Chapter 541: Slow-acting poison
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Zhang Yang laughed out loud, seeing how the Goblin was still rambling on about compensatory fees, even though he was about to die a most gruesome death. He was truly worthy of being a Goblin!
This goblin halted all of a sudden as it took out a mini-sized red mortar and directed it at Zhang Yang. Only god knows how the goblin had produced it out of thin air! The goblin fumbled around with the fuse at the bottom, while covering a ear with its free hand.
A series of sparkles ignited at the bottom of the mortar and boom! The mortar fired a blazing hot missile straight from its muzzle, a stream of burning light trailing behind it like a shooting star!
It may have seemed to be a long, slow process, what it had all unfolded within one-tenth of a second! Judging from the speed and the way it handled the weapon, the goblin had to be extremely proficient at handling that odd-looking weapon!
Zhang Yang only managed to turn his head before the fire missile hit him. The fire missile sent a shower of sparks over his entire body and Zhang Yang received ‘13,114’ damage.
"Hahaha! Human, are you scared? Tremble before the ‘Technology’ of the goblins!" The little green goblin was pleased with itself. With a wave of its left hand, the red mortar vanished. It raised its spear up and charged towards Zhang Yang. After a few small, pathetic strides with its tiny feet, the goblin finally reached Zhang Yang and stabbed its spear at Zhang Yang’s neck.
Chiang!
Zhang Yang immediately raised his shield to block the strike, and a series of sparks flew out between the tip of the spear and the surface of the shield. Zhang Yang blocked the goblin’s attack, and then swung his [Heaven Shaker] towards the goblin and started turning it into mincemeat.
Unfortunately, in the game, despite having a battle power of 5 according to how the Orcs described them, along with their flavor text, when engaged in battle with players, Goblins would just as powerful as Orcs! They would have almost had similar stats, compared to normal Level 115 elite Tier monsters. However, a mere level 115 elite Tier monster cannot do anything much to defend itself against the mighty swings of Zhang Yang.
The goblin launched a few more fire missiles at Zhang Yang, and it also tried to stun Zhang Yang with its {Goblin Pulse Rifle}. However, although the {Goblin Mortar Strike} could not be interrupted as it can be instantly activated, the {Goblin Pulse Rifle} had a 1-second chanting time, so it could be easily interrupted by a professional player in many ways!
{Crash Magic} can be used to instantly cancel the {Goblin Pulse Rifle}. The stun effect of the {Blast Wave}, {Brutal Smash}, and {Heroic Leap} can also interrupt the chanting of a Skill. Unless it is a boss that is naturally designed to be immune to interruptions, it would just be a lame joke for any other normal Tier or elite Tier monsters to try to chant a Skill before Zhang Yang.
When the goblin’s HP bar was down to about 10% left, the goblin was no longer showing any signs of arrogance on its face. Instead, it turned tail and fled in the opposite direction like a coward!
However, the 4-second stun effect of the {Blast Wave} was enough for Zhang Yang, Felice and Thunderhawk to deal at least 100,000 damage to the goblin and send it to its afterlife with ease.
Carrying on to the next target.
Zhang Yang threw another {Spear of Obliteration} at a second Goblin. This goblin had a {Goblin Defibrillator}, a Skill that is similar to some Skills of a Priest, or Knights that can actually resurrect a player. Thanks to game logic, even if the dead Goblin has had its heart ripped out or its skull smashed in, a simple shock would get them back to full fighting condition. Literally!
Even more annoying was the fact that killing those resurrected goblins will not reward the players with a single drop of experience points, or a single loot. What kind of logic is that!
Usually, players will suffer the same fate as Zhang Yang did right now because they would have no idea at all that killing the goblins in a group would give the goblins an opportunity to resurrect their fallen fellow goblins. Kill one group of goblins, and another group rises back from the dead. That is truly annoying!
Half an hour later, Zhang Yang had finally taken care of most of the goblins by the entrance of the mining cave. All that remained were the two elite Tier monsters standing by a tent that had been set up temporarily. However, Zhang Yang believed that these two elite monsters were just ‘guards’. There should be another powerful goblin inside the tent.
Since these ‘guards’ are already elite Tier, then the goblin resting inside that tent must be a boss. The only question is, what Tier would this boss be?
If it is a Mythical boss, then Zhang Yang would not be able to slay the boss all by himself. But if it is just a Violet-Platinum Tier boss, then Zhang Yang can still depend on his {Shadow of the Void} to disengage from the battle and let Felice tank against the boss while activating her {Absolute Defense}, and he also can depend on using his ultimate god-slaying Skill, {Glare of the Death God}! He would still stand a chance at slaying the boss all by himself!
First, to identify the Tier of the boss. If it is a Mythical Tier boss, Zhang Yang would just hop on the Thunderhawk and fly away as swiftly as possible from the battlefield. He already fulfilled the criteria for completing the quest, there would be no reason for him to risk dying for nothing! But if it is a Violet-Platinum Tier boss, Zhang Yang would just take the boss down. After all, a ‘free’ boss is not to be missed!
He began by hurling his [Spear of Obliteration} at one of the monsters as usual. The goblin on the left was struck by the {Spear of Obliteration}. The two goblins have shared aggro vision, so both of them began to let out some weird roars and charged towards Zhang Yang.
"You bunch of filthy shorties! Can’t you just give me a rest already?" right after an annoyed grumble, a large and tall Blue-Skinned Orc came out of from the tent. Two large and sharp teeth bulged out from the folds of the Orc’s lower lip, making it look very fierce and intimidating.
[Bermuly. Meryl Lynch] (Yellow-Gold, Humanoid Creature)
Level: 120
HP: 3,600,000
Defense: 2,120
Melee Attack: 9,222 - 13,222
Skills:
[Wind Walk]: Enters an invisible state. movement speed increased by 100%. Increases the damage of the next Skill by 200%. The effect will only last for 1 minute, or it will fade if the user does any other actions besides moving around.
[Storm Blades]: Swing your weapon around and attacks everything within melee range!
[Jumping Slash]: Melee Attack will have a 20% rate of triggering Critical Attacks.
Note: Blue-Skinned Orcs are one of the largest factions of the Orcs. They have the most influential power in Radiant Canyon. The Blue-Skinned Orcs love to intervene in the affairs of others. But because they have an extremely high battle power, no other Orcs dare to stand up and challenge them.
What the f*ck! That was a Yellow-Gold boss!
Zhang Yang was extremely disappointed. Violet-Platinum equipment currently flood the market. It would already be a miracle for a Yellow-Gold Tier equipment to sell at anything above 1,000 gold! Although the drop rate for Yellow-Gold equipment wasn’t really that high, players can basically farm for an endless amount of Yellow-Gold equipment from dungeons!
The Normal Mode of the Dragon Throat Fortress would drop Level 100 - 110 Gray-Silver equipment, the Hard Mode of the Dragon Throat Fortress would drop Level 100 - 110 Yellow-Gold equipment, and the Hardcore Mode of the Dragon Throat Fortress would drop Level 100 - 110 Violet-Platinum equipment! As there are too many bosses in the Dragon Throat Fortress, along with the relatively easy first 5 bosses of the Dungeon in Normal Mode and Hard Mode, it is really so much easier for the players to farm for Yellow-Gold Tier equipment. Therefore, the level 100 Yellow-Gold equipment are definitely becoming the average standard for all players.
Of course, as the Hardcore Mode of that dungeon is insanely difficult for players at the current stage of the game, it would still be impossible for them to clear the Hardcore Mode to farm for Violet-Platinum equipment! Therefore, only the Violet-Platinum Tier equipment can be sold at good prices for now. Unless those Level Yellow-God equipment are extremely rare necklaces, accessories, rings that cannot be found from boss drops, players would just dismantle the Yellow-Gold equipment into a bunch of [Runestones]!
The moment when Bermuly. Meryl Lynch took notice of Zhang Yang, he revealed a tired, bothered face. Bermuly. Meryl Lynch tugged the battle sword that hung over his back out and muttered, "I could have never expected a human to intervene in the affairs of the Orcs. Looks like you’ve run out of reasons to live!"
Shoof!
He did not even give Zhang Yang the chance to explain himself as he swung his battle sword and charged at Zhang Yang. Of course, it would actually be normal for the boss to charge right at players upon sight. Unless there is a drama mode going on, that’s what bosses are for.
A Yellow-Gold boss can only show off their long amount of HP! Other than that, they are basically child’s play to high Tiered players! Their normal attacks alone were already half of Zhang Yang’s. The gap would only widen when Zhang Yang’s Skills are activated. The boss was only called a boss at this point, due to their HP. It was the only thing worth mentioning.
The {Inheritance Transformation} can make a player so powerful as the Skill itself can boost the HP of a player by game-breaking amounts! For instant, a Class S [Inheritance] only boosts a player’s Attack by a multiplication of 5, but it can boost a player’s Maximum HP up by 40 times! It would turn a player into a boss! That would create a real pain in the *ss for the players who haven’t acquired [Inheritances]!
Zhang Yang met the boss without any sense of fear. With the shield in his hand swinging out, Zhang Yang bashed the boss with a solid hit and pushed the boss backward!
Zhang Yang could not help but felt shocked himself. Initially, the Titan Armor Set that he was wearing should logically was not on par with the Strength of a Level 120 Yellow-Gold boss. However, after he rolled in a few pieces of Mythical Tier equipment to replace some of his Titan Armor Set pieces, Zhang Yang’s Strength had actually increased up to the point that he could now suppress a Yellow-God boss! He was not even aware of this fact himself!
This would make things really easy now. Having the advantage in his Strength, he could now fully unleash the potential of his ‘Supporting Attacks’, suppressing the boss to the point that the boss could not do anything at all!
As he was engaging the boss, Zhang Yang did not forget to turn around and smack the two goblins around as well. With his shield in his hand, he kept the boss and the two goblins occupied with bashes, slams, shoves, sweeps of the legs, and kicks. The two goblins could not do a thing, crying out loud miserably while being ‘toyed’ around by Zhang Yang. Meanwhile, the attack combination of Zhang Yang, Felice, and Thunderhawk was so powerful that it took them less than a minute to bring the HP bar of the boss down to 50%!
"My lord Bermuly. Meryl Lynch, I think we should scram now!" Although Zhang Yang’s assaults were well focused on the boss, the two goblins were also receiving damage from the AoE attack of Zhang Yang. Even though they only lost a small amount of HP, goblins are creatures that feared death. So when they saw the powerful Orc being beaten down, they began to raise the notion of retreat.
The Blue-Skinned Orc let out a cry of rage as he began to swing his sword more swiftly than ever and hacked at Zhang Yang’s shield in vain, "I am an Orc! I am not a filthy little goblin that can’t face death in the face! There will always be the Orc who falls in battle, never an Orc who runs from the battle!"
After that, Bermuly. Meryl Lynch became an Orc who fell in battle! Within two minutes, the combination attacks of Zhang Yang, Felice and Thunderhawk had emptied out Bermuly. Meryl Lynch’s HP bar. The boss let out a miserable cry and collapsed to the ground. Upon his death, the boss dropped quite a few pieces of equipment that glittered gold. However, Zhang Yang showed no interest at all.
The moment when the boss died, the two goblins quickly turned around and ran away. Zhang Yang hopped onto Thunderhawk and began to pursue one of the goblins. After making quick work of it, Zhang Yang rode Thunderhawk and flew around the map, finding the second Goblin hiding among the trees. He slaughtered it as well. Not a single Goblin was left alive in the cave.
Zhang Yang was not willing to give up on the hope that he still had a chance of stumbling upon the [Light of Miracle] that he needs for his quest. He wandered about the mining cave, trying to see if there were any. But Zhang Yang had no idea at all on how a [Light of Miracle] looks like, so how would he know one if it was dangling right in front of it? So, after he went for a spin in the mining cave, he had no choice but to return to the campsite of the Red-Skinned Orcs, empty-handed to report back to Roger Kluge. Hellscream.
"That’s quite a surprise you gave me back there, human!" Roger Kluge looked at Zhang Yang with surprise, then he said, "I have just received news from the guards that I stationed in the mining cave. They informed me that you actually took out every single one of the goblins! Hahaha! Although those are just some weak goblins, you have convinced me of your sincerity!"
‘Ding! You have completed a quest: Teach the Goblins a Lesson, acquired 1,000,000 experience points. You have slain a total of 82 goblins and 1 Orc Captain. Your Relationship with Roger Kluge has grown stronger by an additional 1,020 points!’
So it’s another ‘relationship’! Am I getting into a homosexual one this time?
Zhang Yang laughed a little, then he said, "I believe that the brave Red-Skinned Orcs can also accomplish it without any problem!"
"Hahaha!" Roger Kluge laughed heartily, and continued to speak, "Your bravery reminds me of my younger self! Very well! I was not going to give you another quest if you did a half-*ss job about it. But, you have proved me wrong! So now, I truly believe that you will definitely be able to complete this upcoming quest!"
If players only killed about 20 goblins just to fulfill the criteria of the quest and reported back to Roger Kluge, then they would only be completing the basic criteria of the quest. By then, Roger Kluge would not have even bothered mentioning anything else, other than rewarding the players and sending them on their way. Only by killing more goblins, would Roger Kluge be impressed enough to continue giving them quests.
Zhang yang nodded and asked, "Chieftain, what more good can I do for your fellow Orcs?"
"Hmm... I need you to enter the goblin’s campsite and take out their second-in-command, Guitteny. That is the worm who tipped the balance that the Blue-Skinned Orcs had with us! If he is dead, then the goblins should go silent for a bit!" Roger Kluge raised a hand up to stop Zhang Yang from speaking up, and then he continued to explain, "Rest assured, I’m not going to send you in to die! Take these, I am entrusting you my ultimate Magic Scrolls. They would allow you to use a magic called, ‘Wind Walk’. You can use these to enter into the heart of the goblin campsite without being spotted and plant the poison into Guitteny’s ‘Honey Pot’!"
‘Ding! Roger Kluge. Hellscream has a quest for yout: Poison em up! Will you accept it?’
Accept.
‘Ding! You have acquired an item: [Magic Scroll: Wind Walk] X 2!’
‘Ding! You have acquired an item: [Colorless and odorless Poison] X 1!’
‘Ding! You have acquired an item: [Indication Map on Goblins’ Campsite] X 1!’
Zhang Yang realized that a bottle, two [Magic Scroll: Wind Walk], and one Map appeared in his inventory. The bottle would be the poison that he would be using to complete the quest, so there was nothing special about it. Then, he took out the [Magic Scroll: Wind Walk] to examine them.
[Magic Scroll: Wind Walk]: You will acquire the Wind Walk effect, entering an invisible state. Movement speed increases by 100%. The damage of your next Skill will increase by 200%. The effect will only last for 10 minutes, or it will fade away if the user does any actions other then moving around. Cooldown: 10 minutes
Note: Roger Kluge. Hellscream made this himself.
Zhang Yang could not help but to palpitate with excitement, thinking that if he had unlimited [Magic Scrolls: Wind Walk] for himself, it would be like obtaining a new skill permanently. A new skill that would turn him into an invisible Guardian who holds the destructive power of a Berserker and the elusiveness of a Thief. Unfortunately, the quest only rewarded Zhang Yang with two pieces of [Magic Scroll: Wind Walk]. Zhang Yang surmised that one was for him to infiltrate the goblin’s campsite, and the other is for him to escape from any possible difficult situation.
Under the normal circumstance, players must use up both of the [Magic Scroll: Wind Walk] in order to successfully ‘plant’ the poison deep in the campsite. However, there are also players with specific Classes that can complete the quest without using the [Magic Scroll: Wind Walk] that they acquire from the NPC --- for instance, Thieves. They can probably enter their Stealth Mode and infiltrate the enemy’s campsite and ‘plant’ the poison at the right spot, then get out of the campsite without being spotted. By doing so, they will be able to earn two extra [Magic Scroll: Wind Walk] for their own usage!
Although Zhang Yang did not have the Skill {Stealth}, he had something similar --- {Burrow} and {Shadow of the Void}!
Very well, here’s a chance to earn two [Magic Scroll: Wind Walk] after all. It would be very handy for players to use them and assassinate their enemies! {Invisibility} and {Stealth} are two different things. {Stealth} would only be effective at a certain distance from the enemy. Get close enough, and they would no longer be in {Stealth}. But things are different for {Invisibility}. There is not specific way to reveal the caster as of now. Even if the caster is standing 1 inch right before the player, making funny faces like a mime, nobody will ever know!
Following the directions of the quest, Zhang Yang rode Thunderhawk and traveled over to the campsite of the goblins.
These creatures try really hard to make up for their poor physical traits via the research and usage of ‘Technology’. Their buildings clearly showed that. Each of the buildings was built with metallic materials in the shapes of cogs. The cogs are constantly spinning, making some really annoying mechanical sounds that made people wonder, how could the goblins ever get a peaceful night’s sleep!