MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

Li Yi gave one of the Paladins a Hunt Target so that his party could concentrate their attacks on it.

Xu Man and her sister rushed up to it as well, their daggers flying in their hands as they fired up their DPS.

Moonlight Ocean was a dual-wielding Cyclone Thief whereas Xu Man was an Explosive Thief with only one weapon. The sisters’ equipment was more or less the same, and their DPS was similar as well. Both of them dealt more than 3000 in damage per second, which was a definite pass.

Compared to everyone else, the sisters’ DPS was more than decent. Compared to Li Yi, however, it was far from enough. Even without the potion, Li Yi’s DPS was over 7000, more than the two girls combined.

Little Elf from the Magical Realm was the only one who could not quite keep up. Her DPS was only 1,500. Her character was a Sky Vagabond with a full focus on healing, so her DPS was never high to begin with. When she solo-ed dungeons, she did it by pure grind.

The Paladin monsterlings had 100,000HP, and they could use all the skills that the Paladin class could. When they started healing themselves, they must be interrupted. When they began to control the other party members, the effects had to be dispelled. Defeating them required coordination from all five members of the party.  ( AllNovel )

Soon enough, the three Paladin monsterlings were taken down, and the five members focused their fire on the controlled monsterlings.

Beating the Holy Light Redemption Instance Dungeon’s boss was a simple matter. The hardest part was defeating the hordes of Paladin monsterlings that they would encounter on the way there. Each wave required a different strategy, and each method was definitely an intricate study in itself.

There were five Paladin monsterlings, and the five party members looted one each. As usual, Li Yi drew a blank. The sisters both obtained a piece of white equipment, whereas Fire Ice and Little Elf from the Magical Realm both received 3 bottles of Advanced HP Potions each.

Ever since the King of Pantheon system changed such that monsterlings no longer dropped money, there ceased to be trash items that players discarded on the spot. That was because no matter how trashy the item was, it could still be sold for a little bit of spare change back at the major cities. If the players did not pick them up, they would not earn even a single cent.

The party continued to press forward. They had not gotten very far before five more Paladin monsterlings appeared before them.

The first wave of monsterlings were all Punishment Paladins, whereas the second set was all Holy Paladins.

Li Yi said, “This wave can be quite troublesome. If we leave these five Holy Paladins to converge together, they will constantly each other and then used Retribution Aura to wear us to death.”

“My sister and I will control one each. The other three will be up to you,” said Xu Man.

Although the Thief’s Sap ability was very powerful, it could only control one monster at a time. Sky Vagabonds did not have any crowd control skills, and the Light Priest’s Mind Control skill required the player character to be Level 80 and above.

Li Yi thought it over and said, “I’ll kite two of the monsterlings and the rest of you try to kill the uncontrolled one as quickly as you can. After that, I’ll send you another.”

“Okay!”

Xu Man and Moonlight Ocean used Stealth to creep forward and landed their sneak attacks, stunning the two Paladin monsterlings.

“Whoosh-whoosh—”

( AllNovel )    Li Yi shot at two of the monsterlings that had not been taken, and all three immediately ran toward him. He quickly used Mislead on the Violent Bear King and shot at the other, instantly separating the three monsterlings. Two continued to chase him whereas the other ran toward the Violent Bear King.

“Nicely done!” Xu Man cried out in delight.

“If an Archer can’t do this much, would they still be an Archer?” Little Elf from the Magical Elf was not impressed at all by Li Yi’s skills.

Li Yi led the two Paladin monsterlings and ran into the distance. The Violent Bear King stayed exactly where he commanded it to stay, and the four women trained their attacks onto the single one that remained.

“Make sure to interrupt it, interrupt it!”

Every class had an interrupt skill, even Priests. The four girls took turns interrupting it, ensuring that the Paladin monsterling did not get the chance to heal itself. It was dead in no time.

“Dark Wing!”

Xu Man called out, and Li Yi immediately used Mislead on the Violent Bear King, He then quickly shot one of the monsterlings he was kiting, redirecting its aggro once more.

They rinsed and repeated the same process, finishing off all 5 Paladin monsterlings soon enough.

“That sure is a lot of EXP,” said Little Elf from Magical Realm approvingly.

“It’s cuz your level is too low. If you’re at Level 50, you’re lucky because you can get 100% of the EXP here.”

The five of them proceeded to loot the corpses, but this time they did not receive any equipment. Each person obtained a piece of miscellaneous trash that could only be brought back and sold to an NPC.

After they passed two waves of monsterlings, the five of them saw the first boss, Uther the Holy Paladin.

“Make sure to interrupt him. That’s all.”

Li Yi explained succinctly and dismissed the Violent Bear King, summoning the Lightning Leopard instead to launch its attack.

Uther the Holy Paladin had 2,000,000HP. This boss was extremely good at healing himself, but his ATK was ridiculously low, so low that he could be defeated even without a main tank. The way to defeat him was simple. They just had to make sure to interrupt his healing skill, and he would be reduced to a dummy boss who just stood there stupidly as he took a beating.

The battle began. Surrounded by five people and a leopard, Uther the Holy Paladin still stood there motionlessly. All he did was gather holy light in his hands and occasionally use weak AoE skills, such as Holy Light Impact and Holy Light Glare.

The five of them defeated Uther within a minute.

Xu Man looted the body and was decently lucky to obtain a piece of legendary gold-colored equipment for Thieves, the Cyclone Sabatons. It was perfect for her to use.

“Little sisters of mine, pick up the pace.”

By the time Li Yi said that, he was already way ahead of them.

He had always kept an eye on the current news about this dungeon. At first, there had only been 20 parties attempting this dungeon, but by the time they defeated Uther, that number had increased to 100. The fastest party had already reached the third boss and were already so close to completing the whole dungeon.

‘These animals… Why are they being so ferocious?’

Li Yi was actually getting slightly nervous. If they could not achieve the first kill of this dungeon, everything that they had done would have been for naught.

There were no monsterlings in the way between the first and second bosses of the Holy Light Redemption Instance Dungeon, so the five of them were soon facing the second boss.

The second boss was called Cardolan the Light Priest. Just like the first boss, this one was also a healer.

“Make sure to interrupt her!”

The strategy here was exactly the same as the first boss. Li Yi did not explain any further and just dove in for the fight.

Cardolan only had 1,000,000HP. Although the channeling time for her healing skill was slightly faster than Uther’s, it was even easier to defeat her as long as the players could interrupt her in time.

“Forget looting the body, let’s just go!”

Li Yi activated Aspect of the Pack, increasing everyone’s SPD, and immediately broke into a run.

“Why aren’t we looting it?” Moonlight Ocean could not hold back her curiosity and went forth to loot it. She then immediately spat out.

She did not get so much as a hair…

“Dark Wing, does Cardolan not drop any equipment?”

“Guess so…” Li Yi did not know how to respond to that question.

Cardolan was a very strange boss. Even if she was defeated, she would not drop so much as a piece of miscellaneous trash. In his past life, there was a guy who refused to believe that and spent five years farming her, only to come back empty-handed each time…

“How’s that possible? Isn’t it illogical for a boss to not drop any equipment?” Little Elf from the Magical Realm was also curious now.

“Once we get the first kill, you guys can come here every day and try it out. If you do get some good equipment, be sure to tell me, haha.”

As the five of them joked around, another group of Paladin monsterlings appeared ahead. Again, they were all of the same class, but this time they were all Holy Shield Paladins.

“Holy Shield Paladins have high DEF and plenty of HP, but their ATK is terrible. Just hit the ones I target and we’ll be fine.”

Li Yi dismissed the Lightning Leopard and switched back to the Violent Bear King as he launched the attack.

Only the first two hordes of monsterlings in the Holy Light Redemption Dungeon were particularly hard to defeat. Once players passed those, the rest was a breeze. They defeated the five Holy Shield Paladins easily, and then the party of five continued to press forward. After they defeated another group of monsterlings, they arrived before the third boss.

Li Yi checked the dungeon’s current level of progress. There were now more than 300 parties attempting the dungeon at the same time. As of right now, however, they were all stuck at the third boss.

Li Yi heaved a long sigh of relief. As long as the third boss had yet to be taken down, everything was still on track.

A Cursing Disciple wrapped from head to toe in black robes was standing in front of the ruined hall, occasionally emitting creepily high-pitched laughter. This was the third boss of Holy Light Redemption, the Cursing Sect’s High Cleric, Nunnally.

Unlike the black and white bosses from the Curse Land, Nunnally’s specialty was using Dark Healing Spells. These spells healed herself while also punishing the opponent, such as preventing players from healing or using certain skills. She was quite the troublesome opponent.

“The Dark Healing Spells can’t be interrupted. Little Elf, Ice, you two have to remember this carefully. If anyone gets cursed, you have to dispel the curse ASAP. No matter what, you musn’t let the debuffs stack up. Also, when this boss’ HP drops below 2,000,000, it will use the Life Sacrificial Spell. This is an AoE curse that can’t be dispelled. No matter how much HP you got, you will die within ten seconds, no question. There’s only one way to survive this. Everyone just has to activate full attack mode and kill one of our party members with all we got.”

“And then?” asked Xu Man.

“The Life Sacrificial Spell will fail because there will be one soul fewer than expected. That way, the other four members will be just fine.”

“In that case… Who do we kill?” asked Xu Man again.

“Him!” The other three women all pointed at Li Yi.

Li Yi shrugged. “Sure, why not. But when you’re killing me, you gotta remember that you only have 10 seconds to do it. And you have to kill me during the Life Sacrificial countdown, or else I’d have died for nothing.”

In order to ease his own death, Li Yi took off Zangila’s Anti-poison Belt and all of his Endurance-boosting equipment. As a result, his HP fell below 2,000. Only then did he declare the start of the battle.

The Violent Bear King rushed up and kept a firm pull on Nunnally’s aggro. The third boss battle had officially begun!

“The glory of the almighty Evil God shall shine down on this whole world. You ignorant masses, all that awaits you is destruction. Come, you shall fall by my own hand. Ahahahaha…”

Nunnally had 3,000,000HP and extremely high ATK. When her Dark Magic hit the Violent Bear King, it could take more than 5,000HP at a time. Thankfully, she did not attack very frequently. If she did, there truly would be no stopping her.

“I sacrifice my left eye, in return for Dark Healing!”

They had barely taken 100,000HP from Nunnally when she began to activate her Dark Healing Spells.

The first part she sacrificed was her left eye. Instantly, a cloud of black energy surrounded her, and all the HP she had lost was instantly replenished. However, she had to pay a hefty price as well. Her left eye was gone…

“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!”

After Nunnally used her Dark Healing, Li Yi and his four party members were all given a debuff that could not be dispelled, Dark Curse. It decreased movement SPD by 50% and delayed MAG SPD by 100%.

“Attention, healers! Calculate how much HP we’ll need and make sure to heal up,” roared Li Yi.

As soon as Li Yi finished that sentence, Nunnally activated her wide-range AoE skill, Dark Storm.

A black whirlwind appeared out of thin air and instantly expanded, sweeping all five members of the party inside.

[−321]

[−234]

[−345]

Without exception, all five of them began losing 200+HP per second…