Chapter Thirty: The Guardian of the Sacrifice

Zhang Shan circled the altar, carefully observing the four violet bosses, the Sacrificial Guardians.

The Altar Guardians wielded long spears and carried no shields; they were likely physical monsters, and their defense shouldn’t be excessive. With his current attack power, he should be able to deal with them quickly. As violet bosses, their attack shouldn’t be too high either; the orange Sentinel Captain had an attack of 1,200, so these should not exceed one thousand at most.

Now, his panda cub was at the same level as he was—level twelve—with nearly seven thousand health and six or seven hundred defense. It should be able to hold out for a while. The most important point was that Zhang Shan didn’t need to step onto the altar to hit the Sacrificial Guardians at the corners—he could give it a try.

Time to do it.

After fixing the right distance and carefully considering his escape route, Zhang Shan fired a shot at one of the Sacrificial Guardians and then turned to run, trying to keep as far from the altar as possible.

The attacked Guardian rushed down the altar, spear in hand, charging at Zhang Shan. The violet Guardian wasn’t especially fast, but it was still a bit quicker than Zhang Shan—kiting wouldn’t work.

After running for a short while and feeling the Guardian closing in, Zhang Shan summoned his panda cub to hold the line, while he continued attacking the boss.

Demon Sacrificial Guardian: Level 15, Health 150,000, Attack 900, Skill 1: Piercing Flurry, Skill 2: Rebirth.

Piercing Flurry: Strikes twice in succession, dealing two instances of damage, with the second dealing double damage.

Rebirth (Passive): Guardians blessed by the Demon Priest can resurrect at full health on the spot after death.

This Sacrificial Guardian was quite strong. Although its attack wasn’t high—dealing barely two hundred damage to Zhang Shan’s panda cub—and its health wasn’t excessive, its skills were impressive. Piercing Flurry amounted to the damage of three attacks. The second skill, Rebirth, was even more outrageous; after death, it revived at full strength, and as a passive skill no less. Could it keep reviving endlessly? How could he ever kill it, then?

No matter, he would kill it once first and see.

He continued his relentless assault. His DPS exceeded a thousand per second, and with occasional critical and holy strikes, his damage per minute surpassed seventy or eighty thousand; he could down the boss in two minutes.

Zhang Shan couldn’t help but wonder if, for players with divine artifacts, violet bosses were no longer truly bosses—perhaps they were no more than stronger elite monsters. He could solo them himself, and this was one of the stronger violet bosses; the weaker ones would pose even less trouble.

Soon, the Guardian’s first life was depleted. Zhang Shan quickly fed his panda cub; not only did this raise its happiness, but also temporarily boosted its healing speed. He took advantage of the interval before the Guardian’s revival to help his panda cub recover health.

Ten seconds later, the Sacrificial Guardian stood up where it had fallen. Zhang Shan sent his panda cub back in, continuing the attack, and soon the boss was downed again. Several beams of light fell into Zhang Shan’s pack; this time, it did not revive. It seemed that, though Rebirth was a passive skill, it still had a cooldown.

Killing the boss solo granted over a hundred thousand experience, instantly raising him to level thirteen. If he could defeat all four violet bosses, wouldn’t he reach level fifteen directly? He’d outpace the other players by a huge margin.

The finishing blow was Zhang Shan commanding his panda cub’s combo skill—it should have dropped something good.

He opened his pack to check the loot: two level fifteen violet items, both plate armor, which he couldn’t use, and one material. No skill book had dropped, which was a bit disappointing. What he wanted most were skill books, ideally for the Hunter class, but any class would do—skill books were hot commodities now. Unfortunately, he hadn’t gotten one.

Wait? There seemed to be another item—a scroll.

Silence Scroll (Rare Item): Silences the target upon use, preventing all spellcasting for five minutes. Usable once.

Damn, this was a great item! Silence for five minutes—no matter how powerful a mage, they’d be finished. Too bad it could only be used once.

Wait, could this scroll work on a boss? If it could silence bosses as well, the Tribal Priest would be reduced to a training dummy. Without magic, a priest could only swing a staff, posing no threat at all—it would be a chance to kill it.

He called his teammates.

“Can you guys make it here? I have a way to kill that red boss.”

“No way, there are too many mobs. We don’t have the damage to break through.”

“Impossible! What kind of method could kill the boss? Have you tried? Is that Tribal Priest actually a pushover?”

“Yeah, the priest looks like a spellcaster. The moment it casts, we're all dead—even if we all made it through, we couldn’t win.”

Zhang Shan didn’t waste words and displayed the Silence Scroll.

“Damn, there’s such an awesome item? Five minutes of silence—that’s doomsday for spellcasters! Where did you get it?”

“The Sacrificial Guardian dropped it—I just killed one and got a scroll. There are three more Guardians. No idea if they’ll drop more.”

“Insane! Soloing bosses like a champ.”

“This Silence Scroll is too rare. It probably won’t drop again.”

“One scroll isn’t enough. I can’t kill the Tribal Priest in five minutes. Even the orange Sentinel Captain has two hundred thousand health; who knows how much the red boss has?”

“If I come out and fetch you all, could we make it together?”

“Won’t work. More people will just attract more mobs. It’ll be even harder.”

“Sigh, so there’s no way—what a pity. The boss is right here but I can’t kill it. I could cry.”

Get lost.

Forget it. For now, there was nothing he could do about the Tribal Priest.

Zhang Shan calculated his damage. His current attack was under 1,500; with the Demon Bane title, it was around 1,600. As a spellcaster boss, the Tribal Priest likely didn’t have high defense; Zhang Shan estimated he could deal about 1,400 damage per hit, and with the panda cub’s minor contribution, total damage per minute was close to one hundred thousand.

The only uncertainty was the boss’s health. If it was only five hundred thousand, he could risk it; but if it was more, he’d be in trouble. Red bosses probably had a huge leap in stats.

Better to finish off the other three violet guardians first. Maybe by reaching level fifteen and equipping level fifteen gear, he’d gain a significant boost.

Once the panda cub’s combo skill was nearly off cooldown, Zhang Shan repeated his previous method to kill the second Sacrificial Guardian.

This time, no Silence Scroll dropped, but he did get an orange item for himself—Sanctum Ring.

A violet boss dropping an orange item? What a jackpot. The panda cub’s ten points of luck really worked wonders.

Exquisite Sanctum Ring: Physical Attack 96-105, Agility 25, Special Effect: Critical Hit. Level 15. Durability 50/50.

Critical Hit: Increases crit rate by 1%.

This ring’s stats were excellent, as expected of an orange item. It boosted his attack by over a hundred and twenty, and the crit special effect was common among accessory items—most orange accessories on the leaderboards had crit effects.

Once he reached level fifteen, he could equip it and raise his attack by nearly a hundred.