MMORPG: Rebirth of the Legendary Guardian

The ever-desolated flatland was still covered in thick fog. The sky was dark and zombies were limping everywhere. The entire place was surrounded in an eerie atmosphere. Since Zhang Yang had visited this area a few times before, the map of the area only revealed a portion. There were still many area of the map that were still hidden in a black shadow.

In this game, a player would have to explore the unknown areas of an unknown region to have the system reveal the region’s name. You could also reveal this information through buying [Map] from an NPC of that specific area.

“This place gives me the creeps!” said Little Snow. She had been cowering behind Drizzler this whole time while holding tightly to her sleeves.

“Um, cousin. You’re already quite old now. Wouldn’t you be ashamed for being this scared?” said Drizzler after walking for quite distance. She could not hold in anymore.

Little Snow nudged her cheek and said, “Tch. You cheeky little brave girl!”

“Teehee!” Drizzler was not angered by her comment but instead she smiled. “Hey! I have an idea. Shall we dress up as ghosts and scare the residents at our apartment?” The three guys frowned at her sudden idea. What on earth was this little rascal thinking?

As they travelled deeper into the flatlands, the monster’s level gradually rose from Level 21 to 24. Luckily the team was filled with strong players as they killed their way further into the flatlands.

“‘You can find the evil Necromancer Zac in the Cave of Bones west of the Desolated Ghostly Flatlands’ bullshit! This place is so freaking huge! Where on earth are we going locate this so-called Cave of Bones?” Fatty Han scolded. He had been walking for so long but only managed to reveal one quarter of the entire region.

“Hm… shall we split up?” Hundred Shot suggested.

Zhang Yang thought for a while and nodded. “That’s a good idea. Let’s split up!”

The five of them split into four. Little Snow insisted that she did not want to leave her cousin alone. All five of them then headed into four different directions. With the team divided, the killing speed drastically decreased, but going in all directions sped up to exploration and in only another ten minutes, Little Snow posted in the party channel, “Here it is! I’ve found it! Get over here!”

Since Zhang Yang was separated with the girls for a distance, they were gone from his mini-map. Zhang Yang quickly open the world map and headed towards their general direction. As he killed the monsters in his way towards Little Snow, he stumbled upon the bodies of the same monsters that he was fighting. Someone just fought this monster not too long ago. He quickly checked his mini-map and found Fatty Han.

After a while, Zhang Yang and the two other guys met with the girls. The place that they were currently at was on a small short hill. At the foot of the hill there was a cave entrance as high as three men. Nearby the entrance, there were at least 7 to 8 Skeleton monsters patrolling. Zhang Yang opened the world map and checked the area they were in. The area was no longer black; he could see texture of the hill along with the name “Cave of Bones” superimposed on it.

“Onward! To the cave!” Zhang Yang called out.

[Recently Assembled Skeleton]

Level: 25

HP: 2,500

Once Fatty Han read the name of the monster, he felt disgusted. “Who could have such a weird hobby to actually play with a human skeleton?!”

He turned his gaze to Drizzler and immediately had a playful thought. “Hey Drizzler, compared to these skeletons, you’re actually quite well-endowed.”

“F*ck off, fatty bum!” Fatty Han instantly enraged the party. The girls started to literally hit him. Still, no matter how hard he was beaten, there was still a smile of ecstasy on his face. Every time the girls struck him, he let out a weird “Ohh Ohh Ahh Ahh” kind of sound. The girls stopped immediately as they thought that it was both strange and scary.

The party then proceed on clearing all the minions outside and went into the cave. Luckily, the designer of this area did not want to trouble the players too much as there were many fire torch lit everywhere in this cave. Even though the light from the torches were not all that bright, Zhang Yang and the party did not have much trouble seeing further inside. Just like outside of the cave, there were many skeleton monsters roaming about. However, they were only just normal minions that posed no threat to the party.

The team rampaged on and killed their way forward. None of the monsters could even last longer than five seconds. Ever since Little Snow was technically freed from her duty as a healer, she could only follow behind the team, picking up all the loots that were dropped by the monsters.

After they fought for a while, Zhang Yang suddenly recalled a memory. “Ah! I remember now! This cave has five floors! The final boss is located the deepest level!”

It was not that he had entered this cave in his previous life, but he remembered because he had read an introduction article posted in the official forum. This cave had five floors and every floor had a mini-boss. Beside the expected Green-Copper equipment, the boss also dropped a few non-combative items that were extremely valuable! When the game reached near mid-maturity phase, every Cave of Bones of every city was occupied with big guilds. The caves were so occupied that normal players did not even know what the boss looked like as they could not walk into the cave in the first place!

“F*cking hell! Five floors!?” Fatty Han cursed as he could no longer hold in his frustration of walking and clearing the entire first floor! Zhang Yang laughed. “Yeah! This is troublesome! But remember this, there is a mini-boss on every floor! Their rewards are also extremely valuable!”

Fatty Han regained his spirit and quickly replied, “Okay! Go, go, go! Let’s kick the boss’ ass and get some equipment!”

The monsters here were all killed off quickly under the fierce attack of the party. After 10 minutes, they finally hit the end of the dungeon. There was a 2-meter tall, gigantic Skeleton monster that was blocking the pathway onward.

[Skeleton Captain, Gawain] (Green-Copper)

Level: 25

HP: 250,000

“Holy crap! This one is much stronger than the others!” Fatty Han blinked his eyes.

Zhang Yang quickly explained. “You need to understand that a dungeon boss is limited to a few people. The one we just fought, Marzerway’s Lair was only a 5-man dungeon. This is a field boss. There is no limit to how many people that is able to participate. It wouldn’t be called a boss if it can be killed off easily, now would it?”

“Ahh…I wonder what skill does this one have. Let’s just hope that it’s not as strong as the Frog King!” Fatty Han did not dare to be too relaxed after he was “shot in the face”.

“Let’s not waste any more time. All three range players stand behind and spread out! Little brat, we’re up!” Zhang Yang took out his sword and walked. He quickly activated once he was in the effective range.

‘-334!’

Before the , the giant growled and threw its skeletal arm at Zhang Yang when he entered its aggro range. The stun effect was only effective for half a second, but it was enough so that the boss’s movement was interrupted halfway.

‘!’

‘-160!’

To maximize the team firepower, Zhang Yang used on the boss when he had enough aggro.

“Bold intruders! How dare you enter the domains of Lord Zac! I will eat your soul! I will make you all into my slaves!” said Gawain, the Skeleton Captain once it recovered from the stun, growling loudly at the party.

“Pffft! It’s probably time to brush your teeth! Smelly, stinky boss!” Drizzler swung her spear and pierced the monster, dealing significantly higher damage then she had before. After the morning dungeon trip, she swapped out a few of her old equipment for newer and stronger ones, increasing her damage by a noticeable amount.

“Puny human! I want your blood!” the monster cried out and immediately ignored Zhang Yang. It moved at lightning speed towards Drizzler and held her tightly with both of its boney, skeleton arms. It then opened its pale white jaws and bit into Drizzle’s fair neck.

‘Ding! Player Drizzler has received the effect of . Losing 200 HP every second and heals the caster for 2000HP. Last for 10 seconds!”

“Aiyeeee! Bastard boss, let me go!” Drizzler frantically tried to escape its grasp but under the boss’ skill control, she could not retaliate. No matter how hard she tried she just could not get herself out of the situation. She felt pressed down like Sun Wu Kong trapped under the Five Element Mountain.

Zhang Yang started to laugh, “Haha! Little brat, I always thought that you were always born with a provoking face. Why else would the boss jump on you instead of the others?”

“Shut up and help me!” said Drizzler.

“He can’t. No one can! The skill is unbreakable!” Hundred Shots and Fatty Han fired a few and failed to interrupt the boss. Luckily, Little Snow was fast enough to recover the HP loss. She was constantly healing Drizzler, making sure her HP is always out of the red danger zone.

After 10 seconds, the boss dropped Drizzler and began to attack Zhang Yang furiously. The party attack was strong, but the boss’ vampiric recovery was stronger. The boss recovered almost 20,000 HP in just 10 seconds, almost to a full health!

97%, 94%, 90%!

“Useless Hunter! I will suck your blood dry!” This time, the boss picked Fatty Han as his meal.

‘Ding! Player Fatty Han has received the effect of . Losing 200 HP every second and heals the caster for 2000HP. Last for 10 seconds!”

“Argh! No! Don’t take my blood! My blood is bad! It tastes bad!” Fatty Han grit his teeth as he faced the monster at a close distance, completely filled with disgust.

1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds…

+2000, +2000, +2000…

Green texts appeared on the boss’ head continuously and after 10 seconds, it was healed back to 95%! “Crap! We’ve been attacking him and it heals nonstop!” said Fatty Han as he was fazed by the boss’s full health bar.

Zhang Yang started to frown. This was not going as planned. He deduced that his team’s firepower was not strong enough. If they had 10 members attacking at the same time, then the boss would not be able to keep up its healing with the damage received!

“Noob tank! Do you have any other strategies hidden in your sleeves? If this goes on, my cousin will run out of MP really soon!”

“She’s right. The boss only lost 5% HP and I have already used 15% of my MP. If we drag this on any longer, we will surely die before it!” Little Snow calmly exclaimed.

Zhang Yang thought for a while and yelled, “Everyone stop!” The party members looked at each other with uncertainty. However, they placed their trust on Zhang Yang and stopped their attack.

“Hey, not you! Continue to heal!” Zhang Yang quickly shifted his position to evade the boss’ attack. Overtime, the boss started to grow stronger, its attacks got quicker, making it harder for Zhang Yang to evade. Eventually, Zhang Yang had to take damage.

Little Snow scoffed. “You asked all of us to stop! You said it yourself!” Even as she debated, she still casted the healing spell, recovering Zhang Yang.

94%...93%...92%...

When Zhang Yang was the only one attacking, the boss received less damage and lost its HP slower. It only reached 90% after so long.

“Damned Guardian! No matter how hard your skin maybe, my teeth can still pierce through it!” The boss attacked Zhang Yang and used on him.

“The boss’ Lifesteal skill is depends on the rate of its HP lost! If you attack it fast, its activation rate will also get frequent! If you attack it slower, it will be less frequent!” Zhang Yang roughly assumed the boss’ mechanics.

“F*ck! That means if the party DPS does not exceed 2000, we can never kill him!?”

Everyone was bewildered and baffled. Even though they were much stronger than other players on the same level, excluding Little Snow, their total DPS only totalled up 600 tops!

How could they continue on the fight?