Chapter 365 - Pandemonium
"Wait! Something is not right! Why would they run up with just two players?! Hey! Don’t go in such large group! We might not know what are they planning!" In the guild channel of Path of Calamity, a player named "Mountain Mover" kept on advising the guild members to think before they act. "I suggest we send a Group of 100-men to attack them. Even if it is a trap, we would only lose 100 points!"
Sadly, his words meant nothing, as no one paid heed to him. Everyone else was already intoxicated by the thought of obtaining the pride of killing China’s number 1 man! Neither one of them were willing to allow the honor to slip past their hands! Not even for their own guild mates!
"Stop them now! Guild master!" Mountain Mover urged the guild master of Path of Calamity to subdue his own guild members.
Sage of God Killer smirked. "Mover, that guy is the guild master of Lone Desert Smoke. There’s a myth saying that he has never lost a match. If we kill him here and now, winning or losing this guild war would only be a bonus reward!"
Sage of God Killer had almost zero confidence in his own second rated guild members. However, the idea of killing Zhan Yu, the most powerful man in all of China region was extremely tempting. Who would not want to have a free advertisement saying: "We are the guild that killed China’s number 1 tank!" Imagine the glamor they could fish with that feat.
Mountain Mover knew that it would be futile to continue persuading his guild master from doing such foolish move. Under his breath, he muttered, "Dumbest, smart person that could do the dumbest dumb move ever!"
To grasp what killing China’s number 1 man meant to them, the Path of Calamity had 2 to 3 thousand players rushing towards Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue. Although a handful of them noticed Mountain Mover shaking his head in dismay, the attacking guild members refused to back down. Everyone wanted to be the person to kill Zhan Yu! With that thought in mind, no one would willingly spare any brain power to listen to Mountain Mover’s words.
"Let’s do this!"
Zhang Yang held out his hand to Han Ying Xue, and the both of them held their hands together, casting {Blizzard Sky}, and {Lunar’s Dew}.
This ultimate skill was used in public, only during the defensive war of the Mining Cave back when four guilds allied themselves, led by The Dominators. Being the prideful person, Humbly Gentleman would never want to expose his defeat, in order to prevent the world from knowing about his own loss to Zhang Yang. Thus, the ulti was not known to the general public. That was, until now. After the current war with Path of Calamity, every other guild will surely get hold of the words about Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue, allowing them to take preventive measures against those two.
Snowflakes started to form in the sky, as the land was instantly covered in a pale white snow. The wind started to blow and the enemy players started to receive damage.
‘-5,000!’
‘-5,000!’
Uncountable numbers of damage text popped out among the enemy’s crowd. In just two ticks, there were already massive deaths! Somehow, during chaos, human will only act based on their own instinct. In this case, those players of Path of Calamity were behaving, just like that of an NPC army! They knew that their own army were being slaughtered but they had still pushed further, not even knowing what killed the front members! Players from behind pushed themselves to the front, and got themselves killed. The biggest, idiotic behavior was that, the players in the back were still moving forward!
Path of Calamity had begun to suffer a major loss in points. In just 30 seconds, their accumulated points dropped from 18,114 to 15,341!
"F*ck! F*CK!" screamed Sage of God Killer from the top of his lungs. The smug grin on his face, before the attack had started, had morphed drastically into a raging sulk. He turned to Mountain Mover and screamed at him. "You knew this would happen! YOU KNEW! WHY DIDN’T YOU WARN ME!"
Mountain Mover kept quiet. He no longer had the patience nor energy to deal with his nonsense. Did not warn him? He had been screaming, begging, pleading on his hands and feet, figuratively, trying to stop his guild mates from doing such foolishness! Disappointed with his guild master’s behavior and attitude, he opened the guild option window and quit the guild promptly.
Losing their talent "war general", Path of Calamity started to suffer in the chaos. Without a proper guide, none of them could act as a part of a large contraption, thus turning the entire battle to a one-sided-massacre.
After obtaining victory, Zhang Yang tasked Hundred Shots to find out the commander of the enemy. After getting off the battle field, Hundred Shots immediately return to Zhang Yang with the news. Zhang Yang then sent a friend request to Mountain Mover. He was the talent that Lone Desert Smoke lacked currently. If Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue had not used their paired skill, they might have already perished under the strategic attacks of Mountain Mover. That said, since Mountain Mover was not prominent in the guild, no one was willing to respect him as the commander.
"Zhan Yu?" Right after accepting the friendship request, Mountain Mover immediately sent a private message to Zhang Yang.
"Hmph. You had us nearly tasting defeat!" said Zhang Yang.
Mountain Mover scoffed. "I had. If only my stupid guild mates had listened."
Zhang Yang took the provoking tone and said, "Yes. I strongly believed so. That is why I am here to recruit you to join Lone Desert Smoke. I want you to join us and be our Strategist!"
"Please. It’s not like I’m in need of money." Mountain Mover replied coldly.
Zhang Yang laughed. "I believe that you are a talented strategist. I believe that you truly desire an absolute authority, the position, and rank where you could lead an army into war! That, I can give you. I offer you my complete trust and support. I will never interfere you in battle strategies, and will always provide utmost cooperation!"
There was a long silence after Zhang Yang’s reply. His temporary silence had indicated Mountain Mover was seriously considering about Zhang Yang offer. Zhang Yang took the chance to continue pestering him.
"After the event where players enter the Chaos Realm, there will be a large scale war between Regions! Think of it. Don’t you want to have an iron-blooded army, to invade other enemy’s city and to show off the power of China?!"
Mountain Mover remained silent. However, there was a ragged breath coming from the communicator.
"How about it?" Zhang Yang asked after a few seconds of silence.
"…I…hmm…I can join Lone Desert Smoke. There, you can observe and evaluate my talents yourself. In the same time, I will observe and evaluate Lone Desert Smoke’s capabilities and the trust in me," said Mountain Mover as he finally gave his verdict.
"Deal!" Zhang Yang roared happily.
Zhang Yang immediately recruited Mountain Mover into the guild and announced it in the guild channel himself. "Our newest member, Mountain Mover will be our guild’s war strategist! In any large scales battle from now on, his words are my words. Whoever who wishes to disobey him may leave the guild now."
Everyone was stunned at the sudden announcement but took his words literally. No one quitted the guild.
The next day, at the third-night guild war, Mountain Mover had joined the battle with his first debut as a war strategist. He had only sortied 5,000 elitists and successfully defeated the enemy’s 18,000 army. With that accomplishment, he had proven himself to be a strong strategist.
On the other side, Lone Desert Smoke sub-guild, led by Fatty Han had not encountered any formidable foes. In fact, Zhang Yang had "cheated" in the event. He had repeatedly transferred Mountain Mover between his guild and the sub-guild, back and forth as many times necessary to allow him to command the two guilds in their war. Mountain Mover himself did not feel any trouble in doing so, since he had a knack of commanding army.
Taking Zhang Yang’s method of cheating, the entire guild war event had several loopholes that could be exploited and abused. It was not meant to be a long-termed event. Thus, after this event, there probably would not be a second guild war anymore. Zhang Yang had never encountered any such event hosting during his previous lifetime.
Zhang Yang was extremely impressed at Mountain Mover’s performance. In fact, Zhang Yang himself did not need to step into the battlefield during the wars on the fourth day! As a result, Mountain Mover had proved his worth to everyone in the guild, and brought the guild to the next stage effortlessly.
29th of March, Zhang Yang had reached Level 82. On the same day, the guild had 20 players that had reached Level 80. Majority of them had relied on the Level 3 Guild reward experience bonus to reach Level 80 in such a hasty manner. They were the first guild to produce a party qualified to raid the latest dungeon, the Pandemonium.
After winning the guild wars, Zhang Yang led the other 19 players to The Abandon Vale at the Altair Flatlands. The entrance to the Pandemonium dungeon was just at the entrance of the Vale.
Everyone gathered and entered the dungeon.
‘Ding! You have entered the Pandemonium (Hardcore Mode)!’
There were four types of species ruling over the vale. They were Vampires, Werewolves, Humans, and a Stone Golem. Other than the Stone Golem, Vampire, Werewolf, and Humans were races with large communities. Only the Stone Golem Sulga was the only being of its species. It was also the last boss of the dungeon.
In terms of landscape, Vampire, Werewolf, and the Human forces were positioned in a triangle. They were all located at the far side of each other, all surrounding the center where the Stone Golem Sulga was situated. The lore of the dungeon depicted that all three forces wanted to invade Sulga’s residence to claim the ancient treasure that resided there. However, due to their mutual hatred to one another, none of them were able to proceed.
All three forces had constructed a Gateway. Only through lighting up the holy fire at all three forces, a Gateway would open, which would lead you to where Sulga resides.
A player could freely choose on where to start their attack, which was not limited in any specific order. As long as the players fulfilled the requirement, that was, to light up all three holy fires at three different places, they could enter the final stage and battle with the last boss, Sulga.
Zhang Yang believed that, based on their current equipment, Zhang Yang’s own gang could easily raid the dungeon, relying on all sorts of skills and potions! As for the reason why Zhang Yang wanted to take along other members along, he did not want to waste the free skill points obtained from the First Clear Achievement. Not everyone could easily receive main story quests or hidden quests to obtain free skill points. As the saying went, the grass that grows during the night would make a horse strong! A person could only get stronger by taking the extra effort.
Zhang Yang’s 20 men party stood at the entrance of the dungeon. There were three routes splitting apart, which led them to three different camps, the Vampires, Werewolves, and Humans.
"What sort of nonsense is this…We’re clearly standing in the wilderness, how can we not use our mounts!" Wei Yan Er sighed.
"Of course you can’t. It would be unfair. Having a mount in the dungeon could change the difficulty of the raid! That is why, to prevent any exploits or bug abuse, the developers had decided on one final implementation, and that is to restrict players from using mounts in all dungeons!" said Zhang Yang. He was not making that up. In his previous life, he had listened to the news where a news reporter had interviewed one of the game designers who had explained about the dungeon’s concept.
"What a bloody idiot!" Wei Yan Er shrugged.
The party took the route to the further right and came to a camp. Outside, standing at the entrance of the encampment, were four guards. They were equipped with weapons and were standing guard ever so vigilantly.
[Werewolf Guard] (Elite, Humanoid)
Level: 82
HP: 2,000,000
Defense: 450
Elite tiered monsters in a dungeon had always been stronger than monsters in the open-world field. The monsters that stood in front of them had HP that was far stronger than the Yellow-Gold boss in the Level 80 maps! It was made that way on purpose. The monster in a dungeon was designed based on the number of participant in the paid. Since the Pandemonium was a 20 men dungeon, the long HP would be justifiable. If they were to only have 18,000 HP, would they not be killed in an instant?
"Endless, you’re up!"
"Okie dokey!"
Endless Starlight took the preemptive strike and used {Shield Toss} from a good distance. The shield ricocheted off three of the Werewolf Guards before bouncing back to Endless Starlight. As aggro works in an area, all four of the monsters there growled and rushed towards their attacker.
Endless Starlight activated {Sanction} and {Hammer Drop} to fully lock on to the monsters’ aggro. Only then, the party started their attack. After having their HP below 50%, the monster began to metamorphosis into their full beast forms, changing from a humanoid appearance into large werewolves! In that form, the monster gained a 20% bonus attack power. However, having Endless Starlight as the strong tank, the monsters could not do much with their boost of power, and were defeated without much struggle.
The party moved on forward and killed their way towards the first boss in no time. The first boss was a beautiful werewolf who was still in her human form. Her name was Aica. This boss was just a mere Gray-Silver tier. Zhang Yang had not needed to move a muscle, as even Endless Starlight could easily overpower the boss solely based on his equipment! Even though Aica may have plenty of skills, and even killed a few members of the party, the boss was not able to withstand the combination of Zhang Yang, Endless Starlight, and the main party attacking force. Both tanks took turns to activate {Vanguard’s Aggression} to completely negate the boss’s ulti and ended the battle in just 1 minute.
This match was won, not by skill, but by the sheer power of their equipment. All they did was to simply hack and whack.
After distributing the loot, the party continued killing their way towards the second boss. By then, everyone’s skills were already ready to be used again and after a flashy scene of ultis, the second werewolf boss crumpled to the ground. Just like that, they had cleared the Werewolf section of the dungeon.
After lighting up the holy fire in the Werewolf encampment, the team proceeded to clear the Human, and then the Vampire encampment and opened the Gateway leading to Sulga.
After 10 minutes or so, the team had reached to the final boss, Sulga.
The boss was, as the name suggested, a 70 to 80 meter tall stone-made giant golem. Sulga was completely motionless. One could even mistake it as a statue instead of a living being. There was even a thick layer of moss growing on its body! If it was not for the name tag hanging on its head, Zhang Yang would have already skipped over the boss!
[Stone Golem Sulga] (Yellow-Gold, Elemental Being)
Level: 85
HP: 10,000,000
Defense: 2,000
"What the hell!? 10 million?! My god. This boss is much stronger than a Violet-Platinum boss!" cried Fatty Han in a fit of rage.
Zhang Yang explained, "This is a 20-man dungeon. It’s normal for the boss to have that much HP. If it was a 5 men dungeon, the boss would have roughly 2,500,000 HP!"
"B-But…This is a Yellow-Gold tier!"
"Yeah! And the first Yellow-Gold dungeon boss at that!’
"Level 80 maps are practically "owned" by Violet-Platinum bosses. That is why the dungeon will have a Yellow-Gold boss. I did mention this before, didn’t I? The open-world bosses will always be one tier higher than dungeon bosses."
"Enough talking! You better start thinking of a way to fight this boss!"
Zhang Yang started to think. "Let’s just give it a try. Reserve {Dance of Heaven and Earth} until the last 10% HP. That, or any important situation."
"Understood!"
Zhang Yang actually knew the way to defeat the boss. He just did not want to reveal it to the party. Since there were no other players were racing to raid the dungeon and claim the First Clear Reward, Zhang Yang decided to train the party’s response rate. One way or another, it’s good training for them.
Zhang Yang had been using the Gold-Eared Bear King in this dungeon. As the Mythical Turtle’s movement speed on land was so slow that even a grandmother could walk faster, it was not suitable for traveling.
Zhang Yang pulled the reins on the bear and rushed towards the boss.
{Spear of Obliteration}!
‘-3,198!’
A sudden quake struck the land and the boss moved. There was a crack on the golem face and it revealed the golem’s eyes and mouth. The gap opened wider and out came a low, deep voice that echoed throughout the area.
"Insolent fools! The ancient secret is sealed for good! None shall obtain it! Greed shall be punished with death! Begone, foul creatures!" Sulga moved extremely slowly as the calcification of its outer layer started to crumble. Step by step, Sulga started to walk faster. Bit by bit, as the rocks "peeled" off its surface, Sulga’s movement speed started to gain speed!