Chapter 16: Barbarians and Their Barbaric Ways

"<Justice Defense>!"

Realizing that he could not beat Zhang Yang, Kindling Chest Hair had immediately provoked the boss to temporarily pull Black Claw's aggro over.

"Ding! You are affected by <Death Stare> (Stack 1). All damage received increased by 100%, lasts for 12 seconds!"

Kindling Chest Hair really had the worst luck. Just as he provoked the boss, Black Claw had activated <Death Stare>. His body flashed in a crimson glow and a debuff appeared above his avatar.

This skill could not be dodged or blocked.

The provoke effect had worn off after 2 seconds and Black Claw returned to attack Zhang Yang.

"Fire up the DPS1!" Zhang Yang said in the party channel. He was not worried about being instantly killed under the stacking effect of <Death Stare> but more so that the longer they took to kill the boss, the more Black Claw would cast <Venom Spit>, ultimately wrecking the party when the healers became overwhelmed.

Of course, in this Normal Mode he could easily solo kill the boss alone!

After a while, Black Claw turned around and took aim at Prideful Precepts, spitting black spittle on him.

"F*ck, is that how you pull the monster, noob warrior! How could you let the boss attack me?" Prideful Precepts rebuked and then hollered at the same time, "Heal me!" He had a total of 300HP but 200 was gone instantly.

"You're the f*cking noob! That's the boss' <Venom Spit>. Zhan Yu had explained it very clearly just now, it randomly targets a player! What are you barking at?" Defiant Monk could not hold his anger anymore and finally exploded.

Grunting, Prideful Precepts remained displeased and begrudged but did not fight back.

10 seconds later, Kindling Chest Hair initiated another provoke and temporarily pulled Black Claw's aggro over again.

"Ding! You are affected by <Death Stare> (Stack 2). All damage received increased by 200%, lasts for 12 seconds!"

Poor thing, he had just drew the boss over and was immediately stacked with another <Death Stare>.

Zhang Yang exclaimed internally, who said this guy was a noob, he's been provoking precisely when the boss casts <Death Stare>! Such a genius!

After beating up Kindling Chest Hair, Black Claw turned again and Zhang Yang took over the aggro.

After some time, Black Claw stopped his actions and aimed at Snowy Death, casting <Venom Spit> and dealing 200 HP of damage to him.

Kindling Chest Hair casted the third provoke on the boss after <Justice Defense>'s cooldown had completed.

"Ding! You are affected by <Death Stare> (Stack 3). All damage received increased b 300%, lasts for 12 seconds!"

Black Claw's <Death Stare> was casted every 10 seconds, coincidentally the same as the cooldown time of <Justice Defense>. This was the reason Kindling Chest Hair had been the receiver of <Death Stare> each time he had provoked the boss.

"-528!"

Black Claw's normal attack damage was already around 150 points usually and since Kindling Chest Hair had 3 stacks of <Death Stare> on him, his basic damage had reached an approximate 600 points! Deducting the Defender's passive 15% damage reduction and character defense, the damage had still amounted to 500 plus points!

Reduced to almost nothing from a total of 700 HP in an instant, Kindling Chest Hair panicked and screamed, "Heal me!"

"+76!"

"+73!"

"+100!"

Three green numbers floated across Kindling Chest Hair's head. They were the healing done by Prideful Babysitter, Ocean Despair, and his own ingested bottle of red pot respectively, raising his HP to 421 points. Although Ocean Despair had hated Kindling Chest Hair, he had still dutifully healed him at such a critical moment.

"-509!"

Black Claw made another blow in an instant and the hit landed on Kindling Chest Hair.

"Ding! Player Kindling Chest Hair has died!"

Black Claw turned and continued attacking Zhang Yang.

Unable to contain it anymore, Flame Emperor laughed and said in the party channel, "It seems that the Defender does have some contribution! He'd endured three times of <Death Stare> for Zhan Yu! Your death was not in vain!"

"Yeah, a hero!"

"You can rest in peace!"

Players that were not from Pride were talking merrily in the party channel, their words causing Kindling Chest Hair to fume with anger. His intention was not even to help Zhang Yang, he merely wanted to throw a tantrum. Who would have known that he would be triple stacked with <Death Stare> which allowed him to be instantly killed by the boss!

He had dug his own grave, provoking the boss continuously to have Black Claw become immune to the effects. Zhang Yang could not have saved him even if he wanted to! Of course, Zhang Yang had no interest in saving such a foolish and arrogant guy even without the provoke immunity. He was not that kind!

"Speed up the DPS1!" Zhang Yang said in the party channel.

"OK!" the crowd replied. Zhang Yang won their respect with his capabilities.

Without Kindling Chest Hair 'snagging' <Death Stare>, Zhang Yang had quickly gotten stacked with many levels of the <Death Stare> debuff. Death would be an absolute certainty had the boss even touched him lightly. However, Zhang Yang had maneuvered himself with such agility, moving and dodging, not giving Black Claw a single opening to land a strike!

While <Venom Spit> had caused a certain degree of burden to the healers, because they did not need to heal their tank, a lot of MP was conserved and they had more than enough to heal the other players. The party had not lost any more members.

"80%! 70%!"

Under the constant attacks the party, the boss' HP had decreased steadily. Nearly 3 minutes later, Black Claw's HP was left with a mere 10%.

"Ding! Party Leader Floral Shorts has changed Group Looting Parameters to Master Loot!" A system notification popped up suddenly to indicate the change of distribution method.

"Floral Shorts! What are you doing?" Defiant Monk quickly questioned.

"I'm afraid that people will mess up the loot, so I'll split it myself!" Floral Shorts said in a self-righteous tone.

Everyone kept mum and continued attacking the boss.

"Ding! The party you are in has killed Black Claw! Obtained 3,650 EXP (50 points Party Bonus)!"

Black Claw fell to the ground and dropped 3 to 4 equipment and a heap of gold coins.

"Let's see what the drops are!" Equipment was every player's main motivation to enter dungeons. When the boss had died, everyone had automatically surrounded the loot. However, due to the Master Loot Mode, they could only look at the equipment dropped but were unable to pick them up.

[Black Claw] (Black-Steel, Fist Gloves)

Weapon Attack: 7 - 13

Attack Interval: 1.9 seconds

Level Requirement: 5

[Heavy Chest Plate] (Black-Steel, Heavy Armor)

Defense: +2

Vitality: +3

Strength: +1

Level Requirement: 5

[Black Leather Boots] (Black-Steel, Cloth Armor)

Defense: +1

Vitality: +2

Intelligence: +1

Level Requirement: 5

According to the dungeon setting, equipment dropped from Hardcore Mode would be one grade higher than Difficult Mode; and equipment dropped from Difficult Mode would be another grade higher than Normal Mode. Since Bangar Crypt was the lowest level dungeon in the game, only Hardcore Mode would drop Green-Copper equipment. If it had been according to the setting, the equipment dropped in Normal mode should only be White-tiered!

However, the game company had taken into consideration that if the first dungeon had only dropped White-tiered equipment, it would have discouraged the players! Compromising, they decided that Normal Mode would also drop Black-Steel equipment but its level requirement was reduced to Level 5 while Difficult Mode and Hardcore Mode continued dropping Level 10 Black-Steel and Green-Copper equipment respectively.

"Ding! Player Floral Shorts has obtained Black Claw!"

"Ding! Player Kindling Chest Hair has obtained Heavy Chest Plate!"

"Ding! Player Prideful Precepts has obtained Black Leather Boots!"

"Ding! You have been distributed with 96 copper coins!"

A series of system notifications rang. Party leader Floral Shorts had distributed all the equipment in a flash while simultaneously obtaining the gold coins and distributing them to each party member through the system.

This had caused a wave of disapproval among the party members.

"What the f*ck? How can you distribute the equipment without asking!"

"F*ck, barbarians hijacking equipment!"

"What did you think we were? Your workers?"

Floral Shorts snorted and said, "I am the party leader, of course I have the priority for equipment! Hairy is the main tanker, if it wasn't for him tanking the boss' <Death Stare>, we wouldn't have beaten the boss, and he died twice. Is it wrong to prioritize him in equipment distribution? As for Precepts... he dealt the highest DPS among those who wore robes!"

"F*ck you! You can't even command as a leader and had zero contribution to the party! How dare you put yourself as priority?"

"The Defender is a complete joke! There's no difference to our party with or without him around! Zhan Yu got stacked with 13 stacks of <Death Stare> and he was alright. What difference would 3 stacks make?"

"Look at the damage statistics yourself! If you're not blind, Precepts was much worse than Flame Emperor!"

Prideful Magus replied immediately, "The damage statistics is not even accurate. How is it possible that our Guardian ranks first every single time? I've been attacking all the time, I might as well commit suicide if my attack is lower than a tank!"

The rest of the players got even more enraged listening to his self-righteous argument.

"Let's go on, let's go on. It's just a few equipment, everyone can get them after a few more rounds!" Prideful Babysitter pacified the party.

"Change the party leader or we'll quit!" Hundred Shots said.

"Yeah, change the leader!" the others followed.

"Ding! Player Floral Shorts has made player Prideful Precepts the Party Leader!"

Is this showcasing the lowest level of one's IQ?

"F*ck! You are all shameless!" Defiant Monk was rendered speechless by these Pride members' scoundrel ways.

"Either change the leader to Zhan Yu or disband!" Hundred Shots said while the others agreed immediately.

The four Pride members were at a loss.

"Ding! Player Prideful Precepts has made player Zhan Yu the Party Leader!"

Zhang Yang had encountered plenty of barbarians in his previous life but those who could compete with the Pride members were indeed few! These men should have joined the Rogue Clan! He smiled lightly and changed the Group Looting Parameters to Roll-the-Dice Mode and said "Let's continue!"

He did not care for the loot from Normal Mode, there would be more good stuff waiting in Difficult Mode and Hardcore Mode!

He had wanted to kick the four Prideful players out but had quickly changed his mind. Expelling them was not the best way to punish them. The best way to release his anger was letting them know that this party had the ability to clear Difficult and even Hardcore Mode so these selfish, greedy guys should have tried to snitch better equipment, then kick the others out at that time to drive them mad with jealousy and regret!

Translator Notes

1 DPS in this case refers to the original term of the term DPS which means damage per second. In most cases, DPS, like many other gaming terminology, can be used interchangeably. DPS could also mean a type of class or role that focuses on dealing as much damage as possible. E.g. "We need another 3 DPSers to fill our party! PM for invite plez"