Chapter 13: Entering the Dungeon
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Black Dragon and the Mystical Unicorn were both Level 150 Field Bosses and also the strongest among monsters of their own level tier. While killing them would be hard, it would still be easier then actually trying to fight Calina.
What got Zhang Yang mad was the Book of the Damned!
Book of the Damned was the spectre race’s totem, hidden well within the Evil Spirit Tower that resided in the sacred land of the spectres. Not only was it heavily guarded by a strong defense force, in the tower also sat the strongest among the 7 Witch Kings in the spectre realm ‘Witch King of the Undead’, a God Class Boss above Level 200, Madevitch. To acquire the Book of the Damned under his nose…
Still, he would consider all these to be fine. All he had to do was to acquire the Book of the Damned, and not defeat Madevitch, Witch King of the Undead.
Now though, as there was absolutely no way for him to proceed with this quest, he could only set it aside for now.
Zhang Yang first accepted the quest ‘Traces of the Gnomes’, the pre-requisite quest to enter the Bangar Crypt dungeon. The quest was simple, to eliminate 20 gnomes. After completing the mission, he met up with Sorr the Army Captain. This middle-aged man was shocked and could not believe that there had been gnomes around the White Jade Castle!
This NPC then gave out a subsequent quest, ‘Find Their Lair’. Zhang Yang followed the quest instructions and arrived at the entrance of the Bangar Crypt dungeon. Upon completion and submission of the quest, he then received Sorr’s final quest called ‘The Raid’ and obtained the permission to enter Bangar Crypt dungeon.
[The Raid] (Difficulty Level: A)
Quest Description: You have found the lair of the gnomes. Find their leader, Dadaerda. Initiate the raid and slay these horrid creatures!
Progress: Kill Dadaerda 0/1
This quest did not set any required specific difficulty level to kill Dadaerda, so even if the boss was killed in Hardcore Mode, the end reward of the quest would have been the same as those in Normal Mode.
Zhang Yang returned to the dungeon entrance once again and saw a 9-man party waiting outside the dungeon. As they saw Zhang Yang walk towards them with a shield on his back, one of the players had immediately private messaged him, “Bangar Crypt Normal Mode! We have a main tank! We’re in need of another off-tank, would you join us?”
Only Guardians and Defenders could wield a shield in the game, so the player could easily identify Zhang Yang’s class even with his profile hidden.
Difficult Mode and Hardcore Mode could only be attempted once a day but Normal Mode did not have any limit to its entry. Zhang Yang had to keep his dungeon entry until Fatty Han came online to go with him, so he could only do Normal Mode with this party now. He thought about it and replied, “Invite me!”
“Ding! Player Floral Shorts invites you to join his party. Will you accept his invitation?”
“Accept!” Zhang Yang tapped ‘Confirm’.
“Ding! You have joined the party. Party leader: Floral Shorts. Distribution mode: Roll the Dice.”
Distribution mode referred to the distribution method when items of white grade and above dropped. Roll the Dice mode was the most common party choice where the item would automatically go to the player who had rolled the highest number.
Besides Roll the Dice, there were also Leader’s Distribution (party leader would decide who would receive the loot) and Individual Loot (finders, keepers).
Zhang Yang noticed that of the 9 players, Floral Shorts and 3 others belonged to the guild Pride, while another 2 were in different guilds themselves while the remaining three were guild-less like Zhang Yang.
“F*ck, this off-tank has only 350 HP. He is useless! Floral, kick him out!” A Spellcaster by the name of Prideful Precepts scorned when he saw Zhang Yang’s HP value.
“Ding! You have been expelled from the party!” Zhang Yang received a notification as soon as he was expelled.
Zhang Yang could not help but become surprised. Members of this Pride Guild were so domineering, expelling someone without a second thought! Rage simmered in him but he shook his head at once. Why be petty and degrade himself to the same level as those imbecile players?
Just as he was about to leave, Zhang Yang’s sight was glued to a player who had not hid his name, “Hundred Shots, Male Dwarf, Beast Hunter, Level 10”.
It was him!
Zhang Yang vividly remembered that this Beast Hunter had been an impressive character in his previous life, and was ranked first in the top 10 Beast Hunter list! Just by looking at his skills, he may not be the best. However, his luck was extremely good that he had managed to get a Baby Red Dragon as his pet!
Dragons, as one of the most powerful monsters in ‘God’s Miracle’, even if it was downgraded to a player’s pet and lost its devastating killing skill, was still remarkably strong! With the help of his pet dragon, Hundred Shots had managed to squeeze into the top ten ranking and eventually took the first spot. Players dubbed him as ‘The Dragon Hunter’, and even players who had gotten phoenixes as pets were considered inferior to him!
As for how Hundred Shots got his hands on the pet dragon, he had always been secretive about it and had never revealed anything. Thereafter, Beast Hunters had kept attempting to figure out the method to obtain such a pet but had never managed to even come up with a clue. The Dragon Hunter, it had always been just him!
Yet now, this future hotshot was still a long way from his fame. By his side stood a pet pig that kept wiggling its butt. His current expression was without the confident flair after he had gotten famous, looking just like any other common player.
Never had Zhang Yang thought that he would meet this future hotshot on the second day of his game. He was stirred. If he could get Hundred Shots to join him, he would be taking a large step forward towards his dream of conquering the S-Class League.
Furthermore, Hundred Shots was still a common player now, this would be the best time to get close to him!
“Hey, we’re still lacking one member. Take it as a favor. We’ll bring you in as a good deed!” Floral Shorts suddenly sent him a private message. Along with it, an invitation to join his party.
Zhang Yang’s first reaction was to reject the invitation, but as he saw that Hundred Shots was also in the party, he changed his mind immediately and chose ‘Accept’.
Returning to the party, Zhang Yang took his time and looked through the party’s structure: A Defender (Main Tank), a Sacred Knight (Healer), 2 Hunters (DPS), 2 Thieves (DPS), 2 Mages (DPS), and 1 Priest (Healer).
The main tank Defender’s HP was very high, totaling a whopping 700 HP. However, with 3 gaming years’ worth of eyesight, Zhang Yang could easily tell with a glance that only the shield worn by this Pride guild player, Kindling Chest Hair, was of Black-Steel rarity. The rest of his equipment were only of White-Wood rarity!
Since White-Wood rarity equipment, other than its armor, would not add any Attribute bonus, this Defender’s HP would have had been completely increased by his given AP. This had also meant that the 50 AP gained on his way to Level 10 were all invested in Vitality. In addition to the Attribute increase when he leveled up plus the default 50 HP at Level 1, it would total up to 650 HP.
Lastly, with 5 points of Vitality bonus from the Black-Steel rarity shield, they would all add up to exactly 700 HP maxed.
This kind of Vitality investment was also known as the Bull’s Blood investment. Since the beginner equipment was weak, the AP gained during leveling up would be the main support of increasing a tank’s Attributes. However, starting from Green-Copper rarity and above, the bonus Attribute provided would be enough to match the AP; from Gray-Silver rarity and beyond, the bonus Attributes would exceed the character’s own AP, thus equipment would become more crucial as the game progressed.
Nevertheless, as a tank, one had to be able to defend attacks in addition to withstanding a monster’s aggro. Otherwise, the boss would have wiped out all the other players, so even with such high HP, how would one compare to the boss?
This tank’s weapon was a White grade one-handed hammer bought at Level 10, possibly having 7 – 13 Weapon Attack Range, but since he had added all of his AP with the Bull’s Blood method, his maximum would have only reached 15 Strength and melee damage of around 22 – 28 points.
A regular Level 10 monster would have 10 defense points, while an Elite would have 15, and a Boss would have 20. If he could only inflict 7 – 13 damage on an Elite, it would have meant that he could only ditch out 2 – 8 damage to a Boss. It would be close to impossible to pull any aggro at all!
In comparison, Zhang Yang’s sword alone would have already dealt 16 – 24 damage. Adding 60 points on Strength attribute meant that his melee damage could reach a terrifying 76 – 84 points!
“Hey useless Guardian, just watch and learn later. We’re doing you a favor here. Don’t mess up and cause us all to die!” blabbered Prideful Precepts.
“Pay no heed to them. These guys have a stinky mouth. It’s not worth to pick a fight with them!” Zhang Yang received a private message, looking at the sender: Hundred Shots.
Zhang Yang smiled, he was just thinking of approaching him and quickly sent a reply, “Mm, I’m just going to treat it as them farting!”
“Haha, you’re absolutely right! They’re just a bunch of stinky kiddos!” Hundred Shots instantly replied.
“Alright, now that we’re all gathered, let’s go into the dungeon. Time waits for no man!” Floral Shorts announced in the party channel. “Speed! Haste!”
All 10 players entered the dungeon one by one. A sudden change flashed and they had arrived at a scarcely lit underground cave. Just some distance away stood 6 green and oddly-shaped gnomes. They had no eyes on their face but their ears were exceptionally large.
[Gnome Soldier] (Elite)
Level: 10
HP: 5000
“Hairy, go!” said Floral Shorts in the party channel. “Guardian, be prepared. If someone OTs, be sure to handle it! Priest! Sacred Knight! You two focus on healing the tank!”
OT1 referred to the moment when someone had caused an aggro value that exceeded the monster’s current target, typically the tank, causing the monster to switch its attacking target.
Even though both Guardians and Defenders were considered as tank, these two classes had totally different attacking styles.
Defenders would have more AoE attacking skills, making them suitable for fields where there were many smaller monsters. His spell-immunity skill was better too, giving him an advantage when faced with a magic-type boss. On the other hand, Guardians had a stronger single-target aggro pulling ability, suitable for dealing with single physical-type bosses.
Carrying a shield on his left hand and a war hammer on his right, Kindling Chest Hair walked a few steps forward and furiously threw his shield out.
That was not showing off at all but actually activating the Defender’s skill called <Shield Toss>. A skill that would attack 3 targets at once, causing 100% physical damage to each one.
Translator Notes
1 OT stands for off-tank or off-tanking. It is often used interchangeably as a noun or a verb. OT also has multiple meanings depending on the context of the sentence. For instance, as a noun: We need an OT to tank the boss. This sentence means that two tanks are needed, the first being the Main Tank (MT) and the second being the Off-tank or (OT). The other meaning for OT could be used when someone ‘pulls’ the aggro of a monster off the tank. In this case, you could say that the player has ‘OT-ed’ and it could also mean that the situation has turned dire, as DPSers and healers should usually not be receiving any attention from the boss at all in an optimized dungeon run.
Chapter 14: Who is the Noob?
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“-1!”
“-1!”
“-1!”
3 pathetic damage figures floated across the 3 Gnome Soldiers’ heads. 6 monsters roared at the same time and charged towards Kindling Chest Hair.
Kindling Chest Hair remained rooted and activated the skill <Devotion>. A white light flashed beneath his feet while a magic circle with a radius of 2 meters appeared. The moment those Gnome Soldiers entered the circle, “-1” and “-2” damage texts flashed above their heads with each passing second.
[Devotion]: Deals 100% Holy damage to all targets within 10 seconds. Holy damage is categorized as magic damage and is unaffected by Defense.
<Shield Toss> and <Devotion> were both very powerful skills. Unfortunately, they would require a significantly higher Strength value to properly deal decent damage. Since Kindling Chest Hair used a pure tank build, he had completely ruined these 2 skills.
“Alright, everyone start attacking! No one is allowed to slack! I will put out the damage statistics when we’re done! No equipment for the lowest damage dealt!” said Flowery Pants in the party channel as he dashed forward wielding two swords – a Bandit.
Zhang Yang was an off tank, meaning he was to hold aggro onto monsters and avoid competing with the main tank’s enmity. He had waited until Kindling Chest Hair took on all 6 Gnome Soldiers before rushing forward to take one on.
“-62!”
With just one normal attack from Zhang Yang, the monster had immediately turned its head and thrusted the spear raised in its hand towards Zhang Yang.
Yup, definitely OT! Luckily he was also a tank!
Kindling Chest Hair was furious and scolded, “Noob, don’t use <Provoke> to pull monsters, do you even know how to play?” He was too self-confident, thinking he had already established a lot of aggro. He thought that the monster had turned around only because Zhang Yang had used <Provoke>.
“That’s right! If you use <Provoke> too many times, the monster will become immune to it! You f*cking noob!” Prideful Precepts followed.
These two idiots were hopeless but there was no need to explain his actions as only the truth would prevail!
The damage dealing team had begun their attack, as fireballs and frost arrows filled the space. All Gnome Soldiers except the one Zhang Yang was luring had ignored Kindling Chest Hair and had made their way towards the attacking team.
Floral Shorts showed no responsibility as a party leader, abandoning everything after yelling attack, and had only swung both his swords, relishing in the joy of stabbing the monsters’ back. Everyone was attacking their own monster with no intention to draw their attacks together to kill one monster at a time; Kindling Chest Hair’s enmity grabbing skills was too low, causing 5 monsters to go after the OT at the same time!
“F*ck, the f*ck is our Defender doing? Pull them properly!” A mage who was in the middle of casting a fireball stopped his action and shouted in bewilderment.
Kindling Chest Hair was terrible at holding aggro though his skills in refuting was not bad at all, arguing back immediately, “F*ck! You OT the monster and dared to complain? Noob! Get the f*ck out!”
“You’re the noob! If I’m the only one who OT-ed the monster, then it would be fine! But now 5 monsters OT-ed simultaneously! Only you can achieve this sort of wonderful work!” the mage shot back.
Zhang Yang used <Charge> and managed to keep up with the monsters that had lost control. He swung his sword and activated <Horizontal Sweep>, yellow damage text floated across the heads of those 5 monsters at once.
“-137!”
“-148!”
“-145!”
“-298!”
“-139!”
There was an unexpected Critical Strike!
One monster was stunned from <Charge> while the remaining four monsters turned back and attacked Zhang Yang.
“Block!”
Zhang Yang raised his shield, successfully blocking 4 monsters’ attacks at the same time!
According to <Block>’s skill description, each use could only block one attack. However, Zhang Yang had wittingly adjusted his position, causing the setup of 4 simultaneous attacks from the monsters. Since the attack gap was too short, the system had considered them as one attack, allowing <Block> to successfully ward off all incoming attacks!
It was unsure if this was considered a bug. The gaming company had long since realized about this but had not removed or patched it. They instead claimed that this particular moment was difficult to master, and so if someone could pull it off they should consider it as a bonus from the system!
“-45!”
“-45!”
“-45!”
“-45!”
<Block> reflected the damage, as 4 yellow damage text flashed accordingly.
Zhang Yang raised his shield, aimed towards the stunned monster and bashed it.
“-105!” <Shield Bash>!
At this point, the stunned monster had recovered and the monster Zhang Yang had been pulling initially had also charged forward. Remaining calm, Zhang Yang evaded all 6 monsters’ attacks with a side step, while gathering all the monsters onto a mound through his strategic movement.
Dodged!
Dodged!
Dodged again!
Zhang Yang’s HP remained untouched since the beginning, easing through the monsters’ bombarding attacks.
“Expert!” The other five party members who were not from Pride cried in astonishment
.
“Oh my God, such high damage, is he really a tank?”
“No wonder his HP is low. All his AP were added to Strength!”
“He could only allocate AP in such a way because he was so skillful. Can’t you see that he hasn’t received any damage?”
Jealousy stemmed froms the fear of comparison!
Kindling Chest Hair could not hold it in any longer. Holding his war hammer, he ran up to Zhang Yang and used <Justice Defense>, pulling 3 monsters to himself.
[Justice Defense] was a Defender’s provoking skill. Each activation could only provoke 3 monsters, forcing them to attack the caster for 2 seconds. This would be why a tanking Defender was much more suitable to pull monsters in a group.
Kindling Chest Hair unleased all of his high enmity skills on those 3 monsters, earnestly hoping to pull aggro, but after 2 seconds, the monsters had returned to attack Zhang Yang immediately, completely ignoring Kindling Chest Hair!
Kindling Chest Hair was both embarrassed and angry. He casted <Justice Defense> once again, right after the 10 seconds cooldown time, only to receive the same result.
“Defender! Stop pulling! Each time the monster attacks you, your HP drops rapidly. You’re putting a load on the healers!”
Prideful Babysitter, a Priest from Pride, and the guildless Sacred Knight Ocean Despair were unhappy but it was the latter who complained. Prideful Babysitter had not voiced out due to being in the same guild as Kindling Chest Hair.
Kindling Chest Hair was infuriated, mentally blocking off the complaints. <Justice Defense> was activated once again after 10 seconds, annoying Ocean Despair to the point of being speechless.
Zhang Yang marked one of the Gnome Soldiers and said, “Focus and kill the marked monster!”
Everyone was cooperative, changing their target and switching to attack the one Zhang Yang had marked. Unfortunately, Floral Shorts and Prideful Precepts had ignored his words and continued to deal damage to their own targeted monster.
“Pa! Pa!”
Half a minute later, 2 Gnome Soldiers had fallen under the focus fire.
Kindling Chest Hair’s face turned sour. As he activated <Justice Defense> for the fourth time, none of the monsters were affected. – If <Provoke> was used against a monster for too many times in a short period, the monsters would develop an immunity against it.
“Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!”
One by one, the monsters fell and soon after the last was killed, everyone was withdrawn from Combat Mode.
Zhang Yang frowned as he checked the damage statistics.
[Damage Statistics]
1. Zhan Yu, 12354 damage, 41%
2. Hundred Shots, 4509 damage, 15%
3. Snowy Death, 3313 damage, 11%
4. Defiant Monk, 3051 damage, 10%
5. Flame Emperor, 2422 damage, 8%
6. Prideful Precepts, 2102 damage, 7%
7. Floral Shorts, 1893 damage, 6%
8. Kindling Chest Hair, 1287 damage, 4%
It was astonishing that Zhang Yang had ranked first in dealing damage. <Horizontal Sweep>’s AoE was devastating! The counter attack damage after <Block> was also substantial – of course, only a professional player like him could have utilized this skill to also deal AoE damage.
“Very good. No one died. Hairy, you’ve done well!” Floral Shorts blatantly lied, singing praises of Kindling Chest Hair.
Flame Emperor chuckled unamused and posted the damage statistics in the party channel.
There was a moment of silence.
“F*ck! What is this shit! A Guardian is the top DPS? What a joke! There must be a problem with the system!” Prideful Precepts jumped to his feet and said. How embarrassing, those Pride members, other than the Priest, the other three were the lowest in the damage statistics!
“Go on! Go on!” Floral Shorts diverted the topic and urged everyone to move forward. Kindling Chest Hair had a grave look and periodically stared at Zhang Yang, his eyes filled with hostility.
The second wave had much fewer monsters. There were only 2, guarding the corner of a passageway.
“Noob Warrior! Keep your eyes on me! I’ll teach you how to properly pull a monster!” Kindling Chest Hair had thought that while he might be unable to pull 6 monsters, but since there were only 2 now, it should not be a problem!
Prideful Precepts chimed in, “Noob, just stand there and don’t move!”
Zhang Yang lightly smiled and as they had wished, stood still and watched Kindling Chest Hair rush towards the 2 monsters while wielding his war hammer.
[Executioner Gnome] (Elite)
Level: 12
HP: 6000
In ‘God’s Miracle’, monsters which guarded entrances were known as ‘Gate Gods’, their most notable characteristic being their extraordinary attack power! Killing tanks within seconds was a common feat.
Prideful Precepts and his gang did not know about this but Zhang Yang understood this piece of information thoroughly. Since Kindling Chest Hair had wanted to send himself straight to death, why should he stop him?
“Such a pity though, that being killed by monsters would not reduce their levels but would only damage their equipment durability or inflict a very small chance of dropping their equipment. If only it could be the same as PK where death would cost a drop in player’s level!” Zhang Yang thought regrettably.
Kindling Chest Hair walked a few steps forward and casted <Shield Toss> on the Executioner Gnome.
After being attacked, both ‘Gate Gods’ furiously dashed towards Kindling Chest Hair. This time, everyone had learned from their experience and did not engage, as they had the knowledge that a certain someone’s aggro holding could not be trusted.
“-105!”
“-97!”
Both monsters stabbed Kindling Chest Hair with their spears, delivering a significantly high damage, removing a third of Kindling Chest Hair’s HP immediately.
Kindling Chest Hair was startled. Before he could even react, two more damage texts floated over his head.
“-99!”
“-102!”
“Ding! Executioner Gnome uses <Immolation Assault>!”
“Ding! Executioner Gnome uses <Immolation Assault>!”
“-200!”
“-200!”
“Ding! Player Kindling Chest Hair has died!”
Instant kill! F*ck yeah!
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
34 Power
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