Chapter 150: 3rd Floor
Zhang Yang sighed heavily. "Only second generation youngsters from wealthy families could do such things at no consequence! You have your entire future laid out for you! All you have to do is to simply follow the yellow brick road, and your life will as comfortable as you can ever imagine!"
"Don't be jealous dummy! You are also considered a millionaire right now! First generation millionaires like you have so much more impact that second generations!"Han Ying Xue shot back without pause.
As Endless Starlight listened to their conversation, a nagging instinct tugged at his heart. With a sudden jump, he was completely flat on the ground, hugging Zhang Yang's feet. "Big bro Zhan Yu! Please take care of me!"
"Scram! If Little Yang ever wants to take care of anyone, they better be someone as pretty as Little Snow or the perfect sister Yu here! As for you? Just stay here with me and be my underling!" said Fatty Han as he reached out with his flabby arms and patted Endless Starlight's shoulders.
Han Ying Xue and Sun Xin Yu were furious
"Dirty minded pig! Don't expect me to heal you again!"
The other woman disappeared with a "poof!" and entered <Stealth>. She reappeared a few seconds later behind Fatty Han, stunning him as star circled around his head. The blade in her hands gleamed brightly as light reflected off the blade like a disco ball as she danced around. After <Ambush> and <Kidney Shot> ended, Fatty Han was left with a tiny bit of HP. Sun Xin Yu's gears were at their best yet. A single complete combo of <Ambush> and <Kidney Shot> could instantly kill off any non-tank class player! There's no need to start a new combo at all!
At the current stage of the player's progress, cases of instant kills were very common. A Gray-Silver equipment could provide more damage than it could provide Vitality. That was why the overwhelming damage could easily kill anyone off.
Once players around had started to put on Yellow-Golden tier equipment, the situation will change. Since Yellow-Gold tier equipment could provide much more Vitality, similarly leveled players could fight and not have duels end in seconds. It was still not impossible to instantly kill someone, but it would be more dependent on luck. A Lucky Strike dealing 6 times the normal amount of damage was an example!
When Fatty Han had only around 100 HP left, Sun Xin Yu stopped her blade and slid it back into the sheathe at her waist. A pair of annoyed, furious eyes stared into him and she said, "If I ever hear you speak of such things again, I will make sure that you permanently remain at level 41!"
If they were to have a real fight, in the real world, with Fatty Han's body and fist, he could have been more than a match to Sun Xin Yu! But if they were to battle in the game, with the rules and mechanics of the game, Fatty Han could only bow down to her. Any pro player could easily toy with him till his death! Fatty Han knew this, and he treasured his current level the most as he still had the ambition to be in the Level Ranking board again, even if it was just to brag in front of the Message Parlor girls.
Like a cat getting his tongue, Fatty Han was rendered as silent as a mouse by Sun Xin Yu.
The party went forward with the force of a thousand-man army to the 4th floor.
As they mad their way through about one third of the castle area, the monsters had gradually changed into multiple variations of wolves.
[Berserk Skeleton Wolf] (Elite, Spectre)
Level: 44
HP: 88,000
MP: 44,000
"I guess Berserk Skeleton Wolves and Berserk Wolves have about the same skills!" Zhang Yang guessed.
Shuush!
He slid across the floor and stunned one of the wolf monsters with <Charge>. He chained his attack with a normal attack.
"-921!"
"-1200!"
The wolf recovered from the stun and immediately counterattacked with a bite, causing visible physical damage to Zhang Yang. Following closely was a <Fire Ball> that came blasting out from its mouth, dealing magical damage.
Zhang Yang nodded and call out to Endless Starlight. "Starlight, take on one monster as well. I see that the damage is not that powerful. Continue to kite more of them to increase our speed."
The two tanks began working together, resulting in a faster raiding pace. It helped that this floor had significantly lesser monsters than the two previous floors. They only took about 3 hours to slay every Berserk Skeleton Wolf in their path. After a while, they entered a new area with a new type of monster.
[Blazing Skeleton Bird] (Elite, Spectre)
Level: 45
HP: 60,000
MP: 50,000
This is a huge bird-like creature. Everyone was staring in awe at the bird monster that somehow remained in the air by flapping its boney wings.
"Eh...How is that bird able to fly? I mean...look at it! Those wings are just bones! It doesn't make sense!" asked Wei Yan Er.
Zhang Yang frowned so hard that wrinkles started to appear on his forehead. "Little brat, it's just a game. I bet that even pigs could fly. What's so strange about that?"
"Boo..." Wei Yan Er crossed her arms and pouted her lips.
Zhang Yang went up to the monster to start the fight while the remaining party members followed a moment after.
The monster responded with a loud shriek and spewed a very long beam of flame out from its mouth. It aimed at Zhang Yang first and quickly spun around by 360 degrees, hitting every melee attacker with strong damage. Everyone received at least 1000 damage.
"This attack is about the same as the 3rd boss in the Bangar Crypt. It's called Dragon Breath or something like that...If only players could learn the same skill. That would be sick!" said Fatty Han.
Zhang Yang replied him after a moment of silent. "If I remember correctly, there's a similar skill for Spellcasters. It could even stun a player for 3 seconds! However, the flame's duration is rather short. You would need excellent control if you wanted to hit every target in the area!"
Daffodil Daydream got excited and cried. "Is it obtainable from the Class Instructor or from a skill book?"
"I think it comes from a skill book." Zhang Yang was not as well-versed in other classes besides Guardians.
The party made quick progress. No matter how strong the Blazing Skeleton Bird was, it could not withstand the party's overwhelming attack for long. The team went on hacking and slashing away and made it to the end of the 3rd floor and the entrance of the 4th floor.
In front of the entrance was a female centaur seated like horse; with her legs folded beneath her body. Surrounding her were 3 beasts, a Saber-tooth Skeleton Tiger, a Berserk Skeleton Wolf, and a Blazing Skeleton Bird. The fierce beasts that they encountered before this were wild and ferocious, but the beasts close to the Centaur were surprisingly tame. The Skeleton Tiger and Wolf were lying on their backs, submissively revealing their bellies to their owner. From the looks of it, appearances aside, they behaved exactly like domesticated cats and dogs.
[The Queen, Shimalue Gutan] (Gray-Silver, Spectre)
Level: 46
HP: 920,000
MP: 500,000
The tiger, wolf, and bird were respectively called Tai Tai, Wu Wu, and Gu Gu, with 10,000 HP each.
"What's the plan?"
Everyone turned their heads to face Zhang Yang.
Zhang Yang stepped back, raising his hands. "What are you looking at me for? You guys think that I know everything?!"
Everyone exchanged a look and nodded their heads repeatedly.
"F*ck!" Zhang Yang was so annoyed by that fact, he nearly broke his teeth from gnashing them together. He sighed heavily and said, "The tiger has the stackable <Mangle> skill, so he has to be the first to go! We cannot target the others yet since the skill could take out any tank if we let it stack too many times."
He paused to think for a while and said, "Starlight, you're to pull the bird out of the..."
"BLEH..."
Zhang Yang was suddenly interrupted by Fatty Han and Hundred Shots. Fatty Han was a little overdramatic. Grabbing his tummy and laughed, he said. "Starlight, pull your bird1 out!"
Endless Starlight immediately picked up his hammer and wanted to smash Fatty Han's face when Zhang Yang quickly tugged Starlight back.
"Stop! Stop! Stop!"
"Sigh... can you guys at least let me finish my explanation? The Blazing Skeleton Bird is a magic type, therefore Starlight would be more suitable to handle it! You'll need to get the monster alone to one side before we can attack it. Our targets will start with the tiger, the wolf and lastly, the bird. We will fight the boss only when all other 3 beasts are taken out!"
"Okay!" Everyone nodded their heads
"Starlight! I will start the fight, you'll come in after a bit and use <Provoke> to pull the monster away!"
"Roger that!" said Endless Starlight.
"Let's get started then!" said Zhang Yang as he ran towards the monsters with the sword gleaming in his hand,
"Foreigners!? How dare you invade this grand castle of the Centaurs!?" Shimalue Gutan stood up on her hooves immediately. "Guards! Kill the invaders!"
After a silent respond, Shimalue Gutan cried out in anger when there as no one appeared to her aid. "Tai Tai, Wu Wu, Gu Gu! The Queen orders you to kill these invaders!"
All 3 beasts roared and shrieked in their own manners, charging towards Zhang Yang.
<Charge>!
Zhang Yang slammed into the Saber-Tooth Skeleton Tiger and quickly used <Blood Rage> to bring up his Rage and followed up with a <Horizontal Sweep>.
"-702!"
"-759!"
"-738!"
Damage texts popped up from all 3 beasts. Endless Starlight quickly cast <Taunting Fist> on the bird monster and dragged the miniboss away.
<Taunting Fist> is a Defender's skill unlocked at level 30. It is a provoking type of skill that forces the target to forcefully engage the caster for 2 seconds, and deals an additional 100% Holy damage based on Strength.
After Endless Starlight had successfully lured the bird away, Zhang Yang immediately cast <Thunder Strike>, slowing two beasts down, and headed straight for the boss herself.
The boss was a magic attack type monster. While commanding the beasts to attack, the boss concurrently started a chant for a spell and cast <Punishment Ray>.
"-1613!"
Zhang Yang immediately received damage. The damage value was not low, but considering the fact that Shimalue Gutan was a boss, it was low by boss standards!
"+1984!"
Han Ying Xue used <Brilliant Light> to heal a huge amount of HP. This skill was found by Han Ying Xue herself during one of her window shopping sprees. After she had asked Zhang Yang about the skill's effect, she bought the skill book for 100,000 gold coins and learned the skill soon after.
In the end, after she bought the skill book, Han Ying Xue tried to beat around the bush to avoid returning Zhang Yang's 90,000 gold coins. Her reason being, "This girl here learned this skill for your sake! I was already nice enough to pay for a portion of it! Besides, that money was for my wedding dress!"
Sigh...All in all, the skill was a very powerful healing spell alright.
[Brilliant Light] (Level 1): Invokes the blessing of the light. Heals a target by 200% magic attack.
Cool down time: 15 seconds.
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Once the skill is maxed out, it would reduce the cool down time to only 6 seconds. Truly an OP skill.
"-744!"
Zhang Yang dashed towards the main boss and slashed his sword across her body, sending a stream of fresh blood gushing out.
"How dare you attack the Queen!? Only death could cleanse your sins!" bellowed Shimalue Gutan furiously.
Boom!
"-1603!"
Another <Punishment Ray> struck him.
Huh! This boss' attack sure was not as strong as he had thought.
No sooner after that thought, the tiger and the wolf came charging towards Zhang Yang and attacked him simultaneously.
<Cripple Defense>! <Cripple Defense>! <Cripple Defense>!
Zhang Yang first targeted the Saber-Tooth Skeleton Tiger and stacked 5 layers of <Cripple Defense>. He then cast <Thunder Strike> to slow the monsters down and tried his best to reduce the total damage he would receive by kiting them around, so that only one of the monster would be able attack him at a time. As for the boss, slowed down or not, she would not need to move around to attack him, it would not make any difference.
1Bird - The Chinese tend to refer to the male reproductive organ as bird in their native language.