My Players Are So Fierce

As for the slight melancholy of not being able to accept the hidden quest earlier… hey, they were all brothers, so let’s not mention that little matter.

However, the way they appeared on the scene was a bit peculiar.

These guys rode in on the green gargoyle mount that Joy Stick had drawn last time.

Unlike Sister Pomegranate’s mount which could fight but only a little bit, Brother Stick’s mount was completely a riding type with no combat power at all, so it wasn’t brought out before.

However, as a trade-off for sacrificing combat power, this green gargoyle had a very fast flight speed, and when flying at maximum load could carry 8 people!

Seeing this made Brother Meow envious.

On the way, he started discussing the matter of “vehicle transfer” with Joy Stick.

Joy Stick was determined to form a war band and planned to trick his nine trusted Tiger Leopard Rider brothers to “do big things” together. He needed start-up funds right at this time, while Brother Meow also planned to form a small-scale “mercenary group” with his five brothers to play around. This gargoyle mount that could be deployed quickly was just right for them.

The two parties hit it off immediately and eventually reached an offline transaction.

Although Brother Meow spent money, he was in a good mood.

Hey, my luck in this damn game was indeed bad, but I had many brothers. The good stuff bought was still good stuff.

However, Brother Meow might have overlooked how his bad luck would evolve into a tragedy in extreme situations. Just as he underestimated the unexpected “air defense interception” encountered when flying around in a magical world, they were chatting happily on the gargoyle mount in the air when they were precisely hit by a flickering pale light spirit lightning from below just as they entered the misty area.

With a “boom”, the gargoyle with its flight core disrupted spiraled down from the sky.

After a scream of dizziness, the group fell scattered into a low shrub forest shrouded in fog.

Brother Meow blacked out and disconnected.

The helmet display showed that although his character wasn’t dead, it entered a 【Unconscious】 state, making him anxious in his own apartment, hurriedly calling his Four Heavenly Kings and old pal to ask about the situation.

It turned out the others were lucky and only slightly injured. They had already joined the melee in the fog and had no time to search for Brother Meow’s game character in the woods, leaving Brother Meow scratching his head on the balcony with his helmet on.

He smoked cigarettes one by one to relieve his worries, and didn’t even have the mood to peep at the sweet young lady next door who usually did yoga on the balcony in the afternoon, which he loved to watch most.

This game was really harmful!

Alpha Company, you’ve done all the bad things!

In this mood, he finally waited 15 minutes to log back in, only to open his eyes and see broken stones pressing on his body as soon as he did.

No wonder he fainted!

When Joy Stick’s unreliable gargoyle crashed down, it disintegrated, and he happened to be hit on the head by one of the rocks.

“Fuck! Almost got my head blasted. When will these damn days end! No, I have to quickly learn Luck Spells! I heard Lady Tris mention it before. Spellcasters at the Black Iron Rank can learn this stuff.”

Brother Meow, with a head full of blood, pushed the broken stones off his body and got up.

He cursed fiercely while casting a Winds of Rejuvenation on himself. After the discomfort on his body lessened a bit, he stood up and found the green gargoyle heart among the gargoyle remains scattered all over the ground in front of him.

Fortunately, the spirit core of this construct remained intact and only needed a slight replenishment of spirit energy to be usable again.

Leaning on his beloved Crimson Witch staff, Brother Meow looked left and right in this low shrub forest.

He could still see the fog of war permeating the surroundings. This kind of large-scale spirit energy interference could only be resolved by the same spirit energy means. Once entering it, one’s perception and vision would be affected. As a cautious Oak Apprentice, Meow did not want to go into it. Moreover, this shrub forest he was in happened to be his profession’s “preferred terrain”!

Staying here could increase his health and spirit energy recovery rate by 20%, and the effects of his skills were all enhanced.

Although he didn’t know how much they would be enhanced, in the current chaotic situation, it was obviously safest for him, a hybrid class, to hide here.

Unfortunately, it seemed others had the same idea.

Just as the wound on Brother Meow’s head had barely scabbed over, he immediately smelled the presence of enemies in the wind blowing through the shrub forest.

This was a warning from natural spirit energy!

Enemies were coming.

Darn!

So unlucky?

The cunning Brother Meow was shocked and immediately retreated into the depths of the forest with his magic staff in a sorry state. He then used his enhanced perception in the preferred terrain to peer outward.

He quickly discovered the attackers.

Four people!

Three spirit cavalry and one spirit mage!

That spirit mage seemed to be injured. Judging from the wound torn by claws on her chest, she must have been ambushed by a vampire and urgently needed a place to heal and recuperate. But they soon saw the pile of rocks and shattered gargoyle skull scattered in the shrub forest, which immediately put the four enemies on alert.

The female spirit mage clutching her abdomen waved her hand and the three guards immediately dispersed to search this not-so-large forest.

“Shit! The candle is extinguished now!”

Brother Meow panicked at once.

He was the most senior tester. No one was clearer than him about how intelligent the NPCs in this damn game really were. In this situation, with such a small forest, he simply couldn’t hide.

If he didn’t hurry and think of a way, what awaited him was the fate of being besieged to death.

He hid behind a big tree, adjusting his breathing while thinking rapidly in his mind. He also pulled out the beloved replica Avalon Sacred Blade from his spirit bag.

“The three guards are all ordinary Black Iron Rank monsters, a bit tricky. I’ll cast Thorn Spells on myself first, then add a Winds of Rejuvenation, then control one with Root Bind, activate the sacred blade with combustion spirit energy and charge up to instakill one!

This way I can 1v1.

After dealing with the three guards, I’ll go make trouble for that spirit mage healing at the forest entrance. That guy is an elite template… Damn!

Gotta call for help.”

Brother Meow quickly rehearsed the plan, then reported his location to his Four Heavenly Kings to come rescue him fast. He himself hid and waited for an opportunity.

Finally, when the three guys all approached this side, Brother Meow knew the moment of life and death had arrived.

He took a deep breath and made the spellcasting gesture, adding a Thorn Spells on himself. But the designed plan took a rather strange turn from this first step.

The spellcasting motion for Thorn Spells was completed, but it wasn’t the usual ethereal spirit energy thorns coiling and covering.

On the contrary, under Brother Meow’s dumbfounded gaze, the thorn bushes beside the tree he was hiding behind actively extended tough vines to cover his body.

This feeling was extremely strange!

It was like wooden snakes coiling around his body. A second later, a layer of thick “thorn damage reflection armor” as sturdy as leather armor covered the outside of his Blood Vulture Clan magic robe. Only at this moment did Brother Meow, who had changed profession for nearly half a month, finally realize what concept the “preferred terrain” in his profession template represented!

He previously thought the enhancement strength of preferred terrain was at most 10% to 20%.

However, the calculation method of this profession formula was not such a simple addition! To put it simply, this thing was multiplication!

Just the defense of this physical Thorn Spells alone was definitely not inferior to a set of thick leather armor.

“F**k me! No wonder the Witch Hunters always have to choose a place with forests or bushes whenever they take action. I thought it was just the influence of their faith in nature. I didn’t expect this to be a real profession enhancement!

Oh Avalon, my God, your dull disciple has finally understood!”

At this moment, Brother Meow sincerely prayed with palms together to the nature god he didn’t take seriously before. Then, with greatly increased confidence, he actively jumped out.

The instant the three spirit cavalry in front drew their weapons, he cast Root Bind forward.

The original spirit energy vines were also replaced with physical vines. The branches of several surrounding trees suddenly seemed endowed with life, sweeping over like jungle pythons with a whoosh. In the blink of an eye, they wrapped around the four limbs and legs of the three cavalry in front. Then, as Brother Meow maintained a grasping posture and lifted upward, they were pulled into the air.

“Ahahahaha! I’m invincible now!”

Brother Meow laughed, immersed in the joy of his profession’s strength soaring.

He imitated the brutal scene of Lady Tris crushing a five-man team with Spirit Blast earlier. Very obviously, he also wanted to try to what extent he could do with the boost of preferred terrain now.

The result was disappointing.

The vines coiled tighter and tighter, but still some distance from strangling the three cavalry to death.

It was even difficult to make them suffocate.

But conversely, with the single-target Root Bind turning into group binding, and the binding time and strength enhanced to this degree, what more could Brother Meow, just an Oak Apprentice, ask for?

With a swoosh, he drew the replica Avalon Sacred Blade. He raised this hunting sword adorned with sacred oak and stabbed toward the spirit cavalry pulled into the air.

“In the name of my god Avalon! You thugs who slaughter the people of nature, die! Die! Die!”

The immersed Brother Meow shouted and stabbed repeatedly as if killing pigs. The light armor on these soldiers simply couldn’t block the sharpness of the replica sacred blade. In less than ten seconds, they were stabbed to death.

But those animated vines didn’t loosen the corpses. Instead, under Brother Meow’s dumbfounded gaze, they extended even more delicate branches into the wounds on the corpses as if absorbing blood as nutrients.

After nearly another half minute, three dried corpses fell to the ground.

Those bloodstained vines rapidly withered before the eyes of Brother Meow holding the sacred blade. Then, under his widened eyes, three scarlet seeds were fed back from the withered branches.

【Successfully completed a ‘war sacrifice’ in the name of god! Your ‘Belligerence’ has increased. Your attunement with the way of ‘Wild Nature’ has been enhanced.】

Seeing the prompt on the character interface, Brother Meow realized he seemed to have inadvertently accomplished a rather incredible thing for nature believers.

Although he didn’t know what “Belligerence” and “Wild Nature” meant, he figured they should be the “special gameplay” of his profession system.

With this thought, Brother Meow reached out and grasped the three obviously extraordinary scarlet seeds in his hand, activating Item Appraisal:

Name: Bloodwood Seed

Quality: Natural Wonder

Effect: Can be used to sow and harvest the special crafting material “Bloodwood” in land blessed by Avalon, or used as the spellcasting material for the skill 【Natural Conscription】 to summon a powerful bloodthirsty treant to fight for you in battle.

Crafter: Meow King

Item Description: 【The way of natural breeding lies in tireless experimentation. Reasonable use of your secondary profession can give your game career more possibilities.】

Note!

“Bloodwood” breeding technique learned. “Farmer” profession proficiency increased!

“Damn!”

Brother Meow cursed and lamented with a certain sadness:

“I’ve been in the game for nearly a month, but I still haven’t figured out my second profession! This game has three profession slots. A game where just the newbie entry takes at least a month to start is really fucking hardcore. Feels like I’m back to when I first entered EVE and encountered the Galactic War, having two mining ships blown up in a week. What a terrible time.”

“You! How can a blood servant like you use spells from the Avalon Church? What the hell kind of strange thing are you?”

Just as Brother Meow was feeling complacent about his new gain, a shocked voice rang out behind him.

The cunning social man turned around, sword in left hand and staff in right, and saw the barely recovered female spirit mage behind him looking at him like he was a monster.

The spirit mage exclaimed:

“Avalon’s gaze and favor have descended upon humans again after a decade of neglect? No! This is impossible! Those ruthless and pathetic gods can only barely survive based on the Epoch Contract! They are a bunch of homeless cowards. How could they be so benevolent!

Fake!

This is all fake!”

She seemed to be agitated.

Screaming, she raised the torch-like Cane of Punishment in her hand towards Brother Meow. In the next instant, flames that danced like snakes roared and burned over from the air. But at this moment, relying on his preferred terrain, Brother Meow wasn’t flustered at all. He already had victory in hand. Even if the one in front of him was a Black Iron Rank elite monster, so what?

In Lord Avalon’s territory, you damn well have to listen to me!

“In the name of my god Avalon!”

Brother Meow, who had learned how to perform a “war sacrifice”, started with the fanatic routine. Shouting the name of the gods he didn’t believe in at all, he again released Root Bind.

Vines coiled like giant pythons as before swept towards the spirit mage in front of him with a whoosh. But the latter was a formally trained professional after all. She had ways to deal with this kind of “magic showdown” at hand.

Stepping back, she fiercely swiped down with her left hand. The invisible spirit energy protective blades cut the vines section by section. Then with a backhand spirit energy counter, she smashed it onto Brother Meow, directly interrupting his second spell.

The out-of-control violent spirit energy exploded in Brother Meow’s hand. It almost blew off his fingers. When he saw that he had been afflicted with a 【Spell Lock】 effect lasting 5 seconds, he knew he had been “silenced”.

But Brother Meow wasn’t flustered at all.

He went all in. He immediately compressed all the active spirit energy in his body into the replica sacred blade in his hand, igniting the faint blue purifying flames on the hunting sword.

Then, Brother Meow launched a howling “onboard charge”.

“For my god Avalon!”

He roared and pounced, stabbing a sword at the continuously retreating spirit mage.

Under this activated spell-breaking sacred blade, spirit energy shields and accessory defenses were all useless. The burning blade pierced the latter’s abdomen, happening to stab right into the barely healed wound. It hurt so much the female spirit mage screamed and knelt on the ground.

“I surrender! I surrender!”

She shouted.

Brother Meow, who was about to execute her, was stunned for a moment.

The spirit mage then thought she had encountered a “civilized person” and was about to use “Charm”.

But the next second, the top of the Crimson Witch staff inlaid with irregular bloodstone crystals smashed hard on her head, causing blood to spurt out.

“What qualifications does an ugly bitch have to surrender?”

Brother Meow cursed loudly:

“If you were a high-quality NPC like Lady Adele, I might have accepted the surrender. Look at what you carved on your face! Why learn that of all things? Imitating tattoos?! Ptooey! A good girl is now a sore sight!

My god Avalon is watching. My Black Iron Trial falls on you. Die for your daddy!

What reason is there to surrender at this point?”

“Bang!”

Nearly twenty minutes later, the  Four Heavenly Kings finally reached the edge of the forest.

As a result, as soon as they entered the forest, they saw Brother Meow smugly and very sincerely kowtowing to the thickest tree in the forest.

He was also muttering something.

“Holy shit! Has he gone mad?”

Brother Black Stockings exclaimed in shock. But Old Tune beside him immediately noticed the battle traces around and the corpse of that spirit mage whose face had been burned beyond recognition by purifying flames.

“Holy fuck! You passed the Black Iron Trial? No way! 1v4 and still won? You cheated, right?”

“Cheat my ass! Lord Avalon is watching from above. Show some respect to my god!”

Brother Meow turned his head and reprimanded, then smiled from ear to ear and said:

“Come, come, come. Take a little bit of your time. Big brother will properly introduce you to the Holy Father and Savior of nature… Hey, hey, hey! Don’t run, you guys! I’m not crazy. Come back quick! Lord Avalon gave me a quest! Hurry and convert now. There are lots of benefits for you!”