Blue Maple’s actions were a little harsh this time. He was just willfully killing, and he was merciless.

It was without reason and illogical. Perhaps it was just like what Blue Maple said, that he was a sinner.

He was a bad person out and out.

However, was he really such a person, considering that he had saved White Cherry? He might actually be such a person. After all, he had no intention of helping White Cherry when he killed those from the Common Guild.

What had happened to him? What could have possibly happened to this eighteen-year old young man? No one knew.

Perhaps those men in black robes would find Blue Maple. After all, Blue Maple only switched cities because he wanted to hide.

---

Many people were searching the forest where the treants were. They were hoping to find the set pieces that were produced in this forest.

“Oh, bastard. Are you an idiot? Why have you gotten all tangled up again?”

“Where are the Priests? Why are you guys together? Replenish his HP!”

“Idiot, beware of those flying leaves. Do you want to die?!”

This was a team. The members were rather ordinary, but their advantage was in their numbers. There were fifty of them, and they were well-equipped. However, they were really in a mess right now. They seemed like a bunch of sheep without their shepherd.

In fact, this was only a small team from the Red Wine Guild. They weren’t the elites. Their mission was to obtain ordinary Silver-tier set equipment, the Treant set components!

Paris Red Wine didn’t join in this mission, but was training with other members of the guild at another place. It wasn’t that Paris Red Wine didn’t want a piece of Gold-tier set equipment, it was just that he wasn’t in a rush.

Ordinary monsters like Treants would pop up in a matter of a few hours after killing them, although this was still a little long. The Treant King was a Boss. It would take at least seventy-two hours for a Boss to respawn. Paris Red Wine didn’t have to rush. A new Boss, the one who dropped the set pieces, had yet to respawn.

Ordinary monsters couldn’t possibly drop Gold-tier components. This mechanism was pre-designed by the system. The highest-ranked set pieces could only come from Bosses.

An instant dungeon didn’t produce set pieces like a raid dungeon did. There was only one highest-ranked set producer in an instant dungeon, and an entire set of pieces would certainly appear after killing the Boss in the dungeon thrice.

Apart from the highest-ranked set equipment, the number of other set pieces would only become less and less over time. Basically, none would be left over at the end, just like this Treant set equipment.

It would be fantastic if there were still twenty of them left over. There were many reasons why Blue Maple was able to collect so many of them.

Another dungeon that also produced set pieces was a classic raid dungeon. There were two different types of classic dungeons. One dropped equipment, while the other gave a lot of XP.

The equipment drop rate in the former was very high if a player killed a monster.

If a raid dungeon produced set equipment, they were unlimited. The drop rate wouldn’t change as it would with an instance dungeon. The highest-ranked set pieces were also limitless. Components could even drop from weaker monsters, as long as one was lucky enough.

However, the set pieces produced in such raid dungeons couldn’t compare to same-ranked set pieces that came from instance dungeons, unless they were very special. The reason was very simple. Could a piece of mass-produced set equipment compare to a piece of rare set equipment?

Set pieces that came from instance dungeons were limited. The higher-ranked ones were even unique. How could those from the raid dungeons compare to them?

Of course, there were some special raid dungeons. Such raid dungeons didn’t just offer XP and equipment. However, those raid dungeons were very rare and sought-after.

The team right now was being tortured by the treants. Treants could use their skills from long range, especially when it came to their vine-tangling skill, which even came from beneath the ground. Those who were slow to react or weren’t agile enough couldn’t possibly avoid the vines.

While Blue Maple dodged the vines easily, ordinary people found this ordeal to be worse than death. Their reflexes were simply not fast enough to avoid the vines. The flying leaves were as fast as arrows, and there were many of them at a time. Although they were targeted, it was still very frightening to see so many of them coming together at once.

It was important to know that ordinary people were simply very inferior to Blue Maple when it came to fighting ability.

When they saw the leaves flying towards them, it was already a feat that they weren’t ducking in fear. Avoid the leaves? That was simply wishful thinking!

Furthermore, they were being attacked by more and more flying leaves and vines as the number of treants increased. It was actually impressive that they had not fled.

Blue Maple’s reflexes were fast, he was mentally strong, had good fighting technique, and his skills were useful… these were qualities that these ordinary players didn’t possess.

Right now, there were fifty people facing seven treants, but they were already in such a huge mess.

The key was the vine-tangling skill. Once someone was tangled up, he would be subjected to relentless and ferocious attacks by other treants.

Without the Priests, they wouldn’t have been saved at all. The entanglement lasted for a long time, about five seconds. As mentioned before, the treants were not agile. They had to have some way of making up for this disadvantage.

Five seconds of entanglement was simply an ordinary player’s nightmare!

“Oh my God, you’ve been entangled too! Goddamn it! Priests, quickly replenish their HP. As for the rest, stall the treants! Don’t let them attack.” One player was entangled because he wasn’t cautious enough. The treants started to attack him relentlessly. Their leader was also caught up in a mess. He wished that he had more limbs to deal with the situation they were in.

“Wizards, Archers, quickly make your moves now. Especially pyro magic. Use whatever Skills you have!”

“Oh my God, Summoners, have your pets not eaten breakfast?”

“Tacticians, keep using those buffs! Oh, idiots, why have you strengthened our magic defense? What are you guys doing? Those fucking treants are using pure physical attacks!”

Apart from the sounds of fighting, the commands were even more deafening. They were all shouts and roars.

In some other parts of the forest, those who were after the Treant set pieces were basically stuck in the same situation. Some of the other teams were even faring worse.

There was a team of only a few people who were deep into the forest. They were close to where the Treant King was.

“Mr White, there’s no meaning in us being here. We can’t possibly get any Gold-tier set equipment components.” The person speaking was Shining Cross; this was Capricious Mr White’s team.

“My dear Shining Cross, don’t be too bothered. After all, killing treants is part of levelling up. We can gain a lot of XP. The ordinary equipment that drops is also pretty good.” Capricious Mr White smiled as he replied. The rest didn’t say anything else. After all, he was right.

“I know that. So we are here to confirm it’s the work of that Asian player? Although we are indeed not wasting our time and effort, we could use it to do something more productive.” Shining Cross was a little displeased with Capricious Mr White’s actions.

Capricious Mr White was as capricious as his name sounded. As he loved Asian culture, he was very interested in that mysterious and powerful Asian player. It was why he was so eager to check things out over here, and even brought his teammates with him.

Although it was true that killing treants to level up was a good idea, and that they could possibly pick up set pieces that the treants dropped, it was still not as efficient as undertaking monster-killing quests. The only treant-extermination quest that the Mercenary Union had was the one that Blue Maple had accepted. Now that he had killed the Boss, there shouldn’t be any treant-extermination quest anytime soon.

“Don’t be too bothered, please. There aren’t any true profits in this game, either. Let’s just have some fun. Why do we need to be so bothered about money or levels?” Capricious Mr White tried to convince his teammates.

“But… alright. You are right. However, I still think that it’s better for us to accept other quests.” Shining Cross couldn’t argue against Capricious Mr White, either. The others were just followers, and only listened to what they had to say.

The reason was very simple. Both of them were very impressive. They had Hidden Classes. More accurately speaking, it was only one of them. Capricious Mr White was still doing his Hidden Class quests. As it was for a Hidden Class, it wasn’t just one quest.

Shining Cross was a Hidden Class Warrior, a Holy Shining Warrior.

Rank S!

Ocean Waves was only a Rank A Hidden Class Silverforged Warrior.

Suddenly, Capricious Mr White and the others stopped. They were astonished when they saw what was in front of them.

There were charred tracks extending for about a hundred meters in this dense forest. There was still burnt wood and trees on these charred tracks.

At the dead center was a huge half-broken tree trunk. It was the most eye-catching.

The burnt branches, ash-turned leaves and pitch-black tree stem, as well as the floating snowflakes in the air that landed on the pitch-black ground… everything seemed so desolate right now.

Kacha!

A tree branch was crushed as more and more snow accumulated on it.

Someone swallowed loudly, which jolted everyone back to their senses.

Blue Fire Devil!

They had watched the videos and knew the nickname the Japanese players had given Blue Maple. Everyone had the same thought at this moment.

Given such a terrifying scene, as well as that huge tree trunk in the middle, it had to be the remains of the Treant King. He was burned to death, just like that. Other than the ‘Blue Fire Devil’, none of them could think of anything else.

They also believed that only that mysterious and terrifying Asian player was capable of this.

After a brief moment, Shining Cross asked in astonishment, “Oh my God. This is too frightening. Don’t tell me that he burned the Treant King to death?!”

His teammates looked at one another and remained silent. Their silence expressed their agreement.

“It really does seem like the case. What kind of frightening player is he?!” Capricious Mr White commented, laughing bitterly.

It was a horrifying scene. The highest-ranked player wasn’t even at Level 40. However, there was someone who could actually do something as horrifying as this!

It was simply terrifying!

“Let’s go.” Capricious Mr White said helplessly. His curiosity had been satisfied, but he wasn’t in a really good mood. He was simply too astonished!

“Okay.” Shining Cross was in a similar mood. They were completely amazed by what Blue Maple had done.

The rest were also feeling a little heavy as they left…

------

Right now, Blue Maple was in another city.

“Stupid stupid stupid! Annoying. I can’t win. Why is there such a quest?!” Blue Snow pouted her lips angrily. She stomped her foot and kicked a rock beneath her feet.

She looked rather pathetic right now. Her hair was in a complete mess.

She had just escaped from a very powerful Boss. She had almost died in the hands of that Boss.

“It’s a mission with a maximum of three players. Let’s not even talk about finding one more. Even if I find twenty more people, I won’t be able to win. What kind of stupid quest is this? Hmph!” Blue Snow was infuriated. She had just received a very difficult Hidden Quest, but she couldn’t even beat the first Boss. The maximum number of players was only three!

She only accepted the quest because she saw the maximum number of players. However, she had almost died. Fortunately, she had fled quickly.

“Wait a minute, twenty people… hehe!” Blue Snow thought of something suddenly and immediately grinned, revealing her pearly-white teeth.

After this, she immediately opened her friends’ list and found someone with a similar name: Blue Maple!