The Child didn’t know how to respond to Dove’s words.
How should I put it…
It was like a tinge of lemon sour, yet there was vaguely also a false illusion of sweetness.
“…Tsk.” The Child couldn’t help but snort, “You…”
He noticed Dove’s gaze change suddenly before he could finish speaking.
When she furrowed her brows and raised her head, her gaze became wild and sharp — At that moment, the Child felt a sudden wave of chill in his heart. It was as if he was walking in a dark alley and suddenly noticed an aggressive person looking towards him with a sharp blade in hand.
Before the Child could react, Dove smashed the teacup onto the ground. Then, she stood up in a breeze, grabbed the Child’s hand, and pulled up from sitting.
“—Careful!” A high-pitched warning sound pierced out of Dove’s throat.
The Child’s brain was ringing from the vibration of that sharp sound. He instantly regained his clarity with a shiver.
…Is there an enemy?
“Oh, you have a pretty quick reaction time.” Just then, a male’s voice came from not far away.
The voice didn’t exactly sound indifferent, yet there weren’t any fluctuations in it. It just sounded lazy. His voice was filled with lethargy, like a burnt-out office worker who had woken up early and had just gotten off a cramped subway.
Yet at this time, a sense of vigilance rose suddenly in Wandering Child’s heart.
He looked towards the source of the voice.
Unknowingly, a man with messy hair who was wearing a long black robe had shown up.
He was wearing a long cloak covering all the way to his knees that had a thick cape. Yet his clothes were full of wrinkles that made them seem shabby and cheap.
It was like the clothes you rented for graduation pictures when you graduated from college. To make things even more out of sorts, the man had a bulging cotton shirt and woolen trousers under his robe.
To put it simply, it was distasteful.
“I say…you do know, right? This is already a restricted area.” The man yawned and said lazily, “Leave immediately, or I will take action.”
Wandering Child had already come to his senses when he heard the first sentence.
This should be the wizard from Black Tower whom Longjing Tea had mentioned.
It turns out we didn’t manage to avoid them entirely.
Is this a suppression of the Perception attribute?
Also, are all wizards from Black Tower always so tired?
“Tsk…” Wandering Child gritted his teeth and was just about to say something.
“Hmm, wait…” The wizard seemed to have smelled something and opened his squinted eyes slightly.
The wizard discovered Citalopram, who was still not online and was lying in her sleeping bag. He muttered softly, “It’s the smell of the undead… That’s strange; why would an undead be sleeping?
“—Hey, you two. This undead, is she with you?” The wizard asked loudly.
Yet he only paused for a while and waved his hand impatiently without waiting for the Child and Dove to respond.
“Forget it. This looks… troublesome.
“It’s the rules, so don’t blame me.”
He said calmly, “It’s not good for the undead to be discovered near the elvish ruin.
“Please first remember my name… Jude Burr. Did you hear? Let me repeat, Jude Burr.”
It was an emotionless voice that sounded like he was merely getting a mission done.
The moment Jude said these words, the silver ring on the middle finger of his right hand shone slightly.
The gray shine seemed to have crawled out of his ring like a living thing, branding on the back of his right hand slowly. It left marks that seemed like fish scales, yet also like floating clouds spreading upwards gradually.
Seeing this scene, the Child immediately became vigilant.
He had experience in fighting a Silver Rank Transcended.
The Silver Rank Transcendeds had to first release the curse from its vessel to be branded on their bodies before they could harness a more powerful Transcended power. Even if the curse could not strengthen their bodies during combat, it still had to be released before it could be used.
The Child immediately patted Dove on the shoulder as he thought of this. Then, he yelled, “Hide!”
“But Suuankou and the others—”
“We can’t afford to care so much now!”
Wandering Child yelled immediately, “Run, and I’ll cut him off!”
We could only resurrect them both when they’re online now!
Dove responded quickly.
The serval snuggling at her feet received her instructions intuitively and quickly hopped away, disappearing into the jungle; Dove also ran towards the other direction without looking back, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Wandering Child then pulled out his rapier without hesitating.
When Wizard Jude saw this scene, he was surprised, “Elf Rapier…”
He indeed didn’t leave to chase after Dove but instead stood firmly at his ground. This gave the Child some peace of mind.
It’s a win if more of us can run away, and it’s better to have three people drop levels instead of four.
Jude looked at Wandering Child and asked with curiosity, “Did you volunteer to stay?
“Aren’t you afraid of death? Is she your wife or your sister?”
“No, just a friend.” Wandering Child answered without hesitation.
Facing a Silver Rank Wizard who had a killing intent towards him one-on-one, which he didn’t know what school was this wizard belonged to, was like bumping into a wild Boss Monster that overpowered him in the wild.
He knew perfectly well that he could not defeat his opponent.
But, since I can’t run away… Wandering Child squinted his eyes.
The bronze ring on his left middle finger seemed to have also sensed his intentions and ignited a dazzling brilliance.
I probably won’t be able to fend off against you elsewhere. And, I was also just a cameo in the last battle against a high-leveled opponent.
But here…
Wandering Child was filled with determination.
The brilliance of his ring grew brighter as he gathered his attention.
The dark green curse marks flowed out quickly from his ring like vines, reaching out to his fingers, hand, and wrist like a living thing; they climbed to his forearm.
“—This is my home ground!”
[Forest Child: When entering the environment (Forest), your Strength, Agility, and Constitution will temporarily acquire the addition of 4 attribute points bonuses (Value is determined by 50% of the lowest attribute among the three), and the blessing “Environment Adaptation (Forest)” will be in play.]
With the aid of the Forest Child curse, his strength and agility had reached a terrifying 15 points. The Child was the best among all players in terms of attributes alone.
Not to mention, his three skills could only fully function in the forest.
This was where he was at his strongest. Even the frenzied Jiu Er was unlikely to defeat him in a forest environment.
So, I don’t necessarily… stand no chance to fight!
He immediately activated the live stream, intending to record the battle.
Even if I die, I will pass on this precious information of this novel adventure.
Thinking of this, Wandering Child no longer hesitated.
He took a step forward.
A tender green stained his rapier.
He slashed it vertically from top to bottom with a momentum similar to smashing a target with a heavy hammer.
At the next moment, countless thick and dense vines seemed to have gained life if not received a command, growing wildly from the Child’s feet to Jude. They trapped Jude’s ankles in the blink of an eye.
“…Hmm?”
Seeing this scene, Jude’s gaze changed suddenly, “This is… [Vine Strike]? Are you a [Forest Walker]?”
An additional gleam of greed flashed suddenly in his gaze at the Child.
It was similar to the gaze when Jude looked at Citalopram.
The Child was vaguely familiar with this gaze.
…Indeed.
This was the gaze the Child also had when he saw the GeForce RTX 2080 TI…
[TN: When the Author wrote this story, it’s plausible that RTX 2080 TI was the newest GPU in the market. Essentially, it means an intense yearning.]