Chapter 14: Stage Clear

“Sorry, we are not selling.” When Netherblue said this line, Qiu Yuan thanked Lin Jie. The thing about humans was that they had self-awareness. How could Netherblue not know the abilities of her own team? The attribute in which they were stronger than other players were only such that they were a fixed party.

Midnight looked at the ring with envy and regret and let out a sigh.

When Water put on the ring, his health points instantly shot up a great deal and even surpassed that of Midnight.

The next monster they would face was the Boss of the Cat Demon Lair! In the Beginner-level dungeon, there was only one Cat Demon Lair Boss – the level 3 Boss Poison Cat Monarch.

The Cat Monarch’s body was pretty much the same as those of other normal Cat Demons, except that it had a dark purple color. With a pair of blood red eyes, sharp fangs and claws, it scratched once at the tree bark, and it immediately turned into ash and decomposed to form a deep hole.

“In a Normal-level dungeon, the Poison Cat Monarch had 3000 health points. Its claws could bring additional darkness damage; we could only get past him having prepared a lot of anti-darkness potions,” Netherblue explained, “The Poison Cat Monarch has 2 abilities. Poison Claws, when it is activated, there would be a very clear preparation move, and the next 2 strikes would have doubled poison damage. Poison Spit, its frequency was lower and could cause poison damage to enemies in an arc.”

Lin Jie used the Inspect Skill.

[Poison Cat Monarch]: Level 3 Overlord, Health Points: 6000

Everyone was shocked that it had twice the health points. Expert-level indeed!

“What is that?” Lin Jie pointed towards a direction, and everyone looked over – there was a cluster of wild grass in the Cat Lair that was moving on its own. But it was pretty far away if he had not paid much attention he would not have noticed it.

Qiu Yuan looked on afar and turned her eyes. She suggested, “Cat Lair?”

Lin Jie stared at it for a long while before saying, “It could be a Cat Lair. In the Normal-level dungeon, was the Cat Monarch a male or female?”

“This…” Everyone looked at each other. The purpose of entering the dungeon was to kill monsters, get loots and level up, how would they even notice if the Cat Monarch was a guy… nope, male or female. They couldn’t kill the Boss and then subsequently scrutinize its crotch, could they?

Mighty Wings got impatient. “Why are you even caring about this? Just kill it, and that’s it!”

Lin Jie said seriously, “A male cat could be even more territorial. And a female cat would focus more on its kittens… I’ll go and have a look.”

Lin Jie just held his Fire Gun and stealthily inched closer to the Poison Cat Monarch while aiming at it. A shot was fired and aimed right at the right ankle of the Poison Cat Monarch and scared the crap out of it. It jumped up high – almost 3 feet!

-‘You have entered battle mode!’

Everyone had received the notification, and suddenly there was a great deal of panic!

Lin Jie raised his head to look at the rapidly advancing Cat Monarch and fixed his gaze on its private parts.

“It’s a female!” Lin Jie hollered and immediately devised his battle plan, “Midnight, Mighty Wings, Netherblue, take me as the pivot and position yourselves in a square, each one to attack one after another! The rest of you rush over to wreck the lair and get hold of all the kittens!”

The moment the last line was said, the Boss’s sharp claws rained down like a polished cleaver towards Lin Jie’s brain! Lin Jie swung his Broken Blade and retreated a few steps while activating his counter-attack and neutralized the Boss’s impact!

Parry successful!

-31!

Midnight looked in shocking awe at Lin Jie’s performance. ‘What a strong defense!’

The New Age was a highly realistic game. Real life battle skills could be easily implemented in the game. For example, if Lin Jie had stood at the same spot and taken the hit, he would have eaten at least 70 points of damage!

“Darn it.” Lin Jie pressed against his chest as pitch-black blood kept oozing out nonstop.

In the Expert-level dungeon, the Boss’s poison claws were changed to damage-over-time for an infinite amount of time. In other words, the action of increasing healing and defenses during the activation phase of the poison claws was now required throughout the entire phase while the damage was ticking. The poison took a third of Lin Jie’s health points before its effects started to fade.

Although Midnight’s blocking skills were strong, it could not hold a candle to Water’s, with the augment of the ring. After blocking one attack, he immediately retreated and prepared a health potion. While tilting his head back, he gulped down the potion, restoring his health.

After Netherblue had taken a hit, her health bar almost dropped to zero. It was ridiculous to allow a Weapon Specialist to take that damage. On the other hand, when Mighty Wings realized the might of the Boss’s damage, he started pussying out and kept retreating, avoiding an onslaught of damage!

“Mighty Wings, go up and tank the hits!” Lin Jie furiously hollered.

“You think I’m retarded? The Boss’ attack is enough to one-shot me!” Mighty Wings retaliated, as he thought that Lin Jie was merely making use of his power as the commander to send him to death.

The Poison Cat Monarch curled up, and a gurgling noise came from deep within its throat. It seemed that 10kg of poison was stuck in its throat. All of a sudden, the Boss swung its head and spat out a stream of poison all around it. Anyone within 40 yards of it would definitely have no way of avoiding the poison stream!

The Poison Cat Monarch in the Expert-level dungeon had a poison attack ranging all around it instead of just an arc. There was no way anyone could find a way around it! Besides, the poison damage was insane, as it was 300% stronger than that of the Normal-level dungeon! Forget about an MT, even an elite NPC would have been one-shot! However, players could have ‘partial immunity’ to the poison. As long as a player was damaged by the Boss’s poison within 10 seconds, they would take 70% reduced damage from the poison spray!

Mighty Wings was about to be engulfed in the poison. Lin Jie panicked, as the team could not afford for even a single person to die!

‘Wild Charge!’

Lin Jie morphed into a dark shadow, as he braved the poison raining down on him and rushed towards Mighty Wings and opened his arms. The poison drops rained down on him and caused short bursts of damage!

-41!

-48!

-41!

…

As that wave of damage block was over, Lin Jie only had a sliver of health left! If it had not been for the health increasing effect of the Broken Blade, he would have long become a cheerleading corpse!

Mighty Wings witnessed this scene with a shocked heart. It was just then, the scythe of the Grim Reaper was so close, and yet it was pushed away by the Warrior whom he loathed so much! However, Mighty Wings did not actually notice that fact. He actually wondered, ‘How could this Warrior have such a high amount of health points?’ Lin Jie had helped him to soak up at least 200 points of damage and together with the poison damage that he had taken previously, it meant that his had at least 300 health points! ‘Are you kidding me? More than an MT?’

“Something is wrong.” Mighty Wings turned his eyes, and a thought sprung up in his head.

Lin Jie turned back and hollered, “Mighty Wings of Heavens, get 2 kittens.”

“Midnight, head south-east and get 3!”

“Netherblue, head south-west and get 1!”

At this moment, the Cat Lair had already been upturned by Qiu Yuan and company for a few times already. A few kittens eagerly awaiting to be fed were held in their arms. This group of kittens looked like little fur balls that had not even opened their eyes. A wave of milk scent emanated from their mouths. It seemed like they had just had their milk.

“Water, take over my position!” Lin Jie hurled 3 kittens into Water’s hands. He had the most health points and would be the ablest to attract the attention of the Boss.

The Poison Cat Monarch had sharp fangs. Its sharp teeth cackled, showing its rage. Taking a square formation, trapping the Cat Monarch within it, the casters stood outside the border. Dark shadows, arrows, and fireballs were all hurled towards the Cat Monarch’s body.

“MEOW—”

The Boss got furious and charged towards Water, who had the greatest number of kittens! Its poison claws kept clawing against the shield.

-74!

-85!

Water’s health bar immediately vanished, as the healers could not even start to heal him. At this moment, Lin Jie stood out. While holding a few kittens, he rushed towards Midnight. The Boss’ attention was diverted towards the kittens in Lin Jie’s arms as it charged towards him until when he hurled all the kittens into Midnight’s arms. He gave away 3 and got 2.

Midnight took 2 attacks and likewise could not handle them! However, Lin Jie was already by Netherblue’s side holding a kitten. The aggro once again got diverted towards them, and the healers hurriedly healed up Midnight as the Boss was distracted. As Netherblue took a hit, Lin Jie was already beside Mighty Wings, letting 3 go and grabbing 1 and repeating this cycle.

The Expert-level Poison Cat Monarch had absurdly fearsome stats. Even while Midnight and Water were stacked together, they were just people that could be killed with a few claws. Lin Jie made use of the kittens to force a diversion of hatred, and that was a way to control the Boss’ movements!

Besides, with the kittens acting as hostages, the Boss did not dare to use its poison spray to wipe out the entire team. The Poison Cat Monarch that had just lost its ability to use an area-of-effect (AOE) skill was then only left with the option of using single-target attacks. Yet that skill was neutralized by Lin Jie!

Although the Boss had only 6000 health points, its recovery rate was very high, especially when its health was below 70%, it would gain an additional 10% life-steal and its health bar reduction rate would be drastically slowed! Not only that, with the dragging of the battle, its movement speed would get faster and faster. At the start, Lin Jie could still use his running speed to divert hatred, but now he could only use the tactic of ‘throwing cats.’

The Boss’ health kept decreasing and was about to hit 20% soon!

Someone shouted, “F*ck, I have no more mana!”

A long drawn battle was especially trying.

Midnight’s eyes sank as he hollered, “All of you drink the mana potions, payment is on me!”

The Slow Restoring Mana Potion was considered as a luxury asset. Needless to say, instantly restoring mana potions were also a luxury. Midnight displayed his wealthy and generous side, as he distributed to everybody a mana potion bottle that could instantly restore 120 mana.

That temporarily averted the crisis, and everyone continued to fight. The Boss’ health bar turned from yellow to red and went below 20%, turning even redder!

“Meow— Meow—”

The Poison Cat Monarch couldn’t hold up its head, but its eyes shone with a color of insanity. Getting threatened and made a fool of by a bunch of humans were making it lose its sense of logic. The Cat Monarch’s eyes let out a ray of blood red light, and poison kept oozing out from its mouth.

The Boss was in Enrage mode!

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The dark purple poison got condensed into bullets, and they were fired all around! Lin Jie checked the health of a few people and concluded that it should not be too difficult to make it through that!

At this moment, Mighty Wings screamed in fear, “It’s over, I have no immunity!”

Indeed, Mighty Wings’s chest was a clean white and had no signs of being attacked by the poison claws.

Not getting attacked meant that he did not have immunity! What was even scarier was, the Poison Cat Monarch had locked-on to Mighty Wings as its four limbs made a deep impression on the ground. It charged towards him!

Netherblue panicked and shouted, “Water, save him!”

Lin Jie turned around and hollered, “Water stay where you are, I’ll go!”

‘Whoosh!’

Lin Jie’s body morphed into a dark shadow. The Broken Blade moved like it was his right arm and tried its best to block as much poison as possible while rushing towards Mighty Wings! Qiu Yuan was about to stretch out and grab him, but she could only grab hold of remnants in the air. She stomped her feet in anger and nervously looked at Lin Jie.

“Mighty Wings, I’ll take the poison, you’ll take the poison claws!” Lin Jie shouted and spread his arms in front of Mighty Wings, blocking all the poison. His health bar went down all the way.

The Poison Cat Monarch’s purple body was like an arrow ready to be shot from a bow, and it finally pounced towards Lin Jie’s body! At that moment, as long as Mighty Wings would stand in front of Lin Jie and alternate the damage soaking between them, coupled with the healers’ spell casts, they would be able to survive!

But Lin Jie suddenly felt a push on his back!

Yes, a push! Someone pushed him from the back, and his body flew towards the poison claws. At that moment, Lin Jie had only a sliver of health, how could he withstand the Boss’ attack? That strike was the last straw that would send him to meet his maker!

Dying inside the dungeon was not that detrimental to his experience points, however. After all, dying in the dungeon and dying in the open was different. One would lose only 10% of experience unless the experience points did not hit the minimum of 10% of the points required to level up. Otherwise, one would not level-down. As for the equipment, the party could help to retrieve them.

But Lin Jie was different! He wasn’t officially a part of the Netherblue Party, and he also had the Heritage Broken Blade! In real life, there were so many cases of brothers and couples turning on each other for money. It was even more so in the game. Besides, all that happened was because of Mighty Wings! If Lin Jie were to die, the Heritage Broken Blade would drop and if Mighty Wings could get it, would he even return it to Lin Jie?

The answer was painfully obvious!

Lin Jie smiled bitterly. Why did he choose to save that dude? Was it to show-off?

No, all these were because there were people in the party whom he respected. She continued looking at him. In his previous life, on the snow mountain peak, she looked at him for multiple months and could not get a response. Now, her gaze could elicit a response from him.

“Fu Sheng!” Qiu Yuan was shocked. At that moment she felt helpless and cast the Dark Speech in front of the Cat Monarch’s eyes. What originally could only reduce 10% critical hit chance was now useless on the head Boss. But it bought some time for Lin Jie!

“Army Obliteration!”

A wave of familiarity flowed from his palms to his entire body. That skill, with him wielding the Broken Blade for so many years, had long ago been a part of him already. The Broken Blade instantly pierced thrice, once towards the Boss, once straight down on its back and once straight into the ground!

As the Broken Blade was on the Poison Cat Monarch’s skull and interrupted its actions momentarily, the reaction force on the Broken Blade caused it to fly back and pierced backward right into Mighty Wings’s armor-covered leg! How sharp was the Broken Blade? Piercing through a Bronze Greave was a piece of cake. At the moment of piercing, the Broken Blade moved again and pierced right into the ground and lost all its momentum. Mighty Wings lost all his strength and tilted forward. Like a piece of paper, he slid down Lin Jie’s back, and his head crashed into the Boss’ huge mouth!

Everything seemed complicated, but they happened in just a moment! In the eyes of everyone, it only seemed like when Lin Jie was under attack, somehow Mighty Wings flew out and collided with the Boss!

The Boss’ claws ended Mighty Wings’s life and then viciously pounced towards Lin Jie. Qiu Yuan rushed over to take over Mighty Wings’s position and snatched all of the kittens in Lin Jie’s arms, diverting its hatred. How could the weak-bodied Qiu Yuan even hold a candle to the Boss’ attacks? Lin Jie once again snatched back the kittens and hurriedly sped off, activating the Feather Drop Gem. His body became light as a feather, and he flew towards the tree top.

Netherblue panicked and hollered, “Ranged jobs lock on to the Boss and spam everything!”

“Yes!”

Fireballs and magic spells rained down on the Boss, in rage mode, as it swallowed its own poison and tried to swing its claws towards these darn group of humans. Where the claws could reach, trees stood no chance, and everything was disintegrated!

Lin Jie’s actions were especially agile. Even Bandits and Hunters with all stat points pumped into agility could not perform such a feat. He was like an ape, traversing the trees and trying his best to avoid the Boss’ pursuit. But the Poison Cat Monarch’s movement speed kept increasing. It leaped high up, and its claws were about to reach Lin Jie’s back!

“Rebel’s Fight!”

Lin Jie shouted in his mind, and his body somersaulted in mid-air. He ended up facing the Boss’ claws head on, and his parry successfully prevented himself from dying. His body also flew further away due to all the momentum generated! The Boss had only 5% health left as its movement speed doubled; such a long distance was covered instantly!

‘Army Obliteration!’ Lin Jie remained calm, and the Broken Blade was pierced thrice through the huge tree in front of him, locking the Broken Blade firmly within the tree. His right hand tightly grabbed on to the Blade handle. The strong momentum made him somersault in midair, successfully avoiding the Boss’ attack!

‘Boom—’

Spells rained down on the Boss and finally depleted it off its health completely!

When the Poison Cat Monarch’s body fell to the ground and lost its life, a loud scream sounded off from within the party!

“Hahahaha, pass, we’ve passed!”

“What the f*ck, this Fu Sheng is f*cking not a human! That move was f*cking brilliant!”

“First clear! First clear!”

‘Ding~’

—’System notice: Congratulations to Netherblue on leading the ‘Netherblue Party’ and getting first clear on the Expert-level Cat Demon Lair. Reward for first clear: 5000 EXP, 2 Silver Coins, 1 Free Stat Point!’

—’System notice: Congratulations to Netherblue on leading the ‘Netherblue Party’ and getting first clear on the Expert-level Cat Demon Lair. Reward for first clear: 5000 EXP, 2 Silver Coins, 1 Free Stat Point!’

…

The system’s notice kept refreshing. The entrance of the Cat Demon Lair had long been bustling with life!

“Netherblue Party? What party is that?”

“Could it be a random party? I’ve never heard of them!”

“Random party? You try pulling out a random party that has ever completed the Expert-level dungeon. F*ck, look at the Leaderboard!”

“They acquired first clear in the Expert-level dungeon, so how can they be just unknown players? These people are definitely just low-key pros.”

The entire game was discussing only one party – the Netherblue Party! This poetic and feminine Party name unexpectedly created the first ever first clear of the Expert-level dungeon in the entire New Age!

‘Cat Demon Lair.’

Lin Jie panted heavily as he pulled out the Broken Blade. Lao Mo, Banana and Water rushed over and held Lin Jie up.

Netherblue stood far away at a distance. Her ice cold face produced a seriously beautiful smile.

Qiu Yuan kept repeating, “Skilled right? This dude that I brought over! I said he was a pro right, when have I ever misjudged someone? Sister Netherblue, am I great now?”, and stuff of these sorts, but all these sounded so adorable.

Midnight stood at a distance and could not believe his eyes. This so-called trash team actually made it past an Expert-level dungeon. No one would probably believe it. But they did it! No… it should be, HE did it! Midnight quietly turned off his recording mode and stored away this video. A Shield Specialist was still a warrior. All warriors had overlapping skillsets. The feats that Lin Jie performed in the dungeon were seriously worth paying attention to. Midnight was not at all ashamed of learning from a lower-leveled player.

But… there was someone blatantly ashamed.

Such as the cold and cunning Mighty Wings. He angrily walked towards Lin Jie and hollered, “Fu Sheng, why did you try to harm me just now? Give me a good reason!”

Due to Mighty Wings’s appearance, what was originally a happy and upbeat atmosphere instantly dropped all the way down.

“Harm you? How could you say that?” Lin Jie coldly laughed. “I remember it was you who intentionally pushed me to try to feed me to the Boss, wasn’t it?”

“Hahahaha, what a joke! I was looking out for a newbie like you. Forget the fact I led the team to face the Expert-level dungeon, I even died once for you. Good, now you claim that I intentionally pushed you! Fu Sheng, you seem to be pretty good at cooking up sh*t eh?” Mighty Wings seemed to have gone mad from anger, “I, Mighty Wings, stayed in the Netherblue Party for 2 years and did whatever sh*t I could. How much have I put in? Who wouldn’t know of my character? Push you? What good was there for me to push you? What a traitor. I, Mighty Wings, have misjudged you!”

Lin Jie shrugged his shoulders. “Agitating people is not something I’m good at.”

“Agitating? Hmph. Ask yourself, who is the most believable one!” Mighty Wings scanned across everyone’s faces and hollered, “Those with me, step out! Fu Sheng, remember, you are just a passerby. Your relationship with us ends here. If you admit your wrongdoings like a gentleman and leave the party, I will then spare you. In this Expert-level dungeon, you’ve leeched a huge amount of experience haven’t you?”

Lin Jie laughed as he finally understood Mighty Wings’s intentions.

He wanted to take all the equipment! At least, they could not give it to Lin Jie, an outsider. It could be seen from when he tried to get the Havoc Skill Book and Bronze Greaves that he was selfish and a smooth-talker. Had they settled up internally, the equipment would probably have ended up in his hands.

Face-off!

In the heat of the moment, a face-off was imminent!

Qiu Yuan walked up a few steps and stood by Lin Jie.

“Little Yuan, what is this?” Mighty Wings was stunned.

“If you are going to kick a member just like that, then kick me along with him.” Qiu Yuan shrugged her shoulders and glared at Mighty Wings.

“Ah, so this party’s style is to clear the quest together and split the winnings only among long-time members. Then I guess an outsider like me has got to leave.” Midnight smiled. But he wasn’t a pushover. He stared at Mighty Wings, smirked and then played a video in the air.

The video recorded down Mighty Wings’s betrayal act of pushing Lin Jie when Lin Jie tried to block the poison for him.

The video played in the air. It seemed like a giant slap in Mighty Wings’s face!