MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

The snake area was a peculiar spot within the Wailing Grotto. Billions of patched snakes congregated there, and each of them awarded 2,000 experience points when killed!

The patched snakes possessed a high ATK stat in return for their low HP. However, due to Li Yi’s overwhelming combat prowess, they were annihilated before they had gotten a chance to counterattack.

Their EXP soared, and when Li Yi had wiped out all of them, Jiaojiao had gained one and a half levels whereas he had gained one level.

Better yet, they had taken only less than thirty minutes.

“It wouldn’t take long to max out our levels if we grinded them here, right?”

“The patched snakes only respawn once every three days. It’s a viable strategy if you’re willing to wait, though.”

Li Yi sat down and rest, whereas Jiaojiao backtracked to loot the corpses.

The patched snakes dropped no items, and they were only loot-able if the looter had learned both Scavenging and Dismantling skills.

Of course, Jiaojiao had already learned those skills, but she was only at Apprentice-level. As such, the only creatures she could loot were low-level monsters.

Fortunately for her, the patched snakes were classified as low-level monsters.

“My lifestyle skills would definitely reach the Advanced-level after looting all these corpses.”

“Take your time then. I’ll scout ahead and pull you over if I’ve ascertained the correct path.”

“Alright!”

Li Yi continued onward whereas Jiaojiao stayed behind to loot the corpses.

Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank!

With the orange bow in hand and Lightning Leopard leading the way, Li Yi quickly rushed forward and cleared the normal monsters that it encountered.

The orange bow flickered constantly, and it let out a clanking sound intermittently.

“Up ahead… There seems to be something that’s calling out to me…” The murmurs of the Hunter Goddess came from within the bow.

Li Yi stiffened as he hastened his pace.

The orange bow was already acting up during the massacre of the patched snakes and its intensity had only increased after wiping them all out. The steady increase of the clanking sounds was the main motivator for Li Yi’s haste.

Since some of the seals within the bow had yet to be unleashed, its durability decreased with each use. Without any way to repair it, Li Yi only had five months tops to release the seals, or else the orange bow would break.

‘How can I increase its durability? How can I unleash the seals?” These two questions were constantly on Li Yi’s mind.

‘What lies ahead? What did the Divine Soul of the Hunter Goddess sense?’

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Li Yi readied his bow and activated Heart of a Clear Mirror at max range.

“Goddess, the thing you sensed, is it something related to removing the seals on the bow?”

“I’m not too sure myself. My Divine Soul is extremely weak, as such, I could only sense a powerful ‘thing’ that is calling out to me. However… I have no way of determining what it is.”

As usual, the goddess was useless.

Li Yi shook his head in exasperation and at that instant, Lightning Leopard let out a roar as it initiated its battle with a black shadow.

Ribbit—Ribbit—

The small-statured shadow was impressive and gave Lightning Leopard a hard time. At the rear, Li Yi was desperately healing Lightning Leopard. However, it was still no match for the small shadow. The battle had only lasted for ten or so seconds and ended with Lightning Leopard sprawled on the ground.

The small shadow emitted a croaking sound as it rushed towards Li Yi.

With Heart of a Clear Mirror activated, Li Yi had discerned the true appearance of the small-statured shadow.

It was a Frogman of the Grotto!

It had a small body and it looked a lot like a toad. It stood on two legs and it was extremely agile.

The Frogmen of the Grotto, an extremely rare race within the Pantheon World. They were aggressive in nature and their favorite pastime was to cause destruction.

They had 500,000 HP and were a melee type of monster!

“Frost Trap!”

Li Yi placed a Frost Trap underneath his feet, reducing the frogman’s movement speed and allowed Li Yi to launch his bow attacks.

Li Yi was incredibly fast, so much so, that the Frogman of the Grotto had hopped with all its might and still lagged behind.

“Repelling Arrow Skill! Crippling Shot!”

The Repelling Arrow Skill was incredibly effective as it was constantly knocking back the Frogman of the Grotto. It croaked in frustration as it was powerless against Li Yi.

“Ribbit! Ribbit!”

The Frogman of the Grotto collapsed onto the ground, and with one last kick of its legs, it finally died.

Li Yi ran ahead to loot it.

‘Oh!’

System Notification: [You have obtained a ‘Strange Key’ from the Frogman of the Grotto.]

Li Yi surveyed his surroundings as he furrowed his brows.

Since the frogman had dropped a ‘key’, it implied that there was a treasure chest of sorts or a dungeon mechanism in his near vicinity that required the usage of the ‘key’.

‘Where is it though?”

Li Yi used ‘Heart of a Clear Mirror’ to sense his surroundings and after searching patiently for five minutes, he located a treasure chest from within the wall of a neighboring path.

Li Yi shot his arrow at the wall to reveal the treasure chest behind it.

The treasure chest was pitch black, and it was etched with various odd patterns. Li Yi attempted to carry it, but it was heavy and dense. Needless to say, it did not budge at all.

“Goddess, is this the item that was calling out to you?”

“No… That thing lies further ahead, and we’re still quite far from it…”

Li Yi used the ‘Strange Key’ and with a ‘ker-chunk’, the treasure chest had been unlocked.

[You have retrieved a red gem from the chest…]

[You have retrieved 100 Froggie Currency from the chest…]

[You have been afflicted by the frogmen’s curse. Your body is currently undergoing a change…]

Puff!

After a puff of black smoke had come to pass, Li Yi had turned into a Frogman of the Grotto.

‘What the f*ck, is this a hidden quest?’

Li Yi was startled.

There were plenty of quests that required one to undergo a transformation. One such quest was the one that required the player to wear a Cursing Sect Outfit to infiltrate the Cursing Sect.

‘What purpose does the 100 Froggie Currency serve?’

Li Yi scoured the memories of his past life that were related to the Frogmen of the Grotto, but could not recall anything…

There were too many playstyles within King of Pantheon. Even eight years of playing did not guarantee that he knew everything. At the very least, he had never even heard of any frogmen quests before, much less carrying them out.

The red gem he received from the treasure chest was pretty decent. Furthermore, it was a Gold Quality item that was able to increase STR by 180 points if installed on any headgear.

“Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit!”

Just as Li Yi was hopping about and contemplating of what to do, a group of frogmen came jumping out and chided Li Yi severely.

Li Yi would not have understood what it said if he was not a frogman. Fortunately for him, his transformation into a frogman enabled him to understand the frogmen’s words.

“D*mbass, stop lazing around and follow me to fetch the Queen’s new clothes!”

After turning into a frogman, Li Yi noticed that the other frogmen now had names. He learned that the name of the frogman that was lecturing him was ‘Zhengda’ and the frogman that he had turned into was called ‘Ada’.

The frogman called ‘Zhengda’ had turned and left, whereas Li Yi was hopping to catch up with it.

“All of you are idiots, idiots I say!”

Throughout the journey, Li Yi had remained silent as he humbly trailed behind Zhengda.

“Idiot! Stop following me! Go and round up the other frogmen that are lazing about. We’ll lose our heads if we’re late and the queen is enraged.

Ding!

Li Yi had received a quest.

[Quest Title: Find the Slacking Frogmen]

[Quest Details: Assist the frogman, Zhengda to look for the slacking frogmen nearby (20 in total). Then, retrieve the queen’s new clothes together.]

[Quest Difficulty: Rank D]

[Quest Reward: 50,000 EXP points and 10 Froggie Currency.]

…

‘This quest wasn’t as tough as I expected!’

“Take this. Use it on those who refuse to cooperate to teach them a lesson!”

The frogman, Zhengda handed over a boiling hot kettle to Li Yi.

Li Yi was surprised…

‘This quest is interesting indeed!’

Zhengda had stopped moving. By the looks of it, he would have remained there until Li Yi had caught 20 frogmen.

With the ‘kettle’ in hand, Li Yi set off to look for the slacking frogmen.

“Ribbit ribbit, I want to eat some bugs, I want to kiss the queen…”

Before long, Li Yi had found a frogman was that was dozing off at a corner.

Li Yi poured the contents of the kettle onto it, burning it. It was so hot that the frogman let out a pitiful cry and jumped up high.

Li Yi reprimanded, “Idiot, stop slacking and follow me to get the queen’s new clothes!”

“Your majesty, it appears that my head is cooked…” The slacking frogman’s head was burned so badly that a bump had now formed. It croaked in agony as it followed Li Yi’s lead.

“Idiot, stop slacking and follow me to get the queen’s new clothes!”

Li Yi sprayed his kettle to his surroundings, instantly revealing the frogmen near him. A detailed count had revealed their numbers to be around 30 of them.

“Boss, I’ve found all of them.”

Li Yi led the 30 or so pig-like frogmen to Zhengda and handed in the quest.

“Not bad, this is your reward.”

Zhengda generously tossed Li Yi 10 Froggie Currencies. Then, it raised its hand and announced, “Follow me to get the queen’s new clothes.”

“How generous of you, boss. 10 Froggie Currencies right out the bat? I can’t help but envy.”

“I’ve labored under Shentai for almost a year only to receive 100 Froggie Currencies. Zhengda is still the most generous of the bunch, ribbit.”

The pig-like frogmen were murmuring with envy.

Li Yi walked over to the frogman that was burnt the hardest, asking “What can I do with Froggie Currency?”

“Are you new here?” The frogman answered in a suspicious tone.

“Idiot, I’m interrogating you, to test whether you’re paying attention.” Li Yi dangled the kettle in his hand and although it was now empty, it was still intimidating.

As expected, the frogman jumped in shock. He immediately waved his hand and stammered, “B-Boss, I didn’t mean to suspect you. I swear, by the name of the Frog Queen, that I am not suspicious towards you at all.”

“Good then. Now speak, what can the Froggie Currency be used for? Explain it in detail.”

“No problem!”

The frogman delved into a long-winded explanation.

The Frogmen of the Grotto were no different from the races on the surface of the Pantheon Continent. Despite their lower intelligence, they had managed to form a complete societal structure.

The leader of the frogmen was none other than the most beautiful, the most pretty, and most alluring Frog Queen. Be it male or female, they had all worshipped the queen fanatically.

The Froggie Currency was a currency of the Frog Queen’s own making. With it, they could procure several items of value, like rarely-seen Skill Tomes, beautiful gems, rare equipment sets, and etcetera.

When Li Yi had finally understood the usage of the Froggie Currency, the frogman, Zhengda had brought them through a secret tunnel and into the Frogmen Kingdom.

It was a miniature kingdom. It contained shops, inhabitants, shabby inns, and the streets were bustling with frogmen.

“I can feel it. The thing that is calling me is nearby!”

Hunter Goddess sent out a message right as the frogman Zhengda had brought the frogmen into a tailor shop.