Starting from Zero Vol 2 Chapter 2

After walking out of the forest, I felt as if I had been given a new lease of life. Gulping in a few breaths of air, I decided to first return to Cold Jade to replenish my medicaments. As far as the eye can see……. Wait up! What is this! Where has Cold Jade gone to?

What was before my eyes was not the beautiful large gra.s.s plain in front of Cold Jade, but rather, a ma.s.sive expanse of graves that stretched on for a dozen kilometres. Beneath the ash grey sky were gravestones of the defeated as well as weeds growing in wild abandon everywhere. What is this b.l.o.o.d.y place, exactly? Fortunately, ahead was a majestic… I don’t know whether to call it a fort or a city. It’s a little too large to be a stronghold. Although I’m unable to see the full view from such a great distance away, but from a visual estimate, its area seemed to be more than thrice as large as Cold Jade. But to call it a city, it’s actually built on a huge island in the middle of a lake, and its only connection to the outside world is through a stone bridge of over three kilometres.

Forcefully shaking my head to pull myself out of my confusion, I plucked up my courage and headed towards the city. No matter what it is, I’ll know for myself once I take a look!

This messy graveyard’s surface area is extremely large, so if there really are people buried underneath, there would be approximately millions of them there. Luckily, this is a game, so fatigue would not be a problem. Besides, the field of vision here is very wide, so I won’t get lost easily. All the way, shattered steles and bones were scattered across the grounds, and every now and then, skulls could be spotted as well. The entire area reminds me of the cemetery in the game ‘Unequalled Hero’ I had once played. What exactly was China Company thinking, making this enormous gravesite?!

With great difficulty, I reached the long bridge, but only now did I realised that the stone bridge wasn’t as short as it had seemed from afar. In reality, it’s more than five kilometres long. Looking at this lake, it seems to be very problematic as well. The ma.s.sive lake surface is tranquil and undisturbed, and it looks like it has a viscous feel to it. Also, the entire lake is pitch black, and a couple of bubbles would surface occasionally. Fortunately, it did not seem to emit any strange smell.

Just as I was looking at the lake, considering if I should cross, Luck suddenly flew out of my arms to sneeze at the lake’s surface. It looked as if it was trying to spurt dragon flames, but it was a pity that it was too young, so it did not have the skill for the time being.

Looking in Luck’s direction, a chain of enormous bubbles suddenly erupted from the far-off lake surface. Following which, a fin that was covered all over in sharp spikes appeared from the depths of the lake. The part of the fin that had appeared above water was over twenty metres, and it was extremely obvious, even just from the imagination, what size its owner is. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be rushing at me! Not far away, another larger fin emerged above the liquid’s surface, and the two fellows seem to be about to fight.

Just as expected, the two fins sped up and rushed at each other. With a rumble, a stream of water soared, bringing with it a hideous ma.s.s of things while scaring me half to death. Because some random unknown things were tossed at my leg, I fell wretchedly. Just as I was raising my head, Whoosh! a long sword stabbed directly into my arm. I couldn’t help shrieking miserably as blood gushed forth instantly. Bearing the pain, I pulled the sword out as blood continued to flow from the wound. Watching my HP fall madly, I drank my last remaining bottle of red at once, and with a red flash, my wound finally stopped bleeding.

d.a.m.n it! How am I so unlucky?! Even getting smashed by stuff just from watching monsters fight! Immediately after I’d just crawled up, another ‘dong’ followed closely as a heavy shield crashed onto my head, causing me to stagger and almost fall. Heavens! Who did I even p.i.s.s off?! Hurriedly picking up the shield, I held it over my head and ran wildly into the forest. All the way, all sorts of unknown items kept smashing onto the shield with clanking sounds, and the vibrations from those almost caused my arms to go numb.

Seeing that I was about to reach the edge of the forest, I suddenly found myself being covered by a black shadow. What is this?! Carefully peeking my head out from under the shield, I looked up at the sky. It would have been better if I hadn’t looked, because when I’d looked, I was scared almost half to death. A gigantic eel which had a body length of over a hundred metres was currently falling from the sky. And of all places it could fall at, it somehow seemed to be falling right onto the area where I was.

Almost instinctively, I sat onto the ground and raised my longsword towards the sky. I could only feel my hands sink and after which, I didn’t know anything anymore.

A short wave of icy cold on my face woke me up, and as it turned out, Luck had been licking my face. Feeling around my body, it seemed like nothing much had happened, but upon careful examination, it seems like I’ve been buried. As for what was pressing on me, it was a no-brainer that it had to be that wretched big eel. But luckily, one end of my sword was supported on the ground, while the other end was holding up this fellow, so a little s.p.a.ce was still maintained.

I was just thinking over how to get out, when suddenly, white light flashed from above and the eel suddenly disappeared. With a clang, the sword that I had just taken hold of was broken into two. The system prompt sounded,

“Player Zi Ri has leveled up to level 25.

Player Zi Ri has leveled up to level 26.

Player Zi Ri has leveled up to level 27.

Player Zi Ri has leveled up to level 28.

Player Zi Ri has leveled up to level 29.”

“What? Even this is okay?!” Is this system even legit?! But then again, who would willingly give up free experience? What a pity that this monster is only higher leveled and not some sort of Boss, or else I’d have gotten a reward or something of that sort!

I was still rejoicing when I suddenly thought of my sword. I quickly picked up the remains of my sword. Ah! It’s been broken into two segments! Even though this thing wasn’t really of any use, but it’s still the only weapon I’d had. Now that it’s broken, how am I supposed to train?! I really regret throwing my Novice Sword away then!

Suddenly, I felt something cool on my hand. Isn’t this the heavy sword that had just been thrown at me?! Hehe! Heaven never bars one’s ways! Within an incredibly short amount of time, my emotions swung from one extreme to the other, because I’d just found that this accursed sword was unequippable. My stat points at level 29 are: STR 377, AGI 174, INT 58, ENERGY 87 and CONT 232. However, this wretched sword actually requires level 30, STR 300, AGI 160 as well as CONT 150. Ah! Why! Why can’t it be equipped!

I rummaged around on the ground nearby. Just now, when that fish had exploded, seventeen gold coins as well as something that was either a pearl or a fish eye had been dropped. What a pity that it couldn’t be identified. In my surroundings, there were also many items scattered around that had been brought up from beneath the water depths. However, most of them were ruined and I could only keep a total of three of those. One of them was the shield that had just smashed into me, which when used the Identify skill on, turned out to be called Cache Shield and was cla.s.sified as a large shield. Thankfully, it was equippable. Its stats were Defense 75, 35% Block chance and 10% Damage Rebound. The other was a pair of leg protectors that were named Darkness Guard. Its stats were Defense 80, 10% Lightning Absorption, 10% Darkness damage Absorption, 5% Increase in moving speed. It was a pity that it had a 37 level requirement and was thus temporarily unusable. The last would be that broken sword that can’t be reused! I’ll first throw the unusable ones into my bag, since I can exchange them for some items after selling!

As I considered the fact that more monsters could be lying in the lake’s murky depths, I inched forward onto the bridge while sucking in my breath. Lord knows which monster will suddenly emerge from the water to finish me off! Extremely scared and on edge, I ran to the end of the bridge, where the gates of the city stood awe-inspiringly before me. At 18 metres tall and 7 metres wide, the thickset city gates, which were made fully of stone, looked extremely majestic. Above the door, the two words “Lost City” that were written in black made waves of fear pa.s.s through a people’s hearts when they see it.

Only after hurriedly rushing into the city did I realise that what was inside would made people feel even more on edge. The entire city was a stretch of desolation, and it wasn’t because the houses were ruined or anything of that sort. Rather, the architecture in this entire city were exceptionally grand. All the houses were built from black stone, and thus they looked extraordinarily stable. However, it was really scary to look at the large stretch of black buildings under this dark sky!

“Is…. Is there anyone?” I cleared my throat and shouted, but because of fear, my voice shook immensely.

With a clatter, two black longswords were pointed at my neck from both sides. “In the ghost country, alive creatures may not trespa.s.s! Leave now!” The one who spoke was a Knight all clad in black, and surrounding him were four followers who were black from head to toe as well. Even their saddled horses were completely covered in black armor. The Knight who is speaking is obviously their leader, as a long red feather is stuck on his helmet.

I was baffled that players were already in such amazing equipment so early into the game. Casting the Identify skill, I got scared almost half to death. That leader was the captain of a hundred strong troop of knights known as the Mythal Knight Troop. He was a level 250 Dark Knight, and the rest of his stats were unidentifiable. The four followers beside him were Mythal Knights, leveled 200. They specialised in group a.s.sault and intimidation, and the rest couldn’t be identified anymore either! So it turned out that they’re NPCs. No wonder they’re so vicious!

Seeing that I’d made no response, a knight brandished his sword and was about to chop down onto me. Frightened, I shut my eyes, but the sword did not descend as I’d expected. Peeking my eyes open, I saw that Luck was currently blocking in front of me while raining blows onto the Knight with its tiny wings and shrieking incessantly at it. However, what was completely beyond my expectations was that the five Knights instantly vaulted off their horses, and the leading Knight spoke. “We did not know it was Lord Black Dragon King, excuse us!”

Luck continued to flap its small wings while shouting crazily at the Knights, yet the Knights replied respectfully, “Yes! We understand!” Following which, the five Knights turned back once again and they immediately rushed back into the city. Luck turned around and cried out gladly towards me and I also patted it to express my happiness.

Now that I’d shaken off the five Knights, I began walking towards the city. After all, Luck seemed to be very respected over here!