MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks

There were at least ten thousand types of equipment within King of Pantheon, and a lot of them were special equipment, which includes Trickery Ring and Undead’s Necklace of Natural Disaster.

Since there was a multitude of dungeons in the early game with weak monsters, players wore all sorts of equipment and their equipment was very diversified. However, when the game reached its middle phase, this phenomenon gradually declined. Although there was still plenty of equipment to choose from, the equipment that could truly unleash one’s true potential were few and far between.

The Tier 1 Equipment Set of each class was the strongest equipment sets that players could equip before reaching Level 60. The Devil’s Hunter Set that Li Yi was currently equipping was one such set.

However, once the Light and Dark Instances were released, the Tier 1 Equipment Sets that symbolized strength were slowly replaced by the Tier 2 Equipment Sets, Light Equipment Set and Dark Equipment Set.

These two equipment sets could only be obtained within the Light and Dark Instances. Furthermore, they did not drop within the five-man Small Instance Dungeons and there were only two viable methods in obtaining these Tier 2 Equipment Sets.

The first: Grind the dungeons endlessly to accumulate Light Pearls or Dark Pearls. Once enough pearls have been collected, the player would need to exchange them for the T2 Equipment Sets with a specified NPC.

The second: Enter a Party-level Instance Dungeon and obtain the Tier 2 Equipment Set directly by slaying the boss.

Even after clearing five Small Instance Dungeons, players would only be able to exchange for three sets of Tier 2 Equipment Sets at most. Moreover, the time it took for clearing the dungeon was quite long and unless they grinded it for three to five months, they would never be able to complete their sets. Thus, there was only one way to quickly obtain the Equipment Sets, that is, by Clearing a Party-level Instance Dungeon!

Light Conference was the first Party-level Instance Dungeon of the Light and Dark Instances, and it contained three bosses within. The first two bosses only dropped accessories, whereas the headpiece and chest piece of the Tier 2 Equipment could only be obtained from the final boss.

The Mixed Equipment Set that Li Yi wore was reasonably powerful. His primary weapon was the Gift of the Hunter Goddess, the Wrath of the Stars.

His secondary weapon was the Goddess of Hurricane’s Rage, also known as Wind Sword.

His belt was Zangila’s Poison Belt.

His necklace was Hamar’s Pierced Bone Necklace, which was looted from Night Moon.

He wore two rings, Trickery Ring and Maylia’s Ring of Windstorms.

His Special Accessory was Orlando’s Charity, which was looted from Arthur and Black Dragon’s Cloak, which was an Epic-level Cape.

Coupled with four pieces of the Tier 1 Devil Hunter’s Equipment Set (Li Yi lacked the Devil Hunter’s shoes), his Gear Score was a terrifying number of 200 points.

Under the assumption that the other players have not obtained any Tier 2 Equipment Sets, their Gear Score was only around 110 and Li Yi was 90 points ahead of them. The discrepancy between them was not a simple matter of 1 plus 1, with each increase in Gear Score, the character’s attributes would receive a massive upgrade. With an advantage of 90 levels, the gap between Li Yi and the others was astronomical, to say the least.

The equipment that Li Yi possessed could be considered as the best equipment within Level 100. However, his Mixed Equipment Set was not the be all end all of the equipment. Based on the statistics that Pantheon’s Official Forum posted in his past life, it clearly stated that the maximum Gear Score of equipment obtainable below Level 100 was 300 points!

Even for someone as powerful as Li Yi, he was still 100 points away…

The attributes of Tier 2 Equipment Sets were powerful, but the biggest boon was not the increase in offensive capability. Instead, it was the considerable boost in Defense and HP. Just by equipping five pieces of Tier 2 Equipment would increase the Gear Score by 210 points, and by pairing it up with some minor legendary gold-colored equipment, his gear score would easily break through the boundary of 300 points. If he replaced all of his non-armor equipment into purple ones, his Gear Score would be increased even further.

The Party-level Instance Dungeons within the Light and Dark Instances were very difficult. The instances were already released for nearly two months, but only the first boss of Light Conference could be slain and there was no progress with the other bosses. Furthermore, two Large-sized Party-level Instance Dungeons awaited behind Light Conference, and their difficulty was another whole new level…

Li Yi chose an apt time for Throne-claiming, it was not too early, and it was not too late as it began right as the players finished upgrading their equipment and before they were able to obtain Tier 2 Equipment Sets.

If he had waited until Tier 2 Equipment Sets became the norm, he would no longer be able to carry out his plan. Taking the arrow towers as an example, their fire arrows could reach a maximum damage of 5,000, but if it had landed on a player with Tier 2 Equipment Set, it would only deal 1,000 damage.

There was a clear divide between Tier 1 and Tier 2 Equipment Sets. To stand at the apex of the Pantheon World, players would need to be a step ahead in obtaining equipment!

Light Conference was a 200-man Party-level Instance Dungeon, and the monsters within were all spawned from the Church of Light.

The scene at the dark Earth Palace was both gloomy and terrifying. Before it laid a horde with over 500 members of the Church of Light, which halted the players’ advance.

Light Conference was not a huge dungeon by any means and there were not many monsters. Once the horde and the three bosses were defeated, the dungeon would be considered cleared. Thus, it was designated as the easiest dungeon among all five Party-level Instance Dungeons.

The Church of Light’s horde was massive and there were only 200 players. The odds of beating the horde head-on was little to none and worse still, all of them refused to be ‘Misled’, which crossed out the option of exploiting the bug.

After two months of research, the players have finally conceived an appropriate strategy, which is to attack while moving.

The players ran around as they launched their attacks at the horde, which gradually reduced their numbers.

In a situation where they were unable to hold down their enemies, this strategy was the only viable one.

Before the battle had begun, Pretty Good Mood explained their strategy. Little Drunk Cat Guild had already defeated the first boss several days ago. Needless to say, they had already defeated the 500 or so Paladins that stood before them several times.

“Make sure not to separate when you’re moving. The Curse Priests will lead the way, followed by the DPS. The main tanks would form a human wall at the end to halt the assault of the Paladins. Whoever has any ideas, speak up now.”

“Mood, we’ve already been through this, so you don’t need to blabber on. Let’s just get up and destroy them!” Jiaojiao raised her Rune Greatsword and swung it back and forth dangerously near Li Yi’s head.

Li Yi retorted, “My Queen, do you not know that it is the duty of a general to explain the strategy before a battle? Also, why are you always pointing your sword at me?”

“I wanted to know whether my sword or your head is harder.”

Li Yi was so irritated that he privately messaged her, “One of my body parts is rock hard, want to test that out?”

Jiaojiao stared at Li Yi with a pair of cute and innocent eyes, and asked curiously, “Which part?”

” My Lil Brother. 1 ”

“Scram!”

Pretty Good Mood smiled, “Clan Master Jiao, your role is to protect our healers when the battle begins. If they’re afflicted by Repent, just slash your sword to dispel it and if they die, use Death’s Grasp to grab them back, understood?”

“Understood!” Jiaojiao nodded her head enthusiastically.

“Little Elf, some of our members are short-legged, so they won’t be moving as fast. Make sure to use Miracle of Wind later on.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Dark Wing, your role to is to lay down traps to slow down the monsters. If you’re able to deal some damage, please do so, but don’t overdo it. You’ll be at fault if the monsters get riled up.”

“Understood!”

Pretty Good Mood took on an awkward expression, saying “That just leaves me then. Don’t revive me if I die. Little Elf is the only person on our party that is able to carry out a Battle Resurrection. Thus, it is of utmost importance, so make sure not to waste it on me.”

“We already know.” There were at least 100 people nodding their heads.

Pretty Good Mood nodded his head, “Alright if nobody has anything to add, we’ll begin the battle in five minutes. Time to buff up! Holy Paladins cast Intellect, Holy Shield Paladins cast Protection, Punishment Paladins cast Punishment…”

The party set out to work, dousing everyone in various colors of lights and buffing them up.

The support classes had the greatest number of buffs to apply, whereas a DPS class such as the Archer class had very little buffs. With only three rings of lights that were activated at a wave of their hand, their skill will last considerably longer.

However, there existed a class that was even more absurd than the Archers, which was none other than Lady Jiaojiao’s Black Paladin.

Black Paladins did not have any buffs, so Jiaojiao sat down and watched the others in a daze.

After five minutes, the battle began in earnest.

The long-ranged classes launched their attacks at the horde. The 500 or so paladins shouted their battle cries and charged forward. Li Yi was the first to intercept them as he laid down two traps, Poison Ivy Trap and Frost Trap below their feet.

“Repelling Arrow Skill!”

After he finished laying down his traps, he attacked while moving back and he continuously used Repelling Arrow to shoot back the Paladins that stood at the front.

In that instant, the party’s main tanks ran ahead to form their human wall. They put their shields together and blocked the Paladin Horde’s advance.

Unending Unmatched stood at the center of the human wall. He displayed an amazing performance as he used the repelling effect of his Megashield to send the paladins flying back.

The healers began to heal and the damage dealers began to attack. With the main tanks steadily holding off the enemy’s advance, the battle was progressing quite well.

These Paladin monsters had 50,000 HP each. They were all elite monsters and they could use irritating skills such as Repentance and Holy Light Impact.

Repentance would cause players to Repent for one minute. During this time, players are not allowed to use any other skills and if nobody was present to aid them, they would need to rely on special skills to dispel the status.

Holy Light Impact was also an annoying skill. It only takes one second to cast and it was only available to Punishment Paladins. A ray of Holy Light would burst forth from the Paladin’s body when they raise their hammer and the players that were caught in it would enter a state of Blindness for 20 seconds.

The Paladin monsters would usually target Repent at the party’s healers, whereas Holy Light Impact was usually aimed at the main tanks.

Jiaojiao brandished her Rune Greatsword and continuously swung it at the healers that were affected by Repent to dispel it.

Jiaojiao was now Level 55, which was something worth being happy over. However, something annoyed her, and that was the Rune Greatsword that Li Yi gave her. As her level increased, the greatsword increased in size as well…

She used to be able to wield it in one hand, but now, the Rune Greatsword’s volume was now larger than her own. When she ran, she needed to hold it with both hands and even then, she had to drag it on the floor…

“Clan Master Jiao, your sword looks so cool.”

“Speak for yourself, I’m so tired of it…”

The Paladin monsters continuously fell, and gaps began to form within the human wall. Moreover, the retreating attackers were also starting to separate…

“Gather up, don’t split up! Everyone, gather at the big biscuit!”

Pretty Good Mood placed a big biscuit marking on Jiaojiao’s head and bellowed.

Li Yi placed multiple traps along the path and followed closely behind the human wall. He had already summoned Violent Bear King to replace a fallen main tank warrior, effectively producing a Bear Barrier!

“Holy Light Impact!”

The Paladin monsters suddenly shrieked and held their weapons high. They let out a flash of holy light and illuminated the dark Earth Palace as if it was suddenly day.

‘F*ck it! Why did they unleash this skill at the same time?”

Most of them were unable to dodge in time and were hit by the skill. With them robbed of their vision, the recently assembled party was now thrown into disarray once more…

…