Starting from Zero Vol 2 Chapter 14

Book 2, Chapter 14
Strange Quest

    When we're back we directly went to the Wizard's Guild. The guild in Flowing Cloud city isn't hard to find, which just sits at the center. Actually the guild building is even higher than Eiffel Tower. I don't think anyone is going to miss it. 

    We came to the gate. Man it looks gorgeous, the stone gate is as big as the city gate! We saw an old wizard standing at the gate. 

    "Young adventurer, what is it that you need?" 

    "Oh yes!" I quickly go to him. "A monster killed my friend, can you please revive him?" 

    "I'm afraid I can't do that for you." The wizard pitied. "I'm just a combat wizard. Go in there and find the oracle wizard , he will help you!" (*)

    "Thank you!" I dragged Wayne in. (TL Note: but but, you can't see him right??) 

    The interior decoration is as beautiful as the outside. Marble sculptures, crystal chandelier, giant woollen carpet...Everything reads "luxury"! 

    "Is there anything you need?" An old wizard wearing white beard appeared in front of us. That beard looks more than a meter. 

    "I'm looking for the oracle wizard!"

     He looked beside me. "Oh. A ghost! You want me to revive him right?" 

    "Yes."

    "It's easy!" The wizard reached out his left hand, obviously asking for payment. 

    "I know! How much is it?" 

    "Oh, not much! 55 Crystals!" 

    "Whaaat?!" I jumped. "You might as well go rob a bank!" 

    "Well I'd like to try that! But I'm no combat wizard, I can't!" 

     Wait a second here, he actually is considering it??

    "How about you youngsters help me? I can see your level is pretty high now, go rob someone for me alright?" 

    "Wait-what-why--are you an NPC or a player?" My jaw is dropping now! "Robbery?? Are you serious?! Forget it! Here's the money. Get my friend back now. We don't want to see your crazy face for another second!" 

    "Calm down will ya?" Old geezer started explaining while stuffing the payment into his porch. "Now how about this: I have several quests here which are used to switch into hidden cla.s.ses. You go s.n.a.t.c.h something for me and I'll sell them to you, deal?" 

    "That can wait! Revive my friend first!" 

    "Sure." He waved his hand and Wayne suddenly appeared beside me. "Can we talk now?" 

    Wayne questioned, "At least tell us what they are and what they can do! We can't decide without knowing these!" 

    Seeing that he caught our interest, the old man dragged us into a side room. The room is not big, there's a big workbench in the middle, and a circle of bookshelves. But nothing to sit on! 

    "I'll tell you how to get the target first." He took out a scroll from one of the bookshelves and spread it on the table. We leaned on the table to look. It appears to be a map. 

    "This is the map of the surrounding area of Flowing Cloud city. Look here!" He pointed at something on the map. "There is a valley here, the entrance is narrow, only like three people can pa.s.s through at a time. Every month, there will be a s.h.i.+pment of tribute goods going through. And there will be one of them tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock. What you have to do is to raid the transport team. If you can get the goods for me, I'll give you all the hidden cla.s.s quests I have, plus 50k Crystals for each of you. What do you say?" 

    "That's...a lot of money. But can you tell us about the hidden cla.s.ses? We don't want to risk ourselves for something not worth it!" 

    "Of course they're worth it!" The old fellow became excited. "I have 5 hidden Main Cla.s.ses and 7 Side ones. The main cla.s.ses are: Demonized Fighter, Spectral Mage, Soul Manipulator (**), Divine Punisher, Fallen Angel. The side ones: Inventor, Soul Sorcerer, G.o.d Mind, Requiem Wizard, Frostfire Wizard." (***)

     "So what's the deal with the main cla.s.ses?"

     "Patience! Demonized Fighter is an alternative cla.s.s of Dark Fighter, a warrior type. All attribute bonuses are focused on Attack and Defense. If you turn into one of them I guarantee you will knock out anyone the same level as you within a minute! But there are requirements for this cla.s.s: One, you must be a Dark Fighter; Two, you're above level 200; And three, you need to have at least two dark-type companions. 

    Spectral Mage is a stronger version of Dark Mage. All bonus goes to Magic, and they have a 50% buff to their Magic Attack and Magic Defense too. The requirement is high. One. Player must be above 150; Two, all skills are max leveled; Three, your race must be Undead. 

    Soul Manipulator is a scary one! You know what, they can have another two extra companion slots! Their ultimate skill can let them drain experience points. When you PvP with someone you absorb 1% of your opponent's Exp every 20 seconds! I mean only the Exp for current level. Of course you can't drain them back to level 0 just in 2000 sec."

    "Say what? Two slots?" I thought it over. Now I have 7 slots already. That will make it 9. Geez, maybe I can just stand there and chill out and grind at the same time if the future! 

    "Now don't you interrupt me! The requirement is...peculiar though. It needs the player to have more than 10 Charisma, and they must be a Divine Demon too! I wonder what kind of fool would waste their points on 10 Charisma?! Buuuut it's reasonable. The cla.s.s is highly unbalanced, they'd better not let too many players get it! 

    Next, the Divine Punisher. They will learn all non-advanced Light spells by nature, and they have special kill [Fist of Punishment]. This skill will ignore Defense, and cause double damage to Dark affinity players and monsters. Requirement is player must be a Holy Priest, and above 200 level. 

    The last one, the Fallen Angel. This cla.s.s got triple HP & MP regen speed, and +10% to their Attack and Magic Attack! There's only one rule, you must be an Angel! How was that? Good enough right?" 

    "How about the side cla.s.ses?" Wayne is hyper excited now, as if he already got these cla.s.ses. 

    "Those ones? They're secret for now! How about you finish my quest and check them for yourselves? So are you in or not?" The old timer must've known that we will accept, because, well, we're drooling. 

    "I have a last question!" My instinct tells me that safety comes first. "If we finish this quest will us get into any trouble?" 

    "Trouble?" The old man didn't understand. 

    "Yes. Trouble. You want us to rob someone's goods, what if we become wanted criminals? Well then every city guard will kill us on sight! Money is useless if we can't stay in the city!" 

    "Oh you don't have to worry about that!" He grinned wickedly. "I've already talked to the escorts. You only need to act like a bandit and make a show, like, shouting something. Then the guards will just run away. You just gather those crates with "TRIBUTE" written on them and pull them away!" 

    "Ohhh, inside job!" Wayne put on the same creepy grin as the old man. "Wait for the good news then!" 

    Then Wayne dragged me outside. I don't know if it's for the 50k crystals or the hidden cla.s.ses but he's hyperactive anyway! He just kept running,  my HP began to drop! (In [Zero], running costs Stamina, if you don't have Stamina it will drain your HP instead.) 

    "Hey, Wayne! We there yet? Let's rest for a bit!" 

    But Wayne just sprinted without slowing down. I never seen this guy so energetic. He just run while gulping down his HP potions. "We can't stop now! It's 4 am now, if we miss it we'll have to wait for the next month when whole lot of other players will be competing for it!" 

    "...You are right! Let's keep going then!" I had to ate a pill too.  Ouch! I didn't even use my pills when grinding, now I wasted them for a freaking marathon! 

    After some exhausting running, we finally reached the valley entrance at 6 am, panting like dogs.

    The thick weed on the ground indicates that the transport hasn't pa.s.sed yet, or the gra.s.s would be flattened by now. We hid in a concealed spot. We felt tired but didn't afford to log out and rest. We just sit in the gra.s.s, waiting for our prey. 

    A transport convoy appeared at the entrance at 7:50. The old man's schedule was pretty spot-on!

(*) And the author used a different name again. I will not fix these errors cause it may bring even more trouble.

(**)This cla.s.s' name sounds a lot like the "Dementor" from Harry Potter. I decided not to use it though.

(***)No I didn't miss anything here. He only mentioned 5 instead of 7.