Chapter 360: A Time to Counter
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"How fortunate! He has the chance to meet with the great Lord Eins Brook!’
"ARGH! I’m so jealous!"
"I know right?! The great Lord will only agree to meet one follower every month!"
Right after the moment when Solace had dropped the news about how Zhang Yang and the gang had obtained the privilege to have an audience with Eins Brook, they were in shock, surprise, astonishment, and the kind of expressions you would expect when someone announces that they had just won the lottery.
Zhang Yang pretended to be as excited as well. After the ordeal, Zhang Yang and the party went on to the Reputation shop to get themselves the Enchanting Gemstone and &123;Sprint&125; pet skill book. After spending their gold coins, everyone proceeded to learn the skill, recipes, and they waited until everyone was ready to use the Enchanting Gemstone.
Under normal circumstances, the most common outcome of Enchanting would be a 30% increment in stats. Obviously, it is hard to get a better Enchanting result. Endless Starlight was fortunate enough to obtained 90% Enchantment results in just two tries. However, being a little greedy, he wanted to keep on Enchanting until he could obtain a 100% Enchantment result. However, after Enchanting for 10 consecutive turns, he had only managed to obtain a 60% Enchantment result. The little guy was left speechless.
Zhang Yang did actually learn from the other person’s mistake, and he was not greedy in the first place. As long as he could get a 50% Enchantment result, he would stop there. He knew that Level 2 or Level 3 Gemstones were not really that powerful in the first place. The difference between 50% and 100% would be 200 Vitality points. Zhang Yang would not put much attention and effort just to gain that little amount of HP.
[Sprint]: Increases 100% movement speed of the mount for 15 seconds. Cool Down Time: 10 seconds.
After Zhang Yang gave his advice, everyone followed his footsteps and were satisfied with 50% or higher Enchantment results. They knew that they should not hope for 100% perfect results unless it was a given. Still, even though they no longer strove for perfection, they had already spent close to 1,000 gold coins, each! That would be the same as 1,000 RMB1! If they were to try and push themselves to roll for the best result, they would have to spend more than that! It all depended on luck! Zhang Yang advised them not to seek perfection in their Enchantment since they were only in the middle stage of the game! Each time they changed their weapons, they would need to re-socket their Gemstones, which leads to a re-Enchantment of their Gemstones. The amount of spending would sky-rocket, and even Bill Gates would cry!
The team rode their way back leisurely to the village. Along the way, they cracked jokes about the way how the game burns a hole in their pocket. Some mentioned Bill Gates, while others mentioned Donald Trump!
After reaching the village area, Zhang Yang led the way to the altar to face their "lord". Zhang Yang came to a pathway that led outside the village, into the forest, and towards the center of the island, where Zhang Yang had stumbled across before. After pushing their Reputation rank to Revered, the invisible barrier was miraculously removed from the area and they could enter the place normally.
The entire altar was made of a type of white colored stone structure. With nothing but the white shade and a little gray here and there, the altar was made to look extremely majestic and grand. Right in front of the altar was a huge white statue that was crafted to look like a Fire God. Its feet were made to look like it was standing on fire. Its expression was crafted to made it look angry and blazing fire out of its mouth. This image of the Fire God was probably by the design of the villagers.
Zhang Yang rode closer and saw there were 10 huge men clad in armor, standing near the entrance of the altar. Their posture and the number of fallen leaves on their wide shoulder suggest that they had been standing there for quite some time, not to mention their commitment to…standing. Zhang Yang approached them and one of them called out. "I believed that you’re the visitors who have just arrived on this island?"
[Eins Brook’s Personal Guard] (Elite, Humanoid)
Level: 85
HP: 85,000
Defense: 450
Note: Eins Brook loyal personal guard.
Zhang Yang nodded. "That is correct sir. We are here to worship..L-Lord Eins Brook. Please notify his grace that we have arrived."
The NPCs were all green tagged. That meant the NPCs had yet to detect Zhang Yang’s real motive.
"Follow me." Said another guard. He then took Zhang Yang and his gang into the altar. When Zhang Yang got closer to the altar, he took note of the construction of this mystical building. The altar looked more like a huge church. Inside the mega structure was a hall that was built over 24 pillars that supported a large dome shaped ceiling. Like the Sistine Chapel, this altar had paintings on the ceiling. Instead of angels, the ceiling was painted with pictures of what seemed to be the Fire God battling all sorts of enemies.
In the huge hall, there were many followers holding hands together, standing 2 meters apart. They were all holding hands and chanting something with their eyes closed. Zhang Yang could not understand the language they were using, but it seemed to resemble the monks in Tibet.
The deep and low chanting of the follower was not the typical Gregorian holy chant. In fact, it had made the entire ordeal feel like it was some sort of a requiem. The problem was not of the atmosphere of the hall. From the looks of it, it seemed that there were at least more than thousands of followers, with each of them being Level 85 and at elite tier. Having more than 85,000 HP, these monsters could pose a threat to the party if they were to attack all at once. On a side note, Zhang Yang was extremely pleased, despite the fear. If he could somewhat, kill all of them, how much experience points would they amass?! Yes, it would be difficult, but not when Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue had the skill &123;Blizzard Sky&125; and &123;Lunar’s Dew&125;!
They moved forward on and saw a large throne, with a middle-aged man sitting at the deeper part of the altar. The man was sitting leisurely on the throne, with one hand supporting his forehead, as if he was in deep thought. The man was just a regular jack on the streets. He was not special in any way or so. He was not muscular, nor skinny. He was just average, in both his physique and his appearance. The best term to use to describe this man was, an average Joe!
[Eins Brook] (Violet-Platinum, Humanoid)
Level: 86
HP: 8,600,000
MP: 4,300,000
Defense: 2,400
Note: "The son of the Fire God". The savior of all.
Zhang Yang smirked. Finally, he had the chance to see the fifth descendant of the seven generals!
The guards that had lead Zhang Yang to the throne bowed to Eins Brook. "Your grace, the outsiders that you summoned have arrived."
"Well done. You may leave," said Brook without batting an eye.
"Yes, your grace." The guards took several steps back while still bowing and left the throne. Only after a good distance, they stood upright and walked away normally.
Brook then turned his gaze at Zhang Yang and the party. His complexion suddenly turned sour as he bellowed. "How impudent. You dare greet the son of God without bowing?"
Zhang Yang answered his wrath with a laugh. "Eins Brook. It seems that you have gotten used to playing the act of…whatever it is that these gullible villagers think of you. I’ll have you know. We are not dumb."
Brook widened his eyes when he heard how Zhang Yang had accused him. Instead of getting enraged, the man smiled. "Indeed, it seems that you’re not as dumb and gullible as the villagers here. As expected of the adventures that roamed the world. Hahaha! Do you know how these villagers came to believe that I was the son of the Fire God?"
"How?" asked Wei Yan Er. The little brat had always like to poke around things that she should not have.
"These close-minded pets had never encountered a single Spellcaster in their life. When I had casted a fire spell, they had thought that I was the offspring of the Fire God! After I made up some lore about my past, they had truly believed that my power was the evidence of me being the son of the Fire God!"
He stood up. "For the past few days, I have been observing you. Indeed, I must say, that you have the capabilities. I do not know the purpose of your arrival, nor do I care. But I could guess it could be something of money and authority! Hence, I have a proposal for you lot. As long as you promise to serve me, under my league, I will provide you with an inexhaustible source of wealth and power over the villagers. When the time is right, I will lead an army and roam the great lands, and finally, restore the rights and glory of my ancestors!"
Zhang Yang was surprised. This NPC knew about his own ancestor’s past. That would mean that among the seven descendants of the seven generals, he was the only person who knew about their ancestor’s identity!
Zhang Yang continued to laughed. "Ah, so it is because that no one in this villager has ever seen a Spellcaster! That is why you were able to trick them in the first place! Who do you think you are? Just because you have ruled over a few people in the island, do you think that you can rule over the land? Do you even know how big the world is? You couldn’t even be compared with a band of bandits! How are you to conquer the land with your power? You are clearly over your big, inflated head."
"Nyehehehe. Well said noob tank!" said Wei Yan Er as she snickered away quietly from behind.
There was an angry flare in Brook eyes. With a loud call, Brook bellowed. "Silence!" The voice echoed through the entire hall. In response, all of the followers stopped their chanting and dropped their hands in unison.
"Imbeciles! Insolent! Heretic! Begone with you! To hell shall you go!" cried Brook. He then lifted his arms up high and screamed. "These people are heretics! They were brought here by the fallen gods to deceive us with their lies! Kill them!"
In a flash of a second, the boss, the followers in the hall, and all their name tags were instantly flashed from green to the hostile red!
"Kill the heretics!"
"Death to heretics!"
"Kill the sinners! In the name of Lord Eins Brook!"
More and more followers started to fill the halls from all entrances. As more and more numbers started to pour into the hall, the number of monsters had already far surpassed several thousand!
If Zhang Yang had not procured the skill &123;Blizzard Sky&125; and &123;Lunar’s Dew&125;, how would they win this fight…
Frantically, Zhang Yang scanned the hall for something. He spotted two stone rooms at the side of each corner and immediately formulated a plan of attack. Each room entrance had the width of only 2 persons. If Zhang Yang and Endless Starlight could block the entrance, they could force the monster to squeeze into the entrance and defeat them via the bottleneck strategy. That or, they could all die once, and pull the monsters out of the hall after reviving and split the monster into two separate groups, with one tank each.
Either way, both methods were too slow…
Everyone started to panic as the thousand over monsters rushed towards them.
Zhang Yang finally stopped contemplating and decide to use what he had at the moment. "Snow B*tch! To me! It’s time for another &123;Blizzard Sky&125; and &123;Lunar’s Dew&125;!"
Han Ying Xue jumped to his side and grabbed his hands. However, they did not immediately activate the skill. Since the skills had a 30 seconds activation duration, when the monster could get a little closer, they could buy a little more time. However, even when the enemy got extremely close to them, Zhang Yang still waited.
10 meters.
"Erhm…Dummy…?" said Han Ying Xue. Her voice was a little shaky.
"Not yet." Said Zhang Yang with a straight face.
5 meters.
Wei Yan Er screamed from behind. "Hey! Are you guys activating the skills or not?! We are going to be killed!"
3 meters.
"Dummy! It’s now or never!"
2 meters.
"Not yet!"
1 meters. The followers were only an arms reach away from attacking Zhang Yang when he screamed.
"NOW!"
"KYA!"
&123;Blizzard Sky&125;! &123;Lunar’s Dew&125;!
Shush!
In a split second, the temperature in the hall dropped to a sub zero temperature. Uncountable flakes of snow started to materialize in the air. The ground was filled with snow as the glow of the moon filled the ceilings. With that, damage texts started to pop out.
‘-5,000!’
‘-5,000!’
‘-5,000!’
…
If they were playing the game using the old standard PC, even using the latest 2017, GTX 1080Ti graphic card with the best i7 CPU, they would surely be faced with tremendous lagging! The sheer amount of graphic demand in this scene was the same as during the monster attack on the Thunderstorm Castle!
"Woah! This skill is awesome!" said Wei Yan Er in awe. "Noobie tank, could you get me a Paired Skill as well?"
Zhang Yang could not move, attack, and had to maintain the channeling posture. However, he could still talk. "That’s fine. When I have the chance that is."
"What’s that? There’s no sincerity in your words! You’re messing with me!"
"Woah woah woah! Since when did the little girl know how to detect sarcasm!?"
"Woah woah my *ss! Noob tank! You’re always pulling my nerves! I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll turn off the heater when you’re taking a bath! Hah! I’ll see how you enjoy taking a bath in cold water!"
"Oh! That reminds me. Little Yang, how are you? Did you do a *little somethin’ something’* if you know what I mean…" said Fatty Han with a perverted smirk on his face.
Both Lost Dream and Endless Starlight started to eavesdrop when they heard Fatty Han’s pervert topic.
Zhang Yang sighed. "You guys….Could you at least be a little serious?"
"Nyehehehehe" the group of three perverted wolves snickered.
With the activation of &123;Blizzard Sky&125; and &123;Lunar’s Dew&125;, the HP of the enemy were dropping at a tremendous speed. Though it may seem fast, they still had to take at least 17 hits from the skill to deplete their 85,000 HP. At the same time, Wei Yan Er and the rest of the team had jumped into the fray and started killing as swiftly as they could. On average, each monster would take at most 15 seconds to kill.
1. The author finally uses RMB! That’s Ren Ming Bi, the currency of China.