Chapter 27 – Meteor

Not only was Tang Yao the first one to attack the Leader class Rock Spider, but he was also the one putting out the most damage. It was because of this that the spider’s aggro had been firmly placed on him. Meanwhile, the spider had completely ignored Nie Yan who was attacking it with a combination of skills, leaving the latter behind as it continued pursuing Tang Yao. Nie Yan took advantage of the current situation and, while the spider was still distracted by Tang Yao, fished out the vial of poison within his knapsack and used it to coat his dagger.

Five seconds later, he finished applying the poison. He approached the spider from the rear and stabbed his dagger into its abdomen while using Vital Strike.

−10% Defense

−52

The Rock Spider became poisoned and a status debuff was applied.

Additionally, Nie Yan’s Vital Strike was a critical hit and dealt quite a bit of damage!

「Scritch! Scritch!」The spider shrieked out in pain. It switched its focus to Nie Yan and pounced towards him.

The spider’s sudden change in targets caught Nie Yan off guard, forcing him to hastily fall back.

−78

Despite his attempts to flee, however, the Rock Spider’s attack still managed to connect—draining the larger half of his health. Seeing his health bar quickly deplete, Nie Yan didn’t dare to be careless. He immediately fished out a Basic Health Potion and downed it, then rolled away and began retreating.

The spider followed in pursuit.

With the spider’s attention elsewhere, Tang Yao was free to fire off a salvo of spells. He sent off Arcane Missile, Arcane Blaze and Arcane Fireball in quick succession.

“I’m going to be out of mana soon…” Tang Yao glanced at his health and mana bars and found that he had roughly a quarter of his mana remaining. His mana expenditure was too ferocious, there was simply no chance his natural regeneration could keep up.

“Do you have any Mana Potions?” Nie Yan asked.

“I have a Basic Mana Potion.”

“Then hurry up and drink it. We’ll deal with it later,” Nie Yan instructed. When he turned back to face the Rock Spider, he found that it had already neared his position. In response, he brandished his dagger and struck out with Concussive Blow, forcing the charging spider to abruptly halt its movements. Nie Yan took advantage of this and put some more space between himself and the spider.

Even though the spider had been struck by Concussive Blow, it still managed to land an attack during the exchange. Nie Yan glanced at his health bar and found that roughly an eighth remained. Seeing this, he hurriedly used a Combat Bandage on himself.

+20… +20… +20…

During all this, Tang Yao had fished out a bottle filled with a blue liquid from his knapsack and drank it. Drinking the potion actually gave him a slight heartache; not because of the potion itself, but because that single bottle of blue liquid was worth ten coppers. To him, it was a life-saving treasure, one that he wouldn’t use even in dire circumstances.

Tang Yao’s mana was instantly restored to ninety percent. With his mana now replenished, he unleashed several spells in succession. Each and every one of them exploded on contact, dealing a high amount of damage.

Before two seconds had even passed, the Rock Spider woke from its dazed state. Upon waking, it immediately abandoned its attempt to pursue Nie Yan and instead rushed towards Tang Yao.

Its aggro had shifted once again.

“Keep at it! It’s almost dead!” Nie Yan shouted. Once his health was fully restored from the Combat Bandages, he rushed to the spider’s side once again.

The damage he and Tang Yao were dealing was by no means low. Even though their opponent was a Level 5 Leader-class monster, it was still unable to withstand this kind of assault. By now, it only had a little over ten percent of its health remaining.

「Scritch! Scritch!」The spider cried out manically as its entire body suddenly turned a shade of crimson red.

“Not good! This son of a b*tch became enraged. Keep your distance and be careful of its attacks,” Nie Yan nervously shouted.

Even though Tang Yao still didn’t understand what was going on, he followed Nie Yan’s instructions regardless and began hastily retreating while continuing to cast spells.

During his retreat, a spike jutted out from the ground below and pierced towards him.

Fortunately, Tang Yao was still moving when this rock spike emerged, and as such, it only managed to barely graze him. However, this slight scratch still dealt thirty-two damage to his health.

If this rock spike had hit Tang Yao directly, Nie Yan estimated that he would’ve lost at least two-thirds of his health.

The attack nearly frightened Tang Yao to death, but the fact that he survived made him rejoice inside.

“Keep running and don’t stop. Oh, and make sure to avoid stepping on any areas where you see the ground trembling or cracking!” Nie Yan shouted. If Tang Yao paused for even a moment, then he would meet his end.

Sure enough, as soon as Nie Yan finished talking, more rock spikes began jutting out from the ground. Tang Yao listened to Nie Yan’s advice and paid close attention to the earth beneath his feet, occasionally dodging from side to side. Even so, aside from the first rock spike, not a single one managed to hit him.

Tang Yao couldn’t help but wonder how Nie Yan discovered this method for dodging the rock spikes. Could it be that he had slain a Leader-class Rock Spider in the past?

In the end, he put this thought in the back of his mind and concentrated solely on evading the rock spikes erupting beneath his feet. He would occasionally see an opportunity to attack with a spell or two, but he never had the time to act.

The spider seemed to become even more enraged as it watched attack after attack miss. It began to unceasingly ram itself into the tunnel walls in anger. Suddenly…「Crash!!」The walls finally crumbled and collapsed. The spider climbed over the pile of rubble and rushed inside the tunnel, pouncing towards Tang Yao.

“Run quickly!” Nie Yan shouted.

“I can’t, there’s another Rock Spider behind me! If I run any further I’ll end up aggroing it!” Tang Yao nervously called out as he looked back at the spider’s immense body which was fast approaching.

Nie Yan looked at the spider’s heath bar. Five percent… it only had a sliver of life left!

“It’s fine! Keep running!” Nie Yan shouted as he checked his skill bar. By now, several of his skills had come off cooldown.

He chased after the spider and arrived near its rear.

Assassinate! Lacerate!

−2, −3

It still has two percent remaining!

Vital Strike!

Nie Yan lunged forward and pierced his dagger into the spider’s abdomen.

「Scritch! Scritch!」The spider let out a miserable shriek as it fell to the ground with a heavy crash. The impact made the entire cave tremble and shake.

“We finally killed it.” Nie Yan finally relaxed as he breathed a sigh of relief. He walked over to the Rock Spider’s corpse and picked up the loot.

“Hey, over here! I’ve still got one chasing me!!” Tang Yao ran over to Nie Yan with a smaller Rock Spider in tow him. When he was evading the Leader class Rock Spider just a moment ago, he was unable to avoid alerting one of the spiders in the area. Thankfully it was only a common monster.

Tang Yao ran behind Nie Yan and let the latter hold back the spider while he cast spells from the back.

The two made short work of the spider, and it soon collapsed on the floor.

“My God… I’m going to die of exhaustion.” Tang panted as he propped himself up against a nearby wall and began to slowly recover his health and mana. How they ever managed to kill this Leader-class Rock Spider, which was two levels above them, was beyond him. Nonetheless, it was most likely his greatest achievement since starting the game, “You know… I think I’ve just realised how awesome I actually am.”

Nie Yan took out the two items that the Leader-class Rock Spider had dropped: a single skill book and a silver white key.

Skill Book: Meteor

Description: Beckon forth meteors to smite your enemies.

Requirements: One syllable, three gestures, and one Talisman.

Properties: (Beginner) Summon five meteors. Each meteor deals five bonus damage; ten points of burn damage in a five-by-five meter area.

Cooldown: 120 seconds

Restrictions: Elementalist, Arcane Mage; can only be learned by the Righteous Faction that protects the light.

This was an uncommon Arcane Mage skill book and an extremely rare one at that. At the Beginner level, it could summon blazing fireballs that would rain down from the sky like meteors. Each fireball could strike five targets within a designated area simultaneously. At later levels, it would become a powerful area-wide spell.

“Even something like this can drop…? You lucky son of a b*tch.” Nie Yan was almost speechless. The Meteor skill was exceedingly rare, as it could only be found in Level 1 to 30 areas where Rum Spiders, Rock Spiders, and Flame Spiders spawned. Moreover, it would only drop from Leader-class or higher versions of said monsters. What’s worse was that the drop rate for this skill wasn’t more than one in ten thousand. With the current level of the majority of the player base, this skill would be priceless in the marketplace. They really did meet with unexpected success today. As for the rare drop, it was most likely due to killing a Leader-class monster that was two levels higher than them.

“What did it drop?” Tang Yao asked in surprise.

“Looks like your luck isn’t half-bad today. It dropped a Meteor skill book. At the Beginner level, it serves as an unparalleled area of effect skill, dealing high damage in a small area. At the later levels, it becomes a pretty decent mobbing skill.” Nie Yan felt a slight hint of envy as he summarized the skill to Tang Yao. An Arcane Mage acquiring Meteor during the first two weeks of the game… This truly was too much of a blessing.

“Really?” Tang Yao suddenly stood up in surprise. “Let me see!”

“It’s not bad. You can use it. But compared to Templar magic, Giant magic, or Dragon magic, it’s still somewhat lacking.” Nie Yan threw the Meteor skill book over to Tang Yao and then looked at the other item that had dropped.

Silver Key: Used to open Level 0–20 treasure chests that are Silver or lower.

Uses: 3/3

“What’s Templar magic and Dragon magic?”

“You’ll find out in the future. For now just take this Meteor skill book; I’ll be taking the key,” Nie Yan replied. He and Tang Yao would both be getting the items most useful for themselves. Nevertheless, the key was still better in Nie Yan’s hands, because only he would be able to get the most value out of it. Not to mention that, with this key, he could now finally open that locked silver treasure chest.

“If that’s the case, I won’t be polite!” Tang Yao went ahead and learned Meteor. Afterwards, when he read the skill’s description, he felt extremely satisfied. He had been thoroughly depressed due to being pursued by the Radiant Sacred Flame guild all day. Who would’ve guessed that Nie Yan’s arrival would’ve completely reversed his dire situation, turning all of his sorrows into joy in the process.