Chapter 376: The Hunt of the Evil
Claudier had actually dropped some good items!
[Amateur God Oil: Light as Feather] (Usable)
Use: Enhances your boots, permanently increase movement speed by 10%.
[Beginner God Oil: Light as Feather] would only grant a 5% bonus movement speed. Ever since Zhang Yang and his friends had dominated the Cave of Bones, the supply for [Beginner God Oil] was able to meet up to his demands. It was by luck that Zhang Yang could finally stumble upon the [God Oil] that would grant him 10% movement speed.
The boot that Zhang Yang was wearing now had a 5% movement speed bonus. However, he was eager to put on the Titan set equipment instead. The [Amateur God Oil] would best be kept for the Titan boots instead of using it on his current one.
Besides [God Oil], the rest of the loot was not worthy of mentioning. None of the Yellow-Gold equipment in the stash was up to his standards. All of the loot were dumped into his inventory and would be sold in the Little Merchandise Shop.
The two of them proceeded forward and met with Leonardo’s generals. All of them were killed separately instead of fighting them as a whole. Zhang Yang was extremely grateful that the story had set the bosses to be separate and to be killed one by one. If they were to gang up to fight together, Zhang Yang and Winchester would surely be killed without even having to lift their weapons.
Still, it was surprising, yet expected to be. After all, they were playing a game. The developers would surely have needed to provide some kind of leverage for the players to grind or to kill the boss monsters. If the developers had placed a Celestial tier boss right in Beginner’s Village, how would anyone get past that?! If the bosses in the first few dungeons had the ability to kill everyone in the raid, being overpowered to an unbelievable level, who would want to continue playing such a game?
Right now, naturally, Zhang Yang was strong enough to solo a dungeon or even an S rank quest, but so strong that he could solo kill a Violet-Platinum boss. He could, but the chances of him dying would be extremely high. Zhang Yang had hoped for Leonardo to have several more generals for him to kill. Seven Yellow-Gold bosses had already dropped him a mountain of Yellow-Gold weapon. Although he had no inclination of using them himself, he wanted to get them to sell them off in his Little Merchandise Shop. The equipment could be off to players which will earn him lots of gold coins!
After a lot more hacking and slashing, the two finally arrived at Killua Castle.
"T-That’s...That’s Lord Winchester!" Standing at the entrance of the door was Bronoss The Ranger with his mouth gaping wide open. Surprised, delighted, and relieved, Bronoss leaped off his horse and knelt before Winchester. "Thank the gods for your safety!"
Winchester nodded. "It all thanks to this brave warrior. I could have never escaped from the demons without his help!"
Bronoss turned to Zhang Yang and raised an eye brow. His eyes widened suddenly and cried in surprise. "Didn’t I throw you in prison? How did...eh? It seems I’m confused."
Zhang Yang laughed and said, "Ranger, don’t think too much of it. All you need to know is that, I am not with the rebels!"
"Lord Winchester. Honduras, who had betrayed and framed you were imprisoned! However, we still lack enough evidence to have him on trial! Now that you are here, you can personally identify the man that had made the deal with the demon!" said Bronoss.
Winchester sighed and shook his head. "You’re wrong. Honduras was not the person that had betrayed me! The real culprit is none other but my own brother! Leonardo!"
"What!?" Brunoss jumped to his feet. His eyes lost focus as he started to tremble at the revelation.
"That’s is the truth! He was the one who betrayed me! It was all for the ownership of the castle!" said Winchester. "Brunoss, as a ranger of justice, you need to make your decision now. Would you serve me, or follow the man who had made a deal with demons?"
Brunoss calmed down and stood up high and tall. His eyes were now focused and serious. There were no longer traces of fear and doubt in them. "Lord Winchester. I am yours to command, and I would never doubt you!"
"Well said. Gather every ally in the castle. We shall overthrow Leonardo’s evil reign!"
"Yes, my lord!"
Brunoss the Ranger saluted Winchester and rode away towards the castle.
‘Ding! You have completed the quest: Return to Killua Castle. Obtained 3,000,000 Experience Points!’
Winchester turned to look at Zhang Yang. "Warrior. We are getting closer to victory. If we fight harder, we can capture and bring Leonardo to justice!’
‘Ding! Winchester has a quest for you: Hunt of the Evil. Will you accept it?’
Why do such quests always throw decisions at the players? It’s not like Zhang Yang would walk away from the quest. Plus, Zhang Yang had to know what kind of rewards could he have by killing Leonardo!
[Hunt of the Evil] (Difficulty Level: S)
Quest Description: Defeat Leonardo and obtain victory! Leonardo is located at the main chamber of the castle. Assist Winchester in delivering the last blow!
Participation Limit: 10 men (Shareable)
Progress: Kill Leonardo 0/1
Quest Reward: Titan’s Necklace
[Titan Necklace] (Violet-Platinum, Necklace)
Vitality: +202
Strength: +58
Equip Effect: Absorbs 116 damage on attack.
Equip Effect: Grants an additional 10% aggro generation on an attack, if a shield is equipped.
Class Requirement: Guardian
Level Requirement: 80
Zhang Yang was both happy, yet sad.
The good news was that he would gain another Titan equipment. The bad news was that the equipment effect on the necklace was too bland! The additional 10% aggro generation was actually useful for other tanks! But for him, he already possessed incredible firepower which could generate enough aggro! What could he do with the 10% bonus? The boss would only attack him!
Zhang Yang sighed and accepted his fate. At least, he could secure another Titan’s equipment, and that was the most important factor.
Zhang Yang noticed the quest was shareable. He immediately had an idea and quickly informed everyone else. "Yo! Come along. I’ve got a good quest here!"
Just as he finished talking, Zhang Yang equipped the [Party Summon Order] and summoned the part to his side.
"Noobie tank, what’s so good about the quest? You summoned us so quickly, I was actually busy doing something!"
Zhang Yang kept quiet and smirked. He promptly shared the quest with everyone and was rewarded with a loud gasp.
"It’s my set equipment necklace!"
"God d*mn! This is good sh*t!"
"Awesome!"
Everyone was extremely pleased. Zhang Yang’s reward was the Titan’s Necklace, but the rest of the party member had a different reward. Their quest reward was their own respective set equipment necklace.
"Alright guys, follow that NPC. He’s our god of fortune! Cover him, and do not let him die!" said Zhang Yang pointed at Winchester who was already halfway to the castle riding his horse. Everyone promptly summoned their rides and chased after him.
"My lord!?"
"Lord Winchester!"
As Winchester ride by, the castle residence bowed down in respect to him. From afar, it seemed that Winchester was a mighty lord when he was still reigning. Without much time, everyone reached to the entrance of a big and glamorous castle.
There were eight guards that stood guard at the entrance. When they saw Winchester approaching them, Winchester was greeted with the similar surprised expression, followed by them kneeling down. "Hail the lord of the castle!"
"At ease," said Winchester with a certain noble tone to his voice. "The castle has been infiltrated by demons, no thanks to Leonardo. I want to bring justice and to punish those who had committed the crime. Everyone, to arms, and follow me into the castle, to exterminate the evil!’
The guards were confused. They thought that they had already captured the betrayer, the greedy trader, Honduras. Why and how did the betrayer title shift to Leonardo?
"Do not listen to his words!" cried a middle-aged man who shared a similar look to Winchester. The man turned to Winchester and bellowed. "This man is not a man! He is a demon who is impersonating my brother! My brother, the previous lord of the castle Winchester is already dead! This man! Is an imposter!"
[Leonardo] (Yellow-Gold, Humanoid)
Level: 86
HP: 1,720,000
Defense: 1,500
Note: The younger brother of Winchester.
This time, Brunoss had arrived and brought along a large group of followers. He and everyone else had heard what Leonardo had just said and started to fall into a state of confusion. To their knowledge, demons were masters of deception. Winchester had been lost for a number of days! It was hard to differentiate between the real and the fake!
Winchester bellowed angrily. He pulled out his sword and raised it up, high to the sky. "I am me! Winchester Rein Alocain, son of Damian Rein Alocain! The Lord of Killua Castle and the Whisperer of Wind and Fire!"
"Demon! Stop your foolish attempt! We shall not be deceived by you!" Leonardo started down to Winchester. "Not only you have killed my brother, you have the nerve to take up his face and to mock his name! My fellow citizens, warriors of Killua Castle, kill this demon and bring peace to my brother’s soul!"
Both soldiers from both sides started to accused of each other of siding themselves with the demon. Oblivious to the real truth, both sides stood at an impasse as they continued to throw slanderous words at each other.
Wei Yan Er got annoyed and stomped her feet the ground. "You bloody idiots! Are you deaf?! That guy knows that he is exposed, which has led him to start throwing the blame to the other guy as a demon in disguise! What are you still standing around for? Start killing already!"
The little brat was just adding more wood to a fire. Since she was just using pronouns instead of the actual person’s name, both sides have just become more and more confused!
Winchester scoffed. "Leonardo, you and I are born with the same flesh and blood! You have always loved to have a quarrel with me at any occasion! However, you are fated to be a loser! You cannot win over me! Ever! You are my brother, and I can tolerate your wild ambitions, but this? This dream of yours to hand the castle and its people to the demons, that I shall not permit!"
Winchester took in a deep breath. "Come at me. None shall interfere. We shall decide this ourselves!"
"As you wish! Demon!" cried Leonardo with dignity. From his tone and speech, he was careful not to confess to the identity of Winchester and would only address him as a demon.
KLANG!
Two NPC rushed towards each other and parried each other’s sword strikes.
"Hmm...Something is odd. How could this quest be an S rank when the boss is only a Yellow-Gold tier..." said Zhang Yang as he sensed something was odd. The map he was in, was not the same as the previous map that he had explored. Yellow-Gold bosses were easy to defeat, and even having a Violet-Platinum boss in the quest was not enough to qualify the quest as an S rank. If that was the case, then, what’s the real difficulty?
"Dummy dear. Why are you so reluctant to accept the truth? Couldn’t the quest be a little easier?" said Han Ying Xue seductively.
Zhang Yang frowned. "It’s not that I’m reluctant. I’m afraid that the quest might be harder than we think."
"Could there be a sudden change in the quest?" asked the party, as they stood by and witnessed the two bosses having a go at each other.