778 Tough Life

Strength and Glory was a ten-man dungeon too, but unlike Hellscream, Li Yi did not need any party members for this one. He could beat it alone.

Strength and Glory's theme was the exact opposite of Hellscream's.

Just as the name suggested, Strength and Glory was all about strength!

The monsterlings and bosses in the instance dungeon were immune to all negative statuses, and they had extremely high ATK. To defeat them, players did not need a high level of skill. All they needed was formidable equipment.

Li Yi had half a set of Demon God Equipment, so he was definitely not lacking in that department. Add that to his powerful Territory and he was perfectly capable of soloing Strength and Glory.

The Hellscream Instance Dungeon had produced a piece of Emperor's Equipment for Archers, but Li Yi had no need for it at all. One piece of Emperor's Equipment was quite useless; in order to use the power of the Emperor's Equipment Set, he had to collect the entire series.

Li Yi's aim was the Luo Lan Empire's Hall of Fame Set, the only one of its kind in the entire game. To put it bluntly, a mere Emperor's Equipment Set was not enough to warrant his time.

He had only asked The Cat that Sings to bring him the equipment because he had remembered something.

The Ancient King Series had five Party-level Instance Dungeons, and Li Yi knew how to beat the first four. Even if he could not beat them on the first try, he just had to give it a few more attempts and passing the first four dungeons would be a breeze.

The problem was the final Party-level Dungeon in the Ancient King Quest Series, Tomb of Kings. If his memory served him correctly, only a small handful of players had managed to pass that dungeon when it first opened.

The first party that recorded their completion of Tomb of Kings was the Ninth Continent's Reigning The World Guild, led by their Guild Master, Night Moon. They had attempted it on and off for more than nine months before they finally conquered the Tomb of Kings Instance Dungeon.

As for the second party, they were not much of a party at all. It was just one person, Ghostly Walker, who easily attained the first kill of the Heroic difficulty Tomb of Kings all by himself, and thus ascended the throne as Emperor.

So how did Ghostly Walker achieve the first kill of the Heroic difficulty Tomb of Kings without any help? It was quite simple, actually. As he was leveling up, the punk had somehow been lucky enough to accidentally stumble across a god-tiered item, the War God Summoning Scroll. In fact, he had used this scroll to bulldoze right through Tomb of Kings.

Night Moon and Reigning the World had relied on their own power, but Ghostly Walker relied solely on his powerful god-tiered scroll, so naturally, the two could not be compared.

Aside from the two of them, there was another person who managed to take down Tomb of Kings not long after its introduction, without breaking a sweat and without relying on any god-tiered items.

It was the Legendary Summoner, The Mountain!

Li Yi had no idea how The Mountain did it; he just vaguely remembered such a thing had happened. Besides, he seemed to remember that The Mountain had conquered Tomb of Kings a good seven months before Night Moon managed it.

Li Yi had long since known that The Cat that Sings had an old grudge against Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut, and a while ago, he had heard from Jiaojiao that The Cat that Sings was very close to the Legendary Summoner, The Mountain.

What was the relationship between The Mountain and Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut? Also, what was the relationship between The Cat that Sings and Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut? Li Yi was growing increasingly curious about their story.

…

Li Yi waited in the dungeon for about ten minutes before The Cat that Sings entered the dungeon and traded the Emperor's Bracers to him.

Li Yi accepted the equipment and smiled at The Cat that Sings. "Leader Cat, care to help me beat this dungeon later?"

"With just the two of us?"

"Yeap."

The Cat that Sings thumped her chest. "No problem."

The Cat that Sings had once said that as long as Li Yi had anything to ask of her, she would not bat an eye at it no matter what he wanted her to do. Sister Cat was no bluffer; she walked her talk, and she never went back on her word!

Li Yi summoned Alleria and had her walk in front of them, pulling the monster's aggro.

The monsterlings in the Strength and Glory Instance Dungeon were all giants, and the gatekeeper boss was the giants' first king, the One-eyed Giant, Gaea.

Giants were tall and large, but their movements were by no means sluggish. Each step crossed over a dozen meters, so it was nothing short of suicidal to try and kite giants. The only way to defeat giants was to take them head-on.

The giant monsterlings in the dungeons traveled in small groups of three to five, and they held their giant weapons in their hands as they paced around the ruins. The HP figures above their heads numbered in the hundreds of millions, and anyone could tell at a glance that these were no pushovers.

The Strength and Glory Dungeon was widely recognized as a Level 160 dungeon, so Li Yi attempting it now meant that he did not have to worry about the monsters trampling right over him.

Not long after Alleria began to press her way forward with her shield, they bumped into three patrolling giants. The three giants roared, surrounding Alleria and crashing their enormous axes and maces down at her.

Each hit from the giant monsterlings dealt more than 100,000 damage to Alleria, and the sight of it drove The Cat that Sings into a frenzy.

"F*ck, f*ck, what the heck is with their ATK? Dark Wing, your humanoid pet can't take much more of their f*ckery."

Just then, Alleria activated her shield skill just in time, slowing down the rate at which she was losing HP.

"Stop f*cking around and fight!"

"Smack! Smack! Smack!"

Li Yi raised his bow and loosed three Meteor Arrows.

In the Strength and Glory Dungeon, he could not carelessly use super-wide AoE attacks like the True Overlord Arrow, because there was a chance he could attract the aggro of all the monsterlings nearby. That was a situation he would much prefer to avoid.

The giant monsterlings had more than a hundred million HP. Their high health meant that Li Yi's Meteor Arrows only dealt a million in damage each when they landed, which was even less than he had expected.

"F*ck, f*ck them all to death!"

The Cat that Sings rushed forth with a Cyclone Step, her two daggers flipping through the sky as she aimed at a giant monsterling and unleashed a combo at it.

Dealing combo hits increased the damage dealt. While The Cat that Sings' ATK was a far cry from Li Yi's, she was still one of the best within the Thief class.

After a gorgeous string of combos, a damage figure of more than 7,000,000 appeared above the giant monsterling's head…

"Why the heck is this f*cker so hard? I can't f*ck 'em." The Cat that Sings was practically howling.

Li Yi was flabbergasted and speechless. Although he was quite familiar with The Cat that Sings now, there were still times when he had trouble accepting the things she said.

Li Yi and The Cat that Sings worked together and still took more than five minutes to just barely take down the three giant monsterlings.

Alleria had reached her limit too, using all of her life-preserving skills. By the time they finished off the three monsterlings, she was completely out of breath and sweating buckets.

"These f*ckers are too hard to beat, and they don't give EXP either. Dark Wing, why don't you call a few more guys to help? Why did you only call me? Are you perchance looking for an opportunity to pin me down and f*ck me senseless?"

"...I swear to God, that was never my intention." Li Yi wiped the sweat off his brow. "You'll know soon enough why I didn't call any others."

The Cat that Sings said, doubtful, "You tried this dungeon before?"

"Nope, this is my first time."

"Then how can you be so sure?"

"There's an intro on the Pantheon official site, can't I just search it up?"

The Cat that Sings nodded. "I see…"

After they cleared one wave of monsterlings, Alleria's life-preserving skills were all cooling down, so they had no choice but to sit down and wait for her skills to recover.

"By the way, Jiaojiao mentioned that you know that Summoner, The Mountain?"

As they sat and rested, Li Yi casually asked the question. This was the real reason he had asked The Cat that Sings to help him with the dungeon.

The Cat that Sings narrowed her eyes but did not say anything.

"How did you come to bear a grudge against Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut?"

"F*ck, it's all that f*cking slut's fault!" The Cat that Sings swore loudly.

Li Yi perked up. "How is she a slut? I never knew."

"It's a long story. Sigh, if anyone asked, I'd never answer, but you're different. You helped me so many times, so I guess I can tell you.

"In the past, that slut, that Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut, she used to be under me."

"Under you?" Li Yi was stunned.

"I was her boss, her Guild Master." The Cat that Sings' voice suddenly grew shrill.

"What, you don't believe me? F*ck, if you don't f*cking believe me, why'd you make me explain jacksh*t?"

"I believe you. Please continue."

"Back then, I liked someone. It's that… that motherf*cking The Mountain, that *sshole!" The Cat that Sings gripped her fists tightly, her emotions extremely agitated.

Li Yi waited for a while but all that followed was silence, so he hurriedly continued to ask, "And then what happened?"

"That b*stard The Mountain must've been blind as f*ck! A gorgeous beauty like me was interested in me, but he ignored me completely, the f*cker. Instead, he went for Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut instead, f*ck! Back then I even told Lil Purple… Ptooey, I mean, I even told that little slut that the b*stard was mine and she wasn't allowed to steal him. The f*ck!"

The Cat that Sings pulled out her dagger and stabbed it fiercely into the ground.

"Calm down, tell me slowly."

"That little slut put on a pretty good show at first, acting as though she really did listen to me. Wherever she went, she avoided that b*stard. But later, I don't even f*cking know how that little slut somehow married The Mountain in the game! F*ck her in her putrid *sshole!"

The Cat that Sings stabbed the ground with her dagger repeatedly, as thigh she considered the ground a replacement for Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut.

"They married just to piss me off, so of course I won't stand it for it. That little slut even messaged me saying she didn't want to either. F*ck her, if you don't wanna, then why'd you get married? I was so mad that I disbanded the guild and then chased them down, sigh, until the day they quit the game altogether…

"Oh, I'm talking about our previous game, not Pantheon," added The Cat that Sings.

Li Yi said, "And then Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut started playing Pantheon, so once you found out, you joined just to kill her as payback?"

"How'd you know?" said The Cat that Sings, surprised.

"...anyone with half a brain cell could guess that…"

Li Yi turned back to the topic at hand. "Then what about The Mountain? What's his relationship with Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut and you now?"

"His relationship…"

The Cat that Sings rested her chin in her hands and thought it over for a long while, but eventually she shook her head. "I can't tell, I'm really confused now too. I mean, that little slut even married him last time, so why are they in completely different countries now?"

The Cat that Sings suddenly started swearing again, "I just don't f*cking get it. I'm not that bad, so why won't that b*stard look my way?

"Kid, you wanna see what I look like?"

The Cat that Sings pointed at the mask over her face.

...