Chapter 18: The Objective

Chapter 18: The Target

“What do we do? Although ice resistance can offset some of the damage, this armor break effect is just ridiculous! Getting hit once and the armor breaks—it’s basically like fighting monsters naked. We can’t take it!” Lin Zheng was deeply troubled as he stared at the vast group of Bone Spirits lurking within the ice crystals.

“My purification skill can remove negative statuses, and it has zero cooldown. I just don’t know if the armor break status level is too high—if it is, I won’t be able to clear it!” Lilith said. Yang Qi’s eyes lit up upon hearing this. If the purification could indeed dispel that status, then those cursed bone monkeys would be nothing to fear!

“I’ll pull one and test it out!” Yang Qi couldn’t wait and dashed forward, dragging a Bone Spirit over. The bone monster clawed at her once—slap! Only a laughable minus 54 damage appeared. At that moment, Yang Qi was pleasantly surprised to notice that the armor break effect did not trigger 100% of the time. The first attack didn’t cause it—great! If Lilith’s purification could remove the armor break status, then this second layer of monsters wouldn’t be difficult at all.

The Bone Spirit attacked a second time, and this time, Yang Qi was afflicted with the armor break effect. A prominent armor break icon appeared above her head. Lilith immediately waved her wand, and a white glow flickered over Yang Qi. Everyone burst into happy laughter because the glaring icon on Yang Qi’s head vanished instantly!

“Awesome, Lilith! What level is your purification skill now?” Yang Qi asked cheerfully.

Lilith smiled faintly. “It’s already level four. This skill is very easy to train—just choose a player and keep using it. Plus, it consumes very little mana. I practiced it while leveling with others since I had nothing better to do. Finally, it’s come in handy!”

“You really have great foresight!” Lin Zheng sighed in admiration. “That kind of patience is rare! Which priest would idle away two days leveling purification to level four? Alright then, Rogue, how do we fight?”

“Hmm,” Yang Qi thought for a moment. “Three people attacking together definitely won’t work. Purification is a single-target skill, so Lilith can’t cover all of us!”

“Three people are definitely too many, but two is manageable for me!” Lilith interjected.

“Oh? Really?” Yang Qi was delighted to hear this. “That makes it much easier! I and the shaman will pull the monsters, Xi will be the main damage dealer, and Little Meng, you take care of cleaning up the monsters targeting Xi! Lilith, just focus on removing status effects for us!”

“Just removing status effects? What about your health?” Lilith asked.

“Don’t forget the shaman’s dagger! It has a level one Spirit Gathering attribute that restores 50 health per second. If needed, we can eat a bread for extra healing. It’s totally manageable!”

“Oh, right!” Lilith suddenly realized. “Alright then, I’m good to go!”

“Hehe! Great! Let’s get started, shaman!” An excited Yang Qi dashed out without a care, completely forgetting that the aura had a limited range! What to do? Lin Zheng couldn’t just stand by and watch Yang Qi get overwhelmed by monsters! He had no choice but to follow and help kill.

---

With their new gear, Lin Zheng and Yang Qi were very aggressive, plunging straight into the monster horde! Yang Qi moved deftly, dodging over thirty percent of the attacks. Even when hit, the Spirit Gathering aura quickly restored her health. Lin Zheng was more ferocious—punching and kicking, sending bones flying everywhere. When his cooldown for the explosive strike was ready, Lin Zheng ruthlessly pulled a large group and instantly wiped out a huge number of monsters.

Behind them, Xi’s area-of-effect spells rained down continuously. Whenever a few monsters targeted Xi, Little Meng would rush in to finish off the weakened Bone Spirits. Lilith kept a sharp eye on Lin Zheng and Yang Qi, casting purification on anyone afflicted by armor break. The group was busy and coordinated, and their experience grew rapidly. In less than ten minutes, Lin Zheng was the first to glow with golden light—he leveled up! Their speed was no slower than the usual grinding spots.

Since the second layer had far more monsters than the first, it still took almost an hour to clear it all, despite their efficient killing. After cleaning up, they earned a hefty sum each. Suddenly, Lin Zheng shouted in excitement, grabbing everyone’s attention.

“I found a ring!” Lin Zheng exclaimed joyfully.

“Wow! Your luck is unreal!” Yang Qi said enviously. Little Meng and Lilith also came over, curious to see what kind of attributes this rare ring had after all the equipment drops turned up only one ring. Without hesitation, Lin Zheng displayed the ring’s stats.

Frost Crystal Ring: Level Requirement 35, Bronze Tier

Physical Attack: 89-130, Magic Attack: 89-130

Ice Point: +80 Ice Attack

Armor Break Level 3: 30% chance on attack to cause the target to enter armor break status, reducing defense by 65% for 20 seconds

After reading the attributes, all four were stunned. Although it was only a bronze-tier ring, it had a level 3 armor break effect! While not as extreme as the 80% defense reduction from the Ice Ape Bone Spirits, 65% was still huge. And the effect lasted an astonishing 20 seconds! This was practically an overpowered attribute for fighting bosses. No boss could stand having their defense reduced by more than half. Of course, this applied only if the level difference wasn’t too huge. In other words, if a guild had this ring, they could instantly kill level 70 silver bosses and obtain hero tokens. For guilds vying for world domination, this was a massive temptation! Selling it could fetch hundreds of thousands of RMB easily.

“This! This is really valuable!” Even Little Meng, who knew little about the game, recognized the ring’s power and felt dizzy imagining something so small being worth millions.

“Shaman, what do we do with this ring? Sell it?” Yang Qi asked, dazed. From her understanding of the market, auctioning this would never bring less than five million RMB. Split five ways, she’d get over a million instantly! A sudden fortune!

“Not selling it for now!” Lin Zheng said seriously. “If we sell it, someone else will be the first to form a guild! If we keep it, we still have a chance to fight for it. Even if we don’t get first place, we’ll be top three for sure.”

---

“You really want to form a guild?” Lilith asked, surprised, looking at Lin Zheng.

“Of course!” Lin Zheng nodded. “In a vast game world like Phantom Spirit, where forces are mixed, having a powerful guild backing you is essential for late-game survival! Rogue, you should know this better than anyone, right?”

“Ah...” Yang Qi sighed helplessly. “That’s true. In the late game, strong equipment drops only from powerful bosses. Without guild support, a solo player fighting those bosses is unrealistic. In the previous Phantom Spirit, if the game hadn’t ended early, I as a lone wolf would have suffered.”

“That’s why if we want to play long-term, forming a strong guild is imperative! We must strive to be among the first guilds established. And we have the strength to compete for it!” Lin Zheng said confidently. He glanced around at everyone, smiling assuredly. “Right now, in Frostfall City, our levels and gear are definitely top-tier. Once we hit level 50 second job advancement, free from rank restrictions, we can challenge level 70 silver bosses! No big guild would ignore rank restrictions and fight level 70 bosses before level 50, right? As long as we level up quickly, we have a great chance to be the first to get hero tokens!”

“Forming a guild, that’s great! Then I’ll be a founding member!” Little Meng was clearly excited about becoming a guild elder, her cheeks flushed with enthusiasm. Lilith looked on with yearning. To be honest, her real life wasn’t very fulfilling. Being a leader in a large guild would give her a great sense of accomplishment. Considering the game’s social influence, it could have a significant impact on her future.

As for Xi? No need to ask—Lin Zheng knew her well. She would follow those closest to her, so she would definitely be part of the future guild.

“Everyone agrees, right? Hehe! Then let’s keep this ring ourselves!” Lin Zheng grinned proudly, tossing the ring to Yang Qi. “Rogue, since you’ll be the guild leader, this is yours to keep!”

“No loyalty! You’re just passing the hot potato to me. If I lose it, I’m the one who gets the blame!” Yang Qi complained reluctantly but caught the ring and put it in her bag, feeling nervous inside. This little ring could be worth millions! Losing it would be a disaster—she might as well quit the game! So Yang Qi decided to immediately put it in the warehouse after the mission was done and only take it out for boss fights. After all, the armor break effect was only really useful for bosses. For normal leveling monsters, it didn’t matter—they’d die regardless.

Lin Zheng said, “Alright, let’s hurry to the third layer! If we end up fighting till midnight and still can’t finish the mission, that would be ridiculous!”

“No worries!” Little Meng boasted. “Our Dragon Garden never has power or internet outages. Besides, we don’t have classes tomorrow morning, so we can play as late as we want!”

“You don’t have classes? I do!” Lilith tapped Little Meng’s forehead irritably. Little Meng stuck out her tongue, and Lilith shook her head helplessly. “Forget it. Tomorrow’s classes are optional anyway. I might just skip them!”

“Hehe! Glasses Sister, you’ve never skipped classes before, right? They say a college student who never skips class isn’t a proper student. You should skip a few occasionally,” the girl teased. Hearing this, Lilith was speechless. Such nonsense used as advice—this girl was really something...