Chapter 404: First Clear Again

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

The Shadow Queen’s cheapest move was to cast Mass Spirit Control along with her scoundrel-like Shadow Sacrifice. Compared to these two moves used as a combo, her Mass Shadow Arrows were pretty tame.

It was the most dangerous moment now. Five people were called out, including the absurdly strong Lin Jie.

“It was a good thing he took off his armor earlier. Otherwise, we really cannot avoid being wiped out.” The Heavenly Shield instantly charged towards the space between the five players and Shadow Queen. He stood in front of the five players and slammed his shield onto the ground. It stretched out to form a thick wall that seemed to be made out of countless shields.

This was The Heavenly Shield’s strongest skill, the enhanced version of [Shield Fortress]—[Iron Will Fortress]. Only those with over 80 points of Willpower would be able to use this skill. It could increase the user’s Defense by 300 points temporarily and block others from passing through.

Bam!

Lin Jie was the first to run into the fortress. The other four followed closely, and there were several “bams!” as they ran, head first, into the wall like blind people, before bumping into each other. It was a beautiful sight to behold. With The Heavenly Shield’s skill, he managed to block all of them in time.

“Hurry up! I can’t hold them back much longer!”

Fat Cattle and the others had also given up on attacking the Shadow Queen. They turned around and immediately focused all their attacks on Lin Jie. In Savage Blade, Lin Jie was the strongest, so it was crucial for them to save him first.

Under their constant attacks, Lin Jie’s health bar was finally depleted to zero, and he came to his senses. Lin Jie instantly cast a few buffs and slashed out a few Blade Auras. In no time, he saved the others as well. After this wave of attacks, the Boss’ health also dropped down to the last 15%.

As long as she did not enter her enraged state, the Shadow Queen was not that powerful!

“Peasants, you have angered me. You’ve offended the most beautiful queen.” The Shadow Queen screeched. The shadow power in her body emerged wildly, bursting out of her beautiful body. She floated in the air like a scarecrow hanging.

Transformation state—Demon Queen!

“Everybody get close to her quickly!” Lin Jie shouted, and they all rushed towards the Boss.

In just a second, they were all gathered underneath the queen. At that moment, a dark storm began blowing violently outside their radius. It was so powerful it almost tore the roof off!

The first skill the Boss used after transformation was Shadow Storm. This skill covered the entire map, and it was impossible to avoid it. On top of that, it dealt damage of over 2,000 points per second. If one were caught in it for over two seconds, they would surely die. The only way to avoid it was to be near the Boss since she was in the eye of the storm. This was a really devious move. Normally when people saw the Boss casting a large skill, their first reaction would be to retreat. If they were to encounter this move of hers, it would be their doom.

-485!

-492!

…

Numbers were popping up above all their heads. However, these numbers were nothing compared to if they were outside in that scary storm. As long as the healers paid attention to the team members’ health, nobody would die.

Following after was her second skill! The Shadow Queen dispersed her Dark Flames in all directions. Those who came in contact with her Dark Flame would receive 500 points of damage per second and spread this effect to other players within a radius of 15 yards. Each time she would cast five Dark Flames. Once stacked, the damage would be so high that nobody would be able to handle it.

Lin Jie had already selected a few coordinates beforehand. Upon seeing the Boss cast her spell, he ordered the team members to immediately head towards those coordinates. Only the main tanks with sufficient health points stayed to tank the incoming wave of flames. Shadow Flame was slow and could be easily dodged. However, they had to tank at least one attack, or the Boss would double her attacks in the next wave.

“Attack!” shouted Lin Jie.

In the second stage, the Shadow Queen would enter Enraged Mode if the battle was “longer than 30 seconds”. This meant that the team had to kill the Shadow Queen within 30 seconds. Otherwise, she would become enraged!

“Shadow Arrow!”

“Shadow Arrow!”

“Dark Flame!”

The Boss suddenly unleashed her power. Two Shadow Arrows headed straight towards “I’m No. 4” and killed him instantly. Following right after was a stream of purplish-black spirit being pulled out of his corpse. This was the Boss’ skill [Corpse Consumption], which could heal her by 20,000 health points per second.

“Outraged Roar! Dragon’s Roar! Ice Spirit Slash!”

Lin Jie used all of his crowd control skills consecutively. However, the Boss’ resistance was too high. Even with Lin Jie’s stats, he only got three Miss. Luckily, Wantless’ Arcane Blast successfully interrupted the Boss. Otherwise, it would have been really bad.

When I’m No. 4 was suddenly killed, everybody became fearful! It was a piece of cake for the Boss to instakill anybody in her last state with her terrifying stats. Even with two main tanks together, they were constantly in fear that the Boss might suddenly kill them instantly with magic attacks.

“Shadow Arrow! Shadow Arrow!”

When the Boss’ health bar dropped to 5%, there was another outrage, more violent than the previous. The Mass Shadow Arrows were like black bullets raining down on everybody. It was impossible to dodge them! There were at least four arrows headed straight for each person there.

At that moment—

Curse Emperor Abstruse Gray Wind waved his staff lightly, and strange runes landed on the Boss’ body. The mass Shadow Arrows summoned by her disappeared completely! Those runes increased in size as if they had devoured a feast of beasts.

[Shadow Control]: Directly control any skill of a Shadow, Undead, or Dark unit, and interrupt it.

A Spellcaster of Curse’s Epic Skill!

“Go, Gray Wind!”

“Good job!”

The Shadow Queen in front of them was growing extremely weak. With a last burst of attack, everybody depleted her health bar.

“Even though I’m… so beautiful…” The Shadow Queen whined as she slowly landed on the ground.

Ding~

—”Congratulations! Your team has killed the Shadow Queen. You received the special title [Man Who Is Not Tempted By Beauty]. You will gain +20% favor from those of the opposite sex, and +50 points favor from all girls.”

Lin Jie did not know whether to laugh or cry at this title.

Bu Yi blinked and pursed her lips. “What an awful title.”

The title for female players was [Woman Who Is Jealous Of Others’ Beauty]. It increased all stats by 5 points and an additional 10% Magic Recovery Speed. The stats were really good, but the name was too unpleasant.

This was the special title reward for killing the Shadow Queen. According to the players’ performance, there were a total of 20 titles to be earned. After all of the titles had been gathered, there would be a special title [Shadow Queen’s Loyal Admirer], as well as a hidden item of the Shadow Queen as a reward. Cough cough… don’t think that this hidden item was something special. It’s actually just a normal gift bag.

Lin Jie was not interested in any of that. What he wanted was… the first clear!

—System Announcement: Congratulations to player “Codename Lone Wolf”. His team “Savage Blade” has obtained the first clear of Hero-Level Shadow Queen. He is rewarded with 1,400,000 EXP, 50 gold coins, 1,000 Guild of Light Reputation, and additional 2 Free Stat Points!

—System Announcement: Congratulations to player “Codename Thousand Miles” for obtaining first clear of Hero-Level Shadow Queen. He is rewarded with 1,400,000 EXP, 50 gold coins, 1,000 Guild of Light Reputation, and additional 1 Free Stat Points!

Although players were surprised by their achievement, they were far from being as shocked as when the first clear of Guardian Eller was announced.

“I already knew they would do it.”

“Obviously. There are so many guilds who were stuck at the first Boss, but Brotherhood has already defeated the second Boss. How powerful.”

“I’ve bet 10,000 gold coins on Savage Blade’s win. Don’t disappoint me.”

The Shadow Queen’s terror was not as obvious as that of Guardian Eller, and she did not display them for the players to see. As such, many players believed she was weaker than Guardian Eller.

In truth, the second Boss Shadow Queen would have been several times stronger than Guardian Eller if she had entered all her different states. She would have even been much stronger than the final Boss!

Lin Jie massaged his temples. The Boss battle required a lot of focus and was extremely tiring, especially when they had to be completely alert during the different stages. Now that he could finally relax, a wave of exhaustion finally hit him.

“Ziliang, search the corpse. The next Boss is not like the Shadow Queen. He’s a real, violent, and cruel ruler. We’ll need the help of other items in order to clear him.” Lin Jie said slowly, “I’ll pay to keep our progress. As for the rest of you, after you leave the dungeon, go to the newly spawned towns to complete missions and gather all of the items we need.”

Zheng Ziliang took a few steps back and said, “Nah, my luck today is not good.”

“You rascal, you’re scared after getting a set of Bronze equipment. Watch me!” Baili Changcheng rubbed his hands and smiled. “My luck is known to be amazing. Watch me get a set of Elemental Sword Artist’s equipment. Go!”

Ding~

Ding~

Ding~

—”[Shadow Spike Pauldron] (Dark Gold) is added to your inventory.”

…

—”[Wandering Witch’s Robe] (Gold) is added to your inventory.”

—”[Wandering Witch’s Boots] (Gold) is added to your inventory.”

—”[Wandering Witch’s Cape] (Gold) is added to your inventory.”

—”[Wandering Witch’s Wrist Guard] (Gold) is added to your inventory.”

—”[Wandering Witch’s Pauldron] (Gold) is added to your inventory.”

—”[Wandering Witch’s Enchanted Staff] (Gold) is added to your inventory.”

Lin Jie stood up in shock!

His luck was really amazing, they actually managed to get an entire set of Wanderer’s equipment! This was a Level 40 Gold armor set for Spellcaster of Curse. The equipment for Spellcaster of Curse was known to be extremely rare. There were Level 40 Spellcasters of Curse who were still wearing Level 25 equipment, showing just how hard it was to get their hands on those items.

Other than the powerful stats from being a Level 40 Gold armor set, the Wandering Witch’s equipment set had another great special attribute: When casting curses, there was a chance of increasing the user’s skill by one level temporarily. A Level 3 curse would become Level 4, and Level 4 became Level 5! The effect of curses was calculated by percentages. If the skill level increased by one, the effect would jump by leaps and bound.

This set of equipment was naturally given to Gray Wind. With Wandering Witch’s equipment, his curses were a few times more powerful now.

“Such luck. This is a jackpot…” Gray Wind was on cloud nine as he hugged the equipment, ignoring the bored expressions on the rest of the team members. The other item was a heavy armor.

[Shadow Spike Pauldron] (Dark Gold, Heavy Armor)

Requires: Level 40, Strength: 200 and above

Defense: 162-223

Strength: +65

Agility: +35

Attack Speed: +10%

Additional effect: When you are under attack, there is a chance the attacker will receive 150 Shadow Damage and a 20% reduction in speed.

“A heavy armor both Berserkers and Weapon Specialists can use. Since it’s more suited for a Berserker, I will keep it,” said Lin Jie.

They took whichever items benefited them the most. This had always been the method Savage Blade used to distribute equipment.

The Shadow Spike Pauldron’s stats were a little extreme. It added 35 Agility points and not Endurance. On top of that, it increased the user’s attack speed, which caught the interest of Lin Jie. Along with the stats he gained from the Supplementary Sword, wouldn’t his attack speed be comparable to that of a Bandit?

Other than a set of equipment and a Dark Gold pauldron, there was a large number of random items. Among them was a “Secret Pet Egg,” which would give a random pet once hatched. After discussion, everybody agreed to give Lost Camel the pet egg, and they distributed the rest of the items evenly among themselves.

Also, the Shadow Queen had dropped a potion recipe: [Middle-Grade Invisibility Potion Recipe].