Chapter 107: The Head of Butlers Mack
"Those who are in the same Dungeon as we are now, we are going to take on The Head of Butlers Mack!" It was a sudden announcement posted by Fatty Han in the region channel.
"F*ck off! What are you, a newscaster? Take out the Boss first, duh! "
"To think that the amazing Lone Desert Smoke is also stuck at the First Boss like we are!"
"Kill! Carry on!"
"Well, shit. What is wrong with the game company? Are they out of their minds? A boss with this much HP, and sky-high damage! It's impossible for anyone to take it!"
That one comment made by Fatty Han was akin to throwing a fat boulder into a calm lake, stirring up murky waves that broke the surface. The channel became lively all of a sudden! Other parties did not know that they had to go through four mini bosses to be able to stand up to this Boss. Everyone had already been wiped out by this particular Boss dozens of times over!
Repeatedly being defeated, making no progress whatsoever, would certainly infuriate anyone. A comment like that from Fatty Han would certainly provoke a large number of critics!
"You are so mean, wretched fatty!" Wei Yan Er smiled grimly.
Fatty Han had no intention to give in, "So what?"
"Now, everyone will know the methods and techniques to countering this Boss when we are done!" Zhang Yang said it all. If they were remotely intelligent, the other guilds would hopefully catch on Fatty's comment, and possibly figure out that there were other ways around that butler boss. That meant they could challenge the other Bosses first without going through Head of Butlers Mack.
Wei Yan Er was upset, "You are one hell of a fool, you wretched fat f*ck!"
Fatty Han only remained dumbstruck, "..."
"It is not that a big deal as long as we are the first to clear it!" Zhang Yang pulled out his long sword, "To hell with this! Let's begin!"
He charged straight into the final battle.
The range of the aggro vision of The Head of Butlers Mack seemed to be vast. From afar, he already detected Zhang Yang's intrusion! He laughed, "Welcome to the Shadowmoon Castle! Or should I say, you are NOT welcome! How rude, intruding such a beautiful place like that! As a butler must fulfill his duty, I hereby will tear you all into pieces, and make use of the pieces into the main dishes for dinner!"
Zhang Yang bulldozed through with a <Charge>, smashing into the Boss, following up with a backhanded swing of his blade as he pirouetted on his heels, striking the Boss with '-558' damage. He finished up with <Cripple Defense>.
"What in the world man! This old man is disgusting! Eating human flesh? Eww!" Wei Yan Er followed closely behind Zhang Yang, burning with rage! Her red eyes devilishly narrow, she focused so hard on putting everything she had to the point that she had totally forgotten Zhang Yang's advice! She did not even spare a glance on the Aggro Bar!
The assault was chaotic, lighting up the boss like a Christmas tree!
Before this battle, everyone had been reserving their energy. When this battle commenced, everyone let loose. They gave it their full power, increasing their damage in any way they could, not letting any opportunity go wasted. They were competing for the damage ranking boards!
Sun Xin Yu was performing on par with Zhang Yang, putting her new equipment to use. She had also acquired a secret mission's skill that provided a high damage output! More importantly, Zhang Yang was a Guardian, a class built to hold shields as their secondary weapon. Unlike any thief build capable of dual wielding, or a Berserker class with two-handed weapons, Zhang Yang was meant for a very different role.
To have a powerful amount of resistance and defense, one must sacrifice a certain amount of damage output. You would only be left with one hand to strike the enemy with. His skills and equipment used were to make up for his handicap in terms of offense. Now he was being surpassed!
Looking at the damage statistics, Sun Xin Yu had surpassed him by about 1%. Zhang Yang knew, deep down in his heart, that was natural for him to lose to her. When equally well-equipped, Guardians should end up with the lowest damage output among all classes. But still, he could feel it, the unwillingness to lose to others!
Level 100! Zhang Yang was looking forward to it so much! When the first players in their respective classes and jobs reached level 100, they would acquire an "Inheritance". The inheritance exclusively only for Warrior classes was called the "God of War". Benefiting exceptionally well from it, Guardians could now equip a two-handed melee weapon in one hand, while still equipping a shield as a secondary!
Having this inheritance would wipe away the intrinsic weakness of Guardian, they would be able to produce a damage output that will not lose to other classes!
In Zhang Yang's previous game, the inheritance of "God of War" was acquired by God of Flame Roger from the North-America server. That had led him to secure his place as the world's number 1 Warrior in the game! Even the skills and the will of One Sword Stroke had no place when placed in the front of the almighty inheritance, the "God of War"!
Several forms of Inheritance happened very often, however, each of the classes had only one true inheritance. In the vast servers of the game that hosted eight continents with billions of players, only 6 lucky players would acquire the one and only Unique inheritance. Other than the one and only Unique inheritance, there were others. Star-tiered inheritance and Moon-tiered inheritance were below the Unique inheritance, with Star being the higher tier. Still, whichever inheritance it was, they were all sacred and rare, not to mention extremely difficult to get. It was definitely as hard as completing a main quest!
In the previous game, Zhang Yang had managed to acquire a Moon-tier inheritance, "King Kong". In the last part of the mission, he had to summon 5,000 high-tiered members of the Clear Water Guild to slay the mission boss, "The King Kong"! The guild members had unleashed all of their might on the boss for one full day, taking many casualties before they finally put the mighty boss down. They were lucky that the game had a Gaming Capsule. In addition to that, the in-game time and the real time had a difference by the ratio of 3 to 1. If not for these factors, they would not have taken out the boss at all.
Pulling his focus back on what was right in front of him, Zhang Yang swung his blade purposefully, dealing blow after lethal blow.
"Curse you, intruders!" without any warning, the butler pointed his finger right at Zhang Yang, and a dark bolt shot out, striking him almost instantly.
'Ding! You are affected by the <Black Curse>! Your healing rate has been decreased by 50%!'
Following the prompt voice by the system, the debuff symbol popped up, at the top of Zhang Yang's head.
With a wave of her hands, Han Yin Xue put <Holy Shield> onto Zhang Yang, ready to cast <Heal>.
Zhang Yang did a quick survey of the battle and noticed something most unfavorable. "Little brat, stop using skills if you don't want to die! Use normal attack!" Zhang Yang looked at the aggro bar, his aggro value may currently be twice as much as Sun Xin Yu's, but it would be halved when the boss used <Backward Shock> on him. At this rate, the boss would only use <Backward Shock> on him for another two times at most. After that, the boss would most probably switch his target to the one person who could not clear her aggro bar, Wei Yan Er.
How would she notice when she was single-mindedly giving the boss her all? She did not earlier on, but her hands were saying otherwise, as she swung blow after blow relentlessly!
"I am going to smash you in little pieces that even your mom won't be able to tell!" The butler yelled, exploding with a fist that flew at Zhang Yang's face! Bam! It was a concussive blast that sent Zhang Yang 5 meters backward!
'Ding! You are affected by the <Backward Shock> effect!'
Without loosening up, Zhang Yang immediately used <Charge> to rush back to his former position. He took the opportunity to glance at the aggro bar. Currently, his aggro value exceeded the number 2 in rank, Sun Xin Yu by just a little!
"<Backward Shock> will happen once every 2 minutes. For the coming 110 seconds, Thieves can use <Vanish> while hunters can use <Fake Death> to clear your aggro up."
Wei Yan Er was never mentioned, so she spoke up, "How about me?"
"Wait for death to come!"
"Oh, so that's how it is now huh, you shitty noob tank! Picking on me for revenge now!" she continued to cry out loud.
"My little Drizzler, didn't I tell you to hold back a little? You did not listen!"
80%, 70%, 60%, the HP bar was dropping rapidly! Even though the boss had unusually thick skin, with everyone hitting so hard, the HP loss suffered by the boss was outrageous!
"Begone! You maggots!" Head of Butlers Mack used his <Backward Shock> once again!
At that instant, the aggro value on everyone has changed. Sun Xin Yu, Fatty Han, and Hundred Shots used their respective skills to clear their respective aggro, leaving them out of the boss' consideration. On the other hand, Wei Yan Er was in a tight pinch! Her aggro was even higher than Zhang Yang's, making her the primary target of the boss!
'-3129'
With one very heavy and powerful punch, the butler pummelled Wei Yan Er, dealing serious damage.
"Cousin, heal me!" Wei Yan Er maintained her composure, knowing that whenever she received a large amount of damage, her rage gauge would fill up quickly, giving her the opportunity to spam her skills consecutively.
'+812'
It was Han Yin Xue's attempt of healing Wei Yan Er. However, it was no good. Her HP could not be restored! What she could do was to hold on for a few seconds before she went down to the ground.
"Argh... Noob tank! You suck big time! You couldn't even hold the aggro for me! I hate you!" Wei Yan Er could only lie on the ground like a ragged doll, but it did not stop her from talking.
"Hey, girl! If I hear another f*cking word from your mouth, you don't get to touch the corpse for loots!" Those words had a profound effect on her.
She instantly kept her mouth shut.
Now short of one powerful attacker, the damage done by the party decreased dramatically. They were fortunate though, as their healer was powerful enough to hold on.
Truth to be told, taking out the four mini bosses first did make it easier for them to fight the butler. Even though the decrease in healing rate and the aggro management was a little annoying deal with, it was nothing that a strong party like them, familiar to carefully planned tactics and strategies, couldn't handle. This battle was actually easier than the battles they had previously fought with some bosses.
30%, 20%, 10%......
The HP bar of the final boss continued plummeting! Just as the HP bar touched 10%, the boss transformed into a werewolf! It may have seemed terrifying, but it was more of a death threat. As he unleashed his final assault, Zhang Yang activated <Shield Wall> to avoid being crushed to death by him.
'Ding! You and your party members have obtained the First Clear Achievement of Shadowmoon Castle: The Garden Area (Hardcore Mode). As the Captain, please provide the name of your party to be registered on to the Hardcore Mode First Clear list.'
Zhang Yang entered "Lone Desert Smoke", and the screen was filled with red announcements.
Just as before, they all acquired another new skill point, 10 gold coins and 500 alliance reputation each as rewards.
The guild channel burst into life.
"That's my beloved guild leader! Acquiring the title for first clear of the dungeon in such short notice!"
"Who was it talking about glory and dominance? Kiss my ass! Well, those guilds are nothing before us, the Lone Desert Smoke!"
"Zhan Yu, please accept me, please have me!"
Han Yin Xue tried hard to stop herself from smiling and glanced sideways at Zhang Yang, "Never expected you to be so favored by others."
"Pretty Snow, you have no idea at all! Our Yang boy has no interest in girls who are in their 20s, rather, he is into well-developed ladies in shining armor! With all his heart!" Ogling at the hot body of Han Yin Xue without conservation, Fatty Han continued to speak, "He loves mature ladies with incredible hot bodies, just like you. It's simply irresistible, it keeps him up all night!"
Zhang Yang knew Fatty Han better. That was Fatty Han's attempt at creating a chance for Zhang Yang to hook up with Little Snow! ------ Well, a plain face like hers would not really matter. Once you're in bed with the lights out, the shape of the body would be all that mattered!
"Fatty, you misused the pronoun!" Zhang Yang sighed heavily, thinking to himself. Come on, you fat f*ck, don't try to be such a lousy matchmaker, I already have someone in my heart!
"Hmph hmph hmph, if you want to hit on my cousin, you will have to go through me!" Wei Yan Er quickly rescued her cousin, as she stepped in between them, with her nose wrinkled up and arms crossed.