VRMMO: The Unrivaled

“It’ll be great if a Flurry Dance skill book dropped…” Lin Yixin said hopefully as she looked at the Hellhound’s corpse.

I tossed the Hellhound Pelt into my bag. “Flurry Dance doesn’t seem to be a skill that players can learn. Who can even take a burst of 7–8 attacks from you?”

“You’re right!”

Lin Yixin laughed. Her pretty gaze shifted to the doors of the Ancient Thunder Temple. “Lu Chen, let’s go in. Let’s start our adventure!”

“Mn.”

……

I came before the Ancient Thunder Temple again with the Ghost Ice Soul in hand. “Beauty Yi, hurry. I bet other players will find this place within three days and by that time, the Ancient Thunder Temple’s boss and experience won’t exclusively belong to us anymore.”

Lin Yixin nodded, “Mn, let’s go!”

We went inside the ancient temple together and saw stone totem pillars everywhere. Every one of them protruded from the ground like sharp blades and the broken stone paved ground was filled with stretches of red liquid that looked like bloodstains or already dried blood moss.

I opened the minimap but I couldn’t get a complete picture of the ancient temple’s first floor. My small field of vision was only about 100 yards and there was only one path in front of us that led deeper inside. There, many Hellhounds turned around, their red eyes fixed on us, the intruders.

Lin Yixin said in a quiet voice, “Careful.”

“Hm?”

Right when I took a step forward, a half-meter-thick bolt of lightning suddenly struck the ground in front of me, the stone floor grinded into dust. Thank God it was 1.5 meters away or else I’d have died on the spot.

Far from where we stood, countless lightning bolts descended upon the temple’s first floor. Too scary, no wonder it is called the Ancient Thunder Temple!

My head felt numb as I took in the sight of the endless torrent of lightning. I quietly muttered, “What do we do? The random lightning strikes seem to have no pattern at all. Forget about killing mobs, I’m afraid we’d get sent back to the city by the lightning by the time we even get to kill a few Hellhounds.”

Lin Yixin did not answer me. Her eyes looked deeply into the distant darkness. Her lips opened slightly, then curled around two minutes later into a smile. “Figured it out yet, Lu Chen?”

I nodded. “Yes!”

Lin Yixin smiled. “Even though there’s no pattern in where the lightning lands, there is a faint trace of lightning at the place where one is about to fall. The delay between the mark and lightning strike isn’t more than 2 seconds, but it’s enough to serve us as an early warning. As long as we react fast enough, we can easily rush to the fifth floor!”

“Right!”

I’d already seen through this pattern half a minute ago. I just didn’t say it out loud because I saw Lin Yixin’s beautiful thinking appearance. Even though a national beauty was cute, a beauty with intelligence was even more fascinating. Lin Yixin before me was such an admirable girl. She had the beauty and the brains.

“Use your pet to lure the mobs and don’t move as much as possible. Only move to a secure spot if your position is about to get hit by lightning. Today’s grind isn’t going to be an easy one. We have to keep our concentration at 100% the entire time. The slightest lapse in focus will spell our demise.”

Lin Yixin nodded. “Mn, got it. You be careful too. We’ll each pick a side to go in. Don’t spare a single Hellhound!”

“Okay!”

I walked along the right wall. Lightning struck once every 5 seconds and each bolt lasted 2 seconds. The early warning lasted a second and delay between it and the strike was another 2 seconds. As long as we stayed focused, with our reaction speeds, there wouldn’t be a problem if we stayed here the entire day.

Not too far away, a Hellhound was slowly moving about. My Dark Wasp flew at the speed of lightning, aggroed the mob, and came back under my command.

I used my Dark Wasp as a meatshield. It was already Level 50 and its Defense and HP far surpassed mine. The Hellhound dealt less damage to it than me and as a pet, the Dark Wasp’s HP regen was 500%. It could recover to full in just five minutes. This way, I was saving a lot of potions.

Crack!

The Ghost Ice Soul transformed into a cone of ice and pierced a hole through the Hellhound’s belly. Ice Ray did more than 700 damage and greatly reduced the dog’s movement speed. A Slayer Slash after, the monster took additional 800 damage. A single engage allowed me to deal almost 1600 damage.

After the quick attack, I swiftly retreated and made my Dark Wasp take on the brunt of the monster’s damage.

Five seconds later, my skills were off cooldown and I engaged again. Pardon landed with a large MISS, bloody light spanning across the edge of my Ghost Ice Soul. It was my newly-acquired Desperate Gambit III!

2098!

Sweet, now that’s satisfying!

On another side, Lin Yixin let out a snort while still in combat. She seemed unhappy about how incredible my Pardon was. Her Moon Gaze + Extreme Break combo was a bit worse than that but her Killer Wind Swordplay allowed her DPS to stay on par with mine. My Dark Wasp was better than her Fire Blade by a grade, so by the time I disposed of my first Hellhound, Lin Yixin’s had around 20% HP left.

The Fire Blade emitted intense flames like a killer demon blade and riddled the Hellhound with holes, but its attack power was much inferior to my Dark Wasp’s. While my Dark Wasp could deal at least 1000 damage to these monsters, the Fire Blade could only deal around 300 per hit. It was inferior both in base attack and skills!

I felt happy inside. My Dark Wasp’s growth stars and BN were too great. This pet had been totally worth catching!

A few seconds later, I lured over a second Hellhound and killed it with my Dark Wasp!

But at this time, a crackling sound came from beneath my feet. A faint trace of electric light flashed past, a sign that lightning was about to strike!

Even though she was more than ten meters away, Lin Yixin still discovered my situation. She shouted, “Watch out!”

Swhoosh!

I took two steps back and retreated a meter away. Lightning flashed and instantly fell, right on the head of the Hellhound I was attacking!

“Howl!”

The Hellhound cried out as an astonishing damage number appeared above its head—3021!

Damn. Even if this mob had no magic resistance, it shouldn’t have taken this much damage, right? In this case, if a player were to get hit, they’ll die nine out of ten times!

This wasn’t a bad thing for me though. The lightning would increase my grinding efficiency. I slashed once more and the Hellhound died just like that. We received full experience from that!

“Not bad~”

Lin Yixin smiled from afar. “We can exploit that as much as we want. Use your positioning to lure Hellhounds into the lightning spots. Let’s get 3 levels today!”

I secretly agreed and involuntarily smiled. If we grind like this, our leveling speed will at least double. It’s a system bug anyway, it’ll be a waste if we don’t take advantage of it!

I ran forward again and lured a Hellhound while paying close attention to the area within 3 yards of me. The moment a lightning spot appeared, I lured the monster there. The third Hellhound collapsed with the help of a lightning strike and even dropped me a Big Magic Stone!

Tsk tsk, this bug is pretty incredible!

I was secretly overjoyed. My leveling speed would definitely soar tonight and the lightning above was my number one weapon!

Of course, this kind of bug could only be utilized by first-rate players like us. If we were replaced by Du Thirteen, I’m afraid that he’d get struck by the lightning while trying to lure the mob over.

I gradually advanced onward. Lin Yixin and I weren’t in a hurry since the first floor of this Ancient Thunder Temple had plenty of mobs. Each was a bump to our experience bars, so we thoroughly cleaned them up.

……

Two hours passed in the blink of an eye. I was now Level 53 and at 49%. I gain around 12.5% an hour, so fast!

Grinning from ear to ear, Lin Yixin was also as glad as I was. Our DPS was high in the first place, so it’d be weird if our grinding speed wasn’t ridiculous when partied up.

In fact, in this Ancient Thunder Temple, my overall DPS was around 40% higher than hers. My Dark Wasp’s attack power spoke for itself and my Undead Energy was amazing when it came to killing living creatures. Lin Yixin’s Holy Energy was unable to show its effects on a blood and flesh creature like the Hellhound.

Rustle...

After swiftly advancing several steps forward and evading the falling lightning, I came to Lin Yixin’s side. She was currently pulling out the Snow Shadow Sword from the body of a Hellhound. Blood spurted out as the last remaining Hellhound of the temple’s first floor drew its last breath.

I pointed at the dark steps in front of us. “That’s the way to the second floor, how about we head up?”

Lin Yixin blinked. “The first floor doesn’t have a boss?”

“Nope!”

“How do you know?”

“The official map data says so. You can search the Ancient Thunder Temple if you don’t believe me. It’s just that it doesn’t have a public location and coordinates, which means that we’re the first people to have come here.”

“Oh, I see…”

Lin Yixin opened the official data and shot me a dimpled smile afterwards. “The Ancient Thunder Temple is a feudal gravesite. There’s a boss on every floor after second, so third, fourth and fifth. Fifth floor’s boss is precisely that feudal lord. Hoho, good. Let's quickly make our way to the third floor!”

“Mn, let’s take it one at a time.”

……

I walked up the steps with Lin Yixin and her Snow Shadow Sword closely behind me. The surroundings were pitch-black and a cold wind blew. The sound of ghosts crying and the howling of wolves sometimes brushed over.

I suddenly stopped in my tracks.

“Why aren’t you moving?” Lin Yixin asked.

“Don’t grab my cloak…”

“Oh, I… I was afraid that you’d slip!” Lin Yixin released her hold on the corner of my cloak.

I couldn’t help but smile. “Are you scared?”

“No! What would I be afraid of…” Lin Yixin puffed out her ample chest and looked at me in defiance.

I smiled. “There’s a female ghost with a three-foot-long tongue behind you!”

“Ah?!”

Lin Yixin jumped into my arms on reflex. The fragrant aroma of a woman assaulted my nostrils as I held onto her shoulder. With a smug smirk, I countered, “Still want to say you’re not scared?”

Lin Yixin raised her head and glared at me. “You bastard, you dare scare me? Hmph, you’re dead meat!”

Lin Yixin’s pretty eyes suddenly filled with shock. Her voice quaked as she said, “Lu Chen… there… there’s a ghost behind you…”

I put my hands on my hips and laughed. “Haha, who are you trying to fool!”

Swhoosh!

A gust of cold wind later, my Beast-faced Turmoil Helmet flew into the air. Having received a heavy blow, I rolled down the steps, dragging Lin Yixin along.