Zhang Yang ignored the monster. There’s no reason to make a detour for a single orc.
Even though there were monsters that were airborne and sharing the same airspace as he, there were more monsters that were roaming the earth than in the air. Zhang Yang had merely spent a short time defeating monsters that were randomly scattered in the airspace and reached his destination, the Cavern of Lava and Amber.
The map was the lair of the Man-Eating Orcs. Even though Zhang Yang had not yet entered the system of caverns, he had a good idea about the sheer number of orcs in the map by counting the orcs that were coming in and out of the cavern.
[Molten Man-Eating Orc] (Elite, Humanoid)
Level: 125
HP: 1,250,000
Defense: 1,300
Melee Attack: 8,381 – 10,381
Skills:
[Raging Smash]: Bashes the target with rage. Inflicts 150% melee physical damage. Has a fixed chance of stunning the target.
[Rock Toss]: Tosses a rock at an enemy. Deals 100% melee physical damage. Cooldown: 2 seconds. Range: 3 – 30 meters. Instant cast.
Melee monsters were harder to kill. If Zhang Yang rounded them up, they would bombard him with a shower of flying rocks and kill him instantly. When a melee monster could use ranged attacks, kiting would be a fatal and useless strategy.
To sneak past them would be a challenge for Zhang Yang, since the monsters were all gathering rather closely to each other. If he accidentally draws the attention of one monster, it would trigger the nearby monsters as well. To put in perspective, it will be hard for him to sneak into the lair. The place was like a major city to the monsters, like how White Jade Castle was to the players there. Imagine how hard it would be for an orc to infiltrate the city, when there are so many pairs of vigilant eyes looking about.
Zhang Yang flew onwards and reached a small river. He descended to a lower altitude and spotted a small straw house at the side of the winding river. He got off the flying serpent and demolished the fences, and made his way to the doorway of the house. He put away his sword and knocked lightly on the door.
The wooden door of the house was so old and battered, it literally shattered down into broken wooden pieces when Zhang Yang’s metal gauntlet touched the door.
"Bloody hell. Which bugger did it!?" cried an angry male voice from inside the house. Zhang Yang moved away and saw a 10-meter-tall male orc. It grits its teeth and expressed enmity towards Zhang Yang.
[The "Honest" Gululu] (Elite, Humanoid)
Level: 120
HP: 1,200,000
Defense: 1,300
Melee Attack: 8,352 – 10,352
Skills:
[Sneak Away]: When Gululu’s HP reaches 20%, he will try to sneak away.
Hmph. This is the person Zhang Yang was looking for!
"Die! Filthy orc!" cried Zhang Yang as he drew out his sword and slashed at Gululu rapidly. The flying serpent and Felice immediately started their attacks only after Zhang Yang had landed his attack.
Gululu grew madder and hurled his fist towards Zhang Yang and begin bashing him. In just a matter of seconds, Zhang Yang and his two other "minions" had clobbered him up to a pulp!
As the skill described, when Gululu’s HP reached 20%, it immediately waved its left arms and disappeared in a puff of smoke! That was supposed to be Gululu’s {Sneak Away} which was extremely similar to a Thief’s {Vanish}.
Zhang Yang adjusted his position and struck down the earth with {Thunder Strike}. The electric wave spread across the ground and zapped Gululu’s massive body, jolting him out of his stealth mode.
As Zhang Yang approached him to lay down more attacks, Gululu got down on all fours and begged, "Please, spare my life! Have mercy!"
Zhang Yang did not and continued slashing away like the wind.
"Please stop! I’m not an Orc! Don’t kill me!" Gululu wailed out in pain.
Zhang Yang stopped then and placed his sword over his neck. "If a pig says that it’s not a pig, would people believe that?’
"No! Please! I’m really not an orc," said Gululu as he tore off something from his chest. He started tearing off his clothes and revealed himself as a small red-bearded dwarf with a height of roughly around 1 meter. The cloth that he had torn off was a faint, white color fabric that pulsed in and out of the visible spectrum. The piece of t cloth was called the [Cloak of the Orcs]. Equipping it would grant the appearance of a Man-Eating Orc to the player, which would last for 24 hours. After turning into an orc, the player will be deemed as a "Friendly" to the orcs and could roam around the Cavern of Lave and Amber without being attacked. Players can also complete a few orc quests to gain access to merchants to buy a few local products.
Zhang Yang’s main purpose was to venture into the deepest part of the cavern. That was where the first piece of the Inheritance Fragment would be. In which, Zhang Yang would have to search for the NPC and get his hands on the [Cloak of the Orcs].
"A dwarf?" Zhang Yang laughed. "Sure, I’ll spare you. In return for that fabric."
"No! Over my dead body!" said Gululu as he shook his head like a turning fan. "I have spent my entire fortune for this cloak! I’d die before I surrender this!"
Even though the NPC’s name contained the word "Honest", it was bracketed with double quotation marks. Zhang Yang had encountered this NPC in the past and knew very well how "honest" he really is. Zhang Yang remained cool and said, "That’s fine by me. I’ll kill you first, and pry the cloak off your dead fingers."
Gululu blinked rapidly and quickly went on all fours again when he saw Zhang Yang drawing out his sword. "Please! Wait! How about I tell you a secret? This cloak has a time limit to it. Even if I give it to you, you would not make full use of it! However, if you really need it. I can make one for you if you bring me the necessary items!"
‘Ding! The "Honest" Gululu has a quest for you: Making the Cloak of the Orcs. Will you accept it?’
Since it was not possible to take the cloak from the dwarf, Zhang Yang had no choice but to accept it.
Zhang Yang nodded and accepted the quest request.
[Making the Cloak of the Orcs] (Difficulty Level: C)
Description: Gululu has agreed to make you a [Cloak of the Orcs], in exchange for his life. Gather the following materials, 1000x [Inscribed Cloth] (You can obtain Inscribed Cloth from any humanoid monsters above Level 90), 20x [Magic Dye] (Purchase from Ankhgar, the Traveling Merchant), 5x [Psychedelic Deer Fur] (Obtainable from killing and skinning an adolescent Psychedelic Deer. Psychedelic Deers are roaming in the west of the Psychedelic Valley).
Progress: Inscribed Cloth 128/1000 Magic Dye 0/20 Psychedelic Deer Fur 0/5
Quest Reward: Cloak of the Orcs x1
[Cloak of the Orcs] (Tool)
Use: Transforms you into a Man-Eating Orc. Gululu is terrible at such handiwork, but it is believed that the cloak he makes would be able to fool the dumb orcs. However, be wary of the Iron Fangs White Wolf, for their sensitive noses could easily snuff out intruders.
Leve Requirement: 100
Binds upon Acquisition.
Among the three types of material needed, the [Inscribed Cloth] was the highest in quantity. However, it was also the most easily obtainable material. You could easily farm the cloth from any humanoid monsters around. The toughest one was the [Magic Dye]. Even though it could be bought with gold coins, the traveling merchant was always traveling! There was no fixed position to locate the bugger, and it would take some time to track him down!
In his previous life, there was one player who was too free and had nothing to do, and decided to follow the NPC around. He then charged players for 1 gold coin for the location of the traveling merchant. It was extremely cheap, so that player had amassed millions of gold coins in the time span of 2 years. Since Ankhgar was always hard to track down, a player would not mind paying such a small sum of gold to get his precise location.
Even with the flying mount, Zhang Yang would need to fly around the map to search for that one single NPC. It was difficult, for if he flew too high, the ground would not be visible, but if he flew too low, the scope of his vision would be narrowed. It could not be helped, for the sake of the God of War Inheritance, Zhang Yang would have to search every nook and cranny to find that traveling bugger.
Zhang Yang hopped atop the flying serpent and left Gululu’s straw house. Even though Ankhgar was constantly traveling, he had a few fixed routes. In the massive map, there are four long pathways for him to travel by. If players have a flying mount, they could circle over the pathway and find the NPC from the high altitude. The idea was simple enough, but the time taken was another matter…
Zhang Yang had taken more than 2 whole days of in-game time to finally find Ankhgar. When he saw the NPC, he wanted to take out his sword and dismember his legs so that he would not be traveling, anymore!
Zhang Yang descended and jumped down from the air, and landed down next to the merchant. "Traveling merchant! May I have a look at your goods?"
"Mmm. You have good eyes. What do you need? I have the nude shots of Duchess Fischer. I even have the video recording of the Elven Priestess - Phoebe Moonwalker’s bathing scene! Worry not, for all of the imagery is recorded with the highest-grade crystal ball! I promise ultra-HD quality pictures! Fret not of any mosaic censorship, my friend!"
Ankhgar was a male human adult, aged roughly around 30. He had a face full of untrimmed beard and messy hair. After his introductory speech, the man unpacked his cloth baggage and displayed a variety of items on the ground.
Zhang Yang winced. Looks like Messick is not the only perverted NPC in the game, after all.
Zhang Yang browsed the item menu and found the [Magic Dye] that he needed. Each bottle cost only 5 gold coins. Zhang Yang had spent 100 gold coins to buy 20 bottles to meet the quest requirement. Even though it was not much of a burden to his wallet, it was a massive blow to his psychological state of mind!
The [Magic Dye] was bound to Zhang Yang upon his purchase. Which meant that only the player who bought the item could use it. No wonder the player could make a living from selling the location of the traveling merchant! Anyone could have earned the same amount of money if they could just buy the merchant’s wares in bulk and sell them in major cities.
Zhang Yang had bought a total of 100 bottles, instead of 20, for insurance. 100 bottles could make a total of 5 [Cloak of the Orcs]. Since the Caverns of Lave and Amber was huge to begin with, Zhang Yang might take a long time to search the entire system of tunnels in the cavern. It’s better to be safe and sorry. Who knows, how long Zhang Yang might take to search the fragment of the God of War Inheritance? If he had only one or two [Cloak of the Orcs] and had used them all, and still failed to find the Fragment, he might have to spend another 2 days just to search for the freaking traveling merchant!
Zhang Yang kept the 100 bottles of [Magic Dye] and flew away, all the time holding back the massive urge to slice off the merchant’s legs! Next, Zhang Yang traveled west for his next objective, the Fur of the Psychedelic Deer.
"Yo! Wanna check out the latest work of Master Chen, the Great God of Trend? Buy a copy of "A Crazy Night with Chihu Xent"! Live your life the fullest, bro!" cried Ankhgar from the ground.