“Watch out!” Murong Mingyue shouted as she healed me back to full health.
He Yi watched the sandworm king with an enigmatic smile on her face. Her beautiful pupils looked as deep as a starry night. “The boss's sh.e.l.l is almost impervious, so we need to find its weak point and attack it!”
He Yi's words made my eyes light up. She must be right!
The sandworm king raised its head and attacked me again with its twin blades. Its face was covered in tiny pores and wriggling hair, and at the center of its savage countenance was a b.l.o.o.d.y, gaping maw that looked like it was used to shred a person into pieces before feeding on them!
I ran away from the boss while shouting, “Lil Beiming, trying shooting the boss in its mouth!”
Beiming Xue fired a Penetrating Arrow right as I was finished speaking!
Bang!
This time, the attack dealt a whopping 1289 damage! It was as He Yi said, we needed to target the boss's weak points specifically to kill it!
…...
Murong Mingyue said, “Lu Chen, draw aggro and try to tank as much damage as you can. While the boss is busy beating the s.h.i.+t out of you, Beiming Xue and Moonlight Stone will attack its mouth!”
I exclaimed in shock, “f.u.c.k, why do I suddenly feel like I was born under an unlucky star?!”
Murong Mingyue nodded affirmatively. “All baits are like that…”
I retreated until I saw a chance to go on the offensive myself. Attack, attack, attack! If I had to be a bait, then I'm going to be one who made life a living h.e.l.l for the boss!
The Ghost Ice Soul glowed with undead energy as I executed Pardon and Desperate Gambit in succession!
Puchi!
I struck the sandworm king perfectly in the mouth and caused more green blood to spill out of its mouth. The Ghost Ice Soul was an incredibly sharp weapon to begin with, and Desperate Gambit cut through its tough sh.e.l.l like a hot knife through b.u.t.ter!
MISS!
4762!
s.h.i.+t, I even got a critical hit? Woo!
Behind me, the girls fell quiet for a moment before Beiming Xue finally complained with a pout, “Will boss die if he doesn't show off one time?”
The Dark Wasp also flew toward the sandworm king and unleashed a deadly Flurry on its mouth, deleting almost 3000 HP in four hits. To say that it was powerful would be an understatement here!
The sandworm king had around 60k HP, but it didn't have a level advantage over me because we were only two levels apart. Without the stat penalty that a level advantage imposed, the sandworm king was strong, but not strong enough to one-shot me, especially with Murong Mingyue keeping me healthy at all times. We absolutely could take down this boss without losing a single person!
It didn't even take 5 minutes for the sandworm king's HP to hit rock bottom. Beiming Xue dealt a ridiculous amount of long-ranged damage throughout the fight, and this boss just wasn't equipped with the right tools to deal with it.
I smiled when I saw the sandworm king's remaining HP. “Get ready, everyone. Let's hope that the boss would drop something good!”
The girls were incredibly excited. A Level 70 Silver Rank boss had a chance of dropping even a Gold-grade item!
Clang!
My sword cut through the sandworm king's mandible one last time before it collapsed. It actually looked a bit like a shrimp the way its tough sh.e.l.l lay disorderly on the ground.
Pop...
A bunch of items lay scattered across the ground. There were a dozen or so Phantasmal Magic Stones alone. High-level bosses are such a generous bunch!
Besides that, the boss also dropped a s.h.i.+ny metal armor wristguard and dark-blue cloth armor legguards. They both looked pretty good!
I picked them up and brought up their stat screens.
Azure Wolf Wristguards (Silver-grade)
Defense: 115
Magic Resist: 50
Strength: +24
Stamina: +20
Pa.s.sive: Increases user's Defense by 40
Level Requirement: 60
…...
It was incredibly good for a metal armor equipment. It was rare to find wristguards with 115 Defense, let alone ones that added 40 Defense on top of that. With a total of 155 Defense, in terms of Defense alone, they were superior to my Dark Gold–grade Flame Dragon Gauntlets!
I tossed it straight into He Yi's arms and smiled at her. “I have Dark Gold–grade wristguards already, so these are yours, boss. You should be around Level 60 by the time we're done with Myriad Poison Cave, and you'll be able to do your third cla.s.s promotion!”
He Yi's eyes lit up with joy. “Really? You're giving top-tier Silver-grade wristguards to me?”
Everyone nodded while Murong Mingyue said, “Lu Chen already has better ones and the rest of us can't equip metal armor. Just take them!”
He Yi accepted the gift gratefully and nodded. “Thank you, everyone. Let's keep up the good work!”
The second equipment, the cloth armor legguards were a Level 60 Dark Steel–grade item that boosted its user's magical attacks by 5%. Again, it unquestionably belonged to the only mage in our party, Moonlight Stone.
We counted 15 Phantasmal Magic Stones after we picked up everything, so we split it among ourselves and got three each. These magic stones were still worth a lot of gold, and since gold equaled money, no player could say no to them.
We continued forward and killed a Myriad Poison Sandworm or two on the way. Finally, we reached a deep, dark hole with a bit of light peeking out of it. It was the entrance leading to Myriad Poison Cave's second floor!
He Yi looked at the hole and asked in puzzlement, “Are we heading to the second floor underground?”
I nodded.
“Does this mean that Myriad Poison Cave is a duplex?”
“...”
I had no idea how to respond to the inane question, so I said, “Wait for me here for a bit while I head downstairs. Who knows what kind of monsters might be waiting for us at the second floor?”
“Oh, okay. Go do your thing!”
I crouched a little and leaped into the hole, wind roaring against my ears. It didn't take long before my feet hit solid ground, and I progressed deeper into the cave. The light grew brighter and brighter, and soon the world in front of me opened up to reveal a whole new zone. The system dinged once to notify me that I had arrived at the second floor of Myriad Poison Cave.
But I didn't respond to it. It was because I was too busy staring at the sight in front of me.
Flap flap flap...
About ten yards away from me was a beautiful girl floating in midair. She had a beautiful face, a curvaceous body, and she was almost fully naked besides the key areas being covered up by a leaf. She held a sword that looked like it was made out of a pine tree branch in her hand, and she had a pair of colorful b.u.t.terfly wings behind her back. As she flew across the air, all I could think of was how beautiful she looked!
“What the f.u.c.k is this…” I murmured to myself.
Suddenly, I heard a rustling sound behind me. The girls had come down from the first floor, and they too were caught off-guard by the sight of the b.u.t.terfly woman.
A while later, Murong Mingyue smiled and said, “I was wondering why Lu Chen wasn't saying anything after he came down, but now we know he's too busy appreciating the view. Still, you know she's just a mob, right Lu Chen? Her body shape is also average at best. If you want to see something better, you can visit Eve while she's taking a bath…”
He Yi turned beet red immediately and kicked Murong Mingyue. “Geez, what are you even saying?”
Beiming Xue glanced at the mob's b.r.e.a.s.t.s before looking down at her own. She started making weird, sad noises.
Beauty Moonlight Stone felt no pressure whatsoever.
I finally broke out of my reverie and read the monster's stats—
Poison Beautifly (Elite)
Level: 72
Attack: 450~640
Defense: 380
HP: 4500
Skill: Slayer Slash, Charm
Introduction: Poison Beautifly is a poisonous creature born with a humanoid face and a humanoid body. It is incredibly beautiful, and it can scatter pink poisonous powder that charms its target and immobilizes them.
…...
“It's an elite…”
I sucked in a deep breath and said, “640 Attack! This is going to hurt for sure, not to mention that it has the ability to charm its target. What a conundrum this is…”
He Yi rolled her eyes at me. “Come on, you're the only one who would fall for something like that. I'm pretty sure that the rest of us are immune, right girls?”
Everyone voiced their agreement and expressed their disdain toward my lack of self-control. Seriously though, I was just expressing my honest feelings. I'm just a young man who had just recently awakened to the concept of love! It was only natural to let one's imagination wander after seeing something this… liberating. The fact that I didn't salivate on the spot should be more than enough proof that my self-control was off the charts!
Beiming Xue asked, “How should we kill it?”
I suggested cautiously, “Lil Beiming, shoot a Poison Beautifly and lure it to us. I'll intercept it halfway and try to kill it before it ever gets the chance to do anything!”
“Okay!”
Beiming Xue drew her bow and fired her arrow!
Thud!
784!
The arrow hit the Poison Beautifly squarely in the chest. As I thought, Beiming Xue was overcome with jealousy. I couldn't sense an ounce of mercy from that shot at all.
“Ah! Grovel beneath my feet, you d.a.m.nable creature!”
The Poison Beautifly shrieked angrily before charging Beiming Xue with her wooden sword raised.
While she was distracted, I activated Charge and zipped toward her like lightning!
Swhoos.h.!.+
Successfully stunning the Poison Beautifly, I then followed up with a merciless Pardon + Desperate Gambit combo!
MISS!
2984!
I swung at the Poison Beautifly and deleted another 1094 HP from her health bar, meaning that the Poison Beautifly had taken over 4500 damage since the start of the engagement. The mob turned out to be a cla.s.sic gla.s.s cannon type, so it let out a scream and died before it was able to do anything!
Pop...
A Big Magic Stone and a dark green shortbow dropped to the ground. When I picked it up, I was surprised to find that it was a Dark Steel–grade weapon!
Scout's Shortbow (Dark Steel–grade)
Attack: 45~108
Agility: +17
Pa.s.sive: Increases user's Agility by 8
Level Requirement: 60
…...
“Hehe, not bad!” I laughed. “This should be encouragement enough to any archer within the guild who hasn't reached Level 60 yet!”
He Yi nodded. “There aren't many good weapons during the early stage of the game, so all things considered this shortbow is pretty good in its own right. I'm sure someone in the guild will buy it off our hands in no time!”
“Yeah!”
I tossed the shortbow into my bag and went searching for my next target.
Unlike on the first floor, there was more than one type of mob to be found at the second. Besides the Poison Beautifly, there was also a scary elite mob called “Venomous Twin-headed Snake”. As its name might suggest, the mob had two snake heads, and its scales were brown. It had a huge chance of paralyzing its target with each bite!
What this meant was that the second floor was a lot more dangerous even though there were less mobs than on the first floor!
Swhoos.h.!.+
A Poison Beautifly flew over and scattered puffs of pink powder!
Beep!
Combat Log: Poison Beautifly used “Charm”, reducing your movement speed and attack speed by 50%. Your HP regeneration has been reduced to 0.
…...
Holy s.h.i.+t, this “Charm” is way more powerful than I expected!
He Yi and Murong Mingyue were caught in the powder as well. Luckily, Beiming Xue acted quickly by drawing the Poison Beautifly's attention to herself and killing it with some good kiting.
But that wasn't the end of the battle. A Venomous Twin-headed Snake had sneaked up on her from behind and clamped its jaws around her white legs before anyone realized it. It was only the first bite, but the paralyze activated, CCing Lil Beiming for 3 seconds straight!
G.o.d d.a.m.n, there is danger everywhere in this place!
I charged the Venomous Twin-headed Snake and saved Beiming Xue from her predicament.
In but a moment, a lot of blood was spilled at the second floor of Myriad Poison Cave.
