Chapter 287: Shaenita

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After a short series of curving route and corners, the party had finally arrived at the deepest parts of the palace. There, a hundred-meter-tall tower stood there, covered in a completely silver outline which practically glowed brighter than the moon itself!

"Hm…silver…not appealing enough. It would be better if it was made of gold. It will look rather bold that way, no? You know, it looks like Sun Wu Kong’s Ru Yi Jing Gu Bang1?"

The place where they were right now should be the Astrology Tower. Unlike other places that were fully guarded, this towering structure had only four guards securing the entrances and no one else inside. There was practically nothing inside but a long spirally stone stairway, twisting up all the way to the peak of the tower.

Zhang Yang removed the cloak and everyone finally sighed a breath of relief and moved away from their own personal space. Other than Wei Yan Er, who expressed her dissatisfaction of not having enough fun, the rest of the girls were flushed pink like a glowing peach. They could not be helped but to glance a Zhang Yang once in a while, while cowering away with a mild sense of embarrassment. The five of them were practically on skin to skin contact during the sneaking part, which meant only one thing. Almost all the forbidden places had been "fondled" away. That explained the peachy-ness.

"Well…Time to climb the tower now," said Zhang Yang, oblivious to their predicaments, as he scratched his forehead after seeing how tall the tower was.

"This is going to be a pain in the arse."

The five of them protested a little but have no choice but to walk up the long flight of stairs.

"What a drag! *huff huff* Why couldn’t they install a freaking elevator!?" Wei Yan Er complaint as she was huffing and puffing along the way.

In the game, a character could get tired after a certain period of action. The fatigue could be alleviated after a simple rest. If the character were to chew on bread or snacks, the recovery rate would be faster. There were other factors that would contribute to stamina as well, such as a player’s Strength value. The higher the Strength, the longer one could endure without being tired. Han Ying Xue and Daffodil Daydream were already panting like mad dogs, were drenched in sweat.

Zhang Yang saw how exhausted those two unathletic ladies were and had to stop.

"Let’s take a break." He said.

Even though one could travel a thousand miles on a mount, players would have to rely on their own two feet to climb a tower. After a short rest, the team continued on for another 20 minutes and arrived at the top of the tower.

The area on top of the tower was surprisingly huge. At the center of the of the circular space was a gigantic telescope that looked like it was a hyper-mega-particle-beam cannon from one of those spaceships in sci-fi movies, giving the tower a true sense of an authentic astrological study. The only remaining missing piece was an old man with a walking stick gazing into the heavens via the telescope. Hanging on the left side on the wall of the dome shape observatory, was the door-sized mirror that glowed with a golden luster. The surface was the mirror was smooth like ice, yet the reflection of it was slightly darkened as if it had a protective barrier in it.

[Mirror of Truth] (Tool)

Level: 1

HP: 100,000,000

Defense: 1,000,000

Magic Defense: 1,000,000

"Is this the so called magic mirror?" asked Han Ying Xue. Like a fish attracted to a bait, the girls started to flock over the mirror and stared into it to observe their own reflections.

The sheer HP and Defense value of the mirror was so bewildering that the mere thought of shattering the mirror via brute force was abandoned immediately.

Without delay, Zhang Yang took out the [Heart of Herlow] and wanted smash the mirror with it. He was immediately stopped by Han Ying Xue just when he was about to thrust the stone-like object.

"Wait!" said all the girls.

Zhang Yang was stunned. "What’s wrong? Don’t you want to finish the quest?"

"Of course, we do! Just wait for a minute…"

Han Ying Xue was the first one to spoke to the mirror. "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

If you could actually see Zhang Yang’s face right now, it would look like the emoticon that look like this -_-|||.

"My lovely lady. Princess Snow White is the fairest lady of them all!" A face materialize in the mirror and spoke in a voice that was hard to distinguished between a man and a woman.

"Oho…I see…" Han Ying Xue waltzed over to Zhang Yang and took the [Heart of Herlow] from him.

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, do you know what am I holding in my hand?" she asked.

"My lovely lady. That is the Heart of Herlow."

"Now tell me mirror, what will happened to you, if I took this piece of rock and smashed you with it?"

"My lovely l-l-lady…I-I-I would shatter into a thousand pieces and perish!"

Han Ying Xue grinned. "I see that you understand the situation. Now tell me once more, O mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

"My lovely lady. You are the fairest of them all!" The mirror lied immediately.

Zhang Yang quietly praised the programmer of the game for even making an object like that possess such a level of AI.

Satisfied with the answer she had obtained, Han Ying Xue passed the rock to Daffodil Daydream and went to rest at one side. Under the threat of the [Heart of Herlow], the mirror could not help but to lie his reflective *ss off to satisfy all the girls around. Wei Yan Er was the last one to receive the baton and she asked. "Magic mirror! Magic mirror! What is my name?!"

"My lovely child, your name is Drizzler!"

"Haha! This is fun! It actually knows my name!" Wei Yan Er squealed in delight. She then walked closer to the mirror and was only 2 inches away from it.

She asked again. "Magic mirror. Do you think that my chest will grow any bigger?"

Zhang Yang frowned and facepalmed himself so hard that it actually left a mark on his forehead. This little girl had the impression of the mirror really knows it all! But lo and behold, the mirror really did answer her question!

"My lovely child. Everything you wish for shall come true!"

Wei Yan Er squealed again in delight. She turned over to Zhang Yang swiftly and said, "hey noob tank! I like this mirror! Let’s take it back!"

"Are you playing?!" said Zhang Yang angrily as he snatched the [Heart of Herlow] from Wei Yan Er. Without waiting for any answer or response from the girls, Zhang Yang quickly threw the rock towards the mirror and broke it.

Piang!

The 100 million HP mirror immediately shattered into uncountable pieces.

"Sigh…what a shame." Said Daffodil Daydream. The rest of the girls seems disappointed as well.

As they completed their mission, instead of walking down the tower, the party tore their [Teleportation Scroll] and went to Thunderstorm Castle instead. There, it was nearer and faster to reach to Oz instead of walking back from the Astronomy Tower.

Three hours of riding later, the party arrived to Butterfly Valley for the third time.

‘Ding! You have completed the quest: Destroy the Magic Mirror! Obtained 5,000,000 Experience Points!’

"O brave adventurers! You have done it again!" Snow White cheered happily. "Now, it’s time to eliminate the evil witch! Once I have regained my rightful place in the throne, I shall reward all of you handsomely!"

"My princess, let us go together and vanquish this evil witch!" Wei Yan Er cheered.

"Adventurer! Would you assist me in eliminating the evil witch?" Snow White asked the party anticipatingly.

‘Ding! Snow White has a quest for you: Take Back the Throne! Will you accept it?’

"Yes! Yes!" Wei Yan Er frantically nodded his head.

[Take Back the Throne] (Difficulty Level: A)

Quest Description: Kill the evil Queen Shaenita and rescue the Kingdom of Oz! Heroes! Hopes lies just over the horizon!

Quest Participant Limit: 5

Progress: Kill Shaenita 0/1

"Let’s ride then! Onward!" Snow White waved her hands and summoned a blood red Direwolf and rode it bravely.

"How cool!" said Wei Yan Er. Her voice was a mixture of both jealousy and adminration.

As the party rode out of the valley, the princess waved her hands again. She cast a skill {Haste} on everyone which increased the movement speed by a fewfolds. Like a rampaging squall, the six of them rode at a breakneck speed towards the kingdom.

In less than one hour, the party had arrived at Hera’s Castle. There, Snow White took out a magic cape and put it on herself. "I will follow your lead to the Royal Castle!" she cried.

As she put on the cloak on herself, the magic seeped in and rendered her completely invisible.

Zhang Yang led the party to proceed on toward the palace entrance. There, the muffled voice of Snow White broke through the air and said, "I will protect you with my magic cloak! Go on!"

A sudden darkness blanketed their vision and after a quick second, their vision returned. They just realized that Snow White had just covered all of them with the magic cloak.

"At this time of the day, the witch should be having tea by the flower garden!" said the princess. She then led the party forwards and moved around the palace with great precision as if she was extremely familiar with the route around the palace. In no time at all, the party arrived at the garden.

There were a total of 11 guards patrolling the entrance. All of them were Level 77, elite tier with 150,000 HP! One of them guards was even a Yellow-Gold tiered boss!

[Guard Captain, Angelo] (Yellow-Gold, Humanoid)

Level: 78

HP: 7,800,000

Defense: 1,400

Note: Angelo was once a Hunter.

"Someone’s there!" Angelo sniffed something in the air and yelled from the top of his lungs. He pulled out a long sword from his back and pointed at the direction where Zhang Yang was hidden.

As expected of a Hunter, with instincts and senses like a dog!

The other guards were confused at Angelo’s sudden outburst and went on surround the area where Zhang Yang and his party were, even though, from the guard’s perspective, they were just surrounding nothing but air.

"Reveal yourself! My sense of smell will never be wrong!" Angelo bellowed.

Without any means of warning, Snow White yanked off the cloak on her and revealed herself to Angelo. "Angelo! I need your help! Oz needs your help!"

"Princess!?" Everyone, including Angelo and the rest of the guards around were stunned.

"No, princess! You have lied to me! I may have spared your life the last time! But my will and loyalty is still to the Kingdom of Oz! You have plotted against your own father, the great and benevolent Andalu the Third. This sin of blood must be repaid in blood! You will die!" Angelo bellowed and swung his sword towards Snow White.

Before the sword landed, Zhang Yang, who had already anticipated, pulled on the reins of his bear and intercept the sword strike with his shield held up high.

{Block}!

Pang!

The sword clashed heavily against the shield and sent thousands of sparks flying off into the air. Zhang Yang had successfully blocked the boss’ attack.

"Brothers! Kill the traitors!" Angelo stabbed the sword into the ground and commanded his troops to attack.

Well, d*mn!

Zhang Yang swiftly activated {Blood Rage} and increased his Rage to over 60. He waited a quick moment for the guards to approach nearer and activated {Horizontal Sweep}. Numerous waves of attack blasted off as the Dark Enigmatic Sword effects were triggered repeatedly, causing 4,000+ damage over and over again. Zhang Yang was rather lucky this time as the sword had triggered a total of six counts and had dealt more than a total of 300,000 damage to all.

"That’s ridiculous!" Han Ying Xue cried in surprise.

"Indeed, it was!" said the ever-silent Sun Xin Yu which had added on to their surprise.

"Hehe! What are you waiting for?! Stop staring and start killing!" Zhang Yang yelled.

While facing a large group of monsters, the capabilities of the Dark Enigmatic Sword would increase tremendously! The more enemies there were, the better it would be! Zhang Yang activated {Blast Wave} to attack and this time, the skill was triggered three more times and caused a relatively high damage!

"Kill the minions with your AoE skills first! We’ll target the boss last!" Zhang Yang screamed.

‘-6,206!’

Angelo attacked Zhang Yang, and this time, his {Block} was on cool down and had to take the hit head on.

Zhang Yang’s bear was already at Level 71, with a HP of 19,640! After combining with Zhang Yang, their shared life would boost Zhang Yang HP to a whopping 48,780 HP. The boss slashed at Zhang Yang and had only chipped away one eighth of his total HP.

"Brothers! Kill them! Kill them all!" cried Angelo. With a sudden burst of red hue, the guards gained a buff.

‘Ding! Angelo has used {Raging Command}!’

[Raging Command: Increased 20% Melee Damage. Last for 2 minutes.

"Nice! That skill is awesome! I want one!" cried Wei Yan Er as she yanked Zhang Yang sleeves.

Even though all the monsters aggro was on Zhang Yang, the number of monsters that could only attack him was three at a time. Zhang Yang had relied on his positioning and constant maneuvering around the boss to block the monsters around which had limited the number of monsters engaging him. Coupled with his strong defense armor, Zhang Yang was only taking close to 5,000 damage per second.

While Zhang Yang was taking all the damage, the rest of the girls had start releasing all their AoE skills, leaving Han Ying Xue to throw healing spells on Zhang Yang. With her healing rate close to 3,000 HP per second, Zhang Yang could only last for approximately 24 seconds before he would be in danger. If he relied on {Shield Wall}, {Berserker’s Heal}, and {Rearm}, he would at least last for another minute or so.

If he was to win this battle, he would need to hurry up with clearing all the guards before he starts taking on the boss.

Princess Snow White was a Berserker class NPC. With a long sword in her fragile-looking hands, she danced around like a butterfly and attacked the guards around swiftly. She did not have any AoE skills, her damage was not as strong, hence, she was not just an ornament in the battlefield!

Still, Zhang Yang had quickly used up {Shield Wall}, {Berserker’s Heal}, and {Rearm} to repeat his cycle of skills again. Luckily, with the effect of the Dark Enigmatic Sword and the girls with strong equipment, everyone had managed to kill all the monsters right before Zhang Yang started to get worried about his HP.

One thing led to the other; and once the monsters around were gone, the boss was nothing but a simple target to kill. Even though Angelo was a Yellow-Gold boss, it was just gatekeeper boss that was meant to guard doors, nothing spectacularly powerful. It true that the skill {Raging Command} was powerful, but only when the surrounding allies were many. Once the monsters around had been weeded out, its skill would not be of much help alone. The long 7,800,000 HP was nothing but a delay of the inevitable. In just ten minutes or so, Angelo grunted loudly before falling, defeated.

"Adventurers! We have now passed the final obstacle. The evil witch is just inside there! The last fight is there!" said Snow White, before rushing into the garden on her own.

Before moving to the garden, Zhang Yang instructed, "Take the loots first! We’ll distribute them after the battle with the witch!"

As expected of royalty, even the garden of the palace was as huge as a football field. The party followed closely after Snow White and after sprinting for a few hundred meters, they had arrived at where the last boss was at!

Not far from the garden was a grand swing with a huge wooden seat in the middle. Sitting quietly on the swing was a beautiful lady dressed in a black. She was reading a book, occasionally flipping the pages along with her right hand. Beside the swing were four maids standing quietly, awaiting orders from their master. They were all elite tier.

[Queen Shaenita] (Yellow-Gold, Humanoid)

Level: 80

HP: 8,000,000

MP: 4,000,000

Defense: 1,400

Note: The stepmother of Snow White, a witch with unlimited magic power.

[Loyal Maid] (Elite, Humanoid)

Level: 78

HP: 1,000,000

Defense: 400

"Shaenita! I’ve returned!" cried Snow White boldly with rage.

Surprised, the lady stood up frantically from the swing. Her tall slender body was filled with the elegance of a true born royalty aura. She lifted her fair, pale finger and pointed them furiously at Snow White. "You…You dare to show yourself here!"

"Shaenita! Today will be the day you die!"

1 Ru Yi Jing Gu Bang – The golden magical staff that Sun Wu Kong wields which is capable of adjust its size according to the wielders’ will.