Chapter 25: The Undefeatable Boss
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Lovely Silky, you must put on the skirt to increase the party’s morale!” said Fatty Han righteously even though he was drooling.
“Yeah! Yeah!” A bunch of wolves started to cheer.
Zhang Yang shook his head and said, “Even if she does put it on, you guys won’t have a chance to see it. Can’t you guys see that she is wearing a dress?”
The animals were disappointed when they heard it.
Fatty Han straightened his collars and said, “Well then, Fatty Bro must continue to work harder, I’ll definitely loot a cloth armor top from the next boss!”
“Alright, settle down. Let’s move on to the last boss!” Zhang Yang swung his sword around.
“Zhan Yu! Now that I have a new weapon, my damage output will definitely not lose to you!” Phantom Day said confidently.
Weapons played a major role in increasing damage output. Phantom Day was using a Level 5 Black-Steel two-handed sword obtained from a Class Quest. Now that he had swapped it with a Level 10 Green-Copper two-handed spear, his attack power had increased significantly, as did his confidence!
Zhang Yang smiled a little and said, “Okay! Let’s fight for it!”
The party went forward and cleared the minions, finally arriving at the final boss after going through a small passageway.
Before engaging, Phantom Day checked the damage statistics and felt down once again. Even though his damage output had surpassed Fatty Han, he was still immensely behind Zhang Yang, their difference a total landslide.
If it compared damage done on single targets, Phantom Day would catch up and quite possibly even surpass Zhang Yang after equipping himself with the new weapon. However, facing waves of minions which led to there being multiple targets, Phantom Day who was without any AoE1 skills would still lose to Zhang Yang because of his <Horizontal Sweep>.
“I’ve never thought that we could actually come this far!” Crimson Fire exclaimed as they stood together facing the final boss. To think that 2 hours ago, he was still dying repeatedly at Hard Mode’s first boss yet now here he stood before the final boss of Hardcore Mode.
The passion to recruit Zhang Yang burned even stronger. Of course, he also wanted Fatty Han whose damage output was incredibly high. The best case scenario would be recruiting them both. Crimson Fire sent a private message to Silky Snow saying, “How are you doing? Do you think you could get a hold on Zhan Yu?”
“That guy seems like he won’t buy anything I try!” Silky Snow replied quickly.
Crimson Fire replied, “I believe in you! You’re our Lost Paradise’s ultimate babe! As long as you put in more effort, even the strongest of steel will melt into cotton fluff.”
“Sigh, I’ll need to be a honeypot again!”
“It’s not so bad. This is just a game anyway, you don’t even have to do the real deed! Give him a little bait to entice him, isn’t that the best trick up your sleeve?”
“Hmph, let me put out my disclaimer first. I’m all for baiting Zhan Yu, he’s hot anyway. But that fatty is an eyesore, don’t even try to ask me to do anything!” said Silky Snow.
“Sure. Do your best, you must bring Zhan Yu into our guild! You’ve also seen what he can do! If he joined us, our Lost Paradise will surely be among the strongest guilds in ‘God’s Miracle’! And when that happens, our sponsorship will increase by at least 10 folds!” Crimson Fire was worried that Silky Snow would not give her best so he had quickly explained the stakes involved.
“I got it! He’s sure to fall for me with just a flick of my fingers!” said Silky Snow confidently.
…
“The final boss is a problematic one!” Zhang Yang stopped at the entrance of the boss’ field and hesitated. “This boss has two skills. There’s one that spews fire which causes around 500 damage. Most players would be killed with just one strike! The other skill with the fire pits has its duration increased to 120 seconds. After 2 minutes into the battle, there will literally be no spots to stand on. The damage by the pits are around 200 points, you’ll die quickly if you remain in there!”
Dadarerda in Hardcore Mode had been dubbed one of the most frustrating bosses ever by players in his previous life! Due to the many fire pits in addition to the boss’ flame spits, there would technically be nowhere to evade it. Death was certain, be it from <Flamethrower> or <Lava Pit>!
The First Kill of this boss had only been achieved by a party which had depended on their level and equipment when its players had achieved an average of Level 30. That was how overwhelming the two skills were!
However, somebody had discovered later on that there was a terrain bug in Hardcore Mode boss’ field. The boss would not cast fire pits on that specific spot. With this, there was finally a possibility to defeat this boss provided one had reached a certain level of skill.
Once the bug tactic was leaked, the boss became much easier to kill. The developers did not issue any penalty nor attempt to fix the terrain bug. Instead, they had recognized this tactic as a battle strategy. With regards to this issue, the developers had explained: When the boss was designed, they had ‘slightly’ underestimated the effect of <Lava Pit>, causing the boss to be overly strong. Since there were players who had discovered the bug tactic, even if it had violated the game’s original intention, they would have to let bygone be bygones.
Zhang Yang knew very well that without the bug, the party’s level and equipment would have never been enough to nuke the boss within 2 minutes! If they had not been able to do that, then they could only be burnt to their deaths by the fire pits!
However, he could not think of an acceptable reason to reveal the method! “I read it on the internet!” seemed to be quite acceptable but how could it be possible to have found every single detail online!
He then decided to have the party to first try it out normally before revealing the bug tactic.
The party had killed two bosses in a row, thus all of them were bearing much confidence and were eager to take on this boss. They did not perceive the boss to be as difficult as they had thought of before.
Zhang Yang shook his head, thinking of how he would be nuked for once.
“Same old plan, kill the star-marked first followed by the sun-marked!” Said Zhang Yang as he tagged the two monsters with the marks and dashed over with his sword.
<Charge>!
‘-71!’ Normal attack.
‘-167!’
‘146!’ <Horizontal Sweep>.
Dadarerda and its two guards rushed towards Zhang Yang growling. Within a short while, the field was filled with sounds of sword clashing.
Everyone had nailed their teamwork, attacking the star-marked monster without waiting for Zhang Yang’s instructions.
‘Ding! Dadarerda used <Lava Pit>. Lasts for 120 seconds!’
Dadarerda spread its arms. With a flash of red light, 10 blazing pits appeared and spread all over the field.
The party swiftly moved, avoiding the pits and continuing their attacks on the star-marked target.
‘Ding! The party you are in has killed a Royal Guard! Obtained 650 EXP (50 points Party Bonus)!’
The star-marked monster was nuked by the party in an instant.
Dadarerda growled and a progress bar appeared on its head.
‘Ding! Dadarerda has used <Flamethrower>!’
“Prepare to evade!” said Zhang Yang as he pulled the sun-marked monster around Dadarerda.
When the boss’ <Flamethrower> had ended, the sun-marked monster only had less than 25% HP remaining – the team’s damage power had indeed increased after Phantom Day had equipped a new weapon.
‘Ding! Dadarerda used <Lava Pit>. Lasts for 120 seconds!’
‘Ding! The party you are in has killed a Royal Guard! Obtained 650 EXP (50 points Party Bonus)!’
The party then focused their attacks on the boss once both guards had been defeated. With the boss’ high HP of 84,000 though, their progress to bring it down was extremely slow.
‘Ding! Dadarerda used <Lava Pit>. Lasts for 120 seconds!’
…
‘Ding! Dadarerda used <Lava Pit>. Lasts for 120 seconds!’
In just 1 minute, the entire field had a total of 60 <Lava Pit>s. When the boss had casted <Flamethrower> again, the entire party was a mess but since they had experience from both Normal and Hard Mode, they had somewhat managed to endure the chaos.
By the time the number of <Lava Pit>s had reached 80, the number of surviving players started to drop and when the number of <Lava Pit>s reached 100, everyone had died except for Zhang Yang! Eventually, there were 120 <Lava Pit>s and the field was a sea of fire for as far as the eyes could see; nowhere was safe.
Everyone’s skyrocketed confidence had plummeted back to their original state. How would one evade a sea of fire?
If there were no boss, Zhang Yang might still be able to find his way out of the <Lava Pit>s. However, he had to dodge the boss’ attacks and evade the <Lava Pit>s beneath his steps simultaneously. Even Zhang Yang could not pull off such a feat!
Of course Zhang Yang had not intended to solo kill the Hardcore Mode boss, what he had wanted to do was to ‘reasonably’ stumble upon the terrain bug!
He led the boss to move around with him and withdrew to a crack that could fit exactly one person! He stood at the crack and continued attacking the boss.
Even though he was not damaged by <Lava Pit>, he could not evade properly as he was stuck in the crack and he died after receiving numerous attacks from the boss.
The party, with their blind faith on Zhang Yang, had expected to witness another great counterattack of his solo fight with the boss. Seeing that he had actually failed and died, they were at a loss.
Zhang Yang released his body as he laughed, “Did you guys really think that I could defeat the boss alone?”
Everyone was embarrassed.
Reviving themselves, the party gathered again at the boss’ field.
“Zhan Yu, how about we call it a day?” Even though Crimson Fire, too, had wanted to defeat the boss, as a guildmaster his judgement of a situation would certainly be better than everyone else! This boss was obviously still out of their league!
“I agree. Look at the sea of fire, there’s literally no place for us to hide! The developers must not have wanted anyone to clear this boss!” said Phantom Day as he nodded in agreement.
The others still had their faith in Zhang Yang but after Phantom Day’s analysis, they could not help but agree.
“Brother expert, it’s already amazing that we could even set foot on this stage! Clearing one less boss only means fewer equipment. We’ll defeat it together after getting stronger!” said Snowy Death.
The few of them had only wanted to raid Normal Mode at the beginning. After tagging along with Zhang Yang, they had actually managed to conquer Hard Mode and even cleared 2 bosses in Hardcore Mode! What more was there for them to ask for!
Zhang Yang laughed and said, “When I was pulling the boss around the place just now, I’ve found a place where there isn’t any fire pits. I think we can make our stand there and fight back!”