MMORPG: Rebirth of the Legendary Guardian

The mechanics of Edward – Dunkirk’s skill, the {Mountain of Treasure} were really complicated. There was no fixed interval to it. It could be as frequent as once a minute, or it wouldn’t even occur after a certain period of time. If Zhang Yang had not been lucky enough to stumble upon the Mythical Turtle, he would have already been gritting his teeth, thinking of a thousand ways to defeat the boss. As expected from an open-world boss. The game developers had turned off their common sense while designing open-world bosses. There was only one strategy, to take as many players as you can, and to overpower him with numbers! If 10 was not enough, bring a 100. If 100 was not enough, bring 1,000! Or even 10,000!

Edward – Dunkirk was supposed to be defeated via such a crude, inefficient strategy. However, even attributes designed for such numbers were shattered with the appearance of a single Violet-Platinum battle mount! It should have taken more than a thousand players to take on the boss, and yet Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue were able to fight the boss. Just the two of them!

As the boss’s HP slowly, but steadily dropped from 100% to 80% and 60%, the boss would roar shout out the same old line over every 10% HP loss. ”Give up! The booty shall be mine and mine alone!” and after the line which was quickly getting old, he would wave his metallic hook arm and throw sharp hooks with chains in all directions. An iron hook did up to 10,000 damage, and the boss actually sent three waves of hooks out per cast. If players did not have any life preserving skill active, they would surely be killed! Not even the current tanks with their best equipment could survive after taking that huge amount of damage, let alone the other more fragile classes!

Luckily, Han Ying Xue had the Crimson-Gold Crab at Level 58 now and having the rare, Yellow-Gold battle mount had pushed her HP up from 14,320 to 31,240 HP! Coupled with Zhang Yang’s {Vitality Aura}, Han Ying Xue HP had surpassed 35,000 HP, enough for her to endure attacks from the ”Meteoric” iron hooks!

Even though there was already the existence of tiers among items, monsters, and bosses, bosses alone were separated by yet another category! Edward was a Yellow-Tiered boss, AND the final boss of a map. A player might able to defeat a Yellow-Gold tier boss in any random field, but if they think that they could defeat Edward – Dunkirk without paying the blood price, they will only be mopping the floor with their own blood!

It was different for Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue. They had underwater battle mounts! It was natural for them to be able to handle a boss such as Edward!

…

After some time, Zhang Yang managed to bring down the boss to 5%! Edward – Dunkirk’s green emerald eyes suddenly burst into bright red flames. His entire body was dyed in red as if someone has just showered him with blood. The deep red color of his entire body emitted some kind of ancient power that was not to underestimate.

‘Ding! Edward – Dunkirk has berserk! All damage increased by 100%!’

”Crap! The boss has gone berserk!”

In his normal mode, Edward was already overwhelming, now that his attacks were doubled, that would only spell instant doom for them!

Frantically, Zhang Yang reached out to Han Ying Xue. ”Use {Dance of the Heaven and Earth}!”

”Okay!”

Shush! Shush!

Two shadows emerged from both Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue and headed straight to Edward. The shadow morphed itself into two humanoid warriors, wielding two swords and tore into Edward’s body!

‘-10,000!’

‘-10,000!’

…

”GRWAHHH!” The boss bellowed with so much rage that it released a shockwave that pushed them back a few inches. In a flash, the boss waved his hands and cast the ”meteor” iron hook skill. It now had a 100% buff to it!

Zhang Yang turned with such speed and cast {Sacrifice} on Han Ying Xue. He then activated {Shield Wall} and protected both of them. 10 seconds after the {Dance of the Heaven and Earth}, the boss had still over 150,000 HP. {Shield Wall} ended at the same time!

‘-17,345!’

Edwards sliced Zhang Yang with a quick stroke and dealt the strongest damage Zhang Yang had ever received!

”WTF!? The boss is just too strong!” cried Zhang Yang in horror. ”B*tch! You best stay close to me! If the boss throws another iron hook out, I will use {Vanguard Aggression}!”

As expected, during berserk mode, the boss did not follow his original pace. Just 10 seconds after the first iron hook skill, he cast the same skill over again. Luckily, the boss skipped {Mountain of Treasure}. If he had used both skills at the same time, they would have been dead!

Zhang Yang frowned. His brows were furrowed as he concentrated extremely hard to survive and attack at the same time.

{Turtle Shell Defense}! 90% damage reduction for 10 seconds!

The boss had 100,000 HP left!

…

50,000!

{Turtle Shell Defense} ended. {Rearm}! {Shield Wall}, {Vanguard Aggression}!

40,000! 30,000! 20,000! 10,000! 0!

”NOOOO! Curse…ye…” Edward growled his last as he tumbled down to the cabin floor. His lifeless body floated aimlessly around the cabin like a dead fish.

”Fuah! We did it…” Zhang Yang let out a breath. He had used up all his skills in the process, and if the boss had still survived for a few seconds, the bodies that would be lifelessly floating around the room will be theirs! Anything could have happened! The boss could have done something to turn the table around at any point when he had his last 1% of HP!

Zhang Yang stretched his body and was happy that he survived the entire ordeal. On the extreme end, Han Ying Xue was extremely disgruntled. With a face that could have sent shivers down anyone’s spine, she turned to Zhang Yang and said, ”…The boss had just attacked us with a room full of gold coins. Yet after his death, he had only dropped 8 gold coins...WHAT.IS.THE.MEANING.OF.THIS!?”

Zhang Yang swallowed his saliva and said, ”Calm yourself, woman. I’d rather he dropped a couple of equipment than a few more coins. One Yellow-Gold equipment could be sold for at least a few 10,000 gold coins! Think about it.”

”Having equipment is not the same as being drowned in a sea of gold coins!”

”…I think the only two people who would love that would be Scrooge McDuck and you.”

Han Ying Xue glared angrily at Zhang Yang but suddenly burst into huge laughter. The two of them happily waltzed towards the loots to collect them. They had collected a total of three Yellow-Gold equipment, eight Gray-Silver equipment. All of them were Level 80. There was one more item, and it was a piece of Treasure Map!

When Zhang Yang noticed the piece of [Treasure Map] he knew immediately that it was the most valuable item that the boss had just dropped. Since Edward – Dunkirk would only drop three pieces of [Treasure Map] in his own ”life”, the first map will lead to the best [Treasure Chest]!

[Earth Spirit Gauntlet] (Yellow-Gold, Heavy Armor)

Defense: +40

Vitality: +134

Strength: +54

Dexterity: +27

Equip Effect: Absorbs 104 damage upon being attacked.

Level Requirement: 80

Among the three Yellow-Gold equipment, Zhang Yang had obtained a pair of gauntlets. Han Ying Xue had obtained a magic staff. Even though it was not as strong as a Violet-Platinum tier, it was still fairly powerful!

[Bloodstone Staff] (Yellow-Gold, Magic Staff)

Magic Attack: 1,198 – 1,598

Equip Effect: Increases your magic critical rate by 1%

Level Requirement: 80

The last piece of Yellow-Gold equipment was a Leather Armor hat. However, despite being a Yellow-Gold tier, its attributes were not too good. The bonus Vitality was too much, while the Strength and Dexterity boosts were too little. It was not suitable for any attacking class. Zhang Yang just placed it together with the rest of the Gray-Silver equipment and kept in his inventory, ready to be sold in the Little Merchandise Shop.

As for the [Treasure Map], Zhang Yang kept it to himself.

”Hey Silly Yu, are we going to hunt for the treasure now?” said Han Ying Xue excitedly.

Zhang Yang nodded. ”Hell yeah.”

Han Ying Xue smiled from ear to ear. The [Treasure Map] was drawn very explicitly and had indicated that the treasure chest was at the west corner of the Great Lake Valla. The two of them left the ghostly ship and made their way to the treasure chest. Zhang Yang did not want to resurface to travel on land but instead, he insisted to travel underwater, since it was much faster for him, and he wanted to collect more herbs. Although the distance to their destination was far, Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue chatted and joked with each other happily without realizing that 2 hours had already passed. They reached their destination and Zhang Yang found his inventory having an additional stack of [Devil’s Algae].

The destination was a small island the size of a basketball court (approximately the size of a stadium). The land on the island was extremely scarce and was practically a large, mountainous route. The mountain alone was at least a hundred meters tall! There was a huge, obvious problem with this island. The mountain alone bore no trees. In fact, the entire mountain was completely brown and clean! If one would compare this mountain with the face of a teenager, this mountain must have been taking care of its face really well!

The two of them went on shore. The moment their characters moved out of the water, their clothes were instantly dried, as if they had never been submerged in water. This feature was set to allow maximum comfort for the players.

On land, there was no use riding the turtle anymore. Zhang Yang then unsummoned the Mythical Turtle and brought out the Gold-Eared Bear King in its stead. Han Ying Xue, on the other hand, remain seated on the Crimson-Gold Crab, walking horizontally which led to Zhang Yang bursting into huge laughter.

There were no signs of any monsters spawning on this deserted island, allowing both Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue to reach the foot of the mountain relatively fast. They traveled around the mountain, before heading up, since there was literally nothing there to explore. On the far side of the mountain, they found a cave which was blocked by a huge stone. Zhang Yang tried to attack the stone but ended up damaging his sword, losing 10% Durability!

”Stupid me!” Zhang Yang cried in anguish.

Luckily, they found a way to move the stone. It was a door to the cave and could be opened easily. Zhang Yang followed the description of the map and found a palm size round stone sitting on the rock by the side. Han Ying Xue read to Zhang Yang the means to operate the stone and instructed him to turn the stone which acted as a knob.

”Three turns to the left and seven turns to the right, then, four turns to the left, two turns to the right.”

”What?? Slowly, woman!”

”Sigh…Three left, seven right, four left and two right.”

”Ok…I think I got it!”

Ka Ka Ka ka!

The stone door then turned and rolled to the side and exposed the entrance to the cave. The moment Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue set foot into the cave, the torches on the wall lit up by themselves and revealed the interior of the dark cave.

”Hmph. I would have preferred the door opening by saying ”Open sesame!” That would be wayyy cooler!” said Han Ying Xue.

The two of them entered the cave and proceeded deeper. The cave was huge. It was so huge that Zhang Yang could not even see the ceiling. The pirates had basically hollowed out the entire mountain from within! The place was practically glowing with gold and silver luster! With the light being emitted from the torches on the wall, the treasures glimmered with rainbow-colored lights that filled the place with a vibrant, metallic gleam!

Zhang Yang made a bet with himself that the woman would jump into the sea of treasure and start swimming in it like a certain cartoon duck that he had seen when he was very young.

Among the stacks of treasure, a huge stone statue of a warrior that stood right in the pile of treasure. It was positioned there as if it was tasked to guard the treasure. Zhang Yang kept his guard up worrying that something might trigger a battle. Han Ying Xue, on the other hand, commanded her crab to march right into the sea of treasure.

Ka! Ka! Ka! Ka!

Before she could get off the crab, the stone statue started rattling. Dust that had accumulated on it started to fall off the status. Rock and tiny debris rained down from the ceiling. The entire cave shook.

”None shall take our treasure!” said the statue as it came to life. It opened its eye lids, revealing a pupil-less pair of eyes, and swung the stone axe at Han Ying Xue.

‘-4,892!’

Han Ying Xue jumped and shrieked when she took the damage. She returned to her crab and hurried back to Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang was already laughing maniacally when Han Ying Xue came to him. ”Consequences of being too greedy, woman!”

”Hmph! Stop talking and start killing! Dummy!”

Zhang Yang patted the bear and rode into the fight. He swung his Dark Enigmatic Sword and sliced at the stone statue. A loud crashing sound, accompanied with a bright spark occurred when his sword struck the stone.

[Treasure Guard] (Elite, Tool)

Level: 78

HP: 78,000

Defense: 600

Elite only? Hmph! Small fry!

Zhang Yang and the white bear combined their attacks, while Han Ying Xue assisted them with her crab, and both of their attacks swiftly reduced the Guard into mere pebbles.

After the short battle, Han Ying Xue was the first one to jump into the treasure pile and scoop up the coins, letting them flow out of her hands. She was behaving like a young girl who was playing with water in a water theme park! Zhang Yang smiled when he saw that adorable part of her. He then got down from the bear and scooped up as many coins as he could, only in a well-mannered way. With each fistful of coins Zhang Yang stuffed in his pocket, the inventory only registered an increase of a few copper coins. The system would never allow a player to have such a sudden gain in fortune.

Despite that, Han Ying Xue was still delighted. While she was having the time of her life, Zhang Yang got busy killing the other Treasure Guards in the cave. There were actually more than one of those statues, placed a certain distance from each other, and Zhang Yang spent some time hunting them so that Han Ying Xue could enjoy her time here collecting all the gold coins. Zhang Yang did not mind having to kill all of the guards by himself since they did provide some experience points.

After slowly collecting and killing their way in the cave, they finally reached the deepest part of the cave after only half an hour. Sitting quietly on the three-meter-long and 1 meter wide stone desk, was a chest that gleamed with a purple luster. The chest was not that huge, yet it was extremely eye catching! On the outside of the chest were carvings of mythical creatures that made the chest look like it was meant for royalty.

”What the…a Violet-Platinum Chest!” Zhang Yang shouted in surprise when he saw the chest.

Even though they saw the chest just sitting there, seemingly ready for the taking, they did not throw themselves at it. After the first attack by the stone statue, they had their guards up. Standing guard beside the chest, was another one of those stone statues, only that it was much taller and wielded a huge axe.

Now that he was going to fight once again, Zhang Yang switched back to the Mythical Turtle. Somehow, he knew that the stone statue was going to be at the level of a last boss. Why else would this boss be guarding the Violet-Platinum chest? Even though the Mythical Turtle might be much slower, the attack and HP, not to mention it the {Shield Wall}-like skill, completely outclassed the other pet!

Zhang Yang summoned the Mythical Turtle but he did not ride on it. Instead, Zhang Yang rushed to the boss and started the battle.

Cruck! Cruck! Krack!

Countless stone pieces started crumbling down the statue and in mere seconds, the stone statue had ”come” alive, and took a huge step forward. Similar to the previous stone statues, this boss opened its stone eye lids, however, it was not the pupil-less eyes that Zhang Yang had expected. They shone brightly like the headlights of a truck!

[Andasia the Guardian] (Yellow-Gold, Tool)

Level: 78

HP: 7,800,000

Defense: 2,000

”Sigh…What a load of crap. We have the treasure map! Why would we have to go through more bosses?!” Han Ying Xue complained angrily.

Zhang Yang rushed ahead and entered the range of {Spear of Obliteration}. He then activated the skill and hurried back to the Mythical Turtle. There, he got on and waited for the boss to come to him instead. The Mythical Turtle was actually moving, but the speed was so slow that it could be ignored…

”GOOOOON!” Andasia growled and swung his massive stone axe at Zhang Yang.

As mentioned before, even though Andasia might be a Yellow-Gold tier boss, but its strength could not be compared to that of Edward – Dunkirk. After a normal attack, Andasia would have a skill similar to that of {Destructive Smash}. Now that Zhang Yang knew about the skill, he made up a sequence of his skills to counter that skill whenever the boss uses it. With that, there was nothing else to be worried about! To Zhang Yang and Han Ying Xue, Andasia was just an elite monster that had a longer HP and a stronger attack. It was only a matter of time before they could kill him off.

After 20 minutes, Zhang Yang had turned the stone statue into pieces of stone pebbles. It was so easy that the pair was left fuming, thinking that it had not left them any loots! However, they soon realized that they had already obtained the battle loots. It was the treasure that the stone statues were guarding. They were only there to see if players were worthy of claiming the treasure!

”MUAHAHAHAHA! TREASURE! WOOHOO!” cried Han Ying Xue as she jumped on the table and caress the chest like it was her own baby daughter. Her drool almost dripped onto the lid.