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Translated by: LittleShanks
Proofread by: Flowerbridgetoo
Chapter 30 – Search for the Chapter of Courage
The Book of Order was truly an item of immense temptation. In this life, Nie Yan had the chance to gather all six chapters of the first volume, but didn’t know if he could.
Of the thirty-six chapters that were scattered across the world, he roughly knew most of their locations! As for the whereabouts of the first six-chapter volume, he knew them quite clearly! The one he was looking for at this moment was the third chapter of the Book of Order, the Chapter of Courage.
“What are we going to do when we get further in?”
“Just follow me to the end of the cave. Afterwards, you can go back and continue training. The place I’m planning to go to is somewhere you’re not capable of reaching,” Nie Yan replied. Even for a Thief like him, the location was still slightly difficult for him to reach. Thus, there was no need to consider an Arcane Mage like Tang Yao.
“Is it very dangerous?” Tang Yao curiously asked.
“Yes.” Nie Yan nodded in reply.
“If it’s that dangerous, why do you want to go there?” Tang Yao asked in deep confusion.
“So I can retrieve a certain item.” Nie Yan laughed in reply. Tang Yao didn’t understand how much allure a single chapter from the Book of Order possessed.
“I see.” Tang Yao slowly nodded his head. He didn’t understand why Nie Yan still wanted to go despite being aware of the danger. However, it seemed Nie Yan already had a plan, so he didn’t inquire any further.
Shortly after, Nie Yan and Tang Yao headed deeper into the cave. The passages were extremely narrow, therefore Meteor couldn’t be used effectively. As a result, the two could only use ordinary methods to clear the way as they slowly advanced.
Rock Spiders fell one after another. Moreover, under Nie Yan’s instructions, Tang Yao felt his skill significantly improve.
“You’re making rapid progress. After some more practice, you’ll become an expert in no time. We’ll be heading to a dungeon tomorrow, so I’ll give you a rundown on a few of the basics. The key things are aggro management and positioning. The specific dungeon we’re running tomorrow is going to be slightly difficult, so it’s best that you take caution, especially when we’re dealing with the Treant King,” Nie Yan said as he faced Tang Yao. In regards to Arcane Mages, he passed down all the knowledge he knew of when it came to them running dungeons to Tang Yao. From time to time, he would also explain a few of the key points of the Treant Forest.
Tang Yao keenly listened on. Before, he was only an average player. His skills weren’t that great, and his equipment fell short. In the end, he could only continue lagging behind others in the lower levels. But after he equipped the Fire Chaser Set, his equipment could now be considered as one of the very best. This great success caused him to feel immense pressure and self conscious as he went hard on himself as an expert would. In truth, Tang Yao’s aptitude was pretty decent. Though it couldn’t be considered at the apex, he would still be considered skilled. After Nie Yan began giving him pointers, he was completely transformed. Even if he couldn’t be regarded as an expert, in respect to his skills, it was evident that he knew how to improve.
“What else do I have to take note of?”
“The most crucial stats for an Arcane Mage are intelligence, awareness, and focus. Among these three, intelligence is the primary stat and undoubtedly the most important. Now this leaves the remaining two, awareness and focus. These two are auxiliary stats. Awareness allows you to have better survivability when confronting enemies that are able to stealth, and focus makes it harder for your spells to be interrupted. Hence, these two stats are extremely important as well. Auxiliary stats can only be improved by relying on passive skills and can’t be improved upon leveling up, therefore you must definitely possess the relevant passive skills if you want to keep up with others. If you see any suitable skill books in the future and want to buy them, but lack the money, I’ll help you pay for them first,” Nie Yan said.
“You don’t have to do that. Money isn’t something I’m lacking. In the future, I’ll just need to hang around the auction house some more, that’s all,” Tang Yao said as he shook his head. He took all of Nie Yan’s advice to heart.
Gradually, they neared the end of the cave where they could hear the faint sound of running water.
“We’ve reached our destination; however, you should go back first. There are three Leader-class Rock Spiders up ahead. I’m afraid you won’t be able to make it past them,” Nie Yan suggested. He had already seen a video online in his past life of how the Chapter of Courage was found. More or less, he had the path to the chapter completely memorized in his head.
“I see… Well, you be careful then.”
Nie Yan nodded his head. “I’ll call you when we’re heading over to the dungeon tomorrow, so go train and level.”
“I’ll be leaving then.” Tang Yao took out the Return Scroll, unravelled it and read it out loud. After twenty seconds, he became a streak of white light and teleported away.
After Tang Yao left, Nie Yan headed further into the darkness of the cave.
Originally, he planned to wait until his level was high enough before retrieving any chapters from the Book of Order. In truth, retrieving the Chapter of Courage at his current level was still rather troublesome. However, since he was already here, he decided that he might as well try it out. If he was successful in obtaining the Chapter of Courage, his leveling in the future would become quite a bit easier.
Nie Yan headed deeper into the cave where the secret area was located and hid himself among the shadows.
After walking for three minutes, he came up to an open space. In the distance, three giant Leader-class Rock Spiders were patrolling around. As he looked further ahead, a roughly two-hundred-square-meter area within the open space was surrounded by deep water. The water circulated from a narrow channel which eventually led underground. This was the source of running water that he had heard from before.
Three Leader-class Rock Spiders blocked his path to the pond. They frequently moved around the open space, only occasionally stopping in place to scratch their heads with their legs. Nie Yan carefully observed once more. He estimated that he would have to pass through roughly ten meters before reaching the water’s edge.
For non-Thief professions, besides killing all three Leader-class Rock Spiders, it was absolutely impossible to pass through this area without alerting them.
I guess there’s no choice but to go in anyway!
Nie Yan understood the risky nature of such a tactic, but he had overcome situations that were several times more dangerous than this one before.
The most alluring characteristic of the Thief profession was the excitement it provided. Thieves did what no other professions dared to do. They experienced the feeling of dancing between life and death.
Perhaps his own nature was prone to risk and danger.
What mattered was that Nie Yan enjoyed this feeling. He strived to achieve the impossible and conquered dangerous situations one after another because that was proof of his own ability.
After some quick calculations, he estimated two and a half meters was the closest he could get to one of the spiders without alerting it.
As long as I’m not within two and a half meters, I should be safe.
Nie Yan entered Stealth and began making his way forward.
The three Leader-class Rock Spiders were repeatedly moving around the area while their large eyes reflected countless images of their surroundings. Within the area, not a single thing was overlooked while under their gaze.
In his past life, a player once calculated the statistics of the various types of monsters. They discovered that among animal type monsters, when it came to awareness, spider types were ranked number seven. Moreover, animal type monsters in their entirety listed approximately six thousand different kinds of monsters. This was proof that the awareness of spider types was quite high.
Nie Yan carefully maintained the distance between himself and the Leader-class Rock Spiders. He controlled his breathing and gradually moved towards the water’s edge.
Using clock position, the locations of all three spiders were respectively three and a half meters at nine o’clock, five meters at twelve o’clock, and six meters at eleven o’ clock. His body resembled a gecko as he closely stuck himself to the cave wall and gradually shuffled his way forward.
Every action was made with meticulous care. From the loose stones near the cave wall to the scattered gravel underneath his feet, they could all be possible variables that demanded his consideration.
Caution was a ship that sailed for ten thousand years; Nie Yan felt he could never be too careful. The previous six years of experience in his past life had caused him to deeply understand this kind of reasoning. This was something he truly learnt only after experiencing countless bitter lessons. In total, he had died three hundred plus times outside of instances. Needless to say, the times he died while in them was even more. An expert that has never experienced death was never an expert to begin with.
To be looked upon as an expert, taking risks and PvP experience were absolutely essential. In reality, dying was unavoidable when constantly PvPing and taking risks. Under the eyes of an expert, players who have never experienced death or grinded only on monsters to reach Level 100 were still considered beginners.
It was truly only because of his numerous experiences with death which allowed Nie Yan to become a somewhat well-known Great Thief and hold the title of Shadow Dancer. The difference between Shadow Dancer and an average Thief was only a single title. However, back then, there were only six people within the entire Atlanta continent who held the moniker of Shadow Dancer.
