Zhan Long

Chapter 10 – Bramble Sword

Paa

The sword entered the mud as I quietly sat there, thinking about what to do. The beginner village boss, huh? Looks like it’s hard to find. I’m surprised no one has killed it yet. It surely has to do with my exploration in the deep jungle. This Bramble Bear King surely must be the Grass Dog Village’s strongest monster. Once it’s killed, it’ll surely drop loads of great items, so I must not miss out on it.

But, what should I kill it with? Surely I can’t use this body of mine with second-rate fighting skills and one piece of cloth armor to kill it, right?

I looked at the sky, then back at the boss. Slowly, my willpower gathered and I made up my mind. Mm, it’s not like it can’t be killed. I’ll need to use the landscape. The Bramble Bear King’s body is huge, and its legs aren’t considered long. It’s attacking style should also be limited by this. Perhaps, I could use that big hole in the tree on the right and hide inside. Maybe then, I can slaughter this boss.

Hua

Standing up, I hesitated for a short moment before deciding to go through with it. Whatever I say, I shall do.

Just then, as I was getting up, a low voice came from behind me.

“Hi, friend. Do you plan to kill that bear king on your own?”

Damn, there’s people now.

I took my sword and turned. There were 5 people about 30 yards away from me, all levels 8-10. One of them had a team leader symbol on his arm. He was level 10, which was pretty rare.

[Western Tyrant1] (Novice Swordsman)

Level: 10

His name was quite aggressive. Behind him, there were 4 other people. Two were level 9 magicians, one was a bald barbarian shaman and one was a musket-wielding knight. This team feels a little a weird. Or… more like this team doesn’t a have a healer!

Western Tyrant walked up, looked at me, and then he laughly heartily, saying: “Dude, you’re really something. A healer wielding a sword, hoho. How much strength did you add, having this much arm strength? Whatever it is, even if you can wield a sword, you can’t kill a level 10 boss solo.

I looked at them without saying a word.

Western Tyrant continued: “How about this? You join our team of five, and we all kill this Bramble Bear King together. If a cloth equip drops, you and our two magicians will Roll and see who gets it. How’s that? Or else…”

I couldn’t help but smile cynically. “Or else what? You’re gonna bully me? With a team of five but no healer, you five can’t even kill the boss anyway. You guys should know that!”

Western Tyrant flashed a evil look before smiling happily. “Don’t think so much about it, I didn’t mean it like that. Although I, Liu Ying, am not any kind of well-natured prince2, but to steal the kill on a boss is something I definitely won’t do. Look, you can’t kill it solo, we also can’t kill it without a healer. Why not just team up and follow the suggestion I previously mentioned? Hmm… your [Hemostasis] level should be at least level 2, right? Level 1 [Hemostasis] only heals 50 HP. If it’s only at level 1 there’s no way we can kill it.”

I nodded my head: “Mm, my [Hemostasis] is level 2. Though… I have a request. You must agree to this or else even if you PK me here, I won’t agree.”

Western Tyrant laughed loudly. “Okay, its better than having to kill you. Say it. Though, it musn’t be too ridiculous. Other than that, I’ll accept anything.”

“Okay!”

I glanced at Western Tyrant, as well as the knight next to him. Smiling, I said: “About this, I don’t need the cloth equip. If a cloth equip drops, you guys can have it. I only want sword-related weapons. As you guys can already see, my weapon is a sword. I only have this request. Once a sword drops, I’ll Roll together with you guys to decide to gets it. How’s that?”

Western Tyrant let out a “Hmm?”, considered for a while, then finally said: “Although I’m a swordsman, seeing as you’re a battle healer who uses swords as well, okay then. If a sword drops we’ll roll. Come, join our party!”

“Okay!”

I entered Western Tyrant’s party. The party of us 6 prepared to kill the boss. The five of them discussed about their roles. If a sword drops, I’ll join the Roll. If a cloth armor drops, I don’t get any thing. Western Tyrant really doesn’t want me to get anything, huh? Taking away my Roll chance like that. A sword isn’t even that like of a drop any way.

“Okay, let’s go ready to fight!” Western Tyrant said while holding his sword. Looks like he’s about the same as me in terms skill. He methodically ordered: “Tu Lu, you’ll tank. Take the boss’s aggro. The magicians will concentrate their firepower directly on the boss. Knight, you’ll use your Heavy Slash. I’ll use my Multiple Slash to attack. Xiao Yao Zi Zai, you make sure Monk doesn’t die. Keep healing him.”

“I understand!”

Monk, huh? That 24 years old or below barbarian took a staff and rushed in. From afar, he hit the Bramble Bear King.

Guu

{8}

What pitiful damage. The Monk class in Destiny has high scaling on their defence and health, also known as the meat shield class. Only in the late game does their attack shine. Currently, it’s laughable how low it is.

WRAHHH

The Bramble Bear King got aggro’ed and jumped down from its rock ferociously. As it landed it clawed the Monk and a frightening damage number appeared.

{74}

“Holy…” Western Tyrant stared blankly. “Tu Lu, you’ve been adding 5 Defence and 5 HP each level right? Yet, you still took 74 damage from 1 hit. Have you given your defence away?”

The Monk leapt back quickly, yelling loudly at the same time: “There’s no problem with my defence, the Boss’s attack stat is way too high! I only have 500 HP, so I need Xiao Yao Zi Zai to heal me well!”

“Okay!”

When the Bear King attacked for the second time, I immediately healed the Monk and he gained 100 HP. Crisis averted, somewhat.

Western Tyrant let out a roar and charged in with his sword. On his sword a golden hexagram shone, and with a shua shua sound he hit the boss twice. It’s the swordsman class’s skill – Multiple Slash. It should be level 2, judging from his damage.

{58}

{61}

It’s pretty obvious that Western King added all his stat points into strength. The two magicians behind started waving their staffs and channeling their magic. They fired waves and waves of fireballs. Fire magic, huh? Shua shua The Boss’s health dwindled by over 100 HP. The Bramble Bear King should have 3000HP at most. Effects of the magicians’ work could be easily seen as the HP bar dropped line after line.

Shua

{+100}

I healed the monk again. After that, I moved closer to the boss with my sword in hand. I wanted to test my damage. What resulted was a clang sound and a damage number floating up –

{21}

Western Tyrant shouted in shock: “My god, that’s really strong! You’re an oddball of a healer!”

The Bear King took another swing of his claws and forced the monk to retreat. Western King hurriedly replaced his position, taking the hit from the Bear King. He lost about 90+ HP, but he shouted: “Xiao Yao Zi Zai, don’t bother healer me. Continue to heal the Monk! We need to control our firepower and not let the Boss aggro get messed up!”

I nodded my head and continued healing the monk.

Although the entire duration of the fight was dangerous, the Monk’s defence was really too high. Coupled with my healing, the Boss couldn’t deal any damage and after only two minutes of intense fighting, the Bramble Bear King’s health dropped to 7%.

Hei

Western Tyrant, while carrying his sword, suddenly appeared next to me. His eyes was full of content. No way, is he trying to kill me?

“Damn Bear King, go and die!”

The blade had the golden hexagram again, attacking twice. Another Multiple Slash. He wanted to use it on me! One for the boss and one for me. God damn, you want to get rid of me in the confusion of battle? Good thinking!

Sha

My legs danced on the grass as I quickly jumped 2 yards away. A big MISS appeared and Western King stared blindly, shocked to no end. The Monk’s HP fell below 200 and he shouted loudly: “Xiao Yao Zi Zai, what in the world are you doing back there? Quickly, heal me!”

I purposely bided my time. The Bear King attacked with his claws twice and killed the knight directly. The Monk wasn’t getting healed either and he got angry.

As if understanding my intentions, Western Tyrant didn’t attack again and just apologised, smiling and saying: “Sorry, my hand slipped there…”

I immediately thought to myself: ‘Hand slipped? Why don’t you let your hand slip and cut off your manhood while you’re at it?’

Whatever, I gave the Monk a [Hemostasis] and charged at the Boss at the same time. I stayed out of Western King’s reach. If I were hit by a swordsman’s Multiple Slash, even if I didn’t die up front, I’d still be at least half health down. That definitely can’t happen.

A few seconds later, the Bramble Bear King let out a huge roar and fell to the ground. It was dead!

Hualala

An equip dropped with a silver coin. The Boss was quite generous, huh? It dropped silvers directly.

After I understood their intentions, I wasn’t going to let them get their way. I was the nearest to the Boss and when I took a look around, I was shocked. A sword really dropped! A glimmering longsword! I stretched out and pa grabbed it immediately. At the same time I used the Roll system function and determined my Roll points. It stopped at a beautiful 99 points!

The 5 members looked at the sword’s stats and were shocked beyond belief.

[Bramble Sword] (Black Iron Equip)

Attack: 21-35

Strength: +3

Required Level: 8

Who would have guessed? A sword really dropped! The only equip that dropped was a sword!

A silver coin or 100 copper coins also dropped. It could be counted as a small fortune.

“Damn!”

Western Tyrant’s eyes looked as if they were about to pop out. Wielding his sword, he said: “Damn it, kill him!”

The players finally showed their true colours. Western Tyrant’s sword had the golden hexagram again. Yet again, the Multiple Slash!

I quickly jumped back but I only managed to dodge 1 hit.

{Miss}

{71}

At the same time, the two magicians starting chanting and fire rained down from the heavens. I have no way to dodge this.

{81}

{+100}

{77}

In the split second between the attacks I healed myself. I ran towards the nearby forest while silently praising my healing skills. To my chagrin, a rush of cold air blew from behind me. Western Tyrant was a swordsman, whose movement speed should be much higher than mine. He swung his sword down in one smooth motion. An basic attack fell on my head.

{88}

A wave of pain entered my body and lights shone in front of me. I died!

Shua

I appeared at a nearby grave, really close to my corpse. I need to run back to the corpse to revive. Dang it, after killing the Boss I reached level 10, and now I’m level 9 again.

The five members stood there. Western King shouted angrily: “Xiao Yao Zi Zai, unless you are a wuss and don’t mind hiding forever, you should come out now and forget about the Roll! If you do that we can still be friends!”

I couldn’t help but smile. I said: “You’re not fit to be a friend of mine. The Bramble Sword is mine. If you guys have the luck, roll a 100. If not, shut up!”

As expected, the members started to Roll.

Western Tyrant: 41

Knight: 91

Ding

System Notice: Roll ended. Item [Bramble Sword] is given to player Xiao Yao Zi Zai!

Pa ta A black sword appeared in my inventory. It really was the Bramble Sword! Hehe, dying and dropping a level was still worth it!

Original text is 西楚霸王, might be a reference to a movie (perhaps) linked here: http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A5%BF%E6%A5%9A%E9%9C%B8%E7%8E%8B_%28%E7%94%B5%E5%BD%B1%29.

正人君子, meaning a virtuous, righteous and handsome person.