"Let me say, I don't think we should go offending this guy." Tian Qi's tone had turned somewhat serious. He was speaking to the three others, but his gaze was fixed only on Yuezhongmian.
"Right, hand speed above 170—that's a grand master!" Another chimed in.
"170 is just a conservative estimate. He's pulling off an Aerial Quadruple Pierce right now with no equipment as an unclassed player. I'd say his hand speed has to be over 200, don't you?"
"A hand speed of 200... in our whole guild, only the Guild Master is probably at that level."
"Forget not offending him—we should be recruiting him properly."
"A master like that, I bet he already has backing."
The group chattered on, while Yuezhongmian alone said nothing. He understood all these points perfectly well. In truth, after running so many dungeons together, his resentment toward Ye Xiu had already faded somewhat. If that guy could just be successfully done in one more time, it would be a perfect ending. But now that he knew this man was a grand master—knowing that going up against him would be stressful—the grudge in Yuezhongmian's heart had been rekindled instead. He couldn't even explain this feeling himself; envy, jealousy, and spite all mixed together. Just as he was about to say something, he noticed that his three brothers were all watching Jun Moxiao fight monsters, gasping in amazement. Yuezhongmian hurriedly turned to look as well, and only then realized that they had reached the Spider Cave. This was where the man's formidable technique truly showed.
The small monsters over at Greenwood Forest had been too weak, and Jun Moxiao's attack power too high—the mobs died so fast that nothing was apparent. The boss had thicker HP, but everyone had swarmed it in a group beatdown, so nothing stood out there either. Now, watching him solo the spiders, which had even thicker HP, his skill level was displayed all the more clearly.
"That combo is already at 17 hits."
"He hasn't dropped it since the Aerial Quadruple Pierce..."
"Looks like he used the wall rebound to chain into a normal attack rising slash."
"I honestly thought he wouldn't be able to connect that finishing Sky Strike."
"Gorgeous."
The three of them kept up their stream of praise, and Yuezhongmian felt terrible. He walked over and was about to speak, but Tian Qi had already turned to face him: "Take my advice—don't keep antagonizing this guy. If you're unhappy, just ignore him. I'll handle negotiations!"
Yuezhongmian nodded silently, feeling a small ache in his heart. He knew—Tian Qi and the others were already planning to recruit this man. What guild wouldn't scramble for a master of this caliber? By comparison, he was just an ordinary member of the Moon Wheel Guild; no one would antagonize a master like this for his sake.
"Nicely fought!" The green spider had been killed outright by Jun Moxiao's unbroken combo, and Tian Qi and his two brothers immediately crowded around to offer their admiration. This praise didn't need to be forced—the man's technique truly left nothing to criticize.
"Brother, we're only just now seeing how extraordinary your skills are!" Tian Qi said.
"It's nothing." The man remained as indifferent as ever. Toward such praise, just like toward Yuezhongmian's earlier schemes, he seemed to feel nothing at all.
"Brother, are you a veteran raider from another server, here from some guild?" Tian Qi asked it as a question, but in his heart he felt the odds were low. Would anyone from a guild be this solitary? This man was most likely playing solo.
"Nope, just me." Just as expected.
"Really? No guild at all? Skills like yours—hard to find even with a lantern! How could no guild be fighting to sign you?" Tian Qi feigned surprise.
"It's a new server. There aren't any guilds yet," Ye Xiu said.
Tian Qi froze. There were no guilds on a new server, sure—but what about the old servers he'd come from? A master like this couldn't possibly have just started playing Glory! But since the man wasn't saying, Tian Qi figured it was very likely he'd had some unpleasantness with his original guild and left in a huff to play on a new server. This was an opportunity! The perfect chance to make him feel the warmth of the Moon Wheel Guild's big family.
"Brother, which server were you on before?" Tian Qi started the Q&A game.
"I haven't played in a long time." An answer that dodged the question—the very first question of the Q&A game had hit a snag.
"Oh, oh..." All Tian Qi could do was say "oh" along with him. How was he going to find an opening in the conversation? Tian Qi clawed at the walls.
But the other party clearly had little interest in chatting, and continued leading at the front—though this time, Tian Qi and the others clustered tightly around Jun Moxiao, treating him for all the world as the core of the team. Yuezhongmian felt awkward inside, but could only stay silent.
With this grand master anchoring the party, the dungeon progressed extremely smoothly. The antidotes the four of them carried went completely unused, because Jun Moxiao would rush in to pull all the spiders' aggro onto himself first, then use practiced movement, rolls, jumps, and other techniques to weave and evade. Sometimes the four of them would even get so absorbed in watching Jun Moxiao's dazzling techniques that they forgot to fight.
"I remember there's a big pile of spiders up ahead—as soon as you wipe them out, the first mini-boss spawns, and whether it's the poison one or the web one is random. It's one of the tricky parts of this dungeon. We—" As Tian Qi said "we," he saw that Jun Moxiao had already charged in, and helplessly corrected himself: "...Alright, let's go then."
Tian Qi's memory wasn't wrong. This stretch of the underground lair did indeed have a lot of spider mobs—seven of them in all, three poison and four web, with chained aggro. The instant the group approached, all seven spiders rushed out together.
"Quick, engage!" Tian Qi called to his three brothers. He didn't have the face to direct Jun Moxiao—the man's skill was far beyond his own. But there were seven spiders here in total this time, and Tian Qi figured that no matter how high Jun Moxiao's skill, he couldn't possibly pull all the aggro. After all, he was only level 10 now, without any AoE aggro skills! So Tian Qi called for everyone to move up together and share the pressure.
Then they heard a *shwang*—Jun Moxiao's war spear shivered in his hands, sweeping out in a broad half circle. All four spiders were struck—two charging in, two spitting webs. Jun Moxiao hopped back a small step, dodging both webs as he turned midair. His spear shivered again, and with two *puff* sounds, each of the two spiders behind him took a hit. Landing, he sidestepped into a roll, dodging the fresh webs spat by the struck spiders, rose with a Sky Strike, and the seventh spider was launched into the sky, unable to spit out even a single web.
Tian Qi and his three brothers were utterly dumbfounded.
"Is this even human??" All four of them wanted to say this very thing, but Glory's damned proximity voice chat meant anyone nearby would hear it, which seemed unwise. Yet aside from that sentence, no words could truly express what they were feeling at this moment.
"A 180-degree sweep, holy crap!" Suppressed, they could only type to each other in private chat.
"That little back-hop with a midair turn, and he still landed two precise stabs!"
"The timing on the Sky Strike after the roll was just perfect—maximum airtime."
"This is NOT human!!" The four were unanimous. All those techniques were combinations of basic moves, but not everyone could execute them. Take the 180-degree sweep: it was nothing more than a normal attack, but pulling off a sweep depended on a flick of the mouse—the faster the flick, the wider the arc—besides also being tied to attributes like the character's attack speed. At the level 10 stage, being able to swing out a 180-degree sweep was absolutely not something an ordinary player could manage.
=============================================
Second chapter of the day, recommendation votes please~~