Chapter 218: A Change in the Royal Lineage
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Noob tank! My cousin sister and I found ourselves a Gray-Silver boss! Both of us alone killed it! Nyeheheheh! Do you know what that means? We don’t need you no more! NYAHAHAHA!" Wei Yan Er cute laughed blasted through the voice messenger.
Ever since the appearance of the Yellow-Gold bosses, almost all Gray-Silver bosses had become weak in comparison. Actually, it was more like them retaining the same level of difficulty, only that the players have grown much stronger! The two ladies finally knew how it felt like to stand out in the crowd. As Zhang Yang was taking his time with Sigma; Wei Yan Er and Han Ying Xue had somehow discovered that they could defeat a Gray-Silver boss without the need of a tank!
They would never had stood a chance if they had tried this when they were Level 30.
Even so, for Wei Yan Er, a Berserker to able to "tank" a Gray-Silver boss and survive the battle, it was most likely due of Han Ying Xue’s incredible, massive support!
Zhang Yang smirked. "Haha! What a shame! I just defeated a Gray-Silver boss! ALL.BY.MY.SELF!"
"Nyeeh~ Liar, liar, pants on fire~" Wei Yan Er jeered rhythmically.
"When I said I defeated a Gray-Silver boss, you just copied me and said the same thing! When I said we killed the boss with two players, you said you defeat it alone! Hmph! You have no shame! Noob tank! What a thick-skin bas- HEY! HAN YING XUE! HOW DARE YOU! You actually left the party and picked up all the money! I’M BREAKING UP WITH YOU! NYAAAA!"
*Beep*
The call ended abruptly. Perhaps Wei Yan Er was going to quarrel with her cousin sister. Again.
Zhang Yang laughed at their expense.
After having laughed enough, Zhang Yang walked over to the boss’ corpse to claim his prize. Among the loots, three were Gray-Silver tier, four were Green-Copper tier, and only one of them was worth using.
[Roar of the Dead] (Gray-Silver, Ring)
Vitality: +17
Strength: +17
Equip Effect: Absorbs 21 damage on every attack received.
&123;Unidentified&125;
Level Requirement: 50
Since the revision of the Unidentified attribute, Unidentified equipment will have their properties reduced by 20 levels. His current ring, [Honor of the Fallen Warrior], adds only 20 Vitality and 15 Strength, it’s no weaker than the [Roar of the Dead].
However, the latter was still a defensive equipment. Zhang Yang decided to opt for [Roar of the Dead] and equipped it.
‘Ding! You have completed the quest: A Call from the Princess! Obtained 200,000 Experience Points!’
The moment Zhang Yang approached the stone table, the system notification popped up and rang in his ears.
"Was that it?" Zhang Yang waited for a follow-up quest to appear but after waiting for a while, nothing happened. Before this, when Zhang Yang was talking to Princess Serena’s projection, she had been rather frantic. It is impossible for the questline to be completed just like that! The only way left for Zhang Yang to trigger the next quest was to find a way to wake Serene up from her slumber.
"Wakey Wakey!"
…
"Rise and shine sleepy head!"
…
"OMG! A SUPER HANDSOME PRINCE JUST WALKED PASS BY!"
…
Nothing. Not even a jerk. Perhaps Zhang Yang had to resort to a more physical approach.
Zhang Yang grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her entire body violently.
No response. He was getting frustrated.
SLAP! BREAST GRAB! BUTT SLAP! ARMPIT SMOTHER!
Nothing. Zhang Yang had grown tired. He sat down by the stone table and begun to ponder. "I’ve tried everything possible method! Could it be…mouth to mouth resuscitation? Nah…that couldn’t be…"
However, this was a fantasy world, a world filed with magic and dragons soaring in the skies! It had possibly drawn some inspiration from fairy tales. There were dragons, witches, and …perhaps sleeping beauties? Zhang Yang could not wrap his head around that idea. No matter how degenerative the developers might be, they would not possibly get a player to kiss a dead person!
To kiss a dead person…as if she was alive…that was just…
Zhang Yang hesitated for another minute before he finally caved in. He walked up to her and bent down, closing the distance between his face and hers.
Finally…*kiss*
Zhang Yang planted his thick, rough lips onto her soft, supple red lips.
SHRIIING!
Rainbow-colored lights radiated from her body. They swirled in a vortex above her, coming together to, coming together to form a giant crown of gold. The crown then grew smaller and smaller until it became just the right size, coming to rest on the princess’ head.
The light faded and a translucent figure emerged out from the princess’ body. The figure got up and stood directly in front of Zhang Yang, glowing as she stood, she shared the exact appearance of the currently sleeping Princess Serena. It was another projection of Princess Serena.
Damn, my kiss actually worked! Am I a prince now?!
That being said, what if Serena was not a princess, but instead, a prince? Would the system have wanted Zhang Yang to kiss…relief suddenly replaced his feelings of repulsion at what he just had to do.
The projection hovered a little and when she opened her eyes. When she saw Zhang Yang, she smiled. "Warrior! You came!"
However, that jubilant expression was quickly replaced with a worried look, as if she was carried the weight of the world.
"Princess! What happened to you? Weren’t you in God’s City!?" Zhang Yang asked.
God’s City is the name of White Jade Castle that every citizen knew it by. In the game, every major city was the Capital of their respective Kingdom.
Serena frowned worriedly. Her elegant features faded away, replaced by intense lines of stress and worry. "Three years ago, I was leading the Expedition Army to attack the Tukula Fortress. Just as the attack was about to start, I received a message from one of my soldiers, saying that the Madala Centaurs were willing to form an alliance with the White Jade Castle. With two forces as strong as such, we could perhaps stand a chance at defeating Tukula Fortress! After much consideration, I had accepted their offer and had ordered one of my dragon riders to send me over the Fortress to met up with the Centaurs!"
Her calmness was quickly replaced with an intense anger. Even when she was in her projection form, the anger was so intense that she emitted a strong aura, Zhang Yang could felt it in his bones. No wonder there was a saying, that a King’s Wrath will cloud the sky and rivers will flow with blood!
"I never had thought that it was all a trap set by the Spectres! When I arrived at negotiation location, the spectres had set up an ambush there and we fought hard and long. However, I was eventually caught. They did not kill me but held me here as a prisoner. They had locked me down and stole half of my soul. To my horror, they had used my soul to make a high-ranking spectre that looks exactly like me! The imposter has already infiltrated the Kingdom of White Jade! That spectre will probably want to take the throne and dominate the humans in my place!"
She calmed her rage and looked at Zhang Yang stoically. "Warrior, could you help me escape this place to save the kingdom and kill the enemy?"
"My Princess, I am at your disposal! Command me!" Zhang Yang gave an adventurer’s salute.
"You have my greatest appreciation, adventurer!" Serene was satisfied. "Now that I have lost half of my soul, I can only communicate via projections. The [Communication Stone] that you picked up was made by me. I had used a portion of my remaining magic to cast a spell on the monsters that roam this place! Sadly, the magic will not last for long as no container can truly hold magic. I have waited for three years for you!"
"You have to find my other half of the soul in order to save me! However, since I am trapped in this place, you will need to create a soul container to bring back my other half!"
Serena continued. "To create this container, you will need three rare materials. You will have to kill three extremely strong beings in order to obtained that materials! Warrior, do you have what it takes to get them?"
"Princess, trust this one, for he is strong!" said Zhang Yang with a smile.
Serena nodded and said, "I trust you, warrior! In that case, bring me a piece of [Molten Core of the Flame King], a piece of [Root of the Demonic Treant King] and the [Heart of the Winter Bear King]. I will use my remaining magic to turn them into a soul container!"
‘Ding! Serena has a quest for you: A Soul Container. Will you accept it? This quest is linked to the main story quest. Complete the quest to receive a luxurious reward!’
Damn! Which dumb f*ck took the quest, saying that it was a hidden quest!
Hidden quests and main story quests were completely different! Main story quests are easy to trigger, but they are really difficult! However, the rewards given are extremely luxurious! Mainly, the main story quest will be the main trigger that will push the game content forward! For example, patches in the future will depend on the progression of the main story quest, "Invasion of the Spectre patch", "Demon Descend patch", and "Deep Sea Invasion patch" all relied on the progress of the main story quest!
Zhang Yang swiftly accepted the quest and said, "Princess! I will return victorious!"
"So be it! But you must hurry! My power is constantly being weakened by the seal! I cannot remain awake for too long! I will be dragged back into my sleep!" Just when she had finished her speech, her projection started to flicker rapidly. After a few seconds, her projection started to form cracks and shattered into tiny magical particles.
Zhang Yang opened the quest log and examined the three quest items needed.
[A Soul Container] (Difficulty Level: S)
Quest Description: The Kingdom of White Jade is in peril! You must make haste and collect all three rare materials in order for Princess Serena to create the soul container and be released from her restraints! You can find the Flame King in the Fiery Sacrificial Altar in the Burning Flatlands. The Demonic Treant King can be found in the Swamp of the Ancient Moss in the Valley of High Tree. The Winter Bear King can be found in the deepest part of the Cave of Winter’s Wind, beneath Snowy Peak Hills in the Frozen Sky Wasteland. Note, these monsters are extremely strong and powerful! Please recruit more friends together to fight!
Quest Duration:7 days
Quest Recipient Limit: 1 player
Player Gender: Male
Progress: Molten Core of the Flame King 0/1 Root of the Demonic Treant King 0/1 Heart of the Winter Bear King 0/1
Quest difficulty level was S ranked. Which meant that he would need to kill a super strong boss! After Level 50, only the Yellow-Gold Tiered bosses would prove to be a real challenge for top players like him!
That’s three Yellow-Gold tier bosses!
To at on to that, the quest had a time limit! Zhang Yang cursed. A Yellow-Gold bosses would have a seven day respawn period, which meant that if the players failed to kill the boss and died fighting any of the three bosses, the quest will automatically fail!
What sort of set up was that! It literally gives no chances to players at all!
Zhang Yang frantically opened his friend list and recruited Han Ying Xue, Wei Yan Er, Hundred Shots, and Daffodil Daydream. Sun Xin Yu, Fatty Han, and Endless Starlight were not logged in, he was short in manpower that he needed urgently. He quickly contacted Snow Seeker and asked for a favor.
"Guild master Zhan Yu! How nice of you to call me!" Snow Seeker accepted the call and talked to Zhang Yang with a normal and casual tone, unlike her usual stern and stoic volume.
Zhang Yang laughed a little and answered. "The last time, you had requested my help to kill the Mountain Giant, now, I’d like to ask the same of you. I need your help to kill several bosses!"
"Are they Gray-Silver?"
"Yellow-Gold!"
"Alright! Alright! How many my members you need? 1,000? 2,000?" Snow Seeker voice trembled with excitement.
Zhang Yang frowned. What sort of guild required that many players to sortie against a boss? If he had that many players from Crimson Rage taking off with him, members from his own guild would be "informed"! Open-world boss’ strongest and deadliest feature was their strong AoE attack skill. That was why, there were many bosses out there that did not need many players participating. In fact, numbers would be useless if the bosses could easily kill everyone in a snap of their eyes. Counter-intuitively, the success of the boss fight would be higher only when a small group of elite players fight it.
There are some bosses that draw strength from the numbers sent against it. The more you have, the stronger I become! For example, the Demon Boss Kazak. Every player in its aggro target will cause him to gain a 10% attack bonus. If several thousand players joined hands to fight the boss, the boss will gain such ridiculous amount of power and kill everyone like weeds in the garden. The boss can cast one &123;Shadow Arrow&125; for every single player in his range and exterminate everyone in his sight.
"I don’t need that many! Just two! I need a healer and an attacker!" The only people whose strength Zhang Yang did acknowledge were Snow Seeker and Perfumed Water.
Snow Seeker would become one of the Top 10 Spellcasters in China! Her ability was unrivaled.
Perfumed Water was quite the ruffian, but her healing ability was commendable. Her equipment, control, understanding, and situational awareness was good, even if she was far behind Han Ying Xue. However, she was still one of the best healers that Zhang Yang had ever encountered.
"Guild master Zhan Yu, do you, perhaps, have an eye for our fair little Perfumed Water? Do you want me to set something up?" Said Snow Seeker playfully.
"Guild master Snow Seeker, you are too curious for your own good!"
Zhang Yang invited Perfumed Water and Snow Seeker into his party and announced, "Please gather at the Tukula Fortress!"
Currently, Winter Bear King was the closest to him.
"Noob tank! What are we going? What are we doing? Why must we go?" being the impatient little girl, Wei Yan Er bombarded questions in the party channel.
"Can you just be quiet for like…10 seconds? Sigh…We are going to kill a boss. A Yellow-Gold boss!"
"WOAH!" Everyone gasped in surprise. Everyone got excited, especially those who already had Level 60 Yellow-Gold equipment in their inventory. To complete their sets, they would need to fight Level 60+ Yellow-Gold boss! At least, they could collect a complete set of Level 60 set equipment before they reach the required level itself.
Zhang Yang tore a [Teleportation Scroll] and flew back to White Jade City. He cleared his inventory and placed the two completed set-equipment into the Little Merchandize Shop, selling them as single packages at the price of 100,000 gold coins each! He then had the [Roar of the Dead] identified and equipped it. Upon identification, the properties of the ring had increased to 25 Vitality and 25 Strength. The damage absorption rate was increased to 30 damage.
After "cleaning" up his inventory, Zhang Yang then used the teleportation point in the main city and travelled to the Tukula Fortress. While waiting for Zhang Yang to arrive, the party had spent their time grinding in the nearby Frozen Sky Wasteland. Everyone took less than 10 minutes or so to gathered together.
"Stupid Yu, where is the boss?"
Everyone knew the value of an open-world boss since they were so sparse in both numbers and encounters! The map of the game was just too large for them! But once a boss is located, it would be dominated by strong guilds. Because of that, many guilds will butt heads due to the contest for claim over the boss as "property". They would be willing to wage wars with each other, lasting until new patches are released, or until the late-stages of the game, all because of a single boss.
Zhang Yang pointed West and said, "Snowy Peak!"
Han Ying Xue rolled her eyes instantly. "Sigh…Do you even know how big is Snowy Peak!?"
Zhang Yang laughed at her reaction. In agitation, Han Ying Xue was stomping her feet, sending waves of tremors across her breasts, sending them jiggling about like a pudding being served. Zhang Yang could not help but stare at them and said absent-mindedly, "Yeah…they are big…"
"PERVERT!" All the female players in the party cried out loud together.
"Let’s go then! I just received a quest to kill three bosses. The description was really vague. They only mentioned the general locations instead of the specific points!" said Zhang Yang, not intending to hide anything from them.
Snow Seeker twitched, her eyes glinted when she heard Zhang Yang mentioning the word "quest".
"The quest needed you to kill three Yellow-Gold boss? It must be a really rewarding quest! Guild master Zhan Yu, do you mind sharing the quest?"
Zhang Yang shook his head. "It can’t be shared."
The quest only limited player participation number to one. That is why he could not share the quest with anyone else. Now that he thought about it., Serena could only be awakened by a kiss in the lips. If a bunch of rotten, perverted players took part in the quest, how would a princess like her maintain her honor! Who know what kind of dirty, indecent stuff would they do to her? That was, if the player accepting the quest was male. What if the player had been female? Would the princess be…
Perhaps, that would not be the case at all. The developers would not be that sexist. The quest could have been turned into a prince in other major cities needing a kiss from a female player instead! In that case, female players would have their chance to give their first kisses to a handsome young prince!