Chapter 030: Disappointment

The Legend of the Mage, No Pop-up

Lin Jia was momentarily stunned. Suddenly, he remembered that when he had obtained his own perverse, top-tier Sea Soul, it had also been atop a wall. Could this be another case of a monster spawning at the wrong coordinates due to a bug? Would they get lucky and have something good drop again?

There was no time to run over to Old Fourth’s side to check. Lin Jia had no choice but to fend off the monsters rushing toward him, clumsily attacking as he shouted, “Old Fourth! Is it inside the black patch at the top of the wall?”

“Yes, yes! Right here, on the stone statue in the corner!” Old Fourth nodded urgently. “Wasn’t it in a spot like this where you got that top-tier one last time?”

Lin Jia deftly maneuvered his little mage character, dodging the monsters that surged toward him. After retreating a safe distance, he replied, “Yes! Give it a try and see if you can attack it! There should be a spot where you can hit them!”

Hearing this, Old Fourth became as excited as if he’d just popped some kind of pill. He had previously been sitting cross-legged on the sofa, pretending to be an old monk like Lin Jia, but now he couldn’t sit still. He leapt up, half-squatting and frantically mashing shift and the left mouse button to force an attack. While Lin Jia and Old First were busy clearing out the twenty or so monsters they’d attracted, Old Fourth was still spinning anxiously in the corner, scratching his head in frustration, his little warrior character letting out loud cries of "Ha! Ah!" through the speakers.

This time, there were more monsters, and without Old Fourth’s protection, Lin Jia was nearly run ragged by two tire monsters. He was almost killed several times, and if he hadn’t picked up a few bottles of Sunlight Potion and Medium Red, he probably would’ve died again.

Old First, exasperated, yelled, “You idiot! Wait a bit before you go after that thing! Old Second’s about to be eaten alive!” Realizing this, Old Fourth hurried over to help Lin Jia fend off the two speedy tire monsters.

Catching his breath, Lin Jia aimed painfully at the two black, evil maggots that were gnawing fiercely at Old Fourth, leaping up and slamming into Old Fourth’s medium armor. On the screen, Old Fourth’s character, “Wind Without Heart,” let out one miserable cry after another—“Mm~ uh~ oh~ ah!”—his attack movements stuttering as if stuck, his head jerking back with each blow.

Among all the monsters in Legend, the black evil maggots were the fastest. Often, before Old Fourth could even get a swing in, he’d already been bitten and rammed four or five times by the pair of evil maggots.

Because they were so fast, Lin Jia found it hard to target them with his Lightning spell. He often missed, the lightning either landing behind the maggots or just grazing them, taking off only a sliver of their health. Despite their not particularly high HP, these black evil maggots were even harder to handle than the red wild boars. As a mage, Lin Jia feared these fast, moderately powerful monsters the most.

At the moment, one maggot was attacking Old Fourth. After repeatedly failing to take out the maggot rolling toward him, Lin Jia simply called out to Old Fourth, dodged the one attacking himself, and targeted the maggot next to Old Fourth with a well-timed Lightning strike. When the maggot at Old Fourth’s side rolled toward Lin Jia, Old Fourth broke free and went after the one chasing Lin Jia. After two rounds of this crisscrossing attack, they finally managed to kill the two annoying black maggots.

Meanwhile, Old First had been kiting a pile of monsters in circles for ages. Seeing his brothers finally take down the evil maggots, he immediately wailed, “Help! Save me~~~!”

With the speedy maggots gone, the remaining monsters were much easier to handle. Though it took some time, after five minutes they had slain them all. The ground was littered with monster corpses and glittering loot, but none of the brothers bothered to pick anything up. They rushed en masse toward the “L”-shaped corner Old Fourth, Xu Hongbin, had mentioned, waving their mice around to examine the monsters atop the wall. Due to the limited view, they could barely see the monsters above, but when the cursor passed over a monster, its name would briefly flash on the screen.

A scorpion-serpent, a red wild boar, a black evil maggot, three zombies, and a clump of horn flies—so many monsters had spawned in that narrow corner. Seeing them so cramped they could barely move, the brothers’ eyes grew red with excitement. If Lin Jia’s guess was right, and this was a bug that could produce top-tier drops, then with so many monsters, they’d get at least five or six pieces of exceptional gear!

Old First hurled two talismans, which blazed through the crowd but missed their targets. Lin Jia called out, “Move, move! Let me try, my Lightning spell can hit them!” Old First immediately yielded the innermost coordinate spot in the corner for Lin Jia to stand on. Warriors and Taoists could only attack in straight lines, but a mage’s Lightning spell could strike from any angle, summoning thunder from above to hit the monsters directly on their heads, ignoring walls and other obstacles. Still, Lin Jia found it odd—this was an underground cave, with thick layers of earth above. How was the lightning getting through?

The lighting was too dim to see the monsters. All they could hear were the faint moans and groans of monsters above the corner, so Lin Jia blindly cast Lightning, hitting whatever he could. He used the brief illumination from the spell to pinpoint the monsters’ positions. The black evil maggot was the first to die with a sickening “pfft,” but nothing dropped—not even a single gold coin—which left the three brothers, craning their necks in anticipation, bitterly disappointed.

Old Fourth chuckled, “It’s not that easy to get a top-tier drop! Must be a matter of chance.” Meanwhile, new monsters began to respawn around them. Still obsessed with the monsters above the corner, the three brothers lost all interest in clearing the room. Old First and Old Fourth simply stood in front of Lin Jia, who was squeezed into the coordinate spot in the corner. With Old First’s summoned Skeleton Baby as additional protection, they surrounded Lin Jia, ensuring his safety. As long as they didn’t provoke the monsters, they wouldn’t be bothered for the time being. If any monster did respawn in front of them, Old First, Old Fourth, and the Skeleton’s big blade were waiting.

With his safety assured, Lin Jia stopped worrying about whether anything good would drop. He simply swung his Sea Soul, raining down lightning in a frenzy. As the number of monsters dwindled, their hopes faded, too. Not a single monster exploded in a shower of loot like when Lin Jia had gotten his Sea Soul. Any gold or equipment that did drop was quickly buried under the heap of monster corpses in the corner, making it a real hassle to dig out.

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(Trouble: ...Just realized I forgot to post this chapter before going to bed last night—does that count as missing an update? Ugh, never mind! I’ll post another chapter in an hour! Right now, my book is hovering just outside the top ten of the new releases chart. With a few big names showing off at the top, it’s hard to break in, but at least the last spot seems within reach! Everyone, help me climb a few more places!

Go ahead and smash that button below!)

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