<h4>Chapter 384: Test of Worth</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    For a long time, the Tier 5 Advancement Quest had remained a mystery to the billions of yers of H&G—a coveted goal, far beyond reach!


    Ever since the introduction of Pets, more and more capable yers, with the assistance of high-level Pets, brought to bear their greatly enhancedbined might to break through much sooner than should otherwise have been possible.


    With the appearance of ever more Tier 5 champions, the Tier 5 Advancement Quest was starting to seem like no big deal to the yers in general.


    Various solo yers had also extensively covered the circumstances and challenges that would be faced during the quest, along with an in-depth analysis which made the path to Tier 5 seem like a well-lit road!


    However, once yers actually started the quest, they discovered that the Tier 5 Advancement Quest was no joke after all.


    Of those who managed to make it through the madness, not a single one was not an expert yer who had nevertheless fallen and gotten back on their feet again and again, eventually finding their way out only after countless failures.


    It was a fact of life!


    For those yers who were facing the test for the very first time, or those who still had not made sufficient preparations, the Tier 5 Advancement Quest was a waking nightmare!


    Take a first-timer like Qin Ruo, widely held on the game forums as someone who was guaranteed to make it through. Upon beginning the quest, the situations he had to face inside, not to mention the endless tasks that kept cropping up, all had his head spinning, unable to keep up.


    ***


    “Damn it!”


    From behind a broken wooden carriage, a voice rang out through the pitch-dark forest, uttering curses which no one should have to hear.


    Someone peeked out from behind the carriage. His expression serious, Qin Ruo’s gaze found the burning vige in the distance. Patrolling around outside the ming buildings were numerous Demon Faction parties.


    His frown deepened.


    ording to the guide, as well as the information in his Quest Journal, the burning vige up ahead was situated on the border of Angel Faction territory. Due to its proximity to Demon Factionnds, it regrly suffered raids by enemy adventurers.


    The Demon Faction warriors, currently assembled outside the vige like a proper army, were actually just a rag-tag band of bandits pretending to be part of the actual Demon Faction military.


    They were criminals, under the Demon Faction’s thumb. Most of them were high-level warriors of only mediocre skill, but their leader was something else: a Demigod Champion, cast out of the Demon Faction.


    In the light of the zing fires, the leader of these bandits appeared to be pleased. He soared about on his Demonic Wings, a silhouette against the full moon, like a demon that only appeared by moonlight.


    He enjoyed the solitude of flying through a moonlit sky, and was always up to no good, hence his nickname as the ‘Moonlight Demon.’


    The Moonlight Demon was also the main reason for Qin Ruo’s powerlessness!


    Upon his arrival in this region, the quest he received was to assassinate a certain Mage among the piging bandits, without alerting their leader, the Moonlight Demon. Then, using his victim’s clothes to disguise himself as one of the Demon Faction’s bandits, he was to step through the one-way warp portal that the Moonlight Demon had set up in the vige!


    The time limit for this quest was forty-five minutes. If he had notpleted the task by then, he would fail to Advance. If he managed to make it through the warp portal as instructed, he would pass this test and receive his guide’s approval, permitting him to undertake the actual Tier 5 Advancement Quest.


    ***


    This test his guide had given him could perhaps prove a simple matter, but from what Qin Ruo could see of the vige grounds, the Demon Faction bandits seemed to be all over the ce, their formations interwoven together. It was an extremelyplicated situation, with pitfalls at every turn. One wrong step and it would be all over, the Moonlight Demon descending on him.


    First things first: there were no traces of magic around the outskirts of the vige.


    Qin Ruo realized that before he killed the Mage and disguised himself as him, he would first need to ascertain where that one-way portal was. The disguise might be effective on whoever was on the other side of the portal, but it probably wouldn’t hold up around these bandits, who should be familiar with the Mage.


    The longer he remained within the vige, the greater the chance of being exposed!


    Qin Ruo had already inspected the open areas nearby, but he had not been able to find the Warp portal. That meant it had to be inside one of the two buildings which had not been put to the torch.


    Light shone from within both buildings, onerger than the other, about twenty meters apart. Qin Ruo had yet to find out whether anyone was inside. However, there were two of those ursed bandits standing guard outside the entrance of each building.


    ***


    Never mind finding the warp portal, the three teams of criss-crossing bandit patrols guarding the vige interior were also a horrendous headache for Qin Ruo.


    Eighteen Demon Faction adventurers, split into three groups, ceaselesslybing through the vige along three separate routes. Whenever two teams met with each other, they would stop to chat for a brief moment, which gave him a chance to slip inside. However, the window of opportunity was dangerously narrow, and there didn’t appear to be anywhere for him to hide once he got past them.


    Under normal circumstances, Qin Ruo was certain he could easily wipe the floor with these Level 50 bandits with less than two thousand HP apiece. They were just your garden variety high-level warriors, the whole group barely equal tomon Tier 5 monsters.


    But Qin Ruo was wary of the ‘Moonlight Demon’ overhead.


    ording to the Quest Journal, these Demon Faction bandits were frightful cowards. Qin Ruo was worried this meant that they would yell for help at the top of their voices the moment they came under attack—or discovered him.


    Shouting left and right for all their buddies toe to their aid, and perhaps even drawing the attention of the Demigod-tier Boss, their ‘Moonlight Demon’... that would be game over!


    Even a surface assessment was enough to let Qin Ruo know to fear the Demigod Champion. That wasn’t an adversary he could hope to defeat.


    Although he was curious to see what it would be like to do battle with an NPC Demigod, his Advancement Quest took priority, and he decided not to fool around. Taking another look through his Quest Journal, he made a few notes to himself.


    ‘This test is about disguise and infiltration, not about eradicating enemies. As far as possible, I have to avoidying a hand on these miserable little wretches! Keep it together, think of a way to avoid their notice. Once I’ve gotten past this trial, the true battle for Tier 5 awaits!’


    As hemitted these mandates to memory, Qin Ruo continued to examine several figures amongst the bandits who were clothed in the ck robes of a Mage. Some information from his Battle Log appeared in his mind.


    These adventurers had been exiled from the Demon Faction, most likely formitting unforgivable crimes. Wanted as criminals, they had fled to these deste bordends, looking for a ce to hide.


    As marked criminals, their Soul Imprints were prohibited from the resurrection portals of any city. If they were to die, they would be lost forever to oblivion, with no hope of return.


    This also exined their cowardly nature, acting only at themand of the Moonlight Demon.


    There was some further information which suggested that killing off any one of them would erase their soul from existence permanently, leaving behind only a lifeless corpse with all their equipment.


    With this in mind, Qin Ruo was able toe up with several ideas for getting one of the Mages’ stuff. The first was to lure one of them into the woods so he could bump one off in private. Sadly, this n didn’t have very good odds of sess.


    Besides that, he could also try finding a blind spot where Poochie could quietly take one down without him using any of his own magic. Then Poochie could bring him the clothes he’d need for his disguise.


    This was slightly more usible, considering how powerful Poochie had now be: not only was it extremely quick, its ability to Stun had also been enhanced. With its Clone Shadowstrike, it could quite possibly perform an instant kill on any one of these Mages, who had HP inferior to a Tier 5 monster!


    But it was still too difficult to avoid the notice of all the other patrolling enemies! Besides that, Qin Ruo also had no idea how sharp the senses of the Demigod Champion were. What if he was able to detect Poochie’s presence?


    “Ah damn it, if only I could talk to someone about this!” Qin Ruomented under his breath.


    Before this, he had received some reminders from yer’s Heart and Violet Orchid, which was how he had known that the ‘Test of Worth’ in the Tier 5 Advancement Quest would be anything but ordinary. The number of skilled yers who’d been bested by this task were beyond counting!


    Even so, Qin Ruo hadn’t imagined that a mere ‘Test of Worth’ would leave him so perplexed, at aplete loss as to what he should do.


    Agh, this was too depressing!


    ***


    A few minutester, when Qin Ruo felt he’d gotten a pretty good understanding of the ying field, he thought about the role he was being asked to y in this quest:


    An infiltrator—an assassin.


    It was right around then that something went wrong.


    “Who’s there?”


    In the distance, a passing Demon Faction patrol had happened upon the broken wooden carriage. Now, someone was shouting in his direction!


    The hoarse, unexpected hollering broke the hush that had settled over the vige. With a jolt, Qin Ruo suddenly remembered all about the carriage!


    His heart was doing somersaults now. ‘For crying out loud! How could they have found it? It’s so far away!’


    His face turned ashen white, and in his panic he unconsciously curled himself up into a ball, pressing himself up against the back of the carriage. A million thoughts hurtled through his mind as he desperately tried to decide what to do.


    In no time at all, amotion of footsteps could be heard, closing in around his hiding spot.


    “Behind the carriage!”


    There was that annoying voice again, calling out to the approaching bandits. “Two of you, around the left! The rest of you to the right! Surround it!”


    Footsteps rang from all directions, closing in from both sides around the back of the broken carriage.


    In the vige, the other two teams—including the Mages—turned in rm to peer at the carriage in the woods.


    Anxiously, the six adventurers investigating the carriage activated their Combat Auras and Berserk Fury!


    ***


    “There’s no one here.”


    “You need help, Matthew!”


    “Matthew, you wimp. We were fools to take you seriously.”


    “I’m pretty sure all you saw was a ghost.”


    Five bandits put their weapons away once more, and dismissed their battle skills. Indicating the empty space at the back of the carriage, they shouted at their humiliatedpatriot, “Good thing Mr. Moonlight didn’t have toe over here, otherwise you’d be dead meat!”


    With oaths and curses, the group moved away, leaving behind a lone Matthew, still scratching his head in bewilderment.


    Some momentster, he abruptly turned and ran after his fellows, shouting, “Hey, don’t tell the boss about this!”