Chapter 260: Thunderbolt Prison
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
‘The Forgotten Ones’ was one of spectre race’s divisions and their leader was The King of the Forgotten One, the Celestial boss, which was independent of the seven Spectre Witch King!
In Zhang Yang’s previous life, most of the players’ level had just reached Level 200 and they did not get to defeat Celestial bosses yet! That was why Zhang Yang found Smaug’s name familiar but could not recall any further information about him.
No wonder Smaug had earned a reputation as the closest man to the god of war during his lifetime. Even though he had turned into spectre after death, he could still become a Celestial boss. This was so awesome!
To gain a good relationship with a Celestial boss!
Relationships were something intangible but undoubtedly practical, perhaps someday it would play a huge role! It was definitely much more valuable than a Yellow-Gold item that would be rolled out over time!
Smaug reached out with his right hand, and countless rays of aqua green light gathered in his hand which shaped into a piece of crystal clear jade. Smaug handed the jade to Zhang Yang and said, "My friend, this is my gift to you! My aura is in this jade, as long as you wear this, no spectres will attack you!"
Zhang Yang was full of joy, quickly taking the jade and replied, "Thank you!"
[Friendship Jade] (Yellow-Gold, Accessory)
Equipment: Disguises you as spectre, which is enough to fool the majority of spectres. However, as long as you are wearing [Friendship Jade], you will also become the enemy of all living beings!
Use: Summon Smaug’s phantom to fight for you. Lasts for 20 minutes. Cool down time: 24 hours.
Charge remaining: 3/3
Level requirement: 60
Bound.
Yes! Definitely a great fortune indeed!
Smaug was a Celestial boss, even though his phantom would be significantly weaker than himself, it would at least be of Ascended or Holy grade! Unfortunately, it had only three times charges. Otherwise, it would have been super awesome!
Besides, [Friendship Jade]’s equipment attribute was not bad after all as it could help Zhang Yang disguised as spectre and entered Malevolent Tower to steal the [Book of the Damned]. Zhang Yang would then have high chances of re-activating the Main Story Quest, which involved The Crafting Materials of a Relic!
Zhang Yang had accepted this quest when he was Level 10 and this quest had been left in his Quest Board for almost half a year!
"Zhan Yu, take care of yourself!" Smaug hugged Liya’s waist, and suddenly, a pair of skeletal wings opened up from Smaug’s back, which he spread and soared into the sky like an ascending meteor which quickly disappeared in the sky.
Would this be considered as a reunion of a wedlock couple?
Zhang Yang took out a [Teleportation Scroll], and a ray of light flashed 10 seconds later, returning him to Thunderstorm Castle.
As time went by, there were more and more Level 50 players, Thunderstorm Castle was now bustling with life and many players started to set up shops, selling potions, health recovery cakes and ETC outside the castle, which helped players save up time and money traveling back to main city. Of course, their charges were not extremely high as the one-way teleportation fee was only one gold coin.
As more players achieved Level 50, Zhang Yang earnings from the teleportation portal increased. The number of players utilizing this teleportation portal in recent days had reached up to 7,000,000, equivalent to a daily net income of 6,000,000 gold coins, a huge and terrifying number!
Two days later, the gang had achieved Level 60 and they urged Zhang Yang to go for new dungeon, Thunderbolt Prison.
"We cannot go for it now!" Zhang Yang shrugged his shoulders while he spread both of his hands in resignation.
"Why?" Wei Yan Er rolled her eyes. She had just equipped her Level 60 Yellow-Gold weapon and was dying to go on a raid!
Zhang Yang explained, "Thunderbolt Prison is a special 10-man dungeon, Dream Technology uses a dungeon’s design concept known as ‘Competition’ mechanism! The Thunderbolt Prison will only be activated if four teams are gathered. These four teams are then required to enter Thunderbolt Prison together compete with each other!"
"And how do we do that?"
Zhang Yang replied, "The topography of Thunderbolt Prison is similar to a cross street, four teams will enter from one end respectively, and rush towards the center! There will be a lot of minions along the way including three mini-bosses while the final boss is in the center. However, there is only one final boss so whichever team gets there first, gets dibs on the boss!"
"What if other teams attack suddenly when that particular team is fighting the final boss?"
"That won’t happen. Because when that particular team fighting the final boss, a barrier will be set up around them, the players from the outside cannot enter and the players from the inside cannot get out. The barrier will be disappear only when the final boss is defeated or the team is wipe-out. On the other hand, we have only one chance to try to defeat the final boss, so if the team who gets there first happens to fail, the final boss will disappear and we all will have to wait for two days in accordance to the dungeon’s reset!"
"Whoever thought up of all this is a sadist!"
"Well to make things worse, Thunderbolt Prison is located in Thunderbolt Mountains and it takes a few hours to get there from Thunderstorm Castle. Besides, we need another three teams to activate the dungeon! Just in case we get there without the forth team, wouldn’t it be a whole waste of time?"
Zhang Yang smiled a little and said, "I think it won’t be too difficult getting other teams! Thunderbolt Prison is a special dungeon and physically traveling there and all is ridiculous, so there is an NPC in the main city responsible for accepting 'Reservations' for dungeons like Thunderbolt Prison. As long as the team leaders send a Thunderbolt Prison entrance request to the NPC, they will be queued in the list corresponding to difficulty. Once four teams are gathered, the system will send messages to every team member. Five minutes later, NPC will activate a teleportation door which leads to Thunderbolt Prison directly!"
"Oh, that’s not too bad then!"
Zhang Yang thought for a while and said, "I will register the party at the NPC first. The moment we get four teams, we will depart immediately!"
"En!"
Zhang Yang grouped up 10 players then registered at the NPC. However, they still did not receive any messages from the system throughout the entire day. Zhang Yang also understood that while his guild could easily provide 10 Level 60 players, other guilds might not match that capability!
On the second day, Zhang Yang grouped up 10 players again and booked a spot in the list, but still no results.
It was still the same on the third day.
But on the fourth day, eight o’clock sharp, finally there was a change in such situation!
‘Ding! The warriors who are heading to Thunderbolt Prison have been gathered, please immediately return to your main cities, in five minutes time, Krampus will activate a teleportation door that directly teleports you to Thunderbolt Prison. Please make the best use of your time!’
After receiving this message, Zhang Yang and the rest of the nine players in the team immediately used [Teleportation Scrolls]. Krampus was located just next to White Jade Castle’s teleportation portal which was quite convenient for them.
Those who showed up was Snow Seeker and her female army, ten beautiful, enchanting ladies like a group of beautiful birds flocking together.
Zhang Yang smiled at Snow Seeker and said, "Looks like we are going to be competitors!"
The roguish Perfumed Water immediately said, "Zhan Yu, Lone Desert Smoke has already won a lot of dungeon First Clears, let us have this one!"
Fatty Han immediately raised his hand and said, "I’m willing to switch sides, to flee from darkness, into light and join Crimson Rage!"
Snow Seeker smiled elegantly and said, "It seems like we are accompanying Prince Reading1 himself!"
"Ha ha, guild master Snow Seeker, you are too mean. Obviously, your more than ready, you’re just trying to throw us off!" Zhang Yang scanned through Snow Seeker’s team, smiled and said, "It seems like you have some new blood, and I see a few new faces!"
Zhang Yang actually "recognized" the two new members in Snow Seeker’s team. Strictly speaking, he in fact recalled their names.
Mellow Venom, Guardian. In Zhang Yang’s previous life, she was ranked fourth in China's Top 10 Tanks and the pride of all female tanks! Her capabilities were absolutely undeniable, being able to stand toe-to-toe in a male-dominant field!
Violet Moonknight, in Zhang Yang’s previous life, was a remarkable healer, a Sacred Knight. Unfortunately, healers did not have their own Top 10 ranking list, thus, Violet Moonknight was not as famous as Mellow Venom or Snow Seeker but she was skilled enough for Zhang Yang to remember her name.
With the Professional League Championship closing in, the superstars from Zhang Yang’s previous life were appearing, one after another! It seems like his presence has not affected Crimson Rage’s upcoming lineup.
Snow Seeker remained unfazed but gently smiled and replied, "Where there is competition, there is progress!"
"Who are the other two teams?" Zhang Yang was curious, for there was no sign of the other teams, meaning that they would only meet up when the dungeon commences.
Five minutes later, Krampus silently raised a magic staff to cast a magic spell.
10 seconds later, a teleportation door similar to a dungeon entrance appeared in front of everyone.
"Let’s go in!"
Zhang Yang and Snow Seeker spoke together and both teams filed into the entrance.
‘Ding! You have entered Thunderbolt Prison (Hardcore Mode)!’
After entering the dungeon, Zhang Yang and Snow Seeker’s 10-man teams were immediately separated. On the top left corner of the players’ Control interface, red, yellow, blue and green team names popped up. From the Control interface, each team could be expanded to view team’s current location and team members’ names.
Zhang Yang and his team was marked as the blue team while their current location was in the West side, first prison.
Snow Seeker and her team was marked as the red team while their current location was in the East side, first prison.
The other two teams were from Radiance and Imperial Sky respectively! Among them, Radiance’s team was marked as yellow team, located in the South side, first prison, while Imperial Sky’s team was marked as the green team and located in the North side, first prison. From the Control interface, it could be seen that the team leaders for both two teams were Sword of Light and One Sword Stroke respectively. Obviously they had dispatched the elites in their guilds!
Radiance was the top guild in Black Dragon City while Imperial Sky was the strongest guild in Violet Star City. These four competitive teams could be said to be the China’s strongest dungeon teams!
At Zhang Yang’s current location, there was a long corridor inside the prison and there were unlocked, empty prison cells on both sides of the corridor.
Thunderbolt Prison was located in the Thunderbolt Mountains, and according to legend, Thunderbolt Prison was built before the fall of the Human Empire. It imprisoned the most heinous criminals of the empire. Because of an earthquake, Thunderbolt Prison had sunk into the ground, taking along its prisoners and guards!
But today, another earthquake had brought the prison back up the surface! However, all its former occupants had also returned as spectres!
This was the backstory of dungeon, while the players’ mission was to destroy all these vicious spectres before they escape Thunderbolt Prison!
Zhang Yang said, "Those who have auras, please, do not forget to activate them. Endless Starlight, guard the left. I’ll guard the right, let’s make the best use of our time to kill all the monsters! Do not forget, only the first team to reach gets the chance to fight the last boss, we are not here to work with the other teams!"
Endless Starlight came forward, and the two of them led the team along the corridor.
Zhang Yang’s strategic arrangement of team members for this dungeon were: Zhang Yang, Fatty Han, Sun Xin Yu, Han Ying Xue, Wei Yan Er, Daffodil Daydream, Hundred Shots, Endless Starlight, Lost Dream and Fantasy Sweetheart. Two tanks, two healers and six attackers which was according to the standard configuration for 10-man team. However, with Zhang Yang’s current capability, he could actually perform the tanking role for both tanks in this dungeon raid.
"GROOAN!"
10 steps in, and three monsters in prison overalls suddenly rushed out of the shadows, raising their skeletal fists to attack Zhang Yang and Endless Starlight who were walking at the forefront.
[Prisoner of Thunderbolt Prison] (Elite, Spectre)
Level: 65
HP: 500,000
Defense: 350
Endless Starlight immediately used to pull one of them aside while Zhang Yang took on the other two. Everyone quickly attacked the two monsters that Zhang Yang pulled without hesitation. Endless Starlight stared at them mournfully and said, "Brothers and sisters, why didn’t you guys take on mine?"
"Stupid Starlight, are you able to maintain aggro once I mess with them?" Wei Yan Er raised her Yellow-Gold axe.
Endless Starlight nodded earnestly and replied, "Give me a chance, sister!"
The HP of the elite monsters in Thunderbolt Prison was indeed high, but elite or not, the monsters could not withstand the strength of these players. Zhang Yang and the gang quickly disassembled the skeletons, leaving pieces of them on the ground.
The main force of Lone Desert Smoke had at least three full sets of Yellow-Gold equipment along with Yellow-Gold weapons. Wei Yan Er also had a Level 60 Yellow-Gold weapon which was strong enough to swath through the entire dungeon with ease. So, these so-called elite monsters posed to challenge to them.
But Zhang Yang said, "My fellow comrades, we must keep our speed up! The female army of Crimson Rage is really well-equipped as well. They can handle the dungeon with ease, they can’t be far behind us!"
This was because Crimson Rage also knew the spawn points of a few Yellow-Gold open world bosses, thus, both Lone Desert Smoke and Crimson Rage had an agreement: Demonic Treant King belonged to Lone Desert Smoke, Lord of Flames Arcel belonged to Crimson Rage while Winter's Wind Bear King was on a first come first serve basis!
This month alone, both guilds had defeated the three open world bosses a total of six times. Thus, both guilds should definitely have a wealth of Yellow-Gold set equipment! Therefore, Zhang Yang did not dare assume that they had more Yellow-Gold set equipment than Crimson Rage.
Hence, Zhang Yang and the gang must remain earthbound and not underestimate the enemy!
As they continued to move down the corridor, they cleared the monsters on the current floor before they followed the stairs down to the second floor and the first floor.
The prison cells of the ground floor had been completely destroyed, and in the center position, a huge spectre stood there. The left half of the body had almost rotten away completely and exposed its bones, while the right half of the body remained intact which made it seem lopsided and odd to look at.
["Left-handed" Phil] (Gray-Silver, Spectre)
Level: 66
HP: 5,000,000
Defense: 700
Note: Boss of the prisoners in the first prison.
TL Note
1. Prince Reading - term for wasted potential, or someone who has hidden talent that remains mostly unused. Fatty Han had uncharacteristically come up with a line there and then that was most ingenuous, formed by a play of words that rhymed rather well together.