Chapter Thirty-Two: First on the Ranking List

After slaying the last two priest guards, Zhang Shan leveled up directly to fifteen, securing the top spot on the level leaderboard and pulling ahead of the second place, Heart Moves With Me, by nearly a full level.

The four guards had yielded him three full levels’ worth of experience and several pieces of purple gear—a modest windfall.

Only the final boss, the Demon Tribe Priest, remained.

He swapped to his level fifteen equipment and examined his stats.

Character: Six-Barrel Bodhisattva
Class: Hunter
Title: Nemesis of Demons
Merit: 1300 (Squad Leader)
Level: 15
Health: 1750
Mana: 360
Physical Attack: 1607–1624
Magic Attack: 30–30
Strength: 30
Agility: 253
Intelligence: 30
Defense: 86
Luck: 9 (randomly generated between 1–10, hidden stat, immutable)
Talent: King of Passives (each time a monster is killed, there’s a one-in-a-million chance to randomly acquire one of its passive skills)
Skill 1—Headshot (Passive), Level 10: Each hunter attack has a 5% chance to trigger a headshot, dealing 50 extra damage and stunning for 0.05 seconds.
Skill 2—Heavy Strike (Passive), Level 1 (talent-acquired, cannot be upgraded): Each attack has a 1% chance to trigger a heavy strike, dealing five times the damage.
Skill 3—Tame: Level 10, with a chance to tame non-demonic animals as pets; tamed pets’ stats are doubled. Cooldown: 30 seconds. Mana cost: 30. Class requirement: Hunter.
Skill 4—Empower (Passive): Level 1 (talent-acquired, cannot be upgraded): Increases attack power by 10%.
Equipment: Arug’s Hand Cannon, Midas’ Touch, Temple Ring, Elven Leather Boots, Refined Iron Necklace, Refined Iron Ring, Refined Iron Ring, Leather Armor, Leather Cap, Leather Bracers, Leather Bracers.

White-grade agility gear shares the same names regardless of level, only stat bonuses differ.

With his new equipment, his attack reached sixteen hundred, and his defense saw a slight boost—though that wouldn’t help much. His gear still included two white-grade accessories, as well as white-grade hat, armor, and bracers. If all those could be swapped for purple items, his combat strength would rise significantly.

The guards had dropped eight pieces of purple gear in total, all strength-based, which he couldn’t use. Those would have to go on the auction house when he returned to the city—purple gear was still very valuable now. As for his own upgrades, he’d wait; he was already strong, and didn’t urgently need better gear.

Having dealt with the four guards, Zhang Shan had no intention of leaving just yet. He was determined to try his luck with the red-named boss, no matter what.

At worst, he’d die once. With how quickly he could level up now, he’d recover in about three hours—nothing to worry about.

“Gentlemen, I’m off to challenge the red boss. Wish me luck!” Zhang Shan joked in the party chat.

“Rest in peace,” someone replied.

“Isn’t being alive good enough for you?”

“You guys are too much. Can’t you be a bit encouraging?”

“We’re encouraging you… to lie down early, haha.”

No one believed in him—not that Zhang Shan himself expected much, which is why he didn’t plan to use his Silence Scroll right away. He’d check the boss’s stats and health first before deciding.

Of course, it was more likely that he’d be dead the moment he saw the boss’s stats.

Standing at the foot of the altar, Zhang Shan sent his Panda pet forward to attack. Before the pet even got close, the boss swung its staff—a flash of fire crashed down, dealing nearly four thousand damage to the panda, almost killing it instantly.

After tanking the hit, Zhang Shan urged his pet forward. At last, it reached the boss and slapped it for 500 damage, but the priest’s second skill finished the panda off instantly.

Quickly checking the Demon Tribe Priest’s stats, Zhang Shan turned and fled. The priest’s massive figure thundered after him.

“No need to run, the boss doesn’t seem to leave the altar!” someone in the party shouted.

Zhang Shan had enabled shared view before engaging, so the others could see his situation in real time.

He glanced back—indeed, the priest had only chased a few steps before retreating, refusing to leave the altar. At least he wouldn’t have to die this time.

He checked the boss’s stats:

Demon Tribe Priest: Level 20, Health 1,000,000, Attack 3,000.
Skill 1: Heavenly Fire Meteor
Skill 2: Shackles
Skill 3: Will of the Demon God
Skill 4: Raining Fire

Heavenly Fire Meteor: Calls down heavenly fire on the target, doubling the damage.
Shackles: Immobilizes the target with magic. The target cannot move, attack, or recover health/mana for three seconds.
Will of the Demon God: As the Demon God’s agent on earth, the priest can summon a phantom of the Demon God to assist in battle.
Raining Fire: Casts magic over a designated area, dealing double damage for five seconds in a fifty-yard radius.

“This is insane—one million health and three thousand attack, but the real nightmare is the skills. How do you even fight this?”

“That Raining Fire is a party-wipe skill, isn’t it? Fifty yards basically means full-screen, and it lasts five seconds—who could stand there for that long?”

“Will of the Demon God is even worse—it summons a phantom to fight. How strong do you think that phantom is?”

“Who knows?”

“The first skill, Heavenly Fire Meteor, is probably just the boss’s basic attack, but even the basic attack is doubled. That’s just not fair.”

“Shackles isn’t bad either—immobilized, can’t attack, and, crucially, can’t heal or regain mana. So if a support tries to heal a shackled tank, it’s useless. If the tank gets shackled, they’ll drop in no time.”

“This boss is tough—you’d need several tanks swapping aggro to save each other. A solo tank can’t do it.”

“So, gentlemen, do you think I should give it a shot?” Zhang Shan asked.

“Give it a shot? Your Silence Scroll only lasts five minutes—can you do a million damage in five minutes?”

Zhang Shan did some quick math. His panda pet had managed to deal five hundred damage, so the boss’s defense must be low. His artifact also suppressed defense by fifty percent, so the boss’s defense was practically negligible for him.

With his sixteen hundred attack, plus the title bonus, each hit would deal well over sixteen hundred damage. Including Heavy Strike, Holy Strike, and the ring’s critical effect, he had a three percent chance for a burst hit.

By that calculation, Zhang Shan’s damage output per minute should be over 120,000. With his panda pet adding some more, he could deal around 600,000 to 700,000 in five minutes.

Still not enough.

“Is there any way I could boost my damage a bit more?”

“No way, unless you get another artifact.”

Zhang Shan could only sigh. Easier said than done—another artifact, as if that was something you could just pick up.

“Did you guys notice the boss’s movement speed? Would it be possible to kite it?”

“Are you kidding? You want to kite a red boss? The boss has its pride too, you know.”

Alas, it was still out of reach.