Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

For the next several days, Gu Fei really did as what he had professed and taught his students various fighting routines to deal with monsters of different levels.

These sorts of fighting routines were not kung fu but standard templates of attacks created based off the monsters’ attack patterns, instead. Every routine only matched against a specific monster; someone attempting to apply the same routine to any other opponent would simply end up sprawled on the ground.

Of course, if this person possessed a level of mental flexibility capable of inferencing and extrapolating the intricacies within all these fighting routines, that would be another matter altogether. However, that was not something any outsider could do. Only a kung fu practitioner who had a good grasp of kung fu would be able to achieve that. Out of Gu Fei’s students, it was already the limit for the smarter ones just to adopt a move, which required them to take a step on the left and attack on the right, into a reverse move which had them stepping to the right to attack on the left. This small change might pay off against a rigid AI, but it would be far from sufficient when pitted against a fellow human being in actual combat.

Nevertheless, Gu Fei was already pleasantly surprised that his students could achieve this. He had never seen his students this enthusiastic in learning before. If they were somewhat reluctant and forced when learning that first day, all his students now began to show proactiveness after tasting the fruits of their labor by utilizing Gu Fei’s fighting style. Many of them began to scour for information and do their own research on the monsters they needed to fight before consulting Gu Fei about how they should be taken care of.

Gu Fei had mainly been depending on ‘Bounty Mission’ to level up this whole time and was merely sporadically grinding on monsters, so the monsters he had hunted did not amount to many. The types he had inculcated his students about were the one he had come across in those few times he had grinded, which was why he could provide such a developed fighting routine for each of them. Thus, with so many of his students asking him now about monsters he had not even heard of, how should he respond?

The students were very disappointed the first time he told them that he was unsure of how to fight those monsters. Gu Fei did not think much about it originally, but he happened to overhear a private discussion among his students about his kung fu being nothing more than just that.

Gu Fei was really annoyed by this claim. The only reason he was unsure was his unfamiliarity with those monsters, yet the students actually viewed it as their teacher’s kung fu being inadequate! What a joke. Is there any opponent out there that kung fu can’t beat when it comes to combat? 

Gu Fei was dedicated when it came to kung fu! After his students logged off that day, he immediately contacted Brother Assist to ask about the four types of monsters his students had asked him that day, as well as their respective coordinates, resolving to visit their respective grinding maps and do his own research through actual combat.

The next day, when teaching that day’s content on how to fight monsters, Gu Fei solemnly imparted the fighting styles he had come up with based on his research regarding the four types of monsters his four students had asked him about, making sure to convey a clear message to them: Doing something like this was very easy; it was just a matter of whether he was willing to do it or otherwise.

He got mixed feelings from the end result.

On one hand, he was elated when the four students gasped in admiration, convinced that kung fu was indeed all-powerful.

On the other hand, he was unhappy that six other students had sought him out regarding the fighting styles for six different monsters that day.

Gu Fei felt as if he had fallen into a trap, and it was a trap that he had dug himself. All he could blame was his fixation toward kung fu.

Despite this, Gu Fei did not ease and still pushed to develop fighting routines for the six monster. That very same day, once all his students had logged off, he again contacted Brother Assist for more information, making his way to the relevant grinding map to do his research. The feeling he got was very similar to the work he had to do when preparing lessons for his classes…

On the third day, after he taught the six different monsters, Gu Fei reckoned that new questions would be raised as a result. Sure enough, six other students came forward to ask about six different monsters, not saying anything further and disappearing after posing their questions. It was as if they knew that Gu Fei would surely give them an answer the next day.

“D*mm*t…” Gu Fei felt as if he had picked up a quest, and these students were all the NPCs handing out his quest. There would be six per day daily.

“You busy?” Gu Fei turned around and hailed Brother Assist.

“Hey, you’re here alright! I was just waiting for you. What do you wanna know today?” Brother Assist was not in the least bit annoyed by his disruption; rather, he loved it when people asked him questions. Actually, what Gu Fei was currently doing was a pastime of Brother Assist.

“Yup. These are the ones today…” Gu Fei proceeded to send him the names of the six monsters his students had given him.

“Let me help you check!” Brother Assist flipped through the seemingly endless book of records he kept, messaging Gu Fei even as he checked, “Say; what are you busying with all this for? Four monsters the day before, six yesterday, and another six today. I’ve already recorded it all down for you, but what sort of research are you doing?” Not only did Brother Assist like people asking him questions, he was similarly passionate when it came to asking people questions. The fact that he had endured this urge for three whole days before prying was already a testament to how courteous he was being to Gu Fei.

“You wanna know? Come and follow me!” Gu Fei replied.

“Oh, sure!” Brother Assist was of course more than happy to oblige.

Gu Fei naturally did not resent it. When given a choice between heading to the library to look for information himself or having a portable library with him, he obviously preferred the latter.

The two set a place to meet. Brother Assist gathered the information Gu Fei needed as he made his way over. The three main details Gu Fei needed were the level of the monsters, their form of attacks, and their spawn locations.

“Here is what you wanted.” Brother Assist was thorough with his work. Putting everything about the six different monsters down on a piece of paper, he handed it over to Gu Fei the moment they met by the city gate.

“Thanks,” Gu Fei said as he took it and glanced through the information.

“If we head this way, the nearest to us will be the Wilderness Guest.” Brother Assist pointed to the third monster on the paper.

“Okay.” Gu Fei nodded.

“So, tell me, what are you doing asking me for this information every day?” Brother Assist asked even as he led the way.

“I’m researching the fighting styles for all these monsters,” Gu Fei replied.

“What’s the point of researching all that for?” Brother Assist found it to be strange. The monsters Gu Fei was asking for information about were too low level, completely unsuitable for him who was already above level 40.

Gu Fei heaved a sigh and told him everything about how his students had made their way over to Baishi City to find him.

Even though Brother Assist knew that Gu Fei was a teacher, he still thought that it was a little awkward for a teacher to play MMO with his students, but at the moment, he was far more interested in what Gu Fei had told him. His research to take on these monsters with high efficiency.

“Just how efficient is it?” Brother Assist asked.

“Have you forgotten? I used to be ranked second on the leveling efficiency leaderboard.” Gu Fei felt that this was enough to convince Brother Assist sans the use of any specific data.

“Oh, yeah! I even remember that the number one on that leaderboard was actually Fleeting Smile. A Priest ranking first when it comes to efficient leveling was just too shocking. Speaking of which, is he still talking about wanting to rectify you? He’s been troubling us for quite some time before, but he hasn’t made any new move recently! Also! That guy’s obviously a game company employee. I’ve already lodged a complaint about him, asking them to check, but I have yet to get any response. It’s too odd! Hey! Do you think they’re done checking the matter and have already frozen his account? That’d explain why we haven’t heard from him in a while! Hey, you have him in your friends list, right? Has he been online these few days?” Brother Assist looked at Gu Fei as he asked this, only to see Gu Fei expressionlessly gazing right back at him. The man even halted his footsteps. Brother Assist sure is Brother Assist; even his thoughts are so plentiful!

“Ha ha… I digress. What were we talking about again?” Brother Assist laughed at himself awkwardly.

“I’m studying the most efficient style of monster grinding. You’ll get to see it for yourself soon. Fleeting Smile is a game company employee, that’s what he told me when I first met him, so I do believe it to be true. Besides, that guy’s been online these past few days, yet he hasn’t replied to a single message I sent his way.” Gu Fei answered everything Brother Assist had asked in a single breath.

“Heh…” Brother Assist laughed dryly, too embarrassed to follow up with what Gu Fei had just said.

The place the Wilderness Guest would spawn was indeed not too far from the city. The two of them came across this monster after exchanging a few words with each other.

“This monster’s level 25; you gotta go easy on it,” Brother Assist reminded.

Gu Fei smiled and nodded. When his hand came out from his dimensional pocket, he was instead holding a dagger.

“Eh. You’re gonna use a dagger?”

“The kid asking me how to fight this monster’s a Thief, so I of course need to study using a dagger to fight it,” Gu Fei explained.

“Ohhh…” Brother Assist nodded repeatedly. Thereafter, he very conscientiously asked, “Which monster did a Knight ask for?”

Gu Fei saw through what he was after and chuckled. “Brother Assist, just tell me directly if you’re interested in learning this fighting style for any particular sort of monster. It just so happened that I’m free these days, so I can help you research them together.”

“I am indeed interested in trying out your so-called efficient grinding.” Brother Assist laughed.

“You’ll see.” Gu Fei pointed at the fourth monster on the paper. “That one’s requested by a Knight.”

“I look forward to it,” Brother Assist said.

Once that was done, neither wasted any more time chatting. Gu Fei held the dagger and went to engage the monster as Brother Assist stood at the side with a dumbfounded look. He thought of how he had long known that Miles was a super invincible Close Combat Mage, but even his heart would skip a beat if he suddenly witnessed a Mage engaging a monster in a melee like this with only a dagger in hand.

Brother Assist was an adult at the end of the day, so his comprehension was much better than the youngsters. Furthermore, he was now witnessing the whole process behind Gu Fei’s research, so he was also able to grasp the man’s line of thinking, which was to get a thorough understanding of all the attack patterns a monster would utilize, as well as its means of defense. After this, Gu Fei would then create a clearly defined fighting routine from it.

The most exciting part would be when Gu Fei was probing the monster; his seemingly endless forms of attacks dazzled Brother Assist. He figured that, by the time he finished watching this performance from Gu Fei, he would never again be mesmerized by the heart-pounding fighting sequence in action movies.

Instead, it was the later part after he had developed a fighting routine for the monster that it became boring. He repeatedly experimented and tested each move, starting over from the top once a mistake occurred. This process continued until even Brother Assist felt a little bothered by it, yet Gu Fei continued testing with unremitting persistence. All the various fighting routines he had imparted to his students before were all what he had inadvertently grasped from his repeated grinding. Right now, it was as dull as if he were doing specialized research for a thesis paper.

At the very end, Brother Assist was finally able to witness his success. A full set of fighting routine was formulated where the monster was completely incapable of even touching Gu Fei, and the sequence of moves both parties followed became a loop. The monster would surely be defeated as long as the player followed every step and move of this fighting routine.

“That… That’s incredible!” Brother Assist’s mouth hung agape. What Gu Fei had developed was far more fearsome than he had imagined, for it was no longer merely about efficiency. If anybody could grasp Gu Fei’s fighting style… The more important point here was the safety it provided the player. Nothing would be expended in the process, which made this fighting style very economical and affordable.

Following this, Gu Fei consecutively took on five more monsters to try it out, only stopping after he had confirmed that there was no further complications. Once everything was done, he turned to Brother Assist and nodded. “Okay. On to the next one!”

“Just how did you do that?” Brother Assist completely revered Gu Fei right now.

“That’s why I told you; anything is possible with kung fu!” Gu Fei balled up his fists as he said this.

“I’ll pick out a monster I often grind on when we head back and see if you can help me study it,” Brother Assist said.

“No problem!” Gu Fei nodded.

“Then, shall I ask Sword Demon and the others if they wish to come and learn as well?” Brother Assist asked.

“He he! They… They don’t really need this. All of them have come up with their personalized grinding styles that are very suitable to them; this is especially since they can fully maximize the advantages of their unique equipment and traits. There are indeed more efficient styles that they can learn, but…”

“‘But’, what?”

“It’ll be too difficult as they need kung fu foundation,” Gu Fei answered.

“How much more difficult are we talking about?”

“Take me for an example; fighting monsters 20 levels above my own… Even though I can forge out a similarly suitable fighting routine, it has a really high requirement from my reaction. Furthermore, there’s an absolute requirement for the Agility stat. I doubt you guys can do what I do and just prioritize Agility over any other stat for every job class,” Gu Fei said.

“That’s indeed impossible…” Brother Assist wiped off his non-existent sweat.

“Which is why they don’t need my help.” Gu Fei concluded.

“Then, what about me?” Brother Assist asked.

“You… Brother Assist, you should know the answer to your question best!” Gu Fei replied.

Brother Assist paused for a moment before despondence washed over him. Gu Fei was very tactfully telling him that he was not on the same level as those experts, and that his combat standard was indeed at the level where he needed lessons.

Afterward, Brother Assist followed Gu Fei to visit the other monsters, witnessing Gu Fei’s performance using various weapons; even the healing staff a Priest used danced ferociously in his hands. However, once that was over, he awkwardly explained to Brother Assist, “These routines I’ve shown you focus on close combat. The Priest job class makes it really awkward; Mages are at least able to chant and deal damage with their spells during combat if timed right, but Priests don’t really have any attack spells in their arsenal, and the damage they can deal is severely limited. Most players don’t add Strength to their Priests, so even if I teach them this fighting style, I can’t really call it efficient.”

“You can’t really say that,” Brother Assist hurriedly refuted. “You can’t compare a Priest to a Warrior when it comes to efficiency; you need to compare it against their job classes. Take that fighting style you’ve got for Priests; swap another random Priest and ask him to grind on his or her own, and there’s no way that they can compete with your fighting style in terms of efficiency. For Priests, aside from that brief period where they are able to solo grind when they’re just beginners, every Priest will definitely have to rely on a team thereafter. Even if they solely depend on questing to level up, they must still call for aid whenever they come across anything that requires them to fight. At the very least, these Priests will not be utterly helpless if they learn your fighting routines.”

“Yes, Priests indeed have a more efficient time grinding in a team, but speaking of which, considering how hateable Young Master is as a person, just how does he find a grinding party to keep him at such a high level?” Gu Fei was also someone who partook in being a little nosy every now and then.

“These days, a ten-man grinding party usually needs two Priests to ensure their safety, but Young Master Han is capable of handling the job of two Priests all by himself without making a single mistake in the process. With one less Priest required, that means a slot will be freed up for more damage output. Everyone is willing to fight over such a high-caliber Priest like him, so who cares how detestable he is? EXP is far more important!” Brother Assist explained.

“Oh, how the morals of society decay with each passing day!” Gu Fei sighed. Putting experience above all else was very similar to how money was being regarded in the real world. No matter how virtual this world was, how people were valued still danced to the same tune.