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Chapter 62 – Crushing All the Way
“This thing isn’t hard to kill.” Wu Shaochen thought to himself. He ordered Silverfang Wolf to back off a bit, then activated Extreme Speed and charged forward. He stunned it with a full combo, then followed up with a strike that applied four layers of poison, and gracefully retreated. Although the narrow corridor made it impossible to kite freely, circling from one end to the other and back again was still viable. If it could be kited, then there was no need to fight it head-on. If that thing went berserk, each normal attack would hit him for over 900 damage, and with skill damage on top of that, he wouldn’t be able to withstand it for long.
With four stacks of poison dealing close to 130,000 damage per minute, the Tiger-headed Leader with only 450,000 HP didn’t last four minutes before collapsing. Wu Shaochen gained 32,000 experience points, and Silverfang Wolf got 8,000, which pushed it from nearly leveling up to level 17 instantly.
He picked up all the loot on the ground—one silver, one bronze, and two black iron pieces. Nothing else.
“Wait… it really only drops equipment?” Wu Shaochen was a little dumbfounded. Every time he fought a boss, didn’t it always drop other stuff too, not just gear? Why is it that in the dungeon, it only drops equipment?
Whatever, no point dwelling on it. He glanced at the only silver item—it was a helmet, but its stats were slightly worse than his current Blackwind Helmet, so there was no reason to switch. He’d just sell it later. Though… wouldn’t that be aiding the enemy? What if someone from Prideful World buys it and uses it against me later?
Hmm… then I’ll just kill it again before selling…
Wu Shaochen retraced his steps back to the three-way fork and this time chose the left path. Before long, he encountered the monsters in the left passage: humanoid with leopard heads—Leopard-headed Men. Their stats were similar to the Tiger-headed ones, but these guys were archers, with two ranged skills. It didn’t really matter though, since he had to fight head-on either way. Whether they were ranged or melee didn’t make a difference—their normal attacks couldn’t break through his defense.
Wu Shaochen crushed his way forward and fought his way to the end of the path, picking up another bronze and two black iron items he couldn’t use. He cast Insight on the Leopard-headed Leader at the end.
[Leopard-headed Leader] – Dungeon Boss
Level: 20
HP: 400,000
Physical Attack: 1200
Physical Defense: 650
Magic Defense: 600
Attack Speed: 50%
Critical Rate: 10%
Movement Speed: 165
Skill 1: Armor-Piercing Arrow – Deals 165% physical damage, ignoring 50% of the target’s armor. Cooldown: 30s
Skill 2: Pierce – Deals 160% physical damage to targets in a straight line. Cooldown: 30s
Skill 3: Extreme Speed – Increases movement and attack speed by 50% for 30 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes
Looking at this boss, Wu Shaochen finally started to feel a bit of a headache. Fighting this boss would be tough. Dungeon ranged mobs couldn’t be kited; their attack and aggro range were the same. Once you left their attack range, you also exited their aggro range. When they lose aggro, their HP fully regenerates and any poison gets cleared. That mechanic was just plain annoying.
If he couldn’t kite, then he had to fight head-on. His current attack was just over 1,000, and his normal attacks could deal about 800+ damage. With two strikes per second, that was roughly 1,700 DPS. He could lifesteal back about 170 HP per second. Paired with potions, he might barely survive. The only real variable was that 10% crit chance—if the boss crit too often, there was no way he could tank it.
“I shouldn’t be that unlucky, right?” Wu Shaochen muttered, “Screw it, let’s go!”
He activated Extreme Speed and charged in, only for the boss to do the same—arrows flew at him one after another. An Armor-Piercing Arrow hit him, and before he even landed a hit, he had already lost nearly 3,000 HP.
“Damn it, bullying me just ‘cause my reach is short?” Wu Shaochen cursed and quickly drank a potion. He finally got close and started stabbing with his dagger. “Wanna test hand speed? Let’s see if your bow is faster than my dagger!”
The Leopard-headed Leader tried to attack while backing up but quickly realized it couldn’t outrun this human. It gave up on retreating and stood its ground, engaging Wu Shaochen in a flurry of attacks. Both man and beast unleashed their maximum hand speed—Wu Shaochen used skills when available, and normal attacks otherwise. Eventually, with lifesteal and potions, he managed to gain the upper hand.
Just as he was feeling proud, the boss landed a crit with Armor-Piercing Arrow, blasting over 3,000 HP. Then a crit from Pierce took away another 2,000+. Wu Shaochen nearly had a heart attack. He had been using mid-tier potions to save money, keeping his HP around 4,000+, but those two hits nearly killed him.
“Wolf pup, shield me!” Wu Shaochen shouted, activating Void Form and running behind Silverfang Wolf, letting it take over. He popped a quick-heal potion for 1,000 HP, then followed up with a large potion to stabilize.
Silverfang Wolf fearlessly threw itself in front of Wu Shaochen, charging at the boss. Each arrow hit it for 780 damage, but with over 20,000 HP, it could tank for a while.
Once Wu Shaochen recovered to over 7,000 HP, he charged back in and unleashed another barrage on the Leopard-headed Leader. With his high poison damage and decent raw output, the boss’s HP dropped steadily. It lasted less than three minutes before falling, granting another 32,000 experience.
He picked up the loot—one silver, two bronze, and two black iron items. He checked the silver item—a bracelet, and it was usable.
[Leopard King Bracelet] – Silver Grade
+180 Physical Attack
+15% Attack Speed
Bonus Stats: +24 Strength, +25 Agility, +24 Constitution
Class Requirement: Assassin, Archer
He swapped out his old [Graphite Bracelet], gaining 52 more attack for a total of 1,570, and an attack speed boost to 138%. His max HP also increased thanks to all the kills and buffs, rising by 464 to a total of 9,306. He was finally breaking into five digits.
As for the rest of the bronze and black iron gear, he didn’t bother checking—just dumped it all into his backpack to sell later.
With the Leopard-headed Leader dealt with, Wu Shaochen returned to the three-way fork once more. Only the middle path remained. Clearing that should complete the dungeon, right?
Without hesitation, he headed down the central path. Before long, he encountered the monsters there: Lion-headed Men—disgusting mage types. Fortunately, Wu Shaochen’s magic defense wasn’t much lower than his physical defense, and these mobs were no stronger than the ones in the other paths. He powered through, occasionally drinking potions, and when necessary, letting Silverfang Wolf tank a bit. It was a dangerous but manageable push to the end. He was lucky this time too—two bronze and one black iron dropped.
At the end of the path stood the Lion-headed Leader. Its power was on par with the Silver War God Phantom from the War God’s Secret Realm, and its skills weren’t anything special. Wu Shaochen charged in and fought it head-on. Solo, mages didn’t have much advantage anyway. They relied entirely on skills, and even if Fireball had a short cooldown, it still needed three seconds. That was more than enough time for Wu Shaochen to lifesteal 400+ HP.
In the end, the Lion-headed Leader didn’t even last three minutes before falling. It dropped one silver, two bronze, and one black iron item—all geared toward mages and priests.
After killing the Lion-headed Leader, Wu Shaochen thought it was finally over. He waited for the system notification—but instead of a system message, the ground began to shake violently.
“What the hell? Is this whole place collapsing?” Wu Shaochen quickly braced himself against the wall to avoid falling.
The tremor stopped soon after. In front of him, where the Lion-headed Leader had fallen, the entire passage collapsed. A massive crack opened in the ground, and a giant monster crawled out of it. It had wings on its back, horns on its head, the face of a bull, the body of a tiger, and the tail of a lion.
The bizarre appearance completely stunned Wu Shaochen.