Chapter 709: Crimson Fire Crow
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"That's…That's a Crimson Fire Crow!" cried Zhang Yang happily.
"What about it?"
"That monster will drop something called the Crimson Fire Essence! Its one of the materials for crafting the [Amateur Power Potion]!" said Zhang Yang as he rushed over to the monster in delight.
"[Amateur Power Potion]?!" Everyone was shocked.
"How much does it boost?"
"30% attack power!" said Zhang Yang. "Advance tier will give 40% boost! If it's the same as the [Beginner Power Potion], a Transmuted grade 10 could increase the effect by 100%! That [Amateur Power Potion] could provide a massive boost of 60% damage for a short amount of time!"
60% attack boost was not a small number. Naturally, the attack boost would not stack with the bonus effect of strong equipment. Players with strong equipment effects would not gain much benefits from [Power Potion]. It was estimated that the true bonus attack they gain from a 60% attack boss [Power Potion] would only grant them a 20% increase in overall DPS.
"It would not be much, since you don't have the recipe to craft [Amateur Power Potions]!"
Zhang Yang smiled and continued his attacks. "These Crimson Fire Crow will drop the recipe. Though the chance is extremely low, it will be worth it! It's luck now!"
"Well then. It's time to wipe the floor clean of the monsters, then!" said Daffodil Daydream, with an innocent smile.
"Wee! I smell money!" cried the little girl with joy.
"ARKK ARKK!" The crow cawed loudly and blasted out a wave of fire that stunned everyone and inflicted the debuff {Flare} on them.
Wave after wave was unleashed by the rest of the 6 Crimson Fire Crows, inflicting a total of 7 stacks of {Flare} on the party.
Zhang Yang immediately purged the debuff with {Warrior's Will} and struck one of the crows with a sure Critical strike {Destructive Smash}, dealing 480,000 damage.
Han Ying Xue and the rest had purged their own debuffs with skills or accessory effects. One stack of DoT effect would not harm them much, since its just 10,000 damage every 3 seconds. Seven stacks however, could deal 70,000 damage, and that would hurt. Even if just a bit.
The Phoenix excelled best. Not only did it have immunity to Fire damage, it could also absorb all incoming fire based attacks and restore its HP with it! It's the best anti-fire, anti-burn monster! The true Lord of Flames!
As the flames kept on pouring down on the party, the Phoenix single-handedly took care of all the Fire Crows and turned them into fried meat, extra crispy. Even though they were elite tier and had higher HP than normal, one wave of monster would only have 7 counts of monsters. Zhang Yang and the party had no problems at all in dealing with such measly numbers. Ignoring the speed of killing, the Phoenix alone could take care of all the monsters with no healers!
Hmph! As expected of the best Phoenix!
Some time later, all seven Fire Crows dropped down from the sky and vomited out a pile of loot, including two thumb sized, fiery red crystals. It was as red as a ruby that glimmered with an intense vermillion hue.
"Only two? We killed seven of them and only two [Crimson Fire Essence]? What a stingy monster! There's no recipe around, either! Pfft!" Wei Yan Er grunted.
"Sigh…Do you know not patience in your book of virtue? If we can farm one [Crimson Fire Essence] from 10 crows, you can kneel down do your ancestors' altar and burn joss sticks to thank them! Don't mind the recipe. You can start complaining when we don't gain a single one of it after wiping out all the monsters here!" said Zhang Yang as he taps Wei Yan Er's head.
The party continued on further and met more waves of Crimson Fire Crows. They were all in groups, with numbers ranging from 3 to 9. Technically, the Crimson Fire Crows were strong, due to the skill {Flare}. However, it was useless in the face of the Legendary Beast Phoenix! The best way to fight was to allow the Phoenix to fly into the fight, generating that little aggro, so that the party could wipe them all clean without sustaining any damage.
As the party ventured further and deeper, Zhang Yang's inventory slots had started to gather more [Crimson Fire Essence] yet there were still no signs of any recipes. Initially, Zhang Yang was assured that it would be found eventually, however, as they killed more and more crows, he started losing hope. The best way to describe their situation was that they had a lot of meat to be grilled, but no griller nor coal around to start the fire pit!
Thankfully, the lava cave had a rather huge system of caverns inside. On one hand, there was still hope of finding more crows, on the other hand, it was getting hotter and hotter! Even though the cavern was splitting up here and there, it was fairly easy to explore. Zhang Yang and Sun Xin Yu both gained a level by noon. However, by then, they had only managed to explore roughly 15% of the entire place. Zhang Yang predicted that they may need to spend close to 2 to 3 days' worth of time to completely explore the cave.
On one hand, they had the time of the world to spare. Might as well spend some time grinding their levels there, for the killing rate and experience points was more than the outside world. With a blink of an eye, two days had passed and everyone had filled up more than 50% of their experience bars. If they could spend another two more days, they could gain a Level that easily. Normally, the same level would have consumed (in-game time) a whole month! The reason they could do it was, one, they had no need to run around the map to hunt hot spots for monsters. Secondly, the monster count inside the map was too abundant. Those two reasons alone, had increased the grinding rate by a notch, allowing Zhang Yang and the party to gain a level in just 12 to 13 days of in-game time.
The party walked to the end of the cave and entered a new brightly illuminated cave. The cave was at least three times bigger than the space they were in before, as large as a football stadium.
The cave was made out of hot, molten lava. Sitting in the middle of the cave was a huge Crimson Fire Crow that was clearly different compared to the ones that they had defeated a while back. This Crimson Fire Crow was bigger, and had feathers that glowed with molten lava. Compared to the rest of the crows, the big one was far vicious. Its face and body was scarred, yet the feathers that grew on top of its head were magnificent, like a crown.
[Crimson Fire Crow King] (Rare Mythical, Beast)
Level: 170
HP: 8,500,000
Defense: 7,000
Magic Attack: 25,150 – 35,150
Skills:
[Fire Breath]: Spews a trail of fire, dealing 200% Magic Fire Attack to a target. If the target carries the effect of {Flare}, damage is increased by 50%.
[Flare]: Blasts a wave of flame 30 meters around the caster. Stuns all target for 3 seconds and deals additional 50,000 Fire damage within 15 seconds.
The big crow was obviously the boss of the Crimson Fire Crows. However, its stats were not too strong, compared to the other crows. The only thing it had, was more HP and slightly more attack. However, the one thing that had Zhang Yang intrigued was the word "Rare". Somehow, he knew that the recipe for the [Amateur Power Potion] will be on it.
"Oh ho…A rare boss!" cried Wei Yan Er. "Hey hey hey hey! Look! Look! At the boss' feet there! There's a tiny bird!"
Playing around the boss' feet was a palm-sized tiny Crimson Fire Crow. Its body was like a regular crow. Somehow, it looked like a bootleg version of the Phoenix. Perhaps, it would be several times weaker than the real Phoenix!
[Juvenile Crimson Fire Crow] (Mythical tier Flying Mount)
Level: 0
Note: Can be tamed.
"A mythical tier mount!"
Everyone had their hair standing on edge. Taking aside the fact that Zhang Yang's mount was an Ethereal tier, which was able to gain tiers automatically. The other party members' mounts were merely Violet-Platinum tier and Yellow-Gold tier. Wei Yan Er had the Violet-Platinum Winged-Tiger mount. While Daffodil Daydream's flying mount was only a Yellow-Gold tier, which was only used for travel. Her battle mount, however, was the mount she had obtained from the twelve-horoscope mountain. At least, it was a Violet-Platinum tier.
Even the stone cold Sun Xin Yu was surprised to see such a rare mount!
Zhang Yang smiled and said, "Kill the boss first and roll for your luck!"
"Noobie tank! You're so cruel! How could you kill a chick's mother right in front of it?!"
"Oh! Is that so? Well then, let's skip this boss then!"
"NOOOO!!"
"In that case, shut your whining! I'll deduct your pocket money the next time you try to act smart!"
Even though the Crimson Fire Crow King might have the title of a boss, it was no different from a higher leveled Elite tier monster. Zhang Yang took the liberty to handle it alone and killed it soon after. The four ladies then rolled for the mount as Zhang Yang went for the loot. Happy and satisfied, Zhang Yang found an Alchemy recipe which was none other than the one that he had been looking for, while hunting in the cave for 2 days. Zhang Yang learned the recipe and found out, that besides the [Crimson Fire Essence], the other material he required to craft the [Amateur Power Potion] was an herb called [Blazing Mushroom].
Zhang Yang had an abundance of high leveled herbs collecting dust in his own personal warehouse. After he returns to town, Zhang Yang could start mass producing the potions. Sadly, the [Herb Foraging Familiar] could never collect the [Crimson Fire Essence]. This little crystal can only be farmed from monsters or bought from players. Since most players were oblivious to its use, and the essence crystal can only be used to craft the [Power Potion], so might as well sell them to Zhang Yang since he would be buying them for 50% extra coins than selling them to NPC! NPC are none other than the system, the company itself. The NPC would only offer the players 2 silver coins at most, for the essence! The completed [Amateur Power Potion] could fetch up to 5 gold coins each! When a guild wants to be the first to explore a dungeon, they would have to mass purchase the potions. Zhang Yang could sell them for a higher price of 20 to 30 gold coins each! They would still buy them!
The selling price for each potion would be roughly 5 gold coins in long term. Now that Zhang Yang was going to buy the ingredients for only 5 silver coins each, the profit he would be earning are 10000% Investor would die to invest in a venture for as low of 100% or 200% profit comeback! What would anyone be silly enough to stop earning for the 10000% profit margin!?
A long time ago, Zhang Yang had Yu Li to learn Alchemy profession to have her produce potion in his stead. However, when Zhang Yang acquired the skill {Alchemist's Intuition}, he learned the recipes of all the rare potions himself and concocted them himself. Sadly, he would have to set aside some time to grind and concoct potions as well! It would be a rather hectic time for him!
Other than the recipe, the boss had also dropped a Level 170 Mythical tier Leather armor boots. Zhang Yang kept the boots. Perhaps, he could sell it for only 10 to 20 gold coins.
On the other hand, Han Ying Xue and the rest of the girls had rolled for the mount. Sun Xin Yu was the first to roll but failed at only 28%. The little brat and next, followed by Han Ying Xue and Daffodil Daydream was the last. However, after one round, all of them had failed to seal the mount and would need to start again.
In the second round, the little girl was lucky. She sealed the crow and obtained the Mythical tier Flying Mount. Contrary to popular belief, a flying mount was mainly for traveling, however, the most important factor of all mounts was their tier and strength. The higher the tier, the more it could improve their owner's survivability in battle.
Wei Yan Er summoned the little red crow out and prepared to train it. She then turned to the magnificent Phoenix and said, "Look at the little cutey pie~~~ Awww~~~ It's so cute I'm gonna die!!! Hahaha! Noobie tank! Don't think that I'll trade it with you! This is mine!"