Chapter 59: The Paladin's Broadsword

An inexplicable chill swept over her face, making Xiao Mo shudder involuntarily, and she immediately opened her eyes. When Xiao Mo opened her eyes and saw the scene before her, she gasped in shock, her small mouth opening wide! A mouth full of terrifying fangs was right above her head, just a fraction away from biting down! However, that huge maw was now covered in frost, completely motionless! Looking closer, she realized that the entire hellhound had been frozen solid!

"Don't just stand there! Attack now!" Lin Zheng's voice rang out suddenly. Xiao Mo snapped back to reality. That's right, now was not the time to ponder how the boss had gotten frozen! Xiao Mo immediately raised her sword and launched a flurry of fatal piercing strikes!

The hellhound being frozen was undoubtedly caused by Lin Zheng using his Glacial Halo! Seeing that Xiao Mo was about to lose her life, Lin Zheng didn't hesitate for a second. He immediately stomped the ground to activate Glacial Halo, managing to save Xiao Mo at the very last moment! The ten-second freeze duration passed in the blink of an eye. Realizing that the boss was about to break free while still retaining nearly half of its health, Lin Zheng couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy toward that scoundrel Yang Qi! If he had the Zhurong Sword in hand, a single Golden Crow Slash could have burned this remaining half-health boss into ashes! What a tragedy! Lacking the Golden Crow Slash, Lin Zheng had to find another way to deal with this boss!

Suddenly, Lin Zheng's eyes lit up, and he immediately said to Xiao Mo, "Xiao Mo, attack its neck, and I'll go under its belly!" Given the boss's massive size, both of these locations were its blind spots! As long as they could avoid the boss's lethal attacks, wearing it down slowly would be no problem at all!

Hearing Lin Zheng's words, Xiao Mo leaped without a moment's hesitation, stepping lightly on the boss's head and landing squarely on its neck. At the same time, Lin Zheng slid beneath the boss with a whoosh. Almost instantly, the boss broke free from the ice! "Roar—Roar—Roar—" The boss roared crazily, violently shaking its head in an attempt to throw Xiao Mo off its neck. However, Xiao Mo grabbed the collar around the boss's neck and wasn't so easily dislodged! Failing to shake her off, the heads on either side of the boss tried to turn back and attack Xiao Mo. Unfortunately, the necks of the side heads were too short; despite baring their fangs savagely right in front of Xiao Mo, they fell just short of reaching her! Instead, they ended up getting their faces slashed all over by Xiao Mo's rapier!

Lin Zheng wasn't idle under the boss's belly either. With one hand, he tightly gripped the boss's fur, while with the other, he stabbed frantically at the boss with his dagger! The boss was truly under attack from both front and rear now! Its health plummeted at an alarming rate! Unable to reach its enemies, the frantic boss charged wildly, continuously slamming into the walls of the ruins chamber, and each impact shaved off a significant chunk of its own health! Still, one had to admit that the boss's tactic was effective; the intense vibrations finally flung the two of them violently away!

Having finally shaken off the two archenemies, the boss let out a frenzied bark. Its six eyes radiated fierce hostility, and with a sudden leap, it lunged down to bite directly at Lin Zheng, who had crashed into the wall! Lin Zheng had hit his head against the wall from the recent toss and was indeed feeling somewhat dizzy! By the time he regained his senses, he saw the boss's massive body lunging toward him! Startled out of his wits, Lin Zheng jumped up, his legs somewhat unsteady as he stomped the ground! "Frost Piercing!"

"Clang—" A massive ice spike shot up instantly right in front of Lin Zheng. The boss's colossal body was completely unable to adjust its posture in mid-air, and it could only crash its central head into the sharp ice spike with eyes full of terror! With a squelch, the ice spike pierced straight into the boss's mouth and passed right through its neck. Concurrently, a fatal damage figure of -86,800 floated above the boss's head! Accompanied by two mournful cries, the heads on either side of the boss flopped limply onto the ground, and a pile of treasures spilled out, scattering all over the floor! Flash—! A golden light emanated from Lin Zheng; he had leveled up to 48!

"Damn it! That scared the hell out of me!" Looking at the giant dog head lying right before him, Lin Zheng still felt a lingering sense of terror! If he had recovered his wits even a split second later, he would have ended up inside the boss's belly by now! At that moment, Xiao Mo also walked over, rubbing her forehead—evidently, the impact of being thrown off earlier had taken a heavy toll on her as well.

"This guy is way too hard to kill!" Xiao Mo kicked the boss discontented and said.

"Of course it's hard to kill. You have to remember this is a level 60 elite dungeon, originally designed for level 60 players to challenge. We came in at such a low level; it would be a miracle if it weren't difficult!"

"What should we do now then?!" Xiao Mo opened her quest log and said, "According to the requirements above, besides that damned Necromancer Ona, we still have to kill a Gargoyle Chieftain and a Black Knight Commander. Those guys must be even harder to kill than this one. Should we keep going?"

"Damn it, in this situation, if that rogue bastard and Lilith were here, it would be so much better!" Lin Zheng said with utter helplessness!

"Where in reality are there so many 'ifs' and 'buts'?! Tell me, do we continue or leave? You decide!" Xiao Mo pointed toward the newly appeared portal.

Lin Zheng thought for a moment, gritted his teeth, and said, "Continue! We have about an hour and a half left. At worst, I'll just wait for the cooldown of Ghost God. I refuse to believe there's a boss in this dungeon that Ghost God can't take down!"

"What if there really is one?" Xiao Mo asked, blinking her large eyes. Lin Zheng paused at her words, then said with helpless resignation, "If there really is such a boss, we can only blame our own bad luck and consider it paying a one-level tuition fee to scout the dungeon!"

"Oh—" Xiao Mo didn't say anything more, but raised her foot to step into the portal. "Wait! What are you rushing for?" Lin Zheng grabbed Xiao Mo's hand. Xiao Mo suddenly shivered all over, her face flushing red with bashful anger as she shouted, "Let go!"

"Hehe—Sorry!" Lin Zheng let go with a sheepish grin!

"Phew—" Xiao Mo let out a breath, though her face was still slightly flushed, making her look quite charming! "Speak, what else is there? If you don't come up with a proper reason, I'm going to chop off your hand!"

"You haven't looted the boss's drops yet. You didn't expect to just leave like this, did you?" Lin Zheng pointed at the treasure scattered all over the ground. Xiao Mo was startled; honestly, she had completely forgotten about that! Lin Zheng looked at her helplessly and then stepped forward to loot the corpse. The first item he picked up was a sword. To Lin Zheng's surprise, this turned out to be Gold-grade equipment. For a Silver-grade boss to drop a Gold-grade item was quite a rare occurrence!

Paladin's Longsword: Level requirement 55, Gold-grade
Physical Attack 1032-1326, Magical Attack 836-924
Strength: Strength +42
Stamina: Stamina +43
Swift Hand: Attack Speed +10%
Lightweight: Equipment Level Requirement -10
Attached Skill: Holy Light
...

Lin Zheng blinked. What a formidable Gold-grade sword! Requiring level 55, but practically usable at level 45, it was simply too beastly for a first-transition player! Lin Zheng really wanted this sword; he had the Force Assembly skill, so using a sword posed no problem at all! If he could find another sword, his attack power would increase significantly! However, looking at the sword at Xiao Mo's waist, judging by its equipment gloss, it was only Bronze-grade, and judging by its appearance, the level wasn't high either. Yet, even with that, Xiao Mo possessed astonishing burst damage, which secretly amazed Lin Zheng!

"Here, it's yours! You've just about reached level 45, right? Equip it so fighting monsters later will be a bit easier!" Lin Zheng handed the sword to Xiao Mo. Xiao Mo accepted it without any polite hesitation; she had long wanted to replace her sword, but unfortunately, she could only find Bronze-grade ones on the market, and no matter how much money she had, she couldn't buy a better tier. Getting a Gold-grade sword that she could use right now made her genuinely thrilled! Even better, this sword happened to be a rapier, as if tailor-made specifically for her!

Aside from the sword, the boss also dropped a pair of bracers, which were likewise part of the Shadow Set. Lin Zheng didn't bother inspecting them and tossed them directly to Xiao Mo. The equipment belonged to Xiao Mo, while he politely kept all the money for himself, stuffing every coin into his pouch. Confvinced that not a single copper coin was left behind in the pile, Lin Zheng stepped into the portal first, emerging onto a spiral staircase...