MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks

Chapter 701 - Demonic Forest

Chapter 701: Demonic Forest

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Li Yi traveled through the worlds and entered Foreignland like a spirit. This time, however, he was alone, and he went even deeper than before. Taking advantage of the Seventh Demon God’s absence, he went past the Path of Darkness and directly into the Demonic Forest.

The Demonic Forest was the territory of the Sixth Demon God, and the monsters within it were far stronger than those at the entrance of Foreignland. Furthermore, all monsters, be it bosses or monsterlings, had a special trait that set them apart from their relatives at the entrance, their intellect.

In this map, monsters would not stand around like dummies as they watch players charge at them. Instead, their actions would mirror those of players. Whenever they spotted solo players, they would carry out ambushes; and when they encountered a group of players, they would flee without even attempting battle. In other words, the monsters here had some sort of intellectual capacity that enabled them to make judgments based on the situation at hand.

Unlike the territory of the Seventh Demon God, at this point in time, the players who dared to challenge the Sixth Demon God’s territory were few and far between. After all, the way the players were right now, who had yet to even assemble a full set of Holy Equipment, blindly forging on in Foreignland was akin to a death wish, no?

Players had to first assemble their equipment before attempting higher difficulty maps. That was the natural cycle in the game. Those who rushed this process would only bring about their own demise.

Naturally, there were no absolutes in life. Though the cycle applied to normal players, for the cream of the crop, challenging these new areas was not nonsense, as they really had the ability to conquer these new areas.

Li Yi was now in the Demonic Forest. After walking straight for half an hour or so, he came face to face with Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut.

Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut was leading around a hundred of her guild’s elite. Using their current position as their base of operations, they were currently hunting down monsterlings one by one. All hundred-odd of them had surrounded a demonic monsterling and they each unleashed a wide variety of skills, from blade auras to shadow walks, to the four elements, fire, electric, wind, and ice. Pretty quickly, the monster was taken down.

Just as the demonic monsterling was taken down by Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut’s men, Drifting Snow lured in another demonic monsterling. Everyone in the party had clearly defined roles, with Drifting Snow being responsible for luring in a monsterling, and Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut responsible for leading her men.

The moment the demonic monsterling spotted the group of players, it tried to turn tail and run. However, it was quickly run-down by the main tanks that Charged into it. With utmost haste, they surrounded the monsterling, and before long, the monsterling was brought down… As of that point in time, nobody in Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut’s party had equipment that was good enough to single-handedly take down these monsters, including herself. As such, if they were to fight one-on-one against these monsterlings, the only result that awaited them was a free trip back to the capital. However, that was not the case if they outnumbered the monsterlings by a hundred to one.

The drop rate of the monsters here was quite decent, and after farming in that location for almost five hours, they had nearly completed the Demonic Apex Equipment Set that was used by main tank Warriors along with various other trash Holy-attribute items.

The demonic monsterlings dropped equipment sets, but the equipment they dropped was a tier lower than the Purple Quality Demon Tribe Commander Set that would drop from bosses. Furthermore, their loot was considered the lowest-tiered Purple Quality Equipment in the Foreignland expansion.

The more Holy Equipment one was armed with, the easier the battles with monsters would become. Initially, Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut’s party had a tough time beating the monsterlings. However, as they gathered more and more Holy Equipment, they found themselves spending less and less time defeating the monsterlings.

After observing their movements from an obscured corner for quite some time, Li Yi decided not to instigate them. Instead, he morphed into a Lightning Leopard and snuck away by using Stealth.

Foreignland’s map was far too big. Compounded with the fact that coordinates were omitted within the map, those unfamiliar with its surroundings would easily find themselves lost as they stumble through the map.

After walking forward for about two hours, Li Yi was greeted by an ancient Demon City.

The Demon City’s size was far greater than the major cities of the humans. Its city walls were constructed from the sturdy Styx Metal, and it spanned for over a hundred miles, further than the eye could see.

The Demon City before Li Yi was called Karan City. Unlike the human cities, the Demon Cities were named to commemorate their fallen Demon Heroes, and Karan was one of these heroes.

Li Yi did not enter the city. Instead, he circled around the Styx Metal wall and continued west until he encountered a crippled, corpse-like, green-skinned demon. He then paused, flashed the demon a smile, and started to walk towards it.

This green-skinned demon was unlike the others. Not only were its looks different from other demons, but its stance on matters was also different from the other demons. Whenever players encountered it, the name above its head would be displayed in yellow. This signified that it was a Neutral entity, and as such, it would not attack players for no good cause.

The green-skinned demon was called Aragon, and its position was quite unique. In order for the players to have a good time in Foreignland, they would first need to establish a good relationship with it.

“Greetings friend.” Li Yi gave a courteous smile as he walked forward.

“I’m not your friend, you disgusting human.”

Aragon gave Li Yi a disdainful glare, and then it limped away from Li Yi.

With a smile still on his face, Li Yi followed behind like a chick following its mother. Wherever Aragon went, Li Yi was bound to follow.

Aragon stopped walking, and it roared at Li Yi, “Scummy human, what are you trying to accomplish?”

“Stay away from me, or else…”

Aragon waved its fists in an attempt to chase Li Yi away. The name on top of its head continued to flicker between red and yellow, signifying that it would turn red at any moment.

Li Yi took a few steps back without uttering a single word, and he continued to smile as he did so.

“Loathsome b*strd, stop following me or I’ll show you what it means to die a horrible death.”

Aragon gave Li Yi a malicious stare before turning around and leaving. Once again, Li Yi tailed Aragon.

Aragon was heading in the direction of Karan City’s city gates. Normally, when there were no players that followed it around, its daily routine would consist of walking in and out of Karan City, and it would continue to repeat it with no deviations whatsoever.

Seeing that Li Yi was following it again, Aragon sneered. This time, he no longer attempted to chase Li Yi away, and instead hastened its steps towards the city gates.

Hundreds of superior demons could be seen walking in and out of the city gates. Had any player came here for the first time, that sight alone would have scared the wits out of them.

Not Li Yi though, as he knew that the only way to activate a new Foreignland quest was to tail Aragon.

Just as there were only a dozen or meters left before they reached the city gates, Aragon halted abruptly. It then turned behind to look at Li Yi — who was still all smiles and closely behind him.

“Human, if I were to shout right now, do you know what fate awaits you?”

Li Yi answered, “I’d die.”

Aragon sneered coldly. “If you know that you’ll die, then why do you still insist on following me?”

“You’re unlike the other demons. I know that you will not harm me.”

“Heh… Human, and how is it that you know that I won’t harm you?”

Li Yi gave a simple response. “My gut instincts.”

Actually, it did not matter how the player answered. As long as they followed Aragon all the way to the city gates without angering it, the new Foreignland quest would automatically trigger.

Aragon narrowed its eyes for a moment before taking out a black pill and handing it to Li Yi.

“You said that I won’t harm you. Fine, eat this pill then.”

The black pill looked highly suspicious, and it emitted a rotten stench. It looked a lot like poison.

Li Yi immediately downed the pill upon receiving it, all the while maintaining his smile at Aragon.

“Follow me.”

Aragon ordered coldly and walked into the city.

The black pill had taken effect, and a black vapor enveloped Li Yi, turning him into a long-horned green-skinned demon in a blink of an eye.

The black pill was not poison. Rather, it was a Demon-morphing Potion. Upon consumption, the user could temporarily become a demon and its effects lasted for 2 hours.

A demon-form disguise was one of the necessities for entering Karan City; but what if one intended to barge right in? Well, they should probably wake up from their reverie. Even if one ignored the tremendous strength of the Sixth Demon God, the Superior Demons themselves had already numbered over a million, and they would give any intruder a run for their money… Internally, Karan City was not much different from the major cities of humans. There were streets, there were pedestrians, there were demon NPCs, and even shops such as Apothecaries, Ironsmithies, Tailor Shops, Alchemy Workshops, and various others.

Aragon walked extremely slow, and as such, Li Yi no longer followed it after making it into the city. He first entered an Ironsmithy, procured a White Quality trash weapon, then he made his way to a Tailor Shop and procured a White Quality trash shirt. Once that was done, he rushed towards the Alchemy Workshop and bought himself a White Quality trash ring.

By the time he walked out of the Alchemy Workshop, Aragon could no longer be seen.

Despite that, Li Yi did not attempt to seek out Aragon. Instead, he went in the opposite direction with great speed.

Due to Karan City’s large area and his transformation lasting for only two hours, by the time Aragon led them to their destination, Li Yi’s transformation would have already ended. Furthermore, he would need to wait until the next day in order to take another batch of the transformation potion.

Li Yi took large strides forward, twisting and turning through different paths until he finally made it into a secluded street. There were no demon shops to be found within it, only a scarlet-haired beautiful demoness.

The demoness was called Naixiu, and while the potion was still in effect, her name would be displayed in green. Besides that, there was also a small line of text at the corner of her name, stating: [Advanced Infuser].

Infusers were a special class that belonged only to demons, and Naixiu was the Mentor.

“Greetings Mentor, I’d like to learn Infusion Spells.”

Time was of the essence, and Li Yi cut straight to the chase, explaining the purpose of his visit.

“I sense great potential within you, I’m sure that you can bring fame to the art of Infusion.”

Naixiu nodded her head and issued Li Yi a collection quest. It required Li Yi to purchase a weapon.

Li YI took out the trash White Quality weapon he bought a while back and gave it to Naixiu.

“Very good, now keep your eyes peeled.”

Naixiu nodded her head, took the trashy White Quality weapon along with a crystal, and slowly focused the crystal into the weapon.

A rainbow-colored ray of light shot out, and an additional Holy+1 attribute could be seen infused within the trashy weapon.

At that moment, Naixiu issued another gathering quest, which required Li Yi to purchase a piece of clothing from the Tailor Shop.

Li Yi immediately handed in his newly bought clothes.

Pleased, Naixiu nodded her head. “Very well, I’ll leave it for you to try this time.”

Naixiu did not take the clothes and instead explained. “The Magic Crystals (Holy Crystals) possess a form but they have no mass, allowing them to be infused within equipment and increasing the item’s strength…”

Though Li Yi was not interested in listening to Naixiu’s gibberish, he had no choice. After all, he could not proceed to learn Attribute Infusion without first listening to it.

Sometime later, after Naixiu had finally completed her lengthy speech, she took out a Holy Crystal and presented it to Li Yi.

Li Yi extended his hand to receive it, only for the system to notify him: [In order to receive the item, you must first pay ten thousand Gold Coins…]

…