MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

The Light and Darkness Instances all had a large amount of lore. The story was that the Cursing Sect was desperately gathering faith to revive the Evil God whilst the Church of Holy Light worked on sullying their attempts. As the two factions were locked in a heated battle right outside the Ancient Civilization Ruins, due to the immense power of the two sides clashing together, the force of the battle had caused the seal on the Ancient Civilization Ruins to be destroyed, releasing an ancient evil soul called the King of Soul which then proceeded to take over the territory.

The King of Soul’s spiritual power was extremely strong. Not only could he use summoning spells to forcefully summon all the Ancient General who had died in this place to fight for him, but he could also use Spirit Control to enslave a majority of the Cursing Disciples and the Church of Holy Light Paladins forcing them to do his bidding.

The King of Souls would fly about in the air above the Ancient Civilization Ruins, killing everything that caught his sights. A player that had not reached Level 80 would definitely be taken out by him on each encouter. Thus, the King of Souls was affectionally dubbed the Soul Collection Machine by the players.

Furthermore, the ultimate end goal of the Light and Darkness Instances was to defeat the King of Souls!

The Third General of the Original Holy Light Army, the Holy Shield Paladin Rayman and his subordinates were the first to arrive at the Ancient Civilization Ruins. Unfortunately, when they were battling with the Cursing Disciples, he was killed by the evil soul which then turned him into an Undead.

Similar to the Ancient Undead in this area, the Undead Rayman could still utilize the powerful strength of the Holy Light.

Although this was merely a 5-man Level 40 small dungeon, Rayman was still not a boss to be trifled with. The strongest aspect of the power of Holy Light was that its damage calculation ignored the players’ level. Hence, no matter how high a player’s level was, the damage dealt by Rayman would not decrease.

Li Yi dismissed the Lightning Leopard and summoned the Violent Bear King. Rayman’s class was a Holy Shield Paladin with high DEF and a huge health pool. Li Yi needed to use the Violent Bear King to suppress his firepower momentarily.

“The Holy Light shall punish you filthy pagans.”

[-100]

[-100]

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Right as the battle began, both Li Yi and the Violent Bear King were inflicted with a permanent damage-over-time effect.

This was the passive effect of the Paladin’s buff skill Retribution Aura.

Rayman’s HP was 3,000,000. However, since his body was enveloped with a layer of Holy Light Barrier, even Li Yi who was almost Level 68 could not completely overcome Rayman. However, due to Li Yi’s unnaturally high ATK, every arrow he shot at Rayman dealt more than 3,000 damage per hit.

“Holy Shield Impact!”

Rayman wielded the huge shield in his hand and charged forward, knocking the Violent Bear King into the air. Immediately after, he turned his horse around and charged directly towards Li Yi.

Although Li Yi had been controlling his damage output, his threat still exceeded the Violent Bear King, causing the boss to switch aggro towards him.

“F*ck, over-threat!”

Li Yi activated the Ring of Windstorms’ special skill, increasing his movement speed. Just before Rayman could make contact with him, he leaped up and shot two arrows in midair.

“Whoosh! Whoosh!”

[-3567]

[-4321]

“Fly!”

Activating the special skill of the Black Dragon’s Cloak, Li Yi temporarily glided in the air, rapidly increasing his distance from Rayman.

“Whoosh! Whoosh!”

Li Yi once again shot out two fire arrows in the air as he continued to glide around. He repeated this routine three more times before landing on the ground once more.

At that point, the Violent Bear King had already recovered. With a loud roar, it moved back up, once again pulling the threat back on to itself.

Li Yi took the opportunity to drink an Intermediate-level HP potion to heal. This time, he was more cautious about his damage output as he continued to steadily deal damage from the backline.

Rayman’s Retribution Aura had been in effect this entire time. Although each individual damage tick was quite low, if this continued on for a prolonged period of time, it would put a large amount of stress on the players. It would not be surprising for first-time parties to get TPK’d by Rayman hundreds of times.

As long as the Violent Bear King can pull all the aggro, Li Yi’s super high HP was essentially a direct counter to the Retribution Aura. Rayman’s HP continuously went down, soon, it had already been reduced to less than 200,000.

At this point, Li Yi was in high levels of concentration. He even stopped using skills, only using his auto-attacks to slowly deal damage as he awaited Rayman’s comeback skill.

“Hol…”

“Whoosh—— Muting Shot!”

When Rayman’s HP hit 100,000, he raised up his shield above his head as a ray of Holy Light shone down from the skies. At that exact moment, Li Yi’s Muting Shot landed…

“Poof!”

The arrow landed on its target, interrupting Rayman’s channeling skill!

The Paladin class was extremely strong. They could heal, tank, and even DPS. Of course, their strongest point was that all three paths for the Paladin could utilize the Holy Healing skill that instantly heals their HP back to full. It was the ultimate comeback healing special skill.

The Holy Healing skill did not have a long channel time, it was technically considered an Instantaneous Skill. The Paladin only needed to raise their hands and a ray of Holy Light would shine down from the sky, instantly healing their health to full.

The reason Li Yi could interrupt Rayman’s Holy Healing skill was that he had already made prior preparations to counter it. Right as Rayman started using Holy Healing, within less than 0.1 seconds, he had already fired Muting Shot to Silence Rayman. This way, the Holy Healing spell would be canceled out.

This was a pure display of his skills. It seemed simple enough, but the technical skill needed to pull it off was extremely high. The player would only have a 0.2-second window to react. The Silencing skill could neither be used any earlier or any later…

If Rayman’s HP was fully restored, he would also gain an additional buff that causes his Holy Light to deal 500% more damage. It was even more OP than the Berserk Mode of other bosses. Basically, if he attacked a player with that buff, it would be an instakill.

In Li Yi’s past life, there were at least several thousands of players who died to this single skill…

“Whooh! Whoosh!”

Once he interrupted the Holy Healing skill, it was just smooth sailing from then on. Li Yi started nuking the boss with all he had, throwing Eliminate arrows and Piercing arrows at Rayman which just ate attack after attack. Soon, Rayman dropped dead on the ground.

Li Yi walked up to loot and got a piece of blue equipment. Not taking any break, he continued moving forward.

Only certain special Instances allow players to ride their mounts and the Light’s Beginning dungeon was not one of them. Hence, Li Yi had no choice but to advance on foot.

The mobs he met on the way were still all Ancient Undead. However, since the mob was much more dispersed, Li Yi just chugged an Invisibility Potion and went on his merry way. Without having to fight the mobs, it saved Li Yi a lot of time.

Avoiding as many monsters as he could, Li Yi swiftly arrived at the end of the dungeon and saw the gatekeeper boss. It was a pure white sphere that was shining brightly, its size was just slightly larger than a basketball. Its name was Leos.

Just like Cassius, Leos was the product of condensed Holy Light. However, unlike Cassius, he was more vile. He was completely subservient to the King of Soul’s, loyally guarding the gate of the Ancient Civilization Ruins for its master.

Leos only had 20,000 HP, so it was more akin to a mob instead of a gatekeeper boss. However, in reality, Leos’ power was even more terrifying than Rayman.

Li Yi’s first arrow landed directly on Leos, causing 1,000 points of damage to it. Right after it got hit, Leos immediately disappeared.

Countless Ancient Undead started spawning from the ground. There were nearly 50 of them, all baring their fangs and claws charging towards Li Yi. At the same time, a 30-second timer appeared on top of Li Yi’s head.

This was to remind him that as long as he could survive for 30 seconds, the Ancient Undead would disappear.

“Violent Bear’s Protection!”

Li Yi immediately set a Frost Trap under his feet and leaped into the air, once again using Fly to glide and dodge in the air.

Despite Li Yi gliding in the air, that did not mean that he was untouchable to the mobs. All the mobs in this place had a special characteristic. Including the Undead summoned by Leos, all the mobs here could use Holy Light. All of them could shoot Holy Light Balls. Although Holy Light Ball’s could only deal less than 100 points of damage, if all 50 of the mobs attack at the same time, the amount of damage would prove to be near-lethal.

The Frost Trap and the Violent Bear King had managed to get a group of the Ancient Undead but there was still a smaller group that was aggro’d towards Li Yi. This group fired countless mini Holy Light Balls at Li Yi, instantly cutting off 3,000 HP from his health pool.

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As the Holy Light Balls were unleashed, Li Yi’s HP dropped rapidly. Within a brief ten seconds, he was only 20,000 HP from death.

In a moment of desperation, Li Yi pulled out a shiny golden bottle and chugged down its contents.

[+12123]

The green healing numbers appeared on top of his head as a sense of relief flowed through his veins.

This was a rare Mixed Potion concocted from adding Light Grass, Darkness Flowers, and 10 bottles of Intermediate-level HP Potions together – the Divine Essence Potion.

[Divine Essence Potion: Using this potion has the equivalent effect of using 10 bottles of Intermediate-Level HP Potions at once. Furthermore, after using it, the user will have a 20 point increase in their Light and Dark Resistance for 30 minutes. The cooldown for using the potion is 2 minutes.]

The Divine Essence Potion formula was the biggest reward Li Yi obtained from killing the Apothecarist, Zangila. The reason he was buying the herbs last time was to mass produce this potion for sale.

The Divine Essence Potion formula was a very rare spawn. Combined with the fact that it required an Advanced-level Apothecarist to craft, Li Yi was not the slightest bit concerned about the price hike of the herbs. On the contrary, since he was the only person who knew how to make this potion at this point, no matter how much people attempted to manipulate the market, he would still not be affected.

With the increased Light Resistance, the damage dealt from the Ancient Undead’s mini Holy Light Ball instantly decreased by nearly half. With that, 30 seconds swiftly went by and the Ancient Undead all dropped to the ground once more. Seeing this situation, Leos hissed loudly as it reappeared in the air once more.

Eliminate!

A Flame Arrow shot through the air, accurately landing in the target. Leos shrieked in agony as a giant [-1000] appeared on top of his head. Instantly, the bastard disappeared once more…

This time, more than 100 Ancient Undead crawled up from the ground, once again baring their fangs and claws at him. A reminder timer appeared again on top of Li Yi’s head, this time it was 600 seconds…

This time, Li Yi did not choose to dodge, but rather he placed Hunt Target on an Ancient Undead with a faint red glow enveloping its body. Equipping his orange bow, he started firing rapidly.

The special Ancient Undead had 20,000 HP, several times higher than the other Ancient Undead. On the first phase, players had to survive through the mobs that Leos had summoned. However, from the second phase onwards, players only needed to take out the Undead leader. Killing it would cause all the other Undead to automatically drop dead.

Before he got surrounded by waves of Ancient Undead, Li Yi managed to defeat the Undead leader, once again escaping from danger.

Leos appeared once more. Li Yi fired another Flame arrow, once again dealing 1,000 points of damage.

Although Leos only had 20,000 HP, this bastard also had a unique trait. The damage he could receive was hard-capped at 1,000. Hence, no matter how high a player’s ATK was, they could only deal 1,000 points of damage with every attack.

If it was a 5-man Level 40 party with 3 DPS players attacking at once, they could just barely scrape by through dealing a combined 1,000 points of damage every time. If they could not reach this number, it would be near impossible to beat this dungeon.

As several hundreds of Ancient Undead rose from the ground, Li Yi continued to use Hunt Target on the Undead leader before killing it as fast as possible…

This would repeat every 2-3 minutes. Leos would summon his Undead Army a total of 20 times, causing the battle to last around 30 minutes. With every succeeding wave, the Undead leader would become increasingly difficult to differentiate, With even the slightest error, it would mean a team wipe.

In his past life when Li Yi was still playing as a Thief, he once challenged this dungeon more than a dozen times. Every single attempt of his, without fail, ended in his death. This was because a Thief could not use any ranged attacks. Even if he could differentiate the Undead leader, he had no way of attacking it. If he ran towards it, he would inevitably be surrounded by an endless wave of Ancient Undead, pummeling him all at once. Even a man made of iron would be utterly crushed…

After persevering through the 20 waves of Ancient Undead soldiers, Leos’ HP finally dropped to zero. Letting out a final hiss of agony, its body exploded as it died.

A system First Clear announcement appeared.

[Player Dark Wing is the first to successfully clear the of the Light’s Beginning Dungeon. This event has been recorded in the Pantheon Hall of Fame, obtaining system reward of 10000 Gold Coins, 1000 points of Reputation Value in all major cities, and an additional 2 Skill Points.]

[Congratulations, you have achieved the Worship state in all major cities of the Eastern Continent, obtaining the achievement Camp Hero. You have also obtained an additional 10 Skill Points as a reward!]

“This idiot again…” The Western Continent players started yelling.

“F-U-C-K YOU!” ¹  The Southern Continent players could not suppress their rage either…

“All hail the Archer God, that’ll show those sons of b*tches.” The Eastern Continent players were ecstatic.

Li Yi calmly smiled, allocating all the accumulated Skill Points into the Pet Path. With a total of 45 points, he unlocked the ability to swap out his pets in combat.

Going for an all-rounded path, this was only his first step. Although in the eyes of laymen, Li Yi was already extremely OP, Li Yi knew deep down that he was still far from reaching the level of the top-tier experts on Pantheon Rankings in his past life.

Just as Li Yi reached out to loot Leos’ corpse, another system first clear announcement appeared.

[Player Big Boy is the first to successfully clear the Cursed Rider Dungeon. This event has been recorded in the Pantheon Hall of Fame, obtaining system reward of 10000 Gold Coins, 1000 points of Reputation Value in all major cities, and an additional 1 Skill Point.]

[Player Lil Girl is the first to successfully clear the Cursed Rider Dungeon. This event has been recorded in the Pantheon Hall of Fame, obtaining system reward of 10000 Gold Coins, 1000 points of Reputation Value in all major cities, and an additional 2 Skill Points.]

[Player Gai’er is the first to successfully clear the Cursed Rider Dungeon. This event has been recorded in the Pantheon Hall of Fame, obtaining system reward of 10000 Gold Coins, 1000 points of Reputation Value in all major cities, and an additional 2 Skill Points.]

Li Yi’s heart suddenly stopped, a vague memory involuntarily appeared in his mind…

“Hi, I heard that you’re now a big cheater? But that’s beside the point, just remember, don’t cheat Qian’er’s feelings. I’ll tell you this, Qian’er is a fine young lady. If it wasn’t for a certain type of special relationship, I would’ve laid my hands on her long ago. Siiiigh, seeing such a fine young lady falling into your hands, my heart hurts so so much…

“Actually, you seem like a decent guy. You’re also quite decent at the game. The only thing is you get cornered a bit too easily. However, I’m not the sort of guy to care about other people’s opinions. So, I don’t give a crap about you being a cheater or scammer, I’ve decided to let you be my friend.

“Qian’er’s been in a car accident, you f*cking bastard, get over here right now!

“So you’re not coming to see Qian’er? Is that it? What? Are you a f*cking mute, huh? I really misjudged you. However, mark my words, you will regret this, Li Yi, you will definitely regret this. I WILL DEFINITELY MAKE YOU REGRET THIS!

“Li Yi, I hope you get good results. Oh right, May 19th is the day Qian’er and I are getting married. I hope that you will bring your World Number One title with you when you come to attend our wedding. After all, you and Qian’er were… Hehehe, we’re still friends, right?”

“BIG BOY!”

Li Yi pounded his fists furiously onto the ground!

The one thing that ate at his heart in his past life, it was gnawing away at his current mind once more…