Pillar of Yita

Fang Hong grabbed the sturdy rope ladder and climbed onto the platform, where he found Bakins leaning alone by the ship’s side, staring blankly at the distant sand. He greeted the bosun, who merely gave him a smile and asked:

”Back already, Captain?”

Fang Hong flipped over the ship’s side, landing lightly on the deck, and nodded: ”I took care of some business at the Artisan Association. Where is everyone else?”

”Down below.”

Fang Hong glanced downwards, in that direction of the courtyard where a layer of green shade was cast by the grape trellises. Under the scorching desert sun, it not only remained vibrant but grew even more lush and attractive. Under the dense leaves stood Luo Yu, Tianlan, Xiangzi, and Gita, engaged in attack and defense practice with Reed.

The Lion Paladin claimed to be above Level 20, but when Xiangzi and the others were around Level 10, he could handle four alone. And now that the four were near Level 20, he could still easily take on three.

Infuriated, Tianlan wanted to smash her lute and shouted: ”Big Cat People, you liar!”

Reed chuckled, lowered his scepter, and used a claw to pinch the golden rings on his whiskers: ”You exaggerate, Tianlan. It’s actually that your combat experience isn’t rich enough.”

”I don’t believe you. My cold jokes have at least a fifty percent accuracy rate against characters below Level 20. But this was nowhere near fifty percent; hardly ten percent, and the duration was so short—a liar!”

Reed spread his hands: ”I never said I was only Level 20, did I?”

Fang Hong listened from above and couldn’t help but find amusement, as he had long realized that the Big Cat People’s level exceeded Level 20. During the battle with the Blood Shark Sky Pirates, at least he and Rolin encountered the ’Sky Pirate Leader’ who admitted he couldn’t defeat him.

And Fang Hong considered his combat ability not weak, able to easily overcome opponents of the same level, which meant that the ’Sky Pirate Leader’ was far above Level 20.

And the Big Cat People, facing this ’nemesis’, not only was not afraid but won the battle. Had it not been for later events, he might have fulfilled his wish in that duel, defeating his ’nemesis’. Fang Hong heard that the other seemed to have some connection with the Big Cat People’s sister, but the Big Cat People never brought it up.

Comparatively, Fang Hong was more knowledgeable than Tianlan and the others, having met the members of the Morning Dawn Star Adventure Group and the likes of Qin Zhi from Silver Forest Crown, thus he roughly estimated the Big Cat People’s actual level might be similar to Miss Sicape’s, not yet reaching Level 30—because the career path changes greatly after Level 30, making it easily recognizable.

But at least it was very close—

And as a native, his actual combat strength was advanced even further.

Below, Tianlan was still in a sulky mood, muttering:

”I don’t care.”

The Big Cat People merely smiled slightly, not contradicting her.

Fang Hong put away the rope ladder, rolled it up, and then went down.

Upon descending into the courtyard, he noticed more people were present—located on the anterior half of Mr. Greyrock’s back, the structure of the courtyard branched to each side leading to the living quarters of others, with a total of four doors; ahead was the boiler room/kitchen and dining hall (conference room), with a medical room on one side of the conference room, separated by a curtain covering a third of the room.

Miss Nightingale was leaning outside her room shared with Tang Xin and Ai Xiaoxiao, holding a dagger with a black blade, her gaze repeatedly and intently examining it.

But she obviously hadn’t lost her vigilance, for her ear twitched slightly as she turned her head to see Fang Hong, setting down the dagger and raising her brows slightly: ”Captain, back already?”

Fang Hong nodded, glanced at the dagger in her hand, recognizing it not as a Magic Guided Conductor, but a token of the Shadow Brotherhood.

”Still pondering choices?” he asked, looking at the dagger.

Elisa gently nodded.

Because the situation in Colin Ishurian grew more unsettling by the day due to the Dragon Worship Sect, the Seven Seas Travel Group was caught up in this maelstrom. Every team member inevitably felt somewhat tense under these circumstances.

Even with a carefree soul like Parker, during these days he occasionally practices his professional skills.

And others, besides engaging in more mutual drills, privately discuss on the team channel regarding their future paths.

Elisa was naturally no exception.

She’s brought up this issue more than once.

She is pursuing the path of a Shadow Dancer as a Nightingale, but at Level 20, the Shadow Dancer diverges into two traditional routes—one being the Blade of the Night Owl, mastering combat, poison, and assassination abilities; the other further strengthening Magic Abilities as an Arcane Thief.

This presents a clear watershed moment.

The Night Owl Blade Shadow Dancer will learn Cunning Tactics, then pivot towards Lethal Assault—a skill aligned with assassins.

Whereas the Arcane Thief opts for Arcane Bloodline, progressing into Advanced Shadow Magic.

These two skills share an interesting coincidence, their prerequisites are exactly the same: each requires 190,000 experience invested in the Shadow Dance route and at least 70,000 in the assassination route, which is what a standard Shadow Dancing Thief should possess at Level 20.

Thus, Level 20 marks a vital turning point for Shadow Dancing Thieves.

The effect of Cunning Tactics allows Shadow Dancers, when employing agility-related skills, to count half of the Perception Attribute as the Strength Attribute—though Shadow Dancers don’t become ’stronger’ due to this, the calculation of various skill effects proceeds as usual.