Chapter Twelve: The Teacher's Attention

A faint glimmer of light flashed, and two items appeared in his hand: a two-handed sword and a bag of coins. The purse contained a hefty sum of twelve silver, which was to be expected, but the weapon was what truly caught Chu Cheng by surprise.

Pirate Bane (Blue / Excellent)
Equipment Type: Two-Handed Sword
Requirements: Level 13, Strength 20, Two-Handed Sword Mastery
Base Attack: 32 slashing
Additional Attribute: Restores 20 health with every pirate monster slain.
Additional Attribute: +20 damage when attacking pirate monsters.
Evaluation: A weapon steeped in pirate blood, imbued with a power that strikes fear into the hearts of pirates.

"Well, here we go again, another piece of gear I can't use," he muttered.

Yet he wasn't disappointed—being unable to use every drop was only normal; it was rare for fortune to perfectly match one’s needs. What he couldn't use, he could sell or trade for a weapon that suited him. This sword’s attributes made it formidable in the Black Sail Pirates instance; it would fetch a good price for sure.

Dusting himself off, Chu Cheng put his finds away and stood up, ready to return to Linhai Town.

It was worth noting that after slaying a host of pirates in Blade Town, including a pirate leader, and earning a hefty sum of experience from completing the story event, he had gained a level, along with five free attribute points.

He wasn't in a rush to allocate them—his stats were sufficient for now, so he decided to save them for when they might be urgently needed.

Retracing his steps, he encountered plenty of freshly spawned monsters along the way, but rather than avoiding them, he charged straight through.

An hour later, Chu Cheng found himself back in Linhai Town. Everything was as usual, and the chat channels were calm and quiet. The upcoming main storyline had nothing to do with him; the grand event of the kingdom’s navy assaulting Black Sail Island would only occur in the final days. If no players participated, the teachers’ team would intervene on the last day.

Chu Cheng wouldn’t dare to join such an event now—his level was far too low.

With nothing much to do in the days that followed except wait for the main plot, he found himself idle. There were only two leveling spots in this instance: low-level monsters by the sea for those under level ten, and a mass of high-level monsters on Black Sail Island.

But Black Sail Island was the pirates’ stronghold—he wouldn’t dare venture there alone.

Worth mentioning, though the main story of this instance centered on the Black Sail Pirates, they weren’t the only monsters present. There were plenty of wild creatures, including a sizable tribe of fishmen, and many powerful beasts and magical creatures on land.

However, those bosses had long been dealt with by teams at the start of the month when the instance first opened.

With nothing else to do, Chu Cheng decided to take out his fishing rod and work on his fishing skill. Raising this skill had its benefits—many rare fish were quite valuable, and with luck, he might even hook a treasure chest or two.

The fishing spot was at the harbor, where a number of classmates were already angling. Chu Cheng casually found a quiet place and sat down. He tossed in a generous handful of bait to attract fish, cast his line, and settled in to wait.

His fishing skill was only at the beginner level, with a proficiency of 33 out of 100. Normally, proficiency only increased when a fish was caught, and not every catch would count—he needed to reel in a variety of species for further improvement. The same type of fish would only grant proficiency for the first few catches; afterwards, no matter how many more he caught, it wouldn’t increase.

Except for certain rare fish—if he managed to catch them, every catch would raise his skill.

Chu Cheng had experienced four instances during his years at school, but only the Black Sail Pirates was a coastal instance with an abundance of fish. The other three were either inland or had only a single river with scarce fish, so his fishing skill had never advanced much.

Fishing was an activity best suited to calming the mind and soothing the spirit. Chu Cheng sat at the edge of the pier, rod in hand, occasionally chatting idly with nearby classmates. He didn’t catch many fish, but his mood gradually settled, and the murderous aura from earlier battles slowly faded away.

He had no idea how much time had passed when one of the anglers suddenly stood up in surprise and exclaimed, "Whoa!"

Everyone looked over. The person shouted, "Check the class channel!"

Puzzled, Chu Cheng opened Team Five’s group channel and found it in an uproar—a stream of astonished messages scrolled by.

He scrolled to the top, curiosity piqued, and spotted a pinned message:

"Class leader Wang Weilong, along with seventeen classmates, joined forces with elites from Classes One, Two, and Four to capture Black Sail Island, killed the second-in-command of the Black Sail Pirates, and successfully rescued the civilians held captive on the island."

Below were endless exclamations of shock and awe.

Chu Cheng was amazed as well. Suddenly, he recalled the earlier battle at Blade Town and understood at last: the Black Sail fleet had withdrawn early not because he’d slain so many pirates, but because their home base had been raided.

"Truly daring," he thought.

But their victory had come at a price. As he browsed through the hundreds of messages, he learned from the participants’ own words that, though the operation succeeded, many classmates had been forced to use escape scrolls to leave the instance early.

Two weren’t so lucky—caught in combat, they failed to escape in time and died on the spot.

From the comments, there wasn’t much of a sense of grief—after all, the dead weren’t themselves, and the mood in the channel remained matter-of-fact.

Still, their bodies had been retrieved and sent out of the instance, with families notified.

If their families possessed resurrection scrolls or a True Realm Stone, revival was possible.

However, the True Realm Stone was exorbitantly expensive, costing a thousand gold coins apiece, but its power was unmatched—not only could it revive perfectly, it allowed the user to choose the revival location, and granted a powerful, long-lasting buff.

Aside from that, resurrection scrolls or resurrection spells could also do the job.

There were two kinds of resurrection scrolls: complete resurrection and lesser resurrection.

Lesser resurrection could be used only below the transcendent rank, and would revive the user but not restore lost limbs or injuries. The revived would also lose five levels. These cost just a hundred gold coins.

Complete resurrection scrolls could revive all adventurers below legendary rank, fully restoring injuries, dispelling all negative effects, and with no loss of levels. The only difference from the True Realm Stone was that the scroll could not be self-activated—someone else had to use it on you, and there was no buff afterward. Each cost three hundred chaos gold coins.

Expensive—there was no better word.

But to get a second chance at life, anyone would buy one if they could.

Chu Cheng glanced through the messages before closing the chat—nothing relevant to him.

Yet, as he fished peacefully at the pier, inside the town’s castle, Duan Yuqin had returned and immediately summoned Teaching Assistant Liu Weifei, asking,

"Do you know Chu Cheng’s situation?"

Liu Weifei nodded. "Yes, he reached level ten just yesterday and asked for leave to return for a class change. He’s become a dual-blade melee warrior, a solid close-combat profession."

Homeroom teacher Duan Yuqin nodded again, then asked,

"Do you know his specific situation? Has he awakened a talent?"

Liu Weifei was momentarily taken aback, then shook his head. "He didn’t report anything to me—I’m not sure."

"Summon him to see me."

"Uh, alright."

Leaving the office, Liu Weifei was still surprised. "He awakened a talent?"

He opened the communicator and sent Chu Cheng a message.

"Chu Cheng, please come to the castle."

Fishing rod in hand, Chu Cheng thought nothing of it, quickly packed up, and left.

Arriving once more at the castle, he saw Liu Weifei waiting at the entrance of the training field, beckoning for him to follow.