Chapter 636: Gurant’s Thumb Ring
Chapter 636: Gurant’s Thumb Ring
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Perhaps, there was no way that anyone could beat the record set by Zhang Yang and his battle team.
The entire arena remained quiet for a long time before the usual rowdiness returned. It took several players quite some time for them to accept the fact that Zhang Yang had single-handedly eliminated all 5 enemies with a single strike. Steely Dangs Battle Team did not even have time to react.
It could not be helped, {Rising Dragon Strike} was only activated by luck and luck alone. It was not something that Zhang Yang could control. It would be extremely nice to have the skill proc at the crucial moment…
In the end, despite the audience still left dumbfounded, the champion of the World Championship Professional League was Silky Soft Battle Team! Zhang Yang and his band of merry friends had become the first World Champions ever! They held the pride and honor of China! While everyone was happy that China was able to hold the first place in the championship, Humbly Gentleman, Liu Wei, and other players that had a grudge on him were pissed off albeit still happy for their nation.
After everyone was sent out of the arena, the two Battle Teams were teleported away. China had produced two teams that had obtained the champion and the second runner-up. That alone had proved that China was a force to be reckoned with.
The prize money was sent out almost immediately after the results were out. Even though Zhang Yang was smiling from ear to ear as he holds the large cheque made out of a large cardboard with several zeros on it, the prize money was already in his saving account. As to how the division of the prize money goes, the organizers of the event would not bother to interfere. It was up to the leader of the battle team to decide.
The second prize was the Inheritance Fragments. All three battle team leaders were sent up a stage to draw from loot box. Snow Seeker obtained a C class Mammoth Inheritance, Hourglass Figure obtained a B class Silverwing Angel Inheritance, and Zhang Yang obtained an A class Soul Breaker Inheritance.
Due to the lack of information about the Inheritances, no one had any clue on their details. It could be a physical attack type, or a magic type, it could be a melee type, or a ranged type. All of the questions will be answered only when the players themselves obtain the Inheritance Keepsakes.
Even so, if Daffodil Daydream accepted the Darkness Inheritance back then, she would still benefit from several of its buffs. Sadly, it would still be wastage, such as the 250% attack boost {Dark Vengeance}, for it requires a melee weapon. Hence, some Inheritances were meant for specific wielders. It could be so precise to the class type down to its branch job, such as a Beastmaster or a Sniper, a Pyromancer or a Cryomancer.
Zhang Yang passed the Soul Breaker Inheritance Fragment to Daffodil Daydream and had her search for all 6 remaining Fragments. If the Keepsake’s description reveals the Inheritance to be directed towards magic, Zhang Yang would have her take on the Inheritance quest. If it is the other way around, she will be greatly compensated for her futile effort. Zhang Yang would never send someone on a random goose chase without a proper reward in hand.
After the event ended, the organizers of the event threw a grand closing ceremony and invited all participant to visit Luxembourg for a holiday. Naturally, all expenses would be covered.
Sadly, China’s Lunar Year celebration was about to arrive. Hence, Zhang Yang and the rest of the China players had chosen to fly back to China to resume their activity there. Once the teams arrived back at the mainland, Daffodil Daydream started her adventure to search for the Inheritance Fragments. Like other Inheritances, collecting all the pieces of the fragment was not a difficult task. It was just time-consuming. After 5 to 6 days, she found the second piece. The journey of collecting all seven pieces of Fragment would definitely be a far road ahead.
With the emergence of players that had surpassed the Level 120 threshold, Zhang Yang felt that it was time to move forward with his plans. He had Mountain Mover and Endless Starlight to take charge of exploring the Red Garnet Palace Dungeon. The second dungeon was the target of all players in the world. Even though the importance of obtaining the First Clear Achievement of the second world-class dungeon could not be compared to the Dragon Throat Fortress, it was still a priority to everyone since it had skill points as a reward! On the side note, the haul from a dungeon was constant, even though the equipment farmed there are not as strong as an open-world boss, the dungeon does have tons of bosses to kill and equipment for Battle Companion to loot! All and all, it was still worth raiding.
Since the progress of players in the game was so rapid (due to Zhang Yang interfering with the timeline), and the existence of Battle Companion (also Zhang Yang’s fault), the difficulty of the Red Garnet Palace was not too difficult for players to raid. Both the Normal and Hard modes of the dungeon were conquered in just half a day’s time. All big guilds from around the world had funded their Exploration parties and had started the raid on the Hardcore Mode.
Similar to the Dragon Throat Palace, the Red Garnet Palace had many bosses. Up to 13 of them! Compared to the previous dungeon, the first five bosses were conquered in just 3 days. The middle 5 bosses were slightly stronger and lasted for a while. Most of the super-guilds Exploration team only took close to 7 days to clear the middle stage. Zhang Yang believed that the last 3 bosses would end up being cleared in no time at all.
After working for half a month, Daffodil Daydream had managed to find all the Inheritance Fragments of the Soul Breaker Inheritance and had formed the Keepsake. Turns out, it was an Inheritance that can be acquired only by Priests, Spellcasters, and Knights. It was a class-specific Inheritance! A good red envelope for the new year! [1]
With the new year coming closer and closer, every family in China was busy getting ready to celebrate the festive holiday. Many needed to travel far to visit their family from all corners of China. There were many things that needed to be done, hence, the time spent on playing games was greatly reduced. Some days, a member would be asking for a 3 days leave, the next day, another would want a 4-day leave. One by one, members of the Exploration team had requested for leaves, leaving the party incomplete.
Eventually, after a serious discussion between Hundred Shots, Endless Starlight, and Mountain Mover, the guild decided to hold off the Exploration of the dungeon and allow everyone to do as they please till the 15th of the month.
With Lone Desert Smoke out of the picture, the fight for the First Clear Achievement was going on strongly. In just a few days’ time, the guild Paragon had managed to kill their way to the 11th boss. Nihilum was following closely behind and defeated the 12th boss, surpassing Paragon. However, the one who had the last laugh was Hourglass Figure, as she had led a team of elite players from her guild, the Land of Savages and killed the last boss. The First Clear Achievement had fallen into the hands of the India Region. For the first time ever, Zhang Yang had missed out on obtaining a First Clear Achievement.
It was all due to the special occasion of China, Korean, and even Japan celebrating the new year. Due to the celebration, almost all guilds had stopped their pursuits of the dungeon raid. Perhaps it was greed, or pride, when Land of Savages obtained the First Clear Achievement, they used the momentary attention to voice out their dismay of their losses during the World Championship. Still, a win was a win, at the very least, they still managed to obtain the world’s second world-class dungeon First Clear Achievement. However, the shame of losing to Lone Desert Smoke still lingered around. Hence, Land of Savages had accused Lone Desert Smoke of only depending on luck to win the championship. If it was not for Zhang Yang’s weird skill, they would have won the group 5v5 fight! Land of Savages was, in truth, stronger than Lone Desert Smoke in every way! Or so they claimed.
In response to their sudden accusations, Han Ying Xue, Wei Yan Er, and many other hot-headed players of Lone Desert Smoke were enraged. Han Ying Xue had even suggested starting a national war to show the Indians their rightful place amongst the trash of the world!
It was merely a suggestion. Whether or not Zhang Yang takes action is another thing. As such, after the short period of time since the Red Garnet Palace’s First Clear Achievement was taken, players had yet again indulged themselves in a race of grinding Levels. There was a large gap till the next dungeon, hence, everyone placed their attention on getting their level as high as possible. After all, Levels dictates the character’s strength in all MMORPG!
In the middle of the second month of the year, the Professional League had started a new seasonal championship. In the previous seasonal Professional League, the last two Battle Team in the S class Professional League had to fight the Champion and the Runner-Up Battle Team of the A class Professional League. In the end, the S class Battle Teams lost Title Defense match, allowing the A class Battle Teams to enter the S class Professional League fight ring.
The two new fresh blood were strong. In the first match, they defeated Sunset Amber guild and Rolling Stones with a massive gap, giving them a promising prospect. The next few matches they were assigned to were easily won. However, when everyone was about to cheer for the greenhorns, the two Battle Teams had cold water poured over their head by Lone Desert Smoke and Imperial Sky. As such, the new Battle Teams had learned their lesson after finally tasting what real pros were like. In other news, the so-called "undefeatable" guild, The Myth was defeated.
…
After a series of pre-requisite quests were completed by Daffodil Daydream, Zhang Yang had assembled a small team to help Daffodil Daydream kill the Soul Breaker Inheritance quest boss. Right then, the team consists of three S class Inheritance holders, one A class Inheritance holder, and four B class Inheritance holders. The formation was extremely strong and could easily topple any boss at their level. If that was not impressive enough, the players had also reached Level 120 and equipped an array of equipment to further increase their overall DPS. Zhang Yang even had Level 150 Ethereal equipment! (Lowered to Level 130 due to the special skill). Attack, Defense, Skills, Power, all of those requirements were fulfilled by Zhang Yang little battle team.
To save time and effort, everyone activated their Inheritance Transformation skill and only took less than 1 hour to kill the boss! The boss dropped two Ethereal tier equipment. One of them was a shield which was immediately given to Endless Starlight to increase his Defensive power for a change. On the other hand, Zhang Yang had taken the liberty of hauling the other Ethereal equipment for himself.
[Gurant’s Thumb Ring] (Ethereal, Ring)
Vitality: +1667
Strength: +566
Dexterity: +556
Equip: Increases 3,330 Maximum HP.
Equip: Increases 8% damage dealt and healing rate.
Equip: Absorbs 485 damage when attacked.
Equip: Increases Frost Damage dealt with a weapon by 50%
Level Requirement: 150
The good news did not last long. Right after Daffodil Daydream defeated the Inheritance quest boss, the Japan-Korea region players had issued a war, a Territorial Conquest War!
Like the previous attempt, the enemy had used two [Territorial Conquest Order] to strike both Winst Castle and Morning Town at the same time. With the [Level 4 Guild Upgrade Order] available then, Zhang Yang, or rather China, was facing 80,000 strongest players of Japan-Korea Region.
The situation was rather disadvantageous for China since the Empire Expedition Army had left a long time ago. The castle was practically defenseless! Even the Mechanical Servants placed in the castle were no match to them as they were now far behind on levels.
Worst of all, Zhang Yang and his team had just used their Transformation skill. He had no [Forbidden Scrolls] in hand to counter the enemy powerful attacking force! If Zhang Yang still decides to fight them, it would be a suicide mission! And they are the suicide squad!
Then again, it has been 6 months since Zhang Yang had conquered the territory. 6 month of constantly traveling was enough to make anyone as grumpy as a mad pig. It would not hurt much for Zhang Yang to allow Winst Castle to be taken over. After all, Zhang Yang had not planned to occupy the territory for long.
As such, Zhang Yang had mobilized all his forces to protect Morning Town, leaving Winst Castle in the hands of the NPCs inside to put up a little resistance.
The two wars started with a bang. Without a doubt, even without his Transformation skill, Zhang Yang as still able to lead Lone Desert Smoke to stampede over the invading players. However, Winst Castle was successfully taken over by the enemy.
As such, after taking back their land that had been occupied by the enemy for 6 months, Japan and Korea cheered happily. However, they might have won the war, but they still lost one of the fights. The shame for having the enemy occupying their land for 6 months was not something anyone could wash off with just one war.
Translator Note:
[1]: Red Envelope: It’s Chinese culture to present a red envelope packed with money inside to someone else as a means to pass on the prosperity. It was a practice that existed in most Asian countries with Chinese population. Japan and Korea have similar practices but the envelope do not necessarily have to be red in color.