Chapter 399: The Vampire’s Touch
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Both Lorraine and Phoebe had dropped a weird item called [Vampire’s Fang].
[Vampire’s Fang]
Use: Collect and combine 7 Vampire’s Fangs to form a [Vampire’s Touch].
"Huh." Said Zhang Yang as he read through the item description of the [Vampire’s Fang]. [Vampire’s Touch] was an Enhancing item similar to that of Rune Stone, and a Whetstone that is used on weapons to increase its power. Like the item name suggested, the [Vampire’s Touch], would grant a Lifesteal effect on the weapon that was chosen to be enhanced. Since it was a rare effect, it was stronger than regular enhancement via other methods. The Lifesteal effect gained from this item cannot be stacked with Rune Stones nor Whetstones. Among the three enhancing items, only one can be applied at the same time.
Unlike the Rune Stones made from Rune Crafters, or Whetstones made from Smithers, [Vampire’s Touch] can only be found by hunting the vampires and collecting their fangs. Furthermore, [Vampire’s Fang] would only be dropped by special vampires and not the "nameless" normal monsters. The drop rate was so low that not even the boss might drop them.
All and all, the item was extremely rare.
After collecting all the battle loots, Zhang Yang sat down to heal himself. After killing two elite monsters with super long HPs who were capable of healing themselves, he had suffered quite the damage and was only left with less than 20,000 HP. Zhang Yang was rather relieved that the other vampires who were in the building did join the fight with Lorraine and Phoebe, providing enough time for Zhang Yang to heal.
After healing, Zhang Yang entered the living room again. Instead of fighting, the vampires inside were still enjoying themselves with glasses of wines and vibrant conversation between themselves. They were cheerful and happy as if someone from their party had just won a major battle of some sort.
During the battle initiation by Phoebe and Lorraine had broken the door earlier, Zhang Yang had no need to make a flashy appearance to enter the hall. None of the vampires inside were alerted by his entry. Zhang Yang had chosen to lure one monster at a time, and picked one of the vampires, and attacked with him {Spear of Obliteration}. The vampire that was lured was named Tolor, and he jumped from his seat and flew towards Zhang Yang.
"Eh!? You’re the human from before! Where is Lorraine? Where is Phoebe!?" The vampire cried out in surprise.
Zhang Yang smirked and landed one attack. "You’ll soon find out."
"Bastard!" Tolor bellowed and attacked with the same style as Lorraine and Phoebe; hands wide open, with sharp claws ready to dismember Zhang Yang’s limbs. Even though the male vampire looked very strong, he was beaten to a pulp by Zhang Yang. He had also flown to the garden to heal himself but had only prolonged his death by a minute or so. Tolor did not drop any [Vampire’s Fang] which left Zhang Yang slightly disappointed.
Like changing the tea leaves of a pot, Zhang Yang defeated all the vampires in the hall one by one. Fortunately, he had collected all 7 pieces of the fangs and formed one complete [Vampire’s Touch].
[Vampire’s Touch (Beginner)] (Usable)
Use: Use it on a weapon, grants the ability to restore 5% HP on every hit.
Level Requirement: 80
The item description dictated that the Lifesteal effect would only be active on a successful hit. That would mean that skills like {Thunder Strike}, and {Shield Bash} that did not attack with the sword would not trigger the Lifesteal effect. However, if Zhang Yang were to use AoE multi-target skills like {Blast Wave} and {Horizontal Sweep}, coupled with the sword skill echoing effect, if would all be factored in!
Take {Blast Wave} for example. Even though the skill was based on the weapon’s attack, 5% of 1,178 would be 60 HP. However, if the skill was used on a group of 30 monsters, and the sword would proc for four counts, the total amount healed would be over 7,000!
Without thinking twice, Zhang Yang used the item on the sword and replaced the Lifesteal effect with the original one. By far, the profession Rune Craft was not strong nor OP enough. Only until one was able to produce a Rune of +6 and +7, only then it would be considered to be a powerful profession that would burn gold on the side. At least, by then, it would be worth every penny spent.
Zhang Yang wrapped things up in the hall and proceeded forward. After the living room was a long empty corridor which led to a staircase to the second floor. The building was the nest of the vampires, the system would naturally make it harder for players to pass through it. Before Zhang Yang could reach the staircase, vampires from both ends of corridor attacked Zhang Yang in a large group. Even though they were elite tier, they were the "real" elite tier, unlike Phoebe and Lorraine who had far more HP and attack. Naturally, Zhang Yang had cleared the corridor with ease and went up to the second floor.
Before Zhang Yang could observe the environment of the second floor, a white figure came shooting towards him. There was a long black whip on her right hand which was all coiled up to her shoulder. Reflex kicked in and Zhang Yang raised his shield at lightning speed.
"Despicable insect!" A female voice came roaring from behind his shield. The voice belonged to Desionia, the second bride of the Vampire King, Madros.
At her height, she had looked down on Zhang Yang with fangs dripping regular saliva. With a loud hiss, she pushed Zhang Yang away and uncoiled the whip in his right arm.
Again! Zhang Yang had no time to swap out the Mythical Turtle!
Zhang Yang cursed himself and leaped back towards Desionia.
‘-8,345!’
‘+417’
After five {Cripple Defense}, Zhang Yang’s {Destructive Smash} had dealt over 8,000 damage which in turn, healed him for over 400 HP. Zhang Yang curled his lips, feeling satisfied with the effects of the new sword’s passive ability. Even after deducting the possible heal from {Shield Bash} and damage reflect of {Block}, his DPS had surpassed 4,000. That meant, that at each second, he could recover at least 200 HP! It was similar to reducing 200 DPS directly from the boss!
It was a pity that the DPS of a Level 80 Yellow-Gold boss was around 2,000. Deducting 200 from that would equal to a 10% "discount"!
Being an Alchemist who concoct potions for himself, he had no qualms about using all his potions, even the powerful ones like the [Troll Recovery Potion]. Players would only have regular potions at their disposal, and the ones that Zhang Yang consumed all the time were at least Grade 5 Transmutation! For the past few days, Zhang Yang had been making potions till he had lost count of the number of stacks he had made. Those potions that were produced normal, or had lower grade transmutation were all sold in the Little Merchandise Shop or thrown into the guild warehouse. Only potions that had over grade 5 transmutation were used by Zhang Yang himself!
With potions, [Fountain of Life], {Berserker’s Heal}, {Shield Wall} and other means and methods to restore his health, Zhang Yang had no problem fighting a Yellow-Gold boss one-on-one! For now, Zhang Yang was most probably be the only player in China to be able to solo a Yellow-Gold boss!
"Succumb and bow to the power! Present yourself as a slave to me!" cried Desionia as she danced around with the coarse whip in her hand.
"Master has captured Sherryl! The ceremony of holy matrimony is about to happen and there’s nothing you can do to stop it!"
Zhang Yang stopped breathing for a second. Sherryl was captured? That soon?
Zhang Yang sighed. He had hoped that this story would be a little different. However, contrary to his thoughts, he was expecting something like this to happen. Still, there was something odd. Who and what was Sherryl? Was she so important that the last boss would capture her himself?
‘Ding! You have received a quest selection: Rescue Sherryl. Would you accept it?’
A sudden quest option window popped out. Zhang Yang not read the quest description and immediately accepted it. He still had the boss to defeat first.
"Feel the despair! Feel the power of darkness engulfing you!" Desionia bellowed and laughed as loudly as thunder itself.
Suddenly, Zhang Yang felt a little shaky, as his entire vision was distorted. His character moved itself and threw the shield and sword to the ground, covering his ears and starting to scream like a deranged maniac.
[Despair Shriek]: Causes the target to fall into a state of despair. Causes immobility and disarm. Lasts for 5 seconds.
What the hell!?
Zhang Yang raised his head to observe Desionia. All he could observe was the glint in Desionia’s eyes. A similar rage of revenge burning in her eyes. High leveled NPC or monster would have higher A.I programming, granting them the ability to have memory. She bore great enmity towards Zhang Yang. Powerful enough that she would never find peace in her time if she did not shred Zhang Yang into pieces.
A shield is an ultimate weapon for a tank. Without the piece of equipment, Zhang Yang had received more than 9,000 damage in just one attack. Without the shield granting him the Defense and passive damage reduction skill, Zhang Yang had taken the full, unrepressed damage from Desionia.
Zhang Yang immediately activated {Warrior’s Will} and dispelled the state of despair that his character had fallen into. With a quick barrel roll, Zhang Yang picked up the shield and the sword and swiftly reequipped it.
Luckily, the boss was an NPC that would not be greedy to pick the equipment and kept it for herself. If that had really happened, Zhang Yang would have raged quit the game so hard that no amount of reincarnation would bring him back to play the game.
"Give up on your hopes and dreams and fall into the depths of the abyss!" Desionia shrieked again.
"Hmph! Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me! Let’s see how long you can keep this up!" Zhang Yang launched his attack.
Desionia’s {Despair Shriek} had only a 1 minute cooldown. If it was any other tank, they would surely have to rely on other people to survive this boss. Their {Warrior’s Will} would never have been enough to last the battle! Zhang Yang on the other hand, had already maximized the level of {Warrior’s Will}. His skill had only 1 minute cooldown as well! Once the boss activates {Despair Shriek}, Zhang Yang would instantly activate {Warrior’s Will} to dispel the debuff on him. Furthermore, the skill had granted a sure-Critical Strike hit for the next {Destructive Smash}! One strike of the skill would deal 15,000 damage to 17,000 damage! It would be a double edge sword for the boss to use her {Despair Shriek}!
She was a boss, but in this fight, Zhang Yang had too many life restoring skills that he had literally made the boss look like the player instead! Without meticulous effort, Zhang Yang had speedily brought down the boss’ HP to 10%
"Despicable insect! I ought to squash you and remove your pitiful existence!" cried Desionia as the confidence in her expression faded away and was replaced with madness. She lunged towards Zhang Yang, carrying a flowery scent and soft embrace into Zhang Yang’s arms.
"HISS!" Desionia grabbed Zhang Yang tight in her arms and buried her fangs deep into Zhang Yang’s neck.
{Vampiric Paralysis}!
[Vampiric Paralysis]: Causes a target to be paralyzed, enabling the user to have a chance to suck on the target’s blood. Lasts for 10 seconds.
As if Zhang Yang was going to enjoy the moment and feel her voluptuous breast pressing into his. Zhang Yang immediately activated {Warrior’s Will} and dispel the immobility on him. In 10 seconds after, he had gained a buff which increases 50% of his attack!
Even though Desionia had restored her health, she had carried the effect of {Destructive Smash} on her, causing her to only restored 25% of the intended amount. With a quick strike, Zhang Yang hit her with a {Destructive Smash} again, dealing a devastating attack! Her 43,500 HP was not at all enough to withstand his onslaught any longer!
"ACK!" The bride of the vampire king collapsed with a loud moan and turned into ash.