Second Life: Welcome to Gaia

Chapter 59: There and back again

When Moby Dick died, the experience bar of many party members was filled and they finally got to level 8. 

They got a lot of experience while challenging the different modes of the Underwater Tunnel Dungeon, however, they couldn't be compared to the experience gained on the Hell Mode.

A proof of this is the experience given by the bosses. On Normal Mode, the bosses give 1.000 experience points, which when shared by ten people, each one receives 50 points.

The experience given by a boss on Hell Mode is five times the amount on Normal Mode, plus a 10% bonus for it being the highest level of difficulty of the Dungeon. Only 10-man dungeons and above gives the extra experience on Hell Mode.

On Normal Mode, the experience gives by the monsters has no multiplier, in other words, is the standard. On Easy Mode, the experience is halved. On Hard Mode, the experience is doubled. On Torment Mode, the experience given by the monster is three times the amount on Normal Mode. On Nightmare Mode, players get four times the standard amount.

These multipliers are a great help for elite players getting experience because only the strongest players can challenge high-level difficulties with the minimum level required to enter the dungeon. 

In level 5 to 10 dungeon as White Birch Mountain Forest, level five players that challenge higher difficult are very few, only truly elite players can do that.

Normal players have a difficult time even challenging the Easy Mode of the dungeon at level 5.

Ye Yan and his friends wanted to farm on Hell Mode of the White Birch Mountain Forest before, but it is too time-consuming because the monsters are very stronger and smarter than in the other modes. And they become mentally exhausted after the dungeon.

After looted the boss body and found some good things. In addition to the cooking ingredients, they found five acid glands that they could take to an alchemist for refining and make potions.

After distributing the loot, they kept moving forward into the dungeon. 

This time, Ye Yan had an easier time fighting the cockroaches. He fought them without hiding behind Ashardalon. He was brave enough to stay in front of the cockroaches that escaped Ashardalon's shield barrier, to kill them with his hammer and his stomach didn't become as upset as before.

If too many cockroaches went through Ashardalon, Ye Yan would take a step back and send Conan as his shield, because he is willing to do so, of course. After all, Conan is the official cockroach killer on the quartet. Every time they find one, Tang yunfan is responsible to deal with it.

It is difficult for them to see one, but once a cockroach entered their apartment, flying through the window. However, most times, they find cockroaches on the street at night, mainly when the temperature is too high. Because of this, they always have a hard time trying to take Ye Yan to hang out at night.

Finally, they got to the final part of the dungeon. My Girl became a trap again, attracting the pirates to the wharf. Ye Yan and Ashardalon blocked the pirate's passage at the front and rear, and the others used ranged attacks.

This time, they tried to let fewer pirates fall on the water because the loot on Hell Mode is too good. And if it falls on the water, it will be hard for them to get it, or depend on the item, it can be lost.

When they opened the wooden chests for the first time, they found many useless items inside and no one wanted to take them. However, Ye Yan took the suspicious leather whip and stored it in his bag. When the others saw it, they laughed at him a lot, but Ye Yan didn't tell them why he decided to keep it.

When they finally knew how Ye Yan wanted to use it, they just wanted to kick themselves for not thinking about it.

Ye Yan used the whip as a rope, so they could enter the water to loot the pirate's bodies that fell on it and get out of the water without problems.

On Torment Mode, they just threw all pirates on the water and killed them fast, but many items had been destroyed, including a piece of a treasure map, thus they started to be careful and not let the pirates fall.

After defeating all the pirates on the wharf, they entered the ship. This would be the hardest part of the dungeon but with the [Pirate's hat], the physical and magical attack of the pirates was lowered by 5%, plus the [Pink Dress} My Girl is wearing, reduced the pressure on the players by a lot.

With this advantage against the pirates, they continue on the killing spree until only the boss was left.

Before entering the captain's cabin, Snow White used a skill she learned on the previous day, [Chiken Blood Injection]. She didn't use this before the last boss because he needs one bottle of [Chiken Blood] for each application and it only lasts 20 minutes. Using it before the last boss would be too wasteful.

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[Chiken Blood Injection] (Skill - Active: Utility) [1]

Description: You inject [Chiken Blood] on an ally or yourself to make the patient strong and healthy.

Effect: Increase the target strength, agility, vitality, and physical and magical attack by 15% for 20 minutes.

Cost: One bottle of [Chicken Blood].

Cast time: 5 seconds per injection.

Cooldown: 2 seconds

Property: neutral

Range: Touch

Weapon Class Requirement: Injection

Class Requirement: Doctor

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Snow White started injecting Chicken Blood on the players and tel Demon Fox to be the last because she knows he is afraid of injection. After Demon Fox was stabbed by the injection, Snow White comforted him, caressing his left arm, under the angry gaze of I Love Skooma.

Even his bother being mad for her to caress Demon Fox in front of him, she couldn't help herself after seeing the pitiful and cute face of Demon Fox. He can show begging puppy dog eyes even in human form. 

Seeing this scene, I Love Skooma imagine how he should take revenge on Demon Fox later for laying a hand on his little sister. Technically, it is his sister that is touching him, but it is all the same for him. He will find a way to hire a strong nurse in real life to inject him with all kinds of vaccines that he probably didn't take before. It will be for his own good after all.

When everyone was read, they entered the captain's cabin. This time, the dress Captain Antonio was wearing changed to red and would look sexy if the one using it was another person. 

The battle began the same as before, with Captain Antonio falling in love with My Girl and wanting to attack all the male players.

Ye Yan started tanking the boss before he made his move, using [Provoke] and the others only attacked after he gave them a signal.

Everything went as in the previous dungeons runs, but the pressure on players is bigger because the boss is much stronger and smarter than on the previous battles.

After the first time that they fought Captain Antonio, My Girl kept using her needles to attack the boss and let the role of healing and use [Dispel] for Snow White, so the boss wouldn't become enraged before they lowered his health points to 10%.

The pressure on Snow White for being the only healer of the party is high but thanks to Ye Yan's abilities as a tank, she could cope with it.

After many Underwater Tunnel Dungeon runs, Ye Yan started to have an easier time deflecting the boss attacks, even it being stronger and never keeping an attack pattern. After all, the boss knows that the same attack does not work twice on the same knight (or player).

As the boss only start using firebombs after being enraged, the only attack that could hit the other players is [Breath of Rum] but with Snow White [Dispel] and Ye Yan tanking the boss, they could easily cope with it.

In moments like this, they could feel the difference between having a good tank at the party and a common one. With the tank was another person, even Ashardalon, they would have been wiped out a long time ago.

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[1] Chicken-blood therapy (jixie liaofa) was popular in China during the Cultural Revolution, in which it was practiced mainly by village doctors in the 1960s. It attracted the attention of health authorities, who investigated the practice, decided it was dangerous, and slapped a ban on its use in 1965.  However, the anti-intellectual, anti-elitist climate that seized the country after the Cultural Revolution broke out the following year forced the Ministry of Health to reverse the ban, and the therapy began to be heavily promoted, first in Shanghai and the capital, and then across the country. Taken from: China Heritage Quarterly.