Chapter 771: Skeletal Guardian, Antarkt
After distributing the potions to all of his party members, the party of 50 players gathered by the entrance of the dungeon.
The dungeon was merrier than expected. Players who had reached beyond Level 170 were present then to try out. Even when they did not have enough Level 170 players in their guild, they still came to the dungeon to form a new random party. Well, they planned to grind and farm in the dungeon's Hard Mode for equipment first. After all, the Hard Mode of the dungeon would still give players Ethereal Tier equipment. Currently, only a very small portion of top Tier players were able to have Holy Tier equipment on them. Ethereal Tier equipment was still rare, not to mention very precious and powerful to most of the players at the current stage of the game.
However, the dungeon had also implemented the same 'system' as the Death Swarm dungeon. The equipment of this dungeon were all 'bound upon pickup'. However, that would also mean that the players would not drop the equipment upon their death by the hands of other players. That had improved the desire of the players to clear the dungeon for the equipment. Well, they would not lose the equipment they pick up from the Spectre's Cavern.
Although the Hard Mode was quite hard as well, the players would be able to do well if they could just get themselves familiarized with the monsters and bosses in the dungeon. As long as they could do that, they could even clear the Hard Mode, even though they only had a full set of Mythical Tier equipment. Well, there was no minimum requirement to how much DPS the players need to deal with the bosses after all. Therefore, the entrance of the dungeon was filled with players from across the server. Many parties were recruiting Tankers and Healers at the moment.
--- Well, Tankers and Healers were rare when their number was compared to the number of DPS players. Among the 13 Classes in the game, Tankers and Healers had their own two categories. Their total numbers combined only took up 30% of the entire populations in the server. Meanwhile, because the two Classes did not have high DPS, normally players would not feel the fun of they could not deal much damage on their targets. Therefore, the number of Tankers and Healers might be lower than anticipated.
A party of 50 players would normally need 5 Tankers and 10 Healers. That ratio was coincidentally 30% of the entire party as well. However, because the number of Tankers and Healers in the entire server was very limited, the parties would always be short on Tankers and Healers.
Therefore, most of the parties were shouting out to recruit Healers and Tankers by the entrance of the dungeon. Meanwhile, the DPS players were posting out their HP amount and their DPS in order to attract others to join them.
Wei Yan Er laughed out loud and said, "Noob tank, if you go out and shout now, many will surely come and join you!"
"Alright then. So you'll have to tank the boss for the party. I'll switch to another party now. It'll be much easier for me to clear the Hard Mode!" Zhang Yang gave a flick of his finger on the forehead of the little brat. The little brat was so angry that her eyes were moving around like a marble moving around in high speed. She was also muttering endlessly on her own.
Zhang Yang had also met some friends there. The Crimson Rage and the Imperial Sky were there as well.
Well, battling an Open World boss was no longer as worthwhile as clearing a dungeon these days. So, the other top Tier guilds came here to give it a try as well. Because of the Level Gap Suppression function of the game, everyone could only battle one Holy Tier boss on the Open World Map. On the other hand, in this dungeon, they could battle 9 Holy Tier bosses straightaway without the need to search around. Of course, it would be more worthwhile to challenge a dungeon.
Naturally, the equipment that the bosses in the dungeon dropped would not have both offensive and defensive attributes. Those equipment would not have the Special Effect of reducing 20 Levels for the Level Requirement. They would be similar to the [Berserker's Charge Necklace] that Zhang Yang had acquired earlier on. The aforementioned equipment had an "only one-sided attribute", that is, either offensive or defensive.
In a nutshell: The best equipment would be the equipment that was obtained from killing Open World Bosses.
Because the entrance to the dungeon was just by The Plagued Land, players from all eight Regions had to travel all the way there in order to enter the dungeon. While they were recruiting party members, it would be hard for them to avoid conflicts. There were some small-scale battles happening across the area. And sometimes, there would be chaotic battles as well. Well, the situation was quite chaotic, to begin with.
Zhang Yang and his gang had a conflict with the players from Africa Region and America Region while they were gathering up. However, things did not go the way they thought it would. The moment when the enemy's AoE attacks spread, players from the other 7 Regions were pulled into the battle as well. Instantly, the entire area became a war zone. Everything became so chaotic that Zhang Yang and his gang took the opportunity to enter the dungeon. They went in in time to avoid from being trapped in the middle of a war they did not intend to start at all. Or else some of Zhang Yang's weaker members of his party would have been killed in the process.
Well, there was no benefit to gain from battling against other players here. It would just be pointless. As for conquering main cities or territories, there would still be some values in those battles. Everything that was happening in front of the dungeon's entrance was just pure chaos! It was actually unnecessary.
Upon entering the dungeon, whoever had Aura Skills would just activate their own Aura Skills. Meanwhile, the others quickly take some snacks. After all, consuming on a [Chicken Burger] could boost 400 attribute points.
The environment of the dungeon was spooky as f*ck. They were currently standing in the middle an entrance to an underground mausoleum. The long and endless path that lay before them looked extremely eerie. For every 4 to 5 meters, there would be one torch hanging on both sides of the wall. Well, there was also a row of skeleton patrols right in front of them. They were marching slowly towards Zhang Yang and the others. There were a total of 6 skeleton patrols.
[Skeletal Patroler] (Elite, Spectre)
Level: 170
HP: 100,000,000
Defence: 11,030
Melee Attack: 76,321 - 116,321
Skills:
[Flare Star]: Causes a total of 500,000 Fire Damage to all enemy targets within the range of 10-meter radius.
[Force Strike]: Causes 100% Melee Attack of Physical Damage to the target, providing 10% rate to trigger an additional attack.
[Resonance]: Increased damage by 100% once for every extra Skeleton Patroler in the surroundings.
"First group, follow Zhan Yu! Second group, follow Endless Starlight. Third group, follow Ten Dusk! Fourth group..." Mountain Mover assigned the party into groups as he would always do. He assigned the party members into different groups with different roles according to the Skills of the monsters. "Everyone, stay close to the Tankers in your own groups. Make sure you all share the damage of the {Flare Star}. Other than that, Zhan Yu will take the first and the second monsters from the left. Endless Starlight will lure the third ..."
After a brief moment, the party of 50 players was split up into 5 different groups. 5 Tankers went up to engage the monsters. They were using their Skills such as {Spear of Obliteration} and {Shield Toss} to get the aggro of the monsters they were assigned to deal with. They quickly split the monsters up to avoid the monsters from stacking up their Attack power with their {Resonance}. If these monsters had the opportunity to stack up their Attack power to the point that Zhang Yang and the gang could no longer handle, then they would be wiped out by these 6 monsters in one instant!
"... These Elite Tier monsters are basically bosses! What the f*ck!?" Fatty Han was complaining in his funny high pitch voice again.
"That's right! They're even as tough as the bosses! But they only drop what a monster would drop after they die! The system is bullying us! Pui!" Endless Starlight became to pair up with Fatty Han in spatting bad words as usual.
"Well, think about it. This dungeon has 9 Holy Tier bosses. You should just know when to be satisfied!" Lost Dream said, "As long as you reach the level required to enter the dungeon, you can enter and clear the dungeon. If the monsters and bosses are too easy to kill, then Holy Tier equipment will fill the streets. By then, they will become so common that they won't cost much as well. Then it will become pointless to even have the Holy Tier equipment!"
"Enough talk! Clear out the monsters first!" Mountain Mover spoke in a serious tone. He was currently the commander of the party. So before the party was dissembled, he would be the boss of everyone.
The 5 Tankers had taken over the aggro of the monsters they were assigned to tank. Everyone immediately turned their attention towards the monsters that Zhang Yang tanked against. Well, Zhang Yang could keep the monsters' aggro very firmly. Also, he was tanking two Elite Tier monsters at the same time. So, he would feel more pressure than the other Tankers. Therefore, taking out the monsters that Zhang Yang was handling would be their first choice.
Zhang Yang threw his {Surrogacy} onto Starry Fire because that man currently had the weakest equipment on him. Because of that, Starry Fire suddenly performed exceptionally well. His Defence power had exceeded even the Defence of Endless Starlight because he currently shared the same amount of Defence Zhang Yang has. Everyone could not help but feel that the Skill was a little overpowered.
Of course, those who made it here would be worthy enough to be handpicked by Zhang Yang and his powerful friends. So, their equipment would not be too weak as well.
Zhang Yang was sighing out loud while he was chopping the monsters up. He was currently Level 178. It would not take long before he could finally equip the [Agos, The Destroyer's Blade]. If he could just equip that Ascended Tier weapon now, his Attack power would increase by a notch or two!
Using the correct approach, no one had to die. Under the powerful bombardment of the party, they managed to take out the first Skeleton Patrol, followed by the second, then the third.... In just about 4 to 5 minutes, they managed to take out all 6 monsters.
The monsters found in this tunnel could be categorized into two different types. One would be fixed on the walls on two sides. Well, they basically cannot move at all. There would be one on each side. So they were easy to be dealt with. The other type would be the ones they encountered earlier on. They would be the type that patrol around and move around frequently. There would always be 6 of them seen together. Usually, they would move and act together. They would be harder for Zhang Yang and the party to deal with.
The monsters were not hard to kill, though, as long as the Tankers do their job well and avoid letting the monsters run into each other. Without [Resonance] buffing the monsters up, there would be nothing to worry about.
After killing and proceeding forward for nearly an hour, the party had finally arrived before the first boss of the dungeon.
It was a gigantic white-bone skeleton. It seemed to be at least 30 meters tall. The skeleton was wearing some dark shiny armor, looking strange and bizarre. It was holding a gigantic axe with its two skeletal hands. Just like the usual Spectres, there were greenish flames igniting deep within the socket eyes of the skeleton skull. Well, even though the boss looked strange and bizarre, it was still intimidating to even look at.
[Skeletal Guardian, Antarkt] (Holy, Spectre)
Level: 175
HP: 1,750,000,000
Defence: 17,660
Melee Attack: 140,153 - 200,153
Skills:
[Summoned Skeleton]: Summons a Skeleton Patroller to join the battle. Cooldown: 1 minute.
[Destructive Smash]: Causes 150% Melee Attack of Physical Damage, causing the target to suffer a reduction of 10% Healing Efficiency as well. Last for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 8 seconds.
[Crippling Pain]: Radiates out 8 rays into the surroundings. Upon hitting the targets, causes 200,000 Fire Damage to the targets, causing the targets to suffer a reduction of 10% Movement Speed. Last for 8 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds.
[Frostbite]: Hail upon an area with ice rocks, causing 100,000 Frost Damage to all targets in every second. Last for 10 seconds. Can only be used after using {Crippling Pain}. Cooldown: 30 seconds
[Dominator Aura]: Deal one attack on all targets within the range of 50-meter radius in each passing second, causing an amount of damage equal to 2% HP of the targets.
[Spectre's Fury]: When the battle exceeds 10 minutes, Antarkt will use {Spectre's Fury} once in every second. Causes 1,000,000 Chaos Damage to all enemy targets in the dungeon.
Obviously, this was battle depending on the DPS of the players. Because in 10 minutes, the boss would activate its {Spectre's Fury} and kill all players who did not activate their Inheritance Transformations. Well, Tankers might still survive the attack, though. However, the cooldown of the boss's {Spectre Fury} was merely 1 second! How do you expect any players to survive that!? Even players that activated their Inheritance Transformation would not survive that sort of attacks --- that amount of DPS was the DPS of a Celestial Tier boss!
In other words, the players must take out the boss before 10 minutes is up. Even if they are not able to take out the boss, they must not leave too much HP left on the boss's HP bar. Well, players with powerful Inheritance Transformation could still hold on for a little while more to take out the boss after the boss's {Spectre Fury} is activated.
However, after they took a closer look at the boss's other Skills, everyone knew that they would have to move around the battle stage quite often. Well, the combination of the {Crippling Pain} and the {Frostbite} would definitely send them running around in the surroundings in order to stay alive. At the same time, the Skeleton Patrolers would be tanked by the Tankers. Meanwhile, some of the players would need to be responsible for receiving {Flare Star} in their faces. So, should they focus on killing any monster that is spawned, or should they focus on the boss and take it out first?
If they decided to focus on taking out the monster spawned before the second one was spawned, then the HP bar of the boss would not be the only amount of HP the players need to empty out. They would need to take into account the HP bar of the monsters spawned as well. Killing each of the Skeleton Patroller spawned would give the boss an extra 100,000,000 HP! What the f*ck!
Meanwhile, the firepower of the party was the key to their survival. If that were to happen, they might be wiped out by the boss in an instant!