Worth it! So worth it!

Frost School mages had strong control and counter-control capabilities. Though they fell short of Gale Mages, they could still be incredibly annoying. Their damage output was quite good, too: steady and capable of adding up to a hefty total over time.

Many Thunder Mage skills came with a built-in "paralysis" effect. That stuff... melee and ranged players alike hated it with a passion. It reduced not only movement speed but also attack power, attack speed, casting speed, critical chance, accuracy, and a whole slew of other stats. Who wouldn't be afraid of it?

On offense, Thunder Mages excelled at dealing massive damage in a short time-what people commonly called "burst damage." As the saying went, "Thunder roared, lightning flashed, one strike killed!" That described Thunder Mages perfectly.

As for Blaze Mages, Ye Fengxing didn't know what fire mages were like in Chronicles of the Sky, but judging by his past experience, their damage was absolutely terrifying. Not only was their burst damage fierce, their sustained damage was even fiercer!

A Blaze Mage's only drawback was poor survivability. They had just a few major lifesaving skills, and once those were spent, they might as well wait to die. Nobody would leave a walking artillery battery like that alive. In group battles, such targets were often the enemy's first priority.

Ye Fengxing chose wind as his primary school and fire as his secondary. Ultimately, he preferred that chess-match feeling of control and counter-control. A pure Blaze Mage who dressed in god-tier gear and one-shot people with all sorts of enormous fireballs wasn't what he wanted to play.

After careful consideration, he learned a few fire attack skills.

Flame Devours the Body: Set an enemy target ablaze, dealing 9-16 damage every 3 seconds and increasing the fire damage the target takes by 10% for 15 seconds. Spell range: 30 meters. Instant cast. Mana cost: 28. No cooldown.

Flame Arrow: Manipulate fire into an arrow to attack an enemy, dealing 7-11 damage. Against burning targets, damage increases by 50% and critical chance increases by 25%. Against exploding targets, damage increases by 100% and critical chance increases by 50%. Spell range: 30 meters. Cast time: 1.5 seconds. Mana cost: 30. No cooldown.

Explosive Impact: Cause all targets affected by your burning effects to explode, detonating all ongoing fire damage effects on them and stunning them for 4 seconds. Spell range: 30 meters. Instant cast. Mana cost: 35. Cooldown: 25 seconds.

Since the game was still in its early stages, he couldn't learn several of the fire school's main attack skills yet. He could only pick up these three for now, but with the right combinations, they were actually quite powerful.

The base damage of Flame Devours the Body and Flame Arrow might look low, but their actual damage was anything but.

The damage formula in Chronicles of the Sky wasn't particularly complicated. A little understanding was enough to make good use of it. Ordinary players wouldn't bother studying that stuff, of course, but Ye Fengxing was a professional-level expert, after all. He had to know these things.

Flame Arrow's damage was downright pitiful if used on someone directly, but against burning or exploding targets? Now that was impressive! What were Flame Devours the Body and Explosive Impact for? As their names suggested, one made targets burn and the other made them explode. They were a perfect combination.

The game was still in its early stages, and nobody had built up their basic stats yet. Combat stats like haste and critical chance were naturally nowhere near sufficient. Besides, early-game equipment almost never offered any combat stats. Only blue equipment of superior quality or better provided even a tiny amount.

And there was the problem: were blue and yellow items that easy to get? To exaggerate a little, at this stage, people would fight tooth and nail even over a piece of green equipment!

Flame Arrow's critical chance bonuses against burning and exploding targets were just too damn potent. Especially this early in the game, when players generally lacked critical chance, the skill was exceptionally powerful!

Flame Devours the Body had no cooldown, so he could apply it to an opponent whenever he wanted. As long as it wasn't dispelled, Flame Arrow would always have a critical chance above 25%!

Explosive Impact's cooldown wasn't long, either-just 25 seconds. A 50% critical chance bonus... well, even in the late game, that would probably be pretty rare.

Ye Fengxing took an immediate liking to those three skills. As for the others, he simply had no money left to learn them... quests and monster kills hadn't paid much to begin with, and after learning nine skills, all he had left were three copper coins rattling around in his bag. Ah... being broke was rough.

"Mentor, do you have any other instructions?" Ye Fengxing wanted to pick up a quest and go earn some money, but he hadn't expected old Aston to have another surprise waiting for him. The elderly Dragonkin cleared his throat and said leisurely, "My dear One Leaf Windwalk, do you know what distinguishes our Dragonkin Mages from other mages?"

To that question, he could only answer honestly, "No."

"There is a kind of magic in this world known as dragon language magic..." Old Aston's expression turned wistful as he continued slowly, "We are descendants of the dragons. Though they refuse to acknowledge us, our blood ties cannot be erased, and no one can deny the inheritance passed down through our bloodline. We are born knowing the dragon language, born with an extraordinary affinity for elemental energy. We can communicate with the elements in the dragon language, and we can master the secret arts the dragons take such pride in just as skillfully as they can. This is the gift heaven bestowed upon you, upon me, upon all of us Dragonkin..."

Old Aston suddenly turned and fixed his gaze on Ye Fengxing, enunciating every word. "One Leaf Windwalk, are you willing to learn dragon language magic from me?"

Holy shit! Anyone who wasn't willing would be an idiot! He immediately started nodding like a pestle pounding medicine. In his eyes, Aston's wrinkled old face looked impossibly warm and kindly.

A light flashed, and he learned another skill.

Dragon Language Magic Basics (passive): Chant spells in the dragon language, reducing the cast time of all your spells by 0.1 seconds, increasing accuracy by 1%, and increasing spell damage by 10%.

Ye Fengxing froze. This... wasn't this skill ridiculously overpowered?! A direct reduction to spell cast times, a direct increase to final spell damage... holy crap! That was amazing!

Dragon Language Magic Basics was only level one right now. What would happen when it reached maximum level? He wasn't sure, but he could be certain of one thing: this was a god-tier skill! And it was a god-tier skill he had that others didn't! Its value far surpassed purple equipment or anything of the sort. Choosing to become a "personal disciple" had definitely been the right call!

"Go. Always remember that you are a Dragonkin Mage. Heaven has granted you the power to command the elements. In battle, you must cast your spells faster, more accurately, and more ruthlessly than others. Do you understand?!" Old Aston's tone suddenly became extremely stern.

Ye Fengxing wiped the smile off his face and nodded solemnly.

"Prove yourself in battle, One Leaf Windwalk. Can you do it?"

Ye Fengxing accepted the quest and headed straight out. Since the old fellow had given him this quest, there had to be something good in it. He didn't know exactly what yet, but surely his venerable mentor wouldn't shortchange his personal disciple.

He had now accepted the final stage of his class quest chain. The objective was to kill a minion serving Traitor Martinst, then use the Mind Flay Staff borrowed from his mentor to torture its soul and force it to reveal Martinst's whereabouts.

This quest didn't require players to complete it alone. They could form a five-person party, and everyone would receive a reward upon completion.

The quest monster was called Rotten Barbara. Although the quest description labeled it "a minion," you had to consider who its boss was... Martinst was a level 90 major boss! However weak Babala might be, it was still a level 15 minor boss, and ordinary players really couldn't handle it.

Given that this thing was a dungeon boss, soloing it was pretty much out of the question. And how could he run a dungeon without his buddies? Ye Fengxing immediately whispered Brick to the Face and Sky Wanderer, only to be told that they were still on the second stage of the quest chain, suffering through death after death, and had no time to help him.

"Damn it, those two useless idiots." With no other choice, Ye Fengxing had to look for random players.

He opened the zone channel, and a flood of group requests immediately appeared. Most were calling for people to fight Babala. Ye Fengxing browsed through them. There really were quite a few people; it seemed the Dragonkin had plenty of skilled players, too.

The second stage of the class quest chain was quite difficult. After all, there was only one freak who had completed the hidden quest, and he hadn't actually completed the second stage properly. The correct quest location wasn't that hidden cave, either...

Players had to investigate the cave at the foot of the mountain repeatedly. Only after seven or eight visits would an NPC come to take them to find Martinst. They had to kill a whole heap of monsters along the way, and it only counted as a success if they made it to the end with the NPC alive.

Anyone who could finish the second stage of the class quest chain was undoubtedly a reasonably skilled player. It wasn't something any random newbie could manage.

With everyone busily forming parties, he posted a few group requests of his own.

[Zone][One Leaf Windwalk]: Level 12 wind/fire mage looking for a Babala group. Will follow directions, not an idiot. Invite me if you need me.

As soon as the message appeared, a whole bunch of people immediately began flooding the channel beneath it.

[Zone][Blind to Twin Blades]: One Leaf Windwalk? Which One Leaf Windwalk? Are you the Blade Saint? Are you? Are you?

[Zone][Rogues Gone Wild]: Oh, come on. Your name alone gives you away as a fan of God Ye. Have you gone nuts worshipping your idol?

[Zone][Kui Wood Wolf]: Two posts up, please calm down. Look carefully. That's a mage.

[Zone][Blind to Twin Blades]: Holy shit! I'm out of the loop. Sorry, sorry, I didn't look closely. Hey, you, who gave you permission to use our God Ye's name?

[Zone][Ironhead Monk]: Damn it, consider this a warning. Delete that character within 24 hours! That name belongs to us warriors! Bump if you agree!

[Zone][Little Yuanyuan]: Bump! Huge bump!

[Zone][Dark-Skinned War God]: Bumping with all five limbs! Mage, how can you have the nerve to use that name? Go worship your Lan Xi.

[Zone][I Love Lan Xi]: What's wrong with mages? Looking down on us? Still, I'll bump this too, as a salute to our Mage God's lifelong comrade-in-arms!

[Zone][Beauty Fades in a Blink]: Just a passerby here, quietly dropping a bump on my way through.

Watching wave after wave of messages flood the channel, Ye Fengxing was a little dumbfounded... Holy shit! My image was still that deeply rooted in people's hearts. Nice, nice.

Seeing that fellow named Ironhead Monk still "clamoring" for him to delete his character, Ye Fengxing couldn't help smiling faintly. That guy Ironhead had actually come too...