As we entered the instance, we were treated to a bunch of cutscenes.

The War God Academy was also called the Martial God Hall. It was a hall of great history, and it had produced countless experts over thousands and thousands of years of its rich history. Not only had it produced 11 Sword Saints in total since its foundation, the president of the War God Academy himself was a powerful Sky Sword Saint. Unfortunately, the same Sky Sword Saint would also be the last and biggest obstacle standing in our way of completing this instance.

……

Thud!

I landed on a row of stairs and looked up. The War God Academy directly ahead of me looked both beautiful and majestic under the soft moonlight. While the surrounding ruins were blurry and unclear, the academy itself looked as glorious and distinct as it was thousands of years ago. The undead residing in the academy were unwilling to pass into oblivion without resistance, so they clung onto their unnatural existence and waited for adventurers from the future to challenge them.

Ding~!

System Notice: You have entered an instance. You have obtained the quest “Guardian Blade”! (Main Quest: Only the first party to clear this quest will obtain the reward)

Description: War God Academy was a glorious hall of experts until death arrived and sank it into the depths of the purgatory. The world turned to ruins, and its students, teachers and the president died one by one. However, not only did their souls not perish as they should have, their desire to return and conquer eventually won and brought them back as undead. You must kill the president of War God Academy, take the Guardian Blade from him, and hand the weapon to a main city lord who is deserving of it. You will receive a generous reward!

……

As Lin Yixin summoned her Moonchaser Tiger and jumped onto its back, she said smilingly, “Ooh, a main quest. Looks like we can kill two birds with one stone if we clear this quest. Not only will we win 20 million resources from that idiot Warsky, we’ll gain the reward of a main quest as well. Let’s do our best, everyone!”

Beiming Xue nodded smilingly. “Yeah, yeah! The monsters in this instance are not a real threat to us. The three bosses though, we’ll have to deal with them one way or another!”

I summoned the Ancient Divine Dragon, the Phantom Wolf King and my apparition before giving everyone a Fire War God Card each. Then, I said, “500 minutes should be more than enough to clear this instance, so use it now. But please remember that these cards are exclusive rewards, so there’s no way to get more if we use them all up. Don’t waste them!”

He Yi smiled as she waved her hand and applied the buff to her amazing body. Then, she looked at me and asked, “So, which stratagem are we going to use for this instance? Your Martial God, my Royal Road, or Yiyi’s Bombshell?”

I thought for a moment before replying, “Let’s use Royal Road to decrease the bosses’ stats. A main quest’s boss must be very powerful, not to mention that this is the S3 instance. If it was that easy to clear, everyone would be wearing a full set of Immortal-grade equipment already, and Eternal Moon Corporation would never allow this to happen even after we entered the latter stages of the game. Yes, I’m certain that the number of players who can beat the S3 instance will be few and far between. As pioneers, we must be mentally prepared to party-wipe at least once or twice…”

Murong Mingyue clenched her fists in determination. “I resolved to die in an instance a long time ago. I’m just worried that we’ll have to die too many times to clear it…”

I smiled. “If you die in an instance, you lose 50% of your current level’s experience. If your experience is less than 50%, you will drop a level. If things get dangerous, feel free to use me as the sacrificial lamb. I am Level 214 and already after my eighth promotion, so I can afford to drop some levels. The rest of you though are only 1 or 2 levels from being able to promote your class, so don’t die unless there’s no way out.”

“Understood. Now let’s go!”

“Let’s go!”

……

I naturally took point as I was the main tank of this party. The Phantom Wolf King was following next to me, and the dragon-riding apparition closely behind. We slowly walked up the stairs of War God Academy.

Suddenly, a ball of shadow wriggled from the shadows at the top of the stairs. The next moment, an old man dressed in linen clothes and wielding a blood red spear emerged into existence. He blocked our path and said in a low tone, “Are you here to register as a new student, boy? Unfortunately, the registration period is long past. If you still wish to enter the academy, you will have to wait for a year… or pay me 100k gold now. What do you say?”

I was stunned. We hadn’t even passed the entrance yet, and this fucker was ripping us off already? This couldn’t stand!

There was also the fact that the old man’s stats and ID were in red font. Whatever he was, he clearly wasn’t friendly—

Guardian Shire (Immortal Miniboss)

Level: 255

Attack: 19500~27500

Defense: 24000

HP: 15800000

Skills: Barrier Break, Undead Slash, Fire Break

Introduction: The gatekeeper of War God Academy. Shire may look like a stooped old man, but he is not to be underestimated. He was once one of the strongest generals of the empire, and there were few in the foreign lands who could stop him. After he grew old, he joined the War God Academy and became its gatekeeper. Countless experts had tried to challenge the honor of War God Academy, but none of them was able to pass through Shire.

……

“Holy shit, a miniboss already?” I backed away swiftly while unsheathing my weapon. “Prepare for battle, girls! It’s a Level 255 miniboss, and this place is a bit too small to fight! Beiming and sis, back up to the edge of the map! I’ll keep him busy in the meantime!”

"Mn mn!" The two girls retreated immediately.

Shire slowly rose to his feet while holding his spear loosely on one hand. After he pulled away the cloak covering his head to reveal a withered face, his lips curled into a malicious and ugly smile as he laughed. "Jie jie! Finally, someone new has come to commit suicide and loosen my bones!"

I crossed my weapon in front of myself while retorting, "Don’t worry, we’ll take you apart so you won’t ever have to loosen your bones again!"

"You are courting death, boy!"

Shire abruptly jumped into the air and fell straight down on me. Not only that, he was using Barrier Break. He moved so fast that I had no time to parry or dodge at all. The spear passed right through the Dragon God Shield and slammed into my chest, inflicting a massive amount of pain. God damn, this Level 255 miniboss hits like a truck because of its level advantage!

153992!

However, my total HP was over a million thanks to the Fire War God Card, so this bit of damage didn’t matter at all. Moreover, one Instant Heal from Murong Mingyue had restored 110k+ HP to my health, making the damage even more negligible than it already was. Who in this academy could kill me as long as Murong Mingyue remained alive?

Not one to take a hit without retaliation, I stabbed Shire in the stomach and cried, "Purple Frost Concentration!"

There was a ding, and the boss lost 32% of its Defense immediately. Meanwhile, Beiming Xue had rode to the edge of the map and shot Bone Eroding Arrow, multiplicatively lowering the boss's Defense by another 24%. Now, the boss only had 52% of its original Defense.

Burning Blade Slash + War Crush!

Shire shook like a leaf as my skills removed huge chunks from his health bar. For a time, the girls could only watch in shock—

149298!

182837!

223366!

173632!

172623!

159200!

……

"OMG, Lu Chen’s Attack is even crazier than before. A Level 255 miniboss's Defense is as fragile as a piece of tofu before him…" Murong Mingyue commented in a dumbfounded tone.

Lin Yixin executed her Ice Storm + Triple Slash combo but only managed to deal 90k+ damage or so per hit. He Yi’s Attack was even lower, so she only managed to deal 70k+ damage per hit. The attack power difference was like night and day.

While slashing and stabbing the boss with impunity, I explained, "The Purple Ying Sword evolved into an Ancient Divine Armament, so it now increases my Attack by 175%, and its upper Attack limit is over 10000 The Sacred Armament I obtained from Iron Skull Wilderness called Fire God Helmet also gives a hidden Attack boost, and finally, the Ancient Divine Dragon also increases my Attack by 175%. It's perfectly natural that I deal way more damage than you all…"

Lin Yixin whined cutely, "My equipment is considered top-tier at Sky City, but compared to yours it almost feels as cheap as stall equipment…"

I smiled. "That’s why I’m grinding with you all right now, am I not? With me around, our chances of beating the S3 instance are at least 50%. For now, let’s try and gather a full S3 set for Eve first and then the S4 set for Yiyi. There’s no rush. We can take this one step at a time…"

Both girls responded with wide smiles. "Mn mn!"

Murong Mingyue commented in a dumbfounded tone again, "Wow, what a harmonious relationship…"

Beiming Xue replied, "This is good though, isn’t it? Anyway, let’s take out this unbelievably ugly gatekeeper as soon as possible, big bro! He reminds me of our dorm aunt…"

A certain poor gatekeeper shuddered violently. "..."

……

The fighting continued for a bit, and it soon became clear that the gatekeeper was incapable of one-shotting me at all. Even if I allowed him to land his Fire Break + Barrier Break combo and both skills critted, he could only deal 600k+ damage at most. With Murong Mingyue’s superior healing and my own 20% lifesteal constantly healing me with every hit, there was never any hope for the old gatekeeper to beat me.

I must admit that this Level 255 miniboss was interesting from a game design perspective though. Figuratively and literally, this gatekeeper would prevent at least 95% of the parties in the entire world from even passing through the gate. If the gatekeeper could deal 300k damage to me with a combo, then the same combo would deal 500k damage or even 800k damage to another mounted player. The reason this fight was so "easy" for us was only because I had Divine Armaments and a ton of Immortal-grade items on me, and I was riding the Ancient Divine Dragon. There was literally no one in the world with my level of Defense right now.

Pu!

During the last hit, my sword pierced the old gatekeeper’s chest and nailed him to the gate. He screamed for a moment before lolling his head to one side and weeping, "I’ve truly gotten old…"

The miniboss died and dropped a ton of equipment, but unfortunately, even the best item it dropped was just Heaven-grade. I threw them all into my bag and decided to sell them to the NPCs later. Instance equipment was bound to the player upon looting, so they couldn’t be sold to another player. Otherwise, we would be filthy rich just grinding the S2 instance and selling its equipment to other players already.

……

When picking up the magic stones, I didn’t hesitate to throw it all into my bag while saying, "These stones are mine, okay? I’m an unaffiliated player, so I have no other source of income besides this. If I share the stones with y’all I won’t even have enough gold to repair my equipment in just a couple of days."

"Are you really that poor?" Lin Yixin shot me a look before bringing up the trade window and selecting 5 million gold on the trading screen.

I smiled. "You’re so cute, Yiyi. It’s fine, I’m not that poor yet…"

My mouth said no, but my heart said "aw yis I’m so happy I have a girlfriend like this”. If one day I stopped gaming and became a loser, she would still feed me until the end of my lifetime...