The League of Legends 19:00,
"They're coming out!" Cried Irelia, pointing in the direction of the exit.
The losing team exited first, not furious or terribly sad, but more dissatisfied at their own performance. Huang Shaotian yawned and faced the adoring crowd first with a hearty laugh.
"We could've won, but then again, we were holding back to an honorable level, unlike some shameless Captain of Xing Xin. If only I could land those attacks by the most narrow margin, our team could've won. Speaking of which, I'm feeling hungry, Captain do you want to grab some food?"
"Sure, in a bit, Mr Swain here wants to have a word with me." Yu Wenzhou smiled politely back.
"Meet you in a bit."
"Ok."
Next, came Zhou Zekai's fanclub of Marksmen.
"The craftsmanship of those guns, they almost seem alive…" Lucian breathed.
"Indeed, Purifier, those guns emit a strange and lively aura, maybe I'll take another shot at Glory…" Miss Fortune who was beside him said, "Wildfire and Shattered Frost, I'll remember those names." The Bounty Hunter approached The Great Gunner and asked, in a very… alluring way… To examine the two guns, Zhou Zekai agreed and handed the dual pistols over to Miss Fortune.
She stroked the two guns, one hot as flames, the other, cold as ice, a true match. She returned the two guns to their owner and left Zhou Zekai dumbstruck with his face a tomato red.
Jiang Botao, the translator for Zhou Zekai approached his team's captain and asked curiously what happened, strangely enough, even Jiang Botao couldn't translate the muttered response of the red-faced Zhou Zekai.
Next, the winning team came out, and everyone except for the losing team cheered. The Golden Combo of Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng, Wang Jiexi's tactical decision and play, Chu Yunxiu's near death turnaround, Xiao Shiqin's forced trade with Zhou Zekai, every part of the game was a fantastic sight.
"Hey, what's with Xiao Zhou?" Ye Xiu asked Jiang Botao, after his adoring audience started chatting away with the others on his team.
"I don't exactly know, but I think he has a crush…"
"No way."
"See for yourself, every time I mention that sexy redhead he blanks out." Jiang Botao pointed to the figure he mentioned.
"Oh you mean Sarah Fortune, no wonder."
"What?"
"That's the redhead's name, tell him that, betting ten Yuan he'll start going red every time he hears 'Fortune'." (Had to do that, Chinese New Year Joke hidden there)
"Why would I bet?" Answered the ever so loyal Jiang Botao.
"Simple, for your team to have a new image of your captain as not being single."
"Still, why would I bet?"
"Hey, at least you can have a go at getting ten Yuan out of me."
"I-, fine, ten Yuan."
"Deal."
The Vice-Captain of Team Samsara walked off to inform his captain of important news. Ye Xiu yawned as he stood and watched Jiang Botao pace off into the distance.
"Ye Xiu…" a voice came from his right, Ye Xiu rolled his eyes towards the right and found Irelia staring intently at him.
"I want to learn how to master Glory."
"You sure you won't quit in the process?"
"Yes."
"Are you really, really sure you won't?"
"Absolutely."
"Hmm, even if I started teaching you, you wouldn't understand… Find Luo Ji, tell him to give you one of his dummy walkthroughs for the basic dungeons, I'll start teaching you if Baozi and Xiao Tang have approved of your skills as a player. If you want a kind trainer, find Yifan, he is very sincere and has quite a lot of knowledge."
"Okay then."
The Will of the Blades left to find the grandmaster of the demolition Xiu set off to find his Chinese teammates.
"Well, how was training?"
"Tiring." Was the first reply from everyone.
"My body is not meant for exercise." Huang Shaotian sighed.
"Same here." Chu Yunxiu grunted.
"Relax, you'll get a day off. We have to report back to China tomorrow anyway." Ye Xiu suggested.
"Thank God." Su Mucheng gasped in relief as she massaged her shoulder, "Can't go on like this."
"Stop complaining, even the kids aren't complaining about this." Ye Xiu laughed.
The brief meeting ended at that point, Ye Xiu left for dinner and was accompanied by the other four strategic masters. Huang Shaotian met his fans in the League and received pleads from many masters of the blade, to learn from him. Huang Shaotian could only say yes as he was starting to get bored in training his 14 year-old pupil Lu Hanwen. Chu Yunxiu and Su Mucheng returned to China to watch an episode of their beloved television series. Li Xuan decided to pay Qiao Yifan a visit in his room, he was very curious of how the Ghostblade prodigy was doing in team Xing Xin. Zhou Zekai went off to meet Sarah Fortune, Tang Hao went to his quarters to rest and Wang Jiexi tagged along with Li Xuan to visit his former trainee that had recently arrived after their match.
"Ye Xiu, is it time for training yet?"
Ye Xiu stirred as he heard these words. He reached for his clock to check the time.
"It's 6 AM what do you want Irelia?" Ye Xiu groaned.
"Doesn't the early bird catch the worm?"
"Does it? Does it Irelia?"
"Fine… I know what you mean."
"Did you at least finish the walkthrough that Luo Ji gave you?"
At this, Irelia froze. She did ask for a walkthrough, but she couldn't quite understand it. The language she was fine with, but she couldn't see how to use it in her upcoming training.
"I'll, uh, go read it over again…" Irelia shrinked towards the door when Ye Xiu's voice stopped her.
"It's fine if you don't want to, since I'm already up, I'll train you."
Irelia's eyes lightened at this, although she had heard rumors of how hard this was, she really didn't believe it, she wanted to become stronger together with her blades.
"What do I need to do first?"
"You have an account?"
"No."
"Well then, I guess we're starting from there."
The two transported to Earth and into the Net Cafe and sat down in a private room. Ye Xiu took out a spare account card, and they started.
Level 1: Irelia. Irelia looked at the small captions over her character, she had no idea what it was supposed to mean. She looked at Ye Xiu for guidance, but he said nothing.
She scanned through the English version of the beginner guide and learned slowly like a newbie. It was after she had finished the tutorials and main quests that Ye Xiu tested her on her skill, he explained the four types of points that she could add onto her character: Power, Magic, Stamina and Willpower (Not joking these actually exist in the novel).
"Your hands…" Ye Xiu started.
Irelia turned her attention to her fingers and looked curiously over to Ye Xiu in search for an answer.
"Your hands are fit for the gaming, but you need to train them, you're starting to get tired aren't you?" Ye Xiu explained.
Irelia slightly blushed and she knew he was right. She noticed Ye Xiu's delicate hands and fingers, his nails were cut, fingers thin like a woman's hands. She only knew of a few people who had hands like those, for example Sona or Lux, they had more elegant hands compared to someone like Garen. She knew was getting tired and needed to rest.
"You've done enough for morning training, now as your treat, I'll create your silver tier weapon."
"Silver-tier weapon?"
"All custom made weapons are classified as silver-tier, they fit to your class, but there are times when self made weapons are complete trash."
"Well, would it be possible to create my blades back in Runeterra?"
"Just what I was intending to do. Now don't interrupt me while I'm doing this alright?"
"Will do."
Irelia watched Ye Xiu slowly and carefully made every cut and drew every little detail into the weapon editor, finally he finished and allowed Irelia to name it.
"Creation complete. Level five Silver Tier equipment: The Four Prong Blades." The system announced.
Irelia's eyes shone in admiration of the detail, that while Ye Xiu was explaining the stats of the weapon she almost completely ignored his words.
Four Prong Blades (basically the level five: thousand chance umbrella stats with something else):
Mass per blade: 2.0 Kilograms
Attack Speed: 5
Physical attack: +180
Magical attack: +180
Additional stats:
Power: +50
Magic: +50
Willpower: +30
Unique Passives:
Guardian: While equipping this weapon, the user is guarded by the blades blocking out all damage in one direction but is unable to attack during this period.
Will of the Blade: The Four Prong Blades will attack enemy units when commanded by user. Damage scaling with Magic Points and Power Points.
Fervor: While Guardian is activated, user will be affected less by control effects, but also deals less damage and more control effects. Reduction scaling on Willpower points.
"How did you manage to apply all those passives onto the weapon?" Irelia asked, she knew that some of them had passives for example Tang Rou's "Dancing Fire Flowing Flame" or Mo Fan's "Sixteen Leaves", but they only had one or two passives, and they were at the level cap. However, before her eyes was an incomplete weapon that had three unique passives.
"We had enough rare material to make it possible."
"Woah." Irelia exclaimed, clearly excited.
"Wanna try it out on the rift?"
"Yes!"
The two returned to the rift, eager to see what would happen.
"Yasuo." Irelia ran up to the Unforgiven and challenged him, "Want to one vs one on the rift"?"
"I don't mind, but why?" The Samurai was puzzled, Irelia was not so competitive usually.
"Just accept the challenge!"
"Alright, don't cry if I destroy you."
"Will do."
The match started, Irelia saw her blades, their old colors and appearances, however she could sense the change in her weapon, she stroked the surface gently, tracing her finger along the edge. The blade was not dull, rather it was sharper than ever, the blades vibrated and resonated with her strongly. She knew, she was ready.
The two met at the middle lane, Yasuo drew his blade and thrust it forward. Irelia stood there and watched her blades spin in front of her, blocking out the samurai's blade. Next, she commanded the blades to attack Yasuo. Yasuo barely avoided dying while he scurried back under his turret. With fearful eyes he recalled quaking in fear. "Come on, we're almost done!" he chanted, worried. But sadly his attempt failed, at the last second, Irelia used her bladesurge and slaughtered Yasuo.
"I win." Irelia smiled and left the rift.
"Congratulations Irelia, you won. Now there is one thing I ask of you." Ye Xiu greeted his pupil as Irelia came out.
"And that is?" Irelia asked curiously.
"Will you become a member of team Xing Xin?"
Irelia was shocked, the figure she once thought to be her mentor was asking her to become part of his team.
"I gladly accept." She replied committedly.
However, at that moment, keen and suspicious ears were listening. A particular sword saint was listening contently and knew what he had to do, he knew something was off when Irelia pretty much one-shot Yasuo and he knew he couldn't idly stand by. He decided to use the same tactic as Ye Xiu did as he recruited Riven and Yasuo.