Chapter 114: Clear Lotus – The Ice Whisperer
If monsters had conscious thought, they would be bawling in frustration and denial like sore losers by now!
What kind of cheating douche was this Guardian?! How does he heal himself back to full health like that?! The worst part of it was the fact that he could heal way faster than any Priest or Scared Knight at his level! What was the point of attacking him anyway... he would just heal himself and they would start from ground zero again... we might as well just give up and drink tea...
The Tower Skeleton Sorcerer however, was not sentient or self-aware in any way, and was chanting non-stop, his boney jaw chattering, to cast <Shadow Arrow> after <Shadow Arrow>. It would stop at nothing to kill Zhang Yang.
However, with one full health bar, Zhang Yang could bring down 2/3 of the monster's HP before he activated any of his HP regenerating skills, as if his healing was on steroids. The one having rough days would be the monsters facing Zhang Yang.
It took him roughly 10 seconds to kill the monster.
"Phew! Sorcerer-types are definitely troublesome!" Zhang Yang sighed as he slowed down to eat some health recovering snacks.
"Ooi! Noob tank! Where are you? Are you inside?" Wei Yan Er called out to Zhang Yang via the voice messenger.
"I'm in the third floor now! Are you guys here already?" Zhang Yang replied as he walked to the corpse, picking up some [Cotton Cloth] and coins. There was even a Level 30 Green-Copper equipment. It was not worth much, but it could at least be sold for 10 to 20 gold coins.
"Don't even dream of that happening. There are so many players outside here that the line stretches from Misty Valley all the way to Tullon Town! Some even started getting into brawls since they're out of options. Woah! Speak of the devil. Woohoo!! Kick his ass! *ahem* As I was saying, there's no way for us. We'll definitely not be entering. What do we do now?"
"Might as well just do something else. You can either wait for the crowd to disperse and then sneak in, or just give it up. If you don't see any way in, then just go back!"
Against such numbers, they would never be able to fight their way into the tower. They had better odds finding a high-level boss to cast <Silence> on every single player out there.
"Sigh! What a letdown!" Wei Yan Er abruptly hung up on the call.
"What a rude little brat!" Zhang Yang laughed as he continued further down the floors.
Upon encountering the second Sorcerer, he activated the sword's <Lifesteal> to fight it. He made quick work of it, and sat down, waiting for the <Berserker's Heal> to finish its cooldown before proceeding.
One by one, he continued to repeat the same cycle of skills to cut his way through the floor. The progress was snail-paced, only reaching the end of the floor after half an hour. By then, the first Sorcerer that he killed had already respawned.
"Finally! The fourth floor! I'm pretty sure everyone else is still struggling on the First Floor!" Zhang Yang grinned evilly and proceed.
Eh!? What the hell? What a vast difference!
The fourth floor was not a huge field like all the others, it was a huge maze! From the top of the stairs, Zhang Yang could see the maze and all its complexities, but he could not see the end of it. He could not even make out the right path!
"How old-fashioned! This is just an old-school method used in the olden days of RPG to waste a player's time! Sigh!" Zhang Yang dragged his feet into the maze.
He came across a 3-way intersection after only walking 8 meters in.
"I'll only need to keep following the right wall, might as well just walk a few more!" Zhang Yang muttered. This method was slow, but fool proof. If you were out of directions, you could just walk along the walls to your right or left to find your way out.
Shush!
There was a sudden disturbance in the air as Zhang Yang walked. He noticed it immediately and used <Charge> towards the general direction of the disturbance.
'-691!'
A damage text popped out and a shadowy figure appeared. It was holding a pair of short swords in its hands, as it dashed towards Zhang Yang to attack.
Zhang Yang activated <Block> and <Shield Bash> to reveal its true form.
It was a Spectre Assassin. Its skeletal body was covered in a thick gray colored cloth, its face was also completely covered with the same material but its eye sockets were lit with dark flames.
[Tomb Assassin] (Elite)
Level: 36
HP: 50,000
Only one of the attacks was blocked! The other sword was cutting through the air as it swiftly approached Zhang Yang! A dual-wielding monster! Its attack interval was extremely short!
Zhang Yang quickly activated another <Block> and tumbled over to evade another incoming attack that he could not block. This assassin struck hard and fast, and did so very frequently. Just when it could not get any worse, it revealed its skill! Zhang Yang saw a flash of black light appeared on his body and a DoT icon appeared on his head.
[Fatal Poison]: Receive 500 Natural damage over 15 seconds. Can be stacked 5 times.
Damn! Of all things, he got poisoned! Damn DoT!
Zhang Yang quickly attacked to finish the monster off as fast as he could. Zhang Yang could evade and block almost all physical attacks but he could not prevent himself from the DoT skill!
'-1,516!'
'-3,072!'
'-711!'
Zhang Yang chained attack after attack on the monster, giving all he got and finally killed off the assassin about a minute later.
Zhang Yang sat down and restore his HP with health recovering snacks. Luckily the monster was not as strong as a player. Its DoT effect infliction success rate was low. Zhang Yang was only stacked with 2 layers of the poison before he killed the monster off. He only had 300 HP remaining but he had not activated any of his emergency skills with long cooldowns.
After restoring to full health, Zhang Yang got up and walked over to pick up the loot.
[First Aid: Level 1 Antidote Bandage] (Skill Book)
Use: Teaches you how to make a [Level 1 Antidote Bandage]
Require: Advance First Aid.
Zhang Yang eyes glinted with joy. It was just like a Fatty Han giving him a phone charger when his phone was running out of battery! It was just what he needed, and the game decided to help him with it! He quickly took the skill book and learned it.
[Level 1 Antidote Bandage]: Remove a Level 60 and below Poison effect.
Require: Advanced First Aid.
Cooldown time: 15 seconds.
The items required to make the bandage were only slightly more costly than the [Cotton Bandage]. It only needed an additional [Cotton Cloth], bringing the total to 2!
Zhang Yang snickered. He immediately crafted 10 stacks of [Level 1 Antidote Bandage] for later use. He was now a Specialist-tier First Aid; he could make 6 items at one time. It only took him 30 to 40 seconds to make that amount.
Along the way, Zhang Yang encountered many more Spectre Assassins. None of them could sneak up to Zhang Yang, not when he had so much experience in fighting actual assassin players. Without the fear of getting poisoned, Zhang Yang could easily counter the attacks of the thieves and kill them all without a scratch!
At times like these, a skill book, an item, or an equipment with special effect, any one of these could actually turn the tide of battle for some! Before Zhang Yang had the [Level 1 Antidote Bandage], he could only face one assassin at a time, but now, he could take several of them at a time!
This maze was so complicated that it turned from being tiring to being downright annoying. Coupled with the endless amount of assassins sneaking around, Zhang Yang only managed to escape the maze after 2 hours of wandering about inside!
"GAH! F*cking annoying!" Zhang Yang sighed heavily. He looked up and saw a tightly sealed door no further than 10 meters ahead that led down to the fifth floor. Just as he was about to move his right leg forward, he felt a sudden sensation. It was a killing intent.
Shush!
Zhang Yang slashed at the air to his left side, and a splash of blood appeared in the air!
'-661!'
The slender body of a woman appeared out of thin air as Zhang Yang had forced the thing out of stealth. It was a super sexy Elf woman with pointy ears, sparkly eyes, and skin so fair that no one on Earth could compete with!
A Spectre! And a highly leveled one too at that!
Only a high leveled spectre could maintain the appearance of its previous life before it died. Based on its appearance alone, you could never differentiate a high level spectre from a normal living being!
[Clear Lotus - The Ice Whisperer] (Gray-Silver)
Level: 36
HP: 400,000
Note: She was the Wind Ranger of the Flame Wolves Army. She was converted into a Spectre by the Evil Sorcerer Terpot Ryhar
Damn! No wonder all the monsters here are are Spectres. It looked like those high ranked ones were trapped down here! If the fourth floor has Clear Lotus as the boss, it could mean that up to 10 bosses stood between him and the last floor!
A field boss was quite rare, unlike the boss in the dungeon where a normal player could fight it alone! That was one of the reasons why most of the field bosses out there had better drops than dungeon bosses! Those valuable items like skill book, recipes, pets, and mounts were all drops from field bosses!
10 Gray-Silver field bosses for him alone to kill! Talk about digging up an oil rig!
Zhang Yang recalled back to the time when he killed the Cave of Bones's Shurian; how many awesome items did he have to give up to the team!
Right now, the question was whether or not he could go all the way to the last floor!
If his opponent was a physical attack-type monster, he would be able to force his way through fairly easily. But if he faced a magical attack-type, his <Block> will be rendered useless! That still would not be too much trouble if that particular boss had 30,000 or 50,000 HP, but if the boss had more than 1 million HP, where would he even begin?
"This is a restricted area. All intruders must die!" Clear Lotus let out a crystal crisp voice. She gripped the daggers in her hands and slashed at Zhang Yang's throat!
<Block>!
'-199!' <Block> reflect damage.
'-447!' <Shield Bash>.
An eye for an eye, after a normal attack, Zhang Yang cast <Horizontal Sweep> and inflicted a critical attack.
'-2,472!'
The boss snarled in anger and swung the daggers in her hands even faster than better.
<Block>!
<Block>!
<Block>!
'+100!'
The set-equipment effect would still trigger with a successful <Block>.
No matter what kind of boss it was, it would be most definitely be frustrating when fighting someone who could activate <Block> every freaking second!
In an instant, a black outline appeared around the boss' daggers and Zhang Yang head was adorned with a DoT icon above it.
'Ding! You have received Spectre's Decay (1 stack). Received 800 Natural damage every 3 seconds for 30 seconds!'
'Ding! You have received Spectre's Decay (2 stack). Received 1600 Natural damage every 3 seconds for 30 seconds!'
As expected from a boss, she could inflict two layers of DoT skill at one go!
Zhang Yang quickly consumed a [Level 1 Antidote Bandage] to clear one Poison effect. The second Poison effect could only be cleared after 10 seconds.
'-640!'
'-640!'
'-640!'
In just 10 seconds, Zhang Yang received a total of ,1920 points of poison damage!