Bang!”
The sudden sweep from the Green Qilin* sent me flying ten meters above ground. My skull rammed into the rock. Fortunately, my Fire Beacon Helmet protected me, but that did not stop my health from dropping below one hundred points.
Under the rainfall, I glanced behind me to see many green vines swinging in the sky. I cannot fight this Boss; I have to retreat!
Using both legs, I coiled myself against a bit of rock protruding from the wall. With all my strength, I leapt and shot toward the vines like a rubber band.
My aim was perfect. Reaching out, I grabbed one of the vines with a “Pa.” My body was drenched in a cold sweat. When I looked at my health, I discovered that I had only 44 points remaining. The Qilin’s stats completely dominate my own. Without healers, I had no hope of defeating it.
“Shua!”
“+750!”
I used [Heal] and waited for the cool down on my health potion to refresh. Sheathing my Jade City Sword behind me, I began to climb. After about 30 meters, I paused to take a rest.
……
“Hou Hou…..”
Below me, the Qilin jumped and swiped its sharp claws at me. I could feel the breeze from its swipes as they brushed against my legs. If I can’t fight you, shouldn’t I at least be able to avoid you?
I suddenly feel a tinge of regret for running. Looking down from my position, I could see that the Qilin’s jump and attack range were both less than 30 meters. Apparently, it could not reach where I hung.
Hmmm. If I used a bow, would I be able to kill this Purple Tier Boss without taking any damage?
As the thought churned in my head, I quickly opened my inventory and saw a bow in the corner. It was my Wind Chaser, a Lv 37 Silver Tier bow with an exceptionally high attack of 197-285. I also found a few bundles of steel arrows I had collected, which can add up to 25 more damage. Haha! Here was my chance!
My pulse quickened as I became more excited. Let’s try this out!
I knotted the vine and tied my legs to it, securing them in place. Releasing my grip, I flipped upside down, a quiver of arrows appearing on my back as I pulled out my Wind Chaser. Despite my lack of the 25% damage boost for the arrows from not being an Archer, my 1.0 growth in strength gave me the attack damage I needed. I did not know any archery skills, of course, so I could only shoot regular shots.
“Sou!”
An arrow flew from my bow and embedded itself in the forehead of the Qilin with a “Pa.” A decent damage indicator popped up –
“117!”
As I had expected, the damage I could do with a bow was severely limited. Additionally, the Qilin’s defense must have been extremely high. I could tell this battle was going to take a while.
……
“HouHou…..”
The Qilin leapt again and again, its claws missing me by a hair. Heh. It did not know how to fly, which made it almost perfect for me. Wouldn’t this mean that Mages, Archers, and Musketeers could’ve also taken advantage of the bug to safely kill the boss?
The Qilin suddenly growled as if to answer me. He lifted his head, frost collecting in his mouth. It quickly formed into an icicle and shot towards me!
“1527!”
Crap! That was why… I quickly used my [Heal] to recover and thought: This Purple Tier Boss’s magic attacks are much stronger than Soaring Dragon’s!
Even though I was surprised, I kept on firing volley after volley of arrows!
After another 15 seconds, the Green Qilin used another Icicle attack. Oh god, please don’t be a critical hit or else I would definitely die! Thankfully, the Green Qilin didn’t seem to have been able to critical hit…
It looks like this bug couldn’t be exploited after all. A normal ranged player would’ve never been able to withstand these attacks. Even the [Mana Shield]s of twice promoted Mages wouldn’t last long. And, after their shield died, they would probably die too.
But I, with my high health and recovery rate, was able to take advantage of this exploit. The boss’s ranged attack had a 15 second cooldown, and can cause 1400-1600 damage each time. My [Heal] has a 6 second cooldown which is more than enough to return me to full health. However, continuously using [Heal] poses another problem: mana. Using [Heal] after [Heal] for even a minute would consume 500 mana. Thankfully, I had quite a few Indigo Sea Pills in my bag. They were gift from Jian Feng Han from the boss mission last time. Perfect!
……
It takes an average of 2 seconds to shoot each arrow, which does at least 100 damage each. That would mean at least 3000 damage per minute. With the Qilin’s total health being around 100 thousand, and taking into account its recovery rate, an optimistic estimate for defeating it would be about an hour!
After 20 minutes of sinking arrow after arrow into the Qilin, I figured I was probably a little too optimistic. I had only reduced the Qilin’s health by 21.5%. At this rate, I would need another 90 minutes to kill it.
No worries. I have plenty of time! I’ll take as much time as I need to kill it!
Another 20 minutes passed in the blink of an eye. Finally, a message arrives from Madam——
“Hi Li Xiao Yao, you busy?”
“Yeah. Did you finish, Wan Er?”
“Yup!”
Wan Er smiled. “We completed the mission. Dong Cheng Yue and I are already Lv 49. Same as yours… just kidding, it’s still at 46. Pretty good eh? Looks like the [Wrath of the Heroes] players didn’t kill you.”
I laughed. “Did you hope that Liu Ying would kill me?”
Lin Wan Er gave me a sly smile. “Of course not! I feel quite sad whenever you die …”
“Really? You’re lying!”
“Hee hee, I can’t fool you…”
Lin Wan Er smiled and continued: “Uhh, it’s already one in the morning and Dong Cheng Yue and I are really hungry but don’t want to eat chips or instant ramen. Why don’t we log out and go find someplace with real food?…”
I apologized. “Sorry Wan Er, but not now!”
“Why?”
“I’m in the middle of a breathtaking fight…”
“Oh? What fight?”
When I gave her a quick rundown of my situation, her face paled almost instantaneously. “Whoa. The Green Qilin, a level 55 Purple Tier Boss! You’re pretty lucky, Li Xiao Yao. Are you taking advantage of a bug?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I guess you could call it a bug, but it’s really annoying to exploit…”
“Oh! Watch that icicle!”
The ice smacked into my face with a “Pa,” which caused Lin Wan Er to start laughing. “Ouch…”
“So can you and Dong Cheng Yue wait a little? I’ll join you guys downstairs after I kill the Boss. How’s that?”
“Sure. I’ll set up a stall in Fan Shu City with Dong Cheng Yue while we wait. Message us once you finish. Oh right! Do you know any good places for food?”
I thought for a bit. “There’s not really anything good on campus right now, but there should be plenty of food stalls off-campus. Why don’t we try a few?
“Great! Now get back to killing the boss!”
“Ok!”
……
My conversation with Lin Wan Er reinvigorated me. I drew my Wind Chaser back into the shape of the crescent moon and released. I was aiming for the Qilin’s eyes, but the arrow landed in its forehead instead. For some reason, I could not manage to hit its eyes no matter how hard I tried. Archers have passive skills such as Eagle Eye and Archer Mastery, which improves accuracy and damage. I do not. If I had not put the 10 skill points I received every level into strength, I probably would not even be able to penetrate the Green Qilin’s armor.