“Ding… Because you completed the first three gates of the Abyss trial with utter perfection, you have gained a bonus reward: Luck +1, Charm +1, Comprehension +1, and you will be sent directly to the final gate’s trial ground.”
That clear chime made Ye Tianxie look up in astonishment. Across the first three gates of the trial, he’d flat-out taken not the slightest injury, casually working a miracle ordinary people would find hard to believe. And this had triggered the trial’s one and only hidden element, granting him the special reward of +1 to all his fixed attributes… But the chime’s last line stirred something in Ye Tianxie, and he didn’t know whether to be glad or worried.
The Abyss-difficulty trial had five gates in all, each doubling the difficulty of the one before. Being sent directly to the final gate’s trial ground meant he could skip the fourth gate’s trial outright — but it also meant missing out on a group of monsters that were bound to be far stronger than the third gate’s, and thereby missing out on a whole heap of equipment too.
What’s more, this trial-skip only granted a shortening of the trial’s time, or a reduction in its consumption; it wouldn’t weaken the trial’s difficulty. If he could pass the final gate’s trial, he could naturally pass the fourth as well; if he couldn’t… then even having cleared the fourth first, he still couldn’t.
A ball of white light descended from above and wrapped around Ye Tianxie’s body. The scene before his eyes switched at once — the deep green all around vanished, turning into a sheet of pure white. Then the white dimmed, and a new scene appeared before him. First to meet the eye was a broad stone platform nearly a meter high.
Atop the platform slept an entirely purple… giant tiger!
Real-world tigers were mostly striped tigers or white tigers; no one had ever seen a purple one. But everything about it — its shape, and the character “王” (king) formed in purple on its forehead — marked it unmistakably as a tiger. Ye Tianxie’s appearance hadn’t roused this slumbering giant tiger; its crouching body, not even fully extended, was nearly three meters long. Its huge body rose and fell evenly and faintly with its breathing.
In the final trial ground of the Abyss tier, there was only this one living creature!
Amethyst War Tiger, Tagore — Level 20 Lord BOSS. HP: 20,000. Originally the Lord of Beasts of Novice Village No. 60001, it later inadvertently swallowed an amethyst stone holding the power of thunder and lightning, its abilities growing rapidly until it matured into a Level 20 Lord; a year ago it vanished from its original territory, whereabouts unknown.
Skill — Daybreak Tiger Strike: Gathers the power of thunder and lightning upon its claws to abruptly rend enemies in a small area ahead, dealing damage to all targets within one meter in front of it, with a 30% chance to add a 50% damage bonus. Skill cooldown 20 seconds.
Skill — War Tiger’s Roar: Looses a great roar brimming with a sovereign’s majesty to daunt enemies, with a very high chance of throwing all surrounding targets into a state of fear and stun lasting over three seconds. Skill cooldown 20 seconds.
Skill — Heaven’s Thunder Break: Summons heavenly thunder to strike any single target within a 10-meter range; requires a 2.5-second incantation to cast. Cooldown 5 seconds.
Skill — War Tiger’s Wrath: When HP falls below 10%, the Amethyst War Tiger enters an enraged state, its attack power and movement speed all surging by 30%, while its defensive capability drops by 50%.
Making out the detailed information of this slumbering purple tiger, Ye Tianxie sucked in a cold breath and instinctively held it fast, terrified of waking this sleeping beast…
It was actually… a Level 20 Lord BOSS!
Your granddad’s… Ye Tianxie clenched his fists tightly. In this moment, even he had, at last, seen what an abyss truly was.
A Lord-tier BOSS shouldn’t appear at the novice stage at all, because to novice players with immature gear, skills, and attributes, a monster of this tier was simply invincible. A Lord-tier BOSS not only had powerful attributes far surpassing an ordinary BOSS, but mature skills and attack methods, and a certain degree of intelligence besides.
To say nothing of a Level 20 Lord BOSS!
Four skills, every one of them extremely terrible — close-range rending, long-range thunder strikes, wide-area control, and a final berserk technique — each one enough to strike fear into the heart, not a single throwaway among them. And according to the officials’ brief introduction back at launch, Lords and BOSSes above the Lord tier all had at least one hidden skill… which meant this Level 20 Lord BOSS had at least five skills! And being hidden, it necessarily meant it was more terrible than the four unhidden ones.
Even with Ye Tianxie’s can’t-afford-to-lose pride, he nearly had the urge to turn on his heel and leave.
His breathing turned light and even, his body utterly still, his gaze fixed straight on this Amethyst War Tiger named Tagore. One second passed, two seconds… one minute, two minutes… He stayed motionless throughout, his two legs like a pair of wooden stakes driven into the ground.
He was searching hard for a method and a possibility of defeating this powerful enemy… The first thing he thought of was the Double-Bang Firecrackers and firecracker strings he’d bought from that odd old man Yuan Que at the pharmacy. Twenty Double-Bang Firecrackers, each capable of dealing 300 defense-ignoring damage — if they all landed, they’d deal a full 6,000 damage. Adding the five firecracker strings, that came to 7,500 damage in all.
And that was still on the premise of a perfect all-hit, and of his coming through unharmed beneath its claws during that time. Then, even if this Lord BOSS didn’t automatically restore HP, it would still have twelve thousand five hundred HP left — how was he to deal with that?
Attack? Setting aside the hit reduction under the level gap, even if he were an idiot, he ought to know his attack strength right now couldn’t possibly break through a Level 20 Lord BOSS’s defense. Even landing a hit, all it would deal was 1 point of token forced damage.
Three minutes… five minutes…
Ye Tianxie finally, tentatively, took a step forward, lifting his foot lightly and soundlessly, his toes touching down without making the slightest sound. After the first step came a second, a third…
Perhaps because it had enjoyed ease and solitude for far too long, the Amethyst War Tiger’s vigilance didn’t seem high; when Ye Tianxie’s body drew close to that platform, its tiger eyes were still shut tight, its breathing even, without the faintest awareness. Approaching this powerful novice village Lord at close range, a sovereign’s oppressive force pressed faintly in. Ye Tianxie soundlessly readied his posture, then summoned a black something from his backpack, flung it over the Amethyst War Tiger, and turned tail to run.
That black something wasn’t a firecracker… because firecrackers aren’t black.
It was the black pollen he’d gathered from the Dark Man-Eating Flowers… the pollen marked in its attribute description as carrying a terrible, virulent poison.
(End of Chapter 42)