MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks

“Mel…”

Lawson yelled out in rage and unleashed Holy Light Impact to deal -1,000 damage on the four women.

“Don’t move and don’t fight back!”

Barked Li Yi as he dismissed Violent Bear King. He then summoned Lightning Leopard to attack Lawson.

Without Mel, Lawson was finished. Lawson would only utilize Holy Light Impact when his emotions ran high and would blame himself thereafter. He still held true to his principle of not striking a woman.

Li Yi needed not to move an inch as he focused solely on shooting arrows…

Five minutes later, dummy Paladin Lawson collapsed. Through the whole fight, the four women only suffered Holy Light Impact once. Lawson had not laid a finger on them since.

However, it was still not over…

Mel struggled as she picked herself up, sacrificing her life to revive Lawson, “Live, my hero.”

“I will fight for you, my lady!”

Mel smiled at her lover as she breathed her last. Lawson got up from the ground with full HP, immediately casting a 12 second invincible Holy Shield and Redemption (Paladin’s Resurrection Spell) on Mel.

A ring of Holy Light descended upon Mel’s corpse but the outcome left Lawson with a breakdown. The Holy Light was not able to revive Mel. Instead, it crushed her corpse.

“No… No… No…”

Lawson cried out. His body transformed into a golden ray, streaking towards Mel. He grabbed the broken pieces of her corpse. His face was covered with tears and snot…

“We won’t need to fight him anymore, right…” Fire Ice clenched onto her staff, unable to bear the sight.

“No need now,” Li Yi shook his head.

Xu Man pursed her lips, “Although they’re monsters in the dungeon, this story’s just too heart-wrenching. Humph humph, I’m never going to clear this dungeon again.”

Li Yi shook his head, “Even if you’re not looking to find equipment here, we need to play this at least twice, to accumulate the Light and Dark talisman in order to clear this dungeon.”

“Light and Dark Talisman? What’s that?”

It was then, the Life Sacrificial Mel cast on Lawson dispersed, and the life left his body once more.

Li Yi pointed at Lawson’s corpse, “You’ll understand when you loot that corpse.”

Little Elf from the Magical Realm went ahead and looted. Ding! The five received a Notification.

[You’ve picked up a Sacred Talisman.]

Apart from Sacred Talismans for each of them, there were another three equipment dropped. All of them were of gold quality. A leather bracer for a Thief, a cloth belt for a Light Priest and a crescent flute for a Sky Vagabond.

The Thief equipment naturally went to Xu Man and her sister while Fire Ice took the leather belt. Little Elf from the Magical Realm switched her current equipment to the crescent flute.

“After a year of using a staff, I finally get to use a class weapon,” Little Elf from the Magical Realm was pleased with the crescent flute’s attributes, although there was a Level 50 requirement to equip Sky Vagabond weapons like the flute and piccolo.

“Lawson’s final death will lead to the drop of Sacred Talisman. We all will have one and it’s a permanent item. As for its function… You’ll find out later.”

“So we should let Mel die last the next time to obtain the Dark Talisman?” Xu Man came to a realization.

“Yes.” Li Yi nodded.

The most valuable item in the Man and Woman Instance Dungeon was the Light and Dark Talisman. If Mel died first, the Light Talisman would be dropped. The same concept applied vice versa for the Dark Talisman. Only one type of Talisman would be dropped at a time. Hence, they needed to play at least twice in order to collect both.

There was currently no attributes whatsoever indicated on the Sacred Talisman. It could not be equipped nor could it be used. This was due to incompleteness.

The dungeon’s first kill announcement made its mark once again. This time, the five lucked out. Apart from cash and Reputation Value, no one obtained additional Skill Points.

“Do we go on? I still have time.” Xu Man was in high spirits.

“We can’t even if we wanted to unless you’re interested in a Party-level Instance Dungeon. Don’t even think about the three five-man Small Instance Dungeon prior to collecting the Light and Dark Talismans.”

Xu Man asked, “So the key to clearing the remaining three Level 50, five-man Small Instance Dungeons lies on the Light and Dark Talismans?”

Li Yi smiled as he nodded.

The five Level 50 Small Instance Dungeons from Holy Light Redemption Instance Dungeon were the easiest. Proceeding further, there was a sequence of kills you had to follow, in order to obtain a designated item prior to advancing forward.

Those who were not familiar with these tricks would find themselves hitting a brick wall.

Experience in dungeons was taught about through countless TPKs. No matter how brilliant one was, it was all meaningless without any experience.

“That’s it for the day then, I’m heading to the conference.”

Li Yi nodded and announced the party’s disbandment.

“Don’t log off in the dungeon. If you’re gone for more than half an hour, you’ll be randomly teleported out when logging back on. If you have bad luck and get teleported to an enemy camp, you better pray your equipment doesn’t drop.”

The five followed the path from where they came from and exited Man and Woman Instance Dungeon. There was a teleportation stone located in the Eastern Continent camp’s stronghold, from the Dragonbone Waste map. They could return to the city by clicking on it.

Li Yi and the group had just walked out of the dungeon when Xu Man suddenly screamed. A pearl white blade flickered at her back. Pft pft pft. Her voluptuous bottom was stabbed three times before she met her demise.

“A Thief’s ambushing us. Watch out!”

Li Yi whistled to summon Lightning Leopard before promptly applying Camouflage on himself.

Little Elf from the Magical Realm was quick to react. She turned to run back into the dungeon. Fire Ice, on the other hand, had not even made a run for it when the same white blade flickered behind her. She too was pierced through her ass, instantly wiping her out.

“Tst tst—”

Li Yi’s activated Archery Omnipotence and detected it at the direction of the enemy, and immediately launched a series of attacks.

[-1134]

[-1345]

Eliminate!

With two arrows in, Li Yi swiftly went for the kill with Eliminate, hoping to take out the ambusher in an instant.

The ambushing Thief was fairly cunning, consuming an Advanced-level HP Potion after taking the first hit from Li Yi. By the second hit, he somersaulted and rolled over to Moonlight Ocean to use a bag of poison.

When a Thief was struck during Stealth, their bodies would be immediately exposed. However, this was not the case with this Poisonous Thief. After being shot by Li Yi, his body appeared for two seconds before entering back into Stealth mode.

Moonlight Ocean was ready to counter-attack but did not manage to dodge the incoming bag of poison, causing her limbs to stiffen.

This guy was using a strong stun poison!

Pft pft pft—

Another beautiful 3-stab combo left Moonlight Ocean’s bottom to bleed to death…

The Poisonous Thief made his third kill in less than 20 seconds.

Tst—

Li Yi’s Piercing Arrow fired again. He detected the enemy when Xu Man was killed yet he was able to kill another two in his presence. This time, he was utterly infuriated.

The Thief tumbled to evade the arrow, arching his back as he ran towards Li Yi.

“Pft! Pft!”

The lurking Lightning Leopard made its move, unleashing the two attack points it had been saving.

[-324]

[-231]

[-234]

A string of damage popped up above the Poisonous Thief, thus exposing his body. It was less than two seconds before his figure disappeared again.

Unlimited Stealth! Could it be him?

A person popped into mind. Li Yi went for Camouflage and placed a Frost Trap beneath his feet before leaping up high. The surface of his body shone brightly golden as countless arrows shot in all directions.

“Shoot at Random!”

Pft! Pft!

The Poisonous Thief was taking hit after hit, yet he played it smart. He managed to avoid the Frost Trap and tossed flying daggers at Li Yi, intending to disrupt his Shoot at Random skill.

His flying dagger landed true, but it did not disrupt Li Yi’s shots. Li Yi had drunk a bottle of Hegemonic Body Potion, disabling all interruptions.

The Poisonous Thief’s HP was falling fast. He turned to escape but Lightning Leopard caught up and clawed him. He was about to be clawed to death when suddenly, a Wind Gun hit him and blasted open the Poisonous Thief’s chest. It was instant death.

The person who ambushed with Wind Gun was none other than Little Elf from the Magical Realm.

Little Elf from the Magical Realm resurrected Fire Ice who then, in turn, resurrected Xu Man and her sister.

The attack on the girls came without warning. Only Li Yi knew why the Poisonous Thief was after them.

This was not a coincidence, it was a carefully-plotted ambush.

Li Yi played a Cyclone Thief in the past life and although he was quite a strong contender then, he was not the best of the Thief class. He had wins and losses during PK. He did have a high winning rate but it was not enough to be considered unrivaled. He was an Emperor amongst the Thieves but above him, stood three Gods of the Thieves.

Cyclone Thief of the Western Continent, God of Massacre in the Shadows — Bloody Rose!

Explosive Thief of the Southern Continent, God of Massacre with a Thousand Faces — Jiggly!

Poisonous Thief of the Southern Continent, Untraceable God of Death — Hostile Mutilation!

There was only one Thief equipped with unlimited Stealth and that was Untraceable God of Death — Hostile Mutilation!

Hostile Mutilation’s identity had always been a mystery but his actions did not earn him a good reputation. Often enough, he would kill women and alt accounts without reason. His MO was always striking the butt. Hence, prior to becoming god, he had an elegant title — Ass-busting Thief.

Li Yi had harbored a major interest in this person with sharp skills and unlimited Stealth in the past life. He had tried to contact him a couple of times but always ended up dead. He never won once.

There were not many Thieves who could commit consecutive kills in Li Yi’s presence. Top that off with the iconic unlimited Stealth, Li Yi easily identified the culprit.

Many players were livid, seeing Li Yi achieve three first kills in a day. Perhaps Hostile Mutilation was one of them?

The Untraceable God of Death of the Pantheon Board, they have finally met!

Li Yi disappeared into Camouflage, keeping an eye on Hostile Mutilation’s corpse. Although he was far from the freak god he was in the past life, he was still a potential threat judging from his successful three consecutive kills.

Tst tst—

Li Yi estimated the time in his head before aiming another two shots at Hostile Mutilation’s corpse. His arrows were about to strike when Hostile Mutilation suddenly got up.

Pft! Pft!

Two direct hits!

Hostile Mutilation gave a dull grunt, collapsing back to the ground. A purple glow dropped from his body.

“Beautiful work! How invigorating!” Hostile Mutilation’s death relieved part of Xu Man’s disgruntlement.

Little Elf from the Magical Realm was quick to react, running over the moment of Hostile Mutilation fell to pick up the shortsword with the purple glow. She dangled it before the other four.

“Item’s out.”

[Curse Blade (Epic-level)]

[Equipment level: 1 (500 AGI requirement)]

[Sub-equipment]

[220-387 damage]

[+200 AGI]

[+100 END]

[Special effect: Certain likelihood for hit target to be cursed, reducing 10% of their attributes for 20 seconds.]

[Special effect: ATK SPD increase by 50%.]

[Note: This is a sacrificial blade of the Cursing Sect…]

…