Stefan's Fall

“Isn’t this skill a little too overpowered?”

After roughly calculating the damage, Liu Xuan smacked his lips.

But then he thought about it again. I’m a pacifist, yet you’ve become my “hostile target.” Isn’t being struck by heavenly punishment and blasted by lightning only natural?

Yeah, that made perfect sense.

That said, the damage dealt by [Thunder Aura] was “fixed damage.”

Someone in the battlefield had once obtained a skill with “fixed damage,” so Liu Xuan had a certain understanding of it.

In the Ascension Battlefield, fixed damage was similar to true damage in some respects, but also slightly different.

Neither was affected by armor, magic resistance, or damage reduction. However, true damage was affected by damage amplification and vulnerability—vulnerability being different from armor reduction—and could also critically strike.

Fixed damage, on the other hand, ignored all of that. Whatever number was listed on the skill panel was exactly how much damage it dealt.

In a sense, it could be considered a lower-grade version of true damage.

(The details vary from game to game. In some games, fixed damage is simply another name for true damage, while in others, true damage can even ignore shields. As for whether damage reduction affects true damage, that’s an inconsistent mess in many games and depends entirely on the setting. Don’t take it too seriously.)

In short, the passive currently stated that it dealt 100 fixed damage, which meant it would basically deal exactly 100 damage to anything.

Even Liu Xuan’s [Destruction Aura] couldn’t increase its damage.

But that wasn’t a problem. As long as he used it to kill a monster, he could snowball its power very quickly.

....

After checking his skills, Liu Xuan finally had time to inspect Stefan’s loot.

Aside from twenty gold coins, there were also two pieces of equipment, a gemstone, and a map.

The first piece of equipment was a very small iron ring. It was dull and gray, lying on the black stone floor and looking completely inconspicuous.

If it hadn’t been glowing with the radiance of equipment, it would have been very easy to miss.

[Netheriron Ring]

Quality: Fine

Level Requirement: Level 20

Effect: Increases the damage dealt by undead minions by 20%.

This was the first ring-type equipment Liu Xuan had ever obtained. He had never even heard of anyone else in the entire battlefield obtaining a ring.

Now that he had seen one, it seemed that rings, like necklaces, were most likely special-effect equipment.

They didn’t increase attributes. They only provided special effects.

As for the effect of this [Netheriron Ring]—increasing the damage dealt by undead minions—it was useless to Liu Xuan.

In fact, no one in the battlefield currently had undead minions.

Unless someone could change class into something like a lich.

That reminded Liu Xuan of what Stefan had said about the lich inheritance.

He had no idea whether Stefan had made it up to keep him under control or whether players like them could genuinely change class into liches.

For now, Liu Xuan decided to hold on to the ring.

The second piece of equipment was a black cloak.

[Mist Cloak]

Quality: Fine

Level Requirement: Level 20

Intelligence: +10

Magic Resistance: +30

Tenacity: +20%

Effect: Causes you to emanate an undead aura.

“This thing...”

Liu Xuan didn’t quite understand what this effect was supposed to do.

What was the point of emanating an undead aura?

Liu Xuan put on the black cloak and tried to sense what had changed, but it didn’t seem to make any difference.

He shook his head and stopped worrying about it.

The biggest surprise this equipment offered was the twenty percent tenacity it granted, which could shorten the duration of control effects.

Not bad.

Next came the gemstone. It was blue and translucent, shaped like a goose egg. Its surface had been cut into facets that reflected an exquisite radiance.

[Soul Gem (Rare Material): Can be attached to any high-quality piece of equipment by a sufficiently skilled equipment crafter during its creation. Its effects vary depending on the type of equipment.]

In other words, this was a universal material. No matter what kind of equipment it was used to make, adding the gem would provide some additional effect?

He could find someone to try it out later.

The final item dropped by Stefan was a yellowed old map.

It depicted a forest amid a range of mountains. There was a small lake in the forest, and a skull had been marked on an island in the center of the lake.

The area covered by the map was too small, and there were no particularly distinctive landmarks nearby, such as villages or cities.

Liu Xuan studied it for a long time but still couldn’t figure out where it was.

However, the map was clearly quite old. It was unlikely to have been drawn by Stefan himself. Perhaps it was related to his lich inheritance.

It might even point to a class-change path.

After thinking it over, Liu Xuan decided to return to the Novice Village and ask Finch whether he recognized the location on the map.

He could also farm a few monsters along the way to stack the damage of [Thunder Aura].

Besides, Liu Xuan had previously promised the village chief that he would bring him some soil from his hometown. This was the perfect opportunity to take care of that as well.

He looked around. The previous wave of [Corpse Explosion] had wiped out most of the skeleton soldiers, but two or three had survived on the outskirts because they hadn’t arrived in time.

Without Stefan’s control, they had returned to their previous sluggish movements.

They were perfect for stacking the damage of [Thunder Aura].

No one knew what would become of this village in the future. Stefan was clearly a special boss and most likely wouldn’t respawn.

That probably meant these skeleton monsters wouldn’t respawn either.

Afterward, would the village return to normal, or would another high tide come and turn it into the period when [Mutated Fish] had spawned there? No one could say.

So if he could farm these few surviving skeleton monsters, he definitely should.

After all, each type of monster could only contribute to the stack once.

However, he couldn’t attack them himself just yet. The damage of [Thunder Aura] was currently too low, and if he started fighting directly, the monsters would certainly be killed by his [Eagle Spirit Companion].

So Liu Xuan immediately posted his coordinates in the group chat for his [Light of Orenburg] team.

“Is anyone nearby? I just need a couple of brothers to come help out. Send me a private message. I’ll pay you.”

Quite a few people saw his message and began replying.

Most of them were too far away, though. Just then, someone sent him a private message along with a set of coordinates.

“Our party is here. We should be able to arrive in about five or six minutes. Is that okay?”

“Sure. Thanks.”

Five minutes was very close. Liu Xuan immediately announced in the team channel that he had already found someone.

Quite a few people regretted not being closer. If only they had been nearby—this was a chance to interact with Liu Xuan!

Before long, a five-man party arrived.

Liu Xuan found the two people at the front somewhat familiar. It seemed he had seen them somewhere before.

One of the men only gave him a vague sense of recognition, probably because they had happened to cross paths once.

As for the young man beside him, Liu Xuan took a closer look and suddenly remembered.

“Aren’t you the guy I ran into at the farm?”

Chen Yu hadn’t expected Liu Xuan to remember him. He nodded excitedly.

“Yes, yes, that’s me! Back then, Big Brother, you even tricked me into thinking you were going to kill yourself.”

Liu Xuan gave an awkward laugh. At the time, he hadn’t thought much about it and had just responded offhandedly.

Chen Yu’s party leader, Yang Jinfang, shot his teammate an irritated look.

You idiot, do you have any idea how to talk to people? Who brings up a Big Brother’s embarrassing past right to his face?

Then he smiled at Liu Xuan and said, “I’m the captain of this team. My name is Yang Jinfang. We’ve met before, too—outside the lumberyard. I didn’t know who you were at the time, so I even invited you to join our team. But you told me you already had a team, haha.”

Liu Xuan: “Ha... ha...”

Chen Yu rolled his eyes. You’re one to talk—you’re airing the big shot’s dirty laundry too...