Chapter 380 - The Search for the Sixth Key Fragment
What a load of surprise!
Margery smiled kindly and said, "Adventurer, I have discovered the means to break the second seal! For the next step, I need you to collect three items. They are Zinc Alloy, Dark Magical Fruit, and Light of Miracle.
‘Ding! Margery has a quest for you. Breaking the Second Seal. Will you accept it?’
After breaking the first seal, the Sword of Purging Devourer was so strong that it could be a bug! If all the seals were broken, just how strong would the sword be!?
However, here comes the problem. Zhang Yang knew that all the items that Margery has just asked for can only be collected after Zhang Yang reaches Level 100! It has been made clear that after breaking the second seal, the Sword of Purging Devourer would evolve into a Mythical tier! If Zhang Yang could have guessed that, after breaking the third seal, the sword will evolve to Ethereal tier!
Even though the process of breaking the seal is troublesome, the end rewards would be outstanding! In the future, Zhang Yang would no longer the need to swap swords between boss fights or regular monster fights!
Without wasting much time, Zhang Yang readied the Dark Enigmatic Sword and activated the Sword of Purging Devourer special skill.
‘You have activated the skill of Sword of Purging Devourer. Please select the weapon that you wish to absorb. Please be advised, the weapon that will be selected has to belong to you. The weapon that is selected for absorption will be destroyed in the process!’
Zhang Yang selected the Dark Enigmatic Sword in the pop out.
‘Ding! You have selected "Dark Enigmatic Sword". The effect that will be absorbed is: Grants a 2% chance to replicate a previous attack." The selected "Dark Enigmatic Sword" will be destroyed. Confirm selection?’
Confirm!
Ping!
A bright light burst out and the Dark Enigmatic Sword started to age and waste away as if time had sped up for a thousand years. The sword then crumbled into many rusted pieces as the Sword of Purging Devourer glowed intensely for a brief second.
[Sword of Purging Devourer, the Mystery of the Ancient Legend]
Weapon Attack: 2,219 – 2,619
Attack Interval: 2.8 seconds
DPS: 864
Equip Effect: Grant a 2% chance to replicate a previous attack.
Special Effect: Lowers the Level Requirement of the weapon by 10 Levels.
Note: Unlocked the first seal!
Bound.
For the three items that Margery has asked for, Zhang Yang had little to no recollection of it. He knew the location of the items, but not the specific position or how to obtain them. He moved out of the dungeon and checked the quest log for a clearer explanation.
[Breaking the Second Seal] (Difficulty Level: S)
Quest Description: You have obtained confirmation from Margery herself, the means of breaking the second seal. You can find [Zinc Alloy] at the Skeletal Spirit Mining Cave of the Flatlands of the Man-Eating Monster. You can find the [Dark Magical Fruit] at the Gunma Volcanic Island of the Camaro Islands. You can find the [Light of Miracle] at the Siccory Mountains of the Radiant Canyon.
Progress: Zinc Alloy 0/1 Dark Magical Fruit 0/1 Light of Miracle 0/1
As expected, no matter the locations, they were all located in the Chaos Realm, a place where a player can only enter after reaching Level 100.
Right now, there was no way Zhang Yang could complete it now. Zhang Yang sighed and calmed himself down. He then tore a piece of [Teleportation Scroll] and moved to Thunderstorm Castle. Even though the Sword of Purging Devourer had already been Identified, it still lacked the necessary upgrade. The Sword of Purging Devourer still had two empty sockets and Rune Stone enchantments.
He then made his way to the Gem Shop and purchased two [Level 3 Gem Stone], and had them socketed in. After that, he requested Han Ying Xue for Rune Stones and had the two new Gem Stones enchanted to 50% and 70%. After that, Zhang Yang replaced the Goblin's Head Lobber with the Sword of Purging Devourer. His basic attack power has increased from 2,914 – 3,334 to 3,863 – 4,263!
Hehehe! A Level 90 Violet-Platinum sword was strong!
Today’s guild war had come to a conclusion and had produced the top 8 contenders. In three days, the final champion will emerge victoriously, and Zhang Yang hoped that Lone Desert Smoke would be the champion. However, as obvious as it seems, the Guild Wars competition was not as greatly welcomed as the Soaring Swords Competition. Thus, the officials had not made any vigorous attempt at bringing up the heat of the competition. After this, the competition would not be held again.
In the evening, Lone Desert Smoke faced Storm Riders. Under the guidance of Mountain Mover, Lone Desert Smoke sliced through the enemy like a hot knife through a butter. As they were not in the top 4 guilds, after two more battles, they would win the championship!
Even though Mountain Mover had only joined Lone Desert Smoke for a few days, he had already gotten used to commanding the guild and made himself memorize all the members' classes and strengths, allowing him to craft up all kinds of counter measures and attack strategies in the nick of time. Everyone was highly impressed by his ability and obeyed his commands as the word of god himself. This level of cooperation made Mountain Mover most pleased.
A good soldier and a good strategist go hand in hand. All soldiers would want to work with a good strategist, and a good strategist would want to command a cooperative and powerful army. In this case, Mountain Mover was the good strategist, and Lone Desert Smoke the finest army that he could ever command. Even if he was to be chased away by Zhang Yang, Mountain Mover would plant his feet down in the earth, would never give up his soldiers.
Unless everyone possesses a Paired Skill like Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue, it was impossible to win a war, without a powerful and insightful strategist that could turn the tides of war with a simple plan! After Zhang Yang was done with the guild war and the Team Battle League Competition, Zhang Yang took his leave and rode towards the Snow Peach Mountain at the Black Feather Forest, in hopes of finding the sixth descendent of the seven generals, Culonca.
The geographical landscape of Black Feather Forest was mostly flat, yet there were plenty of mountainous regions scattered all over the land. The Snow Peach Mountain was located at the North-East section of the entire map. As the name suggested, Zhang Yang could feel a cold breeze, accompanied by white snowflakes that slowly drifted in the wind.
The quest logs had only revealed that Culonca was located at the Snow Peach Mountain. As usual, a quest will never reveal the objective precise locations, Zhang Yang had to depend on himself to search for Culonca.
Zhang Yang had spent some wandering around the Snow Peach Mountain, and after half an hour, he saw four players grinding some monsters at a spot to his north. He was only slightly shocked to saw actual players grinding their levels here. Players that come to this map should not have any other motives, besides questing! It may not be Level 80, but it should be at least Level 77 or 78, and above!
"Yo! Warrior dude!" Zhang Yang walked to the side to avoid confronting the lot. Yet, after walking a few steps, one of the players noticed his presence and called out to him.
Zhang Yang stopped his bear and turned around. Among the four players, the one that had called out to him, waved his hands vigorously as he run to his side. His IGN was Treasure Water and his class was a Sacred Knight. His guild was…He did not have a guild, as well as the other three players that were with him. Truthfully speaking, with their current level, they could easily earn a good position in any possible guild that would take them in! Thus, the reason why levels were so important in any given MMORPG!
Treasure Water was able to recognize Zhang Yang as a warrior due to him carrying a shield on his back, not to mention the presence of the Rage gauge.
Zhang Yang smiled. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
Treasure Water smiled back kindly and said, "Sorry to bother you. Originally, we were a group of 5 players trying to do some quests here. We came across a boss and was about to defeat it when our tank had some matters to attend to, leaving us unable to defeat the boss. So, we wanted to come here to grind some monsters and be done with it. Until we saw you!" Treasure Water gestured at Zhang Yang.
"I had never thought that we could stumble upon another player, and a tank at that! Since this place is as deserted as the Sahara Desert, we’ve actually given up on continuing the quest! So how about it? We ask of you to join our party and do the quest together and help us take on the boss. Bro, I’m telling you, the quest reward is rather awesome!"
Although Zhang Yang had no intention to sidetrack, the man had been rather friendly towards Zhang Yang and presented no hostility towards him. Zhang Yang felt that killing a boss might not take as long as it should, and he nodded. "Alright. Count me in!"
In a moment, a player called Thinking Five Million had sent Zhang Yang a party invitation which Zhang Yang accept it in a heartbeat.
"Oh yeah! I was right!" said a Thief player named Blizzard General. "Wait a second! 111,260 HP!? What the papa pucking pickiddy puck! Is this guy a player or a boss!?"
"Hey guys, Kindling had only over 20,000 HP! Have a load of this guy! If I tell him that we found a tank that had over 100k HP, he will surely be asking us not to drink so much!" A player named Bleeding Tornado cried out.
"Zhan Yu!?" One by one, they too notice of Zhang Yang’s IGN and were left dumfounded. Treasure Water laughed and said, "Looks like I have unintentionally recruited China’s number 1 tank!"
"China’s number 1 tank! So that’s why he has such high HP!"
"Woah! You’re already at Level 82! You must be wearing a full set of Yellow-Gold equipment! That explains the high HP!"
"Bro…Level 80 Yellow-Gold equipments are only ok. He must be wearing Violet-Platinum!"
Everyone started to argue about the topic of equipment tier and HP bonus.
Zhang Yang smiled and clapped his hands hard to gain their attention. "Guys! Are we going to discuss about equipment or are we going to kill a boss? Either way, I’m fine with it. I’m just saying…"
"Hahahaha. You’re cool bro. You’re cool."
The four players were obviously good friends, like Zhang Yang, Han Ying Xue and the rest of the party. As they talked and chatted about, Zhang Yang realized that they too were friends in real life.
The team was led by Thinking Five Million and reached to a flattened side of a hill. On the other side of the hill, everyone could see a gigantic, mechanical puppet that was attacking a large boulder with both its mechanical arms. Like an engine’s pistons, the puppets arms struck the stone with his fist with such force that the residual shock shook the entire mountain, sending tremors and quakes.
[Optimus Prime] (Yellow-Gold, Mechanical Servant)
Level: 85
HP: 1,700,000
Defense: 2,000
Everyone stopped as Treasure Water tried to explain the situation to Zhang Yang. "We had actually stumble upon this quest when we were grinding some monsters. We found an S.O.S bottle which was sent out by an NPC called Culonca. In the bottle, the message said that he was trapped at some place and requested to be rescued. The reward would be a fantastic ring, but in your case, I don’t think that you’ll even want the ring. Zhan Yu."
Culonca? Zhang Yang had never thought that this sudden encounter would only help him to find Culonca!
While Zhang Yang was in his thoughts, Treasure Water shared the quest to Zhang Yang.
[Someone Help Me] (Difficulty Level: B)
Quest Description: You have incidentally found an S.O.S bottle in the stomach of a white deer. In the bottle, there was a map scribbled poorly, along with the word "Someone help me!". You have traced the drawing of the map and found the target was located at Snow Peach Mountain of the Black Feather Forest. Brave warriors! Heed the call and save a man in need! Be advised, the quest is likely to be dangerous!
Progress: Rescue Culonca 0/1
Quest Reward: Ring of Grandiose
[Ring of Grandiose] (Yellow-Gold, Ring)
Vitality: +67
Strength: +27
Equip Effect: Absorbs 74 damage on attack.
Level Requirement: 80
Zhang Yang was right. The quest was about Culonca, the sixth descendent of the seven generals! One thing that he agreed with Treasure Water was that Zhang Yang had no interest in the ring reward. After all, both of his current rings were of Level 80 Violet-Platinum tier.
Zhang Yang did not swap out the Mythical Turtle and had used the Gold-Eared Bear King to take on Optimus Prime. Before Zhang Yang had come in, Treasure Water’s party did not have a tank, thus, even though they had a healer in the party. They knew that the boss fight was out of their league. Zhang Yang, on the other hand, was a special case. Alone, he could easily overpower the boss. Now that he was in a party, the extra damage of the Mythical Turtle could be foregone.
‘-3,982!’
Zhang Yang tossed a {Spear of Obliteration} to gained the boss’s aggro and dealt a strong amount damage that had left the rest of the party member flabbergasted.
"Are you sure that he is a Guardian? From the looks of it, he could be a Berserker with a shield!"
"Yeah! He’s right. Zhan Yu’s {Spear of Obliteration} basic damage was already at 4,000! That means his weapon damage has already reached beyond 4,000!"
"What power…Hah! Kindling will surely be jealous to the high heavens when he sees how powerful this tank is!"
"YEAH!"
Everyone laughed and cheered, yet none of them slacked in their attack. Everyone was cooperative, and performed their roles of their character classes.
The boss took the attack from Zhang Yang and turned his entire metallic body towards him. When he turned to face Zhang Yang, everyone could see a number of holes on his chest and body. It appears that if Optimus had gone through numerous battles. The original blue and red color scheme on his metallic body was mostly dyed in rust black. One of its arms was in such a bad shape that it looked like it could fall off anytime. Black oil was spilling off his damaged arm like blood. With one fully operational arm, Optimus attacked Zhang Yang, making loud metal clanking noises as the arm thrust towards him.
"In the name of high heavens and the gods above, kill that bucket of rust!" whilst attacking the boss, a voice suddenly rang out from the bottom of the pile of rocks and dirt. Zhang Yang turned his head quickly and glance through. In the small gap of the rocks, he saw a man’s head.
[Culonca] (Elite, Humanoid)
Level: 82
HP: 9,999 / 82,000
Defense: 450
The NPC name tag was green! That only meant that Zhang Yang cannot resort to brute force to get the Key Fragment!
The battle started for a while now yet Optimus had not made any speech besides the loud, annoying metallic crashing sound at every movement. Since the start, Optimum had only attacked the party with its fully functioning arm. Every time the metallic arm crashed onto Zhang Yang, it would sent a mini quake to the ground, making it hard to stand firm.
Still, no matter how bombastic its movement of how awesome the after effect it made, a Yellow-Gold boss, will forever be at a Yellow-Gold level difficulty. Zhang Yang had not trouble to deal with a Violet-Platinum boss, what more a Yellow-Gold? Within two to three minutes, the boss crumbled down into a pile of mangled scrap metal.
At the moment the battle was over, the party checked on their damage report and found that Zhang Yang had contributed 42% of the entire damage output. It was close to half! The rest of the three attacking class player had to feign ignorance to this fact or it will be extremely shameful to face Zhang Yang. Treasure Water was the only player who did not bother to check the damage report, as he was a healer since the beginning of the game. It had become a habit for him, to not be bothered about damage.
Everyone was so impressed at Zhang Yang, and was praising him for having the ability to take on the boss single-handedly. For them to be nearly bystanders, they were extremely satisfied to have the ring as the reward and wanted Zhang Yang to claim all the battle loots.
Now that is what they say, ‘You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.’
Zhang Yang laughed out loud and said, "Don’t be that way. If it weren’t for you guys, I would not have killed any boss in the first place. Since everyone is part of the party, let’s skip the formality and move on to the sharing. I’ll have you know that you guys had saved my *ss big time. I was here originally to find this NPC Culonca. If it weren’t for you guys, I’d be wandering like a fool around the entire Snow Peach Mountain before I find this bugger! How about this? I’ll take one equipment and you guys take the rest? Seems fair?"
Everyone exchanged a happy look and nodded their heads.
It’s extremely hard to find someone as kind and generous as Zhang Yang these days.