Chapter 217: Grinding

Chapter 217: Grinding

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The set equipment was very good! But…it’s a shame that its tier was unexpectedly low. Zhang Yang could not give up his Yellow-Gold equipment for a Green-Copper set. It was also a shame that the seconds equipment-effect was strong, but only if the condition to activate it was swapped with the first equipment-effect. He could just equip the necklace and cape and be able to stack the increase damage/reduce armor effect! It would be almost similar to the [Magic Scroll: Rising Morale] (Level 1)!

What a shame…argh! What a shame! Only Guardians and Defenders could use Shields!

Zhang Yang had no interest in Green-Coppers, but the majority of the players would be fighting for it. In fact, Green-Copper is the most common equipment tier that everyone is wearing. He and his bunch of "elite" friends are a totally different story. If he could farm all four pieces of the set, he can definitely sell them in a bundle at an incredible price! Four separate set-equipment parts, or one complete set as a whole! The difference was obvious!

A sign from the gods of prosperity has appeared!

Zhang Yang spirit lifted and marched onwards.

The monsters inside the tomb were numerous. Every few ten meters, he would encounter one monster. On average, Zhang Yang would deplete his HP after fighting three monsters. He had to frequently stop and heal himself with health recovering snacks or use {Berserker’s Heal}

Other teams might need to raid the tomb with a three-man party. One tank, one healer, and one attacker. However, since Zhang Yang’s damage reduction skills were just too strong, paired up with his overwhelming attacking capabilities, he could easily hack his way in without the need for a healer. But, if he did have a healer with him, he would not have needed to sit down and heal, greatly increasing his efficiency.

The tunnels in the tomb were poorly lit by torches that hung from the wall every 10 meters. The light was so dim that it barely illuminated the passageway. At least, he wouldn’t be bumping into walls.

Since the first elite monster had already dropped a Malevolent set equipment, it was no indicator of the drop rate being any good. In fact, Zhang Yang had killed more than a hundred monsters before managing to find the second equipment of the Malevolent set. Malevolent Necklace.

"Fortune does come and go easily huh…" Zhang Yang sighed and kept the necklace in his inventory.

30 minutes…one hour…two hours…

After the third hour, Zhang Yang had collected a total of two complete Malevolent sets. There was still a surplus of two extra necklace and one extra Malevolent Sword. By then, Zhang Yang had reached Level 55 and had made it close to the center of the entire tomb.

The area here was a normal sized tomb hall, around the size of 50 square meters. There were two floors, with entrances to the lower floor at both sides of the dark hall. The upper floor was smaller in size. It was about a quarter the size of the lower floor. In the center of the lower floor was a stone table. A woman lay on it there. That woman was the same woman as the one Zhang Yang had seen in the projection, she was Serena!

Zhang Yang cautiously observed from afar and found that she just lay there, motionless. Her eyes were shut tight. Her chest…was not moving! She’s not breathing! Is she dead?

Standing close to the stone table was a figure in black hood. The person was completely covered from the head to toe, its identity impossible to surmise. Since the figure was facing Serena, Zhang Yang could not see anything, he could not even figure out its gender, much less its race. Zhang Yang could only see that the figure was rather thin and small. In its right hand, it held a magic staff that was much taller than it was. On the top of the staff was a fist sized skull, with glowing emerald fires burning in its eye sockets.

[Necromancer Sigma] (Gray-Silver, Spectre)

Level: 58

HP: 2,000,000

Defense: 600

"Only 2,000,000?" Zhang Yang mused. "This place is small and cramped. It could only accommodate a small number of players. Could it be a specialized five-man party raid? Maybe I can beat the boss by myself?"

Hesitating a little, Zhang Yang finally decided. "Might as well give it a shot. If I die, I’d only have to pay for repairs! If I can’t defeat it, I’ll just call the Snow B*tch to join me! I hope I can defeat it alone. Calling her to join me would take another three to four hours…the monsters outside would have respawned and I’ll have to kill them all over again…how troublesome."

He drew his battle axe and readied his shield. He walked into the lower floor and rushed towards the stone table.

Sigma spun around to the sound of his footsteps. When it faced Zhang Yang, Zhang Yang could then see its true form. It was a skeletal magician -- a lich, staring at him through eye sockets filled with bright emerald flames!

"The Living?! How could you enter this place!" Sigma pointed its staff towards Zhang Yang and start chanting a spell. A progress bar appeared on its head. After three seconds, a black light beamed out from its skeletal staff and shot towards Zhang Yang.

‘Ding! Sigma has used {Shadow Arrow}!’

‘-3,900’

Damn!

Zhang Yang was shocked. How would he fight the boss alone this way! Still, now that it has come to this, it’s best to carry on. At least he’ll get a good grasp on the boss’ mechanics. When he returns with Han Ying Xue, they would be better prepared.

{Cripple Defense}, {Destructive Smash}, {Horizontal Sweep}…Zhang Yang unleashed everything he got. The stronger his attacks, the longer he could last in the fight. That way, he could at least try to decrease the boss’ HP as much as possible and understand the boss better.

Sigma continued using {Shadow Arrow}. At one point, when the boss’ chanting was about to finish, Zhang Yang struck the boss with a {Crash Magic}.

‘Ding! Sigma’s {Shadow Arrow} has been interrupted!’

It worked! The boss’ casting was interrupted!

Moreover, the boss was {Silent} for three seconds! During that time, the boss had to resort to physical attack! It raised its fists and legs to attack Zhang Yang.

{Block}!

With the shield skill in effect, Zhang Yang recovered 100 HP.

‘0!’

Sigma landed another fist on Zhang Yang, but, as a Spellcaster type monster, its attacks cannot penetrate Zhang Yang defenses with its attacks, even as a boss!

After the short three second {Silence} ended, the boss start to use {Shadow Arrow} again.

{Blast Wave}!

A blast of compressed air hammered through Sigma. The attack failed to stun Sigma but the spell was successfully interrupted again!

Zhang Yang then recalled the first patch of the game. Status affect skills would not be effective on boss type monsters, but they had a chance to interrupt spellcasting progress bars!

{Blast Wave}’s stunning effect was useless against the boss, but it did stop the boss from finishing its spell. The boss quickly started over again and cast {Shadow Arrow}. Zhang Yang regret his actions. He should have known better. He should have waited for the boss to almost complete the spell before using {Blast Wave}!

‘-3,909!’

‘3,882!’

When the boss’ third {Shadow Arrow} was being chanted, Zhang Yang’s {Crash Magic} skill had just finished its cool down and was ready to be used. However, he waited. Just as the boss was about to finish its spell casting, Zhang Yang bashed the monster with his shield.

‘Ding! Sigma’s {Shadow Arrow} was interrupted!’

Restart the cycle!

Zhang Yang calculated. On average, he will receive the boss’ attack twice every 12 seconds. {Blast Wave} could only provide him three seconds of peace every 20 seconds!

Zhang Yang summoned [Servant: Clear Lotus] and activated {Merlinda’s Shadow}, and started to attack like a madman.

Sadly, the [Servant: Clear Lotus] could not level up. It had remained at level 36. Since the level gap was too large, her attacks were like a cat trying to attack an elephant! It was too low to even be considered to be an attack at all! However, as small as it could be, even water could erode a mountain over time! Moreover, she had her {Substitute} ability!

SLASH ON!

When {Merlinda’s Shadow} had ended, Zhang Yang activated one skill at a time, starting with {Substitute}, {Shield Wall}, {Berserker’s heal}. He lasted until the boss had a little more than 130,000 HP left. By then, his HP was almost depleted. He quickly used {Shadow of the Void} and fled the battle. He quickly ran over to the upper level and healed himself with a few consumables.

Without the main target, the boss had turned to Clear Lotus and had killed her off easily with two to three attacks. The poor [Servant] turned into a puff of smoke at death, leaving literally nothing at her demise.

"This boss is lame! {Shadow Arrow} and nothing else! Doesn’t he have anything else to use besides that?"

"Sigh…what a waste. If I called that b*tching woman, we might need only 15 minutes to settle this boss. Hmmm?"

Zhang Yang noticed something was odd. To his shock, he noticed that the boss was not recovered its HP even after Zhang Yang had left the battle.

In ‘God’ Miracle’, once bosses withdrew from the battle, they will instantly recover their full HP. It wasn’t that bad for open world bosses. On average, an open-world boss will recover 1% of its HP every second. At most, it will take 100 seconds to fully recover its HP.

The strange thing was that, Sigma was not even recovering HP like how an open world boss does. Its HP bar was not even moving an inch!

Spectre!

Zhang Yang eyes glinted. Spectre are not living beings. That was why these monsters did not have any innate regenerative abilities. They had to rely on consuming the dead corpses of other being to recover. Normally, the battle will end with the player killing the boss, or the boss killing the players. Situations that involved players fleeing with their lives were rare!

Normally, when the players or Hunters with pets get killed, spectres will use the {Consume Coprse} skill to recover the HP in non-combat mode, healing them by 10% HP every two seconds. They could fully recover their HP in just 20 seconds!

However, Zhang Yang was alone, and he used {Shadow of the Void} to left the battle. Sigma could not find any dead bodies to feed on. That was why its HP remained frozen in place!

On the other hand, Zhang Yang can easily heal his HP with [Bandage] and health recovering snacks. Zhang Yang smiled to himself, as long as he can rely on {Shadow of the Void} every time he needed healing, he can slowly chip off the boss’ long HP at leisure.

When he had fully recovered, Zhang Yang rushed into the fight again and did further damage. When the time came, he used {Rearm}, which in turn allowed {Shadow of the Void} to aid his escape again!

10 minutes later, {Shadow of the Void} was ready to use, Zhang Yang entered the fight again!

20 minutes…

30 minutes…

After the battle dragged on for 2 hours, Zhang Yang managed to successfully kill the boss by using {Shadow of the Void} for a total of 16 times! {Rearm} definitely played a role as well, saving more time.

‘Dnig! You have killed Necromancer Sigma, Obtained 20,000,000 Experience Points!’

Thud!

The boss falls defeated, breaking into pieces of broken bones, dropping seven to eights battle loots.

"Holy f*cking moly! Finally ended!" Zhang Yang screamed out in relief. In truth, the actual battle time had only taken 17 to 18 minutes, the rest of the time was wasted in waiting for his {Shadow of the Void} to finish its cool down!