CHAPTER 56: CHAPTER 56: LEAVING THE SAFE ZONE

For Ethan, the sooner he could unlock the [War God] skill of the [Berserk Blood War God] class, the better.

He hadn’t expected the mess caused by the [Blue Ice Potion recipe intel] to end up working perfectly in his favor.

There weren’t many players in the nearby safe zones who had completed a class change. Getting ten of them together wouldn’t be easy.

In the past, before the [Berserk Blood Warrior] trial, Ethan didn’t have much confidence.

But after he beat ten monsters during the trial with nothing but a normal human body, he realized something: he really was born for battle.

People only bring out their full potential when life and death are on the line.

As for life and death—Ethan had been through it so many times in the trial that he’d grown numb to it.

So he stayed calm and said to Lucas, "In a bit, you can give them my info. Also, try to leak that I’ll be leaving the safe zone tomorrow."

"Don’t worry too much about safety. They’ll turn their attention to me soon."

Lucas, Lucian, and Sylvan all reacted differently.

Lucas was stunned for a second, then nodded quickly. He fully believed Ethan could handle the coming trouble.

Sylvan gave Ethan a doubtful look, then glanced at Lucian.

He saw Lucian curl his lip, looking unimpressed—clearly thinking Ethan was overestimating himself.

After setting things up, Ethan still had to wait a while because of Elise.

He was about to head out, but Lucas stopped him to bring up one more thing.

Lucas wanted to set up a Guild under Ethan’s name. That way, they could use the auction to spread the Guild’s name fast.

Lucas said, "Ethan, you know this. Guilds spend a lot of money and effort to build their name. They keep pushing into new areas to kill bosses, or they break all kinds of records."

"They do it to boost their reputation, attract more skilled players, and make the guild stronger. It’s a positive cycle."

"Right now, we just need to create a guild and use this auction as our chance. Then tons of players will hear our name."

Ethan thought about it. He hadn’t considered that part.

In the past, aside from Leo, Ethan didn’t really have other friends. He was used to working alone.

So he patted Lucas on the shoulder and said, "You’ve thought this through. I’ll leave it to you."

Lucas nodded hard, then asked what the guild should be called.

Ethan paused for a moment and said, "Let’s call it [Tower of Fates]."

After Ethan left, the chubby Lucian lowered himself into the seat next to Lucas. He stared at Lucas and asked:

"Lucas, do you really think this ’Windchaser’ can deal with multiple class-change players?"

"We don’t even know who he is in real life."

Sylvan stayed quiet and also looked at Lucas.

Lucas took a deep breath and said, "Does his real-life identity matter? Dawnfall Online is the chance we should grab."

"When I failed at investing before, my sister told me something: once you decide, don’t hesitate."

"Besides, don’t you think Ethan has no reason to take such a huge risk unless it’s for us?"

"He’s doing this to keep us safe."

Lucas looked at Sylvan and Lucian and went on, "Ethan shared his info on purpose to draw the danger to himself."

"He didn’t say it, but I can tell."

Lucian and Sylvan thought about it carefully after hearing that. They realized it made sense.

As long as [Windchaser] isn’t an idiot, there’s no reason for him to do that—unless he’s doing it on purpose to draw their attention away.

Lucian looked in the direction Ethan left and sighed, "What a stand-up guy."

Sylvan nodded. He looked at Lucas and said, "We can’t let him face this alone. Dying in the game isn’t real death anyway. Tomorrow, I’ll leave the safe zone with him."

"It’s been a long time since anyone in Dolren City could threaten me. If I don’t hit back, I’ll get rusty."

...

In Elise’s item shop, Ethan watched her pack up while he went over his plan in his head.

What looked like trouble for Lucas and the others was actually a chance for him to solve his own problem.

After he finished Elise’s request, he had to carefully pick the three Blue-quality items she promised him.

Ethan also knew that if he went all out, his stats would be higher than those of class-change players.

The only real threat to him was control-type skills.

For example, in other games, there are common ones like [Taunt] and [Paralysis].

As long as he prepared ahead of time, he was sure tomorrow’s fight would be rock solid.

Before class change, each level only gives one stat point.

Most players try to balance things and split points among [Strength], [Speed], and [Defense].

A small number of players go for extremes and put all their points into a single stat.

They’re rare, but in some cases, they can be very strong.

As for Ethan, if he used his full power, his [Defense] would be a bit low, but his other two main stats would both be at the level normal players could only reach by maxing out one stat.

While Ethan was thinking, Elise finished getting ready and suddenly spoke to him:

"Alright, we can head out."

Ethan nodded. Elise briefly told him she needed a quiet place with few people to do her talent awakening.

When they reached Exit 9527 of the safe zone, Elise stopped.

Ethan looked at her, puzzled. Elise smiled and pulled out a strangely shaped whistle from her pocket.

She put it to her lips and blew gently.

A clear note rang out. Outside Safe Zone 9527, the wind and snow howled—and a huge shape rushed over at a speed almost too fast to see.

Snow on the ground was swept up by the wind it stirred, like a flapping cloak.

When it stopped, Ethan finally saw it clearly: a giant three-tailed white fox, about three meters tall and five to six meters long.

The fox nuzzled its head into Elise’s hand, wagging its fluffy tails excitedly.

Elise spoke up first. "This is Bianca, my mount. She’s very gentle, don’t worry."

Ethan nodded. So Dawnfall Online did have mounts like other games. Maybe players just weren’t strong enough yet to tame them.

Maybe later in the game there would even be pets.

When Elise sat on the three-tailed white fox, her dark blue hair and light blue eyes caught the faint glow of the snow. She looked stunning.

At the exit of Safe Zone 9527, other players were coming and going in a hurry, like they had important things to do.

But when they saw Elise on the three-tailed white fox, they all stopped, eyes wide, and blurted out:

"So beautiful!"

"Is she a goddess?"

"Isn’t that the item shop owner? The giant fox she’s riding—is that a mount? It looks so cute!"

"Wait, did you see that? The person next to the item shop owner looks like [Windchaser]."

"Yeah, that’s [Windchaser]!"

"Hold up—what the hell! He just sat behind her!"

"Too bad Dawnfall Online can’t take screenshots or record videos right now. If we could post this on the forum, it would go viral!"

"Why do the NPCs in the safe zone never pay attention to me, but [Windchaser] gets to ride with that gorgeous goddess? So unfair!"

Under many players’ surprised, envious, and jealous stares, Ethan sat behind Elise and quickly left the safe zone.

But the trip wasn’t as nice as he’d imagined.

He wanted to enjoy the view and see if there were any monsters he hadn’t killed before.

But because it was so cold, the falling snow wasn’t soft at all.

As the three-tailed white fox sped forward, the flakes hit Ethan’s face like tiny hard stones.

He had to press his face against Elise’s back, letting her block the wind and snow for him as much as possible.

When his warm breath touched her back, Elise gave a tiny, almost unnoticeable shiver.

She turned, about to say something, but saw Ethan’s hair full of snow and his eyebrows turned white by the storm.

In the end, she said nothing, faced forward again, and kept her eyes on the distance.

Soon, Elise brought Ethan to the top of a mountain a few hundred meters high.

Her voice sounded a bit odd as she said, "You go down first."

Ethan didn’t notice anything unusual. He was studying the area out of habit.

Whenever he reached a new place, he would analyze the surroundings—where enemies could hide, and where it would be easiest to escape.

Only when Ethan got to the ground and turned around did Elise squeeze her thighs, bite her lip, and dismount.