Chapter 769: Exterminating the Z'orlak Orcs
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Zhang Yang did not stay long in the village, there were already no more quests left for him here. But he did ask Hushma more about the Kingcross' Sword before he left. He wanted to know about the sword's history, as well as the whereabouts of the other pieces.
However, Hushma was not able to answer his questions about the sword as it has been handed down in the village for generations, its lore already lost to time. But he did, however, imparted a very interesting piece of information to him: This land was not always this filled with salt crystals! It was once a blushful and green land, filled with life!
But for reasons no longer known to men, the land became dried up with salt. Most of the people who once lived here have sought to move away from the salt and towards places with freshwater, deep inside the forests. However, that decision has made them a prisoner of sorts, for when wild beasts started to adapt to the new environment as well, the human's area of activity became severely limited, restraining their growth as a race.
The ruins which Zhang Yang saw on the salted plains on his way here, were proof of Hushma's tale. It is such a shame, that they were unable to restore themselves to the glory they once had.
Hushma also revealed that the village's history can be traced all the way back in history as being descendants of royalty! When their ancestors left the palace generations ago, they each had a piece of the Kingcross' Sword with them. But they all scattered all across the land after the great migration, and with that, the sword fragments as well.
Following the clues given by the village chief, Zhang Yang headed in the Northwest direction. And after several hours of traveling, he finally arrived at the ruins of a stone palace. The corrosion caused by the salt here was terrible, and there were not much of the ruins left as well. Most of the stone walls have been terribly corroded by the wind, leaving scars on them, telling of their ever-losing battle with time.
However, there were still people here! Unlike Hushma's tribe who ventured deep into the forest generations ago, these people stayed on simply because there was a small freshwater lake in the middle of the ruins, untainted by the salt.
Before Zhang Yang could even dismount, he saw a long line of darkness on the horizon. The line gradually grew bigger and closer, and he could finally see that they were a large number of orcs riders on frost wolves. The orcs bared their sharp fangs and waved their battle axes, while they howled battle cries and charged at the ruined city.
"ENEMY INCOMING!" Scouts rang through the ancient city as hundreds of defenders with various kinds of weapons and armor appeared on the what's left of the city walls. But this was to be a losing battle for them, as the only ranged attack they could muster was from a few bowmen, they lacked the firepower of magic canons, and in terms of numbers, the orcs outnumber them 3 to 1!
Zhang Yang easily picked his side: The humans in the old palace had a green-friendly status on their names, while the orcs were red, signifying that they were the obvious enemy.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!
As soon as the orcs came into range, the defenders on the walls started firing arrows from their high ground. But against the naturally thick and hardened skin of the orcs, there was a very narrow limit to just how much damage they could do, and the orc invaders easily withstood their attacks.
Zhang Yang swept in between the two colliding forces on the battlefield, the brilliance of his Phoenix mount catching the attention of both the invaders and the defenders alike. Seeing that he was also human, the defenders on the walls all looked expectantly at him. This man came riding on a Phoenix, he must be strong! From the orcs, however, came a chain of battle cries, as they momentarily stopped in their tracks before switching to attack Zhang Yang instead.
These orcs were merely normal monsters and number less than a thousand, thus they were of no threat to Zhang Yang. With the Scythe in his hand, coupled with his Phoenix’s Flamethrower as well as Felice's flame, he made short work of the whole mob and gained a decent number of EXP in the process.
When the orcs have been thinned down to half their initial numbers, the defenders in the ruins charged out as well, but before they could even make it to the front lines, the battle has already ended! That was just how strong Zhang Yang, Felice, and the Phoenix were!
The human soldiers cheered and ushered their new hero into the city with the warmest and most sincere welcome they could give.
That night, the hosts lit a bonfire in the palace square and roasted good meat, and they also brought out their finest wine. Many young men and women danced to music around the fire, celebrating the glorious battle they witnessed during the day, and their new lease on life.
Zhang Yang sat right next to the castle lord, Lord Marvinus, during the banquet, signifying his standing with the city.
"Warrior, we are in your debt! Those wretched orcs have been constantly trying to seize control of this palace for the freshwater it holds inside. If it wasn't for your help today, I fear that we may have already perished to their brutality! Bwahahaha, we will definitely repay you for your act of kindness!" Marvinus said as he laughed heartily.
Zhang Yang merely smiled and retrieved the Kingcross' Sword piece he carried in his backpack. "My lord, it is very simple if you wish to return my favor: Just give me an item of similar value to this!"
"Hmmm?" Marvinus eyes lit up when he saw the sword piece. "The Kingcross' Sword!"
"That's right!"
Marvinus looked very serious as he went into deep thought. A short while later, he replied, "The Kingcross' Sword is an heirloom that has been handed down to us from our ancestors for many generations! However, it does nothing more than simply gather dust in the treasury. Since we can neither eat it nor use it... Very well then! Warrior, if you can exterminate the hoard of Z'orlak Orcs that have been plaguing us for good, I will reward you with the Kingcross' Sword!"
"DING! Marvinus has issued you a quest: Exterminate the Z'orlak Orcs. Will you accept it?"
Zhang Yang immediately accepted the quest. And despite Lord Marvinus asking him to stay on for the celebration, he still summoned his pet Phoenix and took off.
As he was flying, he opened the quest menu to check the quest info and was slightly surprised that the quest was at rank B difficulty!
If a rank C difficulty quest would already give him a whole mob of elites to deal with, doesn't that mean that a B rank would have a BOSS?
The phoenix flew across the sky, casting a beautiful red glow upon the night. After about half an hour of flying, he arrived at a secluded valley where the Z'orlak orc tribe dwelled. The entrance into the valley had only simple fortifications that consisted of a couple of rows of spiked wooden boards as barricades which protects the pathway leading inwards, and was guarded by eight orc grunts guarding at the front.
Zhang Yang made the Phoenix swoop down and head directly into the valley. Even though he was still flying high above the guards, the game works out such that as long as a player enters a monsters aggro range, he will still draw aggro from the monsters even though he may have approached them from behind. So, when Zhang Yang was at 20 meters above, the eight orcs all looked up and drew their weapons in rage.
The measly eight orcs were no trouble at all to Zhang Yang as he simply just whipped out the Scythe and cut through them like a hot knife through butter, converting them into EXP for himself. He then made sure to pick up the [Ashen Cloth] pieces that were dropped. These were materials dropped by monsters with levels above 180 and can be collected and made into high-grade cloth for equipment making, as well as [Ashen Bandages], a first aid healing item than heals 200,000 HP in 10 seconds.
Ever since Felice has acquired the Tree of Life transformation, Zhang Yang had no need for health potions or bandages, but it is never a bad thing to be prepared. After all,200 of these bandages only take up one item slot in his inventory space.
Continuing onward, Zhang Yang noticed that this was more of an orc barracks than the orcish outposts he came across previously, and that the buildings were all made from salt! But considering the geography of the area, it was not exactly a surprise: There were almost no trees to build with.
The quest objective was simply for him to slay the Z'arlok Orcs leader, Tartarsia. But since he's already here, mind as well grind some more EXP points! Zhang Yang immediately went to work.
And as he slowly cleared the mobs and made his way towards the deeper parts of the valley, he reached an enormous salt crystal building at the end of the barracks. Eight orc monsters spawned from the building, but this time, they were not the ordinary ones he faced before... They were all elites! It seems that Zhang Yang was getting closer to fighting the BOSS!
[Tartarsia's Guards] (Elite, Humanoid)
Level: 186
HP: 9,250,000
Defense: 11570
Melee Damage: 81566-121566
Skills:
[Blood Thirst]: Increase damage dealt by 20%, also increases damage received by 10%. Lasts 1 minute.
[Tornado Cleave]: Deal 150% physical damage to all enemy targets in melee range.
The elite monsters on this map are really something. On other maps with mob levels between 150-180, the elite monsters there are unable to deal any damage to Zhang Yang at all. But here, they can easily deal almost 10,000 damage with their auto attacks! This damage is much more dangerous to Zhang Yang, even with his strength as it is now!
Thankfully, Zhang Yang was not here alone. With support healing from Felice, his {Thunder Strike} to reduce their speed, along with the Phoenix’s fire-based attacks, he easily defeated the 8 elite orc guards!
Having a smooth clear so far, Zhang Yang took the stairs made of salt crystals and headed up to the second floor, to face the target for his quest- Tartarsia.
This is one bad*ss looking boss. Tartarsia stood tall at 2 meters in height, was not clad in anything else except for the pelt wrapped around his hip, with muscular arms that are thicker than Zhang Yang's thighs! His eye blood red, with two fangs protruding out of his lower lips, and a necklace made of children's skulls hanging around his neck. The details and aesthetics of this boss were simply amazing!
[Tartarsia, Leader of the Z'alok Orcs] (Holy, Humanoid)
Level: 185
HP: 925,000,000
Defense: 18470
Melee Damage: 139465-209465
Skills:
{Club Bash}: Forcefully bashes the target's head with a club, dealing 100% physical melee attack damage, has 10% chance to stun target for 3 seconds.
{Viper Pit}: Sets a trap on the ground. When an enemy step on it, the poisonous snakes concealed within the trap will appear and deal 100,000 natural damage to the victim.
Note: Before Tartarsia became the leader of the Z'arlok Clan, he was an outstanding hunter, notorious for his ferocity and hunger for battle.
WHAT A WEAK BOSS!
Zhang Yang sighed. But since there were no ascended BOSSes yet on the map, he will have to make do with just a Holy BOSS.
The BOSS' HP was rather high, and will need a quite a bit of time killing off. After applying the defense and parry debuff on him, Zhang Yang's normal attacks could already hit him for 30,000 to 40,000! And even the BOSS' skills, {Club Bash} and {Viper Pit} could not even deal more than 100,000 damage to him at once. Meaning to say, even Felice could easily beat this guy!
So what are we waiting for? Let's get this over with!
Zhang Yang issued a command to Felice, and the girl transformed into the Tree of Life, becoming a huge tree with two legs. With her current equipment and stats, in her normal mode, her healing skill damage can definitely wipe out 99.999999% of other players.