Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 700 – Mana Restoration

With how there would be no penalties for death during the City Wars event, Brave Surge was able to boldly give such an order without any hesitation. Meanwhile, there were plenty of people from Carouse who dared to sacrifice themselves seeing there were no losses on their end, and ten men immediately stepped up to surround Gu Fei. When Folding Fan Invader saw this, he immediately gave another suggestion, “If that’s the case, why don’t we blow him to kingdom come with our Mage Bombardment?”

Brave Surge did not respond to this. Deep down, he had indeed come up with such a thought as well, but he felt that giving such an order was not appropriate. Even if nobody would lose their level upon dying, it was still a rather cruel command, and Brave Surge had not wished to create such an image to his own guild members. At such a time, if there was a subordinate that could sense the intention of his or her leader, that person would surely take the hint and do the dirty work, falsely decreeing such an order, before accepting the censure from Brave Surge for his ruthless actions after killing Gu Fei…

And so, Brave Surge turned to regard Folding Fan Invader, and the man did the same. This exchange of looks then shifted over to Gu Fei insta-killing the circle of men that had thrown themselves at Gu Fei, before Folding Fan Invader said, “Are we not doing that?”

Brave Surge sighed. He knew Folding Fan Invader was not such a subordinate, so all he could do was heave a deep sigh as he shook his head, “No, there’s no need.”

The second squad of players was sent in to their deaths. Of course, all of them tried their best to attempt to kill off Gu Fei without having to sacrifice their own lives, but it was to no avail. Not only was Gu Fei able to dish out a frightening amount of damage with his attacks, but his style of fighting was all the more impressive. Skills were just skills, but a cut, slash or stab were all up to the players’ freedom of motion, and just how could the average player be able to contend with Gu Fei on this front? Wherever Gu Fei ended up pointing his blade to, that would be where his attack landed; this was the realm that Gu Fei was in when facing against these commoners, his sword never once missing his target once he made his move.

There were already people from the first wave who had imagined that their job was to draw Gu Fei’s attack out, so as long as they tried to evade the moment the attack was made, their job would have been completed and they would not have to die. But that was just their imagination; no matter how mentally prepared they were, any average human being’s reaction would always be slower than what their eyes could process. The moment they saw Gu Fei move to attack, and the time it took for them to register this and attempt to evade the strike, they were already a victim to Gu Fei’s sword. Alternatively, there were that would believe that they had managed to avoid the attack, only to find themselves struck by his attacks in the end. In any case, their destination remained unchanged. They were all sent back to the nearest encampment.

The second wave had more Guardians. Everyone thought that since they would just die, sending out the Guardians would at least cause Gu Fei to spend more of his mana.

But Gu Fei was merciless, not even giving the Guardians the chance to die for their guild. The moment he saw that they were who the guild had sent to surround him, Gu Fei began to move away.

There was no way that the Guardians would be able to keep up with Gu Fei’s movement speed, and Brave Surge did not dare to see Gu Fei move too wildly either. If Gu Fei was able to hide himself in some corner and replenish his mana, they would have to re-do this all over again, and there was no amount of players that Carouse could send that would be enough to satiate his appetite. Some had even concluded that this was a huge factor that had led to Traversing Four Seas’ devastating defeat from before. While Gu Fei was indeed capable of dealing tremendous damage, his mana limitation meant he was not a perpetual motion machine. Currently, when it came to dealing with Gu Fei, the more effective solution everyone could come up with was to expend his mana before finding a good chance to finish him off.

“Go get him!” Brave Surge urged his men as he waved his arm out, gesturing to not let the Guardians be the only one attacking, calling for those with movement speed to hurry up and properly surround Gu Fei.

Thieves, Archers, and others began racing right through the trees. Carouse planned to extensively encroach upon the copse of trees before they constrict the space Gu Fei that could be active in. By utilizing the mana expenditure method that they had used before, they hoped to send out waves of attacks that gradually emptied out Gu Fei’s mana pool before they slowly vanquish him.

Gu Fei had obviously seen through this very straightforward plan of theirs, so he focused on a single direction and ran toward it.

There was a mix of players with fast and slow movement speed within Carouse’s army of a thousand. Everyone gave chase, as those with a fast movement speed flanked out on both wings in an effort to wrap around and intercept, even while those with slower movement speed followed from behind ready to bring up the rear. However, even though there were players who had an advantage over Gu Fei when it came to their movement speed, the difference was nothing like putting the pedal to the metal when competing against a bicycle. Everyone could only watch blankly as Gu Fei ran out ahead by a good stretch, at the same time noticing the crowd of players he was running straight toward.

“He’s still got helpers!” Someone from Carouse exclaimed, marveling at how capable Thousand Miles Drunk was. This person continued to give chase even as he sent a message over to Brave Surge.

“Find out who they are!” Brave Surge was equally shocked when he learned this. Could there be so many guilds out there that would be so unprincipled as to help the enemy?

In the end, when Gu Fei saw the familiar faces of these reinforcements coming his way, he could not help but exclaim, “How can it be so coincidental?”

“Coincidental my *ss! There were people up ahead that cut us off,” Vast Lushness was pissed.

“We’re in quite the pickle now, look to the left and the right…” Gu Fei said.

They could all see figures moving on the left and right side of this copse of trees as they spoke. These figures were the players from Carouse that had broken off to form the two wings, coming in from the flanks to get into position in an attempt to seal off the path of escape right in front of Gu Fei.

“How many players cut you guys off?” Gu Fei asked.

“Not many, but with this bunch of idiots here…” Vast Lushness was depressed. The players from Forever in Flowers were just that. They were neither weak nor strong, but the members from Carouse were the real deal. And more importantly, the members from Forever In Flowers possessed little to no discipline. The coordination between members was nothing more than an occasional spark of life. The natural element that they shared as a guild was how they would openly mock and have a jolly good time with one another, and even someone like Vast Lushness who once co-led a large guild was unable to whip these people into shape. Vast Lushness might be able to take command of them when it came to such group battles, but all she could do was get them organized before the battle began. When it came to the actual fight itself, the whole lot of them treated the combat far too casually that there was no way to control them.

“Have no fear, follow me!” Gu Fei waved.

“Drunk bro!” These reprehensible men cheered as he was their spiritual idol.

“You’re still the most outstanding…” Vast Lushness sighed. These men had never once demonstrated such a level of sincere obedience toward her before.

“You’re not too shabby yourself. The fact that they do not consider you to be someone they tease and take liberties of already means they treat you like a human being,” Gu Fei consoled Vast Lushness.

“Are you courting death!?” Vast Lushness’s temper was actually still the same as what she was like back in Yueye City, very much steeped in arrogance.

“Follow me!” Gu Fei no longer paid any attention to her as he dashed out, with the boys from Forever in Flowers following right after with their arrows nocked and ready. Meanwhile, Fireball had unabashedly slid up beside Slyris and implored, “Lady Slyris, shall we coordinate once more?”

Slyris quickly ran off. Jeers and boos sounded all around as Fireball stuck his middle finger up in retaliation.

The people who had managed to chase Forever In Flowers back were none other than the two teams of 20 that Folding Fan Invader had sent off with Guzzler and Beyond Thirty Miles taking charge respectively. They totaled up to 40 men, and were about the same in terms of their numbers with those from Forever in Flowers, though the quality of coordination these men from Carouse demonstrated was much better than their counterparts from Forever In Flowers. Both sides suffered losses when they clashed in a direct confrontation, though it soon became clear that Forever In Flowers was no match for them. Vast Lushness was still considering what strategy they should employ when those men of hers each yelled “the wind howls when it tightens!” and began to scatter and flee in every direction, angering Vast Lushness to the point that she was vomiting blood. She had a hard time gathering everyone to regroup after that. Yet by the time Gu Fei arrived, all he did was wave his hand once and the wind no longer tightened or howled as they followed their idol straight to battle.

The enemy was quickly routed when Beyond Thirty Miles and Guzzler sallied forth and attacked. The men from Carouse saw a surge in their confidence, and they immediately hunted down the stragglers when Forever In Flowers began to flee. It was at this point when they suddenly saw the enemy swing back around to retaliate. The two men were delighted when they witnessed this, thinking to themselves that these men must have run into the rest of their army and thus had nowhere else to flee toward.

Both sides were mostly composed of Archers capable of ranged attacks, so being a few dozens of meters apart was already enough for the battle to commence. The Thieves from Carouse began to close in from both flanks while Stealthed, only for them to see the person in the middle of the enemy quicken his pace and sprint ahead of the rest. Beyond Thirty Miles and Guzzler quickly ordered their troops to concentrate their firepower on this one person, but he moved so erratically, using the unique characteristics of the trees very well as he easily evaded all the shots as he closed in the distance. By the time they could make out the identity of this person, Beyond Thirty Miles had already cried out loud, “It’s Thousand Miles Drunk!”

“What are you so panicked for?” Guzzler’s expression was a lot more composed than Beyond Thirty Miles.

“Don’t let him get near,” Beyond Thirty Miles was yelling. As a troop of Archers, they would be finished if Thousand Miles Drunk managed to get into melee range with them. There would be no doubt that they were finished once that happened.

“Then why aren’t you running!?” Guzzler had turned around and was running away as swift as the wind. It turned out that his unflappableness came from his fast movement speed.

Gu Fei came rushing over without slowing down a bit, even picking off quite a few Stealthed Thieves along the way. The men from Forever In Flowers synchronized well with Gu Fei, concentrating all their arrows to kill off these now exposed Thieves. By the time Gu Fei had covered the distance between them and the enemy, a total of 8 Thieves had already been eliminated, with the remaining ten or so not daring to move an inch, looking back only to find their home team had turned around and fled.

“F*ck me, Guzzler, how are you so fast?” Guzzler was five meters ahead of Beyond Thirty Miles, and the latter was nervous. Extremely nervous.

“Actually, it doesn’t matter. We won’t lose our levels if we die anyway,” Guzzler turned back to answer.

“Then what are you running away for?” Beyond Thirty Miles asked.

“To buy us time. The rest of the guild is sure to be hot on their heels. If we go up and get insta-killed by Thousand Miles Drunk, we would essentially be as good as not having existed. Why not just run and drag out the time,” Guzzler explained.

“Is that really your excuse?”

“You can believe whatever you like,” Guzzler acted cool about it.

All these people had the advantage over Gu Fei when just considering the movement speed they possessed. Gu Fei was unwilling to use Blink either, so all he did was shepherd them from behind, with the men from Forever In Flowers following right after him. It was very difficult to run and shoot at the same time, and out of all the players Gu Fei had met thus far, only Ye Xiaowu’s bunch of ex-soldiers were capable of successfully doing so. Of course, nobody in Forever In Flowers had achieved this level of expertise, but they were adept at taunting. These men would usually demonstrate this to the best of their abilities whenever they were teasing the ladies, and Slyris could not stop furrowing her brow while overhearing this. Even Vast Lushness was seething with dark displeasure as Sakurazaka Moony ran in front of her showing a high and mighty expression, distancing himself from these sleazebags. Yan Xiaozhu caught up with Gu Fei and ran alongside him as she asked, “Are these your friends?”

Gu Fei was in tears.

“Surround them, why isn’t anyone surrounding them!?” Brave Surge was raging by the time Gu Fei and the people from Forever In Flowers had run out of the copse.

“The two waves that we sent in advance using a shortcut have all been insta-killed by Thousand Miles Drunk,” the player in charge of this operation reported.

“What the hell, didn’t someone mention we had sent men blocking the path forward? Did they fail to use up Thousand Miles Drunk’s mana?” Brave Surge asked.

“Those men immediately fled the moment they saw Thousand Miles Drunk,” someone reported.

“What the hell is wrong with your men!?” Brave Surge questioned Folding Fan Invader.

Folding Fan Invader was dejected. Those were just men he had brought out to hunt down Thousand Miles Drunk, how did they end up becoming his men? As he wallowed in his dismay, he could not help but send a message to both Beyond Thirty Miles and Guzzler, “What are the two of you doing?!”

Beyond Thirty Miles looked at Guzzler, “Did you receive a message?”

“Yup,” Guzzler replied.

“How are we going to explain ourselves?”

“We’re on the run, so we don’t have the time to explain,” Guzzler answered.

“No f*cks given. I yield.” Beyond Thirty Miles sighed in awe as he closed off the message and pretended to not notice.

When Folding Fan Invader saw that he got no reply from either man after some time, he decided to call out in the guild channel, “Thirty, Guzzler. Where are you leading your men running off to? Turn back and impede Thousand Miles Drunk’s advancement!”

The two men continued to pretend that they did not see this, but those men who were following their lead were not blind. They quietly came over and asked, “Folding Fan Invader is asking us to stop and hold up the enemy!”

“Who are we holding up?” Beyond Thirty Miles clearly knew the answer, but he asked this anyway.

“Thousand Miles Drunk,” somebody answered.

“Where’s Thousand Miles Drunk?” Guzzler asked.

Someone turned back around to have a look as they all continued to run, wanting to point the man out, only to discover there were just trees behind him.

“Eh? He was there not too long ago,” the man was confused.

“Look, they are headed that way,” Someone suddenly pointed. Gu Fei and those from Forever In Flowers had run west the moment they got out of the copse of trees, and they did not run straight forward like what Beyond Thirty Miles and Guzzler did.

“Yeah, we’re headed in a different direction, how can we just turn around and block them now?” Guzzler said.

“Did you already know about this before?” Beyond Thirty Miles quietly asked Guzzler.

“Of course not,” Guzzler was somber, insistent on his innocence.

“Seeing how shameless you look, you remind me of someone else!” Beyond Thirty Miles exclaimed.

“Someone else?” Guzzler asked.

“Tsk, do you think I don’t know? You seem to be pretty friendly with Young Master Han, all thanks to your IGN, right?” Beyond Thirty Miles interrogated.

“I don’t really think we are friendly. It just so happened that we share the same hobby, that’s all,” Guzzler humbly replied.

“Oh yeah, why did he quit the guild? That guy’s quite the expert himself,” Beyond Thirty Miles asked.

“I don’t know,” Guzzler answered.

“Didn’t you ask him about it?”

“We only discuss liquor, never about our lives.”

“M*TH*RF*CK*R!” Beyond Thirty Miles cursed.

After the two finished their back and forth, they began to make an honest report to Folding Fan Invader, “Reporting in to Boss Fan, we discovered Thousand Miles Drunk has headed westward after clearing the copse of trees, and we’ve now uncovered that they are escaping toward the forest in the west! Please instruct us if we should continue our hunt! If not, please advise further instructions!”

“Hunt them down, of course! What are you wasting time replying for!?” Folding Fan Invader replied.

“We wasted a few more seconds replying,” Beyond Thirty Miles was sighing repeatedly.

“Brothers, the time for our counterattack has begun. Get ready to chase and hunt down Thousand Miles Drunk,” Guzzler called out.

Everyone pointed their middle fingers at him. Anybody could tell what was going on, and it was utterly shameless that he claimed that they were now on the counterattack.

This team that had first been detached from the original hunting party that Carouse had sent began to lazily make their way in the direction where Gu Fei and the others had fled toward. Meanwhile, the army of men that consist of the rest of Carouse was still charging en masse behind them, the atmosphere permeating with killing intent. They headed west the moment they cleared the trees, not even stopping for a moment.

“Quickly, there’s a forest out there in the west!” Vast Lushness yelled out loud over the party channel.

“What are you shouting for? Were it not have been for your movement speed, we would have reached it long ago,” Gu Fei grumbled.

“You think you’re so great going Full-Agility!” Vast Lushness was incensed.

“Where did you distribute your stat points to?” Gu Fei asked.

“Full-Intelligence!” Vast Lushness answered. It was also considered a rather extreme allocation.

“Useless,” Gu Fei commented.

“F*ck me, do you have any qualifications to say that?” Tears were streaking down Vast Lushness’s cheeks. A Mage that had allocated all his stat points to Agility had actually shamelessly called someone else’s allocation as useless.

“Add Agility!” Gu Fei recommended.

Vast Lushness did not say a word in response.

“This way, you won’t become the burden for your team,” Gu Fei continued.

Vast Lushness refused to respond.

“See, everyone’s staring at you!” Gu Fei continued to say.

“SEE HOW I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!!” Vast Lushness roared about wanting to slay Gu Fei, and he easily darted out several meters and chuckled, “Without any Agility, there’s no way you can even catch up to me.”

“Don’t be angry. Come, I’ll pull you and run,” Sakurazaka Moony was the best when it came to seizing opportunities.

Vast Lushness glared at him, causing Sakurazaka Moony to shrink his neck back and turned back to act as the guild leader, “Quick, keep on running. Stop dallying around.”

That was when Gu Fei asked Slyris a question, “What did you add your stat points on?”

Slyris threw a glance at the man, and without another word, walked away…

“This won’t do, people will catch up to us. You guys better keep moving,” Gu Fei had come to a halt and saw the snake of men that were hot on their pursuit behind them. The difference in speed between those people from Carouse was starting to show, as those in the front were quickly closing in.

“Don’t you die here!” Vast Lushness stared at Gu Fei, her legs not stopping as she gave it her all to hurry along. In her mind, she was actually earnestly considering a little about the question Gu Fei had posed: Everyone in Forever in Flowers had Agility-based job classes. If she were to hang around with such a specialized group like this, she should perhaps consider allocating some of her stat points toward Agility. But with how difficult it was for everyone to level up, it might perhaps be too late for her to start distributing points toward Agility now! Does the system have any service that allows me to reset my points, or if I can acquire some equipment that contributed toward Agility? How much could I get it this way? Vast Lushness continued to contemplate this even as she ran…

Gu Fei was trying to scrounge what time he could to consume fruits, but there was simply no way for him to replenish much mana with what little time he got. Slyris saw this and after a moment of hesitation, finally took off a pair of rings from her own hands.

“Hey!” Slyris shouted.

“What?” Gu Fei turned around, only to see that Slyris had already tossed the two rings right at him.

Gu Fei took them and glanced over the item description. They were a set of green equipment called Mana Restoration. The left-hand ring reduced mana cost by 20%, while the right-hand ring increased the maximum mana by 20%. When both rings were worn together, they would grant an additional trait that allowed the player to regenerate 2% of mana every second.

Gu Fei quickly did his calculations; with how much mana he had presently, he would be left with some spare after 4 executions of Twin Incineration, which meant his Twin Incineration cost him up to 22% of his mana with every cast. Adding the 20% reduction on top of this, that meant each cast of Twin Incineration would only use up 18% of his mana, allowing him to use it five times in one go, and with the additional 20% maximum mana, he could use it once more. This came up to a total of six applications, and with every second granting him 2% mana regeneration, he would be back up to full mana in 50 seconds, and if he were to divide that time up for six Twin Incinerations, that would mean he could use it once every 8 seconds…

A single Twin Incineration every 8 seconds… Gu Fei was excited. Maintaining such a pace meant that he essentially would never have to worry about his mana consumption ever again. Gu Fei’s arithmetics was average, and that was the conclusion he had come to after his rough calculations. He immediately turned around and announced to everyone, “There’s no need to run anymore.”

“No way… What did Lady Slyris give to you? An atomic bomb?” Everybody was surprised.

“I gave him equipment that increases his maximum mana, reduces mana costs of spells and provides mana regeneration. As long as he calculates correctly and manages his usage output, it would ensure he would never run out of mana,” Slyris said.

“That’s right, and I’ve already figured it out.” Gu Fei had not only just finished his calculations, but he had also already put on the rings.

“But my mana isn’t full yet…” Gu Fei wrinkled his forehead. Seeing that those men were already closing in on them, he shrugged toward the rest. “You guys better leave first.”

“Then take care of yourself,” everyone did not waste any more time and immediately sprinted off.

Gu Fei was ravenously devouring fruits, hoping to recover every percentage of mana he could with what little time he had left. The moment the first arrow was fired right at him, Gu Fei had managed to get back up to 48% of mana. In such a situation, how should I control my output so that my mana would not reduce but see a net increase? Gu Fei was not a mathematician, and he felt he needed at least some scratch paper before he could finish his calculation.

But he did not have the time since the enemy was already upon him.

It’s now 50%… Dodging the arrows had interrupted the fruits’ replenishment, but the Mana Restoration trait was still in effect, so Gu Fei recovered 2% of his mana in that one second since.

With a single Twin Incineration every 8 seconds, I won’t lose my mana, Gu Fei thought.

Wait a minute… That means my mana would not decrease, but increase instead if I take longer than 8 seconds in between my Twin Incinerations… That was dumb of me; to think I still wanted some scratch paper for such a problem, Gu Fei was ashamed of himself.