Zhan Long

Chapter 71 – The Prince of Dark Dwarves

This chapter was sponsored by William Wang, Lucian and Issac Kerr. Thanks!

Three golden hexagons appeared on my Jade City Sword, allowing me to confirm that the combo this time would consist of three attacks – the number of hexagonal stars appearing indicated the number of attacks the combo would do, a rule which I had understood with practice.

“Hua!”

“311!”

“327!”

“334!”

……

The damage efficiency was still not too bad; with just a combo, I had already removed almost a thousand of his health points. The level 40 Dark Dwarf, originally possessing over 2000 health points plummeted after getting violently stung by Baby Bobo who was dancing at his sides. Then, with a direct stab from my sword, the job was done!

Hmm, the effectiveness of a surprise attack was quite good, the level 40 Dark Dwarf didn’t even get a chance to retaliate and was wiped out in just a few seconds.

By ending the battle fast, my health potion and mana potion consumption was reduced. Bringing Baby Bobo along, I rushed towards the Dark Dwarf that was sharpening the edges of the war axe. Unfortunately, at the moment when I closed the distance between him and me, the other two Dark Dwarves immediately got aggro-ed by my actions. 1V3, I guess I would have to go all out, otherwise I didn’t a chance completing this quest!

“Shua!”

As usual, the [Combo] had a short cooldown time of 6 seconds. I sent a second [Combo] attack towards the second dwarf as soon as the cooldown came off. At the same moment, I lowered my body and my iron fist crashed into the ground. Pah, 【Binding Chains】 was immediately evoked and rose from the ground, chaining the feet of the third dwarf. At the same time, Baby Bobo went on the offense. I tried to finish him off but I was slightly late, the Dark Dwarf had already begun his attack. His battle axe floated with crimson red flames, its the level 40 close-range skill – 【Flame Blade】

“Boom!”

“397!”

There was a loud ringing sound on the Dawn Breastplate and I felt a surge of pain. The offensive capability of 【Flame Blade】 was definitely not just for show. Now I understood why this quest was ranked A.

Immediately retreating back a step, I sent Baby Bobo up to attack, dealing the coup de grâce on the second Dark Dwarf. The next moment, weng weng, it flew towards the the third Dark Dwarf to intercept it but got attacked by 【Flame Blade】. Ka cha, the war axe immediately tried to decapitate the head of the Overlord Bee, displaying a damage amount of 474.

Controlling both my pet and myself, while Baby Bobo retreated, I immediately rushed forward to take his place and positioning my sword, I lowered my body position and in an instant, a flash of white light surged from my feet, activating my chain combo attack, 【Strength of a Thousand Men】!

A flurry of furious attacks landed on the body of the fourth Dark Dwarf, bringing out a whole string of damage numbers-

“231!”

“244!”

“217!”

“274!”

“809!”

……

As expected, the Dark Dwarves were overwhelmingly powerful in their offensive power. However, their defense was extremely weak. With a 5 hit combo, I was able to remove a big chunk of his health. With another attack from me and Baby Bobo, done! However, at that point, the third Dark Dwarf managed to free himself of my 【Binding Chains】 and charged towards me with yet another 【Flame Blade】.

“778!”

It was a critical hit!

I was stunned for an instant, I had 1 point of Hp left! I had 1176 Hp, how could this be!?

I immediately set my hands moving, 【Heal】!

“+600!”

That was alarmingly dangerous. I definitely should not underestimate the monsters here, the attack power of 【Flame Blade】 was pretty powerful and not something most players could endure. Next time, I must make sure to block it or dodge it. If I were to keep taking these attacks, I could be KO-ed within two hits.

While still in a panic, I coordinated with Baby Bobo to get rid of the last Dark Dwarf. Only when all of the dwarves were lying on the floor did I realize that my heart was thumping out of my chest. However, my experience bar brought me some comfort. After killing 4 of these Dark Dwarves, my experience points immediately increased by 1%. By my calculations, killing 400 of them would allow me to level up once. Looks like if I were to complete the quest by today, getting to level 38 wouldn’t be impossible!

……

Picking up the silver coins from the floor, I noted that level 40 human-like monsters were actually quite rich. On average, each of these Dark Dwarves dropped 3 silver coins each. After killing 2000 dwarves, I would have 60 gold coins. To be honest, even if I were here only to farm for money, it would be quite profitable!

While killing these Dark Dwarves, I browsed through the forums and found many guilds or studios, whether big or small, recruiting new members —

【Recruiting（Posted by：Mischievious Rock）】：Mischievious Rock Studio is currently recruiting new personnel, only limited to mages, swordsmen and players with strong solo-ing abilities. We provide lodging and food and only request for players to farm at least 5 gold coins each day. Wages are up for discussion!

【Recruiting（Posted by：Black Flame）】：In Ba Huang City, the Black Flame Guild is currently recruiting expert players that are above level 32. We will be organizing a hundred-man party to hunt down a level 50 gold-rank boss seven days later to obtain a gold-tier equipment as well as our guild’s Guild Creation Card!

【Recruiting（Posted by：Wandering Wolf Spirit）】：The Victorious Studio is currently recruiting new players. We require a high level healer possessing at least 30+ heal boosts. The job of the healer would be for treating the wounded and preparing the meals. The wage every month would be at least 5000RMB. We would prefer a female healer and if she has good looks, we can add in bonuses.

……

I frowned, I could tell that this wasn’t a poster to recruit new players, it was a poster to recruit a girlfriend. Quite creative…

“Pa ta!”

While deep in thoughts, suddenly, as a Dark Dwarf was killed, a round metal helmet dropped. Picking it up from the grass, it was a green-rank equipment and had decent defense stats. It increased the equipper’s strength by 14, but it didn’t have any additional effects. It could be considered as a middle-tier equip. In the 3 main cities in the China server, everyone seemed to be more concerned with leveling speed and the top players in each of the main cities were going mad from training. When everyone was of high level, there would naturally be more good equipment. Currently, just counting Ba Huang city, there were already at least 20+ gold-rank equipment, 500+ silver-rank equipment and needless to say, the green-tier equipment would be countless. Especially more so, these equipment were not actual end-game equipment, smart gamers would know not to spend too much capital on these equipment. Of course, this was excluding people who were remarkably rich like Tyrant of Western Chu who would guard my corpse for an entire night for a Black Iron equipment; that wasn’t what most people were able to do.

After killing for a while, I looked at my current quest progress, it was already at 87/2000. In general, the Dark Dwarves gathered in fours, thus the killing speed was actually quite fast, though it could prove to be quite dangerous as well. Fortunately, I possessed a LV-4【Heal】, which was equivalent to having a high level healer by my side. Also, the damage output from Baby Bobo was also quite high, otherwise I really wouldn’t be able to complete this quest.

Time passed quickly and soon, it was already 4 PM. My quest progress was at 741/2000 and I had already reached level 36 with 74% experience. My leveling pace was quite rapid, far beyond my calculations. I estimated that by the end of today, I could probably reach level 38 or perhaps, if Dalin was generous and gave me good rewards, I could reach level 39!

In my bag, there were 10+ Black Iron equipment, seven to eight Green-tier equipment and five Bronze equipment. My 29 charm provided me with rather abundant loots and this mission on the front lines would definitely reward me with even more charm. I could already imagine, after completing this mission, my strength would rise rapidly! But of course, what I still valued most now was still reaching level 40. The two new skills 【Ice Blade】 and 【Swordsmanship Specialization】 were simply too powerful!

……

Accompanying the two beauties for dinner, I didn’t even bother to chat with them. I rushed through my meal and went back online!

All the way until 10 PM at night, I kept hammering away at my quest and finally I reached my target of 2000/2000. My level was at 38 with 52% experience, it was still a long way from reaching level 39 but, what was most exciting was that for the first time, in a very rare case, I was in the top 10 players list in Ba Huang City!

1、Yan Zhao Warrior Level 40 Job：Swordsman

2、Jian Feng Han Level 39 Job：Swordsman

3、General Li Mu Level 39 Job：Swordsman

4、Yue Qing Qian Level 39 Job：Assassin

5、General Bai Qi Level 39 Job：Berserker

6、Yue Wei Liang Level 39 Job：Assassin

7、Soaring Dragon Level 38 Job：Mage

8、General Wang Jian Level 38 Job：Swordsman

9、Fierce Tiger Level 38 Job：Berserker

10、Xiao Yao Zi Zai Level 38 Job：Scavenger of Dragon City

……

On the top players ranking board in Ba Huang City, the most magnificent person had finally appeared. Although he was currently lagging behind in the tenth place, at least he was now on the board and on top of that, my popularity in Ba Huang City was not too bad. In any case, I was the man that became famous a few days ago after being hunted down by the [Wrath of the Heroes] and yet still came out alive. A person who was able to achieve that must be exceptional!

Tightly clinging onto my Jade City Sword, I looked towards the front, the Dark Dwarves’ camp that had been largely cleared by me. Moving forward anymore would bring me to a blood-red colored tent on top of a large rock. By the side of the tent, there were two dwarves who are holding metal swords. There was no doubt that the person in the tent must be one of the leaders behind the Dark Dwarves!

Yup, the quest required me to kill him!

Bringing Baby Bobo along, I stepped on the green rock with my Silver Locked Battle Boots and rushed forward. After getting my health back to full, Baby Bobo lured the two guards towards me. Both of them were level 42 guards, but currently, I had already reached level 38, the difference in our levels was a mere 4, thus I didn’t feel much pressure facing them both. Furthermore, Baby Bobo was also level 38, and his stings were sharper than ever!

In a dizzying confusion, the two guards fell to the ground dead and looking at the faint light in the tent, I grabbed my long sword tightly. Hehe, it was time for a one-on-one!

……

“Shua!”

My blade fiercely cut through the cloth of the tent. In the night, the interiors of the tent felt warm but the scene that appeared before left me shocked —

On the bed, there were two females, both in their twenties, being bound there with their arms tied behind their backs. Their arms were filled with blood red wounds. Both of them were wearing blouses and by their side, there were two magic staffs, indicating that they were probably either mages or healers. Their mouths were stuffed with cotton and upon seeing me, they began to shout agitatedly.

……

My heart sunk for a moment, I was completely speechless. Why were there human women in this tent, were they be captured?

Moving forward, I stretched my hand and removed the cotton from the two female NPC’s mouth, and surprisingly, they kept their cool. Looking at the signet on my arm, one of them said, “I really didn’t expect it, to think that there would actually be brave souls coming from Ba Huang City to save us!”

I asked, “Who are you?”

The other lady replied, “We are rangers from Ba Huang City and we were under orders to impart magical skills and healing techniques to the children from the surrounding villages. However, we didn’t expect that we would get lost and end up getting captured by this bunch of despicable Dark Dwarves in the Fire Stone Canyon.”

“Hurry…” The woman on the left perked her ears and said with an anxious tone, “That demon is coming back. You… you better leave quickly, otherwise he will slaughter you!”

“What demon?”

I held my sword in front my chest and while looking outside, laughed, “Watch as I get rid of that demon…”