Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
There has been a situation!
Sith opened up his arms, the skin exposed from the clothes were like waves of water, trembling up and down continuously! His face was full of agony and his pair of coffee-brown eyeballs were emitting an evil aura that provoked evil thoughts just by the sight of it.
“Sha Sha Sha… I, Terpot Ryhar will be back, for sure!”
Sith spoke out in a low and husky voice before… ‘thud’, collapsing onto the ground facing up at the sky.
Oh f*ck, an evil spiritual possession had just happened!
Gong…
The door was knocked open, with about 10 dwarf guards charging in. Every one of them were staring at Zhang Yang with their angry eyes, pointing their wielded weapons towards Zhang Yang.
“You sly human bastard, how dare you use trickery to enter our castle with the purpose to ruin our kind?!”
“Kill him!”
“Kill him!”
“Kill him!”
The rage was fiery among the crowd, with everyone gritting their teeth together, seemingly wanting to crush and burn Zhang Yang into ashes.
Zhang Yang quickly raised his both hands up and said, “This was not my doing!” It seemed like he had triggered a new quest.
“Halt!” an impressive and dignified voice came from afar, and every dwarf in the room obediently put away the weapons. They opened out a path in between them, paying their respects to a red hair dwarf with a red beard; The Great Smith Markan.
“A very strong evil force!” Markan stopped by Sith’s side, examined him thoroughly and said, “Sith’s soul is being engulfed by an evil force as we speak, his body is also turning into one of the undead in a slow manner!”
Hearing such words, the Dwarves were even more enraged, pulling their weapons out again.
“I believe, this young man has a pure and noble soul, he would never be capable of such things!” Markan tried to back Zhang Yang up.
“But Sir Markan, why did something happened to Sith the moment he came? Besides, only two of them were in the room!”
“That’s right, it must be him setting Sith up with his poisonous hands!”
“You fiend, release Sith of your witchcraft at once!”
Zhang Yang sighed and said, “The evil sorcerer who corrupted Barga’s soul has infused his evil force into the Bow of the Fallen Moon, I think. He was just simply waiting for me to pass the bow to Sith, letting the evil forces infest onto Sith’s body, leading to this transformation!”
Markan picked the Bow of the Fallen Moon up from Sith’s hand, looked at it for a good while and said, “That’s right, for it is real, the relic still contains a sense of evil force in it!”
Zhang Yang spread out both of his hands and said. “Now, that proves me to be innocent, right?” As of just now, he tried to use a teleporting scroll, but the system hinted him that the item was temporary unavailable!
Markan pondered for a moment, then he said, “Even if this was not your intention in the first place, but it was definitely because of the thing you brought, Sith has to suffer this way! So, you must save him, get him back!”
The old fellow was such a sly. What was sent back was one of the relics of the Dwarves, but now he intend to cover it up rashly with the word ‘the thing you brought’ to omit the credits by bringing up the matter about wounding one of his! So, there would always be old sly people, even among simple Dwarves!
Zhang Yang said, “But I am not a Priest, nor a Sacred Knight, I have nothing to disperse evil spell!”
Markan pondered for a while again, and said, “Deep in the mountains of Sivar Hills, there is a Fountain of Soul. Drinking the water from the fountain can disperse any evil spells! Young warrior, acquire the water from the Fountain of Soul to me, I beg of you, to save Sith!”
‘Ding! You accepted a quest: Fountain of Soul! The quest cannot be deleted, before the quest is completed, you will be affected by the effect of the ‘Dwarf's Warning’!’
[Dwarf's Warning]: You are burdened with a dwarf’s life, go save him quickly! In this period of time, you are forbidden to use any teleportation equipment, entering any main cities will result in banishment!
This was just too ruthless!
Zhang Yang opened up his quest list to check on the description of the quest.
[Fountain of Soul] (Quest: S-rank)
Description: Acquire the Fountain of Soul, return back to save Sith The Smith - The Mead!
Completion: Acquired Fountain of Soul 0/1
“The Fountain of Soul is a relic of the Centaur Tribe, a fine rare one. It is not easy to acquire the Fountain of Soul from their hands! Centaurs are cruel and aggressive tribe, young warrior, you must be extra careful on this!” Markan continued to say.
Zhang Yang tried to ask, “Master Markan, to be able to treat and cure Sith as soon as possible, can you spare some men for me to the way to acquire the fountain?”
Marken shook his head, then he spoke, “The relationship between the Centaur and the Dwarves have been tense over the time, and if our men happen to enter their territory, that would only mean war, and things will eventually get of hand!”
Player, to be tossed around; it was fated so!
“Quickly go and return, I will have a priest to slow down the irruption of the evil force into Sith with best effort, but time is of short!” Markan waved his hands, commanding the Dwarves to give way for Zhang Yang to take leave.
Zhang Yang left the Hammer Heart Castle. He summoned his Skeletal War Horse and advanced deep into the mountain forest.
Carrying the effect of the ‘Dwarf’s Warning’ on him while having the limitation to never return to any main cities, he could only choose to complete the mission at hand.
Riding on a horse alone in the mountain forest, with only knowledge on the quest saying that the sacred fountain was deep within the mountains, without any specific coordinates given, he could only explore the mountain forest aimlessly like a headless fly, turning around at every corner within his sight.
After for about an hour, no fountain was sighted; only a large number of monsters were attracted instead. Since he was unoccupied at the moment, Zhang Yang kept his battle horse aside by a mountain wall and cleared out all the monsters on his ass. By doing so, he acquired a large amount of experience points and two additional black-steel equipment pieces.
Looking at the time, it was already 1 in the afternoon. So, Zhang Yang hustled down from the server for lunch.
After a cup of hot tea and a moment of good rest, Zhang Yang reconnected onto the server and continued his search for the sacred fountain.
Another half an hour or more has passed, and Zhang Yang had finally passed through the forest, but what he saw in front of him was a scene of big battle.
Over 20 players or more were besieging a huge grizzly bear, about 7 melee combatants, 5 hunters, 8 mages, and 4 healers in additional. It was obvious that they were in the same guild, wearing the title ‘Pride’ above their heads.
Although the besieged grizzly bear was a boss, but its HP was almost depleted out, with only 20% remaining at the looks of it.
[Frantic Bear King] (Green-Copper, Beast)
Level: 34
HP: 120,000
Among the people of ‘Pride’ guild, there was one player who did not engage in the battle. Instead, he had both of his hands behind his back, looking like a superior that gave commands to the crowd.
[Player: Floating Fire Ball] (Pyromancer)
Level: 30
HP: 3,600
Mana: 2,100
For a moment there, Zhang Yang could not help himself but to let a murderous sight escape through his eyes!
To secure his place in the first of the ranking list, this guy actually sent his underlings to murder those players before him! Fatty Han was pushed back a level because of him, furthermore, he also hired that trash 44 Bandits to assassinate Zhang Yang. But regretfully instead, 44 Bandits was brutally f*cked in the ass by Zhang Yang.
Zhang Yang had long wanted to give him the dose of his own medicine, but since Floating Fire Ball was extremely afraid of dying, he would bring a large number of players along with him every time he went out for training, and the locations he went would also stay confidential. Zhang Yang did put all his focus on the dungeons and making money in his first phase in the game, with no time at all to free up his hands for taking him on.
Now this coincidence was just convenient!
Riding strategically on his horse, Zhang Yang charged towards Floating Fire Ball under high speed.
Thud thud thud, the Skeletal War Horse had an unusual speed when it came to running, so when Floating Fire Ball heard the sound and turned over to see, Zhang Yang was just less than 10 meters away from him!
Charge!
Zhang Yang instantly dispatched himself off the horse, rushed over like a lightning bolt.
Floating Fire Ball was struck into a state of unconsciousness.
With the summoning of his servant [Clear Lotus], Zhang Yang struck out his sword, slashing it at Floating Fire Ball, at the same instant, triggering his <Blood Rage>, causing his rage point to rush up to 67 points in just an instant!
‘778!’ Regular attack.
‘1,680!’ <Destructive Smash>.
‘812!’ <Force Strike>.
At the same time, [Clear Lotus] also dealt a series of damages on Floating Fire Ball from behind with her continuous strike from her dagger.
‘-273!’, ‘-66!’, ‘-430!’
“Argh!” Those instant explosive high valued damages on Floating Fire Ball gave him no time to react at all, instantly got him killed in the state of his unconsciousness!
Crying out in misery, he dropped a piece of silver shiny equipment and turned into a soul ready to report himself to the graveyard.
Zhang Yang had quick eyes and agile hands, reaching out his hands for a scoop and obtained the equipment into his hand. But it was just a Level 20 Gray-Silver set’s Mage Chestplate!
At this moment, only the other members of the ‘Pride’ guild managed to react to the situation. Other than a tank keeping the boss occupied and another mage healing the tank, all other members were aiming their assaults toward Zhang Yang.
Floating Fire Ball was furiously barking in the team channel as well, “F*ck this sh*t, kill him for me! Kill him! It wasn’t easy for me to reach Level 30 with 89% experience point, now I’m being pushed back by this f*cker all the way back to 0% experience points! He also wasted my equipment set clothes that I bought for 3,000 gold!”
With a cold grin on his face and a stomp onto the ground, he activated his skill <Thunder Strike>, instantly slowing 6 of the charging melee combatants. With a wave in the [Lover’s Sword] in his hand, he performed a <Horizontal Sweep>, instantly dealing 6 ‘1,500+’ high damages, hitting off at least half of the HP bar of six players respectively!
The servant [Clear Lotus], on the other hand, used <Shadow Walk> to appear at the back of the priest who was healing the tank from aside, and started her ferocious attack onto the healer.
Pak! Pak! Pak!
A ranged mage and a hunter attacked heavily over, inconsistent numerical symbols such as ‘-600’, ‘-200’ that instantly floated up on the body of Zhang Yang. The high damage value was coming from the attack of the mage, and because hunter’s attacks were physical, and they were reduced by the protective armor, therefore giving lesser damage values.
So, that concluded that mages were the worst enemies of the roughened skin and thickened flesh, the Guardians!
8 mages launched a volley assault together with another 5 Hunters that caused about 5,500 of damage, which nearly emptied out Zhang Yang’s HP bar within seconds!
<Shield Wall>! <Merlinda’s Shadow>!
Zhang Yang was so light on his feet, he had already rushed into the long-ranged camp of the ‘Pride’ guild, instantly beginning his epic slaughtering!
With the <Shield Wall> in effect, the amount of HP Zhang Yang was losing mattered so little that he ignored it, and under the healing of <Shadow of Merlinda>, his health bar recovered back to full swiftly!
On the other hand, the servant [Clear Lotus] had already handled the priest!
One should know, the servant [Clear Lotus] was Silver-grade, her attack was on par with a Level 36 player wearing Level 30 Green-Copper equipment set. Meanwhile, the priest was only Level 29 wearing a full Level 20 Green-Copper equipment set, with a HP bar that did not exceed 2,400. So, how could he take all the ravages from [Clear Lotus]? He could only hold up for 8 to 9 seconds, and it would be the end for him after.
Once the priest died, the tank could not hold up longer than a few more seconds! The boss instantly switched his aggro onto the mages of the ‘Pride’, with a loud roar of “Aow!”
Unexpectedly, the boss knew how to charge! With a strike on a mage, a wave of its paw, the boss swung and created a series of blur, and it was a range attributed attack! Immediately, the HP bars of the mage and a hunter around him were knocked off by approximately 1,500 points.
The members of the ‘Pride’ were miserably screaming, for they did not know for a moment whether to get rid of the boss with little HP left or to attack Zhang Yang who had just restored his HP bar back to full.
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
<Destructive Smash> cool down was complete. Zhang Yang immediately used <Destructive Smash>, followed by a <Force Strike> on one of the mages, dealing two damages of ‘-1,680’, ‘-821’ respectively, sending the players to the afterlife in seconds!
[Clear Lotus] drifted back, under the command of Zhang Yang, and then she wildly unleashed her assaults onto the members of the ‘Pride’ inside out!
“Take out Zhan Yu first!”
The members of ‘Pride’ had finally come back to their senses and reacted. After all, the boss was just an NPC controlled by a computer (artificial intelligence), with limited IQ. As long as the tank returned, the problem could be solved easily! But it was different when it came to players, as players would exploit the softest spot before stabbing in!
Zhang Yang laughed loudly, and he said, “You guys are taking neither of us out!”
<Thunder Strike>, slow down movement speed!
<Horizontal Sweep>!
‘-1,578!’
‘-1,627!’
‘- 3,360!’
‘-1,611!’
‘…’
A dozen of horrifying damage values fluttered on each of the players, with two of them as critical hits! Even before the effect of <Deep Wound> could trigger, the two members were instantly smashed into waste products!
The melee combatants of the ‘Pride’ had Zhang Yang rounded up, while the remaining 18 players that were still alive unleashed their attacks at him one after another. With their skills disorderly spammed, it would be unbelievable that so many players could not do the justice in killing one player!
<Substitute> skill activated!
Zhang Yang immediately escaped the controlled situation, descending into the state of 5-second invincibility. The [Lover’s Sword] emitted a cold flashing aura. It was like a grim reaper frantically harvesting the lives of the players!
While on the other side, the Berserk Bear King did not go soft on them at all, waving its wrathful claws, landing it onto 3 different targets at the same time, dealing a basic damage of 1,500, give or take. When it came to a non-tanking class without any skills that decreased or avoided damages while not being, all it took for the boss to kill off the players were 2 aggressive attacks!
The 5-second invincibility ended, but the number of the ‘Pride’ members had been drastically decreased to only 11 people, with their magic-type players all gone, leaving 7 melee combatants and 4 Hunters behind!
“Sun of the beach, this b*tch’s damage output is terrifying!”
“Heal? Someone please support me with some HP recovery!”
“There’s no way we could fight anymore, one Zhang Yu is already hard enough, and there is a boss creating disturbance at aside!”
The members of the ‘Pride’ were screaming their miserable lungs out.
‘Pride’ guild was not a large guild in the gaming world, and there was not much master-level players around, with Floating Fire Ball more concerned with training instead of clearing dungeons. Because for him, equipment could be bought with money, but him being rich did not mean that his underlings would be rich too. Most of the members only had Level-20 Green-Copper grade equipment, while only a small number of them had a few pieces of Level-30 Green-Copper equipment.
As for the Gray-Silver equipment pieces? Sorry, there was no way for an ordinary level guild to roll against Marzerway in Hardcore Mode!
According to the setting of ‘God's Miracle’, in Normal Mode, players around Level 10 could perform a raid, and those at least Level 20 were be eligible to challenge Hard Mode, and lastly, the Hardcore Mode required players to be Level 30 or higher!
Players around Level 30 wearing Level 20 Green-Copper equipment with about 2,500 HP without equipping a shield were totally incomparable to Zhang Yang or the boss, no matter what!
Just like a whirlwind sweeping away some scattered clouds, Zhang Yang and the boss joined together to dispose of the remaining 11 players of the ‘Pride’, like tearing away some withered stumps.
However, the moment all members of the ‘Pride’ were taken care of, the boss navigated its aggro onto Zhang Yang.
“Ouw!” Berserk Bear King let out a furious roar, waving its huge paw, slamming towards Zhang Yang.
<Block>!
With a lift of his shield, Zhang Yang sheltered himself from the attack. But the impact was so strong that it pushed him 3 to 4 steps backward before he could regain his stance!
The presence of the knock back effect only meant that the strength that the Berserk Bear King had was so much stronger than Zhang Yang’s!
‘-274!’ Deflected damage.
With a grin on his face, Zhang Yang said, “You stupid ungrateful piece of bear! I took care of those people for you, and you are trying to kill me instead of thanking me! Sigh, being a nice person is really a mistake, after all I have done, I only get a bite in return, no wonder there are lesser nice people around in this year!”
‘-1,154!’ <Shield Bash>, critical!
Instantly, the body of the Berserk Bear King was added with a negative effect, <Bleeding>, causing a damage value of ‘-79’ to pop out once in every 2 seconds.
The battle must be ended quickly as his powerful skills drained him of his stamina quite enough. If the members of the ‘Pride’ happened to revive themselves at the moment, even he could not bear it!
After all, their equipment pieces were only 1 level different from each another. If he has his skills at ready, Zhang Yang could roll with it again. But once <Shield Wall> and <Substitute> were on cool down time, even Zhang Yang cannot underestimate a party with 20+ members in it!
Berserk Bear King has only 20,000 HP left in the bar. Under the joint attacks of Zhang Yang and [Clear Lotus], the boss could only last for 20 seconds more. With the <Lifesteal> effect also in play with the Lover’s Sword, Zhang Yang eventually took out the boss!
After picking up the loots from the boss and the equipment dropped from the members of the ‘Pride’ in a quick manner, Zhang Yang summoned his war horse and left the spot, leaving the ‘Pride’ people to their sulking.
About 7 or 8 minutes later, curses coming from the ‘Pride’ people started to appear in the regional channels. Zhang Yang smiled at it; only incompetent people would rely on cursing to make a scene for themselves.
Passing through the mountain forest, Zhang Yang continued for his search on the location of the sacred fountain. In fact, he was keener to locate a Centaur. According to Markan, the Fountain of the Souls are a sacred relic of the Centaur, so there should be Centaurian guards around the fountain guarding it.
‘Pikplak!’
One of the bushes suddenly split in half, and from between the separated bushes came a weird looking creature rushing through… the lower body of a horse, and the upper body of a human! With 4 legs it could really run fast, just like a gust of wind blowing by, with a long bow in his hand.
A Centaur!
“Rawgh!” Right behind the Centaur was a sabretooth leaping out from the same way. Its size was bigger than a huge bear, tall and sturdy, with long and sharp teeth, gleaming with cold white light!
Having Zhang Yang in sight, the Centaur instantly ran towards him, at the same time, he shouted, “Help! Help! Please help!”
[Bangar Kukulo] (Normal, humanoid creature)
Level: 35
HP: 1,235/3,500
Note: “Coward” Bangar Kukulo, Kukulo of the Centaur tribe.
Instantly, Zhang Yang made an immediate judgment, went straight at the sabretooth and landed a slash onto it.
2 seconds later, the sabretooth regained conscious, switching its target to Zhang Yang and threw over a bite.
At first, Zhang Yang wanted to cast a <Provoke>, but seeing that Bangar Kukulo did not cause any damage to the sabretooth, it became easier to pull agro in.
No wonder Bangar Kukulo had a nickname of ‘The Coward’, assuming that he would run the moment he saw the sabretooth, the long bow in his hand might only be a decoration!
Although the sabretooth was indeed tall and sturdy, but it was just a normal Level 33 monster. With just a few tricks in his sleeves, Zhang Yang took it down for good, leaving only a few strings of tiger hair behind.
“Hero! Hero! Gratitude for saving Bangar Kukulo!” The coward Centaur put away the long bow into the backpack on his horseback. He made a move swiping away his sweat and said, “Bangar Kukulo will repay you!”
Zhang Yang smiled and said, “In my travels I would draw out my sword whenever I would see any injustice being done!” As the words came out right from his mouth, he felt a shiver on his back for a moment.
“Hero, a person like you definitely would not want the dead body of this tiger! Then make it as a gift to Bangar Kukulo!” after talking to himself, Bangar Kukulo immediately pulled the dead sabretooth and hung it around his horseback! It was unforeseen that even though his courage was so puny, but his strength was definitely strong as hell, not to mention his face was so thick to the point where no words could describe it!
Zhang Yang continued to ask, “So how did you ended up in such a tragic situation?”
“Sigh!” Bangar Kukulo said, “Today is my coming-of-age ceremony, only by hunting down a sabretooth all by myself would I become one of the real member of the Kukulo family! But this beastly sabretooth was too powerful that Bangar Kukulo could not defeat it!”
Could not defeat? Or perhaps it was him who was so terrified to the point that he just could not do anything, being chased over by the sabretooth a few blocks through maybe?
Zhang Yang laughed and said, “Yes, this sabretooth is indeed very hard to hard to be dealt with!”
Bangar Kukulo was instantly very pleased in hearing that, seeing Zhang Yang as his friend, and he said, “Hero, Bangar Kukulo has another favor to ask of you! Please escort Bangar Kukulo back to sacred land! Bangar Kukulo will definitely pay you handsomely once we are at the destination!”
“Ding! Bangar Kukulo has a quest for you: Escort Bangar Kukulo. Will you accept it?”
Of course Zhang Yang naturally accepted it, having not to worry about finding the place where the Centaur lives anymore!
[Escort Bangar Kukulo] (Difficulty: C-rank)
Description: Escort Bangar Kukulo back to the Centaur camp. If Bangar Kukulo dies, the mission will fail.
Completion: <Escort in progress>
“Thank you so much, hero!” Bangar Kukulo filled his face with a smile, immediately leading Zhang Yang by walking towards a direction.
On their way, it was unavoidable to be attacked by sabretooths, thunderstorm wolves, chimeras and other beast-type monsters. Anyhow, Bangar Kukulo would escape as far as he could go whenever a battle began, and he would only return after Zhang Yang has taken care of the monsters. Then he would show that face of his that says “I was not refusing to aid you in battle, I was on the look-out for you.” Meanwhile, he would pick up the corpses and hung them on his horseback, until the point that he no longer could move his ass, and then dropping the monsters’ corpses with a bitter heart.
After heading straight for more than half an hour, they finally reached the Centaur camp. It was a very well hidden in a far-off valley. If it was not for Bangar Kukulo’s guide, Zhang Yang might not even find the place even after searching for 3 days.
The entrance of the valley was surrounded with high wooden fence, each of the top sharpened, to prevent anything from invading over the wall. In the middle of the fence was an open wooden door, a Centaur guard armed with bow and arrows was standing guard of it.
The sight of that Centaur was extremely great, he could see Zhang Yang and Bangar Kukulo from afar. Immediately raising their awareness with arrow loaded onto the bow, they made a defensive stance.
“Matta Kukulo, do not shoot, it’s me!” Bangar Kukulo was timid, worrying that the opposite side would shoot the arrow over to him, he shouted at once. It reminded Zhang Yang of the phrase, “Tai Jun, don’t shoot, it’s me”1.
“Bangar Kukulo, why did you bring a human into our camp?” the guard did not lower his guard down at all.
“He is an important guest which Bangar Kukulo invited to join the coming-of-age ceremony!” Bangar Kukulo was smart, giving Zhang Yang a title of ‘guest’.
Zhang Yang could not help to have his mouth twitching about. Previously with the dwarves, he was also a guest, but in a blink of an eye he almost got turned into a prisoner! Hopefully this time around, the situation would not be the same!
The guard hesitated for a moment before putting away his bow and arrow, so he asked, “When did you know such a human?”
Maybe Zhang Yang was there backing him up, so Bangar Kukulo became bold and strong, with a head full of pride, he said, “Do I need to tell you?”
Under the guide of Bangar Kukulo, Zhang Yang had finally entered the Centaur camp.
---
1A line from a Chinese movie.
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