Zhan Long

Chapter 53 – Pine and Crane Restaurant

This chapter was sponsored by William Wang, John Postmus and Gabio Cunha Cintra!

Ten gold coins for the A rank skill [Binding Chains] was a small price to pay, even if it was not as strong as [Wind Blade]. They were both surely stronger than the regular skills like [Combo] and [Heal] and not something you would usually be able to buy with a little gold, yet they couldn’t be compared to my priceless SS God class sword skill, which had to be earned by thousands and thousands of repeated practice draws.

I was pretty ecstatic that I finally had gotten two completely new skills. First things first, I wanted to test them and see their power.

Using both hands, I raised the sword as I silently cast [Wind Blade]. Immediately, my arms began to tremble as a teal colored aura enveloped the blade. It took 0.2 seconds for the blade to reach the state of being fully covered by the aura.

In the next moment, the blade started to emit a cold wind around it. Suddenly, I executed a downward slash, “Peng!. Rock fragments flew as the rock in front of me was cut about 20 cm deep. Mm, a Level 1 [Wind Blade] raised attack by 3%, already significantly higher than normal attacks. Furthermore, training it to Level 4 would yield a 12% increase in attack, giving it insane power!

After trying [Wind Blade], I immediately went on to the next skill, [Binding Chains]. When I used it, a small “bang” sounded and I could see how a chain came out of earth in the targeted area. It looked almost like a snake strangling its target for 1.9 seconds.

……

When I finalized my testing, I had to say, the skills were definitely useful. Although they both had high requirements to the user, being able to control the actions of your opponent and predict the right timing to strike, they were undoubtedly powerful.

I went and talked with the quartermaster again to look for more quests, but he didn’t have anything for me. So, I decided instead just to go hunting to practice my skills, as they were still Level 1. Even a SSS rank skill wouldn’t be very strong at rank 1.

I chose to walk eastward together with Baby Bobo; after around 10 minutes we reached a high level area, the Cloudy Swamp. ‘Oh yes, this would be a suitable leveling location’ I thought when I saw that the monsters were level 37. They were crocodiles with scales reflecting the approaching sunset, pretty breathtaking if I had to say.

I had a look at their stats. 1886 health and 332 defense. This should be no problem.

“Hua hua…”

I rushed towards them through some shallow water with my Jade Sword drawn before attacking the crocodile with a level 4 [Combo]. 3 points of damage showed.

“367!”

“335!”

“352!”

The crocodile made a furious howl; it lost more than half of its health from that one combo. The crocodile opened it mouth and was about to retaliate, but my [Wind Blade] was ready. It struck heavily on the head of the crocodile, and a huge red number appeared. The crocodile had been killed in just a few hits, without a chance to retaliate.

“998!”

A critical hit! Such a huge amount of damage for a single strike. Its damage was almost equal to the combined damage of the [Combo] skill. The wind blade was deadly if it got a critical hit or was part of a combo attack. If it had been rank 10, with an increase of damage by 30% in addition to the 10% from [Turmoil Sword], the damage would have been incredible.

……

Suddenly I realized, these crocodiles’ skins were probably high quality leather.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I immediately tried skinning the crocodile with my Jade Sword. It was so sharp that it immediately started cutting through the thick skin and sliced off a chunk, but just as I think I had succeeded, the chunk of skin began to blur. A system message appeared: You don’t have the [Skinning] skill! You have failed to collect crocodile leather!

Damn, what a waste of time!

I continued hunting Crocodiles while focusing on practicing my skills; it didn’t take long before [Wind Blade] reached level 2. The offensive bonus increased to 6% and the chance of failure lowered. As it leveled up, it actually highlighted a fairly annoying issue. I didn’t increase my Magic Power stat at all as a healer, leaving me with the very small mana pool of 330. Level 2 [Binding Chains] and [Wind Blade] costed 40 mana per use each, and they would only continue to cost more as they leveled up.

No matter, my primary goal was still to get [Wind Blade] to level 4 as quickly as possible; after all I had more than enough [Chilling Wind Pill]s to keep me going.

……

After training hard for an hour, the familiar system tone appeared and the [Wind Blade] had at last leveled up to lv 4.

As I stood there, quite pleased with myself, I got a message from Wan Er : “Xiao Yao, have you gotten killed by any bounty hunters yet?”

I firmly responded: “Nope, you lost! Time for me to collect my winnings!.“

Wan Er said: “It’s already 1 pm and I’m pretty hungry. So come downstairs and we will decide what to eat”

“Okay!”

I logged off and placed the helmet at the side of the bed. As I looked towards Glasses, I saw him shivering heavily. He was probably in some extreme situation, but it looked so funny that I couldn’t help but laugh as I rushed out the door.

……

The two beautiful young women were already waiting downstairs on this autumn afternoon.

I adjusted the collar of my Metersbonwe jacket. The sun was shining on my face, granting a nice feeling of warmth together with a gentle breeze. It was pretty comfortable.

“Xiao Yao, not bad!” said Cheng Yue as she approached together with Wan Er: “It’s pretty impressive you were able to stay alive for the whole 5 hours. Surely there are lots of people who would have been tempted by the 1000 gold reward and would be searching for you. Its worth 15000 RMB”

I casually responded: “I’m leveling in a secret area, so they won’t be able to find me. Good afternoon Miss Wan Er.”

Wan Er looked a bit sore as she responded: “Alright, you win. You can choose anything so go ahead, it’ll be my treat… “

I muttered quietly: “There’s this new restaurant called Pine and Crane Restaurant that opened on East Xi Road. I’ve heard that their signature dish is Squirrelfish and I’ve never had such a delicacy before, Miss…”

TL: Apparently Pine and Crane is a real and famous restaurant with outlets in Shanghai and other places in China (http://www.songhelou.net/)

Pursing her red lips, Wan Er chuckled: “I know that place, let’s go. I’ll drive…”

……

Wan Er’s 2-door sports car, the 2016 Audi TT, was parked in the school’s car park. Its roof was covered by fallen maple leaves. It didn’t look like it had been driven since we started school. Perhaps this wasn’t her car after all.

Wan Er fished out her car key and opened the doors. Cheng Yue seemed amused and smiled with her beautiful eyes, “Ah, the 2016 TT, and it’s even the 2-door 3.0L variant! I’ve had my eyes on this for awhile, but my dad wouldn’t let me buy a car because he’s afraid I’d drive dangerously…”

Cheng Yue looked at me and said, “Xiao Yao, do you think the 2016 Model or the 2010 Model of the TT looks better?”

I smirked, “I haven’t really researched on cars, but I think the Chery QQ and Jiang Nan Auto designs have a classic feel that are worth a second look!”

[ED Note: Super cheap economy cars. The QQ was the 2nd cheapest car in the world in 2008]

Cheng Yue: “…”

Wan Er sat in the driver’s seat and lightly tapped the window with her fingers, “Hey you two, get in. Don’t just stand there chatting…”

I jumped into the front passenger seat at lightning speed. My enthusiasm showed as I was eager to stick close to the beautiful Miss as her bodyguard.

Cheng Yue who sat down behind, pouted and said, “This guy sure moved fast…”

“When it comes to free food, I’m very excited…”

“…”

… …

As the engine roared, the TT exited the parking lot and Wan Er cruised into downtown very casually. Following the traffic rules closely, she put us at ease. East Xi Road wasn’t very far from Liu Hua University. In the last 2 years, the place had developed into a business district and the restaurant industry had grown because with Zhejiang University in the vicinity, it got quite busy..

Pine and Crane Restaurant had roots back to Suzhou during the rule of Qianlong Emperor. Over time, it gradually grew and expanded and now there was even a branch in Beijing.

It was 1:30 PM in the afternoon. As we entered the restaurant, we saw that there weren’t many people left inside. Picking a table next to the window, we took our seats and I gave the menu a quick glance. The price of the Squirrelfish had risen to 300 RMB per 0.5 kg, alright…

As the young and pretty waitress stood silently beside our table, I calmly said, “Squirrelfish, find us one that is about 1kg…”

“Sure, handsome!”

“We would also like a Watermelon Chicken, Pakistani Lung Soup, Roast Duck…and a bottle of Sea Blue…”

“Okay, is there anything else?”

“That’s enough for now. Oh, and please bring us a jug of Watermelon Juice…”

I smiled at Wan Er as I placed the order, “You able to handle this much, Miss?”

Wan Er nodded and laughed, “Ah, this is nothing.”

“Snap!” , Wan Er broke the chopsticks in her hand…

Cheng Yue snickered, “You rascal Li Xiao Yao, you know Wan Er’s living expenses for this month is only 5000 RMB? This meal will cost at least 1000+. How is Wan Er going to survive for the second half of this month, are you going to support her?”

“Oh, about that…”

Wan Er crossed her eyes, “He can’t support much…”

I looked at her and asked, “Miss, shouldn’t you be very rich? I heard from Tang Gu that you released the hit which reached the Top 10 Songs of the Chinese Charts for 6 months in a row. How can you suddenly run out of money?”

Lin Wan Er’s pretty face reddened, “Don’t ask anymore…”

Cheng Yue giggled, “When Wan Er entered university, she deposited her money into the bank as a long-term deposit. Every month, she can only withdraw 5000 as pocket money, but…she bought quite a lot of gold coins in the past 2 days. Just yesterday she spent 200 gold to buy a Silver Tier Leather Breastplate. To top it off, this morning she reserved a Gold Tier Dagger that [Q Sword] acquired, which explains why she’s out of cash!”

“Gold Tier Dagger?” I asked, astounded.

“Yup.” Lin Wan Er nodded and chuckled, “Level 35 Gold Dagger, attack 275, with an additional effect to ignore 7% defense on hit. That’s why I’m spending a king’s ransom of 900 gold for this dagger. I’ll complete the trade when I go back online later this afternoon.”

I frowned, “[Q Sword] acquired a Level 35 Gold Tier Weapon, that’s really something…”

Dong Cheng Yue: “Of course he would…”

TL: Gatsby essays are horrible and Timmy is great