Beep!
Legendary Brave sent me a message: "Not bad, guild leader! That is one h.e.l.luva Famous General Skill you learned! Wanna grind together when you"re free? I can totally use that 40% Attack buff!"
I smiled. Not long ago, Legendary Brave fought G.o.ds of Destruction and Hegemon Palace to save me and Lin Yixin. Although he managed to kill the super expert Little Piglet, he was completely outnumbered and killed in the end. It was my duty to a.s.sure a fierce general like this, so I replied with a question, "Brave, what are your thoughts regarding your fight with Little Piglet?"
Legendary Brave fell silent for about 10 seconds before replying, "He"s strong, really strong. I ambushed him after Wind Fantasy got him down to 65% HP, but I still couldn"t kill him immediately. Luckily, Little Piglet"s teammates were complete noobs, so he died after I executed my second combo. I was just lucky, haha!"
That was what he said, but I now knew that he was slightly stronger than Little Piglet. Additionally, Lin Yixin had already told me that Li Chengfeng"s skill, equipment, and level were at least on par with Little Piglet"s, not to mention that he was a man with the courage to brave even the most dire of dangers to save his companions. We were lucky to acquire a peak expert who possessed both great power and courage like him.
……
I spoke with him for a little while longer before we both went back to grinding. Lin Yixin and I were walking down the stairway leading the second floor of the Arctic Temple, the place where the second and final boss resided. We managed to seal the Ice Fox, but I doubted that we would get lucky a second time. We didn"t have a priest, so this wouldn"t be an easy fight.
It was at this moment I received yet another congratulatory message. This time it was from Murong Mingyue. "Wawawa, that Martial G.o.d General Skill looks absolutely OP. Now that you"re a Famous General, you"d better grind with me and Beiming after you got your fourth promotion! Also, everyone in the guild is talking about you, so pop inside the guild channel and say something already!"
"Ohh!"
I gave her a quick reply before bringing up the guild chat window. As she said, it was bustling with activity—
Gui Guzi: "Hahaha, Boss Broken Halberd has learned a Famous General Skill! Just look at this 40% Attack increase, who in Sky City would dare to challenge us now?"
Xu Yang: "Hehe, let"s ask Lu Chen to form a 10-man party with our best players and activate "Martial G.o.d" the next time there"s a guild war. Let"s see who can stop us!"
High Fighting Spirits was screaming: "Don"t forget to bring me along! I want to feel how it"s like to have my Attack increased by 40% too, it sounds mad fun to grind mobs with it turned on!"
Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun: "That"s right. But don"t worry, the chance will come eventually. Right now we"re not Level 100 yet, so we can only form 10-man parties. I heard that that number will increase to 20 for fourth-promotion players and 50 for fifth-promotion players. Tsk tsk, just imagine 50 high-rank players charging toward the enemy lines with the Martial G.o.d buff on them. It"s gonna be sick!"
Chaos Moon: "IKR, Lu Chen"s so OP it"s positively scary these days…"
Beiming Xue: "But of course, big bro is the best!"
I chose this moment to pop in and say, "Do your best, everyone. If you become a Top 15 ranker on the Heavenly Ranking, you have a chance of becoming a Famous General every time you level up. These Famous General Skills are several times stronger than your usual stratagems, and everyone has a chance to acquire them. Let"s all work hard and transform Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls into the pillar of China!"
Legendary Brave: "Haha, that"s true. Let"s follow the vice leader"s directions and build the king of guilds!"
High Fighting Spirits: "Haha, even the legendary Legendary Brave has shown his face! Today is definitely a good day!"
Legendary Brave: "Heh. Anyway, I need to do a quest now, so see y"all later!"
Pure Love: "Vice leader…"
Me: "Yes?"
Pure Love: "Wanna date?"
Me: "Well, see y"all later…"
Xu Yang, Beiming Xue, Gui Guzi, High Fighting Spirits, and everyone else: "..."
……
Just like that, the entire guild chat was murdered by Pure Love. I had no idea how to deal with this high-level bard, especially since she was both beautiful and skillful. Apparently, there were a lot of male players in the guild who were trying to woo her, but none of them seemed to meet her expectations. Honestly, her obsession with me troubled me a lot.
"... What"s going on there? Why are you smiling so vulgarly?" Lin Yixin suddenly looked back and shot me a glance.
A s.h.i.+ver ran down my spine before I defended myself. "N-nothing… this second floor is colder than I expected. Why the h.e.l.l is it so cold here?"
"I guess… it"s because we"re in the "Arctic" Temple…" Lin Yixin sounded distracted because she was too busy hugging her Ice Fox, and I couldn"t fault her for it. The little fox had soft cyan fur and a pair of blinking eyes that looked like stars. The way it drooped its ears and shook its fluffy tail from time to time could pierce any woman"s heart, even if said person was the Fruit Knife G.o.ddess herself. It was no wonder that Lin Yixin had paid me exactly zero attention until just now.
Rustle rustle...
I cautiously walked to the front as my Death Shade War Boots sc.r.a.ped against the stairs. The little wolf was right beside me, but Lin Yixin had fallen behind because she was scared that her Level 1 little fox would be one-shot by the enemy. To be honest, her fear made no sense to me. It was only a matter of time before a pet died, and it wasn"t like her fox could drop below Level 1. Just look at my Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf. Just a while ago, it had played the role of a cus.h.i.+on and a meats.h.i.+eld for Lin Yixin and I, but it looked as lively as ever. Even now, it was wagging its tail and currying favor with Lin Yixin like mad.
"Watch out, the mobs on the second floor won"t be easier than the first…" Lin Yixin reminded me.
I nodded. "Don"t worry, there"s nothing that can one-shot me!"
My vision widened just as I gave her my reply. We had officially entered the second floor of the Arctic Temple, and not far away from us I saw a long corridor leading toward a place that was shrouded by icy mist. The corridor was about ten meters wide, and it was swarming with extraordinary mobs whose names I couldn"t identify from where we were.
The mob was a lion with pure white fur, and the fact that it managed to survive in a frigid environment like this proved that it was no ordinary creature. The wolf and I slowly moved closer to the lion until its stat screen finally appeared to me—
Blood Maddened Lion (Shadow)
Level: 128
Attack: 1350~1540
Defense: 1250
HP: 70000
Skills: Mad Strike X, Desperate Gambit X, Barbaric Rend X
Introduction: The Blood Maddened Lions are one of the guardians of this frozen valley, and they possess incredible attack and defense. After guarding the valley for countless years, they"ve become an incredibly violent creature who only cares about tearing apart any adventurer who comes their way.
……
I sucked in an involuntary breath before saying, "1540 max Attack! These shadow-rank mobs are f.u.c.king insane. Let"s fight them one by one just like before, or it would one-shot us like nothing. Tsk tsk, a Desperate Gambit X increases one"s attack power by 75% or so, so it"d be like getting hit by a 2000 Attack basic attack…"
Lin Yixin smiled. "Let"s lure one over and test the waters!"
"Mn."
I slowly moved closer to the nearest Blood Maddened Lion before imbuing the blade of my Purgatory Sword with a surge of powerful energy. Then, I fired a Dragon Slaying Slash at it!
3780!
Very good, my attack still dealt a sizable amount of damage despite my opponent being a Level 129 shadow-rankmob. Outstanding Dark Gold–grade weapons were truly powerful!
I immediately retreated after hitting my target. The Dragon Slaying Slash had a channeling period of 2 seconds and a cooldown period of 1 second. It wasn"t an undodgeable skill either, meaning that it was entirely up to the player to hit their target. If I was a normal player, there was at least a 75% chance that my skill would miss a moving target. But since I wasn"t a normal player, my brain lag was no longer hindering me, and my prediction power was as good as ever, I could hit a moving target—especially a mob—almost 100% of the time. Individual skill was a critical component in any game. All the pros who managed to make a name for themselves were skillful enough to be rated among the top 1%.
Bang bang!
I managed to fire another two Dragon Slaying Slashes at the Blood Maddened Lion before it was finally on me. The mob had lost around 10k HP before it even got close to me. This was one of the advantages of dual cultivation. When the target was less than 10 yards away from me, I switched from Dragon Slaying Slash to Thunder Attack!
Swhoos.h.!.+
I nailed the Blood Maddened Lion where it stood and stunned it for 5 seconds. I immediately followed up with Pardon, Desperate Gambit and a basic attack.
MISS!
5345!
2984!
I thought this would happen, but my damage was much lower without Extreme Break.
It was at this moment Lin Yixin ran toward the Blood Maddened Lion and hit it with Extreme Break. A combo later, she put 5 yards between herself and the mob and used Charge, stunning it again right after it recovered! I was glad. It was truly an enjoyable experience to grind with a smart and beautiful player like her.
However, the Blood Maddened Lion had a ton of HP, and even our combined might wasn"t enough to kill it before it recovered from our stuns. Fire seeping out of its claws, it swung its forelimb and hit Lin Yixin with a devastating Mad Strike X!
2983!
The brute hit the Fruit Knife G.o.ddess so hard that she let out a painful yelp and lost around half of her HP. She moved to the back swiftly while I blocked the Blood Maddened Lion and regained the aggro!
Swhoos.h.!.+
Its paw burned bright red this time. It was Desperate Gambit X!
I didn"t retreat, however. Come on, show me the power of a Rank 10 skill!
Bang!
A tearing sensation seared my shoulder as I lost a huge chunk of HP myself—
4229!
This pretty much proved this Level 128 shadow-rank mob was far, far too strong for us to fight, be it in terms of level or rank. First, it would be suicide to fight it head on. Second, its ridiculous strength made it an unsuitable mob to grind not only because it was strong enough to pressure both Lin Yixin and I, but also because it cost too much potions just to bring one of these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds down. Maybe it would be feasible if Murong Mingyue was here to heal us, but she was busy grinding with a couple of high-level warriors right now. I could just imagine her being the magnet of attention and turning red because of it. It was a pleasing thought.
Lin Yixin reminded me. "Desperate Gambit has a channel time of 0.5 seconds and an attack distance of 1 yard only. It"s possible to dodge it if you pay attention…"
I nodded. "I know that. I just wanted to know how painful it is to get hit by a Level 128 shadow-rank mob…"
Lin Yixin"s gaze turned strange immediately. It was almost as if she was asking me if I was a m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t with her eyes.