I heard the system notice ring in my ears as I received my new quest.

[Mengchuan"s Request (2)] was another SS-rank quest, but this time it was an a.s.sa.s.sination quest! I would have to kill a boss to complete this quest, so it definitely wouldn"t be as easy as the first one had been. Even though I didn"t know just how powerful this Mad Warrior Buffett was, our party consisted of two tanky DPS in He Yi and I, as well as a super priest in Murong Mingyue, so he would be manageable as long as he wasn"t a Heaven or Immortal Rank boss. It was almost impossible for any player to take down an Immortal Rank boss at this stage of the game. Even Thunder, one of the Nine Sovereigns of h.e.l.l, was an Immortal Rank boss, so it would be quite reasonable to a.s.sume that his lackey would be an Earth Rank boss at most.

I accepted the quest and called the two girls over. "Eve, sis, I got a new quest. Let"s go!"

"Alright! Lead the way!"

The two girls giggled as they fell in behind me. Their current leveling speed had left them giddy with joy and they were still basking in the afterglow of satisfaction.

……

The Phantom Wolf King was walking by my side as I strolled through the barren streets of the city. I hefted the Cyan Netherworld Sword in my hand as I stepped on the broken bones that covered the ground and raised my head to look at the murky sky. This city was once considered a jewel of the continent tens of thousands of years ago, but it had now been reduced to a barren ruin. A sigh of lament pa.s.sed through my lips before I had even realized it.

Countless empires dotted the annals of history and every single one of them had gone through their so-called "golden age”. The people who had lived in those times had clamored that their empire or dynasty would exist through the ages, last for all eternity, but in the end, the only thing that was left of them was old and withered bones waiting to be dug up by the people of the present.

Spring still came, just like it always had, but a thousand years had already pa.s.sed since the fall of these kingdoms. Even though the kingdoms that succeeded these kingdoms had already fallen, the world still continued to turn on its axis. These people and their dreams had already turned to dust.

Perhaps, a thousand years after their pa.s.sing, these people of the past would be mocked and ridiculed as fools when the "kindly" hypocrites of the present sought to "memorialize" them as an emblem of foolhardy idealism.

A group of pitiful people, dreaming ridiculous and pitiful dreams.

……

When we arrived in front of the imperial palace, we saw that many of the high walls surrounding it were cracked and broken in many places. We were able to see rows of soldiers stationed within the palace through the cracks in these walls. They were all high-level undead, the royal soldiers belonging to Thunder, a Sovereign of Purgatory. Thunder had originally built this undead stronghold in the heart of the empire that he had ruined with the intention of using it as a launching point to invade the rest of the continent, reigniting the terror of his old legend. However, he had not been expecting an ambush from Xinran which forced him to retreat back to purgatory in abject defeat.

I opened up my minimap to confirm that this was the right place. If we wanted to enter the palace halls, we would definitely have to kill all of these undead guardsmen in front of us.

I carefully crept forward, the Phantom Wolf King slinking alongside me. I stopped when I was about thirty yards away from the closest undead guardsman. The levels of these mobs were too high, making it all too easy to aggro one of them. A profound black light shone from my eyes as I activated Dark Pupils. After that, I shared their stats in the party chat.

Roland Imperial Guardsman (Ancient)

Level: 168

Attack: 2590~3050

Defense: 3200

HP: 250000

Skills: Heavy Slash, Dying Strike, War Zeal

Introduction: These brave warriors were infected by the curse of undeath after the fall of the Roland Empire. These valiant souls were twisted into the bloodthirsty puppets and accomplices of the dreadful undead, but they still possess all of the vaunted skills they had in life. They now fight with the implacable relentlessness of unlife, making them even more fearsome than they were in life.

……

The attack power of monsters that weren"t bosses had finally reached 3000. These Roland Imperial Guardsmen were the elite of the elite and their stats were quite a fair bit higher than those "Undead Roland Soldiers". They were going to be a lot harder to deal with, and it would be impossible for the three of us to clear them all unless we managed to come up with a foolproof plan.

"Jie jie…"

A few of the undead guardsmen brandished the swords they held in both hands, rotten and dried-out patches of muscle and skin covering their gruesome-looking skulls. Their exposed muscles resembled threads of fabric that had been worn away by the wind as they quivered and spasmed with every move these guardsmen made. However, their armor was bright and pristine, still glowing with a menacing light.

Magic staff in hand, Murong Mingyue followed tightly behind He Yi. She looked at me and said, "Their levels are really high and their attack power is dreadful! If one of them starts chasing after me, I"m dead meat!"

I nodded my head and replied, "Don"t worry. As long as our beloved boss and I are around, you won"t be in any danger of dying!"

An extremely sweet smile appeared on He Yi"s face as she came to a stop beside me. She pointed at a wall inside the palace. "That place looks like it would be a good choke point. Lu Chen, go lure the mobs away. I"ll bring Mingyue over there first, and then you and your little wolf can bring the rest of the mobs to us after!"

I quickly surveyed the area. This would be no easy task. The imperial guardsmen were all milling about together and one wrong step would end with me being surrounded by a sea of these ancient undead monsters. I would be extremely lucky to make it out alive if that happened, but I felt fairly confident that I could pull it off with my mechanical skill. After all, the 80% movement speed boost granted by my Stormy Waves War Boots was nothing to scoff at. They didn"t lower my turning speed either, so I could still bring all of my skill to bear.

"Alright, I"ll go and lure the mobs. Eve, keep an eye on the rightmost imperial guardsman. I won"t be able to lure it away, so you will definitely attract its aggro on the way to the choke point. You need to keep it away from Sis Mingyue and make sure that its aggro is firmly latched on to you. We won"t be able to grind these mobs successfully if our priest dies."

"Yeah, I got it!"

I brandished my sword as I rushed toward the mobs. I cut a brilliant arc in the air as I zipped past all of them like a swooping hawk. Dozens of undead guardsmen instantly let out guttural howls as they ran after me. As soon as I neared the choke point, I instantly swerved away at lightning speed as I led the undead monsters on a merry chase to the other side of the map.

I flicked a glance toward the choke point and saw that He Yi and Murong Mingyue had already taken up their positions there. The Snow Domain Windchaser let out a loudy whinny as it stamped its hooves on the ground and the Ironwing Dragon stood by its side. The dragon had already reached Level 130 and its stats and attack skills were powerful too, allowing it to become a proper DPS and tank in its own right.

The Phantom Wolf King darted to the Ironwing Dragon"s side under my control. It raised its head proudly in the air and its aura was even more overwhelming than that of the Ironwing Dragon, a member of the dragon race! Murong Minyue was more than a little annoyed by that!

Rustle...

My concentration was at its peak as my war boots skidded across the broken stone tiles. I had perfectly drawn all the aggro from this group of mobs and when I had just about reached the choke point, I spun on my heels, the Cyan Netherworld flas.h.i.+ng through the air. I slid perfectly in between the Ironwing Dragon and He Yi as I shot Thousand Ice Slash at the imperial guardsmen chasing me!

Boom!

Fragments of ice appeared in the air but they swiftly melted away as three fiery crescents of sword energy exploded into the undead monsters. He Yi swiftly joined in with Green Wave Slash and Barrier Break, the light erupting from our skills mixing together chaotically in a brilliant explosion. I immediately started to plant Icy Cyclone Domains all around us, controling the attack and movement speed of the monsters around us while simultaneously pelting them with a deadly rain of icicles.

The Firelight Mouse hopped about vigorously beside Murong Mingyue. Huge cl.u.s.ters of flame formed around its tail before it launched them toward the sea of monsters in front of us. This complemented my Icy Cyclone Domains perfectly, plunging the guardsmen in front of us into a h.e.l.l of ice and fire.

Wooosh...

The Phantom Wolf King"s claws danced in the air as it unleashed two consecutive Claw of the Storm into the enemy mobs. This skill had a 10% chance of proccing, so it would continue to fire off at a pretty decent rate. I also ordered it to use its other skill, Purgatory Storm, which caused the ground to shake. Dust started flying in the air as countless burning cracks opened up in the ground. The Purgatory Storm tore into the undead guardsmen in front of the Phantom Wolf King, shaving away a large chunk of their health.

Just a single round of attacks from us had caused a huge group of Roland Imperial Guardsmen to collapse. Our DPS was just too OP! My Martial G.o.d"s 200% boost to Attack wasn"t just for show and it even boosted the attack of the Phantom Wolf King, Ironwing Dragon, and Firelight Mouse by 200% as well. This boosted our grinding speed by far more than just three times.

At the current stage of the game, a first-rate expert would deal about 4000 to 9000 damage per hit to an ancient mob that was twenty levels higher than them. Moreover, the first-rate experts we were talking about here were melee fighters like Li Chengfeng and High Fighting Spirits. Of course, Gui Guzi and Beiming Xue were in a different category altogether.

However, Martial G.o.d"s 200% Attack buff had boosted our damage to over 20000 damage a hit. This absurd attack power contemptuously ignored the Defense of these mobs and the entire situation was honestly quite ridiculous.

"Rooooaaar…"

The Ironwing Dragon"s sharp claws dug into the skull of one of the undead guardsmen as it unleashed a blast of dragon breath. The powerful blast dealt at least 15000 damage to every monster caught in its path. Every time the Ironwing Dragon made a physical attack, it had a 25% chance of using its dragon breath to attack as well, making it a superb companion when it came to grinding. Murong Mingyue had been extremely lucky to have gotten it back then.

In less than two hours, we had lured five groups of mobs to the choke point, practically wiping out all of the Roland Imperial Guardsmen surrounding the palace. We even managed to pick up seven full Roland sets while we were at it! How lucky!

"Lu Chen, how many full Roland sets do we have?" He Yi asked with a soft laugh.

I checked my inventory. "We have eight altogether! That"s a lucky number!"

"Hehe, not bad! You can throw them in the auction once you get back to the city! Keep all of the money you earn from them! Mingyue and I don"t want a single cent of it."

"Why?"

"Because you were the one who brought us along on this quest. Besides, we"ve already picked up a lot of items while we were grinding, so we aren"t shameless enough to ask you to split the money you earn from these sets with us."

"Now that you mention it…" I thought about it for a moment. The girls definitely didn"t look like they needed this bit of cash. Only a miser like me would count every penny like this.

After we finished cleaning up the battlefield, I reached Level 146 and both girls had reached Level 141. They reentered Sky City"s Heavenly Ranking once more and they were rapidly climbing up the board thanks to this incredible quest.

……

I raised my head to look at the grand hall in front of me. This used to be the imperial palace of a great empire, so it still retained some of its former grandness and opulence even after it had been ruined. The steps up toward the hall were carved from one huge gold-gilded crystal and each step had been inscribed with dragons, the race synonymous with kingly dignity and authority.

Four high-level guardsmen stood at the sides of the grand hall as they held golden broadswords vigilantly in their hands. There were words blazing above their heads.

Golden Guardsman LV-170 (Earth Rank Miniboss)

Hmmm, they were only Earth Rank minibosses, but the problem was that there were four of them. If we only had to deal with two of these guardsmen, it would be quite straightforward. He Yi and I would tank one each while Murong Mingyue healed us. But taking on four of these minibosses with only the three of us raised the difficulty tremendously.

As I peered into the distance, I saw that there was a small metal cage hanging in front of the grand hall"s gates, a rotted head sitting inside of it. That was the head of the Roland Empire"s previous king and a menacing-looking undead warrior stood directly below that cage. He towered in front of the gates, the bulging muscles on his body rippling with unexpressed violence. f.u.c.king h.e.l.l, that is the boss that we are supposed to kill—Mad Warrior Buffett!

1. Eight is a lucky number in Chinese culture.