BXBX NOVEL Chapter 48: I’ll Crush Your Skull
In a guild headquarters, the conference room was an iconic addition, with an NPC named "Guild Manager" standing at the corner of the entrance.
The NPC hid himself rather well, and had a vulgar appearance. Once he saw the eight of them enter, he greeted them from afar: "Esteemed warriors of Quan Zhen Sect, congratulations on your victorious return. I’m the manager here. Can I help you with anything?"
"We’re here to collect rewards." Fearless stepped forward to explain.
Nodding his head, Guild Manager replied: "You guys eliminated the Band of Dusk Thieves, and are brave warriors of Twilight City. On behalf of the City Lord, I’ll give out the rewards..."
After he finished speaking, a white light enveloped the eight of them and everyone received a system notification.
After passing nervously glancing at each other, they all began to run through their bag’s contents.
"So what did the rest of you get?" Ming Du gleefully smirked.
Seeing his expression, everyone else knew that he was about to start boasting. After all, the amount of points this snob had accumulated was second to only Wang Yu so his rewards were bound to be great.
Amongst the people, Crotch Lord was the only one who was unfamiliar with Ming Du’s character and immediately fell into his trap.
Grinning, he pointed to the helmet resting on his head and replied: "Well I was given this ..."
Thereafter, he sent a screenshot to the guild chat.
Defence: 27-35
Magic Attack: 27-35
Protector’s Set 2/3
Set Bonus:
Protector’s Shield 1/1
Protector’s Helm 1/1
Protector’s Leggings 0/1
Effects:
[Vitality] (Passive): Increase Max HP by 500 (Unlocked)
[Hardness] (Passive): Increase Physical Defence and Magic Resistance by 15% (Unlocked)
[Protector’s Power]: Equips a continuous shield for 4 seconds, shield’s HP is equivalent to 10% of your max HP. After 4 seconds, the shield will explode, decreasing surrounding enemy’s speed by 40%. (Locked)
Upon seeing this equipment, everyone exclaimed: "Not bad, not bad!"
Equipment with magic resistance were already rather rare and this one even part of a set. At this stage in the game, it was practically a Divine tier equipment.
"If we obtain the third piece in the future, we’ll leave it for you.." Everyone declared.
"Thank you everyone, I’ve already obtained a clue to where the third piece may be. All I have to do is complete a quest and the set will be complete!" Crotch Lord laughed.
"So what did the system give you? Show us too..." Crotch Lord turned to ask Ming Du.
Ming Du laughed and blue light started to gather in his once empty left hand. In the blink of an eye, a long electric spear appeared.
Lightning magic indeed had such shocking visual and sound effects, so much so that even Ming Du’s grotesque face was buried under the bright light.
"Secondary skill?!!!"
The people were astounded.
Ming Du gave a sleazy smile.
"Hehe, this it the [Spear of Lightning]; it’s just a pseudo-secondary skill... but this skill is sick. It deals much greater damage than [Thunder’s Call] and even has a piercing effect.
"Wow what a waste of a treasure" The others sighed emotionally.
There were some differences between pseudo-secondary skills and the real thing. A pseudo-secondary skill could be set to be used by one’s non-dominant hand, but when it was used, no equipment effects would be added onto it, which made it like one was using skills while ’naked’.
However, [Spear of Lightning] had greater damage than [Thunder’s Call], hence it could be considered on par with an ordinary secondary skill. Furthermore, [Spear of Lightning] could penetrate through the enemy, which was essentially a straight line AOE effect, making it pretty impressive.
"What about the rest of you?" Ming Du inquired.
"A rare skill book: Muscle Jab " Frost Blade blandly replied.
[Muscle Jab] (Active): Causes 140% damage, inflicts cripple on target. Target’s speed decreases by 30%. In [Stealth], damage increases by 20%. When attacking from behind, damage increases by 30%. Damage increments stack.
Job Requirement: Assassin
"Not bad man, not bad! With this skill, Frost Blade can one shot others!"
Frost Blade’s dagger improved [Stealth], and he had learned [Backstab Mastery], so after [Muscle Jab] stacked its damage increments, it was likely that even Crotch Lord, a Guardian, would be reduced to low HP levels without using any skills.
Compared to Ming Du and Frost Blade’s skills, the rest’s rewards were relatively dull.
Boson had obtained a Silver tier armour with an additional effect, [Sudden Strike].
Vainglory obtained a pair of Silver tier gloves which increased attack speed by 30%, while Fearless obtained a pair of shoes which increased movement speed, but what use was that for him?
Spring Halo was even more unfortunate, he obtained a Shaman staff. The staff he was currently using had been awarded to him for completing a hidden mission and was extremely good, thus the Shaman staff was practically useless.
Even if it were put up for auction, it was unlikely to even fetch a decent price. After all, in REBIRTH, Dark Shaman was a rare profession even when compared to Pugilists.
"Iron Bull, what about you?" They finally asked Wang Yu.
Wang Yu glanced at them and lifted his foot, stomping down subsequently. A bright flash followed and the next thing everyone knew was that they were knocked back.
"What is this?!" The group was dumbfounded. They never knew Pugilists had AOE skills.
Wang Yu said:
"[Thunder God’s Stomp]! A Martial artist’s unique skill! It causes 180% damage, with a radius of 100, causing knock up and knockback effect. If you guys were enemies, you would be at the respawn point by now!"
"AOE damage and crowd control??" Fearless exclaimed.
"I guess so!" Wang Yu nodded.
Boson gave him a thumbs up:
"Hidden jobs are simply too OP!"
In REBIRTH, other than Shamans, no jobs under level 30 had AOE skills, not including uncommon skills of course.
Although Shaman’s [Distortion] was an AOE skill, it could only perform crowd control and not cause damage. Despite that, [Distortion] was still identified as Shaman’s iconic skill.
Even when one reached the maximum level, as this was an AOE crowd control skill, [Distortion] would not become outdated. This highlighted how important AOE skills were in the game.
Wang Yu, being a close-range Pugilist, was even more of a typical damage dealer.
However, not only did this skill deal great AOE damage, it could also do crowd control. Damn, did this mean that he would take over the job of Magicians in the future too?
"It doesn’t seem very useful to attack the ground right?" Vainglory, a fellow Pugilist asked.
In the game of REBIRTH, there weren’t any skills that could mow someone over, so even though Lightning’s Foot seemed domineering, its attack radius was only 100. Who would get so close to a Pugilist for no reason? This skill would only be effective on targets lying on the ground.
Wang Yu said: "But Vainglory, both you and Boson know martial arts and use Independent Mode, but you are still thinking as if you were in Assisted Mode!"
"We are still thinking as if we were in Assisted Mode?"
"Yes. Since you are in Independent Mode, you should incorporate your individual skills into the system skills, not just rely on your reaction time as you apply the system skills. If you only apply the system skills, it would be completely nonsensical. There is no way you would unleash the essence of Independent Mode." Wang Yu replied.
"Is there a difference between incorporating your individual skills into the system skills and relying on your reaction time to apply the system skills?"
"Of course!" Wang Yu moved swiftly towards Vainglory and activated [Crushing Blow], while Vainglory hurriedly stretched out a hand to defend himself in response.
Wang Yu cancelled the Crushing Blow and used one hand to grab Vainglory’s wrist and twisted it. Vainglory fell to the ground with a "splat" and Wang Yu lifted his foot before aiming it down at Vainglory’s head.
Vainglory was greatly taken aback, and pitifully shouted: "Ouch!!"
Wang Yu’s foot stopped just a centimeter away from Vainglory’s head, and he asked: "Do you understand now?"
"Ye... Yes!" Vainglory replied, nodding his head vigorously.
In this game, although there was no skill that could knock people over, in Independent Mode it was possible to do so by actually apply real life skills.
In the days leading up to today, Vainglory had always relied on his quick reaction time and only system skills to play the game. It had never crossed his mind to incorporate real life skills into the game. With his current playstyle, he would just be a little faster and more maneuverable than others, with little room for improvement.
After this lesson by Wang Yu, everyone was enlightened, and this thought popped up in their heads: "Should I try Independent Mode too?"
Vainglory asked Wang Yu hesitantly: "Uncle Bull, what would have happened if you used [Thunder God’s Stomp] just now?"
With a casual tone, Wang Yu replied: "Your head would have been crushed to bits!"
Upon hearing that, the entire group was speechless, looking at Wang Yu in fear, and thinking to themselves: "This is simply too brutal..."