Chapter 407: The Spartan Warriors
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Rhine Wildhammer was following closely behind the group with his large backpack on his back. Every time when they passed by a coffin chamber, he would look around intensely as if he was worried that monsters might suddenly leap out from the room and take away his precious backpack.
As they did not have to battle any other monsters along the way, they arrived at the second floor of the tomb cave in just a short time.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Footsteps were heard from the front. Zhang Yang and the ladies exchanged looks and halted abruptly.
In just a while, a party of five appeared right before Zhang Yang and the ladies. They had one tanker, one healer, and three attackers, it was a standard party formed, to complete a quest.
Seeing Zhang Yang and the ladies, the five of them halted as well. They were clearly wary, as they slowly drew their weapons and readied themselves. In open world maps, it was a normal occasion where bad players kill and rob weaker parties. So it was actually wise for them to be so careful.
"Why are we stopping!" Rhine Wildhammer was looking down on the road while walking, and he banged into the little girl’s ass. Wei Yan Er was enraged and kicked him aside like a ball. There, Rhine Wildhammer fell right in the middle of Zhang Yang and the party of five.
"Huh? That’s is the NPC!" the five of them were shouting at the same time, and they were waving around their weapons ready to charge at Rhine Wildhammer.
Of course, Zhang Yang would not let them chop up the NPC as this NPC is part of their quest! He ran to the front of the NPC and pulled out his sword, preparing himself.
"Hey, brother. We mean you no harm." said one of the Spartan Warriors by the name of Spartan Warrior, a guardian. He seemed like the leader of the party. With one hand raised, he stopped his party members from attacking, "This NPC is the target we need to slay to complete our quest, please step aside and let us do our job."
Spartan Warrior then said, "Look, brother. This NPC will respawn in just a while more. You can just retake the quest later!"
Han Ying Xue was provoked by the idea, "Then why don’t you let us complete our quest first, and then come back for the NPC after he has respawned? How about that?"
"Spartan Warrior, don’t waste our time with them, just kill them all!" one of The Spartan Warriors by the name ‘Freezing With Heart’, a thief, snapped impatiently.
Spartan Warrior waved his hand around and said, "Freezing With Heart, violence isn’t the answer to all things, so don’t always say the word ‘kill’."
Although he said it, he still looked at Zhang Yang with a deadly glare.
Zhang Yang then said, "Fellow friends, I have a proposition. Why don’t you come with us? Our quest is to escort the NPC out of the tomb. So after we have completed our quest, you can go ahead and slay the NPC and complete your quest as well. You guys won’t be staying around here, right? It won’t only save your time, but also, we all get what we want. Doesn’t it sound good?"
He was very sincere while he was giving the proposal, trying to make everyone happy. Well, his proposal was indeed a perfect solution to both parties, because Zhang Yang did not want to stir things up.
But his sincerity became an act of showing weakness to the party of five. So one of them by the name of ‘Ten-Times-Of-Grass’, a spellcaster said, "So, you want us to help you escort the NPC out of the tomb for free? Dream on!"
Spartan Warrior burst into laughter and said, "I say, we have five over here, and there are only three of you. There’s no way you can win, so just hand over the NPC, and no harm will come to you! So, don’t do anything stupid that you will regret, you will end up losing all the experience points that you have on hand!"
"Humph! They have wasted so much of our time here! It won’t be so easy for them to back off now!" another one by the name ‘Invincible Mouth-Sacrificer’, a Holy Knight turned his attention over to Han Ying Xue and Wei Yan Er, and he began to ‘scan’ their bodies, "At the least, these two pretty ladies must show us some skills of theirs to entertain us! By performing a striptease!"
Zhang Yang was enraged by the words, but he tried to calm himself down and keep his expression neutral. Although he unintentionally had become a king who currently ruled the game, he would never let anyone humiliate or curse his party members, especially the girls and women!
He pulled out his sword and warned, "Beware, words are the cause of a tragedy!"
"Haha!" the five of them were laughing, and the last member of their party by the name ‘Sloppy Sloth’, a hunter, said, "I’d say, brother. You’re really fun, as in funny! Do you really think that you three stand a chance against us five? Who do you think you are? One Sword Stroke? Or are you Zhan Yu? Hahaha!"
Han Ying Xue and Wei Yan Er could not help but smile, as they heard what Sloppy Sloth just said.
Zhang Yang let out a breath of loud sigh and said, "I’m Zhan Yu! Not One Sword Stroke!"
The five members of The Spartan Warriors were looking at each other in silence, and then they burst into laughter, pressing their hands against their stomach. It was obvious that they did not believe Zhang Yang, having the thought that Zhang Yang was just boasting! Well, it was understandable. Because the number of players in China server is increasing lately, and it had already reached up to 10 million players for now. So to be able to run into a famous player, especially the Number One player in the entire China server, it’s like winning a lottery worth 5 million dollars!
Wei Yan Er took up her giant axe and said, "Why are we still wasting our precious saliva with them? Just f*ck them up!"
"Little lady is fired up! But I like it!" Ten-Times-of-Grass was looking at the little girl with his perverted eyes.
"Bastard!" Wei Yan Er let out a roar in anger and activated her {Charge} and rammed into Ten-Times-of-Grass. With a full power swing of her giant axe, she slashed at that pervert without showing any remorse.
‘-9,471!’
One moment later as the axe swung by, blood oozed out like a pretty little fountain from Ten-Times-of-Grass’s body! His total health points were only about 20,000, so after this slash of attack, he was only left with two-thirds of his health bar!
"Oh mama! This girl is crazily strong!" The five of them began to panic as they saw the damage value that appeared right on top of their party member. The damage value was just terrifying!
Zhang Yang rammed into them with a {Charge} as well. He then activated {Blood Rage} and sliced them up with his [Sword of Purging Devourer], boosting up his rage points with his assault. The next thing the five of them noticed was Zhang Yang activating his {Horizontal Sweep} over them!
In that instant, all five of them were inflicted with damage values ranging from 7,000 to 8,000!
Unfortunately, there were only 5 targets, so the special effect of Zhang Yang’s sword did not trigger.
Wei Yan Er laughed like a mad girl and activated her {Blood Rage} as well, followed by a powerful {Tornado Cleave}! The Spartan Warriors were all inflicted with damage values of 17,000 in that instant, right after they were assaulted by Zhang Yang!
After suffering the damage from the combination of {Horizontal Sweep} and {Tornado Cleave}, other than Spartan Warrior the guardian tanker, the remaining four of his party members were wiped out in an instant! Just like that!
It couldn’t be helped. The passage was too narrow for The Spartan Warriors to carry out any formations or tactics. Plus, Zhang Yang and Wei Yan Er had put so much pressure, so swiftly in their assaults, they could not even process what had just happened to them! The two attacks were happening almost at the same instant, giving no chance at all for them to react!
Spartan Warrior looked around and realized that he was the only one in his entire party who was still breathing, and his facial expression became very interesting to look at! Very entertaining to look, at the very best! What a painful poke in the ass! This was just ironic and outrageous! They were still swaggering and making jokes before Zhang Yang and the ladies, and now, things suddenly changed in just one split second! In short, weathers can change fast!
The brief battle ended when [Gold-Eared Bear King] letting out a roar and plunged it’s paw right through the Spartan Warrior’s chest, inflicting that poor soul with a damage of about 4,000, and with another activation of a skill, poor Spartan Warrior was sent straight back to the graveyard.
Later on, Spartan Warrior and his other four party members stared blankly at each other with their helpless expression on their faces.
"Oh, right. Now I remember. That Guardian has a familiar face, he really does looks like Zhan Yu!" Suddenly, Sloppy Sloth slapped his own lap and said.
"What a bad luck, man. We actually ran into the Number One Tanker in the entire China Server while trying to complete one quest!"
"... so are we going to complete the quest or not?"
"Complete you ass! Didn’t you see the videos of the competition or whatsoever? Zhan Yu has an overpowering ‘forbidden’ skill that can bombard anyone within the radius of two miles from where he stands! This skill can damage all the targets within range by 20,000 damage points! How powerful is that! And what can we do against him? Take your ‘little brother’?"
"Holy cow, even my ‘little brother’ is not that strong! Let’s use yours!"
"Haih, just forget about it for the moment, we should just wait for a little while. After they have completed their quest, they should leave. We shall go back to slay that stupid NPC!"
Well, the strength of the paired skills {Blizzard Sky} and {Luna’s Dew} were exaggerated how many times by only-god-knows how many players who do not know the truth behind them! But there are still advantages over this. At least normal people won’t dare to attempt to blunt the edge of Zhang Yang's advance and saves him from a lot of trouble.
Zhang Yang kept his sword and shield and turned to Rhine Wildhammer, "Stop pretending to be dead, and get up now."
Only then, the red-bearded dwarf crawled and stood back up on his feet. Then he smiled guiltily and said, "I was just too nervous just now! You should know, we dwarf are natural warriors, fearless warriors across all the lands. We won’t blink even danger comes to us! Be it a tidal wave of swords or a sea of volcanoes, or whatever tsunami they claim to be..."
He kept on babbling on as he followed Zhang Yang from behind.
After just a while, the four of them had arrived at the entrance of the tomb, and they walked right out. Finally, sunlight --- although the day was a gloomy day.
"Hey, great work!" Rhine Wildhammer tightened the opening of his backpack and said, "May the gods of Titans bless you!"
‘Ding! You have completed a quest: Hey! You’re Hired! Acquired 4,000,000 experience points!’
‘Ding! You have acquired 15 gold coins!’
Right after the red-bearded dwarf finished his words, he began to run in a hurry, and only God knows how he can run so fast with that huge backpack on his back!
"Alright, time to turn over the quest items to Kyle Dylan for the rewards!"
The three of them summoned out their [Mounts], and traced back the way they came from.
"My respected old man! We’re back!" Wei Yan Er took out all the [Bone of the Necromancer] and threw it right in front of Kyle Dylan.
"Very good! Marvelous! You have completed another quest without flaws!" Kyle Dylan smiled with joy and said, "The gods have been watching, you are indeed brave and fearless adventurers, spears of justice itself!"
‘Ding! You have completed a quest: Eliminating the Necromancers, acquired 4,000,000 experience points!’
After completing two quests in a roll, they had already acquired a total of 8,000,000 experience points! Immediately, the three of them filled up one big chunk of their experience point bar!
Kyle Dylan kept all the [Bone of the Necromancer] and said, "Adventurers, you have eliminated most of the undead in this area! However, as long as Shaman Mordoro lives, his endless creation of the undead will doom this land once again! 3 months, 3 more months and this land that you worked so hard to cleanse will be swarmed by these undead creatures once more, and break the peace that you have built upon this land for now! Adventurers, you must rid the source of it all, slay Shaman Mordoro to ensure the peace of this land!"
‘Ding! Grave Keeper Kyle Dylan has given you a quest: Eliminate Shaman Mordoro, accept or decline?’
Accept.
Zhang Yang nodded and said, "Mr Kyle Dylan, rest assured that we will eliminate this Shaman Mordoro and bring true peace to this land!"
"Then, I am counting on you, my brave adventurers!" Kyle Dylan bowed to Zhang Yang and the ladies as tears began to fall from his eyes.
[Eliminate Shaman Mordoro] (Difficulty: A)
Description: Grave Keeper Kyle Dylan requested that you slay the evil Shaman Mordoro and bring the wicked heart back to him as proof that you have slain the evil shaman! Warriors, Mordoro is very powerful, please bring along more friends.
Hint: Shaman Mordoro can be located at the Undead Palace in the deepest site of the Black-Rock Canyon.
Completion: Return to Kyle Dylan with Mordoro’s heart 0/1
Reward: Gauntlet of Glory
[Gaunlet of Glory] (Yellow-Gold, Heavy Armor)
Defense: +40
Vitality: +134
Strength: +54
Agility: +27
Equip: Absorbs 104 damage when hit.
{Unidentified}
Required Level: 80
This pair of gauntlets had a set of attributes similar to the Earth Spirit Gauntlet that Zhang Yang had on him now! This should be the best set of gauntlets there was, before Zhang Yang can get his hands on the [Titan Gaunlets]. Although these [Gauntlets of Glory] had no use for Zhang Yang, but he can sell it out and definitely get a good price for it!
Although equipment can be sold for gold coins, Han Ying Xue and Wei Yan Er were not interested in such kind of way of earning gold coins. They preferred to take gold coins hands on and count them one by one in their bare hands! They savored that kind of sensation!
The three of them got onto their own [Mounts] and departed to the deepest area of the Black-Rock Canyon.
And coincidentally, they actually met The Spartan Warriors once again! The sight of seeing Zhang Yang and the ladies had them running in the opposite direction without even looking at them, not even once, and they disappeared in just a short moment. Their faces showed it all, they were scared, and they did not want to die again.
Zhang Yang laughed and said, "Little girl, look at what you’ve done to them with your ugly face! They did not even dare to look at you before they ran away, not even once! Hahaha!"
"Pui! They were afraid of you! Not me! Alright?" Wei Yan Er was not willing to be teased by Zhang Yang and made a funny face at Zhang Yang, "You ugly horse!"
Black-Rock Canyon was a vast area. As the three of them rushed forward for nearly one hour without stopping, they finally arrived at the bottom of the canyon. What they saw before their eyes, was a large palace made of metallic materials. The palace towered tall, with a magnificent view of it, giving off such a holy impression that they felt sacrilegious.
Zhang Yang, Han Ying Xue and Wei Yan Er were curious, such a sacred palace is actually the lair for the undead? Is this what they call a sparrow's nest occupied by pigeons1?
The answer was very obvious, right in front of their eyes.
There were many undead creatures wandering around the entrance of the palace. There were bleached bone skeletons, rotten zombies, and some necromancers in black robes. And they would moan with spooky low voices randomly as they wandered. The number of the bleached bone skeletons were the highest among all, while the number of the necromancers in black robes were the least, looking lesser than 1% of the monsters that were wandering around.
Zhang Yang patted Whitey and charged towards the monsters near the entrance of the palace, "Time to work!". By throwing a {Spear of Obliteration} over at one zombie near to him, he attracted the zombie over to him.
"Rawgh!" The zombie let out a raging roar the moment it was hit, and then it raised up its arms and charged towards Zhang Yang madly. And, due to the effect of the chaining aggro of the system, two skeleton soldiers nearest to that zombie were pulled into the battle as well, and together, they pattered towards Zhang Yang with their skeletal feet.
Zhang Yang laughed and said, "Little girl, lure a few more monsters over to me!"
"Alright!" Wei Yan Er replied, and she also threw a {Spear of Obliteration} at one of the skeleton soldiers.
"Rawgh!" the skeleton soldiers let out a roar and began to charge towards Wei Yan Er from afar.
But it was really unfortunate for the little girl, as one of the monsters the skeleton soldier had invited along was a Necromancer! Right after that, the necromancer targeted the little girl and began to chant the spell of {Shadow Bomb}!
Zhang Yang unleashed his {Thunder Strike} on the three monsters that were after Wei Yan Er and pulled them over to him. But, he couldn’t do anything against the Necromancer which was very far away from him.
Shoof!
The necromancer shot a {Shadow Bomb} at Wei Yan Er, inflicting her with a damage of ‘-5,127’.
"Oi! Noob tank! Quickly, kite the monster properly!" Although the little girl was mounted on her pet, boosting her maximum health points up to almost 50,000 points, she was not used to having a monster target at her in his presence! She began to cry out loud, "You noob tank! You’re letting the monster hurt me! Noob tank!"
Zhang Yang burst into laughter and said, "The monster you picked to lure is a bad choice! Hahaha!"
He kited the monsters and began to take a few steps backward. As long as he can step out of the attack range of the necromancer, the monster will automatically pursue. And, as long as he separates the monsters that he is kiting away, from the monsters that were wandering in the area, he did not have to worry about attracting any unwanted baggage.
TL Notes:
1. Sparrow's nest is occupied by a pigeon - to occupy what that belongs to others. Here, it means that the evil undead army has occupied the palace and made it into their own lair.