Chapter 50: Seizing the Boss

After three days of maintenance, the servers were finally back online. I immediately logged in, but first checked the official site to see what updates had been released. The maintenance notes listed a slew of changes: player skill adjustments, specialization abilities activation, summoning beast skill datafication, the overall development of the level rankings, and much more.

I wasn’t sure what the skill changes entailed, but the datafication of summoning beast skills was exactly what I’d been hoping for. I hurried into the game to check my stats:

Class: Battle Beastmaster
Level: 34
Vitality: 2100 (2000 + Armor 2)
Mana: 1500
Attack: 539 (Base 180 + Ruyi Staff 300 + Destiny 35 + Strength 24)
Defense: 422 (Base 100 + Heavenly Forge 200 + Swiftwalker 30 + Black Feather 22 + Wind and Thunder 50 + Armor 2)
Reputation: 10
Luck: 1 (Destiny 1)
Summoned Beasts: Hurricane Wolf King, Burning Core—Dragonwar
Strength Specialization: 8 (5+2+1)
Armor Specialization: 2 (0+2)
Agility Specialization: 3 (10+5+11)
Magic Specialization: 0

Something felt strange about my stats. My attack had increased by 24 points, indicating that one point of Strength Specialization equaled 3 attack points. One point of Armor Specialization granted 50 health and 10 defense. Even after accounting for these, my attributes remained unchanged, which puzzled me. Checking my skills, I found they were untouched—except for my talent, Focused Cultivation. The instant I saw it, I was furious.

Talent—Focused Cultivation: Players only gain attribute enhancements every ten levels.
This... the system was truly vile, having changed my skill to this. It seemed my attributes wouldn’t improve again until level 40. Still, I had unallocated attribute points—111 in total. Investing them all in strength might be good, but that would weaken my other stats. After all, I wasn’t a warrior, so armor wouldn’t make me a tank; I wasn’t an archer, so agility wasn’t crucial; I wasn’t a mage, so magic was unnecessary. I was torn.

In the end, I decided to leave them unassigned for now and allocate them as circumstances demanded.

Next, I checked my summoned beasts.

Name: Hurricane Wolf King
Type: Animal
Race: Beast
Quality: Advanced
Evolvable: Yes

Life: 1500
Attack: 550
Defense: 400
Skills:
- Rushing Claws: Approaches the enemy at unseen speed, attacking with claws to inflict damage.
- Spiral Hurricane: Unleashes a vortex of powerful wind breath in a straight line, dealing multiple hits to enemies.
- Rending Claws: Charges and slashes with both claws; on hit, has a chance to inflict Bleed, causing the target to lose health continuously. While Bleed is active, Hurricane Wolf King’s physical attacks deal an additional 200 damage. Cooldown: 1 second.
- Furious Howl: Lets out a mighty roar, boosting own attack by 20% and attack speed by 40%. Cooldown: 20 seconds.
- Destructive Death Ray: Spits a surge of powerful energy at a target, dealing 150% magic damage. After use, pauses for 2 seconds. Cooldown: 10 seconds.
Description: An evolved beast-type summoning beast from a black-haired hound. Its claws are protected by boxing gloves, letting it walk and run without injuring its paws on sharp ground. Its leg strength and movement speed are greatly enhanced. It can also fight on its hind legs, bear-like. A summoning beast with traits of both wolf and bear.

Not bad. Next, Dragonwar.

Name: Burning Core—Dragonwar
Type: Animal
Race: Dragon
Quality: Divine
Evolvable: No

Life: 6800
Attack: 3000
Defense: 2500
Skills:
- Billionfold Magma: Unleashes an unimaginably hot flame, incinerating all enemies in a radius of hundreds of meters ahead, causing fire-type magical damage. Charge time: 5 seconds. Cooldown: 10 hours.
- Flame Breath: Breathes fire in a sweeping motion. Charge time: 1 second. Cooldown: 2 seconds.
- Meditation: Dragonwar sits and rapidly regenerates health for 5 seconds; during this time, physical and magical defense increase by 1000, lasting 20 seconds. Cooldown: 3 minutes.
- High-Speed Assault: Sprints across the battlefield, damaging all enemies within 100 meters, with a 20% chance to deal an additional 40% magical damage to non-humanoid targets.
- Ultimate Skill—Second Wings: When Dragonwar is defeated and falls into slumber, it can sacrifice the life of a summoned beast (with at least 70% health) to return to the battlefield. Cooldown: 20 hours.
Description: ?????????

Dragonwar’s skills were impressive. Although its ultimate wasn’t an attack skill, the ability to resurrect after death was, in some battles, far more valuable than raw offensive power.

After checking my stats, I hurried to Celestial Dragon City, found a secluded spot outside the city, and summoned both beasts. With a wolf’s howl and a dragon’s roar, my summoned beasts appeared. Dragonwar spoke:
“Master, I deeply apologize for my failure. I feel immense shame for having fallen and caused your defeat.”

I replied, “Don’t blame yourself. You did your best. The loss was due to my own shortcomings. You don’t need to feel guilty.” As I spoke, I patted Dragonwar’s leg. Dragonwar lowered his head beside me and said, “Master, do not blame yourself too much. If we work together, we will surely defeat that woman next time.”
I nodded.

Then I recalled Dragonwar and, riding Hurricane Wolf King, set out to level up quickly to 35 so I could scout the Ogre Fortress. Charging into a canyon in the Blood Wasteland, I found it crawling with level 40 monsters—regular and elite—making it an ideal leveling spot. After an hour, my experience had risen a bit; at this rate, I could level up in a day. Just then, a roar drew my attention, and I rode Hurricane Wolf King deeper into the canyon.

Ahead, a dense crowd was surrounding a massive beast. I hid at a distance.

It was a giant, nearly ten meters tall, with a wingspan of almost thirty meters—a gray eagle, magnified many times over compared to an ordinary bird.

Ironfeather Eagle King, Level 50, Boss.
The boss’s wings were badly injured, clearly unable to fly, but a sweep of its claws could kill seven or eight players at once. Every time it spat a gray hurricane from its mouth, it cleared an area of players; attacks against it either missed or dealt the minimum forced damage of one point.

Despite this, the boss’s health was nearly depleted by the relentless assault. The thought of stealing the boss flashed through my mind. Just then, when the boss’s health dropped below one-fifth, players from Stormcloud surged in from every direction. One man took the lead—Snowy Night Warlord. He laughed and said, “Hahaha, Yanhuang, my friend, long time no see!”

Glancing at the sea of Snowy Night players, those nearby immediately looked grim.

“Haha, sorry, but this boss is ours now. Why don’t you step aside, Lost Soul, so we don’t have to sour relations?” Snowy Night Warlord declared.

Yanhuang Vanguard stepped forward. “Snowy Night, you’re despicable! We’ve been fighting this boss, and you bring so many people—what’s that about? I thought only the Dynasty liked snatching bosses. Turns out you’re just the same.”

Snowy Night Warlord sneered, “And if we are? You’d best leave, or next time I’ll see to it your Yanhuang disappears from Celestial Dragon City.”

Yanhuang Vanguard realized he had fewer than five hundred men left, facing thousands—there was no point in fighting. Resentfully, he said, “Fine, if you want it, take it. But this isn’t over. Brothers, we’re withdrawing!”

I thought he was quite patient. Soon, they all used town scrolls to teleport away. Snowy Night then began to besiege the boss in earnest. During the brief interlude, the boss had regenerated a good bit of health, but it was once again dropping fast.

Now, the boss was on the verge of death. Suddenly, it let out a thunderous roar, making my ears ring, and breathed out a colossal tornado. All players close to the boss immediately saw damage numbers over 4000 pop up and were instantly killed. But the boss was now so weak it couldn’t launch another attack.

“Haha, the boss is done for! Everyone, finish it off!” Snowy Night Warlord shouted. But just as he finished speaking, an even larger shadow plummeted from the sky. A damage number of -4320 flashed, and the boss was cleaved in two. The entire Snowy Night guild stood in stunned silence—the boss they’d fought so hard for was snatched from right under their noses.