Chapter 38: Initiation of the Plan
"Fire you? I didn't say I was going to fire you."
Fei was confused by Elena's panicked expression, "Elena, you must've understood me wrong. I'm only planning on fighting the monsters by myself. When I finish this quest, I will take you to complete my next quest."
"But I..."
After getting an explanation from Fei, Elena was a bit relieved. However, she was still trying to convince Fei to let her join, partially because she didn't want to be separated from Fei, and partially because abandoning a master was really shameful for female rogues.
"Okay, my time is tight, so I'll explain the details next time."
Although Fei loved being around the hot mercenary, there was no time to waste considering all the dangers in the real world. He cut her off and stepped into the portal. To make sure that Elena didn't follow him, he even shut down the portal right after he stepped back into Tristram.
Elena stared at the place where the portal was at. The expressions on her face were complex. There was remorse, disappointment...and happiness. A smile came onto her face as she blushed subconsciously.
...
...
"Roar!"
The first thing Fei did after he shut down the portal was use his warcry – [Howl].
It was really effective. A mysterious and terrifying power spread around him as he roared. It scared the [Skeleton Archers] who were staring at the portal and they began to scatter and flee.
"This is the chance!"
Fei charged at them and smashed his axe blade into their backs. A couple skeletons were instantly killed. After about 10 seconds, [Howl] wore off and the monsters turned around and rushed back at him.
Fei used [Howl] again. In the Diablo World, as long as characters had enough resources (Fury/Mana), they could spam their abilities; there weren't any cooldowns or chants requirements. Fei had prepared a few bottles of [Minor Mana Potions], allowing him to use [Howl] as many times as he needed.
After the eleventh [Howl], the [Skeleton Archers] were cleaned out. On the ground, there were two blue magic items from the two mini-bosses and a lot of other ordinary items. Fei didn't identify them and simply threw them into his [Item Slot].
As he got closer to the center of Tristram, a new type of monster appeared – [Tainted].
They looked like Ipotanes from Greek Mythology, half human and half goat – except that they had a bull head in place of a human head. Their huge scythes dealt tons of damage.
However, these types of melee monsters were not a threat to Barbarians.
Fei continued using his 'cheap' [Howl] tactic and cleared the crowd of [Tainted]. There was also a mini-boss [Tainted Leader] who had a lot of health, but Fei easily killed it. Two more blue magic items dropped, but Fei had no time to pick them up.
All the noise from battling the [Skeleton Archers] and [Tainted] had drawn the attention of the final boss of Tristram – Griswald.
The former Paladin rushed out of a ruined building covered in hellfire. Griswald had turned into a demon. The difference between the other demons and monsters and him was that Griswald still looked like a human. There were no obvious signs of demonification, aside from his bloodshot eyes. Death, cruetly, violence, viciousness and bloodiness were the only emotions Fei could see from Griswald's eyes. Griswald looked terrifying.
Griswald was a powerful Paladin. After his fall, he became even stronger. Although he lost the blessings from the God, his new demonic powers made him even more vicious and effective as a killing machine. He was fast; after he saw Fei, he roared as he charged at him. His fist came at Fei like lightning.
Fei blocked the punch with his shield.
"Boom!"
Fei felt a large amount of force against his shield. He was knocked back a couple steps despite his strength as a barbarian. He also felt a burning sensation, which quickly spread throughout his body. Fei felt like his blood was burning inside of him; pain seeped deep into his bones. This was the demonic power that Griswald had acquired – additional hellfire damage that could penetrate shields.
Fei switched weapons and the huge double handed axe appeared in his hands.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" Fei struck three times. Light reflected off the sharp edges of the axe. All three strikes hit Griswald and the brutal strength left three startling wounds on his body. The final boss roared in pain; the attack lowered the boss's health bar by about one-tenth.
"Haha, awesome! If I can hit him about twenty five more times, he'll be dead."
Fei was excited because he had a chance of defeating the final boss. He chugged a bottle of [Minor Healing Potion] and held against a round of Griswald's aggressive attacks. He swung his axe aggressively at Griswald, but only two strikes hit this time.
Fortunately, the fallen Paladin wasn't too smart. Although he had formidable strength and power, he wasn't able to utilize them properly. He could only throw powerful punches at Fei, which weren't too hard to deal with.
Fei constantly backed away as he fought. Both of them were soon outside of town.
This way, even if there was a lot of noise during the battle, it wouldn't attract the monsters and demons in the ruined buildings. If all the monsters in town were attracted, the situation would be too dangerous.
Just to be safe, Fei turned around and sprinted away to gain some extra distance. He used a [Town Portal Scroll] to open up the portal back to [Rogue Encampment]. If the situation became too dangerous, he could chug a bottle of [Minor Healing Potion] and run back to camp.
However, he soon found out that he was being overcautious. After chugging four bottles of [Minor Healing Potion], Fei successfully killed the final boss of Tristram.
Griswald fell down as Fei landed his axe on top of his head. Lots of gold coins and items dropped from the corpse.
The lights almost blinded Fei's eyes, but he spotted a green item.
"Damn! A set item?"
Fei was surprised by his luck. Green items belonged to a set. These items were really hard to get. Although Fei was expecting something good from the final boss, he was still surprised that he actually got a green set item.
He couldn't wait to pick it up and take a closer look. It was an exquisite looking armour and green light shined all over it, but it needed an identification to reveal all the properties.
Fei used a [Identity Scroll] without any hesitation.
"Ding!" The name and properties appeared in front of Fei.
[Arctic Furs]
Defence: + 48
Durability: 20/20
Required Strength: 12
Required Level: 2
Special Properties: + 303% Enhanced defence, +10 all Resistance.
Note: The set includes: [Arctic Furs], [Arctic Binding], [Arctic Horn], [Arctic Mitts]. Bonus properties will be granted based on how many set items are equipped.
...
The result was a little bit disappointing.
[Arctic Furs] was an item in the set [Arctic Gear]. It was a perfect set for Amazons, but it didn't fit a Barbarian.
However, the properties of [Arctic Furs] was quite good; it was way better than the armour Fei was wearing. The enhanced defense and resistance were valuable, so he equipped it right away.
Aside from this green set item, there was a yellow rare item and a couple blue magic items.
However, Fei didn't pick them up.
After eliminating the boss Griswald, the [Skeleton Archers] and the [Taints], there weren't any other monsters and demons that were a threat to Fei. He decided to rescue Cain first. There wasn't anyone who was going to steal his items.
Fei rested his axe on his shoulders and walked back to Tristram.
A bunch of screaming [Spike Fiends] charged at Fei, but they all turned into experience for Fei in a few seconds. Soon after, [Zombies] followed in their steps; after about five minutes, all the monsters and demons were wiped out.
Fei found Cain locked up in a cage on a tree at the centre of Tristram.
"Save me! Young traveller, come and save me!"
After he saw Fei, Cain started screaming as if he had swallowed some Viagra and saw someone running around naked. His pitch was so high that his voice was more painful to listen to than the monsters. It sounded like someone was poking his butthole with a stick.
"Whoosh!"
Fei swung his axe and the rope that held the cage to the tree was cut in half.
The wooden cage fell to the ground and broke into pieces.
The 'obscene' old man rushed out of the cage. He didn't even say thanks; he opened up a portal and ran into it like a mad dog.
"Damn this old man, he didn't even say thanks!"
Fei stared at the portal that quickly closed. Fei had to give Cain some credit for his running speed; even Fei couldn't run that fast as a strong barbarian.
Fei stuck up his middle finger at where the portal was to express his feelings. After that, Fei started cleaning up the battlefield. He threw all the items into his [Item slot] and returned to [Rogue Encampment] using the portal that he opened when he was fighting Griswald.
He didn't know where Elena went; she wasn't anywhere close to the portal. Fei decided to go to Akara to get his rewards for the quest.
The reward was simple. The cheap priestess gave Fei a VIP discount on everything she sold, and Cain who Fei had just rescued would identify items for him for free.
Compared to the complexity of the quest, the rewards were severely lacking, akin to something given to a beggar. "Akara and Cain are both cheap to the core!" Fei thought.
He started distributing his attributes and skill points after that. After he killed the fallen Paladin Griswald, Fei had become level 12. It exceeded Fei's goal of level 10 when he entered the world. A portion of the experience was from the bonus of having Elena as his follower.
The 25 attributes points were distributed as ⅗ to [Strength] and ⅖ to [Vitality]. For the five precious skill points, Fei added one point to [Taunt], which taunts a monster into fighting you, one point to [Sword Mastery], one point to [Polearm Mastery] and two points to [Leap], which allows Fei to jump and knock back enemies where he lands.
After all of that, Fei took a look at his [Character Status]-
Gamer: Fei
Class: Barbarian
Level: 12
Experience: 95414/112725
Strength: 66
Dexterity: 20
Intelligence: 10
Vitality: 44
Damage: 30-55
Accuracy: 169
Defence: 77
Endurance: 37
Health: 157
Resource (Fury): 19
Fire-Resistance: 10
Cold-Resistance: 10
Lightning-Resistance: 25
Poison-Resistance: 10
...
These stats comforted Fei. From past experience, a level 12 Barbarian was about a two star warrior in the real world; but with all of his additional skills, he could fight a three star warrior without a problem. Fei was confident that he could force Landes back without being injured the next time he fought him.
Of course, Fei could only force him back. If he want to defeat or even kill him, he need to be around level 20.
...
Fei went to the free labourer Cain to get all his items identified. Cain had a lot to say, but Fei's time was tight. After all the identification was done, Fei quickly ran off before Cain could even stop him.
He went into an unoccupied tent to take a more detailed look at all the items.
The yellow rare item was a short bow. It looked simple, but was very classy. It was called [Boreal Razor Bow]. It had great properties, but Fei couldn't use it.
He thought that Elena could probably use it, so he decided to give the bow to her as a present the next time he saw her. "If she's really touched...Eh...Could I make out with girls in the Diablo World?" Fei thought shamelessly.
The rest of the blue magic items were mediocre, so he sold all of them to the blacksmith Charsi. With an additional 20,000 gold coins, Fei now had a total of 40,080 gold coins.
After everything was set and done, he initiated his plan.
He went to Akara first and bought 5 bottles of [Normal Healing Potions] which were more effective than [Minor Healing Potions], and 2 bottles of [Stamina Potions] at a 10% discount. He then went back to the unoccupied tent and tried to communicate with the cold, mysterious voice in his head.
"Are you there? I need to convert five bottles of [Normal Healing Potions], 2 bottles of [Stamina Potions] and 1 [Town Scroll Portal]."
Silence.
After five, six seconds, the voice responded –
"As you wish...Each bottle of [Normal Healing Potion] costs 5,000 gold coins to convert with a success rate of 25%. Each bottle of [Stamina Potion] costs 2,000 gold coins to convert with a success rate of 35%... Your level is not high enough to convert [Town Scroll Portals]...The total is 29,000 gold coins. Confirmation needed."
The price was within the expectation of Fei. The only thing surprised him was that he couldn't convert [Town Scroll Portals] because of his level. "So there are other factors other than money and success rate… I just haven't discovered them all yet." Fei thought.
But from the voice's response, Fei discovered some patterns –
The more valuable and complex an item was, the higher the cost, lower the success rate and more restrictions it had. Compared to [Normal Healing Potion] which costed 5,000 gold coins to convert with the success rate of 25%, [Stamina Potion] were less valuable, so it only costed 2,000 gold coins to convert and the success rate was 30%.
"Do you still want to convert?"
After not getting a response from Fei right away, the voice asked again. This time, it sounded a bit impatient.
"Yes, confirm!"
Fei answered quickly as the voice stopped his train of thought.
"Ding! Conversion calculating...Sufficient gold coins... 5 bottles of [Normal Healing Potions] with success rate of 25%...Calculating...2 bottles converted successfully, 3 bottles failed to convert...2 bottles of [Stamina Potions] with success rate of 30%...Calculating...1 bottle converted successfully, 1 bottle failed to convert."