Chapter 68: Watching the Crowd

The disciples of the Cloud Ocean Faction had naturally not gone missing; Yun Lian had already pushed his way to Tristram. Stroking his chin, he mused deeply, "Gaining experience in a party can forge tacit understanding and combat experience among the disciples. Though things are relatively peaceful under the rule of the Great Jin Dynasty, the future remains unpredictable."

"At present, many disciples in the sect have low cultivation bases, making it inconvenient to send them far away for true trials, which is also for their safety. However, disciples raised this way might lack experience when they encounter real danger, rendering them unable to exert even a fraction of their strength..."

"But the appearance of this game... might just change this paradigm..."

"Senior Brother! We've run into monsters! Why are you spacing out!" Right in the midst of Yun Lian's contemplation, a shout rang out.

"Coming, coming!" Yun Lian hurriedly followed.

"I'll familiarize myself with it first, so I can report the situation to the sect master later!" Thinking this, Yun Lian ran forward.

Just then, Ye Xiaoye approached him. "Senior Brother, aren't we moving?"

Yun Lian's face darkened. "...Let your senior brother ponder it a bit more..."

"Let's finish this quest first..."

"That works perfectly!" Seeing that they were becoming familiar with it under her guidance, Ye Xiaoye spoke up, "I'm going to watch others play."

"Uh..." Yun Lian's face darkened further. They wouldn't even watch their senior brother play; was watching others that interesting?

...

Ever since that day when watching An Cheng play a Sorceress brought immense gratification, another form of entertainment had become popular in the internet cafe: watching others play games.

And this method of "watching others play," especially after they learned the proper distribution of skill points for the Blessed Hammer Paladin build from Fang Qi, allowed the players to truly experience its benefits!

Consequently, even when their gaming time had ended, players would still gather in groups of twos and threes behind certain individuals, watching with great relish.

This practice began to spread like wildfire!

"Come, come, come! Boss Fang is still farming gear right now and won't touch Duriel for the time being. Let's play by ourselves first!" With a loud shout from Nalan Hongwu, An Cheng and the others all sat down.

An Cheng and his companions had all reached Level 19 by now, while Nalan Hongwu and Elder Fu had also trained up to Level 18 today.

"I'll go reset my skills first." After completing the Den of Evil quest, every character was granted one chance to reset their skill points. At that time, Nalan Hongwu had not fully understood the game and naturally would not waste it carelessly. Now that he knew the optimal combinations for skill points, he could finally use it.

"Elder Fu, aren't you going to reset yours?" Masters like Nalan Hongwu and An Cheng, whose game progress was at the absolute forefront of the internet cafe, would always be surrounded by a crowd.

Fang Qi was currently farming gear, which was rather monotonous, so Bai Lang and the others, who had already played their full six hours, ran straight over here.

Bai Lang looked at Elder Fu in surprise; having already obtained the optimal skill point allocation method, why wasn't he going to reset his skills?

Fortunately, there were no major issues with the skill points of An Cheng and his group. Each of them specialized in a single element. Coupled with the fact that the Sorceress class aligned perfectly with their aptitudes and had distinct specializations, playing any element was excellent for a Sorceress.

"No need for now." Elder Fu stroked his beard and opened his skill tree, where his Holy Fire aura had actually been raised to Level 8!

"The boss said this aura is incredibly powerful in the early game and doesn't rely on equipment, so I simply dumped all my skill points into it. Since I'm going to reset eventually anyway, I might as well test how powerful it is first."

"That's a viable approach!" An Huwei, Ouyang Zhen, and the others also hurried over to watch.

In just a short while, a dozen people had gathered behind them.

"Let's leave the city first to find the Halls of the Dead!" After resetting his skill points, Nalan Hongwu dashed impetuously into Lut Gholein.

The city of Lut Gholein, despite being situated amidst the Aranoch Desert, remained a massive trading port known as the Jewel of the Desert, primarily due to its central location between the Western Kingdoms and Kehjistan.

Lut Gholein in the original game was not large, but one could see how vast its original design was from the cinematics: standing on a distant sand dune and gazing afar, the myriad lights of the city resembled amber jewels dotting the night sky, completely obscuring the entire horizon of the distant sea, such that its full majesty could not be taken in with a single glance!

What Nalan Hongwu and the others beheld was precisely such a majestic, towering metropolis. However, given their current status, they were temporarily cooped up in the inn run by Atma in a corner of the city.

Even this treatment was earned only after clearing out Radament's Lair and avenging the proprietress. Compared to nearly sleeping on the streets the previous day, they were clearly quite content.

The inn also offered drinks, though it was obvious that such beverages, tailored to the tastes of the locals, were only consumed by mercenaries. Sitting at a small table in the inn, the group stood up and grabbed their weapons upon seeing Nalan Hongwu walk in.

"Let's go, let's go!"

Elder Fu lifted the cutlass in his hand. "Perfect, I shall also test my newly enhanced Holy Fire aura."

Upon exiting the city, a golden sea of sand immediately met their eyes. Except for the side facing the ocean, Lut Gholein was almost entirely surrounded by desert and rocky wasteland on its other three sides.

Having barely ventured any distance from the city, swarms of Huntresses influenced by Diablo and ubiquitous Scarabs stirred at the scent of intrusion!

Elder Fu had initially been uncertain of Holy Fire's potency, so he had kept its level low, but today he had unprecedentedly maxed out all his available skill points on it!

"Old Fu! Pull the mobs!"

Once Holy Fire was activated, it would scorch surrounding enemies. Thus, in a short moment, a dense, dark mass of various monsters followed closely behind Elder Fu! There were at least dozens of them!

Seeing that he had pulled enough, a white light flashed across Elder Fu's body as his Holy Shield opened!

"I'm switching to the Concentration aura, kill!" The aura transformed into a Blessed Hammer of holy light in Nalan Hongwu's hands, whistling forth!

Meanwhile, the power of Holy Fire infused Elder Fu's cutlass, and once Zeal was activated, it instantly dissolved into a flurry of blade shadows!

Boom! Boom! Boom...!

The rushing hordes of monsters fell in succession, wave after wave!

Some Scarabs collapsed to the ground instantly, unable to release even a single Charged Bolt!

Only then did the magic from An Cheng and the others arrive belatedly. Looking at the carpet of corpses with only Nalan Hongwu and Elder Fu still standing in the center of the pile, they gasped, "My goodness?! It's over?!"

"This damage is too absurd!"

The surrounding onlookers could not help but stare in daze. What kind of new combination was this?!

"The attack power of this Holy Fire aura is indeed high!" Elder Fu took a deep breath. "Paired with the attack speed of Zeal, the hybrid damage is inherently high, and with the damage bonus from the Concentration aura... it is absolutely no weaker than the Blessed Hammer!"

And during this period, it possessed an even greater advantage: it consumed almost nothing, unlike Nalan Hongwu, whose mana was completely drained after clearing a single wave of monsters!

Nalan Hongwu laughed heartily. "Not resetting your skills was the right choice! Let the two of us cooperate well and slaughter them until not a single piece of armor remains!"

"With the Holy Fire aura active, it takes barely two strikes per insect! And with the hammer, they're instantly obliterated!" An Huwei and the others could not help but suck in a sharp breath.

"Watching this makes me want to play a Paladin too!" Bai Lang said with a wry smile.

"Fellow Daoist Bai, how can we cultivators charge up and hack at things bluntly?" Zhan Yan said solemnly. "Did you see how their Sorceresses scouted ahead directly with Teleport? In the future, if the seven of us Sorceresses all learn Teleport, won't we be faster than them?"

"Indeed!" Bai Lang's spirits rose immensely upon hearing this. "Bringing warriors along only holds us back!! We Sorceresses don't need to worry about travel distance at all!"

"Yes, exactly!" Ye Xiaoye immediately joined the discussion, saying excitedly, "Even though Teleport belongs to the Lightning tree, it can be learned separately!"

While watching An Cheng and the others slay monsters on the screen, the surrounding crowd also began to discuss with considerable excitement...

.