Chapter 9: The Secret Passage

After learning Fireball, Lin Jia swapped out the bronze ring that boosted his attack for a bullhorn ring that added one point to his magic. Still, his total magic only amounted to three points. It took more than a dozen Fireballs to bring down a single zombie. Yet, when the zombie finally fell, Lin Jia was overjoyed. One zombie yielded 160 experience points, over 300 gold coins, and a small vial of mana potion. In comparison, a single zombie gave more experience than three armored bugs and was far more lucrative, while slaying one zombie actually took half the time it would to kill three armored bugs.

The main advantage, though, was the zombies' sluggish movements, which allowed Lin Jia, a fledgling mage, plenty of room to maneuver. Cautiously, Lin Jia angled his monitor slightly toward the wall. His computer, number 35, was tucked in the farthest corner of Longtai Internet Café’s rectangular hall, with a large floor-standing air conditioner two meters behind him. By turning his screen just a bit, he ensured no one else could see what he was up to.

By this time, most patrons had already logged in at their machines. The rest had either gone home for dinner or left altogether, so no one was paying attention to him anymore. Not wanting too many people to discover his secret, Lin Jia made these small adjustments. His fourth brother and the eldest were busy dominating the third floor of the Skeleton Cave, killing monsters at a swift pace. Just moments before, he’d overheard their triumphant shouts about defeating a minor boss, the Skeleton Spirit, which dropped a trove of valuable items, including a rare “little gem.” Busy with their own exploits, they paid Lin Jia no mind, and he had no intention of calling them over.

The so-called “little gem” referred to items that, on top of their usual stats, had an extra attribute. For example, a bullhorn ring might have 0-1 magic by default, but if it provided 0-2 magic, or added 0-1 defense, it would be dubbed “exceptional” or “overpowered.” Unfortunately, such treasures were exceedingly rare.

The secret passage was so packed with monsters that it was almost impossible to move. Lin Jia only had to linger near the stairs for a short while before he needed to return to town to buy more potions. By the time he came back, fresh zombies had already repopulated the corridor he’d just cleared. With potions close at hand, safety ensured, and no one around to compete for kills, Lin Jia couldn't help but grin at his good fortune.

Thank goodness he was a mage—were he a Taoist or a warrior, things wouldn’t have gone so smoothly. Warriors’ defenses couldn’t withstand the zombies’ attacks here, and a low-level Taoist’s healing spell couldn’t replenish a warrior’s lost health quickly enough.

With only close-range attacks, warriors and Taoists would often end up attracting more than one zombie at a time in these cramped, monster-infested corridors, burning through health and mana potions faster than loot could replenish them. Fighting here would only deplete their resources—a losing proposition.

But for a mage, frail and lightly armored as he might be, the ability to attack from afar made all the difference. As long as he was careful, he could lure zombies one by one to a safe spot and dispatch them at leisure. Each zombie rewarded him with around 300 gold coins, a few red and blue potions, and occasionally some decent gear. It truly was a haven for mage training.

As its name suggested, the secret passage was a map made up of interconnected corridors. Yet Lin Jia had never made it to the center—the monsters respawned so quickly that he simply couldn’t clear them all fast enough to explore further.

With growing skill and confidence, Lin Jia gradually pressed deeper. One by one, zombies fell with howls of “Oh! Oh!” under his ebony sword. After three hours of hard grinding, he finally caught up to his fourth brother and the eldest, even reaching level fifteen before the eldest did. With a resounding “boom!” his health and mana bars filled to the brim, marking him as a proper level-fifteen novice mage.

Just as Lin Jia noticed his mana potions running low and was about to return to the surface to sell off some loot and restock, he made a startling discovery. At coordinates 101:107, atop a pillar against the wall—on the ceiling, to be precise—a zombie was inexplicably sprawled, motionless and oblivious.

Lin Jia was baffled. He circled the pillar several times, for by all rights, that spot was inaccessible. In the secret passage’s subterranean world, that area should have been within the wall itself. Since the game Legend allowed players to see the underground content, there was no ceiling rendered—each passageway was like an open-topped box.

The zombie, perched on the black ceiling, was clearly an anomaly. Was this a bug?

A “bug,” as most know, is a system glitch—an illogical or abnormal occurrence in a game that may not disrupt its operation but is still a flaw. Some bugs, especially major ones, can be exploited by players to unbalance the game, which was why Lin Jia’s surprise was so great.

He immediately tried to hit the ceiling zombie with Fireball, but couldn’t reach it. Not giving up, he circled the pillar, experimenting from every angle. At last, by standing in the corner near the base, he found a spot where Fireball could strike the bizarre creature. As he counted off the spells, Lin Jia grew increasingly tense—the corridor had started to respawn new zombies nearby, one of which was alarmingly close but hadn’t noticed him yet.

With a long, guttural roar, the ceiling zombie exploded into a shower of items. Lin Jia’s attacks had drawn the attention of the surrounding undead—he snatched up two pieces of gear and a medium mana potion that had bounced into the corner, barely glancing at them as he dodged and fled back the way he’d come. Had he hesitated a moment longer and been surrounded, death would have been certain. He could only gaze wistfully at the pile of loot that remained stuck atop the wall.

Heart pounding and with barely a sliver of health left, Lin Jia finally made it back to the surface. He hurriedly opened his inventory, and nearly suffered a heart attack on the spot. He let out a low, excited growl: “Damn! I’ve struck it rich!”

There, in his bag, was a weapon for level-fifteen mages: the “Sea Soul.” An ordinary Sea Soul wasn’t anything special—they were sold at weapon shops—but the one Lin Jia had found was a true rarity: Attack 3-10, Magic 1-5!