Chapter 329: The Search for a New Source of Energy
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Give it up human! I will never surrender the Fountain of Life to the likes of you!" Phango lifted the stone club again, preparing for another brawl.
The beginning phase of the battle was fairly straightforward. Zhang Yang kited the boss up to 70 to 80 meters away from the Fountain of Life before starting to attack him. Based on the damage statistics, the boss was no match to Zhang Yang. Still, it had an extremely long HP bar! With time, Zhang Yang gradually ground the boss’ HP down to 10%, which was only 80,000 HP.
Phango jumped back, and just when he was about to turn around to run, Zhang Yang activated {Dance of the Heaven and Earth}. A hollow shadow emerged out of Zhang Yang’s character and formed a soldier that wielded a long broadsword. The shadow then flew across the field and sliced into Phango like a piece of bread.
‘-10,000!’
‘-10,000!’
‘-10,000!’
‘-10,000!’
….
As expected of an ulti skill, once the skill is activated, the boss’ HP could be seen dropping down like an burst fire hydrant. Before all 10 slashes could land, Phango’s huge body suddenly burst out with a bright light and exploded with a loud boom!
The top half was completed missing, while the lower half of Phango was left standing. Blood and innards could be seen directly. It was extremely vile and disgusting!
The game should be rated R for this level of gore! What a twisted scene! No ordinary human could hold the contents of their stomach in after seeing all the blood and organ flying around!
This was not the first time Zhang Yang had used the {Dance of the Heaven and Earth}, but the skill had not dealt the final blow to the witch, Daphne. That was why he was spared such a gruesome scene!
Just when Zhang Yang was about to let it all out, the upper body of Phango came back and he fell to the ground lifeless, in one piece. Perhaps the developers of the company thought that it was just too much for younger audience and only displayed it briefly for the wow-factor.
Zhang Yang shrugged and went to pick up the battle loots. There were a total of three Gray-Silver equipment, seven Green-Copper equipment and one Assembled Equipment fragment. It was a shame that it was not the one that he wanted which was the Fireglass Necklace.
[Bloodlust Snake Skin Boots Armor Piece] (Gray-Silver, Leather Armor Piece)
Use: Combine four leather armor pieces to form a complete Bloodlust Snake Skin Boots.
Level Requirement: 70
Sigh…the smiths in ‘God’s Miracle’ sure are godly. They could fix any kind of equipment! Zhang Yang bit down on his bitterness and kept the armor piece in his inventory. This equipment only required four armor pieces, it should be easier to assemble than the Fireglass Necklace.
All that’s left was the Fountain of Life!
This contraption could easily heal 1% HP at every second. It would definitely change the tide of war. If only he could take it back to the Thunderstorm Castle, and use it to his advantage during a monster or enemy raid! Plus, if he could actually sell the item, it would definitely be worth the moon!
Just when Zhang Yang got close to the Fountain of Life, he received a system notification.
‘Ding! You have discovered a drying Fountain of Life! You may use Alchemy potion bottles to store the water from this fountain. The collected item will grant the user the ability to heal 50% HP over 10 seconds. Cool down time: 10 minutes. Item does not share the same cool down as the other potion. Hurry! The Fountain of Life is drying up!’
What the hell!? Of all the times to be drying up, it had actually chosen this time to be drying?! This is made purposefully so that players could not make use of this feature over a long term!
*glup*
The water level in the pool was getting lower and lower. Zhang Yang started to panic. Immediately, he opened his friend list and contacted Sun Xin Yu. "Icy! Go and buy 100…No! 50 stacks of potion bottles for me! Get over here as soon as possible! Be quick!"
A player’s inventory are limited, Zhang Yang had only realized that half way as he was instructing Sun Xin Yu. If he had asked Han Ying Xue or Wei Yan Er, they would surely be asking tonnes of question instead of getting to work pronto! Sun Xin Yu, however, replied with a simple affirmation and hung up.
Zhang Yang hurriedly put on the Lover’ Charm: Yang, and within 3 minutes, Sun Xin Yu appeared by his side.
"I have no time to explain. Just use the bottles and fill them up with water from this fountain!" said Zhang Yang as he took 10 stacks of potion bottles from Sun Xin Yu.
‘Ding! You have obtained [Fountain of Life] x1!’
‘Ding! You have obtained [Fountain of Life] x1!’
…
The two of them were bent over at the fountain, as if the water was made of gold, Zhang Yang and Sun Xin Yu were scooping up as much water as they could. By the time the water level got even lower, Zhang Yang and Sun Xin Yu took out their boots and hopped into the fountain to get more of the water. After 1 hour of continuous work, the water from the fountain was completely dried up, leaving a huge magical circle at the bottom. By that time, Zhang Yang and Sun Xin Yu had managed to gather a total of 18 stacks, 3,673 bottles of [Fountain of Life]! It was a big haul!
Sun Xin Yu was surprised. "You must be some sort of luck magnet. How did you even find this place?"
Zhang Yang laughed. "Hur hur. Impressed?"
Sun Xin Yu ignored his smug reply and said, "With just four more days till the Professional League, these [Fountain of Life] will really help us!"
The prowess of the bottled [Fountain of Life] was good, but as good as it seemed. For a non-tank player, 50% HP would be less potent than a [Level 4 Healing Potion] that could heal 8,000 HP, and the [Fountain of Life] required 10 seconds to fully take effect. The main specialty of this healing potion was the fact that it did not share the same cool down sequence with other healing potions. While using any level of healing potion will cause all healing potion to be in cool down, consuming the [Fountain of Life] would not, and player could use the other healing potion while the [Fountain of Life] is in effect. It effect could rival a healer! How could they not be strong? Especially during PvP match.
Zhang Yang kept a stack of [Fountain of Life] for himself and let Sun Xin Yu store the others in the guild storage. He then reverted his attention back to the magic circle at the bottom of the dried-up fountain. No wonder the fountain would dry up, it was to make way for the Teleportation point at the bottom of it! If the fountain water remained, how would the magic take place?
Zhang Yang placed his hands on the circle and heard a system notification.
‘Ding! You have discovered an ancient Teleportation Circle. The magical power that powers Teleportation magic has run out. If you want to reactivate the magic within, you will need to search for a new source of energy’
‘Ding! You have been given a quest: Search for a New Source of Energy. Will you accept it?’
Can he not?
[Search for a New Source of Energy] (Difficulty Level: B)
Quest Description: To the South, Ranging Runners roam in the Rolling Rock Canyon. The Stone Core of the Raging Runners contain mysterious powers! If you collect enough Stone Cores, you could perhaps reactivate the magic circle!
Progress: Collected Stone Cores 0/1,000
1,000. Right. ONE THOUSAND!?
Zhang Yang tossed all sort of insults he could think of in the back of his bead. What were the designers of the quest thinking? To collect 1,000 of the quest item is no easy feat! To put it logically, by the time he had collected the Stone Cores and activated the Teleportation Circle, Tiffany would have been killed already and had her blood sucked dry! All that would be left of her would be dried meat! Granted, the quest did not imply a time duration, or else he would have already failed. Still, Zhang Yang couldn’t help but groan. What were the developers thinking when they designed this quest…
Zhang Yang left the mountain and rode his way to the south, and came down to the Rolling Rock Canyon. For a canyon, it was rather small. From the higher ground where Zhang Yang was, standing, he could see that there were roughly close to hundreds of stone elemental beings rolling around, giving out a rocky, grinding sound.
[Raging Runner] (Elite, Elemental Being)
Level: 76
HP: 76,000
Defense: 600
The normal Level 70+ elite tier monster would have around 400 Defense value. Yet, these stone elemental beings had roughly 50% more defense than the norm. Zhang Yang did not care about the Defense and rode down the land and into the canyon, and charged bravely at a Raging Runner.
‘-1,356!’
The monster only just rolled over Zhang Yang and had already cause a noticeable damage to Zhang Yang. Zhang Yang understood from the attack and had a roughly estimation about the monsters. He then ignored the first monster and headed straight into the heap and kited about 16 to 17 monsters in one flush!
Based on his current equipment in hand, he could never endure the simultaneous attack from all of the monsters. However, relying on his agility, he could make sure that he was only taking at most 3 monster attacks at a time! He could easily handle that.
15 targets, that was the maximum number of monsters that {Horizontal Sweep} could strike. Even without the help from the Dark Enigmatic Sword effect, Zhang Yang had gotten used to using the kiting technique when it came to multi-killing. With the current godly weapon of his, if Zhang Yang still insisted on killing the monsters one by one, it would be a huge disgrace to the weapon itself!
With {Blast Wave} and {Horizontal Sweep} being activated repeatedly, coupled with Zhang Yang’s white bear movement speed. The Raging Runners were clearly getting frustrated. It would be extremely funny if the names of the monster would suddenly change from Raging to Infuriated!
Pak! Pak! Pak!
Like popcorn in the microwave, the stone elemental being would break apart violently, leaving behind their cores. Zhang Yang had taken only less than 2 minutes to change all 15 monsters into kernel pops. This sort of grinding speed was definitely unmatched! With the Dark Enigmatic Sword in hand, Zhang Yang could be the game’s seventh class, the Grinding King!
The only problem he faced currently was the fact that the drop rate of the Stone Cores was just too low. Of the 15 monsters that he had just killed, only 1 had dropped a Stone Core. Zhang Yang grit his teeth as he knew that this would be a long day…
There were only a few hundred of Raging Runners in the entire canyon. Even if Zhang Yang could possibly kill them all in a go, he would have to clear them all two to three times before he could gather all the Stone Cores. The major problem was the low drop rate! Since it was all RNG based, who knew how much time he would have to kill and kill again until he gathers 1,000 Stone Cores!? Still, Zhang Yang was not in a rush after all. In fact, he could take his time since there were no time limit for the quest.
Riding the bear, Zhang Yang kited another wave of monsters. This time, he was in luck. He managed to haul two cores. However, the next waves of monster did not drop a single core! Zhang Yang kept on at it till the next morning and had only managed to gather 58 cores. It was hard, but at least he had begun his first few steps for the thousand-mile journey. Still, it was not all for naught. In one night, Zhang Yang had already gained 12% experience points which was incredibly fast!
Zhang Yang opened the China level ranking board and saw that the top 10 players had barely changed.
1. Zhan Yu, Guardian, Level 74
2. Frost Night, Assassin, Level 73
3. Daffodil Daydream, Pyromancer, Level 72
4. One Sword Stroke, Guardian, Level 72
5. Fire Fountain, Pyromancer, Level 72
6. Blooming Ichor, Assassin, Level 72
7. Drizzler, Berserker, Level 71
8. Little Snow, Priest, Level 71
9. Snow Seeker, Cryomancer, Level 71
10. Lord Dullahan, Templar, Level 71
Hundred Shots, Fatty Han and several others were already over ranked and "kicked out" of the ranking list. Han Ying Xue and Wei Yan Er had missed some gaming time since the death of Wei Yan Er’s father. They had been overtaken, but were still in the top ten list.
On the other hand, Sun Xin Yu was lucky enough to obtained the [Heaven's Pearl] which granted the user 50% extra experience points, which had allowed her to remain on the ranking board even though she had a full time job!
For a few nights and days, Zhang Yang had spent his time camping in the canyon, killing stone elementals beings. At the same time, he had also spent a little time to collect some herbs.
Sadly, before he could finish the quest to gather the Stone Cores, the Professional League had already started.
On the 31st of January, the officials had announced the battle procedure of the S class and A class League battle. Since Zhang Yang and his team was the champion for the Soaring Sword Competition, they were seeded and could start on the 1st of February, fighting the first runner-up of the Soaring Sword Competition as their opponent.
Who would want to miss out the fight between the champion and the first runner up? The two teams, who happened to be strong guilds with deeply held grudges against each other, would surely bring a certain level of heat in the battle arena! On the side note, the officials had also released several new rules. One of them was the banning of using skills and items with cool down time exceeding 10 minutes. One extra rule was added, that had peaked Zhang Yang’s interest. It banned non-hunter classes from using battle pets in the battle arena.
Zhang Yang clearly remembered that during his previous life, there was no such rule implemented in the battle arena. Looks like the developers had taken notice of Zhang Yang and had purposely set it as such to offset Zhang Yang’s overwhelming prowess. Zhang Yang thought that it was rather justified. Zhang Yang was already overpowered to begin with. To allow someone like him to use a battle pet in the arena would rob the opponent of all their will to fight. Having the opponent giving up before the match even beings would only put off the heat of battle.
On the 1st of February, the first team battle Professional League had started. S class and A class both had their own battle areas and all players were welcome to visit the respective arenas to spectate the match.
Zhang Yang’s own battle team were as such: Sun Xin Yu, Wei Yan Er, Daffodil Daydream, Hundred Shots, Lost Dream, and himself. Fatty Han, Galileo, and Fantasy Sweetheart had taken the leading roles of the secondary battle team.
The main battle team - (Zhang Yang’s team) had accepted to carry the name of Silky Soft Holdings. The secondary battle team, which was led by Fatty Han, had accepted a contract from another veteran I.T company in china. The main team’s name was Silky Soft Battle Team, while the secondary team name was Pride and Honor Battle Team.
This was the first Professional League ever. Even though the Soaring Sword competition was a success, the sponsors were not too deeply involved, thus their monetary remuneration was not very luxurious.
Zhang Yang’s team had accepted 5,000,000 dollars a year as a payment to carry the name of Silky Soft Holdings. That was due to the fact that the company owners themselves were in his team. On the other hand, Fatty Han’s team, Pride and Honor Battle Team had accepted an 8,000,000 payment a year!
Zhang Yang knew something else. According to proper history, after two to three month after the start of the first Professional League fights, all companies would increase their sponsorship rate due to the massive increase in popularity of the fights. Some even signed lucrative contracts with the individual players themselves!
‘Ding! The battle of Silky Soft Battle Team VS Sky and Ocean Electronics Battle Team will commence in 5 minutes! Members of Silky Soft Battle Team, please proceed into the battle arena within 5 minutes prior of this notification. Failure to do so will cause an automatic forfeit of your participation!’
7.30pm, Zhang Yang’s team had received the same notification. Without delay, everyone entered the battle arena and allowed the system to teleport them to their own station. One thing that Zhang Yang felt rather impressed was that players could enter the arena no matter where they were. Upon exiting, the players will be teleported back to where they were before entering. Participants no longer needed to be within a major city to enter the battle arena. That being said, players had to be out of combat mode.
Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!
One by one, they appeared next each other. Once everyone from Silky Soft Battle Team had gathered, an interactive window appeared in front of Zhang Yang. As the team leader, he had to decide the order in which they would fight.
"First, the 1v1 fights. I will fight the first battle. Ice, you’re second. Little brat, you’re third. Daffodil Daydream, fourth. Lost Dream, fifth. Hundred Shots, sixth. Snow b*tch, you’re the seventh. Everyone got that?"
"As for the team fights, Ice cube, little brat, Lost Dream, Snow b*tch, and me will fight. Remember, try to win the first 5 matches. Do not drag it to the sixth or the seventh. The same goes for the team fights!"