"What happened?" Zhang Yang asked frantically.
"When we were led to destroy the batmen under Tiffany’s command, we had successfully pushed them back to their lair! However, when we thought that victory was already in hand, there came down thousands of monster’s reinforcements! Among the monsters, one of them was exceptionally strong and even defeated Tiffany. Unfortunately, she was nabbed and and taken to Ghastly Mountain!" explained one of the villagers.
"Warrior! You look tough. Could you please rescue Tiffany on our behalf?" asked another.
‘Ding! You have completed the quest: Retrieve News. Obtained 100,000 Experience Points!’
‘Ding! The Alfalfa Villagers have a quest for you: Rescue Tiffany. Will you accept it?’
Hmph! Zhang Yang would accept any rescue mission in a heartbeat, compared to any other ridiculous quests, like the stealing panties!
That being said, how does one "walk" to that floating mountain? It’s not like he could fly in the first place. He could, if he was Level 100 and had captured a flying mount. But, what could he do now?
He frowned. Perhaps there was something else that could assist the quest by asking the villager. "Tiffany is my relative. I would had done it even without you telling me. However, I have one complication. The Ghastly mountain is floating up in the sky. How do I get up there?’
Everyone exchanged a distress look, as if they had no clue either. After a few moments, someone cried out. "I got it!"
"Hm?"
"I had heard this from the elders of the village. They said that there is a teleportation point at the bottom of the hill! It could directly teleport a person to the top of the mountain." The villager walked out of the crowd and spoke.
"Where is the Teleportation point again?"
"At the other side of the mountain. However, I also heard that there is a terrible and dangerous Giant Cyclops living there that will kill anyone living near there!" he added.
Monsters were meant to be killed. If he could not do it alone, he’ll just bring a party. There was nothing to be concerned about. Zhang Yang laughed. "Please head back to the village. I’ll think of a way to rescue Tiffany!"
The villagers nodded their heads and left Zhang Yang without much fuss. Zhang Yang rode the white bear and made his way to the foot of the mountain to the west. Zhang Yang was not in any particular rush. There were many herbs on the route and he took his time to harvest some [Wild Steelbloom] and [Stone Root]. Though they were rather uncommon herbs, there were not all too rare to begin with. However, since the number of Level 70 players with Herb Picking profession were few and had yet to set foot in the level 70 maps, the fore mentioned herbs were hardly seen in the market. That was one of the reasons why Zhang Yang had changed his profession to learn Herb Picking. That way, he could at least be self-sufficient.
A sudden bleep on the map indicated that a [Warden's Weed] was available in the west of where Zhang Yang was. Delighted, Zhang Yang kicked his feet against the white bear and headed straight for the rare herb. The [Warden's Weed] was used to craft a [Level 4 Strength Potion], which was the most effective potion to raise physical attack for the moment.
"Psss…"
A red viper appeared right beside Zhang Yang, revealing itself only when Zhang Yang approached the herb. The snake raised it triangular head, poised to strike Zhang Yang at any moment.
Starting from Level 60 and onward, be it minerals or herb, monsters will be nearby the spawning point to "guard" it. The strength of the monsters around will correspond to the rarity of the herb and mineral spawned. Some of them were normal monsters, some could be elite, and for the extreme cases, bosses could be guarding them! Just like the [Refine Iron Vein] back when Zhang Yang was only Level 10 which was "guarded" by the Black Panther King! The developers never made anything easy.
That said, the [Warden’s Weed] was not all too rare, hence the red viper guarding it was merely a normal tier monster. It took only seconds for Zhang Yang to kill that single snake and turn it into experience points. The red viper had also dropped a few [Snake’s Meat].
[Snake’s Meat] are one of the ingredients for the Cooking profession. Cooking, First Aid, and Fishing are three supportive type skills that can be trained together with two other Item Production profession like Alchemy, Rune Craft, and many more. Compared to First Aid, Cooking and Fishing were a hassle that will take more time and effort. Since those professions didn’t do much for players, not many players practiced them. That being said, some players who dislike PvP or PvE1 would spend their time fishing and cooking in the game. That was how, non PvP, non PvE players would spend their free time.
Cooking can produce items that could heal HP and MP. Unless the snacks can be purchased in shops, the items produced from Cooking had extra beneficial effects such as increased Vitality, Strength, or even provide a {Haste} buff. Only higher level ingredients can produce items with additional effects. [Snake’s Meat] were one of those ingredients that can be used to produce such of healing items.
Zhang Yang took the [Snake’s Meat] and swept them all into his inventory. Since he was the kind of person who did not like sitting around, he had not taken up Cooking as his profession. However, he came prepared. There were players in the guild who were low level but possessed high levels of Fishing and Cooking. He will pass the items to them and let them deal with it!
‘Ding! You have used Collect on [Warden’s Weed]. Your Herbalism mastery has gained 1 point!’
‘Ding! You have obtained [Warden’s Weed] x2!’
Zhang Yang went on and collected more herbs and [Snake’s Meat]. Killing two birds with one stone, Zhang Yang had managed to gathered a small haul and was rather satisfied with it. After hiking a little through the slope, he found the surroundings shrouded in mist. Zhang Yang moved close to the source and stumbled upon a large fountain. Clear water still flowed out of the fountain and formed a beautiful small rainbow. However, beside the mystical fountain was a large giant. Even though he was seated, he was already at least 7 to 8 meters tall! He had the same appearance as a human, but only had one eye positioned on his forehead.
The giant was only wearing a pair of pants made from the leather of a beast. Resting on the right of him was a huge stone club, stained with dry blood. Perhaps, many had already crumbled under it.
[Giant Cyclops Phango] (Gray-Silver, Humanoid)
Level: 75
HP: 750,000
Defense: 800
There was the giant cyclops, but where was the Teleportation point? Zhang Yang went around the giant and searched on. However, no matter how many rounds he circled, he could not find the Teleportation point. Perhaps, the only way to reveal the Teleportation point was to kill the boss!
Zhang Yang drew the sword and sent the bear charging, rushing towards boss, ready to kill him.
Phango’s aggro effective range was wide. Right when Zhang Yang had stepped out of the bushes around, he spotted Zhang Yang and immediately picked up a large boulder, and tossed it towards Zhang Yang.
The attack was both fast and accurate. Zhang Yang reacted swiftly enough and raised his shield to block the boulder. Amazingly, with a loud crash, the large boulder was smashed into pieces as it made contact with the shield. The white bear growled and rushed instantly to the boss with {Wild Charge}. Following the attack, the bear started clawing the boss. Zhang Yang followed and slashed at the boss’ feet.
"URGH!" the giant wailed. He then picked up the gigantic stone club and smacked Zhang Yang on the head.
‘-3,756!’
The damage was rather high. However, considering that Zhang Yang’s {Block} had a 6 second cool down, the boss’ DPS was reduced to roughly 1,000. To defeat his long 60,000 HP, the boss would need about 1 minute. However, since Zhang Yang had too many of surviving skills, the boss would already be killed many times over before that happens!
"Human! Why did you attack me!" cried Phango in a low, husky voice.
Zhang Yang was stunned. Was not it normal for players to kill monsters? To bring peace and harmony back to the land? Since when would a monster ask a player the reason behind their attack?
After a long awkward silence, Zhang Yang had to think of what to say and finally opened his mouth. "Giant Cyclops! I want to use the Teleportation point!"
"HMPH! You’re in the same league with the bat monsters!" Phango bellowed angrily. In a fit of rage, the giant stomped his feet with such force that it left a small crater with the shape of its feet in the ground below him. Zhang Yang had no clue what kind of relationship he had with the batmen, but it was most definitely a hostile one. However, now that he has already started the battle, he could not just leave it hanging. Zhang Yang shrugged and continued raining attacks down on the boss! Even though he was taking severe damage, the boss’ HP was dropping at a faster rate than his.
Within two minutes, the boss was left with only 10% HP! Suddenly, the boss made a huge leap backwards and fled the battle!
Trying to run away? Not on my watch. Zhang Yang pulled the reins of the bear and gave chase. The boss leaped back again. This time, he jumped into the pool of water that was made by the fountain. A loud and massive splash of water was sent all over the place.
Not that a boss running away from a player was normal to begin with, the weirder thing was that the boss’ HP had began to heal itself rapidly! Zhang Yang checked on the boss and found an additional buff. {Fountain of Life}.
{Fountain of Life}: Restores 1% HP every second.
After only a few moments, the boss’ HP was already restored back to 17%!
What the actual hell! The boss is cheating!
If that was the case - Zhang Yang commanded the bear to rush and jump into the pool as well! He too, gained the buff and started healing as well.
"The Fountain of Life is mine! None shall take it from me!" screamed the boss as he picked up a boulder from nowhere and tossed it at Zhang Yang.
Zhang Yang frowned. Even though he had considerable DPS, it was surely not enough to overwhelm the healing effects of the fountain! It was the same for him. The boss would never be able to kill him while he remained in the fountain. However, if he does nothing to change the tide of war, they could easily fight till kingdom come and nothing would be accomplished.
Zhang Yang came up with a plan. For the moment, he shall dwell in the pool until all his skills are ready to used. He then left the pool and tried to kite the boss out of the pool. However, even though the boss was merely a Gray-Silver tier, it was smart enough to stay in the pool until he was completely healed before leaving. Now that both of them were fully recovered, the battle started over again!
Zhang Yang continued kiting the boss as far as he could, however, the boss was smart, or rather, the designer of the boss had set a limit before it would automatically turn back towards the fountain. Phango chased after Zhang Yang by several hundred meters and hit his limit. From there, he gave up on the chase and turned back.
With nothing else coming up in his mind, Zhang Yang checked his skill tab to see that {Dance of the Heaven and Earth} still had 3 hours before it could be used. He wanted to try and slowly grind the boss’ HP down to 100,000 and used {Dance of the Heaven and Earth} to kill the boss in one go without giving the boss any chance to jump into the pool.
Zhang Yang steeled his decision and left the battle to collect some more herbs until the {Dance of the Heaven and Earth} was ready to be used. [Wild Steelblooms] were considered to be a common herb around this area. Even though the herb could only be found in maps higher than Leve 70, the mass number of spawning points made it easier for Zhang Yang to collect a large number of herbs since the re-spawn time was only around 20 minutes. Zhang Yang spent his 3 hours carefully, without wasting a single minute and filled his inventory will all sorts of herbs!
Hm. Now that {Dance of the Heaven and Earth} is ready to be used, it is time to kick some *ss!