Chapter 634: Familiar Crystal, healing spirit...
As someone who came from another world, he’s experienced enough to not blink twice at most any other item in SAO.
Equipment mattered only to the extent that he can unleash more of his maximum fighting power that’s effectively nerfed by his current virtual body. Items, tools, those are just garbage in front of what the System has to offer. As for the Cors, well, that’s just virtual gold, he has no need for things like that...
Others might covet or envy him for his treasures but Wu Yan failed to see why anyone would want to rob him of such useless items.
In other words, it wasn’t just his stat that was inhumanly high, his standard was also as tall as the sky.
The Black Cats knew about his impossibly high standards as well. They assumed it’s because he could always earn more if he wanted to so he’s very calm when dealing with such items. In any case, they thought it was just how he rolled, at least, that’s what they got by hanging out with him in SAO.
However, a small piece of crystal caught his eyes. He’s always nonchalant when he got precious items or materials. But, right now, he’s smiling with excitement. The item must be really good or it’s just what Wu Yan was searching for.
The Black Cats’ curiosity got the better of them. Shion who couldn’t back her intellectual itch purred in bewilderment.
“Yan, what’s that you got there?...”
Wu Yan laughed out loud and he lifted the crystal as it transformed in his hands.
A faint figure was reflected on the crystal as a miniature creature with two pairs of wings appeared inside the crystal. The pixie is about as big as an adult’s palm.
It flew out of the crystal in Wu Yan’s hands while flapping its wings. It twirled around in the air and it landed on Wu Yan’s shoulder.
The pixie’s figure could be seen clearly now. It’s like someone sculpted a perfect being in the form of a miniature human with wings. She had a magical glow about her, it’s like she’s protected by a layer of light. One could see that she had the right curves in all the right places. Her countenance isn’t very discernible but one could tell that the face behind that glow is one that would drop a lot of jaws.
She looked like fairies one would often see depicted in storybooks.
“What’s this?”
Six pairs of eyes surrounded the fairy as they examined this cute creature with intrigue. Sachi and Shion were absolutely charmed by this miniature creature.
Wu Yan rubbed the fairy resting on his shoulder. The fairy didn’t react to Wu Yan’s action. It also ignored the eyes around her as she stayed on his shoulder. If someone didn’t look closely, they would think she’s just an inanimate decoration.
Wu Yan could tell that she’s unresponsive because she’s not programmed to have advanced AI capable of talking like humans. She’s more like a puppet, it’s only natural that she didn’t react to external stimuli.
“What’s going on here?”
Shion asked in excitement. She clasped her hands together while placing them on her chest, there were faint hearts in her eyes.
“She’s so pretty and cute!”
Wu Yan chuckled.
“She’s a familiar.”
“A familiar?”
The others gasped in shock.
“Yeah! Exactly...”
He tossed the crystal up and down.
“This is a familiar crystal. A player with this crystal gets to utilize the familiar resting within it!”
“I see...”
Shion looked at the fairy sitting on Wu Yan’s shoulder as she mumbled with slight regret in her voice.
“I wouldn’t have given you that crystal if I knew there was a fairy inside the crystal...”
Wu Yan rolled his eyes at her. He knows Shion is just saying this because she liked how cute this fairy is, it probably ignited the doll-loving part inside her.
He glanced at the spirit on his shoulder and he grinned.
In SAO, familiars or tamed monsters aren’t cheap and commonly available, unlike the pets in other online games. Familiars are very rare and precious inside SAO.
You can’t even find a player with a familiar among 1000 players. The requirements and quest lines for familiars are vague if not completely unknown among the players.
Some tamed monsters can assist a player in battle while others can use support buffs. Some tamed monsters can also use recovery skills to heal players. Inside a death game like SAO, anything that can use recovery skills multiple times is a heaven-sent gift that can determine life and death in certain situations. Some familiars are even more useful than players because they are more trustworthy or capable in desperate times.
A player with a familiar is called a beast tamer. It’s a very rare job.
Granted, there are useful familiars and not-so-useful ones. Most familiars can only do a little bit of support or fighting. It’s going to take a lot of luck to find a familiar that is very strong and capable, that’s ignoring the luck needed to find a familiar in the first place.
Wu Yan’s got Lady Luck supporting him. They are only at the 2nd floor and he has already found himself a familiar, maybe the other familiars haven’t even spawned yet. Moreover, this fairy is also very useful.
It’s a healing-type familiar. It can’t assist directly in a fight, unlike attack-oriented familiars. But, it can help recover the HP of players.
With a specialized healing fairy like this. He can save on a lot of healing crystals. He can also prolong his battle duration and even save his life in a pinch. Needless to say, other players wished they could get their hands on something like this.
Moreover, this fairy is top-notch. She can cast a recovery spell every minute and she can heal 20% max Hp per cast.
In other words, someone on the brink of death can recover to full health in 5 minutes’ time without needing to use expensive potions or healing crystals. Other players have to sit in a corner and wait about half a day for natural regen to recover their Hp.
This also meant that the enemy Wu Yan fights will have to be able to take at least 20% of Wu Yan’s Hp in one minute’s time or Wu Yan will win in a battle of attrition.
His fighting ability and style didn’t change. But, with his new companion, his composite strengths are now at least dozens of times stronger than before.
Wu Yan is basically a programming bug on feet. This healing fairy made him a nigh-immortal player inside this death game. His enemies better pray they don’t ever cross path with him.
Wu Yan changed his future plans. No more field roaming. With a healing fairy here, he might as well barge his way into the labyrinth area!
He mused to himself and he directed his focus towards the orb. He saw the message there and he smiled.
He placed the fairy crystal in his accessory slot. This crystal can recall the healing fairy with a single thought by Wu Yan.
He took out a crystal. This wasn’t the fairy crystal, it’s the teleport crystal that sent them here.
The floating orb flew and merged with the teleport crystal. The crystal is now activated once more so they can use it again!
“Yes, finally, we can leave this place!”
The Black Cats cheered aloud once more. Even Sachi is smiling radiantly like a warm sun. This quest gave them a lot of rewards for sure but the environment is just too ghoulish for their tastes. They didn’t want to spend more than a second here if at all possible.
“Alas, this will be the last time we can use this item. If only we can keep using this teleport crystal...”
Wu Yan said while sighing. This teleport crystal that can work on a lot of people can do wonders for the players.
Wu Yan looked back one more time and he gave the Black Cats a suspicious grin.
“Since we are here and all, let’s clean this place out...”
On that day, the monsters inside this forest received a grim reminder...