Zhan Long

Chapter 135 – Kiss of the Flame

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“Little Wolf, Fox–which one of you wants this bracer?”

I raised the spoil in my hand. It was a Lv 45 Silver Tier equipment that had great stats; maybe it could even be comparable to Lv 40 Gold Tier equipment.

Fox held up the smoking gun and said, “My Lv is not as high as Little Wolf’s, so give it to him! He is a melee class, so he will need equipments that give him both endurance and agility. I am ranged, so I prefer agility and strength equipments; that way my attack damage can reach another level and even match a Berserker’s.”

I nodded. Fox clearly analyzed the situation and realized that ranged classes don’t really need endurance. For example, Musketeers are an agility-type class. If you add agility, it will raise attack damage, and if you raise strength, it will raise attack damage as well. Thus, they have a greater need for equipment that gives both strength and agility.

I gave the wrist guard to Little Wolf, but he couldn’t equip it yet since everyone’s Lvs, including his, were still too low.

…

I kept on killing the monsters in front. After I killed a large amount of Ocean Wolf Warriors, I heard a gasp from Old K: “Ah, d*mn, isn’t that…isn’t that the Red Flamed Ore?”

“Red Flamed Ore?” I was surprised.

Old K couldn’t contain his excitement and he pulled out a pickaxe and started crazily mining at the wall. Before long, he got a cluster of minerals. Red Flamed Ore: Lv 5 ore. It’s a necessity for creating armor and forging.

While picking up the coins the monsters dropped, I asked, “Fox, what Lv is your forging skill?”

“Lv 4, and there’s still 15% left before I can reach Lv 5. The materials are too hard to get.” Fox smiled apologetically: “I won’t deny it; I used 300 gold coins from the studio to buy all sorts of raw material to train my forging skill. But when I reach Lv 5, I can create Lv 40 Silver Tier weapons!”

I’m astonished: “It’s that good?”

“Mm, if the quality of the raw materials are high enough and if I can find some precious gems to add on then creating a Lv 40+ Gold Tier weapon is possible…” Fox blinked his eyes and started dreaming, “According to rumors, the highest tier of weapons that players can create is Saint Tier. In the future, if I can get good enough raw materials, and get the most precious gems, then perhaps I can even create Divine or even God Tier equipment”

Wolf pursed his lips: “Don’t daydream about that. From the beginning until now, the best equipment that you’ve ever created is a Green Tier knife, and the rest are Black Iron and White equipment. I don’t even want to start on how much money you’ve wasted…”

Darling Duck laughed: “Then, in the future, when Glass Fox’s forging Lv is higher can you forge a high Lv Healer-type Saint Tier staff…”

Fox raised his gun: “Of course…”

“Of course what? Help me kill the monsters!” I yelled as I slashed my sword around.

…

3 hours later: in the final part of a branch path within the cave.

Standing next to the pattering river, I held my sword and knelt down next to the 5 dead Wolf Warriors’ corpses. I stretched out and picked up the drop from the ground, a magic-type boots and the stats were not bad either——

【Focus Ice Boots】 (Silver Tier equipment)

Type: Cloth Gear

Defense: 50

Ability Power: +29

Endurance: +24

Extra: Increases healing effects by 55 points

Lv Requirement: 45

…

I quickly threw the boots to Duck and said, “Here, these are boots that boost healing–they’re for you. Our luck isn’t bad to find such good equipment!”

Duck received the boots and happily smiled: “Thank you Boss, you’re so nice!”

Wolf raised his dagger and said, “Xiao Yao, it’s been 3 hours, and I’m already Lv 39. These monsters give so much experience, hehe. At this rate, I can almost reach Lv 43 when we finish this mission, but that is, of course, if we completely annihilate all the monsters in this cave.”

I nodded and smiled, “Mm, we’ll try our best to kill them all. After all, this is such a good chance to Lv up. After 7 more hours, I could probably rise to Lv 51 as well…”

Fox raised his smoking barrel and said, “Boss, in 3 hours, we gained a total of 7 Silver Tier equipment, 19 Bronze Tier equipment and countless Black Iron and Green equipment. Isn’t this a bit of a cheat?”

“That’s only because our boss has high charm…” Duck lightly smiled, “Pretty much over 70% of the monsters that we killed were killed by him. He has 34 charm, so the drop rate is increased by 34%…”

I paused, “Let’s continue. We didn’t get too many drops from this branch, so we’ll go down another. We’ll kill monsters for another 3 hours, and by then we can probably clear yet another path. Then at 7 o’clock, everyone disconnect and eat, or go to the washroom. Return by 8, we’ll continue straight through the night and by tomorrow we can probably finish this Rank S mission.”

Old K raised his battle axe, “Okay, we’ll continue. Next path!”

…

We continued killing along the path while the edge of my sword started to dull; the durability became worn down!

Almost 3 hours later: at the end of the 2nd branch.

Another Ocean Wolf Clan Warrior fell, signalling the completion of the branch. There weren’t many good drops on this path either, which made me feel slightly disappointed, but at least Wolf had risen to Lv 40. There was no rush to go and get his 2nd Job Promotion; it would be best to wait until the mission is finished first, but my sword only had 10% durability left. Looking at the crippled sword, I said, “It looks like I need to return to Ba Huang City to repair some equipment and it’s almost time as well right?”

Wolf checked the time: “Mm, 18:30, should we disconnect now?”

“Okay, then I’ll go back to the city!”

I took out a City Return Scroll, and as I was about to use it, Duck pulled on my arm: “Boss, wait!”

“What’s wrong?” I stopped the City Return Scroll.

“There…”

Duck pointed to a pile of mud at the end of the tunnel and said, “I feel like there’s something moving over there…”

“What…”

I frowned. Holding the only 10% durability sword, I strode over there. It really looked like the mud was moving; maybe there was something there?

As I approached the mud, Wolf yelled out, “Xiao Yao, careful, there’s a monster there!”

Before he finished his sentence, a tentacle stretched out from the mud, tightly grasped onto my sword arm and tried to pull me into the mud!

“Damn, it wants to eat our boss?” Fox was shocked.

Old K was already a Lv 39 Berserker. In a rage he put away his battleaxe and rushed forward with huge steps. He grabbed onto the other tentacle of the monster and yelled, “Boss, let’s pull this guy out from the mud and see what kind of thing is here trying to scare people!”

“Okay!”

I couldn’t help but smile. I grasped the tentacle wrapped around and pulled on it while Old K pulled on the other one. Instantly, the mud gurgled. Suddenly, a huge squid-like thing was pulled out. It had a total of 8 tentacles and all of them were wriggled around. The monster was as tall as a person and its face looked like a honeycomb. With sharp grumbles, this guy also appeared surprised!

It was still a Boss Tier monster, so I quickly read the stats of the monster and shared them in the party channel——

【Mud Monster】（Gold Tier Boss）

Lv: 51

Attack: 1000-1420

Defense: 600

HP: 80000

Skills:【Bind】【Excessive Blows】【Mud Trap】

Description: Mud Monster–an evil demon hiding in the [Cave of Despair]. According to legends, it can twist and kill an ancient elephant. Extremely terrifying.

…

“Hehe, a Lv 51 Gold Tier boss! Its Lv is lower than the normal monsters’…” Fox laughed and shot at the monster with a bang, making it cry out and dealing 400+ damage. This Mud Monster’s defense was pretty bad.

I tightly clenched my long sword, quickly rushed up and yelled, “I’ll control the aggro. Little Wolf and Old K, back off. Fox, support with ranged fire. And Duck, keep me healed. We’ll finish this within 5 minutes!”

My sword started to glow, indicating the Lv 5 [Combo], and with several bangs, 4 damage numbers appeared on the boss——

587!

601!

599!

627!

…

Indeed, the stats of this Gold Tier Boss couldn’t be compared to those of Purple Tier Bosses, and its Lv was very close to mine. I could probably solo this boss.

With a whoosh, air surged from underneath my legs, which marked the activation of the combo. How rare, my harmony with [Strength of a Thousand Men] increased by another 0.9% and was now at 67.9%. I heard that the skill would Lv up if the harmony reached 100%, but who knows? After all, it hasn’t been done before.

Grumble…

The Mud Monster tried to resist: It opened all 8 tentacles and tried to twist them around me. But with the slash of my Frost Rain Sword, they all got knocked away–there was even a Fatal Strike! The boss whined and its tentacles only did 300-500 damage to me which couldn’t cause any life threatening attacks. With my own heals and a top-class Healer behind me, I could pretty much kill this Lv 51 Gold Tier boss with no trouble.

At the end, within 5 minutes, or rather a bit over 3 minutes, the Mud Monster cried out and died– dropping plenty of items!

With a crash, all sorts of equipment and shiny gold coins dropped and piled on the floor. The five people in the party were all excited and with a ray of light, Fox rose to Lv 40, and finally started looking like a true Musketeer.

“Boss, go look at the drops!” Old K said with his axe raised.

I nodded and looked at the Boss’ drops. There were 2 pieces of equipment: a ring and the other was a shiny gun. If all went well, it would become Fox’s weapon. First, I looked at the ring. As, I held it in my hand, a collection of light formed a window in front of me——

【Ring of the Worthy】 (Gold Tier Equipment)

Ability Power: +28

Endurance: +25

Extra: When healers use healing abilities, they have a 10% chance of having 100 extra healing points

Lv Requirement: 41

…

Holding the ring, I tossed it over to Duck and smiled: “Your luck is really good; you got 2 equipments in succession. This ring is pretty good. It adds 50+ stats and has a chance of healing an extra 100 health!”

Duck gave a sweet smile: “Thanks boss, hehe, I feel like I’m going to become extra strong! I’m already Lv 44…”

I laughed and held up the gun the boss had dropped. The gun barrel had a glass color and Dwarf glyphs were engraved on the gun. With a wave, the stats appeared and instantly Fox started to drool——

【Kiss of the Black Flame】（Gold Tier Equipment）

Attack: 360-575

Strength: +28

Agility: +26

Extra: Increases 4% attack damage

Extra: Increases 35 attack damage

Lv Requirement: 40

…

Done by Helllo and t3chnically!