MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks

Li Yi circled the East temple a couple of times before consulting the mirror once more, he was shocked to find that Bloody Rose had logged off.

How sneaky.

“Brother Yi, I’m in deep shit…”

“Perverted Wing, I’m at the last stage of my quests. Come help me…”

Li Yi received two messages at the same time, one from Chen Yang and the other from Jiaojiao.

Jiaojiao was at a loss in completing the last quest for the job change, hence the request for help. Chen Yang, however, this fatso was different. He was sent to jail.

After Li Yi left, Chen Yang and Mimiya were deep in conversation. Of course, Fatty had to get a bit handsy. Fatty wanted to engage some virtual fun with Mimiya in Barren Land and while Mimiya hardly resisted, she did not agree nor reject the idea. Her play-to-get stance almost had Fatty dropping his pants. Mimiya wanted him to demonstrate his sincerity beforehand. Therefore, he gave her his staff and 200,000 Gold Coins…

“And Mimiya ran?” Li Yi sorta figured out what was going on.

“Cough cough, she didn’t. She’s not that kind of girl,” Chen Yang felt awkward. He then continued, “I then stripped her clothes off. She didn’t resist in the beginning, but who knew… I hadn’t even taken my clothes off when I passed out. When I came to, I was already sent to jail…”

“Serves you right!” Li Yi spat. He immediately demoted Chen Yang from Deputy Guild Master to Newbie Member.

Stripped off his role!

“Sob sob sob, Brother Yi, don’t be so harsh. I lost my staff and my 200,000 Gold Coins savings. I’ll lose face if you demote me.”

“What face do you still have? If my guess is right, the rumor about you raping Mimiya has spread across the web now.”

Li Yi tuned in to the forums, only to take one glance before turning it off.

“Major reveal! Brother of Perverted Wing, Tall and Mighty reveals himself.”

“Looking for fun in the game? Tall and Mighty’s here to show you some fun.”

Over ten scandalous posts about Chen Yang were trending at the top. It was obviously the work of Arthur’s Empire.

“Sob sob sob, my reputation’s ruined. Three Orc chicks wanna split with me. Brother Yi, what should I do?”

“Scram!”

He had already warned Fatty to keep his guard up around Mimiya. Yet, this Fatty was thinking with his groin and dismissed his words. How could he not be pissed?

“Clean up your own shit. Keep in mind that you’re one of the key members of Little Drunk Cat. It can happen once but never a second time!”

Li Yi took off his goggles and went offline.

Putting one’s hands on someone else in a non-consensual situation and not stopping despite warnings would earn one a week’s jail time. Chen Yang was just looking for trouble…

Li Yi went upstairs to look for Jiaojiao.

Although he never went through the final stage of Black Paladin class change, he has read a lot about it online. He could guide her in the game but of course, what could be better than guiding in real life?

Li Yi pressed on the doorbell twice before he was greeted by a smiling Jiaojiao.

“Come on in, I’ve been at it for half the day now.”

Jiaojiao tugged on Li Yi’s hand, hurriedly pulling him in.

What was going on today? What was with the enthusiasm?

Li Yi followed in, completely baffled.

“Oh, Lil Yi’s here,” said Jiaojiao’s mother, Xie Qin happily, as she sat in the living room.

Li Yi quickly greeted, “Hello, Aunty Qin.”

Jiaojiao blinked at Li Yi with glee, as if saying that he would not have any chances in making any advances.

Er, no wonder she was excited…

Jiaojiao put on her goggles and logged back in the game. Xie Qin was sitting on the left while Li Yi was sitting on the right.

Black Paladin’s final trial venue was in the Realm of Cassius’ Will. The opponent was none other than Cassius!

Cassius has been tormented by dark powers and has lost himself since. He harbored ulterior motives in aiding players to switch class to Black Paladin. He was going to rob a player of their body and reincarnate when players were at the final stage of the job change.

Alas, his wish would never come true or Black Paladin class would not have existed in Pantheon to begin with.

Cassius was powerful and wielded all the skills of a Black Paladin. Equipped on him was an Epic-level Fallen Monarch equipment set. Its attributes were enough to make every Black Paladin’s mouth water.

Cassius was at Level 100 but because he possessed no flesh and was exists only through his soul, his powers had declined by a large margin, putting him on par with a regular Level 60 player.

If the job change was done at a higher level, they would be toying with Cassius already. However, this is not the case for Jiaojiao. She was only at Level 43, so battling a Level 60 Cassius would pose a challenge.

“Are you familiar with Black Paladin’s skills? You must remember one thing in your duel with Cassius — Avoid his Mortal Strike at all cost.”

[Mortal Strike: Deals 150% damage on the target and recovers 5-10% HP from damage dealt. Note: Any Curse of Darkness on target will increase Mortal Strike’s effect by 10%.]

“I know, the Mortal Strike he unleashes will bind me with darkness. I won’t be able to dodge then.”

“You should first cast Darkness Immunity Curse and Blood Immunity Curse. Do them both. When he’s done with Mortal Strike and sucking your HP, you do the same to him.”

“He takes 700+ of mine while I’ll only take 100+ of his…”

“Just dodge him whenever you can. He won’t be casting Mortal Strike continuously. When your Runes cooldown is over, you can do Mortal Strike three times, right?”

“Uh huh uh huh…”

In the screen, Jiaojiao was waving her Rune Greatsword about as she barged forward. Completing the previous few quests had gained Jiaojiao an almost complete starter Black Paladin equipment set. Equipped in Black Armor and Black Boots, all she lacked was a helmet.

Cassius let out a terrifying laugh. He rode on a black Warhorse with white-flaming hooves as he wielded his Rune Greataxe, charging towards her.

“Death’s Grasp!”

“Death’s Grasp!”

Jiaojiao and Cassius applied an ass-dragging skill at the same time, canceling out each other.

“Great job!” Li Yi complimented Jiaojiao.

Death’s Grasp’s function was to hinder an enemy, restraining the enemy from any movements for three seconds. It would have been a hard battle, if Jiaojiao had not used Death’s Grasp earlier to cancel it out, it would have allowed Cassius to beat her up for three seconds.

Black Paladin was not proficient in any advancing techniques such as Charge so the battle was moving along at a slow tempo.

Cassius pounced at Jiaojiao, swinging his ax and casting Darkness Immunity Curse.

Black Paladin’s Darkness Immunity Curse was a constant skill, reducing target’s HP every three seconds while at the same time, dropping the target’s attributes. A Level 1 Darkness Immunity Curse lasted for nine seconds while at Level 20, it lasted for 30 seconds.

Li Yi promptly yelled, “Dodge!”

Jiaojiao leaned to the side, successfully evading Cassius’ Darkness Immunity Curse. Cassius’ Rune Greataxe then turned blood red. Here came the Blood Immunity Curse.

Blood Immunity Curse shared a similar effect to Darkness Immunity Curse, the only difference being the reduction of SPD in place of attributes.

Jiaojiao tumbled on the ground, neatly dodging Blood Immunity Curse.

“Beautiful work!”

Li Yi did not think that Jiaojiao was this skillful, playing as a Black Paladin.

Cassius raised his Rune Greataxe up high, unleashing Undead hordes.

Pft pft pft pft pft—

Curls and curls of black smoke shot from the ground. Twenty ghouls crept out.

Though the size of Cassius’ Undead hordes may not compare to Moigne’s in Dwelling of the Undead, these twenty agile ghouls moved as a pack. Jiaojiao was feeling the pressure now.

“Run!”

Jiaojiao turned the other way to make a run for it. A streak of black smoke caught her foot, pinning her on the spot.

Dark Binding!

Twenty ghouls made a dash towards Jiaojiao. Half her HP was gone in an instant.

“Don’t panic. Cast double curses. Infect and Mortal Strike!”

By keeping a calm and steady hand at crucial moments like this, disaster could still be averted.

Jiaojiao hit up double curses on a ghoul who then infected the other ghouls around it before she unleashed Mortal Strike.

[-1256]

[+122]

[-1543]

[+156]

Two rounds of Mortal Strikes recovered 300+ of Jiaojiao’s HP. Although it was not much, at least two ghouls were killed at the same time.

Jiaojiao’s Rune Greatsword was emanating black smoke as it swung towards the ghouls.

A Black Paladin’s AOE skill — Dark Strike!

[-976] damage emerged on top of the ghoul with a direct hit of Dark Strike. The black smoke expanded sideways, dealing [-532] damage on other nearby ghouls.

Dark Strike was useful to strike all targets within the 15-yard radius.

With one Dark Strike move over, her Rune energy was on cooldown. Jiaojiao swiftly turned and fled, with ghouls and Cassius hot on her tail.

She must keep her cool. The last stage of the Black Paladin quest was not difficult. As long as she is familiar with all skills, changing class at Level 40 was doable!

Jiaojiao stopped intermittently as she went, casting Mortal Strike to recover HP after the Rune’s cooldown was over. She immediately felt a load lift off her shoulders when all ghouls were defeated.

She only had 4,500 HP while Cassius boasted as high as 2,000,000 HP. Other classes would not be able to battle it out this long.

Mortal Strike! Mortal Strike!

Although the HP recovery was not much, she could use it every ten seconds. Black Paladins were coined Perpetual Motion Machines for this very skill.

No need for healers whether running dungeons or going solo. Self-reliant, high ATK, powerful buffs. Flawless in every way, except for one thing — highly unattainable equipment.

Cassius was on a roll. Undead hordes. Dark Binding. Death’s Grasp. He was different from players. As a proto-Black Paladin, his skills did not have a cooldown period so he could use as much as he pleased.

Players have but only one name for a monster like Cassius who has free-range use of his skills.

Demigod!

“Undead hordes!”

“Undead hordes!”

“Die! Huahahahahahaha! Give your body up to me. I, Cassius, will rule this world!”

Jiaojiao and Li Yi were gobsmacked by the two Undead hordes released by Cassius.

By then, Cassius was left with 300,000 HP…