Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Light a Candle for the School Beauty

Zeke Quincy, playing his Archer, Young Lord Shawn, rode forward slowly on a formidable mount, followed by Aurora Sinclair’s Level 1 assassin, Master Rory.

When picking a character name, Aurora Sinclair had first tried her real name, but it was already taken. She tried a few others, even Dawn Miles, but they were all taken as well.

In the end, it was Zeke Quincy who came up with the name for her. All she wanted was to have “Aurora” in it, right?

Aurora Sinclair had never used a keyboard before. At first, she just used one index finger to peck at the keys, but she was still having the time of her life.

One moment she’d hit the sprint button, the next she’d do a somersault. Zeke Quincy watched her, shaking his head. Jean Quincy had said she was a little dorky. He hadn’t seen it at first, but now he thought she wasn’t just dorky—she was also pretty amusing.

“Get back here—”

Suddenly, Master Rory used a sprint and landed right in the middle of a monster mob.

The enraged Crimson Hare Elite instantly grew in size and charged at Master Rory with a roar.

Zeke Quincy averted the crisis with a single Crossbow Bolt. Aurora Sinclair turned to glance at him, her lips pressed into a thin line, but said nothing.

She copied the way Zeke Quincy positioned his fingers, placing her own on the keyboard.

Zeke Quincy glanced at her with a smile. ’She’s a quick learner!’

In the beginning, the assassin class only had Body Technique Skills and a basic Physical Attack. They also had over a dozen more Body Technique Skills than other classes—enough that you could perform a dance just by pressing them one after another.

As a result, the assassin was the most popular class among male players in Veridia during the game’s early days. However, as more attack Skills became available later on, these Body Technique Skills became a liability. They took up space in the skill bar and were hard to remember.

Gradually, the assassin became a niche class, fading from the main battlefields. The only place you could still see assassins was in professional league play.

Aurora Sinclair assigned all her Body Technique Skills to the keys in the most prominent area on the left side of her keyboard.

***

The internet cafe used standard 87-key gaming keyboards, which felt amazing to play on.

Most players were used to mapping their main attack Skills to the number row at the top, while less frequently used skills were placed in the bottom-left area. Thus, Body Technique Skills were typically found in the bottom-left section of the keyboard.

But Aurora Sinclair did the exact opposite, mapping her Body Technique Skills to the most accessible keys.

Zeke Quincy reminded her, “If you map your Skills like that, it’s going to be a pain once you get past Level 10.”

Aurora Sinclair shook her head. “It’s fine.”

“Alright, whatever makes you happy! Come over here and pick up this quest…”

The quests below Level 10 were all simple fetch quests and monster-clearing tasks, easy to complete. There was just one assassin-specific class quest, named “Verdona,” that Aurora Sinclair had to finish on her own.

With a powerful bodyguard like Zeke Quincy around, Aurora Sinclair leveled up extremely fast, hitting Level 9 in under half an hour.

Zeke Quincy glanced at her screen and offered, “You can’t be in a party for the last beginner quest. Let’s switch seats, and I’ll clear it for you.”

Aurora Sinclair didn’t move, just stared at him with wide eyes. Zeke Quincy instantly realized she wanted to do it herself. “Alright, you do it then,” he said immediately. “I’ll give you plenty of large health potions. Just call me if you can’t handle it!”

Zeke Quincy traded 50 stacks of red potions to Aurora Sinclair and began explaining how to chug them, nagging like a mother hen.

“When your HP value drops to about halfway, press this key to chug a potion and restore your health…”

Aurora Sinclair nodded.

Feeling uneasy, Zeke Quincy returned to his own seat. He had Young Lord Shawn sit down on the ground, ready to jump in and help after the few minutes it would surely take for her to call for him.

Aurora Sinclair might be a monster at mobile games, but that didn’t guarantee she’d be any good on a PC. Especially since she’d never even touched a computer before, and she was still clumsy on the keyboard.

An imperceptible smile played on Zeke Quincy’s lips. ’Finally,’ he thought, ’a chance for me to look good for a change.’

But twenty minutes went by, and Aurora Sinclair still hadn’t called for him. Zeke Quincy snuck a peek at her from the corner of his eye. Her expression was as calm as ever, her gaze intensely focused.

Another five minutes passed. Zeke Quincy finally couldn’t hold back any longer. “Did you clear the quest yet?”

Aurora Sinclair neither nodded nor shook her head. Her eyes remained glued to the screen, and her left hand kept tapping away at the upper-left section of the keyboard, the pace gradually picking up speed.

Startled, Zeke Quincy leaned over to get a better look, and his jaw dropped.

“Holy shit—”

On the screen, Master Rory was bobbing and weaving, dodging the attacks of a Level 30 field mini-boss while occasionally landing a hit with a dagger. Seeing the constant stream of “-1” and “Miss” pop up over the boss’s head, Zeke Quincy was left both speechless and deeply impressed.

With such pathetic damage, she had somehow managed to whittle down a third of the mini-boss’s health, while Master Rory’s HP hadn’t dropped by a single point.

The 50 stacks of large health potions in her skill bar remained untouched.

Zeke Quincy was completely bewildered. He stared at Aurora Sinclair with a complex expression for a long moment before a sense of profound respect washed over him.

’Those moves were absolutely pro-level!’

“Aurora, you haven’t learned any attack Skills yet?”

Aurora Sinclair just pressed her lips together, saying nothing. Zeke Quincy hurriedly checked his map to find Master Rory’s location.

’Holy shit! I looked away for a second and she got that far away!’

Field mini-bosses spawned randomly in Level 10-30 outdoor zones. After searching for a bit, Zeke Quincy finally found Master Rory in a secluded valley.

One Ice-breaking Arrow followed by Continuous Shooting was enough to finish off the field boss.

Only then did Aurora Sinclair turn to look at Zeke Quincy. She then had Master Rory walk over to Young Lord Shawn.

To give players a stronger sense of immersion, characters’ appearances would change depending on their combat status, but since Master Rory was dressed entirely in black, there wasn’t much of a difference.

Seeing that Master Rory had already reached Level 12, Zeke Quincy said, “Come on, I’ll take you to learn some attack Skills!”

***

Learning attack Skills and upgrading them requires Skill Points, which can be obtained in three ways.

First, characters are rewarded with five basic Skill Points every time they level up.

Second, players can complete class quests to receive a varying number of Skill Points depending on the quest’s level.

Third, by running dungeons and defeating bosses, there is a chance to obtain a Skill Book. Skill Books of different colors grant different amounts of Skill Points, and this method is purely down to luck.

Aurora Sinclair’s Master Rory was currently Level 12 and had 60 Skill Points.

Zeke Quincy told her to spend her points carefully, as it would affect her custom Skill Tree’s attack power and Master Rory’s overall Combat Power.

Aurora Sinclair nodded. Gazing at the Assassin Master on the screen, she carefully reviewed all 24 general skills and the 26 skills exclusive to the assassin class.

Generally, new players wouldn’t put points into all 50 skills. Instead, they would follow the builds recommended by expert players or veterans on the game forums.

Then, as they played, they would gradually adjust their Skill Tree layout and corresponding Skill Levels.

After all, one Skill Point equated to one Skill Level.

But Aurora Sinclair, in one go, put a point into all fifty available skills, completely at random.

Zeke Quincy was utterly speechless as he watched her randomly map every single skill to a key on the keyboard.

He silently sent a private message to his three friends.

[Young Lord Shawn]: Forget about climbing the ranks! She put a point into all 50 skills…

[Mr. Mason]: (Sweatdrop emote) You didn’t even try to stop her?

[King of Junglers]: That’s my goddess for you, so badass even when she’s gaming!

[Mr Know It All]: I’ll light a candle for our goddess in silence!

Aurora Sinclair had no idea that the way she’d spent her skill points had caused such a stir among the four boys in the room. She happily steered Master Rory straight back to the spot in the wilderness where she’d just fought the boss.

Zeke Quincy set his character to follow hers, then went AFK.

“Hey, blockhead, come with me and get the takeout!”

***

The two of them left the private room on the second floor. They had just reached the front desk on the first floor to grab their takeout bag when a sharp voice rang out.

“Well, if it isn’t Young Master Quincy? Didn’t think I’d see you in a pleb internet cafe.”

Zeke Quincy frowned. Turning around, he saw Gideon Alden, the top student of the current senior class at First City High School.

Due to the rivalry between their two schools, Gideon Alden had considered Zeke Quincy his greatest competitor since their first year of high school.

Whenever the city held a competition, if Zeke Quincy was in it, Gideon was sure to participate, dead set on beating him. But they always traded wins and losses; neither was ever able to completely crush the other.

Later, when Gideon Alden heard Zeke Quincy was playing *Glory*, he made an account himself to continue their rivalry in-game, vowing to finally get the upper hand.

Sometimes Zeke Quincy was left speechless. ’This guy has to be sick in the head! And it’s not a mild case, either!’

Gideon Alden took a step forward, blocking Zeke Quincy’s path.

“I hear you stole our guild’s boss and snatched the loot last week?”

Zeke Quincy rolled his eyes, not in the mood to deal with him. He tried to step around, but Gideon Alden’s friends had numbers on their side and formed a line to block his way.

“How about it? Dare to face me in the arena for a PK? The stakes will be that rare weapon you got last week!”

Zeke Quincy sneered. “Oh yeah? And do you have a weapon of equal value to put up?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep