MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

“Get him, don’t let him escape. The Guild Master said that he’ll reward 1000 gold coins for every time he dies! No kill count limits! Kill him as much as you can!”

Outside the Wind Capital, a fearful and weakened Dark Elf Thief ran without thinking. Behind him, there were more than a hundred people pursuing him.

Stealth was out of the picture since a Curse Priest had placed a tracking spell, Curse of the Soul, on his body that even his Death Cloak could not remove. His only option left was to run for his life, solely relying on his class’ speed.

“I did put the Anler’s Scroll up for auction at the Auction House, but I never intended to scam anyone. I was selling it at one Gold Coin. It was your own Guild Master who upped the price to 410,000, how was that my fault? Killing me just because you guys thought that you made a loss, is that all you Star Fire goons are good for?”

The Dark Elf Thief continued running as he roared behind him in anger.

“Stop your f*cking blabbering. Either give us a refund or die. The choice is yours!”

Countless fireballs, light balls, and arrows flew towards him as the Dark Elf Thief bobbed and weaved through it all, nearly causing him to slip. Luckily, at that moment, the cooldown period of his Cyclone Step ended, allowing him to once again pull away from his pursuers.

“You shameless punk, stop running and come fight me if you have the guts!”

The Dark Elf thief turned back and spat at his pursuers, continuing his escape.

The tracking spell Curse of the Soul only lasted two hours. As long as he could survive until the effects of the spell wore off, he would be home free.

As per the Dark Elf Thief’s plan, he arrived at a huge lake. Without a second thought, he dove into the water.

Drinking an Underwater Breathing Potion, the Dark Elf Thief swam to the bottom of the lake.

Splash! Splash!

His pursuers jumped into the water one after the other. Those with Underwater Breathing Potions drank them immediately, whereas those without them just dove in while holding in their breaths. In order to get the bounty, they had no choice but to go all in.

Those who were under the effects of the Curse of the Soul spell will all glow in the eyes of others as if their body was covered by countless fireflies, making the target painfully obvious even in the darkest of nights.

With more than a hundred people underwater, even after more than two hours of searching, they still could not find the Dark Elf Thief.

The lake was not big and they had searched every nook and cranny, so where could that bastard have gone?

“Motherf*cker, he escaped, sigh…”

“Screw it, let’s do better next time, this bastard is as slippery as an eel.”

The group spewed vulgarities as they slowly started to disperse.

After about ten minutes, the Dark Elf Thief finally emerged from the water.

He definitely could not run away, but burrowing himself under the lakebed to evade them however…

“Damned Star Fire, I will never forgive you!” The Dark Elf Thief said whilst clenching his fist.

“You know too much!”

A a blade as white as snow flashed as it slashed at him from behind. The next instant, a Dwarf Thief appeared out of nowhere, swiftly following up with a second slash.

[-102]

[-150]

[-333]

With two consecutive slashes and a Finishing Strike, the Dark Elf Thief could not even manage to get a glimpse of the person who killed him before dropping lifelessly to the floor.

“1000 Gold Coins, mine.”

The Dwarf Thief laughed coldly, before entering Stealth.

After a while, the Dark Elf Thief stood up, also went into Stealth…

“Poof! Poof!”

The light from the snow-white blade once again flashed, as both of their Stealth statuses got canceled out. Staring each other in the eye, the two began their battle!

The Dark Elf Thief was at a disadvantage. His skills were not bad, but since he was ambushed earlier, his health had still not fully recovered yet.

After five seconds, the Dark Elf Thief once again fell to the ground.

“F*ck your mum, do you even have the balls to tell me your own name?”

“Old Green.” The Dwarf Elf calmly stated.

The Dark Elf Thief fell silent.

“You were having a lot of fun insulting me just now.” Old Green’s body once again disappeared.

The Dark Elf Thief seemed to be regretting his actions.

The Dwarf Thief Old Green with the nickname Dog-skin Plaster was a name he had heard about for a long time.

‘This is bad, with this idiot spawn-camping me, I probably won’t be able to get up for the next hour and a half or so…’

…

“Coo–– Coo––”

Inside Frost Valley, Li Yi was still fighting on. He had been grinding to the point where he started to feel sick of it.

“Ding!”

[You have obtained Ice Toad King’s Mount.]

“Ding!”

[You have obtained Ice Toad King’s Mount.]

Obtaining two Mount spawns in a row improved Li Yi’s mood a little. Just as he wanted to force himself to continue, after he went into Camouflage Mode, he noticed that the new Ice Toad King did not respawn. No matter how much he moved back or played dead, it still did not spawn…

‘Is the bug fixed?’

Li Yi looked down and saw the corpse of the Ice Toad King, he finally realized.

‘It’s over!’

Li Yi started attacking the Ice-Scale Snake.

After a brief moment, the system notification rang out loud. He had once again earned a King of Pantheon Hall of Fame Event and a First Kill achievement, receiving one Skill Point.

However, hardly anybody paid attention to that. This was due to the fact that when the system announcement sent the notification about his First Kill, five others also gained their own King of Pantheon Hall of Fame Events and their respective First Kill Achievement, pushing down his notification.

Ding!

Another System Notification rang: [Due to you using a bug to exploit monsters, you broke the Pantheon’s balance, the Major Gods has decided to punish you with a ten-day Red Name Weak Status, a 3-Level penalty, and a 3000-point penalty in your Reputation with all factions.]

‘As expected, karma has come…’

Li Yi’s attributes all instantly dropped by 90%, gaining the Red Name Weak Status.

Although the loot items you get from using bugs to exploit monsters will not be confiscated, but they would still punish the players who used bug exploits. This was something Li Yi had already known. Otherwise, he would not have attempted it.

However, after considering everything, it was worth it. After grinding for nearly ten days, he obtained countless loot and raised his level to Level 43. So even after the 3-Level penalty, he was still Level 40. Even better was the fact that he managed to farm ten Ice Toad King Mounts.

Ice Toad King Mount’s passive will give its owner an attribute increase, but it also had a unique Support-type Skill.

Leap!

All low-level mounts had similar uses. They could not be used for combat, only for riding. Crimson Tiger King could not fight, and Ice Toad King could not fight either. However, Ice Toad King’s unique skill Leap was exceptionally useful.

With a single jump, it could reach more than ten meters in height. If you allowed the Ice Toad King to charge up its Leap on the spot, it could even reach more than thirty meters in height. This may just be some fun gimmick to others, but to Li Yi, this Leap had a lot of uses.

In the world of King of Pantheon, there were a lot of places where the player could never get to with their own two feet. Especially in the early periods of the game, there were not any flying mounts available yet. When facing a treasure chest on a cliff wall which may contain treasure, one could only sigh helplessly as they could not possibly climb that steep cliff.

Of course, if a game had designed unreachable locations for the player, naturally there would also be a lot of methods for high-level players to reach those places. Ice Toad King’s Leap was one of those methods. Li Yi recalled that there was also a special item that allowed one to do the same, the Silkweaver’s Ring. Using the ring, you could shoot out silk and climb up the cliff using the silk. With this little gadget, you basically transformed yourself into Spiderman.

However, the Silkweaver’s Ring was an exclusive drop from the Level 30 boss Bloodspider King in the Land of Poison. Its drop rate was even lower than the Crimson Tiger King mount. In his past life, he spent three years grinding for it but to no avail. It just goes to show how absurdly low the drop rate was.

Of course, other than these two methods, there were other still various ways, but it would be all up to the player’s creativity to find them.

“Fatty, come to the Guild’s Map.”

Li Yi sent a message to Chen Yang, as he held up his Guild Return City Stone.

…

Out of the ten Ice Toad King Mounts, Li Yi would only use one of them. As for the nine remaining, because these mounts were created from exploiting a bug, he would not put them up for sale for now. However, if it was just giving away a couple of them, it should not be a problem for the system.

He will first give Fatty one, and when Jiaojiao comes online, he would give her another.

“This… What’s this? This… This is an Ice Crystal Toad? A mount? Holy… Holy f*ckin’ crap! ¹ ” Chen Yang stared at the Ice Toad King Mount, completely lost for words.

The rarer an item was, the more expensive it would be. Chen Yang and Li Yi were similar people as they both loved to go to the official website to research information. He had also often looked through the mount illustrations in the open wiki of the official site. Ice Toad King was a rare mount. In terms of value, it was on par with the Crimson Tiger King, no, even more valuable than that. The additional special skill Leap, it was literally an Ultimate Move in the early stages of the game.

“Brother Yi, are… are you seriously giving me this?” Chen Yang’s voice started to crack.

“No sh*t, I’ve already given it to you, haven’t I? If it wasn’t meant for you, then what? Did I just trade it to you just for you to look at it?” Li Yi rolled his eyes and continued, “Anyway, the mount is in your hands now, whether you want to sell it or keep it, it’s your call. You don’t need my permission.”

“Why the f*ck would I sell this? If I don’t use this mount for myself, I’d rather cut my balls off.”

With a clap of Chen Yang’s hands, the avatar of the Ice Toad King disappeared and he obtained the mount.

“Come out, Travelling Toad!”

“Poof!”

Chen Yang immediately summoned it out and went on a joyride on the Ice Toad King. He was grinning from ear to ear.

“Don’t be so happy just yet, I still have a quest I need to give you.”

“What quest?”

“You’ll find out tomorrow.”

Li Yi smiled mysteriously, hiding the surprise.

…

The tallest peak in the Human’s domain –– Blade Peak.

Li Yi rode on the Ice Toad King, Leaping repeatedly on the Blade Peak’s steep cliff walls.

Blade Peak was completely surrounded by cliffs, all being dozens of thousands of meters tall. If you are solely relying on your legs, there was literally no way for you to reach any of the places. Even if you used the Ice Toad King’s Leap skill, it was still not guaranteed.

Just within an hour, Li Yi had already fallen to his death three times. His EXP dropped so much that he almost wanted to cry. If he died just one more time, his level would no doubt drop back to Level 39.

The higher he got, there was less room for error. Starting at the midway point, the room for error was only the size of a palm. If he tilted even a little, it was instant death.

Li Yi could no longer afford to be cocky. After dying three times, he started to get a hang of the Ice Toad King’s Leap skill. At this point, every time before he Leaped, he would take the time to do the calculations, trying his best to ensure there were no errors.

Soon, the most difficult part arrived.

Blade Peak’s upper half of the mountain was completely covered with ice and snow. Even disregarding the palm-sized margin of error, the surface was also extremely slippery. If you stayed on any surface for more than two seconds, you would immediately slide off…

He needed to jump continuously!

After deliberating for nearly five minutes, he ordered the Ice Toad King to Leap.

“Bam! Bam! Bam!”

With a beautiful triple jump, Li Yi landed in a safe zone.

There were multiple places similar to this, but the hardest part was the path towards the peak that required ten consecutive jumps.

After thinking for a full half hour, with a shout of gusto, he ordered the Ice Toad King to Leap up high.

“Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!”

The Ice Toad King Leaped from left to right, over and over again, not stopping for even a second. With ten consecutive jumps, he had finally done it. He had finally reached the peak in one piece.

“Young man, congratulations for reaching this place.” A slow, old man’s voice rang out.

“Ding!”

System Notification: [You are the first player who conquered Blade Peak. Recorded in the Pantheon Hall of Fame. In addition, you are also awarded 3000 points in Reputation Value in all major cities as a reward!]