"Wow…"
Murong Mingyue"s mouth fell open. "What an amazing magic-type pet! 9 stars under Magic Attack and exactly 200 BN? Amazing!"
Lin Yixin nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it"s even stronger than my Purple Gold Rank Boss pet, the Ice Fox. Dread-rank pets are quite something…"
Lian Xin said, "The only unfortunate thing about it is that its HP and Defense growth isn"t quite up to par."
I said, "Who cares? All a magic-type pet needs to do is to sit behind a s.h.i.+eld and throw its spells to the front, and with a 9-star Magic Attack growth, Mingshe is perfect for this role. Tsk tsk, even I"m tempted to get one for myself…"
Beiming Xue giggled. "What are you saying, big bro? Your Phantom Wolf King is an Immortal Rank Boss pet. Don"t you want your Claw of the Storm and Purgatory Storm anymore?"
I shook my head. "That"s where you"re wrong, Beiming. I want that and Magic Attack…"
All the girls burst into giggles for a moment before Lian Xin asked, "So, what are you going to do with this Creature Holding Stone, Beiming?"
Beiming Xue replied immediately, "I"m giving it to Sister Chaos Moon. She has always wanted a pet with an AoE attack, but to this day she"s been stuck fighting with a physical DPS pet, Yellow Praying Mantis…"
"Yellow Praying Mantis…?" Lian Xin tried to recall what the pet was.
I helped her. "You know, the amazing pet whose only role is to sit on the frontline and get sliced and diced into a million pieces by the Bloodthirsty Beast Cavalry…"
Lian Xin giggled. "When you put it that way, yeah, Sister Chaos Moon can definitely use a Mingshe."
"Alright, let"s continue. Can"t let these precious bags of experience go to waste, can we?"
"Yeah!"
……
We grinded until 3 pm or so. Not only did we earn a lot of experience, we encountered another 5 Level 1 baby Mingshes in total! It was some unbelievable luck to say the least. Beiming Xue sealed two pets, and the rest of us, one each. We could distribute it to our guild members or sell it on the auction house; either way, it was going to be a very profitable trip. Of course, the plan was to distribute them to our players first and sell the leftovers later because Dark Moon City was a Rank 9 city and a huge source of income, meaning that most of us didn"t lack money. Right now, besides forging our mage party as soon as possible, it was more important to create a legion of magical pets than to earn some more cash we didn"t need right away. I could already imagine a black sea of Mingshes unleas.h.i.+ng their Mingshe Storm upon our enemies during the Nation War. It would be glorious.
That being said, we weren"t bold enough to sweep the entire leveling map with our party of five. Instead, we delved deeper into the leveling map, killed several groups of centipede mobs to fulfill the quest, and sent the NPCs away as soon as possible because they were too weak to survive in b.l.o.o.d.y s.h.i.+eld Domain. I had no intentions of finding out how many magic blasts they could take from a Mingshe before they died.
"Tsk tsk, Mingshe, my baby Mingshes…" I couldn"t stop grinning as I sealed my third Mingshe. "If I remember correctly, Gui Guzi, Yamete and Thirteen don"t have a magic-type pet yet. I"ll distribute these Mingshes to them after we"re done with this quest. Hehehe, this is so nice~~"
Lin Yixin was also wearing a beautiful smile on her face as she said, "Yeah, magic-type pets are very useful in almost any situation, and unlike a player, they can be resummoned if they die during a Nation War. In that sense, they"re even more useful than a high-level mage, so the more of these we seal, the better. This b.l.o.o.d.y s.h.i.+eld Domain is seriously awesome~"
Murong Mingyue looked very pleased as well. "Yeah, the equipment in my bag is really starting to grow too. Let"s keep this up, people…"
……
It was at this moment we reached the peak of a b.l.o.o.d.y mountain. Beiming Xue climbed up an elevated position, scouted for a bit before pointing toward the distance. "Big bro, look over there. Is it just me, or is that our destination?"
"Oh…"
We looked at the direction she was pointing, and sure enough, we spotted the ruins of a huge city hidden behind a cloak of darkness far, far away. It looked like it was coated in blood, and we could hear faint ghastly wails from it from time to time. It had to be our destination, the legendary main city of the Dharan Empire, and it was where one of the Nine Sovereigns of the Purgatory, Ovia the b.l.o.o.d.y Finger, was waiting for us. It was already an honor to meet one of the nine main bosses of the entire game, but to kill it as well? My blood immediately boiled with indescribable fear and excitement when the thought crossed my mind. This would be one of the greatest quests I had ever embarked on, and if we really did manage to kill Ovia, he would have to yield us at least a Divine-grade item, right? Right?!
You"d better, Ovia!
……
Unfortunately, we still had a long, long, long way to go before we could reach the city of Dharan. I spotted countless undead-infested forests and undead camps that we would have to pa.s.s through before we reached it. This journey was destined to overflow with copious amounts of blood, murder, equipment, experience and Reputation!
To our left stood a b.l.o.o.d.y forest filled with Mingshe mobs and most likely Level 1 baby Mingshes. We wouldn"t have the time to scour the entire map though. It was the same thing with the b.l.o.o.d.y forest to our right. Dammit, I hate being forced to choose between temptation and even bigger temptation!
"What do we do? Are we really going to give up on all these baby Mingshes?" Lin Yixin looked just as conflicted as I was.
I said, "You know what, we"re overthinking this. I"m going to ask Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon and the others to bring our elites over and sweep through this location. I"m sure they"ll be able to seal a ton of Level 1 baby Mingshes. Our dream of a magic-type pet legion begins now!"
It was at this moment Lin Yixin looked at me with dazzling eyes. "About that, Little Cheat?"
"Yeah…?"
"I don"t ask for much. I just want to capture 500 baby Mingshes for Snowy Cathaya. If you"re fine with this, I"ll contact Purple Marquis right away and tell him to sweep this place with 500 Purple Dragon Cavalrymen. They"re the core of Snowy Cathaya, and I promise you that they"ll never reveal this location. What do you think?"
I pondered for a moment. The forest was huge, and the mobs were tightly packed. If my calculations were correct, there had to be around 10000 baby Mingshes in this forest at least. Snowy Catahya was our ally, and Lin Yixin"s contributions were essential during the fight for the nine Tiger Soul Essences. In the end, I decided that I had no reason to turn her down, so I nodded. "No problem. This has to be kept a secret though. We"ll be in deep s.h.i.+t if Candle Dragon and Warsky Alliance catch wind of this."
"Yes, I know. I"ll contact them now then!"
"Okay!"
I contacted Gui Guzi myself and explained to him our circ.u.mstances. He replied with incredible excitement, "Don"t worry, Boss Broken Halberd! I"ll choose only those we can trust absolutely, not that that is a difficult task at all. There are at least 40k trustworthy elites that we can mobilize from the main guild right away…"
"Alright. Remember, this is a secret operation. No one can hear about this, understand?"
"No problem!"
He Yi had increased our main guild"s rank to Rank 8, so it could now accommodate a maximum of 100k players. Although we hadn"t filled up all the slots, we still had over 80k elite players. The 40000 players chosen to come to b.l.o.o.d.y s.h.i.+eld Domain could capture the baby Mingshes and grind their levels at the same time, effectively killing two birds with one stone.
……
After I was done giving out instructions, I told Gui Guzi the coordinates of the forests where the baby Mingshes were spotted, and the entrance to this particular area. b.l.o.o.d.y s.h.i.+eld Domain wouldn"t show up on the world map of a player who didn"t have our quest, but with the correct coordinates, they could simply cut right across the mountain ranges and enter these forests.
We went back to grinding. Our 5-man party walked down the hill and entered a foggy, b.l.o.o.d.y valley. A while later, and we finally spotted our first Night Creature camp. The canyon was littered with smelly undead graves and crawling with skeleton warriors, liches, undead magi and other powerful mobs.
"Should we fight them?" Lin Yixin asked.
I shook my head immediately. "Of course not. How long will this quest take if we fight every undead camp that we encounter along the way? It"s not like there are Level 1 mobs to be caught there. Let"s just circle around this graveyard and continue toward Dharan City ruins. Remember, our final objective is Ovia the b.l.o.o.d.y Finger. We should avoid engaging any cl.u.s.ter unless we run into a camp we can"t circ.u.mvent."
"Yeah. Let"s go!"
And so, we stuck to the sides and circled around the undead territory carefully. On the way, I saw a group of Corpse Eaters feeding on dead boars that were clearly afflicted with the plague. No humans lived in this place as a matter of course, so the Corpse Eaters could only wet their appet.i.te by feeding on low-level animals. It was actually a pretty sad life if you looked at it from their point of view.
……
Some time later, Lin Yixin suddenly reined in her Moonchaser Tiger and said, "Mm! I don"t think we can circle around this camp…"
I looked up. As she said, there was a b.l.o.o.d.y fortress made of bones and a wall so long it reminded me of the Great Wall of China blocking the only path between the mountain ranges. If we wished to continue further, we would have to pa.s.s through the b.l.o.o.d.y fortress. Scaling the tall, bony walls seemed unrealistic, and none of us had a flying mount.
The entrance to the fortress was shaped from the skull of a gigantic creature. It had a humanoid shape, but it definitely wasn"t human. Its gaping mouth was also the gate. Its eyes looked like caves s.h.i.+ning with a faint light, and I spotted a couple of undead archers clad in black armor standing guard inside.
"How are we getting in, big brother?" Lian Xin asked me.
I answered without thinking, "Via brute force, of course!"
Lin Yixin chuckled. "I like brute force!"
We didn"t wait to consider our options. As usual, I acted as the point of the party and walked at the front. There were four Undead Axe Fighters on the ground and two archers in the "windows”. The moment the battle began, we would be facing five Level 200 dread-rank mobs at once. To be honest, it was a bit of a dicey situation. After all, you could bet that a Level 200 dread-rank mob would be way more powerful than a Level 190 one.
"Be careful, everyone. Once I aggro the mobs, I want Lian Xin to split the enemy"s formation in half with Gravity Trap. We"ll take out the 4 axe fighters first before we move onto the archers. Sis, make sure you heal everyone!"
"I know. Get in already!"
I ran forward and used the G.o.d Binding Art, shackling one axe fighter immediately. Then, I ran back to my party while the other three Undead Axe Fighters roared and gave chase.
During this time, Beiming Xue fired a Shock Arrow and stunned one of the archers. When the other archer tried to approach us, Lian Xin surprised us all with an amazing execution of skills. First, she knocked the archer back with a bunch of Origin Force Fields. Then, she cast 7 force fields in rapid succession and trapped both archers in the middle!
"Well done!" Even Lin Yixin couldn"t help but praise Lian Xin"s skills.
It was way easier having to deal with just the three Level 200 Undead Axe Fighters. A Burning Blade Slash + War Crush combo and many AoE skills from Lin Yixin, Beiming Xue and Lian Xin later, the three mobs were slain in less than a minute.
After that, I took out the two archers first while shackling the last Undead Axe Fighter repeatedly with G.o.d Binding Art. At the end of the battle, it died and dropped a card with an axe image on it. It stated: "Axe Fighter Card: Increases user"s physical attack power by 50%, and attack speed by 20%. Duration: 120 minutes. Level Requirement: 170."