Chapter 357: Mining Cave Defense Battle
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hundred Shots immediately summoned all the top-tiered players of Lone Desert Smoke and made arrangements to gather them at the Mining Cave as soon as possible. After some days of progress, the Sub-Guild had accumulated enough guild experience points to be eligible to use the [Level 2 Guild Upgrade Order]. Then, they upgraded the Sub-Guild up to a Level 2 guild, increasing the limit of the players that they could recruit into their guild, up to 20,000. In just a short period of time, they had also almost hit the maximum limit of members of the guild!
Approximately 20,000 top-tier players of Lone Desert Smoke were roaming close to the entrance of the Mining Cave.
Zhang Yang and his party members arrived at the hilltop nearby the Mining Cave. They had a vantage point on the only path that led straight to their Mining Cave.
All nine of them already possessed their very own [Battle Mounts]. Endless Starlight and Lost Dream were having slightly inferior [Battle Mounts] of Gray-Silver grade. It was even worse for Fatty Han, he was still riding on a large lizard that was only of Green-Copper grade! Wei Yan Er laughed at him so hard that she almost fell off her own [Battle Mount].
As all of them had [Battle Mounts], so they would all be terrifyingly powerful forces, especially when it came to Player VS Player battles. When mounted, each of them would have an incredible amount of hitpoints.
Unfortunately, it was not suitable for Zhang Yang to summon his [Mythical Turtle] to battle on land. If their opponents took a few steps back, the turtle would take minutes to catch up to them!
So, Zhang Yang had to summon Whitey, boosting his maximum health points up by only 32,700. It was so unfortunate that Yellow-Gold [Battle Mount] had a really obvious difference when compared to a Violet-Platinum [Battle Mount]! Although the [Gold-Eared Bear King] had a passive skill that gave a 30% increment on the maximum health points of the player when mounted, it was still far from the 50.480 maximum health points that the [Mythical Turtle] could provide! The difference was really huge!
After a while, Zhang Yang and the gang could see a bunch of people coming up right above the horizon from afar. All of them were riding on their battle horses and battle wolves, charging towards the entrance of the Mining Cave with murderous intentions on their faces!
There were more than 30,000 of them, by the looks of it, charging over like a bunch of black ants, gushing towards the entrance of the cave!
Zhang Yang began to rouse up his guild members via the guild channel, “Brothers and sisters, the enemy is just right before us, they look thirsty! Why don’t we give them something to drink! Ready and steady!”
‘Chiang chiang chiang’, every single member of the Lone Desert Smoke drew out their weapons one after another, roaring into the sky.
Zhang Yang had also pulled out his battle axe and was prepared to battle. He roared, “Charge!”
Zhang Yang led his party, with Han Ying Xue and the others right behind him, and they were followed by the large army of the Lone Desert Smoke.
The long awaited Humbly Gentleman finally appeared, leading his own army on a large grasshopper, brownish-yellow in color! The two hind legs of the grasshopper were extremely thick and muscular, and the grasshopper had a pair of extremely thin wings that constantly quivered, but it could not fly. However, it could jump over a distance of seven to eight meters!
This grasshopper was obviously a [Battle Mount], because there were no signs of [Mounts] with such of designs.
He stared at Zhang Yang with his eyes filled with extreme hate, “Zhan Yu, it’s been awhile since then!”
This ‘Hypocrite’ has every single right and reason to hate Zhang Yang. Without Zhang Yang and his ‘Lone Desert Smoke’, The Dominators would have been able to go to Shang Hai and they would have been eligible to join the S-Rank Professional League Championship. Instead, they were stuck in the A-Rank Professional League Championship!
Zhang Yang laughed out loud and said, “Hypocrite! So you have not learned your lesson yet, here you are trying to challenge me again!”
Humbly Gentleman looked at Zhang Yang with cold eyes and said, “Now, Radiance also possesses a Territory as well! So it’s not necessary for us to visit your Thunderstorm Castle just to use the teleportation service of yours! We no longer have to pay for your bullsh*t! Zhan Yu! It’s been a while since you’ve occupied this Mining Cave, I think it’s time you step out of it and let the others in!”
Right after that, a few other players came forth atop their [Battle Mounts], one of them was a male human warrior with the label of ‘Dragon Slayer, Level 76, {Brilliance}’, “Zhan Yu, we can share the wealth, we need not have to spill any blood over this! As long as you agree to let us come into your Mining Cave to mine together with you, we would not only be on friendly terms with you, but we will also protect this Mining Cave!”
Another player said, “That’s right. The battle would only bring us unnecessary loss, instead, why not work together?”
Zhang Yang laughed and said, “If I went all the way to your place and demand that you share your wealth and properties, would you agree with it?”
Humbly Gentleman glanced at Zhang Yang coldly and said, “So you’re saying that battle is inevitable!”
Wei Yan Er was enraged and she shouted at Humbly Gentleman, “You ‘Hypocrite’! You really know nothing about shame! So, basically, you knock on our doorstep looking for trouble, and make us look like the unreasonable batch! Your face is thicker than concrete walls! No, thinker than two or three layers of concrete walls!”
“Cut the crap, battle it is! It’s just one ‘Lone Desert Smoke’, and there are the four of us joining forces together! What’s there to be afraid of!” another player of the Beastman profession, with the name ‘Kiyumi, Level 77, {Meteor Rain} cut in and said.
All of the opposing players were coming from 4 different guilds: The Dominators, Brilliance, Meteor Rain and Death’s Wish. If it was one guild against another one guild, Lone Desert Smoke was unmatched!
Humbly Gentleman humphed lightly and said, “Zhan Yu, you’re the one who forced our hands!”
Although it was them who came all the way over with the intention of taking over other people’s land property, but to be able to lay the blame on the ‘victim’ instead, as if they were the ones who were wronged, this ‘Hypocrite’ is indeed worthy of his name!
Humbly Gentleman raised the staff in his hands and roared, “The Dominators, charge!”
“People of Brilliance, it’s time for you show your strength to your enemies!”
“Let the world know of our strength! Meteor Rain!”
“The Death’s Wish is the strongest guild of all! Not Lone Desert Smoke!”
The four guild masters of the four guilds were roaring, commanding their subordinates to launch their attacks on Lone Desert Smoke!
Instantly, the roar of 30,000 men from the four guilds gushed in towards Zhang Yang and his guild like a tidal wave.
Territory, Mining Cave, Land Lease, were the 3 most profitable sources of income in {{God’s Miracle}}. Among all these three so-called ‘resource points’, one can only acquire a Territory by using the [Territory Command Order] or [Territory Subjugation Order]. Meanwhile, Land Properties required [Land Leases] for a player to make purchases of the land. So these two did not come easy.
But the case was very different for Mining Caves. As long as there were miners going into mine in the cave, there would definitely be profit!
This has made the Mining Cave one of the most wanted ‘resources’. If one guild can block the entrance of a Mining Cave, then that guild can acquire a stable stream of income by sending their members down the mines to mine! The sum of the profit from the mining activity is abundant!
With a wave of his hand, Zhang Yang also roared, “Brothers and sisters! For Lone Desert Smoke!”
“For Lone Desert Smoke!”
Everyone on Zhang Yang’s side roared with vigor, riding on their [Mounts] behind Zhang Yang, while charging straight towards the large army!
The armies from two sides clashed into each other, and many players had jumped down from their [Mounts] to engage in intense battle — most of the players did not have [Battle Mounts] yet, at the current stage of the game.
The melee profession players charged to the front, while the ranged profession players closely followed behind them. Everyone was unleashing their AOE skills, making the scene flooded with arrows, hails and rain of fire. In the midst of the crossfire, many players from both sides were instantly killed. Almost in an instant, a large number of players were turned into streams of white lights that were channeled straight to the graveyard.
“Witch Snow, follow me closely! We shall become ‘Zhao Yun1’ and ‘charge seven times through2’!” Zhang Yang laughed out loud.
“… Silly Yang, you pervert! But, you look like a spear made of wax3! What, only seven charges and you’re done? Fatty Han could do it all day, you’re way behind him!”
Fatty Han had longed to hear such words, no matter who said it. He began to grin with a perverted facial expression on his face.
“Fatty, you’re brilliant!” Endless Starlight immediately praised Fatty Han.
“Of course! It’s a fact!”
Still, Han Ying Xue nodded, and thumped the shell of her [Red Gold Crab], and followed Zhang Yang. The two of them forced their way into the center of their enemy!
With Zhang Yang’s terrifyingly high defense currently, other than the Berserker’s {Tornado Cleave}, he basically ignored all of the AOE skills from his enemies — as AOE attacks were often weaker, and took some time to cast. For example, the {Barrage} of the hunter required 10 seconds to cast, and would barely damage Zhang Yang, if at all. Therefore, there is no way these AOE attacks would penetrate the defense of Zhang Yang!
Zhang Yang charged into the sea of players, like water through creeks of a brick wall! Instantly, he switched to his [Dark Enigma Sword] and activated his {Blast Wave} and {Horizontal Sweep}, unleashing his assaults on his enemies, with wave after wave of his skills. As his [Dark Enigma Sword] triggered its special effect, the sword unleashed endless damage to the horde of enemies around him, like a radioactive bomb expanding out, reaching out to all the enemies nearby!
“Kill Zhan Yu first!” Humbly Gentleman quickly shouted to inform everyone, “Surround him! We must not let him get back to his army!”
He knew that Zhang Yang had a skill called {Shadow of the Void} that provided him a way out of difficult situations. He did not know what it was called, though!
Zhang Yang laughed maniacally, “Witch Snow, come now, let them have a taste of our {Blizzard Sky} and {Lunar’s Dew}!”
Although the skill required a cool down of 72 hours, that was according to the in-game time, not the real time! It has been more than a day in real-time since they had unleashed their joint attack on Stormgarde!
Han Ying Xue reached out and held Zhang Yang’s hand.
{Blizzard Sky}! {Lunar’s Dew}!
Immediately, the two of them became the center of the skill, and an area as wide as 30 meters of circumference was covered in hail snow which rained down from the sky. Meanwhile, the moon rose up into the sky and began to emit out waves of moonbeams into the surroundings.
The moonbeams began to shoot out in all directions.
‘-5000!’
‘-5000!’
‘-5000!’
…
Instantly, countless damage values popped up within the effective area of the skills, flooding up the entire area!
After 3 ticks of the damage, players were already beginning to die! They could not even heal themselves before they died! It was really a ‘jackpot’ for Humbly Gentleman as he had sent such a large number of troops to surround Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue. Squeezed tightly together in one spot, with their own allies pushing their backs, they all were shoved into the moonlight!
“Retreat! Retreat! Stay the hell away from him!” Humbly Gentleman was almost crying like a schoolboy! Not only have Zhang Yang’s equipment become impossibly strong and powerful, he also had such a skill up his sleeve! Is the game trying to push him until he dies?
After tens of seconds, finally, no one was charging at Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue anymore.
This is the difference between players and monsters. Monsters do not care about anything! As long as their aggro bars were not empty, even if there was a sea of traps, swords and other weapons right in front, the monsters would still charge at their targets! Players could observe and act accordingly to the situation. Since Zhang Yang was seemingly untouchable and unapproachable at the moment, everyone stopped, knowing that it was suicide!
30 seconds had passed, the {Blizzard Sky} and {Lunar’s Dew} had stopped. Although Humbly Gentleman had shouted ‘retreat’ in time, more than 1000 players were already killed by the attacks!
That number of players dead was actually pretty terrifying!
The surroundings of Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue was instantly cleaned out! At least hundreds of equipment pieces glittered in Green-Copper or Gray-Silver light, all over the ground!
“Time to go!”
Zhang Yang quickly informed Han Ying Xue, and then the both of them began to retreat back to their army. At first, with the two of them activating the joint attack of {Blizzard Sky} and {Lunar’s Dew}, they had been invincible for 30 seconds! Now that the skill was over, it was time to go back. They would be overwhelmed by the numbers if they stuck around!
Of course, it could become possible for one player to go up against hundreds of players at the same time at the later stages of the game, if a player could get a full set of legendary equipment and a high-quality pet!
1. Zhao Yun – courtesy name Zilong, was a military general who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty and early Three Kingdoms period.
2. Charges seven times through – a famous scene in Romance of the Three Kingdoms in which Zhao Yun charges seven times through the ranks of Cao Cao’s armies
3. Spear made of wax – looks impressive but useless.
