Starting from Zero

"Watch out!" One of the Phantom Knight warned me to pay attention.

But I was not Superman, the Magic Fireball\'s speed was as fast as a falcon in flight, by the time I heard the warning, it was already too late for me to dodge! Luckily, there were Supermen standing by me! As I was still rather low level, I did not dare to unsummon the Phantom Knights, and got them to follow and protect me. The ambush had showed how sensible my decision was.

One of the female Phantom Knight (I hope no one forgot about it, the Phantom Knights consists of 5 males and 5 females) was faster to react and quickly pulled me into her bosom which resulted in the Fireball scraping past my body and flying straight into the Phantom Knight that was right behind me. This Phantom Knight did not reveal any signs of fear. I heard a snap as the Fireball was cut into two hemispheres and flew past him on both sides. As the Fireball had blocked my line of sight, what I saw was him inserting his sword back into the sheath, I did not even know when he had unsheathed his weapon!

"Master, are you alright?" Instead of worrying about himself, the Phantom Knight that had used his sword to cut through the Fireball asked if I was hurt!

I walked out from the other Phantom Knight\'s embrace and checked myself. "I\'m fine!"

Right after I replied, the Phantom Knight that had pulled me to the side suddenly turned to my side while unsheathing her sword with lightning speed. By the time I noticed her, she was already wielding the sword and in a defensive posture. Her sword hand suddenly moved and produced a ringing sound as it deflected an arrow that had flown towards her.

The undergrowth ahead rustled and a few figures jumped out. The head of the Phantom Knights immediately brought the other Phantom Knights and formed a semicircle formation in front of me. All the Phantom Knights unsheathed their weapons in unison, the sound of the swords drawing completely in unison.

Five figures landed on the ground, in the middle stood a young lady roughly at the age of 17 to 18. Her blue Mage robes and the dark red staff revealed her identity as a Mage and was the owner of the Fireball because she was the only Mage among the five, or at that moment what seemed like so! The young lady looked…..how do I explain it! Arrogant, an air of arrogance from never admitting defeat. Her round cheeks reminded me of adorable dolls, this dollface lady also had a standard single-handed sword in her left hand, with droplets of dark green liquid flowing down from the sword tip to the ground. Although she had clearly chosen the race of White Elves*, I felt that her appearance had an extremely murderous look.

To her left was two young ladies, it appeared that the age gap between the five of them was not far apart. The two young ladies were warriors, human warriors. The two of them had the exact same equipment, posture and actually looked the same, it looked as though they were another pair of twins. They were not that beautiful, but leaned towards the adorable side, and gave others a feeling that they were very pure. But the battle-axes in their hands made them look more deadly. On the battle-axes were the same liquid, which meant they had just cut something before arriving!

On the Mage\'s right was a couple, the man was obviously a Battle Priest, but his fair and delicate looks could have him mistaken for a female! His religious robes and his bald head meant that his level was not too high, but definitely still higher than mine!

The lady yet to be introduced was an Archer, she looked like an Elf, but did not look like one as well, most probably a Half Elf! Her light green equipment flashed with a beautiful ring of light and the dark red bow that she wielded horizontally suddenly had three arrows. She half pulled the bowstring, which meant that she could release the arrows anytime. Based on the looks of the equipment, she was most probably the highest Level, and the arrow from before was definitely from her!

"I say, Missy, shall we avoid this? This group isn\'t something that we can handle!"

"Don\'t talk nonsense!" The dollface in the middle stared at ferociously. "Small Stream, [Battle Blessings]!"

"Orchid Jie**, I don\'t think this is good right?" The Battle Priest turned and looked at the Archer. The Archer\'s name was Orchid Blood in which I gained knowledge of from her PK status prompt when she shot an arrow at my Phantom Knight. Of course, I also saw the name of the girl who cast the Fireball, which was rather strange, Missy. The name that the Battle Priest called Small Stream had shouted was actually her name.

"Even if it isn\'t good, we have to go for it, if we don\'t, we\'ll die!" The Archer answered the Battle Priest with resolve.

I pushed my way out of the Phantom Knights ahead of me, although they moved aside to let me pass, they maintained their vigilance.

"What\'re you guys doing?"

Upon hearing my words, all of them were startled (During PK, the victim will receive notifications but the PK\'er will not, thus they did not know that I was a Player.)

"F*ck! We encountered a high-level BOSS!" The Battle Priest Small Stream screamed in exaggeration. "We\'re finished, I told you guys not to come out, but all of you didn\'t want to listen to me! Now look what have we landed ourselves into. The majority of humanoid mobs are over level 400 while those who can speak are all above level 600, with their exaggerated and arrogant equipment, I reckon they are all above level 800!"

"So what if they\'re level 800, if we hack them down, there\'s bound to be good loot!" Both of the female Warriors spoke at the same time with the exact same words, as though they were both controlled by the same person. The both of them swung their two battle-axes at the same time, speed and angle.

Clank!

Without receiving any orders to attack, the Phantom Knights would remain in defense, both battle-axes were struck back in the same position and the two female warriors were thrown backward in the same exact motions. I truly suspected that the User had somehow split herself into two to control the two Characters, their movements were too perfect!

When the two Warriors made their moves, the three others decided to go for it as well. The Battle Priest\'s blessing was cast first, a pity the two Warriors were already flying away by the time the blessing had buffed them. The Mage called Missy unleashed a Fire Dragon which faced against the Head of the Phantom Knights. The gigantic Fire Dragon pounced with an immeasurable force, a pity it was dispersed with a strike from him, it felt as though the spell had a strong start but a weak finish! The slash from the Head of the Phantom Knight not only dispersed the Fire Dragon, it also flung Missy away.

The Archer called Orchid Blood unleashed three arrows in one draw. Most Heavy Swords\' advantage laid in its ability to strike many enemies at once, but if it were to focus on one enemy, the focused power would only be immense (like a shotgun). The pitiful thing was that the Phantom Knight\'s level was too high, her arrows were instantly struck back by the Phantom Knight in two to three hits and even before she could unleash a second volley of arrows, the Phantom Knight had kicked away the bow that was in her hand. I extended my hand out and caught the bow in midair. I felt that the Phantom Knight had intentionally kicked the Bow towards me, they were truly intelligent and had even learned to take advantage of a situation!

The Archer had lost her bow and the Warriors\' battle-axes were embedded into a large tree behind them, they had lost their fighting capabilities, the outcome of the battle fixed from the single confrontation. The Mage called Missy actually continued to chant spells under such a situation, and of course, the Phantom Knights would never allow her to complete her cast time. The best way to deal with a Mage was to prevent them from casting Spells. The Phantom Knights quickly drew out their spears and wielded them single-handedly in throwing postures.

"Keep her alive!" I barely managed to shout out when 10 spears flew out at the same time.

"AHH!" The Mage screamed out loud and retreated, the 10 consecutive thumps caused everyone to remain stationary. The Mage was stuck hugging a tree in a \'大\' position, with a spear each on both side of her neck, both drilled over 2 chi deep into the tree, revealing only the spear end that was still trembling from the force. Aside from the two spears, there was one right above her head, one on either side of her face. As for the remaining five, two were by her waists, another two at her underarms with the last one stabbed into her Mage Robes at her crotch area. These five spears were all within a centimeter from her body where the slightest deviation would have killed her.

It was unclear whether this adorable little Mage was shocked or what, her eyes were opened wide, but she did not cry or scream. I suddenly realized blood flowing down her face, and immediately pointed at her and shouted: "Why did you make her bleed! What happened?"

A female Phantom Knight immediately turned, raised her hand and spoke meekly: "Master, your order was given too late, I could only deviate my spear slightly when you ordered us not to kill her, but it seems I did not deviate it to my intended position!"

"Forget it, I was the one who forgot about it!" I walked over to the little Mage when Orchid Blood rushed in front of me with her secondary short blade, but from how she was trembling incessantly, I knew she was not stable at all.

"I\'m not going to hurt her!" I explained myself.

Small Stream ran over. "Orchid Jie, let\'s hear him out! We can\'t fight him!"

Two female Warriors ran back at the same time, and both of them asked the same question at the same time: "Tell us, why aren\'t you killing us?"

"Why should I kill you?" I was confused, did I look that evil? Furthermore, my face was covered with my helmet, they should not be able to see my face!

"We killed so many of your little brothers, as a BOSS here, you\'re not going to take revenge?"

"Little Brother? My little brother is still here! Even if you guys wanted to kill them, you must have the capabilities of doing so!" I had the greatest confidence towards the Phantom Knights, it was practically impossible for Players to want to kill them, I was able to kill off Black Dragon Force 3000 elites and escape was because of the Phantom Knights that had sliced through 1000 Players as though they were cutting vegetables, scaring all of the Japs. It was not simple to want to hurt the Phantom Knights.

"Furthermore, I\'m not some BOSS here, I\'m a Player!"

"You\'re a Player?" In unison, the group of five exclaimed in shock.

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Small Stream laid on the ground as though he was paralyzed: "Holy mother of a pearl! You scared the hell out of me, I truly thought we were dead meat!"

"You\'re really a Player?" Orchid Blood was still skeptical.

"Have you ever met an NPC that will lie? If I\'m an NPC, what I say can only be the truth, thus my statement of me being a Player is definitely correct; And if I\'m a Player, then, there\'s nothing to prove!"

"So you\'re really a Player!" Orchid Blood finally kept her short blade. I returned her bow, they were not PK\'ing me with any intentions, taking their items would not be good!

The two warriors were in the midst of helping the Mage down, a pity every single Spear had nailed into her clothes. To bring her down, they had to pull out all the Spears, but despite all their efforts, they could not pull out the spears. The Phantom Knight\'s Spear Throw ability had rotations, and whenever they drilled into something, the spears would screw in a ribbed pattern, it was impossible to just pull them out!

"Let me do it!" I spoke to the two Warriors. When they moved aside, I ordered the Phantom Knights: "Retrieve your Spears!"

"Yes!" The Phantom Knights went over and held onto their spears. With a bit of force, the Spears automatically unwound themselves. The spears were actually able to do such a thing!

"I\'m Orchid Blood, this is Small Stream, the Mage is Missy, these two warriors are twins, one of them is Windy, the other is Fire."

"Windy and Fire? (Together, the four characters means energetic) Interesting names! I\'m Ziri!" I extended my hand and shook hands with her.

Orchid Blood used her eyes and hinted that I had not introduced the people behind, to which I casually replied: "These are my Servants, they\'re not Players!"

"All of them!?" Small Stream looked at the Phantom Knights who had formed up again behind me and exclaimed exaggeratedly: "This is crazy, how did you obtain a series of humanoid Servants!"

"Nothing much, a brother gave them to me!" What I said was the truth, the Phantom Knights were half given half sold by Domergor, thus I did not know how to explain it to them!

"We are truly sorry for just now, we saw you as a Mob!"

"A mob? Do I really look like a mob?" I lowered my head and looked at myself, and no matter how I looked, I did not find myself like one! Indeed, the Dark Dragon Lord Set\'s appearance was certainly slight overboard in terms of its aggressiveness while the black and red Phantom Cape further increased the imposing aura emitted from my appearance, but I am definitely far from being a mob!

"What do you know!" The Mage that had finally been placed down ran over vivaciously. "Just now, we encountered an ambush of a Bone Army which was initially easy to handle because of their low levels, but after that, Zombies started to appear, and once we finished clearing the Zombies, we saw you appear. With your entire black outfit, we thought you were some Death Knight!"

"Then you guys ain\'t wrong! The 10 of them are Phantom Knights and belong to the same class system with the Death Knights!"

"Phantom Knights? You mean the class, Phantom Knight, formed from the fall of a Holy Knight? That Level 850 Monster?" Small Stream suddenly rushed forward excitedly.

"Are you an enthusiast or fan of theirs or something?" There were actually people who worshipped Phantom Knights, the world truly had all sorts of people!

"Eh? Have your Phantom Knights been upgraded?" Small Stream\'s sudden question confused me. He must have thought that I did not know about it as he continued: "I read it on the forums, there was a Player that saw some sort of humanoid BOSS that resembled Phantom Knights, with the name Apollyon Knight. Heard that he\'s Level 950. It is said that Phantom Knights can evolve with their final form being the Apollyon Knight."

"Even if they could, it\'s useless, after turning into Servants, you can\'t upgrade them, don\'t you know that Servants can\'t be upgraded?"

"Do you know something called the Energy Crystal?"

"Energy Crystal? What\'s that?"

"I don\'t know either! I heard that it is a product made from the Alchemist***, the Side Class advanced from a Blacksmith. it is said to allow Servants to be upgraded, but no one knows who has it. I heard that it was a foreign Player that managed to advance into the Alchemist Class made the item."

"Then there\'s no such thing here!" I was ecstatic after hearing that my Servants could be upgraded! But in the end, it was a Player from another country that had produced the item, which meant that even if he was willing to sell it to me, I had to find him first!

"Oh right, do you guys know of any suitable place here for leveling? It\'ll be great if the mobs are slow, I\'m using these Knights to level, but my level is too low, the leveling speed is truly too slow!"

The twin warriors suddenly spoke up: "We know of a place. You can teleport to Holy City and head east from there. There is a dark forest there with undead monsters, there are plenty of them and they are very slow, you can have as many monsters as you want there!"

"Alright, thank you! I\'ll head off first!" Rose had given me a mission, leveling was the most important thing and could not be delayed!

After walking a distance away from the group, I used the Ring of Teleportation and arrived at Holy City. Upon leaving the Teleport Station, I was greeted by the sight of bustling crowds running all over the place, the City looked extremely prosperous!

Being in the City, I did not summon the Phantom Knights, they were too conspicuous. It was fine in the past, but I was too low level to show off in Holy City!

The City was huge, and only with a map and compass did I finally locate the East direction. Everyone on the road that saw me would turn back to have a second look at me as though I was some strange being, and even after half a day, I could not tell what was wrong with my looks.

Suddenly, the crowd of Players in front of me was separated to the sides and a unit of what looked like cavalry sprinted towards me. All of them were dressed in white religious robes with white 2-meter long battle staffs which seemed to be made from ivory! All of them rode on snow white warhorses, that were perfectly white without any blemishes. Although the horses looked good, they were not tall, it might have been because I had spent too much time with Night Shade that I felt that ordinary horses had become too short.

The man in the lead pulled on the horse reins. The White Horse neighed and stood on its two hind legs as it kicked out its two forelegs, which almost struck me! With loathe, I took a few steps back and narrowly avoided death. I initially thought that they were NPCs, but from the looks of it, such an arrogant man could not possibly be an NPC. Even the NPC villains were all gentlemen!

The Battle Priest in the lead used his staff and pointed at me. "Who are you?"

I looked to my left and my right to confirm that he was speaking to me. "Why should I tell you?"

"You want to die?" Another Battle Priest behind rushed up with his staff, he looked as though he wanted to knock me in the head. I retreated half a step back, causing the brat with the staff to trip even before hitting me.

"Phantom Knights!" I summoned the 10 Phantom Knights who stood behind me. The other party obviously wanted to bully me as I was alone, with the Phantom Knights scaring them, it could increase my chances and advantage in negotiation. "What are you trying to do? I\'m just strolling in the city without obstructing all of you!"

Upon seeing my summoned Phantom Knights, the brat that rushed at me was so frightened he retreated back, even his mount had become restless.

"You even brought Dark Companions! Don\'t you know the rules of Holy City?"

"So what if I have Dark Companions? Also, what rules are you talking about? Is it the System Rules or rules you made up on your own?"

"Hahahaha! Don\'t tell me that you are unaware of the fact that Holy City is the territory of our Holy Angel Guild!"

"Holy Angel Guild? What\'s that? I\'ve never heard of you!" I had been estranged in the ocean and Japan for too long, how did I have the time to care about the chaotic guilds in the Mainland, there were tens of thousands of Guilds in a single regional area in China, if I even knew of them, I\'ll practically be a God!

"You…...you…..!" The other party became even more agitated by my honest words. "Our Holy Angel Guild painstakingly defended the City for Three days before obtaining the second Player City, and you actually say you don\'t know? You dare to question our strength, just die! Brothers, fight!" The last sentence was for the guild members behind him. The three days that he had claimed they took to defend the City had coincided with my time in Japan, how could I know of such a matter! Right from the start, the man spoke to me while on his high horse, obviously, he considered everyone else beneath him. It was perfect that he wanted to fight, there were few that could defeat the Phantom Knights!

"Phantom Knights, block them!" I gave the order while retreating. The surrounding Players all gave space and observed us. The Battle Priest in the lead started activating his divine techniques. A white beam of light suddenly shot out from the tip of his staff, but unexpectedly, the Phantom Knights had used their hands to cover their eyes and were actually retreating. My heart instantly plummeted, ever since the Phantom Knights had started following me, they were never afraid of anything, but it was the first time they were being beaten back.

The few Battle Priests behind all started using their divine techniques, unleashing beam after beams of light. The Phantom Knights started to turn and run, while the head of the Phantom Knights easily pulled me, summoned his warhorse and we ran out of the city.

We ran for our lives, but the Battle Priests behind chased after us even more aggressively. I looked at the enemies behind and asked the Head of the Phantom Knights.

"What happened to all of you? What did they use just now?"

"He is a high-level Battle Priest, what he used was [Encompassing Divine Eyes], it is originally a large-scale illumination spell, but it is extremely harmful towards evil and dark powers! We are all terrified of it, if we had continued to stay inside the light, we would have turned into bats!"

"How can it be THAT powerful? You are all level 850!"

"We are, but….!" A white beam of light shot over and interrupted the head of the Phantom Knight\'s words.

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(*) The initial Ordinary Race of Elves might be differentiated into White and Dark Elves.

(**) Jie is elder sister in Chinese

(***) The previous translator actually wrote that Alchemist is the advancement of Pharmacists, but according to this chapter, Alchemists is an advancement from Blacksmiths, aside from Forgers. I believe there will be more class advancements due in the future, the class was written by Thunderstorm as the advancement of a Pharmacist is typically depicted as using a fan as a weapon, as for now, I will call the class a Luminary.