such skill books, they would of course store it up. Who in their right mind would sell them away?

The last problem faced by Ye Ci was in terms of pet. One of the key things for a Hunter to be successful was pets. Pets were not that easy to rear in Fate. It would be a waste of time and money if a Hunter would wantonly obtain a pet and in the end it was useless.

As a result, places that spawned Elite monsters would be be crowded with Hunters that were looking for pets.

Ol’ Three was a good pet, but he was an Elite Monster from a lvl 10 dungeon. Even if its growth was great, it was less desirable at the lvl 30 milestone. The situation was especially true when Ye Ci was trying to solo a dungeon. Ol’ Three could barely tank against the monsters anymore. Ye Ci had planned to find a Pet Tamer to try and evolve Ol’ Three as his “Intelligent” attribute was very rare. Unfortunately, Ye Ci had not found any Pet Tamer NPCs.

Her top priority now was to obtain a good pet.

There were a lot of choices for a Hunter’s pet. As long as they were wild animals, they could be captured. But animals such as sheep, cows, pigs and rabbits were docile and domesticated, which was why no one would usually make them their choice of pet. Leopards, bears, wolves and spiders were usually a Hunter’s favourite.

Ye Ci gave the matter a lot of thought. In her current leveling stage, her best choice was to go to Swamp of Vines and capture a lvl 35 Elite Diseased Crocodile. But to get to the Swamp of Vines, Ye Ci had to travel past a destroyed temples crawling with lvl 40 cyclops. These monsters were adept in seeing through Feigned Death and Disguise. Ye Ci was only lvl 29, it would be suicide for her to venture into the area. Acquiring a crocodile seemed to be a lost cause. Her next choice was to obtain a lvl 35 Tyrannosaurus Rex from the Tropical Rainforest or a lvl 35 Fury Lion in the Greasy Plains.

After pondering for a short moment, Ye Ci decided to travel to the Tropical Rainforest. She remembered a post about the forest mentioning the presence of a Lycan who would offer good quests in the Tropical Rainforest if one was lucky. Although Ye Ci knew that luck was not one of her forte, she still wanted to try her luck.

Making up her mind, Ye Ci immediately made preparations to travel to the Tropical Rainforest. She walked along the stone road in the Western District, and as she walked past an alley, she heard a conversation between 2 players, “What a weird NPC. He said that he’d help incubate eggs. What eggs? Are there even eggs in Fate?”

“ Yep, yep. Must be one of those pranks by the devs.”

Incubation? Ye Ci paused in her steps.

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