Chapter 528: Attribute Growth Star Points
Zhang Yang finished off the harpies around him and then opened the character window. Compared to when he first started the game, Zhang Yang now had three tabs of windows to browse through, two of them having been added over time. The first, being his own character profile, the second was the summoned pet and battle pet and the last one was the Battle Companion window, where he could look up Felice's stats.
As expected, beside the five basic attribute points, the attack and defense properties, there was a string of stars behind each of the five main attribute points, indicating the level of growth Felice had.
Vitality, 10 stars! Strength, 10 stars! Dexterity, 10 stars! Intelligence, 10 stars! Spirit, 10 stars!
They were all 10 stars! A perfect balance!
Zhang Yang was shocked. If he had not heard to Fatty Han saying that having more than 7 stars is considered strong enough, he would have considered Felice's growth rate to be average! As the saying goes, jack of all trades, master of none. In any online game, investing in all attribute points would be suicidal. Truthfully, if he could, Zhang Yang would wanted to have all her Spirit points to be cut in half and be invested in Strength and Intelligence so that they would be maxed at 15 Stars instead. That way, Felice's attack in her human form and her Dragonhawk form would be much higher.
"Little Yang! Come on, dude! Tell me! What's the star count for Felice's attribute? Don't hide it though. Even if Felice does not have much room to grow, I would laugh. You know? Grade or tiers, does not determine growth power! Haha!" Fatty Han laughed.
Zhang Yang cringed but quickly smirked. He then screen-shotted Felice's attribute properties and let Fatty Han feel the burn in his face. "Here, have a look. Don't feel too disappointed when my Felice beats the sh*t out of your busty dullard!"
"What's up with that!? 10 stars! All of them!?" cried Fatty Han disgruntledly.
It was no surprise that Felice had much greater power than the rest of the Battle Companions. She was, after all, the first Battle Companion in the game, and was the one who had unlocked the Battle Companion system. If she had been rubbish, it would have been highly irresponsible for the developers to do so for the first player to discover her.
Fatty Han was dissatisfied. He then proceeded to look for Hundred Shots and Endless Starlight to compare their Battle Companions. Perhaps, he was hoping that they had inferior Battle Companions so that he could stroke his ego. All 10 core members of Zhang Yang's team had obtained their own Battle Companions, ranging from Gray-Silver to Mythical. Everyone happily reported their Battle Companion status for a little comparison.
Among all of them, the best was unsurprisingly, Felice. Coming close to her was Sun Xin Yu's Battle Companion, Ankh the Assassin, and then Messick the mother*cking pervert.
Ankh was covered in a black tight suit and had hide behind a black veil that covered everything from head to shoulders. Despite leaving no skin exposed, everyone could easily determine that Ankh was a lady from the body outline of her tight suit. Truth be told, she was a carbon copy of Sun Xin Yu. Ankh's original tier was only Gray-Silver. Despite that, her attribute growth was strong. Vitality, 6 stars. Strength, 7 stars. Dexterity, 10 stars. Intelligence, 1 star. Spirit, 1 star.
Even though her Intelligence and Spirit points were the lowest, Ankh had made up for it with extremely high Dexterity. She was an Assassin class Battle Companion. Having 15 stars in Intelligence and Spirit would not do her any good. Ankh was a good example as to how tiers do not determine a Battle Companion's prowess.
Sun Xin Yu was a burst damage type of player. It was natural for her to pick a Battle Companion that suited her playstyle. Perhaps, one day when Sun Xin Yu has Ankh equipping a full set of Violet-Platinum weapon and armor, she would be able to stand together with Sun Xin Yu and deal an explosive amount of damage. That's what gamers refer to as nuking. A nuking playstyle focuses on a large amount damage dealt over a short period of time. Perhaps, even tank class player like One Sword Stroke would not survive after being bombarded by Sun Xin Yu and Ankh.
As for Messick, the cowardly, persistent, and perverted little bugger only had 5 stars for his Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Spirit. However, his Vitality was 12 stars! Even stronger than Felice!
Hmph. Such high Vitality befitting of a coward!
However, 10 Stars should not be Felice's full potential. She still had four seals that had yet to be broken. Zhang Yang believed that the breaking of the seals would definitely have a positive effect on Felice's strength. If every seal grants Felice an additional 1 star for her attribute growth, Felice would be a Battle Companion with 14 stars for all her attribute points!
It had been sometime when all 10 of them had gathered together. Naturally, jokes and teases were flying around. Out of the blue, Hundred Shots went silent and withdrew from the merry conversation. Zhang Yang noticed his odd behavior and observed him. Zhang Yang realized that Hundred Shots was actually having a conversation with someone else through the messenger. After a while, Hundred Shots nodded and quickly came back to the group. "Dragon Throat Fortress has been conquered!"
Zhang Yang was the first one to be surprised. "Hundred. Where did you heard the news from? If Dragon Throat Fortress was conquered, the system would have announced it!"
"Oh! Right! Give me a second," said Hundred Shots as he placed his hands on his ears for a second. He then laughed awkwardly and said, "Haha. My bad. Sorry for agitating everyone. Dragon Throat Fortress has been conquered. But it was only the Hard mode and not the Hardcore mode. It was taken down by a guild from Europe call "Mess Up Your Mama"!"(1)
Mess Up Your Mama?
Almost everyone cringed, while others twitched a little when they heard the rather bold and senseless name.
Zhang Yang remembered something and then explained the situation to them. "If I'm right. Mess Up Your Mama is a direct onomatopoeia of the Latin name Nihilum. It does mean anything, but the guild is undoubtedly strong. Leave them be for now, but don't let your guards down. They are strong, and we should watch our backs."
"Heh. Sounds like another bunch of proud mother*ckers." Fatty Han puffed. Lone Desert Smoke was not doing any better than the other guilds. They were still stuck at the last boss and could not finish it off. The problem was that the boss' attack power was too strong. At the same time, the demand of the dungeon for players' DPS was also too great. Fatty Han had the Vampire Inheritance transformation, but when it was on cooldown, there was nothing that the party could do, besides slowly grinding their way in.
Even though Nihilum had already taken down the Hard mode, that result would never earn the right to trigger a server announcement. Still, no one could deny that they had already displayed the potential to raid the Hardcore mode of the Dragon Throat Fortress. To unlock the Hardcore mode, one must first defeat Hard mode. Similarly, to unlock Hard mode, one must first defeat Normal mode.
"Hey dummy, shouldn't we join the exploration team as well?" asked Han Ying Xue. The exploration team consisted of 50 qualified members. However, it did not include top players like Zhang Yang, Sun Xin Yu, Wei Yan Er, Han Ying Xue and the other strong members. Only Hundred Shots, Endless Starlight, Fatty Han and Fantasy Sweetheart had joined the team.
Zhang Yang shook his head to deny Han Ying Xue's proposal. "Worry not about losing the First Clear Achievement. Hardcore mode is not that easy to defeat. In fact, we might still lose even if we join them now. I suggest we spend our time to search for the Inheritances instead. Hundred, Mountain Mover will be reaching to Level 100 soon. When he does, I need you to hand over the commander position to him. In the meantime, why not search for Inheritance for yourself?"
Hundred Shots was the man who had obtained the overwhelming dragon pet in Zhang Yang's previous life. Zhang Yang did not want him to preoccupy himself with any more dungeon activities that might directly affect the chances of him obtaining the Red Dragon pet. Even though he had only managed to obtain B or C class Inheritance, he was on par with an A class Inheritance player when he acquired the Red Dragon pet.
According to Zhang Yang's well thought out plan, Hundred Shots would obtain the Red Dragon pet while Fatty Han takes the Phoenix pet. With two mythical creatures pairing up, it would be a fearsome presence in the game. The means to obtain the Red Dragon was completely mysterious, on the other hand, the Phoenix pet was just a hidden class quest of a hunter. Still, there was a capture prerequisite, one had to be Level 120 before they could even try to take on the quest.
"Oh! Mess Up Your Mama was able to raid the Hard mode because two of their players had Inheritances," said Hundred Shots. "According to the local forums there, the two players' Inheritances were C class.
Zhang Yang smiled, "There's no need to worry. C class Inheritance is strong, but its prowess would only help them to defeat the first five boss of the Hardcore mode. The last few ones would be extremely difficult."
The stronger the Inheritance, the stronger the boss would be in the chain quest. For example, the black dragon that Zhang Yang had to face would have been completely impossible if Felice did not go crazy back then. Even if he had forced all of his guild members to reach Level 120 and kill the dragon together, they would still lose. They might stand a chance if Zhang Yang asked for the help from Crimson Rage and Sky High!
On the other hand, the Vampire Inheritance bosses were only possible due to Zhang Yang already possessing the God of War Inheritance. On the other hand, Inheritance Classes D and below would only cough out easy bosses. Players would only need to kill mini-boss like entities and run around the world.
"Zhang Yang, when are you going to help me get all the remaining pieces of the Inheritance Fragment?" Han Ying Xue asked impatiently. She had already gathered five pieces of Inheritance Fragments. The other five pieces should be in the hands of the Hell-family Priest. If both sides do not end this cowardly conflict, the Milkmaid Deity Inheritance would never surface.
"Relax. Don't rush into things. If you do, they will too! Just let them be. When they can't take it anymore, they will strike first, and that's where we'll be waiting for them!" said Zhang Yang. "Then again, even if you have all Inheritance Pieces, it would matter since an S class Inheritance quest boss would not be an easy target. I'm not even sure if we can defeat it yet!"
It was the truth. When they were fighting the Vampire Count Ferra, it had taken all they had to survive. The boss for the Milkmaid Deity quest should be on the same level as the Black Dragon King. Even if Zhang Yang and Fatty Han transformed, two hours might not be enough to defeat the boss!
At least, in the meantime, they should lay low and grind to Level 120 to remove the Level Gap Suppression to win! In the meantime, the group should be able to gather more Forbidden Scrolls to increase the chances of winning.
After the chatting session, everyone left to do their own business. Zhang Yang then moved on and found himself a large cave. It was at least the size of a basketballs stadium with a height reaching to 30 meters tall. Stalactites glowed, protruding from the ceiling of the cave, illuminating the interior with a white-warm light.
At the deeper section of the cave, there was a stalactite that housed a large bird's nest which measured at least the 5 times the size of a king-sized bed. Inside the nest, a large female harpy was sleeping happily. Around the area, there were many hard to see sticks that were arranged in a long row.
[Harpy Queen, Yaniboque] (Mythical, Humanoid)
Level: 125
HP: 37,500,000
Defense: 5,200
Melee Attack: 30,157 - 34,157
Skills:
[Death Shriek]: Unleashes a devastating sound wave to deal 30,000 physical attack to all targets within 40 meters.
[Tackle]: Flies in the sky and shoots down at breakneck speed to claw a target. Deals 100% melee physical damage. Damage will be doubled if either the Head, Neck, Chest, or Abdomen is struck with the skill.
[Tear]: Tears a target apart with sharp claws. Deals 100% melee physical attack and reduces the healing rate of a target for 50%.
Note: The queen of Harpies, greedy, gluttonous, and has a lust for spherical-ended, pillar-shaped objects.
While the queen was sleeping, 20 elite tier Harpy guards stood guard around their queen.
Translator Note:
(1) Mess Up Your Mama - This one was rather hard to translate but the mandarin words were 黑你老母. According to the context itself, the pinyin of it (hei ni lao mu) sounds like Nihilum. Hence, when the Chinese read it out loud, it would sound something like hei ni lao mu. For the novel, we will use the official name Nihilum as the author had stated it in official context like a system announcement. But when the author uses 黑你老母 in conversation- we will retain its original meaning and use Mess Up Your Mama.