The Battle Was Finally Over

This was an exceptionally special piece of equipment. As long as you held it, you could breathe freely underwater!

"Beautiful! Hahaha, this thing is way better than any purple gear."

Sun Busong held the Water Vine, unable to bear letting go. There was no water here, though, or he would have jumped in to try it already.

"Hey! Shorty, hurry up and get over here. There's still a third quest to finish."

"Oh, right. I still have a quest to do." Sun Busong suddenly remembered the third task Mordok had given him: retrieve the Universal Mechanical Components.

After retracing their steps back to Amy Shortline, he asked eagerly, "Do you know where I need to go for the third task?"

"Of course. But to get those mechanical components, you'll need to find someone in the factory dormitory to help you make Small Salt Bombs."

"Salt bombs? Is this what you mean?" Sun Busong remembered the name clearly and quickly pulled a small bomb from his backpack.

Shortline took a look and nodded firmly. "That's it! They can blow open those locked cabinets, and then you can take out the mechanical components inside."

"Heh heh, after those guards ate my barbecue, they can still do something for me. Not bad, not bad." He then started searching his Engineering recipes for the Salt Bomb.

Since it was a bomb, there was no way he wouldn't have it in his Grandmaster-level Engineering recipes. He found it soon enough.

The materials needed to make Small Salt Bombs were easy to get, and he had already gathered plenty. The monsters here dropped Coarse Blasting Powder and Spring Water, while he'd gotten Light Leather from the level 15 chests he'd killed in Loch Modan.

"I don't know how many mechanical components I can get from each cabinet. Anyway, the more, the better. I'll make ten Small Salt Bombs first."

"Our technicians can make bombs for you as long as you have the materials, but you'll need to help them with a few things."

While Amy Shortline was still explaining what tasks he'd need to do for the technicians to make the bombs, Sun Busong had already started making them himself.

"You just need to help them retrieve the data cards from those advanced robots. Hey! What are you doing?"

Sun Busong was busy with his hands and didn't even look up. Amy Shortline felt like he wasn't listening to a word she said, so she turned around to check. She hadn't realized anything was wrong until she looked, and then she was stunned.

Sun Busong replied, "Making Salt Bombs!"

Amy Shortline stared, her round white eyes wide open, as Sun Busong finished making a Salt Bomb right in front of her.

"So you really can make them! That's great. We won't have to bother those technicians in the dormitory."

"Done. That makes ten. Come on, take me to the cabinets. Let's finish the third task as soon as possible."

The cabinets were easy to find. Sun Busong had come across plenty of them before meeting Amy Shortline, but back then he hadn't known they needed to be blown open.

After blowing open the first cabinet, Sun Busong found three mechanical components inside—far more than he'd expected. After another half hour of searching, he finished the third task too.

"All right, I've finished all the tasks Mordok gave me. Now I just need to kill the three bosses and the remaining monsters. So, what do you think?" Sun Busong asked Amy Shortline.

It was already evening. Gnomeregan was brightly lit, and Sun Busong didn't want to waste too much time here. Still, he had to ask what the volunteer thought.

"I'm completely fine with it. We volunteers follow the trial-taker's wishes. If you don't want to rest, I can take you to the boss right now."

"Then I'm sorry for the trouble. Thank you so much!"

The two of them crossed the dormitory area and headed straight for the boss. Sun Busong saw many researchers and medical staff in the dormitories, but this wasn't the time for him to show his compassionate side.

Soon, they reached the first boss: Electro-Executioner Model 6000.

This thing was tough to deal with. It was an upgraded version of the Mechanical Flame Walkers. Besides its enhanced defense, its mechanical body was equipped with attacks like Frost Ray and Lightning Beam.

Its back hatch had also been modified, so he could no longer throw bombs inside. Sun Busong had to sacrifice over a thousand Health Points before he finally took it down.

The boss was pretty stingy. It only dropped a piece of Green Equipment and a Workshop Key.

The Green Equipment was a pair of boots, a little better than what Sun Busong was wearing, so he put them on right away.

"Let's go. On to the next one!"

Once they'd regrouped, Sun Busong urged Amy Shortline to take him to the next boss.

"Wait a moment. I have something to say."

Sun Busong turned around and looked at her in confusion.

"There are two paths here. One leads to the boss Group Striker 9-60, and the other leads to the Black Iron Master, one of your Dwarves. You can only reach the final boss after killing him."

"That's fine. Even if he were Master Bronzebeard, I'd still kill him. I'm pretty ruthless with my enemies. I won't let shared ancestry get in the way."

"Oh, that's not what I meant. To complete the Nightmare Trial, you only need to kill four bosses and wipe out all the monsters. I meant we could skip Group Striker 9-60 and go straight to the Black Iron Master and the final boss."

Sun Busong felt a little awkward, so he asked, "Does that Striker drop Blue Gear?"

"It does!"

"How could a Warrior overflowing with honor like me leave an enemy alone? We're killing it. We have to!" Sun Busong couldn't hide his happiness. He said the fiercest things while grinning from ear to ear.

On the path to Group Striker 9-60, they encountered several new kinds of mechanical monsters: Walking Tanks, Mechanical Guardians, and the spellcaster killer X-21.

All three types were level 25 elites. They weren't difficult to kill; as long as he used the terrain wisely and didn't draw too many enemies at once, he'd be fine.

After killing five groups of enemies, Humar reached level 20, and its third random skill appeared.

Skill Three: Charge (Movement Speed increased by 80% for 15 seconds. Can be used while stealthed.)

Looking at the big cat, which now came up to his waist, Sun Busong felt like he'd been had.

Cower, Stealth, Charge. Not one of the three skills was an attack skill.

"What a waste of your cool name and looks. You're such a coward! All three skills are just for staying alive. Were you a Survival Hunter in your past life or something?"

At level 20, Humar seemed to have gained a little more sense. After Sun Busong scolded it, it lowered its head and let out a series of pitiful whimpers.

Amy Shortline couldn't stand it anymore. She went over to Humar, stood beneath its neck, and spread her arms to protect it. "Shorty! Don't bully Humar. It's still a child!"

Sun Busong glanced at them and muttered, "A child, my ass. You're not even as big as its head!"

Near the Group Striker boss, Humar actually dared to follow right behind Sun Busong this time. It looked like it wanted to help him out.

Sun Busong just smiled at it, though. This was a boss fight. He'd wait until Humar had gained a few more levels.

The boss wasn't very difficult. It was an Automatic Robot, a gigantic S.A.F.E. robot with incredible attack power, incredible defense, and an enormous amount of health.

Sun Busong fought it head-on for three minutes before draining its health bar, but it dropped absolutely nothing. This was a boss, for crying out loud! When Amy Shortline saw Sun Busong glaring at her, she quietly hid behind Humar's rear end. As it turned out, Humar was just big enough to hide her.

"Lead the way! We're going to kill the last two bosses. If they don't drop Blue Gear this time, you can forget about eating my barbecue!"

"Don't worry. The Black Iron Master is a Silver Elite boss, so he'll drop at least one piece of Blue Gear. The final boss should drop at least two pieces of equipment, too. Whether any of them are Blue Gear depends on your luck."

"Good! Let's go."

On the way to the last two bosses, they came across Black Iron Dwarf Chariot Soldiers, all of them level 25 elites. Sun Busong wouldn't go easy on them. They were enemies now.

After killing twenty-seven Black Iron Soldiers in one go, Sun Busong finally caught sight of the Silver Elite boss, the Black Iron Master.

"Humar, come here. You and I are taking this boss together. Don't rush in too far."

Humar needed to kill Silver Elite monsters to grow, so it had to fight this time. It was a little shaky when it saw the boss, but now it could hold its head up and face him instead of lowering its head and whimpering.

"I'll go first. When you get the chance, bite him on the butt a few times. Just watch out for his area attacks."

Black Iron Master.

"Who are you? Who dares to come to my territory and cause trouble?"

The moment he saw Sun Busong, the Black Iron Master charged at him with his weapon raised.

But to Sun Busong, a Silver Elite boss like him was no different from an ordinary elite monster. Compared to the two mechanical bosses before him, his attacks were weak.

After Sun Busong blocked three of the Black Iron Master's attacks in a row, his opponent flew into a rage. He went wild, targeting Sun Busong's lower body with underhanded blows and making him jump and dodge all over the place.

Humar seized its chance and bit the boss on the head. Though timid and cowardly, its attacks were still strong. That one bite took nearly a tenth of the boss's health.

"Run!"

After Humar landed its attack, Sun Busong stopped defending and swung his axe several times, drawing the boss's attention to himself.

When the fight was over, the Black Iron Master dropped two Blue Gear weapons.

Glass Gun (Blue Gear): Item Level 28; Firearm; 36–68 damage; Speed 2.90 (Damage Per Second 17.9)

Equipment: Your attacks have a chance to inflict 120 points of Flame Damage on the enemy.

Required Level 24.

Royal Diplomat's Scepter (Blue Gear):

Item Level 28.

One-Handed Mace; 37–69 damage.

Speed 2.30 (Damage Per Second 23.0)

+12 Stamina

+7 Strength

Required Level 30

To be honest, neither item was very good. They were far inferior to the Blue Gear Sun Busong had crafted himself, but he could still sell them for a few Gold Coins.

"The final boss is behind this door. I can only take you this far. You'll have to handle the rest yourself. Once you kill the boss, you'll be teleported out of here."

Amy Shortline hugged one of Humar's hind legs and gazed at it reluctantly. Humar stuck out its pink tongue and licked her.

"Thank you for staying with us this whole time. I still have some barbecue and beer here. When we passed through the dormitory, I saw how pale and gaunt everyone looked. Please accept these as a token of my gratitude."

As he spoke, Sun Busong started pulling things from his backpack, including some Green Grade equipment.

"You can have these Green items too. I hope they'll help you clear out Gnomeregan faster. You've all worked hard."

"Thank you, Shorty!" Amy Shortline's eyes were brimming with tears as she thanked him sincerely.

After seeing Amy Shortline off, Sun Busong took Humar with him into the final boss's lair, the Artisan Council Hall.

Once inside, Sun Busong saw all sorts of ordinary and elite monsters. They were all the same kinds he'd killed before, and there were easily thirty or forty of them.

The final boss stood in the center of the hundreds-of-meters-wide hall.

As mentioned earlier, to complete the Nightmare Trial, he had to kill four bosses, along with 180 ordinary monsters and 230 elite monsters.

In this trial, he'd killed over six bosses in total. Besides the four required ones, he'd also killed Grubis and Viscous Radiation Dust.

He hadn't kept count of how many minor monsters he'd killed, but looking at the scene now, Sun Busong understood: the monsters here were all the ones he still had left to kill.

Sun Busong led Humar along the edge of the hall, clearing out the monsters wave by wave. After an hour and eight waves, every last minor monster had been killed.

Now only the boss remained.

The moment the last minor monster fell, there was movement over by the boss.

"Come out, usurper! Gnomeregan is mine!"

With that shout, the boss pinpointed Sun Busong's location and charged at him in a giant robot.

It was the largest robot Sun Busong had ever seen, standing over ten meters tall. Its golden body was made of some unknown metal, and it was incredibly hard.

Both arms were thicker and longer than normal. One was made up of five enormous steel spears; anything metal it grabbed was crushed in an instant. The other was built around a huge impact drill, powerful enough to smash things apart.

It no longer ran on tracks. Instead, two tanks made up its feet. Its shortened cannons had lost their long-range capabilities, but they were devastating in close combat.

Its massive body had four kinds of vents: flame, frost, laser, and poison!

There was also a mechanism on its back, though Sun Busong had no idea what it did yet.

The battle was about to begin.

"Humar, go! This is the last fight. Let's take him down together!"

Humar was still too young to understand exactly what its master meant, but it understood the words "take him down."

Man and pet charged into the final battle together.

The robot controlled by McNeil Theramplug had an enormous health pool of forty thousand, and its attacks were powerful. Sun Busong drew its fire and stood in front, tanking the damage, while Humar attacked from behind.

But the robot's iron body was far too tough for Humar to bite through. A few of its teeth had already been knocked loose.

Sun Busong had to fight and encourage his pet at the same time.

"It's okay, it's okay. Your teeth will grow back when you level up. You can use your claws instead. What matters is that you're taking part!"

"Awuu!"

Sun Busong had less than a thousand Armor, but his health was already close to the boss's. With his maxed-out Basic Shield Defense, the boss's health kept dropping, while Sun Busong's had only fallen by one percent.

"Come on, Humar! He's down to forty percent health. Don't slack off!"

Each of Humar's attacks only dealt a little over sixty points of damage to the robot, but it all added up.

Just as Sun Busong was starting to think the boss was nothing special, the hatch on the mechanism behind the boss slowly opened.

Sun Busong quickly moved aside, then saw little robots crawling out of the mechanism. They were Self-Destruct Robots!

"Humar! Get out of here! Run!"

But Humar paid no attention to him. It kept biting and clawing at the robot.

"That stupid cat!"

Seeing Humar ignore him completely, Sun Busong was at a loss. The only thing he could do now was lead the boss in circles or draw the Self-Destruct Robots over to himself.

Just as he was preparing to use his own body to tank the bombs, Humar suddenly did something completely unexpected.

Each of the little Self-Destruct Robots was only the size of a fist. Once they rolled out of the mechanism, they headed toward any nearby enemy. When they reached their target, they exploded, but there was a three-second delay first.

Humar stopped attacking the boss and started chasing the Self-Destruct Robots rolling across the floor, like a cat chasing a ball of yarn.

It caught up to one and swatted it with a paw. The robots were round, and the blow sent that one flying dozens of meters away.

Humar now had a Strength Value of 70. Smacking a metal ball away was easy for it. And it didn't just hit one robot—it swatted one, then another, playing to its heart's content!

"That actually works!"

Sun Busong was impressed. Humar, who was usually timid to the point of cowardice, had just done something so unexpectedly clever because it wanted to play.

Sun Busong no longer had to worry about the Self-Destruct Robots. He unleashed his full damage output, and the robot's health was almost down to ten percent.

"My machines represent the future! They'll destroy every last one of you!"

McNeil Theramplug watched as his robot's health was about to hit zero, but he refused to give up just like that.

"Explosions! More explosions! I need more explosions!"

"My machines represent the future! They'll destroy every last one of you!"

When the boss's health reached the final five percent, after shouting those words, he turned his own body into a bomb!

The giant robot's alarm blared, its siren echoing through the Artisan Council Hall. Its body began to shake violently, and cracks appeared in its golden outer shell.

"Self-destruct! Self-destruct! Self-destruct! 10, 9..."

Sun Busong dropped McNeil Theramplug and ran. As he fled, he shouted, "Humar! Run! It's going to blow!"

Humar had been having a great time playing with the balls. It raised its head at the sound and saw its master running off without it!

How could he do that?

Was its master abandoning it?

Humar abandoned its toy and activated the skill it had just learned: Charge!

Its speed surged by 80%. Three seconds later...

Seeing that Humar had used its skill and was already ahead of him, Sun Busong couldn't help swearing.

"Damn it!"

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