MMORPG: Rebirth of the Legendary Guardian
chapter-444

The Royal Palace was too huge to explore. Honestly, Zhang Yang felt that if the monsters did not drop those lucrative equipment, he would not even want to explore the entire place! Not even if you paid him! After spending close to 24 hours of real world time, Zhang Yang and his party had explored only 20% of the entire Royal Palace. The total equipment that they had amassed had already reached the thousands.

Inevitably, all of their inventory slots were not enough to store that much. Zhang Yang remained inside the Royal Palace while the four of them went back to the main city using the [Teleportation Scrolls]. After depositing all of the equipment in the guild storage and personal storage, Zhang Yang had recalled them back into the Royal Palace with the [Party Summon Order]. Zhang Yang was not afraid of the item now working, since he had tried it previously. The system had not allowed him to summon more than 5 of them. That was the only condition.

Luckily, the [Party Summon Order] had only a 1 hour cooldown time. They had no worries of farming more equipment over and over again, and could repeatedly go in and out of the Royal Palace once their inventory was full again. The party continued onwards and arrived at a small building by the second evening. Inside, there was the first boss of the world. Truthfully, they could go around it and skip the boss fight. But, who would want to skip when they could kill it for its drops, with their eyes closed!

[Steamy Little Gu Gu] (Yellow-Gold, Spectre)

Level: 96

HP: 3,000,000

Defense: 1,700

The boss was only a Yellow-Gold tier. Zhang Yang could solo the boss with his hands behind his back! Considering the fact that most of the players in the entire game had endured many hardships, they could easily defeat this boss as well. Perhaps a strong team would be required to kill a Violet-Platinum for now. Hence, this boss was placed there like a bonus!

Swinging their weapons half-heartedly, the party killed the boss without no effort. The boss had dropped one Yellow-Gold equipment and two Gray-Silver equipment. After collecting the equipment, Zhang Yang felt that something was a little odd. The Royal Palace was not terribly difficult as he had imagine it would be. The monsters were not tough to defeat, and would bestow them a heap of equipment! It was like this place was a reward in itself. A reward for entering the place for completing the Dimensional Key quest! Besides the equipment, there were many herbs that were available for harvesting in this place. How could a place in a different dimension produce such an abundance of herbs? That did not matter for him. All he had to do was to pay yup 1,000 gold coins to summon the tiny little critter to harvest the herbs, while he went around killing more monsters.

The little critter was undeniably cute. When Zhang Yang first summoned it out, Wei Yan Er had let out a deafening shriek and had hugged the little thing! The Herb Foraging Familiar was so annoyed at the little brat that it had squirmed out of Wei Yan Er’s arms and had disappeared into the palace ground. One hour later, the Familiar returned and deposited all the herbs that it had gathered into Zhang Yang’s inventory, before disappearing from the world.

"Hm…Noob tank? Where, and how does that little cutey store all the herbs?"

"Erhm…" Zhang Yang frowned. How does one explain the mystical concept of online gaming to a naïve little kid. "I think, it has some sort of a backpack with him?"

"Huh? Really? I want to see!" said the girl with wide, unblinking eyes.

Zhang Yang sighed heavily and decided to ignore the girl.

After spending 5 more days of real world time, the team had finally explored every inch, every nook and cranny of the entire Royal Palace. Zhang Yang could guarantee that he had killed every single one of the monsters inside this realm. Han Ying Xue and Wei Yan Er were diligent in doing so; they had even turned over stones and trees just to make sure they could squeeze in all available drops from the monsters in this place. In these 5 days, they had collected a total of 3,532 Gray-Silver equipment and 17 Yellow-Gold equipment!

Even though the price for Gray-Silver equipment had plummeted drastically, it was still normal to sell one Gray-Silver equipment for a few hundred gold coins. When the equipment was special or had slightly higher stats than a regular one, it could be sold for hundreds or even a thousand gold coins. With such an abundance of Gray-Silver equipment in hand, they could at least sell them all for 600,000 to 700,000 gold coins! With the few Yellow-Gold equipment that they had acquired, their total earnings could reach a million! In truth, Zhang Yang was happier about the number of herbs in this place! There were so many varieties and rarities of herbs, that his Familiar had collected. Zhang Yang felt that after a thousand years of being isolated from the real world, all these untouched herbs that grown ever to wildly, and benefited Zhang Yang alone!

Zhang Yang and his party had spent 5 days in real time, which would be 360 hours in the game. Taking away the time that they took to eat and workout, Zhang Yang had summoned the Familiar to harvest herbs for a total of 350 times. Although he had spent 350,000 gold coins for it, all the herbs that the little critter had collected for him were worth more than a million! On the bright side, the best herbs he collected were so rare that no one was willing to sell them! The rarest herb he obtained was the [Mythical Fruit].

[Mythical Fruit] could be used to concoct a potion called [Growth Potion], and the potion would permanently increase all Attribute points by 10! This potion effect was the same as the [Fate Crystal] found in the 10,000 Phantoms. However, 10,000 Phantom’s respawn rate was 10 days (real world time). Besides, the monsters there were mostly Level 50. Since the spawn point was randomized, no super guild could monopolize the place, since anyone could easily wipe the place clean. It all depended on luck, and luck alone. Hence, the reason why the [Mythical Fruit] is priceless.

All Zhang Yang required was to obtain the recipe to craft the [Growth Potion]! On a side note, Zhang Yang had the skill {Alchemist Intuition}, providing the chance to craft out a [Transmuted Grade 10 Growth Potion] which would, probably grant the user 20 points of all Attribute!

After the party went out of the Royal Palace to empty their inventories, they moved deeper into the Royal Palace and came to the Treasure Cove. The entrance was blocked by a 50 meters golden door. Wei Yan Er tried to pushed the door open, but failed do to so. The door did not even budge when she had pushed it till her face was red. Disgruntled, the little brat had swung her axe and bashed the door, and as a result, the door remained unscathed while the little brat’s axe was notched! The system reported a loss of 10% Durability for her axe, making the little brat as angry as a little boar.

Zhang Yang laughed for a good while before he took out the Dimensional Key and slotted it into a hidden keyhole on the side. A loud mechanical cog cracked away and the door was unlocked. The key popped out and the golden door cracked opened into two panels. The doors opened wide and revealed a darken hallow. There was nothing. Zhang Yang could not see anything from his side.

"Erhm…are we supposed to go in there?" Daffodil Daydream asked.

"Yeah..."

Foom!

Zhang Yang stepped back immediately on reflex, like a knee-jerk reaction. It was the sound of the torches hanging on the walls of the interiors being lit up. It was a passage way with many other routes, left and right. However, before Zhang Yang could go in, the only path he saw from outside the door was a straight pathway with no end.

"Get ready. This is why the real danger lurks."

"Hehe! Somebody is being a scaredy cat!" Wei Yan Er playfully taunted Zhang Yang.

"Yeah. I’m soooo scared! Woo~ Please, lead the way then!" Zhang Yang shot back with a sinister smile.

"Hell no." Wei Yan Er immediately regretted her decision of taunting Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang laughed for a good while before steeping into the darkened room. Unlike the exterior of the palace, the Treasure Cove was dark and gloomy. It felt like a whole other world where the exterior was a cheerful and happy place, while the Treasure Cove was a world where despair and death loomed. Zhang Yang swallowed his saliva and pulled out his sword and shield out, which he had forgotten to do so, before entering the Cove. There was a sense of danger in this place. Even though he wore what was currently the strongest tank equipment in the world, he had never heard of a team that had managed to complete this quest in his past life, thus the lingering fear in his mind. Zhang Yang strongly believed that the team that tried to raid this place was not just a simple team, it had to be a strong and well-equipped team. At least, better than his current party.

Zhang Yang kept his guard up high, and his alertness at its peak, as he walked through the dark passageway. Halfway through, the system made an announcement.

‘Ding! You have entered: The Treasure Cove. You have 12 hours to search for the Meteor Sword. Failure to located the sword in the designated duration will result in expulsion from the Imperial Heaven’s Empire Royal Palace. You can use the Dimensional Key to reenter the Palace after expulsion. The Treasure Cove has 5 floors. There will be a strong boss to guard each end of every floor. The Meteor Sword is located on the fifth floor. Good luck!’

A countdown timer popped up in everyone’s U.I, along with a buff icon called, {Expulsion}.

Before the area of the Treasure Cove, there was no time limitation. The time limitation was only implemented upon entering the Treasure Cove. No wonder the previous raiders had failed to complete the mission. Once the battle with the boss took up too much time, it would waste the players’ time, and would eventually lead to expulsion. Players could try again for 2 more runs, and if they failed after that, this place would forever be sealed.

While he was thinking a way to solve the time problem, a loud stomping sound echoed though the entire room. A fully armored soldier marched to where Zhang Yang and his party was. The sound of his footsteps were terrifying. It was not the sound of his metal armor slamming hard against of the floor, but the sound of his ominous hum. It felt like he had survived numerous battles and had never lost one!

[Treasure Cove Guards] (Elite, Spectre)

Level: 95

HP: 3,000,000

Defense: 2,000

"Defend the Cove! Kill the intruders!" cried the soldier bravely. From the tiny gap of his helmet, Zhang Yang could see a lick of green flame. It was a higher leveled Spectre. No wonder it had so much HP.

"Wait! Is that an elite monster? It doesn’t make sense. His HP and Defense are stronger than a Yellow-Gold boss!" Daffodil Daydream cried angrily.

The soldier pulled out his sword and slammed into Zhang Yang. "Yeah. I get that."

Zhang Yang was too lazy to explain why this monster was so strong, neither did he attempt to understand it. No matter how strong it was, there was no escaping the fight.

"Old man! They say, all work and no play makes Jack a dull man. Well, at least you’ll get paid if you work. But now, you’re already dead! Why are you still fighting!? What about retirement? Go and relax somewhere!" cried Wei Yan Er as she tried to persuade the monster to give up on the fight. Zhang Yang wanted to chip in, but he knew that if he said anything at all, this little brat would figure out a way to ask something else. The chain will never stop if he starts it!

The fight continued, and Zhang Yang realized that the soldier was no ordinary elite monster. Each strike contained so much force, that it managed to push Zhang Yang away! The force was so strong that it felt like his legs would snap at any time if he resisted. Even further into the fight, Zhang Yang realized that the monster had a certain level of intelligence. When there were other melee fighter around him, the soldier would prioritize them before Zhang Yang. Luckily, Sun Xin Yu was extremely quick. She realized the issue and had managed to find a solution almost immediately. She found out that when the monster was not attacking Zhang Yang, it would almost instantly switch to her. With lightning speed reflexes, Sun Xin Yu would use {Vanish} to eliminate all the aggro on her and give Zhang Yang enough time to build more aggro on the monster.

After that turn, both Sun Xin Yu and Wei Yan Er found a way to negate the monster’s attacks. When the monster was attacking Zhang Yang, they would join in and attack. At the moment the monster stopped, they would leave his attacking range and allow the monster to attack Zhang Yang instead.

With the abnormal lengthy HP, and the absurd battle style of the monster, the party had taken close to 3 minutes to kill him. Luckily, Zhang Yang himself had found a better solution to kill the monster faster and more efficiently. Whenever a monster like that appeared, Zhang Yang would lure it to the corner, and Zhang Yang would attack him with his own back on the wall. That way, Zhang Yang could negate the knockback effect, which allowed him to remain "stationary," to fight him better.

After killing more than 10 monsters, Zhang Yang started to frown worriedly. If this continued on, they could not reach their destination in time! They were already at their fastest pace, there was no way to squeeze more DPS out of them!

For now, Zhang Yang moved the problem to the back of his head. The team proceeded on, killing their way into the Treasure Cove and arriving at the end of the floor, after 4 hours. Almost instantly, another problem arose. There was no passageway that led them to the next floor! The boss that was supposed to be there, was nowhere to be found! Where was the promised passageway and the boss!?