The noise outside did not affect the group leveling up inside the instance.
During the following two days of grinding, the ten members of the 【No Brain】 guild still held the top ten spots on the level leaderboard.
But as Zhang Cheng had predicted, as the players’ levels rose—even though the Wyvern had already reached level 65—the advantage in damage output was gradually leveling out. This was evident from their leveling speed compared to other players.
Their team’s leveling speed advantage had disappeared. On top of that, most of the team wore gaming helmets, which required them to log off and rest every six hours, slightly slowing down their progress.
When everyone in the team reached level 60, the player ranked 11th on the leaderboard also leveled up to 59, narrowing the gap to less than a full level.
All of them met the advancement requirements, learned new class skills, and equipped a fresh set of gear, pushing their item level up another tier.
Although most of the new gear was level 60 green equipment dropped by Deadpool, it was still significantly stronger than the mixed level 50/55 blue gear they had worn before.
The group was full of energy as they re-entered the Longmu Instance, this time aiming to challenge the final boss.
Over the past two days, as some players reached level 55, the team’s priests gained a crucial crowd control skill, allowing them to defeat the second boss. They then began testing the attack patterns of the Young Dragon’s Remnant Soul, making significant progress and publishing their findings on the forum.
Now, it was time for Zhang Cheng and his team to verify these player discoveries.
“ST taunt and reposition! Heal and reduce damage, then instant raise!”
Panda saw the boss finish a four-hit combo and start charging, clearly about to unleash a targeted skill next, so the tank needed to pull the boss away from the crowd.
At this moment, Zhang Cheng’s health was hanging by a thread after the previous four-hit combo. He directed his teammates while receiving a heal.
The off-tank activated forced taunt and ran toward the preset position marked as point two before the fight began. The remaining two healers took turns applying Holy Guard to the off-tank and started charging their healing output in advance.
“Roar!”
Although no one understood how a wisp of remnant soul could emit a dragon’s roar and breathe fire, seeing a cone of flames spewing from the black dragon-shaped mist and engulfing the off-tank up close was still breathtaking.
Two flashes of white light appeared as a powerful Greater Healing spell pulled the off-tank’s health back from the brink. The off-tank’s front side was charred black from the flames, their armor glowing red-hot as if about to melt. As the health rose, these effects faded, and the off-tank returned to normal.
Everyone couldn’t help but laugh at this scene. The game’s obsession with realism sometimes bordered on the ridiculous.
Seeing the boss return to its previous state after breathing fire, Panda exhaled in relief. Looks like there was no other tactic before hitting 50% health.
“Focus fire. Swordmaster, stay a bit further back.”
After a while, with the boss’s health approaching the 50% threshold, Panda issued the command.
“Switch tanks! MT, activate Guardian Shield! Healers, prepare to spam heals!”
As Panda’s voice fell, Zhang Cheng stepped forward to take over the off-tank’s position. Silently chanting taunt, a magical shield formed before him, and massive magical wings unfolded behind, protecting all teammates.
All members gained a powerful buff increasing defense and damage reduction by 10%.
This skill called Guardian Wings was arguably one of the most impressive knight skills, unlocked only at level 60. When reaching level 80 as a Guardian Knight, it would upgrade again, enhancing both damage reduction and duration!
Most importantly, the wings on the back would become bigger and flashier! Zhang Cheng had seen this skill before on NPCs in PvP, and purely from an aesthetics standpoint, choosing the knight class was definitely the right call.
As the boss’s health dropped to 50%, the Young Dragon’s Remnant Soul lifted its head and roared furiously again. The dragon-shaped black mist gradually dissipated, transforming into a sharp black scythe spinning toward the aggro target.
As Panda had predicted, the boss was indeed using a new move with a damage-sharing mechanic—he was taking a gamble.
Zhang Cheng also called the Wyvern back to the group at this time. Since their team had three healers, the healing pressure was not too heavy. Under continuous AOE attacks, everyone’s health remained in a safe range.
After surviving this wave, the battle returned to the previous fixed pattern.
*****
Lu Qiuchen had felt extremely bored over the past few days.
She had stood guard in the instance for two days, watching players struggle to defeat the final boss, with no team even able to get it below 90% health. So she voluntarily left the instance and returned to Dragon Island.
With a flash of white light, Lu Qiuchen found herself once again standing on solid ground, feeling the long-missed sense of steadiness. Feeling solid beneath her feet was far better than the soul-floating sensation in the instance.
She still didn’t understand how the system separated her soul from her body in the instance, but since she couldn’t figure it out, she decided not to dwell on it.
Lu Qiuchen came out for fresh air not only because she was frustrated inside the instance but also to ask Gelf about the lifespan of an item and request an upgrade.
When she received the item earlier, she had been too excited to test it, but now she had a bunch of questions.
In the instance, she had been in spirit form and unable to interact with physical objects, so she hadn’t tried using the item. Now she wanted Gelf to change the trigger from immersion in blood to activation by mental contact.
After her last meeting with Gelf, Lu Qiuchen knew he usually stayed in a valley next to the Elder Council, so she flew straight there.
Upon finding Gelf and explaining her purpose, he immediately responded:
“You rushed off last time too quickly, so I didn’t have time to explain much. This item can block the ‘Curse’ effect for about half an hour each use.
“The principle is simple: the internal magic array converts my stored mental energy into a special energy that temporarily counters the energy of the ‘Curse.’
“As long as the array isn’t damaged, the item can be used indefinitely, but the mental energy needs to be replenished by you coming to me or Odoin.
“That’s why reckless contact with my or Odoin’s mental energy can cause mental damage, so I chose blood as the medium to trigger the item.
“If you reach legendary-level power and master the array, you can block the ‘Curse’ yourself. But by then, the ‘Curse’ won’t pose any real threat to you anymore.”
After hearing Gelf’s explanation, Lu Qiuchen understood, but a new worry rose in her heart.
She recalled feeling odd in the previous large-scale instance, sensing her body didn’t quite feel like her own compared to in the Eternal World.
She still didn’t know if the body the system assigned her inside the instance was her original one. If it wasn’t, but just a system copy, would the blood inside still activate the item?
But she couldn’t say these things to Gelf directly. She could only try it herself in the instance and prepare for the worst in advance.
After bidding farewell to Gelf, Lu Qiuchen returned anxiously to Dragon Vein Peak. Lying in her lair, she decided to check on the item’s status inside the instance first. If it didn’t work there, she’d have to find other ways to communicate with the players.
*****
January 10th, 3 a.m.
Having been knocked down countless times by the boss’s 10% health burst attack, the ten members of 【No Brain】 guild were now dizzy and exhausted.
In the past several hours, they had only rested twice. Everyone’s spirits were drained, and heads hung low in silence.
During their first attempt, they had pushed the boss down to 10% health and had naively hoped for a clean sweep, but the boss dealt a brutal counterattack at the last 10%.
After countless failures over many hours, they kept falling to that one move from the boss.
They weren’t afraid of failure, but they dreaded the endless, directionless repetition with no visible future. They had already tried every tactic but simply couldn’t survive the attack at 10% health with its refresh mechanic.
“Let’s call it for now. Get some rest. We’ll try again tonight.”
Panda sighed. It was already Monday, and everyone had to work. Last week, the ten of them had used various excuses to take time off, and some of their employers were growing impatient.
The group steeled themselves and entered the instance once more.
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