Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 778 - 719: Magic Swordsman Player
My name is Serray Shiblade. Since I was young, I’ve had a question: who is the woman in the portrait hanging on the wall of my home? Why do my parents and elders pray to and worship her?
True, she is indeed beautiful, but in my eyes, she still can’t compare to my mother’s status. She shines brightly, and her innate nobility, commanding without wrath, is hard to ignore. I often felt as if there was an extra person in the house, becoming cautious whenever I passed the portrait. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
In the first fifty years of my youth, I stayed at home, and besides my mother, the woman in the portrait was the one I saw the most. It felt like at any time, there were a pair of eyes watching me from behind.
After I expressed my discomfort to my family, they scolded me harshly. It was then that I learned the woman in the portrait was our Dream Elf’s first Queen—Lady of Nature, Irason.
She shone brighter than gold and was warmer than sunshine. Every one of my relatives sparkled when mentioning her, praising the most beautiful person.
I have never seen the first Queen. It is said that she left because of the despicable rebellion of the Witherers before I was born. Nowadays, the Shiblade family serves the once princess Tiffany, but everyone firmly believes that she will return and let her light blossom once more.
I let go of my abnormalities and strived to maintain the normalcy expected of a Shiblade family member, for a long, long time.
The day the dream collapsed came so suddenly.
She returned, with all the Queen’s faction members wishing she hadn’t. Buds grew from her clothes and hair, and her dignified appearance lasted no more than three seconds; she was always giggling, preferring to sit rather than stand.
[Eh? Why ask me about this? Isn’t little Tiffany the Queen now?]
[So troublesome. Why doesn’t Susanna deal with these trivial matters for me?]
[A loyalty ceremony? Haven’t we gotten rid of such ritualistic bad habits yet? Oh no, standing for so long is tiring... I mean... I trust everyone, our bonds don’t need any ceremonies to be maintained!]
This Lady of Nature, our eternal Queen, the light of the elves, easily shattered many Dream Elves’ ideals with just a few words. That evening, my uncle Kylo Servblade launched an unprecedented scale of dream warfare against the Elders’ Council faction and the Witherer faction. Attacking the Witherers because they had let our great leader degenerate into a useless person over the years, and the reason for the attack on the Elders’ Council was that their Elf Executive was too capable, cutting off the possibility for any dead fish to turn over. The heartbroken Queen’s faction became even more resolved to support Queen Tiffany, determined not to let her follow her useless mother’s footsteps.
Loyalty to the Queen, antagonism toward other factions, Irason’s return seemed to bring no change.
Serray Shiblade had a different opinion.
"I think everything is a scam! Of course, it’s not the kind of fraud with malicious intent, but a benevolent lie aimed at motivating us through education..." Serray said to his friends in Dreamland, "I suspect that the adults in the Queen’s faction, my family, have been fabricating an image of a noble and majestic Elf Queen for the next generation, demanding our strenuous practice and loyalty to the noble. Every day I pray and train for this, even memorizing praise poems about the Queen, my whole childhood was spent doing this!!"
Serray paused, looking around him. The forest was quiet, with the roar of monsters coming from the bushes. He glanced at his companion and continued, "I’m not saying Lady Irason is so bad, her truly amiable demeanor has its charms... I’m just... I just feel stupid for believing what the adults told us. I don’t want to inherit their traditions, to let the ancient opposition of Dream Elves continue with us, the new generation. Right, Azchier?"
The calm listener nodded in agreement with Serray’s rallying words, but just like the surname he bore, representing his family. Azchier Yuehen, their eyes clear as a reflected moon in water, the Yuehen family often produced sages, and it appeared that beneath the calm waters might be hidden some wild ripples.
"Serray, maybe you can fabricate some evidence of deceit to maintain your own sense of justice, but I don’t want to pretend. I don’t want to glare at the other factions and grind my teeth by day, and then fight to the death with you in dreams by night. This is why I befriended you; we are both rebellious youths. We like games, preferring to spend more time on enjoyment."
Just like they said, the new generation of Dream Elves was tired of the old generation’s baring of teeth and hostile stares. They became deserters in secret, enjoying their fun in the Emerald Dream. Perhaps they were the true players, having fully adapted to the local customs, they even changed their game avatars and chose online names.
[Sunken Beechburg] and [Scrutinizing Qiankun].
As deep experiencers of the Dreamland, both Beechburg and Qiankun had their unique understanding of the game, enjoying the exploration of Lyle’s game world and searching for the fun Easter eggs within. It just so happened that one of the administrators was like a tentacled monster with wide-ranging, idiosyncratic thoughts, and their personal touch was evident everywhere in the game text, from "Calabash Kids vs. Transformers" to "Altoria’s Dead or Alive" — bizarre books and picture albums that the pair had also read.
Now, Dreamland was undergoing a major update that introduced the job module. The two didn’t rush to change their classes but instead collected enough intelligence and discussed their options.
"Aside from fixed NPCs for known class changes, our delightful black-clothed administrator seems to have secretly designed hidden classes. Those Shadow Trainers who lack a fixed appearance offer special job modules."
Sunken Beechburg nodded.
"Yes, the Queen’s Eye Guard stumbled upon a hidden Assassin Shadow Trainer by accident, turning them into one of the few players that can turn invisible. I’ve figured out the location of that NPC, ah... Qiankun, we can go there anytime for the class change."
"I have a better option. I found a new hidden class."
"How did you find it?" Beechburg was somewhat surprised. The Assassin Trainer was discovered due to the base number of the guard members and their transparent, internal exchanges, but what about the Elders’ Council? It was said that the big guns there had already changed to various professions and were each doing their own thing. So without the aid of a family, how did his friend manage to find a hidden class on his own?
"I had a fortuitous encounter with Lady Claudia."
Lady Claudia, the green dragon, one of the first testers of Dreamland, and a top player. The intelligence gathered made it clear that this young green dragon had a deep connection with the administrators, so it was not surprising that she had access to some staff-only passages.
Without much hesitation, the two went straight to the Shadow Trainer and underwent their respective job changes.
Congratulations, you have changed your class to a Warrior Profession, Magic Swordsman!
Please accept the class change gift package:
Novice Taoist Robe x1,
Flying Sword AE86 x1.]
Beechburg looked at the longsword in his hand, flowing with nimble strength, and habitually opened his attribute panel.
Flying Sword AE86
Magic Sword Attribute: Wind
Attack +10
Cooldown Speed +20%
Postscript:
A certain administrator has special expectations for this magic sword.]
