17: Chapter 17 Heroic Slayer, Swift as a Flash

[Ding! You have killed the Undead Skeleton Knight · Gu Feng, obtaining: a certain amount of EXP, wanghai black scythe (Legendary) *1, corpse orb (Legendary) *1, wanghai crown (Legendary) *1, "Death Slash (Legendary)" *1.]

[Ding, you achieved the first clear of the Nightmare difficulty dungeon Withered Forest, obtaining: Free Attribute Points *60, Legendary Chest *1]

[Ding, you killed a Hero-tier gatekeeper boss higher than your Rank without taking damage, obtaining: Title "hero slayer"]

[Ding! You have leveled up! Obtained: +1 to all four basic attributes, 1 Free Attribute Point!]

[Your current Rank: 9!]

Lu Yang stood in place and took a deep breath.

The faint scent of black mist left behind after Gu Feng collapsed still lingered in the valley, mixed with the damp, cloying sweet smell of rotting earth, drifting faintly in the wind.

His chest heaved twice, the excitement in his eyes almost overflowing.

A total of three System announcements!

The rewards were incredibly generous!

He checked the drops first, a total of four Legendary items.

Three pieces of equipment, plus a Legendary skill book!

[wanghai black scythe (Legendary)]: Polearm Scythe, Attack +133, Strength +15, Stamina +15, Agility +11, Required Rank: 10

[corpse orb (Legendary)]: Accessory, Stamina +20, Reduces damage taken by 10% when equipped. Required Rank: 10

[wanghai crown (Legendary)]: Chainmail Helmet, Defense +30, Strength +13, Stamina +12, Agility +9, Required Rank: 10

[Death Slash (Legendary)]: Learn the Death Slash skill upon use. Learning Condition: Death-type melee class.

Lu Yang looked through them one by one, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.

It had to be said, worthy of being Legendary equipment, every single one was unreasonably powerful.

Among them was even a weapon!

It increased Attack by a staggering 133 points!

Lu Yang stared at it with red eyes full of envy.

All the equipment he currently wore put together didn't add up to that number!

Unfortunately, all three pieces of equipment required Rank 10 to equip.

He had only just reached Rank 9.

If he wanted to equip them, he would have to wait a while.

What a pity.

As for Death Slash, a Legendary skill, its power went without saying.

However, learning it required a Death-type melee class.

This kind of class was generally a rare class, and extremely uncommon in the Blue Star Alliance.

Death-type melee classes were basically equivalent to undead; the class change threshold was high, and few people were willing to change into them.

Lu Yang definitely wouldn't consider changing to a Death-type class in the future.

Thus, Lu Yang couldn't use this Legendary skill book at all.

He planned to list it on the auction house after leaving.

The price would likely be lower than that of normal Legendary skill books, but it would definitely still sell.

There were undead races in the Milky Way, and many astral merchants specifically collected undead-type items useless to the Blue Star Alliance to flip them on trade routes over there.

The demand was there, so he could always get rid of it.

Overall, the drop rate this time was absurdly lucky.

Not a single piece of Materials was dropped, and everything was even of the Legendary Rank.

This was likely due to the talent Smile of the Goddess of Fortune, allowing so many good things to drop.

Lu Yang was still very satisfied with these drops.

He continued checking the other two rewards.

The first clear reward was a whole 60 Free Attribute Points.

Equivalent to the attribute points granted from leveling up 10 Ranks.

It boosted attributes more than a Rank 10 Legendary piece of equipment.

But that was normal, considering a dungeon's first clear reward could only be obtained once.

Not to mention this dungeon was of Nightmare difficulty.

Giving generous rewards was completely reasonable.

Without a second word, Lu Yang directly dumped all 60 attribute points into Strength.

Along the way, he also added the Free Attribute Points from reaching Rank 8 into Strength.

At this moment, Lu Yang's unequipped base Strength attribute had reached an exaggerated 78 points!

Putting on his equipment, his Strength attribute broke past 100!

An ordinary Tier 1 professional probably wouldn't reach such an exaggerated stat if their equipment couldn't keep up.

If Lu Yang's War Frenzy buff was factored in, his actual combat Strength directly shattered 500!

Even among Tier 1 professionals, this could be considered a high standard.

Unless the opponent was also wearing full luxury equipment or possessed a very strong Soul Talent, it was hard for a Tier 1 professional to reach such high numbers!

As for the Legendary Chest, Lu Yang thought about it and planned to open it at Rank 10 so he could get another Rank 10 equipment item.

After all, advancing at Rank 10 required completing an advancement quest.

Advancement quests came in various difficulty levels.

The higher the difficulty of the advancement quest, the greater the boost after advancing.

With such good conditions, Lu Yang naturally hoped to take on the hardest advancement quest.

He wasn't sure what level of difficulty the advancement quest would be, but accumulating some foundation beforehand was always good.

Anyway, with his current strength, he would be able to reach Rank 10 very soon.

Lu Yang checked the final title reward.

Titles were not mere decorations in the digitized Universe.

Every title required completing nearly impossible achievements to obtain.

For example, when Lu Yang was a mere Rank 8, he could actually kill a Rank 10 Hero-tier boss without taking any damage.

In anyone's eyes, this was unbelievable.

Novice professionals naturally had very few skills with limited means, relying mostly on raw stats and equipment to tank through fights.

Being able to kill a Hero-tier boss three Ranks higher without taking damage—no one would dare believe it if told.

Lu Yang checked the title's effect.

[hero slayer]: During your novice stage, you killed a Hero-tier boss without taking damage, exerting deterrence on Hero-tier and lower monsters. When Hero-tier and lower enemies face you, all their stats decrease by 20%, with a certain chance to trigger a Fear effect.

He raised an eyebrow slightly.

Overall, it was quite excellent.

After all, the enemies it could affect weren't just monsters; professionals of other races were also considered enemies.

Moreover, there was no Rank limit on this.

This meant that no matter how high the Rank of the professional or monster, as long as their tier didn't exceed Hero-tier, they would be affected.

Don't underestimate this 20% drop in all stats; while it looked like just a shrink in paper numbers, actual combat power might be cut by forty or fifty percent!

This could be called a god-tier trait for fighting above one's Rank.

Lu Yang smiled slightly, then clicked open his Soul Talent selection again.

Sure enough, when the three options lit up on the panel, his eyes were filled with orange and gold once more.

The Goddess of Fortune was still smiling upon him.

Two Epic grade, one Legendary grade.

[Super Critical Enhancement (Orange Epic)]: Critical Rate increased by 50%, Critical Damage increased by 100%.

[Extraordinary Life (Orange Epic)]: Max HP increased by 300%, recovers 2% HP per second.

[Streamer Speed (Gold Legendary)]: Movement Speed increased by 300%, Attack Speed increased by 150%.

Lu Yang scanned the three options and clicked the third one directly without even hesitating.

No matter how large an aura's coverage was, one still had to rely on two legs to run around and pull mobs; doubling attack speed also had a significant effect during 1v1s.

Not to mention, running fast was always the most practical advantage during combat.

If you couldn't win, you could run; if you could, you could chase and crush them.

He had already tasted the benefits of movement speed when kiting Gu Feng earlier, so a triple boost now felt amazing.

After making his choice, Lu Yang looked toward a light portal located at the valley entrance.

After killing Gu Feng, this light portal had appeared.

Soft white light rippled gently, forming a rectangular doorframe.

Faint silver light flowed across the surface of the portal, and tiny specks of light occasionally drifted off its edges, dissipating like snowflakes in the foul air.

The light shining through the other side of the gate was very clean, completely different from the hazy grey sky of the Withered Forest.

This was the dungeon exit.

For a novice dungeon, if one wanted to leave, they either had to die out or clear the dungeon and exit.

Lu Yang walked toward the dungeon exit with light footsteps.

...

Rewinding time.

Twenty minutes earlier.

In the dungeon hall, almost nobody had moved.

Because Lu Yang's performance was too dazzling, the novice professionals who were originally going to enter the novice dungeon remained inside the dungeon room.

Everyone looked up, staring directly at the ranking stele, watching Lu Yang's constantly increasing kill count.

Someone spoke up first; the voice wasn't loud, but it was exceptionally clear in the quiet hall.

"What kind of talent does Big Shot Lu Yang even have?! Farming monsters like slaughtering chickens... Do you think he can clear the dungeon?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone started talking and voicing their opinions.

"I think there's a chance, right? I see Big Shot Lu Yang is already killing undead monsters, and his farming speed is actually getting faster and faster! With this Attack power, he should stand a fighting chance against Gu Feng!"

"I don't think it's a given. Big Shot Lu Yang is strong, but his fast farming speed is mostly due to strong AoE capabilities. Gu Feng is a boss, a single-target fight, so AoE abilities won't be of much use."

"That's true... but look at how he killed that Hero-tier boss earlier. He couldn't have chipped it to death with AoE attacks too, right?"

"What Rank was Kezhi? Gu Feng is a Rank 10 boss, the Rank suppression alone widens the gap in combat power by a whole margin!"

"..."

While the novice professionals in the dungeon room were discussing this issue, Feng Lide and the others in the observation room were also discussing the exact same thing.