Zhan Long
chapter-29

Surrounded by mounds of snow, I finally arrived at [Chilling Wind Forest]. In the distance, I spotted the level 4 herbs – Chilling Wind herbs, glowing against the pure white snow. This was gonna make me a fortune!

I carried my Bramble Thorn Sword, and pushed forward against the tough wind the treacherous snow. The arctic chills mercilessly lashed against me; I was shivering all over. After all, how was it possibly resist the cold with a thin white robe?

I wrapped my Silver Feathered Cloak tightly against me. It helped, to a certain extent, but it was still freezing! However, I would sacrifice my own well being for the glittering herbs that were waving in the wind, as if they were saying hello to me.

……

But before I could pluck the herbs from the ground, I heard a growl, monsters! On the minimap, at my right, was a large bright red dot. Looking over, I took a few steps back involuntarily. Hidden between the trees was an undead soldier with a broken steel sword. Its flesh had long since decomposed, revealing disgustingly green bones. The soldier’s helmet had obviously undergone many battles, broken off at parts and showing the soldier’s green skull.

[Green Rock Skeleton ] (Ordinary monster)

Level: 29

Attack:? ? ?

Defense:? ? ?

Health:? ? ?

Skills:? ? ?

Description: The Green Rock Skeletons are the guardians of Chilling Wind Forest. These powerful skeletons were once famous guardians of the kingdom, but because of evil spirits that were slowly corroding their spirits, they became blood thirsty, seeking blood from friend or foe. Before the skeletons died, they were trapped in a mountain and after “resting” with rocks within the mountain, they have rock-like defense and durability. Because of how tough they are, they have wandered Chilling Wind Forest for thousands of years and no one has been capable of thoroughly defeating them.

……

The skeletons obviously have an immense amount of defense, but thinking from another angle, the skeletons are probably lacking in attack. This was great for me! Baby Bobo had 5 stars in attack growth with a 97 degree of excellency. Together with my healer abilities, we could easily counter the high defense of the Green Rock Skeletons!

“Oh, here I come, easy experience!”

In a great mood, I drew my sword and command Baby Bobo to attack. He rushed forward and used [Stinger] and [Combo] in conjunction causing loud rock-like “clang clang” sounds. How high was its defense?

110!

74!

69!

71!

……

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry looking at those numbers, the Green Rock Skeleton should have about 1400 heath. This was going to be a looong fight. After those continuous attacks, the Green Skeleton instantly retaliated, hitting Baby Bobo for 144 point of damage. Its attack power truly wasn’t that high compared to its level, even the level 27 Undead Hunters hit harder. All I had to was cast a [Hemostasis] to completely heal Baby Bobo’s health and then I joined the fight.

Ding!

21!

My damage was… so low. Sniff*

After a bit more of fighting, the Green Rock Skeleton collapsed and dropped 45 Copper Coins. Quite generous, but unfortunately it didn’t drop any equipment.

Afterwards I turned around to pick up the Chilling Wind herb, I got 3 stalks from one herb thanks to my herb picking skill. With the herbs in my hand, I felt like I had accomplished something great, but there weren’t any system rewards. Maybe I held my expectations too high.

I continued my hunt for Chilling Wind Herbs, at the same time, I kept dueling Green Rock Skeletons. I was incredibly grateful for Baby Bobo. Without him, I would have to hit the Green Rock Skeleton more than 73 times and it would take around 3-5 minutes, factoring in health regen, to simply kill one skeleton! With the help of Baby Bobo, it would only take around 30 seconds to defeat one. An Overlord Bee with a 97 degree of excellence was the greatest gift that I could ever ask for.

I continued killing and collecting herbs for almost 3 hours, skipping dinner, simply to continue the hunt.

I had lost count of the number of Green Rock Skeletons that I had killed. But when Baby Bobo’s level 3 [combo] finished off a Green Rock Skeleton. A “pata” sound accompanied its defeat. The slain skeleton had dropped 2 items. One was a dark green illustration card, while the other was a shining two edged spear, oho seemed like I was about to switch weapons!

Full of excitement I picked up the illustration card, it was a Green Rock Skeleton illustration!

【Green Rock Skeleton】

Attack power：★★☆

Defense power：★★★★★

Vitality：★★★★☆

Agility：☆

Magic power：★☆

Skills：【Cleave】【Rock Shield】

……

Gee, the Green Rock Skeleton was an absolute defense pet with a 5 stars in defense and 4.5 stars in health. If you distributed its stats points to further strengthen these stats it would truly be useful for tanking, especially in boss fights. It might even be better than a tank monk, especially right now when most players didn’t have decent equipment.

I applied the Illustration Card to my Illustration Book, why not? I would continue hunting and gathering around here anyways. In fact, I accidentally killed a level 1 Green Rock Skeleton a few minutes ago, now that I thought about it, I was really stupid for killing that level 1 skeleton.

I picked up the dull green spear. As soon as I touched the spear, a slight chill sneaked into my palms. Luckily, my strength was enough to wield it, although with a slight difficulty. This gave me a good feeling, the attributes of this weapon definitely wouldn’t disappoint me…I reached out, and called forth its properties, and immediately grew wild with joy when I saw them! Several hours of killing Green Rock Skeletons had finally paid off.

【Ancient Shining Spear】（Bronze tier）

Attack：100-125

Strength：+14

Passive：Increases the attack power of the user by 0.5%

Level requirement：24

……

I was grinning from ear to ear, the spear had a 125 attack damage upper limit! What I needed the most were weapons. My Bramble Thorn Sword was becoming a under leveled item, its attack was barely high enough to hurt other players. In addition, the Ancient Shining Spear was a Bronze Tier item! It would definitely have a huge value, even after I stopped using.

I immediately equipped the Ancient Shining Spear. Although I had to give up the 10% damage boost from my [Turmoil Sword], it was still worth it. This was actually the first non-sword weapon that I had equipped, but it would appear that the attacking patterns, stabbing, hacking and slashing, was similar to a sword’s.

After equipping the Ancient Shining Spear I displayed my status. Yeah, I was once again a healer with some insane (not in a normal way) stats.

【Xiao Yao】（Healer）

Level：24

Attack：230-255

Defense：80

Health：424

Mana：320

Charm：12

……

Although my attack was still nothing compared to Baby Bobo’s attack power, I should be able to break through the Green Rock Skeleton’s defense and do a reasonable amount of damage now. And that was enough to satisfy me.

I gripped the Ancient Shining Spear, full of joy. I waved the spear wildly in the air leaving flowery trails of light, gorgeous.

Enough fun and games, I had to look for my pet Green Rock Skeleton.

Around 7 pm I finally succeeded in finding a second level 1 Green Rock Skeleton in the Chilling Wind Forest. I immediately started to capture it, and after 9 Monster Seals I finally succeeded. A Green Rock Skeleton holding a broken sword and making silent roars, appeared in my pet menu. It was a great catch!

【Green Rock Skeleton】

Level：1

Attack：★★☆

Defense：★★★★★

Health：★★★★☆

Agility：☆

Magic：★☆

Skills：【Cleave】【Rock Shield】

Excellency Rating ：75%

……

It was so good, I would easily get rich on this, after all a 75% of excellence pretty much means that it was a high grade pet.

……

I had received a good pet, yes, but I still continued to hunt with Baby Bobo and rose to level 25 before the end of the day. Although I was not yet an outstanding player, I was not even near the top at Ba Huang, I had the help of the Ancient Shining Spear and Baby Bobo. With these two, keeping my position as the best damage dealer/healer combo shouldn’t be too hard.

I continued hunting until around 9 pm, when the third level 1 Green Rock Skeleton appeared!

This time it took 11 Monster Seals in a row before I successfully sealed it.

This being my third pet, my pet spaces were filled. The third Green Rock Skeleton had a 49% degree of excellence, thereby it was a medium grade pet. I didn’t know what price it would fetch, but without a doubt it wouldn’t be as valuable as an attack pet that could help its owner raise levels more efficiently, like the Killer Bee.

Looking at my inventory, I had gathered enough Chilling Wind Herbs to make up the cost of a Return Scroll.

……

I had just pulled out my Return Scroll when I suddenly heard faint sounds of skills being used; the metallic sound of warrior combos especially stood out. Before I knew, I had arrived at the border between the Chilling Wind Forest and an area called Wild Cemetery. In the direction of the Wild Cemetery there should be players killing boss monsters or maybe PK’ing, I decided to have a look at the fun…

With my Ancient Spear, I crossed out of Chilling Wind Forest and hid behind a particularly large cluster of grass. I got startled when I came into viewing range of the fight, there were at least a hundred people engaged, fighting a boss with 15% health left. It looked as if there two guilds that were competing for the boss. Wait! One of the guilds was [Prague].

……

“Zheng Zheng Zheng”

The boss used a combo, but Yan Zhao Warrior’s steel armor withstood the blows, and then he muttered: “Peerless Strike!”

Huaaa

He surged forth, making a huge jump upwards, his sword flickering with an breathtaking light. He had used a combo attack, attacking with a straight thrust, sweep, sweep back, roundhouse kick and finally a straight hack. He had attacked 5 times in 1.3 seconds and every attack accurately attacked the same spot for increased damage. Holy, he had created a custom skill!

I was truly shocked that somebody had succeeded in creating a custom skill. From my experience, it surely wasn’t an easy task.

Even though Yan Zhao Warrior, Prague’s guild leader, was busy fighting the boss, he shouted: “Block their attack, focus on killing the boss, as long as we succeed in getting the loot we are victorious. Qing Qian, Wei Liang, go and prevent them from getting near the boss.”

Within Prague guild’s group, two figures suddenly disappear; they both used Stealth, a skill unique to Assassins. Although I didn’t see them clearly before they disappeared, I was sure one of the assassins was my big time customer, Yue Qing Qian.

……

Leading the opposite group, was a level 27 swordsman, General Li Mu. Like Yan Zhao Warrior, he was also amongst the highest level players of Ba Huang City; by his side were level 26 Berserker, General Bai Qi and a level 25 Archer, General Lian Po.

Shua shua

With some colorful flashes, General Li Mu beheaded a healer from Prague and at the same time, he rushed through the defensive line of 2 knights and plunged his blade into a mage dealing 442 damage, a fatal strike.

General Li Mu roared: “This level 30 boss is ours! Go forward brothers, don’t let these Prague dogs get them!”

At the start of the battle, General Lian Po had immediately started hiding between rocks and bushes, attempting to snipe kill Prague’s healers. Both guilds had the same tactic, first eliminate all of the healers, and then engage in deadly combat. If the healers were still alive, the players could fight for days without a clear-cut victory.

……

Sha!

I sat down calmly, examining the battle from the mountain ridge. I had no reason to hurry back, and who in the right mind would go back after seeing this fight? This was a perfect chance to learn more about skills and see how to manage skills for their maximum potential. Time to learn…