Chapter 555: Baroque Island
Translator:EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor:EndlessFantasy Translation
[The Pirate’s Treasure Map] (Difficulty Level: S)
Description: You have acquired half of a treasure map. The other half of the map is in the hands of Ditch, Leader of the Blackbeard Pirates. Complete the map and you may have a chance of owning the treasure chest that belonged to the legendary Pirate King Roger. Be advised, Ditch is not an easy foe to deal with. Numerous residents of the Camarro Islands have heard the name and would advise you to leave. Consider your options carefully and react accordingly.
Completion: Obtained the Complete Pirate’s Treasure Map 0/1
Zhang Yang frowned at the description of the quest log. They had left out a crucial detail for him to proceed on with the quest. The location of the pirate’s lair. Luckily, Zhang Yang had not yet left Waniaya’s side. He could simply ask her about it.
"The Blackbeard Pirates lair is located on the Baroque Island. I must warn you. The island is completed surrounded by reefs. You might lose your sheep if you’re not too careful there." Waniaya started talking about the location of Ditch’s lair. "That’s the reason why the Blackbeard Pirates have always been able to conduct their activities without being caught or toppled over. There were many merchants who frequented the pass. Rich ones at that too, and they had hired mercenaries to take down the Blackbeard Pirates, but none had ever succeeded."
Zhang Yang nodded his head. Reefs or cliffs matters not to a player since they had flying mounts to fly directly to the island. Even if they have to rely on boats and ships, the could give it a try. If they fail and die, they could just revive on the spot and will probably appear directly on the island.
Zhang Yang bade farewell to Waniaya and summoned his Thunderhawk. The blue bird zoomed over the beautiful emerald sea and reached its destination. The island was more like a mainland. Zhang Yang was high in the sky and could not see an end to the island. The one thing that did not seem to match the image of a pirate’s island was the beautiful forest that grew wildly, on and on. It was more like a holiday beach where people can put down a long chair and enjoy basking in the sun.
Zhang Yang glanced at his world map to estimate his general location and was surprised to see that the island was not on the map. It was so odd that Zhang Yang could not help but to do a little experiment. He asked Han Ying Xue to put on the Lover’s Charm and use it to teleport to him. Right then, Han Ying Xue was unable to see the location of the island where she was teleporting to. After Zhang Yang had Han Ying Xue join his party, the map was revealed to her.
"Like magic!" cried Han Ying Xue.
The island was probably made to only allow players who had accepted the quest to locate. That, or other random players who had no relations to the quest would be seeing the endless sea and not an island.
After having her fun, Han Ying Xue groaned and said that she wanted to grind a little more with Wei Yan Er. She teleported away, leaving Zhang Yang to do his own business. Zhang Yang flew up to the sky, towards the center of the island. Just as he flew over a sea of trees, a cloud of dark bits shot out from the ground, towards him. By the time he noticed that the dark bits were arrows, he had taken several shots and had the Thunderhawk perform a U-turn in the air. Only when he left the forest, did the attacks stop. Each of the arrows had dealt 1,000 damage to him. He found it weird, and circled around for another pass, but when he got closer, the arrow attacks came again.
Zhang Yang took a good look at the arrows and found that they were long, wooden needles that look like the gigantic spikes of a cactus. They were not real arrows. Zhang Yang then descended down on land tried to walk on foot. Weirdly enough, the arrows did not rain down on him.
Zhang Yang then came to realize that it was a system that prevented players from flying in the air. They would have to get to their targets by foot!
Even though each arrow could deal only 1,000 damage, he would still receive a few million damage if he had stayed airborne for a few more seconds. Zhang Yang would still die within a few seconds, even if he had used the God of War Transformation. He had also tried using {Shield Wall} to block it, but still receive the same amount of damage. It seemed like the "arrows" had completely disregarded all form of defensive skills.
After walking for a few kilometers, Zhang Yang found the source of the projectiles. It came from the sky scrapping trees. Zhang Yang had not seen such species of floras before. They had many stick-like tendrils that were growing in large numbers on the branches. They were a few feet long and were only as thick as chopsticks. It was these trees that had attacked Zhang Yang from before. The problem came next when Zhang Yang found that there was not one, not two, but countless of those trees growing on the entire island itself, turning the entire island into a strictly, no-fly-zone.
If he has to walk on land, he will walk on land.
The no-fly-zone was not really absolute. It had a few blind spots. Zhang Yang could give minute instructions for the Thunderhawk to hover a few meters above the ground. Any higher than the trees themselves, and they would "throw" their chopsticks at him, turning him into a pincushion before Zhang Yang can even use {Shield Wall}.
Those sky-scraping trees were grown to be a form of natural aerial defense. Since the trees were so densely packed, there was no chance for him to dodge and roll in the air. If Zhang Yang chops the trees down first, he could remove them from sight and fly. However, who knows if the giant trees were capable of melee combat as well.
Zhang Yang went around the forest and circled the island by its borders, where the sea met the beach. He found a small, derelict harbor where a small boat was parked in. On the side, there was two unoccupied wooden hut.
There was a small walkway that led towards the forest behind the huts. Just as Zhang Yang had was about to walk down the pathway, Han Ying Xue and Wei Yan Er had roared in the chat, asking him to "pull" them over to his side. Their reason? To help him in his quest.
Verbally, they did say that they were here to help. However, Zhang Yang easily saw through them. These two girls were hot-headed brats who easily get bored. Perhaps, Han Ying Xue had told Wei Yan Er about the magic island and the latter had coaxed her into coming to the island.
Then again, Zhang Yang could use the company of the girls. Especially when these two exceled at making some noise to kill off boredom. He then summoned them over to the island with the [Party Summon Order]. Zhang Yang explained the situation of the island and they rode their mounts and ran or flew close to ground level.
The forest was too quiet to be normal. The trio had traveled or a long time and did not find any monsters. There were no annoying bug noises, or the sound of tree leaves rustling against the wind. They only saw tall trees among more tall trees. The deafening silence had turned the forest extremely eerie.
"Sigh…When am I going to get my S class Inheritance?!" cried Han Ying Xue. She had obtained the Keepsake, done the quest, but was now stuck at a powerful boss. It was so near, yet so far away.
"Sister…are you mocking me?! I had it worse, okay?" Wei Yan Er puffed her cheek. "The S class Inheritance has been stolen by a noobie tank! Now, I can’t even get hold of a A class Inheritance!"
Zhang Yang pretended not to hear, but he was listening to their conversation. It was best to keep quiet and lay low. If he agitates Wei Yan Er, the little girl would surely bug him till kingdom comes. If he continues acting dumb, she would forget all about it like a goldfish. However, Zhang Yang replied to Han Ying Xue’s worries. "Don’t think about taking on the boss before any one of us reaches Level 120. We should at least stand a chance now, if we have a few Forbidden Scrolls that could either reduce the boss’ attack, or increase our party damage."
"Level 120?! That’s like half a year from now! Ahhhh!" Han Ying Xue let out a frustrated cry, followed by a sulky face.
The trio continued on further, chatting along the way and found themselves out of the thick greens and into a spacious flatland. The grass that they were stepping on was soft and short. There were herds of wild horses, and cows that were grazing on the grass peacefully. However, there will still a few of the "shooter" trees peppered sparsely around the field. They would still get shot if they were fly in the sky. Even though the trees were far less numerous now, the ammo capacity of each tree exceeded 10,000. A single tree would bring them all down.
The three moved on. Wei Yan Er even purposely rode closer to the herds, scaring them away, causing a mild stampede.
"RAWR!"
From the corner of the field, there was a pride of lionesses coming out of the edge of the forest and growling. All of them charged towards Zhang Yang and the two girls, ready to maul and devour.
[Baroque Lioness] (Elite, Beast)
Level: 122
HP: 1,220,000
Defense: 1,300
Melee Attack: 8,364 – 10,064
Skill:
[Maul]: Mauls the target and grants a chance to tear away a part of target’s Defense. Deals 150% melee physical attack.
[Suffocate]: Bites a target’s throat, suffocating the target. Channeling required for 10 seconds. Immediate death will be inflicted once the channeling is completed. 50,000 damage or higher will enable the caster to be interrupted.
[Cry]: When in danger, the lioness will cry for help and summons a stronger Lion to rescue.
Note: Baroque Grassland’s strongest beast. That is…if there were no earth worm dragons, two headed hydra hawks, and the berserking elephant.
Wei Yan Er had acquired a new weapon, she had been unsatisfied about the normal tier monsters who had fallen beneath her overpowered axe. Now that there was a pride of elite tier lionesses waiting for her, the little girl got fired up. She rushed over to the pride and swung her axe to deal over 18,000 damage with just a normal attack. Her Rage gauge was filled up instantly.
{Tornado Cleave}!
Shush! She twisted and turned in the air, swinging her axe around like a mini tornado and dealt more than 30,000 damage to all 10 lionesses.
The little girl got even more excited. She completely ignored Zhang Yang and swung her axe around as if it weighed as much as a wooden stick.
"RAWR!" All the lioness took only Wei Yan Er’s damage and focused all their aggro on her. One by one, they did not wait for their turns and leaped at the little girl to maul her.
What a stupid little girl…
Zhang Yang sighed and zoomed towards her, leading his Thunderhawk which was flying only a few feet above the ground. With a quick flap of its wide blue wings, all 10 lionesses had taken 3,000 damage from an electric attack.
Since Zhang Yang was mounting the hawk, all of its attacks would generate aggro on Zhang Yang. However, the little girl attacks were too strong to begin with. Sending out a {Thunder blade} right after her {Tornado Cleave}, dealing a total of over 60,000 damage in the span of 4 seconds. Her aggro generation rate was too fast for even the Thunderhawk’s {Violet Thunder Slayer} to keep up with.
Zhang Yang quickly cast {Sacrifice} on the little girl and took all the damage that the lionesses had dealt to her. Thanks to all that damage taken, he had no need to work on filling up his Rage gauge any further.
{Horizontal Sweep}!
‘-52,446!’
‘-59,232!’
‘-105,422!’
‘-55,676!’
…
After one blast, came another blast as the sword’s echoing effect was triggered. All the lionesses took over 50,000 damage while some were critical strikes, dealing over 100,000 damage.
After the sword had stopped blasting about, all the lioness had diverted their attack towards Zhang Yang instead.
Shush Shush Shush!
Wei Yan Er was not done. The {Thunder Blade} skill lasts for 6 seconds in total. Each second, the skill would deal one attack equivalent to the weapon’s attack power. When {Thunder Blade} ended, were a few of the lioness turned back to the little girl.
Zhang Yang remained calm. When {Sacrifice} ended, Zhang Yang casually fired out his {Blast Wave} and stunned all the monsters that were targeting Wei Yan Er. The sword’s effect procced again and dealt a total of 6,000 damage .
Zhang Yang did not stop there. He had to keep track of the aggro on all the monsters to make sure that they were attacking him, and not the little girl. He then used all of his and the Thunderhawk’s AoE attack skills to take over the aggro.
"What a party pooper!" When Wei Yan Er had spun around enough, she noticed that she no longer retained any aggro on any of the monsters. She shrugged and sulked at Zhang Yang’s best efforts at trying to protect her.