MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

“Territory Release!”

Amid the yellow sands, a golden barrier of light could be seen spreading outwards, pushing away the sandstorm.

The reason Jiaojiao had shrieked earlier was due to a snake-like yellow tentacle wrapping around her legs. Since she was no longer able to move, she had sought help from Li Yi.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Li Yi set his sights on Jiaojiao’s feet and unloaded a stream of Meteor Arrows, forcing the tentacle to squirm back into the ground.

“What was that?” Jiaojiao was still disoriented from the experience.

Li Yi shook his head. He was not sure either.

Outside Li Yi’s Territory Barrier, and within the shifting sands, plenty of the yellow tentacle monsters could be vaguely seen. They looked just like the tentacles of octopi and they constantly wriggled around.

The Heart of Earth Element was a place Li Yi had never been to before. Additionally, the only memory he had regarding the dungeon was its’ name. He was completely clueless about the map.

Back in his past life, there had never been any guides for the Heart of Earth Element in the forums. It was as if it was the hardest place to access out of all the Seven Secret Places.

Since there were no guides to refer to, all Li Yi could do was to forge ahead and figure it out along the way.

“They’re all tentacle monsters! Ptui! Watch as I dispose of them!”

Jiaojiao lifted her greatsword and ran to the edge of Li Yi’s Territory Barrier. She then hacked her sword at the yellow tentacle monsters.

Her attack damage had always been quite high, and although the tentacles looked intimidating, their HP was only in the range of 300 thousand to a million. With Jiaojiao’s ATK stat, all it took was two hits to finish each of them.

The EXP earned from killing the tentacle monsters was quite significant, at a whopping 200,000 for each monster downed. It was at least twenty times higher than farming monsterlings in usual maps.

While maintaining his Territory, Li Yi slowly advanced.

When players activated their Territory, they should not move too fast as the Territory Barrier would not move at the same pace at them. Instead, the Territory Barrier would slowly shift its position.

After killing a hundred or so tentacle monsters, the skeleton of a dwarf could be seen.

The dwarf’s skeleton flickered on and off, and when Jiaojiao extended her hand towards it, an Item Panel popped out, revealing two items.

[Karlu’s Determination (Epic-level, Tool) Increase SPD by 50, reduce damage taken by 10%.]

[Traveler’s Diary (Epic-level Quest Clue)]

Li Yi picked up the tattered Traveler’s Diary and chose to open it.

Ding!

[Accept the quest, End of the Traveler’s Days?]

[Accept!]

[Do you want to share the quest with your party member?]

“Share it!”

After clicking confirm, Jiaojiao received the same End of the Traveler’s Days quest as well.

“My name is Karlu. I am a Traveler that enjoys dangerous expeditions, especially ones that delve into the Secret Places…” That was the initial excerpt of the diary.

The skeleton before them belonged to a dwarf named Karlu. He was a Traveler, and a long time ago, when the Heart of Earth Element was not infested with the yellow tentacles, he would regularly come here with his friend. All that existed in the location was the golden ruins of an ancient civilization. However, due to his friend’s lust for power, he had accidentally unleashed a sealed demon, turning the Heart of Earth Element into the hell it was today.

The Traveler’s Diary was incomplete, and the remaining content was contained in the missing half of the diary.

The Dwarf Karlu had left a will, which requested that the players recover his backpack, as it had been stolen by the Desert God. The bag contained his life’s work, and he wished for the readers to return his bag to his family in Ironwood Town.

“To the person reading this diary, let me give you some friendly advice. The moment you locate my backpack, leave this area immediately. Don’t even think of advancing. Also, I have imbued a curse onto my bag, so make sure to never open it. As long as you safely deliver it to Ironwood Town, I swear by the God of Dwarves that you will be greatly rewarded.”

[Quest Title: End of the Traveler’s Days]

[Quest Requirement: Locate the Desert God and take back Karlu’s possessions.]

[Quest Difficulty: S Rank]

[Quest Restriction: This quest cannot be repeated. Upon failure, it will be lost forever.]

[Quest Hint: ???]

[Quest Reward: ???]

…

Ecstatic, Jiaojiao chimed, “Wahaha, Lil Yi’zi, we’re going to be rich! It’s an S Rank Quest, which means the reward’s gonna be divine equipment!”

Within King of Pantheon, all the quests that were beyond A-Rank were ridiculously hard. However, as the difficulty increased, so did the value of the rewards.

When it came to S Rank quests, the chance of getting Legendary Equipment was quite high!

“You’re better off speculating only after we’ve completed it. Divine equipment, huh, if divine equipment dropped that easily, would it still be called divine equipment?”

Li Yi shook his head and peered further ahead.

The yellow sands continued to tumble, and the tentacles continued to wriggle. Had he not activated his Territory; the land would no longer be traversable.

It was now time to clean up the monsterlings.

Three hours later, Li Yi and Jiaojiao encountered the so-called Desert God.

It was a giant octopus-looking tentacle monster. However, in contrast to octopi, the thing was crawling with tens of thousands of tentacles, and when they clumped up and squirmed around, it looked extremely… disgusting.

Its name was displayed as Ancient Desert God, but what surprised Li Yi the most was that its name was in orange font!

‘It’s a Legendary Monster!’

The Ancient Desert God was colossally massive. Li Yi’s body could not even compare to the size of one of its tentacles.

Li Yi attempted to summon his mount, and to his surprise, he realized that he could. Realizing this, he immediately called out the Black Dragon Princess.

“Get on!”

Jiaojiao hopped onto the dragon’s back and stomped it a few times.

Li Yi and Jiaojiao took to the skies, whereas the Panda Fighter and Alleria remained on the ground to carry out synchronized attacks.

Li Yi’s thinking was that since the thing was called Ancient Desert God, it should possess unique attributes on the ground. Thus, he took the skies as he would be in a disadvantage on land.

Onyxia roared and flew above the Ancient Desert God’s head, breathing fire onto it.

Seeing the Black Dragon Princess’ performance left Jiaojiao highly envious. “Just you wait. In a few more days, I’ll finally be able to ride the Red Dragon Queen Iona.”

Following Li Yi’s guidance, Jiaojiao had climbed up Blade Peak every day to secretly feed the Red Dragon Queen so that she might one day own a dragon for herself.

Onyxia blasted down with her Dragon Breath, taking out twenty thousand HP from the Ancient Desert God.

“Pssh-pssh-pssh—”

The Ancient Desert God began to counterattack. It raised its tentacles up into the air and attacked by shooting out sand.

Li Yi extended his Territory Barrier as far as possible and ordered Onyxia to evade the attacks.

Down below, Panda Fighter and Alleria were launching attacks of their own. They were standing near the Ancient Desert God and attacking with all their might.

Alleria’s ability to draw aggro was extremely potent, as, in mere moments, the Ancient Desert God’s aggro was already firmly fixed to her.

Woosh! Snatch—

Tens of thousands of tentacles lashed out towards Alleria. They grabbed her up like a little chick and then they began to tighten their grip on her…

All Li Yi — who was standing on his dragon’s back — could see was a mass of tentacles. Alleria’s body could no longer be seen.

“Water Clone!”

“Shooting Star Arrow Hail!”

The tightly-packed Meteor Arrows came crashing down like rain. While they attacked the Ancient Desert God, the arrows also struck the tentacles holding Alleria. It was an effective move from Li Yi, as the heavy damage the ancient god took caused it to loosen its grip on Alleria.

After firing his Shooting Star Arrow Hail twice, the Ancient Desert God was left with 300 million less HP than before.

Now that Li Yi was at Level 175, his Territory had increased by 2 ranks. With the massive power boosts from his increased Territory Rank, was it even possible for his Shooting Star Arrow Hail to deal low damage?

“Spurt…spurt…spurt—”

The Ancient Desert God was able to take quite a beating. It raised its tentacles once more and fired more sand at Li Yi.

Onyxia’s flight speed was by no means slow. However, due to her massive frame, she was not that nimble when it came to actual battles. Although she had done her best to avoid the tentacles’ bullets, she was still unable to evade a large portion of them.

After taking several strikes to her abdomen, she was soon taken out of commission. Her HP shrank to zero, and with a poof, she was forcefully dispelled in mid-air.

Unlike pets that could be revived on the spot, once mounts died, they needed a long period before they could be used again.

“God Mode!”

The Hunter Goddess that had almost reached her physical form appeared from behind Li Yi and grabbed onto him.

Acting quickly, Li Yi flew towards Jiaojiao and grabbed her as well.

“I don’t need your help. Big sis can fly now, too!”

“Lich’s Flight!”

Jiaojiao activated the special effect of her cape, and an ominous black vapor poured out, allowing her to stand in mid-air.

Lich’s Flight consumed runes to allow its user flight. Although its duration was not as long as God Mode, it would still allow its user to fight in the air for about 5 to 6 minutes.

“Alright, head down and attack it!”

Although the Ancient Desert God had already lost a few million HP, its HP bar had not appeared. From the looks of it, Li Yi and Jiaojiao had to put in more effort in order to kill it.

“Split up! I’ll take the front and you take the back!”

“Okay, make sure to fly a bit higher.”

“Fine! Wait, ptoi! Get lost you damn brute!”

Morphing into black vapor, Jiaojiao sped towards the Ancient Desert God.

‘That speed, it seems to be even faster than the Hunter Goddess…’

Li Yi posed a question to the Hunter Goddess, “Goddess, can you fly that fast?”

Bzzt—

A golden ray instantly blazed past Jiaojiao.

“I AM A GOD!” The Hunter Goddess stated proudly as she panted in exhaustion.

“Yeah, I can see that, but maybe you should slow down a bit. While you’re indeed fast, why the hell did my flight duration decrease by half!?”

“Shooting Star Arrow Hail!”

Thud…thud…thud…thud…

Aside from having no skill cooldowns, another benefit of activating God Mode was the ability to continually use skills even while moving.

Actually, God Mode’s movements should not even be considered Li Yi’s actions, as the one responsible for providing flight was Hunter Goddess. Due to this, Li Yi could attack unhindered.

Another torrent of arrows rained down onto the Ancient Desert God, prompting it to howl several times as it raised its tentacles to strike at Li Yi.

Although the Hunter Goddess had made some dumb moves this time, there was still one thing that was certain. Her strength was not that of mere mortals. Just as she had said, she was a God!

Without even giving the command, the Hunter Goddess had predicted the enemy’s path of attack.

On the other side, Jiaojiao had begun her assault as well. She activated her Territory Skill, Instant Burst, dealing over 50 million damage per hit. It was fast, deadly, and accurate.

“Aoooo— Aooo—”

The Ancient Desert God angrily howled as it attacked with its tentacles. While Li Yi and Jiaojiao attacked it, they themselves were also being hit.

“Touch of the Wind!”

It was at this moment that Alleria had chosen to use her healing skill on Li Yi…

…