Chapter 732 - Rubble Forest
“Hurry up!”
I slapped the back of my Flying Scythe War Horse and brought Wan Er and galloped into the distance. I raised my left hand and sent my Brilliant Flame Emperor flying forth. It spun several times in the air from the [Blade Spin], and forced the Hand of Waterloo to hang back rather than catch up after us.
……
Before us, [Hero’s Mound] only had 40+ people left. They were battered and exhausted. Even though they had killed quite a few of the Moon City players, they themselves had suffered losses that exceeded half of their forces. Their morale couldn’t be very high after that episode.
“Continue south!” I shouted from a distance.
Li Mu, Wang Jian, Old K and the others charged forth on their Steel Blade Horses. Q-Sword, Sword Tears, and Jian Tan didn’t seem to have any objections either and followed behind. Clouds of dust furled behind us. It was the players from [Dawn]. Once they catch up to us, we’ll all definitely die. However in the distance, I could already see a forest at the end to the Breeze Plains.
We maintained our charge for another five minutes, and finally reached the forest that I had seen. However, it was only until we had gotten close that I realized it wasn’t any forest, but rather a stone forest. This map was called “Rubble Forest”. It was a landform with high stone pillars that had thick green vines climbing along the sides. Each one was like an enormous tree. That was why it had looked like a forest from afar. The terrain was very similar to the Stone Forest in Yunnan, but it was much more precipitous and daunting. After our dozens of riders entered this forest, we could only feel the pillars grow more stern and bony. It was as though we were surrounded by hidden enemies.
Li Mu turned around and looked into the distance with a smile, “The French players aren’t following after us. Looks like even they know that they won’t necessarily have the advantage by fighting with us in this Rubble Forest.”
Wang Jian replied, “I was actually hoping they’d have the guts to chase after us. I did not feel satisfied after that battle. That Hand of Waterloo had killed over five of the core players of [Zhan Long].”
Q-Sword’s expression was not very happy. However, he still walked forward and said, “We had a total of 120 cavalrymen and 200 others. We were originally planning on scouting out the topography and the different monsters that are here in Moon City but we had never expected to be targeted by a super guild like [Dawn]. By the time we wanted to retreat, it was all too late. Hand of Waterloo is truly a fearsome player. Not only was he strong on his own, he’s also very good at commanding troops.
As he finished talking, Q-Sword looked to us and sincerely said, “Thank you, friends of [Zhan Long], for lending a helping hand. If you had not acted, then we would’ve been doomed. Thank you all!”
I sheathed my Dragon Reservoir sword and said, “There’s no need to be so polite. We’re all Chinese players in Moon City. There is no reason for us to stand by and watch you all be killed. That’s right, after [Hero’s Mound] entered Moon City, did you obtain any valuable information on their maps?”
Q-Sword nodded, “Moon Valley stretches a long distance and is incredibly vast. It’s also where the Moon City players that are between Level 120-150 grind. And so, if our players from Tian Ling City want to enter Moon City, than we are bound to encounter some obstacles. South West of Moon Valley is a natural lake called Mirror Lake. There are water monsters within the lake that range from Level 130-145. They are all Titan Tier monsters. One of the monsters is called a Turtle Dragon. It had enough power to flip a boat. You must be careful when you are down there. After you enter Mirror Lake, you must avoid boarding a boat.”
I took a deep breath and said, “Ok, understood. What are your plans after this?”
I shook my head, “No, at most we’ve walked half of it and only managed to get a fleeting glance at the map. We didn’t dare stop. Otherwise, if we were spotted, I’m afraid we would’ve never been able to leave.”
Q-Sword smiled, “Then this is farewell?”
I replied, “Yes!”
Not far away, we could hear Tang Qi’s voice echo, “Miss Yue Er!”
Dong Cheng looked over and pursed her lip, “Well, you’ve even managed to get yourself a beautiful horsewoman. Tang Qi, you’ve got great luck with women, how about you just enjoy it~~”
Tang Qi was a Feng Shui Master, and wasn’t able to ride horses. All he could do was sit with someone else in order to keep up with the group. And, the person that was transporting Tang Qi was one of the [Hero’s Mound] main guild’s team leaders. Calling her a beauty wasn’t overstating it. She was around a 7. But, it did look like the knight was pretty nice to Tang Qi. She didn’t even say anything when he held on to her waist.
When Dong Cheng said that, Tang Qi immediately added, “Little Miss, it’s a misunderstanding. Let me explain it to you….”
Dong Cheng was starting to panic too as she raised her staff and shouted, “Hey, don’t you misunderstand anything either. I am not jealous. Really. I am, from the bottom of my heart, really wishing you happiness…. I already have someone I like. Besides, I don’t like fall back guys….”
Tang Qi was speechless. Q-Sword wryly smiled, “Alright already. Let’s go. What’s [Zhan Long]’s next plan?”
I waved my hand and said, “This Stone Forest seems to be very big. We’ll continue walking through it so that we can record the map. At the same time, it’s a good chance to see what drops here. Besides, we can’t let those Moon City players get all the benefits.”
“Ok, I was thinking the same. Work hard then!”
“Got it!”
Q-Sword turned around and pulled out his sword, “Push towards the north east toward Moon Valley! We’ll have the brothers that died in battle meet us there after they revive. Let’s avoid as many delays as possible.”
“Yes!”
……
Seeing the [Hero’s Mound] players leave, I didn’t say anything more. Even though there was history between Q-Sword and I, after the country battles open up those would all fade eventually. Besides, the [Hero’s Mound] players really do have a lot of guts. They got into a battle with only 120 knights against the French Server’s number one guild. They had lost close to 80 horsemen, but I could see from the past scene that [Dawn] had lost quite a few players to [Hero’s Mound] as well. This was also probably one of the reasons why the Hand of Waterloo was so dogged. He had been bullied by foreigners in his own territory. That kind of a slap must be avenged, or else he would never be able to keep his spot as FBN number one.
Rubble Forest, I stood on the outer border of the Stone formations. I had yet to walk in, but I could already feel the sharp edge of this map. In the distance, I saw some two meter tall stone men slowly moving around. They were like enormous icicles, however, their top halves were covered by green vines. On top of that, moss grew along their arms. When they saw me, their green eyes immediately turned furious and they made their way towards us. Even though they were moving at full speed, it would take them a year to travel the distance that my horse could travel in ten minutes, walking.
“Limestone Men, Level 135 Titan Tier monsters,” Matcha happily reported, “Are we going to grind levels here?”
Li Mu smiled, “Well, hy not. After all, everyone is here.”
I thought about it for a moment and nodded, “Ok then, let’s grind levels. Little Wolf, Qing Qian, and Wan Er, you three assassins should alternate in scouting out the situation here. Another three knights should also head out and roam the area to make sure that everyone is grinding safely. If any large groups of Moon City players come our way, we’ll immediately retreat. There’s no point in facing them head on. There’s too few of us and it won’t be worth it.
Old K waved his hand and smiled, “Actually, we should’ve brought all 6000 of our Steel Blade Horsemen over. D*mn, in this Rubble Forest, we’ll just go all out and fight a battle with the [Dawn] guild. Let’s show that b*st*rd Hand of Waterloo the true strength of the Chinese Server and teach them a lesson!
I chuckled, “Alright already, stop thinking about that. If six thousand steel blade horsemen all came over, then that’ll probably be when the country battles officially open. After all, you guys know that it takes around seven hours to pass through the desert. That’s more than enough time for the Steel Blade Horsemen to grind 40% of the experience for a new level. There’s no need to waste that kind of precious time. Alright already, let’s stop wasting time. Everyone spread out and prepare to grind levels!”
“Yes sir!”
Star Blade and Moon Feather both charged ahead into the stone forest on their Steel Blade Horses. They began to scout out the situation in the area. Wolf and Qing Qian also headed out. Wan Er jumped out of my lap and off my horse. She picked up her two daggers and took the task of leading the teams for killing monsters. Of course, in terms of killing power, Wan Er this Hermit God was much stronger than Qing Qian and Wolf. Besides, her defense power was incredibly high, and being a tank was well within her capabilities. To tell her to scout the area would be too great of a waste.
……
Our group then began to explore the area. Our thirty players formed seven small teams. I took Meng Yao, Dancing Forest, Thousand League and Lin Xiao Xie to make a four person team. When we began killing the Limestone Men, we noticed that their defense power was pretty good, but it wasn’t enough to completely black our attacks. On top of that, its attack power was extremely pitiful. It barely scratched my armor.
Not long after, Li Mu suddenly said, “What? These Limestone Men actually drop armor sets?”
In the team chat, he shared the states of a wrist guard that was a part of a set, the Limestone Set. It was a Level 118 Emperor Tier Armor Set. However, the stats were much weaker than the Black Flame Set. If we manage to complete a set, it would still be a very high level armor at this stage in the game. At least, it was much stronger than the other Emperor Tier, Valkyrie Tier and Saint Tier equipments.
I cheerfully smiled, “Then let’s keep killing! We’ll try and clear out the entire map. Looks like we’re the first group of people in this map. I wonder why…. Haven’t the Moon City players come to this Stone Forest before?”
Matcha said, “Boss, the Stone Forest is too far from Moon City. Moon City has several forests just outside of it. Besides, the Graveyard is a perfectly suitable place for grinding levels. And so, the Moon City players have never been here before. The [Hero’s Mound] players had been attacked by the [Dawn] players in the Breezy Plains near the Rubble Forest area. I’m thinking that [Dawn] wasn’t fast enough. Hand of Waterloo was most likely originally planning on clearing this map, but in the end, they had encountered the [Hero’s Mound] players, messing up their plans. It's highly likely that that is what had happened. “
I couldn’t help but feel amazed, “Then we should hurry. [Dawn] can come here at any moment!”
“Yup!”