Tang Yao’s attacks on the Scale Toad Lord dealt around ten points of damage each, occasionally spiking to over a hundred. However, due to his high attack speed, his overall damage output remained extremely powerful.
The Scale Toad Lord’s health steadily decreased, albeit slowly, but it was enough to give Tang Yao and Nie Yan a glimmer of hope.
This was a level thirty boss!
Not something comparable to ordinary elites!
In his past life, if players encountered a boss-level creature in the wild, they would immediately notify their guilds, which would often mobilize hundreds of players to deal with a single boss. Guild wars frequently broke out over boss kills. Bosses usually dropped dark blue items, and sometimes even fragments of legendary gear. Even in the worst cases, a yellow item could sell for a significant amount of money.
Yet now, under Tang Yao’s relentless assault, the boss’s health was steadily dropping—99.9%, 99.8%…
It was undeniably an exhilarating moment.
If they defeated a boss between just the two of them, how much experience would they gain?
Nie Yan couldn’t even begin to imagine. Even at his peak in his past life, he had never soloed a same-level boss, let alone a higher-level one. He was doing things now that he had never even dared to dream of before.
“Nie Yan, how much experience does a boss give? Its health is so thick, like ten times more than an elite,” Tang Yao asked, somewhat nervously. He couldn’t even begin to imagine.
One level? Two? Or even more?
“Maybe two or three levels. Hurry up and deal damage, or its health will start regenerating,” Nie Yan urged Tang Yao. Fortunately, Tang Yao’s spell damage was high enough, and with level immunity, the damage output was quite impressive. If it were another mage, they probably wouldn’t even be able to penetrate the Scale Toad Lord’s armor.
“Don’t worry, my damage won’t stop.”
Compared to before, Tang Yao’s skills had improved significantly. He no longer made such basic mistakes in most situations.
“We should prepare more magic attack enhancement potions next time,” Nie Yan thought. That way, Tang Yao’s killing speed could be significantly increased. However, magic attack potions were generally expensive and rare. A potion with +20 attack power cost at least three silver coins, and those with stronger effects were even more expensive.
Nie Yan carefully observed the Scale Toad Lord’s movements. If it started to move out of Tang Yao’s attack range or approached Tang Yao’s position, Nie Yan would immediately shoot an arrow from a distance to pull it back. His crossbow had a longer range than Tang Yao’s spells, reaching about forty yards. The Scale Toad Lord was still confused and couldn’t determine where the attacks were coming from, so it wandered aimlessly. Since Nie Yan’s arrows were fired horizontally, whenever it heard an arrow from a certain direction, it would move a few steps toward that direction. But as it couldn’t locate Nie Yan and Nie Yan didn’t keep attacking, it would stop again after a few steps. Thus, the Scale Toad Lord remained within the area.
“How are things going on your end? When can you reach level fifteen?” Zi Se Kuang Dao, also known as Hao Cheng, sent Nie Yan a message asking.
“Probably another three or four hours.”
“That long? Well, I guess it makes sense since you need more experience to level up. The guild has been established, and we already have over a thousand members, with more joining every day. We’re all trying to recruit more people, but the guild warehouse is still empty, which looks a bit bad. I told them it would be filled soon, and everyone is watching us. If the guild benefits don’t improve, I’m worried we’ll lose some members soon.” Hao Cheng explained. The initial members were crucial—if they stayed and felt the guild was good, they would bring in more people. A guild was built by the efforts of thousands of players.
Nie Yan thought for a moment and replied, “Just tell them that guild benefits will improve soon. For now, all guild members can enjoy a 5% discount on all potions purchased from the Starry Sky Pharmacy by showing their Bull Riders Guild membership. The discount amount is limited to thirty copper coins for up to 100 guild contribution points, one silver and fifty copper coins for up to 500 points, and so on.” This would boost the pharmacy’s business, and the limit would prevent members of other guilds from exploiting Bull Riders Guild members to buy large quantities of potions. It would also encourage players to increase their guild contribution.
“Do you know someone at the Starry Sky Pharmacy?”
“Just tell the guild members that.”
“Alright, this benefit should retain a lot of members.” Hao Cheng said excitedly. A 5% discount at the Starry Sky Pharmacy was a significant benefit for the guild. The Starry Sky Pharmacy had a tremendous influence over Carol City. It housed over a hundred novice alchemists and hundreds of apprentices, making up half of Carol City’s potion production. It was the holy temple for alchemists, and many even left their guilds to join the pharmacy through friends’ recommendations.
It was unheard of for the Starry Sky Pharmacy to offer a 5% discount to any guild. This move was essentially declaring to all members that the pharmacy was their backing, and with such a wealthy sponsor, who would worry about the guild’s benefits?
Hao Cheng returned with the good news, while Nie Yan and Tang Yao continued their work.
As Nie Yan and Tang Yao were busy, Po Tian had just returned to the headquarters of the Empire of Triumph after finishing a dungeon.
“Did you find out the Sparrow’s background?” Po Tian asked the orange-clad assistant beside him.
“We did. He’s part of a player team, although the team isn’t very strong and hasn’t even cleared the Black Flame dungeon yet. The Sparrow left the team two days ago and disappeared somewhere, but his level skyrocketed.”
“Just an ordinary player. Looks like he’s had some luck. Find him and find out how he leveled up so fast!”
“We also heard from a player named Chen Bo that the Sparrow is the brother of Nie Yan.”
“Nie Yan?” Po Tian’s expression turned cold.
“It’s said that the Sparrow was once ambushed by the Light Holy Flame guild.”
“Oh? What happened?”
“It seems the Light Holy Flame had dozens of people. They ambushed the Sparrow and his team, killing all of his teammates, but the Sparrow escaped. Later, Nie Yan showed up and killed six or seven members of the Light Holy Flame, looting the red-name Dian Cang’s set of Fire Chaser gear.” At this point, Orange was visibly shaken. It seemed that more than one person had suffered at Nie Yan’s hands.
“He did it alone?” Po Tian was stunned. They had some connections with the Light Holy Flame, and he knew Dian Cang’s skills well. He had heard that Dian Cang had recently been looted clean, but he hadn’t expected it to be Nie Yan who did it.
“Yes, just him. Even with so many people from the Light Holy Flame, they couldn’t handle him and had to retreat.”
Po Tian fell silent for a moment. If all of this was related to Wet Flame, then the Sparrow was someone who needed to be closely watched.
Orange hesitated before speaking.
“If there’s something you want to say, just say it.” Po Tian glanced at Orange.
“We should probably cancel the bounty within the guild. If even a few people encountered Nie Yan and couldn’t handle him, we might need to reconsider.” Orange finally said.
Po Tian’s expression darkened further, making Orange shiver.
“Also, I think the Sparrow might be with Wet Flame now.” Orange continued.
“You mean their levels might be similar?” Po Tian immediately understood what Orange was implying.
“Yes. The reason he’s not on the level leaderboard might be because he’s hiding it. When we encountered him last time, he was already level eleven.”
Po Tian remained silent for a while before speaking to Orange. “Cancel the bounty within the guild and find that Chen Bo.”
“Find him? For what?”
“Don’t ask too many questions.”
“Yes, sir.”
In the dark, damp jungle, on the muddy grass, Nie Yan and Tang Yao meticulously repeated the same actions. The Scale Toad Lord’s health decreased agonizingly slowly, so slowly that its health bar seemed almost motionless for long periods.
Boss-level creatures were terrifying beyond imagination. By ordinary farming methods, thousands of level ten players might not even be able to kill a level thirty boss.
After nearly ten hours, Nie Yan had used up multiple Misty Dusts, and Tang Yao had nearly exhausted his mana reserves. Finally, the Scale Toad Lord’s health was nearly depleted.
“Good grief, it’s been over ten hours and this guy still hasn’t fallen. If he doesn’t fall soon, I’ll be the one collapsing.” Tang Yao said with a grimace.
“Only 2% left. Keep pushing.”
When the Scale Toad Lord’s health dropped to 20%, it cast several area spells in a rage. However, obviously, its area spells didn’t hit anyone, as it had no idea where its enemies were.
Seeing that the boss was nearly dead, Tang Yao increased his attack frequency. His heart raced as he silently chanted, “Level up, level up.”
The final Arcane Flame Blast exploded, and the Scale Toad Lord’s health finally dropped to zero. It let out a mournful cry and collapsed to the ground, spilling pools of crimson blood.
Brilliant beams of white light fell upon Tang Yao and Nie Yan.
Ding! Dong! Nie Yan heard two system notifications. This Scale Toad Lord had given him a full 160,000 experience points, instantly boosting him to level sixteen. Since Tang Yao was the main damage dealer, he received even more experience, jumping all the way to level seventeen.
Looking at his level, Tang Yao still felt dazed.
“Nie Yan, did I really reach level seventeen?” Tang Yao thought he must have misread it and asked doubtfully.
“Yeah.” Nie Yan smiled slightly and walked toward the Scale Toad Lord’s corpse. A level thirty boss—would it drop anything good? Searching through the remains, he found a ring, a piece of leather armor, a potion recipe, and two gold coins.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage