MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks

60 seconds!

Even if everyone gave out an average of 50,000 damage per second, the party would only deal about 500,000 damage every 10 seconds. That would still leave Eukana with around 4,600 HP when the countdown ended.

Out of the 10 party members, only Li Yi could pump out more than 50,000 damage per second, and the rest of them had a DPS that hovered around 40,000. Furthermore, the damage dealt by the two healers and the main tank could be totally neglected.

If they were unable to deal enough damage, the party would not take down Eukana within the 60-second time frame…

“Accept your deaths! Curse Storm!”

The 60 seconds had passed, and Eukana let out a feral howl. Tens of thousands of green orbs surged forth from her staff. The orbs melded into one in the blink of an eye, forming a giant green sphere that began expanding throughout his surroundings.

Curse Storm was a Territory Skill. It relied on magic entirely as a source of power. One could wield the skill for as long as they wanted should they have enough magic to power it. It was similar to how Vagabond’s Air Dance Technique worked.

Eukana’s Curse Storm engulfed the entire area, and it expanded at a rapid rate. The green orbs drifting in the air dashed and merged into the sphere one after another, increasing Curse Storm’s strength ceaselessly.

A mere 5 seconds later, all ten members of the party had been swallowed by Curse Storm.

Disorient, Weaken, Fear, Delay, Blood Stasis, and tens of other debuffs assailed the party, and even the Group Dispel that Nirvana Inaction had cast was powerless against the heavy assault.

They would continually be inflicted with various debuffs as long as they were caught within the Curse Storm.

Thus, the ten-membered party was obliterated…

This time, they had faced TPK when Eukana still had 26,000,000 HP left!

“Our damage wasn’t enough…”

They had all came to a unanimous conclusion for their TPK. Their output of TPK was insufficient.

The truth was the 7 players that Li Yi had picked all had a very decent output of DPS. The problem lied in Eukana’s strength. It was a Hell-level 8 Star difficulty boss. It did not matter that she had been a log of wood that remained stationary for the most part, there was still little hope of beating it even under the full-fledged assault from all 7 DPS.

This Hell-level 8 Star difficulty boss demanded too much from them.

“So, what should we do? Drink our potions at the start of the battle?”

“That won’t work. Our damage still won’t be enough.”

Ditching their main tank was a no-go, and so was ditching their healers. Their main problem right now was to devise a way to increase their DPS.

“How about drinking our elixirs?” Unending Unmatched suggested.

Every player could complete a one-time elixir quest which would award them with an elixir that was able to double the player’s ATK stats for a short period of time. However, the elixirs came with a penalty for using them. The player’s Attribute Points would be deducted randomly.

Li Yi shook his head. “Attribute Points are precious assets in the later games. Using the elixirs will be effective, but they aren’t worth it.”

“What can we do, then? It’s not like we can swap in new members now, right?” Confused Fox was at a loss as well.

“We’re definitely not switching out members. After all, we’ve already been training for days. How can we switch members now?” Li Yi said while pointing at Eukana, “Actually, there’s a way that we can increase our DPS, and that’s by attacking Eukana’s flaws. Something like attacking the parts where the chains had pierced through its body or maybe somewhere around the rim of its eyes.”

Confused Fox retorted, “The area’s so dark during Eternal Darkness though. I can’t even see anything without the green orbs. It’s great that we got to attack Eukana at all. Looking for its weaknesses in that environment is just plain absurd.”

“Yeah, I can’t even see anything. All my attacks are dealt based on sound.” Someone else commented.

“Wizards can lock onto their targets to attack. She would let out a pained wail when you hit her weak point. If that happens, just lock onto that spot and attack it constantly.”

“Oh, I see!”

Aside from Li Yi and Jiaojiao, all other DPS in the party were Wizards.

Li Yi checked the time. “We’re going to start the battle in 10 minutes. Let our skills cooldown for now.”

Waiting for cooldowns was the most excruciating part of the game. Bored, Li Yi opened up the official forum’s website and scrolled through it.

The Arena Championships had started, and the forum was littered with various threads about it. Since he was the champion previously, Li Yi could not participate in this season’s championship. He needed to wait for all four seasonal champions to emerge before he was able to participate in the annual season finale.

Unending Unmatched had participated in the second season of the Arena Championships, and he was currently at third place. He was the most likely to claim the title as the season’s champion. However, the two players above him were also powerful as well. Their accumulated points were always one step above him, and not once had he surpassed them.

‘If my memory serves, the champion of the second season should be—Defiant Zephyr!’

Li Yi had dug up the answer after going through his memories from his past life.

The second season’s rules were different from the first season’s. Players could register anonymously in the first season, but that no longer applied for the second season. The Ranking Board would tell everyone all they need to know about a player’s ranking and accumulated points.

The player who was currently at first place was A Bucket of Paste. Relying on the ‘Legendary-level’ accessory he had on him, he managed to defeat everyone who stood before him. No one could stop him.

On the other hand, the player at the second place was none other than Defiant Zephyr. Though his rankings might be lower than A Bucket of Paste’s, he had utterly crushed A Bucket of Paste just when the finals had begun. He was crowned the champion of the second season in the end.

A betting exchange was also implemented on the official forum, and the currency it used was Gold Coins. Players could place their bets from 1 to 10,000,000 Gold Coins at their own discretion.

The bookmaker for the betting exchange was a mysterious person. Her ID was ‘E Dance to its Knees’. She had publicly paid a deposit of 300 million Gold Coins at the opening quotation.

The bookmaker was wealthy and audacious, and though the wager was pricey, there was no fear of the bookmaker being unable to pay up. As such, there were many players who dared to place down their bets.

The moment Li Yi saw the bookmaker’s name, a faint smile crept onto his lips. Nobody knew it except for him, but the dealer, E Dance to its Knees, was an alias that Autumn Love used on the forum. He knew that was her ID because someone had exposed her back in his previous life.

“5,000,000 Gold Coins! My bet’s on Defiant Zephyr!”

Li Yi keyed in 5,000,000 Gold Coins and placed his bet on the thread. His wallet was immediately 5,000,000 Gold Coins lighter.

Initially, Li Yi wanted to place a bet of a hundred million Gold Coins. However, he changed his decision at the last second and only placed down 5,000,000 Gold Coins after recalling how miserable Black Autumn looked recently, treating the whole bet as a side venture.

10 minutes had passed. It was time to go after Li Yi had placed down his bet.

“Let’s go!”

Unending Unmatched ran onto the metal chains, initiating the battle once more.

This time, everyone had aimed their attacks on Eukana’s weak points, and their DPS really did skyrocket. The Wizards had always been one of the best classes at dealing damage in the game, and now that they had discovered a way to exploit this fact, there was no way that their damage would be low.

Among the many paths in the Wizard class, the Arcane Wizards were the most brain-dead one. With Arcane Missile and Arcane Impact at their disposal, they could easily rack up insane damage just by using these two spells in tandem. In contrast, the path with the most complex mechanics was the Fire Wizard. Naturally, the Fire path’s damage was the highest compared to all the other paths.

Several hundred green orbs drifted out, and the party dodged them effortlessly. They had already been training for days, and if they committed such a simple mistake now, they would be unworthy to claim the title of ‘Top-tier Players’.

By the time Little Elf from the Magical Realm activated Wind Miracle, 6 of the DPS were already dealing over 50,000 damage per second. The Orange-quality-bow-wielding Archer, Li Yi, was dealing much higher damage of 70,000+ per second.

“Enough is enough! I will not tolerate these childish games any longer. None of you have the strength to challenge Medusa. I have had enough!”

Eukana suddenly let out a thunderous howl in the darkness. It lifted its staff and began its incantation.

“Ancient Dark…”

[Warning! Curse Storm will be unleashed in the next 60 seconds!]

The team-wiping forbidden spell was going to appear again, but Eukana was only left with 28,000,000 HP this time. They would have no problems taking it down within the 60 seconds!

“Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!”

After chugging down her potions, Jiaojiao brandished her greatsword and initiated a close-range battle with Eukana. She had consumed the Super Antidote that would allow her to use Mortal Strike to recover her HP, so she had no problem fighting close-range battles.

“Curse you… I’ll curse all of you…”

Eukana’s HP declined drastically, was unable to prevent the death that awaited her despite her constant howling.

“What amazing strength. Maybe, just maybe, all of you could really take down Medusa…”

Eukana’s wailed painfully, and the Eternal Darkness debuff vanished after she slammed her staff down.

“Why isn’t it dead?” Confused Fox fired off a chain of Arcane Missiles in bewilderment.

Eukana had yet to die. It still had 1 remaining HP. No matter how the party attacked it, the 1 HP refused to disappear.

Li Yi remarked, “It’s probably already dead. We’re probably in the cutscene now.”

“Damned Medus. I’m so frustrated that I can’t see her die in person!”

Eukana let out a pained cry all of a sudden. Then, the HP above her head rapidly recovered.

All attacks that they had dealt before were futile!

“The f*ck? Is it trolling us?!”

Confused Fox was enraged, and he let loose a barrage of Arcane Missiles.

Nobody was able to stop it. Eukana’s HP rose rapidly, and it was already full before long.

“Outsiders, all of you are really impressive. Though I cannot see how you look, I feel that Medusa will die by your hands.”

Eukana did not attack them. Furthermore, her crimson name had turned green. It was a sign of an NPC becoming ‘Friendly’!

Eukana continued to speak and narrated the entire story of how Medusa backstabbed her. It was truly as what Li Yi had expected—they had triggered a cutscene.

“I want to personally experience Medusa’s death. Outsiders, would you fulfill my request?”

As the leader, Li Yi was presented with two options.

Li Yi accepted the request.

“Hahahaha, I thank all of you…”

Eukana burst into laughter, and her body vanished. A mirror, a staff, and a black robe appeared on the ground.

They did not need to loot any corpses this time. The loot had dropped directly.

“Outsiders, I have poured my spirit into the Mirror of Amplification. My heart’s desire would be granted as long as you wield this mirror when you kill Medusa.”

Eukana’s voice echoed out of the Mirror of Amplification, and Li Yi walked up to collect it.

[Eukana’s Cursed Staff (Purple Quality)]

[Equipment Level: Level 100]

[+3500 ATK]

[+1200 WIL]

[+600 INT]

[Special Effect: The potency of all Curse Spells are raised by 50%.]

[Special Effect: 10% chance of triggering Curse of Darkness when attacking.]

…

[Eukana’s Cursed Robes (Purple Quality)]

[Equipment Level: Level 100]

[+500 M-DEF]

[+200 END]

[+600 WIL]

[Special Effect: Increases duration of Curse Spells by an additional 5 to 10 seconds.]

[Special Effect: Fixed chance of spells being undispellable when cast.]

…

There were two Level 100 Purple Quality Equipment, and both of them were equipment for Curse Priests. Also, the Mirror of Amplification that was imbued with Eukana’s soul was totally different from the one that was dropped in the normal mode.

[Mirror of Amplification (Orange Quality, Special Tool)]

[Equipment Level: Level 100]

[Function: Repels all magic damage. Cooldown time: 1 hour!]

There was no restriction to the kind of dungeons it could be used in. Li Yi’s conjecture was correct!