When they entered the cave, they could see how dark it was. Li Shenyang could also hear the sound of water droplets dripping down to the ground. "According to the forum, the path to the first boss is very straight forward," Li Shenyang heard Qinglong's voice from his headphone. "The first boss is just a simple pillager who chanced upon the cave. Not wanting to share the treasure within, he attacked the players. Let's go deal with him first."
[YangShen(Party): 1]
While others in the party give out verbal affirmation, Li Shenyang can only type out his response. The party continued to walk through the cave, and luckily, there was only one path. The deeper they go, the darker the path was so in the end, Li Shenyang took out a torch from his inventory and lights it up.
"Huh? Where did you get the torch?" Bai Lang's voice sounded.
[YangShen(Party): Bought it at the beginner's village.]
"How come it wasn't sold in the beasts' beginner's village? Captain, Swan, how about the beginner village of your bloodlines?" Bai Lang inquired.
"Not sold," came Qinglong's short answer.
"Same here. Maybe it's something that's exclusive only to humans?" Illusory Swan reasoned. "Plus, I also have a passive ability which helps illuminate the dark path. Only, I haven't unlocked it."
"Why didn't you unlock it?" Black Inferno Tiger asked. "I already unlocked my nocturnal vision so it wasn't as dark before. Of course, now that Yang Shen used the torch, everything looks much better."
"Not enough spirit points, ah!"
From these conversations, Li Shenyang realized that there are more advantages to the other bloodlines compared to humans. That is, they have passive abilities. Li Shenyang quickly checked his skill lists, and sure enough, the human doesn't have any passive ability.
Soon, they met with an NPC who could be seen checking around some rocks. Above his head, the name Jingshen could be seen, and it was white. If a first-timer came here, they might think that it was a normal NPC and thus, tried to interact with him. But if someone already checked the forum before tackling the dungeon, then they will know that this seemingly harmless NPC is the first boss.
"That's the first boss. Pillager Jingshen. Lynx, you have unlocked your passive, sneak, right?" Qinglong asked.
"Yup. Should I go and take the initiative?"
"You go. The rest of us will wait here until the time is right," Qinglong said to everyone.
[YangShen(Party):1]
Once again, Li Shenyang only responded in chat. Lynx went as the vanguard, sneaking behind the NPC without him noticing. Li Shenyang had a suspicion that the team he's in is actually from a professional team, thus, he was really looking forward to their gameplay.
Once Lynx was directly behind the NPC, he gave it one hit before running away. That's right, one hit and then run. Li Shenyang who was hoping to see something amazing ends up disappointed.
"Who dared to attack Laozi from behind?!" the word Jingshen above the NPC's name changed to Pillager Jingshen, and its colour also turned red. Not only that, but his health bar also appeared on the top of their screen and the percentage shows that its health still has 99.9% remaining.
"I've hit him! Qinglong, hurry and take aggro! I'm very squishy, ah!"
Li Shenyang: …
Qinglong didn't move, and Li Shenyang could still hear Lightning Lynx screaming through his headphone. He was just about to move and help just so his eardrums could be saved when he heard Qinglong's voice.
"Wait a bit more. Not yet the time."
Hearing this, Li Shenyang stopped himself. Lightning Lynx is getting closer and closer, bringing the boss with him.
"Do you guys see the big stalactite on the roof of the cave in front of Lightning Lynx? Once he went past it, jump up and attack the highest point of the stalactite," Qinglong said, his tone serious.
They waited for a while longer and as soon as Lynx got past it, they all jumped and collectively attacked the stalactite. Facing the attack of five people, the stone-like icicle made out of calcium salt broke from the roof of the cave and it fell directly on top of Pillager Jingshen.
The health of Pillager Jingshen dropped from 99.9% directly to 0%. Seeing this instant death by 'environmental change', Li Shenyang can't help but feel surprised. "The forum said that Pillager Jingshen has a high defence for a first boss because he obtained a broken immortal treasure. Against immortal, a broken treasure is useless but against new players whose character is still mortal, it was still something strong. And yet… he was reduced to this?" Li Shenyang watched the boss' corpse who was crushed beneath the stalactite.
"I'll go check for item drops. Anything above white, we'll roll them," Qinglong informed the team.
"Okay, you're the captain. But still, how did you come with an idea about using the stalactite?" Illusory Swan asked.
"Insider information," was all Qinglong said.
"Then can't you at least tell me your plan, captain? Why leave me in the dark?!" Lightning Lynx asked.
"Knowing you, you'd be too confident and would end up delaying your escape," Qinglong replied. "It's good that you run fast."
"It's good that you run fast," the rest of the team repeated what Qinglong said.
[YangShen(Party): +1]
After being teased, Lightning Lynx didn't say anything else. Qinglong finally went to check on the item drops and unfortunately, there are only common drops. Since it was common drops, the system assigned the drops randomly.
[System: Received Pebbles x4]
[System: Received Rags x2]
[System: Received Golds x67]
"The next boss is a spider beast. The reason why others couldn't beat the boss was because they were overwhelmed by the smaller spiders. We will divide the task. Yang Shen and I will deal with the big boss, the rest of you keep on dealing with the small spiders that will keep on spawning. You have to kill them quickly and don't let any of them get to Yang Shen and I," Qinglong said. "And don't let the small spider bite you. They have a poison status effect. Once you are poisoned, you will stay poisoned until you eat the antidote. If it cannot be helped, then just make sure to use your antidote sparingly."
[YangShen(Party): Are you sure you want me to help you deal with the boss? My damage is quite low…]
"Well, if your damage is low, all the more that you should just join me deal with the boss. If we switch you with any one of them, the small spiders might not get killed fast and soon, we'll end up being overwhelmed," Qinglong replied.
[YangShen(Party): Alright then. You're the captain.]
The team continued forward until they got into a large area. Up above, they could see a huge spider hanging from the roof of the cave. And on the wall of the cave, they could see four smaller holes on each side.
"The small spiders will spawn indefinitely until the boss is dead. Only then will they retreat. The four of you, go and get into position," Qinglong gave out his order. After watching the four of them stood before the small holes without alerting the boss, Qinglong turned to Li Shenyang's character.
"Tell me your stats."
[YangShen(Party): 20 on all, +13 bonus on speed.]
"Nice! The additional 13 bonus on speed also gives cooldown reduction bonus, right? Other than that, there's movement speed and attack speed bonus?"
[YangShen(Party): Yes. Smile.jpg]
"Good. If anything goes wrong later, and the small spiders managed to get through, I'll leave the boss to you while I deal with them," Qinglong said as he then walked forward, entering the boss area.
Li Shenyang manoeuvred his character to follow Qinglong, and once they reached the boss's area of attack, the boss woke up from its slumber. It fell down from the roof of the cave, and let out a loud shriek. After its shriek, there was a rustle, followed by the pitter-patter of numerous spider legs hitting the ground.
If this was real life, the sound would've put others in fear. The first spiders appeared from the small hole and thus, begin the battle between players and the monsters in the cave.
"Aaaah fuck! Fuck! Fuck!! It's a fucking real spider, ah!!"
Followed by the ear-shattering scream is the sound of mic being hit, then falling down with a thud. Next, there was a sound of a keyboard being slammed against by something thick, probably a rolled-up book.
[System: Your Teammate, Illusory Swan, has died!]
Despite the sound and distraction, the boss battle has already started. Li Shenyang and Qinglong engaged the boss, but they saw that Illusory Swan is not moving. And once the prompt appeared, Qinglong could only let out a heavy sigh.
"Yang Shen, can you solo the boss? I will deal with the small spiders on Swan's side until he's back," Qinglong's voice sounded urgent.
Since it was a boss battle, there was little time-frame for Li Shenyang to type out his answer. And he also knew that Qinglong needed his response as soon as possible. So in the end, he unmuted his mic. "You go. I can handle things here," he replied vocally.
"Oh my god! Was that Yang Shen?! His voice is the kind of voice that those women like, ah! I also like, also like~"
"Hehehehe… I bet Yangyang is a real-life Shuaige ah!! Yangyang, be careful not to get bent by Bai Lang!"
The two who speaks out was Bai Lang and Lightning Lynx respectively. But Li Shenyang had already put all of his focus on the boss. His character only has the beginner's equipment. And based on what he read, though the main cause of other team's annihilation was due to the fact that they were overwhelmed by the small spiders, this big spider also deals heavy damage.
Five minutes in, Illusory Swan has yet to return to the game. Instead, Li Shenyang could still hear him cursing out while screaming: "Where the fuck is that spider?!"