Chapter 178: Poison Needle Storm

Translator: alyschu

Murong Mingyue didn’t even know where to begin. “Eve, you can attack the boss! As long as Lu Chen doesn’t retreat and reset the boss’s aggro, it will never attack you!”

He Yi nodded and rushed at the boss like a beautiful silver butterfly. She was a lot more beautiful than the Poison Beautiflies on this floor!

Crack!

Her blade cut through the boss's posterior. As usual, He Yi’s attack was absolutely on point.

117!

“OMG, is my Attack really that lousy?” He Yi complained with a displeased look.

Murong Mingyue gave up. “Just come back. You’re practically taunting the boss at this point, and it won’t be funny anymore if it actually gets angry...”

He Yi went away, and it was back to me fighting the boss alone. The Dark Wasp was doing okay, but everyone else’s pets were decorations at best. Although the Wasp was heralded as the king of offensive pets during the early game, here they couldn’t even do enough damage to pierce through the boss's Defense. The two-digit damage they dealt made me feel like crying on their behalf.

I shouted to boost everyone’s morale. “This fight’s turning out to be a slog, but if we win it doesn’t matter, does it? Keep it up, everyone! We’re definitely on the right track!”

The girls nodded in agreement, but not the boss. It suddenly rushed me and stabbed my shoulder armor with its sharp, poisonous posterior!

Puchi!

Blood spilled all over the place. A wave of numbness and near-lethal dose of pain made me feel like I was about to join my ancestors in heaven!

1102!

Beep!

Combat Log: Myriad Poison Scorpion King used “Poison Sting”, dealing 1102 damage to you. You have been poisoned, and you will lose 100% of your max HP over 30 seconds!

......

Fuck! This is bad! I’m going to lose all my HP in 30 seconds?

I pulled out an HP pot and drank it immediately. At the same time, I started running away from the boss. I absolutely couldn’t take any more damage until this poison effect was over!

Murong Mingyue gritted her teeth as she cast heal after heal on me. Everyone saw the combat log in the party channel, so they knew that they had to do everything in their power to keep me alive. If the main tank died, then it’d only be a matter of time before the party got wiped.

Thirty painful seconds later, I was hovering around 245 HP. The boss had already crushed the Dark Wasp and the Wasps into pancakes while I was busy running for my life. There just wasn’t much a low-rank pet could do now that everyone’s equipment and levels were so much better than before!

The Myriad Poison Scorpion King charged me again. Clearly, it wasn’t going to give me too much time to heal myself!

Swhoosh!

+765!

Murong Mingyue said urgently after healing my HP to over 1000, “Go, Lu Chen!”

I frowned. God dammit, is this how it’ll always be for melee fighters? Must I deliver myself into the boss's pincer even though I’m battered and bruised?

I drank a Rank 6 Health Potion the moment its cooldown was up!

+1500!

And just like that, I was almost back to full health. It feels so nice to be rejuvenated again!

I rushed toward the boss and dished out my signature combo: Pardon + Desperate Gambit!

MISS!

2247!

Go Pardon! The Myriad Poison Scorpion King had high Defense, but I was still able to deal a lot of damage thanks to this skill!

After the temporary crisis caused by the boss's skill was over, the situation stabilized and returned to normal.

Suddenly, Murong Mingyue shouted, “Oh no! I’m about to run out of Magic Consumables! I won’t be able to cast any spells if I don’t get any supplies within a minute! GG!”

He Yi exclaimed in shock, “OMG, why are you only saying it now?”

Murong Mingyue smiled apologetically. “Sorry, I was a bit too engrossed in the fight. Please go to Lu Chen and grab some supplies for me, will you? Be careful!”

“Mn!”

I sent the boss stumbling half a step backward as He Yi ran toward me. Then, I quickly passed 10 stacks of Rank 6 Steamed Fish Soup to He Yi and smiled. “Be careful...”

“Mn...”

He Yi giggled before running back to Murong Mingyue. What a shame that our beautiful leader was nothing more but a porter right now.

Ten minutes later, the boss's HP dropped to less than 10%. This was important because many high-rank bosses would enter a berserk state or transform to make intruding players’ lives into hell.

“Roar!”

The scorpion king let out an angry roar before transforming its shell into sharp needles. It was going to unleash its power again!

I shouted urgently, “It’s Poison Needle Storm, an AoE skill! Back off now!”

The girls obeyed my order and backed away from the boss quickly. Three seconds later, the boss finished channeling its skill and roared a second time, unleashing a storm of needles to its surroundings!

Boom!

An “exhilarating” feeling erupted across my body as the needles turned me into a human porcupine.

120!

114!

119!

110!

109!

......

I was hit by 30 needles at least. No one could’ve survived this without heals! Thankfully, I didn’t lose my cool completely even though I was stunned by the massive damage I took. I drank a Rank 6 Health Potion right before my HP would’ve hit zero, and I barely lived through the deadly assault.

I checked the party screen and was glad to find that everyone’s avatars were still lit. Unfortunately, my HP had almost hit rock bottom again despite the HP I gained while chugging my Rank 6 Health Potion. To call the boss's AoE skill deadly would be the understatement of the day. Had the girls retreated even a second slower, this fight would end in a party wipe without question.

No words were exchanged as I ran toward Murong Mingyue, and Murong Mingyue ran toward me. We both understood that we would die if I wasn’t healed up in time!

If it was just me, I wouldn’t mind dying once or twice. But I wasn’t alone, and my entire party would be wiped if I died here!

But the boss was chasing me, and it didn’t look like I would reach Murong Mingyue before it reached me. Left with no choice, I unleashed my trump card and clicked a skill I hadn’t clicked in a long time!

I choose you, little skeleton Xinran!

Swhoosh!

A red flash of magic later, Xinran was summoned to this world from the Netherworld. However, she looked a lot different from what I remembered. She was covered from head to toe in a mix of random equipment. She wore a copper pan, a snake scale armor that looked like it had seen much better days and a rusty pair of war boots. She also had a rusty iron spear in her hand.

What even was this epic appearance? There were so many things I wanted to say, but didn’t know where to start!

Even stranger was the fact that Xinran had somehow aggroed the boss away from me the second she appeared. The scorpion king looked visibly shaken and afraid when it saw the little skeleton. A second later, it charged her and swung its giant pincers straight at her head!

Puchi!

I couldn’t help but close my eyes. By the time I opened them again, Xinran had already gone back to my pet space, leaving behind only a green helmet on the floor. She died just like that after her epic appearance, but she also bought me three seconds of delay before the boss turned its attention back to me. It was just what I needed to stay alive!

My Summon Undead skill was gone. It was almost as if the skill was consumed by Xinran after I summoned her.

Swhoosh swhoosh...

+756!

+882!

Murong Mingyue’s ridiculously powerful healing spells flashed and washed over my body. Finally, I was no longer in danger of dying!

I turned around and attacked the boss again with the Ghost Ice Soul. Ice Ray penetrated the boss's tattered body like it was nothing, and Slayer Slash left an even deeper gash across the boss's body!

1743!

1904!

WTF? How did I deal so much damage?! For a second I was too stunned to move...

Even the girls were staring at me with gaping mouths. He Yi murmured in disbelief, “OMG, our Lu Chen is seriously too powerful. Is this what they call a wild Ultraman?”

Mingyue nodded. “That’s right. The only other possibility is that his salt level is too high and it doubled or even tripled his stats...”

Ouch, I feel like someone just shot me through my heart.

In reality, I wasn’t any stronger than I was before. It was the boss who had become weak. It looked like the boss had used up all its armor after turning them into needles and firing them at us, which was why its Defense had dropped like a rock. It was literally at death’s door now!

Thud thud thud...

Beiming Xue fired another round of Evil Spirit Volley and hit 7 arrows out of 8 this time. Every hit deleted at least 1000 HP from the boss's health bar, further reinforcing my belief!

A couple more hard-hitting blows later, the scorpion king finally let out a dying roar and collapsed to the floor. At the same time, countless items burst out of its dead body!

Swhoosh swhoosh...

Murong Mingyue and Moonlight Stone both leveled up from its death. Unfortunately, the death of the Level 72 Gold Rank boss only netted me enough experience to reach Level 69, 22%. At this stage, the amount of experience I needed to level was too ridiculous!

Just like before, I was given the right to loot the boss's body. I thought my luck wasn’t too bad, so Gold-grade equipment shouldn’t be out of my reach. Plus, this scorpion king was a high-level Gold Rank boss, so its drops couldn’t be bad, right?

I walked up to the boss and kicked away the giant pincer blocking my way. I found a bunch of Phantasmal Magic Stones and three shiny items lying snugly on the ground. The first item was a shining sword, the second item was a metal armor with light flickering across its body, and the third item was a greenish ring. They all looked pretty good!

Besides the equipment, the boss also dropped a purple skill book. In my opinion, it was the most valuable drop of the bunch by far!

The girls walked over to check out the loot as well. Everyone’s eyes were filled with excitement.

I picked up the sword first and brought up its stats screen. The girls’ mouth immediately fell open in disbelief.

Abyssal Sword (Gold-grade)

Attack: 135~180

Strength: +30

Stamina: +25

Passive: Increases user’s Attack by 5%

Passive: Increases user’s max HP by 3%

Level Requirement: 62

......

Holy shit! The sword boosted its wielder’s Attack by 5% and max HP by 3%, two stats that were absolutely essential to a Warrior class player. In fact, the only class that desired HP more than Warrior was Magic Knight. For them, HP and Defense took priority, and Attack was secondary!

I felt my heart tearing apart as I stared at the Abyssal Sword. On one hand, the weapon was even stronger than the Ghost Ice Soul, and the devil on my shoulder was shouting, “I want~ I want~ I want~” into my ears.

On the other hand, my angel reminded me that He Yi needed this sword more than I did. She was the guild leader of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and the symbolism behind owning a mighty weapon was even more important than the practical uses it provided. It wasn’t only that. He Yi was almost Level 62 already, and I’m sure she would reach Level 62 right after we cleared out the zone and completed the quest. She would be at the perfect level to equip this sword!

......