“Yu Kai, Lau Hui spread out.” Cheng Yang began giving out orders, “Old Lee stick with Yu Kai and Liu Hau protect Lau Hui. Make sure to block the monster if it tries to attack them. I’ll draw its aggro for now.” Cheng Yang began kiting the Mephit through the main courtyard.
Cheng Yang led the Mephit by the nose with his incredible speed while Yu Kai sniped it. Lau Hui had summoner his wolf which chased after the monster, unable to catch up while Old Lee and Liu Hau dutifully protected the ranged attackers.
After multiple rounds of attacks, the monster that would make any other group at this time despair was dead. Old Lee gave a soft cheer as the corpse turned into a stream of light.
Two seconds later the light dissipated and a stave lay where the corpse used to be.
Yu Kai and the others exchanged excited glances. Didn’t this look similar to Cheng Yang’s equipment?
“Did that monster just drop equipment?” Liu Hau asked, reacting faster than the rest, “Yoko, I thought you said monsters didn’t drop equipment.”
“I only said that the monsters in the wilderness wouldn’t drop equipment. Since we’re in an instance dungeon, monsters stronger than Low Grade have a chance to drop equipment but that chance is rather low.” Cheng Yang replied calmly.
The others didn’t dwell on the issue, they were simply excited to learn that monsters could drop equipment here.
“Yoko, it would seem your quite lucky since this is a Mage’s stave.” Lau Hui said checking the equipment’s system panel.
Cheng Yang had expected such an outcome. The rules of god dictated that the probability of a piece of equipment being for a class was directly proportional to the amount that class contributed to killing a monster. Since he had done most of the damage it was natural that the equipment the Mephit dropped was for Mages.
When Cheng Yang took the stave from Lau Hui, the system panel automatically opened.
Ebony Stave
A stave made from high quality wood and engraved to allow for better mana channeling.
Grade: Green Bronze
Class: Mage
Requirements: Low Grade Apprentice
Durability: 50/50
Effect: Increase Magic Attack by 1
It was as good as you could expect a Green Bronze equipment to be. As the lowest tier of equipment the Green Bronze stave only provided a measly +1 to Magic Attack. Still, this stave was better than Cheng Yang’s starter gear so he immediately swapped to the Ebony Stave. Although it only increased his damage by 7% it was still a welcome bonus.
The euphoria of finally getting loot left Yu Kai and the others in high spirits. They prayed that all of the other cloisters would have a Mephit so that they might get some as well.
They only ran into one more Mephit when they cleared the remaining five cloisters which they killed in a battle that completely lacked suspense.
When they killed the Mephit a second piece of equipment dropped.
Star-Spotted Wrist Guard
A wrist guard made from the hide of a star spotted deer famed for their sturdy leather.
Grade: Black Iron
Class: Unrestricted
Requirements: Low Grade Apprentice
Durability: 60/60
Effect: Add 1 Physical Defense
Effect: Increase Attack Speed by 2
Seeing the equipment’s system panel Cheng Yang was ecstatic. This was Black Iron equipment! The monsters in the Low Grade Blood Soaked Cathedral shouldn’t be able to drop such high quality loot.
It seemed that since this was the first run of the instance dungeon the loot tables were adjusted.
Some people might feel that the gear was overpowered since it increased Attack Speed by two but Cheng Yang knew that the effect was much weaker than it seemed.
Having twice as many points in Attack Speed didn’t mean that you would attack twice as fast. Each point increased your speed by 10% compounded which meant that gaining two points of attack increased Yu Kai’s attack speed by around 17%.
Although it may seem like Attack Speed was a better attribute than the rest the actual bonus of each point decreased every time you gained one. For example, gaining two points in Attack Speed if you already had six points only increased your actual speed by around 10%.
The other benefit to this piece of equipment was that it wasn’t restricted to a certain class. This meant the loot could go to any member of the party.
“Koko, this one is yours.” Cheng Yang threw the wrist guard to Liu Hau after reading the properties, “If you have this the amount of time your shield is down when you attack will decrease and it even increases your Physical Defense a little.”
“Yoko, I don’t need this, you can keep it. Your our strongest fighter right now so strengthening you can only make us safer.” Liu Hau said holding the wrist guard out for Cheng Yang to take.
Cheng Yang snorted, “You would do best not to rely on individual strength. In this damn apocalypse individual strength means very little, if I’m surrounded by ten monsters I’ll die just the same as any of you. The most important rule of survival is cooperation. Take this equipment and work your hardest to protect us.”
Liu Hau retracted the equipment with a thoughtful look and put it on. “I won’t let you down Yoko.”
Cheng Yang nodded and then looked at the group, “I’m sorry to say it but I can’t allow you to participate in the last battle. In front of a High Grade monster your all simply too weak.”
“No way!” Yu Kai immediately retorted, “We entered this instance dungeon with you, we’re in this together. How can we allow you to face all the danger on your own?”
“I agree with Hiroko.” Lau Hui said, “We’re in this together Yoko, we at least need to try and help you fight the Boss. If it’s really too strong for us we’ll leave but won’t it be hard even for you?”
“Don’t be so pessimistic.” Cheng Yang said with a bitter smile, “The only reason I told you all not to come was because I had the confidence to do it alone. I have a plan so don’t worry.”
A High Grade monster would usually deal twenty damage each hit which was enough to instkill a Low Grade Apprentice if you ignored Physical Defense. Even if it was Cheng Yang he would die in just three hits. Moreover, the Movement Speed of a High Grade monster was usually at least five meaning Cheng Yang would just be committing suicide if he fought a High Grade monster on his own.
The other’s were naturally able to understand that Cheng Yang was much weaker than a High Grade monster and although they trusted him they couldn’t help but doubt that he was capable of killing the Boss.
The others gathered nervously around the Cathedral as Cheng Yang entered alone.
The cathedral was in ruins mostly due to the fact that an enormous tree was growing out of the crossing. It had a trunk ten meters wide and its branches snaked throughout the cathedral and the top burst through the roof.
Although he couldn’t see behind it Cheng Yang knew that if he were to walk down the nave the Boss would burst in from the ambulatory.
The Boss was also a Mephit but it was christened a Greater Mephit Exterminator due to the fact that not only was it High Grade but it was a High Grade Elite.
Cheng Yang glanced around the cathedral and let out a sigh of relief when he realized that the layout was the same as in his memories.
When he was ready Cheng Yang took a deep breath and then sprinted to the other side of the tree. He heard a mighty roar and saw a vague figure shrouded by the tree’s leave. He struck it with a magic missile and then ran towards the nearly destroyed organ.
He was only a few meters from the organ and easily leaped onto it and climbed up one of the pipes.
From there he jumped onto a large branch that stretched over near the organ.
At nearly the same time a huge monster smashed the organ to pieces. It looked just like the Lesser Mephits but was a bright scalding red and was nearly two meters tall and wielding a massive ax.
Although the Boss had tried to instantly kill Cheng Yang by the time it had reacted to his presence Cheng Yang had managed to climb several meters up the tree.
Cheng Yang looked down on the Boss from fifteen meters up the tree, nearly touching the roof of the cathedral.
Seeing the Greater Mephit Executioner go into a frenzy when it realized it couldn’t reach him, Cheng Yang smiled. Although the world had been gamified it was still reality. There was no way for god to limit the ingenuity of mankind, it wasn’t their fault the monsters were so stupid.
No matter what it tried the Boss was unable to climb the tree as its weight snapped all of the lower branches. After about ten minutes of Cheng Yang grinding down the Boss’ enormous health pool, the Greater Mephit Executioner finally died.
After the Boss died Cheng Yang scrambled down the branches eager to see what the monster had dropped.
On the ground was a black robe with silver lining. Although Cheng Yang didn’t know its properties he could tell it was good stuff.
When he picked it up he couldn’t be happier with the loot.
Corrupted High Priest’s Robes
The robes of the high priest of the St. Luantha cathedral corrupted by demonic magic
Grade: Black Iron
Class: Mage or Priest
Requirements: Low Grade Apprentice
Durability: 60/60
Effect: Add 2 Physical Defense
Effect: Increase Mana by 10