Skyroad

Spoiler:

Chapter 14: Thirsty for girls

Time pa.s.sed slowly. Looking at my slowly filling EXP bar, a sense of accomplishment filled me. At the same time, I was filled with expectation for what the future had in store for us. My teamwork with w.a.n.g Jinhai was improving as well. When we leveled together, he would be in charge of initiating fights. After firing three times at the monster from afar, I would unleash a four combo attack on the monster followed by a normal attack 1.5 seconds after my combo. After doing that, a Black Zombie would be near death if not downright dead already. We were essentially killing the Black Zombies without even being touched. While leveling, my chat blinked.

Di!

System notification: A message has been received from an unknown person, player Be Good For You. Accept or reject the message?

The number one guy on the power ranking? Why was he looking for me? I accepted the message. Immediately, his message popped out before me:

Be Good For You: "Brother Hopeful Present? Which part of Suzhou are you from? I reckon you are from around Lake Tai as well, right?"

He was surprisingly polite. I smiled and replied while still leveling: "Yes. What can I do for you?"

After a few seconds, his second message arrived: "I have around 100 brothers in this game with me. We are all in the same newbie village and have sufficient funding. We are planning to establish a guild in the future so we can continue growing. We are presently recruiting talented individuals to join us. Are you interested to join us, brother? We will first operate as squads. When the time comes, the world will be ours for the taking."

"No thanks. I have no intention to join any guilds." I immediately replied.

"Is that so?" He asked.

"Yes." I confirmed.

After a while, with a beep, a message arrived from Be Good For You: "That"s too unfortunate. I hope we will be friends instead of enemies in the future."

"I hope so as well."

The conversation stopped at this and I continued leveling. It would seem like the Chosen Studio was getting popular in this newbie village. Even this "sufficiently funded" number one on the power ranking guy was trying to recruit us.

After an hour, I was showered in radiance and reached level 15. The leveling speed here was quite impressive. I allocated all the new stat points into strength. Right after I was done with that, Lin Che spoke in excitement in the party chat, "Big Brother Chen, I found the boss. Come here!"

"Coming."

After pa.s.sing by multiple dilapidated walls, both me and Big Hai arrived before Lin Che and Zhang Wei. They were blanking out in front of a worn out building. In front of them, crimson aura was swirling around the air, forming a terrifying looking zone.  At the center of the courtyard was a two meters tall figure. It stood there toweringly while emanating a black aura.

This was the Black Zombie King. It wore a set of worn out clothes while its skin had a shiny l.u.s.ter on it like it was metallic instead of flesh.

Black Zombie King (Bronze boss)

Level: 18

Attack: 90 - 145

Defense: 100

HP: 4000

Skills: Poison Mist, Bite

Introduction: The king of the Black Zombies. The Black Zombie King was once the strongest soldier of the village. After he was tainted by the undead poison, he lost his mind and turned into a walking corpse. It was rumored that being bitten by the Black Zombie King would feel extremely pleasurable.

"Extremely pleasurable …"

Lin Che"s mouth twitched, "But his 100 points of defense is really quite scary. On top of that, it has both the boss bonus and a level suppression on us. Can we even penetrate its defense? It looks very powerful…"

I replied, "It"s only 4,000 HP. That"s not too scary. A mere bronze boss is nothing. Prepare for battle. Big Hai and Zhang Wei, focus on DPS. Little Che, be careful and use your Bodyseal Technique to control the tempo of the battle."

"Ok." Lin Che smiled.

"Let"s start the boss fight."

Lin Che and w.a.n.g Jinhai attacked at the same time from the distant. Both Daofire Talisman and Fire Bullet landed on the Black Zombie King"s head. Two damage numbers popped out. Unfortunately, the damage was only about a hundred each. Indeed, their attack was still unable to penetrate much of this boss"s defense.

I advanced forward with my sword in hand. When the Black Zombie King started heading towards Lin Che, I was already there waiting. I unleashed a four combo attack on the boss, instantly pulling the aggro on me. The boss howled and clawed at me. At the same time, it opened its mouth to bite me. I quickly lowered my body and raised my shield, instantly entering the defensive stance.

Clang! Clang!

72! 171!

The boss"s attack was indeed scary. If my defensive stance hadn"t activated successfully, this two combo attack would probably knock 400 HP off me. Right after I blocked its attack, the boss opened its mouth again. The death plague came out in the form of a green mist and spread everywhere. In half a second, both me and Zhang Wei who were in its melee range lost over 300 HP.

Right at this moment, with a "pat" sound, a crimson radiance shone before us. Lin Che"s Bodyseal Technique had landed on the boss, stunning and interrupting it from channeling the poison attack. If it was allowed to continue, the consequences would be grave.

I used the HP recovery powder and proceeded to move around the boss while slashing at it. Both I and Zhang Wei attacked the boss from different directions, forming a pincer attack on it. When required, I would activate the defensive stance to reduce the rate in which my HP was dropping.

The boss howled furiously. When its HP bar was reduced by half, it puffed out its cheeks and started spouting the poisonous mist again.

"Not good. I still have three seconds cool-down on my Bodyseal Technique." Lin Che shouted.

"Spam the potions. Hang on!" I spoke resolutely, "The moment we lost control of the boss, Little Che and Big Hai will be instantly killed."

When Zhang Wei heard that, he unleashed his prowess. He reached out with his left hand. Then, numerous golden rays shot out of his body. A projection of a fierce tiger appeared on his palm while sounds of tiger roaring filled the air. After aiming at the boss, he slammed his palm on it.

144!

The damage of the Ferocious Tiger Palm was pretty good. After three seconds of tanking, my HP bar was already at the bottom. I took a potion and slammed my feet on the ground. Streams of air swirled around me as the Shield of Honor was activated. Lin Che was in no rush to use his Bodyseal Technique as he was confident in my defensive capabilities. With my defensive skills, I could reduce 50% of the incoming damage. If it wasn"t for that, our party would have been killed long ago.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The Black Zombie King stabbed my shield nonstop, nearly destroying it. Fortunately, the boss only had 4,000 HP. Under our continuous bombardment, it died. The entire battle had only lasted 20 seconds. Yet another bronze boss had died on our hands.

A bunch of loots dropped on the ground. At the same time, our EXP bar climbed rapidly. We got nearly 50% from killing that boss alone. Bossing was indeed pretty good for leveling. If we could encounter more bosses, we would probably reach level 20 by tonight.

Lin Che flipped the boss"s corpse. Under the boss were three loots comprised of a pitch black gun, a pair of pith black bracers, and a crimson shield. He raised his hand and instantly, the stats of all three loots appeared:

Black Gun (Bronze equipment)

Attack: 15 - 28

Strength: +5

Level requirement: 15

Blackwater Bracers (Bronze equipment)

Type: Heavy

Defense: 26

Strength: +5

Level requirement: 15

Worn Shield (Bronze equipment)

Defense: 45

Resist: +1

Const.i.tution: +7

Level requirement: 15

We all flushed red in excitement when we saw the stats.

"Holy s.h.i.t!"

Zhang Wei laughed, "We"re rich! Three bronze equipments at once!"

Big Hai stared at the gun in daze, giggling foolishly. Lin Che grinned, "Big Brother Chen, you should do the honor of distributing these loots."

I nodded, "The Black Gun will naturally go to Big Hai. He is the main gunman of our Chosen Studio. We can"t let him keep using a level 1 weapon. That"s just too sad. As for the Blackwater Bracers…it"s somewhat better than my Spiked Bracers. Zhang Wei can have it. I will be taking this Worn Shield. I finally have a proper shield to use!"

Lin Che laughed, "Ok!"

He dragged the Broken Shield over and tossed it to me. I replaced my Thicket Steel Shield with the new shield, melancholy filling my heart. The stats of the shield were the essence of a Knight. A proper shield was way too important. This level 15 bronze shield was without a doubt one of the best shields in the server currently.

My power rating shot up to reach 353 points. Once again, I surpa.s.sed Be Good For You and took the first place on the power ranking from him. Apart from the equipments, the Black Zombie King had also dropped two gold coins. This was quite a harvest. I picked up the gold coins as well. Then, I stepped forward and sliced the boss"s chest apart with my sword and dug a pitch black heart out of its body. I then tossed the damp heart into my inventory.

"Urghh…" Lin Che had a look of disgust, "This is disgusting. It"s a good thing we don"t have any female players in the studio. Otherwise, this scene will probably make her sick."

Big Hai laughed, "This must be the reason for you guys to be single."

"Shut up!" We glared at him, "As if you have a girlfriend!"

Big Hai put both his hands on the air and said, "Fine, I surrender. I can"t offend you guys. But boss, are you really not planning to recruit any female players into our studio?"

I replied lazily, "You think I don"t want to recruit any female players? But where can we find any? Look at us. We can"t even afford to eat properly. Which female player would want to join us? Did you not see the recruitment threads on the forums? People are reducing the minimum hour requirement to eight hours for any joining female players. There will be nannies cooking for the female players. Cosmetic items would be provided for free. Insurance, housing, and other employment benefits are provided as well. A car no cheaper than RMB 300,000 would be given for free as well. Look at us. We only have instant noodles and that s.h.i.tty scooter of Little Che. How can we recruit anyone? Only a blind female player will join us…"

Lin Che coughed, "Basically, it"s because our current condition is not good enough. Take it slow. We do need a Cleric. A party won"t survive without a babysitter. Take the Black Zombie King as an example. Our teamwork and character control is already impeccable yet we still struggled against the Black Zombie King. If we have a Cleric healing us, killing bronze bosses will be extremely easy."

"Yeah."

I nodded, "Everyone wants to have a girl, but a girl is not something we can have for now. Stop thinking too much. Let"s go, time to turn in the mission."

We left the village of zombies and returned to the little hill. Scout Captain Li Wei was standing at the peak, his eyes filled with the longing for a beautiful future. Standing there overlooking the landscape below him, he started reciting a poem in a spirited and heroic manner, "Desolation has fallen upon the north, evils are running rampant, putting our Great Xia Dynasty into a precarious position. What a fulfilling life would it be if I can pacify all evils everywhere with my sword in hand and my mount beneath me!"

I walked towards him and asked, "Is this your poem, lord? We are back to turn in the mission."