Floating Academy
Ye Qing sat among other players as their attention gathered collectively on the entrance.
From the entrance walked a short, chubby old man who appeared to be in his forties. Next to the man on either side was one man in a heavy-duty outfit and another in formal clothing, though the latter lacked the air of subservience about him.
This man looked like a highly esteemed personage who reluctantly visited the backwater village. Formal clothing usually comes in the form of a lucratively designed three-piece set attire consisting of a vest, a surcoat, and leather pants. All in white yet rimmed in gold.
On this man's left shoulder was the symbol of floating islands surrounded by howling winds and flashes of thunder. Inspecting the man closely, the players would be notified that this man was in fact an envoy from the City of Storms, but everything else was hidden behind an information quest wall.
What's a quest wall? Well, it usually indicates that players can dig up more information about a specific event, NPC, or location if they had successfully triggered an accompanying quest. As fortune comes in pairs and luck favors the fool, these quests come with not only an opportunity to level up but also build connections with the powerful factions in the game.
"So, they're the so-called Unying Otherworlders? They don't look too promising."
These were the man's first remarks, even as his cold emerald eyes scanned the crowd, a sharp gaze peering from behind the swaying silver locks of hair that almost concealed his upper face. This scene gave Ye Qing the sudden urge to get himself a face mask that covered the upper half of his face in real life when handling the 'sensitive' affairs Madam Ye left him with.
While this was Ye Qing's first thought, many players thought otherwise as they had, collectively as one, felt offended. Dark faces all around, most incapable of hiding their true emotions behind a mask of calm, the atmosphere immediately turned somberly heavy.
The man seemed to focus and capture these particular expressions. Then, his eyes would pause briefly on those who hadn't reacted the least to his taunts, Ye Qing's group of four included, and only then would he smile faintly in the face of the remaining glares that would have otherwise scared an ordinary man to his knees.
"Sir Envoy, please give me some face as the Mayor," said the Mayor even as his forehead began to sweat, a dry chuckle buzzing from his throat. "As for you, young heroes! I've come presenting you the opportunity to prove yourselves among your peers as you content with the Children of the Realm! Sigh, but it won't be easy…"
A contest between the Undying Otherworlders and Children of the Realm? Now that sounded very interesting… This was the thought occupying the majority of the players present. After all, those who could afford to play this game were all die-hard gamers with a competitive spirit, and being insulted by one of the so-called Children of the Realm didn't help quell the unrest of their egos.
"Just get to the point, man. We don't have all the time in the world for idle chatter as you butter us up! As long as you make it worth my time, I'll go through with it."
Ye Qing turned to look at the speaker; a flashy young man with dual swords sheathed on his back. Long hair that was a mix of fiery crimson and tongues of purple, black eyes, and a glaring threat notification accompanying his exposed
Classes have their passive and active skills. Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. The difference between skills at and below rare from the epic and legendary is the growth potential; as the former skills have a set formula of effectiveness while the latter enjoy a variable change depending on the stats of the player.
For instance, a rare skill could have a prefixed value of 10 points. If the player had an attack power of 220 overall, his attacks with the rare skill in effect would stack up to 230.
Then you have the epic skill that could, for example, have a prefixed value of 10%, allowing the attack power of the player to boost from the base 220 all the way to 240 when attacking.
An increase of 10% might not prove too much when you're competing in the low brackets of the game, but a 10% increase when your base attack is somewhere near 1,100 can prove to be very devastating. As for dual-wielding passive skill, it has the ridiculous prefix of a 50% increase in damage when attacking with a dual-wielding oriented active skill.
Ye Qing had no idea who this person is, but if he managed to learn dual-wielding active skills in the future, he would become a hot commodity for guilds. However, finding those skills is never easy, and he would most likely have to go through multiple rare quests to glimpse at one, let alone learn it.
It's a very, very long way ahead if a
Nonetheless, if anyone invested in this player from early on and the latter managed to achieve success with his vocation…
Thinking about this, Ye Qing made a mental note to himself; to find an opportunity to form a good relationship with the swordsman.
"Fine, fine," laughed the Mayor while smoothing out his robes. "With the massive influx of Undying Otherworlders the realm had witnessed over the past two weeks, some people in seats of power have decided to take the first step toward a future where both the Children of the Realm and the Undying Otherworlders can co-exist and mutually benefit from one another."
After a pause, the Mayor continued, "In light of these events, large organizations all across the Holy Order Prefecture began to make their move. In our case, as the leading metropolis of our Starfall Province, the City of Storms decided to construct the Floating Academy, and we have earned the support and approval from the Church of Law and Order in our endeavor to endorse the Undying Otherworlders… This will be a great opportunity for those of you who have exceptional talents in some fields to quickly improve and get acquainted with the upper brass of our Starfall Province!"
He continued to explain further, but the gist of it is that the Holy Order Prefecture is trying to contain the chaos of conflict between the Children of the Realm and the Undying Otherworlders before things get out of control. Perhaps, this was also their way of slowly assimilating players into their brainwashed society.
Ye Qing wouldn't have had such thoughts if he hadn't witnessed what happened to the old man with his own two eyes; the same applies to Quinton, Anna, and Luke.
To most people, this may seem like an educational opportunity but to Ye Qing and company, this was a hoax. Nonetheless, Ye Qing had to walk through this hoax if he wanted to get some answers. As for the rest of the players, each had their own ideas, some of them were only here for the ride.
"When do we set off?" Luke suddenly asked from the shadow of his hood, even his voice sounded neutral static in the ears of everyone present, courtesy to the incognito cloak.
"Why the rush?" It wasn't the Mayor who responded, but the Envoy of Storm. "The flight is scheduled for tomorrow, a flying ship will pick us up from this square… However, do keep in mind that you would have to interact with your future dorm mates on the flying ship, hopefully, you'll keep conflicts to a minimum."
Ye Qing sighed in relief, having thought they might need to travel their way to the City of Storms on land, perhaps some kind of a twisted test of natural selection. Checking the time, he would need to log out by this time tomorrow in the game as well over 30 hours would have passed, equating to 10 hours in real life.
If he had to log out without getting on the flying ship, he might very well miss the opportunity to go on board. Thus, after thinking about it for a bit, Ye Qing decided he might as well log off for today and come back later.
"Since we already have the departure time, I'll be heading off for now," said Ye Qing to the rest of the group.
Luke nodded. "Yeah, just make sure to log back in around 10 PM just to be safe."
Anna also looked over, smiling. "If you don't make it in time, I won't board the ship either. If you're not gonna be there, how am I supposed to form a good relationship with a future Talisman Master?"
Quinton remained silent as usual, but Ye Qing had the feeling this guy might ditch the entire journey too. However, Ye Qing had no idea that Quinton was silent from the shock of discovering Ye Qing's vocation since he wasn't involved in the previous conversation.
After bidding farewell to everyone, Ye Qing logged out.