"Please don’t enrage…"

Lin Yixin stared at her health bar—she only had less than 30% HP left—with a worried look on her face. It wasn’t an unfounded worry. If the boss chose to enrage now, we might not be able to defeat it.

Thankfully, despite the sadistic whippings the Root Protector had been delivering our whole party, it never entered an enraged state. The girls grew increasingly excited and expectant as its HP kept dropping.

I, Lin Yixin, He Yi, Beiming Xue; our party was made up of some of the absolute best damage dealers in Floating Ice City, but the tenacious plant was able to endure another fifteen minutes of beating before it finally reached its last legs. If the Root Protector didn’t count as a high-HP high-Defense boss, then I didn’t know what could possibly earn this title.

Swhoosh!

The Purgatory Sword shuddered in my grip for an instant before firing off Purgatory Slash! It penetrated the Root Protector’s trunk completely!

4783!

Finally, the boss that stopped us in our tracks for god knows how long let out its last scream as its gigantic body toppled to the ground with a loud thud!

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh...

Behind me, the girls all leveled. My own experience went up by 35%!

……

"Finally!" He Yi wiped the sweat on her face in relief. Then, she smiled at me and said, "Can you check the loot for us, Lu Chen?"

"Yeah!"

I walked up to the boss's corpse and cut apart the tree trunk that was blocking my way. But to my surprise, there was a nest of angry little treants beneath the wood. Waving their arms and glaring at me, they charged me before my brain could process what I was seeing!

"Fuck!"

I jumped a couple of steps backward and unleashed Thousand Mirage Slash!

Boom!

One angry slash later, the little treants all died under my attack. And that was how the Root Protector’s lineage came to an end.

I walked up to the boss again and kicked away its broken limb. This time, I was greeted by the sight of many shiny items. It had dropped a couple of items and a dozen or so Phantasmal Magic Stones.

I tossed all the magic stones to the girls so that they split them among themselves. The Root Protector netted us three equipment drops in total: dark red leather wristguards, a silver scepter, and a golden ring. Besides that, it also dropped a high-quality purple skill book from the looks of it.

Not wanting to delay the suspense any longer, I carried all the loot in my arms, turned toward the girls and brought the gear drops’ stat screens one by one. First, the red leather wristguards.

Assassination Wristguards (Dark Gold–grade)

Defense: 105

Agility: +50

Stamina: +48

Passive: Increases user’s critical rate by 3%

Level Requirement: 80

……

Amazing! Wristguards that could buff one’s crit chance by 3%? This was a must-have for any assassins or archers! Besides that, it increased one’s Agility and Stamina by around 50 each. It was enough to tempt any Agility-based player to open their wallets. Naturally, our Lil Beiming was no exception. Staring at the Assassination Wristguards and licking her lips like it was some kind of delicious food, she called out to me with a voice as sweet as a cat’s meow. "Big bro, I…"

"I know…"

I threw the Assassination Wristguards at her and said, "Beiming Xue is the only leather-armor player in our party, so this clearly belongs to her. I trust that everyone is okay with this?"

Lin Yixin, He Yi, and Murong Mingyue all shrugged. I was the loot distributor, it was my responsibility to distribute the loot. They were okay with my decisions as long as I didn’t make an unfair claim on a loot myself.

We moved on to the silver scepter. The shining item looked pretty good, and no one was disappointed when I brought up its stats screen.

Prayer Scepter (Dark Gold–grade, Outstanding★)

Magic Attack: 220~360

Intelligence: +55

Stamina: +48

Passive: Increases user’s Magic Attack by 10%

Passive: Increases user’s healing output by 25%

Outstanding Property: Reduces the cooldown of all healing spells by 50%

Level Requirement: 80

……

"Heavens, an Outstanding weapon!"

Lin Yixin’s beautiful eyes widened. "This Prayer Scepter is quite similar to Luo River God of the Capital’s Purgatory Scepter, and it's not even too far behind in terms of Magic Attack. Even better, this is a priest weapon with a 50% cooldown reduction for all healing spells, so it basically doubles the healing power of any healer. What an amazing Outstanding Property…"

I nodded. "Yeah. This Prayer Scepter may only be a one-star Outstanding weapon, but its true value isn’t inferior to the Purgatory Scepter in the slightest. Hahaha, Sister Mingyue has finally entered her prime!"

Murong Mingyue smiled sweetly. "Yeah. After all those sleepless and tireless nights, I finally found a weapon that’s treating me well…"

The way she phrased it silenced us all until I threw the Prayer Scepter into her hands. She immediately switched out the shabby staff she had been using and equipped her new weapon. The Prayer Scepter had a dignified appearance, and its Magic Attack wasn’t too far behind the Purgatory Scepter. Not only was Murong Mingyue’s healing power boosted considerably, her Hellish Rockfall had also become a lot more powerful than before. Long story short, this one scepter had risen our party’s offensive and defensive power to a whole new level!

Finally, we moved onto the third item . It was a dark gold ring that, if I wasn’t mistaken, was most likely a Dark Gold-grade accessory. The Root Protector had to be a kind boss at heart, because it wasn’t everyday that you could find a boss that dropped three top-tier items in one go.

I placed the ring in my palm as its stat screen appeared in the air. The girls immediately let out exclamations of admiration.

Ring of Wind and Moon (Dark Gold–grade, Outstanding★)

Strength: +52

Stamina: +50

Passive: Increases user’s physical attack power by 9%

Passive: Increases user’s max HP by 10%

Outstanding Property: Attack speed +25%, 40% chance to ignore the Stun effect

Level Requirement: 80

……

It was just a few lines of text and numbers, but it was enough to leave us all slack-jawed. Was it legal for a Dark Gold–grade equipment to be this powerful? The two passives alone—+9% attack power and +10% max HP—would’ve made 99% of the players of Floating Ice City cry like babies, but it even had an Outstanding Property of +25% attack speed! This ring was positively OP in the hands of any physical-attack player at this stage of the game!

Speaking of which, there were a couple of physical-attack players in this party, and all of us were trying very hard not to salivate in front of our friends. The ring wasn’t just powerful, it was beautiful and elegantly designed. Finally, there was a diamond-like gemstone at the center of the metal, and it was the thing that slayed the hearts of all the girls in my party.

I swallowed my saliva before asking with a smile, "So, how should we decide the ownership of this ring? Sis is the only one who can’t use this. Should we roll the dice?"

Lin Yixin stared at me with hazy eyes. "Must we?"

He Yi was also staring at me with great desire in her eyes. "Yeah, rolling for this feels incredibly cruel. Those who don’t get it will feel absolutely terrible…"

Beiming Xue curled her lips and said, "I give up. I just got the Assassination Wristguards, and I know better than to ask for more. Plus, this Ring of Wind and Moon increases max HP, it’s clearly more suited for a melee class."

I nodded. "Beiming is such a good girl…"

After Beiming Xue forfeited, only Lin Yixin, He Yi, and I were left.

I checked my equipment. The Paralysis Ring was a Dark Gold–grade accessory that was just as good as the Ring of Wind and Moon. The Abyssal Ring was also pretty amazing.

Thus, resisting the pain in my heart I forfeited as well. "Well, both my rings are already pretty powerful, so I’ll leave this one to you both…"

Both girls looked at me with a dazed expression on their faces and added great pressure to my shoulders. Well, it was only natural. One of them was the guild leader of Snowy Cathaya, and the other the guild leader of Ancient Swords Dreaming Souls. Besides that, they were both incredibly beautiful women. Only one will be walking away from this catfight the victor, hahaha!

"You should roll for it," I suggested.

They agreed because neither of them could think of a better way to decide the ownership of the ring. Lin Yixin started first by activating the roll system and throwing her dice. A long while later, the dice finally stopped at a total of 17 points!

"Uuuu… what happened to my karma…" Lin Yixin groaned cutely. It looked like she was about to say bye bye to the Ring of Wind and Moon.

He Yi threw her dice next, and it stopped at a total of 14 points. My beautiful leader immediately shivered all over. "Agh, the adage that there will always be someone better than you is true…"

I couldn’t help but smile at her reaction. "Mn, it looks like Eve’s luck isn’t online today. This Ring of Wind and Moon is Beauty Lin’s!"

Lin Yixin rubbed her eyes in disbelief. Finally, she thanked everyone solemnly. "Mn, thank you for giving me this ring, everyone. I… I promise to work hard and do as much DPS as possible for the party…"

I nodded. The Ring of Wind and Moon appeared around her finger in the next moment, and it looked so beautiful on her that the rest of the girls couldn’t help but admire her. I was going to console them, but in the end I decided against the thought because Lin Yixin was around. It would be terrible if she slayed me in a fit of jealousy.

Hmm, now that I think about it, would she get jealous over something like this? Probably not, and even if she was jealous she would never admit it...

Only the last boss loot was left, now. The skill book was deep purple in color, the color of a legendary skill. I was sure that it would be incredibly valuable even before I checked its contents. A flash later, the skill book’s stats appeared inside the party channel:

Profound Ice Armor: Form a protective armor with the power of frost. Increases the user’s physical defense by 5%. When the user suffers a melee attack, slightly reduce the attacker’s speed. Level Requirement: 80. Class Requirement: Wanderer, Warrior.

……

Fuck, it’s a protective skill!

Everyone fell silent and stared at each other for a time. A couple of seconds later, I said, "Sister He Yi already has Rock Shield, and I already have Ghost Deity Armor. As we all know, you cannot have more than one of the same type of protective skill. Since Beauty Lin is the only one who doesn’t have one yet, I think we should give this to her. What do you all think?"

He Yi smiled cheerfully. "Mn!"

Lin Yixin also looked very excited. "Profound Ice Armor? Looks like an incredibly powerful skill. This is so much better than Wanderer’s Protective Aura…"

"Take it and learn it right away. Even I feel sorry for how fragile you are…"

"Oh…"

……

Lin Yixin accepted the skill book and learned it immediately. From now on, the Fruit Knife Goddess was no longer a glass cannon. Her legend had become even more perfect than before.

Seriously though, this Root Protector was such a bro. Although it had given us a hard time, it also rewarded us with a normal Dark Gold–grade item, two Outstanding Dark Gold–grade items, and a powerful skill book. It had single-handedly carried our party’s overall strength to a whole new level!

I looked into the distance and brandished the Purgatory Sword. "Let’s go, we are very close to the finish line!"

"Mn~"