Crack!

When I cut off the Tempest Tiger’s head with my sword, I received a thick surge of experience and a purple red skill book. It looked different from all the skill books I had seen before.

I hurriedly picked it up from the ground and gave it a look. A second later, I burst out in laughter—

Fire Cyclone: Pet skill book. Summons a fiery cyclone in a 10x10 area. Pet Level Requirement: 100. Offensive physical type pet only.

……

Awesome! My Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf finally has an AoE skill! From now on, you’re going to become the Wolf King!

I made my Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf learn the skill immediately. My pet’s fur suddenly caught on fire, and the next moment it dropped a gigantic cyclone on fire right on top of the Tempest Tiger for over 4000 damage. Yep, the skill was a perfect fit with its incredible attack power!

I rushed to its aid and killed the second Tempest Tiger in no time as well. But to my surprise, it also dropped—not a skill book—but fiery red metal armor boots. I checked their stats and was delighted by what I saw—

Tempest War Boots (Dark Gold–grade)

Defense: 275

Magic Resist: 190

Strength: +65

Agility: +58

Passive: Increases user’s movement speed by 7%

Passive: 10% chance to deal 200 burn damage when attacking a target

Level Requirement: 105

……

I couldn’t believe that a shadow-rank mob had dropped a Dark Gold–grade equipment knowing how low the actual drop rate was. Awesome!

I shot He Yi a glance before saying, "Eve, your boots don’t look like nothing special. Do you want these Tempest War Boots? You can wear them when you’re Level 105."

"Mn, thank you!" We were long past the point of pleasantries, so He Yi simply accepted them with a smile and tossed them into her bag.

Luckily, we didn’t encounter any more Tempest Tigers along the way. It was a difficult and annoying mob to fight, and even with my attack power it had taken me an entire minute to kill both of them. My party simply couldn’t afford to dilly dally in this dangerous terrain any longer than necessary!

Three minutes later, we successfully passed through the burning zone and entered a hilly area. The rocks looked weathered by time, but there were plants growing from between the gaps. Moreover, there was a small, calm river passing through the center of the hills. It was an oasis in the middle of the desert.

……

We also saw a bunch of cyan-colored rock monsters on the hills. It was none other than the Desert Giants. The Desert Giants were covered in dried up moss, and behind the rocky slits on its face was a pair of gray eyes. It wielded a long, jagged rock that looked like a spiky club from a distance.

Desert Giant (Shadow)

Level: 127

Attack: 1360~1530

Defense: 1400

HP: 75000

Skills: Mad Strike X, Devastating Blow X, Barbaric Rend X

Introduction: The guardians of Fire Desert. These Desert Giants possess immense strength that can crush any defense. As a result, no human adventurer has dared to venture into Fire Desert for almost a century.

……

"High level and high Attack…" He Yi sighed.

I nodded in agreement and brought up the world map. I noticed that we were about ten minutes away from a clump of red dots. It was the symbol used to represent an enemy guild member, and there were at least hundreds of them. As expected, Warsky Alliance was grinding in that area, but it looked like they weren’t able to enter the true heart of the zone just yet. It was because the Desert Giants on the outside were putting immense pressure on them.

It was time to kill. I locked onto a nearby Desert Giant and fired a Dragon Slaying Slash!

Swhoosh!

The cyan energy took 4278 HP from the Desert Giant’s health pool immediately. As I thought, I was much stronger than before after I gained the Spirit-grade Heaven-stealing Sword!

The Desert Giant growled and walked slowly toward me. Its massive legs left deep footprints on the rocky ground, and the earth was shaking every time it moved. It was rather terrifying to watch a five-meter-tall walking hill running toward you!

But I chuckled inwardly. Even with its massive height, the Desert Giant was still way slower than I was. I could definitely kill it from range without taking a single point of damage. However, it would take quite a bit of time to kill it if I fought that way, so I decided that I would fight it head-on. That would be faster and more exciting.

Another two Dragon Slaying Slashes later, I activated Thunderous Charge!

Swhoosh!

Leaving behind a series of lightning afterimages, I successfully stunned the Desert Giant. The Heaven-stealing Sword glowing with the light of undead energy, I swung at the mob three times in a row!

MISS!

9732!

3676!

Pardon-empowered attacks were always a sight to behold. That one hit dealt nearly ten thousand damage because the enemy’s Defense was ignored. So awesome!

Behind me, the girls had finally joined the action as well. Beiming Xue slowed the Desert Giant even more than it already was with her Freezing Arrows. He Yi charged forward, attacked the mob with her Purple Gold–grade Soul Stealing Spear and caused it to shudder with her Ice Ray. Since she was buffed by Martial God, even she could deal over 3000 damage against a mob with 1400 Defense.

Our pets were contributing their part as well. The Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf was howling and tearing chunks of rocks from the Desert Giant. At the distance, He Yi’s Firelight Mouse was swinging its tail, chirping and throwing fireball after fireball at the mob’s head. Its Magic Attack was so ridiculously high that a single fireball dealt over 6000 damage. Anytime a metal armor unit encountered magic attacks, it was a fucking slaughter.

Of course, the Desert Giant wasn’t going to go down without a fight. It swung its giant arms repeatedly and threw its Mad Strike X and Devastating Blow X at He Yi and me! Both skills were capable of piercing Defense!

Bang bang!

2984!

3891!

My body shook like a leaf as my HP dropped drastically. This walking hunk was definitely more powerful than the Level 128 shadow-rank Blood Maddened Lions, be it in terms of HP, Defense or Attack!

Murong Mingyue gave up on attacking and changed to healing when she saw my predicament. She waved her Prayer Scepter a couple of times and healed me to almost full in no time—

+3764!

+2289!

If I wasn’t sure if Murong Mingyue was the best priest in Sky City earlier, I was now. In fact, she was the face of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls right now. Last time Beiming Xue fought October Rain to a standstill and successfully defended her position as Sky City’s best archer, but it was a close call. Murong Mingyue’s spot at the top was unshakeable, however. No one, whether it be the best priest of Warsky Alliance, Hegemon Palace, or Snowy Cathaya even came close to beating her.

The fight wasn’t easy, but we were never in any real danger. I had 8200 HP, and He Yi had around 9800 HP. She was just 200 HP from hitting 10000. Magic Knight naturally had high HP scaling, because they gained 15 to 20 HP per Stamina point. Warrior on the other hand only gained 10. Of course, all was fair in the world; Warrior had much better Strength scaling than Magic Knight.

A thorough beating later, the Desert Giant groaned and collapsed to the ground. Unfortunately, it only dropped a single Phantasmal Magic Stone, and I got nothing even after I used Death Plunder on it. What a stingy mob!

That being said, the experience it gave was massive. All three girls were happy to note that their experience had jumped up a little. They immediately asked me to aggro another because I had the highest attack power out of everyone in the group.

Oh well, I was the one who promised to be their laborer today, so there was nothing to complain about. I gladly played both the role of a tank and a damage dealer, ravaging through the Desert Giants like never before.

……

Two hours passed in the blink of an eye, and all three girls had gained a level: Beiming Xue was now sitting at Level 98, Murong Mingyue at Level 97, and He Yi at Level 94 and 89%. She should hit Level 95 in half an hour at most. So far, the decision to grind a Level 127 shadow-rank mobs had turned out to be a wise one.

It was at this moment we arrived at the back of a hill and vaguely heard the sounds of fighting from the other side. Exchanging a knowing glance with each other, we cautiously climbed up the hill so that we could peek at the ongoing battle without being noticed.

Rustle rustle...

Once I had gotten up the hill, I pulled out a shoot of grass and placed it in front of me. Then, I poked my head out of cover and looked at the battlefield. As expected, it was a hundred-man party of Warsky Alliance—a pretty elite one too since everyone of them were over Level 85—fighting against several Desert Giants. To be more accurate, the hundred-man party was really made up of five 20-man parties, and each 20-man party was fighting a Desert Giant. But even with their number advantage, the battle was still a pretty close one!

"Roar roar!"

The Desert Giant roared and swung its mighty arms at an unfortunate Level 87 warrior. The poor bastard was immediately crushed to a pulp as a huge damage number appeared above its head—7543!

The warrior let out a bloodcurdling scream and died.

A Level 92 spear-wielding magic knight with a squad leader insignia on his shoulder shouted, "Hold the line! Dead brothers, please get to your bodies as soon as possible! There aren’t many Desert Giants left at the perimeter anymore, so let’s give it our all! The Level 140 Spirit Rank boss, Desert Giant King, is waiting for us inside the Heart of Sand Cave, c’mon!"

The players looked motivated, but it did nothing to change the power gap between them and the Desert Giant. Another attack later, another dozen of frontliners were one-shot in the blink of an eye. These people were more paper than He Yi and I, so it was only natural that they were decimated. If this was how all their fights went, it meant that Warsky Alliance had to lose at least a 20-man party for every Desert Giant they killed.

Also watching the battle next to me, Beiming Xue sighed. "Wah, they’re literally giving their lives away to kill the Desert Giants. How fierce…"

I nodded. "Well, it’s just too difficult for most players to kill a Level 127 shadow-rank mob without sacrifice right now. Even our party was under a bit of pressure, let alone theirs."

Murong Mingyue looked around before smiling. "So, what should we do? Eve? Should we continue watching from above or join them?"

He Yi giggled. "Lu Chen, what do you think?"

I thought for a moment before answering, "You guys stay here. I’m going to take out this hundred-man party!"

"How? Are you going to solo them or something?"

"Of course not, they’re not worthy!"

……

I jumped down the hill after saying that. Then, I sneaked toward the inner hills while the hundred-man party was distracted.