Bizarre Voyage: Summoning The Fourth Crisis

”Hahaha, the Candlekeeper still remembers!”

”You’re screwed. That Candlekeeper NPC holds a grudge...”

”You think you can just piss off the Candlekeeper and act like nothing happened?”

”You’re on the watchlist now, Brother Niu.”

”I’m dying of laughter.”

”So, are you still gonna try and slash the Candle Guardian Witch?”

The crowd of rubbernecking players, who loved nothing more than a good bit of drama, were having the time of their lives.

Fortunately, Luo Ge only glanced at him before looking away.

It wasn’t that he was seeking revenge or anything. He just needed to make an example of someone, and Niuniu, with his prior offense, was the perfect candidate.

With that, Luo Ge gave Noxia a slight nod, then turned and disappeared into the Reef Cave.

Noxia nodded back vigorously. She watched him leave before recomposing herself and turning back to face the crowd of players.

”Aww, that’s so sweet. I ship it, I ship it~”

”Shipping everything will be the death of you.”

”Damn that Candlekeeper! I feel like rebelling again. Anyone with me, brothers?”

The moment Luo Ge left, the players became as rowdy as students after their teacher leaves the classroom.

This time, however, they didn’t just keep chattering away like before. They were a little more serious.

”Noxia, where is the Qi Xin Chapel the Candlekeeper mentioned?”

”It’s on that isolated island over there.”

”Where did this Qi Xin Chapel come from? Does it have any special meaning?”

”It came from the Dark Boundary. As for its meaning... it is to pray for the Descent of the Master of the Firewood.”

”The Master of the Firewood?”

”Yes...”

Noxia was gradually getting into her role. She maintained a polite and dignified demeanor while answering the players’ questions.

The information about the Master of the Firewood was something Luo Ge had instructed her to reveal to the players.

After all, to be honest, Luo Ge trusted the player base more than he currently trusted Noxia—the group as a whole, that is, not any single individual.

Besides, there was no shortage of talented individuals among the players with powerful deductive reasoning skills. They might even uncover the truth before Luo Ge could.

And as long as the players knew, Luo Ge, who was lurking in the background, would naturally find out as well.

...

As time went on, the players’ interest in Noxia gradually waned. One by one, they went off to try the new features or to grind monsters for levels.

Of course, some visited the Candlekeeper’s shop, but they left after a quick glance revealed no new items.

Storyteller and Crafty Frog, however, stayed for a long time. They asked the Candle Guardian Witch many questions and then traveled together to the waters near Candle Island to visit the Qi Xin Chapel. It looked like they were preparing for their next lore analysis video.

Aside from that, while Niuniu had quieted down a bit, he hadn’t completely behaved himself.

The guy actually started performing a Turing test on Noxia, attempting to gauge the extent of her intelligence.

Luo Ge simply chose not to translate some of his words. Unable to understand, Noxia could only shake her head in confusion. Seeing this, Niuniu had no choice but to leave in disappointment.

’Whatever. She looked promising at first, but she doesn’t seem very bright after all. Boring.’

Noxia also found Niuniu to be very strange.

But she didn’t mind. She had encountered far too many strange players today, so she was used to it by now.

Besides the much-hyped Candle Guardian Witch, the other new features in this update also had the players talking.

”I’m tearing up! We Candlemen are finally no longer easily soluble in water! We’ve finally risen up!”

”I’m crying! Frogman Candle Spirits just got an Epic-level nerf! How the hell are we supposed to play now!”

”You can’t really say that. The Frogman Candle Spirit still has its own unique advantages. Not only is it dumb-looking, but its stat gains are uneven too! Hahaha...”

From the players’ perspective, human Candle Spirits now being able to enter the water was indeed an Epic-level nerf to the Frogman Candle Spirits.

Jokes aside, though, the Frogman Candle Spirit did have its own advantages. First was diving; not only could they hold their breath for a very long time, but they also moved quickly.

Furthermore, through their experiments, players discovered that the higher a Frogman Candle Spirit’s Constitution was, the longer they could hold their breath and the faster they could move underwater.

Human Candle Spirits, however, didn’t have this advantage.

For example, if both put 1 point into Constitution, a human Candle Spirit would gain +1 combat power, +0.5 breath-holding time, and +0.5 underwater movement speed.

A Frogman Candle Spirit, on the other hand, would gain +1 combat power, +1.5 breath-holding time, and +1.5 underwater movement speed.

Of course, this was just a hypothetical example. The players weren’t idle enough to test this specifically at the moment; they had many other things to do.

”Holy crap, 40 Wax Oil to upgrade... The Spirit Candle is really afraid we’ll run out of ways to spend our Wax Oil, huh?”

”I just activated the Sin Furnace and thought I could take a break. Now I have to go back to being a Prison Guard.”

”This is impossible. Just open up a cash shop already. This grind is killing me...”

The promotion of the Spirit Fire Port naturally attracted a lot of player attention. But when they saw the amount of Wax Oil required for the upgrade, they all felt that familiar sense of frustration.

’How many different ways is this game going to find to take our Wax Oil?’

It didn’t cost real money, but... the grind was unbearable!

Even being a Prison Guard required you to hack away with a weapon, run up and down ladders, and backstab groups of monsters. It wasn’t like you could just stand there and have Wax Oil fall into your pockets.

”I’ll give it a try.”

However, there were also some veteran players who still had plenty of Wax Oil in their pockets.

Like Brother Mangzi.

After he handed over the Wax Oil, the Spirit Fire Raft transformed into a small, wax-white boat right before his eyes. It looked quite exquisite.

”It can heal you!”

Brother Mangzi was pleasantly surprised. The Spirit Fire Raft didn’t have this function before. To heal, they had to run all the way back, and even Recovery Wax Blocks could only be replenished near the Spirit Candle.

”This is a must-buy!”

Seeing this, the other players could only grit their teeth and continue grinding for Wax Oil.

’Oh, well. So what if it’s tiring? The Spirit Candle isn’t even asking for a single cent of real money. You can get stronger just by working hard. What’s there to complain about?’

’Isn’t that much better than a boss who just makes you empty promises?’

And so, the players continued their journey to Exile Island and returned to their posts as Prison Guards in the prison.

Meanwhile, Faraway was standing beside the Spirit Candle.

[Would you like to consume 200 Wax Oil to Reshape your Candle Spirit Body?]

That’s right, Faraway was planning to Reshape his Body.

He hadn’t planned on changing things up, because he felt that Flower of Drowning was still pretty good. Although it was slow in the water, at least it could move.

Its most important feature was that it allowed him to avoid the critical flaw of dying at sea.

But now, after this major update, the flaw of human Candle Spirits being unable to enter the water had been mostly fixed. They could now stay in the water for a long time.

With this change, the disadvantages of Flower of Drowning began to outweigh its advantages.

Faraway’s build was a Swift Mage. After transforming into the Flower of Drowning, his movement speed at sea was slow, and on land, it was an even more significant limitation.

This forced Faraway to Reshape his Body and choose a new special Warfire.

[Yes]

Faraway was decisive. Once he made up his mind, he rarely hesitated.

As Spirit Candle Power enveloped him, Faraway’s consciousness gradually returned to the character selection interface from the beginning.

[200 Wax Oil consumed. Reshaping Body...]

[Your Warfire: Flower of Drowning has been Extinguished. Your Level has returned to Level 1. You may reallocate Attributes from Level 1 to Level 10. After igniting a new Warfire, you can allocate your remaining Attribute Points.]

He glanced at the bloodline interface and saw that reselecting his bloodline would cost even more Wax Oil.

Of course, he had no intention of changing his bloodline.

After allocating points into Agility and Spirit, he quickly returned to his body.

Using what little Wax Oil he had left to ignite his Warfire, Faraway directly used Fire Ignition on the Iron-faced Warlock’s special Fire Seed. The compatibility rate reached one hundred percent.

[Fire Ignition successful!]

[Warfire has been changed to: Iron-faced Warlock]

[Your Agility +2, Spirit +5]

[New Talent ”Law’s Blessing” acquired. New Skill ”Execution Step” acquired.]

[Your body has changed under the influence of the Warfire. Agility has slightly increased. Spirit has moderately increased.]

[...]

A moment later, Faraway’s body became taller and leaner.

Then, he checked his information.

[Poems and the Faraway Place]

[Tier: Embers]

[Level: 17]

[Warfire: Iron-faced Warlock]

[Ability Value: ...]

[Talent: Diligence, Law’s Blessing]

[Ability: Dodge, Recovery Wax Block]

[Skill: Bone Fork Throwing, Concealment, Ghost Claw, Blood Stone Burst, Executioner’s Hand Blade, Execution Step]

He still had to go and forget two skills.

Because during the past few days, he had also farmed the Gulard Warship and gotten the two Magic skills [Guard Law Sword] and [Law Protection].

This also let them know one thing: the drops from world map bosses were relatively random.

Then he would have to continue grinding the Gulard Warship, as they didn’t know if the Iron-faced Warlock would drop any other equipment.

He looked away. After allocating his remaining Attribute Points, Faraway stood up. His tall, straight figure, combined with the Iron-faced Warlock’s formal wear, gave him a cold and deadly aura.

It seemed the only difference between him and the Iron-faced Warlock was the iron mask.

’But... even though I don’t have an iron mask, I have an Iron Helmet!’

At this thought, he silently put on his Iron Helmet and Ghost Cloak...