399 Chapter 399 - Southern Lone Blade, the Professional Larcenis (1/2)

The speed at which Mages grinded out experience had already begun to shine forth in the game. Having three Mages within the ranks of the Five Unyielding Experts meant that, aside from the top player from the Thief and Fighter job classes, the champions of the job classes were unable to secure themselves a spot anywhere near the top three if they were placed in the Mages' leaderboards.

The Five Unyielding Experts title was merely symbolic. If the list was extended, the number of players from the various job classes were about even, though Fighters were still in the minority. It was only the Mages that saw a surge in numbers among the higher levels of players.

Brave Surge was a familiar name from Yunduan City, and had actually managed to quietly make his way to the top in Parallel World in such a short amount of time. This was also part of the reason why Oathless Sword was feeling unhappy today. While his guild had indeed reached Level 6 and now had a 300 member capacity advantage over Carouse, he had personally suffered a complete loss compared to Brave Surge.

With Southern Lone Blade's drop from the Warrior experience leaderboard, Oathless Sword had also risen by a rank, currently resting at the 11th position on said list.

It was an extremely awkward position to be in, thanks to how the players in the game had came up with the term ”Five Unyielding Experts, Ten Great Adepts, and Seven Bottlenecks”. Naturally, the legendary five players that ranked top five on the overall experience leaderboard were the Five Unyielding Experts.

The Ten Great Adepts referred to the top ten players in each of the seven job classes in the game, who also received quite a lot of attention from the masses. It just so happened that Oathless Sword had landed in the eleventh position, and while the amount of experience he had compared to the top ten was most likely insignificant, there was nothing he could do about it, since that difference served as the division between the two different realms the tenth and eleventh places were relegated to. Oathless Sword was right at the edge of this realm. The names ahead of him were all top-rated experts, while the people behind him were all experts that were seen as a grade less. He had unwittingly became the cheerless spokesman for the latter. Every single player that found themselves in the same position had all became cheerless spokesmen.

These seven spokesmen were conferred the title of The Seven Bottlenecks, since there were a total of seven job classes.

The seven dispirited spokesmen of the seven job classes were often brought up in conclusion, not mentioned out of reverence, but in ridicule.

After Oathless Sword had made a mockery of himself when he announced his guild as the number one guild in all of Parallel World, he was promptly being teased as the 'Premier Bottleneck' when the latest news of his position came to light. The fact that Oathless Sword could still smile when he met Gu Fei really showed some strong mental resilience.

Of course, it was unavoidable that Gu Fei's mercenary channel lit up with a wave of derision towards Oathless Sword's situation. Aside from Brother Assist's level being average, the names of everyone in the mercenary group was now listed among the Ten Great Adepts. Sword Demon was now even ranked second on the Thieves leaderboard. Given how standing before him and taking the top spot was the pay-to-win warrior Svelte Dancer, who was still the lone star that dominated the overall leaderboard, everybody was convinced that as long as Svelte Dancer did not die, Sword Demon would have a really difficult time climbing any higher. War Without Wounds was another one who had managed to move up a spot after Southern Lone Blade's fall from grace, and was also ranked second in the Warrior leaderboard. Royal God Call and Young Master Han were more middling, ranking seventh and eighth, respectively. They had also managed rise up in rank, as a result of players ahead of them dying.

The forums bustled with theories and talk, wondering just how so many names from the top ten had lost their levels in one day. However, Brother Assist managed to bring in a bit more news; the fearsome Mage in the squad of seven that Southern Lone Blade had brought, Flame Singed Clothes, had actually been in fourth place on the Mage leaderboard, and was a well known player in Linshui City to boot.

”So by that logic, it is possible that the squad he brought along were all part of the Ten Great Adepts, and it was likely their deaths created such changes in each job class,” War Without Wounds guessed.

Everybody agreed with this assessment. It was a pity that no one else among that squad stood out distinctively, making it difficult for the Information Expert Brother Assist to find out anything more.

”Speaking of which, that guy did mention he would be waiting for us in Linshui City…” Royal God Call mentioned.

”We gotta be careful! If we lose to them, changing the names of the Ten Great Adepts once more, we'll just be giving more trouble to those players in the forums,” War Without Wounds spoke up.

”It's no trouble,” Brother Assist laughed. ”That's how we find the joy in our work.” Brother Assist obviously understood the mentality of the players that came up with the terms Five Unyielding Experts, Ten Great Adepts, and Seven Bottlenecks.

”Southern Lone Blade must surely have heard that we've completed our mission, it's totally possible that he's anxiously setting up things in Linshui City right now. Shall we stay around Luori City for a few days and distress him?” Royal God Call's mischievous spirit appeared once more.

Everybody laughed, but from a tactical perspective, it was also a method to dash the enemy's spirit. Wait in Linshui City? Carry on waiting, then! Considering how free and leisurely their lives in Luori City were, they wanted to see just how long Southern Lone Blade could wait.

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Southern Lone Blade was indeed waiting. However, these men from YME were being far too self-sentimental. Southern Lone Blade was not waiting for them at all.

When he discovered that those experts had actually thought he was harboring evil intentions after them, Southern Lone Blade did not bother to correct them, since such a situation would actually work in his favor. Thus, he played along and told them what they wanted to hear, so as to further cement their supposition as a fact.

But in truth, the only target Southern Lone Blade had his eyes on was Gu Fei.