Chapter 144: Another One!
Endless Starlight's first thought was, once all the skills were out, even if he could not capture all the monster's aggro, he could at least capture 3 monster's attention. However, he was surprised that not a single monster had turned to face him!
Pro!
As a tank, especially a Defender tank, Endless Starlight understood clearly the difficulty at maintaining a mass aggro! As a Defender that was said to excel in mass aggro control, whenever he faced a large group of monsters, there was bound to be one or two monster that would slip pass his fingers and cause trouble to the attacking players. It cannot be helped, even if a Defender is supposed to be strong at mass control, they had only <Devotion> and <Spike Shield>, the rest of a Defender's skills could only hit a maximum of 3 targets. That was why when a Defender and pulled a group of monsters, he must not focus on one but all monsters simultaneously. A Defender had to switch his target constantly to make sure that all monster had an equal amount of aggro.
Zhan Yu here on the other hand was an odd existence. Not only he had managed to prevent anyone from OT, he could even prevent a Defender from getting ahold of any monster's aggro! This guy is extremely strong, beyond epic proportions!
Even though the Centaur Royal Guards were elite monster, they did not last long when everyone was attacking together! Since players obtain their AoE skill at level 20, as long as the tank could hold on to the monster's aggro firmly, they could attack to their heart content, and increase their killing efficiency to its maximum! One minute later, monsters started to drop dead, after another 30 seconds, all 16 monsters had died and dropped the first battle loot.
'Ding! You have kill Centaur Royal Guard. Obtained 10,050 Experience Points (50 point party bonus!)!'
'Ding! You have kill...'
Everyone heard the repetitive rings of the notification as their experience point rose up like the beanstalk. Everyone had obtained at least 160,000 experience points!
"Woah! My experience points rose up like a rocket!" Daffodil Daydream smiled from ear to ear. Her skills were good. She had been depending on the AoE skill <Rain of Fire> to kill monsters at a fast pace. However, she could only handle 7 to 8 normal tier monster at most! The experience point was not fast compared to this. No matter how fast she could skill, this method was much faster than her working alone! These were elite monsters! Their HP was at least 20 times the HP of a regular normal monsters. The experience points she had just obtained was at least 20 times more!
Fatty Han laughed. "Haha! When we had done with these monsters here! I can get myself into the Level Ranking Board again!"
So far, in White Jade Castle, the first place was held by Ashen Reborn at level 42, Puppy Soldier from at level 41 being the last. Do not underestimate them for the fact that they were only 2 levels ahead of Fatty Han. Once players had reached the level 40 threshold, gaining another level from there was even harder and ever. Under normal circumstances, player would have to at least spend 5 days to gain just one level!
The fastest way to gain levels was to fight and kill monsters in groups! If those monsters were elite tier, the leveling speed will be much faster. That was why Fatty Han was so confident.
Zhang Yang grined and cried out. "Fatty, do your thing again!"
Since the first wave of monster was rather smooth, Fatty Han tried a little better and aim <Barrage> at the center among the crowds of monsters. This would not only attract the monsters that are attacked, it would also trigger the nearby monsters. This time, he had pulled 21 monsters.
Zhang Yang turned to Endless Starlight and said, "Starlight, let's compete. Let's see who could pull more monsters this time?" Professionals are all a little egoistical. If you want to convince them, you'll have to display a better performance than they could.
Zhang Yang had a few seconds head start at the first waves of monsters, and inflicted a good amount of aggro. This time, Starlight was confident. He strafed along with Zhang Yang side by side. Even if he could not be as good as Zhang Yang, he could still hold on to several monster's aggro firmly.
He immediately replied, "Ok! But neither of us can use <Provoke>!"
He then raised his shield in his hand and tossed the shield before he was anywhere near the monsters.
Zhang Yang nodded and activated <Blood Rage>. He gained 30 Rage and used <Charge> after a few steps forward to get into range. The range of <Charge> was shorter than <Shield Toss>.
<Horizontal Sweep>!
With a single stroke, his damage output was instantly spiked! A Guardian's <Shield Oath> could provide additional 20% aggro value. Even if his attack were not aggro-inducing type, he had cause 1,000 over damage, his aggro value would be the same as other classes' 1,200 worth of damage aggro value!
Every monster around turned their heads to Zhang Yang instantly.
<Thunder Strike>! Slow!
Another chain of attacks was unleashed, all crowded and concentration like fireworks in the sky! Zhang Yang lead the monsters around circling.
Starlight was frustrated at his failure. No matter how many skills he threw out, not a single monster would even turn their head to look at him! As if he was reliving a psychological nightmare that he experienced in his past, Starlight turned solemn.
Zhang Yang smiled warmly and said, "Starlight, do you know why all the monsters attack me instead?"
"..."
"That's because a tank efficiency depends not only on skills and technique. You'll also need strong equipment to back you up! Even two of your attacks couldn't' compare to one of mine! How do you expect the monsters to be lured towards you?!" Zhang Yang laughed.
Wei Yan Er laughed as well. "Hehe! You must have that kind of perverted face as well! That's why the monster won't even want to look at you! Unless you have the looks of a beauty lady like me, my cousin sister, Sister Sun, and this beautiful Daffodil lady here!"
Zhang Yang turned around and raised an eye brow. "Little brat! The rest are fine, but you're way too far from being a lady!"
Wei Yan Er could not help but to lower her head and stare at her own flat chest. She then got angry and bared her teeth at Zhang Yang.
"Yan Er, don't mind him! He is just a little boy! Only a little boy would pick a fight with little girls!" Han Ying Xue consoled her.
Wei Yan Er nodded but twitched her eyes when she felt that something was wrong with her cousin sister's statement. "Hey! Why'd you call me a little girl!?"
Everyone laughed happily and the tension in the air was dispersed and replaced with warm comradeship. After a while, the second wave of monsters were killed. This time, they were lucky. There were many Level 40 Black-Steel equipment. Even though the equipment were weak but they were at level 40! They could fetch a few gold coins in the Little Merchandize Shop!
Endless Starlight was not a numbskull. He understood what was Zhang Yang trying to explain to him. Yet, he sighed heavily. "My equipment is bad and I can't find a way to upgrade them. Even time I joined a dungeon, I would find a random party. Let's not even mention a field boss!"
He would have been safe if he had not mention field boss. But when he did, Daffodil twitched and almost blasted him away with a <Fire Blast>.
Zhang Yang laughed and said, "Our guild, Lone Desert Smoke had recently decided to build a secondary dungeon raiding team. You could try and be the main tank for that team!"
The moment Zhang Yang had said that, the rest of his gang raised an eyebrow. Since when we were building a second team?
Zhang Yang noticed them but remained quiet.
I had that thought when I saw Endless Starlight!
Endless Starlight was stunned and expressed a face that was both happy and suspicious.
Lone Desert Smoke was now at big hit in the community. They had successfully obtained 4 First Clear Achievement. Even though their standard operating procedure was not as strong and efficient as a super guild, they could still outperform their own expectations and raise on to the top and beyond! There were sayings among the players around that anyone who could join Lone Desert Smoke would be leaping in a huge gap of performance. There were even players from other major cities had sent their request for an interview to join the guild. As long as the guild would accept them into the guild, anyone would be willing to run from anywhere around the globe just to be in White Jade Castle.
However, under Zhang Yang's strict "Only Elites" rule, Lone Desert Smoke showed a slower expansion rate. Because of that, many players were proud to be in the guild. To them, it was a display of both power and capability!
However, a true professional would not just walk up to your door step and volunteer themselves to the guild. A diamond would shine bright on its own, as long as them could perform better than the rest of the players around, other guild would naturally send their invitation instead! So far, Lone Desert Smoke had recruited close to 2,000 players of high-level players, but neither of them were players that was one of the professionals Zhang Yang could recognized in his previous life.
However, at that moment, Endless Starlight was touched! Zhang Yang had expressed his sincerity! Even though the secondary dungeon raid party is not the best team, he was still offered a position as the second team main tank in the guild! This was an achievement better than he could ever have!
"Join us! Join our guild!" Striking the metal while it's hot, Zhang Yang sent a guild invitation over with a warm smile.
Endless Starlight was already wavering; and when Zhang Yang had offered him a place among his side, he accepted it grudgingly.
Just like that, Zhang Yang had effortlessly obtained a strong future tank.
Next...
Zhang Yang turned around and faced Daffodil Daydream and smiled kindly.
"Daffodil, since you do not have a guild, why don't you join us as well? We are playing a game, might as well get along together!"
Wei Yan Er had goosebumps the moment she saw Zhang Yang's weird smile. "Noob tank, that kind of face are you wearing...You look like those weird uncles who goes around in their vans to kidnap little girls."
"Nah...I think that he looked more like one of those pimps who kidnap young girls for their own business!" said Han Ying Xue.
Daffodil scoffed. "I do not wish to be in the same guild as that freak!"
Zhang Yang laughed lightly and desisted. Since he had the time of his life, he could slowly lure her in later.
Fatty Han continued to fire <Barrage> and the party slowly proceed in deeper. Sun Xin Yu had gone off alone in stealth to search for the second-floor entrance. She came back after quite some time and reveal the location at the end of this floor! There was even a level 40 boss guarding it!
Everyone got excited when they know that there was a boss waiting for them! Level 40 boss means level 40 equipment!
The team killed and killed their way in. Every one put their backs into proceeding further down the floor but the monsters here was just too many for them to handle. They had fought until 12 midnight and had only cleared one third of the entire monsters around.
Zhang Yang had been hearing some sneezes from behind and found out that the girls, especially Wei Yan Er, Han Ying Xue, and Daffodil Daydream had been sneezing. He then sighed worriedly and announced. "Alright, let's call it a day! Let's find a safe spot and log off then. We'll continue this tomorrow!"
"Ok!" Even the men were shaking their heads, trying their best to stay awake this whole time. They would have skipped their bed time if they knew that the Castle had only one floor. It's better to rest properly if they wanted to clear the entire Castle properly since there were 5 floors to go! Normally, there would be a mini-boss on every floor, and the last one on the 5th floor would be the last boss! If the rest of the floors were as jam packed as the first floor, the party would need to spend at least 3 to 4 days if they were to clear the entire Castle!
Zhang Yang had decided that it would be better for the party to have their proper rest. Tomorrow, they shall fight with all their might!