Chapter 517: Another Sub-Legendary Treasure Chest

For how to kill the Flame Giant, Nie Yan already had a plan in mind. He would proceed according to the original plan.

“Follow me,” Nie Yan said, leading Xie Yao deeper into the cave. After a while, they arrived at a deep and narrow tunnel.

This tunnel was barely wide enough for two players to walk side by side, making even turning around very difficult.

With the Flame Giant’s massive size, it would be completely unable to pass through here.

“You wait here first. I’ll go pull the mob,” Nie Yan said, explaining his plan for drawing aggro.

“Doesn’t the Flame Giant have ranged magical attacks? Shouldn’t it be able to attack us inside the tunnel?” Xie Yao asked. Nie Yan’s plan seemed somewhat unworkable.

“It’s true the Flame Giant has ranged magic. Have you noticed, though, that this tunnel isn’t straight? It has a certain curvature. The Flame Giant’s spells will explode in the tunnel without directly hitting us, which significantly reduces the damage. Although we will still be affected by the spell’s splash damage, as long as our fire resistance is above 100 points, we can basically ignore the Flame Giant’s damage. That’s why I prepared so many fire resistance potions for you,” Nie Yan explained. He had thought through every detail. Because of the cave’s curvature, within thirty yards they could use direct-fire spells to attack the Flame Giant. If they retreated a certain distance, beyond forty yards, they could dodge part of the Flame Giant’s magical attacks.

As long as they could withstand the Flame Giant’s attacks, they could wear it down to death. There were at least ten or more spawn points for Flame Giants nearby, providing ample opportunities for leveling up.

Nie Yan clearly had everything figured out. Xie Yao had to admit his reasoning made a lot of sense, and she felt suddenly enlightened.

“Then I’ll wait for you here. Be careful,” Xie Yao said as she retreated into the tunnel.

Nie Yan smiled and entered stealth mode, creeping toward the distant Flame Giant. Gradually, the tall Flame Giant came into view, about thirty yards away. He raised his D’Artagnan’s Cavalier Crossbow, aimed at the Flame Giant, and pulled the trigger. Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Five arrows shot toward the Flame Giant.

Thud! Thud! Thud! All five arrows struck the Flame Giant, and damage numbers of one or two hundred floated above its head.

The Flame Giant noticed Nie Yan, let out a low roar, and charged toward him.

It took the bait. Nie Yan put away his D’Artagnan’s Cavalier Crossbow and quickly ran toward the distant tunnel.

After a while, under Nie Yan’s guidance, the Flame Giant approached the tunnel entrance with heavy footsteps.

Suddenly, a white Holy Word spell shot out from the tunnel entrance, slamming into the Flame Giant and exploding with a bang.

Xie Yao had begun her attack. Nie Yan slipped into the tunnel entrance. Wielding her staff continuously, Xie Yao launched wave after wave of spells. Her equipment was slightly better than Tang Yao’s. After all, she already had three legendary pieces, only missing the elven one that Tang Yao had. In terms of offensive capability, she surpassed Tang Yao slightly, though her attack frequency and magic recovery speed were somewhat inferior. Overall, their damage outputs were roughly equal.

Xie Yao’s magical attacks could inflict more than 1,600 points of damage on the Flame Giant, which was quite impressive.

Nie Yan checked the Flame Giant’s health bar. It had approximately 1.2 million hit points, with a fast regeneration rate. At Xie Yao’s damage output, it would take at least three hours to kill it.

“Keep up the damage. Be careful. If the Flame Giant casts a spell, retreat quickly and drink a high-grade fire resistance potion,” Nie Yan said, closely watching the Flame Giant’s every move.

The continuous magical assaults enraged the Flame Giant. Its aggro shifted to Xie Yao, but due to the tunnel entrance’s narrowness, it couldn’t squeeze in. It extended its thick arm into the tunnel, trying to grab Nie Yan and Xie Yao, but the distance was too great for it to reach them.

Nie Yan also took out his crossbow and fired at the Flame Giant. His attacks were clearly not very effective, dealing significantly less damage than Xie Yao’s magical attacks, but at least he could offer some assistance.

The Flame Giant tried to widen the tunnel entrance, but no matter how hard it tried, only a few pieces of rubble fell from the nearby walls.

Roar! The Flame Giant roared furiously, causing the entire cave to tremble.

These actions of the Flame Giant did not affect Xie Yao, who continued to deal high-frequency damage.

Wave after wave of magical attacks exploded on the Flame Giant. Finally provoked, it opened its mouth and spewed a column of fire. The scorching flames surged into the tunnel.

“Retreat! Drink a fire resistance potion!” Nie Yan quickly shouted, rapidly backing away.

Xie Yao retreated while drinking a fire resistance potion.

They both moved back about ten yards as the raging flames swept over them and then dissipated.

-2382, -2762.

Two extremely high damage numbers floated above Nie Yan and Xie Yao’s heads. Both of their health bars dropped to less than 50%.

After traveling through the long tunnel, the Flame Giant’s fiery column had significantly diminished in power. Hitting Nie Yan and Xie Yao, it could only deal less than 30% of its original damage. Combined with their high fire resistance, which greatly mitigated the damage, the two managed to survive the Flame Giant’s attack.

Nie Yan applied a bandage to Xie Yao and used a slow-recovery potion on himself. Their health gradually recovered to full.

Xie Yao advanced a bit and continued attacking the Flame Giant with her Holy Word spells.

Time passed. Following this pattern, after about two hours, Xie Yao gradually wore down the Flame Giant’s health until it collapsed on the ground, scattering into a pile of gray boulders.

Nie Yan checked his experience bar. It had increased by about 30%. As an underground monster, the Flame Giant provided quite generous experience. Besides this, every time players killed an underground monster, they could claim additional experience rewards at Hilton Fortress, about 30% of their current level requirement. With these two experience bonuses combined, killing monsters near Hilton Fortress was significantly faster for leveling up than other locations.

Xie Yao’s lower level meant the experience gained was enough for her to level up once.

Nie Yan picked up the items dropped by the Flame Giant. It was a fire-attribute staff, an 80th-level dark gold equipment piece with excellent attributes.

“Let’s go open that treasure chest,” Nie Yan said, heading with Xie Yao toward the treasure chest’s location.

After a while, they reached the area piled with Flame Stones. The treasure chest was right in front of them, within arm’s reach.

These Flame Stones burned fiercely, with visible red flames constantly flickering.

Approaching these Flame Stones, Nie Yan felt a wave of scorching heat hit his face. His exposed skin, on his hands and face, felt a stinging pain. Damage numbers of two or three hundred floated above his head—fire damage.

He hadn’t expected the Flame Stones’ temperature to be this high. Nie Yan’s gaze focused on the treasure chest in the center of the Flame Stones. The chest was glowing red from the intense heat, looking like a freshly forged iron bar. At the corner of the chest was an intricately carved phoenix pattern, lifelike, as if it were a dancing spirit amidst the flames. This was a co-ruling era carving. The phoenix symbolized rebirth from fire and was a totem revered by fire mages. Among all living beings, the phoenix was a top-tier creature on par with dragons.

Vaguely, Nie Yan seemed to hear the crisp cry of a phoenix, almost illusory yet seemingly near his ear.

Nie Yan was secretly startled. He had misjudged it earlier. This was clearly a sub-legendary grade treasure chest.

“Nie Yan, is this a sub-legendary chest?” Xie Yao asked. She had initially thought it was a dark gold chest, but the crisp cry of the phoenix changed her mind. She found it hard to believe that a sub-legendary chest would appear here.

“It seems so. Let me try to open it,” Nie Yan replied. He slowly approached the chest. The closer he got, the more intense the stinging pain on his exposed skin became. Damage numbers of five or six hundred floated above his head, and his health was quickly depleting. Nie Yan hastily retreated and drank an intermediate instant recovery potion.

No good. The temperature radiating from the chest was too high. Nie Yan couldn’t even open it. Just approaching the chest caused such intense fire damage that his over 100 fire resistance was completely ineffective. Touching the chest might even kill him instantly, not to mention opening the lock on it.

“Xie Yao, give me the Heart of Magma,” Nie Yan immediately thought of the Heart of Magma. In this situation, it should come in handy.

“Okay,” Xie Yao removed the Heart of Magma from her decoration slot and traded it to Nie Yan.

Nie Yan equipped the Heart of Magma, checked his skill list, and activated its ability. After using this skill, Nie Yan became immune to fire magic. He bent down to open the chest.

After activating the skill, Nie Yan no longer felt the burning pain when encountering flames. The flames licked his hands, but his skin felt as if separated by a membrane, and the fire could no longer harm him.

Without the Heart of Magma or another fire magic immunity skill, opening this chest would not be a simple task.

Nie Yan wondered who in his past life had opened this chest and what items had been taken from it.

As Nie Yan touched the key on the chest, he frowned. He couldn’t open the chest. The lock on this chest was very strange and of an extremely high level. Nie Yan’s current lock-picking skill was completely unable to open it.

This was just an 80th-level map. How could there be such a high-level lock?

A thought flashed through Nie Yan’s mind. Could this chest be related to a certain quest, requiring a specific key obtained only through that quest to open it?