Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 256 An Absurd Quest (Part 1)

Ye Ci continued crafting the ribs into Bone Arrows in high spirits. The movement of her hands were still clumsy, but she had a very high success rate. She was rewarded a mere 2 mastery points with each arrow crafted, which was a huge contrast to the 300 mastery points that she received when she completed the first arrow.

It seems that inventing new stuff in the game is a good way to earn mastery points. thought Ye Ci to herself, then again, I’m not a Life Player. I doubt I’ll be this lucky next time. and she dismissed the idea of leaving things to chance.

With the creation of Bone Arrow, the lack of munitions was no longer Ye Ci’s concern. She was merciless as she hunted the monsters on the island, and was able to explore more than half the island within a mere four days. Despite her progress, Ye Ci was not able to trigger any special events during her exploration, nor was she able to find a way off the island.

On this day, Ye Ci was sitting by a campfire, crafting bone arrows with the bones of the beasts that she hunted after a day’s worth of exploration. She had become adept at the art of crafting Bone Arrows, and the four minutes she needed to craft and arrow was greatly reduced to a short ten seconds. The wind carried a sound into her ears as her attention was focused on crafting an arrow.

Ye Ci’s long, pointed ears pricked up at the sound, and her movements stopped. She immediately stood up and studied her surroundings. She held her eyes shut, trying her best to pick up the source of the sound that had died down. Ye Ci had even thought that it was nothing but her imagination, and was about to give up before the wind once again carried the weird sound into her ears.

This seems to be some sort of musical instrument, and the music is accompanied by a faint singing voice as well. What is going on?

Ye Ci stored her arrows away, and immediately dashed at the source of the sound after putting out the campire. Speed was something that was essential to the Hunter class, and as Ye Ci streaked through the forest, jumping from one branch to another, the wind that blew past her ears was an out of the world experience.

Yet another set of different sounds entered Ye Ci’s ears as she approached the source of the melody. It was the lapping of waves against the shore.

Excitement filled Ye Ci’s heart. It seems that I’ve found my way out.

The trees began to thin out and the beach was soon in sight. Ye Ci jumped down from a tree and surveyed her surroundings while remaining hidden in the tree line. She saw a girl sitting on a large rock facing the sea, cuddling a harp in her embrace. The girl was strumming her harp as she sang with her pleasant voice.

The song was sung in a language not known to Ye Ci Even the girl’s race remained a mystery to her.

The girl had her back to Ye Ci. Her long, blonde hair flowed over her shoulders, draping over the rock and hiding her back and the lower part of her body from Ye Ci’s view. Her arms that were strumming the harp were smooth and slender, and the azure pearl bracelet was a sharp contrast to her skin that is white as jade.

Ye Ci stood silently under the shade of the trees as she listened to the song. Even when the meaning of the lyrics was not known to Ye Ci, the singing was very pleasant to her ears. The song was so nice that Ye Ci could not hold back the urge to walk towards the girl and her feet began moving on their own.

But why am I walking towards her? Ye Ci herself did not have an answer for that question. Her vision was swirling, and the voice was beckoning her to walk closer to the girl.

This isn’t right, something is wrong here!

Ye Ci knew that something was wrong, but her body was not under her control. She was getting closer and closer to the rock with each step.

Mind Control!

The two words appeared in Ye Ci’s mind. Mind Control was a high-tier spell of the Priest and Cleric class that could only be learned by a character at lvl100. Due to their limited offensive spells, Clerics and Priests were equipped with a large variety of crowd control spells, and Mind Control was one of the most important spells to the two support classes. Ye Ci could still remember a particular ingenious Cleric who was able reign undefeated in PVP battles with his creative ways of using Mind Control. Even a BOSS that was at his character’s level was easily defeated by the Cleric.

This was proof that Mind Control was a formidable spell.

A player afflicted by Mind Control would lose his or her capability to fight. They would be at the mercy of their opponents. An NPC’s Mind Control, however, was more advanced than that of a player’s. NPCs could disable a player’s ability to fight, and even force a player to carry out its will.

It was obvious that Ye Ci was affected by the spell of an NPC, and it was definitely the girl singing on the rock.

I have to stop. thought Ye Ci to herself. She knew that things would not end well for her if she continued moving forward. I don’t mind if I got killed, but what if I ended up getting enslaved by that NPC? That will be bad! But how can I free myself from her control?

The Dark Dispersal skill of Buru’s ring immediately came to Ye Ci’s mind, but she was not capable of even casting a single spell. She could feel her consciousness slipping away.

No! I can’t let this happen! Ye Ci repeated again and again in her mind before her consciousness slipped fully away, and she was able to activate Dark Dispersal with the last of her strength. The influence of Mind Control over Ye Ci immediately disappeared.

Despite that, Ye Ci’s thoughts remained sluggish.

The singing stopped as well when Dark Dispersal was activated, but it did not take long for the girl to resume her singing.

Oh no! Her Mind Control is at a very high level! Even the Dark Dispersal of Buru’s ring could not completely dispel its effect. If I got controlled again, I’m finished despite having a clear picture of her situation, Ye Ci was still walking towards to the girl on unsteady steps.

Ye Ci’s hand reached towards her hip, pulled her dagger out of its sheath, and plunged it into her thigh with her remaining strength.

“Argghhh!” even with the pain simulation set at 30%, the heart-wrenching pain on Ye Ci’s caused her to scream in agony, breaking the control of the spell over her. Ye Ci slumped onto the beach, almost passing out from the pain.

Guan Yu is a fucking hero! thought Ye Ci to herself, I’ve almost passed out at 30% pain! How did he manage to stand the pain of having his bone scrape? [1] As expected… There really is a substantial difference between different individuals….

I am afraid of pain! I am a scaredy cat!

The pain was so intense that Ye Ci could see black spots in her vision. She took a look at her bleeding thigh, took in a deep breath, and pulled out the dagger. Blood splattered all over the ground, and some even made their way onto Ye Ci’s face.

Ye Ci gritted her teeth and bandaged her wound. This was something that could not be treated without a visit to one of the main cities, and this wound that Ye Ci had inflicted upon herself…

She then stood up slowly and cast her gaze at the direction of the rock. The girl turned her head around, and Ye Ci could see the flawless beauty of the girl’s face, and her azure eyes that were as alluring as the sea. The girl was no longer singing. She pursed her lips as her gaze rested at Ye Ci, who was shocked to find that the strings of the harp had snapped.

It was very likely that the strings of the harp were snapped when Ye Ci stabbed herself with her dagger to free herself from the effects of the Mind Control. The girl wore a calm expression on her face. She was not angered by the damage suffered by her harp, but it was obvious that she was not at all happy.

Ye Ci stared at the girl from a distance. Despite the pain at her thigh, she was ready for an attack. She cast Detection on the girl, but saw nothing but question marks due to the girl’s high level. Even the name of the girl could not be revealed by Detection.

She’s bad news.

If a monster’s HP could not be revealed by Detection, it meant that the monster was at least 20 levels higher than Ye Ci, but when a monster’s stats was hidden as well, it meant that the monster was at least 40 levels higher than her. When even the name of the monster could not be revealed by Detection, then the monster was at least 60 levels higher than Ye Ci.

Ye Ci’s Gongzi You was a lvl60 character, and if the girl was truly at least 60 levels above her, this would mean that the girl was at the very least lvl120. She might even be a BOSS. Ye Ci began taking note of the terrain around her that she could turn to her advantage. There was no way she could kite this NPC girl to death. A lvl120 BOSS would have a far higher movement speed than Ye Ci. Her only option was to escape.

She slowly backed away, waiting for an opportunity to escape.

But the girl spoke up unexpectedly, “Oh, you’re a female.”

Ye Ci was stunned. She studied the girl once again, who had turned the rest of her body around to face Ye Ci. She was shocked to see that the lower part of the girl’s body was a blue fishtail.

Oh fuck! She’s a mermaid!

So this was why she had such a beautiful singing voice and was very good with mind control! Mermaids were not a benevolent species. They would never rescue a prince in danger like the tales told in fairytales. The mermaids in Fate were the embodiment of greed.

Mermaids of Fate had gorgeous appearances and beautiful singing voices that they would put to good use to lure men to their deaths by the sea. Of course, only the females of the race were spotted hunting for food. Where are the males? one might ask, but this was the question that even Ye Ci had no answer to. She had only seen female Mermaids in her past life. Well, I guess the males of the race were busy taking care of their young at home… mused Ye Ci. “How lame! I was putting in so much effort but a female showed up instead!”

The menacing aura around the mermaid had disappeared. She stared calmly at Ye Ci with a pout on her face, “The Elves are getting scrawnier nowadays. Give it a few years, and we won’t even be able to tell the males and females of your race apart” said the Mermaid as her gaze rested on Ye Ci’s chest.

The mermaid flaunted her bare voluptuous bosom as she spoke to Ye Ci. Her curves were so flawless that one would get a nosebleed just by staring at them. What the heck? Why is this NPC comparing breast sizes with me?

Even if mine are not as large as hers, they’re still not that small! Why does she sound like I’m completely flat?

“Aiya, what brings you here, Elf?” the Mermaid continued with a smile after a short moment of silence, completely oblivious to the distress her words brought upon Ye Ci.

“A shipwreck.” replied Ye Ci.

“Ahh!” exclaimed the Mermaid as she sat upright, with her ample breasts bouncing due to her sudden movement, “Are you talking about the storm a few days ago? It brought us quite a large amount of food!”

Ye Ci rolled her eyes at the Mermaid, if I did not hold on to the mast, I might’ve ended up as their food as well and said, “Alright, if there’s nothing else you have to say, I’ll take my leave now.”

“Aiya, why are you leaving? I didn’t say that you can leave yet!” shouted the Mermaid.

Paying no need to the slutty mermaid, Ye Ci headed back into the forest. Mermaids can’t walk, I can just ignore her. Who cares about her anyways?

“Hey hey hey!” the Mermaid called out to Ye Ci. Realizing that she was ignored, she jumped down from the rock. “Ouch!” shouted the Mermaid as she landed on the beach.

Ye Ci stopped for a very brief moment before continuing on forward while muttering under her breath, “This is a lvl120 BOSS-tier NPC. She is very intelligent. She will definitely find some way to kill me. I will ignore her.”

“Aiya!” the Mermaid screamed when she noticed that Ye Ci had quickened her pace. Her voice was so pleasant that it gave even Ye Ci, who was a girl, the goosebumps. A guy would definitely have melted right here and now. thought Ye Ci to herself.

The torrent of shouts from the Mermaid was a great source of annoyance to Ye Ci. “Whatever! She’s an NPC! Even if she’s somewhat slutty, and was slightly annoying, I should still go talk to her. She might know the way out of this place.” she muttered under her breath, and walked towards the Mermaid. She was surprised to notice that the Mermaid’s tail was replaced by a pair of beautiful looking legs.

So Mermaids are able to walk on land after all! No matter how tough they are in water, they’re severely weakened when they’re on dry land. Ye Ci stood 5 yards away from the Mermaid. She could not risk to be too close to the Mermaid, especially when she was not sure if the Mermaid was a friend or foe.

“Oh my dearest Mermaid, how can I be of help?” despite Ye Ci’s use of honorifics, it was obvious that respect was not the feeling she was harboring towards the Mermaid.

“How could you leave just like that after breaking my harp?” the Mermaid pouted.

If looks could kill, the Mermaid would definitely have died under Ye Ci’s intense glare. She could feel a strong urge to strangle the Mermaid, scrape her scales clean, and scream down her throat, “I broke your harp? My ass! Who’s the one at fault here? Screw you! Do you think that you can put the blame on me just because you’re in NPC? Go fuck yourself! Even if you’re an NPC, you shouldn’t be pushing my limits like that!”

Of course, these were merely thoughts that Ye Ci could never voice out. “What do you want?” she sighed.

“I want you to repair it for me” the Mermaid’s request was simple.

“Nope. I don’t have the time to meddle in this business of yours. I need to get out of here.” Ye Ci declined the request. She wanted nothing to do with the shameless Mermaid.

“How can you be so irresponsible! You shall be smited by the heavens!” the Mermaid began throwing a tantrum, and her actions put Ye Ci in a bad mood.

Translator's Note:

Before *some* people start screaming bloody murder about how authors are objectifying women in Asian novels blah blah blah.... Let it be known that the author of this novel is a female.

[1] A story from Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Guan Yu was wounded by a poison arrow fired by troops under the command of Wei general Cao Ren during the battle for Fan Cheng City. Guan Yu was treated by the miracle doctor, Hua Tuo, who offered to have him blindfolded and his hands tied before the operation. Guan Yu refused the offer and instead proceeded with the operation after chugging down some wine. Hua Tuo was able to scrape the poison off Guan Yu's bones as he played a game of chess with one of his retainers.