Chapter 9 (1/2)
009 BOY AND GIRL’S SECRET BASE
Standard
After finis.h.i.+ng the simple lunch, Liang Li Dong asks Kyle if he can bring him around the villager and the teenager definitely agrees, he cannot help but wants more time to communicate with Liang Li Dong.
As a teenager with dreams, Kyle knows that there is too little for him to obtain information. Although he gets to visit the city with his grandfather regularly and occasionally gets to meet 1 or 2 ‘big-shots’ in the city, other people at most chat a bit with his grandfather and a kid like him will not even enter big-shots’ vision, let alone have a conversation. Kyle is very clear of his significance, he is better than kids of the same age in the village in terms of combat or academic but he is also clear that his standards is nothing compared to heirs of n.o.bles in the city.
For example the lord of the city’s daughter, although not very pretty, temper is bad too and is not good at socializing, if he was to go up against her, 10 of him will not even be a match for her. Even more sadly, the difference in status meant that he does not even have the right to challenge her. He is only the descendant of a declined village n.o.ble. The other party is a Mage, even without her n.o.ble status, she can still look down upon him.
The saddest thing in the world is not being without dreams but having dreams yet cannot find the way forward. Those without dreams are actually fortunate. They go with the flow and live every day steadily. Those with dreams yet cannot fulfill them has to endure the gap between reality and dreams and live unhappily.
Kyle always hope to be a mercenary and travel around, punis.h.i.+ng evil and spread kindness. Even if he cannot be a legendary person like his ancestor, he also wants to live out his life and carve a future for himself but he only has dreams yet do not know how to realize them. No one has told him what is the first step to do and no one told him what kind of knowledge he needs to learn to be a good mercenary.
Now, there is a real spellcaster at his house as guest and is willing to communicate with him and did not treat him as a child but as someone equal. How can Kyle not grab hold of this chance. Although this Lord Priest seems to not agree on him becoming a mercenary, he still said some things and Kyle at least knows now that to become a Mage requires a lot of money, at least his family cannot afford the money for him to learn magic and swordsmans.h.i.+p when trained to the limits is not any weaker and can slay dragons.
In the past, no one will tell him these things. Kyle is very curious and desperately wants to know any little information about the world of mercenaries.
Kyle brings Liang Li Dong out, under the tree not far from the courtyard, the two of them see a crowd of villagers gathering and whispering. When the villagers see them walking out, the scene becomes quiet and sights of curiousness and probing are set on Liang Li Dong. Now the news of a big-shot in the village has spread across the village. In front is all people, there is around 100 over people, all the people in the village is probably present.
“Scatter now.” As the grandson of the Village Head, the Village Head-to-be, Kyle’s words have some weight: “This Lord Priest here is a real spellcaster, your behaviors are very rude. If it angers the Lord, it doesn’t matter if you get into trouble but it is not good if others get dragged in too.”
Although Kyle made Liang Li Dong seems ‘unsentimental’, the effects of these words are quite good, the villagers quickly scatter. Kyle heaves a sigh of relief. At this moment, a young girl runs out of the crowd, it is Behring. She asks the two of them: “Lord Beta, and Brother Kyle, where are you two going? Can you bring me along?”
Kyle turns his sight to Liang Li Dong, asking for his opinion.
Liang Li Dong only wants to take a look at the surroundings and not do anything bad so it does not matter whether another young girl tags along. Having gotten permission from Liang Li Dong, Behring follows behind them happily and under the gaze of the villagers, the three of them went out the of the village’s west entrance.
Kyle points to the half meter wide mud road underneath their feet, then points toward the west and says: “This road leads to the nearest village to us, Seri Village. It will take around 3 hours on foot. Their population is not much different from our village. Every start of spring, they will go to the nearest Winter Wind City and will need to pa.s.s by our village. We will then gather and head to the city together because the more people coming from the same place, the lower the headcount tax is.”
“This is the small forest at the north of the village. There is a patch of gra.s.sland inside. I normally practice my swordsmans.h.i.+p here. Further north is the mountains and the ferocious beasts inside so I have never been up there.”
“The river south of the village is where we normally get our water and do our was.h.i.+ng. The fisherman of our village, Amro, depends on this river for his living. He is the only fisherman of our village but he doesn’t fish in the autumn. According to his words, the fishes at that time is mostly small fishes if fis.h.i.+ng is done then there will be no fishes left for the next year.”
“The road at the east of the village leads to the nearest city, Winter Wind City. The furthest place I ever been is Winter Wind City.” Kyle looks into the distance with a look of yearning on his face: “I wonder what the world is like beyond Winter Wind City. I heard Winter Wind City is not that big but in my eyes, Winter Wind City is already a city big beyond my imagination, what is a city that is bigger than it is like!”
Behring says snappily at the side: “Brother Kyle at least went to Winter Wind City before, I haven’t been there before.”
Kyle gives an apologetic laugh.
Liang Li Dong stares at the clouds over the eastern horizon. If he remembers it correctly, Winter Wind City is one of the large border cities of Holevin. In the fifth year of the game, it was destroyed in the hands of players. The cause of it was because players found a large goldmine in a mountain near Winter Wind City. The 2 largest forces among players then, Jia Lan Temple Guild and Silver Wings Guild started a 4-days guild war around Winter Wind City over the rights of this goldmine.
When both sides mobilize over ten thousands of guild members, a total of more than 20 thousands Cla.s.s-er fight each other near Winter Wind City. Although the players avoid fighting in the city during the first 2 days of the guild war, when both sides started to have casualties, many players lost large amount of character EXP due to death and anger started to build up. At the end, the war escalated and no one cared about the lives of NPCs. Mage used large-scale magic without misgivings. Many used the buildings in the city for terrain attacks[1] and the whole city was turned down into ruins within only 2 days.
Although many NPCs escaped from the city, after a calculation by a kind soul after the event, more than 30% of NPCs died in the hands of players. Afterwards, the king of Holevin was furious and sent out large armies to attack the guild halls of Jia Lan Temple and Silver Wings. There was bounty publicly placed for the main force of the 2 guilds, bounty were continuously placed even after they died and revived. In the end, members of both guilds died on an average of 35 times and levels dropped by an average of 4. The 2 strongest guilds instantly turned into lowest-tier guilds.