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Forgotten Lands - Chapter 19 (Book 1)
🕑 Added 2024-02-13 14:02:21 +0000 UTCObserving the groups of Players was more torturous than grinding several days for a specific Card. It was disastrous.
Even if the Players could kill one of the Inferior Demonic Treants after working tirelessly for an hour, if not longer, the contribution system would adjust their gains according to their respective contribution in the battle. Most Players wouldn’t receive a single Soul Essence, let alone Card Shards. That was bad and not something the Players wanted to happen.
Zayn couldn’t watch the Players anymore. It felt like he was watching headless chicken on their grand mission to gain intelligence.
‘There are too many groups for me to squeeze in,’ He figured, not feeling like slaughtering several groups of Players just to retrieve his grinding spot. He was done grinding the Inferior Demonic Treants – for the time being. At least, that was what he wanted to say. He tilted his head when he saw that one of the Player groups had begun to attack an Inferior Demonic Treant’s trunk. Their strongest player wielded a steel axe, but he handled the heavy axe as if it was his first time holding one. Maybe, that was not far from the truth, either.
An idea popped up in his mind watching their pitiful performance.
“There is no harm in giving a helping hand,” He mumbled, spinning around on his heels to turn to the group of Players near him.
He retrieved the Shanyt Axe and kicked the ground. His steps were light and his movements nimble as he passed through the thicket until he was no more than five meters away from the pitiful Players.
“Stay away from our prey, or we will resort to violence!” One of the Players, probably their leader, shouted.
Zayn raised an eyebrow but he didn’t stop. He accelerated instead and charged forward. The leader grunted and readied his sword to deal with Zayn.
“Everyone, stay vigilant. Deflect the roots and protect our Berserker! I will deal with this thug,” The Leader shouted.
Zayn smiled unconsciously. It had been a while since someone called him a thug. Old memories resurfaced in his mind.
“Calling him a Berserker is an exaggeration, don’t you think?” Zayn asked loud enough for everyone to hear. He lowered his body and dashed forward. The Leader tensed up and changed his stance. The sword in his hand moved swiftly, reaching out for Zayn’s neck. The Leader expected his enemy to raise his axe and block the attack, but that never happened.
The thug disappeared from his sight, his voice reaching the group of Players from the inside of their circle.
“You should study your Cards a little bit better. I know that Forgotten Lands doesn’t provide many explanations but the game is not that hard to understand once you know the basics.”
The Leader’s head flicked around, only to see Zayn standing next to their Berserker. The young Player, the Berserker, was startled as Zayn appeared out of nowhere and forgot to pull his axe out of the tree trunk as he backed away.
Zayn winked toward the Player after he’d used Blink to appear amid the group of Players. He channeled a trace of energy into the Shanyt Axe’s Sharpness enchantment and raised the glowing weapon into the air. Zayn adjusted his stance ever so slightly, his eyes narrowed and his muscles contracted.
The Shanyt Axe whizzed through the air and cut deep into the tree trunk in front of him. A loud thud rang through Zayn’s ears and a slim smile blossomed on his face.
‘That was a good one.’
Zayn’s muscles bulged as he applied more force to push the axe blade deeper into the tree trunk. It took some effort to cut deeper into the trunk but that was to be expected. He felt some resistance and a subtle sound of metal scratching on a polished surface reached him. The razor-sharp edge of the Shanyt Axe reached the Treant’s core!
Once everything was set in motion, it was only a matter of seconds before the Inferior Demonic Treant cracked. The core shattered and a thunderous crackling resounded through the vicinity. The Players who wanted to stop Zayn from stealing their prey stared blankly at him, their eyes filled with confusion and shock. They slowed down and halted in their tracks at last. The hair all over their bodies stood up to its end, their minds void of thoughts.
Zayn’s display of power was just too shocking. It didn’t make any sense.
How was it possible for someone to be this strong? They spend three hours cutting down the last Inferior Demonic Treant, yet all this unknown Player did was to execute a single attack. Was he a cheater?
The large Inferior Demonic Treant lost the energy that held it together and crashed loudly to the ground, attracting the attention of the other Players in the vicinity.
A white wisp detached from the dead Inferior Demonic Treant and ascended into the air. It swirled wildly through the air for a few seconds before it shot into Zayn’s chest.
Inferior Demonic Treant has been slain. Highest Contribution! +1 Soul Essence
‘Look. Even the system thinks I’m doing a great job teaching these newbies!’ Zayn joked with himself, pulling the Shanyt Axe out of the tree trunk before turning around to face the encirclement of Players.
“If you want to hunt the Inferior Demonic Treants a little bit more efficiently you should allow the other treants to drain their fallen comrade. Their main roots will be exposed in the process, allowing you to cut them down much easier,” He explained lightly.
Zayn pointed at the Berserker, who didn’t have the strength of a proper Berserker, and smiled, “You should invest more Soul Essences into your Strenght Foundation if you want to cut them down within minutes, instead of wasting hours. And…improve your weapon, or sharpen it, at least. The blade is dull. Maintaining your weapon’s quality is important. If you don’t want to die an unnecessary death, that is.”
The Players around him didn’t say a word. They were silent but their eyes spoke volumes. It looked like they were both annoyed and shocked. Shocked about the power he displayed and annoyed that he stole their prey. Or were they annoyed that they had been too weak to block him from stealing their prey? Zayn didn’t care, either way.
He used Blink and teleported outside of the encirclement of the Players and made some noises, which resulted in hurried movements from the group of Players. They jumped around and turned to Zayn, just to see him walking away with slow strides.
“If you want to grow stronger you should read the Guides about Forgotten Lands from Zayn. That’s my recommendation,” Zayn said before he turned back to eye the Players, “Just so you guys know. That’s my channel. If you want to know how I’ve become this strong you should stay tuned and subscribe to my channels.”
Zayn used another Blink to teleport behind some bushes. Thereafter, he walked through the forest, Scent of Treasure activated.
The Players’ eyes widened as they witnessed Zany vanish. One moment he was there, and in the next moment he disappeared out of their sight. The Players’ hearts skipped a beat. They held their breath and didn’t utter a single word for a full minute. After that, they looked at each other for a while until they noticed that some Players from the other groups walked over to them.
“We don’t want to cause any trouble, but…we noticed that you guys killed the Inferior Demonic Treant so quickly. Do you mind sharing your trick with us? We’re willing to pay you generously!” One of the Players asked, biting his lips in anticipation.
The Players approaching them stared at the group, hoping to gain some useful information that they could use to accelerate their hunt. As long as they could kill an Inferior Demonic Treant a few minutes faster than before it would be a great success.
The group of Players looked at each other, unable to say anything about Zayn.
“Did we just encounter a real expert?” The Berserker asked their Leader, who could only shrug in response, “I… don’t know. Maybe? He could have been a professional gamer, as well. I have really no idea…”
“What did he say was his name?” Another Player from the group asked.
“I think his name was Zayn. He said he has a channel, right?”
“That’s right! He said his name was Zayn!” The Leader exclaimed, opening the web on a second screen.
He searched Zayn’s name and the beginner guides he had mentioned and it didn’t take long before he found something.
“He uploaded one video and one guide,” The Leader mentioned, “...three minutes ago…”
The Players who had approached the group to collect information about their hunting strategy listened to them and found Zayn’s channel as well. It didn’t take long before everyone began watching the only video that had been uploaded on the channel. Half a minute into the video it stopped, a pop-up demanding from the viewers to pay if they wanted to continue watching.
“What the hell?!”
“This is such a scam! Why would I pay 100 Credits to watch a 10-minute-long video???”
“But, to be honest, I learned much more in the first 30 seconds than I learned from playing Forgotten Lands for 16 hours straight. This…is really informatitve…”
“Whatever! I will watch the video. There is a guide as well. I can earn back what I’ve invested! If the rest of the video and the guide is as detailed and well-prepared as the first 30 seconds of the video I might as well earn a fortune from this dude. What a great guy!”
Some Players decided to pay for Zayn’s videos and guides, while others rejected the idea of paying for a mere game. However, observing the drastic change in expression on the faces of those, who’d been willing to reach deep into their wallets, made them hesitate. The videos and guides didn’t have many clicks yet. They were uploaded a few minutes ago. Maybe, it was better to invest some money into Forgotten Lands. A single useful Common Card could be sold for hundreds of Credits at this point. They could earn back what they’ve invested in addition to a huge interest as long as they made use of the information provided by the guide and video.
Maybe, it was worth giving a try?
At the end of the day, their gut feeling overwhelmed their rationality. They purchased the rights to watch the full video. It was only ten minutes long but the massive pieces of detailed information that had been compressed into the short video were astounding. Most Players had to watch the video several times before they understood everything. Even after watching it several times, they thought about the information for a long time before everything had been imprinted into their minds.
The Players didn’t even realize what was happening to them as they switched from the video to the Beginner Guide as if it was the most natural thing to do. They ignored the paywall and paid up immediately before spending hours reading through the guide.
In the following hours news about Zayn’s channels spread like wildfire. Various new hunting strategies were developed based on Zayn’s tips and tricks, and it was only a matter of time before the first successful hunts generated far more loot in a much shorter period than before.
At last, thousands of Players found Zayn’s channel and guides. The sudden exposure of a new channel and the unique content Zayn released attracted the interest of several pages that released news about Forgotten Lands, hidden experts, and special players. They decided to feature Zayn’s channel on their main page, therefore, exposing him to the World Wide Web – quite literally.
