Chapter 558: The 12 Chinese Zodiacs
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The loot that was dropped by the boss was worth looking forward to. There should be some Level 100 Violet-Platinum Tier equipment to pick up. These equipment should be able to provide his party members some quick, short-termed power-ups, as they would be able to instantly equip these equipment without having to wait.
Wei Yan Er was as impatient as ever, as were her hands. Even before the corpse of the boss had touched the ground, she had already picked up every single piece of loot, including the coins of course, from the ground. This little brat then grinned like a money grubber.
The boss dropped a total of 4 equipment. One was a pair of pale-greenish leather pants, another was a pair of gray-silver cloth armor gloves, the other one was a long bow made from animal bones, and the last one was an earthly yellow heavy armor helmet.
Right before Wei Yan Er was about to display the equipment, one piece after another, Zhang Yang, however, said, "Little brat, just ignore those Yellow-Gold equipment already and stop wasting time!"
"Tsk!" Wei Yan Er pursed her lips as she wanted to start by posing the links to the Yellow-Gold equipment just to tantalize Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue. Since that Zhang Yang had said it out loud to skip the Yellow-Gold equipment, it would have been pointless for her to do that anymore.
So, the leather pants and the cloth armor gloves were shoved straight into Zhang Yang’s inventory without being inspected by any of them at all. What a tragic fate these two equipment had.
The three of them began to turn their attention towards the long bow.
[Regrudge, Ancient Skeletal Bow] (Violet-Platinum, Bow) (1)
Ranged Attack: 1,582 - 2,182
Attack Interval: 3.6 seconds
DPS: 672
Equip: Adds 7% damage.
Equip: Adds 0.7% Critical Rate
Equip: When you hit a target, there is a chance of increasing your Attack Speed by 10%. Lasts for 10 seconds. The effect cannot stack.
{Unidentified}
Required Level: 100
Note: According to legend, Regrudge was a strange beast in the ancient time. It was powerful and always thirsty for blood. The beast was then slain by a brave Beastman warrior. A Dwarf craftsman extracted the toughest part, it’s spine, from the corpse and made it into a long bow.
Zhang Yang kept the bow in his inventory. Hundred Shots and Fatty Han would have to settle it among themselves on who gets to keep it. Then, he turned his attention towards the final piece of equipment on the ground, the dirt-yellowish helmet.
[Cobalt Helmet] (Violet-Platinum, Heavy Armor)
Defense: +80
Vitality: +706
Strength: +202
Agility: +100
Equip: Increases your Maximum HP by 1,400 points.
Equip: Decreases received damage by 196 points.
{Unidentified}
Required Level: 100
While Mythical Tier equipment added both Offense and Defense, this Violet-Platinum Tier equipment only added Defensive attributes. After all, there would always be a difference between equipment of two different Tiers. So one must not be asking for too much from them!
Zhang Yang took the helmet and shoved it into his inventory, not bothering to be gentle with it. As the equipment had not been identified yet, its attributes were still no match to the attributes of his [Titan Helmet].
After picking up every single piece of the loot from the ground, Zhang Yang summoned Mountain Mover over to his position. The strategist was already holding his [Sealing Leash] up the moment he arrived. Then, he began the process of capturing the [Mount] for himself.
However, his luck was not that good. It took him nine attempts to capture the baby mouse. He had thought that he was about to fail in capturing that [Mount], which caused him to panic for a little back there.
Mountain Mover knew his own capability. He knew that the elite battle style of this small party did not suit his personal battle style at all. So he went back to Morning Town after he acquired the [Mount]. Then he went off to start training his new [Mount].
The three of them proceeded forward. They went up and down various mountains and hills of various heights.
Zhang Yang and the ladies had been encountering countless mice-like monsters in the previous mountain area. Meanwhile, this new mountain area they just set foot on were full of buffaloes in almost every corner of the place. The buffaloes were dark green in color. Each of them was equipped with only one Skill called {Eyes of the Death God}. Although this name sounded like the name of the Skill {Glare of the Death God}, it could only cause 10,000 Shadow Damage. It was far from the {Glare of the Death God}.
As they killed their way through the mountain area, they finally stumbled across a wild Buffalo King. There was a small calf right beside the Buffalo King. More importantly, it was a Violet-Platinum Tier [Mount].
The three of them exchanged happy, shocked looks.
Although it was really easy to capture [Mount] after entering the Chaos Realm, most of the [Mounts] were limited to the Tier of Yellow-Gold, Gray-Silver or even to Tiers as low as Green-Copper and Black-Steel. But, it was really a shock for them to come across so many Violet-Platinum Tier [Mounts] in a single day. How amazing is that?
Zhang Yang had come up with a deduction, based on the remaining mountains ahead of them. He said, "There are still 10 more mountains to climb. The first mountain was a mountain littered with mice. The second mountain was crawling with buffaloes. Are you seeing what I'm seeing here? 12 mountains, the first two being mice and buffaloes. Isn't this based on the 12 Chinese Zodiacs? Are we going to see tigers, rabbits, dragons, and snakes, and other members of the 12 zodiacs? I can't help but feel that each mountain would provide us with a Violet-Platinum [Mount], along with their guardian Violet-Platinum Bosses!"
If everything that Zhang Yang said was true, then they had really struck jackpot this time!
Having a possibility to acquire at least 12 pieces of Violet-Platinum equipment and 12 Violet-Platinum Tier {Pet Mounts] was undoubtedly going to be a great ‘power-up’ to his guild.
"That’s great! I’m planning to catch myself a dragon pet! I will be wicked awesome!" Wei Yan Er began to drift in her own imagination.
The only way to find out if Zhang Yang’s deduction struck true was to proceed forward.
It only took a few minutes for Zhang Yang and the ladies to take down a Violet-Platinum Tier boss. Unfortunately, the boss did not drop any Heavy Armor this time. It only dropped a piece of Violet-Platinum Tier Cloth Armor that went to Han Ying Xue. The equipment was a pair of boots. Meanwhile, the Violet-Platinum Tier [Mount] on this mountain was captured and brought away by Lost Dream.
The small party went on to the next mountain. The third mountain was full of ferocious tigers. It was as Zhang Yang suspected! There was a Tiger King and a Tiger King Cub right at the top of the mountain! That Tiger King Cub was the [Mount].
Meanwhile, the fourth mountain was full of Mashimaro-like creatures...
However, the 'dragon' mountain that Wei Yan Er had been looking forward to so earnestly turned out to be a major disappointment. There were no signs of ancient dragons, the kind found in Ancient Chinese folklore and mythology, nor any Western-styled winged lizards. Instead, the mountain was full of Raptors!
Those were dinosaurs! They were not to be trifled with!
Wei Yan Er fell into a bottomless pit of despair. She lumbered about like a zombie for a period of time before she returned to her place among the living. When light returned to her eyes however, the little brat unleashed hellfire and fury upon every Raptor that was in her field of vision.
The next mountain was the snake mountain. As expected, the whole mountain was full of snakes. The following mountains contained horses, goats, monkey, chickens, dog, and pigs.
Zhang Yang had assigned all 10 members of his party to a Violet-Platinum Tier [Mount]. Other core players like Galileo and 10-party-Killer of Lone Desert Smoke also got to step up in the mount upgrade spree. They got to switch their [Mounts] out for better ones!
The only unfortunate thing about this was that all of the [Mounts] they had acquired were all ground-types. None of them were capable of flying in the air. Even though the chickens had wings, they were nevertheless categorized as ground-type [Mounts]. They could only flap their wings about.
Well, one should not be too greedy after being handed such wonderful ‘freebies’. By acquiring these Violet-Platinum Tier [Mounts], the overall strength of Lone Desert Smoke had been exponentially increased! Although these [Mounts] were flightless....[Flying Mounts] carried a whole new meaning to the term ‘rare’. This was completely acceptable. It would not have made sense if the game handed over 10 powerful [Flying Mounts] to the gang out of the blue.
Furthermore, this was just a Level 100 beginner’s map. Most of the Chaos Realm still remained unexplored. So players would still stand a chance of stumbling across some [Flying Mounts] in the future.
Before Zhang Yan and gang had even gotten to the Treasure, they had already encountered so many other surprises. They were not even at the pirate's lair yet. At this point, the party did not know what to expect from the treasure chest and were painfully curious.
Daffodil Daydream did not leave the scene after acquiring her Flatline ‘Chicken’. This ‘Chickobo’ turned out to be a Magic-type [Mount]. The two of them made a great pair.
As [Pet Mounts] had been extremely rare in the previous stages of the game, players would simply capture any [Mount] they come across, without taking a look at the Tier or Attributes. Having a [Mount] of any kind was already sufficient for players to earn the bragging rights. In a crowded city or Territory, these players would already be the center of attraction. With a slightly flashier Mount, they would even draw the attention of the opposite sex and start new love stories.
Due to the exceeding rarity of [Mounts] back then, Han Ying Xue was already fortunate enough to own a Melee-Type [Red Gold Crab].
Truth to be told, although the Tier of [Red Gold Crab] was not that low, Han Ying Xue rarely sent the crab into battles. The main reason that Han Ying Xue always stayed behind at a safe distance, healing the other party members. So, what good would the Melee-type [Red Gold Crab] do to her, when it won’t be approaching any monsters? The only ‘function’ it did was to raise Han Ying Xue’s Maximum HP after she was mounted on it.
Under those kinds of circumstances, many players actually had [Mounts] that were not ‘compatible’ with their styles in combat. Because of the exceeding rarity of [Mounts] back in the day, the players had no choice but to take whatever they were given.
Han Ying Xue had also switched her ground-type [Mount] to a ‘horse’. It was a Magic-type [Mount] named [Flaming Scarlet Tempest].
Currently, the horse was still young and small. Han Ying Xue simply could not see the potential of its growth just yet. But they could get some clues on that aspect by looking at the attack pattern of the boss they had encountered when procuring it.
The two ladies had summoned their new [Mounts] for them to get experience points. After they cleared out all 12 mountains of the ‘12 Zodiacs’, Han Ying Xue’s [Flaming Scarlet Tempest] had reached the level of 78. Meanwhile, Daffodil Daydream’s [Chickobo] had also reached the level of 55. Both [Mounts] were capable of ‘mounting’ already, and they had also acquired some extra Skills while they were leveling up.
Regrettably, for Zhang Yang, his luck was not that good. Upon killing the 12 bosses, they had picked up a total of 17 Violet-Platinum equipment. However, only the first boss dropped a helmet that he could really use. Although there were also 3 other Heavy Armor equipment, the attributes on one of them was more inclined to Offense. So, Wei Yan Er would a more suitable owner. The remaining two Heavy Armor equipment were more onto Defense, however, the attributes were more concentrated on Intelligence. In that case, it would be more suitable for Endless Starlight to have them.
Since Endless Starlight was the main Tanker in clearing the Hardcore Mode of the Dragon Throat Fortress, Zhang Yang decided to give the two ‘defensive’ equipment to him. His intention was to increase the efficiency of his guild in clearing the dungeon.
For that, Endless Starlight was touched to the point that he had tears streaming down his face. He had even expressed that he would give his body to Zhang Yang first if he ever loses his mind and changed his sex. That really gave Zhang Yang the creeps as goosebumps began to spread across his skin!
After walking through the mountains of the ‘12 Zodiacs’, Zhang Yang and the three ladies had arrived at a lake. This lake was a great, inland lake. However, it wasn’t so vast that Zhang Yang and the ladies could not see the other end of it. They could also see very clearly that there was a fortress built right in the middle of the lake!
This fortress had probably occupied about 10% of the surface area of the entire lake. The fortress was built with woods of great buoyancy. There were iron lock hooks holding the woods all together tightly. It went up and down with the waves.
"Haha! This place looks more like a water-bed!" Wei Yan Er blinked her eyes repeatedly, "Sis, I want a water-bed!"
Zhang Yang suddenly had an idea and he said, "Alright! Let’s have one water-bed in each of the rooms back home!"
Well, he was thinking that he might get really ‘pumped’ if he rams Han Ying Xue and Sun Xin Yu on the water-bed, bouncing them all up and down.
Han Ying Xue glanced at Zhang Yang. Her face was telling Zhang Yang that she too, was looking forward to it. She seemed to have read Zhang Yang’s mind correctly.
"Huh? Why would you suddenly be so generous?" Wei Yan Er was suspecting Zhang Yang instead. She thought that Zhang Yang was just messing around with her.
"How could you suspect my sincerity! I’ve always been generous!" Zhang Yang looked far into the distance as he began to look for a way in, then he said, "This is most probably the lair of that Blackbeard Ditch. He is indeed worthy to be called a pirate. He even built his lair on water!"
"So, how are we going over to the fortress?"
"We shall fly over! It’s an entire lake beneath us, so there shouldn’t be any more of those monstrous trees we saw before!"
TL Note: No translation error there for that severely underwhelming Level 100 bow. 672 DPS? Fufufu…