The King of the Scarabs' last-ditch ultimate was seriously badass! Even standing more than ten meters away, Ye Fengxing and the others saw numbers like "-200" floating constantly above their heads-once every second!
Holy shit, this move was vicious! Good thing Ye Fengxing had shouted his warning early. A moment later, and wouldn't all these dragonkin guards have been wiped out?
What about Eske? The boss had practically scored a bull's-eye on him. Was he still alive?
Before Ye Fengxing could wonder for long, a strange, burly figure suddenly charged out of the flames... He was charred black all over, but judging by his stride, he showed no sign of injury whatsoever. He was running damn fast!
With his sharp eyes, Ye Fengxing spotted the buff on Eske at once and marveled inwardly.
Dragon Scale Protection: Activates the latent power of your dragon scales, reducing physical damage taken by 50% and spell damage taken by 70%. Lasts 8 seconds.
That skill was pretty badass. Wonder if players could learn it. Sigh... NPC skills were just ridiculous, forever leaving players green with envy!
Having escaped disaster, Eske stopped facing the boss head-on in a contest of brute force. Instead, he actually started "kiting" it. But the boss was enraged now, and its movement speed was extremely high. Though it couldn't catch Eske anytime soon, the dragonkin guards couldn't land any hits on it either-those two were running so fast, how were poor vanguard-rank fellows like them supposed to keep up?
Ye Fengxing never lacked crafty ideas. Seeing this, he immediately roared, "Brothers, throw!" With that, he took the lead and hurled both broadswords in his hands. They struck the boss squarely in the head, producing two enormous damage numbers.
-1554! Critical hit! Vital strike! Weapon throw! -1523! Critical hit! Vital strike! Weapon throw!
Although the boss had high defense, its enraged state had greatly weakened it. Ye Fengxing now had the attack power of a level 20 elite, and with the absurd bonus from Morale Like a Rainbow, his damage was naturally pretty impressive.
Seeing their squad leader deal such a heavy blow to the enemy chief, the dragonkin guards immediately followed his example and threw their weapons. A dazzling storm of cold steel filled the air... Spears, broadswords, battle-axes, and the like all flew at the boss together!
-662, weapon throw. -646, weapon throw. -975! Critical hit! Weapon throw!
A long stream of damage numbers rose from the boss in succession.
"Buzzzz-" With a long, mournful drone, the King of the Scarabs finally collapsed to the ground, never to rise again.
Only then did Eske stop running and limp back, one painful step at a time. He wasn't even wearing shoes, leaving all four feet bare. And looking at the ground the boss had scorched with its flames... It was still glowing a dull, fucking red! The fact that Eske had been able to run so fast across it was nothing short of a miracle! Had some hidden survival potential kicked in?
"Excellent. You performed very well back there." The first thing Eske did upon returning was clap Ye Fengxing on the shoulder and lavish him with praise.
"It was all thanks to you bravely holding off the enemy chief, Captain. That was what let us achieve a little something." A certain someone didn't mind laying on the shameless flattery again. Besides, Eske really had displayed incredibly good judgment. He had tanked a level 20 boss without any healing. Impressive!
Wasn't this guy's AI a little too advanced? Sure, intelligent programs were generally pretty sophisticated these days, but there was still a gap between them and human thought. Yet what Eske had just done... Volunteering to tank the boss, activating his own defensive skill to counter its high-damage ultimate, kiting it... Were those really things an NPC could do?
A mere level 25 NPC already possessed such advanced artificial intelligence. Then what about those epic heroes? Just how "lifelike" would they be? A certain someone was very much looking forward to finding out.
Chronicles of the Sky, just what kind of background do you have? Ye Fengxing sighed inwardly.
While he was pondering his own questions, Eske spoke again. "Since you have fulfilled the role of 'squad leader' I assigned you perfectly, I have decided to award you this magic crystal."
"Thank you, Captain." Ye Fengxing accepted the red crystal and tossed it into his inventory. It was a rare material, generally used to craft equipment. But everyone was only around level ten right now. Who could forge level 20 equipment? This level 20 King of the Scarabs' Magic Crystal wasn't going to be useful for a while.
Eske then pulled a shield from the boss's body. Its design looked quite impressive!
King of the Scarabs' Carapace (yellow rare quality): Shield Attack power 20-35 Attack speed 2.6 Defense +100 Constitution +10 Strength +8 Agility +6 Equip: Block rating +10 Equip: Block value +92 Required level: 15
This shield was absolutely top-notch! Familiar with the basic mechanics of Chronicles of the Sky, Ye Fengxing knew quality when he saw it. If those mechanics hadn't been changed beyond recognition, this shield was unquestionably an outstanding piece of gear for players between levels 20 and 30!
Chronicles of the Sky had four damage-avoidance attributes: armor, block, parry, and dodge.
Armor was a flat damage-reduction attribute. Regardless of what kind of attack a character received, it reduced the damage taken. To increase armor, you needed constitution, along with the "defense" provided by equipment. One point of defense added ten points of armor.
Blocking required a character to use a shield to stop an enemy's attack, whether magical or physical. It had two substats: "block rating" and "block value." Block rating meant "block chance," which was self-explanatory, while block value was "the amount of damage reduced after a successful block." Agility increased block rating, while strength increased block value.
Parrying obviously meant using a weapon to "block" an enemy's attack. Like blocking, it also worked against spells, though its damage reduction was inevitably inferior. That was because spells "spread" after being "intercepted," so players would unavoidably get caught in the aftermath. A shield clearly covered a much larger area than a weapon, making blocking more effective than parrying against spells. Parrying likewise had a parry rating and parry value, which were also increased by agility and strength.
Dodging was much simpler. As long as you avoided the attack, you took no damage. The base attribute that increased dodge was, of course, agility. Back in the day, Ye Fengxing's Agile Warrior character, One Leaf Windwalk, had taken down countless players thanks to his high agility. No explanation needed!
Ye Fengxing wasn't exactly a newcomer to Chronicles of the Sky. Though he knew nothing about the changes made for the open beta, he could still make a basic assessment. This [King of the Scarabs' Carapace] actually added 100 defense! For an item dropped by a level 20 boss, "astonishing" was the only word for it.
It boosted all three attributes-constitution, strength, and agility. That was pretty damn awesome too!
Finally, it even added block... Besides raising base attributes, players could improve things like block and parry through extra bonuses on equipment. For instance, quite a few weapons specifically increased parry, and quite a few shields specifically increased block. But how to put it... Those were all high-end items. Want those bonuses on a level 20 shield? Unless it was yellow quality or better, forget it.
Eske held the superb shield that had a certain someone practically drooling and turned it over, examining it several times. He was clearly very pleased with it.
Ye Fengxing suddenly noticed Eske turn his head and look at him, leaving him puzzled... Could it be that he wasn't going to pocket it himself, but give it to me instead? Mm, excellent. Now that was a good leader! All those times I called you "boss" weren't wasted after all.
"Ah, what a shame. What a shame..." Eske suddenly shook his head and sighed.
The tiny spark of hope that had just flared in a certain someone's heart went out immediately.
Eske continued, "You have great potential, One Leaf Windwalk. But you are a mage. You lack the strength to raise a shield and stand bravely at the front, enduring the enemy's vicious attacks for your companions. Therefore, I will not be assigning this shield to you. I hope you will train diligently and bring out your strength as a mage. I will keep an eye out for things a mage needs."
Fuck your sister! Ye Fengxing nearly shouted it aloud... You pompous old bastard, after all that long-winded blather, you've only told me one thing: you're great, but this really isn't right for you. There's something better waiting for you.
Hearing those words, Ye Fengxing couldn't help remembering what certain girls said when turning down a guy's confession...
How did it go again... You're really, really, really, really wonderful, so kind and sweet. I've always thought of you as a big brother. It's just that we really aren't suited to being lovers. But I believe there's a girl even better than me waiting somewhere ahead in your life. If you don't mind, I could introduce you to one or two.
Fuck that... Anyone could spout vague nonsense like that! "I believe," my ass... You make it sound like a guarantee. If I never find her, will you reimburse me for my wasted youth?
Ahem... That was a bit crude. After all, everyone had the right to "like" someone and "like someone else more." If a girl wasn't interested, a grown man couldn't cling to her shamelessly or force himself on her.
By the same logic, a certain someone was a bona fide mage, so there was nothing strange about Eske refusing to give him the shield. After all, who had ever seen a mage carrying one?
What annoyed Ye Fengxing was simply that Eske kept toying with his nerves. If you're not giving it to me, then don't! Why keep glancing at me this way and that? Of course that's going to get my hopes up a little. Otherwise, wouldn't I be letting down that earnest gaze of yours, sir?
Eske looked Ye Fengxing over a few more times, then suddenly said, "You are a brave 'warrior,' One Leaf Windwalk. Though your body is not strong, you have a heart that fights courageously. Mining is far too great a waste of your talents. I have decided to recommend that you seek out a mentor, so that they can teach you a mage's combat skills."
Before you continue