"How can this happen?" Lin Jie compared both items for a long time before he finally came to a conclusion. 'Indeed, both the patterns on Broken Blade and picture on the treasure map pointed to the same item!'
'Could there be two Broken Blades?'
'No!'
In the whole of The New Age, there were only 12 Heritage equipment. That was common knowledge amongst all players.
'Could this item be part of Broken Blade then?'
Lin Jie looked more carefully and discovered two blade-like items drawn at a corner of the treasure map.
If the map was showing where the pieces of Broken Blade could be found, then it made sense! That would be the crux of recovering Broken Blade to its full attributes!
In Lin Jie's previous life, even though he had found all sorts of exotic materials and completed all the related missions, he could only fill up Broken Blade's blood reservoir to 50% no matter how hard he had tried.
Perhaps, this was the reason!
When Lin Jie first played in The New Age, he had chosen the normal-level job-changing mission like the rest of the players, as that was the most efficient way he could complete it. It was also the highest level trial he could complete within his capabilities at that time. As such, he had never had the chance to even get hold of a piece of the treasure map.
As the treasure map was torn, Lin Jie could not identify the significant location markers of the place drawn on the treasure map. Out of his impatience to discover the place, he went into the Maps Shop and spent a total of 50 silver coins to buy all of the maps that showed places surrounding the City of Light. After which, he started to cross-reference each map with the treasure map, one after the other.
After two hours…
"It's the Tip of Flames!" Lin Jie pointed to a corner of the treasure map and exclaimed excitedly.
The Tip of Flames was the most avoided leveling up location by players.
When it came to choosing suitable locations for leveling up, the locations would normally have the following characteristics: weak monsters, high EXP to be earned, rapid refresh rates and high drop-rates by monsters. It would be perfect if a weak Boss, which spawned Legendary equipment, could be refreshed at the location in every few seconds.
The Tip of Flames was everything the opposite of an ideal leveling up location. It had perilous terrains, and when monsters or other players snuck up to someone, the players could fall to their deaths easily. Moreover, the monsters dwelling there were intelligent Druids of the Flame, and they had pretty good stats and skills. Normal players would not be able to take them on.
However, there were many gains to be made at the interior of the Tip of Flames. As the saying goes, "money comes from danger." In Lin Jie's previous life, many Druids had gone here to explore, and a fellow named 'The Kings' Land' had activated a plot there. Eventually, he had changed to a hidden job.
Since all the hints pointed to that place, then it was necessary to make a trip there! Lin Jie took out three sets of Fire Resistance Potions and ample health potions and magic potions from Sky Provisions Shop. He then contributed all the money he carried on himself into the shop's cash flow amount to continue its day-to-day running.
"Boss, are you going to the Fire Map?" Seven Ears blinked his eyes and took out a fiery-red item from the shop's inventory. He smiled radiantly. "I collected it from some fellow. Hopefully, it can be of use to you for this trip?"
[Flame Stone]: Special item. It can absorb the energy from all Fire Elementals which died within 1,000 yards. When the energy collected is full, it can be used by the holder.
"This item may help you become immune against fire-type spells. Boss, you may want to try it out first," commented Seven Ears with a bright smile on his face.
"Thank you very much," Lin Jie thanked Seven Ears sincerely, making Seven Ears blush in shyness.
In reality, this Flame Stone could not be used by Lin Jie for this trip. That was because that stone not only could help its holder become immune to fire-type spells but also its main use was actually to summon fire-type Bosses!
Similar types of stones included the Wind Stone, Ice Stone, etc. Those stones were initially Elemental lifeforms that had lost their powers, and thus degenerated to stone-form. Once they had absorbed their fill of powers, they would be awakened and give birth to new Bosses.
One could get many materials by killing those type of lifeforms, for example [Flame Crystal], [Flame Seed], etc, and those items were high-priced in the market.
Putting the Flame Stone into his bag, Lin Jie pondered for a while before he took out all the Augmenting Gems he bought previously and handed them to Seven Ears. He instructed Seven Ears to sell them off at the right prices he deemed fit.
"Boss, I cannot decide for this, the original cost price of these gems is too high!" Seven Ears shook his head. Those Augmenting Gems cost at least hundreds of gold coins. If he did not handle them properly, his boss would suffer a great loss!
Lin Jie laughed and patted his back. "Nope, I believe you can do this. Just remember, only put them up for sale when more players have changed their jobs. You can decide about the details of how to do it, and take 20% of what is earned from the gems sold."
Seven Ears inhaled sharply. '20%!?' That was definitely unheard of before by anyone! Even the great CEOs of companies would not give their most trusted followers such an amount!
"I will make sure everything goes well!" Seven Ears said resolutely.
'Only entrust a task to people you believe in, and never doubt the people whom you have entrusted tasks with'—that had always been Lin Jie's principle in life. Moreover, after the seven years of gaming in his previous life, how could he not identify who were the trustworthy people, knowing full well about their personalities?
Lin Jie could not predict how long he would take for this trip to the Tip of Flames. If that incident happened just right when he came back from the trip, it might affect the market trends significantly, and thus take a toll on the prices of Augmenting Gems. Hence, he decided it was best to make the most money out of those gems when he had the chance to do so.
Lin Jie teleported to the Magic Woods. That was the place where Arcane Druids and Arcane Mages liked to stay at, as all their Arcane spells would have a 10% additional effect. Of course, Hunters also liked to loiter around that area, in hope that they could capture some Arcane Beasts.
"It's getting hotter and hotter in the Magic Woods."
"I sometimes have difficulty breathing when I am here. Aish, this is such a disaster."
Two Elves were discussing besides the road.
Lin Jie made his way, passed them, and proceeded to the Tip of Flames. He met many monsters like Giant Bears and evil Elves along the way, but they were all hastily killed by players who were watching over them. They all stared at Lin Jie cautiously, as if scared that their targeted Bosses would be snatched and killed by Lin Jie instead.
Lin Jie held the Withered Leaf Sword in his left hand and Broken Blade in his right, suppressing the urge to battle with some monsters while he searched for the Tip of Flames. In his previous life, Lin Jie had only equipped himself with a single weapon, the Broken Blade. That was because Broken Blade's weight had increased crazily once its seal was broken. Lin Jie could barely maintain an appropriate movement speed when he equipped himself with his armor and Broken Blade. He had thus been unable to utilize the Berserker's Dual Wield skill.
In this life, Lin Jie had specially chosen increased Grip Strength as his talent. He could now use two-handed weapons effortlessly, and hence he always wanted to satisfy the urge to kill all monsters he met at a go.
——'You have discovered the Tip of Flames.'
The air around him got hotter, and waves of heat were felt with every breath he took in and exhaled out.
Some fresh buds would be seen on the dried trees occasionally, but they would be turned to ashes the instant they fell off.
Druids of the Flame, which held the forms of leopards, mountain cats, giant bears, and wildkins, loitered around the area. Those Druids were considered 'asleep' while they were wandering around mindlessly in their animal forms. Once they went into battle mode, their consciousness would be awakened and then recall their intelligence.
Lin Jie hid far away and threw an Inspect spell onto the monsters.
Druid of the Flame (Mountain Cat form): Level 15, Health Points: 1,150.
Druid of the Flame (Giant Bear form): Level 15, Health Points: 2,200.
A fire mountain cat and fire giant bear stood close to each other, but there were no sightings of other creatures around them. Lin Jie held both swords in his hands tightly and secured his target.
Wild Charge, Hunter's Forward Charge!
The moment the giant bear turned away, Lin Jie transformed into a black shadow and neared the mountain cat. The Withered Leaf Sword and Broken Blade stabbed into the mountain cat's soft tummy!
-104!
-54!
The defense of the mountain cat was not high. The moment before it was stunned by the attacks, Lin Jie aimed at its soft lower chin and made a hard thrust. Blade auras gushed around, and the mountain cat's jaws were forced open along with its teeth.
Weakness Exploit!
-165!
-103!
"Meow——!"
The mountain cat meowed loudly as it felt the sudden pain. The giant bear finally managed to process what happened and got into battle mode. It stood in front of the mountain cat as if in tacit agreement and roared loudly.
Lin Jie dodged the giant bear's attacks and focused on attacking the mountain cat. With its friend's help, the mountain cat jumped up high into the air, brandishing its claws at Lin Jie's chest. The cold light from its claws reflected against Lin Jie's armor.
'Clang!' A 20 point damage appeared on top of Lin Jie's head. The Kiara Beast King's armor was still quite useful at blocking off attacks from monsters like druids, which had average stats.
The mountain cat shifted its position and snuck up to Lin Jie's back. This time round, it was aiming for his back!
Ding!
The Shield of Courage appeared abruptly in front of the cat's claws.
Parry successful!
Blood Soul Multi-Slash!
With a turn of his arms, Lin Jie killed the mountain cat! The enhanced Blood Soul Multi-Slash skill brought 200 health points for Lin Jie, replenishing the health points used up in the battle.
Surprisingly, the druid in Giant Bear form was actually more difficult to attack. It used skills like Demoralizing Shouts and Ironskin Defense one after the other. Lin Jie spent two full minutes to finally kill it, watching it as it dropped down to the ground begrudgingly.
Lin Jie did not dare to lower his health points to activate the Blood Power and Death Rage skills while he was traveling at the Tip of Flames. That would just be courting his own death. No matter what, one must first ensure his own safety to be able to use the enormous strength of a Berserker!
The Druids of the Flame spawned a few fiery leaves.
[Leaf of Flame]: It is a material which can be used in Potioneering, Forging and Engineering. If consumed directly, one will be dealt with 20 points Fire-Type Spells damage. However, he will be granted 10 points Flames Immunity in the following 30 minutes.
The Leaf of Flame could be used together with the Fire Resistance Potion!
Lin Jie munched on a leaf, and his mouth was scalded. Luckily the pain disappeared within a few seconds. His body was covered in a light sheen of flames.
The experience points one got from killing Druids of the Flame were quite bountiful—650 EXP per druid. That was much better than killing those mindless animals and Undead, which could only award one with at most 300 to 400 experience points. Saying that it was definitely more challenging to kill those druids.
Opening the treasure map, Lin Jie let out a short bitter laugh when he compared the locations and saw that the treasure was placed right in the middle of the Tip of Flames.
'Darn it, I should have known. The system will never put any treasure at the entrance of places. They will purposely choose the most dangerous location and put it there. This is a habit of the game creators…'
Fortunately, his stats had improved significantly since he changed jobs. Or else, he would never have dared to explore those types of places.
After Lin Jie proceeded forward for about 50 yards or so, he discovered that the druids started patrolling in groups, much to his disappointment. He could no longer continue advancing in silence. Lin Jie took out his fire gun and started killing the druids one by one, using the method he employed in the Cat Demon Lair.
Ding~
A crisp sound rang out as a shining piece of chest armor dropped to the ground.
[Circle of Flame Breastplate] (Silver)
Can be used by Druids
Requires: Level 10
Defense: 15-30
Agility: +6
Wisdom: +2
Armor Penetration: +2, Magic Penetration: +2
Additional: Circle of Flame Set 1/6.
Lin Jie raised his brows. 'A Silver grade Druid Set? It was a Level 10 Set too!'
The active skills of Druids were more complicated to define. Someone once joked before, to see if a Druid was skilled, just note how many times he changed his form during the battle.
A really skillful druid could deal powerful attacks. One could never just expect to block off their attacks in a certain static manner. For example, if one was a defense-type Shield Specialist, they would attack him with all types of Arcane spells such as Moonfire spells, Sunfire spells, etc., that caused Mana damages. If one was a manresistance type Protection Paladin, they would change forms to leopards or mountain cats to cause them physical damage and drop in health points. In fact, they might even resort to the underhand methods of changing to a bear to fight with their opponent in an attempt to get chances to regen in the battle…
As such, Druid equipment would normally have two additional sets of Penetration effects at the same time.
If one could gather a whole set, they would be able to gain at least 10 points or above Arcane Penetration skills. Coupled with the Druid's own skill sets, other than Shield Specialists, Protection Paladins, and jobs that had high Defense plate armors, all other players and monsters could be easily finished off by them as if they were melons or cabbages that could be sliced open effortlessly.
"Seems like this is another chance for me to make money!" Lin Jie's eyes brightened.