Having defeated Gullini, there were no more monsters in Zhang Yang’s way. After passing through a narrow mountain path, he came to the top of the hill and saw a huge, tile-roofed house. Outside the tile-roofed house was a tall and muscular middle-aged man. He was working on a boxing bag, his shirtless body gleaming in the sun, as his rippled muscles worked.
[Joe. Smith] (Yellow-Gold, Humanoid)
Level: 85
HP: 1,700,000
Defense: 1,500
Note: Leader of gang of bandits in White Stone Hills.
The boss’ aggro range was wide, so it directly rushed towards Zhang Yang with it huge fists.
"Kent!" Zhang Yang shouted.
The boss blinked in surprise, and immediately stopped attacking Zhang Yang and asked, "Who are you?"
Zhang Yang laughed as he answered, "Kent. Joseph, son of old John, you kept your identity hidden for 20 years and became the leader of a gang of bandits, right?"
Zhang Yang saw that the name on top of the boss’ head turned into "Kent. Joseph" and his name also turned from red tag to green tag. He was no longer aggressive.
Kent was frowning as he asked, "Young man, how do you know about this?"
"Schroeder, he told me!" Zhang Yang answered.
Kent was silent for a while, before he looked at Zhang Yang with a dangerous glint in his eyes, as he asked, "What are your intentions?"
"I something from you, which looks like this." Zhang Yang took out a [Dimensional Key]’s fragment and shook it in front of Kent.
"Eh, how you have a Soul Fragment?" Kent revealed an obviously surprised expression.
Alright, Alousous said he did not know what a [Dimensional Key] fragment was, Tiffany called it an [Ancient Fragment], and now Kent is calling it a Soul Fragment! After a period of 1000 years, the exact name and use of [Dimensional Key] has been lost in history and named differently by the seven Descendants of The Seven Generals.
Zhang Yang smiled and said, "So, you and I have some kinship! Kent, I need the fragment from you to complete a quest, what should I do to earn it from you?"
Kent pondered as he said, "Although this Soul Fragment had powerful magic, it can no longer help me anymore. Still, you’ll need to put in some effort to claim it, as you said!"
Kent slowly paced in front of Zhang Yang and said, "Show me your ability first! First, you need to go to the Raven Ridge and bring me back the head of the army chieftain, Bloody Shura Mauta, who is garrisoned in Raven Ridge.
‘Ding! Kent. Joseph has a quest for you: Kill Bloody Shura Mauta. Will you accept it?’
Accept.
Zhang Yang answered, "Okay, I will bring back Mauta’s head to you!"
Kent laughed out loud and paused then asked, "If you broke into my place here, you probably my followers who got in your way, right?"
"Yes, you are right! Am I in trouble now?"
"No!" Kent shook his head happily and continued, "Those people were the disciples of Spectres, the real bandits. I recruited them, only to use them to fight against the filthy mercenaries, just a dog eat dog method to fight against the mercenaries, their lives truly mean nothing to me!"
Damn, this Kent is so ruthless!
Zhang Yang summoned Whitey, followed the mountain path and went down the mountain.
[Kill Bloody Shura Mauta] (Difficulty Level: B)
Quest Description: Kent. Joseph requires you to slaughter Bloody Shura Mauta! This man is a ringleader in the mercenary and he is a sadistic killer who loves the sight of blood, but he is quite capable, so you better bring some friends! Hint: Bloody Shura Mauta is garrisoned at the east of Raven Ridge.
Progress: Hand over the head of Bloody Shura Mauta to Kent. Joseph 0/1
Zhang Yang went as fast as he could and reached Raven Ridge in a short period of time.
This ridge was much more barren than White Stone Peak. There were graves could be seen on the ridge from far away, also, there were red-eyed ravens that perched atop gravestones and made loud raspy calls as they took off.
Raven Ridge was not high and steep, and its upland was quite flat. From the hillside, the surroundings of the ridge were surrounded by a tall wall and only a passage on the hill path could be accessed.
Zhang Yang looked from far away and he saw guards standing watch atop the wall and heavily armed soldiers everywhere. These guards were Level 82 elite monsters!
There were at least hundreds of elite monsters already in sight, not including the ones who were within it! They also tended to patrol in groups, thus, it was impossible for Zhang Yang to lure them out separately for him to eliminate them one by one!
With so many monsters at once, even for Zhang Yang, he needed to think about this more than twice!
Well, better avoid these monsters and look for the boss directly!
Zhang Yang thought to himself and activated {Dig}!
Once {Dig} was activated, the soil beneath Zhang Yang’s legs immediately became soft like water and Zhang Yang sunk into the soil. It was like swimming in the water, so he "swam" all the way up the hill.
{Dig} was simply magical, even if Zhang Yang was deep beneath the soil, he still could see the scene on the ground, right through the soil.
Although the movement speed was decreased by 50% when using {Dig}, Zhang Yang did not need to clear the monsters, so he made really good progress. The 10 minutes duration of {Dig} was sufficient for him to move more than halfway up the hill!
{Dig}’s effect ended, and Zhang Yang was ejected back up to the ground and appeared in a camp.
Three guard monsters immediately surrounded and attacked Zhang Yang.
[Raven Ridge Guard] (Elite, Humanoid)
Level: 82
HP: 82,000
Defense: 450
Zhang Yang used {Block} and normal attacks at the same time, and after getting enough Rage, he launched {Blast Wave} which caused the three monsters to be stunned at the same time. He took the opportunity to summon Whitey.
"Roar!" Whitey immediately appeared and started clawing into one of the guards. Zhang Yang quickly rode on Whitey and his attributes skyrocketed.
Zhang Yang could use {Dig}, but his pet could not, and only could run on the surface of the ground while following him. Therefore, Zhang Yang unsummoned Whitey so that it would not be attacked by the monsters.
However, these three elite monsters were pieces of cake for Zhang Yang. After launching a few attacks, Zhang Yang defeated the monsters which dropped a few pieces of silk clothes.
Zhang Yang went out of the camp and continued moving up the hill. At that moment, he was a quarter away from the top of the hill.
"Intruder!"
Once Zhang Yang stepped out of the camp, a flashing axe rapidly came at his head.
Zhang Yang stared at the attacker and realized that it was still an elite guard, similar to those in the camp. Still not a major threat.
All the elite monsters were like dummies for Zhang Yang, they quickly fell defeated and dropped a few copper coins.
"What a poor system!" Zhang Yang sighed. In order for this system to maintain the value of gold coins, the output of coins had been severely decreased.
Zhang Yang felt depressed about it as he continued moving up the hill. Although he had avoided at least three-quarters of the monsters, he still needed to clear a lot of minions in front of him. After hacking his way through, Zhang Yang finally reached the top of the hill in 30 minutes later. He turned back and thought that if he never used {Dig}, he would probably have had to spend at least two hours to reach the top of the hill.
A huge camp appeared in front of Zhang Yang. There were four guards who were guarding the camp, and because of the camp was tightly enclosed, Zhang Yang could not see the situation inside the camp. He had no idea where Bloody Shura Mauta was!
Therefore, Zhang Yang decided to summon the Mythical Turtle first, as players were not allowed to change pets during combat!
After Zhang Yang summoned Mythical Turtle, he threw a {Spear of Obliteration} at one of the guards.
‘-2,567!’
"Where did this thief come from? You actually dare to come to Raven Ridge to seek for death, don’t you know our master is Bloody Shura Mauta?!" the four guards raised their weapons and rushed towards Zhang Yang.
Zhang Yang immediately sat on the Mythical Turtle and said, "I’m coming to kill Bloody Shura Mauta today! Big turtle, rush towards them!"
Mythical Turtle immediately used its fastest speed to move its limbs. It was like a slow motion scene. One flipper was slowly raised up, and Zhang Yang actually stared at it, waiting for the moment for it to come back down on the ground! Not even one step was made!
"Damn, what a shame!" Zhang Yang laughed, wielded his [Dark Enigmatic Sword] and dashed towards the four guards himself.
"Big turtle, I have already ran for 10 meters and you have not yet even made one step, what’s wrong?!" Zhang Yang ridiculed at Mythical Turtle as he launched attacks towards those four guards.
Luckily Mythical Turtle did not protest, otherwise, it would have definitely given a slap to Zhang Yang with a huge flipper.
After a round of clashing, one of the guards with the least HP suddenly shouted loudly, "Master Mauta, the assassin is here! Assassin is here!"
"Which vulgar little thief actually dares to assassinate me!" a burly man strode out of the camp. His top was undone, which exposed his hairy chest and a few ferocious scars!
He held a sharp saber in his right hand, while his left held a wine bottle. He took a swig from it as he spoke.
[Bloody Shura Mauta] (Yellow-Gold, Humanoid)
Level: 84
HP: 1,680,000
Defense: 1,500
The same guard who had shouted immediately rushed to the feet of Mauta and said, "Master, there’s the Assassin!"
"Useless crap, you could not even handle an assassin, why would I still need you?!" Mauta stared and lobbed the guard’s head off with his sharp saber.
"Puff!" The head rolled off and stopped at a pile of rocks. The headless body was spewing out a lot of blood like a water spring.
His body soon fell over.
F*ck, that was so cruel. It really was the Bloody Shura, cruel to his followers as well!
"Ha ha ha, Lord Kazalo had me stay back here for these few days, I was getting terribly bored, and now someone automatically shows up in front of me. At least I get to have some fun with this toy now!"
Mauta put the saber on his shoulder and strode towards Zhang Yang, his saber still dripping with fresh blood!