Provided that the incentive was sufficient, even the most generous man would become ungenerous. This was the first time I saw the honest and the usually quiet High Fighting Spirits requesting an equipment of his own accord. That being said, I was hoping that the item would go to him anyway. He was the most brutish land general of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and his AoE skills such as Xiezhi Howl and Whirlwind Slash were all a perfect fit with the axe. There were few players who could use this weapon better than him.
I looked at He Yi, and He Yi shot me a sweet smile and a nod. Understanding exactly what she intended, I tossed the battle axe into High Fighting Spirits’ hands and said, “No problem, man. I will deduct 240k from your total guild contribution points. Keep working hard and earn more patch contribution points, okay? Don’t let this weapon go to waste!”
High Fighting Spirits nodded strongly. “I promise!”
……
Next, I raised the dagger named Indigo Beam. Appearance-wise, it was indigo-colored just as its name suggested, and it had an elegant-looking pattern covering its surface. Stat-wise, its Attack was almost high enough to rank it among the Top 10 daggers of the world. It was a must-have that should only ever be equipped in the main hand.
I cleared my throat before continuing, “Indigo Beam is a dagger with very high Attack and fairly good properties. Now, I’m aware that some of our archer brothers may want to have a dagger of their own, but an offensive dagger like this is ultimately better in the hands of an assassin. Therefore, I declare that the Top 10 assassins with the highest contribution points in the guild will get the right to roll for this. The price is 220k guild contribution points!”
A wave of sorrow blew through the crowd. As it turned out, there were only two assassins in the whole guild that met the requirement. The first one was Cute Little Naughty, and the second one was Sky Rock. They were none other than the guild leader and vice leader of the eighth subguild.
Cute Little Naughty looked down on me from the wall with a giggle, “That’s perfect, vice leader big bro! It so happens that I’m lacking a good mainhand dagger right now. I’ll compete against Sky Rock!”
Sky Rock was a 27-year-old youngster wielding a bloody red dagger that currently served as his main weapon. He cut quite the impressive figure as he walked up to Cute Little Naughty and stood beside her. “Guild leader, you won’t fire me for petty vengeance if I beat you in the dice roll and claim the dagger, will you?”
A lovely grin appeared on Cute Little Naughty’s face. “Oh? You want to get fired that much? I suppose I have no choice but to oblige then…”
“Noooooo, like come on, I’m such a hardworking vice leader. I come to work early, I go home late, and I even neglect sleep and meals in favor of managing the guild. You’ll be sorry if you fire me…”
“I know right? That’s why you totally should lose this dice roll. Let’s go!”
Cute Little Naughty went first and rolled an impressive 97 points. Sky Rock looked both relieved and conflicted when he saw this. He was relieved that he would be keeping his job, but conflicted because Indigo Beam was an incredible weapon. After all, who wouldn’t want to see the numbers go up?
Sky Rock went next, and he also rolled an impressive 91 points. It wasn’t good enough to win him Indigo Beam, but hey, at least he kept his position…
Finally, I raised the Corpse Eater War Bow and said, “This bow is kinda ugly, and its name is definitely disgusting, but who cares about appearance when it has high Attack, amirite? Anyway, Beiming Xue already has the Xuanming Bow, so she won’t be competing for this. Just like before, the Top 10 archers with the highest guild contribution points will be rolling for this. Oh, and don’t complain to me that you don’t have enough guild contribution points, okay? We’ve set it so that you’ll earn guild contribution points from all the mobs you kill in this event. If you don’t have enough, that simply means you aren’t strong enough to wield this yet. Now, let’s go…”
In terms of AoE DPS, there was no class better than the Mage and Archer classes. As a result, their average guild contribution points were generally higher than a cavalryman’s. The reason I brought this up was because all 10 archers who qualified to roll for the equipment had the guild contribution points necessary—240k was the price—to pay for it.
The virtual dice littered the ground, and the Corpse Eater War Bow ultimately went to Hymn of the Apocalypse. Hymn of the Apocalypse was the third best archer in the guild, and his Famous General Skill was Bow General. He was one of the leaders of the Dragonlight Archers and a good fit with the Corpse Eater War Bow.
……
The rest of the loot distribution went about as what one might expect. The only thing worth noting was that there was a skill book called “Sea of Blaze”, a mage AoE skill. Its damage potential was around half of a mage’s basic attack, but it had a diameter of 50 yards. It was the perfect skill to use when sieging or defending a fortified position. Moonlight Stone was the proud winner of the skill book. Speaking of Moonlight Stone, the girl had been pampered all the way to the heavens ever since she returned to Ancient Sword. If Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, High Fighting Spirits and more dropped a great mage piece of equipment when grinding, they would always give her the first pick. As a result, her Magic Attack had exceeded even Yu Tong’s, and she was now the second best mage in the guild. Sea of Blaze would certainly make her shine even brighter in group battles.
After the loot distribution was finally done, He Yi warned everyone, “Stay alert, everyone. I think that the second monster wave is coming very soon, if not here already. Something’s strange though. Why can’t I see a single mob anywhere?”
I looked up and down. She was right. I couldn’t find a mob be it in the sky or on the ground. “Hmm, I agree. The mobs should be here already, but I can’t see them anywhere. What’s happening?”
Lin Yixin asked me from afar, “Did you see anything with Dark Pupils?”
“No. Maybe there are mobs, but it just didn’t work for some reason?”
“It could be. Unlike players, some mobs don’t obey conventional rules at all.”
“Yeah. Anyway, prepare for battle, everyone!”
……
We all unsheathed our weapons and returned to our respective positions. On a related note, Heaven’s Rain, Diamond Dust and Xu Yang had returned to us with several thousand Dragonlight Cavalry in tow. They had had to fight their way through to enter the canyon, but at least we were together now.
The dark clouds hanging above our heads turned into a downpour. It should be daytime already, but it was so dark that it might as well be night. Only the endless lightning strikes provided some illumination from time to time.
I wiped away the rainwater on my face while complaining, “The fuck is going on here. Why is nothing happening still…”
Suddenly, He Yi shivered a little. “It’s here!”
“Hmm?”
I hadn’t even finished hmm-ing when the ground in front of us suddenly bulged unnaturally. Then, giant centipedes as black as the night itself burst into the open and charged toward us! An underground assault? No wonder it was able to elude my Dark Pupils!
A few meters away from me, a centipede mob burst out of the earth and pierced a Dragonlight Cavalryman’s chest with a pair of sharp pincers. Then, it twisted like a drill and struck the man 5 times in a row, one-shotting the fully-buffed Dragonlight Cavalryman! What the hell!?
“Guard! All units, Guard!” I shouted. “Archers, give us some suppressive Skypiercer! Mages, AoE skills now!”
The ground beneath me trembled all of a sudden, and I took half a step backward in an attempt to avoid the attack. It was too fast though. I only managed to bring my shield in front of me before it hit me with a 5-hit drilling attack. Not only that, the amount of damage it dealt could only be described as shocking!
110,288!
98,272!
102,982!
102,535!
99,266!
……
The skill absolutely had armor penetration embedded in it, or there was no chance it could deal this much damage to me. Even most bosses couldn’t hit me that hard!
I scanned it with Dark Pupils and retrieved its stats screen—
Deep Stone Walker (Fiend)
Level: 305
Attack: 52,000~60,500
Defense: 60,000
HP: 5,000,000
Skills: Bite, Maddened Drill
Introduction: A devilized undead creature. The Deep Stone Walkers are centipedes that used to live in the inhospitable areas of volcanic regions. They possess thick carapaces, sharp pincers, and the ability to move underground as they please. After they received the summon of the dead, their beastial instinct was brought out in full, and they became a powerful legion under Coldblade’s command. They are extremely proficient at ambushing their enemies from the underground. Countless human braves have perished to their pincers, and their very name strikes fear in their enemies’ hearts.
……
“Its Attack is insane. What do we do?” Gui Guzi moved his dragon higher into the air while swinging futilely at the empty ground beneath him.
I narrowed my eyes and knocked back the centipede directly in front of me. Then, I pressed a hand to the ground and cast Rise of the Guardian Dragon!
Bang bang bang…
Columns of draconic energies burst out of the earth, bringing with them the centipedes that had been lurking underground. The skill both dealt great damage to the mobs and broke them out of their underground state!
“Well done! Let’s go!”
High Fighting Spirits laughed madly as he charged right into the middle of a group with his new Bone Slayer. Then, he cast Xiezhi Howl and absolutely wrecked the Deep Stone Walkers. Of course, the giant centipedes retaliated with their own Maddened Drills. If our priests weren’t prepared for this and dropped their heals on the battle maniac like crazy, he would’ve died in five seconds or less.
I had to wait for the cooldown to end before I could cast Rise of the Guardian Dragon again. While rushing into a group of mobs and seizing their aggro with the Burning Blade Slash, I shouted in the direction of Purgatory Mad Dragon, “Don’t just stand there, Purgatory Mad Dragon! Ray of Sunshine, use your Rise of the Fire Dragon to cancel the Deep Stone Walkers’ underground state! Quickly, before your men are all dead!”
In fact, Purgatory Mad Dragon had already sustained massive losses even though the battle had just begun. The mobs had insane Attack, and their shit-tier mixed cavalrymen were nowhere good enough to hold them all.
This time, Ray of Sunshine didn’t let his arrogance get to his head and cast Rise of the Fire Dragon immediately. Just as I expected, it pushed out a ton of centipedes into the open, which Candlelight Shadow didn’t hesitate to run over with a group of Qiu Beast Cavalry. Rather than helping Purgatory Mad Dragon, both he and I were really helping ourselves. If Purgatory Mad Dragon fell here, at least one corner of the fortress would become completely exposed to the mobs. If we lost the fortress, all of us would suffer the system’s wrath.
Despite our countermeasures, the casualties we sustained could only be described as massive. Super-tier players like me, Lin Yixin, He Yi, Li Chengfeng and Gui Guzi were able to reap a ton of contribution points, but everyone else kept dropping like flies. The only good news was that our ranged parties were completely unharmed. Since ancient times, the melee fighters had always been the “coolies[1]” of an army.
It took almost an hour before we finally killed off most of the giant centipedes. Everyone was starting to look tired, and most of us had lost at least a companion or two. I could hardly believe that this was just the second monster wave.
……
“Has the boss shown up yet?” I asked.
He Yi nodded. “Yep. It appeared from the southwest direction, and Natural Flow is fighting it right now.”
I let out an “oh” before replying, “Flowing Cloud’s fighting it, huh? Let’s leave her to it then.”
He Yi smirked. “Is it just me, or does it sound like someone’s in love with the Indian beauty?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t even know her…”
He Yi: “…”
1. Coolie (also spelled koelie, kuli, cooli, cooly, or quli) is a term for a low-wage laborer, typically of South Asian or East Asian descent ☜
