The Black Sin Lotus was a precious alchemy ingredient and the vital ingredient to concoct the Legendary Black Sin Potion. Its value was astronomical!
The monsters lurking below the water's surface were at minimum Level 40 while the Black Sin Lotus sprouted roughly 60 meters away from the shore. It was much more difficult fighting in water than on land, so obtaining it wouldn't be easy.
"Should we swim?" Yao Yao asked. With the Black Sin Lotus sitting far off in the middle of the lake, she believed the only way to reach it was by treading into these calm waters.
Nie Yan shook his head. "Hold on a second." He walked over to the lake's edge and looked down, whereupon he saw a shadow in the water swimming towards him. His heart shook, and he quickly recoiled back.
With a large number of powerful monsters lurking below the surface, obtaining the Black Sin Lotus would prove quite the challenge.
It would've taken them over 6 hours just to get to this place if they hadn't taken a shortcut by jumping down the sinkhole. On their journey, they would've been delayed time and time again by the monsters that lurked around every corner.
Nie Yan summoned his pet Golden Dragon. Right now, Lil' Gold was already quite strong. Enough so, to help him hunt monsters.
As a brilliant beam of light descended, a large Golden Dragon appeared before them.
"This is the Golden Dragon pet?" Yao Yao asked in amazement. She gently rubbed Lil' Gold's scales with her slender hands.
Lil' Gold's scales had a rough texture with a metallic shine. These scales were even more resilient than metal armour!
"Mhmm. I'll go lure some mobs," Nie Yan said. He walked up to a wall with his Cavalry Crossbow, then took aim at a shadow swimming in the lake.
He accounted for the refraction and fired.「Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!」Five bolts flew out in quick succession and struck the shadow, causing a gush of blood to dye the water red.
The shadow charged toward Nie Yan and leapt out of the water with a giant splash.
Nie Yan could finally see the appearance of the monster. It was about the size of a large grizzly bear with a muscular upper body. It was covered in black scales, had two sharp horns growing out of its head, and wielded a 5-meter onyx-coloured pitchfork.
Black Horned Devil (Leader): Level 40
Health: 9,000/9,000
Even though it was only a Leader-class monster, Nie Yan didn't relax. This monster was a far greater adversary than one might think on first glance.
Nie Yan quickly opened some distance and fired out another round of bolts from his Cavalry Crossbow.
「Put! Put! Put!」Another five bolts struck their target in quick succession.
−121
−112
−100
−115
−106
A string of damage values floated up above the Black Horned Devil's head as it lost a sizeable chunk of its health.
Lil' Gold opened his maw and spewed out a mouthful of Dragon Breath at the Black Horned Devil.「Boom!」It left a large scorch mark on the Black Horned Devil's chest.
−529 A frightening damage value floated up into the air! Even Nie Yan was taken aback. He never expected Lil' Gold's damage to have already caught up to his own.
On second thought, Nie Yan understood why Lil' Gold's damage was so high. It was because Dragon Breath was a skill that ignored armour! The formula the system used to calculate damage was extremely complicated. It included several factors such as the type of attack, armour type, level disparity, and so on.
For example, Nie Yan's crossbow dealt 160% bonus damage to cloth and leather-armoured targets. Against plate-armoured opponents, this bonus was reduced to 50%. Lil' Gold's Dragon Breath was classified as a Chaos-type attack. It dealt 200% true damage to all targets. This was why the Black Horned Devil took so much damage despite the large level discrepancy.
Dark Binding!
Shadows crept up from the ground, tightly locking down Nie Yan. The Black Horned Devil had bound him, leaving him unable to move an inch.
Just as Yao Yao was about to come to the rescue by casting Dispel, Nie Yan shouted, "Cast Radiant Barrier on Lil' Gold!"
Yao Yao waved her staff, casting Radiant Barrier on Lil' Gold as a pure and holy membrane of light enveloped him.
Yao Yao's reaction speed was comparable to a top-ranking expert's.
Not a moment later, the Black Horned Devil charged straight for Lil' Gold and stabbed at him with its giant pitchfork.
「Klang!」Lil' Gold was pushed back several steps as the pitchfork struck the scales on his belly, causing sparks to fly everywhere. Thanks to the protection of the Radiant Barrier, Lil' Gold's defenses were bolstered considerably and he only took around 170 damage.
If it wasn't for Yao Yao's Radiant Barrier, Lil' Gold would have suffered far greater damage.
Lil' Gold was unfazed. He charged forward and swiped at the Black Horned Devil. Although this was only an ordinary attack, its damage was nothing to scoff at.
Yao Yao unleashed a barrage of spells at the Black Horned Devil, causing a string of damage values to float up above its head.
After Shadow Bind wore off, Nie Yan blurred into motion and reappeared behind the Black Horned Devil, striking out with Backstab followed by Eviscerate.
The Black Horned Devil roared out in anger and rammed itself against Lil' Gold.
Soon the battle reached its climax. Yao Yao rapidly condensed a ball of light in her left palm. When it could no longer get any smaller, she waved her staff and sent it flying at the Black Horned Devil.「Bang!」It stumbled back several meters.
−607 An astonishing damage value rose up above its head.
With a miserable screech, the Black Horned Devil collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud.
Yao Yao's last attack even shocked Nie Yan.
"Was that Holy Blast?" Nie Yan asked, dazed. Holy Blast had some distinctive traits, so he could barely recognize it.
Yao Yao nodded affirmatively. This was a skill she bought from a professional player for a hefty fee.
Holy Blast was one of the most powerful skills available to a Holy Mage at lower levels. It was something that would still be useful up until Level 50! But it was very hard to find a Holy Mage with this skill due to the low drop rate for its skill book.
Nie Yan never thought Yao Yao would even have Holy Blast. This aroused his suspicions. Without a deep background, ordinary players would be hard-pressed to collect such good equipment and skills. He had a thorough understanding of Yao Yao's abilities. Although she was an excellent player in her own right, she wasn't skilled enough to obtain gear and skills of this quality by her lonesome self. He began wondering what sort of background she possessed.
However, Nie Yan quickly threw it to the back of his mind. It was best he focused on the matter at hand, the Karsi's Blessing quest, before letting his mind be clouded with curiosity.
Nie Yan walked up to the Black Horned Devil's corpse to pick up its drops. There was a blueprint for a piece of Level 40 Gold equipment and a Gold headband. To his surprise, it had the rare level requirement reduction property, allowing it to be worn at Level 30!
Dark Ceremonial Headband (Gold)
Requirements: Level 40
Properties: Defense 32-38, Health +30, reduces level requirement by 10 if the user's Intelligence is over 260.
Restrictions: Female Holy Mage, can only be equipped by a member of the Righteous Faction.
Head ornaments were pieces of equipment that could only be worn by female players. This was the system giving them some preferential treatment. Thanks to this extra equipment slot, they usually had slightly higher defenses than their male counterparts.
However, because they were auxiliary equipment, their attribute bonuses were low by default. This Dark Ceremonial Headband's bonuses were already fairly high.
"It's better than the one I'm wearing," Yao Yao observed. It was quite rare to encounter a head ornament with such high properties.
"Take it," Nie Yan said as he sent a trade request.
Yao Yao equipped the Dark Ceremonial Headband. She spun around in a circle, then asked, "Nirvana Flame, how do I look?"
She wore her new head ornament as a decoration, sticking it into her hair to give the black hairband some stripes. It added an extra layer of mysteriousness to her charm, giving her a rather distant aura.
Nie Yan slightly nodded. "Not bad." Yao Yao was so pretty that no matter what she wore, she would never look bad.
Hearing Nie Yan's compliment, Yao Yao's face brightened with a smile.
"I'll go lure the next mob." Nie Yan hurriedly excused himself. He had to admit that Yao Yao was an outstanding beauty.
Nie Yan walked to the lake's edge. He raised his crossbow and took aim. One Black Horned Devil after another was lured out of the water, and were subsequently killed by the three of them.
After buffing Lil' Gold with Radiant Barrier, he could even tank Level 40 Leader-class monsters like the Black Horned Devils. This allowed Nie Yan to have an even greater sense of appreciation for Lil' Gold's power. Although Lil' Gold required four times as much experience to level up as him at the same level, this was to be expected for such a powerful pet.
With Lil' Gold's terrifying growth rate, Nie Yan could hardly imagine how terrifying he would be at Level 100.
Noticing that Nie Yan was avoiding looking at her, Yao Yao revealed a sly smile. She felt the current him was quite amusing.
After half an hour or so, the trio cleared the entire lake of Black Horned Devils and confirmed there were no other monsters in the vicinity.
"Let's swim there together," Nie Yan suggested. Although it looked like they could just harvest the lotus after swimming there, he couldn't shake off this uncomfortable feeling in his mind. He had Yao Yao go with him as a precaution, so they could deal with any surprises together. For example, if another Black Horned Devil popped up, they could fight it together. After all, Nie Yan couldn't kill them by himself.
"Okay." Yao Yao nodded.
After Nie Yan unsummoned Lil' Gold, the two of them jumped into the ice-cold lake.
A cold gust of wind blew over the lake, causing ripples to form over the previously tranquil surface. It was as though a terrifying beast could pop out and swallow them whole at any given moment. However, as they looked down, all they could see was a pitch-black darkness. There was no way to get a clear view of what possibly lurked at the bottom. That was exactly why it instilled so much dread.
As the two of them swam through the lake, the Black Sin Lotus' pleasant aroma wafted over, causing them to subconsciously relax.