58. Luck at Full Force Unfortunately, the higher the hope, the bigger the disappointment. Nothing valuable was found in the second hour except for a thing they could"ve bought in a store. After repeatedly hacking and slashing for so long, they were getting tired. At the 1-hour-and-50-minute mark, the party decided to rest for 10 minutes in a spa.r.s.e corner.
"There"s 3 more hours left. Looks like I can level up once today," Sunshine_Illumination said as he admired how much experience he"d gained.
"How many levels have you gained, Xiao-Yu?"
"Three."
"Not bad. Let"s try and get you past Level 60 today."
"Mn." Ever since XiaoYu pa.s.sed his Second Job Change, it"s been a long time since he"d seen his experience bar fly so fast. That"s because the game"s stingy. The journey between the Second and Third Job Changes was a long and painful process. An accidental death meant a level lost. That would be so excruciating.
"Hopefully we can drop a dagger later. My dagger was destroyed in an attempt to get to +10 a few days ago. This one"s attack isn"t that good," Eremes commented as he swayed the tiny dagger in his left hand. Compared to the knife in his right, there was a very noticeable difference.
"We already have 2 different types of weapons. Don"t get too greedy." Kathryne knocked Eremes on the head with her staff. It looked so affectionate. That"s because they"re a couple in real life and they"re married in-game. Upon closer inspection, one could spot the same diamond ring on both their left ring fingers.
"Yes, oh great wife."
To avoid wasting the XP Penalty Waiver, they only rested for 10 brief minutes. The following 3 hours were to be filled with just grinding. As the party got up, patted the dust from their clothes and the healers buffed everyone up, an idea popped into XiaoYu"s mind. After some consideration, he dug into his bag and took out a bottle of rainbow potion. With a slight frown, he tilted his head back and chugged it down.
"Argh. Ack. Hack. Ack…" Just as the item description said. It wasn"t merely bitter. It was extra, extra bitter. XiaoYu accidentally choked on it and coughed so badly his vision started going faint.
HereticKing patted XiaoYu on the back in hopes the other could feel better. He pondered. Then, he took out a bottle of milk from his inventory and handed it to XiaoYu who drank it up.
"Better?"
"Ahem…Yes. Thanks." The mild sweetness from the milk washed away the bitter taste in his mouth. XiaoYu finally caught his breath. It"d be a huge joke if he died choking on a potion.
The other players stared at them in confusion. They were also surprised their Chief"s inventory actually had a low-grade drink like milk. Truthfully, HereticKing prepared it for the tiny cat. It somehow ended up in the big cat"s stomach, but that doesn"t matter. He had more.
"Lil Lucky, if I"m not wrong, that"s the Lucky Potion." Below_The_Moon"s eyes were very sharp. That potion"s colours looked strangled like the Lucky Potion XiaoYu received from his chest during the loot-splitting meeting last time. If his memory served him right, it increased treasure drop rates by 5%.
"Mn. It was going to last 3 hours too." XiaoYu never had the chance to use it before.
"What"s a Lucky Potion?" Naturally, the other party members who weren"t there didn"t know of the new and fascinating items found in the loot-splitting meeting.
"It"s from a System Reward Chest. It"ll increase the chances of treasures dropping by 5%. The problem is it"s very, very bitter," Below_The_Moon explained.
"Huh. It"s that good? I wonder if the 5% is directly applied to the original drop rate or if it"s 5% of the drop rate." (E.g. If an item"s drop rate is 30%, adding 5% directly meant 35% after consuming the Lucky Potion. If it"s 5% of the 30%, it"ll be a total of 31.5% [30% + 1.5%].)
"We"ll know once we test it out. Is this your first time drinking it, Xiao-Yu?" Poor_Man asked.
"Yes. I didn"t think it"d be so bitter," replied XiaoYu, spitting his tongue out as he did so. It was so bad that tears started swelling in his eyes.
"There, there. I"ll buy you some lollipops once we get back. Alright. Everyone, let"s work hard in the next 3 hours. Don"t waste that 5%," Poor_Man said as he comforted the frowning XiaoYu.
"Roger!" Once everyone knew of the potion"s effects, their deflating spirits rose up once more. It"s like they could see a huge number of equipment, and even cards, beckoning them. They were also much more respectful of XiaoYu and the tiny lucky cat now. This might be the true fortune deity.
Actually, the drop rate of good items had always been low. Even if the 5% was added directly to the drop rate, there wouldn"t be any obvious effects. However, from the significant increase in trash equipment being dropped, the crowd"s morale remained high. The party chat would occasionally be filled with chatter, but it would also be dead silent. Then, all that can be heard would be the sounds of swords slashing, spells casting and arrows swooshing past.
The party grinded hard for 2 hours. They found a silk magic robe and a triangle headband. The sight of an ultrrare headdress dropping made the party strive even harder.
"Card!" All heads turned to where the gasp came from. What a pity they"d forgotten that they"d be lucky enough if the person who killed the mob could even spot what it"d dropped. The most anyone else who turned their heads at the sound could see was a flash of black. Any slower and they wouldn"t even see a ball of black shadow.
"Tsk, tsk. The kitten"s getting faster and faster. I suspect it"s got outside - ah, no. I mean inside - help." All 3 major jobs that mainly dealt in Agility were all gathered in this party. Yet, the sight of this precious cat still made them sigh in how lacking they were.
"Can you see what card it is, Xiao-Yu?"
"Human-type White Ghost Card. +10 complete evasion against attacks by Human-types, but +50% damage received by Undead attacks. Shoulder slot," XiaoYu read out.
"That"s good for the fortresses." High agility builds had higher evasion but that"s only against attacks from the front. They"d still be grazed for up to 10-plus HP by the leftover attack shockwaves. Complete evasion meant they wouldn"t be hurt at all. 10 points of complete evasion was equal to 20 to 30 Agility points. That card"s really worth it.
"Ooh. There"s still an hour left. Charge! Have them hand up all their supplies!" Eremes cried.
"Hey, don"t you think there are fewer mobs now?" Compared to the ecstatic Eremes, Kathryne who"s a gla.s.s-cannon wizard was much more sensitive to the surrounding mob situation.
"No way. Are we going to hit the jackpot? Below_The_Moon!" As the party leader, Sunshine could not let anything happen to their party. Especially since they had a boss and a tiny luck deity here.
Below_The_Moon scaled to the top of an abandoned house and looked around. "Behind the broken-down house bout 200 metres to 10 o"clock, there"s a boss. From its outfit, it"s a rich salesman," he said.
"Shall we go for it, Chief?" Everyone stared at their Chief with starry eyes the moment they heard it was a minor boss they could defeat. It was the juicy, rich flesh they"d been discussing a few hours ago too.
"Does anyone roughly understand this monster"s skills?" The unspoken rule of Heretic Demons was: how could they not make out like a bandit when they encounter a boss? However, they had XiaoYu in their party. HereticKing hoped to be informed of this monster"s skillset in detail so XiaoYu wouldn"t be caught in the crossfire.
"According to the forums, it only has a 20 by 20 AoE attack via gold coins. That is, it"ll rain coins down at you."
"Mn. Sunshine, you"re in charge of XiaoYu"s safety. Everyone else, go according to our usual formation against bosses," HereticKing ordered.
"Huh? Why aren"t I protecting Xiao-Yu?" Poor_Man found it strange. Sunshine thought it was strange too. After all, he had never worked with XiaoYu before.
"Because Sunshine is going to use Sacrificial Chant on XiaoYu. His casting time will be doubled. You"ll be the main healer," HereticKing explained.
"I see. Xiao-Yu, did you bring the Bibles?" Poor_Man asked.
"I did," replied XiaoYu.
"Then, please start from the two tanking knights," Poor_Man said.
"Understood."
They didn"t intend for XiaoYu to waste the Bibles on this grind session, but they didn"t think they"d accidentally b.u.mp into a minor boss. With Sunshine"s speedy casting out of the equation, it was safer if the tanks didn"t falter at all.
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