Chapter 6: A Normal Mage? – translated by Erialis (1/2)
Upon returning to Star City, I headed straight for the inn where the team had agreed to meet up. As soon as I entered, I discovered an extremely somber atmosphere. The other members of Odd Squad were seated about a round table and all of them wore stiff expressions that seemed to suggest that they were actually seething inwardly.
As soon as they saw me arrive, everyone gave me a brief nod, and Wolf-dàgē indicated for me to sit down. I quickly pulled up a chair, not daring to fool around.
“Everyone, what do you think of the letter of challenge sent to us by the Dark Emperor?” Wolf-dàgē said, first asking for the team’s opinion on the matter.
“…?” Confusion was written all over my face. What letter of challenge?
“Prince has only just returned, so he still doesn’t know what happened, right?” Lolidragon had noticed my confusion and quickly explained. “We just ran into four members of Dark Emperor at the rebirth point and they… That Ming Huang in particular really deserves a verbal thrashing…”
“No, a PHYSICAL thrashing, for actually daring to call me a pervert.”
You mean you aren’t? I asked silently in my head. Gui’s icy expression surprised me though. He actually looks pretty cool…
“Yeah, and they even said that Doll was a weird necromancer…waaah!” Doll said, teary-eyed.
That…seems to be the truth as well, I thought. *Sweat*
“…We began to fight with them again at the rebirth point, but this time, the city’s NPC guards came rushing over. We had to stop and flee,” said Wolf-dàgē, hammering his fist on the table in indignation.
“Hmph! If not for the guards, we would have killed them all the way back to level one.” Gui had clenched his fist so tightly that his knuckles were cracking.
“After that, Dark Emperor PMed Gui, sending him a letter of challenge. They’re setting the date for our face-off as next month’s Adventurers’ Tournament.” As she finished speaking, Lolidragon too pounded the table a few times with her fist.
Looks like while Wicked and I weren’t present, the conflict between our two teams sparked into a blaze! It was as Wicked had said – we had become sworn enemies. Sigh! It’s all the fault of the word “girlie”… (It’s not MY fault!)
I considered sharing what Wicked had told me earlier. Would it help to lessen everyone’s negativity towards Dark Emperor? I wondered. After all, it was all a misunderstanding…
“Sigh! All that hard work that we put into fighting those dragons has gone to waste now – we didn’t even manage to get those dragon XXs! That fight probably cost us at least fifty gold coins,” Wolf-dàgē lamented, heaving a deep sigh. He thought, To think that after everyone fought so hard that they were bone-weary, something like this would happen and leave us without so much as half a piece of loot…
My dragon’s XXs… We didn’t manage to collect them? I thought. My mind went blank for three seconds. Then, I rose to my feet. With two loud thuds, I created two holes in the table with my fists.
“DAAARK EMPEROOOOOR, EVEN IF IT KILLS ME, I’M GOING TO DESTROY YOU GUYS!” I roared, livid.
“…Well then, we’ll accept their letter of challenge and train extra hard this month. That way, at the Adventurers’ Tournament next month, they’ll be able to see for themselves just how strong we – Odd Squad – really are,” said Wolf-dàgē.
“What’s the ‘Adventurers’ Tournament’?” I asked, looking at Lolidragon uncomprehendingly.
As usual, Lolidragon rolled her eyes and began to explain. “Twice a year, Second Life will hold an Adventurers’ Tournament. Through PvP1 combat, the most outstanding team will emerge. Each team must have six members and the reward is a piece of land.”
“Not only must we defeat Dark Emperor, we must also emerge as the champions. Then the whole of Second Life will know who Odd Squad is,” Wolf-dàgē added in a mighty voice.
“Prince, do you still remember our promise? We’re going to create a legend!” Lolidragon PMed me. “This is a good opportunity. Besides, by creating a legend, I didn’t mean simply becoming the top player, but…”
“I know. After all, if it’s just a matter of becoming the top player, then I wouldn’t have picked the current training method. Lolidragon, I no longer want to create the legend of “Prince” alone. I want to work hard alongside every member of Odd Squad and create a legend together,” I said, fixing her with a resolute look.
“Right!” Lolidragon replied with a smile.
“Let’s all work hard together, to create our own legend in Second Life.” I stretched out my right hand.
Lolidragon immediately placed her right hand on top of mine. In turn, Wolf-dàgē stretched out his large wolf paw, which was followed by Doll’s small hand, and Gui’s long and slender hand.
“Create a legend!” we roared.
Shortly thereafter, Doll suddenly held out her small hand. Counting on her fingers, she said, “Prince-gēgē’s one, Lolidragon-jiějie’s two, Wolf-gēge’s three, Gui-gēgē’s four, and Doll is the last one. That’s five! I don’t think we have enough people in our team to take part in the competition!”
…!
“Let’s find a mage!” Wolf-dàgē suggested. “Were it not for Dark Emperor’s mage, Ming Huang, we would have won a complete victory over them this time. Unfortunately, his Wrath of the Nine Heavens left our side pretty badly off as well. Therefore, I strongly suggest that we find a mage.”
“Agreed!” Everyone approved of the idea, but I thought darkly, The last time we looked for a mage, we found a necromancer like Doll. Then, when we were looking for an archer, we ended up with Gui, a bard… This time, what will our search for a mage yield? What other strange class/race combination do we not have yet?
“Let’s go search at the Adventurers’ Guild then?” Gui suggested.
“Objection!” The other four members replied simultaneously.
Gui tapped his nose with a finger. “Then how are we going to find one?”
“Hmm…” Everyone looked troubled. With only a month left, it would be best to find a mage quickly, so as to build up the camaraderie between members.
Just as the members of Odd Squad were knitting their eyebrows together tightly enough to squash a mosquito to death…
“Excuse me, but are you looking for a mage? I was standing nearby, so I overheard…” A gentle voice reached our ears.
We turned our heads to look as one and a lovely young woman immediately entered our view. She reddened unconsciously under the scrutiny of five pair of eyes. Stammering a little, she said, “Um… Le-let me introduce myself. I’m called Yu Lian and I’m a human mage. My primary element is fire, secondary element is earth…and I’m level thirty-eight.”
We were all astonished. A human mage? Such an ordinary class and race? That’s not possible.
“You are female?” Lolidragon demanded, her gaze fixed on the girl’s chest. Yep! And it’s pretty substantial too.
“Yes…”
“You like men?” I asked sternly.
“…Yes.”