Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Find the cave!" cried Zhang Yang when the party arrived at Snowy Peak. "The boss is inside a cave called the Cave of the Winter’s Wind!"
The group split up and searched for the cave. Everyone agreed to regroup when any one of them finds it.
There was this particularly stupid idiot who had no sense of direction, yet had some ironic luck. She managed to be the first one who stumbled across the cave.
"I found it!" Han Ying Xue had managed to find the cave after 20 minutes, and happily announced her discovery in the party channel.
Everyone hurriedly converged to where Han Ying Xue was and saw a deep, large cave entrance, As the party was about to enter the cave, a sudden breeze blew by, carrying an intense, rotten smell, causing extreme disgust to those who caught whiff of it.
"BLEH! What is that smell! It smells like rotten eggs wrapped in stinky old stockings!" Wei Yan Er cried out as she squeezed her nose shut.
Zhang Yang laughed at her and said, "Why didn’t you take your Smell Setting down a notch?"
"Eh? You can do that?" said Wei Yan Er, surprised. She quickly asked for details, and after a series of messy, unnecessary rants, she closed the window and was delighted. However, her cute, contented little smile quickly disappeared. "Yeah! I’m d—BLEH! What the hell! Why did it turn worse?!"
"You dumb little girl! The system’s default setting was at 50%, You didn’t turn it up all the way to 100% did you?" Zhang Yang did a facepalm.
Wei Yan Er replied with a quick "Oh!" and adjusted the setting again. This time, she laughed and said, "Oh wow! I can’t smell anything now! Hehehe!"
In truth, she was not the only one was not aware of the Smell Settings. Everyone started to search through their setting windows and adjusted the setting to prevent the extreme odor from being too disruptive.
Zhang Yang explained. "There are other settings besides smell. You can also adjust Touch, Taste, and Sound! Touch sensitivity is disabled by default so that you would not feel any pain when you receive an attack. However, to be a professional, it’s best to increase the Touch sensitivity by just a little to increase your response rate! Too high however, and it will be too much to handle, affecting your overall performance! As for Taste, it’s best to leave it disabled. Drinking potions will not trigger your taste buds at all, or else, you will taste the utter bitterness of it. But, for instance, if you want to prevent yourself from drinking too many potions, you can adjust it to your own preference!"
These settings were rather plain and dull. Players who were the types to research prod around every aspect of a game would meddle with such settings. A majority of the players would not even take note of such settings.
After everyone had adjusted their own settings, Zhang Yang nodded approvingly and said, "Let’s go!"
Zhang Yang led the way, entering the cave first.
The cave was rather large. At a fixed interval, they would encounter a glowing stone stuck on the ceiling of the cave, illuminating the pathway. However, the light was dim, unable to fully illuminate the entire pathway. Like a poor streetlight in a dark alley, those little glowing stones were the only sources of light in the entire cave. However, as it was, even on the darkest of nights, the stars will shine upon earth. The light from the glowing stones was enough to allow the players to see where they were going.
"GROWLLL!" A deep, loud growl of a beast could be heard. Suddenly, a large White Bear jumped out from the darkness and attacked the foremost player, who happened to be Zhang Yang. The bear used {Charge} and stunned Zhang Yang. As he swayed helplessly on his spot, the monster swung a massive paw and attacked.
[Winter’s White Bear] (Elite, Beast)
Level: 58
HP: 58,000
Defense: 300
Hundred Shots and Zhang Yang original gang were very proactive. Even when Zhang Yang was stunned, they did not wait for him and immediately started their attack.
The bear growl and shifted its aggro to Wei Yan Er. Now that the bear had just attacked, it had to wait for another two seconds before it could attack again.
The stun effect lasted for one a second. Zhang Yang immediately cast {Provoke} when he recovered. He activated {Blood Rage} at the same time and slashed the boss. He immediatley followed up with {Destructive Smash}.
‘-1,634!’
‘3.573!’
As the aggro on Zhang Yang stabilized, everyone flawlessly synced with his rhythm and killed the monster without breaking a sweat. The team’s firepower was so strong that it would not have made a difference if no one was tanking, the monster would not have survived for more than 10 seconds. How could it kill anyone in that short amount of time?
Snow Seeker was rather impressed and said, "Guild master Zhan Yu, I’m really impressed with your teamwork. No wonder you guys could easily take down dungeon after dungeon, claiming First Clear Achievements!"
Wei Yan Er snickered and said, "Sister Seeker! Actually, it’s all because of me! I’m the strongest attacker in this team!"
"Little girl, do you not know shame or humility?!
"Hmph!" Wei Yan Er shrugged. "Humility is nothing but a lack of self-esteem. There is no reason for me to be humble in the first place! I’m merely stating the truth!"
Everyone laughed and the girls giggled. The little girl was always the clown of the party, bringing laughter and joy to them.
One of the ETC drops of the Winter’s White Bear was a piece of [Bear’s Tail], which could be sold for at least 10 silver coins. However little it was, Han Ying Xue still insisted on keeping the item since they could be stacked up to 200 pieces!
The team proceeded on forward, killing more bears as they proceed. When the 14th monster was killed, it finally dropped something useful.
[Frost Bear Coat] (Green-Copper, Leather Armor)
Defense: +6
Vitality: +60
Equip Effect: Increases 100 Frost Resistance.
Level Requirement: 50
Bear Coat Set (1/5):
{Bear Helm}
{Bear Coat}
{Bear Glove}
{Bear Leg Guard}
{Bear Boots}
Three Equip Effect: Increases all attack by 5%.
Five Equip Effect: Increases Frost Resistance by 300.
"Are resistance based equipment for Thieves and Hunters?" Everyone was curious. "Field monsters drop set equipment as well?"
Zhang Yang answered. "In the future, there will be all kinds of set equipment with all sort of effects! This one here specializes in elemental resistance. If you were to wear this and fight a Cryomancer, that player would be annoyed to the high heavens!"
After asking around for a brief period, Zhang Yang called out, "If no one wants it, I’m going to keep it!’ Zhang Yang took the item and kept it. However insignificant it seemed, it was still a set equipment! There are crazy collectors around who would pay a nice sum of coins just for novelty!
"Hey! I haven’t said anything yet! I want it! I want it!" Perfumed Water cried out suddenly. Snow Seeker was rather shy and had remained silent since she was rather well-mannered.
"Moving on!" said Zhang Yang, ignoring Perfumed Water.
"GRAHH! I’m pissed! Just you wait, Zhan Yu! I’ll show you how frightening I can be later!" cried Perfumed Water.
The party moved on and killed more and more bears. There were more bears in the cave! Perfumed Water was a Priest class, but she had chosen Leather Work as her profession. Whenever a monster was dead, Perfumed Water would pester Zhang Yang to quickly loot all the items and let her use them for her Leather Work.
That had led the miserly sisters to admire her work. Pieces of Bear Skins were rather valuable!
Even though the team’s firepower was so strong that they could kill a bear in no time, they had spent more than two hours roaming around the cave, because of its sheer size! There seemed to be no end to it!
FUSH!
Out of the sudden, a ball of white fur appeared out of a corner. The team was ready to attack but stopped when they saw that it was only a mini size white cub. It was only the size of a small puppy. White fur covered its entire body. It had a golden sparkle on each of its ear and eyes that were big and round. When the bear saw Zhang Yang and his "monstrous" friends, it was so shocked that it lost balance, sitting on its bottom with its eyes growing even bigger in surprise. It was so cute to look at!
"WAA! It’s so adorable!" cried the girls in his team. Everyone was caught up by its natural cuteness.
"Bear bear is so cute! KYAH! It’s so fluffy! It’s so fluffy I’m gonna die!" cried Wei Yan Er as she cuddled the little critter.
"That’s…that’s a rare monster!" Zhang Yang eyes glinted and he pulled the little bear away from Wei Yan Er.
Everyone’s face sharpened into seriousness as they quickly looked up the little bear’s properties.
[Golden-Eared Bear King’s Cub] (Rare Yellow-Golden Battle Mount, Beast)
Level: 0
HP: 50
Note: Can be sealed.
"Battle mount!" Everyone was both surprised and happy simultaneously. Everyone quickly took out their [Sealing Leash].
"Wait!!!!!" Zhang Yang screamed.
"We have only 10 tries to seal the beast! Let’s talk about this first!"
With only one cub and many players around, the important way to solve it is to find a neutral stance! Everyone wants the battle mount! But only one of them could own it. So, how do they "divide" it?
"One by one! We’ll take turns!" said Zhang Yang.
"In that case, who shall be the first?" asked Snow Seeker. Sealing can only be done, one player at a time. Only when the said player had failed, others can target the beast for sealing. Now that they had a total of seven players, if they all failed the first round, who would be the next three after that? In that case, how do they properly sort this out?
Zhang Yang stopped to think for a while.
"Let’s roll for the turn. Whoever rolls the largest number shall be the first to seal. From there, we will follow the rolls and go by descending order. If all of us fail, then we shall roll again, and only the three largest rolls shall be able to take the last three chances!"
Everyone nodded in agreement and felt like it was the best method. Since it was fully based on luck, no feelings will be hurt.
"In that case, shall we roll? One roll each! If anyone rolls again, the smallest number shall be used!" said Zhang Yang. Roll-the-dice system was a special command that was always available in the game. It’s not solely used to roll for equipment or items. Player often use the rolling system to place bets.
Everyone rolled and the best of them was Han Ying Xue, the manifestation of lady luck herself. She had rolled a hundred points and was automatically the first in place to attempt sealing. In second place, Snow Seeker rolled 92 points, followed by Hundred Shots at 88 points. The fourth place was Daffodil Daydream at 79 points, Wei Yan Er was the fifth at 77 points, Zhang Yang, sixth place at 55 points and Perfumed Water was the last at 42 points.
"Come here little one! Obey me and I will treat you better that my little cousin sister! I’ll raise you well and treat you amazing snacks! I’ll even help you find the most beautiful female bear!" said Han Ying Xue as she petted the little white fur ball. Han Ying Xue took the chance to throw the [Sealing Leash] towards the little bear. The [Leash] had an auto-targeting system. It landed on the little white bear’s head with extreme accuracy. A golden light formed, connecting both Han Ying Xue and the little bear. A long progress bar appeared on Han Ying Xue’s head and fill up extremely slowly.
3%,9%, 17%...
Wei Yan Er was squatting by the side, drawing a circle on the ground while cursing endlessly. "Fail! You shall fail! Fail! FAIL!"
Pak!
When the progress bar reached 43%, the Leash on the little bear’s head broke and a system notification popped up, indicating that she had failed. The little bear looked up at Han Ying Xue and lifted one of its hind paw to scratch its face. It continued to display its natural cuteness.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Wei Yan Er jumped in joy while clapping her hands happily.
Following next was Snow Seeker.
"Fail! Don’t hate me, sister, but I hope you fail! PLeash fail!" Wei Yan Er continued to curse.
Pak! Snow Seeker’s attempt was worse. She failed at 31%.
Hundred Shots tried to seal. He failed at 22%.
"NYAHAHAH! I’m invincible now! No one can stop me! Suck it!" cried Wei Yan Er as she laughed proudly.
Daffodil Daydream went on and started her attempt. Sadly, she failed at 3%. Wei Yan Er did not even manage to start cursing. This little brat was like a cursed charm, bringing on misfortune! She thought to herself, perhaps her curses were so strong that she did not even need to act!
"Finally! It’s this lady’s turn now!" said Wei Yan Er as she took out her [Sealing Leash] and used it on the little bear.
1%, 2%, 3%...95%, 96%, 97%!
Seeing her own progress bar about to complete, her smile grew larger and larger, in accordance to the progress bar itself. When the progress bar had reached 99%, the smile on her face was so large that it could have reached her ears!
Pak! Failed at 99%!
What a tragedy! It was supposed to be a celebration!
The overly large smile on her face was quickly replaced with a depressing pout. She widened her eyes, and puff her cheeks, looking at Zhang Yang with her best imitation of a puppy’s eyes.
"Don’t. Just don’t. You know I’m not going to give it to you." Zhang Yang instantly rejected her before she could speak. He knew that this little girl wanted him to give up his turn for her.
"UWAAA…" Wei Yan Er ran away to a corner and sobbed. Perhaps she had really learned her lesson. Perhaps her curse was so powerful that it rebounded back on her?
Zhang Yang walked up to the little bear and threw his leash towards it.
"Yee…" the little bear squeaked, sticking out its pink little tongue. Its cute little round eyes were hypnotizing! Now that’s what actual puppy eyes look like!
1%..3%...5%...
"Fail! I curse you to fail! Wee wang wang wee wang wang! Fail!" It seems that the little girl had not truly learned her lesson. With everything she got, she concentrated hard and drew some shapes in the air, probably meant to curse him.
60%...70%...80%!
Wei Yan Er grew scared and quickly jumped to her cousin sister. "Sis! Quickly, work together with me! Join forces with me to cast the Ultimate Destruction Godly Curse of the Nine Suns and Moons!"
Zhang Yang twitched his eye brows and frowned. "What sort of movie is she watching now?"
During a Sealing process, a character is not allowed to perform any action. Chatting is allowed though.
Han Ying Xue crossed her arms and looked away. "Curse of the White Pearl!"
90%, 95%, 99%!
"Fail! ABCDE, Failure shall befall upon thee! Come on! Fail already!" screamed the little girl as the progress bar was close to completion.
100%!
‘Ding! You have successfully sealed the Bear King’s Cub, turning it into your Battle Mount!’
‘Ding! This is your first time obtaining a Battle mount. The tutorial will now commence. The Battle Mount cannot be mounted before reaching Level 30. You can only summon the Battle Mount as a pet. It will follow the master in battle and gain Experience Points to level up! When the Battle Mount reaches Level 30, it can no longer be used as a pet, but as a mount! The mount can be used in battle and gain more Experience Points through a shared system! You can revisit this tutorial through the Control Menu at anytime.’
‘Ding! You have obtained an achievement: Battle Companion!’
A new leash appeared in Zhang Yang inventory. It shared an almost similar look as the [Leash of the Skeletal War Horse].
[Leash of the Gold-Eared Bear King] (Yellow-Gold Battle Mount)
Use: Summons or unleashes a mountable and battle-ready Gold-Eared Bear King. If your mount falls in battle, it can only be re-summoned after 10 minutes. You can only summon one Battle Mount at a time.
Casting Duration: Two seconds.
Level Requirement: 30
Bounded.
Zhang Yang immediately summoned the little critter and two seconds later, the mini-sized white bear appeared beside Zhang Yang. It brushed its body against Zhang Yang feet and when Zhang Yang ignored it, the little bear stood up on its rear legs to bite Zhang Yang’s pants with its undeveloped teeth. It was just drop-dead cute.
"Aww…So cute!" Pretty much all the female players in the team were crowded around the little white bear, petting its head.
The Level 0 bear rolled over, exposing its bare belly, allowing the girls to rub its belly to their content. It waved its paws, as if it was inviting the girls to rub it.
Wei Yan Er shed crocodile tears. "Wuuu…Noob tank! You better reimburse me with one bear as well! Wuuu, bear bear! Wuuu!"
"Fine…fine…just keep quiet. I’ll find another bear whenever I’m free!"
The party went on forward, killing so many elite monsters that they had lost count of them. The party spent another 30 minutes and had finally arrived at the deepest part of the cave! The little bear had absorbed half of Zhang Yang Experience Points, which was directly deducted from Zhang Yang’s own intake of experience points. However, because of that, the little bear had been able to level up as a fast pace. By then, the little bear had reached Level 27 and had grown so large that it was already the size of a young calf. Both of its HP and attack power had increased exponentially. However, it still had no skills of its own to use. It was a little disappointing due to the Yellow-Gold title that it had. Perhaps it will gain a skill or two when it reaches higher levels.
[Gold-Eared Bear King] (Yellow-Gold Battle Mount)
Level: 27
HP: 5,880
Attack Power: 808 – 1,008 (Attack Interval: Three Seconds, DPS: 303)
OP!
As expected from a Yellow-Gold pet mount. It had almost 6,000 HP at only Level 27! It was a pity that the little bear could not be summoned as a pet after Level 30; It would not be able to contribute to the party’s DPS after that.
‘Little Whitey! I’m sorry, you’re no longer cute when you’re that big! I’m not going to pet you anymore!" Wei Yan Er was saying such things to make herself feel better, however, she was not being truthful at all. In fact, she was still a little jealous of Zhang Yang.
Everyone laughed.
The deepest part of the cave was a large cavern. The ceiling of the cavern was at least a hundred meters high, perhaps even higher! There were many ice spikes of many shapes and sizes forming on top of the ceiling. Some were long and thin, while others were sharp and rather thick!
Beautiful, yet extremely dangerous at the same time! Nature was truly the best architect there is! In the deepest part of the cavern was a sleeping giant white-fur bear. It was probably several meters long. If the bear stood up on its rear legs, it would definitely be as tall as a house!
*Snore* Snore*
The bear was obviously sleeping soundly, snoring so loud that it echoed through the hollow cave like thunder!
[Winter’s Wind Bear King] (Yellow-Gold, Beast)
Level: 60
HP: 5,000,000
Defense: 1,200
"I have completely no idea what skills this boss has. Anyhow, let’s just give it a shot!" said Zhang Yang. He unsummoned the little bear since the Battle Mount would not be able to provide any DPS in this battle. In fact, it would only be a hindrance, requiring Han Ying Xue to heal it.
As for the experience gained later from killing the boss, Zhang Yang could easily grind some monsters later on.
"Fight!" Zhang Yang took out his axe and rushed towards the snoring Bear King.
The boss was still snoring soundly when Zhang Yang was already close to it.
{Charge}!
Zhang Yang rushed in and landed a good hit on the boss.
Awoken from its sleep, the Bear King growl thunderously. It lifted its massive claw to slash Zhang Yang.
{Block}!
Zhang Yang quickly stacked as much {Cripple Defense} as fast as he could. The boss’ 1,200 Defense value was just too ridiculous for the others to handle. That skill was a top priority to be used for the other attacking team mates to attack to their fullest.
The Bear King stomped the ground hard and released a grayish-silver ray of light from its feet. The light spread out in all directions, as widely as 50 meters!
‘Ding! You have gained the {Frost Bite} Aura. Receiving 200 Frost damage every second!’
"Heh. The boss damaging aura effect is quite weak!" Everyone agreed.
In truth, the aura effect was weak. Compared to a healer, healing 200 HP is nothing.
Zhang Yang frowned. He did not believe that a Yellow-Gold boss would be that weak. There had to be more to this; it was not just a random monster that was just created to die!
After a short period of time into the battle, the Bear King flung itself onto Zhang Yang and bit him. Since {Block} was still on cool down, Zhang Yang could not dodge the attack no matter how athletic he was. The skill seemed to be unavoidable, unlike the normal claw attack which could be easily dodged by moving his body. Unable to dodge the attack, Zhang Yang’s blood splattered on the ice.
‘Ding! You have received the effect {Bleeding}. Receiving 3,000 {Bleeding} damage every three seconds!’
Luckily, even though {Bleeding} damage ignores defense, Zhang Yang had a passive 930 damage absorption skill. After applying the 20% damage reduction passive, and another 930 damage absorption passive, the remaining damage Zhang Yang would sustain was 1,470! That had only added 490 DPS from the boss, which was not that big of a deal.
‘-5,543!’
Still, the boss’ physical attack was strong! With a swing of its gigantic claw, it could easily remove one quarter of Zhang Yang maximum HP! Now that Zhang Yang had Perfume Water in his party, paired with Han Ying Xue, Zhang Yang had two super-supporters healing him together, eliminating the would-be threat. While doing so, the healers would only need to maintain the {Regeneration} effect on the rest of the party members to completely safeguard them from the {Frost Bite} aura. If the battle continued on as such a pace, only time alone would keep the Bear King from falling.
However, when the Bear King was at 90% HP…
"GROWL!" The Winter’s Wind Bear King bellowed a thunderous roar! The roar was so loud that parts of the cavern were crumbling from the sheer power of the sound wave. The others could not help but to cover their ears as the volume was too much for them to handle.
‘Ding! You have received the effect {Deafening Roar} (Stack 1). All attacks received will increase by 1%. All attack and healing will be reduced by 1%. Last for 30 seconds!’
Just after three seconds!
‘Ding! You have received the effect {Deafening Roar} (Stack 2). All attacks received will increase by 2%. All attack and healing will be reduced by 2%. Last for 30 seconds!’
If the boss continued to fight like this, repeating the same skill every three seconds, in just 30 seconds, the boss would easily apply 10 stacks of {Deafening Roar}! The stress level of the healers would be increased! Not only would the party’s DPS decrease and receive even more damage from the boss, the healer’s healing power would also drop by 10%!
Zhang Yang called out. "Perfumed! I need to you slowly back away! Report to me when the skill {Deafening Roar} is out of bounds!"
This time, Perfumed Water knew better than to argue with Zhang Yang. She slowly walked backwards, stopping every three seconds. She continued on until she was around 50 meters away from the boss. She shouted, "Zhan Yu! Here!"
Zhang Yang nodded in acknowledgment. "Stand there, and don’t move! All ranged units, move 30 meters away to your maximum effective range and attack from there! Perfumed Water, you’re to heal all ranged team members! Snow b*tch! Just focus on healing me and the little brat!"
Everyone nodded and followed Zhang Yang’s commands without any objection.
Perfumed Water had taken up to 15 stacks of {Deafening Roar} and had her healing power diminished significantly. She needed to heal five members. Under the effects of the Deafening roar, her healing was not holding up as well as she thought it would be! On the other hand, Han Ying Xue had already been inflicted with 30 stacks of {Deafening Roar}, but was still in control of her actions and rhythm!
90 seconds later, the debuffs on Perfumed Water had expired while the others had already taken up to 30 stacks of the debuff each, having their attack drastically lowered, while receiving an incredible amount of damage.
"Snow b*tch! Switch with Perfumed Water! The rest of you, if you have any debuff clearing skills, use them immediately! If you don’t have any, withdraw by 50 meters! Come back and fight after 30 seconds when the debuffs are cleared out!" cried Zhang Yang in a commanding tone.
Wei Yan Er used {Warrior’s Will} and removed the {Deafening Roar} on her, restoring her to original power!
The other two Spellcasters used {Ice Barrier} on themselves, encasing their characters in a large block of ice to remove their debuffs. On the other hand, Priest and Hunter had learned their anti status affecting skills, however, their own skills were not strong enough to remove the debuff. Hunter Shots could only use {Tumble} to leave the battle and hasten his withdraw. Han Ying Xue and Perfumed Water quickly switched places. The one closer to the boss was tasked to take care of Zhang Yang and Wei Yan Er while the one who outside of the boss’ effective range was set to heal the rest of the ranged characters.
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Find the cave!" cried Zhang Yang when the party arrived at Snowy Peak. "The boss is inside a cave called the Cave of the Winter’s Wind!"
The group split up and searched for the cave. Everyone agreed to regroup when any one of them finds it.
There was this particularly stupid idiot who had no sense of direction, yet had some ironic luck. She managed to be the first one who stumbled across the cave.
"I found it!" Han Ying Xue had managed to find the cave after 20 minutes, and happily announced her discovery in the party channel.
Everyone hurriedly converged to where Han Ying Xue was and saw a deep, large cave entrance, As the party was about to enter the cave, a sudden breeze blew by, carrying an intense, rotten smell, causing extreme disgust to those who caught whiff of it.
"BLEH! What is that smell! It smells like rotten eggs wrapped in stinky old stockings!" Wei Yan Er cried out as she squeezed her nose shut.
Zhang Yang laughed at her and said, "Why didn’t you take your Smell Setting down a notch?"
"Eh? You can do that?" said Wei Yan Er, surprised. She quickly asked for details, and after a series of messy, unnecessary rants, she closed the window and was delighted. However, her cute, contented little smile quickly disappeared. "Yeah! I’m d—BLEH! What the hell! Why did it turn worse?!"
"You dumb little girl! The system’s default setting was at 50%, You didn’t turn it up all the way to 100% did you?" Zhang Yang did a facepalm.
Wei Yan Er replied with a quick "Oh!" and adjusted the setting again. This time, she laughed and said, "Oh wow! I can’t smell anything now! Hehehe!"
In truth, she was not the only one was not aware of the Smell Settings. Everyone started to search through their setting windows and adjusted the setting to prevent the extreme odor from being too disruptive.
Zhang Yang explained. "There are other settings besides smell. You can also adjust Touch, Taste, and Sound! Touch sensitivity is disabled by default so that you would not feel any pain when you receive an attack. However, to be a professional, it’s best to increase the Touch sensitivity by just a little to increase your response rate! Too high however, and it will be too much to handle, affecting your overall performance! As for Taste, it’s best to leave it disabled. Drinking potions will not trigger your taste buds at all, or else, you will taste the utter bitterness of it. But, for instance, if you want to prevent yourself from drinking too many potions, you can adjust it to your own preference!"
These settings were rather plain and dull. Players who were the types to research prod around every aspect of a game would meddle with such settings. A majority of the players would not even take note of such settings.
After everyone had adjusted their own settings, Zhang Yang nodded approvingly and said, "Let’s go!"
Zhang Yang led the way, entering the cave first.
The cave was rather large. At a fixed interval, they would encounter a glowing stone stuck on the ceiling of the cave, illuminating the pathway. However, the light was dim, unable to fully illuminate the entire pathway. Like a poor streetlight in a dark alley, those little glowing stones were the only sources of light in the entire cave. However, as it was, even on the darkest of nights, the stars will shine upon earth. The light from the glowing stones was enough to allow the players to see where they were going.
"GROWLLL!" A deep, loud growl of a beast could be heard. Suddenly, a large White Bear jumped out from the darkness and attacked the foremost player, who happened to be Zhang Yang. The bear used {Charge} and stunned Zhang Yang. As he swayed helplessly on his spot, the monster swung a massive paw and attacked.
[Winter’s White Bear] (Elite, Beast)
Level: 58
HP: 58,000
Defense: 300
Hundred Shots and Zhang Yang original gang were very proactive. Even when Zhang Yang was stunned, they did not wait for him and immediately started their attack.
The bear growl and shifted its aggro to Wei Yan Er. Now that the bear had just attacked, it had to wait for another two seconds before it could attack again.
The stun effect lasted for one a second. Zhang Yang immediately cast {Provoke} when he recovered. He activated {Blood Rage} at the same time and slashed the boss. He immediatley followed up with {Destructive Smash}.
‘-1,634!’
‘3.573!’
As the aggro on Zhang Yang stabilized, everyone flawlessly synced with his rhythm and killed the monster without breaking a sweat. The team’s firepower was so strong that it would not have made a difference if no one was tanking, the monster would not have survived for more than 10 seconds. How could it kill anyone in that short amount of time?
Snow Seeker was rather impressed and said, "Guild master Zhan Yu, I’m really impressed with your teamwork. No wonder you guys could easily take down dungeon after dungeon, claiming First Clear Achievements!"
Wei Yan Er snickered and said, "Sister Seeker! Actually, it’s all because of me! I’m the strongest attacker in this team!"
"Little girl, do you not know shame or humility?!
"Hmph!" Wei Yan Er shrugged. "Humility is nothing but a lack of self-esteem. There is no reason for me to be humble in the first place! I’m merely stating the truth!"
Everyone laughed and the girls giggled. The little girl was always the clown of the party, bringing laughter and joy to them.
One of the ETC drops of the Winter’s White Bear was a piece of [Bear’s Tail], which could be sold for at least 10 silver coins. However little it was, Han Ying Xue still insisted on keeping the item since they could be stacked up to 200 pieces!
The team proceeded on forward, killing more bears as they proceed. When the 14th monster was killed, it finally dropped something useful.
[Frost Bear Coat] (Green-Copper, Leather Armor)
Defense: +6
Vitality: +60
Equip Effect: Increases 100 Frost Resistance.
Level Requirement: 50
Bear Coat Set (1/5):
{Bear Helm}
{Bear Coat}
{Bear Glove}
{Bear Leg Guard}
{Bear Boots}
Three Equip Effect: Increases all attack by 5%.
Five Equip Effect: Increases Frost Resistance by 300.
"Are resistance based equipment for Thieves and Hunters?" Everyone was curious. "Field monsters drop set equipment as well?"
Zhang Yang answered. "In the future, there will be all kinds of set equipment with all sort of effects! This one here specializes in elemental resistance. If you were to wear this and fight a Cryomancer, that player would be annoyed to the high heavens!"
After asking around for a brief period, Zhang Yang called out, "If no one wants it, I’m going to keep it!’ Zhang Yang took the item and kept it. However insignificant it seemed, it was still a set equipment! There are crazy collectors around who would pay a nice sum of coins just for novelty!
"Hey! I haven’t said anything yet! I want it! I want it!" Perfumed Water cried out suddenly. Snow Seeker was rather shy and had remained silent since she was rather well-mannered.
"Moving on!" said Zhang Yang, ignoring Perfumed Water.
"GRAHH! I’m pissed! Just you wait, Zhan Yu! I’ll show you how frightening I can be later!" cried Perfumed Water.
The party moved on and killed more and more bears. There were more bears in the cave! Perfumed Water was a Priest class, but she had chosen Leather Work as her profession. Whenever a monster was dead, Perfumed Water would pester Zhang Yang to quickly loot all the items and let her use them for her Leather Work.
That had led the miserly sisters to admire her work. Pieces of Bear Skins were rather valuable!
Even though the team’s firepower was so strong that they could kill a bear in no time, they had spent more than two hours roaming around the cave, because of its sheer size! There seemed to be no end to it!
FUSH!
Out of the sudden, a ball of white fur appeared out of a corner. The team was ready to attack but stopped when they saw that it was only a mini size white cub. It was only the size of a small puppy. White fur covered its entire body. It had a golden sparkle on each of its ear and eyes that were big and round. When the bear saw Zhang Yang and his "monstrous" friends, it was so shocked that it lost balance, sitting on its bottom with its eyes growing even bigger in surprise. It was so cute to look at!
"WAA! It’s so adorable!" cried the girls in his team. Everyone was caught up by its natural cuteness.
"Bear bear is so cute! KYAH! It’s so fluffy! It’s so fluffy I’m gonna die!" cried Wei Yan Er as she cuddled the little critter.
"That’s…that’s a rare monster!" Zhang Yang eyes glinted and he pulled the little bear away from Wei Yan Er.
Everyone’s face sharpened into seriousness as they quickly looked up the little bear’s properties.
[Golden-Eared Bear King’s Cub] (Rare Yellow-Golden Battle Mount, Beast)
Level: 0
HP: 50
Note: Can be sealed.
"Battle mount!" Everyone was both surprised and happy simultaneously. Everyone quickly took out their [Sealing Leash].
"Wait!!!!!" Zhang Yang screamed.
"We have only 10 tries to seal the beast! Let’s talk about this first!"
With only one cub and many players around, the important way to solve it is to find a neutral stance! Everyone wants the battle mount! But only one of them could own it. So, how do they "divide" it?
"One by one! We’ll take turns!" said Zhang Yang.
"In that case, who shall be the first?" asked Snow Seeker. Sealing can only be done, one player at a time. Only when the said player had failed, others can target the beast for sealing. Now that they had a total of seven players, if they all failed the first round, who would be the next three after that? In that case, how do they properly sort this out?
Zhang Yang stopped to think for a while.
"Let’s roll for the turn. Whoever rolls the largest number shall be the first to seal. From there, we will follow the rolls and go by descending order. If all of us fail, then we shall roll again, and only the three largest rolls shall be able to take the last three chances!"
Everyone nodded in agreement and felt like it was the best method. Since it was fully based on luck, no feelings will be hurt.
"In that case, shall we roll? One roll each! If anyone rolls again, the smallest number shall be used!" said Zhang Yang. Roll-the-dice system was a special command that was always available in the game. It’s not solely used to roll for equipment or items. Player often use the rolling system to place bets.
Everyone rolled and the best of them was Han Ying Xue, the manifestation of lady luck herself. She had rolled a hundred points and was automatically the first in place to attempt sealing. In second place, Snow Seeker rolled 92 points, followed by Hundred Shots at 88 points. The fourth place was Daffodil Daydream at 79 points, Wei Yan Er was the fifth at 77 points, Zhang Yang, sixth place at 55 points and Perfumed Water was the last at 42 points.
"Come here little one! Obey me and I will treat you better that my little cousin sister! I’ll raise you well and treat you amazing snacks! I’ll even help you find the most beautiful female bear!" said Han Ying Xue as she petted the little white fur ball. Han Ying Xue took the chance to throw the [Sealing Leash] towards the little bear. The [Leash] had an auto-targeting system. It landed on the little white bear’s head with extreme accuracy. A golden light formed, connecting both Han Ying Xue and the little bear. A long progress bar appeared on Han Ying Xue’s head and fill up extremely slowly.
3%,9%, 17%...
Wei Yan Er was squatting by the side, drawing a circle on the ground while cursing endlessly. "Fail! You shall fail! Fail! FAIL!"
Pak!
When the progress bar reached 43%, the Leash on the little bear’s head broke and a system notification popped up, indicating that she had failed. The little bear looked up at Han Ying Xue and lifted one of its hind paw to scratch its face. It continued to display its natural cuteness.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Wei Yan Er jumped in joy while clapping her hands happily.
Following next was Snow Seeker.
"Fail! Don’t hate me, sister, but I hope you fail! PLeash fail!" Wei Yan Er continued to curse.
Pak! Snow Seeker’s attempt was worse. She failed at 31%.
Hundred Shots tried to seal. He failed at 22%.
"NYAHAHAH! I’m invincible now! No one can stop me! Suck it!" cried Wei Yan Er as she laughed proudly.
Daffodil Daydream went on and started her attempt. Sadly, she failed at 3%. Wei Yan Er did not even manage to start cursing. This little brat was like a cursed charm, bringing on misfortune! She thought to herself, perhaps her curses were so strong that she did not even need to act!
"Finally! It’s this lady’s turn now!" said Wei Yan Er as she took out her [Sealing Leash] and used it on the little bear.
1%, 2%, 3%...95%, 96%, 97%!
Seeing her own progress bar about to complete, her smile grew larger and larger, in accordance to the progress bar itself. When the progress bar had reached 99%, the smile on her face was so large that it could have reached her ears!
Pak! Failed at 99%!
What a tragedy! It was supposed to be a celebration!
The overly large smile on her face was quickly replaced with a depressing pout. She widened her eyes, and puff her cheeks, looking at Zhang Yang with her best imitation of a puppy’s eyes.
"Don’t. Just don’t. You know I’m not going to give it to you." Zhang Yang instantly rejected her before she could speak. He knew that this little girl wanted him to give up his turn for her.
"UWAAA…" Wei Yan Er ran away to a corner and sobbed. Perhaps she had really learned her lesson. Perhaps her curse was so powerful that it rebounded back on her?
Zhang Yang walked up to the little bear and threw his leash towards it.
"Yee…" the little bear squeaked, sticking out its pink little tongue. Its cute little round eyes were hypnotizing! Now that’s what actual puppy eyes look like!
1%..3%...5%...
"Fail! I curse you to fail! Wee wang wang wee wang wang! Fail!" It seems that the little girl had not truly learned her lesson. With everything she got, she concentrated hard and drew some shapes in the air, probably meant to curse him.
60%...70%...80%!
Wei Yan Er grew scared and quickly jumped to her cousin sister. "Sis! Quickly, work together with me! Join forces with me to cast the Ultimate Destruction Godly Curse of the Nine Suns and Moons!"
Zhang Yang twitched his eye brows and frowned. "What sort of movie is she watching now?"
During a Sealing process, a character is not allowed to perform any action. Chatting is allowed though.
Han Ying Xue crossed her arms and looked away. "Curse of the White Pearl!"
90%, 95%, 99%!
"Fail! ABCDE, Failure shall befall upon thee! Come on! Fail already!" screamed the little girl as the progress bar was close to completion.
100%!
‘Ding! You have successfully sealed the Bear King’s Cub, turning it into your Battle Mount!’
‘Ding! This is your first time obtaining a Battle mount. The tutorial will now commence. The Battle Mount cannot be mounted before reaching Level 30. You can only summon the Battle Mount as a pet. It will follow the master in battle and gain Experience Points to level up! When the Battle Mount reaches Level 30, it can no longer be used as a pet, but as a mount! The mount can be used in battle and gain more Experience Points through a shared system! You can revisit this tutorial through the Control Menu at anytime.’
‘Ding! You have obtained an achievement: Battle Companion!’
A new leash appeared in Zhang Yang inventory. It shared an almost similar look as the [Leash of the Skeletal War Horse].
[Leash of the Gold-Eared Bear King] (Yellow-Gold Battle Mount)
Use: Summons or unleashes a mountable and battle-ready Gold-Eared Bear King. If your mount falls in battle, it can only be re-summoned after 10 minutes. You can only summon one Battle Mount at a time.
Casting Duration: Two seconds.
Level Requirement: 30
Bounded.
Zhang Yang immediately summoned the little critter and two seconds later, the mini-sized white bear appeared beside Zhang Yang. It brushed its body against Zhang Yang feet and when Zhang Yang ignored it, the little bear stood up on its rear legs to bite Zhang Yang’s pants with its undeveloped teeth. It was just drop-dead cute.
"Aww…So cute!" Pretty much all the female players in the team were crowded around the little white bear, petting its head.
The Level 0 bear rolled over, exposing its bare belly, allowing the girls to rub its belly to their content. It waved its paws, as if it was inviting the girls to rub it.
Wei Yan Er shed crocodile tears. "Wuuu…Noob tank! You better reimburse me with one bear as well! Wuuu, bear bear! Wuuu!"
"Fine…fine…just keep quiet. I’ll find another bear whenever I’m free!"
The party went on forward, killing so many elite monsters that they had lost count of them. The party spent another 30 minutes and had finally arrived at the deepest part of the cave! The little bear had absorbed half of Zhang Yang Experience Points, which was directly deducted from Zhang Yang’s own intake of experience points. However, because of that, the little bear had been able to level up as a fast pace. By then, the little bear had reached Level 27 and had grown so large that it was already the size of a young calf. Both of its HP and attack power had increased exponentially. However, it still had no skills of its own to use. It was a little disappointing due to the Yellow-Gold title that it had. Perhaps it will gain a skill or two when it reaches higher levels.
[Gold-Eared Bear King] (Yellow-Gold Battle Mount)
Level: 27
HP: 5,880
Attack Power: 808 – 1,008 (Attack Interval: Three Seconds, DPS: 303)
OP!
As expected from a Yellow-Gold pet mount. It had almost 6,000 HP at only Level 27! It was a pity that the little bear could not be summoned as a pet after Level 30; It would not be able to contribute to the party’s DPS after that.
‘Little Whitey! I’m sorry, you’re no longer cute when you’re that big! I’m not going to pet you anymore!" Wei Yan Er was saying such things to make herself feel better, however, she was not being truthful at all. In fact, she was still a little jealous of Zhang Yang.
Everyone laughed.
The deepest part of the cave was a large cavern. The ceiling of the cavern was at least a hundred meters high, perhaps even higher! There were many ice spikes of many shapes and sizes forming on top of the ceiling. Some were long and thin, while others were sharp and rather thick!
Beautiful, yet extremely dangerous at the same time! Nature was truly the best architect there is! In the deepest part of the cavern was a sleeping giant white-fur bear. It was probably several meters long. If the bear stood up on its rear legs, it would definitely be as tall as a house!
*Snore* Snore*
The bear was obviously sleeping soundly, snoring so loud that it echoed through the hollow cave like thunder!
[Winter’s Wind Bear King] (Yellow-Gold, Beast)
Level: 60
HP: 5,000,000
Defense: 1,200
"I have completely no idea what skills this boss has. Anyhow, let’s just give it a shot!" said Zhang Yang. He unsummoned the little bear since the Battle Mount would not be able to provide any DPS in this battle. In fact, it would only be a hindrance, requiring Han Ying Xue to heal it.
As for the experience gained later from killing the boss, Zhang Yang could easily grind some monsters later on.
"Fight!" Zhang Yang took out his axe and rushed towards the snoring Bear King.
The boss was still snoring soundly when Zhang Yang was already close to it.
{Charge}!
Zhang Yang rushed in and landed a good hit on the boss.
Awoken from its sleep, the Bear King growl thunderously. It lifted its massive claw to slash Zhang Yang.
{Block}!
Zhang Yang quickly stacked as much {Cripple Defense} as fast as he could. The boss’ 1,200 Defense value was just too ridiculous for the others to handle. That skill was a top priority to be used for the other attacking team mates to attack to their fullest.
The Bear King stomped the ground hard and released a grayish-silver ray of light from its feet. The light spread out in all directions, as widely as 50 meters!
‘Ding! You have gained the {Frost Bite} Aura. Receiving 200 Frost damage every second!’
"Heh. The boss damaging aura effect is quite weak!" Everyone agreed.
In truth, the aura effect was weak. Compared to a healer, healing 200 HP is nothing.
Zhang Yang frowned. He did not believe that a Yellow-Gold boss would be that weak. There had to be more to this; it was not just a random monster that was just created to die!
After a short period of time into the battle, the Bear King flung itself onto Zhang Yang and bit him. Since {Block} was still on cool down, Zhang Yang could not dodge the attack no matter how athletic he was. The skill seemed to be unavoidable, unlike the normal claw attack which could be easily dodged by moving his body. Unable to dodge the attack, Zhang Yang’s blood splattered on the ice.
‘Ding! You have received the effect {Bleeding}. Receiving 3,000 {Bleeding} damage every three seconds!’
Luckily, even though {Bleeding} damage ignores defense, Zhang Yang had a passive 930 damage absorption skill. After applying the 20% damage reduction passive, and another 930 damage absorption passive, the remaining damage Zhang Yang would sustain was 1,470! That had only added 490 DPS from the boss, which was not that big of a deal.
‘-5,543!’
Still, the boss’ physical attack was strong! With a swing of its gigantic claw, it could easily remove one quarter of Zhang Yang maximum HP! Now that Zhang Yang had Perfume Water in his party, paired with Han Ying Xue, Zhang Yang had two super-supporters healing him together, eliminating the would-be threat. While doing so, the healers would only need to maintain the {Regeneration} effect on the rest of the party members to completely safeguard them from the {Frost Bite} aura. If the battle continued on as such a pace, only time alone would keep the Bear King from falling.
However, when the Bear King was at 90% HP…
"GROWL!" The Winter’s Wind Bear King bellowed a thunderous roar! The roar was so loud that parts of the cavern were crumbling from the sheer power of the sound wave. The others could not help but to cover their ears as the volume was too much for them to handle.
‘Ding! You have received the effect {Deafening Roar} (Stack 1). All attacks received will increase by 1%. All attack and healing will be reduced by 1%. Last for 30 seconds!’
Just after three seconds!
‘Ding! You have received the effect {Deafening Roar} (Stack 2). All attacks received will increase by 2%. All attack and healing will be reduced by 2%. Last for 30 seconds!’
If the boss continued to fight like this, repeating the same skill every three seconds, in just 30 seconds, the boss would easily apply 10 stacks of {Deafening Roar}! The stress level of the healers would be increased! Not only would the party’s DPS decrease and receive even more damage from the boss, the healer’s healing power would also drop by 10%!
Zhang Yang called out. "Perfumed! I need to you slowly back away! Report to me when the skill {Deafening Roar} is out of bounds!"
This time, Perfumed Water knew better than to argue with Zhang Yang. She slowly walked backwards, stopping every three seconds. She continued on until she was around 50 meters away from the boss. She shouted, "Zhan Yu! Here!"
Zhang Yang nodded in acknowledgment. "Stand there, and don’t move! All ranged units, move 30 meters away to your maximum effective range and attack from there! Perfumed Water, you’re to heal all ranged team members! Snow b*tch! Just focus on healing me and the little brat!"
Everyone nodded and followed Zhang Yang’s commands without any objection.
Perfumed Water had taken up to 15 stacks of {Deafening Roar} and had her healing power diminished significantly. She needed to heal five members. Under the effects of the Deafening roar, her healing was not holding up as well as she thought it would be! On the other hand, Han Ying Xue had already been inflicted with 30 stacks of {Deafening Roar}, but was still in control of her actions and rhythm!
90 seconds later, the debuffs on Perfumed Water had expired while the others had already taken up to 30 stacks of the debuff each, having their attack drastically lowered, while receiving an incredible amount of damage.
"Snow b*tch! Switch with Perfumed Water! The rest of you, if you have any debuff clearing skills, use them immediately! If you don’t have any, withdraw by 50 meters! Come back and fight after 30 seconds when the debuffs are cleared out!" cried Zhang Yang in a commanding tone.
Wei Yan Er used {Warrior’s Will} and removed the {Deafening Roar} on her, restoring her to original power!
The other two Spellcasters used {Ice Barrier} on themselves, encasing their characters in a large block of ice to remove their debuffs. On the other hand, Priest and Hunter had learned their anti status affecting skills, however, their own skills were not strong enough to remove the debuff. Hunter Shots could only use {Tumble} to leave the battle and hasten his withdraw. Han Ying Xue and Perfumed Water quickly switched places. The one closer to the boss was tasked to take care of Zhang Yang and Wei Yan Er while the one who outside of the boss’ effective range was set to heal the rest of the ranged characters.
