MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks
chapter-368

Chapter 368: The Light Paladin Trio

They were in total chaos. Pretty Good Feeling was Blinded, and during his panic, he accidentally ran into the crowd on monsters and died in the process…

The human wall formed by the main tanks had crumbled, which allowed a huge portion of the Paladin monsters to break into their flanks.

“Shield of Earth!”

“Wind Miracle!”

Unending Unmatched and Little Elf from the Magical Realm activated their Epic-level Skills simultaneously and managed to salvage the situation.

Shield of Earth reduced the damage taken of party members by 80%, whereas Wind Miracle increased the damage and speed of party members. The party kept a cool head and followed Pretty Good Mood’s previous instructions to gather near the big biscuit icon.

The Paladin monsters that had breached the party were all killed; the main tank’s human wall was reformed, and the DPS maintained their damage output.

The Paladin monsters continuously fell and after seven minutes, none of the 500 Paladin Monsters remained.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

After clearing the horde of small monsters, the levels of at least 50 members within the party had increased. In addition to that, they had suffered less than 30 deaths, which was a massive improvement over the performance of Pretty Good Mood’s party a few days ago.

The Priests and Paladins began resurrecting their fallen comrades and there were some that recovered by sitting on the floor. Nevertheless, the ones that were quick on their feet were picking up item drops instead.

The small monsters from the Light and Dark Instances were bountiful, as the worst equipment they dropped were already blue drops. Some of them had even dropped purple-colored equipment, although the probability of it was very low.

Since they were using the party-leader loot option, all the drops would be distributed by the party-leader no matter who looted the items. However, the option to personally carve out the equipment was addictive, so there were always volunteers to carve the fallen monsters.

Pretty Good Mood was resurrected, and he let out an exasperated sigh as he lied on the floor, frustrated.

He never intended to die, but for some reason, he always ended up dead…

Pretty Good Mood privately messaged Li Yi, “I’ve already used up all my skill points to add my HP and I had purposely increased the durability of my equipment. I’m already nearing 20,000 HP, but why am I still dying?”

“It’s a matter of skill.”

Pretty Good Mood was at a loss for words.

“How could I avoid dying?”

“When you’ve been hit by a skill, don’t flail about. Make sure to stand still.”

“Okay…”

They had finished looting the corpses. The 500 Paladin Monsters had yielded them 12 blue-colored equipment, five green-colored equipment, and one gold-colored equipment.

The blue-colored equipment could be ignored for the most part, whereas the green-colored equipment was part of equipment sets. If worn, the green-colored equipment came pretty close to a full set of gold-colored equipment. After a round of auctioning, all five of the green-colored equipment were sold off.

The gold-colored equipment that was dropped was pretty good. It was a pair of shoes that gave +7 SPD. It also included a special skill called ‘Exorcise’, which nullified all the effects of Dark Spells of the user.

“30!”

“50!”

“100!”

“300!”

“500!”

The party members bid frantically. Since the party was not a guild party, Confused Fox and Flower Underpants were present as well. Thus, they did not split the loots via Guild Points, and instead, they distributed it via auction and then split the earnings evenly to all the party members. This method was known as the Internal Auction Party of the Guilds.

As time went on, the number of guilds that still used the Guild Points method was now scarce. Although Little Drunk Cat continued using that method, most guilds had already abandoned it and were now using the Internal Auction Party.

The equipment would belong to whoever that offered the highest bid. Even if they failed to obtain the equipment, the party members would be content with the fact that everyone else would receive Gold Coins instead.

Equipment that came with special skills were a rare occurrence, much less shoes that gave +7 SPD. Even Li Yi was tempted to bid, but he held back as he already had a pair that gave +10 SPD. If he had bought the shoes, it would be considered a downgrade.

“600!”

The bid for the golden shoes had stopped at 600 Gold Coins, as no one had offered any higher.

“600 Gold Coins, the Wizard that got it sure has an eye for treasure! Let me say this, even if it didn’t have the +7 SPD, Exorcise would’ve already made up for the price! Since half of the monsters in the Light and Dark Instances are Dark Elementals, Exorcise would’ve dispelled all their afflictions to kingdom come! Don’t you think it’s a beast of a skill? I only have two words to say, WORTH IT!”

Royal Blue Sky declared with a hoarse voice, and the Wizard that offered 600 Gold Coins was delighted.

“I’ll give 650 Gold Coins for it!” Another person was attracted by Royal Blue Sky’s declaration. He clenched his teeth and raised the bid once more.

“My dear Orc Vagabond, you have a sharp eye. Just by looking at your plane haircut, I’ve already determined that you have good insight. Yep, although you’re a Sky Vagabond that doesn’t need to move much while healing, what would you do when something unforeseen occurs? With these shoes, nothing would stand in your way because you can run away as fast as you want! Don’t even get me started on Exorcise! This skill, holy moly is it amazing, you don’t even need to use it on yourself as it is targetable on other players as well. Words just don’t do this skill enough justice.”

After hearing Royal Blue Sky’s declaration, the Wizard before shot a vicious glare at the Orc Vagabond and shouted, “I’ll give 660 Gold Coins!”

“I’ll give 670!”

“Make that 680!”

“I’ll raise it to 700!”

“G*dammit, I’ll give 1,000 Gold Coins!” The Wizard was now desperate.

Li Yi and the others just looked without uttering a single word.

‘Were these pair of Gold-colored Shoes worth that much money? Definitely, but it definitely wasn’t worth 1,000 Gold Coins…’

By Li Yi’s estimate, he would value it at 500 Gold Coins, tops.

“Nice judgment there. 1,000 Gold Coins is only a measly amount compared to its worth! I’ll have you know that these shoes could only be looted from Light Conference, and it takes 200 people to tackle it! Do you think it’s easy to form such a huge party? Even if you could manage to form the party, who’s to say that it’ll drop again? Friends, we killed 500 small monsters to get this shoe, is it not precious? +7 SPD and a special skill, Exorcise, d*mmit, I can’t hold back anymore, I’m taking it.”

Royal Blue Sky raised his finger, and called out, “I’ll give 2,000 Gold Coins!”

“Blue Sky, we’re from the same guild, don’t grab my prize.” The Wizard from before was so desperate that his face was already red.

Royal Blue Sky flashed a sincere look as he raised both his hands. “Brother, I didn’t want to do this, but this equipment is truly rare. I’ll have you know that you might never get a shoe like this even after playing for a year. I don’t want to miss out on this, so forgive me, brother…”

“I’ll offer 3,500 Gold Coins!” The Orc Sky Vagabond was now furious.

“Scr*w you, I don’t care that if I use up a month’s worth of salary on this. I’ll offer 4,000 Gold Coins!” The Wizard clenched his teeth and raised the stakes once more.

“4,000 Gold Coins! You’ve truly impressed me. Dear friends, 4,000 Gold Coins when converted to actual money, is worth 4,000 bucks. However, I swear that you won’t regret this as these shoes would easily make ten thousand when sold at an auction house! Do you believe me?”

“Make ten thousand Gold Coins? Surely you exaggerate. It takes a normal piece of purple-colored equipment to earn over ten thousand, would a gold-colored equipment even be worth that much?”

“There may be some truth to it, I heard that gold-colored equipment with legendary attributes is worth more than purple-colored equipment.”

The party members were embroiled in a discussion and the atmosphere suddenly became lively.

“I’ll give 5,000 Gold Coins!’ A Paladin had joined in the fray.

Royal Blue Sky shook, “Brother, you’re a Paladin, what use would you have of these leather boots?”

“I’m buying it for my wife.” The Paladin answered nonchalantly and pointed towards his wife that was standing behind him. She was a cute little Orc Priest.

“Well ain’t you a man. Everyone, did you hear that? Money is nothing in the face of love. This Paladin right here had chosen love over the former. Ah, love, what a powerful force it is. I truly respect you brother, in the face of your love, I’ll give up on this item.” Royal Blue Sky stopped bidding.

“I’ll give 5,500 Gold Coins!” The Wizard gave a pained shout.

“6,000!” The Orc Sky Vagabond did not show any signs of backing down.

“6,500!” The Paladin called without a second thought.

Due to Royal Blue Sky’s exaggeration, the pair of Gold-colored Shoes price had constantly soared until it reached a final price of 15,000 Gold Coins, which was bought by the Paladin.

The Paladin was content, “Hahaha, come here my love, and test out these shoes.”

Li Yi let out cold sweat.

He had heard of the power of Royal Blue Sky’s words, but what he had seen gave a whole new meaning to the rumors. His exaggeration was no joke as he had managed to sell off the shoes that were only worth 500 Gold Coins for a whopping price of 15,000 Gold Coins.

This Paladin had been played. With that amount of money, he could’ve bought a pair of decent purple-colored shoes.

The party members were riled up as the bidding progressed. The reason for it was simple since they would receive more Gold Coins if the equipment was sold at a higher price…

The party rested for a while before advancing again.

Within an oval-shaped building, Li Yi and the others had spotted the first boss of Light Conference, the Light Paladin Trio.

You heard that right, the first boss consisted of two males and one female that were from different classes of Paladins.

The lore of Light Conference stated that the King of Souls was enraged by the army of the Church of Light’s advance into the ruins. Using Spirit Control, he brought the army of intruders under his control and forced them to do his bidding.

The Conference part of the dungeon’s name implied that players would face more than one boss working together. The players would only clear the dungeon if they defeated all the bosses within.

Those who had faced the Light Paladin Trio knew that they were frustrating to deal with, very frustrating indeed.

The Holy Shield Paladin served as the main tank whereas the Punishment served as the main DPS and the Holy Paladin served as the healer. The trio were highly compatible, and they operated smoothly. However, the most frustrating part was that they were able to heal and had crowd control abilities. If they acted in synchrony, getting team wiped was a real possibility…

The Light Paladin Trio acted in synchrony. When one advanced, they all advanced, when one retreats, they all retreated, and the bug could not be exploited on them. Against a nigh limitless source of healing, if the party was clueless about the battle strategy, even a 400-man party would be massacred, much less a 200-man party.

The oval arena was quite small and once the battle began, the party would not be able to leave the area. Thus, slaying them was definitely something that required skill.

Needless to say, one of the main conditions for slaying them was to ensure that the party’s equipment was up to par. A Gear Score of 130 was the bare minimum and the only exception to that rule was Queen Jiaojiao. Her level was low, thus her Gear Score was nothing impressive, as it did not even reach 70 points. By the rule’s standards, she was unqualified for the battle.

However, no one dared to speak against it. Even Confused Fox and Flower Underpants had overlooked it due to her boyfriend’s reputation. As Confused Fox said, “It didn’t matter if Li Yi had brought ten Level 0 alternate accounts to a dungeon, as he alone could do the work of 20.”

The party gathered together and listened to Pretty Good Mood’s breakdown of the strategy.

However, there was still a long wait before the battle. Unending Unmatched and Little Elf from the Magical Realm’s skills was still in cooldown, and they needed at least half an hour more until they were able to use it.

If not for the skills’ cooldowns, they would have auctioned off the equipment at the final phase. However, the wait was too boring, so they decided to hold the auction early.

“The Light Paladin Trio are unaffected by any status ailments, so we have no way to crowd control them. The Punishment Paladin’s attack is the highest and even if our main tank’s DEF is over 4,000, their defense would easily be broken. So, our first target is the Punishment Paladin!”

Pretty Good Mood laid out the Virtual Map and explained patiently.

“The Holy Paladin Sasha’s healing is also very OP, but she has a fatal weakness. We’ll target that weakness and defeat them!”

…