MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

If Akna was the one that walked out of the altar, Li Yi would not be surprised. After all, Akna possessed the necessary strength.

If it was one of the Tuhr that walked out, Li Yi would also not be surprised, because they worshipped their ancestors every few months.

Unfortunately, it was neither of them…

The person that walked out from the altar was neither Akna nor a Tuhr. In fact, it was a weak-looking, staff-wielding, black-robed girl.

It was not an NPC, but a player!

Although the black-robed girl hid her name, the Western Continent badge on top of her head told enough.

A black veil obscured her face, and her body was sylphlike. Although Li Yi could not see her face, looking at her had given him a sense of familiarity, as if he had met her somewhere before.

‘Who could she be?’

First off, her class was one of the rarest within the game, a Curse Priest. Moreover, all of her equipment emanated a purple aura, which meant that they were all Epic-level. As for her level, Li Yi estimated that she was at least Level 80.

‘A god-like female Western Continent Curse Priest…’

There were plenty of strong Curse Priests from the Western Continent in his past life, such as the ‘Curse God’ Ah Fei, ‘Dark Emperor’ Amateur Player, ‘Boss of the Bath House’ Dark Mage and several others. Thinking about it, there were plenty indeed.

However, all of the Curse Priests that he knew of were males, and none of them were female.

The Curse Priests have forsaken the Light to obtain dark powers, and due to that, Curse Priests are unable to heal themselves via Holy Light. If they forcefully healed, they would cause self-harm. Furthermore, due to the peculiar attack style of Curse Priests that utilized various Curses to kill, and the aforementioned reasons, very little females played the class.

Li Yi searched through the memories within his mind, only to realize, that none of them came close to the black-robed girl in front of him.

Once the Vagabonds have learned Air Dance Technique, they could fly all the way to the North Pole after consuming a rare potion that gave unlimited mana. However, other classes could not use Air Dance Technique, and as such, only experts could reach the North Pole at this point of time.

‘Just who could she be? She’s a Curse Priest, but she managed to arrive at the North Pole, and enter the Tuhr Altar, nonetheless. Also, why do I get a familiar feeling whenever I look at her? Have I met her before?’

Back at the bottom of the altar, the black-robed girl shook her head gently and held her staff up high to summon a skeletal wolf. She then rode on top of it.

‘An Undead mount!’

Li Yi’s body stiffened.

Undead mounts were hard to obtain, as no monsters dropped that kind of mount. Taking Jiaojiao’s Undead Military Horse as an example, which was a reward for converting into a Dark Paladin, nobody else could obtain it except for converting into that class.

Only by completing extremely rare quests could one stand a chance in obtaining an Undead Mount, and without exception, all the Undead mounts were combat mounts.

The black-robed girl had already ridden her skeletal wolf far away.

Li Yi jumped off from the head building and summoned out Frosty Wolf to give chase.

He had no idea how long it took for Akna to respawn. It could take a day, or it might take more than half a month. There was no telling, and rather than waiting for her to respawn, he would rather learn more about the girl.

Coming out from Tuhr Altar, being a Curse Priest, and riding an Undead Mount had made Li Yi very curious about her.

The skeletal wolf mount looked just as cool as Frosty Wolf, and in truth, the skeletal wolf was the remains of a Frosty Wolf that was enhanced with dark energy to become a mount. Compared to Frosty Wolf, the skeletal wolf mount moved faster, but it had a glaring flaw. When it ran, it would creak, as if it would break at any time. Furthermore, since it was only a bag of bones, riding on it was extremely uncomfortable.

As the skeletal wolf sped its way forward, the black-robed girl’s flew upwards, revealing a pair of thick white thighs, and looking closely, her cute little panties could also be seen…

Li Yi was even more curious about the black-robed girl now…

“Arh arh woooo—”

The black-robed girl arrived at the spawn point for white-furred snow apes and stopped. Still riding the skeletal wolf, she waved her staff and ferociously pointed it forward. “Fear’s Descent!”

“ARH ARH ARH WOOOOO…”

The eyes of ten or so white-furred snow apes turned red, and a circle of stars popped up on top of their head before they started running around frantically…

The black-robed girl spurred the skeletal wolf, and they blazed through the white-furred snow apes effortlessly.

‘Fear’s Descent’ was the signature move of Curse Priests. It dealt no damage, but it was a strong control skill, as it plunged all the enemies within an area into a state of Fear.

Li Yi quickly followed her before Fear’s Descent’s effects ended.

The black-robed girl’s destination was not Tuhrland, as she continued north for around ten minutes before reaching her destination.

Her destination was a hidden ice cave surrounded by glaciers. The black-robed girl stood before the ice shelf and recited a lengthy incantation to reveal the cave.

“Beast Soul’s Possession, Lightning Leopard!”

Opportunities like this only come once. Immediately after turning into Lightning Leopard, he nimbly leaped onto the entrance in a feline-manner and scurried his way into the ice cave ahead of the black-robed girl.

The black girl then entered and shut the ice cave’s entrance.

Li Yi let out a long sigh and allowed the black-robed girl to take the lead as he sat on the floor. Ultimately, Beast Soul’s Possession had a short duration, and it would not take long for her to discover him if he constantly lolled in front of her.

Thankfully, the ice cave does not spawn new monsters. However, its path was filled with twists and turns and it was pretty long as well. The black-robed girl hugged her staff with both her hands and rambled various nonsense as she walked. It took quite a while for each step, and her actions bewildered Li Yi…

‘This is the performance of someone who’s extremely afraid. The heck, is she really a pro? There isn’t even a single monster, and it’s only slightly dimmer here. What’s there to be afraid of…’

A shred of doubt began to manifest within Li Yi.

The black-robed girl rambled all the way, and her breathing got shallower as the cave’s light became dimmer.

‘What’s there to be afraid of?’ Even Li Yi who was tailing her had started to worry for her.

“Have you found the item?” From the depths of the cave and within the darkness, came an icy-cold voice.

“N-N-N-No,” stuttered the black-robed girl.

Hearing the conversation, Li Yi immediately hid.

“Trash, you’ve wasted my strength for nothing.” The icy voice was not amused.

The black-robed girl lowered her head, not daring to speak a single word.

Creak! Creak! Creak!

The sounds of bone clacking rang out, and a black-robed skeleton emerged from the darkness.

“Ahhhh!”

The black-robed girl covered her face with both her hands. She was so terrified that she had even dropped her staff onto the ground.

The black-robed skeleton stomped heavily onto the staff. “What’re you doing? I’m your teacher, I’m not going to hurt you. You’re always like this, you’re seriously a piece of garbage!”

The black-robed girl did not answer and continued to cover her eyes.

“Hmph!” muttered the black-robed skeleton exasperatedly as it covered up its skeletal body with its black robes. “Raise your head.”

The black-robed girl lifted her head and heaved a huge sigh of relief.

“Teacher Akna, your current appearance is… a bit better,” said the black-robed girl timidly.

“Hmph!”

When Li Yi spotted Akna, he hurriedly took a few steps back, fearing that she might discover him.

In the black-robed girl’s point of view, Akna was a green ‘Intimate’ NPC, but in Li Yi’s case, she was a red-named ‘Hostile’ target.

This was the discrepancy due to the ‘impression’ of NPCs towards different players.

“You dare to return before completing my quest? Are you not afraid of me turning you into an Undead?”

The black-robed girl smiled. “Nope, I’m a player. I’ll resurrect if I die.”

Li Yi was still hiding at the back, but his curiosity had reached a crescendo. The more he listened, the more he felt that he knew the black-robed girl, as both her appearance and voice was familiar to him.

‘Who can this be? Could it Alluring Midnight from Reigning the World?’

‘That can’t be it. Alluring Midnight isn’t a Curse Priest…’

“Kekeke…” Akna let out a bone-chilling laugh and produced a fishing rod.

“Go out and catch me 500 ice-scaled snow fishes and 500 glacier snow frogs. I need them as materials for my spell.”

“Leave it to me!”

The black-robed girl enthusiastically picked up the fishing rod, spun around and hurriedly went out. Ignoring her timid arrival, she was actually quite fast when she ran out.

“Transform! Stealth!”

Li Yi hurriedly used Stealth and observed as the black-robed girl passed by him.

The fishing rod within the black-robed girl’s hands glowed purple, leaving Li Yi in shock. Since it was of purple quality, it meant that the fishing rod’s level was the same as the one he received from the Fishing Grand Prix.

‘To think that a ferocious world boss like Akna would issue a fishing quest.’

Li Yi had received a big revelation.

“Curses, I wouldn’t need that trash to do my bidding had I not suffered injuries from my battle with that b*tch Yuria.”

Akna turned and walked towards the darkness. Since she was an Undead, being in the darkness would allow her wounds to heal faster.

Li Yi dug out the ‘secret letter’, and after giving it some thought, he walked forward.

His current relationship with Akna was ‘hostile’, and he had no basis that the secret letter will dissolve their hostility.

It was a good opportunity to try it out as it would take a long time for the black-robed girl to catch 1,000 fishes.

“Your Eminence, Akna!”

Li Yi dragged out his voice and yelled while running.

Within the Pantheon World, every being aside from the gods of the pantheon love to be called ‘Your Eminence’. Knowing this, Li Yi called her using the same title, but in actuality, he had no clue what it meant.

Akna turned her head around, and once she saw Li Yi, she pointed her staff to the ground in front of her, enveloping it with pitch-black darkness.

Creak creak creak creak creak…

Hundred or so skeletons dug their way out and bared their talons at Li Yi.

“How dare you trespass my territory. Human, you have brought your own death!” Akna’s furious voice could be heard loud and clear.

“Powered-up Arrow!”

Tch-psh-bish-tst-pst-brrrr—

Li Yi downed a bottle of Fury Potion, and hastily drew his orange bow to launch a powerful arrow.

Boom boom boom boom…

The skeletons collapsed one after another, and the powered-up arrow continued hurtling towards Akna…

…