Skyroad

Spoiler:

Chapter 15: Will your brothers ever abandon you?

Ding!

System notification: Congratulations! You have completed the mission [Kill the Black Zombie King] (E-rank mission). Rewards: EXP +5000, silver coin +30, additional reward [Scout Breastplate]!

A breastplate entered my inventory. I opened my inventory page and saw an armor enveloped in a bronze glow lying at the corner of the inventory. It looked crude, yet its defense was very strong.

Scout Breastplate (Bronze equipment)

Type: Heavy

Defense: 30

Const.i.tution: +7

Level requirement: 15

This was a chest armor with rather impressive stats, giving quite a huge increase of defense and HP to the wearer. I immediately equipped it. Instantly, my defense reached 160 while my HP reached 1728. With the stats given by the four bronze equipments I was wearing, I continued taking the lead on the power ranking of our newbie village.

"We"re even starting to get equipments from this…"

Lin Che was elated as he had also been rewarded with an equipment. He was now wearing a brand new bronze leg armor. Big Hai and Zhang Wei appeared somewhat resentful as they had only been rewarded with experience and coins. No additional reward had been given to them.

We tried to initiate more conversation with the scout captain. However, he only stood there in a heroic pose and continued speaking to himself in a high spirited manner. He did not look like he was going to give us any other missions. It would seem like there were no other missions here.

Therefore, I said, "We are reaching level 16 soon. Let"s go. Take a detour around the village and enter deeper into the map to look for stronger monsters. I feel like we can kill monsters five levels above us now. That will maximize our leveling efficiency."

Lin Che nodded, "Agree."

We took a detour around the village and walked straight for five minutes before we started hearing the sounds of water flowing. We crossed the dense jungle and an immense swamp appeared before us. The map was colored in crimson as usual.

Di!

System notification: Please be careful, you have entered a dangerous map [Setting Sun Swamp].

The sun hung at the west, shining upon the swamp. Under the sunlight, the swamp glittered, appearing elegant and gorgeous. We fell into a short reverie when we saw this scene. Thanks to the near 100% realism of the game, we felt somewhat cold when the wind blew past us. We instinctively tightened our armors due to the cold and headed towards the swamp. Several red dots appeared on the map. Monsters had appeared.

"Hiss! Hiss!"

The surface of the swamp was filled with leaves and weeds. A long creature of about 10 meters long seemed to be slithering around on the swamp. When I took a closer look, I saw a huge head coursing through the weeds and leaves. This was a Water Python. It looked quite strong. It had a body as thick as a basin, definitely capable of swallowing an entire person alive.

"It looks quite scary…" Lin Che said in surprise.

"What are you scared of? It"s not like you are the one that need to melee it."

I smiled and shared the Water Python"s stats with the team. Its stats were quite high, surpa.s.sing even the bronze monsters. This was actually a normal steel monster.

Water Python (Steel monster)

Level: 20

Attack: 95 - 155

Defense: 90

HP: 2500

Skills: Twine, Tail Swipe

Introduction: One of the tyrants of the swamp, an adult Water Python is capable of easily swallowing an entire ox. Young adventures, if you aren"t as st.u.r.dy as an ox, make haste and get as far away from the Water Python as you can.

Perhaps it was because this was a steel monster, the level 20 Water Python had stats comparable to a bronze boss like the Black Zombie King. Its attack slightly surpa.s.sed the Black Zombie King while its defense and HP were lower. Because of the lower defense and HP, these pythons wouldn"t be too hard to kill. In any case, my scary defense of 160 was above the python"s maximum attack. We should be able to kill it with ease. I decided to give it a try.

"Little Che, start the battle. Everyone go together." I said.

"Let"s go!"

With a bright smile on his face, Lin Che raised his hand and slammed two talismans onto the python"s head, dealing several hundred points of damage to it. Immediately, the python raged, creating numerous waves on the swamp. Its head rose into the air and with its jaws opened wide as it tried biting Lin Che.

I stepped in front of the python and with my sword, I accurately landed a four combo attack on the python"s head. Trails of bright True Qi were left in the air when my attacks were unleashed. This was quite a sight to behold. After my attacks struck, no more than one third of the python"s HP was left. It swiped its tail towards me and with a whoosh, the tail landed heavily on my shield.

Clang! 97!

The damage was less than 100. My 160 points of defense was indeed quite powerful. From this, it was clear that players fully equipped in bronze equipments would be able to do as they wish at the newbie zones. Let alone regular monsters, even bosses would not be able to do much to them.

In a flash, the python was killed. Several dozen copper coins were dropped on the ground. Lin Che immediately initiated battle with another monster without bothering to stop. With our strength, we could kill monsters without resting. Because of that, our leveling speed was incredibly fast.

The level 20 Water Pythons were five levels above us. Therefore, they gave ample EXP rewards. Each of them would give us 1% EXP. We only needed to kill a few dozen of them to level up. Before long, this spot turned into our holy ground of leveling.

Finally, we showered in light as we reached level 16. We entered deeper into the swamp and the pythons around us increased in number. Their sp.a.w.n rate was quite high as well. Before long, we were killing two or three of them at a time. Fortunately, my defense was high enough with my defensive stance also granting me a damage reduction bonus. One python after another died and transformed into EXP that drifted towards us in the form of a white radiance. Our EXP bar shone as it filled up without stop. This was quite a good feeling.

We worked untiringly and in the blink of an eye, three hours went by. Again, we showered in light. I, Lin Che and Big Hai reached level 18 while Zhang Wei reached level 17. The harvests had been ample as well. Although no steel equipments were dropped, two bronze equipments had been dropped. They were respectively given to Big Hai and Zhang Wei. We had also obtained several dozen white equipments, nearly cramming our inventory full with it.

We continued our advance and as we reached the depth of the swamp, the water current around us turned rapid, eventually forming a 20 meters wide torrent.

"What"s happening?" Zhang Wei frowned, "I have a bad feeling."

"A boss has appeared."

I pointed at the map and said, "Big Brother Wei, you should initiate the boss fight this time. The boss is hiding under the water. Little Che and Big Hai can"t reach it. We can only rely on you."

Zhang Wei felt his scalps go numb, "Is it a huge python?"

"I guess."

"Why don"t you go, Big Chen?" He asked with his eyes opened wide.

"I am the main DPS. Of course you are the initiator. What are you so scared of? At most you will feed the python half your body. Go bravely, my friend. Will your brothers ever abandon you?" I replied.

Zhang Wei paled, "If I got swallowed alive, I will look for you guys!"

Lin Che and w.a.n.g Jinhai smiled widely, "Go brother! We will take care of your family if anything bad happens to you!"

Zhang Wei advanced cautiously. He had only taken several steps forward when the water underneath him rippled. With a plop, a huge monster shot out of the water. A python half a meter thick appeared. It shook its durable body slightly and started curling up around Zhang Wei"s body. Then, its huge head appeared from the water. It opened its jaws wide before biting at Zhang Wei.

1904!

What a terrifying damage! Luckily Zhang Wei was the one to initiate the fight. Half his stat points had been allocated to increasing his HP. Therefore, he had over 3,000 HP. If it was me, my HP would have dropped to the bottom from that hit alone.

"Bodyseal Technique!"

I shouted at Lin Che before charging with my sword raised. A crimson radiance whizzed past me and Lin Che"s Bodyseal Technique accurately landed on the python"s head to stun it. I leapt up into the air and infused my True QI into my sword, turning it crimson red. Then, I launched my Heavy Slash and Breaker on the boss. One red and one blue attack struck the boss"s head. On top of the two skills, I landed two normal attacks on the boss as well, completing my four hit combo.

247! 282! 244! 301!

That pulled the boss"s aggro onto me. It swept its tail that was as wide as a huge tree at me. The tail came so fast I couldn"t even get into the defensive stance in time. It struck my breastplate, flinging me more than 10 yards away from it.

594!

As expected, this boss"s strongest attack was the first attack when it first came out of the water. When I saw the damage number popping out, I felt somewhat disappointed. Even if this was a level 20 king of pythons, it was still only a bronze boss, not a steel boss. Killing it would not give us the rewards of the steel boss first kill. Nonetheless, we still had to kill it.

Gunshots crackled in the air without stop as both Lin Che and Big Hai spammed their attacks. After taking a huge amount of damage, Zhang Wei was resting by the side. After recovering his HP, he slammed his Ferocious Tiger Palm onto the python. By the time I arrived, only 40% of the boss"s HP was left. After recovering my True Qi, I activated my Shield of Honor to start tanking the boss. We then continued spamming attacks on the boss and finally killed it.

"Howl!"

The Python King raised its huge head had bellowed. Then, its body went stiff, transforming into pitch black stone. It crashed onto the ground, dropping several equipments on the ground. Our EXP bar shone and increased by 28%. The boss was quite generous in terms of EXP given.

Lin Che started going through the loots while muttering nonstop, "A pair of bronze bracers. Big Hai can get it. There"s also a bronze cloth boots. It"s mine. This…there"s a heavy leg armor as well. Big Brother Chen, you are still using a low leveled leg armor, right? Take it."

I took the leg armor and found that it had a +strength stat on it. I accepted it cheerfully, not bothering to offer it to Zhang Wei. Half his attacks were misses anyway. It would be pointless for him to get too much +strength equipments.

Python Leg Armor (Bronze equipment)

Type: Heavy

Defense: 32

Strength: +7

Level requirement: 17

I equipped it and my defense reached 180 points. Now, I was equipped with five bronze equipments. If all my equipments were bronze, my defense would probably be so high all non magic cla.s.s players wouldn"t be able to do any damage to me. At the same time, I also noticed a certain issue. Low level equipments did not have any magic resistances on it. I would do fine against warrior cla.s.ses but magic cla.s.ses would be my natural predator.

"Someone is here!"

Suddenly, Lin Che warned. Everyone crouched down by instinct and hid within the weeds. We gazed ahead. Sure enough, on the hill at the other side, a group of players were rushing towards the north. There were seven of them with the lowest level player among them a level 15. With their levels, they were already quite powerful. A familiar person was walking in the middle of the group. He was wearing a magic robe holding a scepter shining with a crimson glow in his hand. Flaming Rat? Why was he here?