Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

“Ah!”

“Ahh!”

“Ahhh!”

The exclamations and gasps continued, and Brother Assist had long since been drowned in the prestige of Gu Fei. His students were low level, so the monsters they sought to learn from Gu Fei were at most at level 35. Gu Fei could deal with those monsters with relative ease, yet against these level 45 monsters, he would naturally have to pay closer attention to the exchange, so the moves he did to probe this monster now were all the more electrifying, which caused the crowd of onlookers that had formed to utter waves of exclamation time and again.

Brother Assist was insignificant amid these exclamations, and no one cared that he was Gu Fei’s friend any longer. There was even someone standing beside Brother Assist who was loudly cheering on that shared his admiration to Brother Assist. “That guy looks so sharp fighting like that; he probably has undergone intense training before! Too cool.”

“Yeah. He had that,” Brother Assist answered.

“Marvelous!” That man was most likely randomly looking for a fellow onlooker to voice out what he was feeling and did not notice who Brother Assist was as he immediately turned his head to the fight to cheer again after he had said that.

Gu Fei, the man who had created a furor, was rather surprised, but he was not really paying attention to any of it. He could not possibly stop and persuade the people to leave, could he? Let these men watch on if they enjoy doing so; it’s no biggie, anyway. Gu Fei did not think too much into this and just concentrated on uncovering this Campfire Patroller’s offense and defense patterns as he strove to formulate an effective fighting routine against it.

Brother Assist, who had followed Gu Fei prepare his lesson for an entire afternoon, already knew that this phase of excitement would not last too long; it would at most go on for ten minutes or so. Sure enough, after fighting for about ten minutes with the monster, Gu Fei had already gotten a grasp on the attack patterns and tempo of the monster, so every move he made now connected perfectly. Before, even though Gu Fei did his best not to kill it, having been entangled with it for ten minutes, the accumulated damage of course shaved off a good portion of the monster’s HP, so all it took was a few more hits and it soon collapsed to the ground.

Gu Fei heaved a long sigh. He could not help but smile when he heard the climactic shout from the crowd when the monster fell. That was when he looked all around him and could not find a trace of Brother Assist.

“Hey! Where are you?” Gu Fei messaged.

“Over here!” Brother Assist’s voice came from within the crowd. The man struggled to squeeze his way through the packed onlookers, sighing in relief once he was out. Since more and more players gathered around to watch the fight, it grew crowded to the point that he got stuck somewhere in the middle, almost finding it difficult to catch his breath within it.

The crowd watched the two men meet, and Brother Assist felt ill at ease being watched by so many pairs of eyes, yet Gu Fei appeared to be completely unbothered by their audience, merely continuing to do his work as he calmly spoke to Brother Assist. “I’ve got a good read of its moves. Now, we move on to the next step.”

“Right now?” Brother Assist asked. With so many players watching them, while they were clearly not doing anything wrong, Brother Assist still subconsciously felt a little diffident about it.

“Then, how long must we wait?” Gu Fei was nonplussed.

“There’s no need. You can continue.” Brother Assist gritted his teeth and bore with it. If the man in the limelight had no qualms about it, there was no reason a bit character like him would need to feel thin-skinned about it!

Gu Fei nodded and quietly waited for a new monster to spawn. The players around the two could tell what he was doing, but no one said a word. Each of them was silently waiting for the next part of his performance. The way he had fought the monster just now left the crowd wanting for more, and right now, everyone had forgotten that they were playing a MMO.

I’m afraid that you guys are gonna be disappointed this time… Brother Assist laughed bitterly. This was because he knew that what Gu Fei would be doing next was not the least bit exciting, and in fact, it would be exceedingly boring as he would repeatedly do moves to formulate the ideal fighting routine for the monster, and these would all be moves that Gu Fei had picked out from the first wave of probing he had done before. Actually, these moves would be the crème de la crop, but it was as the saying went: ‘Insiders will see the sum and substance, while outsiders will merely see the hustle and bustle.’ Gu Fei would proceed to unearth the essence now, so the onlookers that were only there for the thrill would of course not be interested in watching this bit.

As he had expected, the crowd was originally spirited when Gu Fei first engaged with the monster once more, but they soon realized that this time was different from before, and that sequence of attack with hurricane-like exhilaration was nowhere to be seen. Gu Fei was now very politely exchanged blows with the monsters; he made a move and allowed the monster to do its own, all along sticking to the same moves. Soon, even the crowd could memorize the moves he was making and thus became very annoyed by this display.

The players slowly simmered and returned to normal, beginning to wonder just what Gu Fei was trying to achieve. The crowd began a hushed discussion among themselves, yet they could never come to a conclusion. Meanwhile, that kind player that had provided Gu Fei and Brother Assist with a monster spawn point slide right next to Brother Assist and asked him, looking very puzzled. “Bro, just what is he trying to do?”

“He’s researching a set of fighting routines most efficient in killing the Campfire Patroller monster. Before, what he was doing is probing the monster for all its unique attacks and defense patterns. Right now, he’s earnestly experimenting and studying the best way to take it down,” explained Brother Assist.

That player was very lost hearing all this, scratching his head to ask. “When are you guys logging off?”

“It’s still early,” answered Brother Assist.

“Okay. I’ll be going to grab dinner. Will you guys still be around when I’m back?” the player asked, look at ng at the time.

“We’ll still be here.” Brother Assist nodded. He was aware that Gu Fei would not easily complete this process.

“That’s great. I’ll be back soon,” the man said.

“We’ll return the spot right to you when that time comes.” Brother Assist chuckled.

“Yeah. That’d be great,” That man meant to hint at this as well, so he bid them farewell and left in a hurry.

The other players had been patiently watching all this while, and they were still holding out hope for it to return to the exciting performance that they were looking forward to as someone yelled at Gu Fei. “One more time!” At this, he merely smiled and did not do anything about it. When the crowd realized that there would be no more spectacular sight to behold, they too began to disperse slowly. There were still a handful of very inquisitive players that expressed their interest by coming forward to ask what this was all about. Gu Fei did not hide anything from these players, either. Continuing to conduct his experiment on the monsters, he told these people that he was researching for an efficient fighting routine to deal with the monster.

“Efficient. You call that efficient?” The people acted as if they had heard a joke and laughed sardonically before leaving. Very evidently, while Gu Fei killing the monster was very thrilling to watch, to gamers, it was no more than watching a very exciting martial arts display. When it came to killing monsters, that one kill took over ten minutes. If that was what it meant to be efficient, that would just be downright comical.

Gu Fei was not concerned with these men’s attitude, though, and just continued focusing on the matter at hand. Meanwhile, those people who had left would occasionally turn their heads over to take a look, checking to see if there were any changes to his actions. Ultimately, all they saw was the same boring old exchange until, finally, they no longer paid attention to what Gu Fei was doing.

This level 45 monster was obviously far more difficult than the others his students had sought him out for. Gu Fei spent almost an entire class period before he succeeded in sequencing a fighting routine specifically for the Campfire Patroller. Brother Assist, who was conscientiously watching everything this whole time, knew that Gu Fei had finally concluded his work and was beside himself with excitement.

Soon, the monster was skillfully disposed of by Gu Fei with his sword, and the man revealed a smile of victory as he made his way to Brother Assist.

“Done?” Brother Assist immediately came forward to ask.

Gu Fei nodded but added a word that Brother Assist did not wish to hear. “However…”

“‘However’, what…” Brother Assist was afraid.

“This monster isn’t easy to beat. You gotta have a bit of Agility. Have you added any points to that stat at all?”

Brother Assist was stunned, replying eventually, “A little.” He had originally been faithfully following the stat point allocation of Priests used, but had all his points reset once he advanced to a Dark Knight. As the Dark Knight was a job class that had not undergone thorough research by the masses yet, the ever prudent Brother Assist added some points to the stats he believed was necessary while setting aside the remaining stat points in the meantime, prepared to allocate it accordingly once there was a clear consensus on the ideal stat point distribution for Dark Knights.

“Oh, how many have you added?” Gu Fei wanted to know the exact amount.

“A little!” Brother Assist replied.

It took Gu Fei a moment to realize that what Brother Assist meant by a little was literally 1 point. He did not mean that he had merely added a little to it but that he had only added 1 point to it.

“One point? Why would you just add 1 point for?” Gu Fei was confused.

“Eh. My movement speed was missing just one point to upgrade to the next level, so I added that one point…” Brother Assist explained.

Precise calculations were Brother Assist’s greatest forte. Gu Fei did not bother to harp on this and just continued. “A Knight’s Agility is similar to that of a Mage, and there’s no adjustment to it, right?”

“Yup. It’s 1 to 1,” Brother Assist answered.

Gu Fei nodded. “Then, you will need to add points to Agility if you use my method for this monster.”

“How many?” Brother Assist was fearful. By his admission, Brother Assist knew that he was nowhere near Gu Fei’s level of skill, so imitating Gu Fei’s all-Agility build would be akin to drawing a tiger that ended up looking like a dog. Thus, the man was very worried that Gu Fei would point him in the direction of walking this path that might lead him to crippling his account.

“For me, five levels of Agility would be enough to deal with the monster, but in your case, I suggest somewhere around eight to ten levels. The reason is, the more points you allocate to it, the more reliable this will be, which means that the less Agility you have will make it that much more strenuous for you.” Gu Fei told Brother Assist.

“So many, huh…” Brother Assist was a little conflicted. Before he could confirm that Agility would be useful for Dark Knights, should he actually allocate points to that stat just for the sake of learning Gu Fe’s style of fighting monsters?

Gu Fei sighed once more. “I know you guys aren’t the sort to allocate your stats randomly, but I’ve already sequenced a fighting routine that requires the least level of requirement here. The grade of this level 45 monster is too high, and there’s no way of achieving this without attaining a certain level of speed as safeguard. How about let’s do it like this: I’ll demonstrate the routine to you, and then you grab a monster to try it out yourself once you have a good read of it. Let yourself be the judge as to how much Agility you’ll need to deal with it! If you really can’t bear parting with those points, you can always go back to using your old method of fighting it!”

“Yes, that looks to be my only option.” Brother Assist nodded. He felt that it would be much better if he verified it for himself.

“Alright. Keep your eyes peeled. I’ll be doing the entire fighting routine for you!” Gu Fei said.

“Heh… I’ve already seen quite a bit.” Brother Assist chuckled. Having witnessed the entire process, he already had a good 70 to 80% grasp of the moves involved.

As before, Gu Fei used that common sword he had and attacked the monster – the developed moveset was indeed very different. No longer did the two parties go back and forth like before; rather, he displayed great finesse while he dished out a series of relentless attacks as he continued to dodge any incoming attacks from the sword-wielding monster. Although the time it took to kill the monster was not particularly fast, Brother Assist could tell that it was a result of Gu Fei’s equipment and job class limitations. Its efficiency would surely be reflected if Gu Fei were using his Moonlit Nightfalls and Twin Incineration, or if Brother Assist were the one dealing out the damage as a Dark Knight that had an incomplete stat point allocation.

“So, want me to go again?” Gu Fei asked Brother Assist as the monster collapsed to the ground.

“I think I’ve got it. Let me try it out and you can correct me,” Brother Assist said.

“Be careful. You don’t have enough speed at the moment,” Gu Fei warned.

“I understand…” Brother Assist said as he pulled a monster to try his hands on this new fighting routine. He could still remember each step and action Gu Fei had done in his mind. Seeing the monster come forward with a swing of its torch, Brother Assist immediately stepped to its side, but a burning sensation overwhelmed his shoulder. Sure enough, since his speed was slow, he could not completely dodged its torch.

Ultimately, having been thwarted in that first move, there was simply no way he could continue any of the steps after. To give a simple example of this, the routine Gu Fei had developed specifically countered the monsters’ actions. ABC was used against the monsters’ 123, and because Brother Assist did not have enough speed to pull this off, what would be an A to deal with 1, Brother Assist only managed to execute half of it, resulting in him being unable to dodge its attack. To make matters worse, the monster would follow up with 2, yet he had no way of responding with B because he was still in the middle of executing A, so he ended up taking the hit from 2 as well, and so on and so forth. Similarly, the monster was ruthless in his execution. Thus, the poor Brother Assist was left trying to do A before he was forced to abandon Gu Fei’s fighting routine altogether and used his old style to finish off the monster. He turned to show a look of remorse to Gu Fei when that was all over.

“How much Agility do you think you’re missing?” Gu Fei asked.

Brother Assist was unable to answer him. He was skilled in calculation, yet he could not grasp such a fine detail when it came to actual combat.

“Let me show it to you twice more; commit it to memory!” Gu Fei said.

“Alright!” Brother Assist was a little helpless, an intense ideological struggle raging within him.

“Look closely!” Gu Fei attacked. Brother Assist saw a streak of purple glow brush past and belatedly realized that the Mage was now holding onto his Moonlit Nightfalls, which gleamed threateningly. Even though he was not using any spells with it, the damage it dealt was nowhere the same as that lousy sword from before. Adding the fact that Gu Fei had on various gear which increased the chances of proccing additional attack, the monster was slain even more quickly than before, thereby demonstrating the word ‘efficiency’ in its truest sense.

“What do you think?” Gu Fei smiled.

“F*ck!” Brother Assist was dejected. Yes, Gu Fei did not try persuading him to allocate points to Agility directly, but he opted to using this method to tempt him, and what made it all the more worse was the fact that he was sorely tempted after watching that display, and he could feel that impulse to change to an all-Agility build.

“Here comes another!” Another monster spawned, and Gu Fei yelled at the top of his lungs as he came forward to slay it. This time, he was even luckier than before, and he managed to land more procs of additional attacks, causing the monster to fall all the more faster. Brother Assist forcefully restrained himself further.

“F*ck me. That’s too indomitable. Has your development been a success?” This voice suddenly came out of nowhere. Gu Fei and Brother Assist turned around to look and saw that the kind player from before had already finished his dinner and made his way back, just in time to see Gu Fei’s last two demonstrations. The man could really experience what the word ‘efficiency’ meant this time around, and even an outsider like him could tell that this was the real deal.

“That’s right.” Gu Fei nodded.

“How did you do it?” the man asked.

“I’ll show it to you when a new monster spawns.” Gu Fei chuckled. He had never once treated this routine of his like a precious treasure.

“Alright!” This man was extremely excited. He felt as if he were the main character of a YY novel right now, doing an insignificant good deed in exchange for a reward of heroic proportions and supreme knowledge that would all soon be imparted to him.

A monster quickly spawned, and to ensure that the man could get a clearer view of what he was doing, he had his lousy sword equipped once more, and the damage he dealt this time was far less, causing the word ‘efficiency’ to disappear in the wind when the monster was finally defeated. The player was very confused. “Why is it that this time…”

“I’ve done it intentionally, so you could clearly see what I was doing,” Gu Fei explained.

“Huh?”

At this moment, another monster spawned, so Gu Fei swiftly re-equipped his gear. With his Moonlit Nightfalls in hand, he turned around and sent forth a Twin Incineration, insta-killing the monster when two streaks of flames connected. Gu Fei sheathed his weapon and faced that dumbfounded player. “Look; you couldn’t even see anything when I did it like that!”