VRMMO: The Unrivaled

The success rate of my attacks was greatly boosted by the perception granted by Dark Pupils. In fact, I bet that my successful attacks would practically double under the effects of this new skill. Of course, it wouldn’t be so simple in PvP. After all, monsters weren’t mindful of their movements and positioning but players were, so attacking their weak points would naturally be a lot more difficult.

……

"Roaaaaar!"

The moment Blood Skull shook free from the binding of God Binding Art, he let out a howl of fury as he bounded toward me. His sword flashed through the air and a shocking explosion of bloody energy crashed into my right shoulder. I wasn’t able to dodge the attack, bone-piercing pain shooting through my right arm and chest. Blood Skull’s Blade of Blood attack had taken out a huge chunk of my HP in one go.

9784!

Damn, Blood Skull’s attacks hurt like hell!

I swiftly danced while retreating as I summoned the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf. My movement speed was faster than Blood Skull’s and since I could also use my Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf to obstruct his movements, I would probably be able to wear him down this way. If not, the Asura warrior was bound to eventually catch me in this open field with no terrain to exploit. My death would be all but certain then.

The Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf wagged its tail vigorously as it kept darting in front of the Asura warrior. I used my pet’s delaying tactics to widen the gap between Blood Skull and I before using Dragon Slaying Slash to kite him. I used this method to slowly shave away the boss's health. Even though this would take extremely long, I could still see Blood Skull’s HP bar visibly dropping lower and lower. I would definitely be able to kill him.

A Level 165 Earth Rank boss was still an extremely powerful being, so even though I had the Cyan Netherworld Sword and three pieces of Earth-grade equipment, I still wasn’t able to go head to head with him. However, if I had Murong Mingyue and Moon Dew with me right now, I was fairly confident that I could match this boss blow for blow given my current level and defensive prowess.

Wooosh…

Icy Cyclone Domains continued to appear as I formed a "ping" 品 character on the ground with them. I was kiting in a circle through these three Icy Cyclone Domains as I used my Dragon Slaying Slash to constantly keep the boss's aggro on me. I made my wolf run in zigzags to slow down Blood Skull as my Icy Cyclone Domain continued to rain icicles down on him. The huge amount of magic-based damage was really working the Asura over, the heavy impacts of these icicles causing Blood Skull to roar in misery.

I waved my left hand and my God Binding Art successfully restrained the boss for a third time! I was extremely appreciative of the near-100% success rate I was enjoying right now. If this continued, it was almost guaranteed that I could kill this boss. Moreover, the boss's defensive skill was practically being ignored due to the effects of my Dark Pupils, so my damage wasn’t really being affected either!

……

A "beep" sounded in my ears as Beiming Xue sent me a message: "Big bro, how come you still haven’t come offline to eat?"

"Oh, I’m killing a quest boss. I’ll go offline and eat as soon as I finish. What are you doing right now, Beiming?"

"I brought a squad of archers with me to grind!"

"Oh! Good hunting!"

"You too!"

……

As I slowly whittled the boss's health away, I messaged Gui Guzi to get an update on how the sealing of the tiger mounts were going. He told me that it was going about as good as we could expect. More than 2000 of the main players from Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had entered the Cyan Tiger Forest and we had seized control of the entire map. At the very least, there was no one else who could enter this map, which was still a secret to the rest of the world, at the current stage in the game.

These Cyan Tiger mounts were rare shadow-rank monsters and they were considered Purple Gold Rank mounts as well. They were extremely valuable and once we sealed all the rare mounts that we could find in the area, they probably wouldn’t spawn again for another one to two months. This was different from the usual pattern of elite monsters spawning again after twenty-four hours, so we definitely needed to sweep this map clean. Once we finished our "quest", we would create a unique Cyan TigerCavalry that no other guild would have!

Time slowed to a crawl as I continued to kite the boss. My poor Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf had already died to Blood Skull three times, and even I was dancing on a knife’s edge. The Asura warrior’s attack power was simply too absurd! This was especially true for his Soul Cleave attack. It was way too OP! It was an attack that covered a wide area and this greatly increased my difficulty in killing him.

However, there was a silver lining here. Blood Skull’s stats were a fair bit lower than the Earth Rank dragon bosses we encountered in the Nine Lost Dragon Domains and he didn’t have any huge AoE attacks like they did. This was how I could even solo an Earth Rank boss in the first place. If Blood Skull possessed an AoE attack that exceeded his Soul Cleave, he would’ve blown me and the Greedy Wolf to bits a long time ago.

After two hours had passed, the boss's HP bar was finally reduced to a sliver. As I dashed forward and unleashed a Universe Break + Burning Blade Slash against the weary Asura, he let out a howl of rage as he threw his head back and dropped to his knees. He snarled, "Oh endless darkness, when are you finally going to swallow up all the light?! You damnable adventurer, Lord Coldblade will surely avenge me!"

"Yeah, go to your daddy Coldblade. That dog bastard…"

My blade whistled through the air, cleanly slicing off Blood Skull’s head. The head landed on the ground with a thump, rolling a fair distance away. Alright, this was the quest item!

I walked over to pick up the head and throw it into my inventory before a satisfied smile appeared on my face. I could now go back and hand in my quest.

When I turned around to pick up the head, two golden beams of light descended on my body consecutively with a whooshing sound. I was now Level 142! Hell yeah!

I looked over at Blood Skull’s corpse to see what he had dropped. A grin appeared on my face as I quickly scanned his body. It looked like he had dropped quite a few high-grade items and there was also a small mountain of magic stones beside his body. These were all my own spoils of war, so I wasn’t required to share them with anyone else. There was a pair of blood-colored war boots, a blood-colored chestplate, a blood-colored helmet, and a staff that was crackling with electricity. When I checked their stats, my grin grew even wider.

Earth Fiend War Boots (Spirit-grade, Outstanding★★★): Defense 550, Magic Resist 475, Strength +135, Stamina +130. Passive: Increases user’s movement speed by 35%. Outstanding Property: Increases user’s physical evasion rate by 20%. Level Requirement: 130.

Earth Fiend Battle Armor (Spirit-grade, Outstanding★★★★): Defense 700, Magic Resist 650, Strength +130, Stamina +137. Passive: Increases user’s Defense by 25%. Outstanding Property: Increases user’s max HP by 3500. Level Requirement: 130.

Earth Fiend Helmet (Spirit-grade, Outstanding★★★): Defense 570, Magic Resist 480, Strength +125, Stamina +130. Passive: Increases user’s hit rate by 35%. Outstanding Property: Increases user’s max HP by 2000. Level Requirement: 130

Tempest Staff (Spirit-grade, Outstanding★★★★): Magic Attack 770~950, Intelligence +135, Stamina +140. Increases user’s Magic Attack by 35%. Outstanding Property: Icy Explosion, there is a fixed chance of triggering an icy explosion which will attack all targets in the area in front of the user. Level Requirement: 130.

……

Hmm, these three pieces of the Earth Fiend armor, and all of them were Outstanding Spirit-grade items. Even though they didn’t form a set, I could still sell them at the auction house. They would definitely go for a decent amount! The Tempest Staff, on the other hand, had good stats and a great attack power, so it would be great for any high-level mage. Right now, there were more Level 130 mages in Sky City than stars in the sky, so this magic staff would be a hot item! Alright, let’s auction it off too!"

At this moment, a light that was twinkling from the boss's corpse caught my eye. It was a blood-colored ring that was radiating light. My heart leapt with joy the moment I saw its stats. That’s more like it! I mean, how could an Earth Rank boss that I soloed not drop any Earth-grade items given my 38 points of Luck? The image of a terrifying specter floated up from the ring and the ring itself looked quite cool! At the very least, it definitely suited an undead player like myself.

Apparition Ring (Earth-grade, Outstanding★★★★)

Strength: +155

Stamina: +150

Tactics: +40

Passive: Increases user’s Defense by 25%

Passive: Increases user’s resistance to ice attacks by 50%

Outstanding Property: Apparition. Summon a specter that will copy the user’s likeness. This specter will have 75% of the user’s stats and does not have the ability to gain levels. It will disappear after the user either dies or goes offline.

Level Requirement: 135

Reputation Requirement: 100000

……

I heard myself audibly gulp as I checked the ring’s stats. Daaamn, this Apparition skill looked completely ridiculous! It could summon a specter that would look just like me. Furthermore, this wasn’t just a simple afterimage that would disappear after one strike. It was an actual clone that had 75% of my stats! Given how high my stats were, 75% was pretty crazy already. It could help me kill monsters, and more importantly, it could even be used in PvP situations. I could use this specter to confuse my opponents while I snuck in to deal the fatal blow.

Tsk, tsk, this is way too awesome! I love this ring already!

I immediately took off the Ring of Windchasing and put on the Apparition Ring. My stats shot up once again and a new Apparition skill appeared in my skill pool. Let’s try it out first!

I activated the skill when I turned the ring, immediately causing a ghostly howl to reverberate in the air around. Countless threads of dark energy swirled around me and it seemed as if there were countless malign spirits snarling at me from this dark fog. My eyes went cold as I yelled, "Get lost!"

As an Asura King, a high-rank subspecies of the Night Creatures, I was practically the ancestor of these lowly ghosts. They could still be used to spook Lin Yixin or He Yi, but they would only be courting their own deaths if they tried to scare me!

My yell instantly scattered the ghostly energy and caused it to slowly merge together in front of me. I could soon see the silhouette of my armor, face, and hair appear out of the dark fog. In less than ten seconds, an undead swordsman that looked just like me was standing in front of me. I nearly jumped up in shock when I saw that. The tattered and familiar-looking Soul Suppressing Cloak gently swayed behind it as the undead swordsman stared at me with a cruel gleam in those familiar blood-red eyes.

At the same time, the icon of a specter appeared next to my pet icon in my control interface. This meant that I could do triple multitasking now. However, given my judgement and reaction speed, this was still within the realm of my ability.

……

I slowly checked through the rest of the items that Blood Skull had dropped. There were quite a few augmenting gems and there was even a skill book shining with a golden radiance! I quickly picked up the skill book and read the description, my eyes rapidly widening in shock.

Purple Dragon (Earth-grade Stratagem): Summon the energy of an emperor to raise the stats of all party members by 15%. The skill’s effectiveness depends on the player’s Tactics. Level Requirement: 135. Class Requirement: Tactician. Tactics Requirement: 300. Upon learning this skill, the user loses 3 levels.

……

My jaw dropped to the ground as I stared at the Purple Dragon stratagem skill book. What the fuck is this?! Is this the legendary Tactician skill book that can change the fortunes of the entire Tactician class? A 15% boost to all stats? This skill is just like Lin Yixin’s Bombshell. But there were several key differences here. The first difference was that this 15% boost was affected by the user’s Tactics stat and all tacticians had an extremely high Tactics stat due to their high Tactics scaling, so a proper tactician would be able to make this stratagem far more valuable than Bombshell. The second difference was that Lin Yixin’s Bombshell had a hard cap of 80% while there might not be an upper limit on this Purple Dragon stratagem at all. If this Purple Dragon stratagem could outclass Bombshell, it would be a meta-changing skill!

Yeah, let’s keep this first! This skill book was a great find! This stratagem coupled with the Burning Fan, the Earth-grade weapon that was exclusive to tacticians, would allow our guild to create a super Tactician!

Ah, I don’t care anymore! I hadn’t even eaten my dinner yet and lunch had been extremely unpleasant. I’ll go offline and have my meal first, then hand in the quest after that. That old fart God Hunter will definitely teach me some legendary skill after that, right?