MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

Empty!

It was rare to finish a dungeon boss only to come out empty-handed…

Li Yi was in denial as he reached out to loot the boss’ corpse over and over again. Still, nothing. It dawned on him, he was experiencing deja vu from his past life.

How trashy could his Trash Hand be?

As there was a time limit, he was forced to continue on his journey in farming monsters, not even sparing the time to vent his frustrations.

Another 30 Moderate Ice Elves were soon wiped out. However, this time, his luck was at an all-time low as he only looted a single piece of white-colored armor.

Now, another boss appeared before him. This boss was of a different element than the previous two and looked distinctly different too. This was a human boss.

Dressed in pale blue armor, he wore an iron ox-horn helmet whilst wielding a long axe. He looked awe-inspiring as the name on top of his head revealed his identity.

Arklass, the Fallen Paladin.

The fact that he secretly kept the Ice Crystal Crown led to a series of events that eventually caused the upright Paladin’s downfall. He, who was killed by his fiancé, could not rest in peace and was instead controlled by the crown, forced to wander the tundra as the walking corpse of a Fallen Paladin.

Li Yi drank a bottle of Invisibility Potion before sneaking around Arklass and going on his way.

Arklass had more than 5,000,000HP and was proficient in every skill the Paladin class had. Heal, Dizzy, Charge, Repent, etc. Even with the aid of Violent Bear King, it was impossible to take him on by yourself as this was not a boss you could face solo.

He could heal, CC and even cast Holy Raging Flame, a skill with a guaranteed hit rate. Without any Healers there to boost his HP, he would have to wait until he was a higher level if he wanted to try going at this guy solo.

Fortunately, Arklass was different from Iceladia. He need not be beaten in order to continue clearing the dungeon.

Ice Crystal Crown dungeon had an interesting setting. After defeating three batches of 30 monsters, a boss would appear. This cycle would repeat itself until one reached the final boss.

After Arklass the Fallen Paladin, there was another human boss. But this boss was peculiar. Half its body was exposed while the other half was buried underground. On first glance, it seemed as though it was sitting on a toilet bowl…

This toilet bowl boss was apparently known as Magmadar. Prior to being controlled by the Ice Crystal Crown, he was once a great Wizard. He and Arklass were different. He willingly came here and became a servant of the Ice Crystal Crown. The reason behind this was simple. The official sources explained in the backstory that he secretly admired Arklass’ fiancé and willingly sank to the rank of a lowly servant just so that he could be with her.

Magmadar was a Fire Wizard, and because his powers were the opposite of that of the Ice Crystal Crown, his body was rejected after getting baptized by the crown’s powers. Bam! Thus, the lower half of his body exploded, leaving him in this awkward position…

The lovesick Magmadar who lacked the lower-half of his body was unlike Arklass the Fallen Paladin. Magmadar’s infatuation insisted that nobody be close to his beloved woman, making this battle unavoidable.

Li Yi immediately changed to Mutated Small Wild Boar and had it rush ahead.

Magmadar’s HP was 2,600,000 and was immensely capable as he was familiar with Fire and Ice Magic. The reason Li Yi summoned Mutated Small Wild Boar to the field was due to its immunity towards the boss’ Ice-attribute attacks. As for his Fire Magic? Well, it would not hurt him too much.

“Magmadar will not allow you to bother Lady Monica! Be baptized in fire and ice!”

Toilet Bowl Man launched his attack with one hand enveloped in flames and the other hand covered in frost.

While Ice Magic covered the whole field, Fire Magic could only be used from range. Though the damage dealt by Mutated Small Wild Boar was less than that of Violent Bear King, it was completely immune toward the boss’ Ice-attribute attacks, so it did not need Li Yi to heal it. It could just stand in front of Magmadar, whittling him down with its fangs.

Compared to Mutated Small Wild Boar, Li Yi was in a more troublesome predicament. Magmadar’s Fire Magic was dynamic, as was its range. With only two seconds to react after each attack, an accidental move on his part would leave him in the Fire Magic’s radius, resulting in instant death.

The ground lit up to reveal a red pentagram as Li Yi immediately dashed away. A split second later, countless fireballs rained down onto the pentagram.

If he were to delay his movements by just one second, then Li Yi would have been done for.

This was the boss whom Li Yi struggled with the most. Magmadar’s casting of the ever-powerful Fire Magic one after another had him constantly running all over the place.

Leaping then shooting. Tumbling before firing another. Diving in for a shot, then a backflip while performing an upward shot…

There was no such thing as a naturally-born expert. Everything came with practice.

Although Li Yi played a Thief in his past life, eight years of gaming experience made him familiar as with any class as if they were the back of his hand. He could adjust far faster than any normal player. Switching to an Archer only caused him to feel awkward right at the start. However, once past that phase, he had a feeling that his skill with the Archer was way better than when he was playing as a Thief.

Magmadar’s HP dropped by 10% and his body turned red and blue. With this, his attack tactics changed. He no longer went after Li Yi with magic, instead, he started launching a large coverage, group attack.

A huge pentagram appeared on the ground, extending to the entire dungeon, similar to Ordas’ wide-range magic.

“Dance of Fire and Ice!”

Magmadar’s half body spun, as a mixed flurry of Ice and Fire began firing everywhere.

At this point, every single bit of one’s senses was brought into play. To be able to dodge and evade attacks while constantly attacking… these players were qualified BAMF.

Turns out, Li Yi was one of these BAMFs as he went all out to attack in the tiny intervals between the Fire and Ice concoction.

Mutated Small Wild Boar had long collapsed on the ground, but Li Yi was not at liberty to use Camouflage or Pseudocide to break away from the battle and summon other pets to take its place as the boss’ HP would immediately recharge to its full bar, wasting all his previous effort.

It was all up to him now.

Intermediate-Level Fury Potion. Advanced-Level HP Potion. Advanced-Level Mana Potion. Once the cooldown of the potions ran out, Li Yi would immediately dunk another potion. He only had one purpose, and that was to take down Magmadar as soon as possible.

Advanced-Level Potion was not something even Li Yi could refine. As such, consuming potions at this rate burned a huge hole in his pocket.

It was fortunate that Li Yi was a big shot in trade and not lacking this tiny sum. With this, he managed to burn Magmadar out after exhausting about 10,000 Gold Coins worth of potions.

Magmadar let out a pained howl and wrapped his arms over his head. A few sudden jerks of his body and wham! His body exploded to bits.

The co-existence of two extreme powers, Fire and Ice, brought to an end…

A little wooden box emerged from the ground. As Magmadar’s corpse was no more, the reward for clearing this boss was in this box.

The wooden little box was named Magmadar’s Treasure Chest.

Li Yi hesitated for quite a long time and was fearful about opening the treasure chest.

“I think I’ll farm more monsters and then, return to open this.”

Plagued by Trash Hand, Li Yi was dubious, fearful in fact. In order to play it safe, he decided against opening the treasure chest and went ahead with farming.

This time, the 30 Moderate Ice Elves were more generous and dropped 20 pieces of Frost Fragments, leaving him in high spirits.

While he was at it, he went back to open the treasure chest, only to be given more disappointment…

[You have obtained Magmadar’s Personal Diary…]

[You have obtained Magmadar’s Rose Diamond Ring…]

Two miscellaneous items. The diary recorded the admiration of Magmadar towards Monica while the diamond ring was a tool to trigger a quest.

The diary was pointless. Li Yi was not the least bit interested in Magmadar’s love story. The diamond ring was acceptable since it could trigger a quest, but he still had to personally hand over the ring to a certain NPC in the City of Light.

City of Light was the most populated major city on the Western Continent. There were powerful NPCs around the city, and any one of them could easily take Li Yi out.

The reward for this ring was supposedly a piece of gold-colored equipment and 300,000 EXP. Not too shabby. If he were a Western Continent player, it would be a piece of cake to just head to the City of Light and hand it over to an NPC, but for Li Yi…

Such a waste!

“What a loss…” Li YI helplessly sighed.

There were just two more bosses ahead. One was Icy Giant Worm while the other was the wearer of the Ice Crystal Crown, the final boss, Ice Queen Monica.

There were no more monsters. After you were done with Icy Giant Worm, Ice Queen Monica came immediately after. With each boss stronger than the last, Li Yi was still uncertain whether or not he could go solo.

As he approached Icy Giant Worm, Li Yi formulated multiple strategies before finally summoning Violent Bear King to dash ahead.

“Tst—”

Icy Giant Worm took a hit and quickly dived into the icy ground. The ground beneath Li Yi’s feet showed signs of cracking whilst violently trembling.

[Warning! Icy Giant Worm’s heading your way!]

As there were no other party members available, Icy Giant Worm’s only target was Li Yi.

The System Notification had only appeared after an aura of frost had enveloped Li Yi. Li Yi could not move even an inch of his body by the time Icy Giant Worm emerged from the icy ground. The creature swiftly swung its body, slamming into Li Yi at neck-breaking speeds.

If there was another party member besides Li Yi, he could just randomly pick a skill to disrupt Icy Giant Worm’s frenzied charge. Unfortunately, he only had Violent Bear King with him, who attacked solely as it saw fit.

“Bang!”

Li Yi flew from the collision, somersaulting multiples time in the air before dropping onto the ground, surviving with only 1 HP and a 20-second Dizzy state.

“Dark Devour! Camouflage!”

Seeing Icy Giant Worm charging towards him, Li Yi swiftly dispelled the Dizzy state and Camouflaged himself out of battle.

This thing’s ATK was too terrifying. If not for Trickery Ring, he would have definitely been killed.

Okay, the first experiment failed. Li Yi recovered to full HP and tried a second time. He retrieved Violent Bear King and summoned Explosive Ape.

“Chit chit!”

“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!”

The moment Explosive Ape made its appearance, it went straight at Li Yi with a chain of attacks.

“Goddammit…”

…