The icy wind felt like knives as they brushed against the skin. The Ancient Divine Dragon’s paws made rustling noises as it stepped across the dead leaves.

The area in front of us was pitch black, and there were graves all over the place. Thanks to Dark Pupils, my minimap was littered with red dots; an enemy undead beneath each and every grave to be exact. I had no doubt that they would climb out from beneath the soil and challenge us to an epic fight the second we got within range.

Behind me, Hickey was guarding the two priests and the archer. She couldn’t help but purse her lips and commented, "Damn, the stench of the dead is thick within this tomb!"

I smiled. "I’m going to aggro the mobs now, so be careful. Archer, use Spiraling Arrow Blade to mow down the enemy, but make sure you don’t attract too much aggro. Priests, keep me above the safety line at all times. Hickey, you’re the DPS, but avoid as many attacks as you are able. You may not be able to tank the mobs with your current Defense."

"I know…" Hickey replied with a chuckle.

……

Illuminating the path with the Purple Ying Sword and walking within the tomb, I took a moment to check out my HP. I had a base HP of 600k, and after using a Fire War God Card I was now sitting at an admirable number of 1080000 HP. Considering my current Defense, I was practically an indestructible walking fortress. My super high HP also ensured that I would get massive value out of the priests’ Health Recovery, a percentage-based healing skill.

"Roar roar…"

When I came within 10 yards of the graves, a terrible screech suddenly cut through the air. It was the mobs finally noticing my presence. At least a dozen or so skeletal warriors burst out of the soil they were buried in and rushed toward me with rusted swords. They roared angrily and unclearly, "I can smell your flesh and blood, damned human! Has a fresh meal delivered itself onto our doorsteps?"

"Like hell it did!"

I met them with a laugh in my throat. The skeletal warriors were Level 240 fiend-rank mobs with higher Attack than the Cyanscale Corpse Eaters, but way lower HP and Defense. With a flick of my wrist, I launched three flaming auras into the group of skeletal warriors and dealt an incredible amount of damage—

149282!

182927!

252828!

……

Four skeletal warriors took septuple damage, and another ten took critical hits. Over half of their HP was gone just like that. Thousand Ice Slash, Summon the Storm from my Ancient Divine Dragon, and Purgatory Storm from the Phantom Wolf King later, all 17 fiend-rank mobs dropped dead before Hickey and the others could even lend a hand.

"Er…"

Hickey stared at me with her mouth agape with shock.

A male priest said while shivering like a leaf, "My god, the guild leader’s attack power is… Does he even need us? What can we possibly do to help him?"

The female archer giggled. "I got an idea! You can buff him with Flames of the Heart and increase his Attack by 15%! Now you’re not useless…"

The two male priests immediately wept tears of uselessness.

……

Jokes aside, my item drop rate was as high as my DPS. The 17 fiend-rank mobs had dropped a total of 13 pieces of equipment, and they were all instance equipment that automatically bound to whoever equipped them. The female archer picked up a pair of legguards with a chuckle. "Hehe, this is an Outstanding Earth-grade item that adds 14% Agility and 20% ranged attack power. Can I have it?"

Hickey nodded. "Sure. These items auto-bind to the player who equips them, so it’s not like you can sell them to other players. The NPC stores do accept them, but with the amount of gold they pay, well, you may as well keep them…"

"Yeah!"

The grind continued as we killed more high-level undeads. The path of ascension of an undead seemed neverending, but that was no reason for me to slack off. I absorbed every undead soul spark I came by knowing that I would reach the end eventually.

Hickey was an intelligent woman. She only hit full-health mobs with AoE skills such as the cone-shaped Earth Shattering Slash, and she said to the archer, "Our boss has 73 Luck, so we should always leave the last hit to him. The same rule applies to the boss. Remember, we’re here for the equipment, not experience…"

The female archer nodded. The two male priests, well, they had no say in the matter because they weren’t damage dealers.

……

It didn’t take long to sweep an entire hill of skeletal warriors. However, even the best equipment we got was just Earth-grade. We had expected this though.

We continued downhill until we saw a red light in the middle of a black valley. I turned on Dark Pupils again and saw that it was a skeletal boss in a blood-red battle armor. It wielded a wolf fang mace and huffed out something rotten and disgusting as it roared at a nearby group of enslaved Corpse Eaters, "Carry those fresh corpses in already, you lazy worms! I’ll use your bones as my bed if any of you dares to slack off!"

Hickey narrowed her eyes as she asked, "What is that red dot? Is it a boss?"

I nodded. "Yep, that’s our first boss. Let’s go! Priests, just in case this boss turns out to be stronger than expected, always keep Health Recovery on me, okay?"

Both male priests nodded in unison.

Hickey and I raced down the slope, and soon we were just 100 yards away from the boss. The boss was Level 245 and Immortal Rank, but it was much weaker than the Undead Great Magus Juve because it had powerful physical Attack, but almost no AoE skills. It wouldn’t be able to pose a threat to our party.

"Here I go!"

I raised my sword and fired Dragon Slaying Slash straight at the boss's head, dealing 150k+ damage and focusing all of its aggro on me. Before it could even turn around to face me, I activated Thunderous Charge and stunned it.

First things first, I stabbed the Purple Ying Sword between the boss's armor and injected something that looked like purple frost into its body. It was my armor break skill, Purple Frost Concentration. Of course, the boss being a boss resisted some of its effects, but me being me mitigated some of these resistances too. In the end, the final defense reduction turned out to be 33.9%. It was a good number all things considered.

While Hickey was busy clicking her tongue in admiration, I launched Burning Blade Slash and seized the boss's aggro completely!

……

"Ahhhhh! Your souls are about to obtain redemption, you filthy humans! The power of the dead is the true essence of living, so come and receive the embrace of the dead!"

The undead boss called "Mist Soul the Minstrel of Death" brought his wolf fang mace to bear and scored aUndead Slash right across my shoulder. A damage number popped where it struck—

79002!

Its Attack was pretty high, but with my current max HP and my new stats provided to me by the Sacred Armament, the Fire God Helmet? The chances of him killing me were next to zero! The brief contact was all I needed to know that I could’ve soloed this boss without too much trouble.

The two priests didn’t save their MP and did everything in their power to keep me healthy while Hickey and I attacked the boss. Less than 5 minutes later, Mist Soul’s HP had dropped to just 10%. It was easy!

……

Hickey backed away and said, "Have at it, boss!"

"Mn!"

I checked my experience bar. Killing this bar should increase my experience to around 40%, putting me just 60% away from Level 210. Assuming that I could last-hit the remaining three bosses, then I could definitely hit the Level 210 mark and take my eighth promotion quest at Dragonbone Mountain Range.

Swhoosh!

My sword suddenly felt icy cold, and the next moment I dealt 7 times more damage than normal. It instantly deleted Mist Soul’s last sliver of HP and erupted his humongous body into pieces. The boss dropped a ton of equipment, magic stones and so on and increased Hickey’s level to 200.

"Hoho, I’m at Level 200 now!" Hickey smiled sweetly.

The two male priests also congratulated her, "Congratulations, boss!"

"I’m not the boss anymore. Call me vice leader…" Hickey reprimanded them.

I dismounted and picked up the equipment on the floor. A quick inspection later, I distributed them to everyone, "Let’s see. Soul Destroyer Wristguards, Level 190 Earth-grade wristguards. This is yours, archer girl. Merciful Night Ring, Outstanding Earth-grade with a 19% healing boost. Priests, feel free to roll for it. Spirit Destroyer Cape. Not bad. Here you go again, archer girl…"

Finally, I was left with a dark red helmet and a pair of dark red boots. Considering that the light they gave off was almost identical, I was certain that it was the S2 Death God set. Beside me, Hickey stared at the equipment with expectant eyes. "Show us the stats?"

I brought up the helmet first and waved my hand across it. Its stats screen immediately appeared before everyone—

Death God Helmet (Heaven-grade, Outstanding★★★★★)

Defense: 2750

Magic Resist: 2550

Strength: +800

Stamina: +750

Agility: +700

Tactics: +70

Passive: Increases user's max HP by 30000

Passive: Increases user’s Defense and Magic Resist by 35%

Slots: 12

Outstanding Property: Death God Energy. Deals 10% more damage to all living targets.

Introduction: Death has always been the biggest fear of the humans and the gods, and the Death Gods controlled the laws of life and death for generations. However, even the Death Gods were not immune to the curse of death. Massive amounts of death energy accumulated where the Death Gods were laid to slumber, condensing into a set of armor infused with Death Gods’ power. It is said that those who wear the Death God set can occasionally see through the profound principles of life and death itself. 1% chance to revive at full health upon death.

Level: 190

Reputation Requirement: 300000

Effect: Binds automatically upon pick-up (Not yet bound)

……

"Ah? The Death God set can revive someone upon death?" Hickey’s mouth fell open.

I nodded. "Yep. I’ve seen this effect before."

Meanwhile, the archer girl was checking the database and exclaiming in surprise, "Wow! According to the S2 instance database, the Death God Helmet is supposed to give 25% Defense only. This one gives 35%! Is this the legendary Luck in effect?"

Hickey’ smiled even wider as she hugged the helmet. "Ah, it sure seems like it. Our boss's karma is just too good."

I corrected her, "It’s Luck. Luck makes the improbable inevitable…"

We checked out the dark red war boots next. As expected, they were the Death God War Boots, and their stats weren’t too different from the Death God Helmet. Long story short, they were great equipment. Hickey equipped both items immediately and experienced a massive boost in stats. She grew so confident that she declared, "I want to be the main tank for the next boss fight!"

I hid a snicker. "Sure…"