MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

[You’ve obtained Vile King’s Mirror Staff.]

[You’ve obtained isis’ fang.]

[You’ve obtained isis’ sarong.]

[You’ve obtained isis’ scale.]

[You’ve obtained 28 Gold Coins from isis.]

…

“No… No way?”

Autumn Love looked at the long list of miscellaneous items in the Inventory Pane. It left her both aghast and speechless.

Big Boy was shocked, “How could this be? The boss of a Level 50 dungeon would at least drop gold-colored equipment, right? This…”

“There’s a purple-colored one.”

Li Yi dangled the Vile King’s Mirror Staff in his hand before it was snatched away by Autumn Love.

“The miscellaneous items and Gold Coins are all mine to take. Step back and don’t you dare pick them up.”

Autumn Love took out a skinning knife and squatted down to put her work on Angust. It was not long before this isis was dismembered beyond skin and bones.

“I said to let its head drop facing South. I measured it earlier and it was off by 5cm. No wonder the Gold Coins’ so little. Brothers and sisters, please do not do this again, little sister here can’t take it…”

Autumn Love looked as though she was dumped almost twenty times over with her face of regret. She was dramatically wincing in pain.

“Scrooge!” God-Killing Gale heavily snorted.

With the boss down, Autumn Love obtained a pile of trash. The person who benefited the most from this battle was none other than Jiaojiao.

She went up three levels in one go, faster than a bullet train.

Jiaojiao was now Level 35. Killing a monster in a dungeon would earn her 3,500 EXP but add that a 2.5x buff and an EXP Pearl, her EXP would triple that!

She was gaining much more EXP than Li Yi and the rest, of course, she was leveling at such a faster rate.

With Jiaojiao in the party, Autumn Love did not need to nag any further. Li Yi went ahead to pull aggro, no questions asked, for the sake of Jiaojiao’s EXP!

It was not easy to enter Demoness’ Ruins. Not only was Demoness’ Snake Hair pricey, but there was also a limited number of female isises outside the dungeon. Not many items would be dropped even if one were to camp here all day.

They would not let any chances slip by!

The party trotted ahead and only stopped when five tunnel entrances appeared before them after Jiaojiao managed to level up once more.

It was pitch black inside these caves. Lil Girl threw an Illuminating Spell in there. It only lasted for three seconds before it disappeared.

The eight now had a debuff cast on them, Eternal Darkness!

The boss No. 2 of Demoness’ Ruins was extremely sneaky. It was mandatory to pass through this randomly generated labyrinth before one could get to her.

This was similar to the Super Trampoline 250 dungeon. The dungeon map was randomly generated upon each entry. There were thousands of variations.

“Five tunnels and only one leading up to the boss. One’s a dead end and the other three with a switch at the end of the path. Once all the switches are pulled open, this tunnel will be lit up.”

Autumn Love carefully described the play and sorted out the strategy.

Big Boy and Lil Girl were one team while Li Yi, Fire Ice, and Jiaojiao formed another. Wang Wang Dumplings, God-Killing Gale and herself formed the last team. The three teams set out to three of the tunnels each to locate the switch.

As this was a random labyrinth, there was no way to tell where each path would lead. They had to test it out themselves!

“Head back when you bump into the boss and make a mark at the entrance. Same goes for the tunnel with a dead end. For the others, holler when you turn on the switch. Also, there’s going to be a lot of isises inside the tunnel, try and pull their Aggro to kill them together.”

“Why must we pull their aggro to kill them together?”

“It’s all about the money. Don’t let them go to waste,” Autumn Love waved the skinning knife in her hand.

“…”

The teams then set out after the tasks were distributed.

Li Yi led the two females to enter one of the tunnels.

They were stumbling in the dark. Illuminating Spell, torches were useless against the Eternal Darkness debuff.

“It’s so dark, thankfully I’m not afraid of the dark.”

Jiaojiao’s teeth were chattering as she stuck as close as she could against Li Yi’s back. Fire Ice chained herself around Jiaojiao’s waist, refusing to let go no matter what.

It was not the darkness that was terrifying but the atmosphere of the place. There were howlings of some sort that could be heard from time to time. Even Li Yi had chills up his spine.

The simulated environment was so real that the experience was more than just virtual reality. It felt too real.

“Chit chit—”

A green-furred rat snuck from under Jiaojiao’s feet, squeaking to make its presence known. Fire Ice was so frightened she could not stop shrieking. Jiaojiao, on the other hand, kept her calm composure as she lifted her foot up to stomp!

“Chit chit—”

The green-furred rat made a run for it. Jiaojiao had won the battle.

Jiaojiao was filled with glee, “See that? He bullied you because you’re afraid of it. I’m not afraid of it so you should bully it!”

“Gross…” Fire Ice dared not open her eyes, squeezing them tight.

The green-furred rat had not gone far when a dark figure appeared in a flash, gobbling it down.

“Isis!”

Tst—

Li Yi drew a Powered-up Arrow to fire.

Pft!

[-6754]

Sh sh—

The isis was enraged, hovering over like a ghastly spirit. Violet Bear King immediately barged over to catch its attention.

The isis in the tunnel had 30,000 HP. Its ATK was high but lacked DEF. 30,000 HP was nothing to Li Yi. The poor isis had not even a chance to get near him when it was shot to death.

With the isis out of the way, a drawbridge suspended in midair appeared into sight. There was no monster on the bridge but at the other end of it, were ten isises gathered together, hissing away.

There has to be seamless cooperation here in order to cross to the other side.

“Jiaojiao, pull the drawbridge’s lever. Fire Ice, pay attention to Violent Bear’s HP.”

Jiaojiao fumbled about the left side of the bridge and pulled down a lever.

Sh tst tst—

The suspended drawbridge was lowered and it was at this moment when five isises appeared behind Jiaojiao and launched an attack.

“Immortal Body!”

Jiaojiao was quick to react, initiating Invincibility with Li Yi taking charge then to kill all five isis.

The lever to draw the bridge down had a channeling period of 20 seconds. During this period, the person who pulled the lever could not be interrupted. Isis were randomly spawning at this point. It was not an easy task.

Sh sh tst—

Once the suspended bridge was down, the ten isises opposite made their way over.

Violent Bear King was the first to pounce in order to stop them in their tracks. Li Yi launched Shoot at Random and took out all of them at once.

“Perverted Wing, don’t we get EXP for these monsters?” Jiaojiao checked her EXP and found it had not moved. Hence, the question.

“Nope, monsters will keep spawning randomly until the switch at the end of the tunnel is turned on. If there’s EXP, leveling here will be a breeze.”

“What a shame,” Jiaojiao fussed.

The trio continued their journey deeper in and found the tunnel diverging into two paths. As the trio could not be separated, they chose one path to move on.

The isises on the way were of no threat to them. All they needed to do was to look for the switch within the tunnel.

The trio moved towards their destination, fighting monsters that crossed their path until they paused upon reaching a metal chained drawbridge.

“Why are we stopping?” Asked Jiaojiao.

The metal chained drawbridge was swinging to and fro in the air. As the lighting was dim here, they could not see what was at the end of the bridge.

Li Yi shook his head, “We took the wrong turn. Past this chained drawbridge is where boss No. 2 is at.”

“Boss No. 2 is up ahead?” Jiaojiao was stunned.

Li Yi nodded, “Uh huh.”

“Can’t we just kill it?”

“Of course we can. Killing the boss in Eternal Darkness without turning on the switch would earn us an achievement plus a Hall of Fame.”

“Then let’s go!”

Jiaojiao was about to step on the bridge when she was dragged back by Li Yi.

“Let’s not forget that we have only three of us now. Even if we get all eight of us together, we won’t be able to defeat boss No.2 under this Eternal Darkness mode.”

“Why?”

“Super Hell 8-Star Mode.”

The difficulty level of dungeons in King of Pantheon could not be selected but its difficulty could be increased through special options. The difficulty ranged far between 1-Star to 10-Star.

Hell 8-Star Mode was closest to the ultimate mode. Many players in the past life aimed for Eternal achievement in Demoness’ Ruins. It was a pity only one party made it in those eight years. The rest was tormented relentlessly by boss No. 2. They even swore never to cross paths with this treacherous boss ever again.

The difficulty level was manageable with boss No. 2 without Eternal Darkness. However, it held powers rivaling Pantheon’s when in Eternal Darkness.

“Not even you?” Jiaojiao could not believe what she was hearing. She always thought that the perverted Dark Wing was omnipotent.

“The switch on the furthest left’s been turned on! Team Big Boy reporting, over. On-course on the return route.”

“Switch on the furthest right’s been turned on! Team Autumn Love reporting, over. On-course on the return route but will take a bit more time. I need to skin these isises’ corpses.”

It was still pitch dark around. Without the last switch triggered, the Eternal Darkness was here to stay.

“Guild Master, do we head back?” Fire Ice whispered.

Li Yi thought about it before walking up the metal chained drawbridge, “Wait here for me. I’m gonna test the waters with the Eternal boss.”

The return trip would take too long. Big Boy and Autumn Love had already hit the switches. They might as well wait for them to pull the remaining switch.

It was definitely a different atmosphere between assisting others in clearing a dungeon and running one with his own party.

Li Yi just wanted to take a break this time.

Li Yi has always wanted to check out the difficulty level of the Eternal boss. It did not matter to him whether he scored good equipment. Challenging himself to the highest degree was what he valued most.

Countless players have come one after another yet only one party succeeded in clearing the Eternal boss.

The experience walking on the metal chained drawbridge was harder than walking the engineered cascading stairway in Abyssal Crevice. It was a tight fit. The snake species would be able to slither their way over but two-legged species may find it grueling.

Beneath the metal chained drawbridge was a bottomless abyss. Death awaited below. No corpse could be found so one could only run their corpse.

Li Yi walked the bridge about five minutes before he was met with a tall slender figure before him.

She had white hair and was extremely ugly in appearance. Her chest was wrapped around with a piece of torn cloth. This female isis held a staff as she stood there. She was boss No.2 of Demoness’ Ruins’ boss, Eukana the Watchwoman.

Angust, the boss No.1 of Demoness’ Ruins was her husband!

That’s right! The battlefield of this second boss was happening here on this metal chained drawbridge!