Set Attributes

Having obtained a decent pill formula, Ye Luo was in quite a good mood, but Sister Yan Hua beside him shook her head.

"What, did I get the short end of the deal?" Ye Luo was slightly puzzled.

"No. It's just that you could have gained more, since the Night Rain Family urgently needs equipment." Sister Yan Hua spoke calmly. Seeing Ye Luo's unconcerned expression, she changed her tone. "Don't you want to complete your set as soon as possible? We'll likely reach levels 18 or 19 today. That means that after tomorrow, we'll lose the right to run the level 10 instance again. You could have exchanged equipment with Night Rain Misty earlier. Even trading three pieces for two would have worked."

The level 10 Demon Ant Calamity instance had a level restriction. Players could no longer enter after reaching level 20. Given Ye Luo and Sister Yan Hua's leveling speed, they would definitely reach level 20 within a day, losing their eligibility to continue running the instance.

"Uh, this..." Only then did Ye Luo realize that. He smiled bitterly and muttered to himself, "I hope our luck gets better from here on out. We can still enter the instance three more times tomorrow..."

"Let's hope your luck improves." Sister Yan Hua spoke blandly, then accepted the mission and instructed him, "Give it everything you've got from now on. Don't hold back the Brave and Fearless skill on your medal either. Clear it at your strongest and make sure no one can ever break our record."

If no one else could break their record, then Ye Luo and Sister Yan Hua's names would remain at the top of the rankings. It might not mean much to Ye Luo, but it would greatly benefit Sister Yan Hua—or rather, Misty Pavilion. At the very least, more players would join Misty Pavilion because of its reputation.

Ye Luo nodded. Then, with a flash of white light, the two entered the instance once more.

After taking mutated Strength Pills, Ye Luo and Sister Yan Hua slaughtered monsters at full strength. Although the monsters had become stronger because they had leveled up, the demon ants still died at an extremely rapid pace under their relentless assault.

The worker ants and soldier ants were quickly dealt with, and Ye Luo and Sister Yan Hua simultaneously tanked three male ants. With Brave and Fearless activated, they could now endure them without much danger, while their monster-killing speed increased considerably.

After the male ants died came the ant queen. Brave and Fearless had also finished its cooldown, so Ye Luo immediately activated it. Waves of damage numbers floated above the ant queen's head.

With nearly a thousand health and greatly improved defense and attack, neither Ye Luo nor Sister Yan Hua worried about being instantly killed by the ant queen. Their fighting became somewhat reckless, but their efficiency rose dramatically.

Fifteen minutes later, the ant queen died and the Instance Mission was complete. Without question, they had broken their previous record again, improving it by a full five minutes.

Breathing slightly heavily, Ye Luo steadied himself. "We didn't hold back this time, and we got lucky too. We landed several critical hits while fighting the ant queen. No one should be able to break our record now, right?"

"Hard to say." Sister Yan Hua answered indifferently, then changed her tone. "But the two of us have equipment that is nearly the best available at this level, along with the best skills and mutated pills. Theoretically, breaking our record would be difficult unless experts from the Celebrity Ranking deliberately came to run the instance."

"Of course, people on the Celebrity Ranking wouldn't waste their time on something like this. Their levels are also higher than ours, so they don't have much of an advantage." Sister Yan Hua added.

"Then almost no one can break our record." Ye Luo said. He did not dwell on the matter and instead complained, "We clearly broke the record, so why didn't we get any Skill Points this time? We only got a lot more experience."

"Perhaps the Heavenly Tribulation Game's AI knew we were farming records, so it reduced the rewards." Sister Yan Hua said. Seeing Ye Luo's shocked expression, she spoke as though it were only natural. "For the sake of Game Balance, the AI won't allow players to farm rewards like that. At the very least, it can prevent such situations."

Without lingering on the issue, Ye Luo shifted his gaze to the loot.

Their luck this time was fairly good. Although the three male ants had not dropped any Jade Poison Beads, the ant queen had dropped a Tier 2 one. As a result, Sister Yan Hua's Jade Poison Bead advanced to Tier 3, greatly improving its overall attributes.

"Yan Hua, if we ran this instance again right now, we could probably shave off at least another minute. What a pity." Ye Luo joked half-seriously before turning his attention to the equipment.

The three male ants had dropped two pieces of set equipment, both heavy armor. One chestplate overlapped with Ye Luo's, but the boots could be equipped by him, giving him another set piece:

Demon Ant Boots (Shoes * Heavy Armor - Common)

Physical Defense: 20-20

Magic Defense: 10-10

Equipment Durability: 150/150

Required Level: 10

Set Attribute: Can only be activated when combined with the heavy armor Demon Ant Armguards, Demon Ant Leggings, Demon Ant Chestplate, and Demon Ant Helmet.

The Demon Ant Boots had exactly the same attributes as the White Iron Boots, which made Ye Luo feel somewhat regretful. After all, he had traded a "high price" to Night Rain Misty for them. But for the set attributes, he had no choice but to give them up.

Next, they checked the equipment dropped by the ant queen. To Ye Luo's delight, the ant queen had dropped three pieces of equipment, one of which was the armguards he needed:

Demon Ant Armguards (Armguards * Heavy Armor - Common)

Physical Defense: 20-20

Magic Defense: 10-10

Equipment Durability: 150/150

Required Level: 10

Set Attribute: Can only be activated when combined with the heavy armor Demon Ant Boots, Demon Ant Leggings, Demon Ant Chestplate, and Demon Ant Helmet.

He quickly equipped them. With that, Ye Luo only lacked a pair of Demon Ant Leggings to complete the set.

The remaining two pieces were leather armor. Sister Yan Hua could equip the boots, but she did not want to replace the Flying Snow Robe with the chestplate, so they left it alone.

Looking at the extra set pieces, Ye Luo said, "I wonder if we can trade them for two pieces we need."

"It's a rule of virtual online games: chestplates are harder to drop than the other defensive equipment, and chestplates of the same level have better attributes than armguards and leggings. It shouldn't be difficult to trade for them." Sister Yan Hua said. After pondering briefly, she looked at Ye Luo. "Use these two chestplates to trade with Night Rain Misty for what we need. She's smart. She'll definitely agree."

Ye Luo nodded. The two left the instance, but Night Rain Misty's team had not emerged yet, so they could only wait for a while.

"Yan Hua, I have plenty of Gale Grass in my backpack, but I don't have any Dragonfly Wings. I'll go collect some near the Novice Village's South Gate later. It's always better to refine the Gale Pills sooner." Ye Luo said as he waited for Night Rain Misty and the others.

"Mm. Just buy some outside the South Gate. I'm sure many people will be willing to trade." Sister Yan Hua nodded lightly, with a hint of anticipation in her voice. "Ten Agility from a Gale Pill is nothing to me now, but it will be quite a boost for you. After all, you have added far too little Agility. Besides, if my guess is correct, mutated Gale Pills will have additional attributes just like mutated Strength Pills. That's what we need."

Ye Luo nodded, feeling somewhat expectant as well. However, Night Rain Misty and the others emerged from the instance at that moment. Trading for equipment to complete his set was more important for now.

Before Ye Luo could speak, Night Rain Misty smiled sweetly. "Congratulations, Sister Yan Hua, Brother Ye Luo. You broke the record again. Oh my, fifteen minutes! That's even faster than our Six-Player Instance. This record might remain forever."

Ye Luo smiled faintly but did not chat with her. He briefly explained that he wanted to trade equipment.

Just as Sister Yan Hua had said, set chestplates were harder to drop than other pieces and had much better attributes. Night Rain Misty naturally had no objection and readily exchanged equipment with Ye Luo.

After that, Ye Luo obtained the final pair of leggings:

Demon Ant Leggings (leggings * Heavy Armor - Common)

Physical Defense: 20-20

Magic Defense: 10-10

Equipment Durability: 150/150

Required Level: 10

Set Attribute: Can only be activated when combined with the heavy armor Demon Ant Boots, Demon Ant Armguards, Demon Ant Chestplate, and Demon Ant Helmet.

After replacing his old leggings, Ye Luo finally completed his five-piece set. Then he heard a system prompt:

System Prompt (Personal): Dear Ye Luo Zhi Qiu, congratulations on collecting the Demon Ant Boots, Demon Ant Armguards, Demon Ant Chestplate, Demon Ant Helmet, and Demon Ant Leggings. Set attributes have been activated.

Set Attributes: Overall damage dealt to targets increases by 15%; damage received from targets is reduced by 15%; Health Recovery Speed increases by 10 points per second; chance to knockback targets increases by 15%.

Increased damage, reduced incoming damage, powerful health recovery, and a chance to knock back targets—the set attributes of these five pieces were exceptionally strong, perfectly matching Sister Yan Hua's high evaluation.

After learning about the set attributes, Sister Yan Hua merely said, "Mm, not bad."

Ye Luo knew that getting Sister Yan Hua to say "not bad" already said a great deal. Then, remembering something, he asked curiously, "Yan Hua, the set attributes of the three kinds of sets shouldn't be exactly the same, right? After all, the three equipment types focus on different things."

"Of course they're different." Sister Yan Hua answered with certainty. Then she stopped speaking and contacted Sister Feng and the others through the communicator, clearly asking about the set attributes of the other two equipment types.

A moment later, Sister Yan Hua ended the call and said calmly, "Besides damage bonus and reduced damage to the wearer, leather armor sets grant 15% evasion, 15% accuracy, and 0.5 meters per second of speed. Cloth armor sets grant 10 Mana Recovery Speed per second and 15 Intelligence. The set attributes are all quite good."

"Yan Hua, the attributes added by the leather armor set are all very suitable for you, especially the extra speed. It's a pity you won't give up the Flying Snow Robe." Ye Luo said regretfully. Then he looked expectant. "It would be great if the Flying Snow Robe could absorb the attributes of other equipment and form a set. That would make it even stronger."

"That would affect Game Balance too." Sister Yan Hua replied blandly, though her tone was slightly gentler than before. "All right, go collect Dragonfly Wings. I'll wander around and see whether I can find any missions."