We continued deeper into the Tomb of the Death Gods, and it was smooth-sailing for most of the journey. The second boss was an undead mage, and as Hickey requested I allowed her to become the MT. However, after eating just 2 Fireballs of Deaths and losing nearly 300k HP, she withdrew in panic and said, "Er, forget what I said earlier, boss…"

I shook my head in amusement. Even with a Roland Bloodknight Card, Hickey’s max HP would only have 600k HP. A critical hit might be all it took to kill her.

Despite the initial scare, the second boss went down smoothly and dropped three pieces of the S2 set in one go. They were the metal-armor Death God Wristguards and Death God Legguards, and the leather-armor Death God Leather Helmet. The archer girl was super happy that she finally got an S2 set piece she could wear. The two priests though, the poor bastards hadn’t even glimpsed the shadow of a cloth-armor equipment from the start.

It took only 5 items to complete the S2 equipment set: Helmet, chest armor, wristguards, legguards and boots. This meant that Hickey was just one item away from owning a full set.

……

As our boots squelched against the dark, rotten ground of the tomb, Hickey looked at the bright moon above her head and said with a smile, "Ah, I feel so happy right now. I’ll be even happier if we can get the Death God Battle Armor from the final boss. If we do, I wonder if I will be the first person ever to gather a full S2 set on the first try?"

I shook my head. "I doubt it. The Death God Battle Armor only drops from the final boss, but the basic drop rate is less than 3%. Even with my Luck, the drop rate is only 22% or so, or less than a quarter of a chance, so don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t drop. Remember, we can always try again next week."

"It’s okay. I’m very satisfied with just four pieces of the S2 set."

"That’s good. Well, let’s get ready for the final boss…"

I looked at my experience bar again and said, "I’m only 9% away from hitting Level 210. I can’t wait to see what type of skill I’ll get for my eighth promotion…"

Hickey giggled. "You can think about it after we kill the final boss…"

"Yeah."

……

We soon arrived at a path that was surrounded by countless totems. At the end of the totem forest was a pitch black throne too far away from us to see clearly.

When we approached the throne, Hickey’s eyes suddenly widened in surprise. "Look! What’s that black thing on the throne?"

I raised the Purple Ying Sword to illuminate the throne. To our shock, a rotten skeleton that had been dead for god knows how long was sitting there. It wore some sort of black armor and wielded a gray, dusty sword. The sword was placed horizontally across his thighs, and his skull was bent downward. Its rotten sockets were completely lightless.

Hickey, being the brave girl she was, tempted fate by slapping the dead Death God once on the shoulder. Then, she shrugged her shoulders and said, "Well shit, it looks like the final boss died a natural death. What do we do now? Has anyone beaten the final boss of the S2 instance yet? Maybe we can consult a walkthrough?"

The archer girl shook her head. "I don’t know…"

I walked up to the Death God as well with a smile. "Ooh, look, I think the sword might be worth something. Let me just…"

I brushed my fingers across the surface of the blade, and the resulting shine almost blinded my eyes. God damn, it had to be a Divine Armament to have preserved its glow after so many years. My Purple Ying Sword probably would’ve rotten to god knows what after ten thousand years.

So I grabbed the hilt of the sword and tried to pull it out of the Death God’s grip. "Well, we can’t go back empty-handed no matter what. Thank you, old man, now let go—"

……

Suddenly, I heard a voice. "Do you wish for death, adventurer from distant lands?"

"What’s that?" Hickey looked around in confusion.

When I looked up, I discovered the supposedly dead Death God had raised his head and was staring at me with its deep, black sockets. A pair of eerie red lights were shining from somewhere inside the sockets. Pulling his rotten lips into a sneer, he spoke, "Who are the intruders who disturbed my long slumber? How do you wish to die?"

Hickey retreated swiftly while I climbed onto my dragon. Cape flapping coolly behind him, the Death God abruptly rose to his feet and let out an impressive roar, "Have I been imprisoned for tens of thousands of years just to welcome these weakings?"

Whoosh!

I unsheathed my weapon and barked out a laugh. "We are no weaklings, old man!"

"Come!"

The Death God abruptly coated his blade in a sheen of bloody light and jumped toward me. It was obviously undead energy. He shouted, "Enjoy the taste of death, intruder!"

I hurriedly raised the Dragon God Shield in defense. Parry first, everything else later!

Bang!

My arm turned numb, and a sensation I had never felt before flooded my senses. It felt like my bones had been shattered into many tiny pieces. Worse, the parry had failed to take effect, and the Death God’s blade scored a direct hit on my shoulder and inflicted even greater pain. The HP bar above my head suddenly dropped drastically—

252727!

Holy shit! I finally understood why no one had managed to beat the S2 instance yet. If this boss could hit me for over 250k damage, then it most certainly would one-shot or almost one-shot most MTs! Seriously, the number of players who could survive this attack could probably be counted on two hands!

"Heal me!"

After I had regained my balance, I rushed toward the Death God and stabbed his neck with Purple Frost Concentration. A struggle of stats and resistances later, the final amount of Defense reduced stopped at 31.4%. It was a respectable amount considering how strong the boss must be.

Behind me, the two priests obeyed and healed me with everything they got. My decision to bring two priests to this quest had definitely come in clutch here.

Next, I launched Burning Blade Slash right across the Death God’s chest and dealt a sizable amount of damage. Today, I shall see if the might of the Ancient Divine Dragon is enough to fight the S2 boss head-on!

……

"Receive the judgment of death, damned adventurer!"

The Death God looked absolutely livid as he took to the sky and fired three sword beams at me. At the same time, he shouted, "Ancient Judgment!"

Even a blind man could see that this skill was no joke. I hurriedly raised the Dragon God Shield and Guarded!

Bang bang bang!

My body rocked like a boat against the raging storm, and even the Ancient Divine Dragon cried in pain as it was pushed back. The triple-hit skill had passed through my shield unhindered and struck my body completely! As it turned out, the boss's rank was so high that my Guard was completely ignored!

210920!

245838!

512294!

……

The third hit was even a critical hit, dropping me to below 10% in an instant. Forget my party members, even I had nearly shat my pants at that moment. If even I with my Defense took this much damage, could He Yi’s party really defeat this bullshit Death God?

Swhoosh!

I healed myself for 25% of my HP immediately with Tenacity of the Dead while the two priests behind me were working over time. At the same time, I executed Pardon + basic attack + Universe Break combo that punched through the boss's neck like paper and caused a spurt of black blood and rotten flesh bits. I might not be able to withstand the Death God’s attacks, but he couldn’t withstand my attacks either!

MISS!

1949794!

+389958!

312284!

+62457!

……

Woohoo! That Pardon-empowered basic attack actually triggered the septuple damage effect of the Purple Ying Sword and healed me for almost 400k HP! Thanks to that, I was almost back to full health again. Meanwhile, the two male priests at the back looked like their eyeballs might fall out of their eye sockets. "Holy shit! Is this really a fight between a player and a boss? Boss isn’t secretly a god, is he??"

The battle between a peak expert and a boss wasn’t something a normal player’s heart could handle, it seemed.

After that, the rest of the battle was basically the Level 250 demigod and me trading powerful blows back and forth. I kept dropping below 25% HP again and again, but my massive burst damage and 20% lifesteal pulled me back to full health and kept me in the fight. Had I lacked any one element—the 20% lifesteal or the septuple damage effect of the Purple Ying Sword—I seriously wouldn’t have been able to kill this boss.

As for the two priests, well, as it turned out, two of them still weren’t equal to one Murong Mingyue. Their Instant Heals only healed around 50k HP, which was absolutely terrible compared to Murong Mingyue’s 100k. Also, the busty girl had insanely high healing critical rate, so she could heal even my kind of max HP to full in no time. She was especially missed during these types of scenarios.

……

About 30 minutes later, the Death God’s HP finally dropped to 2% or so. Hickey said happily, "I wonder if such a demigod-like boss will drop a Cambrian Divine Armament?"

I rolled my eyes at her. "Stop dreaming. You should thank your lucky stars if it even drops the Death God Battle Armor…"

"That’s true…"

I backed away and made the Phantom Wolf King and apparition eat a blow for me. While the boss was stalled, I unleashed Purple Dragon Howl!

Boom!

The powerful skill mixed together with the Ancient Divine Dragon’s Summon the Storm to torment the boss greatly. In the end, the Death God wasn’t able to overcome his death and came crashing into the ground, creating a huge pit and exploding into a ton of equipment.

Swhoosh!

A column of golden light surrounded me, and I was finally Level 210. I didn’t know if I was the first player to fulfill the requirements to undergo my eighth promotion, but I did know that I was absolutely ecstatic to reach it!

Meanwhile, Hickey had jumped into the pit, knelt next to the pile of equipment and held up a dark red metal armor. She looked so happy enough to shed tears of joy, "Ah… the Death God Battle Armor! It’s actually the Death God Battle Armor! This… this means that I have a full S2 set!"

I chuckled. "That’s great, but you should check out the rest of the equipment now. It’s only right to spread the joy around."

"Yeah."

There were three more items besides the Death God Battle Armor, and they were one leather-armor piece of the S2 set and 2 pieces of cloth armor. The leather armor went to the archer girl as a matter of course, and the priests split the cloth armors between them. As for myself, I was here purely for the experience, so I didn’t mind getting nothing at all.

……

Ka!

Hickey immediately equipped the Death God Battle Armor. The dark and murderous-looking battle armor outlined her body perfectly, and it even made her huge breasts looked like they would burst out of the steel. If there was one thing I liked about western girls, it would be their absolutely devilish curves. It was distinctively different from an eastern woman’s curves, but just as attractive.

"How do I look? It’s so cool, isn’t it?" Hickey said with a chuckle.

I nodded wholeheartedly. "One hundred percent."

"Thank you again, Lu Chen!"

"You’re welcome. Anyway, I’m going to get myself promoted. You should all catch some rest," I said.

"Yeah."

……

After we left the instance, I rested for a bit before mounting the Ancient Divine Dragon again. It was about time I returned to the edge of my homeland, Dragonbone Mountain Range, and met up with my mentor. It truly had been a while since I’d last seen him.