"Ding! Teleportation imminent. Countdown begins: 10, 9, 8, 7..."
As the six-pointed star pattern beneath Jiang Yuan's feet blazed with intensifying light, a prompt sounded in his ear.
"Meow meow! Hold tight, we're taking off!"
With three seconds left on the countdown, Jiang Yuan said to the Persian cat perched on his shoulder. Then, a mysterious force descended, enveloping his body, and in an instant, the man and cat vanished from the cave.
When Jiang Yuan reappeared, he found himself on the mountainside of an unknown peak. Turning back, he saw the desolate city not far off—the very place he'd been when he first entered the instance.
"Ding! Congratulations on triggering the latest quest. Please reach the Lost Altar as soon as possible and defeat the Altar Guardian."
The system prompt rang out again, bringing Jiang Yuan a new round of tasks.
"Where's the Lost Altar now? Why does this instance designer love playing hide-and-seek so much?"
After hearing the system prompt, Jiang Yuan started grumbling again.
"Meow!"
At that moment, Meow Meow, who had been squatting on Jiang Yuan's shoulder, jumped down and raised a front paw to point at the mountaintop, as if to say: Idiot, it's obviously at the top!
Jiang Yuan slapped his forehead and thought to himself: Right! Since the teleportation array sent me to the mountainside, the altar can't be below!
Seeing Meow Meow's disdainful look, Jiang Yuan's mouth twitched. In less than half a day, he'd been looked down on by a cat twice!
"Let's go, Meow Meow."
Fortunately, Jiang Yuan had thick skin. Acting as if nothing had happened, he said to the Persian cat and then took the lead toward the summit.
Not long after Jiang Yuan and Meow Meow started walking along the mountain path, a group of men, women, old, and young suddenly emerged from all directions, brandishing hoes and rakes, surrounding Jiang Yuan.
"Who are you people?"
Looking at the crowd that seemed to come out of nowhere, Jiang Yuan asked in surprise.
After he asked, about a minute passed with no response from the group. Their expressions were blank, each staring with dead fish eyes, emotionlessly fixed on Jiang Yuan. Yet Jiang Yuan could sense a strong hostility emanating from them.
"Huh, huh..."
Making indistinct sounds, the group began slowly closing in on Jiang Yuan, forcing him to retreat step by step. After all, he'd never even killed a chicken in his life, let alone a person.
"Don't... don't come any closer!"
Jiang Yuan was scared, backing away until his back pressed against a thick tree trunk, stopping him.
"Meow!"
The Persian cat at Jiang Yuan's feet bristled, its silver-white fur standing on end, letting out a warning cry.
Suddenly, a man in a gray linen shirt swung his iron shovel directly at the agitated Meow Meow.
"Swish, swish!"
Seeing someone dare to attack it, Meow Meow leaped high, extending sharp claws from its paw pads. Two flashes of white light later, the man with the shovel became a headless corpse, slowly toppling backward.
Jiang Yuan's gaze fell on the neck of the gray-clad man's headless body, noticing that aside from a bowl-sized scar, not a single drop of blood flowed out.
"Ding! Congratulations on defeating the monster Lost Native, gaining 400,000 experience points!"
The system prompt sounded, and Jiang Yuan finally realized these people were all monsters in the instance. He looked up at the head of the nearest elderly person.
[Common Monster: Lost Native] Level: 60 HP: 1,200,000 Defense: 1000 Attack: 1000 Description: Original inhabitants of the Lost Land, sealed by some mysterious power, turned into half-human, half-corpse monsters.
With that, Jiang Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, shedding his heavy mental burden. He raised his hand and summoned two thousand Thunder Marsh Oxen.
"Crackle!"
Amidst flashes of lightning, these Lost Land natives convulsed and fell, then were swarmed by the surrounding Thunder Marsh Oxen, which charged and trampled them to death.
Another tens of millions of experience points in hand, plus the 120 million from defeating the first stage's boss, Jiang Yuan's level jumped straight from 87 to 88.
After clearing out these eerie Lost Natives, Jiang Yuan continued toward the summit with Meow Meow. Just before reaching the top, he encountered another wave of monsters.
[Common Monster: Fallen Believer] Level: 75 HP: 1,500,000 Defense: 1500 Attack: 2000
With previous experience, Jiang Yuan felt less burdened when facing these humanoid monsters again. He directly deployed a wave of five thousand Thunder Marsh Oxen!
A series of system prompts sounded, and Jiang Yuan's experience bar, which had just broken through level 88, advanced by another tenth.
About twenty minutes later, Jiang Yuan finally reached the summit with Meow Meow, where a massive altar came into view.
The altar was semicircular, with a marble base at the bottom, surrounded by a white jade railing. The circular floor was paved entirely with gold, etched with intricate patterns that dazzled Jiang Yuan's eyes.
Suddenly, the patterns on the golden floor began to glow. Accompanied by a low sound, a figure slowly materialized before Jiang Yuan.
"Who dares to disturb the slumber of the dead?"
Jiang Yuan focused his gaze and saw the second stage's boss, the "Altar Guardian," clad in a purple robe, holding a book as thick as a dictionary. Its cover was made of parchment, stamped with strange characters Jiang Yuan couldn't read.
A line of information immediately appeared in Jiang Yuan's mind.
[BOSS: Altar Guardian] Level: 85 HP: 15,000,000 Defense: 3500 Attack: 5000 Ice Resistance: +150 Light Resistance: +150 Fire Resistance: +150 Dark Resistance: +150 Active Skill: Freeze Spell—The Altar Guardian activates the magic book in hand and, after a short chant, unleashes a Freeze Spell on the enemy, dealing 3000 magic damage. Active Skill: Crimson Chain—The Altar Guardian activates the magic book and, after a short chant, releases a chain of fire at the enemy. Hit enemies take 3000 magic damage and gain a burn debuff, losing 500 HP per second for 10 seconds. Active Skill: Shadow Strike—The Altar Guardian activates the magic book, conceals itself in shadows, and launches a surprise attack. Hit enemies are instantly killed! Passive Skill: Light Barrier—The Altar Guardian activates the magic book and, after a short chant, gains a light-element shield that absorbs 500,000 damage.
"Holy crap, how the hell am I supposed to fight this?"
After reading the boss's stats, Jiang Yuan's mouth formed a perfect "O." The second stage boss of the Lost Land instance was ridiculously overpowered!
Not only did it have massive HP, but it was also the first boss Jiang Yuan had encountered with four elemental resistances and four skills, each terrifying in its own right!
Summoning a Thunder Marsh Ox at lightning speed, Jiang Yuan used "Soul Sacrifice" to stack its stats onto himself. Then, he unusually summoned two thousand Cangyuan Wolves, two thousand Mangshan Bears, three thousand Shahe Softshell Turtles, and three thousand Thunder Marsh Oxen in a 2:2:3:3 ratio.
The purpose was to avoid single-element summons dealing insufficient damage to the boss. Among the four Nine-Soul Summoner skills Jiang Yuan had mastered, Cangyuan Wolves were dark-element, Mangshan Bears were earth-element, Shahe Softshell Turtles were water-element, and Thunder Marsh Oxen were light-element.
"Go get him, my minions!"
Jiang Yuan threw a "Mystic Mark" at the Altar Guardian boss, then commanded the four types of summons to attack.
Numbers indicating damage immediately appeared above the boss's head. While the earth-element Mangshan Bears and water-element Shahe Softshell Turtles dealt full damage, the attacks from Cangyuan Wolves and Thunder Marsh Oxen were reduced to varying degrees due to the boss's elemental resistances.
"Ancient gods, I am your most devout follower. Grant me the power of light!"
At that moment, the Altar Guardian boss suddenly raised the parchment-covered magic book high above its head and began chanting an ancient incantation.
Jiang Yuan watched from a distance as a white light glowed from the magic book, and a transparent shield appeared on the boss.
Once the shield appeared, all damage from Jiang Yuan's summons was absorbed. But facing ten thousand summoned beasts, the boss's 500,000-damage-absorbing shield lasted only a few seconds before shattering.
A minute later, Jiang Yuan's first wave of summons faded. He checked the boss's HP—still over 13 million.
"Looks like I'll have to wear it down slowly."
Jiang Yuan muttered, repositioning himself and summoning a second wave. He applied the "Mystic Mark" buff to the boss, and thousands of the five types of summons surged forward again, launching a second assault.
Without the shield's protection, the boss's HP bar began dropping rapidly, decreasing by over a million in just over ten seconds.
"Ancient gods, I am your most devout follower. Grant me the power of fire!"
The boss chanted again. After a pause of two or three seconds, a chain of fire materialized out of thin air, shooting straight toward Jiang Yuan at incredible speed!
"Smack!"
Despite Jiang Yuan's desperate dodge, he was a beat too slow. The chain bound him tightly, and his body involuntarily flew toward the boss.
"Meow!"
Meow Meow, who had been still for a while, saw Jiang Yuan in trouble and swiftly slashed the chain near him with its sharp claws, breaking it and stopping Jiang Yuan's movement.
"Meow Meow, thank you so much! Once we finish this instance, I'll treat you to a feast!"
Jiang Yuan turned to look at Meow Meow, gratitude genuine in his voice.
"Meow!"
After Jiang Yuan spoke, Meow Meow seemed to understand, nodding and even raising its right paw to make an "OK" gesture!
"This thing is practically a spirit!"
Seeing Meow Meow's human-like behavior, Jiang Yuan was utterly amazed.
The boss's chain attack had dealt 3000 damage to Jiang Yuan and applied a debuff. Now, his HP was dropping by 500 per second!
But for Jiang Yuan, who had used "Soul Sacrifice" on himself, the HP loss was like a drizzle!
Soon, Jiang Yuan's second wave of summons ended. He checked the boss's HP bar—finally pushed below 10 million!