Skyroad

Chapter 18: Steel boss is here!

All of us sank into silence looking at the chaos unfolding in the Savage Gorge from the top of the hill. A complicated emotion welled within us.

“I noticed something.” Lin Che said.

“Say it.”

“The Dynastic Hegemon and Fight If Salty both have huge number of members yet they have less than five Clerics. Why is this? Does nobody need healing?” He asked with a frown.

I answered helplessly, “It’s mainly because the official requirement is too insane. Only female players could play a Cleric. Because of this, a huge number of male players who enjoyed being a babysitter can’t play a healer anymore. On top of that, the number of female gamers has always been lower than male gamers. You guys also know the kind of people Liu Qiang and Flaming Rat are. They are too controlling. Women usually won’t stay long beside a man like this. How many women would willingly play a Cleric for people like them?”

“That’s true. Look.” Zhang Wei pointed, “A single Swordsman has three Clerics healing him. This is too luxurious a treatment!”

“Oh?”

We stretched our neck up and looked over with our eyes narrowed. Indeed, around 100 yards from us, a level 14 Swordsman was leading a group. He had a pretty face and a refined air around him. Behind him were three Clerics in robes. They were all above average in terms of look. Behind their names, the name of their group, “Soochow University Special Unit” was written. Their conversation entered our ears.

Swordsman: “Looks like the treasure chest has already been opened. I wonder who did that. We’re too late. How unfortunate.”

Cleric A: “There are gravestones everywhere. The battle earlier must have been very intense.  Hao Chen, be careful not to leave my healing range. Otherwise, it will be very easy for you to die in the hands of those scoundrels.”

Cleric B: “Even Zhang Xinya with 52% healing efficiency in the party has yet to say anything. With how little you have been healing, you dare say something like this?”

Cleric C: “Stop arguing. Hao Chen, looks like nothing is left in the Savage Gorge. You are the only one slaying monsters in our party. This is too tiring. How about I accompany you to go get some supper later?”

Swordsman: “Hmm…let’s bring Lin Yitong and Luo Shanshan together. I had already changed my sports car to a four-seater car. Everyone has been working hard. Should we go loosen up at the pub after supper?”

“Yes, yes, of course!” Cleric A, B, and C answered in excitement.

We watched on in silence, our mouth struck agape.

“The hell?” Lin Che snapped a tree branch and lamented, “The lonely ones will die from loneliness while the popular ones will die from overwork. Our entire group is filled with singles yet that pretty boy alone has three girls chasing after him…This is too infuriating!”

I glanced at him and smiled, “No matter what, you are a professional gamer with a hundred thousand fans on your Weibo. Go make a post that you are looking for a girlfriend. I guarantee you there will be at least 100 applicants…”

“A hundred beautiful girls applying?” Lin Che asked in excitement.

“A hundred gays dressed up as girls.” I answered.

“Fuck!”

Wang Jinhai raised his gun up and said, “Time to go. Let’s continue advancing to the north. We might be able to find the boss soon. Don’t forget our dream. We have yet to get the steel boss first kill!”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

We regained our spirit and started our journey. We advanced forward and soon, the forest no longer looked so sinister and desolate. The sunlight shone upon the forest and the landscape before us was filled with vitality. Despite the beautiful scenery around us, the map was turning red. Evidently, we had entered yet another high leveled zone. Green aura was twirling around the grassy ground, as if the life of this forest have all converged and turned into liquid to flow on the ground.

Zhang Wei rested his stick on his shoulder and walked in front of the team. Feeling extremely comfortable, he said with a smile, “Ahhh, the sweet smell of nature…”

Right after he spoke, his face turned green. Then, several numbers started popping out above him.

-187! -187! -187!

“Fuck? What’s going on?” Zhang Wei asked in stupefaction.

“Hurry, walk away from the area with green aura on the ground.” I frowned and continued, “Looks like you have been poisoned. Five percent of your HP will be reduced every second. This place is quite dangerous…”

“Where did the poison came from?” Wang Jinhai asked while scanning his surroundings. I replaced Zhang Wei and took the lead. Then, I opened the map to check our surroundings. Before long, I noticed several red dots on the map that we couldn’t see as they were hidden in the bushes around us. I marked the map and said, “Big Hai, try shooting in there.”

“Ok.”

Wang Jinhai’s gun was in fact some sort of ancient looking scattergun. Two gunshots sounded as the bush was turned into a mess. Immediately, the monster hidden under the bush appeared. This monster was only around 30 centimeters tall. It was a mushroom with two short legs under it. The monster was chirping nonstop, as if it had been shocked. It then charged at us while still breathing poison out of its mouth.

***

Mushroom Spirit (Steel monster)

Level: 22

Attack: 150 – 180

Defense: 60

HP: 2700

Skills: Condensed Poison, Brave Tackle

Introduction: The territories of the Great Xia Dynasty were filled with tropical forests. Many delicious mushrooms could be found in the forests. However, not all mushrooms were tasty. Some mushrooms had attracted the Earth Spirits and started established a pact with the spirits. These mushrooms were vicious and violent. However, due to their adorable and unique appearance, they are loved by girls everywhere in the empire.

***

Bang! The Mushroom Spirit tackled my feet and dealt me 347 points of damage. Its attack was clearly lower than my defense yet because of its level suppression on me, it was still able to deal a considerable amount of damage to me. After it struck me with Brave Tackle, a green poison mist started swirling around me. Immediately, both me and Zhang Wei started suffering from damage over time.

“Kill it immediately.” Lin Che said.

I bombarded the mushroom with a combo attack. Lin Che and Big Hai blasted the mushroom with a two combo attack each as well. With a whimper, the mushroom collapsed. Then, four white rays of light entered our body. These were the EXP we gained.

One Mushroom Spirit gave an EXP of 1%. Seeing this, we immediately decided to make this our leveling location. Although Mushroom Spirits had high attack, their HP and defense were rather lacking. We were able to kill one in an instant. Leveling here would be very efficient for us.

One Mushroom Spirit after another died, filling our EXP bar. In less than an hour, we leveled up. A shower of light descended on us as me, Lin Che, and Big Hai reached level 19. I allocated all my stat points on strength, pushing my attack rating over 200 points. We then continued leveling. While killing monsters, Lin Che shared us a screenshot of the forum. With a helpless smile, he said, “Our Chosen Studio is totally popular now. We are wanted by two huge organizations.”

On the forum of our newbie village, two trending threads had been posted. Both threads had something to do with us.

[War declaration] Player Flaming Rat: Chosen, do you dare come fight us at the south entrance of the newbie village?

[War declaration] Player Be Good For You: Hopeful Present, you sure have guts! You actually dare to ally with the people from Fight If Salty to ambush us of the Dynastic Hegemon? Just you wait. Don’t let me see you anywhere. I will kill you on sight!

There were quite a lot of replies to the thread posted by Be Good For You:

Post 1 (Player Flaming Rat): Trash!

Post 2 (Player Glittering Eyes): Wow, this newbie village is quite interesting. Are Hopeful Present, Flaming Rat, and Be Good For You going to fight for domination?

Post 3 (Player Tiramisu): Ermmmmmm…

Post 4 (Player Naughty Pudding): They first observe the battle before suddenly joining. The Chosen people are the most shameless of all!

Post 5 (Player Nine Thunders): I don’t understand. The Chosen Studio of Hopeful Present only has four members registered. How had a studio of four defeated the several hundred players of Dynastic Hegemon and Fight If Salty? Poster above, since you are claiming that Hopeful Present is shameless, can you please upload a video of the battle? Everything will be clear then.

 “Hmph!”

While landing one headshot after another, Wang Jinhai snorted as fury filled his face, “This Naughty Pudding is a true scum. He is that Zhang Liang guy, the archer who got his ass kicked with a 10:0 defeat by me but couldn’t take the defeat. After losing in-game, he starts a real life fight instead. That’s fine, but he had to get a bunch of guys to beat me together. What a shameless person.”

I consoled him, “Just kill him more whenever you see him.”

“Yeah.”

Lin Che said, “Since we are like merchants aiming to earn money, we should start as little feud as possible. Otherwise, we might be attacked by other players while leveling. We can very easily be overtaken in levels, losing our advantage in level and equipment. When that happens, it will be very hard for us to compete against the other teams with several dozen or several hundred players.”

I nodded, “Little Che is correct. But of course, we still need to have a rule. In the future, our studio’s doctrine is to level more, less PK. Of course, if we are attacked, that will be a different story.”

“Yeap. That’s how things should be.”

Just as we finished speaking, Lin Che suddenly stopped moving. He stood there as if he had been petrified. Pointing forward with his magic sword, he made a “wuuu..wuuu” sound with his mouth. It was as if his throat had been blocked while many different expressions flitted across his face. There were astonishment, worry, and joy. His face flushed red. When we looked at where he was pointing, we found that within the hazy forest, a huge monster was walking towards us.

It walked very slowly and its entire body was filled with multiple bright colors. Its entire body was cylinder shaped, with its head larger while its tail small. Finally, a boss had appeared. This was a steel boss that we had been looking for.

***

Multicolored Mushroom Duke (Steel boss)

Level: 24

Attack: 185 – 250

Defense: 150

HP: 8000

Skills: Venomous Zone, Root Choke, King Tackle

Introduction: A king of the Mushroom Spirits, it was born with five colors on its body. It was incredibly seductive, able to subdue all mushrooms within a hundred miles. It was said that the empire had once deployed a group of scouts to hunt and kill it to make a soup out of it. It had ultimately escaped their hunt. Young adventures, if you encounter it, don’t bother running. Raise your weapon and fight. That way, your death will be a dignified one.

***

“That’s a hilarious introduction.” Zhang Wei laughed.

“Don’t laugh. Some hidden information is contained in the introduction…” I said with a solemn look, “We can’t escape from this boss and have to tank it while fighting. The moment we attempted escape, we might be hit by the Root Choke skill. I reckon the damage for this Root Choke is very high.”

“Ok.”

“Big Brother Wei, you go first. Let us see how powerful King Tackle is.”

“Why am I always the one to take the hit?”

Although he complained, his body still moved. With a shout, he activated Qi Physique and increased his maximum HP by 20%. Then, he gallantly advanced towards the Multicolored Mushroom Duke.